Hey, everyone reading this! I'm really excited, this is my first ever fanfiction! I hope you enjoy reading it, and please review if you think it's good!
(New A/N) This story is currently undergoing . . . renovations, shall we say.
-Lexie-
Lexie skipped down the hallways of Blackthorn Middle School, humming along to her constantly charged IPod. After five weeks, her class mates were used to her startling appearance and hardly anyone was staring. Not that Lexie had even noticed them staring in the first place. Bright blonde hair in two high ponytails swinging back and forth, scarlet lips curved into a smile, crackling gold eyes. She was wearing a white, collared sleeveless shirt, black tie, black denim shorts, red suspenders and red and black platform boots; she was extraordinarily beautiful and slightly odd.
But Lexie didn't care what all these stupid ordinary kids thought about her. She was Gifted and they weren't. And that was that. Unusual was the best.
A beautiful smile bloomed on her face as she turned the corner. She had sat through a whole day of dumb ordinary classes, and now it was finally time for the only reason she actually attended this lame school. Gifted class.
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-Lola-Mai-
Lola-Mai, a tiny doll-like Japanese-American girl, slumped in her seat. She brushed the crumples from her frilly pink baby doll dress and adjusted the ribbons on her pigtails with a sigh. Lola pulled a strawberry lollipop from her bag and sucked on it glumly. All day putting up with everyone else's emotions, she felt like she had none of her own. It was almost like she was dead, an emotionless zombie. She hated knowing what everyone was feeling. Trying to ignore it, counter it with an opposite feeling, none of it ever seemed to work. All her life, as far as she could remember, she had had her gift. And it had done her absolutely no good what so ever.
She saw people's emotions as a colourful dancing aura around them, felt what they were feeling, sometimes so strongly she couldn't tell if it was her own emotion or not.
And speaking of overly strong emotions. . . Someone Lola-Mai despised had just skipped way too happily into the room. Alexei "Call me Lexie!" Bayden. The girl who was too happy.
Without even checking to see if anyone else was in the room, Lexie let out a sigh of relief, and then released the constraints on her gift. Electricity thundered through the room, flooding from every pore of her body, lighting up like, well, lightning. She sapped all of the excess electricity from her body, until only static was left dancing on her fingertips.
Lola coughed loudly. "Oh, hey!" Lexie beamed way too brightly. Her zippy golden aura was so powerful Lola-Mai felt sick.
"Would you mind not sparking all over the classroom?" Lola glared, focusing on negative emotions, trying to prevent herself from feeling Lexie's happiness. Anger, hatred, depression, boredom, sorrow, she chanted over and over in her head. Don't be influenced. Ever.
"Sorry!" Lexie giggled. She sat in the seat next to Lola. "So how are you?! I am so excited about this lesson! Normal classes are just so boring aren't they?! Did you do the assignment, it's due today, I almost forgot! Anyway I thought" . . . She never even seemed to stop for breath.
Lola dropped her head onto the desk and groaned quietly.
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-Tristan-
Tristan slouched towards his next class reluctantly. His beat up two-sizes-too-small shoes dragged across the floor as if they had lead weights stuck to their peeling soles. The kids around him gave him a slight berth, leaving an empty space around him. He felt like he was Moses, parting the sea. But unlike that story, this wasn't an unusual occurrence. Slim and slight, with scruffy black hair, shadowed blue-black eyes, pale as parchment that had never seen the sun's light, quiet, odd Tristan Mortem, the bruised boy with patched jeans, wasn't exactly popular. He was often avoided and ignored, but he didn't really care. He had more important things on his mind.
He shuffled along, his back hunched as if under the weight of some great pain, everyone else's pain, studying the world from underneath his long bangs. And he wasn't happy with what he saw. So much hurt, so much suffering. And it could all disappear. He could make it disappear. This was Tristan's gift. He was a healer, and he wanted to heal the world.
Just then a voice broke him out of his bleak thoughts. "Hi, Tristan! What's up?" A peppy brunette in a cheerleaders' uniform smiled at him. "I just wanted to say thanks again for the other day! You're the best! 'Kay bye now!" And she ran off.
Tristan blinked a few times, and then remembered who she was. Phoebe Aryan, a very popular girl. Someone who he had talked to for the first time yesterday. A girl who knew about his gift. He had found her in the park with a broken arm, apparently from a cheerleading routine practise gone wrong. He had hated to see how much pain she was in. All it had taken was a touch, a few seconds, and she was fine. But then he had to tell her everything.
Tristan stared regretfully at her rapidly vanishing form. He had had no choice. If he was to heal the world, he would have to tell a few people about his gift. He just hoped no one found out. He made himself a mental reminder to avoid Verity Siren.
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-Alice-
Alice watched Tristan watching Phoebe, consumed with jealously. What had she said to him? Why she even talking to him? Did he like her? She felt sick. No, it was okay. For reassurance, she reached out and lightly brushed her slender fingers against the back of the boy in front of hers head. He didn't even notice as extracted a copy of one of his memories. Alice was filled with the sights and sounds of New York in the morning.
