Chapter 4: First Day of School
I slept very restless that night. I had so many nightmares that I could not stay asleep. My dreams were tormented by my family. I know Professor Stanley said that no matter what my family would have died but I couldn’t help but think it was my fault. Without my stupid powers they would be alive. The following morning I was already awake when Michelle got up. She got up at 6:15. She jumped down off her bed and went to wake me up. She squeaked when she realized I was already awake. I chuckled at her.
“Sorry Michelle! I probably should have warned you that I was awake.” She just shook her head and grabbed some clothes. I followed suit. When Michelle was ready she led us to the bathroom. She showed me how to turn the water on and off, and where to get the shampoo and conditioner. Another girl was in there and she explained that we all use the same stuff so no one can fight over it. There were dispensers in each shower. Kind of like the soap dispensers you would see in a public restroom except ours were built into the wall itself. It was pretty cool.
After taking our showers and getting ready for school Michelle led me to the cafeteria. As big as the school was it was rather easy to find. Michelle brought me through the line and we got our breakfast then we sat down at a nearby table. She took out a spiral notebook from her backpack and we ‘talked’ for a few minutes while we ate. After a few a shadow came up behind me then sat down next to me. I looked over to look into the most gorgeous gray eyes I had ever seen. They were a mix of storm cloud gray and silver. They were set into the face of you guessed it…Caleb.
“So you’re the new girl?” He asked when he sat down. He smiled at Michelle. “Hey Chelle how you doing this morning?”
Michelle smiled at him. He looked at me. “Why yes, yes I am.” I said.
“Well I’m Caleb!” he said smiling widely.
“Nice to meet you Caleb, I’m Astrid!” I said smiling back.
“Well that’s a different name.”
“My father was Greek and he wanted us to share in the Greek heritage. So we all have—had, Ancient Greek names.”
“Well isn’t that interesting?” I heard from behind me. It was Vinessa. Caleb looked annoyed for a second then he masked it with a smile.
“Isn’t it V?” He asked. By the look on her face she did not like to be called ‘V’ but she wouldn’t tell him that.
“Oh yeah, definitely.” She said forcibly. “But Caleb I thought you were going to sit with us today?” she asked pouting.
“I am but I wanted to meet my sister’s bunkmate in person and I was checking on my sister, that’s not a problem is it?”
“Oh of course not, silly!” She said trying to stay on his good side.
“Good. Now why don’t you go and save us some seats and I will be right over?” He asked her smoothly.
“Okay, I’ll see you in a few minutes then.” She said kind of sad. Then she walked away.
“God I can’t stand her.” He said once she walked away.
“Then why do you hang out with her?” I said. Michelle looked at him kind of incredulously.
“I think you two can figure that one out.” He said winking.
Michelle wrote on the paper and showed it to him. He looked at her like she grew another head. “Michelle! I can’t believe you just sad that.” She showed me what she said.
I know I can’t stand that tramp but you need to stop doing this to girls. If Mom and Dad found out they’d hunt you done and beat you with a stick!!
“Chelle, we’ll talk about this later okay?” He said as he got up and walked away. As soon as he was gone I looked at Michelle and we both started laughing hysterically.
After we dumped our trays and cleaned up I went and got my schedule. There were some normal classes like English and a math course but there were others that were not so normal. Such as Control, Self-Defense, and Elementals. I looked at Michelle she pointed out the control class.
“I’m hoping that means you have that class too?” She nodded. I laughed. “Awesome, so I’ll at least know one person.” She smiled and led me to my first class, English.
English was well as easy as any other English class. They were reading some poetry and short stories that they had written. Some were good, some well weren’t. An hour of listening to people’s work the bell rang, now it was time for Self-Defense. Self-Defense was awesome! I had taken a couple of martial arts classes before I came to the school so I excelled. It was a lot of fun to be able to punch and kick a punching bag again. Unfortunately the time flew and I was heading to math. That took forever! I hated math and that class seemed to take at least three hours. Then came lunch. By some miracle I actually ran into Michelle when I got to the lunch line. She held out a tray to me. I thanked her and grabbed it.
As we went through the line I noticed that even in a school of powerful beings there was bullying and even some kids sitting by themselves. One girl in particular stood out. She had shoulder length blonde hair. She was just sitting there picking at her food. I nudged Michelle and pointed her out. She blushed and looked away. Hmmm interesting, I thought to myself.
