Horton Grimshaw School for the Supernaturally Gifted

Tuesday April 8th, 12:03 PM

PART ONE: as told by Claire

What exactly was the definition of stalking? I'd always been curious, but I had procrastinating tendencies and never found the motivation to locate a computer and consult . Or, find a dictionary, but exerting physical effort to achieve something was as outdated as walkmans.

Currently, I would've even mind searching for a dusty, asthma inducing dictionary, because I had an incentive.

I needed to know if I had been stalking Cam Fisher for the past three hours, or if my actions could be translated to "friendly following".

No one had noticed, fortunately. Not even Cam himself. I presume it was mostly because I remained invisible for those three hours, not in a figurative sense, but actually, physically invisible.

Like every student who attended the school, I possessed a supernatural gift. Everyone's was different, as far as I knew on the matter, and no one knew why or how they manifested. Skeptics believed it to be a strange virus which inflicted mutation to the chromosomes. A significant portion of people just thought it was the evolution of humans.

We're been evolving since the beginning of time, is there any plausible reason why we should stop? Sure, we're intellectually superior to every species on earth, but we aren't physically. Without our wits, we'd be near the bottom of the vulnerability scale (the bottom being the most vulnerable, incidentally).

These abilities were just the not-so-subtle evolution of our species. And for whatever deranged reason, some humans, most humans, weren't making the change.

Predictably, us specials were isolated. Then ordered into special programs. The adults were dismissed from their occupations and sent to work in mundane factory jobs. The children were sent to one of the many newly established schools for the supernaturally gifted. There they would learn math, science, Spanish 101, English, history, overcoming your supernaturally enhanced opponent 101, the supernatural in literature, etc.

I shared Spanish 101 with Cam Fisher. And even though you weren't allowed to use powers during classes, and I didn't, he still treated me as if I were invisible.

"Claire, have you been stalking again?"

I jumped, startled, and slid back into my visible form. Layne was staring reproachfully at me.

No one was able to diagnose Layne's ability. It was something between "all knowing" "physic" and "constant dormant premonitions". She had nightmares that revealed the future, remembered everything she saw, heard, touched, smelled, with perfect accuracy, and seemed to comprehend her surroundings with a supernatural understanding.

Which is precisely why she saw while I was in invisible form.

I felt inclined to apologize to her, and then reevaluated it. It wasn't as if I were spying on her.

"That's creepy, a little," Layne declared, smiling impishly.

"It's creepy that you can see me," I countered, trying to remain aloof.

"I can't see you. I just knew you were there. I also know there are seven spiders in this hallway, four people, eight doorways, a centipede, a glove under the carpet, and a bad impressionist painting," she recited without shifting her gaze.

"You forgot about the vase," I said, pointing to a vase, obscurely positioned in the corner of the hallway, without a table underneath it or decorative flowers in it.

Layne shrugged. "Too insignificant to mention," she said, dismissing my correction with a wave of her hand.

We walked slowly down the corridor, and when we passed by Cam, I held my breath and wished I'd remained invisible.

He didn't take note of the struggle I was enduring to not trip or do something equally as embarrassing in his presence.

Layne tugged me down the hall by the sleeve of my yellow fleece sweater. "It's your second day here and you're already falling for that dude. Everyone falls for him. Every member of the Treasures has probably made out with him at least once."

"Who are the Treasures?" I demanded, trying to sound uninterested.

"Oh, just a group of girls who think they're superior to everyone here," Layne answered nonchalantly, rolling her eyes to indicate the inconsequentiality of the matter.

"Well are they?" I prompted eagerly. I prayed they weren't pretty or powerful or smart or cool. If they were, I knew Cam was far out of my league. So far in fact, that the vicinity he stood in could be deemed a different continent from the tiny village my league spanned over.

"See for yourself," Layne grumbled, nudging me in the direction of the geography classroom.

A notice was pinned to the door:

FUTURE LEADERS OF AMERICA LUNCH MEETING TODAY: NEW MEMBERS ENTER AT OWN RISK TO BE EVALUATED BY THE TREASURES

"Evaluated?" I echoed, my voice softer and weaker than I'd intended. "Are they really that…"

"Sky high on the social hierarchy? Yup." Layne began finger combing through her snarls of dark hair impatiently. "Never spoken to any of them, especially Massie. I hear she's brutal."

"Let's meet them," I suggested suddenly, deeply regretting my offer the second I uttered it.

