You Don't Belong Here

The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the young girl standing in front of the school gates wished they weren't. The nice and cheerful weather were at odds with the terrible unease roiling within her stomach, and she only wished the skies were less-than-pleasant so it would better fit her current mood. Sure, there wasn't a better school in the country at teaching children to harness their powers, and she figured everybody was super happy to be here... but they probably had all come to school when it started. Heck, it was almost over already, yet here she was, an intruder on punctual decorum. That certainly wasn't a good look.

Her mother had suggested she wear a dress. No, no, absolutely not. She had basically been wearing a form of dress for nearly two years. She was done with that. Instead, she had chosen something simple: a t-shirt and jeans, freshly bought several days ago. Despite the spring warmth, a jacket was zipped up on her torso. It wasn't some kind of fashion statement, but her powers at fault. She still wasn't fully used to them, and it caused her to feel chilled a lot, so she had taken to wearing a jacket everywhere in the hope that it might bring her some warmth. It did not. Looking down at her hand, she slowly opened it and concentrated. A small black orb began forming there, taking on a rather flimsy shape before she quickly clenched her hand into a fist and looked up at the school. It's not right. This isn't right at all. I don't belong here.

That was a familiar sight.

Kayla was resting on a shaded bench, staring up through the gaps in the leaves. Most of her cuts and bruises had healed and she didn't have to wear a boot anymore, but her arm still remained in the sling. Fun. Day by day, Kayla was learning how to get by with just her left hand, but every action still felt stiff, clumsy, awkward. She couldn't have told you how many cups she'd knocked over these past few weeks, or how many trays she'd dropped trying to get her lunch. It was a nightmare, honestly, and it didn't help that she had to rely on that lazy asshat for everything. Just writing her name or getting dressed had become a struggle.

She turned her head at the sound of footsteps on the bricks.

Beata Academy was always getting new transfer students. It didn't matter what time of the year it was; even in the middle of the summer, every other day or so, you could see some new weirdo walking in past those pompous iron gates.

With fleeting interest, Kayla watched as a small black orb began to grow in the girl's hand, before she extinguished it with a clenched fist.

"A jacket?" she called out after a moment of staring. They weren't far from each other, maybe only ten to fifteen away. Kayla didn't move from the bench. "Aren't you dying in this weather?"

Huh? Grace turned around and trained her eyes on a bench neatly shaded from the spring sun. An older, brown-haired girl sat there, her arm resting in a sling and a slightly interested gaze pointed directly at her. As if needing the sensation of touch for clarification, she placed a hand on her jacket. "Oh, it's not that hot for me. I just… feel a bit chilly." It was tough for her to explain exactly why she felt that way, but maybe it wouldn't sound so weird. After all, everyone here had powers, and it couldn't be that every single one had no odd side effects. Maybe this girl would understand. "Actually, it's my power. It leaves me a bit cold sometimes, so it's not as hot out here for me." It wasn't like a winter chill, though. It was more like that bone-tingling chill she imagined protagonists had in those horror movies when the killer was searching for them. It was cold, yes, but also… empty.

She didn't make a move to go over to the girl, or to introduce herself. There was something about her that made Grace feel timid. Maybe it was that gaze. She certainly didn't look all that cheerful. It was a bit intimidating. Finally, she lifted an arm and pointed at the sling. "What happened to your arm?" Her voice was a bit higher pitched when she asked than her previous words. Maybe it was rude to mention it. Surely the girl had been questioned on it a lot already. Still, it couldn't hurt to ask… probably. She clasped her hands together and wrung them nervously as she forced herself to keep eye contact. No, she shouldn't be this nervous, but it had been awhile since she was able to interact with kids near her own age. It was a process getting back up to speed with it all.

Kayla gave a slight tilt of her head at the girl's answer. "Huh." Her mind returned to that black orb that she'd seen, just for a moment... she didn't know the details, obviously, but it still felt a bit creepy to think about. Was it some kind of moisture manipulation? Or something else? That sphere hadn't looked like water.

Oh well. It didn't really matter to her. People had all kinds of weird powers, and it was only a simple curiosity that had made Kayla ask the girl about her jacket in the first place. That had struck her as more odd than the ball of darkness that she'd held in her hand. Funny how your idea of 'normal' changed after enrolling at Beata.

