“Now class, today we’ll begin talking about one of the most important parts of everyone’s life: their elements!”

Luke had thought back to last summer, when he and his brother had sparred one time. Matthew would summon metal polls from the earth, metal chains, and even use liquid metal to increase the length of his weapons. Most of his memory was of him fleeing in terror for the majority of the training.

“There are many elements that an individual can have. Generally, you’ll find yourself with two, but some of you might have one or three. There’s good and bad aspects to every element and combination, something you’ll discover throughout your life. To start out, can someone name an element?”

Luke’s hand shot up, but so did many others. Even though Luke had inherited his family’s growth spurt, his hand was still lost in a sea of arms.

“Amber.”

“Fire!”

“Ah yes, fire. You all know fire burns things. If you use it with water, it creates steam. With ice it creates fog. It’s a very wild element, so you must be careful not to lose control. Anyone else?”

Luke continued to raise his hand, feeling more confident when fewer hands were raised.

“Julia.”

“Water.”

“Ah yes, water. What you drink every day. With earth it can make mud. If you learn to control it very precisely, you could pull water from the air itself. Who else?”

Luke’s arm was tiring from being raised, but he persisted.

“David.”

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“Electricity”

“Very nice choice. Electricity can be used to zoom around quickly if you can turn yourself into it. It’s a very fast but very chaotic form of travel, but I’ve heard it’s very fun. Last one.”

At this point, Luke was livid, but he found the room was devoid of raised arms. Not single person in front or behind him, to his left or right, had their hand raised.

“Arnold.”

“Light.”

“Ah light. They say those with light can see things not visible to others. They say you could see invisible things or possibly the future. That’s all the time we have today, maybe next time I won’t be forced to call on someone.”

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Today was the same as yesterday: Luke cautiously distancing himself from the girl in front of him, not letting the jerk behind him shove him. He may have sounded sincere yesterday, but Luke wasn’t going to chance him lying. Grabbing his meal, he scurried off to the same empty table as yesterday, but it didn’t remain so.

“Man, that teacher is a jerk.”

David had sat across from Luke at the table, the latter unsure how to feel given the blonde’s statement.

“I just came by to say, no hard feelings about yesterday. I just wanted to see if you really couldn’t use mana. I guess you weren’t lying.”

In the next moment, David was gone, leaving the befuddled boy to his thoughts, most of which were confusion about how to feel. By the end of lunch, he realized he was essentially back at square one.

Nowhere was that more apparent than at recess, Luke left alone with his thoughts. Not wishing to approach the girls playing jump rope nor the boys getting into a fight, he instead moved to the playground. It hadn’t occurred to him since he arrived to scan his surroundings, but now that he did, he could see the world was so much bigger than he first realized. Or at least, the backyard of the school was.

Still, despite the playground bolstering everything from monkey bars to a slide thrice his size, Luke was content to sit by himself on the swing. The rest looked busy, and the last thing the boy wanted was to deal with anyone else.

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“Hey Luke, how was today?”

It had felt like the blink of an eye when the younger sibling left the swing to make his way back home, only to be greeted by his cheerful brother.

“Better.” The little brother lied, though he wasn’t entirely sure it was a lie. He figured that while he was still alone, he also wasn’t eating dirt.

“Hmm, guess you didn’t get to another fight?”

“No.”

“Hey, at least no one is bothering you now; that’s good, right?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Unbeknownst to Luke, who let his legs guide him home while his mind drifted off, Matthew had kept a distance behind him.