The Elements of Rage | ✔

• T H R E E •

"The chains are broken, but are you truly free?"

・・・

Mr. Harlow announces, "Sit down and quiet down, monkeys!"

As the classroom quiets down and the students looks to him, he begins his lesson.

"How many of you remember why the Polyamorous Act was passed?" Mr. Harlow asks the class.

A boy in the front answers, "Because of the powers, duh."

"Yes! As a recap, when the genetic anomaly of powers came around, females were more susceptible to the anomaly. All females either remained normal, grew powerful—more so than the males typically—or they died. The males either remained normal or gained a power or two. Because of this, the population began to decline dramatically," He lectures. "At first, women were auctioned off, whoever paid the most got to marry. Then the Polyamorous Act was passed allowing people to marry multiple partners. At first, the results were disastrous, but over time, people grew to accept the idea of sharing. Let's take a look at some of the other acts that have been passed recently."

With a sigh, I prop my head up with my hand as I force myself to pay attention to the class as we go over, well, the government. Surely, there is something that I can learn in this class. It may be meaningless knowledge that will probably never help me in life, but I need to pay attention so that I can pass the class. It's not that I don't like to learn; it's just that I already know the information even though I don't need to. However, I am determined to learn something.

And I do learn. I learn the name of the boy I walked into when I was entering the class. Gage Wolfe, a fitting name.

When we are finally released from priso—I mean class, I make a quick visit to my locker to drop off my backpack and hurry to Elemental Testing. The hardest class that I will ever take.

Opening the door to the small room, I see a boy getting kicked out by the teacher.

"William," Ms. Garcia sighs. "Get out. You know that I can't have you in here. Go protest somewhere else."

William replies seriously, "Fine. But this will be brought to justice. The discrimination against those with powers is cruel and ought to be illegal."

Turning around to march out, I am able to fully see William. He is tall with olive skin and light brown hair. He looks at me and I am captivated by his orphic eyes. His eyes are green, the most vivid and striking green that I have ever seen.

Shaking my head slightly to clear my thoughts and do my best to ignore him, I turn away from him and march to the teacher.

"Ms. Garcia?" I ask.

"Rage Falls?" She replies with a small smile that does not quite reach her eyes.

"Yup," I answer. "What are you testing for today?"

"You'll see with the rest of the class," Ms. Garcia informs me. "There are eight other students in this class."

Nodding, I join the others as we wait for the bell to ring and class to officially start. This is no ordinary class, though.

"It seems we are all here. If you will follow me through this door, the testing is set up for ice."

Swearing up a storm in my mind, I follow Ms. Garcia through the door and into a metal room. Ms. Garcia closes the door after us and enters the plexiglass box in the middle of the room where she can safely survey us. She will keep a close eye out for any sign or display of powers and the cameras will ensure that nothing is missed. As the door closes, the matte grey walls immediately turn white and we are blasted by cold air. I don't feel a thing, but I can see the other students begin to shiver and attempt to rub warmth back into their arms. Quickly, I fein cold and do the same. I move around, pretending to try and get my blood flow up. The others are beginning to turn purple. Not wanting to be the last again, I carefully use my shadow powers to make my cheeks a bit darker and curl up into a ball to hide any other evidence. Hopefully, it will work. In my old town, I never had to fake not having powers, despite having elemental testing classes there as well.