Fine Line

Chapter 3

☆☆☆

"One down, four to go." Ares held the piece of paper in his hand, twirling it around in his fingers. "The little fucker writes poetry."

"You think the poem's written about someone?" Mika inquired. A sneaky grin spread across her face. "Or maybe for someone?"

Taj lightly punched her shoulder, both students chuckling a little. "Oh, most definitely." they nodded. "Maybe it's about-"

"Well, whoever it's about, I don't care." Ares interrupted, stuffing the paper in his pocket. "All that matters is that I now have information, and I get this whole thing over faster."

"Gosh, you're no fun." Taj and Mika shared a pouting face, crossing their arms.

"No, I just don't like to fuck around with things I don't give a shit about." The bell rang. "Speaking of which, I need to get to class. You two shitheads do whatever you want."

As his friends waved goodbye, Ares went on his way to class, weaving his way through the crowded hallways. People started walking with him, chatting him up and trying to bother him with their useless, fake small talk. He played along, exchanging worthless comments about the weather, and when he finally got to his first class, he escaped to his desk and put his earbuds in.

As he nodded his head to the beat, he glanced around the room and observed the other students. He often found himself much more content watching other people, simply looking on as they went along their everyday lives. He loved attention, but being in the spotlight constantly tended to wear him out.

His eyes wandered over to the back corner of the room, where Clover was sitting at his desk, once again scribbling away in his notebook. He, too, was watching the other students, his head bobbing up and down between looking and scribbling. What a weirdo, Ares scoffed to himself. He's probably drawing them doing weird shit. Then a thought hit him. He still had to find out more about Clover. He sighed resignedly to himself. Better get it over with.

But just as he was about to get up to walk to Clover's desk, the bell rung and class started. The teacher called for order, and Ares' brow furrowed in frustration. Perfect fucking timing.

"Class, settle down!" Mr. Strait, the Oddity Studies teacher, yelled as he attempted to calm the class down. "I know you're excited for today's oddity presentation, but please save your energy for later. Now, attendance."

Ares shot a glance toward Clover, who returned his gaze. The smaller boy narrowed his eyes, and quickly turned away. Ares rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair. Moody bitch.

"Alright kids," Mr. Strait clapped his hands to get the class' attention. "As you know, today you are presenting your oddity abilities to the class. This is an assessment of your talents, and your presentation will be graded." He scanned the room. "Any volunteers?"

The class was dead silent. The students looked around at each other nervously, waiting for someone to raise their hand so that they didn't have to go first. As always, Ares raised his hand in the air.

"Mr. Moran, of course, please come up to the front."

Ares walked up and started his presentation. "My name's Ares, and my oddity is called Puppeteer's Dominance. It's a dual touch/manipulation ability, and basically, I can control the functions of whatever I touch. I can break things apart, put things back together, and get things working again. However, I cannot change the form or state of matter of the object." His eyes shifted slightly. "I am now going to demonstrate. Can someone hand me an item, specifically one with moving mechanics?"

One of the students fished out a broken robot toy from his backpack. "I've been trying to fix it for months, I can't seem to start it up again."

Ares nodded his head and placed the robot down on the desk. He held onto its head for a mere moment, then it suddenly sprang to life! It started to do a little dance and let out a beeping noise. The students gasped and looked on in awe. Even Clover, who seemed uninterested in the whole affair, turned his head to look at the dancing robot.