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Odessa's POV
People hardly visit the camps for understandable reasons, a lot of us who were sent here are seen as unstable, you never knew when one of us was going to crack and just… ruin everything. So when a woman in slacks and a freshly ironed yellow button-up came in we all looked at her weird, notes were passed, rumors were spread, and whispers turned into yells.
She looked like a lawyer, her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, so tight that you can visibly see the older woman's hairline receding. I had to remind myself to be respectful and look away every couple of minutes but sometimes I'd forget, it was so strange for someone other than an employee or a "client" to be here. And it was even weirder to see her order around the workers, making them stuff us in one of our small, musty excuses for a classroom. She stood in front of us, her heels clicking as she moved side to side, the only sounds were that and the sound of
Emmaline Peters pencil scribbling.
I and the blonde had a confusing relationship, hatred was an important aspect, but we both in a way respected each other, which was good because Emmaline was so snobby she never respected anyone, she tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a lined piece of paper, different handwritings scribbled all around it, I took a while to read through the whole thing my brain making reactions as I continued but then I stopped when I got to the really important part.
Why do you think the lady is here-Dinger?
Maybe she's taking us away-Ace
Doubt it they're probably gonna take us somewhere worse-Ash
Well, I heard Lillian Parker made a school, Just. For. Us!- Carmen
Did you hear that during mess hall?- Jasper
Everyone who was paying attention did, whaddya think Emmaline?- Bear
Well, it's either a school or some other place, both suck anyways, but we could ask… Odessa?-Emmaline
I grabbed the pen that sat on top of my desk and began scribbling my response,
It's a school… I'm like 79 percent sure.
I handed the paper back to Emmaline who immediately opened it and read the sentence, she nodded at me and when I smiled back she rolled her bright blue eyes in a way that made me laugh, the woman was already talking and I couldn't understand what she was saying but in about thirty minutes into her lecture she mentioned how the President's wife, Lillian had a school built for kids like us, kids with abnormalities, I looked at Carmen, I didn't know whether or not she was doing something that made her guess correct but even if she were, and this isn't reality, I still wouldn't be mad. We were gonna go to school again, and I could feel my heart beating out my chest.
She continued rambling and it became more and more intriguing a she went on, "Those of you who have been accepted will receive a dorm, five pairs of the required school uniforms, free meals, two pairs of shoes, one athletic, and one dress shoes, you may only wear the athletic shoes during physical education, you will have opportunities to go out with a group of friends, as long as you have the points necessary, you will be divided into groups sorta like social classes if a cream-colored band is sewed onto your uniform, you're in the lower class, your powers are important, but you are not the only person with them, a lot of these include flying, strength and x-ray vision.-" I heard some groans from the kids behind me and laughter from Emmaline, not the adorable giggle type but the mocking ones, the woman continued as if she couldn't hear the chatter, "a grey band is middle class, only some people have these powers, they often include, telepathy, healing, and invisibility," the same reaction was made, Emmaline's laugh grew louder but this time others joined her," And finally if you were to receive a black band, than your power is rare, which means you are the only one with it, these often include things like power mimicry, memory manipulation, and reality-warping. Now when I call your name know you have been accepted and come get your items," the woman's voice was stern, possibility sterner that the workers, she had an angry edge to her as if she did not want to be here, but still, she called out the names and handed the children the largest bag iv ever seen,
"Carmen Johnson"
"Ace London"
"Emmaline Peters,"
"Dinger-Ray Zamor,"
"Jasper Riverdo"
"Bear Pynn"
"Ash Collins"
I watched as all my friends stepped up lunging their large bags to their seats, my heart began to ache as I got scared I started tapping my foot impatiently waiting for my name and finally, I heard it,
"...
I watched as all my friends stepped up lunging their large bags to their seats, my heart began to ache as I got scared I started tapping my foot impatiently waiting for my name and finally, I heard it,
"Odessa Rose"
I jumped up and waited till I composed myself and walked upstage, the woman smiled at me and mouthed congratulations, I smiled back and walked away bag in hand, Emmaline look at me and smirked, "I guess you don't have to be smart to get into Mrs. Parker's school huh,"
"I guess being a spoiled brat really pays off huh." We both scowled at each other, our anger piling up,
"Welcome to Society. You all may leave, and get packed we leave in three hours,"
Dinger ran up to me his orange hair blazing with each stride, "Congrats." he said as he pulled me into one of the tightest hugs, "Thanks" was all I managed to get out, he smiled and continued talking, "I and the others were gonna go into Carmen's room and show our bands if you wanna come," he invited
I laughed and gave him a small smile, "Sure,"
He grinned that goofy grin back at me and smiled, "Cool come on,"
He grabbed my hand and interlaced his fingers with my own, "Right now?"
