“Good for her,” Jessica said, either too dumb or too pre-occupied to pick up on the insult. “Does anyone want to see what I can do?”
Molly shrugged as Max and Rebecca murmured noncommittally. It was Aiko who finally said, “Yeah, sure.”
Jessica closed her eyes for a second and then waved her hand over her face. In an instant, her hair changed from blonde to emerald green, and bunny ears popped from the top of her head. She opened her eyes again and Izzy was floored to see that they now matched her hair.
“Holy crap!” Aiko said, taking a step back. “That’s awesome.”
Izzy blinked hard and focused in more closely. As she did, Jessica’s hair began to morph back to blonde and the ears disappeared.
She blinked again and there stood regular Jessica, smiling smugly.
“Weird. So you can only keep it up for a few seconds at a time, or...?” Izzy asked, interested in spite of herself. Being able to change your appearance was a pretty neat trick.
“What are you talking about, Izzy?” Molly asked with a frown.
“Well, for a second her hair and eyes changed color, but now they’re normal again.”
Jessica laughed. “No they’re not,” she said, lifting a hand to her hair. “They’re green.”
Izzy was about to argue when the others nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, they’re still green,” Aiko confirmed.
Izzy cocked her head and studied Jessica closely. It took a long moment for her to realize that, if she looked a certain way, letting her eyes go out of focus, she could actually see a hint of green there.
Fascinating.
“So, to clarify, your power isn’t to change your appearance, is it?” Izzy asked. “You’re able to create an illusion, right? So that other people see it that way.”
AKA a professional mind-screwer.
Jessica’s thousand-watt grin wavered and she glared at Izzy. “Wow, sour grapes, huh? I’m pretty sure being able to control other people’s realities is a lot cooler than being able to make my hair change color. But don’t get me wrong. Your powers are super helpful, too! Why don’t you run over there and grab us some more punch, real quick-like, hmm?”
Izzy opened her mouth to argue, but what was the point? She didn’t give a rip what Jessica thought about her, and she could go for some more punch anyway. She had much bigger fish to fry now. Because, if Jessica’s time spent with the Dean resulted in these mind control powers becoming stronger than just illusion-magic parlor tricks?
Then her arch-nemesis was about to be one, bad-ass adversary.
The next couple hours went by in a haze as the good vibes that had started off the night faded into fear and worry. There was no question now why Jessica had been separated from the rest of them. Her power was different. Special. She couldn’t just move things with her mind, or lift heavy objects, or see five hundred yards away. With enough training, she could become a frigging veritable superhero...or supervillain.
The thought plagued Izzy for the rest of the night. She wound up begging off early and heading back to the dorm room alone.
With a weary sigh, she grabbed a paper and pen and flopped onto her bed, still in her stupid dress. Then, she began to write.
Dear Dad,
Things are going great at the new school. I can’t wait until break so I can tell you more about it. I miss you a lot, but don’t worry about me. I’m 100% sure I made the right decision in coming to Nightgrove Academy.
The words blurred before her eyes as one, fat tear plopped onto the page.
If only she had the power to make her words the truth...
Chapter 9
The next morning was a slog. Izzy had a rough night’s sleep, peppered with dreams of a green-haired succubus riding a broomstick, chasing her through a field of poppies and into a haunted castle. Still, she put on her big girl pants, fueled up with a delicious mocha latte courtesy of Tom, and vowed to do her best anyway.
“We’ll be covering the remaining enhancement abilities in today’s class,” Professor Baxter said, diving right in with a zeal that was exhausting as they all took their seats. He grabbed a large device with a small screen and a single button like a piano key in front of it.
“We’ll start with reaction speed. This is something that can be enhanced with your powers, and though fractions of a second may seem insignificant, it keeps you a step ahead of your opponent. When combined with enhanced speed, projectiles can be rendered useless. In fact, for the rest of the semester, I welcome you all to throw your pencils at me. If just one of you manages to hit me, which I seriously doubt, I’ll cancel the following day’s class and take you on a field trip into town for ice cream sundaes,” Baxter said with a confident grin.
That woke her up a little as a rush of adrenaline shot through her. Not just because she would get to pelt her teacher with pencils—although that did sound fun. But what if she could grow to be fast enough to dodge like that?
Party-pooper Jake interrupted her thoughts with an exaggerated exhale. She had the sudden urge to throw the pencil at him, instead, but managed to hold herself back, taking a long pull from her to-go mug for strength.
As the chatter over Baxter’s challenge finally subsided, he continued. “Today we will be testing you on your reaction speed, as well as your senses. We’ll do the vision exam at the same time as the reaction speed one to save time,” he said as he pulled one of those eye exam posters out from behind his desk.
Everyone groaned as they prepped for another boring day of tests. For the next three long hours, they sniffed and listened and looked and touched. Apparently, Molly was the Jake of the sensory exams as she did the best in each and every one. Izzy fared pretty well, over all, despite the monotony of the task, so she couldn’t complain. When it came time to test their reactions by playing a simulated game not unlike Whack-A-Mole, though, she really excelled, getting the best time by a fair margin, not that anyone seemed to notice. By the time noon came around, they were all getting punchy and irritable, more than ready for a break, but it seemed like breaks would be tough to come by today.
