“WAKE UP, WONWOO! WE HAVE TO SELECT OUR GROUPS TODAY! YOU’RE DEFINITELY IN MY GROUP, OKAY?” Vernon jumped on the side of my bed. I stood up, got dressed and fixed my cow- hair. “HURRY WE DON’T WANT TO BE LATE AGAIN!”

“I’m coming! Stop yelling.” I followed Vernon to the classroom of freshmen.

“Good, you’re on time today. Take your seats, we will start shortly.” Professor Suarez instructed and began talking with Ms. Nguyen.

Every desk was full except for two that were on opposite sides of the classroom. The handsome boy from yesterday gestured for me to sit next to him, so I did. Sorry, Vernon. The guy wore a black t-shirt with blue jeans.

“Hey, the name’s Mingyu.” He said.

“I’m Wonwoo.” I got comfortable in my seat.

“Too bad you aren’t my roommate. I’m sure we’d get along great.” He whispered.

“Sure.. I mean, Vernon is great. Really.”

The teacher hit the board with a stick. “Quiet class, we’re going to begin.”

“Just like in the auditorium, your teams will be selected for you.” The entire class groans “Did you think you’d get to select? Hilarious bunch you are. Anyways, on the Strike team we have: Vernon, DK and Seungkwan. Please step out and your instructor, Jun, will lead you through the rest of the tour.” She said and waited for them to leave the room. Before Vernon left, he looked at me like damn, maybe next time. “Next up, Infantry team: Joshua, Dino, Jeonghan. Your group instructor will be S.coups.”

Six people already in a group, twenty-four to go. The odds of me being with Mingyu are slim.

“Now for our Well-rounded group: Mingyu” I took a deep breath. “Yoolhee.” Who? “And Wonwoo. Plea—”

“YES!” I shouted a little too loud.

“Don’t get too excited that a girl is in your group, Wonwoo. As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted: please allow Minghao to guide you on your tour.” The principal said. We stepped into the long corridor where Minghao met us.

“Aren’t you the guy who got us lost yesterday?” I asked him.

“Probably.” He smiled and led us to the cafeteria. This must be his favorite place. “When in doubt, walk to the cafeteria and look at the giant map of the school painted on the ceiling.” We all looked up and without a doubt; the entire map of the school was laid out in front of our eyes. I guess that’s why he directed us to the cafeteria yesterday.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what is your ability?” Yoolhee asked Minghao.

“I have to ability to turn my skin into solid iron. Okay, well I don’t know if it’s actually iron; I just call it iron because it sounds cool. ‘Iron Skin’, has a nice ring to it, k’know?” Minghao fixed his hair while talking.

“What about your restriction?” she asked.

“You want to learn my weaknesses? Are you evil? Just kidding! I’ll tell you my restriction.”

“Wait. What’s a restriction?” I cut in.

“Every power has a restriction. It’s almost like the saying ‘Magic comes with a price’. Well, so does having powers. Except the restriction varies depending on the power.” Yoolhee explained.

“My restriction restricts me from moving while my iron skin is being used.” Minghao explained.

“Wait, your iron skin isn’t always on?” Mingyu poked his arm.

“No, would you like to see it?” he didn’t allow us to answer. Instantly, his body froze and turned a dark bronze color. His mouth became skin color and he spoke. “Anybody want to hit me?”

Mingyu volunteered.

“OOWWW!!!!” he yelled and fell to the floor, clasping at his shattered hand.

“Don’t tell the principal, she’ll kill me!” Minghao suddenly became worried.

“We won’t.” Yoolhee spoke for Mingyu.

“What’s your power, Yoolhee? You seem quite confident.” I asked her.

“My intelligence is beyond yours.” She placed her hands behind her back and raised her head.

“Okay, but what’s your power?”

“Ugh. How did I get teamed up with such idiots? My intelligence IS my power. My IQ exceeds any human limit.” She waited for Minghao to give us a tour.

Minghao showed us where each gym was and what each gym was for. Apparently, the regular gym was meant for working out. The south gym was meant for exams and the north gym was meant for school rallies and events. He showed us around the dorms and walked us around every single classroom in the building. By the time the tour ended, I was exhausted.

