First Generation Kindergarten

Chance watched as the girl reluctantly trudged forwards, grinning. He loved being a teacher. I could have the kids do whatever I told them-ahem. He thought. I mean, I just love being able to watch them grow up and develop their powers with my help...Well, that's the main reason, but having them do what I want certainly helps.

"That's okay, Aura." Chase said, understanding what she was implying. "We can always work on it later. The adults here can withstand anything you might throw at us...maybe. But hey, that's what Iris is here for!" He added brightly before letting her go back to her seat. "Now, who's next?"

The same hands went up again and he studied them before saying, "The girl with the silver hair. You come on up!"

Alex squealed in delight at being called and she darted up, announcing, "My name's Alex. I'm a shapeshifter that can shapeshift into any animal I wa-" She was cut off as her body suddenly started changing, convulsing until there was no longer a silver haired girl with black clothes on, but a black cat.

"Very nice Alex! We can work on controlling your changes later." Chase commented as the cat mewed at the class, who were all staring at as it went back to Alex's seat.

"Daniel, I think you should have the honors of picking the next person."

Daniel watched with interest as the quiet girl from the back of the room came up. He was curious to see how exactly her powers worked, but she was reluctant to show them. While they weren't going to force a student to do something they didn't want to, she would still need to work on her powers at some point. Chance also made a very good point by saying that Iris was there for a reason.

He then watched as Alex came up. She had impressed him before with her shape-shifting abilities and he wondered if she would be able to do it again while remaining in control. Even though she had cut herself off by changing into an animal, she still showed an impressive amount of control. If she could focus her powers a little more, she would be able to change forms faster and more frequently.

Daniel, who had been leaning against his desk like a statue, glanced over at Chase when he heard his name. Then he looked toward the students before sitting up a little straighter. He glanced around the room, the hands having gone up again at the mention of the next student being chosen. After a second or two, he pointed to a blonde boy with static hair.

The boy ran to the front of the class, bouncing with excitement. "My name is Joey! I can control electricity!" Joey paused and glanced a the teachers, unsure how to proceed from there.

Daniel gestured for him to continue, "Go on, show us." Joey nodded eagerly and looked around the room before running over to a power outlet. It was obvious how excited he was to show off his powers. He didn't hesitate at all as he crouched beside the outlet and put his hand up. At first nothing happened, then a thin line of blue electricity jumped from the wall to his fingertips.

Joey scrunched his face up, focusing harder as he tried to get more electricity. He wanted to show that he could control more. As he tried harder, more sparks jumped from the wall to his hand. His hair started to stand up again and soon he had a continuous arc between his hand and the wall.

"I did it!" Joey yelled excitedly. As he yelled, a small explosion happened in front of him and a few bolts of electricity flew out of the outlet. One hit a light bulb, causing it to shatter. Before the small pieces of glass could touch the ground, they were gathered in a small orb made from shadows. Daniel brought the shatter glass, using the shadow ball, to the small trash bin next to him.

"Oops... Sorry..." Was all Joey could say before running back to his seat, his face red with embarrassment. He had thought that he was doing well too.

Daniel, not wanting Joey to dwell on his mistake too long, was quick to call up the next student. He gestured to the other girl in the back. The other quiet one. "Why don't you come up and tell us a bit about yourself and what you can do?"

The other children all turned eagerly to watch Mai as she stood up, glaring at the teachers. It was almost unearthly for a child to have that kind of look on their face. If looks could kill, Chase and Daniel would probably be piles of ashes.

As she turned to face the others, she brushed a lock of her sea foam green hair out of her left eye, her fingers brushing the jewel type things just under her iris. "I'm Mai. I'm an elf, so I can do various things with magic." Before she demonstrated, she moved her hair back more, exposing a pointed ear underneath.

The kids looked in awe at her ear and she released her hair, covering it again before looking at a notebook the Daniel had on his desk.

After Mai had stated at it for a couple moments, Chase was just about to step forward and excuse her to go back to her seat when the notebook suddenly started floating up in the air. Mai's eyes had also started glowing. Where they had been violet before, they now glowed with a bright purple light.

