Higher Learning
The pyrotechnics room was oppressively hot. Danny rarely found this fact surprising, but it certainly made the task at hand incredibly uncomfortable. Ever since the incident the week before, Paige had insisted that Danny spend at least an hour each day in here practicing his gift. At first he had resented it, but deep down he knew that he couldn't just walk around ignoring his powers – he'd almost burned a house down that way.
Danny was hot. Literally. On his thirteenth birthday, instead of blowing out the candles he had incinerated the whole cake. That was the first sign to his parents that he was a little different. He'd been sent to child psychologists, priests, and had even endured a stint in a young offender's unit before people realised that he wasn't starting the fires on purpose. Shortly before turning sixteen, he had met a man who called himself Gideon. Gideon knew other kids who were different, and a place where Danny would be safe and where other people would be safe from him. Since meeting Gideon, Danny's life had changed almost beyond recognition.
That was just under two years ago. Gideon was no longer around, due to something that their new guardian, Paige Matthews, refused to tell them about. Paige's whitelighter Leo, who also happened to be an Elder, had been around a lot for a while but then he was called Up There on official business and they didn't see him so much anymore. The Elders had sent someone else down as a sort of go-between, a new whitelighter called Brigitte. She was somewhere between school nurse and guidance counsellor, and she held a wisdom that didn't quite fit her pretty, young face.
Magic School was a pretty extraordinary place, but for quite a while things had been running very ordinarily. Until last week. Danny had spent countless hours honing his ability until he could start and extinguish the tiniest flame or a huge blaze, but last week he had lost his temper during an argument with his friend Micah and a table had burst into flames. Ever since, he had been unable to keep a hold on his powers. Brigitte had checked with the Elders, and they seemed to think that his powers were progressing. Not that he believed them – progress suggested moving forward, but he felt as if he were right back at square one. Hence his regular visits to the pyrotechnics room, a safeguarded space where he could burn away to his heart's content and not worry about hurting anyone.
Danny stood in front of a wooden dummy, watched the flames licking at it, and tried his hardest to put them out. He held his palms out in front of him, cleared his mind of all other thoughts, and focused on the fire, focused on extinguishing the heat. Closing his eyes, he felt a chill pass through him and he knew he had done it. Grinning, he opened his eyes and got the shock of his life. The dummy was covered in flame-shaped ice. He had put the fire out, alright – he'd frozen it solid.