She heard the turning of her doorknob, and swiveled her chair around in time to see her father entering, holding a slip of paper— a letter?-- In his hand. Keli scowled at him.
“Geezus dad, knock before you enter. Please.” She crossed her arms.
“This is my house, Keli, I’ll enter whatever room I want to,” he replied.
“Is it too much to ask for a little privacy?” she groaned. “Go away, I’m busy.”
“Keli, I have important matters to discuss with you. More important than your drawing.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
“Like what school you’re going to next year,” he said, holding up the envelope.
“Dad! I thought we’d already decided on that! I thought I was going to Ca—”
“This came in the mail today,” he said, placing the envelope on the desk in front of her. Keli picked it up. It was printed on navy blue paper, with gold lettering on the front that addressed it to Miss Keli Spencer in Lowell, Massachusetts. The return address read “Gladiator Academy”.
“Open it,” invited her dad, and she did, reluctantly, removing a similarly- colored letter.
Dear Keli Spencer, it said, you have been chosen for a one hundred percent free scholarship to four years of high school at the prestigious Gladiator Academy for Empowered Adolescents, located on the scenic shores of Lake Erie, Canada. The reason for this is because we have found records of your having Class B powers of Water Control. Because of the lack of proper training for those with supernatural gifts such as yourself, the Academy offers full courses in mastering your abilities as well as a complete and comprehensive high school education. It is highly recommended that you attend; refusal to do so may result in more drastic measures to be taken.
Enclosed in this envelope is a list of courses as well as all the necessary forms; please fill them out and mail them to the return address promptly.
Sincerely,
Damien I. Luciparr, Principal
Keli stared at the letter held in her hand for a minute, stunned. Her father, who was reading over her shoulder, was silent as well.
“’More drastic measures’?” she finally said, incredulous.
“It… it sounds like they’re forcing you to go… but, Keli, really, I… listen. This scholarship is a wonderful thing, it really is,” said her father, eagerly. “And, I mean… you were going to private school anyway, so you don’t need to worry about your friends.”
“Dad! This is different! This is—didn’t you read it? It’s on Lake Erie! It’s a boarding school! I— I chose the school I’m going to this year! We paid for it and everything!”
“Well, we haven’t made a final payment yet… we can still get a refund. It’s not too late to switch, especially if we explain to them about the scholarship…”
“What do you mean, it’s not too late?!” Keli asked, growing angrier little by little. “Eighth grade is almost over! I— I spent time applying there, filling out forms, being accepted! This is— this is—”
Her father sighed. “Keli, there’s something you need to understand. I am not made of money, all right? And I’m not sure you realize how much work I had to do in order to earn the money to pay for this private school for one year, let alone three. I don’t have a steady source of income ever since your mother left, so whatever money I can get, on royalties off my books and inheritance and things, go towards feeding this family. If I pay for you to go to private school, then I don’t know what we’ll do for college. But this is—amazing. It means I can save all that money that I would have spent on your private school and use it for your college fund. Please. Consider it, at least. Besides… well, you’re right. If it really is a school for people… like you, then I don’t think we actually have much choice in the matter.” He sighed. “Frankly, it’s about time they established an organized method of educating Mutants… I mean, what with all the stories you read about if they go bad—”
“Dad!” Keli cut in. “I thought I told you not to use that… that word! It’s offensive! Insensitive!”
“Sorry, sweetie. I forgot. Your gifts are… amazing. I cannot believe I would ever have such a wonderful, special child.”
“Right, right, yeah, okay. Fine.” Keli huffed air through her nose and shook out the contents of the envelope onto the desk. There was a brochure, which looked like any other high school brochure—navy blue and gold, with photos of the campus and the school’s logo on the front. Gladiator Academy, eh? She thought to herself as she traced the logo— the letters “GA” emblazoned on a shield, in front of two crossed swords— with a finger.
She closed her eyes and briefly pictured herself in four months. She saw herself dressed in normal clothes, nervous at first to go to a new school but soon laughing with new friends. New friends who thought her hands were odd but didn’t say anything of it. Normal people with normal lives, who look at superheroes with a combination of awe and mystery. She pictured all those trips to the beach and the swimming pool, where she couldn’t even touch the water, let alone submerge herself and allow it to fill her out and the gills behind her ears to filter oxygen in great gulps. Then the scene changed, and suddenly she imagined herself in an even stranger place, far from home. Kids her age, just like her. Somewhere where she wouldn’t have a secret, where her strangeness would seem normal. And then, briefly, when she grew up. Her lifelong dream of becoming an Olympic swimmer was, of course, impossible— there were regulations against that sort of thing. So who would she become? Would she dress in a spandex suit and join some coalition of justice? Or would she defect, and use her powers for whatever she wanted— for drowning those that irritated her in their own saliva, or for calling up tidal waves on cities, threatening millions of people? Or… would she just be a normal person in a normal office job, who in her spare time creates interesting watercolor paintings and doesn’t need to move from her chair to water the plants?
