Chapter 3 [Nikki]

Nikki was the first person in the common room—she had unpacked and settled into her room and everything. The other three girls who would be her roommates had simply dumped their stuff. They hadn’t even claimed a bed yet. She was playing on a PSP when the other girls came in.

“Hey,” she said, waving a hand casually. She recognized Keli but not the other two. “How’d it go? Did I miss much?”

“You didn’t stay for the rules?” asked Keli in disbelief.

“I didn’t stay for dinner. I ate with some upperclassmen at the café. It was really cool. But really, what did I miss?”

“Well, our principal’s a supervillain,” Keli said, rolling her eyes. “He talked a lot about the Black Rapture and our duty as the future of humankind, blah blah blah really. The rules are in the student handbook we’re supposed to have.”

“Woah, wait, back up a sec. He’s a supervillain?”

“Ex- supervillain, obviously,” interjected Carrie. “You would know if you’d gone.”

“Eh, I don’t regret it really,” she said, shrugging. Seeing where Carrie was headed, she said, “Hey, you’re my roommate? What’s your name?”

“Um. I think so. I’m Carrie.” She walked inside the room, followed by Tess. Keli sat on the couch and got out a book (Nikki couldn’t make out what it was, but it had ‘vampire’ in the title). Gradually, other people started to trickle in as well—a tall, freckled caucasian girl with glasses and bushy auburn hair, who shared a room with Keli. Then a nervous- looking Chinese girl entered with a short Mexican girl with very thick glasses, who chattered energetically. Last was a scruffy- looking, dirty- blonde girl with long pigtails wrapped up in multicolored hair bands, who entered the single room at the end of the hall nearest to the bathrooms. Fifteen minutes more passed as people unpacked, talked, and trickled in to the common room.

“So!” said the redhead, stretching her arms up to the ceiling. “Who are you people?”

“We might ask the same of you,” said Nikki.

“Okay, sure, whatever. I’m Bridget Baker, and I have super strength.” Nikki raised an eyebrow at her. It seemed like an appropriate power for the girl to have— she was solidly built, almost like an Amazon, and well- endowed. She seemed to be positively brimming with energy.

The girl to her left, the short Mexican girl, clued in to the conversation. “Oh! Hi! I’m Anita,” she said, smiling. “I can fly! But not now, ‘cause I wear this special belt and boots.” Nikki now looked closely at the belt around her jeans, which seemed to be made of leather but with some sort of metal weight on the front. Her shoes were also customized. Both the shoes and the belt had a special logo on them, but Nikki couldn’t make out what it was.

Next to her was Carrie. “I’m Carrie Mann, and I’m tired of introducing myself.” A couple people chuckled. “I can summon spirit animals. I’ll show you later,” she added, seeing the curious looks on peoples’ faces. “I think I’ve exceeded my quota for today.”

“I’m Tess Larson,” said the girl to her right, “and I can generate static electricity.” She held up a finger, and a spark jumped from its tip to the metal rim of her glasses.

“She’s a Spark,” Carrie added. “None of you are going to get that reference, though.”

“Right. I have no idea what you’re talking about.” That was Keli. “I’m Keli Spencer, and I have… I think the proper term is aquakinesis? Hydrokinesis? Something like that. I can control water and I have gills.” She brought her webbed hands together and lazily drew them apart, strings of water hanging from between her fingers.

“Oh, it’s my turn, I guess. I’m Nikki Kivan, and I can generate magnetic fields.” She twitched her hands at the wrists, turning them back and forth in jazzhands.

“Ha! You’re like that guy, that villain dude from the comics…” pointed out Bridget. “I don’t remember his name, since I don’t read them, I just saw the movies…”

“I know who you’re talking about, and Magnetism isn’t exactly uncommon, as powers go,” Nikki raised an eyebrow. “Why does everyone think of him whenever I tell them? God… think of a hero or something, will ya? Anyway, whatever.” She looked at the girl to her right.

“Oh, m- me? Is it my turn? Um.” That was the girl with the rainbow pigtails. “Um. I’m, uh, Erin Stevens… um.”

“What’s your power?” asked Carrie.

“Uh. I can, well… I’m a lycanthrope,” she said, her voice almost a whisper.

“A werewolf?!” exclaimed Bridget. “Awesome!”

“N- not a wolf actually… I’m this sort of… fuzzy… bear.” She kept her eyes down, and Nikki noticed that she was deliberately covering the back of her right hand. Looking more closely, she could see that underneath her hand there was a flash of grimy white fur.