Out loud I said “Are you interested in her Michelle?” She blushed some more and shook her head. “Uh huh sure. Whatever you well don’t say Michelle, but I’m going to go sit next to her, you in?”
When she didn’t answer I just walked over the girl. “Hi, is this seat taken?”
She looked up in surprise “Nope.”
“Awesome! My name is Astrid and this is Michelle.” I didn’t need to look behind me to know that Michelle had followed. We sat down.
She smiled “Hi, the names Lana.” We smiled back.
“So what’s your power?” Lana asked us.
“Well I’m a pyrokinetic.” I said then we both looked at Michelle. She had taken her notebook out and wrote down My voice.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Surprisingly Lana answered “She’s a pusher, and not in the pornographic way. She can use her voice to make anyone do what she wants; good, bad, anything. Right?” she asked Michelle.
Michelle nodded smiling.
“So is that why you don’t talk?” I asked her curiously. I don’t know why but I felt bad for her. She seemed so sad. She nodded.
“So you don’t talk in order to save other people?” Lana asked. Again she nodded. “Well screw them! Everyone deserves to be heard, especially someone as good hearted as you! You know what? I bet your brother doesn’t even know does he?”
By the look on Michelle’s face he didn’t.
“Well I think he should, I mean if he’s your protector then shouldn’t he know what every one is saying about you?” Michelle looked at her and shook her head no. “Well too bad I’m telling him. Ca—“ she started to yell when she found him in the large cafeteria.
“No!” I heard from my right. The voice was raspy but yet beautiful. I looked over at Michelle in shock. She had spoken and Lana looked at her smugly. Michelle looked sad. I distinctively remember wondering why she was sad. I thought she would be angry but she wasn’t. She cleared her throat. “Please don’t say anything to Caleb. I don’t want him to make a big deal okay?”
“I understand that, but don’t you think you deserve better than to be treated as a freak? Isn’t the point of Wayward to be comfortable with not only ourselves but with our powers?”
Now Michelle seemed mad. “That may be but at least this way I can control how others are affected by my powers.” With that she got up and left the cafeteria.
I stood up and looked at Lana, who was already walking towards the exit.
“Don’t worry Astrid, I’ll take care of her. I know right where she is.” Lana said as she walked away. I wanted to follow but I didn’t know where to go or what to say if I found them. I sat down and well looked around the cafeteria kind of awkwardly. After a while I just ate in silence. Then I felt someone sit down next to me. I looked up to see Caleb.
“Hey Astrid, someone told me Michelle ran out of the cafeteria, what happened?”
“Well we sat over here by Lana and we were talking. We found out what your sister’s power is. And after some provoking Lana got your sister to talk. Michelle wasn’t very happy about it and she ran out. But she’s not alone. Lana said she knew where she was so she went to go make sure she was okay.” He was nodding and looking away. Then he sighed and looked at me.
“Let me guess. Lana said something about me to provoke her?”
“Yup.”
“God damn it. I told her to stop with that bullshit. I know the girls are mean but I’ve talked to Michelle about it. She told me that she knew they were only saying it to be mean. That she didn’t take it too hard. But did Lana listen to me when we discussed this? No, of course not.” He said nostrils flaring. Then he looked at me. “You know Lana has been saying that I haven’t been protecting Michelle? It’s insane! I have been there since the day we’ve been born. Hell she was the first one I told about my powers, and vice versa.”
“Really?” I said.
“Yeah. I thought at first my empathy was just twin related. Like you know how some twins are able to feel the other ones pain or sense emotions from their twin?” I nodded. “Well that’s what I thought it was at first but then I started to sense my parents emotions and everyone else’s too. That’s when I realized it was just twin related.”
“That’s really cool.” I said smiling.
“Yeah, but unfortunately Michelle wasn’t so lucky. She…her power changed her. She used to be more charismatic and sweet. She wasn’t afraid of people or herself. She was our schools greatest singer and overall performer. She loved being on that stage. She used to just go there and sit, not sing or dance, just sit there. She said it was her home. That all changed though.” Caleb said sadly.
“Why? What happened?” I asked curious.
