“Welcome to freshman orientation! Most importantly: Welcome to the Institute of the Talented!” Ms. Nguyen spoke at the front of the auditorium.

The auditorium was quite large. The ceiling looked like it could fit a T-Rex in it. About half of the seats were filled. Future students looked around confidently at one another. It almost seemed like it was a competition.

“Only a few of you will be selected to attend our school. The rest of you, well, you’ll go under the radar for a few years. To start us off, allow me to introduce myself and my companion here. I am Vi Nguyen, your principal of this fine establishment. My name may sound a bit odd to you all, that is because I am Vietnamese. With me, I have Professor Jimin Suarez.” Applause engulfed the room.

“Thank you, Thank you. First of all, let me just say that I’m not Korean. Though, that’s probably a given. I am Puerto Rican! Anyways, for a few of you, I will be your professor! My class is really fun so don’t worry too much!” The white-skinned Puerto Rican said.

A few people in the audience looked around in confusion. I was most definitely among the confused ones. Such strange teachers they have at this school. Though, I assume it’s that way to match of their weird curriculum.

“WHEN ARE WE GOING TO SHOW OFF OUR POWERS?” A kid screamed and everybody looked at him.

“Well, since you asked.” Professor Suarez said and looked directly at the kid. For a split second, there was complete silence followed by the kid screaming and gasping for air. “Would anybody else like to interrupt?” The auditorium shut up. “Thank you, to start things off. Allow me to introduce a sophomore that was a freshman like some of you will be. S.coups, please introduce yourself.”

“Sup, I’m S.coups. Call me scoops, I guess. I won’t show you my power because they told me not to, but I can tell you my power.” The sophomore spoke.

“No—No! I told you to show them your power, not tell them!” Ms. Nguyen whispered a little loud. “Remember the plan.”

“Oh, right. Fellow students: Welcome to the Institute of the Talented! Those of you, whom are worthy, please stand up.” His voice filled the auditorium. Strangely, his voice was appealing. Before I knew it, I was standing up, along with about thirty other students. “Those of you whom didn’t stand up, you may go home. Your presence is no longer needed here.” About fifty students stood up and walked out without a word. This is so strange, why is everybody listening to his commands? He is just a sophomore.

“That is all, S.coups. Your services are no longer required.” Ms. Nguyen shook his hand and S.coups walked off the stage. “Now, you thirty students are officially students of the Institute of the Talented.—Wow that takes forever to say. Congratulations.”

Professor Suarez brought out a hat and placed it on a stool on the middle of the stage. “Now to select your roommates for the next four years.” Ms. Nguyen closed her eyes and a piece of paper, wrapped in a pink aura, levitated upward. “Dino.” She read from the paper and summoned another. “Joshua. Please meet in the back and Professor Suarez will show you your rooms.”

The two students, who I assume are Dino and Joshua, stood up and headed toward the back.

“Wonwoo.” She suddenly said. “Vernon.”

Vernon stood up and began heading towards the back. I sat there uncomfortably.

“Must I repeat myself, mister Jeon?” she looked directly at me and I shot up and ran to the back.

This place was amazingly huge. Sky lights on the ceiling and marble flooring? Compared to my small apartment, this place was heaven. I walked around, looking for Professor Suarez and my soon to be roommate, Vernon. They found me before I found them.

“Hey, are you Wonwoo?” a voice called out behind me. I turned around and saw a young boy with shaggy hair.

“Um, yeah. Are you Vernon?” I asked, obviously knowing the answer.

“Yeah, do you know where Professor Suarez went? This place is huge.” He looked around in confusion.

“Boys, why don’t you stay with the group?” a man called out from across the hallway. The rest of the students were with him and they were being assigned their rooms.

“How did we miss them? I came from that direction—or was it that direction?” I said and we walked over to the horde of students.

Professor Suarez showed us our room and instructed that we only had an hour to get settled and then to meet in the South Gym. Can I get a map? Vernon jumped on the bed next to the window. I took the one by the door. That’s fine. I don’t need sunlight.

“So, what’s your power?” A curious Vernon asked.

“I don’t know, Ms. Nguyen said I had to ability to summon nature. Or something like that.” I sat against the wall of my bed. “What about you?”

“I can spit fire.” He looked at me. Are you kidding me?

“Was that a joke?” I laughed.

“No, look.”

PTUI!

A soggy piece of flame flew onto my shoulder, causing my shoulder to light on fire.

“GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!” I screamed and rolled around on the floor.

“I’M SORRY! I’M STILL NEW TO THIS!” he kept trying to hit my shoulder but made it worse by kicking me in the stomach countless amounts of times. After we put the fire out, we decided it would be best to search for the south gym before we had to be there.

