Chapter 2: Catching Your Eye

Fifteen Years Later...

Rai Toyami awoke to sunlight streaming through the blinds of his dorm room. He stared blankly at the ceiling before stretching languidly like a cat. He threw off the covers and swung his legs to the floor. He slowly got up, and looked around blearily while he stood up and stretched his arms. He had a decent dorm room, and his three crazy roommates were out at the moment. Transparently, they let him sleep in. As insane as they were, he wouldn't have any others, because they made his life more interesting. Of course, their insanity caused endless chaos for the Institute, but it was quite amusing to watch the headmaster run around like a chicken with its head cut off. He hadn't ever dealt with a bunch of bored geniuses with a penchant for chaos.

Melvin Kiera was a complete and utter wild child, with a ticking time-bomb of a temper. He would have razed the whole school to the ground had it not been for Maat. Maat Shahiya came from Egypt and was notoriously lazy. Though he's a genius at computers, the only thing that he would do willingly is play video games. The only person who could get him to stop staring at the computer screen all day is Mel. The last of the quartet is Nathaniel Emerson. He is a very introverted little kid, but is a brilliant strategist and can predict the moves others make. He is very sensitive to sunlight and is an albino. They used to joke around, saying that he was their own little night owl, because he usually slept during the day and worked and studied at night.

The chaos started every school year, on the very first day, in fact. There would be a prank set up for that day, and it would be to "welcome" all of the new possible trouble-makers to the Roger Institute for the Gifted, in short, RIG. RIG was probably the best place any genius could attend, because its classes and teachers were the best money could buy. It was sponsored by a rich old man who wanted to help geniuses reach their full potential, but was unable to do so. Unfortunately, it currently is run by an inefficient tyrant, Mr. Adsonel, who only started working here three years ago. Then the door opened slightly and Rai looked up to see Saya poke her head in. Saya Mersuli was a gifted musician, her talents lying in the violin. She had perfect pitch, and she was foreseen to be one of the greatest musicians of her time. However, she was not competitive by nature, and was actually very shy. She never liked boasting about her talent, as if she felt it was not truly hers. Rai looked at her affectionately and said,

"Something wrong, Saya?" Saya merely looked around and asked,

"Where are Mel, Maat and Niel?"

"I do believe that they are preparing the annual prank fest. Would you like to join them?" Rai replied, knowing Saya loved to watch them work. Melvin, Maat and Nathaniel all decided to set up the pranks early this year, because the old coot was getting suspicious of the Double M, N & R corporations. Instead of having it as the kiddies How obvious was that? He believed that they were the culprits...Though if he were any smarter he would have figured that out years ago. What was Mr. Quil thinking, leaving this place to the stupid old codger? Mr. Quil was the old principal of RIG, and one of the co-founders. He was also their teacher in the languages, music and cooking. He had such a variety of skills that it was not hard to believe that he was a part of some super-secret organization. Which all of us suspected that he was. We had no proof, unfortunately. But it is always fun to speculate.

"Oi! Rai! It's time for the initiation!" barked Melvin from the door. He slammed the door open, causing Saya and Rai to jump, "Oh, Saya's here? The Gnat was looking for you. He's on the roof right now. He wanted to know whether you would provide the music for our grand prank. Go up and tell him, 'kay?" By the end of the speech, Mello's tone had softened until he was actually talking like a normal person. It was quite a feat, considering Mel's usually loud and obnoxious disposition. Saya nodded and skipped out of the room. Niel and Saya have been dancing around each other for ages- it seemed like it was time to just lock the two of them up in a closet for a night. Of course, Niel would do nothing inappropriate, and Saya was too timid to suggest anything, so Rai started thinking of a plan to get them in a closet together. And then Mel hit his head.

"Oi!" Rai exclaimed, gingerly rubbing the back of his head an shooting daggers at Mel with his eyes.

"Save your scheming for the event. And come on! We're late!" Mel said as he walked out of the room. Then he stuck his head back in, "By the way, do you know where Maat hid the chocolate?"

"Yes, I do," Rai replied, smirking as he said smugly, "And I'm not going to tell you until we're finished with the prank. You get unusually sadistic when you don't have chocolate, and we're gonna need it." Mel's only reply was to stick out his tongue and walk sulkily away. Rai only smirked and got up to get dressed.

Clad in a white shirt and black slacks, and armed with a large bag of confetti, Rai trotted off to meet up with Niel, Maat, Mel and Saya. As he passed by one of the windows with a view of the inner park-courtyard, he saw a mop of black hair, stark against the white of the wall. Rai stopped to scrutinize the person with the untidy nest. His skin was almost as pale as the wall, and he was in a white shirt and blue jeans that were way too baggy. The man reminded Rai of someone, but try as he might, he couldn't remember who. And then he heard a beep coming from his watch before Niel's monotone voice filtered through,

"Rai, you better hurry. It's almost time to start the orientation." Rai turned his hurried walk into a full-blown run. If Niel said it was almost time, he meant that Rai had two minutes at the most to get there. In his haste, he did not notice black eyes watching his every move.

"I'm here!" panted Rai as he burst through the door to the roof.

"You were nearly late," replied Niel as Rai walked towards them. The rest of the school was settling down in the auditorium, Mr. Adsonel at the podium, shuffling papers and looking around nervously. Well. He should be nervous. Our plan was to first throw confetti on the students, and then lull the headmaster into a false sense of security, making him think he'll only get confetti too. Then they were going to drop a green cornstarch-dye mixture that would dye the headmaster green. And it would all be caught on tape. Oh the hilarity! This would be remembered by future generations of mischief-makers...

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Next Chapter:

"Let go of me, you panda-eyed freak!"