“She fell in love. There was this guy named Jake back home. He made her feel like the world revolved around her, hell even I fell for his bullshit. Anyway they dated for about a year when he cheated on her with her best friend. That same day was the biggest performance of her life. Some big name guy from New York City was coming to watch her performance. If she did well enough; they wanted her to perform for their company. Well an hour before the performance Jake sent her a video of him and Marissa sleeping together. Michelle was devastated.
“She cried it out before the performance and tried to get it under control in time. She did well for the first hour of the show. She sang beautifully and you couldn’t even tell she was upset. Until the love scene; it was one of those sappy I love you more than I love myself regardless of what anyone says types of things. Michelle was singing but you could tell something was wrong. She cracked. Her voice faltered. The audience laughed. Including Jake and Marissa who by the way sat in the front seat. Something in my sister cracked that night. She looked out at the crowd and told them to shut up. They all did. I mean it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop in a four hundred people crowd. She looked out at them and said ‘now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to try this again’ and she did. But when she hit that high note. I can still feel the pain of it. The only reason she stopped was because her mind couldn’t handle the strength it took to push the whole crowd so she passed out. As soon I could I stumbled up onto the stage and picked her up. Then brought us home. That weekend our parents sat us down and asked us if we would like to go to Wayward, we said yes, and now here we are.”
“Wow, I was not expecting that. I am so sorry for what you’ve both been through.”
“Eh, people have it worse at least my sister is safe and I have plenty of girls to hit on.” He said winking. “Now what about you? How did you come across your powers?”
“Well…I got home from work and my parents were fighting as usual.” I began. I wasn’t going to tell him but he had told me not only Michelle’s story but his own. “I wasn’t going to get involved until I heard my name. So I went downstairs and asked what was going on. Basically my best friend Natalie was telling people that I was sleeping around and my mom believed it. My dad didn’t thankfully. But I couldn’t handle all those emotions at once so I ran to my room. When I got there I sat down. Then I felt this odd burning sensation in my chest, then I exploded into flames. The last thing I remember was hearing my family’s screams.” I said it all while looking down at my tray. I kept reliving those moments and I really wish I wasn’t.
I was expecting Caleb to get up and walk away in disgust but instead he put his arm around me and said “It’s okay Astrid, don’t cry it’s not your fault this happened. If I’ve learned anything in the past few months being here it’s that bad things happen to good people.” The sad thing was I didn’t even realize I was crying until he said I was. I leaned into him and smiled.
“Thanks Caleb. I really needed that.”
“Of course. I’m always here for you Astrid.”
I smiled at him, then the bell rang.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
My next class was Elementals. I wasn’t sure what that meant but I was ready for anything. I eventually found the classroom my schedule said. I walked into the room and was surprised to see that there was no one there. So I went in and found a seat in the back of the room. Just as I sat down a middle aged man with graying brown hair and glasses came into the room. He put his briefcase on the front desk and turned around.
“Why hello there! You must be Astrid! I am Professor Johnson but you can call me Mark!” He said smiling.
“Yeah I’m Astrid. And it’s nice to meet you Professor!” I said, walking up to him and shaking his hand.
“Nice to meet you too Astrid. Now you must be fire, yes?”
“Uhm, yeah I’m a pyrokinetic.”
“Oh but you are so much more than that.”
“What do you mean?”
As soon as I said that a tall girl with short white blonde hair, crystal blue eyes, and angled eyes walked in. She was wearing a white tank top with a high waisted pencil skirt and four inch heels. She had a stylized pixie cut and a superiority complex that reeked queen bitch. She looked at me and smirked. Then I realized she was friends with Vinessa. I had seen them together at lunch.
“Ahh if it isn’t our resident Aura Elementarium.” Mark said smiling. “Astrid meet Aila Fuu. Where you control fire she controls air.”
“Hi Astrid. So honored to meet you.” She said it sweetly but I could hear the underlying hate and sarcasm.
“Why hello there Aila. It’s nice to meet you.” I said in the exact same tone.
She was about to say something when three more people came in. There was one girl and two guys. The girl was short and curvy. She had shoulder length brown hair with purple eyes. Her eyes fascinated me. Even to this day I remember her eyes. They are that beautiful. She was wearing jeans and a plain gray tee shirt. She went to a seat next the window and sat down.