The school was honestly perfect. From the outside, it looked like a normal institute, but on the inside, it was like another world! Maybe the whole superpower thing made it seem that way.. Or maybe someone’s superpower was expanding it from the inside. After about ten minutes of walking, we found a gym. A gym. Not the north gym, not the south gym. A GYM. How many gyms did this place have?

“Are you guys lost?” a boy said from behind us. Not sure why everybody keeps sneaking up on me.

“Yeah, could you tell us where the South gym is?” Vernon spoke confidently for a lost freshman.

“Sure thing, if you take a left down that corridor and then go up the stairs and follow that corridor down to Exit A, take a right and you’ll be there.” The boy said with a smile.

“Is that a joke?” my jaw dropped.

“No, I’m dead serious. By the way, my name is Minghao. I’m a sophomore this year!” Minghao stuck out his hand.

We introduced ourselves and then went separate ways. We followed his instructions to the gym exactly but ended up at the cafeteria.

“Maybe we took a wrong turn?” Vernon suggested.

“Let’s face it, we’re lost. Even with instructions we can’t find the place!”

“Lost you say?” a guy ran in front of us. “Where are you headed? I’ll take you there.”

“The South gym.” Vernon said.

“Alright, right this way!” I blinked and he was already down the corridor. “C’mon I don’t have all day! You’re so slow!”

We ran down the corridor as fast as we possibly could. Upon reaching the place he stood a moment ago, he ran down another corridor almost instantaneously.

“I SEE YOU HAVE SUPERSPEED, YEAH. WE DON’T! WANNA GO A BIT SLOWER?” I called out to him down the hall.

“ARENT YOU LATE? DON’T TALK TO AN UPPERCLASSMAN LIKE THAT! I’M TRYING TO HELP YOU!” he jogged in place, creating dust. We followed him for about ten minutes, continuously stopping and taking a breather every few minutes. Finally, we arrived at the South gym.

“Thank you… what’s your name?” Vernon asked while heavily breathing.

“The name’s Hoshi. I’m hungry. Have fun at orientation! You’ll do great!” he ran off and was out of sight in no time. We walked into the half-packed gym and all eyes locked onto us.

“Nice of you to finally join us, boys. Since you were late, I’ll allow you to clean the slate by impressing me with your abilities.” Professor Suarez said with his hands crossed. “Mingyu, please take a seat. Your power is truly a blessing.” A handsome boy made his way to his seat in the front row after having a staring contest with me. “Now, Vernon, that’s your name right? You’ll go first.”

I took a seat in the far back, hoping to be forgotten about when it came time for me to show off my ‘abilities’. Vernon stood in the center of the gym and stretched his legs. Why are you stretching your legs if your spit fire with your mouth?

“Hi, I’m Vernon. I can spit fire.”

The audience giggled as did Professor Suarez. Vernon closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

PTUI!

 Right on the front row. Great, he’s going to kill the handsome guy in the front. Wonderful first day of orientation. The fire saliva was engulfed in a pink aura and dissipated quickly. Everybody turned to the door, where Ms. Nguyen stood with her hand up.

“Very good, Vernon. Professor Suarez, he needs to learn how to scatter-spray, whole-shot spit, condense the nitrogen in his mouth and work out the dehydration problem.” Ms. Nguyen spoke with authority.

Dehydration problem? I glanced over at Vernon who was squatting and gasping for giant heaps of air.

“Would one of you take Vernon to get some water?” she asked and a student obliged. “Wonwoo, you are next, right?”

“Uh, but I don’t know what to do.” I explained, embarrassing myself in front of the incoming freshman.

“You won’t know until you try.” She urged me to the center of the gym. I did try… at home… once you left… IT DIDN’T WORK.

“Hi, I’m Wonwoo. Apparently, I can summon nature.” I cleared my throat.

“Abra Kadabra!” I spoke and extended my hands, expecting something to happen. The class stared at me without emotion. “Open Sesame!” Another fail. The class started to laugh, except for the guy in the front row.

“Why are you laughing in my class? Who gave you permission? Wonwoo, please take a seat. We will work on you later.” Professor Suarez stood up and placed himself in the center of the auditorium while I took a seat. He introduced everybody else after me but I couldn’t watch out of embarrassment.

After class, Professor Suarez stopped me and told me I needed to figure out my power really quick because the next day we’d be selecting teams of three. Before I knew it, I was in my dorm, hiding myself in the blankets and falling asleep, mentally preparing myself for the next day.

QUESTIONS:

In this chapter, I introduced Minghao, what do you think his superpower is?

I haven't introduced every other member of Seventeen yet, so why don't you take a guess in the comments: What is everybody's power?

What are your thoughts on the teachers at the school? Are they cool or crazy?