"Yea come one before they leave"
I smiled and nodded, as he began running my feet dragging in the process, within minutes we had caught up and even passed, Carmen and the others."
"What do you think you got," Ash asked as he nudged my shoulder,
I shrugged, "I don't r-"
Danger cut me off and smiled, "Man you know she's a black band, do you know anyone else like her?"
Ash shrugged and gave me a small smile, "I guess not… but you know that doesn't necessarily mean she'll be a black,"
"Please-" Dingers grip tightened, "I'll bet you twenty bucks,"
Ash shook the guy's hand and laughed, "Guess I'm gonna be twenty dollars richer huh,"
Dinger rolled his eyes and let out a small chuckle.
Carmen didn't live that far from the schoolroom, she was one of the lucky ones. I lived what felt like a mile away, but within minutes we were at the girl's dormitory. We all stood in a circle, our bags in our hands. Carmen looked around and cleared her throat, "So who's going first."
Jasper began unwrapping his blazer and folded it out smoothing the creases, till we all saw the black patch with the grey peace sign. He seemed surprised as he said, "Black," and began folding his blazer as neatly as it was unfolded, Unlike Ash who just ripped his apart and yelled when he saw the black patch with the white peace sign. Carmen began unwrapping her own slowly allowing the suspense to build up, she took out her blazer and it too was a black patch, except it had no peace sign, she shrugged still thrilled that she was at least Black and nodded to Emmaline who already opened her plastic wrap and just had to unfold her blazer, and as expected was also black with the same white peace sign as her boyfriend. Dinger and Bear opened their eyes at the same time, and both of them got back the only nonsimilarity was that Bear had a grey peace sign and Dinger didn't have one at all. Ace was already staring at her patch in amazement before the boys had finished her cheeks turning a cherry blossom color as she sent us the most adorable smile, She too had received a black with a grey peace sign.
I could feel my throat aching as I began tearing the plastic to my own blazer, everyone watched me intensely especially Dinger and Ash whom both had twenty dollars on the line, I gently unfolded my blazer, and there it was.
A black badge with a dark blue star on it.
"That's black!" Dinger announced as Ash rolled his eyes handing the ginger his twenty dollars,
"Why is there a dark blue star on hers though?" He questioned as we all shrugged,
"I don't know… does anyone have the pamphlet that explains," Carmen asked as I nodded and handed her the golden paper.
"Blacks- very powerful powers that are rare. The symbol you get depends on the leaves, a white peace sign is a beginner, a grey peace sign is mediocre, black is nearly perfect, and a dark blue star is… beyond perfect. Each level in the Society's Black Building is separated, all blacks hang out during mess hall, nutrition, and Lunch.: Carmen said with a nod, Emmaline scoffed and groaned, "of course she got a blue star, that's so unfair!"
I looked at the teen and rolled my eyes, "What are you talking about."
"The workers here think of you as freakin god and why, just because you can make things like one, and because you can give people and things life and death ."
"Ok but that's not my issue, we were all gift wit-"
"Gifted! This is the only good thing these god forbidden abilities provided us with."
Emmaline looked at me, her eyes drowning in hurt, and I couldn't help but feel bad, she looked at me and I could feel her anger rising. Emmaline had one of the sadder stories here. Her parents were in for a surprise whenever they're child had a tantrum because before they knew it the little girl's screams would crumble their house, so they tried anything they could to insure she wouldn't scream, from applying a muzzle to the poor girl's mouth being glued together, but of course, the only thing that worked was spoiling the child. So from one till ten she had what she believed was the best life ever, that was until her parents drove her here, allowing her to believe that she was actually going to a summer camp. The first time I met her she threw a tantrum, trees flying everywhere, so one of the workers made me put her in a steel large guinea pig ball, that was the day she began hating me. She met Ash at twelve, and the two hit it off quicker than a drop of a hat. And now at 15 she was with the teen, who resented her parents no matter how much they apologized, and wanted to prove to herself and others that she was the strongest in the camp, but of course… she wasn't and that made her angry. Possibly angrier than she had ever been.
