“You beat DK?

“DK lost?”

“What kind of world are we living in?” My ‘friends’ ‘congratulated’ me.

“Guys, he won fair and square.” DK defended me from the angry mob of confused ‘friends’. “It was my fault for tripping.”

The table enraged with outrage. Joshua manipulated his voice into a siren and pretended to arrest me. Seungkwan literally flipped the table over, goodbye delicious lunch that I’ll never finish. Everybody had seemed to have lost their minds. The only normal people at the table were me, Mingyu and Vernon. Mingyu was happy that I won while Vernon was just a cheerful roommate.

“You cheated, right, Wonwoo?” Minghao hopped off of Jun’s lap and confronted me while standing on the flipped table.

“If by cheat, you mean I made the tree he was walking on collapse, the yes: I cheated.” I admit, I sounded a bit grumpy. How can anybody be nice when your food was flipped onto the floor and your so-called ‘friends’ don’t support your victory? “Why are you guys so upset that I won?” I finally built up enough courage to ask the one-hundred dollar question.

“We’re not actually mad at you; we’re mad they stuck DK into the intelligence unit! He’ll get us all killed!” Hoshi cried and ran across the cafeteria, accidently slamming into the wall.

“Wait, is that why you guys were so upset that I lost? I thought it was because you guys liked me more!” DK raged.

“Uh, yeah. That’s why.” Minghao took his rightful seat on Jun’s lap.

To be completely honest, I should have lost that battle. I won out of luck. When the battle first started, I was confident that I would destroy him. As soon as he hit me with his super-sonic voice, I knew it would be difficult. I had forgotten how much he had progressed since his first day when Professor Suarez showed off his ear/glass-shattering screech. Ever since then, DK had been practicing like a crazy person. When I had free time, I would go and watch him scream his lungs out. He had so many new ways of using his power; I’m surprised he didn’t use them. I wonder if he was just going easy one me.

For a minute or two, the group stared at each other in an awkward silence. A few of us stared at the flipped over table with our food underneath it. Even Minghao, the sassy child, looked agitated by the fact that none of us had lunch.

“IDEA! Let’s eat a salad.” From the palms of my hand, a head of lettuce began to grow. All around, the group cheered at the sight of food. The applause and happiness ended when a pair of eyes blinked from the head of the lettuce.

“Wonwoo, why is it that every time you are near vegetables, you decide it would taste better with a face?” S.coups spoke up, scaring the head of lettuce onto the flipped over table. It rolled into the middle of the cafeteria and made baby sounds.

“KILL IT WITH FIRE!” Seungkwan screamed, picked up Vernon and held him like a gun. Suddenly, flames shot out of Vernon’s mouth and devoured the poor baby lettuce head. It was so young. Why did it have to go?

“I have a better idea.” S.coups stood up and brushed his clothes off, despite there being nothing dirty on him. “HOSHI! COME HERE!” He hollered across the cafeteria and a dizzy Hoshi poked his head out of the rubble of the broken wall he ran into. Before I could blink, he was right in front of me, back to his normal jittery self. “How fast can you run?” S.coups held out a wad of cash and smiled.

 A sudden gust of wind hit me in the face and I fell back in my chair. When I sat back up, the table was set up with a large assortment of fast foods. I can’t even describe some of the items on the table, too greasy to even categorize. Let’s just say: we ate like the kings we are.

“Okay, before lunch ends. Let’s see who fought who. Only talk if you fought someone at this table.” S.coups directed us.

“I fought Wonwoo and lost.” DK said.

“I fought Vernon and won.” Jeonghan said proudly and Vernon ducked underneath the table. Jeonghan can fight?

“I fought Joshua and won.” Mingyu said. I can’t imagine Joshua being a fighter. How did Mingyu beat someone who just talks? Did he just punch him?

“Odds are you probably won’t fight anyone from the group anymore. So, good luck to the ones who are still in the running!” S.coups said as the intercom interrupted.