Eighteen months ago Alice Carthy had fallen down a flight of stairs and woken up in hospital with permanent partial amnesia. Among the memories she lost were the ones about her personality, friends, her likes and dislikes, her family. Her sense of identity was gone and she craved knowledge of her past self, craved it so strongly that she gained the ability to steal copies of other peoples' memories, and make them her own. Since she had no memories of herself, she took others' and tried to see who she was. But all it did was depress her. She couldn't even choose what memories she got.
Pulling herself back to the present, she pushed her plain dark brown hair off her face and tentatively speeded up to walk next to the object of her affections.
"Hello, Tristan," she said quietly. All she wanted was for him to like her. No one liked Alice since the accident. She was shy and quiet, she cried a lot. She couldn't stand her old friends, after she found memories of them gossiping about her behind her back. She was just another Gifted loner freak.
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-Jamie-
Sinking low in his seat, Jamie Night replayed yesterday's basketball game in his head in satisfaction. That winning basket of his - amazing. His slam dunks were legendary. He held the Blackthorn record for most during a single game. So what if he used his gift to help him out? It wasn't cheating. It was being resourceful. Whatever resourceful meant. He was still the best player on the team, and a popular, awesome guy. And with his blonde hair and bright green eyes, he reckoned he was pretty good looking as well, no matter how short he was. Carmin would have teased him for saying that he thought sadly. Then he shook his head. What was wrong with him? Why was thinking about Carmin again? Well, she was the reason he got his gift. . . He wondered if she would be proud or ashamed to see him using to cheat at basketball.
He shook his head again. STOP THINKING ABOUT HER he yelled inside his head.
Lexie giggled. "Why do you keep shaking your head like a dog?" She pulled a face at him and laughed again.
He scowled. Stupid Lexie. He had hated her ever since her first day at school when she shocked him. It had really hurt. She had hated him ever since her first day at school when he threw his basketball at her head to get back at her. And since he was hovering above her at the time, she hadn't even seen it coming.
Stupid Lexie, the girl who was struck by lightning. It happened when she was nine, the same age as Carmin and him when Carmin was. . . NO! He resisted the urge to shake his head a third time and focused on directing a death stare at Lexie, who was now building something on her desk with the various pieces of metal and wires that she kept in her pockets. It was her favourite hobby. Once she built them, she sparked them and they ran on her power. He actually thought it was pretty cool, but he would never admit it to her. He decided to change the subject.
"Did you see me yesterday?" He bragged, "I totally won that game for the team, I got player of the match again, coach says that we're definitely going to win every game this season because of me, and-"
Tristan, Alice and Tom walked in. "Oh shut up Jamie," said Lexie.
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-Verity-
Verity Siren smoothed back her short white blonde hair and applied another coat of mascara to the thick lashes framing her icy grey eyes. Stepping back to admire her reflection in the bathroom mirror, she nodded in satisfaction. She loved her new purple skinny jeans. They perfectly showed off her slender figure, and looked amazing with her violet ankle boots, the ones with the platform soles that made her already tall figure stand half a head above everyone else in the room. Tucking her cosmetics bag back into her silver shoulder bag, she reluctantly set off towards the Gifted classroom. But as much as she hated the gifted class, she knew deep down that she needed it. There was no way she would ever admit it to anyone, but her gift scared her a little bit. Lost in thought, she almost bumped into some kid.
"Out of my way!" She barked. The loser immediately scurried away with stuttered apologies. Sometimes, though, she loved her gift. She loved the power.
"Hey Verity, I like your jeans," A younger girl whose name Verity couldn't be bothered remembering said nervously. Hearing the ring of truth in her statement, Verity favoured her with an almost smile. The girl was about to say something else when Verity hissed "You'd better not go out and buy yourself a pair though, or you'll regret it." The girl ran off. Verity smiled coldly, eyes like chips of ice. That girl would never buy a pair of these jeans, that was for sure. And not just because she was scared of the consequences.
Verity felt as royal as her purple cardigan. She loved this intoxicating feeling of using her gift.
"Great to see you again, Verity!" A cluster of girls outside the next room greeted her. This time the voices practically dripped with insincerity. They were lying. Well she'd teach them a lesson.
"Oh, Victoria, are you really sure that outfit matches?" She said with an innocent expression. "And Emma, if I were you I would lay off the carbs for a few weeks. No wait, make that months. Hannah, you've got a massive pimple coming up on your chin, and it isn't the only one. Also, Gracie? You seriously call that tragedy a manicure? Have a lovely day!" She swept off as Victoria looked down at her clothes, wailing in horror, Emma pinched the skin around her waist worriedly, Hannah was asking her friends desperately if they knew a good skincare brand and Gracie was examining her nails with a horrified expression.
Verity was queen. Whatever she said, they believed it. And they couldn't lie to her. Not ever. She walked into the gifted class with a smirk. Verity ruled.
