Timeline

4

"Students, school will begin shortly," the Herald announced. "Please head to your stations."

"Well, I'll see you guys later," Tom said as he followed the other students to the detecting stations. Lynne headed inside the school with Julia and took a different hallway than usual. This one led to the ability training hallways. She entered the room labeled TIMESHIFTER and saw three other people sitting in the room. Two completely ignored her, but one gave her a small smile and gestured to the seat next to her. "Thanks," Lynne whispered, sliding into it.

"I'm Kira," the girl said. "Most of the people here are kind of snobby, we have a pretty rare ability so they think they're better than everyone. Not sure why they think that includes other Timeshifters," she mused.

"We're more experienced, loser," a boy with dark gray hair sneered, speaking for the first time.

"You've only been here one year, Zach," Kira argued.

"That's longer than either of you," he retorted.

"Just because you know how to do more doesn't mean you're better," Lynne said quietly.

Zach snorted. "Says who?"

Kira's answer was cut off by the door opening again. The man who'd tested them for Timeshifting strode into the room, giving Zach a sharp look. He didn't say anything about it, though.

"This is one of the quickest-developing abilities, so we will progress fairly quickly here," he said instead. "For our new student, I am Mr. Johnston." He looked over all of them. "Yesterday we did not have class because I was testing students, but that does not mean I will go easy on any of you."

He set a blue palm-size ball on the desk in front of him. It wobbled when he set it down, as it it were made of jelly.

"This will be one of the harder exercises," he informed them. "You will not only move the paint back in time, you will also move back everything it touches." He threw the paintball and it splattered against the wall. "Who's going first?"

A boy in a green shirt moved forward, shrugging. He narrowed ice-blue eyes at the wall and waved his hand in the opposite direction of the path the ball had taken. The paint drew itself out of the wall, reforming into its original orb and settling back onto the desk.

"Not bad, Kyle," Mr. Johnston told him. "But pay attention to the splatters." He gestured to the spots where drops of paint had landed on the ground. "You want to pull everything back." He threw the ball again. "Try it one more time." The boy repeated the action, but this time removed every trace of paint from the wall and floor.

"Well done," the instructor said. "Zach, you go next."

Zach looked up and shook his hair out of his eyes, then lazily flicked his hand. The ball gathered itself back together and plopped onto the desk.

"You missed quite a bit here," Mr. Johnston told him.

"Don't care," Zach said, leaning back in his chair.

Mr. Johnston sighed, but didn't argue, simply gathering the remaining paint into the ball before throwing it again.

"Lynne, why don't you try now," he suggested.

Lynne stood up nervously and concentrated, trying to copy what she'd seen the others do. When that didn't work, she imagined reaching out and pulling the paint out of the wall. It slowly retracted as if set on a firm path. She realized it was, finally understanding. She gathered all the little specks she could find and pulled them back on the path she felt, guiding them carefully back to the desk.

"Very good!" her instructor said. "I expected you to do well, as early unlocks usually control their power better than most, but you've exceeded my expectations!"

"Thanks," Lynne said, smiling as she moved back to her seat.

Kira went next, doing fairly well. She missed a few splatters, but got them on her third try. After that, the instructor ran them through several more exercises, which included drawing paint out of various objects. At the end of the lesson, Mr. Johnston seemed pleased.

"Good progress today, class," he said. "I expect more of the same tomorrow."