8 8.

Sheree honestly hated the way Elliot glared at her as she got ready for her....date. The word bothered her to even think. She had only even said it to piss Elliot off, why was that important to her. His pain didn't make her happy. That was something she would have to deal with at another time. She left to meet Josh at the lounge without saying anything to Elliot.

Josh was waiting at the door for her just like Elliot had.

"Why didn't you go in?" she asked.

"I actually just got here myself," He said in an embarrassed voice as he ran a hand through his hair.

Elliot's answer was so much better, she thought as she slipped her hand inside of his. Okay test one, light physical contact. She waited for a feeling to start as he led her into the lounge. There was nothing, okay test one appeared to be unsuccessful.

"Ooo ping pong!" Josh said and pulled her over to the ping pong table. Elliot asked her what she wanted to do, she thought as she picked up a paddle.

"Okay you first, Josh said and floated the ball to her on a weak stream of air.

Sheree snatched the ball out of the air and gave it a soft tap. Josh smashed the ball with every bit of his super strength. The ball shot past Sheree's head so fast she barely even saw it. If the walls of the building weren't reinforced, the ball would've been embedded in the wall behind Sheree.

"Oh great another muscle head teammate," she thought as she finally noticed his silver pendant had two symbols on it. A bear paw for the herculean class sat beside a tornado, the controller class symbol.

"Sorry, I get a little competitive," Josh said.

Not really caring if she won or lost, Sheree decided to have some fun with Josh. She pulled the ball back to her and then tapped it again. Just like before, Josh swung as hard as he could at the ball. This time though, just before he made contact with the ball Sheree moved it out of his reach. He hit the paddle off the table so hard it shattered in his hand.

"Dammit!" He yelled and threw the broken piece he was still holding.

"Umm, I think you broke your paddle," Sheree said and gestured at the wood splinters covering the table.

"You think so?" He asked her sarcastically as he cleaned up the wood.

She chuckled at his remark and he sucked his teeth at her. When he was finished the game was over. They played Billiards next. Sheree got her kicks by making sure every shot he took was slightly off and missed the holes.

"Are you doing this?" Josh asked, looking up at her after his fourth shot in a row bounced off the edge of the pocket.

"No, why would I do something like that?" She asked innocently.

"It doesn't matter anyway, all the balls are gone," Josh said and casually waved his right hand. Every ball on the table went into the pocket nearest it.

So he's a sore loser, overly competitive, and kinda childish. I figured that "perfect gentleman" routine was fake, Sheree thought as she stared at Josh.

It was time for test number two though, heavy contact. She walked up behind him as he walked away from the billiards table and put her arms around him. Making sure her arms and his touched as much as possible.

"Don't feel bad, anyone could've missed every shot they took," she said jokingly.

"Yeah, I bet," He said without shaking her off of him.

Sheree waited for the feeling again as they walked over to the arcade games. Once again it never came.

"I need to use the bathroom," she said and walked away from Josh, who was so invested in the game he was playing that he barely heard her.

Inside the bathroom she scanned herself to see if there was any change in her rank. She was still an F9, the same rank she left the dorm with. That confirmed for her that it was Elliot she was meant to grow with. She realized that to be sure she could try this experiment with other people and see if it worked with someone other than Josh. She honestly wanted to do it with Elliot though. She had one final test to run, and she already knew it was going to be unsuccessful. She walked back out to Josh to finish this farce of a date.

I wonder if Elliot will mind if I sleep in his bed tonight,Sheree thought as she watched Josh play a motorcycle game. She got so bored standing there that she made his steering wheel turn suddenly. Josh's character veered into a wall and every other racer passed him. She laughed silently as he whined about the game being broken. She realized then that when she was there with Elliot every time she laughed it was because she was enjoying herself. Tonight she had only laughed at Josh's expense.

She made it through the rest of the date utterly unimpressed with Josh. He might have been the highest ranked student at the school, but he certainly wasn't the most mature. She felt like he did want her to have fun, but he was just too worried about his own fun to notice that she wasn't. He wasn't a bad guy, he was just too immature for her. She had honestly never met another person that she felt a romantic connection to except Elliot, she thought as they approached her dorm room door.

Standing at her room door it was time to perform her last test, that was if Josh could pick up on her hints. She needed to invite him to kiss her without directly telling, or actually wanting him to.

"Thanks, for a good time," she lied, doing her best happy female impression.

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, maybe we can do it again sometime," He said as he stared into her eyes.

"We just might," she said as seductively as she could.

Josh finally gathered up the courage to lean in for a goodnight kiss. Sheree reached up and put her hands on his face as their lips made contact. There was no rush of feeling, no explosion of energy, nothing. She knew there wouldn't be.To make matters worse, the door of their room opened behind them and Elliot witnessed the entire kiss.

"Oh wow," He said before slamming the door in their faces.

At the sound of the door opening Sheree basically threw Josh off of her. It was too late though, Elliot had slammed the door and gone back into the room. She turned her back on Josh and hurried into the room.

"I can explain," she said nervously. Her heart was pounding and for the first time in her life she knew what regret felt like.

"You don't have to explain anything to me," Elliot said, his words as emotionless as the look he was giving her.

"Elliot, I swear it didn't mean anything, it was just an experiment" Sheree said, with desperation in her voice. She needed him to believe her.

"I don't care," Elliot said in that same lifeless voice and shrugged.

If it wasn't for the tear rolling down his cheek she would have believed him.