Part 2

Interesting thing about this book but mostly this chapter, I wrote the descriptions and the way we meet most of my characters before I ever started the book. It's fun to read them now and see how they fit.

If truth be told, I was nervous for the evaluation that coming Saturday despite what I told everyone else. It was only Wednesday but all ready I had stopped enjoying my classes and started worrying about the impending trial. And, no matter what anyone else said, that was how I saw it, a trial. My worst fear was that I would end up like Carly, stuck without knowing her power. I'm sure she had questioned more then once whether she really had one at all.

I didn't know how the five divisions really treated each other. I knew there was a lot of competitions once the school year got into full swing, but I wasn't sure how far they would take it. Carly told me the kickball tournaments were a big part of the year but they didn’t really have any other sports here.

I finally felt like I belonged in this group of misfits. Emty was the glue to all the divisions. He never stayed with one group for longer then another. I learned that that was how he had gotten the name the Loop.

There were many traditions I still didn't understand. Like the battle training, I still had a hard time believing in monsters. And the way the 'karaoke night' was talked about with almost reverence. I liked singing, but ever since one of my best friends in sixth grade told me she needed to put in earplugs before I started to sing, I had never sang in public again. "I was worried at first that this school was for kids with special needs." I confided to Carly during our lunch break.

"It is," she said offhandedly. "Just not in the way you'd think," I nodded.

"So what's your favorite class?" She asked me "now that you've had them all."

I thought about it for a minuet "probably magical beasts studies."

Carly nodded "Mrs. Larson's the nicest teacher here."

It was true, she had a soft voice that seemed to put everyone into a kind of focused trance. She was also extremely pretty with long honey brown hair and brown eyes that seemed green half the time.

I stood up and stretched my back out on the chair. My back popped in three different places.

"That is so gross!" Complained Jen. Everyone at the table immediately started cracking their knuckles or other joints while Jen covered her ears.

"Stop it!" She said half angry half laughing.

I swung around my chair laughing heartily and crashed strait into someone. My tray and hers went crashing to the ground. I tried to clean up the mess blushing and apologizing profusely.

"No it's fine don't worry about it!" Said the girl forcefully trying to stop me from making things worse rather then helping.

She waved her hand a little and a wind sprang up, strong and controlled it lifted the mess of trays and utensils and dumped them in the nearby trashcan. I started at her in surprise. The girl was a little shorter than me; she was stocky and looked like she played sports. She had light skin and her white-blond hair was short and had darker blond streaks in it. Her light eyes had a very subtle change in color, green and blue; her uniform was distinctly more white.

She seemed to be assessing me as well.

"Drew Larson," she said shortly. "You're Jessica?" I nodded wondering how she remembered my name.

She smiled slightly "your evaluation's only three days away," she said.

"Tell me about it, I've haven't been thinking about anything else!"

"Don't, it wont help anything." She walked away, "hope to see you in wind."

I waved and thanked her.

"Who was that?" Asked Carly when I came back to the table waiting for the bell to signal the end of lunch.

"Drew Larson," I said, "I thought you were supposed to be the wise guy here."

She shrugged "I don't know everything."

"You give the impression," said a boy at our table named Wayne.

He often had comments like this.

"What's up with those two anyway?" he added pointing to Kevin and Trevor Whitmore. "Why are there only two kids in the water division?"

Carly smirked "they say the water division is cursed," she said. "There's never been over five kids there at a time, and they all seem to have bad things happen to them."

We all looked at her severely.

"What?" she said innocently "it's just a superstition, I'm sure if you add up all the injuries in the other division it would equal the same."

"Injuries? From what?" I asked disconcerted.

"What do you think the only thing we do here is sit in classrooms?"

Just then the bell rang and we scrambled to get our books together. I couldn't stop thinking about what Carly had said. What else was there to do but learn? Sure battle training was fun, but what was it really for?