The ring of a bell echoed out through the classroom as a collection of students, ranging in age from six to eight years old finished their assignments. Just before they headed out, a woman who seemed to be in her early twenties stood in front of the whiteboard and pointed a ruler at the board. Her bright red glasses and vibrant orange hair stood out and grabbed the attention of the class like a ray of sunshine on the day of spring, and while their eyes were on her, she gave them all a simple challenge.
"Now, class i know we're all eager to leave for summer vacation but before you leave i have an offer of sorts. Whoever can answer most if not all of my questions correctly gets one free gift."
The class tilted their heads as they questioned just what this gift could be, having their little minds filled with possibilities and imagination. Out of pure curiosity, the entire class remained seated despite the fact that the bell that allowed them all to leave just rang.
"Who can tell me what is the term for people who gain access to their abilities at the age of Ten?"
At the exact moment she asked that question, the entire class decided to speak at once. For them, it was easy since most if not all of them were already looking forward to that day. Either way, this made the children excited, as the first question was so easy. So easy to where they thought the others had to be just as easy.
"BLOOMERS!"
Cracking a large yet nervous smile, the teacher moved her hands downward to get the class calmed down for a bit. Clearly, she made a bit of an oversight as the class erupted with the answer, causing an apparent amount of noise to echo throughout the room and bleed into the hallway.
So it was best to make a slight change to the rules of this to reduce the level of noise and make sure she doesn't get a noise complaint from any of the other teachers in the building.
"Ok that one is on me, before answering raise your hands and I'll pick the one who raises their hand the fastest."
With that being said, the teacher's eyes started to glow a bright blue color as her perception seemingly slowed to that of a snail's pace. Everything moved in slow motion for her except for herself, which maintained a normal speed.
"Alright, what is the term used for someone who gains their powers after the age of Ten?"
A girl with snow white skin and golden blond hair had her right hand shoot up into the air just milliseconds faster than any of the students could get theirs up. To a normal teacher, it would be hard to tell who put their hands up the fastest, but this one had a trick up her sleeve. Since the girl raised her hand first, she was given the floor to speak as the teacher pointed over to her.
"Yes Kathy!"
Chuckling to herself, Kathy started to formulate what she wanted to say to the teacher. It was clear she wasn't planning on taking this type of thing seriously, so once she got what she wanted to say in her head she blurted it out with the confidence of a lion.
"Losers!"
The class began breaking into laughter at Kathy's comment even if it wasn't all that funny to begin with. In their developing minds it was pretty entertaining to say the least.
"No Kathy they aren't losers... Does anyone else wanna take a shot at it?"
Suddenly, with that offer being made, another hand shot up, and this time it was a girl with caramel-colored skin, bright blue eyes, and brown hair. She didn't seem all that interested; in fact, when she raised her hand, her face looked as if she were focused more on the outside world as she looked out the window to her left. But she might as well answer anyway to avoid hearing meanspirited answers like that one again.
The teacher of the class pointed out the girl with a smile, hoping she would take the question seriously.
"Sasha you have your hand up, let's hear it."
Looking out of the window, Sasha seemed to know the answer. With her fingers, she messed around with an eraser, rubbing it against the desk and getting eraser shavings all along her desk. She let out a sigh and said what was on her mind with a rather somber tone.
"Late bloomers."
The teachers' eyes lit up with joy as Sasha answered her question correctly. She only had one more question before the summer started, but while she asked it, she wondered why Sasha looked so sad despite the summer vacation only being a few moments away. It was something that was on the back of her mind.
"That's correct! That's one point for Sasha, but there's only one left, so is anyone going to tie or will Sasha take home the gold? Right last and final question: How many presidents were late bloomers?"
This one seemingly stumped the class completely; nobody really seemed to know the answer as students scratched their heads and even asked each other to see if they knew. However, just like before, Sasha's hand raised once again, and in the same tone, she answered with academic accuracy.
"Twenty-seven of the forty-three presidents were late bloomers, with one of the twenty-seven being considered more of a senior bloomer than a late bloomer due to them gaining their powers at the age of forty-five just before going into office."
There was silence in the air; the entire class looked at Sasha, and even the teacher was rather confused. She didn't expect someone of her age to actually answer this question with such precision and thought that this would leave the entire class stumped, but here Sasha was answering the question. But not every student was impressed, as Kathy had to make her interjection.
"Of course Sasha knows everything about late bloomers."