“Isn’t that technically not a lycanthrope, though?” mused Carrie. “I mean, the ‘lycan’ part of lycanthrope means ‘wolf,’ right? So if you turn into a bear, you’d be more like an ursathrope or something, I don’t know.”

“It’s a bit of a wolf-like bear,” she muttered, still not making eye contact.

There was a pause before the last person to speak— the Chinese girl— realized that it was her turn. She looked around, pushed her glasses up her nose, and blinked. The realization set in, and she exclaimed, “Oh! My name is Lucy, and I… well, I don’t know what my powers are actually.”

“What?!” exclaimed several people, Nikki included.

“How… how did you get in here, then?” asked Carrie.

“Um. It’s a… funny story. Do… do you want me to tell you?”

“Go right ahead!

“…I’d rather not… It’s kind of, not easy for me, you understand?”

“Can you try?”

“…Um. I guess… I went to this school last year. It was… a school for Empowered people, who hadn’t shown yet. When kids did, they moved them up to another class… my friends vanished one by one, until I was the last person left. Their tests were coming out positive, but I still don’t have any powers.” She shrugged. “I… They couldn’t figure out what to do with me, so they sent me home and I went to normal school. But then I got the letter from here, and, well, I dunno.” She clasped her hands together, her eyes lowered. “I hope you won’t hate me if I’m kicked out from here, too."

“Don’t worry,” said Keli, “Powers or no powers, we’ll treat you with respect.”

“You could have powers that you just don’t know about,” suggested Tess.

“I didn’t know there were other schools for supers,” mused Carrie.

“Well, most people don’t. The school I went to kept it secret until your powers manifested. Our parents didn’t even know.”

***

“…Well. Is that everyone?” asked Bridget. “Wait. Lemme see if I can remember everyone’s names. I’m Bridget, you’re… Nikki? Right. Caroline…”

“Carrie.”

“Carrie, Tess, Keli… wait, hang on, I’ve got this…”

“Anita,” she offered.

“Right. Anita. Gotcha. Anita, Erin, Lucy.”

“My turn!” said Nikki. “There’s me, Nikki, and then… Carrie, Tess, Keli, A… Anita? Anita, Erin, Lucy, Bridget. Oh yeah, I’ve still got it.”

“Can I try?” said Carrie. “I’m terrible with names though, so you’ll have to forgive me. I’m Carrie, and you are… well, gol- darnit, I’ve forgotten,” she laughed, turning to Tess. This didn’t elicit a reaction from the group, so she stopped laughing and said “Tess, Um… Keli, right? Yeah, I know we talked earlier and all. I told you, I’m bad with names! Anita, Erin, Lucy… Aw. I know your name starts with a D…”

“No, it doesn’t,” said Bridget. “How could you forget me? I’m Bridget!”

“…Sorry, Bridget, you were the first to introduce yourself, I must have spaced for a second. Nikki. Right. That’s all of us.”

“And we have to remember, since we’ll be having most of our classes and things together,” said Nikki. “Well. What now?”

“I’m going to check my facebook,” said Bridget, standing up.

“Facebook. Pshaww, what a waste of time… wait, you got internet?” Carrie asked in disbelief. “How’d that work?”

“Oh, well, you just go to the bottom floor of the dorm building and ask the dean. They give you the password and everything.”

“But my computer wasn’t detecting any wireless networks before…”

“Maybe they turned it on since you last checked? I don’t know. Go ask.”

“I think I’ll do that,” she said, standing up. “See you guys later.” She walked into her room and left after a minute, carrying a laptop under one arm. Keli remained sitting where she was on the couch, reading her vampire book. Anita, Tess, and Erin retreated to their rooms. Nikki yawned and put in her iPod headphones, thinking to herself that she should be putting her free time to use while she still had it, but then shrugging and starting to zone out. The red-orange dorm was quiet for some time, the most noise coming in little tinny sounds from Bridget’s room as she played music from her computer, and from upstairs, where the red-yellow dorm seemed a bit more active.

Ten minutes later, the silence was broken when Carrie came running up the stairs again, holding her laptop awkwardly under one arm while the other held a sheaf of papers.

“Schedules are out! Plus I have internet,” she exclaimed, grinning broadly.

“Huh. That was fast,” remarked Nikki.

“Here, and here,” Carrie said, handing a sheet of paper to her and Keli. “I’ll go deliver the rest, too.” She scurried into one of the rooms. Nikki looked over her sheet, expression blank. They still had a day to go before term started, but once it did…

“Aw, geez!” she exclaimed. “Look at this! What’s with all the phys. ed? I hate phys. ed… and look! Two classes a day! No fair!”