However, even as she was staring at it, the notebook started wobbling and suddenly it flew across the classroom, passing right through the neck of the ghost girl, and embedded itself in the wall. Mai stared st it before muttering, "Um...sorry about that..." Knowing she had nearly just killed a girl (well, she would have it the girl had been animate and still alive) didn't exactly give her peace of mind.

"We will definitely need to work on that." Chase said, staring at the notebook that was buried halfway into the wall. "But you have a lot of power and a promising start. Now I think you should go back to your seat." He ushered her back before saying, "Okay, how about you, the ghost girl."

Daniel watched as the girl walked up, noticing how much hate seemed to be in her gaze. He didn't regret calling her up though. Each of the students would have to learn that they couldn't just stay in the back of the class the whole time.

At first, when Mai started staring at something on his desk, he wasn't sure exactly what she was trying to do. Or if she was even trying to do anything at all. He glanced over at Chase to see if he was going to say anything and when it looked like he was about to, Daniel noticed that something on his desk, a notebook, had risen.

He watched it curiously for a moment before it suddenly darted across the room. Morker, who had still been resting on Daniel's shoulder, let out a squawk of surprise and flapped his wings a few times. When he had calmed down, his feathers were still ruffled slightly.

Liz hardly even flinched as the notebook passed through her. She hardly even felt it. Wandering around the human world had made her used to people or things passing through her. Walking through a park, she sometimes got a Frisbee thrown through her. It still surprised her how fast a notebook could travel. When she turned around she, she saw that it was stuck in the wall and was actually glad that she was already dead.

Iris couldn't help but gasp in surprise, covering her mouth with her hands, when she saw the notebook fly through another student. Then she realized that it hadn't actually done anything. Chase called the girl up, calling her 'ghost girl' and Iris realized that the notebook couldn't have hurt her in any way.

Liz walked to the front of the class, her feet hardly touching the ground, making her appear like she was floating, which she could have been. "My name is Liz and I'm a ghost... I can go through things or things can go through me, like a notebook." She thought for a moment. "I think I can do things like haunt people. Maybe possess people. I'm not really sure." After thinking another moment, she quickly went back to her desk. She had no clue how to do any of that and she had already shown that things could easily pass through her.

As the ghost girl went back to her desk, Daniel looked to see which students hadn't been called up yet. He noticed another spiky haired boy and he pointed to that student. "Alright you're next. Show us what you can do."

As Mai slid down in they desk, watching the girl who probably would have gotten her head sliced off if she wasn't a ghost go up and introduce herself. The nurse had practically had a heart attack when it sailed through her neck, but once she saw it had done no damage, she calmed down. Needless to say it took a few moments for the other kids to stop staring at the notebook.

And then her stepbrother was called up.

He made his way forward and began to yell, "I AM-" until he caught sight of Mai's ivy gaze locked onto him. "Um, my name is Ryan." The spiky haired boy said, looking almost disappointed. "I can control fire." At this, he shut his eyes right, concentrating on something before his flaming red hair burst into real flames.

"Nice control, Ryan!" Chase said, delighted that a child had gotten it right. Of course, the back of his clothes had caught fire, but a well natured pat on the back from the teacher had extinguished them, also causing his hair to change back to normal, and no one else took notice.

"Okay, now you." Chase said, pointing at one of the twins. To his surprise though, both of them came up at the same time.

"I'm Jasmine and this is Jasper. We like to go my Jaza and Jazz though." The one on the right said. "We can be identified by our bracelets." At this, both held up their right wrist, exposing a bracelet on each. "Mine is silver and Jasper's is gold."

"I don't know if we necessarily have powers..." Jasper cut in. "But we are half dragon." They both turned and showed the forest green wings growing out of their backs. They were almost fully grown out.

It was impressive to see how much control Ryan had showed, though Daniel couldn't help but notice Chase patting out the fire that had spread to the back of the boy's shirt. He didn't comment on it though. There was no need to.

The twins were also something different. Daniel had never actually seen a dragon-human hybrid before. He was also curious to see if they could fully change into dragons or how far their dragon abilities truly went. Once they were done talking about what they were, Daniel looked toward Chase, "Well then, now that we are all acquainted, did you have any special plans for the day?"