“And that concludes the tour. Any questions?” Minghao looked full of energy.

“Why do all the students here have so much energy?” I asked while catching my breath.

“Great question—next question?” Minghao decided not to answer.

“I guess, can we go back to the dorms?” I said hoping he would answer the question.

“Yeah, the tour is over. Make sure you’re in the north gym tomorrow: the sophomore senate has prepared a show for you.” Minghao began to walk away.

“WAIT—WHAT TIME?” Yoolhee shouted but he was out of reach before he could hear. “Great. Well, goodnight then.” She left me and Mingyu alone.

“Well, this is awkward.” I stated.

“Yeah, want me to walk you back to your room?” he extended his hand out. I’m not sitting, dude. I took his hand anyways. Oh, wait. You wanted to hold my hand.

He walked me to my room where Vernon was waiting for me. He released my hand and began to walk away. “I’m right next door if you need me.” He winked and entered his room. I felt butterflies build up in my stomach and my face turn a bright shade of pink.

“Aww, that’s cute! You found yourself a boyfriend on the second day! Or is it not even the second day because this is orientation and school hasn’t technically started yet..?” Vernon sounded conflicted.

“Go to sleep, Vernon!” I took off my shirt and threw it at him, then went to sleep.

The next morning, Vernon woke me up.. again. He’s like an alarm clock that you can’t press the ‘snooze’ button on. I got dressed and followed Vernon to the north gym, luckily we didn’t get lost. Finally, Minghao led us to the right gym. It seemed like we were early, so we took a seat in the front row and waited. A couple of hours later, yeah we were THAT early, the rest of the students filed in along with sophomore senate.

“Hi, I’m S.coups. But you already knew that because I introduced myself on the first day. We’re here to show you how our powers work! Just to get you excited for classes in the fall.” He spoke and introduced all the members of sophomore senate.

Minghao went first and showed off his hard skin. It was kind of amazing, actually. The rest of senate threw rocks at him and everything but he was still fine. That seems incredibly useful, though bronze isn’t really my color.

“Next we have Jun, my boyfriend, my boyfriend Jun. HE’S MINE, YOU HEAR?” Minghao glared out into the audience.

“Hello, there. I’m Jun, Minghao’s boyfriend, apparently. I do martial arts.” He started doing things like Judo, kickboxing, karate and even Brazilian Jiu-jistu. I see why Minghao had such a liking for him. “Woozi, your turn.”

“Uh, Hi. I’m Woozi, I can stretch.” The short boy said. The audience let out a chuckle. “STOP IT! I CAN BE TALL IF I WANT!” He suddenly became a giant and everybody shut up. “That’s what I thought.” He crossed his arms and shrunk back to normal.

“I’ll go next!” Hoshi started running all over the gym. After watching him run circles around us, literally, he finally introduced himself. “Oh, by the way, I’m Hoshi.”

“And that concludes our presentation of sophomore senate.” S.coups said.

“Wait, what about your power?” Yoolhee spoke from the back of the gym.

“My power isn’t to be used without permission. Nor is it to be spoken about. Sorry to disappoint.” He apologized. “On the Brightside, you get to go home now! See you all in the fall.”

Home felt like a weird place to be, now that I had somewhere to go to in the fall. My mother was proud of me, again. Or maybe she never stopped being proud, I don’t know. I felt kind of bad that I would be leaving her again. My entire high school life had been at a boarding school, so I was never home much. Even though the school was next door to the coffee shop.. which was next to our apartment. It was complicated. Now it would be even more difficult to see her, which made me sad. She didn’t show any signs of being sad.

The summer went by pretty fast; I got a job to help my mother pay for some of the bills. By the time summer ended, she had quit her second job because we made enough money to catch up on late payments. That’s a refreshing thought before I leave her.

On the night before I had to go to school, we celebrated the way we celebrated on my graduation: with a giant pink frosted cake that read ‘Happy Birthday’. We laughed and talked all night and in the morning, I was on my way to the Institute of the Talented.

QUESTIONS:

What powers do you think the rest of the members of Seventeen have?

Why dont you take a few guesses at some of the restrictions some of them might have?

Do you think Wonwoo will enjoy his first ACTUAL day at the Institution of the Talented?