My first few days at the Cane Center went by in a daze. Currently I was lost, trying to navigate the campus to find where my math class was supposed to be. I had a map of the campus but I wasn’t sure which way to orient it so I could find where I was supposed to go. Since we were in a natural depression with hills all around there wasn’t any single point of reference I could use. The sun would have helped but it was a cloudy day and threatening to rain.

“You lost?” Hector’s voice brought be out of my study of the map.

“That obvious?” I asked, looking up at him.

He shrugged and looked over my shoulder at my schedule.

“Where’re you headed?” he asked.

“Math, in the Seymore building.”

He laughed and pointed to the building directly to my left.

“Are you serious?” I asked, feeling my cheeks flush, and then added in my defense, “There’s no name on it.”

“Name’s on the front, this is the back,” he explained.

“Thank you.”

“No problem,” he grinned again. “How you settling in? Break anything?”

“Let’s see,” I began ticking off my fingers, “broke my shower, my desk, and my chair. I also broke a bench in the park, knocked over a tree, and cracked some sidewalk.”

“Hey, not bad for your first few days.”

I’d also torn an inordinate amount of clothes trying to get dressed each morning but I didn’t mention that to him. The uniforms we all had to wear were anything but flattering, though considering how many sets I’d ruined I could only imagine what the bill for clothing alone must be for this place. As it was, the gray jumpsuit style clothes worked well enough for most everyone here.

“You in there?” Hector was waving his hand in front of my face and I realized I’d let my mind wander yet again.

“Sorry,” I said, “I should be getting to class. Thanks for your help.”

“Hey, no problem,” he waved as I began to hurry towards the Seymore building. “We’re getting together again for some games this evening if you’re interested.”

“I’ll be there,” I called over my shoulder.

Hector’s face turned to worry and he waved his arms frantically but before I could realize what was wrong I ran right through the doors of the Seymore building. Glass and metal crashed down around me and I instinctively covered my head with my arm and crouched down. I needn’t have worried. Nothing here could hurt me and old habits were hard to break.

“You get to class,” Hector said, jogging over to me. “I’ll report the door and tell them it was my fault.”

“What? No! You’re almost going home. This’ll ruin your track record and they might keep you here longer.”

“Yeah, this place is pretty awful. Whatever could make me want to stay here a little longer?”

The look he gave me made me blush again and I stumbled backwards in embarrassment.

“I gotta get to class.”

“Go on, someone’s probably heard the crash and called this in already so you better not be here when the incident response crew arrives.”

I turned and hurried up the steps, not trusting myself to touch the handrail or anything else before I found the right room. Class was already in session and the door was closed. Try as I might, I still ended up denting the doorknob as I opened the door and slipped into the room.

“Ah, you must be Misha,” the instructor, a thin, elderly woman, said. “Did you get lost?”

“I did, sorry.”

“No need to apologize. You’re new here and this is much more like a college campus than your ordinary high school.” She turned to here notes and then pointed to one of the empty seats. “Your right there, Misha.”

I probably could have guessed which seat was mine since it was the only one made entirely out of metal. Either way, I hurried to my desk and sat down. Mrs. Marble, her name was written on the whiteboard, flipped open her textbook once more and resumed introducing the day’s subject. I pulled out my own copy of the textbook, ripping my backpack slightly in the process, and followed along. My math class at home had already covered this but I guess it was better to be ahead than behind.

Mrs. Marble lectured for the first half of the class and then let us work on some problems on our own. As I’d already learned this, I breezed through the problems and then sat quietly, looking around the room at the other supers in here with me and wondering what their powers might be. The kid with the mask over his mouth and tube leading to a large canister was probably one of those acid spitting ones. There was a girl whose fingers were all elongated and came to such sharp points that there were gouges in her desk. She also had several bandages on her arms and face from where she’d cut herself. At the moment she was trying to affix small rubber nubs to her finger tips but they kept sliding off.

“Misha?” Mrs. Marble said from beside my desk.

I hadn’t noticed her approaching and the shock made me jump in my seat. A deafening crack thundered through the room and my desk exploded. Shards of metal flew everywhere, ripping through students and walls alike. Screams split the air and I whirled, my arm catching Mrs. Marble on the face, crushing her skull and knocking her through the far wall.

I stood in the wreckage, shocked and horrified. All around me were the wounded. It looked like a bomb had gone off in here. From the next room over I could hear more screams and shouts for a healer. Only then did I remember my lanyard and I found the emergency call button. I pressed it too hard and crushed it. I screamed out in frustration and ripped it free from my neck. I looked around for another one I could activate but saw the acid boy from before pressing his frantically. His legs were no longer attached to his body.

The gruesomeness of the scene around me was too much. My vision began to close in around me as everything took on a greenish tinge. I pitched forward and tried to catch myself but everything went dark before I even hit the floor.