“One notebook and two metallic pens that’ll be 16 credits, how will you be paying?” the cashier asks with a dry voice. I’d be the same if I was stuck in a dead end job as a cashier for hours on end, day in and day out. Poor sap. As much as I like peace and quiet, it gets boring real quick.

“On my slate” I reply in the same tone.

“Tap on the pad whenever you’re ready, sir.” I tapped my slate over the purchase pad and took the bag. I checked my items as I walked out the store and immediately took the small navy blue book and put it in my blazers chest pocket along with the pens.

 Well I got the notebook and I put in the names I knew of classmates at school along with a brief description of them. Is four a lot? I like to think four is a lot. It helps me sleep at night.

Are they biased and jaded? Yes. Are they accurate? Also yes. So for example if you look into my little notebook and look up Henry you’ll see the phrase backstabbing pussy beside his name. Yeah I’m a bitter individual, but who isn’t? On a different note I bet you’re all wondering what happened between Vera and I. She got call from her family had to leave our little shindig.

Talk about anticlimactic, short and disappointing, story of my life. On a happier note I’m still alive so silver linings. The key is happy thoughts. If I get enough of them I can drown out the thoughts of going back to school tomorrow. And I’m depressed again. I hate gym class. I really, really do.

Specifically the way the academy does gym class. Oh I’m sorry simulated combat class. Wanna know what’s better than a school full of emotionally unbalanced teens with super powers? Making them fight each other of course. So there’s that to look forward to tomorrow. I’d bet id like it better if I had an actual combat ability. God damn empathy, they already know I’m scared shitless, don’t need a talent for that.

I look up and see the sky going dark or at least as dark as the sky can get in a lively city like this. I better get home before mom kills me. I try to pass the time by trying to recall more names. So far I’ve got most of my teacher’s names so I think it’s going well. It’s not like I try not to remember my classmate’s names, I mean I can remember what they look like just fine.

It’s almost as if they’re just mob characters in a story and it doesn’t really matter if I remember them or not. I pause in my quest to remember the names of my schoolmates and take a look around me. I ended up around the old park near my house.

A sense of nostalgia washes over me and I smile as I recall coming here as a child with my mom. Things were so much easier without talents. What with not having to worry about getting my ass kicked on a daily basis. Taking a seat on the old swings I consider my day so far. Honestly it was a pretty good day at the start I wasn’t even late for class, what the fuck happened?

* Earlier that day

 There is no more unique love hate relationship to a person than that between you and your alarm clock. As much as you hate the bloody thing and what it represents, you need it.

Unfortunately you don’t realize that at 6 in the morning and you hit the snooze button only later to regret it later because you didn’t hit the snooze button you just turned the fucking thing off without realizing it. Alarms only want to help us remember things and help us grow as individuals, but fuck they’re annoying.

Groaning as I get off the bed, I sigh as I realize I’m already late. I can still make it to class but I guess I’ll have to skip breakfast. I quickly wash my face and brush my teeth before getting dressed. Am I forgetting anything? Whatever if I forgot it then it can’t be that important. Grabbing my bag I head out the door and make my way down to the subway. I barely manage to make it to class and get to my desk just as the bell rings.

“Cutting it close there man” Henry sits down next to me with that permanent smirk etched on his face. Sometimes I understand bullies. Some people just have a punchable face. Maybe that’s why I get into so much trouble.

“Fuck off man, slept through my alarm” Maybe it’s my mouth. I blame television.

“Alright man no need to get cranky with me” Hands raised as he backs off. I probably wouldn’t be cranky if I had breakfast. Or had to go to school, but what can you do.

“So any idea what’s on the itinerary for today?” I could almost guess at what is, but there was some small part of me that was hoping I was wrong.

“Combat training. Lots of combat training” Oh Joy. I let out a sigh, exasperated as I lay my head on my desk.

“Well what did you expect? The ranking tournament is in a few weeks; obviously they’re going to be training us into the ground so we don’t make the school look bad” I understand the reasoning, but it’s not going to make me feel any better.

