I wake up to the same ceiling I’ve woken up to every day of my life. The gray-painted ceiling has never changed. The single ventilation shaft in the center pumps air into my room. The same stupid bed that’s garishly decorated with my family’s crest. The same walls are decorated sparsely, only a banner and a framed photo. The photo is of me and my family all forcing smiles on our faces, updated every year as if clockwork. I’m lucky today though, because I woke up earlier than they wake me up. According to my watch, which rests on my nightstand, I’ve got 12 minutes before my day starts. My bones still ache from yesterday, my mind is still on the border of giving up completely and just becoming a yes-man to the U.S.E.F.. There was something else about today that was supposed to interest me. I can’t remember.

I hurl myself off my bed, unable to muster the energy to actually rise. Hitting the wooden floor with a hard thump doesn’t hurt, not after everything else. When I do stand up though, that’s when I’m confronted with the incredibly hard question of what to do. I don’t know. Free time sucks. Doing things sucks too. It’s way easier to be brain-dead. Which is why I’m on autopilot as I put on my clothes and get myself ready for the day.

I’m brushing my teeth when my door opens and sends light cascading into my dark room. I wince from the abrupt shining light and put up a hand to shield myself. “I’m up. I’ll be ready to go soon.” I respond in a muffled voice to the wordless question of the shadowy figures that I know to be my Math and English teachers.

“English is in 15 minutes, don’t be late Mercury. We have to look good today.” She says coldly, before leaving with her husband and closing the door behind them. Why was today special? I can’t quite recall...I know I was told something important was happening today. It hits me as I spit out the liquid from my mouth. We had a new kid coming in today. Hopefully their Emblem isn’t something stupid, like turning into a worm or some other stupid shit.

“Poor son of a bitch.” I say to myself, pitying the fate of the kid; whoever they are. Regardless, I head out of my room after a few more minutes, and navigate through the labyrinth of stupid hallways that serve as our school. I see a few other familiar faces as I get to the classroom, and I’m waiting for the one that I don’t recognize. I can’t find anybody like that. However, there is one irregularity. One other student that isn’t here at the moment, when she's typically the first in class. “Where’s N-?”

I’m cut off by a giant crash, and the wall seperating the classroom and cafeteria explodes, with a kid I don’t recognize crashing through it. He has short, messy brown hair and pale skin. The next victim of Nia. The classroom is deathly silent for a moment before the students start to chant quietly. They’re rising in volume, because of course they are. They’re stupid teenagers...Like me. I’m also chanting, “Fight, fight, fight, fight!”

The kid stands back up, which is actually quite impressive, and has a bright grin on his face. His smile is slightly jarring given the blood dripping down his swollen nose, and his shirt has a hole burned in the center of it. “I’m not one to disappoint a classroom! Especially when they’re chanting for me.” He shouts loudly. He snaps his fingers, and abruptly a deck of cards fly into his hand from the hole in the wall. He tosses one of the cards, and it flies quicker than I can follow.

“OOOWWWW!” Nia’s shrill voice screams. Bad move, just take the fall when Nia chases after you. She finally comes into view of the classroom, standing in the hole.

“Pft.” I chuckle quietly. Nia's normally pretty, I guess. Curly black hair that falls just under her shoulders, relatively tan skin and eyes that are a stunning shade of red (but are often filled with the fire of rage). Ruining her look, however, is a playing card sticking out of her forehead. Some crimson beads of blood fall down that pretty face. Additionally, there’s this weird little tattoo that seems to be on top of her clothes, and it looks like a butterfly with its wings disintegrating.

“Calm down, King of Hearts,” The new kid says, still smiling because he must not understand the situation. “A prideful, yet passionate king. If you apologize I might just be tempted to ask you to prom!” He teases Nia, which is an idiotic move. She has one of the strongest Emblems in class, and she’s not scared to use it. Plus she can’t really get in trouble because of her family.

