Uncomfortable

Yeah ... he's just as hot as Damien. I would say it's a matter of taste," June said and her thoughts were probably somewhere else.

"Probably more of an aberration of taste. His ego really needs to be rubbed down like the one on it. He probably expects every female being to adore him and -"

"It's Damien, after all. I mean ... it's Damien!"

A few people turned to us and grinned knowingly before moving on.

"June, I think we have to go back to class," I said as the corridor was now emptying faster and faster.

"What a bummer, next we have skills. Come on now!" June suddenly said impatiently to me and pretended to be texting her the whole time.

We went to the said subject in a hurry. I was relieved to find that Teacher wasn't there yet. We were in a gym or something like that.

The entire gym was made of metal, except for the floor and windows, and security devices that stood around. First aid kits were attached to a wall every two meters, there were an abnormal number of fire extinguishers and everything was fireproof, except for us. It didn't seem very reassuring to me.

June and I, like the rest of the class, had pounded our bags in the corner and they were now lying in a mess in a heap.

In all honesty, I was excited I was finally going to be using my ability for the first time. Who knows, maybe I could give electric shocks or set something on fire, maybe I could read minds ... or even better: manipulate? So that would be a thing if I imagined what I could do with it.

The doors opened and our skills teacher walked inside. So he still intended to take part in the class. The teacher in question had short, protruding, light brown hair and nerd glasses. He was dressed a little more casually than Mr Hops and looked a lot younger. No tight corduroy pants, no gray or black suits or the like. Just completely normal. Actually he looked pretty good, but he didn't quite suit my taste either, apart from that he wasn't my type at all.

"I'm John," he introduced himself and smiled pleasantly.

"Since we have some new ones, we will focus today on finding out your abilities. The others who already know what they can do can meanwhile look for a partner and take turns trying out their skills with him. Please no dead this time, "he said jokingly and you could hear one or two laughs here and there.

"Damien will be helping me with the newcomers today," added John, which went down well with the female half of the class.

Only now did I realize who this figure behind John was, whom I had somehow overlooked before. How could you overlook him at all, I mean, he looked really badly good. And he was probably fully aware of that, because he smiled smugly when he looked into the faces of the girls, who were all blown away from him again. Damien looked at each face and looked at them all as if he were looking at his fan club. Finally he got to me.

He looked straight at me with his emerald green eyes and I stared back at him. The guy narrowed his gorgeous eyes and then turned back to John. The latter clapped his hands enthusiastically.

"The new ones just come to me and Damien first," John called and smiled again.

I noticed that John smiled quite a lot. He almost killed me in his positive way, that was really terrible. How could someone be in such a good mood all the time? And then another teacher.

I looked around briefly for June, but she had long since tackled a guy and was pining at him rather than practicing with him.

A low, resigned sigh escaped me, then I walked up to John and Damien. In addition to me, there were four other newcomers who also looked quite curious.

"You and you come with me, and you and you come with Damien," my teacher said, pointing to two girls each.

Of course I had to see Damien, that was so obvious. I was sure that a higher power was going to work here.

While the other two went with John, I stayed where I was with Damien.

The girl who was to stay with Damien with me had boring light brown hair, fat braces and two glass bricks on her nose. It wasn't that I was superficial, no, I definitely didn't. But the one next to me was definitely a classic all-rounder. She stared at Damien and sighed loudly as if there was only her in this room. The corners of my mouth twitched suspiciously as Damien rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"So you both don't know what kind of ability you have? Well, let's start right away. You can control your abilities with strong feelings. So with hatred, envy, jealousy and -"

"- and love?" asked the girl next to me, beaming, looking like a five-year-old staring at a huge lollipop and about to eat it up

I would really understand if Damien was scared now that this girl was really a number of her own.

"Yes, or love," Damien cleared his throat and continued.

"But it works best with provocation, and so we will now draw out your skills a little," he said at the end.

He was really good at explaining things, really good ... very good and - stop! My thoughts were going in the completely wrong direction again.

"Do you want to provoke us now, or what?" I asked curiously.

"Exactly," he said and looked at his fingernails disinterestedly.

"For this we have developed a kind of machine that stimulates the nerves until the core of your ability becomes visible. That also depends on whether you have a mental ability that only you then know. Or something else that can Your environment could have an impact. Come on now, "he said a little impatiently.

So I went to the small metal door in which the room was then. Someone tapped my shoulder and I whirled, my hair flying in the air. Yes, of course I did it extra, after all, I wanted to look like one of the girls in the shampoo ad who was also tossing her hair around the whole time.

"What?" I asked annoyed.

I had to tilt my head when I looked up at Damien. He was probably a whole head taller than me, even though I was actually quite tall. I was 1.79 tall and towered over most of the girls, and also some boys, from my year.

"You're walking the wrong way, honey," he said and smiled with pleasure.

His smile upset me in a way. Without another word, I turned around and followed the nerd who was walking towards another door, which was also made of metal.

Mr.-I'm-so-great-kneeling-down overtook us and opened the door very gentlemen-like.

"Hm. Who wants to go first? You maybe, Apryl?"

Apparently he always answered his questions himself, a bad habit. As we entered the room, I smelled stale sweat and grimaced in disgust. Great, hopefully someone has not already emptied their bladder out of fear.

The room was completely empty except for a few devices and the large daybed which seemed very uncomfortable.

Damien motioned for me to lie down on this bed, which really looked like someone had taken it out of the hospital.  

Hesitantly, I lay down on this lounger and automatically stared up at the pristine white ceiling. There was a strange device next to me that was totally wired to other, smaller devices. This device slowly moved towards my face until it finally stopped right in front of my nose.