“Come in,” a raspy voice called from the other side of the door.

  Pam gently pulled open the door and stuck her head inside. “Mr. Palmer, I’ve brought your two newest Students. I’m sorry they’re a little late, but Dr. Michaels wanted to have a word with them.”

  I craned my neck to look past Pam, and take a look at my new teacher. He was older, probably in his early sixties, with salt and pepper hair and thin half rim glasses. Even though his hair was greying, and he had smile lines around his mouth, I could tell he was in excellent shape for his age. The sleeves of his collared shirt were rolled up just enough to show how toned his arms were, and he stood with a casual ease. Perhaps he was another undercover agent, like Pam or maybe he just stayed in shape so he could escape a Rupture.

  Mr. Palmer slowly swept his eyes over Olivia and I, and even though he had a wide smile on his face, his gaze unsettled me. I swear that when he looked at me his eyes were harsh, and judging, but as soon as they left my face they softened slightly.

  “It’s quite alright,” Mr. Palmer replied. “Even though the good doctor did talk to our new additions, you still managed to get them here right on time.”

  He beckoned Olivia and I forward. “Come in you two. As you’ve heard my name is Mr. Palmer, and I’ll be your home room teacher. Please, step up to the front of the room and introduce yourself to the class.”

  Olivia didn’t need any more prompting, and stepped forward fearlessly, heading up to the head of the class. I glanced over at Pam nervously, who gave me a reassuring nod, before I worked up the confidence to follow her.

  The classroom was different than I expected. Instead of having individual desks there were several long counters, like you’d expect to see in a science lab or a post secondary institution. Not only that, but the room could probably only handle about thirty people at once, and it wasn’t even full.

  For someone that had spent the last ten years in a cramped classroom with sixty or more other students, the experience was a little surreal.

  “Hey everyone, my name’s Olivia Taylor. I’m originally from Aspen, and my power allows me to detect Ruptures before they fully form. I hope we can all be friends!” Olivia exclaimed as soon as she reached the front of the room.

  There was a surprising lack of reaction to her introduction. One or two people whispered to their table mates, but most people didn’t even bother to even look up from their notebooks.

  “Thank you Ms. Taylor, please find an empty seat and make yourself at home,” Mr Palmer said, seemingly unphased by the complete lack of reaction of our future classmates. “Ms Monroe?”

  I swallowed nervously and took Olivia’s place at the front of the room.

  “My name is Tamera Monroe and… I’m still trying to figure out exactly what my powers are,” I announced quietly.

  Again, most people didn’t even bother looking at me, their eyes stayed glued to their books, but there was boy at the back of the room that snicked at me. “Figures.”

  Mr. Palmer shot the boy a hard glance before looking back at me. “Very good, please take a seat Ms. Monroe. We’re about to start English, so please take out a note book and do your best to follow along.”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Yes sir,” I muttered as I quickly stepped away from the whiteboard and escaped into the classroom. Olivia had found a mostly empty counter two or three rows down, so I slipped into a chair next to her.

  When I did, the other girl at the bench looked up from her book and nodded at me. I barely had a chance to nod back at her before she turned back to her notebook and started scribbling furiously again.

  “Alright everyone, today we’re going to continue our lesson on how the proper use of point of view, and symbolism can be used to enhance writing,” Mr. Palmer declared. He picked up a small remote from his desk and clicked a button on it, causing the lights to dim and a projector mounted to the roof to blare to life.

  The information that was projected onto the white board was so dense that I could barely make out the text from where I was sitting. It was like Mr. Palmer was displaying a dictionary page, instead of a lesson.

  “Since we have several new additions to the class I’ll remind you all that you’re all responsible for taking down all relevant information, and I will not be repeating myself, or going back over points during class time. If you miss anything you’ll either have to get the information from your classmates, or visit me after school hours,” his eyes flicked back and forth between Olivia and I as he explained. Based upon his steely gaze, and featureless tone, I was pretty sure he wasn’t kidding.

  Whipping out a notebook, and mechanical pencil, I started furiously scribbling down the information on the slide. Trying to get it down before he could explain and move on.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Mr. Palmer nod. “Let’s begin.”

  The pace of the class was brutal. Mr. Palmer mostly read the content of the slides, only stopping occasionally to clarify the information, or asking random students about the content. I considered myself a fairly fast writer, but even I had trouble doing anything more than copying the content of the slides.

  It didn’t take long for me to completely lose track of both time, and what Mr. Palmer was actually talking about.

  It took the bell ringing to break me out of my fugue state, and when I looked down at my notebook the page was covered in a very detailed timeline of the United States.

  “What am I going to do? I barely have enough time to process what Mr. Palmer is saying before he moves on to the next topic, how am I supposed to copy everything down?” Olivia cried as she collapsed to the table, laying her head down on her half page of notes.

  “You followed that?” I asked in surprise. “It was so fast that I didn’t even register that we switched subjects.”

  “Yeah, unfortunately you two got thrown into the deep end,” the girl at the end of our table laughed. “Only Mr. Palmer’s classes are like that, the rest of our teachers are far more reasonable. You just need to take down as much of the information as possible and hope someone else manages to get the rest.”

  I glanced over at the girl, who had stood up from her stool and wandered closer. Even though she was several inches shorter than Olivia and I, she had a slim athletic build. She had her short auburn hair pulled back into a tight pony tail, and she had bright green eyes. “I’m Amelia, Amelia Bennett. Nice to meet you.”

  I hesitated for a moment, but reached out and took her outstretched hand. “Tamera Monroe.”

  “And I’m Olivia, it’s a pleasure.” Olivia announced, once she sat back up and took Amelia’s hand. “I’m sorry we didn’t introduce ourselves earlier. We’ve had a busy day already, and we’re feeling a little overwhelmed.”

  “I completely understand. It took me a couple days to get used to everything too,” Amelia grinned. She glanced at the door, which was absolutely packed with people. “You two want to join me for lunch? I can give you a brief tour.”

  “Is it lunch time already?” I blinked. “I guess I really lost track of time.”

  Olivia glanced over at me, eyebrow raised. “Speaking of which, did you really not notice when the classes switched? That wasn’t a joke?”

  “I was busy,” I pouted, flipping my notebook around so she could see it.

  Both Olivia and Amelia’s eyes went wide, and they snatched the book out of my hand.

  “You seriously managed to get it all down? Every word? That’s insane!” Olivia exclaimed. “I barely got a third of it!”

  “I’ve been practicing for months, and have learned to summarize the important bits, and I still miss things occasionally,” Amilia exclaimed. “Can I borrow this later?”

  I stepped back from the pair, a little uncomfortable with the sudden attention. “Sure… I don’t see why not.”

  I glanced around, looking for a way to distract the two. “Shouldn’t we be going to lunch?”

  Amila’s eyes flicked towards the door, and smiled. “You’re right, we can review your notes later. For now… follow me!”

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