*
“Lexi, you are special. More than you know!” Mr Brown said, as soon as I closed the door of his office.
“Why?” I asked.
“While your mother dropped you off on a doorstep and your father died in a plane crash, Miss Franklin always knew about your powers, Lexi. She wanted to tell you, but we told her you weren’t ready. But now, I think you should know the truth.” Mr Brown said, as if it were an everyday sentence.
“My father died in a plane crash?” I asked.
“Yes, he was on his way home and the plane was ambushed and he died that night. Then your mother dropped you off two days later. We never saw her again,” he said
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked.
“Because you will develop more than one power. Have you developed more than one?”
“Yes. I think that when I go into a void, I can feel people’s emotions,” I said. I had figured it out while we were talking.
“Shall we try it?” Mr Brown asked, standing up and positioning himself right in front of me.
I barely knew anything about him.
“No, actually, I don’t think I’m ready.” I turned and walked out of the room, but Mr Brown was right behind me.
I started to run fast but he still chased me.
So, I teleported.
The bright flashes of colour were, as always, beautiful.
A part of me didn’t want to leave the training camp, but I knew I had to.
The other kids’ powers were so different. The girls with the black, brown, and blonde hair had never seen people try to grab you because they knew who you were and what you could do. They had never experienced the fear of being found out by your classmates.
I pushed all the thoughts out of my mind. There was still one place I could go to talk to someone.
*
“You nearly gave me a heart attack! Are you crazy?” Clare said, as I came through a portal.
“Sorry, didn’t think about that,” I said, as I sat down on her stool.
She was staying with a normal family over the weekend, and she seemed to be enjoying it.
“Are you ok?” Clare asked, as she sat up.
“Yeah, I just need to see you.”
Claire stood up and started to walk over to me.
Then she did something unexpected …
She hugged me!
Clare had never been the hugger type, but I embraced her finally and after a while we pulled away. She was crying.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
“Is the rest of the family home?”
“No, they went out about an hour ago.”
“Clare, listen to me! If they ask if you know about my powers, you need to pretend that you don’t know anything about me having powers.”
“Why?”
“I wasn’t meant to come here!”
I opened a portal and looked back before I stepped in. Clare was already at the door. I turned around and let the colours consume me.
*
“There you are!” Jake ran over to me.
“Mr Smith is looking for you. He has the letter that tells you which class you will be in.” He was out of breath, but he grasped my hand and pulled me towards the obstacle course where Mr Smith was looking around.
“Lexi!” he yelled, as he gestured for me to come over.
“Sorry, Mr Smith.”
He handed me an envelope. I opened it and was surprised:
Addressing Lexi Parker,
With your unique abilities, we have decided to put you in Hawk class. This means that you have already mastered the basics of your abilities and you will start to learn the harder training skills.
Hawk class has about 10-15 students in it at any given time.
I looked up and Mr Smith was gone, but Jake was standing in front of me waiting to hear what class I got into, although he thought it would be Eagle.
“I’m in Hawk!” I said, excitedly.
“Really? I am, too.”
There was a loud bell. Jake and I went back to the clearing. This time Mr Brown was standing on stage.
“For the rest of the day you will all be training with your coach, but for those who don’t know, each class has two coaches—one trains you in combat and self-protection, and the other in using and controlling your powers. Everyone will follow their coach to the training area to work on combat,” Mr Brown said, and just like that, he was leaving the stage. But something was wrong. He looked worried.
Jake showed me who the coaches were for Hawk, and we sat down to listen to how to block punches. I wasn’t really paying attention to the coach, whose name was Rick. He sat us down and started talking about how bad things can happen out there, so you need to be prepared and take this seriously.
I couldn’t stop thinking that something wasn’t adding up about Mr Brown. I was going to talk to him at the end of the day and see if I could get some answers.
“If you need a ride home, please head to the east exit. Class dismissed,” Rick said. The group of kids dispersed, but Jake stayed.
“Lexi, did you pay attention to anything he said?” Jake was packing up his books.
“Not really. Can I get your address?”
“Sure. I live at 36 Fig-tree Road–”
“No way! I live a couple of streets over!”
“Cool. You’ll have to come over sometime. Anyway, I need to go. Mum is waiting for me. Do you want a ride?”
I was really tempted to go with Jake, but I needed to talk to Mr Brown.
“No, thanks. I have some things I have to do before I go home.”
“Okay, bye.” Jake ran off to the pick-up zone.
Jake had such a different life than me. He could talk to his mum and dad about his Powers. I never could. I wondered how much Mrs Franklin would understand, now that I knew she knew about my powers.