“Hey at least we’re just class 3 and they won’t expect much out of us, they’ll be focusing on people with actual potential” Yay mediocrity! Three cheers for sucking eggs! Huzzah for being a disappointment!

“Wanna partner up?” I ask even though I already know the answer everyone needs a sparring partner for simulated combat. If we pair up together we can both slack off and not have to try or get hurt.

I’m fairly certain this was the crux of my relationship with Henry. Collective slacking off. Not that I’m complaining of course. No quite the opposite really. Isn’t friendship beautiful?

I see the teacher walk up to the podium out of the corner of my eye. Ms. Nsia clad in her red tracksuit and her black hair in a messy bun in all her glory stands at the podium. Truly the lack of grace is the epitome of class 2-F. For our class of rejects she’s a perfect teacher for us in every sense.

“Ahem as you are all well aware the city wide high school talent tournament is coming up and as such we must beginning training even harder so you don’t disgrace the schools name” She says it’s for the schools name and dignity but really it’s because if we tank the competition the school’s funding gets cut and we lose sponsors.

Nothing surprising there, the world is runs on money. There’s no way the school will do that bad considering we have a class 9 in the school.

“So starting today we’ll be starting intensive combat simulation classes. Further explanations will be provided in the training field, but for now I want you all to get into pairs. These pairs will be permanent until the actual competition but even so don’t just pick your friends. Pick somebody you can train and better yourselves with” Yeah how about no.

Anyone below class 5 has absolutely no chance of garnering any attention from the sponsors anyways. Sponsors being the big companies, unions, cartels, and conglomerates that run the world. People like that tend to pick up promising holders from academies like ours in order to groom them into proper soldiers. The higher your class the better your chance of being scouted is.

So chances are the best me and Henry would get is a job in the military or police force. Well the fact that our class has the lowest classes among the holders in school means that none of us really have any chance, but Ms. Nsia has to say it because she’s a teacher.

Although her blatant lack of enthusiasm betrays her. It’s not her fault per se, The academy takes you talent rank into consideration when we got assigned classes so she just lucked out when she had to teach ours.

I can already see people walking toward each other and forming pairs as soon as Ms. Nsia finished her monologue. Despite the speech everyone in their respective cliques gathers and form pairs. Not that we’re any better. Taking a last look around I see everyone’s finished making pairs.

Wait there’s one person left out. Some girl with long black hair and bangs that cover her eyes is sitting in the far corner of the classroom alone. Yikes man sucks to be you lady. Not my problem. 

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Henry’s tapping away on his phone. Despite being in the reject class he’s a pretty sociable guy. Why he’s friends with me, I’ll probably never know, but we’re friends regardless much to the mystification of his other friends.

“Alright it looks like you’re all paired up now. Hmm?” Wait she’s looking straight at corner girl. Yo don’t call her out man that’s the last thing the girl wants.

“Looks like there’s somebody without a partner, does anyone want to be with her in a group of three?”  Wow she actually said it.

“Anyone?”  The silence is deadly man. Corner girl’s face reddens at the lack of volunteers. I can feel the embarrassment of corner girl from here across the room. This is just painful.

“Alright you can partner up with Henry and his partner for a group of three then” Instant karma.

“Well then now that that’s done with you can all head over to the training field and get started on combat training. Okay off you go. Shoo shoo” waving us off she all but kicks us out of the classroom.

We all change quickly and head over to the training field before we get into our pairs or in our case trio. The training field itself is really impressive.

It’s essentially a sports arena but instead of sports we have modern gladiator games and instead of a stone coliseum it’s a reinforced concrete structure made to withstand the intensity of up to class 9 talents.

“Hey Scott I think we should introduce ourselves to our new friend” Henry’s all smiles at the prospect of me making new friends. I appreciate the gesture but it’s unnecessary. It’s to my understanding that for the most part people are just terrible. Life beat me down early so I act like a cranky old man.

