There's a new girl coming today. We don't get many new people where we are so when we do it's always exciting but, this time it's different. This time there are rumors that the new girl is a redhead. That can't be true, and if it is it means she dyes her hair which would be even worse. Only people who are ashamed of their symbol dye their hair. If they aren't ashamed of their symbol they do it because they're powerless and deserve to be ashamed.

It's not that there were never redheads, they were the ruling class about 300 years ago. It's just that red hair isn't passed genetically and to get it someone has to do something that is almost impossible to do. At our age, it is impossible to earn red hair. No one has accomplished it in 300 years. I had to go and take the death power when I was seven. I have black hair.

The new girl is coming and that's why I'm sitting in the auditorium waiting for the school to introduce her. The school has a whole assembly to introduce new students and to remind us that their symbol "doesn't matter," even though nobody believes it, except for maybe the blondes. They don't need to earn their symbol so most of them aren't as capable as the rest of us. I think it makes them feel better about themselves to think this doesn't matter.

The principal took the stage and gave the usual speech no one really pays attention to. Here's the moment of truth. They're bringing the girl out. She's pretty short, and I can't really make out a color in her eyes. They almost look like the color's changing, but that's impossible. Look at that! She does have red hair, a pretty auburn color. It must be dyed then, I wonder what it really looks like under there. Doesn't matter, can't be anything good if she has to hide it like that. It does look pretty realistic though. I wonder who dyed it.

"Now Lillyana, would you like to tell the school something about yourself?" Our principal asks.

"Uh... Okay," She says nervously, "So... My name is Lillyana, you can call me Lily. My symbol is fire, which you can probably tell from my hair."

She's such a liar. What is she trying to pull? I wonder what she'll do in class when she has to prove her power. That'll be fun to watch. It's always fun to watch weak ones or posers revealed to be as inferior as they are.

"Well," says Principal Therrian, "That concludes this assembly, I hope you will all welcome our new student and remember that it's not the symbol, it's the person."

Yeah right, like anyone really believes that. Principal Therrian herself even has a high ranking symbol. She's a brunette, they're powerful people. They're actually one of the best symbols to have (that still actually exist), except for the black-haired people of course. We've been the best since the redheads disappeared 300 years ago.

"You are all dismissed to your next class," she says.

Yes! My next class is power training, the best one there is for the powerful people like me. I hope the new girl is in my class. I'd like to see what happens when she has to finally admit that she's not a redhead. I hope it turns out she's powerless, that's always hilarious to watch.

"Hey."

That's my best friend Cristina. She's fairly tall and has tannish skin and brown eyes with flecks of blue and gold. She's brunette, but she has very dark hair with some black in it from something ... bad, that happened when we were kids.

"Did you hear that new girl? She actually had the nerve to say outright that fire is her symbol. I can't wait to see what happens when she has to admit it isn't," I say.

"Well, you never know," says Cristina, "Maybe there can still be redheads."

"You know just as well as I do that it's almost impossible to earn the fire symbol at all, much less earn it by our age. It has to be fake."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

We open the door to the training room and quickly strap on the armor the school makes us wear so no one gets hurt or killed by accident in training. The armor is black and includes all the things that a suit of armor would usually include. It's bulletproof, fireproof, waterproof, and provides magical protection. It also has a crest on the chest plate with pictures of each of the symbols of power and a bright white light in the center.

"Oh look," says Cristina, "The new girl is in our class."

"That's great, it means that if she has some power we'll actually see what she's really capable of."

You always want to know what new students can do. If you know that, you know whether it's a good idea to be friends with them or not. It's also just good to know if it's okay to mess with them or not. Or in cases like this one, it's just funny to be there when everyone finds out that they're lying about what they can really do to sound stronger than they really are.

We walk out into the training area. It's a giant room with high ceilings. At first glance, it looks like a normal high school gym. At least until you notice all of the weapons, cages, exotic wild animals, and other surprises that are hidden around the gym where they are almost impossible for most people to see. One of the advantages of my blue eyes is that they heighten my senses and perception, so I can see almost everything in here. There are things I can't see now, but when they come out, I'll be able to react faster and sense them far earlier than most people can.

Then the class begins. The assignment today is to show our power in individualized tests to test our strength, agility, and intelligence. I must rescue the dummy from the bad guy. At my disposal, I have my death powers, a dragon, and a small lake. I climb onto the dragon and begin.

My dragon is very powerful, she's been loyal to me ever since I got my blue eyes. I'm the only one our age who has one like this. For a dragon, she's relatively small, but she's still about three times as big as anyone else in the room. She has blue and gold scales because she's a hybrid of a storm and ocean dragon. She can use electricity and water to her advantage in a fight.

I'm flying forwards, focused on my surroundings. I hear the beginning of the flamethrower to my right. I know that my dragon, Celosia knows it too. I can feel her muscles tense, waiting for the command to dodge. I give it and she dodges the fire perfectly. Axes fly at us, and we dodge again. Now comes the fun part. Now we get to attack. I call on my ability to create terror.

I focus on fear and chaos, a desire to run away but having your legs frozen. I send it into the mind of Cristina, who is playing the bad guy here. Then instantly use the lake. I call on it to throw itself at her. She barely dodges and prepares to attack. I tap Celosia's side, gently, a movement so small and so subtle that only her and I would know about the command.

This is our first time using it in a real training session. She swings her powerful tail at Cristina. I call on the water to overtake her. It isn't my strongest attack, and she dodges easily, prepared to either throw an attack at me or brace for the next one I throw at her. Then notices that I have taken the dummy, and have already gotten to the buzzer while she was distracted by my attack. I smirk at her and push the button to end the simulation and earn a new best time on this course.

"I didn't know about that attack," Cristina says.

"It's new," I say, "We just perfected it a few days ago. I've been dying to use it in a real training session."

"It's good."

A few other kids go until eventually the new girl is called up.

"I wonder how she'll do. This will be great, we can finally see if the red hair is real."

There's no way her hair can be real. Redheads don't exist anymore, right. Yes. The hair can't be real, and we'll finally see that when she ruins her test.

"Okay," the gym teacher says, "Since you're new and we don't know your skill set yet, all you have to do is melt this wall of ice with your powers and push the button on the other side."

"Okay," she says.

It has to be fake. What does she think she's going to do?

She walks up to the ice. She closes her eyes and takes a few deep breaths. She's obviously nervous. She opens her eyes and stares at the ice. Her eyes are starting to glow. That doesn't make sense. This can't be real! It can't be! I look around, and everyone else in the gym has the same confused, surprised, slightly scared, disbelieving expression on their faces that I realize I probably have too. I quickly school my features to appear calmer than I really am and keep watching her.

Her hair almost seems to be turning into flames. That is just unsettling. Fire is all around her. I can see it vividly in her hands, eyes, and that hair. Is it glowing brighter than it was before? The ice starts to melt, and in an instant, it has vanished completely.

The fire disappears. She looks tired, but she walks up to the buzzer and pushes it. Everyone continues to stare at her, dumbstruck. Even I am no longer trying to hide the shock on my face. The teacher seems to recover and tells us to move on and calls the next student to go. But no one's paying attention anymore.

How can that be possible? What happened to her to give her these powers?

What are you, new girl?