Lovino stared blankly out his window, watching his brother and grandfather run around the sprinkler. This was their last of summer vacation and last day of 'normal', as their grandfather liked to call it. Yeah, right. As far as Lovino was concerned, the last day of normal was forever ago. Hell, the days of normal may never have existed. Wasn't that the reason why neither of their parents were present? Because 'normal' skipped a generation and their mother couldn't handle not normal as well as she thought she could have? That was what Grandpa always said anyway...
He watched with a bored expression as his twin brother, Feliciano, created shapes with the water from the sprinkler and get praised each time by their oddly young grandfather. Suddenly, his grandpa's glance shifted up to his window, and Lovino tried his best to dive out of his view.
"Lovino!" He glared up at his grandfather, or image of his grandfather, now standing before him in his room. "Why don't you join us?" Lovino scoffed.
"Why? So I can set the lawn on fire again? No thanks."
"Well if that happens, Feli can just put it out! Come on, pleaaase!"
"I said no, now leave me alone old man!" Lovino shouted. His grandfather shrugged, smile never leaving his face. He was used to his grandson's constant anger at this point and knew to not take it personally.
"Suit yourself!" With that he disappeared.
Lovino sighed heavily. He and his brother had been born, how his grandpa liked to say, special. He called it fucking weird. Feliciano could control water, which he did with ease and grace, doing so many things with his powers from boiling water to make pasta to creating the most gorgeous ice sculptures Lovino had ever seen. Lovino had been less fortunate. He was born with the ability to control fire. He was no where near as skilled as Feliciano, and set things on fire nearly constantly, unable to control his so-called gift with that same ease his brother had.
His grandfather had probably the coolest power possible. He could fuck with reality, creating whole worlds or false images to his hearts desire. When Lovino and Feliciano were kids, instead of reading them stories, their grandfather would let the live the stories, or watch them unfold before their very eyes. It was probably because of his kick ass power that their grandpa was the head of World Academy for Exceptional Youths. To most of the world, it was an extremely selective private school. But Lovino knew better. It was a school created to teach kids like himself how to control and use their weird ass powers for good. Sure, there was an occasional psycho that went through the school and became a villain, but there always plenty of heroes graduating from the school, ready to stop the threats.
Feliciano and Lovino started at the school tomorrow. To say Lovino was scared was an understatement. He had not been in a school with other kids since kindergarten, when he had to be removed because he set the wood blocks on fire at playtime, then nearly gave a kid second-degree burns from high-fiving him. The teach thought he had been sneaking in a lighter or matches, although she couldn't explain why she never found him with any. In either case, Lovino's grandfather had thought it best to teach the twins himself, but now he wanted to put them back into the traditional schooling system. Sure, the school was meant to teach this stuff, but Lovino's powers had gotten stronger, and he had gotten no better at controlling them. All he could really do was hope that the flooring and walls at the school weren't too flammable.
XxXxX
"Alfred are you packed?!" Matthew shouted from his room. It was the night before they left for the World Academy for Exceptional Youths, and he couldn't be more excited. He had been so happy when the men from the school had come to see him and Alfred about attending. They had told them that they had these gifts. Matthew practically started laughing when they informed him that all this time when he thought the kids at school had intentionally ignored him and pretended he was invisible, he had actually been invisible. He and his brother were special. It was an odd thing for him to think. Him, Matthew Williams, special. It brought a smile to his lips just thinking it. He looked down at the already packed bag on his bed. He had been through it about 20 times already, he was sure he had everything.
"Alfred?!" Suddenly, his brother stood in front of him.
"Yes, Mattie?" Of course, Alfred had probably been more excited than Matthew when he found out that he had actually been holding back his speed and strength in sports and had a lot more to offer. Ever since the visit from the men from the Academy, Alfred had been testing his true abilities, now realizing that he was like Superman and the Flash combined, able to pick up cars and run places in a fraction of a second. This, of course, meant that he had taken to speeding around the house and scaring the shit out of Matthew and their parents whenever possible. He had a huge grin on his face as Matthew spun around, more surprised than he should have been at this point.
"Oh! Uh... Sorry I was just wondering if you were-" Matthew stopped, looking at what Alfred was wearing. He was silent a moment then burst out laughing. "What... are... you... wearing?" He gasped out between laughs. Alfred looked down at his apparel. He wore his Captain America pajama pants, with white briefs pulled up over them, a Batman t-shirt, and he had tied a red sheet around his shoulders as a cape.
"Oh this?" He asked casually, "Just picking out what I'm wearing on our first day." Matthew's laughing stopped abruptly.
"Oh no. You are not wearing that our first day! I will not admit to being your brother!" Alfred grinned.