“Get over it,” Keli told her. “I have lots of gym classes on mine too—I think it’s part of the curriculum. Like, physical training.”

“Why would they be—oh, right. For our powers.” An exclamation from the second room indicated that Bridget had found the gym classes on her schedule as well—although this was more of a whoop of joy than an expression of rage.

“What classes do you have besides that?” asked Keli. Nikki scrutinized her paper again.

“Oh, just the usual… well, there’s History of Superpowers instead of whatever usual history class we’d have in a regular high school, but yeah. Um, geometry, literature, science… I’ve got some free time most days, too.”

“I’ve got an ‘occupational free block’ pretty much every day, in the afternoon…”

Nikki scrutinized her sheet again. “…Huh. That’s funny, so do I. What do you suppose it means?”
“Oh, the occupational free?” That was Carrie, who had just walked into the room. “I asked about that, actually—it’s for any extracurricular activities, like if you’re joining clubs and things. Like, since I’m gonna take part in that musical they mentioned…”

“What, seriously? You can… sing?” asked Keli.

“Well, er, sorta. I like to, at least. I dunno.” She shrugged. “I think it’s a good way to meet new people or something.”

“Don’t be shy! You’re allowed to sing if you like it!”

“No she isn’t,” said Tess, coming up from behind. “You haven’t heard her singing. It should be illegal.”

“Hey!”

“It’s true,” she shrugged. Carrie playfully thwacked the back of her head.

“Stop that, you’re giving me a bad name,” she said, but she was smiling while she said it.

Nikki yawned. “Well, as exciting as it was meeting all of you, I’m gonna go get some shut-eye.” She opened the door to her room and sat down on the bottom bunk, swinging her legs up without taking off her shoes. She lay back, closed her eyes, and thought.

What a mess, she thought. It’s a beautiful mess, but a mess all the same. How am I going to remember all these names? Everyone seems like they’ve known one another for forever… actually, it seems like Carrie and Tess do know each other from somewhere. I’ll have to ask them about it. She turned over so that she was facing the wall. I mean, the only one that I’m even remotely familiar with is Keli… I just… hope they’ll accept me, is all.
She thought herself to sleep.

***

Nikki was woken up shortly afterwards by Carrie, Tess, and Lucy, who were gathering their stuff to get ready to sleep, and groggily she realized that she probably should too. She kicked off her shoes, changed into more sleep- appropriate clothes and brushed her teeth, rinsing the bitter taste from her mouth. She went to bed in short order, and this time slept all through morning.

Nobody woke her up—when she opened her eyes and reached for her cell phone, it was 9 p.m. She experienced a momentary panic when she didn’t know where she was, and then panic again at having slept in so late, until realizing that she had no responsibilities for the day. She lay in bed uselessly for a little while longer until her brain convinced her that it was a beautiful day she was wasting. She threw off the sheets and got dressed, then stuffed her wallet into her jeans pocket and left the dorms to get breakfast at the café.

As she was heading out, she noticed that Erin was still in her room, hunched over a table and concentrating very hard on something. Her hands seemed entirely free of the fur Nikki had seen last night. Putting it to the back of her mind with a reminder to ask later, she descended the stairs and left the building.

She walked out onto the brick path of the main way, relishing the clear summer day—it wouldn’t be long, she reminded herself, before the warmth would succumb to Canadian frost. Oh, Canada. It didn’t seem that much different from home, really; just colder and with different trees. More differences would probably become apparent later.

The entered the café, where several students were standing around, sipping at coffee or munching on sandwiches and pastries. An upperclassman was even managing the cash register—she expected the café was entirely run by a student organization. She bought an underpriced coffee (discounts for students, for some reason, even though those were probably their only customers… just how did they pay for everything, anyway? Free food, free supplies…)
She stepped outside into the light and looked around for a table to sit at. She recognized a group of boys sitting at one of the tables—Kyle and Vitor, from the bus ride, as well as two other guys. Kyle waved at her.

“Hey, aren’t you Nikki? You looking for somewhere to sit?” he gestured to an empty seat at the table. “Join us! Guys, this is Nikki—she’s in the red-orange league, so she’s gonna be in all our classes.”

“Hey,” said one of the guys, who looked slightly imposing—he had shoulder-length brown hair and wore a loud shirt that had some band name on it. “I’m Kurt.”