“The rest of the afternoon will be spent on an obstacle course, so go grab yourself a quick lunch and meet back here in twenty,” Baxter said.
Izzy and her friends barely had time to scarf down their lunch. When they returned from the cafeteria, just as the period was about to start, Baxter was waiting by the door looking just as eager to get to work as he had that morning.
The man had energy to burn…
“The course should be ready for us soon, we can head over there now,” Baxter said.
“I wonder if I’ll even be able to get through it,” Rebecca murmured to Izzy as they walked down the hall, “my ability kinda sucks for this sort of thing, compared to someone like you.”
“Have you ever noticed a feeling you get when you’re taking a test or doing a puzzle, where it feels like everything comes easily and naturally? Try to put yourself into the same headspace, except while running or doing more physical tasks,” Izzy said. “Maybe you’ll be able to use your ability for speed like I do if you try hard enough. I managed to apply mine to the reaction speed test earlier, and it even helped me with the senses testing a little.”
As Rebecca opened her mouth to reply, a pencil flew by, whizzing past Izzy’s head, straight at the Professor’s back. Baxter didn’t even slow his pace as his arm shot out and he plucked the pencil from the air without turning around.
“Holy crap,” Rebecca whispered.
“You’re going to need to do better than that,” he said with a laugh. “I could hear it coming.”
Izzy’s jaw dropped. Could she learn to do that someday? As she contemplated that thought, she also made a mental note never to talk bad about Professor Baxter behind his back unless she wanted him to hear her.
As they all filed into the obstacle course room, the chatter of the class ceased like the air had been sucked out of their collective lungs.
Izzy stopped short and m
arveled at the enormous room. It was far bigger than even the gymnasium, and must’ve been hundreds of meters in length. There were huge sheets of wood with door-sized holes covered by black tarps, likely to keep them from seeing the course itself and planning their strategy before they started. The walls of the room were covered in hundreds of mirrors, which only added to the strangeness of the situation.
Perfect. This way, if she failed, she got to watch her own humiliation at every angle.
She tamped down the sizzle of nerves and tried to focus on being positive. She was hella-fast and pretty strong. She had this.
“The course is being set up for Enhancement types, as we speak, the Elementals finished a few hours ago but, as you can imagine, there are a lot of moving parts to set up,” Professor Baxter said. “I’ll explain the test to you while we wait, I doubt it’ll be much longer. Behind those sheets of wood there are ten starting positions for you to begin the course. When the whistle sounds once, the first ten to be tested will line up at your station and wait for the second whistle to begin. Your only goal will be to get by every obstacle in front of you. Things to note: You aren’t allowed to go around any of them. If you fail on any obstacle, use the space on the side to go back and retry it as many times as you need. The course will be identical for each of you, but you will be separated by lines that indicate the path you each are to remain on. There will be containers with supplies along the way that may be helpful in getting over the obstacles, for those of you with less physical-based abilities.”
Rebecca’s face turned from worried to relieved when she heard about the supplies. Izzy was happy that she would at least have a chance to get through the course and maybe even succeed.
“While I don’t put much stock in these, the Academy does. You’ll be running these periodically throughout the semester and your performance improvements will impact your grades heavily,” he said with a heavy sigh. “This test doesn’t result in perfect data, especially compared to the controlled ones we did this morning. The course favors some abilities over others and, if I’m being honest, I personally think it’s a waste of school funds.”
“Agreed,” Jake muttered under his breath.
“With that said, we try to keep it more fair by including some non-conventional ways to succeed if you aren’t well-suited to the task at hand, so keep your mind and your eyes open. Most of all, try to focus on yourself and what you’re capable of rather than trying to compete with other students.”
Izzy’s excitement turned to irritation as she remembered the similar comment that Jake had made to her after the relay race. She would keep the Professor’s advice in mind...but if she happened to beat Jake in the process, so be it.
“Your final time will be recorded when you press the button at the end of your lane. That’s pretty much all there is to it. I’ll choose which ten of you are set to go first,” Baxter said.
Baxter walked around and brought ten people—including Izzy, Jake, and Molly—to their assigned starting position.
“Good luck, Iz!” Rebecca called, as Baxter led Izzy through one of the curtains to position six, which was near the middle of the ten starting positions.
There was a good fifteen feet between her and the person next to her on each side, with Molly to her left and Jake on her right. She shot Molly a thumbs up and readied herself for the first obstacle, which appeared to be a balance beam. This would be an excellent chance to gain a head start on Jake, whose heavier, more muscular frame would make crossing the narrow beam more difficult. She stared into the mirrors on the massive wall to her right and took in a deep, calming breath. Getting into the right headspace was everything.
When the second whistle sounded, Izzy was already in the zone. This was not going to be the same as the race she had lost to Jake. She reached the balance beam in less than a second and barely slowed as she skimmed across it so lightly, her feet barely seemed to touch it. She heard a grunt and a splash to her right, and was amused to see Jake, who was now covered in mud, jaw clenched, storming back around to try the balance beam a second time.