While Daniel spoke to Chase, Iris rose from where she had been sitting to leave. She wasn't a teacher and now that she had seen what all the students could do, she didn't really need to stick around any longer. Her office was only a few doors down from the classroom they were in and she could easily be found.

Chase looked at the twins, impressed. He had never even heard of a half-human half-dragon hybrid. Sure dragons could take the form of humans and...things...could happen, but he had never heard of the child and mother surviving the birth. Much less twins. Not even in the countless legends and stories that he read even mentioned a surviving dragon hybrid.

He caught himself staring at their wings. From the looks of them, it seemed as though they were almost fully grown out. Silently, he mused to himself what it would be like if the teachers were the ones that tried to teach them out to fly when none of them could themselves.

Chase was shaken out of his fantasies as Daniel's question. "Nope, you're the main teacher here. You figure out the next activity." The moment Iris left, there was a subtle change in the boy, his grin becoming just a bit wider and the twinkle in his eyes brighter.

Daniel thought for a moment, wondering what they could do next. Of course he already had different things planned, but he wasn't sure which to do first. One of the biggest things that they had to work on was controlling their powers so he figured they might as well start as soon as possible.

"Alright Chase, let's work with them on controlling and focusing their powers. I think this might be easier in smaller groups so let's split them up."

He looked at each of the students, trying to decide how to divide them up evenly. "Joey, Ryan, Mai, and Alex. You four can come with me. Jasper, Jasmine, Liz, and Aura can go with Chase." He turned to Chase after he divided the students up, "Why don't you take your four back to your own classroom and after an hour or so, we can regroup here."

Daniel kept his gaze on Chase after he had finished speaking, waiting for him to agree, disagree, or make some sort of suggestion. He wasn't expecting a specific response, just some form of response to his directions.

If Daniel had expected Chase to disagree in anyway, he would have been sorely disappointed. In response, Chase just nodded and motioned for his kids to come and walked out the door into the neighboring classroom.

Once inside, he made sure to carefully close the door before turning and saying, "Okay, first things first. Just in case there is any accident or something, Iris's room is just across the hall, three doors down from us. So if there is any emergency at all involving an injury, go and get her. If it is just an emergency in general, get Daniel.

"Oh, and keep in mind that you will only have to do these things if I am unable to." Chase grinned brightly at the students before continuing. "Second order of business! We shall be working on controlling your powers and learning what else you can do with them. Who wants to go first?"

Daniel watched the other group leave before turning to the students that he had chosen to stay. He grabbed the chair from behind his desk and moved it to the front of the class. "Alright everyone, grab a chair and gather around here. Before we can practice using our powers, we have to learn a little more about controlling them."

Once everyone had gathered around him in their own chairs, he began to speak again. "When you use your powers, you have to know what you want to do with them. You can't just summon fire and expect it to already be under control, can you? Not unless you want to start a fire. Same goes for all powers."

Daniel put out his hand and darkness crept from his shadow and into his hand, forming into a small ball. "This is here because I am willing it to be. As long as I want it to stay in my hand and focus on it being there, then it will stay."

He kept the shadow ball in his hand as he spoke to each student individually. "Joey, I want you to try and keep a current of electricity going from the outlet to your hand. Ryan, get some fire in your hand and keep it there. Mai, why don't you try to bring something small to you again, but please try not to send it through someone, or at least not through another student. There isn't a ghost in here this time."

He then looked at Alex. "This will be different for you, but the focus is the same. I want you to to focus on becoming... A dog. Then once you have that, change back."

^*^

When Chase asked who wanted to go first, Aura automatically shrank away. She didn't want to show her powers and she had avoided that before. Maybe he would forget that she was there and just focus on the other students. Doubtful, but she could dream.

Liz looked at the other students to see if they would volunteer, but after a few seconds she raised her hand. "I'll go first. What do you want me to do? I can go through walls." As she finished her last sentence, she went through the nearest wall and came back in at a different spot. "And I can kind of float." She rose off the ground until she was in the air in the middle of the room. However, she couldn't hold it that long and she eventually sank back to the ground. "Anything else you wanna see?"