I like to think I’m a realist, but I’ve been retirement homes for required volunteer hours and all I can say is that the resemblance is uncanny. Though I don’t think I can get away with pretending she doesn’t exist and considering we’re going to be with each other for a while I guess introductions are a good start.

“I’m Henry Thoreau, class 3 Lux elementalist” He grins as he introduces himself.

“Um I’m Anya Nsia, class 5 catalyst” she replies as she blushes. It didn’t take Henry long at all to win her over.

“Hey I’m Scott Hughes, class 3 empath nice to meet you” I extend my hand in greeting. Wait a minute.

“Did you just say class 5 catalyst? As in a talent boosting catalyst?” Way to be subtle Henry.

“Well I can’t really control it, it just kind of happens sometimes” Ok so she’s a dud.

“But your still a class 5 so how strong is your physical enhancement?” I asked

“It’s at class 3” Her head hung low. I start massaging my temples. Okay that explains why she’s in our class. Just when I thought I taught myself to aim low and avoid disappointment.

“Wait, Nsia? As in our homeroom teacher Nsia?” Henry inquires. Now that you mention it they do have the same last name. There was a certain disparity between the two sisters that made you wonder if they were actually related.

“Hey guys, check that out” Henry points out a person standing in the entrance of the training field. Completely clad in a black military grade combat suit. Their face was hidden in an obsidian helmet.

“Training has begun, try to stay alive” As soon as the armored enigma said that sentence they disappeared. Then the next moment they reappeared as the figure struck Henry right out of the training field into the audience section. I wasn’t the only one surprised; the whole class was frozen in shock.

“Pathetic, not a single one of you even reacted to my movements” Oh and it makes fun of people as they beat you to a pulp. Wonderful. The guy doesn’t disappear this time.

They slowly saunter off in the direction of my classmates, who are still frozen in fear. Each time the figure gets in range of said person they get sent flying left and right. One by one the students get knocked away until all that’s left standing is me and Anya. It couldn’t have taken more than twelve seconds. Staring straight at the black visor of impeding pain I regain control of my mental faculties.

“Get behind me corner girl!” For all the good it’ll do us I call out a warning to Anya. The armor clad figure grabs my collar fear, resignation, and a general sense of dread overcome me as I close my eyes and wait for the incoming pain. A scream sounds out throughout the training field only it’s not mine. I open my eyes to see every single person including those who were previously groaning in pain passed out.

“What the fuck” Bodies strewn the training field even the black armored figure is sprawled on the floor.

“Well would you look this, it’s been a while since a student managed to beat an instructor” I look up to see the source of the whimsical voice and see a student floating in the air.

“This hasn’t happened since, well me I suppose”

“And you are?” I ask the guy.

“That’s pretty rude considering you just sent out a rather annoying mental attack to anyone in range. Needless to say I came here to see who had the gall to attack me, but when I look around I can see that it was just collateral damage” The smile that was on his face slips off as he narrows his eyes.

“Markos Decadare, class 9 aura manipulator, current head of the sixth. Now then your turn.” His aura crashes into me like a tidal wave, in an instant I’m on all fours gasping for breath. I felt like a getting hit by a ruck over and over again.

“S-Scott Hughes… empath” I choke out between gasps. What the fuck is he?

“Empath you say? Ah it all makes sense now” What makes sense? I’m still confused. Someone explain what’s happening.

“Looks like my time is up, a pleasure meeting you” And just like that he disappears along with the weight of his aura. With the sense of relief that overflowed cam darkness. Ah quiet, nothing better than sleep, even sleep from the result of exhaustion and fear. It would have been perfect if it wasn’t for that constant ringing. I just want to sleep turn it off.

“God damn it, turn that fucking thing off” I yell as I wake from my pseudo coma. I look around and I see Henry and corner girl by my bedside. Henry is smirking and holding his slate.

“Told you that it would wake him up” I’d appreciate it if you didn’t use me to prove a point.

