CHAPTER 3

(revised edition)

Harmony had just sat down in class. Other students were also arriving and setting up at the same time that she was. Even though Harmony probably wouldn’t need it, she grabbed her notebook and pencil from within her bag.

Like usual, Harmony tried to pull it out all at the same time. Much like previous times Harmony dropped her pencil. Harmony shook her head as she reached down to retrieve her pencil. One day she would learn how to take things out of her bag without dropping them.

Before Harmony managed to reach her pencil another hand snatched it from off the ground. Looking up, Harmony saw the kind face of Maya. Her face wasn’t always kind, but when around Harmony it usually was.

“You really need to stop dropping your pencil,” Maya said, “and your notebook for that matter. I have to pick up your items approximately every other day.”

“I’ll get better at it… eventually,” Harmony said bashfully.

“I’m sure that you will, if you put the effort in, that is,” Maya said, returning Harmony’s pencil.

Harmony smiled at Maya. She had made many promises to Maya previously. Most of which were about small things that were never followed through. Such was the relationship between Maya and Harmony.

The loud school bell rang out in the hallway, signaling for the students in the class to begin quieting down. The teacher stood up from behind his neatly organized desk. Everything had its place on the desk, unlike Harmony’s bag.

“Welcome students, I hope that you had a good morning,” Caleb began his standard introduction while walking over to the interactive whiteboard, “all of you should know the drill by now, so get with your partners and mark your progress.”

“If you haven’t made any progress then I implore you to start practicing harder,” Caleb said as he turned on the whiteboard.

Conversations among many topics started up again as people started to get into their groups. They had selected their groups at the beginning of the year, which inevitably led to friends goofing off with each other. Many injuries occurred because of it.

Harmony had teamed herself up with Maya, of course. They were good friends, and they both knew how to engage each other in the class. Maya was the one that held Harmony accountable, and Harmony made sure that Maya wasn’t getting overly serious about anything.

Their relationship was much like the one that Michael had with Steven, who were also in this class. Although they had already gotten started while Harmony was still setting up. There was no need to speed through things when they had nearly an hour to document and practice.

“How are we going to get our results today?” Maya asked, trying to get them started on the project.

“I don’t know,” Harmony replied, “I mean, I guess I could do the particle accelerator thing again.”

Maya gave Harmony an incredulous look, “the last time you did that you nearly shot a pencil through someone’s head.”

“Then what do you suggest that I do?” Harmony turned to where she had last left off in the notebook.

“I did think of something we could do before I came to school today,” Maya reached into her bag, pulling out a ball, “you could hover this around in the air and I could catch it. Without the fear of decapitating someone.”

Harmony shrugged before taking the ball. They had done this game of catch many times before, but now Harmony didn’t have to worry about stopping the flying object if it did go off track.

Pulling energy from her reserve, Harmony started to power her aura. Slowly, the ball started to lift out of her hand as she channeled her aura. It didn’t take her much energy to get the ball to float. That itself was a sign of progress. In the past she wouldn’t have even been able to lift it off her hand properly.

“Tell me when you’re ready,” Harmony said.

“I’m ready,” Maya said immediately after.

With the go ahead Harmony created a gravity well and started to spin the ball around it. At first it was going slow, but Harmony started to coerce the ball and made it spin faster. Harmony started thinking about the speed that she was allowing it to accelerate to.

If it started to spin too fast would Maya be able to catch it? Sure, Maya’s aura allowed her to slow down her perception of time and speed up her reactions, but there was still a limit to that. Only time could tell what would actually happen.

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Harmony looked over at Maya to see what her next move was going to be. Just by looking at Maya’s stance could Harmony tell that she was ready to strike at any moment. So much was happening behind Maya’s eyes that Harmony couldn’t discern anything.

Then, like lightning, Maya struck out toward the ball. Harmony had stopped fully focusing on it, and it had sped up even faster than she had intended for it.

The loud smack of the ball hitting Maya’s hand resounded. Harmony winced. It sounded very painful. If she had the time she would have slowed down the ball so it wouldn’t have impacted so hard.

“Next time, I think you can slow it down a bit,” Maya said, analyzing her hand, “I know that it’s a softer ball, but that could still definitely hurt someone.”