Chase watched the ghost girl, Liz, demonstrate her powers before nodding thoughtfully. "That should be good for now." He said, gesturing for her to sit. He mainly wanted to see what the kids could do before picking a specific power for them to practice.

When the ghost girl sat down, the twins stood up. "We can't really do much in terms of powers, and since our wings haven't completely grown yet, we can't fly, but sometimes we get these..." One of them began to say before trailing off. The other one picked it back up.

"Attacks, almost. Like at random times, part of our dragon side will come out and our eyes will turn gold, skin will become scaly, our fingernails become talons, and our breath gets very hot, to the point of scorching anything it come in contact with."

Chase nodded again. "I have an idea for you. You can sit down for now." He said before pointing to Aura. "You're up."

~~*~~

Ryan's eyes lit up in excitement, seeming to glow like fire itself before enthusiastically nodding and holding out his hands. In concentration, he closed his eyes tightly willing the fire to come out of them. In the process, his hair lit on fire again but his palms started to glow and a flicker of flame appeared in his hands, no bigger than a candle.

Mai scowled slightly when he said to try not to send it through another student -she hadn't been trying last time- but cast her gaze around the room. Briefly she thought about a pencil, but then decided against it, just in case she lost control again. Finally, she picked a small rubber ball that was lying on the floor, no bigger than a fist. Her eyes started to glow purple again as she extended a hand towards it, purple arcs of what looked like lightning dancing across her skin.

Alex looked with bright eyes and grinned, trying to make herself into a dog. After a few moments, her skin started to morph and she became smaller but what turned out instead was a black rabbit with a silver line running down its back.

Aura glared at her teacher when he said her name, wanting to tell him that she wasn't going to use her powers. It was too dangerous. However, she suspected that he wouldn't listen to her and would make her do it anyway.

After glaring at him for a moment, she walked over to Chase and placed her hand on his arm. She looked at the other students for a moment before speaking. Her voice hadn't actually changed, but it somehow seemed to have a new tone of authority to it. She looked at the ghost girl and spoke. "You. Go outside and get a leaf from the nearest tree. Then bring it back."

As soon as she finished speaking, she moved her hand away from Chase's arm. Then Liz, without saying anything else, went through the wall of the classroom. While she waited, Aura glanced at Chase, wondering briefly if he had been affected in any negative way. Most times when she touched someone, she quickly drained a lot of their energy. If she wasn't careful, she had the power to seriously harm or even kill someone.

After a little while of waiting, Liz came back in, carrying a large maple leaf. She handed it to Aura and then returned to her original place, not saying anything. Aura gave the leaf to Chase then went back to her seat.

^*^

Daniel looked at the small circle of students, impressed by all of their control. Joey had moved closer to the outlet and had managed to make a current of electricity flow from the outlet to his hand, this time keeping it under control. "That's very good. Now keep that focus and don't lose control."

He looked at Alex and shook his head slightly, not in a disappointed way. He seemed more amused than anything else. "Alex, what were you thinking about when you were changing?" He turned his attention to the small bunny that had once been Alex and hoped that the other students would be able to keep focus.

For a second Daniel started to regret having every student use their powers all at once. He shrugged it off though, keeping an eye on each of them and staying ready to intervene if things got out of hand while he helped Alex.

As the girl laid her hand on Chase's arm, he didn't flinch, although he probably should have. With these kids and their highly unstable powers, physical contact with someone, especially a teacher who was telling them to do things that they might not want to do, was unpredictable. Anything could happen. However, as she started speaking, Chase felt nothing but a slight pulling sensation before he felt the compulsion spilling out of her voice. Being that she was drawing from his power, he was immune to it, but he could tell that the other kids were immediately entranced until she stopped speaking when Liz came back with the leaf.

~~*~~

By now, the ball that Mai was concentrating on was covered in a purple-blue glow and was floating at least a foot on the ground. The green haired girl flicked her eyes to the left and the ball soared with her, zipping through the air and following her glowing purple irises wherever they looked.