She sighed audibly and leaned down to rest her head in her hands. Truth be told, her powers weren’t up to the tidal- wave- calling level. She had no idea if they would develop or not, but currently her aquakinesis was mostly limited to only about a cup at any given point. What could she learn from a school that was designed to teach her such things?
“Keli?” enquired her dad, interrupting her silence. “Will— will you at least consider it?”
Keli was silent for a few seconds longer before replying, quietly and shakily, “yeah.”
***
After a few hours of dilly-dallying, pacing, and locating paperwork, Keli Spencer had filled out the application form for accepting the scholarship. Meanwhile, her father called the other school, who had surprisingly already heard of the scholarship and were willing to offer a full refund. They mailed the letter the next day, and in another week received an acceptance letter from the academy, along with a list of school supplies and a date for the start of term: August 27. Over the next few weeks of eighth grade, Keli broke the news to her friends. She didn’t say why she had received the scholarship or what made the school special (not that they didn’t press her on it). There were varying degrees of acceptance, but by the end of the year everyone had more or less come to terms with it, with the exception of perhaps Keli herself. She then spent a largely uneventful summer, with the odd camping trip and week of day camp, until August rolled around. She spent about a week packing and purchasing supplies, although the list of things she had to buy was rather short; apparently, the school was rich enough to provide most things for its students. She was going to take a bus there which the school would also provide. It was arriving on the twenty-fourth, meaning she would have part of a week to settle in and tour the campus, as well as meet her league mates.She was in the red-orange league; “leagues” being what they called the groups of people who shared the same floor of the dorm and many of their classes. It must have been intentional, calling it that. There were eight people per league, and the leagues were color coded, by year (freshmen were red, sophomores blue, juniors black and seniors white) and then by gender (girls were warm colors, boys were cool colors). Their uniforms (something she was not entirely content with, but it saved having to go shopping for new clothes) would also be colored correspondingly. Your leaguemates, the brochure had said, would become your best friends by the end of the year.
And so Keli and her father had hauled her various suitcases out to the curb where the bus would be arriving, at seven in the morning on an overcast, particularly chilly August day.
“Keli. I…” her dad was noticeably nervous. “I don’t know what to say.”
“We’ve been through this already, dad,” she assured him. “I’m fine. I couldn’t be more prepared. I don’t know when I’m ever going to even need a collapsible bicycle. They probably don’t even allow them on campus.”
“That’s not exactly what I meant,” he said, biting his lip. “I’m more… amazed. That you were able to do this. It’s a huge decision, you know.”
“You were the one pushing me to go, you know. I’ve accepted it.”
“You’ve never been away from home anywhere near as long as this. You went to summer camp for, what, a week? Two weeks?”
“I know, dad. But I have to start somewhere. And besides, I’ll be back for winter and spring breaks, and the summer, and you can E- mail me…”
“I suppose… but now with your brother in college and you leaving me, the house will seem… emptier. You know.”
“Emptier?! You’ll still have my sister and my little brother! Aren’t they enough?” Her dad’s reply was delayed by the roar of a diesel engine. The bus turned a corner and Keli raised her hand a little. The bus creaked to a stop. It was a coach bus, and through the tinted windows Keli could make out the figures of high- backed seats, a few of which were filled by other soon- to- be students. The bus itself was elegant, navy blue again, with gold cursive letters on the side and the school logo. As if she didn’t already know.
The driver stepped out to help her and her dad with their luggage, then returned to his seat in front of the bus and indicated that she should get on. She turned to face her father, who was standing on the curb, looking slightly lost. She walked up to him and hugged him, a little awkwardly. He kissed her forehead, then held her close against his chest.
“Be brave, sweetie. Be brave.”
They pulled apart, still unsure, and then Keli turned around and got on the bus, looking behind her just as the doors closed and the bus began to move. She followed his figure with her eyes until the bus rounded another corner and he was gone.