I looked at her, sympathy washing over, "Your right." and at that I began to turn away, walking towards the door hearing a multitude of footsteps following close behind.
I walked all the way back to the mess hall not bothering to see whoever was still anxiously following.
I decided it'd be a smart idea to begin to run and stop, and so that what I did was I ran, and the footsteps behind me got louder and heavier, and when I stopped I fell. Not because I was clumsy, but because someone crashed into me, I turned and saw bright orange hair and knew automatically who it was.
"Dinger…" I whined and he threw me one of his dumb goofy grins,
"Yes ma'am,"
"Why are you following me?"
"Wanted to make sure you were ok. You seemed pretty… down?"
"I'm fine. It still doesn't make sense for you to be stalking me!"
"Hey. watch the accusations. I wasn't stalking you sunshine, ,I was gonna check up on you,"
"Then why didn't you say anything?"
"Bear and I-"
"Bears not even here!"
Dinger looked at me with a guilty expression, and pointed to the baby squirrel that was sitting on a branch, "He got scared."
I groaned becoming more and more infuriated, "You guys don't need to check up on me all the time! Just give me space."
"We weren't doing anything wrong."
"Then why did Bear have to hide, it just makes you guys look suspicious."
"Because you're pretty scary when you're mad like your cheeks get all red, and you make scary stuff appear and….well… listen he was just taking precautions."
"Do not!" I scoffed,
"If you say so darlin'"
I wanted to be mad for longer than five minutes but we both knew that was practically impossible. I wasn't the type to hold grudges, especially not with these two. I sighed, "You know what… it's fine I'm over it."
Dinger flashed me a goofy smile and called Bear over, who immediately ran at my feet, I picked up the squirrel and scratched it behind its ears, The animal turned back into himself as I sat him on the freshly cut grass, and all three of us walked back to the mess hall silence filling the air. We quietly sat at one of the tables and I allowed myself to place my head down, and just sat mumbling words under my breath.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Blackberry Ice Pops." I grinned as the boy's stomach grumbled, I rolled my eyes as they gave me a pleading look, they held their hand as I gently glazed mine against their own, the ice pop suddenly appearing.
"So why are you thinking about these," Dinger asked as he licked the delicious snack,
"Well, it's funny."
"What do you mean"
"Well in the heat, ice pops don't do too well because that's like a bad environment, but when in the cold that's where they thrive. Yet there would be no way to know that unless we had tried to see it in the different temperatures."
"I think you're putting too much thought into ice pops darlin'"
"Well I'm relating it scientifically to humans, when we are in a bad environment it feels like everything sucks, and when we're in a good one we would feel on top of the world, but we wouldn't know that unless we went to them."
"Oh….. so why you putting so much thought into ice pops," he chuckled,
"Just nervous I guess"
Bear looked up from his popsicle stick and frowned, I rolled my eyes, and waved my fingertips above it as another delicious ice pop showed up,
"Wait, can I have seconds?" Dinger asked as he quickly shoved his own into his mouth,
"Nope."
"That's so unfair."
"Life isn't fair."
"Cmon darling. Please."
I rolled my eyes and did the same as the ice pop popped up, he smiled at me and laughed, "You're a great chef Odessa."
"Why thank you, kind sir," I replied in the goofiest, frenchiest access I could summon. We sat there for a couple of minutes just talking, with Dinger making the room colder, and Bear turning himself into a bear to scare our peers and me, all I did was make food appear. Which seemed kind of basic but it's hard to explain how it happens. Anything that I imagine, and it has to be extremely well thought out before I wave my arm, will happen with enough thought. Foods are easy but for one of my practices, Mr.Ford (the manager of the camp) would have me create a human, sometimes they come out disabled but regardless of their physical or mental state, he had me… dispose of them, which was another mental task for me because I had to imagine hem dying and then watch their skin deteriorate leaving just bone, and then he'd have me regenerate them. Mr.Ford said I was incredible, and often took me with him for out of camp activities, which is why I suppose the others hated me. But I knew at the school there'd be no favorites. It was a fresh start with gifted kids from camps all over the joint to actually get taught how to use their abnormalities for the best and even though I already knew how to do that, I was still accepted. It was hard to imagine what else they'd teach me, but I was sure by the time we got there I wouldn't be able to contain my excitement