~~*~~

"I was thinking about a movie I watched with my mum last night!" Alex said in her high pitched rabbit voice, hopping around a few steps before looking up at him. "I remember this one character made a rabbit out of frost!"

Liz had sat back down in her seat after being told to get a leaf from outside. She felt a little strange, like she hadn't been in control of herself. She hadn't had any desire to even leave her seat until Aura had told her to. Liz shook her head and couldn't help but be slightly impressed with Aura's power. Even Chase's, the power of persuasion being originally his anyway.

^*^

Aura also returned to her seat, but seemed much less thoughtful about it. She hadn't wanted to do that and she was only slightly thankful that nothing bad had come from using her powers. Any other emotions were just anger that she had been forced to use them and even forced to come to the school in the first place.

^*^

Daniel shook his head slightly, not in a disapproving way, though. "You have to try and focus on what you are trying to become. A dog, right? Think about the color of the dog's fur, the length of its tail, how pointed its ears are. See what you want to become then become it."

He glanced over to see what the other students were doing. He saw the Joey was still keeping a good current of electricity. His hair had stood up again and he had a look of intense focus on his face, but he was managing to keep his power under control. He probably didn't want to be the first one to lose control on his power

When he saw the ball that Mai was controlling shooting around wherever she looked he nodded. "Very good Mai, stay focused on where you want it to go." He was happy to see a student moving on to, not only keeping control of their powers, but actually using them how they wanted to. She seemed very focused and he didn't even know if she was listening to what he was saying.

Chase opened his mouth to speak again but just before she was able to, a bell went off. He sighed and stood up. "If everyone could please some with me, we're going back to Mr. Daniel's room. It's time for lunch and recess."

He opened the door and ushered all of the kids out and into the hall before herding them back into the main classroom. Almost everyone were controlling their powers quite nicely, but as they walked in, the elf girl suddenly lost control of the ball she was holding above the floor with her eyes and it careened across the room, bouncing off multiple walls at almost super speed before heading towards the twins, who were manning the font of his line.

Chase lunged forwards, using his body to protect the twins before holding out his hands to catch the ball. Once he closed his palms around it, it continued spinning, probably giving his skin blisters and a rash, but eventually stopped.

He threw the ball down and grinned. "Well, that was a productive first half of the day!"

Daniel watched the four students, thinking that they were actually doing a pretty good job of staying in control. Even when the bell rang, he was surprised that they stayed focused. Mai still had the ball floating in front of her, Joey had a steady current of electricity, and Ryan still had his flame.

Then the other half of the students walked in with Chase. Daniel stood up when he saw the ball fly toward the others, but was relieved that Chase had stopped the ball from hitting them. Then a loud Zap could be heard around the room.

Joey had built up a large amount of electricity and, when he had been distracted by the ball almost hitting the other students, it all had gone back into the power outlet. The sudden large amount of energy had caused the remaining light bulbs in the room to become extremely bright before completely shattering. That was followed by the rest of the lights in the building going out, though they didn't shatter.

Daniel caught the shattered glass in a ball of shadows like he had before, throwing it away. The room was still lit by the sunlight coming in through windows and the fire that Ryan still had. After everything had calmed down, Daniel replied to Chase. "Yes, I think it went rather well."

Daniel walked to his desk and pulled a flashlight from the drawer, walking to the door and handing it to Chase. "Here. It might be dark in the hallway. If you'd like to take take the students to the lunchroom, I'll go to the basement to switch the power back on. Oh and stop by to check on Iris. She can take a look at your hand too."

Daniel hadn't actually seen the affect that the ball had had on Chase's hand, but he had seen what had happened to the wall last time Mai's powers had gone out of control. After he had given the flashlight to Chase, he stepped out into the dark hallway, disappearing completely into the shadows.

Daniel reappeared again in the basement, the darkness of the windowless room not bothering him at all. He didn't have a problem seeing in the dark and he easily made his way to the box on the wall that contained the various switches controlling the power of the building. He began flipping switches, beginning the process to completely restart the power.

At the same time the lights in the room blew out, the flame in Ryan's hands flared up to the ceiling, scorching a mark into the plaster before dying down and casting the room in darkness that was only lit by sunlight coming in through the window.