***
Keli turned to face the bus, which was largely quiet. There were only twelve or so students, scattered around the bus sporadically. They all looked fairly normal, although Keli thought she saw a flash of white fur towards the back, but perhaps that was a coat. She climbed the stairs and scanned her surroundings for an empty seat. From somewhere towards the middle of the bus, she heard a quiet “hey.”She moved forward, maneuvering her backpack so as not to bump any of the seats or the sleeping people in them, until she reached the area with the person who had called out to her. The speaker was a girl around her age, short with brown eyes and brown hair with red- dyed bangs. She waved.
“Wanna sit here?” Keli looked at her blankly, then shrugged, nodded, and sat. She swung her backpack to her feet and reached for the belt buckle, clicking it securely. At this point she noted that there were TV screens above the seats, and hoped that later that day they might watch something.
“So… what’s your name?” asked the girl, still in a hushed voice.”
“K… Keli. Keli Spencer,” she replied, not sure what kind of a first impression she was giving.
“Keli, huh? I’m Aubrey, nice to meetcha. So… do you have powers, or what?”
She was very upfront about it. “I, uh, can control water, and like breathe underwater and stuff.” Keli spread out her fingers to show the other girl the webs in between then, then brought her fingertips together and drew them apart, leaving strings of water hanging from their tips.
“Coolio! I can, like, rip apart dimensions. With my hands.” The girl showed off her palms, and Keli noticed for the first time that they were decorated by an intricate tattoo. “It’s not as useful as yours, though. Mostly it just… eats matter and things. I can’t figure it out, so I hope they can teach us something about it. Did you get a scholarship?”
“Um, yeah…”
“Hah! I was right! They hand those out like it’s nobody’s business. I don’t think anyone actually pays to go to the school. Which begs the question, where do they get all their money, to buy stuff like custom buses and uniforms and things? Hey, speaking of powers, let me tell you everyone else’s… although, heck, I think they can probably explain it a bit better themselves… but since most of them are asleep, I’ll give it a shot.” She pointed to a boy a couple seats back, who seemed Hispanic or South American, with bronze skin and brown, curly hair. “That’s Vitor, he says he can control shadows. And a couple seats in front of us is Nikki, who can generate magnetic fields. And way back there is Erin, and I haven’t talked to her yet so I don’t know her story.” Keli just sort of sat there, letting the exposition wash over her and not really paying attention to any of it. Her mind was elsewhere—on her future, on the school she would be reaching in about six hours, not accounting for stopping for lunch.
A movement from the seat in front of her pulled Keli back to the real world as the aforementioned Nikki shifted around, turning so her knees rested on her seat and she could look at Keli and Aubrey.
“Hey, I heard my name back there… oh, is that a new person?” she asked, removing her earphones. “I didn’t notice you come in.”
“Hey, Nikki, I didn’t know you were awake,” remarked Aubrey. “This is… you want to introduce yourself?”
“Keli Spencer,” she said again. Nikki nodded.
“Nikki—that’s short for Nicole of course, but don’t call me that—Kivan. I’m sure Aubrey’s told you all of my secrets.”
“Magnetism?” said Keli.
“Yeah, wanna see? Hang on a sec,” she said, and dipped below her seat back for a second before returning, holding a metal spoon. “All right, watch this.” She held it in her hand and frowned, concentrating. Her other hand made circular motions around the spoon, until suddenly as Keli watched, the spoon bent a little. Nikki wiped her arm across her brow and smiled a brace- filled smile.
“You sure that’s not telekinesis?” Keli asked.
“Wouldn’t I be the one to know that?” Nikki replied, still grinning. “Anyway. It’s not too strong yet. I hope they’ll teach me how to make it stronger. I… well, I obviously don’t get much practice with it. My parents really cracked down on my using my powers, said I would be grounded if they ever caught me. I mean, it’s probably all for the best, what with all the anti- mutant prejudice and all.”
Keli tensed at the casual usage of the offensive slang, but then recognized something in her voice. “You come from the south?”
“Sure do,” she said. “Don’t worry, it’s really not as bad as they say. My parents came from a really conservative town. They’d been raised to hate mutants, so you can probably imagine how they felt when they actually had one… but my school had support programs, wouldn’t you know it, and they hired a guidance counselor for me an’ everything. I still had to keep it a secret, though.”
“I had to keep my powers a secret too,” replied Keli. “I mean, my family and stuff knew… and I know rumors got around, since I have a physical deformity as well. In elementary school, especially. That’s part of why we moved.”
“Oh, where’d you move from?” inquired Nikki.
