“PICk up Yo@r SChedu7e5 aT Th. OfFic3” the speakers went off. I think it said something about picking up our schedules at the office? Though, I’m not exactly sure.

The first day of school is normally a place of nerves. Looking around, nobody seemed nervous. I wasn’t even scared. In fact, I was a bit excited to be here. All around, students were practicing their superpowers like it was a videogame. I LOVE VIDEOGAMES!

One girl was shooting rays of fire out of her eyes while another girl deflected them onto other students, zapping them in their rear ends. Some other students were playing tag—speed tag. I couldn’t even make out who was who, but I bet Hoshi was playing.

“Wonwoo, right?” Vernon’s voice came from behind me. I spun around and saw no sign of him. Instead, a smaller boy with a suit and nice hair stood in his place. “Sorry, I’m just teasing you. Vernon isn’t here yet.”

“How did you?” my eyebrow went up.

“I have voice manipulation. The name’s Joshua, by the way. I’m a friend of Vernon’s.” he extended his hand and we greeted each other.

“Have you gotten your schedule yet?” I asked in hopes he hadn’t.

“I was actually on my way there now, shall we go together?” he began walking ahead.

Finding the office wasn’t difficult, and I don’t know why. During orientation, it was nearly impossible for me to find anything. Now that school has started, that isn’t even a worry. This place is definitely magical. At the office, there were about ten signs with different countries printed on them. Sadly, the Korean line had the highest amount of people so that means I would have to wait longer. It seemed like our school was very diverse; that would explain the staff.

After waiting in the line for what feels like forever, I finally received my schedule and my first period was ‘Restrictions’ with Professor Alexander. I hope he is as nice as Professor Suarez, if you would consider him to be ‘nice’.

Upon walking into my first hour, the first thing I noticed is that the Professor wasn’t actually a male. The second thing I noticed was Vernon sitting in the front row, waving his hands like a maniac. Seeing Vernon was an actual sigh of relief. I wonder where Mingyu is. I haven’t seen Mingyu around anywhere. I hope we have class together at least once!

“Class, please take your seats. It’s introduction time!” I sat myself down next to Vernon while the Professor talked. “I just want to say that my husband is J-hope from the one and only BTS and NO I DID NOT USE MY SUPER POWER TO MAKE HIM LOVE ME, ALRIGHT?” The class giggled. “Welcome to ‘Restrictions’. I’m your Professor, Daja Alexander. Does anybody know what a restriction is?”

“Something that holds another thing back?” Vernon’s hand shot up. Not sure why he rose his hand if he was going to talk without permission anyways.

“Yes, what about restrictions with superpowers?” She pointed around and waited for the answer. I knew the answer, I just didn’t want to raise my hand and end up being called on everyday for the next four years. “Well, restrictions are, in a way, a punishment for the usage of your superpower/ability. We all know Ms. Nguyen. Her ability is telekinesis and future sight, when using those abilities: she develops a massive migraine. In fact, rumor has it that she’s had a migraine since she was five, when she first developed her abilities.”

“Wait, so we take damage for using our powers?” the boy with the dinosaur looking hair said.

“That, in a way, is correct. What’s your name?” the Professor asked.

“I’m Dino! I can clone myself.” He smiled.

“May I show you something?” she took out a pen.

“Sure! What do you want me to do?” the curious boy asked.

“Just one clone of yourself, please. When I tell you, combine back with your clone.” She removed the lid of her pen.

Dino stood up and walked to the front of the classroom next to the Professor. Disgustingly, another body looked like it was trying to escape his original body. Slowly, the other body escaped, leaving two Dinos standing there. It was almost difficult to tell the two apart. I say almost because the clone obviously had a default: its face didn’t match the original. Hopefully that was something he was planning on fixing in the future.

“What now?” he asked. Suddenly, the professor lunged at the clone with her pen and stabbed it in the palm of its hand. The clone shrieked in pain but the original didn’t. “Why’d you do that?!”

“You may now become one again.” She capped her pen. “Can I have a volunteer to take Dino to the nurse in a second?” Vernon raised his hand.

Dino’s clone stepped back into him and it looked just as disgusting at it did when he split into two. Once he was whole, a hole formed in the palm of his hand in the exact spot the Professor had stabbed his clone. Almost instantaneously, the pain hit him and he began crying. He seemed a little young for the college life; maybe he was exceptionally smart and graduated early?

“Please take him to the infirmary, tell them “Professor Alexander got excited” and they will handle him. Quickly, before he bleeds out onto my floor.” Vernon practically carried Dino out of the room. “Now, what was I trying to prove by doing that? Oh, that’s right! Dino had to ability to clone himself, so his restriction was: damage inflicted upon his clone transferred onto Dino when becoming one. In this classroom, we will discover everybody’s restriction and work on making it less impactful.” The professor said as the school bell rang. This place feels more like high school, if you ask me.