Without hesitation, Sasha turned from the window and looked at Kathy for a moment before grabbing the eraser off of her desk and hurling it right at her, sending the pink mesh of synthetic rubber right at her forehead. After the eraser crashed into Kathy's thick skull, she began to cry out in pain, tears streaming down her face as what she said about Sasha struck some kind of nerve.
In this situation, the teacher simply dismissed the class while helping Kathy make her way out of the classroom. However, she stopped Sasha from leaving the classroom. She didn't seem angry at what happened; rather, a look of concern was strung across her face as she placed her right hand over her eyes and let out a sign before sitting down in a seat in front of Sasha's desk.
The teacher's body was facing in the complete opposite direction, with her stomach pressing against the back end of the small chair.
"Something is bothering you, Sasha. Is there anything you want to talk about just between the two of us?"
Sasha didn't seem to look back at the teacher; instead, she turned her head back to the window and just rested her left hand on the side of her cheek. By the look on her face, it was as if she was thinking about something, contemplating just what she was going to say before just blurting it out.
"My parents are old, very old. That's all"
It seemed that Sasha's teacher wasn't buying it; normally she would since she's just teaching a group of first graders, and they can normally get upset about anything. But Sasha was different; she was a lot more articulate with her words, and simple answers weren't something that was going to slide by.
"Are you sure that's what's going on, or is that all you're willing to tell me? You're a very bright young woman, Sasha. I doubt the reasoning for beaming Kathy with an eraser is that simple, despite how admittedly funny it was."
Now Sasha was interested. At first, she thought that she was in trouble for throwing that eraser at Kathy, but after hearing that her teacher thought it was funny, Sasha seemed to somewhat open up more, but not too much. All she really did was turn her head to face the teacher instead of staring out the window.
At the same time, her teacher reached into her back pocket, pulled out two lollipops, and placed one of them on Sasha's desk. They were both mystery flavors, so it really didn't matter which one she gave to Sasha. Once the teacher placed the lollipop on the desk, she unwrapped her own and placed it in her mouth, letting the stick just rest on the left side of it before speaking.
"Sasha You're not in trouble; there's no point in sending a kid to the office on the last day of school. But next year you might not be so lucky depending on the teacher you get, so it's best we talk about this now before you end up in trouble next time. What's really bothering you?"
There was silence for a moment, Sasha didn't want to say anything and she kept what was on her mind to herself.
"Like i said, my parents are old, that's all."
The teacher let out another sigh, knowing that there was a deeper-rooted issue, before getting up from her seat and walking over to her personal desk. From her desk, she pulled out what looked to be a brochure for some strange classes. Once she pulled out this brochure, the teacher walked over to Sasha's desk and put it on the table.
Upon closer inspection, Sasha saw that the brochure was for some Muay Thai classes, but she didn't really know what that was, so she kind of just tilted her head a bit and looked at what was on her desk. While Sasha was looking at the Muay Thai brochure, the teacher got her stuff as she was getting ready to leave, but not before giving a word of advice.
"Well, you did answer most of the questions, so here's your prize. The membership is paid for the summer, but your parents can renew it anytime. To be honest, I'm kind of glad you were the one who won. Maybe this place could be a good way to get through whatever it is you're going through."
Staring deeply at the brochure, Sasha wondered if this was something she really wanted to do. She didn't think that there was any issue with it, and maybe her teacher was right; this could be helpful. So with that being said, she took the brochure and left the classroom, ready to ask her parents if she could attend these classes to see if it could work out.
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11 Years Later
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The sound of a loud, agonizing beeping rang throughout the space of a messy room. Posters of rock and metal bands laid flat and nailed to the walls of the room with empty video game cases, old cables, several metal dumbbells littering the floor, and of course, one seventeen-year-old young lady laid out across a bed like they just got out of a bar fight in some pajama pants and a white t-shirt.
This young woman would be woken by the sound of the beeping, which seemed to have come from a clock next to their bed, and upon waking up, she would immediately slam her fist onto the top of the clock to get it to stop beeping.
"Shit... damn what day is it?"
Looking all over the bed and on the counter where the clock lay, it seemed that the young woman was looking for something important, given how quickly she started to search for it. After a bit of looking all over her room, she began to pat down the pockets of her pajama pants and quickly closed their eyes before forming a scrunched-up fake smile and letting out a sigh.
Why? because she found exactly what she was looking for and she just felt stupid for wasting all her time searching. Reaching into her right pants pocket she pulled out a smartphone before turning it on by pressing a button on the side.
