We Are

'We Are'

Chapter the First:

Of The Only Place Where We Be Not Judged

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“We are made to think that there is no such thing as a hero. No such thing as a person gifted with wonders and masking themselves from the world only to do well in the shadows of ‘justice’. There is no way someone can fly in the air with no airplane or ‘sci-fi’ style air jet, no way that they can turn invisible or stretch as far as twelve school busses.

We are made to think that all of this is impossible...

If you search enough, you’ll find a world full of the impossible, the ‘no ways’ and the illogical and irrational... But that, my children, is the only place where we belong.”

As I watched this man, this old and burly man, the gears in my mind began to whirl and move, functioning together as the piece of ‘machinery’ I called my brain. No, I am not some sort of robot; I’m just a girl like so many others out there. I am a normal girl.

Or so you would think.

The burly man was standing atop a stage, moving from one side to the next and going on with his speech. I was not the only one listening and I suspected the gears in my head were not the only ones moving, analyzing all the metaphors the man seemed to be saying. His words were meant to be reassuring, calm and safe. They were meant to shield us from what we knew was true.

At the very least, that’s what I gathered. Then again not everyone thinks the way I do. I glanced to my right and saw a younger looking girl; she seemed to be following everything the man said as though he were a preacher, as though it was something very important. Perhaps she was the type of person that was a follower, something I knew I could never be. Not that I was a leader though. I could never be that either. I was simply... me.

I glanced towards my left, a regular boy staring aimlessly at the stage. His eyes seemed far off and I was sure his imagination was taking him far away from this place. I wished to be anywhere, anywhere but here right now.

The Prestigious Driftwood Academy for the Special Children...The name simply oozed government conspiracy, didn’t it? Well, perhaps I should explain a bit more about it. I am not normal, as I had mentioned earlier... For there is something that I can do that not many others can....

I can bend the earth.

To be specific, I control plant life. The people who visited me, back at home in the sunny beaches of Puerto Rico, said that I was a floral bender. They told me I was to never reveal this, something that my parents had already begged me to do as well. At that time I didn’t really understand it, the only thing I had done was create a cherry blossom tree that flourished brilliantly and beautifully.

Of course, there was the slight problem of it being stuck in the middle of the classroom. So here I was, in an auditorium filled to the brim with people I didn’t know. But these people weren’t normal...They were like me. Floral Benders, that’s what you’re thinking, right? Well you’re wrong. Very wrong. These are people like me solely based on one thing.

They aren’t normal either. They can do things nobody else can! When I was first introduced to the idea, I was excited. Finally, a place that I could call my own with people I knew I could connect with. But it was just something near a dream, something that was just an illusion created by fourteen years of sitcoms on the USA Network. Just like at my old school, they all had their clicks and such.

Driftwood Academy wasn’t that different from any place else. The only thing making it stand out was that it was a secret, no one but those that needed to know knew about it. It marked the first alliance of all the governments, countries and people. In my mind I knew it was a bit of glorious thing, yet after that moment I asked myself why it was secret.

I remembered why. They had told us the world wasn’t ready for people like us, people that can do things only others dream about in their laziest day dreams. Acts and events would be asked of us to simply show off and change the world, that’s what they said would happen if anyone knew.

I knew better. They just wanted to keep us all together in one place, perhaps use us a personal military force of something of the kind. Who are they, you ask? You’ll be surprised....I don’t know.

All I know is that Driftwood is a place for people like me and that I had to sit here and listen to the burly, 40 year old man go on and on for about another hour or so.

Isn’t that something special? I guess the life of Olivia Sanchez isn’t all that’s cracked up to be, eh?
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After an extra hour of sitting and listening aimlessly, the doors to the large and circular auditorium opened up and let us out into the shinning light of a bright, Tuesday afternoon. I sighed and fixed my black glasses, trying to get the smudges out with my shirt, if it hadn’t worked the last 4 years of my life then why would it now?

