Chapter Five:

First Day of School

Strangely enough, the classes I was taking were completely normal. I was expecting something more along the lines of, "Saving the world for beginners", and "Dealing with public scrutiny 101".

But no. It was almost as if I hadn't left New Marias High School. Almost.

At the end of the day, we had History. Now, I love history. It's my thing. I know everyone from every period and if you wanna challenge me on it, you'd better have done your homework.

So I was pretty excited when I entered my last class. Mr. Nelson was the teacher, and I could tell immediately that he was a Conduit. His skin was blue, and he had fur growing in all sorts of places, but he was wearing a suit and glasses. I was tentative at first, but when he caught me looking at him he smiled, and I returned it.

When everyone was seated and the bell rang, Mr. Nelson wrote his name on the board. I looked at Vi (from across the classroom, since she hadn't gotten to the class in time to sit beside me) and smiled. She knew this was my best class, but almost every other she could bury me six feet under.

"For those of you who don't already know," Mr. Nelson said, "My name is Lawrence Nelson, and I'm your History teacher. History is not boring if you really look at the big picture. In fact, you may come to find that history is valuable, and it will help you in your daily lives, in whatever you choose to be."

"That's what Mr. Norton said about my Mathematics class!" a boy yelled form the back of the classroom.

A bit of laughter traversed through the room. Even Mr. Nelson smiled. "Yes, well, I find that, in my profession, I only need to know the most basic forms of math. However, it is important, and I encourage you to listen to Mr. Norton. He's a good man, up to the point where you don't do your homework. I cannot recount how many times he's run through the staff room and I've had to get all the Human teachers to safety because of his Conduit powers."

The laughter ceased abruptly, but Mr. Nelson continued to chuckle. It made me wonder if he was just pulling our legs, or if he was telling the truth.

"In history," Mr. Nelson continued as soon as he was done laughing to himself, "people do things that make them great. It doesn't matter if it was good or bad; they were remembered. Henry Tudor, also known as Henry VIII, married six times. He divided the Catholic Church because they would not annul his first marriage, and named himself the head of his new church. He beheaded his second wife, his third died, and so on, and so forth. Christopher Columbus was looking for an alternate route to India, and instead he found North America." Mr. Nelson levelled his eyes at us, gently. "Are you seeing my point?"

I found myself nodding. He was a very good teacher, in my own opinion. I liked teachers who could keep me interested.

"We've made history right now," Mr. Nelson said. "This is your first History class, and I hope you remember it." He grabbed a book from his desk and flipped through it. "Now, can anyone tell me what happened in New Marias nearly seventeen years ago?"

"Cole defeated the Beast there!" someone from the back yelled.

Cheers and woots erupted through the classroom. Obviously, they were huge fans of Cole. Who wouldn't be? When I was little, I had dolls of Cole and Lucy MacGrath. That was before I thought it was weird that my childhood hero knew my mom.

"And later that year?" Mr. Nelson prodded.

There was only a moment's hesitation. "Joan and Cole crushed the Militia!"

A few more cheers were added. I had a feeling that they were talking about my mom. I started to get uncomfortable as soon as I got that feeling, and I prayed in my head that they wouldn't pursue the topic.

Luckily, Mr. Nelson noticed my discomfort. "Besides when Cole, Alden, Sasha, and Kessler were recognized first in Empire City (and later, Joan), this was the first time the government recognized that people with superpowers existed. That people were different than them. A pivotal moment in our history as Conduits." Mr. Nelson cleared his throat. "Students, look under your desks."

We did as we were told. I found a piece of paper sticking under my desk. It'd been taped there. I grabbed it and looked. It had a name on it.

"The name you pick up will be your partner for the rest of the year," Mr. Nelson explained. "Some of you did not get a piece of paper. If, by chance, someone has your name on a piece of paper and you have your own, you may choose if you want to be their partner or not. Otherwise, you have no choice."

The name written on my piece of paper was Nicholas Young. I didn't even see him in the class, but, then again, I zoned out easily.

So, it took me about a minute to actually spot him. He was scratching his pen against a sheet of paper. It looked like he was drawing something…

His fingers, all of a sudden, snapped in front of my face about three times. "Hey, you zoned. You okay?"

I blinked. "Y-Yeah… It's just that—."

"You've got my name on that piece of paper." Nicholas smiled and held up a tiny sheet in his hand. "I've got yours on mine."

Lucky! I thought automatically. No, wait, why am I thinking that? Dammit, Kayce Joanna Grey! Pull yourself together!

"So, where d'you wanna sit?" Nicholas asked.