Layne gawked dramatically, and then quickly regained composure after realizing the door had a window. "No. Way. They'll eat us alive."

"I'm new here. I have an excuse to be naïve," I insisted, warming up to the idea of observing the cam competition.

"Claire, I"—

"Fine. I'll go alone." I knocked once. Then with a burst of courage I knocked three more times— with aggression and determination.

The door swung open slowly, without being pulled open by a person. It creaked slowly to reveal a dark classroom, dotted with stylishly clad girls who leered at us from their seats. The door situation seemed to provide a rather ominous atmosphere, or maybe it was the leering inhabitants of the room, and Layne tried to scurry off with no avail.

I snatched the hood of her fuchsia gap sweater and dragged her inside with me, plastering a sunny smile on my face as I approached the girls.

"I'm Claire L"—

"We know who you are," said a lithe, pal brunette, who sat in the back of the classroom, shrouded in an eerie darkness. "This is our three minutes of dark and silence of the day. Please leave and return when our session has ended."

"Um, Okay," Layne snorted, and turned to leave.

I seized her wrist and proceeded towards the nearest occupant of the room. She was slouched in her seat, humming softly to herself, her long blonde hair hanging casually in front of her face like a substitute for a sleeping mask.

"Can we sit down?" I asked.

She rose her head, spitting pieces of fine hair from her mouth before replying, "fine, sure."

"Stop interrupting our darkness and silence period!" a whiny voice from the back of the room complained.

I immediately shut up and pulled Layne to some empty seats. There were only four people in the room, and none of them even continued to acknowledge our uncomfortable presences.

Suddenly, the lights snapped on. The brunette had suddenly appeared at the light switch by the door without my noticing. Even Layne seemed surprised, and she knew what happened in a room without even opening her eyes.

In the light, I perceived the girl to be sufficiently pretty, with long waves of chestnut colored hair and piercing amber eyes. Her features were proportionate and her red lips were parted in what I discerned to be contempt.

"Do you really think you're great and powerful enough to be in this club?" she asked slowly, in a raspy, slightly epic tone.

I nodded dumbly, and side glanced at Layne, who was shaking her head back and forth slowly. I smacked her. She alternated to nodding.

The brunette smiled. "I'm Massie. A teleporter. The blond is Kristen, a sprint, the red head is Dylan, a pyrokenetic, and the Spanish one is Alicia, who can read minds and perform telekinesis with extreme focus."

After each introduction, the said girl murmured a word of greeting unenthusiastically.

I felt very out of place and redundant.

Massie looked expectantly at me suddenly.

"Oh!" I said. "Um, I'm Claire, and I um, can turn invisible?"

Massie nodded in approval. "Decent," she commented mildly. "You? GAP?" she addressed Layne, whose unsightly GAP hooded sweater had already earned her a crude nickname.

"I'm Layne. And I see dead people." She maintained a perfectly straight face.

"Ehmagawsh!" gasped the red head. "Are there any in this room?"

Suddenly the blonde, the red head, and the Spanish girl erupted in squeals of horror.

"DIE DEAD PEOPLE, DIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE!" The red head screeched, thrusting her hand at the nearest desk and setting it alight with hungry dark flames.

"DYLAN!" Massie shouted abruptly. Then she leaned into the hallway and called "Derrick!"

Moments later, a shaggy blonde boy hustled in, unconcerned about the fire's growing heat and danger, and extended his arm towards it. A rush of ice enveloped the flames and morphed them into pathetic wisps of black, defeated smoke.

Everyone was quiet and expressionless, watching the charred desk crumble in a heap.

Then Massie exploded: "Dylan! What did I tell you about your fire? CONTROL IT!"

Derrick, after presenting the girls with a cocky grin, fled the room.

"Sorry," Dylan mumbled, chewing nervously on a strand of hair. "I needed to scare the spirits away. Did it work?" she turned to Layne hopefully.

Layne nodded. "Oh yes," she said.

"Oh shut up." Massie rolled her eyes. Soundlessly, she disappeared from her position at the doorway and appeared in front of Layne.

"There's no such power. She's probably just embarrassed about her genuine power."

Layne flushed. "My power is NOT to be ashamed of," he huffed, crossing her arms over her sweater.

"Oh, puh-lease, GAP, if you were powerful, you would've told us your power, like Claire." She jammed her thumb in my direction.

I suppressed a triumphant smile.

Layne sniffled unhappily. She pushed pass Massie and stormed out of the room. Stopping in the threshold, she said to the red head: "There's a ghost sitting on you."

