As he trudged towards the bus stop, Warren noticed two other guys and a girl standing there. He hung back, not wanting to be social if there was any possible way on this god-forsaken earth that he could avoid it. As he waited he watched who he assumed to be his future, sorry – present, classmates. They looked your typical all-American high school students, very preppy. He scowled and looked down at his own clothing. Black Docs, black jeans, black T-shirt, black leather jacket. The only bit of colouring came from the red/orange gem set in silver that he wore on his right hand. His dad had given it to him before he went to jail…
'Hey kid! You getting on this or not?' Warren had been so engrossed in his own thoughts he hadn't noticed the giant yellow bus pull up right in front of his face. 'I said, on or not? You deaf boy?' The bus driver was irritating but he controlled the urge to roast the guyand sloped onto the bus. His 6'2" frame meant he had to stoop as he walked along the bus for a seat. The only one left was next to the girl he'd seen at the bus stop. He sunk into it and as he did big black seatbelts strapped him in and a large metal bar clamped him to the seat.
'Hey, what the hell?' Warren shouted as the belts constricted him but the roar of the bus' jet engines drowned the words out as it took off and sailed straight through the clouds towards Sky High.
Lost in the midst of a hundred other freshmen, Warren silently cursed the school, bus journey and everything else about this day as the staggered in a disconcerted manner towards the gym where, they'd been told, power placement would happen. As they stood waiting for Coach Boomer to arrive Warren stared silently into space twirling his ring around on his finger.
They'd been walking in the park when his dad had suddenly turned to him and pressed the ring into his hand. Warren was confused; he'd never seen his father without his ring. He was supposed to draw power from it or something, Warren had never liked to ask. 'Whatever you do son,' his father had muttered urgently, 'Whatever happens to me or anyone else, you must never take off this ring, it will protect you from –.'
'POWER PLACEMENT!' Coach Boomer announced. 'All of you line up. You, you're first,' he said, pointing to the boy trying to look inconspicuous at the back of the line. 'Power up!' and at this the boy turned a nickel in the palm of his hand into a white rabbit. Warren raised his eyebrows in disbelief, what sort of morons had he been landed with here? Magicians pulling rabbits out of thin air? If this was Sky High, you could keep it, Warren was leaving. 'CAR!' As the battered vehicle fell from the sky the boy waved his hand and suddenly only a small silver disc was falling.
'Oh great, he really is a magician,' Warren thought.
'A transfigurer then, HERO!'
Next up was a red head wearing a lot of green who didn't believe in 'using powers for violence,' (please, give me a break) and after her came some weakling kid who couldn't do jack! Warren was getting seriously bored and soon his dad would be right and Sky High would just be a place for losers with weak and negligible powers.
'Next!' called the Coach, his voice echoing across the room.
Warren had been so busy in his silently dissecting all that was wrong with the school he hadn't realised he'd got to the front of the line. 'Peace! Get up here!' Warren ascended the steps with a background of whispers rippling around the room, 'Warren Peace, are you serious?' 'Oh my God, they let him in?' 'What do you think he can do?' The mutterings grew louder and louder in Warren's ears as he stood on the podium, the blood pumped faster and faster and the old feeling bubbled up inside him.
Why was he always the freak show? And even at a school full of freaks, he was still the big bad everywhere he went. Yeah, just because his dad had done some shit in his time, it didn't mean that he would necessarily go the same way. Why were people so judgmental? Suddenly, without warning, and before Coach Boomer had even called 'Power up,' Warren's arms burst into flames, almost reaching his hair already streaked with red. The flames burnt brighter and more ferociously than ever before and many of the students had to turn away, shielding their eyes. 'CAR!' He threw four giant fireballs in quick succession at the falling pile of tin, effectively destroying it.
And just as suddenly as the flames had erupted, they died down again, leaving Warren's arms cold but his hair smoking slightly. It was only then, as he slunk off the podium through the gap in the crowd, that he realised the entire room had fallen silent and the Coach's call of, 'HERO' barely registered in his ears. He slumped at the back of the room; his head hanging down, shielded from the world by his hair, wishing his power was invisibility when he was anything but. Warren knew he'd be permanently powered up if that were the case, then he could be alone; the only way he wanted to be.