Chase, not looking at his hand although it felt like it was burning, grinned at the kids and waved them over. "Okay everyone. It's time for lunch. I'll bring you to the lunchroom and the lunch monitor will explain what to do!"

He led the kids to the cafeteria through the darkness, lighting the hallway with the flashlight that Daniel had given him. When they got there, he let them into the room and into the care of Gretchen the lunch lady.

"Okay everyone, this is a special cafeteria!" Chase heard her begin. "Once you sit in your seats, imagine what you would like on your tray and it will appear. Now please don't imagine all junk food and try not to use your powers, as I want this cafeteria to stay..."

By then Chase was back in the hallway and heading to Iris. Daniel had turned on the electricity finally and Chase had some time before recess would start.

Within a few minutes, he was in front of Iris' office, grudgingly knocking on the door before opening it with his good hand. Wordlessly, he held his bad one in front of the nurse, exposing the burns and blisters that were written over the flesh. "That elf child has a lot of power." Was all he said in explanation.

The children walked into the cafeteria, looking around in amazement. Liz sat down with the other students, but didn't get any food. Being a ghost, she didn't really need to eat anything.

Joey sat down next to Ryan, staring at his own tray and trying to decide what he wanted to eat. It took him a few minutes to even decide and when he did, he closed his eyes tight and focused on food. When he opened his eyes, he was surprised to see that there was a pile of macaroni and cheese with hot dog chunks in it. He laughed and picked up a fork, starting to eat. "This is so cool!"

As soon as they walked into the cafeteria, Aura walked over to an empty table that was next to a wall. She sat down and glared across the table at the wall, still wishing that she wasn't at the school. As she stared at the wall, a ham sandwich appeared on on her tray. Without looking, she picked it up and started eating.

^*^

After flipping all the switches back on, Daniel looked around the large basement. It was old and dusty, looking like the exact opposite of the rest of the school. He doubted anyone ever even went into the basement anymore.

After a quick look around, Daniel leaned against the wall, the shadows wrapping around him until he was completely consumed and pulled from the basement. In the cafeteria, the shadows that were hardly there seemed to expand and then disappear again, being replaced by Daniel, who stayed leaning against the wall as the students began eating their food.

^*^

Iris had been taking stock of her supplies when the power had gone out. The room she was in was only dark for a moment, though. She walked over to the window, pulling up the curtain and looking out at the beautiful view that she had of a large maple tree in the middle of an open field.

She turned back around to go back to her supplies and she jumped slightly when she saw Chase standing in the doorway. She walked over to him as he held out his bad hand, shaking her head slightly at how fast someone had been injured.

She grabbed his wrist, pulling his hand toward her to look at it. Luckily, the burn wasn't that bad, though it did look painful. She put her hand on his, lining her palm and fingers up with his. Her hand was smaller than his, but that didn't seem to matter.

Her hand glowed slightly before the glowing moved to his hand. After holding her hand on his for a few seconds, Iris moved her hand away. Chase's hand was still glowing slightly, but after a minute, the glowing dulled before going away, leaving his hand almost as good as new. It may have still been a little sore.

Before Chase went to leave, Iris quickly signed to him, "Try not to get hurt again." Then she put her hands at her side and turned back to the window, her way of dismissing. She wasn't even sure if he could read sign language, but she figured 'try not to get hurt again' went without saying anyway.

Chase's muscles tightened slightly when Iris laid her hand over his and began healing it. He could feel the heat rising out of the flesh and the split blisters stitching themselves back together. Once she was done, there was only a dull, manageable ache in his hand. Hardly giving her time to sign to him (something he himself had never learned except a few things here and there), the teacher turned and walked out of the room, receiving the message anyway.

Each step he took towards the lunchroom, his mood brightened until it was just as happy and carefree as it was in the classrooms with the kids. Once he opened the doors and saw all of the kids eating, he nodded in satisfaction and went to join Daniel in the back.