"Oh, I got shot," she answered, as casual as someone mentioning what they had for dinner last night. "They broke my wrist too, but you can't really see it with this thing on." And her ribs, and three of her toes, and her nose, and a bit of internal bleeding and a black eye too, but Kayla won in the end, so it hardly mattered, right? She gave a bitter smirk. "They sent me on a mission to destroy a building, but I got jumped when I walked in. I got them back for it."

Electricity rippled down her arm. More to the point, they died, but she didn't need to tell some random stranger that. She could use her imagination. "I get how that is though," Kayla continued with a sigh, resting her head back against the bench to stare skyward again. "There's an electric field around my body, so heat can be rough." It wasn't too noticeable on days like this, but when it ramped up to summer temperatures of eighty, ninety degrees? Terrible.  "I guess I'm a bit like you, then."

Grace's eyes widened tremendously when the girl just casually commented on getting shot. Shot! Immediately questions began running around her mind. How could she get shot? Why? Where? At the school? She said 'they' sent her on a mission. That must mean the school. Did they just send teenagers out to get potentially shot or even killed? Had anyone died? She was shaking now, though it didn't have anything to do with the cold, and fear as clear as day was present in her eyes. She had never heard anything of that nature…

"You were… y-you were shot? I-is that… n-normal?" She nervously tugged on her jacket sleeve as she forced herself to calm down. Maybe it was a joke. Yeah, a joke. Just a prank on the newbie. It must've been really obvious that she was new here. That thought didn't stop her from shaking, though. What if it was real? Would she get sent on some mission, and shot? What if… She shook her head violently to try and chase those morbid thoughts from her mind. It did her no good to think like that. She wasn't here to just immediately quit. That wasn't why she had these powers… even if they didn't belong to her. And then she realized she'd had some kind of impromptu crisis right in front of a stranger.

Grace's cheeks flushed red as she noticed just how strange she had just been. "Uh, s-so! You, uh, you have electricity as a power, then? How do you deal with it? The abnormal temperatures, I mean." This certainly was a poor first impression.

Her reaction wasn't surprising, but Kayla still watched with muted amusement as she started to shake and stutter. They really didn't tell the newbies anything, did they? She laughed under her breath, wondering if the girl would even believe her if she started telling her the finer details. Oh yeah, monsters were real, by the way. The school board sent kids to go kill them for money. And Kayla was a certified killer on the loose now, along with a handful of other people who'd gone with her on that mission, and they'd found out about illegal human experimentation, but the Academy had swept that all under the rug. Did you know that for Easter they'd released a bunch of those monsters on campus for everyone to hunt? It'd been a pretty sweet holiday.

Then again, she had probably just discovered she had supernatural powers and was being sent to a paranormal school out in rural North Dakota just to train it. That was something straight out of Harry Potter. Being apart of this new, "special" world made that kind of nonsense easier to believe.

"Normal for here, maybe," Kayla told her in a flat tone, watching the leaves swish above her. "I'm actually a volunteer nurse on my off-days. People get hurt for weirder things. One kid got half his lifespan drained trying to chase after his girlfriend or something, so getting shot on a mission isn't too wild."

Maybe that was a bit too much to take in, but it was better than keeping her in the dark and wander in without any idea what was going on. "If you want to avoid trouble, just keep picking 'A' when they make you take your sorting test. You'll end up in Spring. They don't like fun there." She grinned and tilted her head. Was she trying to change the subject? "And not much you can do about it beside train yourself. Some people can't control their gifts too well, or at all. Just hope the Gift Mastery lessons start working after a couple weeks and you won't have to wear a jacket everywhere."

Huh, yeah, normal. Okay. What in the world had she gotten herself into? And this girl was so cavalier about it, as if it was nothing. Maybe that was a nurse thing. Medical people did tend to see a lot of gruesome injuries. Sure, she'd been to hospitals plenty of times, but that didn't mean she wanted to watch a bunch of people get hurt. Or bleed… Ugh. She absolutely loathed the sight of blood. It caused her stomach great unrest, even at the thought of it. Absently clutching her stomach with a hand, she took an involuntary step closer to the girl, drawn in and yet scared of the conversation. This girl seemed so used to it. Would she find Grace's fear disgusting? Was this how the rest of the year would go?

