Astra was held back a grade when he was in kindergarten making him a year older than everyone else in his class. He was the only unawakened. The last kid to awaken in his class was his friend Liam Nguyen. He awakened as an F rank. His only ability was body manipulation. He could make whatever part of his body bigger or smaller. Right now he could only grow or shrink a single limb. Fortunately, once someone awakens they can grow their power through training.
Astra opened the door to his classroom. "Happy Birthday Astra!" His friend Lily Patel cheered as she got up from her seat. "Happy Birthday Astra!" The rest of his friend group said a couple of seconds after. Astra looked at Lily, Liam, Ethan, Jasmine, and Persis surprised. "Wow, you guys actually surprised me there. How did you know I was here?" Astra said as he began walking over to sit near them. "Who do you think?" Ethan teased. "Don't you get started. It's too early for me to hear you swooning over my sister." Astra passive-aggressively joked.
"Hey let's forget about that ok? I was a little drunk but I didn't do anything to her. At least I don't think I did." Ethan said as he tried remembering the night he flirted with Harper. "Bro, stop please, I'm begging you. All my life at least one of my friends has told me my sister's hot and tried to go for her. I thought you would be different." Astra sighed as he plopped his body onto his desk. "Look what you did Ethan. He just walked in and you're already talking about his sister. It's his birthday. Keep your dick in your pants for a little longer at least. Have you forgotten no hoes related to bros?" Liam joked leaning into his chair. "Yeah, you horny animal. We told you not to go for her but you just brushed us off. You broke the code." Persis said as he peeked from behind Astra.
They sat in groups of two next to the left wall with vertical rows that faced the front of the classroom. Liam and Ethan sat in the third row. Lily and Astra sat in the fourth. Persis and Jasmine sat in the fifth. Seniors didn't have assigned seating so they chose these desks the first day of class. "Boys, can you remember that Astra is sitting between you? He just walked in. It's his birthday and you're already messing with him. Have some shame." Jasmine glared at the three of them. "Sorry bro, my bad," Ethan apologized as he looked back at Astra. "It's fine, I'll forget about it. Today's going to be a good day." Astra patted Ethan on the shoulder. "Wow, you guys are so cute." Lily joked.
"Did you two losers finally give up on girls? Kiss already, I support you love birds." Blake Donovan, Astra's bully, approached Astra's group. "I owe you five bucks," Mason said as he stood next to Blake. "I told you months ago this would happen. I just didn't think it would take this long." Blake walked even closer to Astra staring down at him. "How does it feel to make history? The world's first unawakened. You could become a global sensation. Think about all the publicity you could get. 'Look at the most pathetic man on earth.' 'World's rarest loser' 'Unawakened and sad'. I could go all day."
Blake laughed as he suddenly grabbed Astra by his hair and started to lift him out of his chair. "Do you understand what I'm saying? We don't need useless trash like you in this world. Look around you. Everything you see and use is made with some sort of awakened power. Every person on Earth can contribute something to society. What can you do?" Blake asked. Astra was using all his strength to hit Blake but Blake didn't move an inch. He awakened enhanced strength and durability. An unawakened like Astra couldn't scratch him. Ethan and Persis both stood up from their seats.
The second they fully stood up their clothes started to burn. "Sit down or you'll get hurt. We don't want that right?" Mason awakened pyrokinesis allowing him to control and summon fire. Even though everyone but Astra was awakened fire still burned. "Oh shit, what the fuck." Ethan panicked as he threw his shirt off. Persis did the same as he began using his regeneration on Ethan and himself. Persis could regenerate any damage done to a human as long as they lived. He awoke only a couple of months ago so he could only heal some wounds or burns.
Blake slammed Astra's face into his desk during all that. Astra's nose broke and began spilling blood. "Do us all a favor and die. You're useless weak trash." Blake told Astra as he started walking out the door. "How the fuck did that guy get worse. It hasn't even been a day. Did this school forget about teaching compassion?" Persis sighed as he began to heal Astra's nose. "Thanks, Persis. I don't have to worry about him if I have you around." Astra winced as his nose snapped back in place and was almost fully healed. "Tada, brand new. I say it looks better than before. You should thank Blake." Persis joked as he sat back down.
Lily was sitting next to Astra. During that whole thing, she panicked and didn't know what to do. "I'm sorry we couldn't do anything to help," Lily said as she placed her hand on Astra's hand. Lily felt completely useless in that whole altercation. She awakened with temporal manipulation and was an E rank. She could slow down or stop time in a localized area. Any awakened who could control time in any way was valued by the UEF. She was recruited by the UEDF only a month after awakening.