“Haha I guess you were right” Corner girl don’t be an enabler.

“So? What happened?”

“Well after you passed out, some started to wake up and the medics carried away those still out of it. More importantly, Dude you beat the combat instructor! Everyone’s talking about it.” I did what now.

“Yeah only one other person has ever beaten a combat instructor before!” But I passed out too guys, and if I was to winner why was I in the nurses office.

“Who’s the other guy?” I already met that monster but I needed confirmation In case I was just going loony.

“Ah he’s an upper classman, his name is Markos Decadare, he’s an aberrant talent holder, so it’s hard to place him in a class but he’s above 7 at least. I think it’s some sort of telekinetic ability but I’m not sure” Henry answers while rubbing his chin. For a guy that isn’t

For a guy that isn’t not sure you sure have a lot of information. I wrestle with the thought of filling in the holes in their knowledge but decide against it. I don’t want to piss the guy off even if he gave me the information.

“Do you know what the sixth is?” I recall Markos saying something about being the head of the sixth. I’m sure it’s something very impressive, but an uneducated guy like me would let it slip by him and Henry being the font of knowledge he is I’m sure he knows something.

“Well long story short there are 13 families that inherit talents they’re more commonly known as progenitors and the sixth is the Decadare family I believe. Actually there’s quite a few progenitors in the school like the Cromwells” Henry explains

“And the Isha family” Anya adds.

“You mean his entire family is a bunch of monsters” I throw back. That’s a scary thought so there’s a whole family of those guys.

“No, Markos is an aberration, his talent isn’t the same as the rest of his family” He countered.

“How so?” Now I’m really curious as to what he is.

“Well his family is mainly generic telekines with a few offsets of telepaths, but Markos is something else entirely. It’s almost as if he can bend the world to his will within a given area. I’m not too sure how he does it though. Any ideas on what kind of holder he is Anya?”

“Uh I’m pretty much in the dark about that, I tend to shy away from anything involving the 13” That’s fine, I got a general idea who is now. This entire day is just one big information dump clusterfuck.

“So what happens now?” I just want to go home and run away to the internet.

“I can explain that” I turn to see Ms. Nsia walk into the room. Nonchalant as always, she waltzes in the room and pushes Henry out of his seat beside the bed and sits down. I turn to face her and wait for her to start.

“I sending you to the advance combat class with the higher classes”

“No”

“Yes”

“Why”

“You beat the combat instructor”

“I passed out too”

“You were the last one standing”

“Nobody needs to know”

“Surveillance caught it on tape and the whole school knows already”

“Still doesn’t seem like a good enough reason and I’m class 3”

“Doesn’t matter, not even a class 7 can beat the combat instructors so the school doesn’t care about your current class they think you have potential”

“How do you know it was me? Could have been corner girl”

“You mean Anya?” Tilting her head and looking at the girl in question.

“Yes her”

“Not possible, she doesn’t have a mental talent”

“I’m an empath how do I beat a combat instructor with my feelings?”

“Anya probably amplified your abilities and you shared everyone’s sense of pain”

“So why doesn’t she go to the advance class and I stay here and goof off with Henry?”

“Because I’m not going to send my little sister to the advance class to get the shit beaten out of her”

“But you’ll send me in her place?”

“I don’t care about you” Feelings mutual bitch.

“Can I drop out?” It’s only been a month.

“You signed a contract to attend this school”

“I’m a minor; there’s gotta be some sort of loophole”

“You’re also a holder so laws are specialized for you”

“FUCK!” I just want to scream my lungs out right now.

“Where’s the piece of shit that sent out that mental attack earlier” I hear a male shout from outside the room.

“Okay I’ll leave you to deal with that” And the bitch just ups and walks away with Anya in tow. You know what I’m just going to scream now.

“MOTHERFUCKER!” I see Ms. Nsia open the door to see some jock asshole looking at me as I shout profanities.

“You got balls kid calling me that after you attack me” I wasn’t talking to you.

I.Hate.This.School.