Hey guys sorry for the late update! I had a busy two weeks :)
anyway here is the new chapter, if you guys have time please check out my short romance story Forgetting Us! I posted it for Valentine's Day :P
please comment and vote!
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I stepped outside our room and saw handful of students making their way down the staircase. Elise bounced along the corridor and I walked briskly to catch up with her. I could hear people's thoughts all around me, thinking who I was or excitement of finally seeing the new girl in flesh. I felt a little uncomfortable being the center of so much attention.
We walked in one of the other corridor that run underneath the staircase. It looked as grand as the other one that I walked through. I was starting to feel more and more uncomfortable with so many new people around me so close and their minds bombarding inside mine. I found that POEs tend to have a stronger, how do I put this into words, projection then normal people. Since I can normally block people's thoughts from mine pretty well but I was still hearing them right now. And let me tell you having thirty plus teenagers' mind inside your head is not a good experience.
I could feel and see a lot of people casting me a curious look. Newcomers aren't exactly a daily occurrence around here and for POEs it's even more rare, so I could understand their excitement. But it's never nice being stared at, I can tell you that.
'Don't worry, this will stop after a few days.' Elise said, she was in front of me chatting to some of her friends and had decided to fall back and keep me company. 'It's just always exciting to have a new student here.'
I nodded and saw a double door in front. That must be the entrance to the dinning room. Feeling ten times more nervous all of a sudden I whipped off the imaginary sweat on my hand off my jeans and tried to keep my expression calm and cool.
'Come on, otherwise all the good food will be gone.' Elise said and pushed opened the door, a wave of delicious smell hit me and my eyes widened at the glamorous hall. This school feels like freaking Hogwarts.
High ceiling which sloped up to make a triangular roof. The roof panels are curved into beautiful shapes framing the Renaissances painting on the roof of sky and angels dancing and laughing. The tables were wooden and looked heavy, long tables run parallel to the entrance with a wide gap in the middle allowing passage. Dozens of teenagers were already there, eating and joking around. This place most certainly looked older than it is.
The noise level decreases slightly after our entrance and I knew that people were talking about me, some of them staring openly. Keeping my back straight I walked down the length of the dinning hall next to Elise, making our way towards the queue for food, which was located on the other side. There was also a set of doors next to it, indicating that the dinning room has two entrance.
I could hear people's thoughts buzzing around me, some stronger than others. Most of them were directed at me, the new girl, while some were marveling at their lunch. I nearly laughed out loud when I caught the thought of a guy who was wolfing down his lunch with almost indecent enthusiasm and thinking that he could eat this for all three meals for a week.
Laughing to death inside I pretended to look around the dinning hall's décor when I was actually trying to pinpoint this hilarious guy's thought. It's not an easy thing to do, it was kind of like trying to triangulate a signal, you just have to find where it is strongest.
Nodding a thanks to Elise as she handed me a food tray I finally found the guy. He was sitting in the second table closest to this side and was busily shoving mouthful of food into his mouth. He looked around my age, maybe older, with dark brown hair and grey eyes. He looked well muscled all the way from here, and pretty tall too. Tuning into his mind I tried to find out more about him, sadly he was still obsessing over his lunch. I rolled my eyes and moved forward with the queue. Typical guys.
Turning my attention back to Elise we moved forward again and I blinked in surprised as the delicious smell of cooked food hit me. My eyes widened as I stared at the mouth watering dishes in front of me. This school is freaking awesome!
Eagerly stepping forward I quickly scanned Elise and other student's mind to see how the lunch system works. Each student can take one main dish, two side dish and one dessert dish, and we are at the main dish section. Drinks are also available at the end of the line and everyone can get either a cold or hot drink. If you are hungry you can line up again for more, but one rarely have the time to do so.
Staring intently at the main dishes lining in front of me I was battling on to inside as to which one to choose. Spaghetti Carbonara, Salmon filet or Grilled steak? They all smelt and looked amazing. I saw Elise picked up a plate of salmon filet and moved forward, and the stares of people in line behind me.
Sighing inside I grabbed the plate nearest to me, which happened to be Spaghetti Carbonara and moved forward briskly to join Elise. After taking a plate of apple crumble I lingered at the drinks stand, not sure where I should sit since Elise was still choosing her dessert.
Pretending that I was torn between choosing Coke or Tango I waited until Elise arrived next to me to grab the bottle of Coke that I wanted and smiled at her as she chose a bottle of mineral water.
'Come.' She said, gesturing for me to follow her down the dinning room and sat down on a table in the middle, not too far from Mr food-lover. I sat down and smiled to the people who were already at the table, they all stopped whatever they were doing when I got to the table and stared at me.
'Hey guys, this is Abigail, my new roommate.' Elise said, dumping her lunch tray in front of her and taking a seat. 'Abigail, this is everyone.' She turned to me and said.
Keeping my face friendly with a smile I said hi to everyone. First impressions are very important, it determinants whether or not that person will think nicely of you throughout your acquaintance until you get to know each other better. If you don't give people a good first impression the likelihood is that they won't even want to know you better.
Right now all of them thought that I seemed really friendly and nice. This is a good start. I sat down quickly while the others resumed whatever it was that they were talking about before we arrived.