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-Tom -
Tom was consumed in his daydreams again, absent-mindedly folding an origami crane. He imagined a phoenix in flight, battling a mighty green dragon in the sky. Snowy mountaintops or an empty field, he wondered. An empty field, he decided. He smelt the grass, felt the air, unconsciously causing green to bloom beneath his feet, and shadowy butterflies to flutter around his head.
"Tom, you're doing it again," muttered his best friend Zack, who suddenly appeared beside him.
Tom quickly erased the image in his mind, causing the grass and butterflies to disappear. He was lucky that this was the gifted class, not a normal one. Sometimes his daydreams and fantasies just felt so real that they became real for a while. This was his gift. Well, part of it.
He turned to thank Zack, but his tall, skinny friend had vanished again. Off wreaking havoc again, no doubt. Tom brushed back his messy black hair and smiled. He liked being friends with Zack. They had lots of fun, and it drew him out of his dreams and into the real world. His parents were always sighing over their dreamy son. But they didn't understand his gift.
Lifting the finished crane into the air, he blew onto it gently. Golden air drifted over the paper bird and it fluttered up into the air. Flapping its wings, it soared through the room. Tom followed it intently with his hazel eyes, until the spark of life inside it began to fade. Then it drifted to the ground, silently inanimate once more.
This was the other part of Tom's powers. The ability to temporarily bring life to inanimate objects.
He cupped his hands together and filled them with cool water and lots of tiny goldfish, and he watched them swimming patiently around, with his pretty, dreamy smile.
But the fish faded away as his mind became consumed once more in a dream.
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-Zack-
Zack blinked and the gifted classroom became the empty teachers lounge. He grinned. Right in one go. He was getting better at controlling his gift. His dark green eyes flashed mischievously as he crept towards the fridge. He pulled it open and found exactly what he was looking for. His maths teacher Miss Berry's slice of cake. Stifling giggles, he took a large chunk and stuffed it into his mouth. Then he put a toy mouse next to it, as though it had eaten the cake. Miss Berry was terrified of mice. He couldn't wait til she opened the fridge this afternoon. She would freak out!
Spraying crumbs everywhere as he laughed, he decided to get out of there. Squinching his eyes closed tightly, he concentrated on the tree outside the gifted classroom, praying he wouldn't end up in the branches like he did last time. His figure became hazy, then vanished. Half a second later he was on the roof next to the tree. He swore quietly. Closing his eyes again he reappeared a few metres north of his original goal.
Good enough. He went over to the tree and sat down, then felt silent tears on his face. He missed his parents.
Now he only used his gift for playing pranks and having fun. But he couldn't help thinking about how he got it in the first place. His parents hadn't ever had time for him, and Zack had practically grown up on the streets. After a while he became a thief. He had loved grabbing an item, then casually strolling out of the doors with it under his jumper. It was . . . addictive. The heady sense of immortality, invincibility. Then one day. The police grabbed him. Terrified, he had wished harder than he ever had before, wished he was at home, safe. And then he was. But instead of learning his lesson, he got worse. He was now truly invincible, he told himself. Zack was wild, unstoppable. Then, his parents died in a plane crash and he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle. There he learnt about kindness. About love.
He never stole again. He became a relatively happy kid. But even though he had hardly even known his mum and dad, he felt their absence as a sharp pain inside him, a deep sorrow. He masked it with smiles and jokes, games and pranks.
Drying his eyes, pasting a smile back on his face, Zack Rink teleported into the gifted class room, and began telling Tom all about his latest prank, pushing his sadness from his mind. But it would never really go away.
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-Joy-
Joy Dove scowled. She was having a really bad day. She had got into heaps of trouble in Science for not having her homework. And what was she supposed to say? 'Sorry, I can't hand in my homework because I accidentally liquefied it and it soaked into the grass'. Yeah right! Then they'd just call her crazy and a liar. Her stupid gift caused her so much trouble! Yesterday she turned her sandwich into dirt, the day before her pen became steam and her eraser was ice. She had hardly any control. No, scratch that, she had no control at all! She had to be careful every time she touched something.
Slamming her locker closed, she stormed off towards her next class. The Gifted class. She really hated it; all she wanted was to be ordinary. Was that too much to ask?! Actually, she reflected glumly, it probably was.
Stomping down the hall, she heard giggling, obviously directed at her, and a snide comment in a stage whisper. "What a psychopath! That girl has serious issues!" All her stupid friends giggled. Joy spun around and glared at Phoebe Aryan.
"Shut up!" She yelled, wishing she was allowed to reveal her gift. Then she would turn that stupid cheerleader to stone, starting with the empty space where a heart should be, and slowly paralysing her until she couldn't breathe, a living statue. She stormed off. "And I'm not a psychopath," she muttered under her breath, "I'm a psychokinetic!"
She strode furiously into the Gifted classroom and flung herself down into the last empty chair, glowering, just as their teacher walked in.
"Good afternoon everyone," said the petite, dark haired lady.
"Good afternoon Madame," they replied.
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