"The Cantankerous Crew" Act One: The Academy

Leo

 A boy with wispy, silver hair, and stunning purple eyes strolled down the courtyard. He kept his books under one arm, and his hair out of his face with the other. Perfect weather coated his skin along with a soft breeze. The few cherry blossom trees that were tended to in the courtyard had beautiful buds starting to open and plenty of bright colored flowers dotted along the pathways.

Tripping over an "accidentally" placed foot, Leo dropped to the dirt path followed by a shove. He hit the ground hard, face first. "Move it, Lenny," a harsh voice commanded.

He drew in a shaky breath, grabbed for his glasses, and snatched up his books and scattered folders; the wind making this a more challenging task. "It's Leo," he mumbled.

"Have something to say?" the same voice demanded accompanied by a foot to his side, knocking him over again. A small group of boys had gathered, not wanting to cross paths with the reckless boy.

"Nicholas! Cut it out!" a girl's voice shouted in dismay. Leo looked up to see a long-limbed girl reaching to hold Nicholas back. Nicholas let out a huff, but backed away. She turned to Leo with an outstretched arm and a warm smile. Leo took it, thankful for any assistance.

"Thank you, E-e-erica," he said.

"No problem, man. I'm sorry I'm late," the tall girl responded.

"It's not an-an i-iss-iss-issue," he added as they began down the pathway again. They quizzed each other for their Latin exam the rest of the way to class.

Leo adjusted his tie atop his grey, short sleeved, dress shirt. He checked his watch. "Still have f-fi-fi-five-five minutes," he mumbled. A knock interrupted his thoughts. "Come i-i-in-in."

"Hey, Leo, this is Alexandria," Erica announced, popping her head in as she opened the door wider to reveal Alex standing behind her.

Leo nodded, quickly adjusted his hair in the mirror, then turned to greet them with a wide smile. "E-e-erica talks a-a-about y-you a-a-a lot."

Erica jabbed him in the ribs. "Not a lot," she corrected with a smirk.

Leo laughed and started, "Y-yes, a-a-actu-actually, quite a lot."

Alex giggled, extending a hand to Leo. He shook it and the three of them were on their way. "So can y-you e-e-explain your powers? Er-erica tried, but I-I-I guess you n-ne-never really got in-into talking too much a-abou-about it," Leo asked.

"As far as I know I can only move time and space. It isn't an exact science, but it's useful," Alex briefed him, her soft british accent more prominent from the speed she was talking at. Leo nodded and left an awkward silence as they walked outside. "You want me to show you, don't you?" she questioned with a smirk. He nodded excitedly. She offered her hand again, he took it, and Erica grabbed onto Alex's other arm as the latter's hand began to glow a dark blue.

Leo looked down to see fallen leaves floating in mid-air and people caught mid-step. He began laughing. Still holding onto each other, they walked to the mess hall. Before entering, Alex resumed time and walked in with Leo still caught in hysterics.

"I'm not trying to-to-to laugh, I-I think this is-is just shock," Leo informed them. Holding his stomach, gagging interrupted his laughter as his face fell to something of pure terror.

"Oh, no. I forgot what happened to me the first time Lex did that," Erica exclaimed quickly guiding Leo to a trashcan. He retched a few times before regaining his composure. Alex didn't notice this mishap and had already made her way to Patrick, who saved some seats for everyone.

"Good morning," Leo overheard Patrick greet Alexandria. Erica had finally calmed Leo down and they both headed to the table. "Who's that?" Patrick wondered aloud as he sat up straight.

"Leo," Alex responded before biting into an apple. Erica plopped down next to Alex, Leo next to Patrick at the circular table.

"Hello, I'm Patrick."

"Nice to meet y-you, Patrick. I-I-I'm-I'm Leo," he responded, setting his books down onto his lap.

They all exchanged pleasantries then went quiet, taking in the moments of silence from the nearly empty hall. Leo fidgeted in his seat, his face growing a mix of red and a sickly pale. He lept to the trashcan again.

Nicholas walked in, took in the scene, and began to heckle the smaller boy again. Patrick stood, approaching Nicholas, but one harsh look from the latter, and he was caught in his step. Leo finally stood up straight, regaining his balance as Nicholas moved to their table.

Leo leaned against the wall, watching in dismay as Nicholas had already made it to his chair and pushed the books around. Papers fluttered and folders scattered. Patrick moved to catch them, but was shoved down to the ground. They all looked at the pages in awe. There were beautifully colored paintings of the blooming trees and flowers outside of that very hall. Nicholas snickered then lifted his foot to stomp on them. Leo almost fainted at the sight, but a hint of a smile spread on his face as Patrick tackled the boy before anymore damage was done.

Punches landed, and the tall boy was pinned down in shock. The few students were in a trance at the scene falling out before them. A professor got up and, with the aid of Erica, pulled the two apart. Patrick had a black eye, but Nicholas' face was almost unrecognizable.

Alex darted to Leo's side to help him to his feet. The two of them watched in dismay as Patrick was guided off with Nicholas. Erica stopped by their side as they all exchanged worried looks.

Leo had finally finished organizing all of his works into their proper place as he sat atop Patrick's bed. Erica was braiding Alex's seemingly endless hair to pass the time. "Does Patrick regularly burst out like that?" Alex wondered to Erica.

She shrugged. "I've seen him lose his temper, but it never ended in violence. I honestly didn't know he had that much muscle on him."

They fell into silence again. A soft knock rapped against the door. Erica lept up to open it, but her happy countenance fell seeing a much taller that Patrick teenager with obvious muscles. "Hey, Damion."

"Yikes, I didn't know I looked that bad," Damion's deep voice echoed ending with a chuckle. Erica smiled and hugged him. He slid his hand over his short dreads, pulling a few out of his face. Alexandria and Leo waved with smiles.

"That's Leo," Erica explained pointing to him, "and that's Alex," she finished.

Damion raised an eyebrow. "I honestly thought you would be taller and a boy."

Leo snorted and Alex shrugged. Erica plopped back down to Alex's bed laughing as she resumed her work on the braid. "So, all of us are at least at tier four, which makes this conversation much easier to go over," she began. "And, Leo, since I doubt that you know it, the tiers work on levels of what classes and what information the students and even the teachers here have."

"I-I think that I'm the o-on-only-only level four among u-us-us," Leo pointed out.

"Woah, man. You're at four?" Damion asked with surprise in his voice. Leo nodded with a puzzled look. "I mean, I'm not trying to bully you here, but-"

"Stutters have nothing to do with mental capacity," Alex blurted out. Damion fell silent as Leo looked down with a small smile spreading across his face.

"Let's uh," Erica began, "let's move on." The rest agreed swiftly. "I was assigned with Lex as part of our group. Everyone already knows she and Patrick have some affiliation with time, Patrick a timelord. I haven't gotten to researching what exactly Lex can do, but I'm sure there's some form of an explanation out there."

"I-i-if-if we split up, some in the library, o-oth-others the in-internet, and maybe someone a-a-ask-asking the professors, we could get some ans-an-a-answers pretty fast as long as there-there are any," Leo planned out. They all nodded and chose what to do eventually having to say goodnight as the very strict curfew was approaching.