𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐄𝐓𝐇, Fitz Vacker

I

Amber Westwood was lost in her own world as the class listened to another boring lesson by Mr Sweeney. Her hand flitted closer to touch the plaque explaining the history of a Plianosaur, when Mr Sweeney yelled out "Miss Foster!" in his disgustingly nasal voice. She jumped back at once and hid her hands behind her back, even though she hadn't been doing anything wrong. A girl with split-dyed purple and black hair sneered and grinned meanly at her, her buddies laughing rudely.

Mr. Sweeney was scolding Sophie Foster, the other child prodigy in their class. Amber felt a stab of pity for her-it wasn't easy being a twelve-year-old in a class of eighteen-year-olds. They all seemed to resent you for finding things easy even though it wasn't your fault they had failed their sixth AP class. Most of them seemed to despise Sophie even more since a newspaper article had come around detailing how she had rejected the full scholarship Yale had offered her to attend an out-of-city college. Though Amber was pretty sure it wasn't by her choice.

Luckily for Amber, the papers hadn't figured out that she had also received a full ride to Harvard, or else she'd be hated just like Sophie. Maybe that was a selfish thought. Schadenfreude, the German word that means "To enjoy others' pain". She wasn't exactly enjoying how Sophie was being bullied, but she supposed that she felt thankful it wasn't her.

Mr. Sweeney crossed his arms and glared down at the meek-looking Sophie. "Since you've decided you're above this lecture, why don't you give it?" he sneered, pointing to the orange dinosaur with a duckbill in the centre of the room. "Explain to the class how the Lambeosaurus differs from the other dinosaurs we've studied."

His face darkened into a mean scowl as Sophie recited the facts. The other kids were glaring, though Amber could almost feel their jealousy. Everyone wanted a photographic memory.

Amber had been introduced to Sophie at the start of this school year when she moved. Unfortunately, Sophie seemed to find her as weird as everyone else. And the Principal hadn't even mentioned The Incident-which wasn't even her fault! She hadn't wanted to leave College de Rose Lumineuse, one of the most prestigious boarding schools for girls in France. She had actually managed to make friends there-though they turned against her at the change of wind from another one of her old friends, Ivy Wellington.

Ivy had spread a rumour that Amber had blackmailed their teacher and that was why she had such high grades. Amber had wanted to talk to Ivy about it, but she had given Amber an ultimatum: either get her the same high grades that Amber was known for, or the next rumour would be that Amber was involved in her parents' car crash. The next logical thing to do was of course to tell the Headmistress or the Counsellor. But Amber was a foolish eleven-year-old who was paralysed by fear and thought that maybe if Ivy wasn't there, she couldn't spread the rumour.

So she spiked her water bottle with a ton of energy supplements. Enough to make her brain go haywire with all the caffeine-right before her final exam. She failed the whole thing, but blamed it on Amber. No one believed her, obviously, because she was an 11 year old-but Ivy was determined, so she had doctored an image of Amber rewriting her answers in the locked records room and sent it to the Headmistress to get Amber expelled for academic forgery or something.

So maybe it was kind of her fault. Her grandparents knew that she hadn't cheated, but no amount of begging would convince the Headmistress. But luckily, the public school in San Diego had accepted her instantly, having seen her previous records and wanting a child prodigy to boost their school's rankings.

She was brought out of her reminiscing by Garwin Chang, who pushed past Sophie and called her a Superfreak, referencing the article about Sophie rejecting Yale. Though he was just upset that he had been rejected.

Amber glanced out the gigantic window to her left being the model of another dinosaur. Through the white bones, she could see smoke rising. The fires that spread throughout the city were getting worse, but the real problem was that no amount of scientists could seem to figure out why. The flames were unlike anything they had ever studied-smoke that smelt like burnt sugar and flames that burned everything in their sight with wicked white peaks.

She glanced back and saw their class entering the next exhibit. But Sophie was still hanging back, looking uncomfortable. She decided to approach her-maybe they could finally get to know each other-but a random boy approached her first. Neither seemed to notice Amber lingering near them.

The boy pointed to the picture in the newspaper he was holding-probably the one with Sophie in it-and exchanged a few words with her. Sophie was looking confused. He pointed to the Albertosaurus display in the front and talked some more. What were they talking about? Amber felt nosy, but she didn't much mind.

Now he was leaving-just as a bunch of kindergarteners barrelled in and started screaming.

Kindergarteners were honestly, genuinely, the biggest pain Amber had ever seen in physical form. They screamed, kicked, and shoved. She winced and was about to stick her fingers in her ears, leaning against the wall, when she saw Sophie.

Sophie's hands flew to her head, looking pained. Amber started to check her bag to see if she had any medication she could offer, like Advil, but stopped when the boy grabbed Sophie's arm. What was he doing? Her hand crept towards the front pocket of her purse for her kubaton.

Sophie dashed for the exit. Amber's eyes widened when she saw the boy run after her and instinctively, she followed them-and screamed when she saw a car about to run over Sophie.

What happened next didn't make any sense at all. The car swerved and hit a streetlight on the curb, which started to fall towards Sophie-except it didn't. The streetlight hovered in the air, Sophie's arm outstretched mere inches away. The boy said something behind her and she screamed, dropping the lantern.

They rolled over at the last minute and then started to run. Again. Amber tailed them, not wanting anything to happen to Sophie. And it wasn't really like anybody else cared. Their classmates-and probably teachers, too-hated the two of them. Even if Sophie didn't like her, it was Amber's moral responsibility to make sure nothing happened to her.

They ran all the way to the parking lot and Amber tried her hardest to look like a child left by her parents lingering around an empty random car. Sophie and the boy started talking again. Sophie looked angry-and Amber really, really hated not knowing what was going on. Sophie started to stomp away and Amber was going to walk away-but then Sophie turned back.

For a child prodigy, Sophie seemed pretty stupid. And now she seemed dizzy. She was laughing. Honestly, this was getting boring-or it was, until the boy pulled out a silver wand-like instrument with what looked to be a crystal attached at the top. Something in Amber reacted all at once when Sophie held his hand and sunlight hit the crystal. Her feet moved of their own accord and when the boy said "two", Amber stabbed him with the kubaton.

The boy groaned as he fell back against a car and the crystal scratched-serves him right, he'd probably get sued for that-and Amber turned towards Sophie. "What were you thinking?" she asked, scandalised. "It's a random stranger and you're just-what, running away from your class and coming with him to god-knows-where? He's clearly delusional, don't-" before she could finish her sentence, Sophie's eyes widened.

The last thing she heard was Sophie saying "Fitz, no!" before something hard crashed on top of her head and her knees buckled, blackness invading her vision and Sophie's upset voice fading to a murmur in the background.

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𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐀'𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒 ⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

Word count: 1334

Slightly on the shorter side. I'm looking to expand this chapter through description, but until then, enjoy! Next few chapters will be a little longer.