"Spring? I, uh, I don't even, uh… I don't know what the questions are yet." At least she knew what the houses were. She'd heard that, at the very least. She had no clue to which season she'd fall in though. Just another thing to worry about. This 'gift mastery' sounded promising, though. Of course they could teach her how to control this empty feeling running up and down her body. That was what the school was for, after all. Maybe they'd also teach her how to talk to other kids too.

"It doesn't really matter," she answered with a small smirk. "It's a personality quiz. All the 'A' answers are always Spring, 'B' is always Summer, yadda yadda, you get it." Kayla shrugged. "Consider it your survival guide. Springs are the smallest House, Autumns are the biggest and loudest. Winter is full of all the shy people and straight-A-students, you might like it there." Call it a hunch, but her glasses and the way she murmured told her that might be her kind of crowd.

Kayla stood with a wince and a suppressed groan, wobbling where she stood. It wasn't good to stay lazing around in one place all the time, or else she'd get all stiff. Trying to get out of the bed in the mornings already made her feel like a turtle stuck on its back. God... she couldn't wait until she was back in normal shape again. There were people she needed to zap.

"So in a way, you can cheat and pick where you end up." She gave a pained grin and stretched out her arm to the side, electricity rippling down it. Her palms looked sweaty. "Neat, huh?"

She hadn't realized it was so easy to manipulate exactly which house someone wanted to join. That didn't seem right, though. Wasn't the whole point to truthfully figure out where you belonged? Maybe it didn't matter. Grace watched the girl stand up, concern filtering into her gaze as she quickly moved forward before realizing that she'd done it. "Ah! Are you okay?" She reached out an arm as if to steady her or something, but the girl didn't seem particularly fazed. Was she okay? What a stupid question. "I-I mean, uh... You got, uh, shot, right? So that's not okay, but you... you seem fine." Her arm fell back to her side, the nervous female standing there stiffly with patches of red on her cheeks. "It does seem neat," she finished meekly, breaking eye contact to stare at the trees. Oh goodness, that was awful, awful, awful.

Grace took a deep breath to try and calm herself. She knew how weird she was acting, but maybe she could actually tell someone. Okay, so she didn't actually know this girl, but they hadn't shocked her yet, so she decided to try and push her luck there. "I'm sorry. I, uh, I'm not too good at talking to people. I don't know anyone my age, and I'm sort of... out of practice." She wrung her hands nervously, still not able to make eye contact. "I just got here and I'm not used to the... uh, my powers. It really shows, doesn't it?"

Ugh, stop, just stop. Sparks crackled around Kayla's head, a flicker of irritation passing over her face as the girl reached out to try and steady her. More electricity went coursing down her uninjured arm. "Of course I'm fine," she answered with a grin that resembled a wince. Pity. She hated pity, even if the girl was just talking out of concern. Kayla could stand on her own two feet without people rushing to help her stand, couldn't she?

It was gone as fast as it came. She tried to hide her fleeting annoyance behind a casual grin, clenching and unclenching her fingers. "It does show," Kayla answered with a small sigh, not trying to sugarcoat her words. It was her own admission, and she wasn't going to lie to her. "But if you're just shy, then go talk to people. Join a club or sport or something. Find friends." Her grin broadened for a moment, and Kayla leaned in closer. "And make eye contact. You'll look more confident. People will avoid you if you just stare at the floor."

She leaned back again, giving the girl some breathing room. Maybe it was ironic, but her own gaze went wandering back off to the school, toward the sky again, and Kayla stuffed her hand in her shorts pocket. "You'll get enough chances to practice, at least. Initiates sleep in bunk beds with all the other new people for a week, before you're sorted."

Grace stiffened up when the girl leaned in, quickly moving her head up and making eye contact. "R-right, sorry." Ugh, why was it so hard to make eye contact? It couldn't have been this difficult before. She tugged nervously on her jacket again as she kept eye contact with her electric talking partner. Being distracted from that empty feeling, she was beginning to feel warmer, causing her to want to remove the excess layer of clothing. "Th-that's great. I'll have to, uh, I'll have to find it." She finally felt too uncomfortable and unzipped her jacket, pulling it off and tucking it under an arm. That was a bit better, for now at least.