"Oh god damn it, the first day couldn't have been in two more days?"
Upon pressing the button on the side of the phone, the screen lit up, showing the exact date as August 21st and several notifications. One of these notifications showed a text by someone labeled "Danny," and under it read, "Hey Sasha did you do the packet? I kinda need to copy your answers it'll be quick :D". Looking at the text, Sasha rolled her eyes and groaned, as this was another thing she had to look for.
"Ugh, if i didn't need this packet to not sit in a testing booth for an entire quarter i wouldn't have bothered with it."
After ten or so minutes of looking, Sasha found the packet that Danny was talking about. It was a summer packet that was as thick as oatmeal prepared with a side of lard, but it was completed. There were some strange stains on the packet like a mysterious orange one on the front.
Some of the pages were wrinkled and covered with markings but it wasn't like Sasha cared all that much; the teachers were the ones who had to grade it, not her, and they didn't say they had to turn it in with it being in pristine condition.
"Gonna give me a Bible to write for summer break. I'll turn it in... In any condition I want, if they have a problem with it, then they should probably stop handing out packets during a BREAK."
Blowing some dust off of the packet, Sasha opened the door to her room and made her way to the bathroom to get ready. First, she brushed her teeth, then hopped in the shower, leaving her phone on the bathroom sink. While in the shower, Sasha's phone began to ping and vibrate with the notification of things being sent to her after taking her shower and covering her body and hair with some towels. Turning on her phone she read a text from Danny and responded accordingly.
With her conversation with Danny concluding, Sasha made her way back to her room and walked over to her closet. Opening it up, Sasha got dressed and her outfit for this unmotivating day was jeans that were slightly ripped at the knees, red and black sneakers, and a black shirt that had "Samurai" plastered across the stomach area. An image of what looked to be a partially broken, flaming red oni mask with a robotic skeleton peeking through the broken portion sat on top of the text. After putting on the shirt, Sasha grabbed a clear backpack from the bottom corner of her closet.
"So i know it's the middle of august but yeah I'm gonna need this."
Dipping her hand into the mass of clothing inside of her closet, Sasha pulled out a black leather jacket with a red wool like interior. She didn't exactly put it on but she kept it in her bag for when she got to school.
"Alright checklist checklist, Phone..."
Looking in her right hand, Sasha stared directly at her phone and placed it into her right pocket before going back to do her checklist.
"Check, Packet, i left it in the bathroom."
Immediately walking back to the bathroom, Sasha grabbed the packet she left in there, which had only gotten a slight bit of water on it, but it wasn't too bad. She held it in her free right hand before placing it in her backpack and continuing on with her list.
"Check, Headphones..."
Taking another look around her room, Sasha found a pair of black and blue headphones hanging from a hook in the ceiling. She had forgotten she left those up there so her thieving little brother wouldn't steal them from her room.
Luckily, he wasn't tall enough to grab them down yet as he was only about six years old but she'll have to think of a new method in case he gets a growth spurt, that's if she's still living in this house whenever that happens. After finding the headphones on the ceiling, Sasha stood on her bed and reached up to get them down before placing them around her neck.
"Alright, time to get this last year over with."
Walking out of her room, Sasha made her way down a set of stairs and ended up in a hallway. To her left was the kitchen area where multiple identical-looking women could be seen whipping up some bacon, eggs, pancakes, grits, grilled cheese, and a whole bunch of other food items all at the same time.
The women had dark curly hair, and dark skin with light blue eyes, and on their heads were small Gele head wraps. After seeing all of these identical women cooking, Sasha didn't seem to be all that phased as if this were a normal occurrence.
"Hey mom, how ya doing?"
All of the identical women turned to Sasha and smiled in unison, as it seemed that they were just finishing up cooking for the moment. Sasha's mother(s) then placed all the breakfast foods on different plates on a dinner table in the middle of the kitchen before seemingly combining back into a single entity and speaking to Sasha normally.
She had somewhat of an accent, speaking with a certain level of rich intonation that added a certain amount of expressiveness and emphasis to her speech.
"Well I am not getting any younger so there's tat but I am managing."
Sasha let out a bit of a chuckle before sitting down at the table, ready to get the day started with a good breakfast. Grabbing a plastic fork and knife from a red cup sitting in the center of the table, Sasha seemed to feel a lot more relaxed compared to when she was upstairs.
"You don't look a day over thirty."