There were several others walking about, chatting and laughing at jokes with their new friends, maybe even flirt once in a while. I wasn’t much of a socialite so I didn’t go over to join them or just randomly talk to someone. Why do that? Life threw you loopholes and made you jump through hoops, I’d meet someone eventually.

I soon realized the path back up to the main section of the academy was long and a bit tedious, several steps and climbs all covered in a fine cut quartz and marble path. I needed to get up there to get the key to my new room, perhaps even meet my new roommate. I had over heard that the system for placing students in dorms was designed to take the most unlikely couple of students and fit them all together in a dorm with 3 bedrooms, and only one bathroom, kitchen and living room. Although I found out each room had two closets, beds and wardrobes.

“Six people sharing a bathroom, there is no way that’s going to clash at all.”

A couple of people nearby laughed; they seemed to have heard me. I smiled meekly and kept walking; trying to stay out of my rather insane thoughts, even though I knew it was a losing battle. You are your own worst enemy and the only person you can trust as well. Sometimes trying to keep a clear head wasn’t as easy as one would think, unless you were some ignorant.

Suddenly, I stopped as I felt something soft and saw everything go black. Stepping back and blinking for a few moments, I noticed that I hit someone from behind; more like walked into it. It was a guy, a very tall one. It made me jump back a bit as he turned around to face me.

Everything about this boy just absolutely screamed ‘emo’, or at the very least ‘rocker’. His hair was a bit burly but well kept, and it hung about his face as though some sort of shield. His clothing was average, at least for my taste. He bore a black t-shirt with a gray sweater over it, baggy black pants and boots with old laces that seemed to have survived two wars and a civil dispute. The sweater and the pants didn’t look to shabby though.

His eyes were odd, they were a regular hazel like color but seemed to draw you in, as though waiting for you to open up your head and spill every single thought out of it like some bottle full of wine into his glass cup of eyes. It made me shiver a bit. He didn’t say anything but simply stared. It creeped me out more.

“I’m...uh...Sorry?” I murmured sheepishly. My voice was very quiet right now, something that was a first for me since I was used to being the loudmouth.

“It’s ok.” A voice echoed within the confines of my head and I was so sure that the lad had yet to move his mouth to say anything at all.

My brows furrowed, his mouth didn’t move but I heard a voice, I glanced about but there was no one else stopping. We were also behind the large mass of students that seemed to spread out and about the area, so there wasn’t really anyone else.

“Ok...I think this place is making me have an emotional meltdown.” I said a bit louder now.

“No you’re not. Your mind is stable.” The voice spoke yet again.

I turned to the guy, who was much taller than me; maybe 3 or 4 inches. I frowned. His expression didn’t change but I could see amusement in his eyes. He was toying around with me and I could sense it.

“Fine, now tell me what’s going on.” I demanded, for once the tone I had used gave me an aura of confidence.

“Well, you’re smarter than I gave you credit for.” There was a chuckle, but no facial movement or physical movement in the boy in front of me.

“Thanks.”

“I’m John Croussan, just call me Veir.”

I analyzed my current situation. He didn’t seem all that talkative to start with but I was pretty sure he was just being nice. There was nothing to suggest anything under his current actions and behavior. I sighed; there were my insane thoughts again. Why did I always have to suspect people were against me? I bet it was too much Law & Order episodes...

“Alright...Why can I hear a voice and you’re mouth isn’t moving.” I said, crossing my arms and letting all my weight rest on my left leg, so I was inclined a bit more to the left.

“I could be a ventriloquist.”

“Hardy-har-har.”

“Fine. I can’t talk, I’m mute. Technically I am a mute; I don’t like to be specific about it.”

“And let me guess...Psychic?”

“Bingo.”

Wow. I had met another kid in under five minutes, held a conversation with him for about three more and just found out he was unable to talk and the voice in my head was not from insanity but simply his own ability. I wondered if he could do anything else. I smiled brightly at him and his face didn’t move. His lips pursed a bit and they broke into the smallest and faintest of smiles I had ever seen. I gestured forward and he nodded, then we began walking towards the large buildings up ahead, along the quartz and marble colored path.

