by Strand, Kai
“Stop lazing around, kid. Get up and do the last wall,” Coach barked.
Jeff saw that all the kids had clustered around the third wall.
“Coach, you know, jumping really isn’t my thing,” Jeff said.
Coach just nodded toward the wall.
Jeff looked at Source who gave him a sympathetic look, but shrugged.
“Ah, shit,” Jeff mumbled and set up for a running start at the next wall.
He rocked back and forth a few times to get some momentum going, and then burst forward. Just before the wall, he sprung upward. He hit the wall over half way up it, tried to use it to propel himself higher, but ended up scrambling and scraping as he fell back to the ground.
“Guess we won’t be calling him anything like ‘Jump’ or ‘Summit’,” Bake scoffed. Everyone laughed.
Jeff tried a couple more times to get over the wall before Coach finally let him off the hook, but the jeers from the kids let Jeff know he would never live his failure down.
Coach shrugged. “Maybe with training you’ll eventually get over that.”
By the end of class, Jeff again realized he was no super star. If he had a tail, he’d tuck it between his legs. Instead he went to his last abilities class of the day, nameless.
“They aren’t calling you anything yet, huh?” the Psych teacher, Sedated, said to Jeff as she directed him to a seat. Jeff knew his nameless status had just been bothering him moments ago, but suddenly didn’t care one lick. He shook his head and grinned at the pretty teacher.
“I like your black hair. It’s shiny.”
A few kids giggled, but Jeff grinned at the teacher like a hyena.
Sedated’s lip curled. “Who recruited you?”
“Pyro.” Jeff stared out the window at a sweet little sparrow hopping along a tree branch. “It’s so cute.”
The kids erupted into laughter.
Sedated rolled her eyes at Jeff. “You’ve got no defense. Are you sure you’re an S.V.? Pyro doesn’t really recruit; maybe she got it wrong.”
Jeff held up his palm. His fingers were red and throbbing. A loony laugh escaped him. “I’ve got fire.”
Sedated shoved a helmet onto his head and the world snapped back into focus around Jeff. He blinked at his throbbing fingers. “Why is my fire on?”
Sedated knocked on the metal helmet he wore. “Lead. You’re gonna need to keep this with you, especially in this class.”
Source leaned sideways from a seat next to Jeff. “This is a psych class. Since you apparently have no defense, lead is the only thing that will block psychic abilities from working on you. Sedated had you all numbed up, that’s why your fire was on. You were trying to prove you’re an S.V.”
Jeff sighed. No star here either. He needed to accept that just like at regular school, here at S.V.A. he was bottom of the class.
Chapter 11
At dinner that night Source sat with Jeff, though he proved to be little help in the defensive arena.
“Hey Boy-oh, a bit weak in the abilities, aren’t you?”
“What do they call you? Oh yeah, nothing!”
“Did you know the last S.V. to not be named on their first day was back in never!”
Jeff tried his best to ignore the taunts. The food he chewed tasted like sawdust. His throat was so dry he choked when he tried swallowing it. He made pointless conversation with Source, but didn’t listen to anything Source said in response. He hummed quietly to himself. But nothing distracted him completely. Especially when Shake and Bake sauntered by.
“Careful, Source, you might get burned by fire-boy,” Bake said.
Shake snorted. “More like blistered. Maybe just singed. Don’t think he has much more than that in him.”
The fork Jeff held melted onto his food as his fingers ignited. His temper flared out of control and he was helpless to rein it in. Jeff stood so fast his chair tumbled backward. Flame licked from his fingers toward Shake and Bake. Embers showered onto Bake’s tennis shoes melting through the rubber toes. Bake danced around, trying to stomp on his own feet.
Water doused Jeff. His fire sizzled out and he stood dripping onto the charred remains of his dinner. His senses back to normal, he found the girl he’d seen playing with water the first evening he visited the academy.
“Thanks,” he said.
She raised an eyebrow. “Why would you thank me?”
“For putting me out. I was a bit out of control. Would have torched the place.”
