Chapter Text

DANIEL JONES

It’s funny. I had no trouble convincing my parents that I’d heard about this miraculous private academy, that it offered full ride scholarships to promising students, and that there was nothing in the world I wanted more than to go. Frost’s had a remarkably convincing website with plenty of pictures of football pitches and smiling students. The one thing they didn’t believe was that I had actually got a scholarship. When I told my mother that I’d been recommended mostly because of having earned a Young Vigil Gold Badge, she confessed that she’d always thought being in the Young Vigil was a total waste of time and that I and my friends were deluded. I couldn’t bear to admit how right she was. In the end we had to phone the school to convince my father that this wasn’t some elaborate prank.

The hardest part was not being able to tell my friends the truth. We’d come up through the Young Vigil together, picking up litter off the street and trying to help old ladies cross the road. And of course we spent so many hours in my basement, pointing at apples really aggressively and hoping they’d move, trying to guess what was on the other side of cards, all that. I couldn’t tell them about Frost’s, or that in the end the badge and all the hours meant nothing.

It was difficult, leaving my entire life behind, but in a sense, this was my life. I’d spent years obsessing over the idea of being a superhero, waiting for the day when I’d find a glowing rock in my backyard and suddenly have to leave everything behind, even though part of me knew that it was never going to happen.

But now, somehow, it had happened. I got an email asking me to gather up my bags and wait under a bypass north of my house in two weeks on Monday at 2:13pm. It noted that if nobody had come to pick me up by 2:16pm, I should phone a certain number and leave swiftly.

And sure enough, at 2:13pm, on Monday, as I sat on a suitcase watching the cars drive by, a coach pulled up, underneath the bridge.

The door opened and the driver came out. He had an enormous black handlebar moustache. He popped that side bit that bags go in - I’m not actually sure what they’re called - and slung my bags in.

“Frost’s, right?” he said, cheerily.

I nodded.

“First time?” he asked.

I nodded again.

“Go take a seat.”

The bus was mostly empty. The seats that were filled were mainly occupied by people who, well, didn’t really look like people. I think the official term is pseudo-human. One guy looked like a giant monkey, and another looked like a big lizard. I tried not to stare. Some of the people were actually incredibly attractive. Like, among the normal, no, not normal, but you know, among the ones that didn’t look abnormal, I’d say half could easily be models. There were about 40 kids on the bus. It was a big bus though. I sat on my own. When the bus came out from under the bridge, it came out in a forest. So that was a bit weird. It proceeded to drive out of the forest into a lot of snow, and then along the coast, stopping at each place for two or three minutes, and at that point I sort of stopped paying attention because it was making me feel sick. I had (obviously) spent a lot of time researching the taxonomy of superpowers, and this definitely wasn’t how teleportation normally worked. Then again, I could see how if anywhere were going to have a school bus that could do impossible things, it would be Frost’s.

I couldn’t get wifi, and the books I’d brought were deep at the bottom of my suitcase in the compartment below, so I just stared at the seat in front of me. Wood panelling, metal frames, this bus was fancy, and kind of old-looking. I drew the curtain next to my seat and closed my eyes. I wasn’t tired, but I knew how to pass the time in my own head. So I did. I mulled on everything that had happened so far, to lead me up to this moment, and on what might come next.

One thing I knew for sure was that Esper doesn’t make mistakes. If he did, the world would have been blown up by now. So I was definitely meant to come here. But I did remember him saying ‘another one’ to whoever picked us up. There were probably quite a few people who came to Frost’s without knowing what their powers were. And since I’d been headhunted by Esper, I was probably going to somehow be involved in saving the world. Well, maybe that’s a bit optimistic. It was conceivable that I was meant to come to Frost’s for just long enough to squash a butterfly before it set off a tornado on the other side of the world, and then I’d be sent back to being a normal kid. But hopefully I was going to become the most important superhero of my generation.

Finally, after maybe half an hour, I heard the engine switch off. I opened my eyes and drew the curtain. The bus had stopped in a thick forest, next to an eclectic sprawl of buildings.

“New pupils off first,” the driver said. “Everybody else, hang tight.”

I stood up, and moved out into the aisle. Nobody else had got up. I walked down, and as I did, a few other people rose nervously from their seats to follow me off the bus. A tall, slim young man came over to where we were waiting. He was smiling ever so slightly.

“Come on,” he said. “I’ll take you through.”