“And I’m, um, Tyler,” said the other, who was smaller, with an acne-ridden face and messy brown hair.

“Nikki Kivan,” she said, aware that she had already been introduced. “So what’s up? What are we supposed to do today? I mean term doesn’t start…”

“…Till tomorrow? Yeah,” said Kurt. “I don’t know. I’m just chilling—I slept in ‘til eight- thirty. Apparently now’s your chance to sign up for clubs and things. There’s a fair in the social studies building caf.”

“Are you going to join any clubs?” she asked.

“Ah, well, I dunno. I was hoping to join a band, to be honest,” he said, laughing a little. “But I wonder if it wouldn’t be better to start my own?”

“We were talking about this before you came,” explained Kyle. “Like I was saying, I can write song lyrics, and I’m an okay rapper, if I can say. Plus I have like this program on my laptop that can mix beats.

“Yeah, that’s cool,” said Kyle. “Hey, do you think anyone in your dorm would want to play in a band? We could use some girls. Even out the gender barrier, y’know.”

“Well, Carrie said she could sing, or at least she thought she did,” said Nikki, recalling last night. “But she’s auditioning for the musical, so I dunno if she’d have time. I don’t know about Bridget either, but she seems more like the type that would want to play in a band.” She made another mental note to mention it to them—what was that, three now? Ask about Carrie and Tess, ask about Erin, and now ask about the band… she needed an iPhone or something to keep track of it all.

“Hey, speaking of the red- orange girls… I’m sorry if this sounds weird, but… are any of them hot?” asked Kyle, smiling guiltily. Vitor punched his arm, reminding Nikki of Tess and Carrie.
“Uh… no, that’s not really weird, but…” Nikki thought a little. “None of them are really all that hot, except…” Keli’s face flashed in her mind, with its delicate features, and she shook her mind to clear it, pushing away the image and blushing a little. “Um. Bridget, uh, has a big rack… so does Carrie, now that I think about it, but, um. I dunno. You’d be better off asking a guy, or seeing for yourself. I really… I don’t know.

“Doesn’t matter,” said Kyle, shrugging. “There’s plenty of choices. I’ll see for myself tomorrow. Thanks, though. Sorry if that was awkward, It was an awkward question to ask to a girl that I barely know, I know. You probably think I’m some sort of sex- obsessed pervert, right?”

"N- no! Not really, I have an older brother… I’m sort of used to it all.”

“You have a brother? How old?” asked Kurt.

“Um, he’s 20. He… he’s in the army.” Nikki looked at her shoes. Her brother was a difficult subject for her. “I- if we could, like, not talk about him, that’d be best.”

“Right! Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up a sensitive subject.”

“No, I brought it up. Doesn’t matter.” She said. “I’m just used to guy talk, is all.” In fact, she found she got along better with guys on average. Perhaps it was because she was into motorcycles and metal and other, distinctly non-girly stuff.”

Tyler reached for his coffee cup, but when his fingers tried to close around it, they passed right through it. “Oh, geez,” he groaned. “Not again…”

“What’s up?” asked Nikki, with interest. He waved his hand back and forth, it distinctly passing through the coffee cup every time.

“It’s doing it again, oh, god damnit,” he said, as his hand stopped, solidifying with his fingers lodged within the cup. The top popped off, and he lifted his hand up, fingers embedded inside the cardboard. He grabbed it with his other hand and pushed; it came off, coffee pouring out the holes where his fingers used to be.

“This happens way too often,” he groaned, sucking on a coffee-covered finger. Seeing Nikki’s questioning look, he said, “I’m intangible. Or, I mean, parts of my body go intangible randomly; I can’t control it. It’s kind of a sucky power, to be honest… once, my legs went intangible up to my waist, and they had to dig me out of the floor. At least… at least I don’t go fully intangible. I’d fall to the center of the earth and get burned alive.”

“Well, technically you wouldn’t, actually,” pointed out Kurt. “Since I assume there’s no resistance, the laws of physics say that you’d pass through the center of gravity until you came out the other side. Equal and opposite reaction and all that.”

“What, really? Okay, that makes me feel a little better, but not much,” he said. “I mean, then where do I end up? The Indian Ocean? And that still doesn’t solve the problem of part of me suddenly becoming tangible while I’m falling. Let me tell you, it sucks.”

“Yeah, that does sort of suck,” admitted Kyle, “But hey. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”

“Why does gravity affect you if you have no mass?” inquired Vitor. All eyes at the table looked at him in surprise—it was the first time he had spoken the entire time.”