“Some of us deserve it.” She looked pointedly at Shake and Bake. Despite all the water that had fallen around him, Bake still stomped on his own toes while he glared at Jeff.
Jeff looked back at the water girl.
“Control is a beautiful thing, flame boy.”
Jeff grinned at her.
“You’re gonna need a new meal,” she said as she walked away.
Jeff watched her until she sat with a group at the far end of the room. When he realized he was gawking he grabbed his warped and buckled tray of soggy, charred food and headed toward the trashcans. Source walked beside him, carrying his own water-logged food. Half of his tray had been warped by heat. Jeff frowned at it as Source tossed it into the trash.
“Dude, I really lost control. I didn’t hurt you, did I?” Jeff gnawed on the inside of his cheek.
“Nah, I stepped away once you pulled your incredible hulk act,” Source said.
They got in line for more food.
“What do you mean?” Jeff asked.
“Well, you didn’t turn green or anything, but I think you might have bulked up. You looked pretty scary, dude.”
Jeff looked down at his clothes to make sure they weren’t torn and tattered from him having grown in size. They were damp, but fine. He took a deep, calming breath. Only then did he remember his ice. He shook his head at himself.
Then he saw the water girl across the room, laughing with her friends. He thought he heard the bubbly quality of her laughter above the rest of the room. “Source, who is she?”
Source followed Jeff’s line of vision. “Oh, that’s Oceanus. Don’t even think it, kid. She’s already found a match.”
“What do you mean?”
“See the guy next to her?”
“The skinny red head?” Jeff hoped.
“No, the other one.”
“Oh, the Adonis?” Jeff’s heart fell. He’d no hope to thwart the god-like S.V. seated next to Oceanus.
“Not far off. People call him Set. The God of chaos, storm, wind. He’s a great guy.” Sarcasm wrapped around Source’s words. “Descended from a long line of S.V.’s Known he’s an S.V. his whole life so came to the school ready to rule from what I hear. Real nasty character, even for an S.V. You don’t want to piss him off.”
“Oh, I won’t piss him off. I don’t go looking for trouble.” Jeff considered his life before the academy and realized that looking for trouble was the only thing he used to do. He amended his statement, saying, “Much.”
His stomach knotted. Had the academy turned him into a coward?
Source chuckled. “Don’t worry. You’ll get a name and things will settle into some sort of normal. Once we figure out what your root ability is, I’ll help you develop it. Though, after your hulk impersonation, I doubt anyone will dare taunt you.”
Jeff felt the anxiety lift. Source was okay for a bad guy.
* * * *
After a morning of enduring taunts and whispers, Jeff arrived at Sherlock’s abilities class the next afternoon determined to earn a name. Sherlock had new props out and stepped through the same process with Jeff to uncover a root ability. Halfway through class, Jeff felt desperation setting in. It became more and more difficult to concentrate on the instructions Sherlock gave. Even the other kids seemed to have a hard time keeping their attention on what they were doing. Jeff found them watching him whenever he opened his eyes from “imagining” something new.
As the clock ticked away the minutes of class time, Sherlock’s voice crept up
an octave and he issued desperate, rushed instructions.
“It seems to me your fire should be your root ability,” Sherlock said. “But whenever you employ it, it isn’t tapping your core energy like it should.”
They stood next to the levitation table.
“Here, catch this on fire.” Sherlock thrust a feather at Jeff.
“I’ve got a better idea.” Jeff walked over to the table with the three containers of water and snatched the glass of water from Shake’s hand.
“Hey, I’m using that!” she said.
“I’m just borrowing it,” Jeff said.
Sherlock frowned as Jeff approached with the glass. “I understand that manners aren’t a big thing here, but you can’t just snatch things away.”
“But you only tested one ability with the water and I’ve got two,” Jeff said.
Sherlock shook his head in confusion. “What do you mean, two?”
Jeff drew a deep breath that filled his lungs with cold air. Holding the glass in front of him he blew on the surface of the water. The glass frosted over as the top layer of water solidified.