She disappeared before Dylan started clawing at the air around her frantically.

I knew Layne, even after two days of friendship, to be confident. I knew she possessed an irrepressible air of self assurance. So why couldn't she withstand Massie's personal attack? Was it because she genuinely thought her power to be inferior? I suddenly felt very lonely and cold.

And then Cam Fisher entered the room, stimulating every cell in my body and yanking me from my quiet, sad state.

Grinning charmingly at Massie, he dropped his messenger bag to the floor and embraced Massie in a manner I couldn't properly discern yet. Friend or Lover?

Massie was blushing like a strictly raised catholic school girl whose knee socks had just slipped down an inch.

"Hey Dylan," he nodded to the red head after the mysterious hug had been delivered. He then greeted Alicia and Kristen, whose pleasure was equivalent to Massie's.

So, he really had had a taste of each of the Treasures.

Did he strictly prefer Treasures for lovers? If I became a treasure, would he love me?

The concept was enthralling. I felt a fresh wave of confidence take residence in my quiet, reserved demeanor.

Cam took notice of me. "You the new Treasure?" he asked, beaming.

"Potentially," Massie said, before I could respond uneasily that I didn't know. "She's definitely a member of this club now. Definitely decent material."

"Are you new, or something?" he asked me, as if two days ago the Spanish teacher hadn't introduced me to the class.

"Yup," I replied; my confidence and exuberance slowly dwindling. I was considering the notion that I wasn't pretty or cool or talkative enough to end up with him. It seemed fairly plausible. Was I not even powerful enough?

In a blur, Kristen was standing beside Cam. "What ever happened to that race we scheduled?" she cooed, playfully dancing hyper speed circles around him.

He chuckled lightheartedly. "Maybe it should be cancelled, indefinitely, considering you get faster every time I see you."

Kristen smiled. Presumably the mild compliment compensated for the blatant rejected Cam had just delivered.

"So what's your thing?" he asked interestedly, turning to me.

"Invisibility," I said, hating how lame and passive it sounded.

"That's awesome!" His face lit up. "I've never met someone who can just—disappear forever."

"Cam can phase through solid objects," Massie said suddenly, inserting herself into the conversation. "If someone shot him, he could let the bullet go right through him."

"Wow." For some reason, I'd never fantasized about Cam having an awesome power. I just daydreamed about his eyes and his hair and his smile. How very superficial of me.

"We'd make a great team," I heard him say, and I assumed he was talking to Massie. When I snapped back to reality, his different colored eyes were in intent on me.

"During gym, for fighting with powers, the teachers always pair up people with abilities from the same category," he explained. "We both fall under the category Phantom, someone who uses evasiveness to their advantage. Invisible and untouchable—the ultimate combination."

The happiness seemed to drain from the treasures' faces at hearing this proclamation.

"But being untouchable and super fast is much more desirable," Kristen protested, wearing a fake, bright smile.

Cam shrugged, not even sparing her a glance. His eyes were on me. "My dad is friends with the dean of this school. I'll tell him to get the dean to transfer you into my gym class." Without another word, he picked up his bag and left.

I was left to face four angry, jealous treasures.

The room seemed to get hotter when Dylan stepped closer. "Why did you do that?"

I saw Alicia's cold stare, and remembered to edit my thoughts.

"I didn't do anything," I said evenly. "He seemed…nice."

"Puh-lease," Massie spat indignantly. "You were all over him. He's been our toy for weeks. There's no hogging the toy."

Toy? He was just a possession that they used mindlessly?

"Not mindlessly," Alicia sneered.

Oooops.

"Girls," Massie said, her contemptuous stare making me shiver. "I think we should teach Claire a lesson."

They all sniggered in agreement.

"I'll teleport her to the forest, and she can find her way home."

"What?" I cried. "I'll get lost!"

"That's kind of the point," Kristen muttered.

Massie reached for me. I dodged her outstretched hand quickly and slipped into invisible mode. They all cried out angrily. Without thinking, I sped from the room and hurried down the hall.

In my careless haste, I didn't see the person walking at a leisurely pace in front of me.

"AH!"

In a tumble of limbs, school supplies, and a messenger bag, I found myself lying on top of Cam.

"Sorry!" I exclaimed, pulling myself up quickly.

"No problem," he was smiling perplexedly.

Then Massie was standing beside me. "Excuse us," she said sweetly, and she seized my arm.

Before I could protest, we disappeared.