~~*~~

Ryan grinned when Joey sat next to him. He seemed like a pretty cool guy and the fact that he had powers close to his own added to the fact. Alex was pretty awesome too and she had sat on the other side of him, eating what looked like a grilled cheese. The twins were sitting across from them, together like always, and both eating the same thing - some kind of meat that Ryan probably didn't want to know the name of considering how rare it looked that it was almost bloody.

He stared at his own plate before squeezing his eyes shut. When he opened them again, it was full of very charred, but distinguishable food.

~~*~~

Mai wasn't sure where to sit. She would have preferred on her own, but assumed that the teachers would make her sit with someone, so she opted to sit with Aura. She probably wouldn't bother her.

Daniel watched the students each get their own unique meals. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Chase walk into the cafeteria, looking as happy as usual. He wondered if Chase had even gone to see Iris.

When Chase stopped next to him, Daniel gave a slight nod, but didn't turn his head, only glancing sideways at Chase. "I trust your hand was taken care of," was all Daniel said, not being one to speak more than necessary.

^*^

Joey quickly shoveled down his food, dropping his fork on his plate when he was done. He looked around at the other students, seeing what they had gotten. He sighed, hoping that someone would finish soon so he would have another person to talk to. There wasn't a lot of conversations going on at the moment.

Joey looked around the room before spotting the two teachers. He raised his hand, but didn't wait to be acknowledged before he spoke. "Hey teachers! What are we doing after this?" He waved his hand as he spoke, putting it down when he was done and waiting for a reply.

^*^

Aura glanced over at Mai when she walked over, but made sure not to glare at Mai like she had been glaring at the wall. When Mai sat down, Aura only mumbled, "hi", and nothing else.

Mai was one of the few people that Aura didn't mind being around at this school, so she was careful not to say anything that would drive her away. Which meant she tried not to say anything at all. She only continued to eat her sandwich, only looking over at the other students when one of them, the one that had caused the power to go out, started yelling to the teachers.

In response, Chase held up his previously injured hand and wiggled his fingers. "Good as new!" He said brightly, before his voice grew darker within a second and his hand dropped back to his side. "Although it would have been better if I hadn't have at to go to Iris." Back to the bright voice. "But no problems here!"

As someone started shouting through the cafeteria, Chase looked up to see the electric kid, Joey, waving his hand through the air and asking something before putting it down and staring at them expectingly. "Don't you worry! Lunch will be over soon, and then it will be time for recess!"

~~*~~

Mai sat quietly next to Aura, silently eating the assortment of vegetables and fruits that sat on her plate until she was done, looking around the cafeteria with a mixture of disgust and boredom. All of the other kids with too loud voices and too wild emotions. They gave her a headache and she wasn't even near them.

Never before had she been glad for another person though than she was for Aura. The girl seemed to enjoy silence and was as annoyed with being around others as much as she did. Briefly she wondered was the girl's powers were before remembering that she was a power-sucker. That would be interesting.

Daniel glanced sideways as Chase raised his hand to show that it was no longer injured. He looked back to the kids when Chase continued talking, slightly surprised at the tone that he suddenly took on. Daniel knew that Iris wasn't chase's favorite person, but he never completely understood why. Other than the fact that his powers didn't work on her, Iris had never really done anything wrong.

Daniel turned his head to face Chase when he was finished speaking and was about to say something, when another kid started yelling in their direction. Daniel cleared his throat and turned back to face the students as Chase turned his attention toward them too, answering Joey's question.

Daniel was glad for the distraction, though. He wasn't exactly sure what he was going to say, but it probably wasn't going to make the situation better. As long as Chase and Iris still did their jobs and didn't start fighting while the students were around, he really couldn't complain.

^*^

Joey bounced excitedly in his seat at the thought of recess. He couldn't wait to go outside and run around, playing games with his new friends.

As he thought about this, he looked around at the other students, who were almost done eating. Liz, though, was sitting patiently at the end of the table, no food in front of her. Of course. She was a ghost, she wouldn't need to eat. This didn't register with Joey, though. "Hey why are you eating?"

Liz blinked at him before giggling and replying, "I'm a ghost, I can't eat! I think it would just fall through me..."

Joey nodded his head as he listened to her. "Ooooh that makes sense. Sorry, I didn't think about it that way."