His voice was deeper than I expected, and there was a confidence to it that surprised me. He turned and started walking, without bothering to check if we followed. He stopped at the door of a very large and quite unremarkable stone building. It looked like it had been built about 40 years ago and left to slowly collapse. There was a paper sign on the door that read ‘New Students This Way’

“I imagine you’ve all heard,” he said, “that this is a slightly unusual school.” He turned to look over the little crowd behind him. He was smirking. “Just go with it, for now.”

He pushed open the door, and we followed, down a narrow corridor that swerved to the right. I could see that if we had gone straight forwards we would indeed have gone into a hall, but from the brief glimpse I got of it, it seemed much more modern and impressive than the outside would suggest, and crucially, much larger. I thought back to the bus, jumping from forest to snow to coast. What had I got myself into?

When we came out of the building, we came out into a desert. The building we walked out of was small and concrete, and it had no windows. It looked like a bomb shelter. The terrain around us was flat, baked earth, cracked in the heat. Our guide led us onwards. In the distance I could see a few other buildings, all equally practical and resilient-looking. Up ahead about a hundred metres away, however, was a large white tent, and that seemed to be where we were headed. I looked at my shadow. I wasn’t totally sure, but I suspected that this was not wherever I’d been a minute ago. But if the bus could teleport (or something like it) why not just take us straight here?

At the edge of the tent was a long bench where a line of teenagers sat. Our guide gestured, and so I went to join, next to a short, pale girl with raven-black hair. The people behind me followed. Under the tent were four tables, each with a pair of teens (one of which was our guide). To the right, where they were facing, sat a group of what I assumed were teachers, talking amongst themselves. Some of the faces seemed familiar but I couldn’t place them. My eyes drifted across the room, all the way to the back, where I noticed another table, with only a couple of chairs around it, just about under the tent, and away from the other tables. There were two students sat there. I couldn’t quite make out the first - it looked like a man, but somehow I couldn’t focus on the figure. The second was, well, sort of like a spider centaur. What I mean by that is an otherwise normal-looking person who, instead of legs or anything else under the torso, has a giant spider body. So that was kind of cool.

“Welcome,” came a resonating voice from the front. “Welcome new students.”

I looked to the source of the noise. One of the teachers was standing up. A tall man in a crisp, pressed suit, with a jaw that could kill.

“I’m Principal Stevens. Look around you. These are the deserts of Nevada. For the past fifty or so yours, we’ve brought incoming student out here to test their powers. I can almost see them, the heroes of yesterday, Astra, Tempest, Vanguard, Esper, each of them took their turn to sit here. And now, I see before me the heroes of tomorrow. You have come here, I am sure, as children, afraid, and overwhelmed. You will leave as legends. My one piece of advice to you is this: Do not be complacent. You have a chance to learn from the world’s greatest, and make friends with the people who will shake the earth. It is up to you to take that chance and make the most of it.”

Around me people were murmuring and chattering over the speech. The older kids at the tables weren’t paying any attention.

“Now, ordinarily, based on your powers you’d be divided into houses by our very own Mr Briggs, an excellent intuitive. However, this year, as a special guest, we have someone very important. A Permanent Captain of the Vigil, distinguished as the finest intuitive in the world, it is none other than Esper.”

That name was enough to make everybody shut up. Principal Stevens sat down, and a tall, pale man with wispy black hair stood up and walked to the front. This is going to sound stupid, but I was expecting someone more handsome, or at least, someone with a smaller nose, given the sleek mask he was so famous for.

“Thank you, Principal Stevens” he said. His voice without the mask was less resonant. He probably had a vocal modulator. “If the first student would like to come up?”

A scrawny boy with a mop of brown hair walked up to the front. Esper turned to him, and stepped back a little.

“Go ahead,” he said. “Show me.”

The boy balled his fists and scrunched up his face, squatting slightly. I could hear the sound of him exhaling. He opened his left hand and pushed it forwards, and from his hand emerged three shards of something shiny and black, almost metallic. They fell from his hand, but Esper caught them. I thought back to my guidebook. This kid had to be some sort of shaper.

“Very good,” Esper said. “And your other power?”

The boy nodded. “Yeah.” He took a piece of paper out of the pocket of his jacket, and held it up. The top of it began to smoulder, and then flashed into a small fire. He blew it out.

Esper nodded. “House Kirby.” He pointed to one of the four central tables. One of the pairs of teenagers started clapping a little, and the boy hopped off the stage to join them.

I nudged the dark-haired girl next to me. She turned and looked at me with piercing blue eyes.

“Hey,” I whispered. “Do you know how the whole house thing works?”

