The Gifted

Gym

I made my way from homeroom to the gymnasium and found a group of people that looked older than me. Juniors and seniors for sure. I spotted Jace sitting by himself on the first bleacher, so I walked over and sat down next to him, saying "I guess we've got the same class this period." Jace looked up at me, raised an eyebrow, and then went back to looking at the ground in between his feet. Analise was apparently in the same class too, because she excused herself from her group she was talking to and came over, saying "Hey sparky. I didn't realize you were in the advanced class with us. How come?" I shrugged and said "I dunno, it was on my schedule though. Am I supposed to be here?" Analise shook her head and said "If it's on your schedule, you're supposed to be here, but technically, you should be in the beginning class, since you're new to your powers." A new voice called out, saying "Nevertheless, he's supposed to be here." We turned and looked to see a man with the biggest lumberjack-style beard I had ever seen. He had on a deep green tank top and some very, very short shorts. "My name is Coach to you kids. Coach or Sir. I'll be teaching you how to use your powers, or at least control them better. Please raise your hands if you know what your powers are, or at least have suspicions about them." Almost everybody raised their hands, including me. While I wasn't entirely sure about what my powers were, I did have a vague idea. Coach said "When I point to you, please state your name and what your powers are. If you think a brief demonstration would help, that is acceptable as well." He pointed to Analise first, and she said "My name is Analise, my powers are fire." As she said this, she raised her arms, and fire emitted from her fingertips, dancing down her arms until they reached her shoulders, where they all died out at once. Coach then pointed to me, and I said "My name is Taylor, and I'm pretty certain that my powers are lightning, but I'm not entirely sure." Coach nodded his head and said 'So I've heard. We'll do some tests later on with everybody to find out for sure. Next!" The list went on and on. One girl could dampen other's powers, and the boy standing next to her was psychic. Another could walk through solid objects. A different girl could grow whatever plant she wanted, wherever she wanted them to grow. Finally, the almighty finger of choosing, wielded by Coach, landed on Jace. Jace stood up, walked into the center of the circle, and pointed at the ground in front of him. A circle appeared, and when it grew bigger, we all saw that it was purple. Jace then pointed in the air above us, and the pool of purple light on the ground in front of us opened, showing us, but from a view from above. Jace stepped forwards, and did a light jump into the hole. Suddenly, the whole snapped shut, and as we looked up, we saw Jace fall about 15 feet, the portal closing behind him, and he landed in the classic super hero pose, with one knee and one hand on the floor. "Portals" sighed one of the older students. "So lame." Coach raised his eyebrow and said "Really? And what might your powers be?" The other boy's eyes flashed a deep, dark maroon as he said "My name is Pierce. My powers are fire." His arms were now alight, and liquid fire dripped off of his fingertips, landing on the floor around him, still blazing. One of the kids in the back said "Your powers don't look or act like normal fire. Maybe napalm?" Pierce extinguished the fire on his body, yet the fire on the ground continued burning. Pierce turned and said "Oh yea? Well what are your powers, smart one? Ultimate intelligence?" A few others snickered at that, and Pierce looked rather pleased with himself. The kid said "My name is Isaac. My powers are gold." Pierce narrowed his eyes and said "Gold? What the heck does that mean?" Isaac said "It means anything I touch with my bare skin turns to solid gold. I also have power over gold, and can tell if something is real gold or not." A few students crowded around him, asking if a piece of their jewelry was real gold or not. Unfortunately, the majority of their jewelry was not, in fact, gold. Coach pointed to a scrawny kid towards the back, who said "My name is Tim Powers, and I'd rather not say what I can do." A girl named May Candemote apparently could read people's minds, and sort through their memories at will. Many others didn't take too kindly to that, but she assured us all that she preferred not to, and she felt that it was an invasion of privacy. I was pretty glad about that, actually. I went through my next few classes without anything memorable happening, other than the fact that I shared classes with a few others from gym, namely Pierce. Yippee. After school was over, I met Jack out in the courtyard, and Analise soon came over as well. "How was your first day, Sparky?" she asked. I said "It was fine. What's up with the kid earlier who didn't want to say what his powers are? I think his name was Tim?" Jack nodded and said "Yea, we don't know much about him, only that he eats nuclear waste on Tuesdays." I said "Wait, what?" Analise said "You heard him." I was pretty weirded out by that, but then again, I could summon lightning. Supposedly. I said "How do you two know about that?" Analise said "We hang out on weekends, and we actually end up finding people on accident. Basically we go where we shouldn't and just have a look around. If somebody is doing something wrong, we help where we can and stop what they're doing. Simple, really." I was curious about that, but I figured I could ask more about that later. I said goodbye to Jack and Analise, and I stepped off to the side, watching what other kids were doing. It was all very confusing, because one person stated his name and grade, as I thought, but another simply said "Ground floor." As I was trying to figure out what to say, Jace walked up beside me and said, "There is no correct saying for this. Just say where you would like to go." He stepped off to the side and was gone in his own tube of darkness. So weird. It was the first time I had heard him say anything. He had an odd accent that I couldn't quite place. Oh well. My turn. I did what another guy did, which was say "Ground floor, please," and away I went in my blue portal. I landed on the corner that I originally left from. I started walking down the street when I heard Analise yell "Hey! Wait up!" I stopped and turned, and Analise ran up to me, panting. We both started walking again when she said "So, how was your first day?" I thought for a second, and said "It was different. I have a feeling that some people are going to be a real thorn in my side, and yet I have this feeling that there will be more who are not." We kept walking for a little bit when I remembered the vision that I had when Sprick the younger was electrocuting me. I said "Hey, can I tell you something weird that happened to me on Friday?" Analise said "If it was a vision, Jack, Jace and I had it too. Or at least, different versions of them, rotating between fire and ice together, or lightning." She looked at me when she said "lightning," which I guess was warranted. I said "Mine was lightning. I was on a hill, and there were thunderstorms everywhere. A voice called out to me, and said a prophecy." Analise's voice joined mine as we recited it, ending with "Until only death has power." She said "That's interesting. Our visions were all on the edges of cliffs, with fire and ice swirling around each other, laying waste to houses and farmland. It was so weird. Half of a river was frozen over, but only a few feet away it was flowing lava. Jace had the lightning version though. He said that the lightning was striking all around him. I'm not sure what they mean, but it's weird that your vision was different than ours." We arrived at my apartment complex and walked in together, with Analise going left and me going right with cursory goodbye's and "see you tomorrows." I didn't really have any homework, so I just waited for my mother and then we ate dinner. My day was finished up, so I went to bed.