Maya showed no amount of pain. Did she just not feel the pain, or was she merely hiding it, Harmony wondered. Either way it was impressive.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Harmony promised.

Taking to her notebook, Harmony started to jot down what they had just done. Formatting it in the way a scientist would was the hardest part for Harmony. She just wasn’t used to writing in that style. Overly analytical and somewhat confusing.

Other students were doing the same thing. Yet there was one student on the front row who had fallen asleep. Their partner hadn’t shown up to school that day. In fact, they were one of the students that often skipped school because they found it ‘boring’.

Caleb seemed to notice this student, and Harmony knew what was going to happen next.

From behind his desk Caleb grabbed a very long, heavy metal ruler. Perfect for a pointer stick, it was also perfect for scaring students awake. Harmony had seen it many times before, and this time was going to be the exact same as the other times.

Quietly, Caleb walked up to the students desk, ruler in hand. When he got to the student’s desk he lifted up the ruler. Caleb then swiftly brought the ruler down right next to the students head. Very few inches were between the student and the ruler.

The ruler smacked loudly against the desk’s top. Jolting up, the student was clearly alarmed. They had just woken up after all.

“If you’re going to sleep, do it at home,” Caleb said harshly, “this is my classroom, and if you don’t want to listen to me, then I don’t want you in my class.”

“But my partner…” the student started to say.

“I don’t want your excuses, just get to work,” Caleb interrupted.

Harmony turned back to her notebook. She was glad that she didn’t sit in the front row.

“When you’re done, let’s do another round,” Maya said, “both you and I need the practice.”

After what happened, Harmony couldn’t agree more.

***

Harmony was exhausted after she left school. Maya had told her so much information for the upcoming tests that it scrambled Harmony’s brain.

“You have to remember the different types of auras,” Maya’s voice echoed in Harmony’s thoughts.

Recalling them was the easy part. After all, most of the information about the categories was implied in their names. Matter manipulation/generation was the most common one. It was also the one that Michael usually used.

Next was energy manipulation/generation. Both Michael and Steven did this to a certain extent. By far it was Harmony’s favorite as it allowed people to do things that are beautiful to look at.

Third was enhancement. Maya used this form. If someone were to have super strength, this is the category that it would fall into.

Last was time/space control. Harmony herself used this one, and so did one of the previous enemies of the Unity, and inspiration for the Eclipse of Dawn, Aron Telura. Drawing from Lunar Lance research, time/space control is considered the most powerful category of aura.

That was the easy part for Harmony to grasp, but trying to properly categorize different aura was hard. It took her forever to learn what categories each of her friends fell into. Partially because some of them fell into multiple categories.

Harmony contemplated all of this as she walked home from school. Perhaps she would ask Michael for more help once he returned home. He had an after school program that he had to attend. Harmony decided that she would take a nap at that time.

She would be able to take that nap soon as their house was just a few houses away now. In fact, it was the greenest house in the neighborhood, due to Harmony and Michael keeping the garden kempt.

Upkeep on the house didn’t take that long, and Harmony took pride in keeping their house tidy. It was one of her few hobbies.

Climbing up the doorstep, Harmony unlocked the front door. Harmony read the “welcome” sign as she pushed it open. Harmony made herself a mental note to change it as the seasons were starting to change.

Once inside, the first order of business was to change out of her school uniform. Putting on and taking off the uniform was a hassle. There were parts of the uniform that took a long, painstaking process to put on and take off.

It didn’t help that the uniform was the official Eclipse soft uniform. Just maintaining the uniform itself was a huge undertaking. At least the upside was that the uniform was rather comfy.

When done changing Harmony went to the kitchen. Might as well grab a bite to eat.

Flicking the light on, Harmony opened the fridge and began rummaging around to find something to make.

While she was holding a jar of strawberry jam the doorbell rang. Looking at the time Harmony supposed that it could have been Michael. He would often forget his key at home. When he did Michael would usually grab the spare they hid in the back. Or he would ring the doorbell if he knew Harmony was home.

Harmony dashed over to the door and opened it, expecting to welcome Michael home, but the person on the other side of the door wasn’t her brother.