“Oh, yes,” she whispered back. She sounded English. “It’s not official, but in general,” she looked across the table composing her thoughts, “Kirby is smart people who build things, mages and scientists and so on. Lee is big strong heroes. Kane is-”

There was a thud. Up at the front, in front of Esper, an impressively tall and well-built boy with an incredibly chiselled jawline was hovering somewhat shakily, upside down. He hit the ground again, with a thud, and then shot up into the air.

“Whoa!” he shouted.

A blue glow surrounded him, and he drifted back to the ground gently. On the teacher’s bench, a grey-haired man with his arm raised was also glowing blue. The man lowered his hand down, and the boy floated down to match it. The glow faded as the boy touched the floor.

Somebody let out a chuckle and the room erupted with laughter.

The boy mumbled something to Esper, and looked a little embarrassed.

“House Lee,” Esper proclaimed.

Another pair from the four central tables clapped a little.

I turned back to the girl. “You were saying?”

“Kane is for tricksters and rogues. Moore is the spare oddball house. And that one at the back,” she said, gesturing to the large table with the spider-centaur girl and the blurry guy, “is Giger. That’s for the ones who need extra care and support.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I’m Dan by the way.”

She smiled. “Amber. Nice to meet you.”

She reached out a hand to shake mine. I took it. Her hand was cold.

“So, uh,” I began as I tried to think of something to say, “what house do you think you’re going to be in?”

“Probably Kirby.”

“Oh yeah? What are your powers?”

She raised her eyebrows for a moment and smirked. “You’ll have to wait and see.”

I nodded and looked up to the stage. A few more people had been given houses as we’d been talking, but now there was a hold up. A pale, black-haired girl with sunken eyes was hissing something at Esper.

“Don’t worry,” Esper said. “It’s safe. Just show us.”

I could just about make her out saying “Do I have to?”

Esper just stood there, waiting.

Eventually, the girl gave an audible sigh, then slowly began to breathe in. Black lines shot out from around her in every direction, and began to burst out of the ground near her, squirming and writhing. A ball of blue glow halted their growth, and they began to knot together inside. The grey-haired teacher was glowing blue again. He rose to his feet and let out a grunt, like he’d been punched in the stomach. Inside the blue ball, the tendrils began to shrink back and dissipate, revealing the sunken-eyed girl breathing heavily. The blue ball vanished, and she fell forwards. Esper caught her. He whispered something in her ear, and she nodded slowly.

“House Giger,” Esper proclaimed.

At the back, where the blurry boy and the spider girl sat, there was no clapping. She walked away.

As she left, there was a loud pop, and a girl with blue hair and aviator goggles appeared next to Esper. Clearly somebody had already embraced the superhero aesthetic.

“House Kane,” Esper said.

The girl brushed aside her neon blue fringe as the Kane table began clapping, and with a small blue flash she vanished, and then, a few seconds later, reappeared with a pop at the Kane table.

I looked at the bench ahead of me. There were only a few people left before Amber and I would have to go up. A tall, lanky boy with messy black hair went up on stage and murmured a few words to Esper. Esper nodded, and said a few things back. The boy made a final comment, and Esper put a hand on his shoulder.

“House Moore,” Esper said.

The boy went over to the table that was clapping. It looked like he was the first Moore student this year.

“Hey,” I said to Amber, “how come he didn’t have to show his power?”

“Weren’t you watching?” she replied. “He’s the third to not do anything.”

I suddenly felt profoundly relaxed. So there were a few people like me.

“He’s probably a telepath,” she continued. “Maybe an intuitive, or a processor; really he could have shown a few powers that we just can’t see.”

“Oh,” I said. There goes that pipe dream.

There was a flash from the front, that faded into a soft light. A glowing figure with what looked like large wings was standing next to Esper. The light was bright enough that I couldn’t make out the figure’s features. The light faded, as did the wings, to leave behind a soft-faced girl with wavy white hair down to her shoulders.

“House Giger,” Esper said.

She nodded slowly and walked off the stage towards the back. That was odd. She looked pretty out of place with the, well, slightly freakish kids.

It was Amber’s turn now. She strode confidently up onto the stage, and smiled at Esper, saying something too quiet for me to hear it. Up on stage, I got a good look at her. She had a slight build, and was dressed very smartly - a long black dress and a white blouse. I wondered if that was how all English people dressed. She produced a pair of short metal rods and held them together. There was a cracking noise as small arcs of energy shot between the rods. So Amber was an electrokinetic.

“House Moore,” Esper said.

