02x01: Class of '10

The school year starts and Austin meets some new people.

CLASS OF ‘10

 

     A car is driving through the city. A 12 year old girl inside who was looking out the window doesn’t know what would happen in a few months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, or even seconds. The car finally finds itself to the left of a school. In front of the school, there is a large tarpaulin.

 

ELIZABETH SETON SCHOOL 

 

     The car took a right turn towards the gates. The building that used to be there was gone. The whole parking lot was renovated over the summer.

     The car finally reached the gate and went through it. The girl looked at the sky and it changed from blue to gray. She looked back at the road but the road was gone. They were on an island. Her parents stopped the car as her older brother went out of the car. Her parents followed and her last. The scenery was beautiful save for the cloudy skies.

     They went back in the car to see if everything was real. This was impossible. Where were they?

     They advanced the car further in the school. They saw some parents which looked like this was completely normal. This was far from normal for them.

     The girl and her brother took out their bags and went towards the large building at the back, the Mindanao building. It housed all four years of the high schoolers of this school. The high schoolers were all talking to each other. No worry of the fact that they are on an uncharted island. She went to take her seat on the catwalk while waiting for an explanation.

 

Somewhere else in the same building, another 12-year old boy, Ryan Austin Fernandez, just arrived. He walked over to one of his friends, and the only one he could see as of this moment, Lanz de Leon.

     “Hey, Austin! Long time no see!” Lanz said.

     “Well, not for me. I just saw you a few weeks ago,” Austin replied.

     “When?”

     “I invited you over to my suite didn’t I?”

     Austin lived in a suite on the other side of this island.

     “Well yeah, you did but still, that was three weeks. Any change in my suite number?”

     “Nope, not at all.”

     Austin and Lanz talked for a while until the bell rang.

     Austin and Lanz were not in the same section anymore. They were last year but it seems as if the way students are grouped into sections changed. Last year, all the top students were in a section and the rest were evenly divided. This year, it looks like it’s completely random.

     He looked for other first years; there were 12 lines for first years. Two for each section, six sections. This year, Austin’s section was Bukidnon. He found the line after asking a few people questions.

     “Hey Austin! Long time no see!” a first year boy said to him.

     “Oh come on, is everybody I haven’t seen for a few days going to tell me the old ‘long time, no see’ thing?”

     “Not really. I haven’t seen you since Third Grade. I’m Joel remember. You used to annoy me then.”

     “Yeah, I remember. Third Grade, worst year of my life.”

     “Attention!” said a woman standing on the stage at the edge of the square in the middle of the building.

     Everybody kept quiet and paid attention. Austin didn’t recognize this woman.

     “We would like to reintroduce some people but before that, let us begin this day with a prayer.”

     They did the normal morning assembly, prayer, national anthem, et cetera. Soon, the woman finally introduced herself.

     “I am Dr. Delia Navasa, the Unit Head of the High School Unit. I would like also to introduce Ms. Teresita Religioso, the Academic Directress. And last and definitely not the least, Dr. Josefina V. Suarez, the president of Elizabeth Seton School.”

     Applause was heard throughout the building. Austin was only familiar with Dr. Suarez. The other two were new to him, and probably all the other freshmen. They introduced the other faculty and staff and soon Dr. Suarez finally went up to the stage and grabbed the microphone. A few teachers escorted the new parents in the building. Dr. Suarez took a deep breath as she began her speech.

     “Parents, Students, Guests, welcome, to Elizabeth Seton School! I would normally give an inspirational message but right now I believe you have a lot of questions, particularly the new students and their parents. If you noticed on the tarpaulin outside and the letter that came with your enrollment invitation and all other documents you were implored to read before enrolling your child or children here, it was mentioned that you would be enrolling at this school at your own risk. It was mentioned that this school wasn’t ordinary. That was a positive statement but at the same time a negative one. Last year, a disaster struck this school. Not a financial one, but a literal disaster. An earthquake shook the ground and engulfed our beloved students with radioactive energy. They woke up later that night to find out they have the most peculiar abilities. I myself woke up to this surprise. Just to show you.”