A very birdlike woman walked down the halls of Roosevelt's, her heels clicking on the tiles with every step. She turned down some stairs, up a few others, and made her way to an office, which read "Office of Avery Windonson, Principal." She knocked twice, and at the word "enter," walked in. Behind a large mahogany desk sat an equally large man who didn't look a day over thirty. His jet black hair was slicked back, and he had thick-rimmed glasses pushed up on his face. His jawline was perfect, as was his face, his body, everything he did. In the chair across the desk, in front of the woman, sat a boy who looked like the spitting image of Principal Windonson, yet he was lacking a certain something, something that made him not quite perfect. The woman who Avery knew to be Miss Hays, identified the boy in the chair as Jace Windonson, the principal's son. Miss Hays said to Principal Windonson "The halls are clear. No trace of any students. I followed the Child of Lightning as you requested. He is extremely powerful, as you thought. Quite possibly the most powerful student I have met thus far." Principal Windonson said "Thank you, Miss Hays. That will be all." The woman turned on her heel, and walked back through the halls, until she made it out to the courtyard, where she exited the school. Avery Windonson looked at Jace, who nodded and said "She is gone." Windonson leaned back, and his deep voice emitted from his mouth, saying "Good. That woman hears much. Perhaps too much. Now that she is gone, we make speak freely." Jace shifted his weight, and waited patiently for his father to speak. "Do you remember what happened, Friday night?" Jace responded "Of course. Everybody had the vision, or at least, a variation of it." His father said "Everyone of notable or serious power, had the vision." Jace shifted his weight again, and Avery said "What is it that makes you so uncomfortable in my presence?" Jace said quietly, "I don't like the task you have set out for me." Avery leaned forwards in his chair, and said "You had the vision too, Jace. You heard the voice. Especially the last line. 'Until only Death has power.' I will have power over this planet and the Shadow Realm. It has been foretold!" He slammed his fist down on the table in front of him, emphasizing his point. Avery collected himself, said "That will be all," and turned around in his chair, looking out of the window that was behind him and thinking. Jace got up and walked out, quietly closing the door behind him. Avery Windonson got up from his chair, reached under his desk into a cabinet, and pulled out a glowing orb. It was emitting a soft glowing light, and Avery waved his hand, turning off the lights, accentuating the glowing light further. He waved his hand over the orb, and the murkiness cleared, revealing Jace walking down the front steps of the school and into the courtyard. He waved his hand over the orb again, and the image changed to Analise sitting on her bed reading a book. He waved his hand again and found himself staring into the eyes of Taylor Baker. "Powerful, eh?" Avery said to himself. "We shall see about that." He waved his hand over the orb a final time, and the images went murky again. He placed the orb back in the cabinet under his desk, and the lights came back on. He sat back down in his chair, turned around, and looked out the window, his hands folded on his lap. "Until Death has power. Until only I  have power."