I cleared my throat after getting my somehow-racing thoughts under control. "It doesn't really matter to me."

Nicholas looked around the classroom and studied the other students, who were getting to know their new partners. "I'll sit by you," Nicholas suggested. "Everyone tends to migrate back here anyway. There should be some room left."

I agreed with him and helped him to carry some of his things over to the desk beside mine. I liked to sit by the window, because on the warm days the sun felt great on my skin. I didn't mind going outside for hours on end, but I never tan. I was so white, I would stay outside for hours and come back in to my house looking like a lobster. My mom had once burst out in laughter when she saw me, and I joined in, even though it was painful to do so.

"What're you drawing?" I asked as I set down one of his notebooks.

He shrugged. "I dunno. I just draw what I feel like."

I always said, "I dunno" if I didn't wanna talk about it, so I dropped that attempt at conversation. Nicholas seemed like he was a private person anyway. I could tell mostly because of his smile.

Finally, when everyone was seated again, Mr. Nelson cleared his throat. "Now, for your first project with this person, I want you to learn their history." No one argued. It seemed like we had a pretty solid class. "But I'm drawing the line at social security numbers. There will be no stalking in this class!"

Everyone was laughing. Just another time when I couldn't figure out if Mr. Nelson was serious or not.

"I want you to get started now," he instructed. "Use the rest of this period to learn about your partner, and try to finish by the end of the week. Or, you could leave early with your partner and do your work outside. The choice is yours. But if you leave early and choose not to do the work, there will be consequences."

The majority of the class left. Nicholas and I decided we'd go as well, and we found a nice tree in the courtyard that was perfect. It shaded us from the sun, but didn't take away its warmth.

"I wonder what kind of questions I need to ask you…?" Nicholas wondered aloud.

"How 'bout we start with names, cities, dates-of-birth…" I shrugged. "So, your full name?"

"Nicholas Jeremy Young XIII," he answered.

I blinked. "Seriously?"

Nicholas laughed. "No," he said. I started to erase his name when he added, "My middle name isn't Jeremy. It's Atticus."

I facepalmed.

"I know, right?" He grinned. "Okay, your name!"

"Kayce Joanna Grey," I answered as I finished putting "Atticus" onto my paper. "The first," I added slyly.

Nicholas was chuckling when he wrote down my name in his notebook. "Well, what about your city?"

"New Marias," I answered. "Born and raised."

"I was born in Syracuse," he said. "I spent some time there, but not as much as I'd like to. It's a nice place."

I nodded in agreement. Mom took us to Syracuse once, and we toured around. It really was a nice place.

"Okay, your D.O.B.?"

"October 13th," he answered readily. "And yours?"

I frowned, but it was forced. I really wanted to smile. "October 20th. You're a week older than I am."

"Haha!" he exclaimed in triumph. "I win!"

"It's not a contest!"

"But if it were, I'd win!" Nicholas just seemed to be playing around though. "Anything else to ask?"

The bell rang then. The last class was over, so we had the evening to ourselves.

"We can keep asking questions in the living room," Nicholas suggested. "The girls' and boys' dorms are connected through it, so it's not like we're going into each other's rooms."

I had to agree. We were both headed there, anyway. I grabbed my stuff and walked with Nicholas to the dorm. He told me that there were two more dorms around the campus, but we got to choose our dorms. Third-years had first pick, and then second-years, and then first-years. If there wasn't room in the dorm that they wanted, they'd be sent to another one. Simple as that.

"I guess my mom chose this one for me," I muttered.

"Well, she has good taste. There's a secret door in one of the bookshelves in the living room that has video games behind it."

My eyes widened. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. I was up exploring last night, and I found it when I was trying to read a book." He grinned again. "Probably the best moment of my life!"

We entered the dorm and separated so we could put most of our stuff away in our rooms. As soon as I was ready, I found myself rushing downstairs to meet up with Nicholas again. I slowed at the last minute and looked into the living room, but I didn't see anyone.

Probably just needs a sec, I thought. Hey, wait a sec! Stop rushing, you idiot! Why the hell're you rushing?

Inside my head, I smacked myself upside the head and sat on a couch. I started to go over my notes when Nicholas finally came in. He looked a bit… uncomfortable? No, he looked stressed.

"What's up?" I asked.

Nicholas looked at the door to the boys' dorm and frowned. "Nothing."

And that was another code word for, "Please don't talk to me about it right now". I'm good at guy-talk. I dropped it, and Nicholas and I finished up our assignment. On the plus side, homework was done! On the minus side, homework with Nicholas was done.

Dammit.