“What do you mean?"

“You heard me. If you have no mass, you won’t feel the pull of gravity, so you’d float, right? Simple science.”

“I don’t think there’s anything simple about that,” groaned Tyler. “I mean, of course, nothing’s simple with superpowers…”

“Right. I shouldn’t be able to generate magnetic fields,” said Nikki, “but, hey, I can.”

“What, really?” asked Kurt. “That’s seriously cool. Like Mag—”

“Yes,” groaned Nikki, pressing her fingers against her forehead. She held out her hand and concentrated on the metal chair a foot away from her. She started sweating, but then it moved an inch and she relaxed.

“Did you do that?” asked Kyle.

“No, it was the wind,” chided Nikki. “Yes, of course I did it.”

“Cool. You have a class B power like me and Kyle and Vitor,” said Kurt.

“Class… B?”

“Yeah. There’s three classes of powers… they say we’re not supposed to use them because they’re racist or elitist or something, I don’t know. Everyone uses them though, and I don’t see what’s so offensive about ‘em. Basically,” he said, “Class C powers are like Tyler’s, that affect only the Empowered person. Stuff like super strength or flight or stretching or my regeneration powers,” he said, pausing for emphasis. “They’re the most common; I mean, as common as having extremely rare powers is. And then there’s class B, which is all of us—it’s the ability to control things outside of yourself. Basically, telekinesis, and things like principal Luciparr’s light powers, Kyle’s fire powers, etcetera. And then there’s class A, which is the rarest of the rare—you see people with ‘em once in a blue moon. Those are the powers which affect reality itself.”

“Aubrey’s power is Class A,” Kyle added. Nikki thought that Carrie’s abilities might also be considered Class A as well.

“And there’s rankings within powers, too, although you can generally change those by working at it. The lowest is rank 3 and the highest rank 1, with an A-1 being pretty much god. Rank 3 indicates that it’s subconscious or extremely limited. I think we’re all mostly rank 3,” Kurt added.

“I might be rank 2,” Kyle suggested, a little meekly. He held out his palm, with a tuft of flame burning in it, to prove his point.

“I think you’re probably a 2.5, no offense or anything, we just can all afford to improve. Rank 2 indicates adept control, and Rank 1 indicates mastery.”

“Well, I think I’ve learned a lot more than I intended to today,” Nikki said jokingly. “What would powers like… mind control fall under, for example?”

“Hmm… I’d say B, since it’s power over thoughts… but I don’t know, actually. Maybe psychic powers should be their own subset.”

“Do you know anyone with psychic powers?” asked Vitor.

“No, but I’m sure they’re around. It’s one of the most commonly- displayed powers, y’know, in stories and things. Next to stuff like flight and super strength, of course.” That was Kyle.

“Huh.” Nikki stood up and walked to the trash can to throw away her now- empty coffee cup. “Well, it was fun talking with you guys, but I think I’m gonna go stretch my legs and check out that club fair you were talking about. See you tomorrow in whatever classes out leagues have together!”
------
Author's Note:

Introductions, pseudoscientific discussions complete with lampshade hanging, and exposition, oh my! This was one of the more fun chapters to write, if you can excuse the blatant wordcount-boosting abuse towards the top.

The boys were fun to write. xD They go like such: Kurt is a punk rocker/metalhead, and looks the part, but he's actually a really nice guy. Kyle is huge, football-player-ish, and loves to laugh and have fun. Vitor is short, cynical, and sarcastic. Tyler's geeky and a bit of a wuss. (there are four other boys in red-blue as well, which you will soon meet as well.)

Chapter 1 [Keli]

Keli Spencer stood over the desk in her room and the sheet of watercolor paper on that desk. She had a still- life drawing in watercolor pencils, and was ready to paint. She reached for the cup of water and dipped her fingertip into it briefly, then reached over and drew a smooth arc along the petal of the tulip. The water soluble pencil mixed and blurred, breathing life into the flat drawing. She continued down the stem of the flower, spreading to the rest of the drawing with gentle strokes of her finger. She pushed her chair back and scrutinized her artwork; satisfied, she extended a hand over the painting, spreading her fingers wide, displaying vein- laced webs in between them. The water droplets rose from the page like mist, sinking into her skin. She looked down at the paper and smiled to herself. Her art teachers and peers had complimented her artwork endlessly, and magazines and competitions she submitted her watercolors to praised her control over her materials. They didn’t know, of course.

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.
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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.