“So... My name is John ‘Veir’ Croussan.” He stated.

“Odd name.” I almost let out a small laugh.

“Is your mother French?”

“No, my father is, my mother is German. What about you, do you have a name?”

“Well duh.”

“Don’t do that.”

“Why?”

“I’d have to peg you like a plastic girl.”

I laughed. He was funny, even if it seemed like this was the first time he had any real confidence. But how could I know that, I just met the kid about 10 minutes earlier.

“Olivia Sanchez. Call me Liv or I’ll give you a fat lip.”

“Noted.”

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Besides the fact that there were about a hundred students and only two offices for occupation situations bothered me a bit. If you were to have such a place where there would be many, many children around and they were supposed to stay there a full year, then why would you only have to offices to help place them all in their correct rooms? It didn’t make any sense, well to me it didn’t.

Veir had to go in line with the fifteen year olds; after all he couldn’t stay in line with some goofy fourteen year olds that were rarely mature. In actuality he just needed to get his room key and such and there were different lines according to your age. Yet another thing that I deemed illogical in my mind; this school was full of those things. After about half an hour of waiting, I finally reached the office.

The woman there seemed to be about one hundred years old, her face small and wrinkled and a barely hanging on a thin neck. She was slumped and had wrinkled old hands; her hair seemed to match her soulless eyes in the fact that both were a light gray shade. She took one look at me and went to the file cabinet behind her then started searching for something within it, then pulled out a file. She held it out and I took it, giving my meekest smile which she seemed to return with a knowledgeable glance.

As I walked out, I opened the file to see it was simply my new class schedule, a map of the entire school, a small pamphlet of rules and no key card nor a key of some sort. There was the name of the room listed though. My eyes glanced about, in search of the recent friend I had made but he was no where to be seen. I started bumping into people once more so I skulked off into a corner and then squeezed my way out the exit and into the sunlight of the bright day once more.

I glanced around and noticed a pole with many arrows attached to it, all with different names and pointing in different directions. I held up my schedule and tried to find where I belonged in this vast place. The dorm hall number read ‘555845’ and when I glanced at the arrows I noticed the same number under the name ‘Turquoise Hall’. It was pointing forward and I let out an inward groan as I realized that there was more walking to be done in order to get to my new room.

Why couldn’t this place have golf carts or something? You could just rent them out and move at your leisure. Of course there would be accidents, maybe thefts, and there was the chance of insurance problems...Ok, maybe golf carts wasn’t the best idea. Although I wished I had brought my scooter with me instead of leaving it a whole continent away. There was no use in simply getting frustrated or mad, that led to desperation and my father always said that the worst choices in history were made in desperate moments. So I started walking, watching other students and simply trying to enjoy my day as much as I could.

My eyes were surprised as I walked past a track field and two swimming pools, then a tennis court. I stopped when I saw a flash and when I glanced towards where I thought it went, I simply saw a boy leaning against the wall and holding a tennis racket. I didn’t give it much attention until one of the players hit the tennis ball and it soared over the fence surrounding half of the area. Here is where my bad luck continued, I always had a knack for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Hey! Watch out!”

Thunk.

Too late, I hit the rock like a full sack of potatoes falling off a Missouri Truck going along a highway with the backdoor open. Don’t you just love my meaningless comparisons? I always seemed to find them funny. Anyways, I groaned softly and put a hand to my head, surprised to feel something on it already; another hand.

My soft brown eyes opened to see a guy, perhaps sixteen or seventeen, looming over me with a rather worried expression on his face. His hair was jet black but it was cut and spiked up so I thought he must’ve used a lot of hair gel for it. His eyes were very dark, almost the color of the night if you could specify what color it was. His skin was peachy, a bit pale but I could see nonetheless that he was Caucasian. I couldn’t help but wonder why my heart was trying to jump out of my chest right now.

“Hey Spencer! Is she alright?” Another couple of voices reached my ears.