"So, uhm, h-how long have you been here?" Her eyes automatically dropped to the ground, so she forced them to align back with the person she was talking to, biting her lower lip softly. She did have to go sign up or whatever, or find the Initiates bunk, but she didn't know how big the school was. She had actually been able to talk to her, even if it was some of the most awkward conversation in history. What if she didn't see the girl again? So she delayed a little bit. No harm no foul.

Was it really that hard to look at the person you were talking to? Did she have something on her face? Kayla had never understood that, how somebody could be so meek in a normal conversation. What could you be so afraid of? She didn't bite... much. "Nearly a year now," Kayla answered. "I got here last... June?" It didn't seem that long ago, but time flew when you were always trying new and creative ways to get suspended. Not that they could ever send her away, even if they wanted to. They could only make her scrub floors and keep her in glorified detention, writing essays. Better than sitting around in class, at least. "By the way, I don't even know your name. I'm Kayla."

She didn't bother to extend her hand, or even take it out of her pocket.

Usually a greeting included a handshake. She was pretty sure that was still how it worked, but Kayla didn't offer her hand, or even look like she had attempted to think about it. "I'm Grace." She didn't want to look even more awkward by offering a handshake when Kayla clearly wasn't offering, so she instead semi-wrapped her arm around her stomach, clutching at the jacket that was being held under her other arm. Now she had run out of conversation. Her grip on the jacket tightened as she looked over the other girl's face, getting more and more nervous with each passing second of silence. Is she expecting me to say more? No wait, she just looks annoyed, I think… Oh no, what do I say now? She felt terribly flustered as her face grew more and more crimson, wracking her brain for something else to say. Maybe she should just go and get settled with the front office.

"Y-your… your power is e-electricity, then?" It felt like she had actually asked this like a normal person, but instead the words came out in a bare whisper, almost like a light tickling of wind on the ears. Why am I shaking? Oh no, I can't keep eye contact anymore. Stop it, stop it!

Grace. That was a bit ironic, wasn't it? Kayla glanced over the girl again, noting the way she wrung her hands, the way she fidgeted around, the way she shuttered and seemed to quake. Was that from the chill her power caused, or was she just that terrified by a normal conversation? She flicked her eyes over to the Academy's imposing brick facade. I guess this place could look pretty intimidating... It was like one of those old mansions you only saw in B-rate horror movies, except this place was actually supernatural. Kayla had already seen an eight year old summon demons, she wouldn't be surprised if there were some actual mediums around. Silence stretched on, agonizing for Grace, almost unnoticeable to Kayla.

"Isn't that obvious?" Sparks crackled down her arm. "It's pretty alright, I guess. I'm glad I got this instead of something useless or weird." Gifts came in all kinds of shapes and forms. Hers seemed relatively normal: electricity. But there were others who had shit as quaint as the ability to breathe underwater, or as obscure and convoluted as being able to change people's moods with violin music. Thinking about it, she really lucked out, and considering how much she used her power... things could be much worse.

"And what about you? What'd they send you up here for?"

Yeah, it was obvious. Blatantly. Grace knew she was losing the conversation, and even though there wasn't really anything showing that Kayla was doing so, the poor girl felt judged, and it did nothing to stop herself from shaking. However, that question certainly did the trick. As soon as Kayla asked what she'd been sent there for, she completely froze up, eyes wide and finally focusing on who she was talking to for longer than a few seconds. "Wh-wh-what? N-nothing! I-I didn't… I didn't do…" It was about that time that she realized Kayla was probably talking about her powers or something. They weren't being held here against their will or anything of that nature. That was dumb. Why did she even think anything close to that? "Y-you mean my… m-my powers? O-or… I, uh… I-it's uh… u-u-u-umbrakinesis…" By the end of that sentence, she was basically mouthing the words. She didn't want to talk about her powers. Well, that was kind of the whole reason she, or anyone really, went to this school. There wouldn't be another point. Still, she didn't really want to think about it… You'll have to, though...

"C-can you, uh… Can you help me find the… front… the place I need to go? I-I think I know, b-but… I don't know," she concluded with a stuttering, whispering finale, acting every bit like the socially inept kid she truly was. While she knew internally that she wasn't quite at the point of tearing up, her face certainly looked like she was about to cry. "I-if it's not too much trouble." At least her voice picked up there.