“I can’t believe you! You went out of your way to ruin my breakfast, AND you’re talking shit. I’ll never forgive you, MUCH less date you!!” She shouts angrily. Clearly, he pissed her off. Her hair glows amber and her eyes follow suit. Her fists shine before igniting into flame. She chases after him incredibly quickly and kicks at his head, but when she’s inches away from hitting him she’s repulsed backward by a force I sure as hell couldn't see and flies back through the newly made hole in the wall.

The new kid winces, “Sorry!” He calls out with an apologetic smile. His eyes turn over to us and he waves gently. “Also, hi, it’s nice to meet you guys! My name is TJ, if you want to you can call me-” He’s cut off by a fist that comes in contact with his cheek and sends him flying after Nia into the cafeteria.

The class goes completely silent, as the teacher’s aid stands looking outside through the wall at those two. He sneers and walks out after them before the teacher herself walks in. Mrs. Kraus taps the wall that was broken by Nia, and it begins to reassemble itself via her Emblem. “Now…” She says, with an extremely sickly sweet voice that sends shivers down my spine. “Does anybody care to explain what has happened?” She asks, a smile forced onto her wrinkled face. Not a soul would dare speak, much less a soul inside a body like me. “No? Then I suppose we’ll have to get the story from Nia directly. It’s my, absolute, pleasure to introduce Jay Jeremy Jones to the class.” She says, the smile almost disappearing from her face as she says the word ‘pleasure’. Almost.

TJ is crazy. That’s for sure. I have no idea what the fuck he did or how shit went down, but if nothing else he’s incredibly amusing. I kinda hope he doesn’t get in trouble for what he did.

After a few more minutes of silence, the bell rings and Nia comes back into the class with the aide. She’s already fully recovered from every injury, but judging by the slight blush on her face she must have gotten a fair few bruises from the new kid. The tattoo thing on her body has disappeared as well. The teacher’s aide was holding TJ over his shoulder. “TJ hasn’t gotten his shots yet. I forgot about that when I hit him, so he’s out cold. I’m taking him to the nurse. Sorry Ma’am.” He says, nodding to Mrs. Kraus before leaving the class.

Mrs. Kraus glides over to Nia and puts both hands on her shoulders, “Nia dear, what happened to the wall?” She asks quietly, the entire classroom is filled with silence as though a single wrong move would result in our throats being ripped out.

“TJ, the new kid. He broke it.” She says quietly, not making eye contact with the teacher. She’s a terrible liar.

“Wrong,” I say almost without realizing I’m talking. In fact, I didn’t realize. When the class turns their attention to me, the teacher included, I realize I spoke out loud. “Uh...TJ was punched through the wall. He didn’t break it.”

“His body did!” Nia shouts out at me, sticking out her tongue because she’s a stupid 16-year-old girl.

Mrs. Kraus grows pensive as she looks back at Nia. “Nia, darling, take your seat. And don’t lie again,” She says quietly, before taking her place at the top of the class. She starts preaching, talking about English and making sure we were all regretting not bringing a blanket and pillow. Just as the thought was coming to me that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to start a riot in class, the teacher’s aide walks back into the class and takes a seat by the wall.

The teacher’s aid position is so dumb. Our grade has cycled through 8 of them since I can remember being in school, which traces back to when I was around 7. We’ve only ever had one that was relatively cool. They’re not actually meant to be a teacher's aid, they just serve as the muscle of the classroom for when the teacher’s Emblem isn’t strong enough to keep us in line. Teachers like Mrs. Kraus, whose Emblem wasn't fully evolved. She's just a support class. Her emblem is that anything inanimate she touches will revert to the state it was exactly 5 minutes ago, which is one of the stupidest Emblems I've ever heard of. It's a wonder she's still kicking.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

- - - - - - - -

The rest of the day has gone by without anything big happening. In combat training, Nia was more aggressive than usual, still probably fired up from TJ. The big fight was Nia versus Thomas, those two are top of the class in terms of battle prowess. When they get scheduled for the one on one fights it’s always a huge deal, and this was no exception. It was a really hard fight but Thomas ended up getting the edge on Nia, and then the battle was called. The teacher said Nia won because she took less damage even though Thomas hit her more. Whatever. I just froze my opponent and went on with my day.