Let’s see, what class do I have next? I looked at my wrinkled schedule. “Power Development Class with Professor Suarez.” Wonderful, I know this professor! I made my way to his classroom with ease. Upon arrival, a note on his door read “In the South Gym today, be prepared to get dirty.” And let me just say, I was not ready to get dirty.

The gym had an obstacle course set up. Strangely enough, it seemed bigger than how it did during freshman orientation. Almost as if orientation was just a sneak peek of the real thing. I’m not sure if it was always like this, but has Professor Suarez always walked around barefoot? I don’t recall him missing shoes during orientation.

“I shouldn’t have to reintroduce myself. I should have met you all during orientation. However, I will introduce my course. If you didn’t already know, this is ‘Power Development’ class. The name could be taken many ways and I don’t wish to explain them all, instead I will show you. Volunteer please.” Mr. Suarez pointed to the guy sitting next to me.

“Me?” the guy looked shocked.

“I’m pointing at you, am I not?” he said with sass. Here I thought he said his class would be fun, I didn’t know it would be full of sarcasm. “Please, come up here and introduce yourself and explain your power.”

The boy walked up to the front quickly. He was a tall muscular boy with a freakishly huge smile. “How you doin’? I’m DK. I can scream pretty loud.”

“Let me stop you there.” The Professor put in ear plugs. “Now, I want you to scream, not to your full extent, the minimum please. And then—”

DK screamed, not allowing the professor to finish speaking. Suddenly, the glass from the sky lights shattered and rained upon us. Soon after he finished yelling, the boy realized what he had done and attempted to help people pull glass shards out of their skin. I looked at my cut up arms and noticed something strange: the pain didn’t exist, but the fear did. Everybody was screaming and crying out for help. The professor sat there and shook his head.

“Class, this is what happens when a student doesn’t listen to me.” I blinked and the teacher stood in the middle of the gym, where DK had just been standing. The sky lights weren’t shattered and glass wasn’t deep within anybody’s skin. DK sat next to me with tears running down his eyes. The class looked around in confusion. “Calm down, everybody. That wasn’t the lesson of the course, that was a personal lesson. In my class, you must listen to me before you attempt anything or you will end up hurting, maybe even killing, us all.”

A student raised their hand. “What just happened? Why aren’t we all bleeding with shards of glass in our skin?” My thoughts exactly.

“That, my dear, is because it never happened. I have the ability to make people see whatever I’d like them to see.” The class awed with surprise and DK stopped crying. He sure wasn’t sad for long. You’d think he would be scarred for life after being traumatized like that. “As great as it sounds, the price is high. I am completely blind because of it. I use my feet to feel my way around. Anyways, onto the course work. DK, let’s try this again. This time: listen to me before you do anything. I will tell you when to begin.” The professor sat down and put his ear plugs back in.

DK walked up in front of the class and waited for instructions.

“Now, don’t scream so loud. If you do, you will injure the ears of everyone in here. Once you are screaming, focus your scream into my ears. You may begin.” The professor closed his eyes and waited.

DK opened his mouth and slowly, his scream began getting louder and louder. It got to the point where half of the class was covering their ears. Then, the sound stopped but DK’s mouth was still open and he was definitely still screaming. I looked over at the Professor and his ear plugs had burst and his ears had a trickle of blood coming down from them.

“Stop DK, you’re hurting him!” I hollered to him, causing everybody to look at me. DK’s mouth closed and he glanced over to the bleeding Professor.

“I’m so sorry, Professor!” he bowed his head apologetically.

“It’s fine. I’m fine. I’ve dealt with worse. You may be seated.” The Professor made his way back up to the center of the gym while DK sat back down. “Who noticed what happened?”

“You bled from your ears?”

“He screamed?”

“DK should join choir?”

“No, his one power: loud screaming. Was used in another way. His scream was only heard by me at the end. You see, this class will teach you how to manipulate your power to its maximum potential. DK, right now you are able to shatter glass and ear drums. When the year is over, you will be able to crack cement and scramble brain cells. Do you all see what my class will do for you? You’re dismissed.” The professor walked out before us.

That last class is probably my favorite class so far. I wonder if there is a way for him to teach me how to use my power. I can’t do anything until it I can use it at will. Let me think about this: Principal Nguyen said I had the power to summon nature at will, so does that mean I can strangle people with rose vines? NO! It means I can pick roses for Mingyu.

Wait, where is Mingyu anyways? I haven’t seen him all day. I wonder if he dropped out. No, I haven’t seen Minghao either and there is no way he dropped out as well. Maybe I will see him during lunch time.

QUESTIONS WILL BE POSTED ON CHAPTER 5 BECAUSE THEY ARE PARTNER CHAPTERS