“Man! Did you have to kill someone on the first day back?” The lad called at the other boys. He laughed and sat up straight then held a hand out to help me; I took it and sat up as well, rubbing the spot on my head where the unwanted projectile hit. His friends all stopped near me, they were laughing.

“Wow, that’s some nasty shot. Spencer, what did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything! You’re the one who hit it over the fence, remember?”

“Wow Trey, he got you there.” They all started laughing once more, perhaps at a dumb joke or some sort of inner joke they had. Either way, I figured them jocks and muttered a bit about how I wished I was in a different situation. The one they called Spencer, the guy who came to me first, smiled at me and helped me get to my feet.

“You sure you’re feeling fine?”

“I-I... D-Don’t worry about it. Thanks anyway.”

“Alright then, sorry for the accident, it was nice meeting you.” His friends gave their goodbyes as well, with some high fives and thumbs up. I turned and started walking then stopped when I wasn’t sure that my heart was still beating. I was glad I was wrong, for it was beating faster than ever now. I guessed it was simply my hormones acting on the fact that I got hurt. I mean, there was no way it was beating because... I mean come on, he’s a jock! No way!

I kept muttering to myself as though just to be sure and kept walking, making my way back towards the path I had taken earlier and heading to the Turquoise Hall.

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After wandering up and down the path for the better part of 20 minutes, I had passed Diamond and Amethyst Hall and reached the entrance to a large, three floor building. It was made of bricks, had a true Victorian style to it, and you could see various statues of different figures surrounding it. To me, the place wasn’t all that great but it seemed to have certain flair to it that I had yet to see anywhere else.

Folding the papers in my hands neatly, I walked in and started looking for dorm 118, which had been listed in my schedule as my dorm room and there was also a list of names of the people I would be living with. Rouge Hasten, Kyana Horashi, Alexandra Ayden, Kyle Stratham and last, but not least, John Croussan. At least someone I knew was somewhat nice was going to live with me.

I soon realized, as I passed down the first hall and then towards the elevator to the second floor, that the very long building consisted of not only the three floors but one large hall with 5 dorms at each side. I tried to do the math in my head, I let out a sigh as I pushed the number two button on the elevator and doors began to close. Gosh did I hate math. I just estimated that there would be at the very least more than 30 people living in the building, and I guessed that wouldn’t be much fun. Although the rooms were soundproof so that gave me some comfort.

Now how would I know they were soundproof? From a nice little pamphlet that came with the file. I had to chalk it up the nations that created the place; they made it sound like paradise. Hopefully there was some truth to that thought. I searched the second floor and found that the last dorm was 110, so the third floor had to house my dorm. I walked back into the elevator and heard a shout after I pushed the number three button and the doors began to close.

A hand stretched out, right across ten feet and stopped the elevator doors from closing. My eyes widened in somewhat surprised, it seemed we had a Mr. Fantastic now. A boy and girl ran up to the elevator and go it; I moved to make room for them.

The one that had stretched their hand to stop the door was the boy, whom was taller than me; that pissed me off a bit because although I was of an average height, most boys seemed to pass me and it made me feel rather small. His hair was hazel and his eyes were a deep hazel with a splash of yellow. He wore a black turtleneck sweater, beige pants and men’s walking shoes, of a brown color.

“Kyle! You could’ve just asked her to stop it.” The girl next to him, with short but somewhat ‘spunky’ black hair, panted a bit and stretched. Her skin color is similar to mine. Her clothing, I noticed, was a bit wilder than the boy’s conservative look. She had what looked like a white vest over a black shirt, jeans with a black dragon print on it and white boots. Her makeup suggested she loved mascara, which didn’t really look half bad even if she did use a lot.

“I’m not going to go screaming down the hall like some maniac. I’m not you, Larinx.” Kyle said, he turned to me and smiled then held his hand out as he started breathing normally. I shook it and laughed a bit. He seemed to be a nice person, among all the rather odd characters I had seen around the school.

