Academy of Abilities: Chapter 1

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire.

Amanda's at it again. Practicing Pyrokinesis on school grounds, near the dorms no less.

As I walk towards Amanda, she spots me and runs in my direction.

"Hey, CJ, could you do me a small favor? Can you put the fire out?

I sigh. "Amanda, you know that I'm not always going to be there to fix your mistakes. How did the fire get this big, anyway?"

"Well, I kinda got carried away... and accidentally spread my small candle flame to this," she gestures at the trees, "a roaring Inferno." Amanda looks at me again. "Can you please put the fire out?"

"Fine, but this is the last time. Next time, you're on your own." I concentrate and pull water from the air and the ground until I have enough to douse the trees. "Remember," I tell her as I put the fire out, "this is the last time."

When I finish, I start walking towards the main building at the Academy.

"Wait!" Amanda calls after me. "CJ, can you please not tell my brother?" There's a pleading tone in her voice.

"Tell him what? That his twin sister set the academy's trees on fire?!" I snap. "Amanda, you could've burnt the dorms to the ground if I wasn't there to help you! Of course, I'll tell Caleb!"

I storm off, feeling angry, towards the main building. The halls are full of students, so I head straight to class. I make it a whole ten minutes early. I sat there in the empty classroom for five minutes. When the other students began trickling in, I realized that my anger towards Amanda had lessened. The Professor shows up exactly three minutes before the start of class, as a routine. Rumour has it that he goes outside for a smoke before first class, but I think that this academy is too "prestigious" to hire teachers like that.

When the bell signaling the beginning of class rings, the professor turns away from the chalkboard to the class.

"So, class," he says, "Something different! Today, we have a new student joining our class!"

Students begin to murmur amongst themselves. While they're all talking, I notice the door open, and one of the student council committee members walk in. Coming in behind her, was a girl with ridiculously long, dark hair.

"Ah, just in time, Jenna-Li. Class this is the new student, please be sure to give her a warm welcome. Could you introduce yourself?"

The girl looks up, and I can see her eyes. They are the color of moonlight, Silver with a hint of Pale Blue. "My name is Ivy Blackburne, and I am a Second-year transfer student from the Academy of the Gifted."

"So," one of the girls says. "If you're from there, why did you transfer here?"

"Well, my family moved, and this academy was the closest thing to my previous Academy, so I came here."

There's a sudden tension in the class for some reason. The professor takes his chance to speak.

"This must be exciting, class, since the last time we had a new student, it was CJ."

The girl, Ivy, locks eyes with me, and I feel a strange chill go down my spine, but stops when someone asks,

"So, what's your ability Ivy?"

She breaks eye contact and looks at the person who spoke.

"I'm an Inflictor." She answers with coldness in her voice.

The class gasps, maybe from the way she said, maybe because of what she said. Inflictors are really dangerous, but I didn't really care.

Professor Zeron decides to speak then, while the class is still silent from shock. "Ivy, you could go ahead and take the empty seat next to CJ over there." He points in my direction, but Ivy's already walking.

"With that aside, let's begin today's lesson, on the basics of ability training..." the professor drones.

Ivy sits down next to me. "You didn't seem too shocked that I'm an Inflictor. You seem kinda chill with that."

"Well, honestly, you don't look too threatening. Also, I doubt that you would kill me, having only met me about a minute ago."

"Interesting. So, what's your ability then?"

"Hydrokinesis."

"That one is also quite dangerous, but Pyrokinesis even more so."

"My best friend's twin sister is a Pyrokinetic! But her control is still pretty unstable. She almost burnt the dorms to the ground a couple of times."

"On my way to the Academy, as we passed through the gates, I saw a girl with long brown hair practicing Pyrokinesis. The flame was really small, so it seemed harmless."

"That was definitely Amanda. She burnt a few trees down before classes started this morning. I put all of the fires out, so there's nothing to worry about."

Ivy and I talked all through class, and then, I was volunteered/told to be the "Transfer Student Guide" for the rest of the week, or until Ivy was able to remember where all of the classes were. I mean, it wasn't so bad. I just had to show her to all of her classes, which, thankfully, were the same as mine.

In third period, I had both Amanda and her twin brother Caleb. Those two are mirror-image twins, and Caleb's a little taller. If Caleb was a girl, or Amanda a guy, they would be identical.

For some reason, Amanda looked really stressed. Then it hit me. This was the only class that she had with both of us, and it made it kinda awkward because I threatened to tell Caleb about her little stunt this morning. I wasn't actually going to do it, but I said so to scare Amanda a little. Seems to me like it worked.

Walking up to her, with Ivy tailing me, I tell her, "I didn't actually tell Caleb about this morning, so you're fine. Just be careful when practicing next time."

She nearly burst into tears. "Thank you CJ," she manages to say between sniffles. "I'll try not to lose control again." She turns to walk away, then turns back to me. "Who's your shadow, by the way?" Amanda's looking at Ivy.

Ivy takes that as a cue. "The name's Ivy Artemis Blackburne, Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Amanda."

Amanda smiles. "Since you went with your full name, I think it's fair you know mine as well. My name's Amanda Christine Serane. So, if I may ask, what's your ability? Since it seems you know mine already, that is."

"Inflictor." Ivy has such a calm about her, like the fact that people are afraid of strong abilities doesn't bother her.

Amanda goes pale.

"It's alright, you have nothing to worry about. CJ doesn't see me as a threat. If you're a friend of his, I'll trust you."

"Well, if CJ trusts you, then I guess I can too. If you really look at it, my ability is really dangerous too." Amanda smiles again. "I think we'll get along well, Ivy."

With that, she walks off to her seat, as though nothing happened. Still, with her charade, I could tell she was a little troubled at Ivy's ability.

She'll get used to it. I'm sure of that.

The next few months go by, and nothing really changes, besides the fact that Ivy is now part of our friend group. Also, weirdly enough, she and Amanda are roommates. Previously, Amanda had her own room, but there was a space for another student, so the faculty gave that space to Ivy. By now, Amanda had gotten used to having Ivy around, and they became close friends. Caleb had gotten used to having another girl in our friend group, and everything was going smoothly.

~ To be continued in future stories about the Academy of Abilities. For now,

~Fin~