It wasn't often Jayce found himself as a human punching bag. He hung upside from his ankles in the gym, blood rushing to his head.
If he could transform into an inanimate object he would cut himself down, he would, but every power had its limits. He wondered if he could imitate faces. There hadn't been time or reason to practice improving something he'd never tried. Jayce made a note to give it a shot after class.
"That concludes the strength portion of your skills testing!" shouted Ms. Astley. "And can someone get Jayce down?!"
Jayce prayed Kevin wouldn't take on the challenge of untangling his ankles. He was sure they'd break under Kevin's meaty fingers.
Luckily, a girl named Portia with long black hair, dark skin, and soft brown eyes offered a moment of her time. From what Jayce had gathered, her nails were razor-sharp. She kept rubber caps on them or pieces of play-doh if she forgot.
"I see you're a little tied up."
Jayce laughed. It was good to be around someone with a sense of humour. Most students felt like they had the world on their shoulders. Jayce felt his own humour slipping away when he was reminded of Armina. "Guess so."
Portia took the pink rubber caps off her fingers and sawed away at the ropes. "I didn't think climbing a rope could end so badly. Are your hands okay?"
Jayce held them up as best as he could. The skin was raw from his accidental slide down the rope. They stung. "I'll live. You know, when people do this in movies it doesn't look that hard."
"Try it with talons."
Putting the caps back on one hand, Portia grabbed Jayce's wrist. She finished cutting the rope. Jayce fell, spinning onto his back as Portia kept him from landing on his head. The breath left his lungs and was sucked right back in.
"Ouch," he muttered.
"Oh, sorry. Didn't think you'd drop that hard." Portia looked over Jayce, making sure he wasn't badly injured. She, as well as Jayce, would hate for him to get injured in such an embarrassing fashion.
"It wasn't that bad." It definitely was. Jayce struggled to stand, but refused any more amusement to his fellow blue level students. "But I still don't see why she doesn't test us on our abilities.
Portia curled a piece of black hair around her finger. "Since sixth grade - you know, when combat classes start for most blues; there are rare early cases - Ms. Astley has been saying that we need to understand our human limits before we can understand our superhuman limits. Don't worry, she'll get into advanced combat at the end of the semester."
"When you say blues-"
"Reds start as soon as they show up. Yellow classes are all over the place, so you'd have to ask your buddy Lewis."
His buddy? Jayce guessed in the few days they'd known each other they'd become friends. It's not like there was a universal rule against quickly made friendships.
"Yeah. I'll do that. So, what do you guys do for fun around here?"
Portia leaned in, her chin hovering over his shoulder. He felt the warmth of her breath tickle his neck. "Let's sneak out and I'll show you. Meet me at the library in five minutes."
Absolutely stunned, Jayce watched Portia stroll over to Ms. Astley, make an excuse, and leave through the gym doors. He did the same, saying he had to go to the bathroom, and made his way toward the library. He remembered the shortcuts about the school Armina had shown him and by some miracle wasn't caught by any teachers.
The library was vast for a room in a school and had books on topics Jayce had never even heard of. A ladder on a track slid around half of the room to reach the top shelves, but Jayce imagined most students could use their powers to reach up there. There were, after all, kids how could fly, levitate, and move objects with their minds.
Caught up in the strange new world he'd entered just days ago, Jayce wished he had enrolled under different circumstances. He still had five weeks, and he'd choose his absolutely, horrifically confusing family, but the kids at the Evans Academy were growing on him. He even had his own little unspoken rivalry ongoing with Kevin.
Back home he had a few aquaintances and a few girls interested in him, but the people at the academy understood what it was like to be different. Jayce could never share his abilities with anyone at Fremont High. They'd report him to the authorities and he'd be experimented on or worse, put up for display at some freaky zoo. It had taken getting shot down to get into this discrete school. He didn't want to imagine what it would take to get out of a lab.
Portia sat in the corner on a red couch. Anywhere else it would have stuck out like a sore thumb, but among the rainbow of books, it fit perfectly.
Spiking up his hair with his slim fingers, Jayce strolled over to the girl. He tried not to look like a fool as he peered down at Portia and asked, "So what did you want to show me?"
Portia stood and grinned. "I'm not supposed to know about this, but..." She pushed in a book called Advanced Physics for the Curious Teenager behind the couch. Gears ground against each other under the floor. The bookcase slid back and to the side to reveal a short hall with a bright light at the end.
"You coming?" she giggled.
Jayce followed her down the hall and toward the light. At the end of it, to his surprise, was a window. He held it open for Portia, then pulled himself out onto a flat area of the school's roof.
Portia sat and patted the spot next to her. Jayce joined her, looking out at the property surrounding them.
"When I came here I couldn't believe the school. It blew my mind that you could just hop through a barrier in the middle of town and be miles away in the countryside."
Jayce rubbed the back of his neck. "Why'd you bring me out here? I mean you're pretty and all, but I'd think you'd prefer someone you've actually talked to before."
She giggled and shook her head. "There's something different about you. I saw it in your eyes when you were hanging upside down on that rope."
Portia sent mixed messages. She was complicated. She was real. Jayce had come up here assuming she wanted to ask him about, but now he could see that she just wanted a friend. Something told him blues found it difficult to get along with each other because their powers were so varied. They couldn't bond on the fact that they had powers because they were either weak or untrained.
"How old were you when you came here?"
"Twelve. My parents were a little concerned at first, but with these-" she wiggled her fingers covered in pink rubber pieces. "-I've been able to live a relatively normal life with my parents. They drop me off here every day at seven and return at three to take me home."