Sherlock’s mouth hung open. “You’ve got ice, too? Fire and ice together?”
“Though they are opposing forces,” Source said, walking up beside them, “the elemental sources are in two different areas of the body. So it follows logic to believe a person could generate the contrasting abilities.”
Jeff raised an eyebrow and smirked at the brainiac’s explanation. He handed the glass back to Shake who’d come over to observe his unusual combination of abilities. “Here.”
Shake grimaced at the condensation-covered glass, but she and Bake returned to their table, the melting ice clinking against the side as they walked.
Sherlock nodded thoughtfully. “But as far as I know, nobody’s ever had conflicting abilities. Once he revealed fire, I automatically ruled out anything with water. Source, where does the ability to levitate items come from and what is the opposite of it?”
“What? I can hover things?” Jeff asked.
“Oh yes,” Sherlock said, looking down at his notes. “Along with fire and levitation, you’ve successfully manipulated element form and you kind of made an apple shrink.”
“Kinda?” Jeff asked.
“Well, at first I thought it had shrunk, but after class I realized you’d turned the core to mush so it had really only collapsed inward.”
Jeff was stunned he’d been able to do all that without training and with his eyes closed.
“Anyway,” Source said in answer to Sherlock’s question, “hovering is a psychic ability. One gathers ions from the air, mentally, and bunches them under the item they wish to hover. The more ions, the bigger the item they can hover or the higher they can hover it.
“The opposite is gravity. That’s another elemental ability.” Source turned to Jeff to explain. “Elementals are controlled through your extremities, like your fire in your hands.”
Sherlock interrupted, saying, “So, would it be logical to believe that this kid could control gravity since he has elemental abilities?”
Source nodded. They both looked at Jeff. Jeff looked back.
“What?”
Sherlock trembled with excitement, intimidating Jeff. What if Jeff let him down? He had no idea what Source and Sherlock had just explained yet they seemed to expect something big from him.
“Am I supposed to do something?” Jeff asked.
Sherlock pointed to the rock on the table. “Using your elemental, hold that rock to the table.”
Jeff reached over and wrapped his hands around the rock and pressed down with all his might.
“No, no, no,” Sherlock blustered. “I mean controlling gravity through an elemental source; hold the rock to the table.”
Source suggested, “Your feet might be the best conduit since they are on the ground and the table is on the ground.”
Jeff let go of the rock and shrugged. “I don’t get it.”
“Feel how your feet touch the ground,” Source said. “Lift a foot off the ground. Now, slowly put it down again and feel the force that pulls it back toward the ground.”
“Whoa!” Jeff repeated the process a couple times. Each time he got a better feel of the gravity that sucked him toward the center of the earth.
Source smiled. “Good. Now, extend that force out to the legs of the table, up to the table top and finally concentrate it around the rock.”
About half way across the table the force had scattered apart. “Wait, I lost it.” He started again, concentrating his energy toward pooling the gravitational force and moving it where he wanted. Finally he felt a lock on the rock. He looked at Sherlock and nodded.
Sherlock turned to the group. All the kids had abandoned their own work and gathered around to watch. “Hogan, lift that rock.”
The burliest kid of the group stomped over to the table. He grabbed the rock and pulled. The table lifted with the rock, surprising everybody. The feather floated away and the 5-gallon bucket of paint crashed to the ground and spilled a yellow river.
Source said to Jeff, “Try pinning both the table and the rock to the ground.”
Hogan set the table and rock down again and waited.
At first Jeff tried dispersing some of the gravity around the rock back toward the table legs, but he felt the grip on the rock loosen. So he gathered it all together again and then sent more gravity through the ground to wrap around the base of each leg. He nodded to Hogan.
Hogan grabbed the rock and yanked. Nothing happened. He wrapped his other hand around the rock and braced his stance and pulled, but nothing moved. Jeff could feel the pull on the gravity wrapped around the legs of the table and quickly reinforced it.
“Come on, Hogan. You turning into a pansy-boy?” Bake jeered.
