Catalyst

CHAPTER ONE

School is only good for two things—grades and social life. Considering I'm not exactly excelling in either of those areas, I'm not sure why I'm here.

Professor Armstrong walks down the aisle, his comscreen in hand. "All right, class, your test scores have been uploaded." He stops beside my desk, the smell of his cheap cologne overpowering, and stares down at me through his rimless glasses. "If you have any questions, please see me after class."

I avoid his gaze and focus on my desk-screen, dreading my latest calculus test score. The screen lights up, a digital device that displays my name, the date, and my test grade.

C minus.

Again.

Professor Armstrong continues down the aisle, and I groan inwardly, swiping the screen off.

Is it too much to ask for one good test grade?

When the bell rings, I escape into the hall. Chaz is already waiting for me.

"Hey, Sienna, you coming over to my house tonight?" He smiles, his dark round face giving way to a row of white teeth. "We still need to watch the final season of Return to Space."

A group of girls glides onto the Stairway to Heaven—as they call it. I like to call them the Stairs from Hell. I avoid the see-through moving contraption of death and take the normal stairs instead. Mainly because that thing scares me, but partly because I know I'd collapse by the time I made it to the top. I watch as the girls' long legs work their way up the moving stairs—kind of like a mini-workout just getting around school. "Haven't we already watched all the episodes, like, three times?"

Chaz shrugs. "I dunno. Who's counting?"

Once we make it to the top, I stop and face him. "I am. And once was enough for me." I shift my backpack on my shoulder. "Besides, I have a ton of homework to do. I think the professors forget that not all of us are blessed with enhanced genetics."

Chaz snorts. "Oh, you mean the two of us who aren't?"

Chaz and I are the only ones at the Genetically and Intellectually Gifted Academy—GIGA for short—who aren't genetically gifted. Which is probably the reason we bonded in the first place. At least Chaz has the intellectually gifted thing going for him. Me? Not so much.

I guess you could say we're lucky—or cursed, depending on how you look at it—to have fathers who are professors at the school. It affords us free tuition and automatic acceptance. But for Chaz, the only boy in a sea of perfect GM girls—thanks to our segregated schools policy—life is good. Unfortunately, just because we go to this school, it doesn't mean we belong.

Case in point: Rayne Williams and her entourage of perfect human specimens. I watch as they stride past, their legs long and endless, their hair perfect, their teeth straight, and their clothes tight and curving in all the right places. These are girls who never smell and probably never even sweat, whereas I'm like an overworked sweat gland factory. How can I ever compete with that perfection? I can't. Therefore, I don't try to.

Sighing, I turn back to Chaz, whose eyes have also followed Rayne and her friends down the hall. "Dang," he says. "That sight never gets old."

I slug him in the shoulder and take off down the hall in the opposite direction of Rayne & Crew. Chaz hurries to catch up.

"I'll make you a deal," he says. "Come over after school. I'll help you with your homework, and then we can watch Return to Space. It's a win-win."

How can I possibly argue with that kind of logic? Especially when it comes from my best and only friend? "Let me run by my dad's room and tell him I'm riding home with you."