“Brynley dear, please come up here and introduce yourself to our new member of the elementarium club.”
She sighed and walked up to me and shook my hand mumbling “Hi, I’m Brynley.”
“Hi Brynley, I’m Astrid.” She smiled and went back to her seat.
After that a tall dark skinned guy came up to me. He smiled down at me. He was wearing a tank top that was pulled tight over his muscular build, sneakers, and work out shorts. He was huge. He was almost seven feet tall and solidly built. He also had bright green eyes.
“Why hello there Astrid, the name’s Honovi but everyone calls me Max.”
“Max?” I said smiling.
“Yeah, cause I’m everyone’s maximum.” He said waggling his eyebrows. “If you know what I mean.”
“I’m pretty sure I do.” I said laughing.
He walked past me and as he walked past he clapped my shoulder.
Then the second guy came up to me. He was tall and modelesque. He looked a German model. He was extremely good looking with collar length blonde hair that was styled perfectly and blue-green eyes. He was wearing khaki pants, polo shirt, and loafers. You could tell he was all business.
“Hello Astrid, my name is Sebastian Maritza. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” He said as he kissed the back of my hand.
“Hi Sebastian! It’s nice to meet you too.” I said kind of awkwardly. He smiled and walked away to his seat. With that I walked back to my seat. I realized everyone was scattered across the classroom.
“All right class, let’s actually pretend to get along and sit together okay?” Mark asked us. We all looked at each other and then Mark said “Now would be nice guys.”
We all got up and moved closer together. We formed a circle. I sat between the boys.
“Okay guys because we are now a full class we can actually do stuff! Awesome right?”
Max chuckled and everyone else rolled their eyes.
“Oh hush you guys need to learn what an elemental is and all the rules that go along with it. It’s not a simple hey you have these powers go protect the humans. No, it’s more like you have these intense powers that no other supernatural being has and you have some severe standards that you need to follow in order to protect the humans. Got it?” he said looking around the circle. We all nodded.
“Okay, then today we will just talk about the beginning of elementals. Does anyone know anything about that?” When no one answered he smiled and said “Good, now I can teach you something. Well back when the planet was created it was composed of four elements; earth, water, air, and fire. Earth for support.” Everyone looked at Max, he smiled. “Water for sustenance.” They looked at Sebastian. “Air for movement.” They looked at Aila. “And fire for creation.” They looked at me. “After a few decades of the elements settling in and working together, they began to fight. Someone was always fighting someone. The creator, after long thought, figured out that there was something missing, something that needed to be there for the elements to get along. So they created the spirit element.” We all looked at Brynley. “Spirit was the element that made peace. She kept the other elements calm and happy. There was finally no more fighting. At least for a few centuries. Eventually the elements got restless, tired of seeing the same five people over and over again. So the mighty creator made animals and humans to keep them preoccupied. With this came the supernatural beasts we know today.”
I was amazed. I would have never thought that was how our power came to be. But one question boggled my mind.
“Are there more than one for each element?” I asked.
“Nope. One human per element. The best part is when the next generation is born we keep our powers. The power itself lies in the element itself not the spirit itself. So when the spirit leaves we keep some of its energy. Its awesome.”
“You were an elemental?” Sebastian asked with a slight German accent.
“Yes, I was the spirit elemental.” He said smiling. “But I am still able to use it to my advantage.”
Brynley spoke up “Is that why you teach here?”
“Yes, I was not lucky enough to work with my fellow elementals. I was taught here yes, but I did not meet any other elemental until I was about twenty-five. When I heard we had some elementals here I knew it was the perfect opportunity. So here I am.” With that the bell rang. We all looked around in amazement it did not feel like an hour had just gone by. “Well class that ends our first class. For homework I want you guys to get to know each other better. Learn each other you guys will need to depend on one another to survive. Trust me it is important.” With that he walked out of the class.
“Well that was interesting.” Max said as everyone got their stuff together.
“Yeah, it was.” I said laughing.
“So what class do you have next, vrou?” Max asked me smiling.
“What did you call me?” I asked curiously.
“It means woman in Afrikaans.” He said chuckling.
“Oh ok, well then I have a control class. They said I had to start off with the freshmen but I’m not in a 101 I’m in a higher level. My bunkmate is in that class. It’s weird.”
