Twice in a lifetime: Book 1

The observant teacher.

"Hey Sarah." Mr. Sam greeted the girl phasing halfway through his wall, as if nothing phased him. The girl phased fully into the room and floated to Mr. Sam's desk.

"Hey, Dad." The blue apparition responded. "Glad to see you finally teaching here."

"I had a few debts to fill. Old friends." Mr. Sam turned towards the class. "Students, this is Sarah. She will guide you around today. Line up and follow her to your next class.

The nine orphans quickly lined up and followed the ghostly girl to a room a little while down the hall, with the teacher's name, Mr. Anderson, hanging askew on the door. When the students entered, they found a man standing shorter than them, by clearly many years their senior. He was clearly the teacher. His bald head held many scars.

"No need for introductions, I'll figure it out." He spoke in an uninterested tone. "Just take a seat wherever, but remember I will move you if you disrupt your peers." He turned towards the chalkboard, which seemed to be the only thing in the room older than him, and began writing. "I assume you all know the basics of history, human and metahuman, yes? Good. This is an advanced history class, so today's lesson will be different. As I'm certain you know, once you graduate from this school in three years you shall become superheroes, contracted by the government. It stands to reason that I should teach you history that would be useful to your future career. So today we will be discussing the history of fake superpowers, and tomorrow I will teach you how to identify them."

A bead of sweat fell from Alexander's forehead, and Mr. Anderson noticed. He was the kind of person who could notice anything, and was constantly observing every little thing. All Alexander could do is pray that, somehow, Mr. Anderson wouldn't notice the small gauntlets. They were practically invisible sure, but not of one is looking for them. Mr. Anderson clearly knew where to look. After the class ended, he stopped writing on the chalkboard.

"Alright students, Sarah is here to lead you to the lunchroom. You will be provided with a small snack and will have fifteen minutes to eat before your next class." The students once again made a line behind Sarah and began to follow her out, but Mr. Anderson grabbed Alexander before he could exit. "What's this?" he questioned, grabbing the gauntlets from Alexander and looking them over. "Hmm, nothing dangerous, I'll bite, where did you get them?"

"A man in shadow gave them to me." Alexander spoke, not daring to lie.

"You should trust him; he clearly has your best interest in mind. Now head to snack." He handed back the gauntlets and Alexander put them back on. As he was catching up with the rest of his class, he felt his hand shake. Looking down, dark grey goo began to pour out. He stopped to let it all finish before he continued walking. Now walking next to him was not his girlfriend, but rather another Tulpa of his. The second of three, his best friend Davey.