"Just kidding, you should have seen your face though!" He turned and practically skipped out of the room. "I'm all packed by the way! See you in the morning!"
Matthew smiled. He had never really looked forward to school before. But now, there were so many unknowns, so many possibilities, so much potential, that he could hardly wait.
XxXxX
"So. Year Two starts tomorrow." Gilbert grinned up at his two best friends who sat on either side of him on the couch, while he sat on the floor.
"Oui, it is very exciting. Maybe there will be some cute first years coming in. Oh hon hon hon." Francis agreed, grinning down and Gilbert.
"Yeah! None of them will be able to resist my awesome! Hey, Toni, didn't Romulus say something about introducing you to his grandson?" Gilbert winked up at Antonio, who sat stroking a turtle on his chest.
"Yeah, he said that we are both really happy all the time, so we might hit it off." Antonio replied, then began murmuring to his turtle with words the other two couldn't understand.
"Dude, cut that out, it's creepy." Antonio had the gift of telepathy, that is reading thoughts and putting thoughts into other people's heads. He had gotten so skilled that he was able to read and project thoughts in different languages, which soon carried over into animals. He would often murmur to animals, much to the discomfort of his two friends.
"Toni it is a bit weird." Francis agreed.
"Sorry," Antonio replied with a sheepish grin, "he's just so cute! And so interesting!" He held the turtle up above his head.
"Uh-huh. And where did he come from?" Gilbert exchanged an amused glance with Francis. Antonio was sort of an animal magnet. He was like Snow White, constantly followed by random wild animals. They joked that he could probably get all of the animals to do his laundry for him if he asked.
"Francis's pond. There were others, but I thought your mom might not like me bringing them all inside."
"Good choice, Antonio." Francis's mom appeared in the doorway to their living room. "I was going to order pizza, what kind do you boys want?"
"Couldn't we get something other than pizza?" Francis asked innocently.
"Nope, pizza or nothing" Francis turned his head up to look his mother directly in the eye.
"We can get something else."
"Yes, you can get something else." She said almost robotically. Suddenly, she shook her head. "Francis Bonnefoy! Did you just try to mind control your own mother? No pizza for you!" She turned to Gilbert and Antonio. "You two can still have whatever you'd like." She winked at the boys before leaving the room.
"Thanks, Mrs. Bonnefoy!" Gilbert and Antonio said in sing-song voices.
"So close!" Francis said, holding his fingers a centimeter apart.
"It's gonna be a good year, boys." Gilbert said, folding his arms behind his head and leaning back. "I can tell."
XxXxX
Arthur turned on his music, pulled on his headphones, and leaned back uneasily in his chair. He had never liked flying, and the uneasiness that this was all just a dream, or worse, a prank, didn't help his nerves. He let the beat of the drums and sound of electric guitar lull him into a sense of odd calmness as he felt the plane fly into the air. Why did this supposed Academy for Exceptional Youths have to be in America of all places. They said kids from all sorts of nationalities attended, and sure America was the "melting pot" of nations, but, in his opinion, America sucked. Deeply divided on every political issue to be had, obnoxiously loud citizens who only ate fast food (that was his impression anyway) and no metric system. Oh and there was that whole temperature system they had. What was it? "Fairheight?" He had no clue. All he knew was that he shouldn't panic if the forecast said it would be well above 50 degrees out. He shook his head. He still didn't understand why he had to go to this stupid American school in the first place.
The men had come to tell him near the start of summer. Somehow they had learned about his dabbling in witchcraft. He hadn't actually expected anything to happen when he tried it. He had just googled it one day to see if he could make a pen float into the air. He had done it, and used the same site he had found to experiment with other spells. But it didn't make sense, that with what the men said. They said that some people were born with abilities that others didn't have. Powers, they had said. He didn't have powers. Anyone could probably do witchcraft as he had, if they tried it. He slumped down in his seat.
They told him he was something special, even more special than the special people that went to their blasted school. He was especially special. Most people had a single power. Mind control. Telekinesis. Something. He had powers, as in multiple. He was a magistrate. A wizard. A witch. Whatever he cared to call it. He scoffed. A kid who had found a spellbook. That was what he called it.
Arthur wasn't really sure why he was so mad about having to go to this school. It should be exciting, getting to actually learn magic. It's not like he was leaving any friend behind. No one at his school, his old school now, liked him. He was bullied and beat up too many times to count. Now he was going to a new school where... where he would be beat up by kids with super powers. That was it. That was the cause of the heavy weight on his chest. He let his eyes close and tried to doze off. He would have to enjoy these last few moments of peace before he entered the storm he was sure was coming.