“Then that means you’re admissions counselor thought you had more control than a 101 course.” He said thoughtfully.
“I guess that’s a good thing, except I have no control over my powers yet.” I said as we walked down the hallway, I had no idea where I was going but I had shown Max my schedule and he seemed to know where I was going.
“You’ll get the hang of it. It took me about a month to learn my powers and I’m a slow learner. Plus with our abilities we are constantly learning new things. Hell I just learned that I can shoot poisonous darts at people that can actually make them sleepy.” He said laughing.
“Uhm…how did you figure that out?” I asked kind of scared.
“I got into a fight with Sebastian and he shot me with a water blast and I got mad so I shot him back. It just so happened to be a dart that knocked him unconscious for three hours.” He said, rubbing the back of his neck embarrassed.
I just looked at him and started dying of laughter. It made him laugh too.
“That is the funniest thing I have ever heard!” I said gasping for air.
“Well I’m glad I could make you laugh, you have a beautiful smile.” He said smiling.
“Why thank you.” I said smiling. I was about to compliment him on how nice he was and how grateful I was for it when we walked into a full classroom. I instantly saw Michelle in the back with Lana. In the front was Caleb and Vinessa. Oh fun. I knew this was going to be an interesting class.
Max brought me to the back and set us up some seats. “Hey you’re in this class?” I asked him in shock. I thought he was only going to show me the way.
“Yup.” He said smiling.
“Why hello there Astrid.” I heard from in front of me. It was Caleb and Vinessa. Vinessa was the one speaking. “Looks like you found yourself a new friend. Or what could be called one.”
“Oh wow, that was creative. How long did it take for you to come up with that?” I said. About half the class laughed.
Vinessa jaw tightened. “About as long as it took for your parents to d-“ Caleb and reached across and put a hand over her mouth. But I already knew what she was saying. And I. Was. Pissed.
“Excuse me madam I think the world falls out of my ass and everyone should bow down to me. But you are not as awesome as you think you are. In fact you suck. You’re the girl no one wants or wants to be. And you’re clearly jealous of every single girl you think can challenge you because you challenge everything with boobs and a vagina. Now if you’ll please move you’re blocking the view of the front of the room and I really would like to learn how to control my powers. Thank you and good bye.” Everyone was just looking at me. Max was wide eyed, Michelle looked awed, and Caleb had an odd look on his face. Then I heard clapping. We all looked towards the front of the class to see a man and a woman standing in front of the class.
They were polar opposites. The woman was short and dark skinned, with a calm exterior. The man was tall and pale, with a vicious exterior. The woman had snow white hair but looked very young. The man had pitch black hair and looked very young. The woman smiled.
“Well thank you ladies for that…demonstration, it looks like we have our first sparing partners for today. Astrid, Vinessa please join us up front.” She said.
“Okay.” I said standing up. I looked to Michelle, she nodded. Vinessa and I both walked up to the front of the class. We got to the front of the room; everyone else was sitting in their chairs, watching impatiently.
“All right ladies, since you want to argue you are going to be sparring today, got it? No death blows, no scarring, and no wimpy shit.” The man said. The woman looked at him in awe.
“Sweetie, no swearing, you are a teacher now remember that.” She said smiling. His lips curled into what I assumed was a smile.
Vinessa went and stood in a circle to the left side of the class, I saw another circle on the other side; so I went and stood in it.
“All right ladies, BEGIN!” the man said.
Vinessa smirked and took a stance then her eyes glowed and she reached a hand out. She shot me with a wave of…power. There is no other way of describing it. It knocked me off my feet.
“One point to Vinessa. Zero for Astrid.” The woman called.
All right, that’s it. I. Was. Pissed. I got back up and stood in my circle and took a stance. Vinessa watched me curiously. I felt that surge of heat in my chest. Something must have changed in me because everyone gasped and Vinessa looked scared. I felt the heat creep down my arms and into my hands. It felt warm and comfortable. The next thing I know I was laying on the floor and Caleb was smiling at me.
“Nice job, Astrid, you won.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Authors Note: Thank you for waiting patiently!! I hope this makes up for the long wait!! Enjoy! And as always Like, Comment, Fan, and Spread the Word!!
~Kim <3 :)