The Seraphim Project

Chapter Nine

The next day, we rode in a car to a boarding school in the middle of nowhere. We were given stupid plaid uniforms to wear, and bags to carry our things.

As soon as we got there, we were sent into the principal’s office. There, we met Mrs. Stick-Up-My-Butt. Okay, so that wasn’t her real name, but I missed it when she introduced herself, and she did seem to have a stick up her butt. I’ll just call her Mrs. Stuckup.

“There will be an assembly this morning in the gym. Usually we don’t introduce new students in this way, but obviously,” she eyed Falcon’s wings, “we’ll have to be sure the students know what’s going on. After that, you’ll be tested to see what level your education is at.”

I snorted. “I can already tell you that: TV. We’ve never been to school, so everything we know has come from watching TV.”

She sighed. “Regardless, you must all take the tests. You should be finished before lunch, and you’ll be given your schedules. You’ll follow your schedules for as long as you’re here. You may ask other students to show you around if you have any trouble finding anything. Do you understand?”

I rolled my eyes. “We’re uneducated, not stupid. Yes, we understand the words coming out of your mouth.”

She glared at me, but chose not to comment. We were led through the campus to the hulking gym. All the buildings were red brick, and fairly new. The campus was pretty big, though, and the principal didn’t bother to tell us what anything was. How very kind of her.

She instructed us to wait outside while she went in. She would tell us when we could come inside. She disappeared through the open door, and I turned to the misfits. They were all terrified. This was one of the things that we all feared: attention. All those teenagers in there would stare at us everywhere we went because we were freaks, and we couldn’t hide it.

Mrs. Stuckup’s voice drifted through the open door, amplified by a microphone. “We have the honor of taking five new students today. I’ve called this assembly to introduce them all to you. They are a little… unusual,” we all snorted, “but I expect you to all be respectful and kind in your treatment of them. Kids, you can come in now.”

Taking that as our cue, and led the misfits into the gym. The students filled the bleachers, all wearing the same uniform as us. They whispered, pointing and staring at us as we came into view. Beast hung her head, Sunny kept his mouth tightly closed, and Falcon tucked his wings as close to his body as he could.

I hated to see the misfits so ashamed of themselves, of things that they’d been born with because of the things the scientists of the Labs had done to us. It wasn’t fair. So, rebelliously, I spread my wings in their full fourteen feet. The room went silent.

“Might as well get it over with, right?” I called. My voice seemed unnaturally loud, amplified even. “We’re freaks. The others, they’re ashamed of it. They think they should hide their deformities from you because you’re normal.” I turned to the misfits, who stared at me in surprise. “But we shouldn’t have to be ashamed of who we are. We are the misfits, and if anyone has anything to say about it, they can say it now, to my face.”

No one said anything.

“Good.” With that, I tucked my wings back in and the rest of the misfits lined up on either side of me. Beast held her head high, and Falcon’s wings spread just a little, back to where they normally rested. Sunny grinned at me, and then turned his smile, fangs and all, on the students in the bleachers.

They were whispering amongst themselves, but nobody said anything to us. After a few moments, the principal instructed the students to get to class and led us away. She took us to an empty classroom, where we were seated as far from each other as she could get us.