It was another exhausting day, and I lay back down in my bed with every intention to fall asleep instantly. I just got off of the last class, and it’s past 10 pm. I don’t even care that I’m lying in the same bed, having dealt with the same school day, I just want to sleep. Honestly, it was a little better than normal today. Just a little. Maybe the new kid isn’t that bad. He still seems like another stupid teenager though, after-

“WAOHH!” I hear a scream and hear a thud against my floor, which makes me shoot up off my bed. TJ is lying on the floor of my dark room, his nose fixed. The vent in the center of my ceiling is broken, did he...Fall through it?

“What are you doing?!” I hiss at him quietly, my tired body being rejuvenated with the ever elusive ‘what-the-fuck’ reaction.

“Well, I was crawling through the vents because I was bored, and then I fell. Pretty one-two in all honesty.” TJ responds with a slight chuckle. I turn on the lights and narrow my eyes at him. This kid isn’t normal. He’s weird, he’s special. Not in a good way. “Anyways hi, I’m TJ! I don’t know if we’ve met, I have an Emble-”.

“No shit you have an Emblem, this is the U.S.E.F. school, the only person here who doesn’t have an Emblem is the janitor. What were you doing in the vents!?”

“Ah, you see, I was bored. I may have explained that before. I forgot to bring anything with me from my home, and there was basically nothing to do but study in my room.”

“So why didn’t you study?”

“Hahaha! Yeah, well, the bathroom vent looked surprisingly big so I snuck into it and hey. One thing led to another and now I’m here. Could you draw a card?” He asks of me abruptly, pulling out the same deck of cards from his fight and offering them face down to me. There is no explanation provided to me for anything about this kid, but you know what? Sure...He’s pretty entertaining, even if I’m on autopilot. “Any card!” He adds as I think.

I pick out one at random, and look at my card. The jack of spades. “So, do I do anything with this card?” I ask awkwardly, not really sure of the next step.

“Nope!” He says brightly, snagging the card back from me and looking at it. “Aha, the jack of spades! Wonder if you've found your king yet? Nice to meet you! Also, what’s your name?”

“...Mercury. Mercury Theta.” I offer to him, hesitantly putting my hand out to him. He takes it enthusiastically and shakes my hand.

“So, you have an Emblem too? That or you’re a janitor, either way I can ask you about the layout of the school.” He brings up, his green eyes glittering with enough optimism to make it impossible for me to say no to him. He’s such a….

“Weirdo.” I murmur with a smirk spreading across my face, without having been given permission. “Yeah I have an Emblem. We’re all technically Evolved, but I’m actually from a family so I’m way further along the evolutionary track than you.” The way TJ’s face reacted to each word I said, as if he was hanging on to each word, almost drew words out of me. My opinion totally controlled this kid, he was an idiot. That’s awesome.

“Evolved? Hehe..” He snickers, taking a seat on my bed as though this is his room. “That’s a touch pretentious. Granted, Emblems rule. Does anybody else have markings like me?” TJ asks me, tossing his deck of cards in the air and suspending it above his hand. He flicks the corner to have them rotate, the jack of spades on the bottom and that weird disintegrating butterfly on the top. It looks identical to the weird symbol on Nia earlier today.

“...Nah. Nobody else has your power. Nobody who’s alive at least. The reason they’re called Emblems is because each person’s power is wholly their own and unique. Emblematic of the user, or whatever.”

“Sooo, what’s yours? Mine is the whole marking thing as you can see. I can touch objects and imbue them with my mark. I can control the ability of anything that has my mark on it, to attract and repel directly to me or any other thing I’ve marked. Pretty badass isn’t it?” He brings up with a confident smile. Anything he touches? Nah, he probably just hasn’t discovered the limitations of his power.

“That is pretty cool actually. Granted, I’m cooler. Anything I directly touch I can freeze solid.” Hearing my Emblem TJ laughs and lightly punches my shoulder.

