The rest of the morning was simple enough. There were four subjects before lunch, and two before recess.
We had History after Science class, and recess after that.
The sound of the bell ringing woke me from my thoughts. Beside me, Theo stood up and began to go outside. I saw Laila and Robyn doing the same. It must be recess already. I glanced behind me and saw Alan pulling out a lunchbox from his bag. Blanche was doing the same.
I also had food packed from home.
I pulled out my own food and began to eat. "Ah, nutrition, how very nice." I heard Blanche mutter loudly between bites of a hamburger. Alan was eating his food quietly, it seemed that his gas mask had a compartment so that he could eat food without taking it off. That must be hard, living with a gas mask all the time.
I began to eat the food, trying to avoid touching it a lot. Though I was wearing gloves, they were already worn out after years of usage. I had actually just bought them last month, but because they always touched my fingers they were always affected by my Gift.
The bell rang again a few minutes after. A new face entered the classroom, panting with exhaustion. He smelled strange. From the corner of my eye, Blanche flinched as she saw the boy.
He took his seat beside me. He dropped his bag beside him, and it landed with a heavy clunk. I looked at him curiously, furrowing my eyebrows. Why was he that late? That was seven, we're seven now.
He looked at me. "Did — I — miss — anything?" He wheezed, I shook my head. "No, um, just introductions. And Science and History." I replied, raising an eyebrow. He nodded, muttering a thank you under his breath.
Theo, Laila and Robyn came back in after him. Robyn was endlessly pestering Laila, unfortunately. "We're late, we're late, we're l — " Laila absentmindedly nodded before sitting down again. This was generally seen as stupid.
Theo sat down, followed by Robyn and Laila.
The rest of the day began.
Lunchtime was more exciting than anything else. Blanche walked over to me, her blank eyes seemingly looking past me. "Be my friend." She said, dragging me with her to the cafeteria. "W-what?" I stuttered, confused. She looked down, still walking. "There's a girl here that bullies people, but she usually only does it if the person is alone. That's why most people walk in pairs. Her Gift isn't that threatening compared to yours, but it's still very powerful."
I raised an eyebrow. "And that Gift is?"
"Adapt. She can adapt to any situation, basically she can blend in," She said. "Lucky." I muttered under my breath. "Yes, very lucky, but she wants to stand out. She's been bullying me since third grade, so that's six years of bullying." She said, her voice was neutral, but it seemed very insulted.
I decided to go along with it. "That seems mean," I said. She nodded as we finally reached the cafeteria. "And unfair," She said. "Mean and unfair."
We walked inside. It was the average cafeteria, and was filled to the brim with students. She continued explaining, "Most of the general student body is a rank three, at most and two at least. I'm a rank 4, by the way." She said slowly, gazing at the crowds.
We reached the cafeteria line, but went past it into a table in the corner. I sat down beside her and began to eat my packed lunch. A sandwich. If my mother tried to cook, she would have probably burned the house down since dad was usually the one that cooked. But he was away right now.
Blanche was already eating. She looked at me and her eyebrows furrowed, "What Gifts did your parents have?" She asked, looking at me. "U-um, I was adopted so I wouldn't know about my biological parents,' but my dad's Gift is Electrical manipulation and my mom has no powers." I said quickly, and watched her nod.
"Oh. Okay." Then she seemed to think about something.
"Well if it isn't Blanche!"
A deep voice sounded behind us. That wasn't right, we were leaning against the wall. I turned to see a girl phasing through it, beaming, her eyes pure white. "Oh, a friend! I'm Marissa, please call me Mari. I'm in 1-F. Blanche, I'll just be telling you that Lucy's coming to bully you again, so have fun!" She disappeared behind the wall again. Blanche looked at me, "That was Marissa. She's in the league with Lucy and is also kind of a bully, but she announces their presence loudly."
I nodded, finishing my sandwich. I ate very quickly.
Then a girl started heading towards us. Dark blue hair, yellow eyes — one of which, it seemed, had two pupils. Beside her was the same girl we saw before, but instead of the white eyes we saw earlier, these ones were endlessly shifting. Like a kaleidoscope.
I gulped, feelings of nervousness rising. This was bad. The infamous Lucy and her friend, Marissa.
Lunchtime was a very eventful time. The fact that I was in the infirmary proved it, and beside me was Blanche, who did not look surprised at all that she was in the infirmary on the very first day of school. "Me and the Nurse know each other very well by now," She said smugly. "After all, she's Robyn's mom. She's also met Laila's dads."
"Dads?" I asked, wondering if they were stepfathers or... the other type of dads. "They're the gay kind," Blanche said, as if she was reading my mind.
She shook her head. "I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here," She said. "I'll explain everything, since you're new here. I won't lie, I'll just be showing off my knowledge and theories."
"Lucy isn't a normal kid. That's probably why they don't punish her for her very obvious bullying. But when I look into her past, I can see that her Gift is also a curse. She adapts too much, if the temperature changes even a little and it gets colder by just one bit, then she gets turned into a polar bear or something of that manner. This implies that there are more cons than pros to our Gifts.
Like my ability. It gets hard to pay attention when you hear and see the Tokyo Bombing in class, and nobody notices it. What happens with you is probably that eating is difficult, and maybe even bathing too. Am I right, or am I right?"
Um. Um. You're right?