“Whatever. Whats your name?” The girl, Larinx, gave me a thumbs-up and I returned it. Although why they greeted me so kindly was something that confused me a tad. I was guessing they were just naturally nice.

“Olivia, call me Liv.”

“Kyle Stratham.”

“Kyana Horashi. Call me Larinx.”

“So...what can you guys do?”

“Well you’ve already seen me stretch.”

“I’m a pyro-freak. I create fires.”

“We’ll get along great?”

“Why?”

“I’m sort of a... plant person.”

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“Organization by status?”

“You are a new year, aren’t you?” I nodded at Kyle’s question as I sat on the new, black and leathery sofa in dorm 118. Only Veir was there when we had arrived, he greeted me and the others. Apparently they were already friends, something that I hadn’t really asked about when the boy and I were talking about an hour earlier.

“Tomorrow, all the new years will go to the gym to be organized into group, you must show your power there and then be either classed Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3.” I frowned at Larinx’s words; I found it to be rather racist, like segregation. Couldn’t we just all take classes together like normal people? That thought created a small panging feeling in my stomach, because to me... we weren’t normal. “There is also Level 4, but it’s rare that people get there unless promoted later on in the year.”

“Why do we have levels?”

“Well... Most schools, almost every school in the world, have Physical Education.” I heard Veir’s voice, but he seemed unsure about how to phrase his words. “Depending on how well you control your power, you go into certain levels and take ‘Power Classes’, which over here is the equivalent of physical education.”

“So if you’re horrible and have no use of your powers, you go to Level 1?” I asked.

“Correct. The school administration says it’s so they can help us mold our powers better and grow stronger.” Kyle said, then turned on the flat screen TV and changed the channel to A&E. There was a movie on, Saving Private Ryan. I remember watching it with my dad once, and falling asleep halfway.

My thoughts were beginning to center around the movie and not the new information I had just heard, which was usual when I didn’t want to admit or understand something. My dad used to say that it was just part of the stubbornness I showed most of the time.

“Don’t worry about it; I’m sure you’ll do fine. I think you’ll make Level 3 like me and Veir.” Larinx stretched and sat down on the floor, resting her head on the sofa. She had been standing for quite a while now that it made me wonder if she ever sat at all.

“I’m Level 2; I can only stretch to such a length that’s not even that far.” Kyle said, a bit solemnly. I smiled at them and heard a small beeping sound. My watch, I shut it off. It read 9:30 pm, we had been talking for about 3 and half hours now, I was surprised. I didn’t even talk to my friends that long back home; we just usually did some sports or something. It was nice to just talk.

I got up from the leathery couch and bid them goodnight, leaving for one of the rooms. When we had arrived, there were plates on each door with our names on it, two for each room. I was to share a room with Larinx, who had arrived at the academy a couple of days prior and set up everything. Her half was pretty much consistent with her personality; she had dragon posters and fire posters, a computer and generally weird ornaments. I found it odd how most of her decorations either dealt with dragons or things of the mythical sense. I pondered if she was a mythical person.

My half of the room wasn’t unpacked; the purple comforter I had brought from my house was spread on the bed though. Everything else was packed in boxes, although my clothing was already organized in the wardrobe, which I had done when I arrived. It was sort of a small persnickety custom, if you will. I had a habit of organizing all my things.

After a few moments of glancing around, I changed into my pajama pants and bottoms, and then slipped under the comforter and into my bed. I wasn’t asleep though, just thinking about the day’s events. It wasn’t as weird as I thought it would be, it wasn’t as horrible as I had tried to convince my parents it would be. Yet it wasn’t as amazing as my parents and that Driftwood pamphlet tried to convince me. Psychic and people who stretched their body parts, fire controllers and tennis balls, they were all pretty weird thoughts but they swirled together and became permanently implanted in my memory.

I let my eyes close as I felt my weary body relax some more. I was ready to become pulled into the throws of the sleeping world, perhaps tonight I would dream of all the things that were to come in this place. I laughed a bit. Clairvoyance. That was just the thing I needed.

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