“4 tHo5e oF U wh0 WoN yOur f1Rs7 ma7cH: C0nGRa7ul@1on5. U w1lL r3cE1ve th. In4ma71on oN yoUr n3X7 bAt7l3 bY tOn1gHt @ yUr d0rM Roo6.” The rusted machinery spit out. It’s quite funny actually, the entire school is at its peak performance yet the intercom sounds like it was installed four-hundred years ago.

“Did anybody catch that?”

““For those of you who won your first match: congratulations. You will receive the information on your next battle by tonight at your dorm room.” It wasn’t that hard to hear, Wonwoo.” S.coups said and the group parted ways.

. . .

“I’m so tired.” I took my shirt off and fell back onto my bed. Without looking, I heard Vernon scrabbling through what sounded like a garbage bag. After a long day, this isn’t the sound I wanted to hear before bed time. “Vernon, child. It’s be a long day, may I get some sleep?”

“Huh? Oh, sorry. I was trying to open your package.” He tried opening the bag. I sat up in my bed and looked over to his direction. Did he just admit to trying to open my package?

“Vernon, why are you opening up MY package? Do you not have any of your own?” I didn’t bother getting up.

“It was on your bed and I was bored.” He threw the gray package at my face. “It won’t let me open it anyways.”

The gray package was quite large but it felt incredibly hollowed. The top of the package read “tear here” and I ripped off the corner with ease. Does Vernon not know how to read? Inside, a small envelope lay at rest. The seal on the envelope was red and had an official stamp of the Institute of the Talented. I opened the envelope and took out the letter enclosed within.

Dear Jeon Wonwoo,

You have won your first match against Dokyeom and now you get to fight Hoshi from the sophomore class. Unlike Dokyeom, who had a wicked screech, Hoshi has the ability to run at impossible speeds. However, there is a way to stop him. Since his ability has affects his human body, he will get hungry and tired at fast paces. To beat Hoshi, you must either wait till he passes out from starvation or exhaustion. This may seem easy but keep in mind he has been attending this institute a year longer than you and Professor Alexander has taught him how to keep his restrictions at bay.

The fight will take place tomorrow at lunch in the North Gym. Get a lot of rest and work on your game plan!

-Principal Nguyen

P.S. Every student received a letter with information on their opponent’s powers and weaknesses. You’re not special

“Does it say anything special?” An excited Vernon jumped onto my bed and started reading the letter. “That’s stupid. You spent a good minute staring at a blank piece of paper. You really must be tired.” Vernon put the ‘blank’ letter back into my hands and went back into his bed.

I picked up the gray packaging the letter came in and saw it was full of luxuries. A new pair of pajamas rested at the top. It was quite adorable, actually. The stamp on the seal of the envelope was imprinted onto the pajama top. Underneath the pajamas, a ring sat at the bottom of the packaging. The gem on the ring was a Green Kunzite, similar to a soft green Diamond. If I stared at it hard enough, I could make out tiny images of nature: flowers blooming, trees growing from seeds, birds hatching from eggs, rain falling into a swamp. I looked back at the letter and remembered it was from Principal Nguyen. Instead of putting the ring on, I set it back into the bag, along with the pajamas, and went to sleep.

Knowing I was gifted items from the Principal made me feel special, despite her specifically telling me not to feel special. Feeling special made me feel more like a target. My father had warned me about the Institute being evil. What if Principal Nguyen is out to get me and my father is right? I’m not putting this ring on until I feel better about this situation.

AUTHOR: I promise to make chapter 19 more memorable. Chapter 18 was supposed to be a filler chapter, which is why it took me so long to post it. I'm so bad with fillers @_@ Let me know in the comments below if I should continute to add filler chapters or if I should just focus strictly on the story. For those of you who dont know what a 'filler chapter' is, its a chapter where I add in extra storyline to avoid the story ending too quickly. Though, I dont plan on ending this story any time soon.

QUESTIONS:

Do you think DK went easy on Wonwoo?

Do you think Wonwoo will defeat the sophomore Hoshi?

Is the ring a gesture of goodwill or something evil?