'Hi, I am Jemma.' a girl to my left said, she had long pecan coloured hair and pretty sea green eyes. She was from Scandinavian Citybase. I smiled at her and said hi back. We chit chatted for a while and our conversation was halted as the others started talking animatedly drawing our attentions to them.
'I heard we got a new Art teacher.' an oriental boy said excitedly, and I could feel people on tables nearby started paying attention to his words too. 'I heard she is really hot.'
I mentally rolled my eyes and block that boy's thoughts. I did not want to encounter anything unpleasant in there. Everyone else chirped in the conversation enthusiastically, spilling whatever information they had.
'Wait, didn't she arrived with new girl?' the oriental boy said, and everyone turned their heads at me. I mentally scold the boy. New girl? That's just rude.
'I came with a teacher called Miss Sewell.' I said, these people were abnormally interested in anything that came from the outside world. Everyone looked disappointed, but I wasn't surprised. Who in the right mind will send a new teacher to collect a new student? Let alone a POE student.
The talk of the new teacher continued throughout dinner. Well, that and me, the new student. Everyone wanted to know where I came from and how I ended up being discover. Everyone here have a story, and everyone wants to find out about them.
'So, you are the new girl.' a voice said and my body immediately tensed up. Something about this person gives me the creeps, he had an aura of danger about him that chills you.
Deciding that it would be foolish to read his mind I turned around to face this person and looked straight into the face of the famous Fred Bowen.
He looked exactly like the memory of him in Natalie's mind, with that cocky smile and I-rule-the-world attitude. He stood right in front of our table with a dozen of his minions behind me all glaring right down at me.
I felt empathy coming from the people on my table, but most of the thoughts I encountered are expectant, they were all waiting for me to show what I got to the bullies. Some were disgusted by Fred's behavior but none of them were brave enough to openly oppose him. So I was on my own.
Sighing I decided to play the innocent card first.
'Yes.' I replied, keeping my face calm and I smiled at the infamous bully of POE Academy. A few people gasped audibly, feeling scared on my behalf. Most others were simply waiting for a god show.
Fred Bowen cocked an eyebrow at me, I narrowed my eyes at him and wondered what the heck had this guy gone through to have become such a jerk. I knew as a fact that no one started out evil. Most bullies are actually victim themselves before.
'Well, what's your power.' He asked, I blinked. This guy was aggravating! Did he had to be so blunt. I should probably just read his thoughts. But his energy is just so cold, I didn't want to touch it. Even mentally.
'Why should I tell you? And it's not polite to ask someone that if you don't even show me yours.' I retorted. I couldn't look too weak in front of my new classmates otherwise they will all think that I am an easy target. I could hear a few snickers around the dinning hall and Fred Bowen's face darken.
'Don't play smart with me.' He said spitefully, my brows knotted together and I glared at him. Never had I met someone so rude before. He waved to his minions and they all took a few steps back, he spread his arms out and the temperature in the room suddenly dropped by several degrees.
Judging from the smirk on his face and the identical expressions on his minions I knew I had to act quickly. Concentrating on his shoes I use my power to lift Fred Bowen up into the air and threw him back.
It all happened with the space of three seconds and the look on his face was priceless. He was heavier than I expected so instead of throwing him all the way to the other side of the walkway he merely got flung into the mist of his minions, nearly crushing a few of them. Which was a bonus. However he didn't land on his bottom as I had hoped but was caught by his minions.
'You are a telepath.' Fred Bowen said, surprised clear in his voice. Resisting the urge to smirk like he did I dust off my sleeves like it wasn't a big deal and shrugged.
I felt awe and respect in the thoughts of students all around the dinning room and smiled. The desired effect was achieved. Fred Bowen would never thought in a million years that he was the key piece that helped me to gain my new reputation. I could feel them leaving the dinning room quickly with Fred Bowen pushing his followers aside and storming out of the room, refusing to be supported and insisting that he was fine. That he was just surprised, that's all.
Turning my head back to my table my eyes connect with five shocked faces. They all recovered quickly but the asian boy was still staring at me in awe.
'Do I have something in my teeth?' I asked, pretending to be ignorant as to why they were staring at me. The asian boy closed his mouth and then opened it again like a gaping gold fish. It was hard not to laugh.
Suddenly he launched forward nearly knocking over everyone's lunch tray in the processes at me causing me to lean back in surprise.
'You are now officially my new idle!' He half shouted, grabbing hold of my hand and shaking it continuously. My eyes widened in surprise and I wondered why didn't I see that coming from his thought, wbut I didn't bother concetrating on his while reading everyone elses. The boy beside him half-laughed half-snorted and pulled him off me. Everyone was laughing by then but the boy seemed oblivious to it.
Elise was laughing so hard next to me that she was practically in tears. I learned that his name was Shoki and he came from Tokyo Citybase. He had been here for three years now and was the joker of the group.
The boy who pulled him off me was called Shawn. He had blond hair and grey eyes and came from Muscow Citybase. There is also another girl on the table, Annika who was actually a local, she came from a POE family and was here since she was eleven when her power surfaced.
Smiling at them I realised that I had actually started to make more friends in POE Academy. This was probably as normal as an averyage POE can get. Hopefully I will graduate in three years and return home to my parents.
That's what I thought then.