Jayce nodded. He imagined telling his mother about his power, but he feared she'd claim him unsafe around the baby. He guessed Josh would call him a freak and kick him out. Some days he felt like a freak but most he felt free.
"Portia." Jayce's stomach went sour. He was anxious to ask but he had to. "If you had to choose between the life of one stranger that you just met and your family and friends, who would you choose?"
As she curled another piece of hair around her finger, she thought for a moment. "I'd take the life of the person making me choose. If someone gives you the option to have someone you love killed or someone others love killed, they're not a good person."
Jayce genuinely smiled for the first time in a while. It was strange, foreign. Had things been so terrible? "I like your honesty, Portia."
"So where's yours?" Her eyes were lit up with sympathy. "Why'd you come to the school now?"
Lie. Lie. Lie, he thought.
He settled for a half-truth. "I haven't had my power very long, and home life is a little too complicated to handle a super-freak too."
"Do you have siblings?"
"Yeah. Baby sister and an older brother that I don't talk much to anymore. You?"
"Two older brothers and a younger one."
"Ouch," Jayce said. "That's gotta be rough."
Portia shrugged. "They stick up for me as much as they pick on me, but don't think I don't get my fair share of insults and pranks."
Jayce scanned the cars in the back parking lot. About thirty of them. The teachers came early in the morning, around breakfast, but Jayce hadn't met many others as strange as Ms. Astley. Most of them seemed powerless like Louisa. He wondered what it took to get hired at a super secret school for super-powered children. The topic would have to be pressed later.
An alarm sounded out from within the school halls. Jayce's heart skipped a beat. Portia was already on her feet.
"Either someone's breaking in or someone's trying to get out."
"Get out? This is a school not a prison!" Jayce shook his head, clearing it of ridiculous thoughts. "Let's get inside to be safe."
Inside, students scurried around, searching for answers. The only person that seemed to have them was a yellow level boy named Alec. He had short, curly brown hair and olive skin. His two-toned eyes were like a weasel's - mischievous yet cunning.
"What's going on?" Portia asked him as she ripped a cap of her pointer finger. She held it in front of his eye. He stepped back, bumping into the wall but never showed fear. In fact, Jayce thought he saw him smirk.
Alec crossed his arms, his yellow jacket twisting around his biceps. "Oh, you know. Ryan Laughlin went missing after the reds' combat class, after he beat half of them."
Portia cursed under her breath, then looked to Jayce. "Grade-A bully. He loves to pick on reds and yellows. Blues just aren't worth his time. He has enemies in the dozens."
"You think someone hurt him?"
Alec spoke up. "Pretty damn likely." As if he didn't still have a razor-sharp fingernail in front of his throat, he fixed his hair. "My bet is Jackson Port or Armina Stanton. Both the loosest cannons I know, and I know stuff."
Jayce gulped. "Uh, I'll be right back." He took off down the hall, calling for Lewis. Jayce passed by a couple dozen students before he found Lewis outside Armina's room.
"Before you say anything, know that she can't control her powers," he whispered. "This is all one big misunderstanding."
Lewis sighed and opened the door. Jayce followed suit.
Armina sat on her bed, tears in her eyes. She shook uncontrollably as she peered up at the guys. Her eyes filled with rage as they landed on Jayce. "Why are you here?!"
"I-"
Lewis cut in. "He's going to help. Right, Jayce?"
He didn't know. From what he gathered on Armina, she was relentless and fearless, a terrible combination. If she wanted to she could kill anyone in seconds. But the girl had shown him vulnerability.
"Tell me what happened."
Armina relayed the scene. "Ryan humiliated me in class, so I followed him to ask how he did it. I'm- I'm still learning to control my power. I hate to admit it, but I could- could have learned from Ryan."
"And after you followed him?"
"It was like I blacked out. My instincts took over. I got so mad, and I laid my hand on him. He- he melted, then disappeared like he never existed."
Lewis kneeled down and held Armina's hands in his. "Armina, listen. You didn't intend to do this."
"Did he have family?" Jayce mumbled.
"What?" asked Lewis, his eyes remaining on Armina's shivering form.
"Did he have any family?"
"No. No... Just an uncle."
Jayce turned and held back the sickness. He dreamed of his family melting away into nothing. What would it feel like to be the one melting? What would it feel like to die? He couldn't imagine the pain.
A sour taste entered his mouth. His stomach churned, and his skin turned pale. The image of his mother turning into goop like a melting candle fought its way into his mind. "Jesus, Armina." For the first time that week, Jayce's fear of Armina drove him to speak up. "You killed someone."
"Jayce-" she uttered, but before she could finish Jayce was sprinting toward the bathroom.
Almost there. Oh god. Oh god.
But there was no god here. Nothing holy had given a child the power to steal abilities and kill the host in the process. It was like having death as a side effect on an allergy medication.
In the bathroom, Jayce relieved himself of breakfast and didn't dare think of lunch in half an hour. He remembered the bits of gunk under Armina's nails that he had failed to notice earlier. He pondered how he'd kill her with an ability like that. She'd pulverize him before he could change his mind.
Then again, maybe she should die. Maybe it was fortunate that someone was pressured into murdering the girl destined to destroy the world in such a gruesome fashion.
No. This wasn't Jayce. It was the ideas Nathaniel has left festering in the back of his mind. He had to find another way. He had to save Armina and thus save everyone else. No one else had to die.