The group erupted into laughter and broke Jeff’s concentration. Hogan and the rock flew backward. Jeff sent all the gravity to Hogan’s feet and stopped him in mid-stumble. Hogan nodded to Jeff and Jeff let go of all the gravity.
Sweat drops dotted Sherlock’s forehead. His heavy rimmed glasses slipped down his slick nose. He panted.
“Dude, are you okay?” Jeff asked.
Sherlock beamed at him. “That is amazing, kid! You’ve got polar abilities.”
A few kids cried, “Polar!”
Source smirked. Shake rolled her eyes and pulled Bake back toward their table.
Sherlock giggled giddily. “Polar.”
Jeff smiled and nodded. He liked it. Polar.
Chapter 12
“They calling you anything yet, kid?” Coach asked.
“Polar, sir.”
“Polar,” Coach mused. “Hmm, could mean you have ice. Could mean you’re like a big mean bear. I give up, why Polar?”
“I have opposing abilities, sir.”
“Interesting. Now, let’s see if we can improve your S&S, Polar.”
They performed drills on long jump and hurdles. Coach explained which muscles needed to be engaged to optimize the length or fluidity of the two different jumps.
Jeff tried to pay attention, but his mind kept wandering. It seemed to him that he had an opposite for each ability he was slightly better at and as far as he could tell, he was at least slightly faster than most S.V.’s. Was there something he was slow at?
He was just as relieved to announce his new name in Psych, but once again had a hard time concentrating. He wondered if the polar ability thing worked backward too. For example, was there a polar disability of defense?
Dinner was far more tolerable than it had been the night before. Source may have been right when he said that most of the kids were intimidated by Jeff’s performance. Though if Jeff were honest with himself it would most likely be his lack of control that scared them. In any case, they didn’t taunt him at all.
“I heard you got a name.” A small shadow fell across his peas & carrots. “What is it?”
Jeff swung his long hair out of his eyes and found Oceanus standing next to him
. A fresh, salty scent wafted around her.
“Um…it’s um…”
Oceanus arched her right eyebrow.
The simple action hit Jeff below the belt, making him squirm further under the table.
“I didn’t think the question was too hard.” Oceanus snickered. Her straight jet-black hair fringed tropical blue eyes. Her lips were an enticing rose color.
Jeff cleared his throat. “Um, you just, um, interrupted a conversation. Polar. They call me Polar now.”
“Polar?” She cocked her head and turned to face him completely, no longer ready to continue on to her own table. “To me that says polar ice caps. But as we saw yesterday, you have fire. So why did you get tagged with that name?”
Jeff knew he shouldn’t stare at her lips, but their rosy contrast to her cream-white skin, their beautiful curves and graceful movement when she spoke had him transfixed. “I do have ice.”
He hauled his eyes up to meet hers just in time to see them pop open. Unfortunately, her mouth fell open in amazement, capturing his complete attention again.
“You have ice too?” She set her tray on the table and slid into the chair next to Jeff. The scents of sea salt and lilacs drifted around him and he unconsciously leaned toward her.
Source rescued Jeff from proving further idiocy by explaining the discovery of the polar abilities. “That’s why Sherlock didn’t find his root ability on the first day. He’s never had to test for opposing abilities in an S.V. before.”
Oceanus studied Jeff. He fought the urge to run his hand through his hair. He concentrated very hard on keeping his jaw from dropping, but her mouth was slightly opened in a smile and he desperately wanted to capture it in a kiss.
“Polar abilities,” Oceanus said. “Fascinating.”
Jeff donned his trademark crooked smile and her gaze fell to his mouth. With her eyes on his lips, Jeff thought he was going to grab her right there in the cafeteria and claim her mouth for his own.
“Uh, Polar…buddy…Jeff!” Source smacked Jeff on the arm.
“What?” Jeff spun toward his friend and saw Source looking meaningfully down at Jeff’s hand. Jeff looked too. “Shit!”
Jeff closed his eyes in order to concentrate. He pulled cold air from deep within his lungs and slowly blew it onto his hand and the melted fork it held.