So far, so good.
The next obstacle was a long set of monkey bars that hung over a large pool of water. Without thought or consideration, she was swinging from bar to bar, skipping a bar in between each jump. When she threw herself from the final bar, she turned to her left while running and caught a glimpse of Molly moving from bar to bar about halfway through, forehead scrunched in concentration.
That was good. She didn’t need to worry about Molly. She could just focus on the rest of the obstacles. She reached the next one in no time at all. It was a giant treadmill on a forty-five degree angle upwards that was moving towards her. She grinned as she sped up it. Another obstacle that suited her perfectly. It really wasn’t moving that quickly—compared with her own speed, at least—and she bounded up it in less than thirty seconds. She wondered how some of the other, less quick students might make it up when her thoughts were interrupted by a loud creaking sound to her right. She slowed for an instant and glanced behind her to see Jake wedging a metal bar from one of the supply bins into the massive gears that made the treadmill move. His treadmill came to a grinding stop and his lips tilted into a rare grin, showcasing a never seen before dimple. Izzy was momentarily stunned, as much by the dimple as by the incredible strength it must’ve required to stop that machine, but she quickly continued moving.
Stay on task and focus.
She looked ahead to see a platform overlooking a huge drop. Near the edge, a rope waited for her with a small sign in front of it that read:
Rope is for safety in the event of a fall only. Sensors will note if it is pulled taut, an alarm will sound, and you have to go back around and start again.
She strapped herself up and began the descent. The face of the wall was covered in hand and foot holds like the ones at an indoor rock climbing gym. She wasn’t an expert at climbing, so she moved slowly down the wall, by her standards. When she was about halfway down, her foot slipped, knocking her out of the space of intense mental clarity she had been in for the whole test, up to that point. She paused to re-enter the state of focus before continuing the descent, knowing it would save more time in the long run.
When she reached the bottom, she immediately broke into a sprint to the next obstacle, which was a huge metal door with a button towards the top of it and a pit of water between the door and the platform she stood on. In front of her sat a small crossbow with a pile of blunted bolts. She grabbed one and struggled to pull the string back to load it. She heard Jake’s door opening as she finally got the bolt loaded after half a minute of grunting. Readying herself, she fired and missed the first shot. After wasting more precious seconds loading it a second time, she managed to hit the target as Jake was swimming through the massive door on his side.
She dove into the water and made a beeline towards the open door, swimming at a speed that would make a shark envious. She zipped through the door opening and dragged herself out of the water and onto the ground, rolling to her feet and immediately breaking into a sprint in one, smooth motion.
You got this, girl.
The next obstacle, a wall that must have been twenty feet tall, loomed ahead. She closed most of the distance that Jake had managed to gain on her during the run to the obstacle, but he was still in the lead. None of the other eight students had even gotten their doors open yet, she observed as she approached the wall. A backpack lay in front of it with a sign that said: Must carry over the wall.
She put the pack on and staggered under the weight. It was heavy enough to give her a hard time running, never mind climbing. A large, unknotted, rope hung down from the wall so she tried to climb it by pulling with her hands on the rope and putting her feet against the wall, but it was covered in some sort of oil or grease. She had climbed up a rope using her hands and feet before in gym class, but never with a weight on her back.
She made it only a few feet up on her first try before her arms gave out, causing her
to slip, burning her palms raw on the rope. Despite the pain, she took a deep breath and grabbed the rope and began to ascend, digging deep and focusing on the repetitive movement of her muscles. Somehow, it had become so easy that she had forgotten to even use her feet. She no longer felt her own weight or the weight of the pack. She was finally getting some real control over how to tap into her deeper stores of strength, at will.
As she finished the climb, she realized she could see the finish line now. She set her sights toward the button, glowing like a beacon in the distance, with renewed determination. She began her descent, scaling down the wall like lightning.
She glanced to her right as she broke into a sprint down the football field-sized straightaway, realizing with dismay that Jake was nearly at the halfway point. She turned and faced her objective—the damned button—and all thoughts of winning or of Jake faded into nothing.
When she slammed her fist down on it a moment later, the connection to her inner ninja broke and she shifted jarringly back into her normal everyday state of mind. She sucked in a breath and saw Jake bringing his hand down on the button just as she turned.
She let out a whoop of excitement, pumping her fist in sheer joy, as she faced the rest of the course to check on the others’ progress. But when she turned, her excitement turned to horror.
Molly hung by her fingertips at the top of the twenty-foot high wall, the rope hanging uselessly by her side.
“Help!”
Izzy’s feet moved faster than her thoughts as she raced back toward the wall. She was halfway there when Molly’s fingers gave way and she came crashing to the ground in a bone jarring tangle of limbs.
“Molly!”
Chapter 10
"No!" Izzy yelled, her hands going clammy as she covered the last of the distance between them.
Too slow, Izzy. Too slow.
Nightgrove Academy Book One Page 8