“Haha! What? Dude that’s lame! I’m so much cooler. I just stay 5 feet away from you and I’m safe.” TJ says, still snorting with the smile very slowly falling off his face. He’s just, such a…

“Dumbass. You can’t see the applications of my incredibly awesome power. Anything I touch. Anything, freezes.” I sit down next to him on my bed, and raise my hand. I freeze the air around my hand and the temperature of the room falls instantly, and when I swipe my hand through the air I leave a white streak of ice in the air. I hold a small frost blade, incredibly sharp and ridiculously cold. Shit, I’m smiling. I can’t help it though, the honest to god admiration in TJ’s eyes are refreshing. Just caught me off guard, that’s all.

“Wooaaahhhh! That’s awesome! And you can make tons of it, that’s actually so crazy! What happens if you touch the earth? Haha! Ice age 2.0?”

“No, no ice age actually. If I touch something like a house I only freeze a region of 10 square feet around the point of contact. Additionally I only freeze the surface level in that case, which means I’m not freezing a human solid or killing them instantly. Kinda annoying, but it’s just one more step that takes a few seconds.”

“Wait wait wait, hold the phone. That’s still awesome, but I’m not sure I’m game with the way you’re talking about murder so casually. You’re joking around, right?” TJ hasn’t been alive long enough if he’s that naïve. Actually he’s never been here before now, so I guess...Maybe his morality is the normal one. God. He’s so….

“Refreshing.” I murmur quietly, to myself, before I realize I’ve said that out loud. I shake my head and cover my words with a cough, god it’s getting a little hot in here. “Sorry, sorry. Yeah, uh, sure. Messing around.” A quiet bell chimes in the room, and TJ pulls his watch out of his pocket.

“Ah! My bad, I’ve got to get back to my room. Leo thinks I’m using the bathroom and this encounter has lasted long enough for a constipated person to make a significant amount of progress.” He throws a card into the empty vent of my room, before flying up through my room into the vent shaft. He struggles to climb in for a moment, kicking my ceiling as he pulls himself fully into the vent. He pokes his head back into my room, “Night Mercury. It was cool to meet you! Sorry about falling through your roof, see you tomorrow!” His head is swallowed by the darkness of the vent and leaves me alone, before I even get a chance to respond.

“Yeah...Goodnight TJ.” I murmur to myself, staring blankly at the hole he’s left in my ceiling. Some janitor will fix it tomorrow while I’m in classes, classes with TJ. Classes...Are going to be with TJ from now on. A slight stupor falls over me as I turn off the lights and look up at the roof of my little room.

TJ was going to get screwed tomorrow. Every time a new kid comes into this place they do, the only exception was Thomas. They don’t get how this place works, they don’t get we’re not allowed to do whatever we feel like. They usually end up disappearing within a few days. They usually cry in combat class. They usually piss me off, and fall quiet really quickly when the teachers start teaching; as though the classes here were different from other classes. They weren’t. I guess..I haven’t really been outside of this place before though. With the exception of ‘family outings’.

TJ has though. TJ’s been outside of this place, but way more important than that he doesn’t seem like the others. I don’t think he’s going to disappear, and I don’t think he’s going to cry in combat class. As long as I can help him keep his mouth shut during the teacher's lessons I think he’ll actually entertain me. He’s a teenager like me. He’s a dumb teenager….but I don’t even care. I’m smiling as I’m falling asleep.

- - - - - - - -

When I wake up I’m still smirking, even though I’m greeted by the same ceiling. The same stupid room in the same school that I’ve been in since I can remember. The same bed that’s witnessed me grow from a kid to now, and the same stupid picture and banner on the wall. But it’s different today. I’m not as tired as I should be, and when I get up and look at the clock I’ve still got 30 minutes before I have to go to school for the day.

There’s something else about the ceiling that’s a little bit weird. When I look a little closer I realize what it is. “Huh…” I’ll be damned. There’s a dent on the ceiling, close to the fixed ventilation shaft. Janitor came in while I was asleep, to each their own I guess. The dent is my big point of interest. It’s not the same old ceiling, with the same old pattern. Not anymore….Because TJ’s been here now.