Where Ya' Rowing, Rowan North?

Chapter Four: It Gets Worse

“This is a climbing wall. You climb on it.”

“I thought so.” I muttered. We had been walking across the vast campus for almost a half-hour now, past grassy track-and-field courses, a churning and frothy river that eventually collapsed into a small waterfall where students in old, ragged t-shirts stood at the edge, daring each other to ride down the ten-foot drop, and the village-like dorms and student-run shops that circled around the main school building, which was a three-story-tall farmhouse. I had decided that everything about this place astounded and amazed me, from the extraordinary abilities of the students, to the campus that seemed more like a presidential summer camp than any school I had ever seen.

“Oh come on!” Jynx sighed, grabbing my arm and leading me down a small, flower-lined path that stretched around a small lake in the center of the campus. “Let me show you the training arena. That’s where all the fun is!”

“Yeah! They let us set things on fire over there!” Lily gasped and raced past us, followed by a grinning Little Dragon, and a cheerful-looking Luna. Harmony stopped and lagged behind us a bit.

“Guys, you know I don’t like the arena. Its just an excuse for people to bully each other and not get in trouble. Its mean.”

“Coming from someone who’s power is turning vegetables into fruits.” Lily sniffed. “Anyways, its not like anyone ever gets hurt. And there are teachers watching us. Unfortunately.” She murmured her last word so that Harmony couldn’t catch it. Turning away from the rest of us, she absently waved her hand through the air, watching the space between her fingers burst into flames, first a bright and warm campfire red and orange, then a brilliant, almost neon, electric-blue, finally smoothing out into a pure, snowy white, before smoldering back down into her hands like it had never happened, her fingers totally unharmed.

I stared longingly as she summoned up another well-controlled fire, knowing that the girl had probably spent months learning to use it, but wishing all the same that I could show a little natural talent with my own useless power. I had tried multiple times through the course of that morning to leap up into the air, failing miserably twice, and jumping up about four feet before plummeting back down and slamming my face against the dirt several heartbeats later. I couldn’t help wondering if maybe, just maybe, Ms. Bane had picked the wrong girl to bring to a place as amazing as this.

“So… I never did hear what you guys can do.” I pointed out to Jynx and Luna, remembering what Lily had said about Harmony’s gift of being able to change vegetables into fruit, and praying silently that I wouldn’t end up with a power that was so useless, pointless, and just all-in-all boring.

Jynx grinned at me, swiping part of her falling black Mohawk out of her eyes. “Lets see… I’m strong, like, superman, or somebody like that. But also, I do this thing, its like, if I’m mad, I can just touch somebody and practically kill them. Well, actually, they normally just pass out for a while.” She said this in a voice that was disturbingly disappointed, like she relished the idea of being able to take someone twice her size down with a mere poke of doom. She fidgeted with her dog-collar for a moment before cursing under her breath and declaring: “Gosh, this thing is worthless!”

As Jynx grappled with her necklace, Luna gave me a shy smile. “I have telekinesis. Do you know what that is?”

I nodded.

“Cool. I can also basically figure out anything I want, especially about the past.” She closed her eyes for a moment, and then declared, her face splitting into a wide smile. “I know what happened to the colony at Roanoke! They-”

She was cut off by a wild scream as a burly boy raced past us down the hill, pursued by what looked at first glance like a walking brush-fire, but was actually something like a tabby cat that had burst into flame. “Yeah, Sasha, take him down!” Jynx yelled after it.