“Well, my parents used to live together in Pennsylvania, but then my mom and dad broke up, and dad moved us back here. I don’t remember much of it really, I was about six or seven at the time. I saw my mom this summer, but that was the first time I’d seen her in months.”
“Ooh, are we telling our life stories?” interjected Aubrey. “Can I tell mine? I come from Baltimore, and I lived in the city. I’m homeschooled by my dad. My mom… is Disastra.” There was a brief pause, and incredulous looks from the other two girls, before Aubrey replied, “Hello, anyone? She’s a supervillain! But one of the cooler ones, obviously. She met my dad when she was holding him hostage. Stockholm syndrome much? She can stretch her limbs out really far and extend her fingernails and things, which is kind of gross, but I think she likes it. Anyway, she was absolutely delighted when they had me and they realized I had powers too. She was kinda disappointed when my powers didn’t seem all that useful, though. And… and she stopped the whole holding- banks- up ordeal and joined up with the local law enforcement. Or something.” Aubrey took a breath for what might have been the first time since she began talking.
“That’s… fascinating,” Nikki said, wearing a confused expression on her face, seemingly trying to make up her mind as to whether to be sarcastic or not.
“I didn’t talk to people much, you know, so most people I was familiar with knew that I had powers,” continued Aubrey after a pause. “But those that didn’t, like random people on the street or in restaurants and stores and things, would ask about the markings on my hands, right? And dad would get all defensive so that you can totally tell that he’s keeping a secret, and then I would tell them they were temporary tattoos. Or permanent tattoos, if I wanted to seem edgy.” The only thing slightly edgy about the little Caucasian girl was the red-dyed lock of hair, so Keli said nothing.
***
The bus trundled onward, and after the lengthy introductions the girls were mostly quiet; Keli took out her DS and started playing, and then it turned out that Aubrey had a DS as well with the same game, so they played multiplayer for a little bit and then returned to doing things independently. Nikki put her headphones on again. The bus stopped a few more times, picking up first an older boy wearing a Gladiator Academy sweatshirt (navy blue and gold) who must have been an upperclassman, and a sleepy- looking Chinese girl who took the first empty seat she found. After about an hour and a half they put on a movie—some war flick that failed to hold anyone’s attention for very long.At eleven a.m. the driver pulled up in front of a seven- eleven and invited the students to go get something to eat, stretch their legs, or use the bathroom. Keli, Aubrey, and Nikki stood up, glad to feel their muscles moving again, and entered the store. Using some of the spare change her dad had given her, Keli bought a two dollar slush and a bagel with plain cream cheese; Aubrey bought a bag of jellybeans and Nikki bought a soda and some beef jerky, to the disgust of Keli who was a vegetarian. Nobody seemed concerned about eating well at the time. After about twenty minutes, the bus driver called them back, did a roll call to make sure nobody was left behind, and drove away. Afterwards Aubrey introduced them to more freshmen: Kyle Pepper, seated with Vitor, who could apparently control fire. The boys were in red-blue league, which meant that Keli and Nikki would be having their major classes with them.
The movie ended and another one started; this one was a nonfiction story of a farm boy living in Kansas who, unbeknownst to him and his parents, had super powers and was destined to save the world. Everyone found it much more interesting, so most of them watched it.
------
Author's notes:
This chapter is the one that's been rewritten the most out of any, save for maybe part of Chapter Five. Anyway, meet some of our protagonists. Here's a hint: if they're in red-orange or red-blue, they're important. Most likely. (Unless they're Jessie T, who I wrote out of the story after realizing he was a ninth member of red-blue when there was only supposed to be eight, and he didn't represent anyone anyway.)
Oh, by the way, a note about the leagues. There's eight people per league, and the colors appear on the uniforms. The first color is your grade: Freshmen are red, sophomores blue, Juniors black and seniors white. The second color is your gender, and opposite colors are paired together. Girls get warm colors (red, orange, yellow, gold) and boys get cool colors (green, blue, purple, silver). Here's a list of freshman leagues and the pairings:
red-red -------- red-green
red-orange --- red-blue
red-yellow ---- red-purple
red-gold ------ red-silver
...You'll only see red-orange and red-yellow and their counterparts, mostly. Red-red and red-green are girly girls and jocks (they're matched by personalities), red-orange and red-blue are the people that I know best, hence... red-yellow is overflow on the girl side; they all have non-offensive powers, too. Red-purple is overflow from the boys' side. Red-gold and red-silver are the people that didn't get scholarships; they have largely useless powers and tend to become either Badass Normals or just plain snobs.
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