^*^

Aura finished eating her sandwich and looked over at Mai. She hesitated a moment before speaking, not sure if Mai even wanted to talk. "So... Do you really want to go outside to recess? Or do you think they would let us stay in here so we won't have to be around all that noise."

As she said the last part of the sentence, she gestured toward the group of noisy students. It was bad enough to be in a cafeteria with them, where she couldn't sit far enough away. But they would probably expect her to actually run around and join in the games they were playing.

It seemed like it would be more fun to just go back into the classroom where it would be quiet and no one would be wanting her to run and be loud. Plus, if Mai went with her, they might be able to talk and get to know each other better. Aura had never really been great with making friends, but it didn't help that she distanced herself from most other kids.

She glanced over at the teachers, waiting for Mai's reply before suggesting to go over and ask one of them.

Ryan finished his plate of food that was more char than food about the same time that the twins finished their bloody meat and Alex finished her grilled cheese.

"I think it would be really interesting to be a ghost. I mean, aren't you, like, immortal?" Ryan asked, looking over at Liz. "'Cause, you are already dead. How did you die anyway? Wait! I'm sorry, that was probably really rude...Mai's been trying to get me to be more polite..."

~~*~~

Mai looked up at Aura, nibbling on a piece of lettuce that was on her fork. Besides the 'hi' she had said before, it was the first thing the girl had said all lunch. Not that Mai minded. "I am not partial to the idea of going outside and running around, but neither do I think that the teachers would let us stay inside considering how they have forced us to participate in earlier class activities." She paused for a moment to take a bit f lettuce and swallow it.

"However, if you would like to go ask, I guess it would not hurt, especially considering the off chance that they will say yes."

Liz laughed when Ryan started talking to her. She wasn't offended at all by it, it was normal for people ask her that. Or she would assume it's normal. No one ever really talked to her since she never showed herself. "I guess it's kinda cool to be a ghost, but it's not that great either. My family and I died when our farm caught on fire... I don't think it was rude of you to ask."

Liz was actually glad that someone was interested in her history. She didn't usually get to talk to people, her parents telling her to stay hidden if she really wanted to go out into the town. The only people she got to talk to were already dead and they usually wanted to just stay in their graves.

Liz looked around to see the other kids done eating and Joey, still bouncing up and down in his seat waiting to go out to recess.

^*^

Aura waited a little while, thinking about whether she wanted to talk to the teachers or now. She usually just tried not to talk, but she really didn't want to go out to recess. After a minute of thinking, she stood up. "I'll be right back."

She walked up to the two teachers, who didn't seem to notice at first. She tugged on the sleeve of one of them, careful not to actually touch his skin. It was the teacher that she thought had said his name was Daniel, but she didn't really remember.

Daniel looked down at her and smiled, asking if she had a question. She nodded slightly, suddenly feeling very shy. "Um... I was wondering if I could stay inside instead of going out to recess..." She glanced over at Mai to see if she was watching. "And Mai too..."

She watched as Daniel glanced over to Chase and shrugged his shoulders. "If it's alright with you, I had some things I had to take care of at my desk anyway. I can send Iris out to help you watch the rest of the students and these two can stay with me."

Aura looked at Chase, waiting for him to say if it was okay or not. She wasn't sure which one was in charge, but she hoped that they wouldn't start arguing. She looked back over to Mai and then back to the teachers, holding her breath as she waited for the answer.

Chase looked at Daniel, a tight smile spread across his features. Although his eyes said 'I will kill you in your sleep', the voice that answered was as light and cheery as ever. "Of course! I definitely wouldn't mind having Iris help me out while the other children are out playing!"

Sleep with one eye open tonight, Daniel.

"Just try not to make this a regular thing, okay? We'll allow it occasionally, but eventually you will have to go out for recess."

You might want not want to eat anything else today. It might be laced with poison.

"However, since it's the first day, I can allow it, especially since it's not a problem with Mr. Daniel!"

The floor in each of your doorways will all have weight-triggering explosives by the time you get home today.

"Daniel, how about you send out Iris while you take Mai and Aura to your room and I can start bringing the kids outside?"