"Don't worry about it. With Persis here it's like it didn't even happen." Astra squeezed Lily's hand as he comforted her. "Yeah, don't worry about it Lil, we didn't do anything either." Ethan turned toward her and smiled. "You're happy you didn't help me?" Astra sarcastically asked. "You know what I meant. Anyways class is about to start let's forget that happened." Ethan quickly turned around in his seat to face the front of the class. "Avoiding the question won't help you." Liam teased as he turned to face the front as well.
*RING* *RING*
A second after the bell went off the door to the classroom flung open. "Good morning class. How are we doing this fine morning?" Astra's teacher Mr. Cress asked as he put his things on his desk. He only received blank stares in response. "Well, it seems like everyone is really happy today. You all ready for a pop quiz?" Mr. Cress held up a stack of papers. "UGGHH' The class said in unison. Including Astra's group of six, they had about thirty students. "I told you guys that it was happening soon. I hope you studied when I told you." Mr. Cress began handing out the quizzes to each row to pass back.
"This will be on the history of the Awakening War. I tried to make it easy so I'm expecting everyone to pass. If you somehow fail this, you need to start high school over. You have 15 minutes to answer the questions. Time starts now." Mr. Cress said as he sat in his chair. Astra, Lily, Jasmine, and Persis all finished the quiz in about 5 minutes. Liam and Ethan were only halfway through. "Are you guys really that dumb? Did your parents teach you anything?" Lily teased as the boys continued writing on the quiz. "Shut up. I don't care about the past. I care about what we will do next." Ethan passionately said as he paused from taking his test. "Ethan, quiet." Mr. Cress sternly said. "Haha," Lily whispered.
Ethan and Liam finished up their tests. The rest of the day was spent going over different types of awakened abilities. The amount of new abilities increased exponentially. If the OTCIA didn't exist, keeping track of all these powers would be impossible. Most of the senior's classes were about abilities. Only a couple of classes use powers but it wasn't required. Astra excelled in every class that wasn't based on the use of powers. He had one of the highest GPAs in New Atlantis Academy. That is one of the many reasons people like Blake and his crew bullied him. They were insulted that an unawakened was smarter than them in everything. UEF tried every possible way to make all humans see each other equally but it proved to be something more difficult than rocket science. A few would always slip through the cracks and infect the minds of many.
*RING* *RING*
"Ok, that's the end of class. Remember we only have a month of school left. Finals are coming up soon. Please study. I'm talking to you two, Ethan and Liam." They looked at the teacher with shock. "That has to be illegal. First-degree embarrassment!" Ethan shouted as he began packing his things. "How are you so loud? Why can't you put that passion into studying?" Mr.Cress looked at the ground defeated.
"Astra let's hang out tonight for your birthday ok?" Lily asked. "Wow you two alone. I didn't know you were so bold, Lily." Jasmine teased as they got up from their seats. Lily's face turned beat red and she gave no response. "Haha, don't worry I know what you meant. Sounds good to me I'll meet you guys for drinks around 8. Does that work with everyone else?" Astra asked as they walked out of the classroom. "I'm coming too!" Harper said appearing out of nowhere. "Ahh, what the hell." Ethan jumped a little. "Oh, h...hi Harper." After realizing it was Harper, Ethan became visibly nervous. "Bro, we just talked about this." Liam enlarged his hand and smacked the back of Ethan's head. "Oww. At least hold back a little." Ethan said as he rubbed the back of his. "Yeah, not doing that" Liam answered.
"So I can come, right?" Harper completely ignored Ethan and asked Astra. "Of course you can. It would be weird for me to not let my own sister celebrate with me." Astra replied and walked with everyone out of the building. "Bye, everyone. Happy Birthday Astra!" Lily said as she walked off into the city. "Bye" "Bye" "See you later" "Happy Birthday!" Everyone in the friend group wished Astra a happy birthday before leaving. "I like your friends. I'm glad I can hang with you guys tonight." Harper said as they began walking home. "Me too. Just don't talk to Ethan and it'll be the perfect night." Astra said. "Now that you said something, I think I might. I do like this night-black hair. I wonder if the carpet matches the drapes?" Harper asked Astra with an innocent expression. "Don't look at me like that and talk like an old man at the same time. It's really disturbing, you perverted old man." Astra said while pretending to dry heave. "HAHAHAHA!" Harper couldn't stop herself from laughing.