     She shut her mouth but then she continued with her mouth not moving at all.

     “I can convey messages just with my mind.”

     She opened her mouth again to talk.

     “Do not worry. All the old students here know that. In fact, they have abilities of their own. If you noticed, when you enrolled your child here, you signed a paper stating that your child will be undergoing enhancement procedures. That is literal. The newly appointed head of the power regulation unit will be giving your children the enhancement procedure tomorrow afternoon. His name is Ryan Austin Fernandez, the person who made almost all of this possible.”

     Austin had previously been the one to reconstruct the school on this island. He had received the highest dose of radiation and got all the powers. These powers were not dissimilar to superpowers. He had been attacked last year but the murder plan failed and gave him all the powers instead. It might have gotten a little out of control so he placed a band on his wrist that regulates all his powers.

    They were told to line up. They did so and they all went to the classroom for the first time. The high school classrooms had three walls. Unique and really impressive, he thought. He sat down beside a new student. He recognized the student beside him from the line a while ago.

     “So,” he said. “How long have you been in this school?”

     “Umm, since grade one. This is my seventh year here,” Austin replied.

     “Oh, well, how is the school?”

     “Really great, lots of great people here. Well some of the best people left.”

     Austin remembered his best friend last year, Kyle Gomez. He hasn’t seen him since Graduation day. He hasn’t been able to contact him over the summer.

     “So, what’s your name?” Austin asked.

     “John, and you?”

     “Austin.”

     “Oh, so you’re the head of the power whatever thing.”

     “I didn’t really know until a while ago.”

     “Oh, so what can you do?”

     “Lot’s of stuff. Well all of it really.”

     “Come on, show me a sample. I think my parents will let me get this ‘enhancement’.”

     “Oh fine, which one do you want to see.”

     Only now he noticed that some of the old students were showing off their powers. There were no teachers yet.

     “How about you show me… Magnetism?”

     “Sure, umm metal, metal, where do I find metal. Wait I’ll just get a ballpen.”

     Austin turned the band on his wrist to a magnet symbol and focused on a ballpen in his backpack. It zipped out and into his hand.

     “Now watch.”

     Austin threw the pen into the air and twirled it around. He dropped it and caught it in his hand. He stroked it towards the tip a few times.

     “That’s cool.”

     “Now if you need a compass.”

     Austin placed it on his finger and it pointed north of course.

     “Nice.”

     Austin looked behind him and he saw two students talking behind him. One was a new student and the other one was an old one, Hiro Kawai.

     “So how do you like the uniforms?” the old student asked?

     “Better than the one’s we had at my old school. They made us wear tiny uniforms that our bellies would be exposed.”

     He did notice that this guy was rather large.

     They went down to the auditorium for the student orientation which really lasted long.

     It was recess. Austin and Joel were talking and were really trying to catch up to each other. Some guys were playing basketball near to where they were seated.

     “I remember in third grade when you hated me!” Joel said.

     “Yeah, but not anymore. I’m more mature now.”

     “I remember in third grade when you made some people cry!”

     “Yeah… but not anymore!” Austin said with emphasis on “anymore”.

      “I remember in third grade when you used to make these kiddy clubs and"“

     “Yeah… but not anymore…”

     “Hey Austin, look! Super strength guys playing basketball. That would really make the ball bounce like crazy.”

     “YEAH! BUT NOT ANYMORE!”

     “What is that supposed to mean?”

     “What?”

     “Those guys have super strength. The ball bounces really high.”

     “I know!”

     The guys were playing intense basketball. The ball was bouncing like mad, just like Joel said. One of them jumped up and made a dunk. It passed through the hoop and bounced towards Austin’s face.

     “AUSTIN, WATCH IT!”

     Without, time to talk, move, or react, Austin turned the band on his wrist to “phaze” and the ball, as if in slow motion, passed through head. He felt no pain whatsoever, like he was a ghost. The ball finally went through. Austin wondered how the ball went towards him. It went against the laws of physics. Was it perhaps the Mastermind all over again? The man who tried to kill him last year? The people around him stared in awe after this stunt. On the first day of high school too…