Ataxia

twenty-four

Mr. Gonzalez's class was probably the longest class, like, ever. He taught ELAR and history. Man, can the guy command us to write notes about useless things like when the Zhou Dynasty first took over China. But luckily it only lasted about an hour and a half. There were only eight subjects and gym class. Which was code for "using your powers 101".

I was so glad my next class was gym. I needed to do something active. But I don't know if I'll look super dumb making my hands glow. I've practiced when I can and I've gotten pretty good about making my hands light up on command. But for some weird reason, all the fevers and hotness (like the sauce) and glowing with on explaination came back yesterday. I have no idea why.

The gym class was actually outside, which I was pretty excited for. Tiffany shared the next class with me but Emmie and Wynn didn't. Which was a total bummer because I really wanted to find out what their superpowers were. But as I was shaking off all my worries and mysteries about the facility and immersing myself into fun mode, I entered into the realm of gym class.

Most of the kids were sitting outside behind the facility, chatting amongst themselves or glancing around, waiting for class to start. Since I knew no one except Tiffany, I followed her around. She introduced me to this really nice friend of hers named Johnnay.

"It's nice to meet you," she said meekly, holding her hand out. I noticed she had mismatched eyes, I forgot the medical term. She had large and shy eyes. One grey one and one brown one. "I'm Johnnay, like Tiffany already said, duh." She kind of laughed at herself but I could tell she was embarrassed.

"It's cool," I said, shaking her hand, even though I really don't like touching people much. "I'm Destine. But you can call me Des."

"It's nice to meet you, Des."

Class soon started after we chatted for a little bit. In a couple of minutes, I found out that Johnnay used to live on a large property with her parents and older brother but moved here after she was declared ataxia positive. But she didn't talk about it much. And she was really shy and hated being in the spotlight. But once you got her on the correct subject, like birds, she wouldn't shut her mouth.

Our gym teacher, Mr. Daniel Novosad (he wanted us to call him Coach Novosad), turned out to be very strict but he had special reasons for it that I could respect. When he told a little about himself (it was another one of those moments when you found out your teacher didn't sleep in a coffin at night) and I was surprised to hear that he really liked math and science. His superpower was called "enhancement." Which just means he can increase his strength, speed, etc., which is expected from a gym coach.

"We're going to begin class with sparring lessons," Coach Novosad started, "because in the future when you're out there in the world people are going to try and capture or kill you because you're an ataxia. I'll show you guys some basic moves in sparring."

He showed us two punches called a jab and uppercut and several ways to block punches and kicks. He told us to use our powers as much as we wanted, just don't try to kill each other. All injuries will be taken care of by the nurse, Mrs. Katie. After clearing up the rules, he separated all twelve of us into partners. I ended up being stuck with a kid named Harry or Harold, I forgot. He seemed really sickly and did not enjoy the idea of sparring me (because I was about a foot and a half taller than him).

"Are you ready?" Coach shouted to us after we spread out. "Go!"

Harry was hesitant at first but kinda held up two fists, sort of ready to fight. I didn't really want to hurt his frail bones so I came charging at him with an uppercut and he surprisingly blocked me and pushed me to the ground in the blink of an eye.

"I am so sorry!" He exclaimed after I was shoved to the ground. "I didn't know what I was doing and I just automatically pushed you like it was instinct and --"

"I get it," I held a thumbs up to let him know I was okay. I brushed myself off and got ready to block Harold's blow. But as he was running towards me in slow motion, my vision went very fuzzy like a foggy morning and I got this immense headache that was so bad I started screaming.

"Whoa, are you okay?" Harry yelled over my shrieking.

I didn't even answer. I fell to my knees, covering my head and kept thinking makeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstop ...

But it didn't.

For an entire hour, the coach said. I had been screaming Bloody Mary for an hour. I had no idea what was going on around me but apparently the lesson was canceled and they were told to go back to their dorms until the next class. As for me, I wouldn't budge from my spot. People kept trying to get my attention but I couldn't hear them. I didn't look up from the grass on the ground I kept staring at. I was just shrieking like a banshee and no one could stop me. Eventually I fainted from the intense pain, just like that, after an hour of yelling.

I was taken to Mrs. Katie's clinic after I fainted. I don't even remember being carried over there. But when I woke up, I saw several worried faces looming over me.