Cassiopea's School for the Gifted

Ch. 6

"I'll be right back, guys."

Noa and Circe nodded without looking up from their books, and Eira and Finn both gave me a thumbs-up.

To explain...

I was going to show my other friends what my power was. 

To use enough energy so that my eyes turned red and black smoke came off of me, I walked back to my room where I was going to go in my closet and then come out of a shadow that we made sure our friends would be sitting by. I was going to text Finn when I was about to go through the darkness and he was gonna make sure Noa and Circe were looking in the direction of the shadow I was going to be coming out of. If all went as planned (according to Finn and Eira) Noa would think what I could do was cool and Circe would be really smiley and supportive of me. I hoped they were right.

I got back to our room.

A- I'll wait a minute for you to get their attention, but I'm ready to head over now

F- Got it :)

I took a deep breath.

I got this... totally. It was going to be alright. I'd been at that school for a few months and I'd been friends with those guys that whole time. They knew my character. They wouldn't be scared or angry at me. Yeah.

I looked at my phone and a minute passed.

"Here goes nothing..."

I opened the closet and shut it then traveled to the shadow in the library.

"Woah..." Circe and Noa said in unison once they saw me.

I glanced at myself and saw the black smoke there so I knew my eyes were red too.

I smiled nervously, "Surprise..."

Circe stood up and walked in front of me and waved her hand through the smoke, "These are your powers?"

I nodded.

Noa smiled, "I knew it!"

"Huh?"

Eira rolled her eyes, "Don't listen to them. They thought your power was farting rainbows."

I laughed a little.

Noa stuck her tongue out at her, "That was just a dumb guess. I saw how in awe you were of the flowers when you first saw the school garden. I figured your powers must be something darker. Because I lived in New York for a little when I was younger, no New Yorker gets that excited to see flowers."

I blushed a little, "Yeah... I love nature and bright things. It's ironic that I'm a dark energy manipulator."

"Aw, your eyes aren't red anymore."

"Yeah, it goes away after a bit. Same with the smoke."

Circe smiled, "Your eyes look cool when you use your powers. I like it."

I smiled, "Thanks."

We all sat down, "So are you going to tell other people about your powers now?"

"I don't know..."

"Hey, A, what's your last name?" Noa asked suddenly.

I looked down and cleared my throat, "Griffin."

A few of them gasped.

"No wonder you're so scared of your powers."

"Huh?" Finn and Circe asked.

"Um, my parents are very powerful. They use dark energy for bad things. My whole family has. I hate my powers though. They can hurt me, but more importantly, they can hurt those around me if I don't have enough control. So I was forced to practice my powers and I mastered them by the time I was ten. Since then my parents have been making me keep practicing to get more powerful. And they started teaching me combat skills before I came here."

"What exactly are your powers?" Circe asked.

"Same as Eira's except I use dark energy instead of light. I can create, shape, and manipulate dark energy. Along with traveling through darkness and shadows, I can store things in voids in the darkness like pockets. If I lose control I'll let out a large amount of dark energy that can destroy things around me. It's not fun."

"Yeah it would be bad if you lost control, and your family is crappy, but dude..." Noa put their hand on my shoulder, "You can freaking walk through shadows, your eyes turn blood red when you use your powers and black stuff radiates off of you like a gangster. Also, you always have a pocket as long as there is a shadow or darkness near you. Your powers are still cool. And you come from a pure-blood family so you are powerful. Just because you manipulate dark energy doesn't mean you're a bad person."

I nodded, "I know, I know. So many people have said that to me since I got here."

Finn smiled, "Because this is where you belong. People here know powers or shifting abilities don't define you as a person."

"Hey, question."

"Yeah, Circe?"

"How did Finn and Eira know about your powers before us? Not that I'm upset, just wondering."

"Yeah, I'm curious about that too."

I laughed awkwardly, "Um it was a fun time... um every weekend I go visit my parents and I go through the closet because it's dark and when I was keeping my powers secret I could travel without Finn seeing me. One day though he got back to our room as I got back and he saw me, red eyes and all. I panicked and locked myself in the bathroom."

"Then after I got over my shock at seeing my roommate looking so badass, I ran to Eira's room because I was pretty sure he was a dark energy manipulator and I figured Eira could help him. We got him to unlock the bathroom door and then things got all emotional."

Eira nodded, "I was a bit surprised at first but when I thought about it it made sense. When I first told you, Arion, what my powers were I noticed you looked nervous. I passed it off as first-day nerves. Then you kept asking me about how my powers work. Now I know you were wondering if light energy manipulators were similar to dark energy manipulators."

I nodded, "And someone even before you guys knew I had a dark power."

"Who?"

"Samwise."

Eira nodded, "That makes sense. You heard about his power and wanted to ask him questions?"

I nodded, "I asked Cassia and she gave him my number anonymously. After I asked him questions he figured pretty fast that I have dark powers also, and then he asked if he could know my name and I told him. He doesn't know my power yet though."

"You know, if and when you decide to tell people what your power is, no one here will think that you are evil. Even if they know your last name. People here are very understanding."

I nodded, "I know. It's just I don't know how I'd go about telling people."

Noa smiled, "I have an idea."