Dystopian Sky High (Story I wrote when I was 15)

Part 1 (aka the whole thing)

High School is basically hell. It's full of moody teenagers with anger issues and raging hormones. Now, imagine a school full of teenagers with even more hormones and even more danger of being shoved in a locker. Yeah, that's my high school. We're a little bit different, actually a lot different. We don't have any common curricular classes, and all the teachers are no older than 21. The lunch sucks, unless you like genetically modified mush, and of course the bullies are even worse, because they have an advantage over most people. We all do actually; we're "special" in a way. All our "school" does is teach us how to fight, and control our...*cough* special talents. The only way to get to this school is if you manage to get past the most secure government base in the country, then travel underground until you can't remember what the sun looks like anymore, and take a right. That should lead you to "Sunlake Acadamy" a school for the exceptionally "gifted". And that's where I've been most of my life. Last time I saw non-artificial light was when I was seven. I was running away from yet another foster home when they found me, and my luck turned for the worse once they discovered that I was "special". Now I'm stuck in this dump for who knows how long. Currently right at this moment, I am sitting at my desk attempting to digest bland gray mush while a girl is staring at me angrily from across the room; great. I push my food around my plate with a fork, trying to avoid eye contact. That's my method when it comes to the crazies around here. Believe me, you do NOT want to mess with some of these people. I wonder what her problem is, judging by her icy stare, she looks pissed. She suddenly stands up and walks toward me, and I quickly duck my head down. She sits right next to me and stares at me until I turn to face her. Her hair is almost white; pulled into a tight braid, and her skin is so pale that it looks to be made of snow. She stares me down with eyes that seem to be made of stained glass. "Well?" She asks, waiting for me to say something. I stare at her confused; "Well what?". She grew more angry and snarled "You know what...". I frowned and genuinely tried to figure out why this girl was so upset. Suddenly I remembered and smiled at her confidently. "Serves you right for cheating." I finally said. Her eyes flashed with anger and she looked like she wanted to murder me. "You cost me my badge! Do you know how much I worked for that?!" Her expression turned to pure rage. I backed away a little bit, and carefully remarked; "Yeah, but earning badges unfairly doesn't even count. I saw you sneak off your bracelet before you entered the testing room. I'm not sure how you managed to do it, but it was still not allowed. You know that we can't use our abilities when we do our physical tests." The girl sighed, but her expression was still cold. "Well, thanks." She said sarcastically "Now I have to clean the girl's bathrooms for a month." I shrugged; "Next time don't cheat." . She rolled her eyes and stuck out her hand pointing her pale finger at my lunch. The gray mush quickly frosted over, turning into solid ice. She then grabbed the only edible thing on my plate, a cookie that I snagged from the kitchen and slowly walked away. I don't care if you ruin my lunch, that stuff sucks anyway, but take my cookie, and then it gets personal. I made a mental note not to trust her and tried again to eat, this time the mush was even less edible; yummy. A familiar siren screech rang in my ears as the lunch hour was signaled to be over, good riddance. I threw away my tray and followed the rest of the students who were lining up by the doorway. After lunch there is always some sort of personal assessment, whether that be a physical test, a mental test, or a test on your abilities. Of course there's always a mixture of the three occasionally, those suck. When you pass enough of the tests over the years, you get badges, and the more badges you have, the higher up in the ranks you are and the bigger your ego gets. The higher ranks get to boss everyone else around, so naturally everyone strives to get badges. I only have three, hooray. Most of the higher-ups have about 15 or 16, so I have a while to go. A second shrill siren announces the start of the tests. We all sit down in our seats and watch as one of the instructors stands and walks to the center of the room. His name is Erik, eighteen, and probably Swedish based on his almost impossible to understand accent. But you don't need to understand Erik, you just need to stay away from him. He used to be the nerdy blonde kid, but then he got his ability and after a few fights and a nasty scar later, they learned not to mess with him. He rose so high in the ranks that he almost graduated a year or two early. Now Erik is standing with a slip of paper in hand with a microphone in the other. He slowly reads the paper and then announces in a thick accent ; "Claire Garner" and then turns off the mic. I looked around the crowd to try and figure out what was going on when I saw someone in the audience stand up. It was the ice girl. She nervously walked down the steps as the room went completely silent. Another terrible thing about this room, it's more like an arena, where the whole academy can watch you taking your tests, and fail. The metal bleachers are perfectly suited to fit the entire body of students, who are no doubt laughing at you .Claire stood silently by Erik as he turned to her and then turned on the mic again. "Claire Garner, I herby strip you of your badge on the account of disobeying the testing guidelines. You are permitted to clean the girl's lavatories for the entire month, along with three weeks of detention." He boomed. Then he reached over to her jacket where her badges were carefully ironed on and with a loud rip he violently tore it from the fabric. The room continued to stay silent, getting a badge revoked was super embarrassing, and although I was the one who ratted her out, I felt kinda bad, but only a little bit. Detention sucks, you have to wear a power bracelet for the duration of your time and it can include anything from scrubbing the floors with a toothbrush to organizing countless papers, to more painful punishments. One kid came back from detention with deep cuts all along his arms and he refused to talk about it. And power bracelets are less than fashionable, let alone fun to wear. They look like prison shackles and they drain you of any "power" or "ability" you may have so you're weakened and have to rely on your other strengths. By now Claire was back at her seat, attempting to hide her face from the crowd. Suddenly, a third bell sounded and the lights started to dim, let the games begin.