Hearing that comment caused Sasha's mom to laugh. She may not look her age due to her genetics, but she could definitely feel all those years on her body. But that didn't stop her from giving her interjection in a more joyful and playful tone.
"Bullshit, I am sixty-two an te grey hairs an wrinkles have already made temselves at home. Now where is your fater and grandfater. their food will get col."
Sasha started to chuckle at her mother's comment before digging into her food while waiting for her father and grandfather to make their way into the kitchen. Knowing them, they're probably in the living room watching the news and complaining about the things that are going on. It's best to leave them to it; it's not a good idea to start up a political debate on the first day of school.
"Oh hell nah, that Maximilian joker is running for president?!"
Hearing the yelling from inside the kitchen, Sasha and her mother rolled their eyes in unison. It was the sound of Sasha's father, and just as expected, something he didn't like was on television. Although this was different from normal, this was something that REALLY set him off.
"That rich bastard wouldn't know a hard day's work if it hit em in the neck moving at Mach three and he wants to run for president? He pretty much owns the whole damn planet; what else could he want now?!"
Within the living room where the shouting was coming from, sat two men, one with long gray and black dreadlocks that reached down to his legs which were tied behind his head in a bundle. He sported glasses with crimson-red frames and lenses that kept his eyes hidden and protected. This was the one who was shouting at the television and Sasha's father.
Next to him was his father, and he looked thirty-six years older than him with a small gray afro, sitting in a wheelchair and holding onto a bowl of cereal. He spoke with an extremely raspy yet deep voice, predicting what would happen to the candidate they didn't like all that much.
"I bet my one working leg, he's not gonna make it to office. Someone'll get em just like how they did Lincoln."
Sasha's dad looked over to his father and looked him up and down like he was crazy. Before questioning what he meant by this.
"Dad the hell are you talking about, neither of ya legs work."
Sasha's grandfather gave his son a bit of a devious smirk, he had him right where he wanted him as he fell for his trap and now it was time for it to activate.
"Well it seems you forgot about the third one, dickhead! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH HAHAHA, you know I'm just fucking with you Marcus... THAT DON'T WORK NEITHER! HAHA!"
Sasha's mother simply let out a sigh and had a face that said it all. Inside of her mind she was thinking ["what am I going to do with these two?" . Sasha couldn't help but smile, shake her head side to side and continue eating because she knows if she starts laughing her dad is going to want to get into a roast session.
"You dirty moth-."
Before he could finish his sentence, Marcus would be interrupted by Sasha's mother shouting from the kitchen.
"If you two are done with your screaming match, te food i have prepared is finished. Now if you do not come and eat you will be eating a very very col breakfast!"
While sitting at the table, it seemed that Sasha was finishing up with her food which was good because the school day was about to start in a couple of minutes and she needed to get there fast.
Marcus got up from his seat and rolled his dad over to the kitchen so he could get some breakfast, compared to the rest of his family. Marcus was rather tall, standing at six feet, five inches, so he had to duck under the case opening to get into the kitchen.
Once the two of them made it, Sasha was already done with her food and grabbing her bag she went to head out the door but not before saying goodbye to her family.
"Alright, off to start my last year in the public schooling system. Bye Mom, bye Dad, bye Grandpa Jeremy!"
Walking out the door, to the outside world, Sasha's father lifted up his glasses for only a moment, and as he did, a portal formed in front of Sasha which led directly to her school. Upon seeing it, Sasha turned around and smirked while her father gave her a goodbye.
"Alright, see you when you get home."
Sasha's mother had an entirely different thing to add, hoping that her daughter didn't get in trouble at school, and by how she says this, she may have somewhat of a history of getting into some sticky situations.
"Try not to get into any fights on your first day... maybe even te first week!"
Last to speak was Sasha's grandfather, who decided to give an interesting piece of advice to say the least. It didn't seem like the best piece of advice but it wasn't entirely destructive.
"And if you do, put a mahfucka in that hold ya daddy taught ya! They'll be out in seconds!"
Of course, not approving of what she perceived as Jeremy's encouragement of her daughter using violence, Sasha's mother smacked him upside the head after he made his comment. Seeing this, Sasha laughed to herself before walking through the portal in order to get right onto the courtyard of the school.
Once she was there, she looked at the tall building, her eyes slowly pulling upwards as she took a deep breath in and exhaled, hoping that today nobody would try her or she wouldn't get into a fight so early on in the school year.