Another unexpected choice, maybe. I didn’t really know enough to be sure. But Amber looked confused. Anyway, my time had come. I got up, and walked along the empty stretch of bench where everyone else had been sitting, and took a last look at the people behind me who were waiting to go. Up onto the stage I went, face to face with Esper again. I was still kind of giddy at the thought of meeting him.

“Daniel,” he said to me, blankly.

“Hello again,” I said.

“Any luck figuring out what your power is?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Not yet.”

“You’ll get there,” he said. He turned to the audience. “House Moore.”

Makes sense that I’d go in the spares house. Still, I was glad I was in the same house as the one person I had spoken to so far. I walked down the stage to my round of applause, and went to the Moore table, taking a seat next to Amber.

On the other side of Amber was the first person to be declared Moore, and across from us were the two older Moore pupils. One, a cheery girl with blonde hair that went down below the table and an absurd amount of jewelry was the first to speak.

“Hi!” she said. “I’m Mimi, and this is Jonah, and this is Finn, and this is Amber, and-”

I already knew I was going to forget all of those names.

ALEX COLLINS

The car traced the road around one last odd turn and all at once the sprawling forest gave way to an eccentric cluster of buildings which, though some were vast, had been totally out of sight until the turning of the corner. Frank navigated the car up into the main car park, where an attendant stood waiting. The attendant tapped the glass, and Frank rolled down the window.

“You’re a little late,” the attendant said to me. “Just head over to the auditorium over there, and follow the signs to the tent. We’ll handle the bags.”

Frank put a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll see you soon. And if you ever need, you can call me. I wrote down contact details in one of the bags.”

I nodded, and slipped out of the car, walking briskly towards the auditorium. It was an enormous building, towering and stone. The path from the car park led smoothly to a set of double doors. I pushed open the left door and stepped in.

Ahead was an enormous, modern room, behind a glass door. A paper note on the door pointed right. I looked down the passage to the right, then back to the main hall. I walked up to the glass, looking in. The room was empty. I pushed on the door. It was locked. I thought about pushing harder, but then the memory of breaking the handle in Echo’s facility flashed into my mind.

I took the passage to the right, which led out into, of all things, a desert. Frank had warned me that this might happen, but still, actually doing it was different. I could feel the change in temperature and pressure, the air getting dryer. Up ahead was a tent. That must be where I was headed.

Under the tent were five tables with students, a few chairs at the front for teachers, and a bench running along the side with a couple more students on it. Four of the tables were in a square in the middle, with essentially normal-looking kids, and the fifth at the back was, I assumed, House Giger. There was one fairly normal-looking and actually quite pretty girl, one girl who looked like she was about to have a panic attack, one person who just looked kind of blurry (like Echo, actually), and someone who had a giant spider torso instead of legs.

I realised I was staring. I turned to the front. The people on the bench along the side seemed to be taking turns going up to the front. I joined the back of the queue.

“Kane!” the man on the stage shouted, and one of the tables started clapping. A boy hopped off the stage to go join them.

I nudged the guy at the back of the queue. “Hey, I’m a bit late. What’s going on?”

“Everyone’s being divided into houses. That’s Esper up there.”

Esper. For all the strange things that had happened to me since the accident, that was the first name I recognised. This place was serious.

The boy I had nudged got up to walk to the stage. I watched intently as he reached his hand into his blue jacket and retrieved something. He opened his hand, and a pocket watch slowly rose upwards out of it, still linked to his hand by its chain. The watch rose till the chain was taut, and then fell back into his hand. He slipped it back into the jacket.

“House Kirby!” Esper proclaimed.

And now it was my turn. I walked along the benches and up onto the stage. I have to admit, despite all the madness and trauma I was going through, for a moment I was just overwhelmed by the fact that I was meeting Esper. I mean, he was a big deal. I certainly didn’t expect him to look as pale as he did, or to have such a large nose. But it didn’t make him any less impressive.

“Hi,” I said.

“Ah, hello,” he said.

“So, uh,” I began, trailing off. I had no idea what to do. I had nothing heavy to lift up and I couldn’t exactly dramatically not set myself on fire.

“It’s alright,” he said, blankly. “I don’t need to see your powers.”

“Ok,” I said, frowning slightly.

“House Moore,” he said, loudly.

One of the little central tables started clapping. I walked down off the stage towards them. From behind me, I heard what I presume was the head teacher.

“Congratulations,” he boomed. “It’s time for you to go off with your Student Mentors to see where you’re staying. Go. Go with pride, because now you are a true member of the Jonathan Frost Academy, and so much more!”

I think he kept talking but at that point I more or less tuned out. I took a seat with the other Moore students. Before I had a chance to take them in, I felt a hand nudge me. The girl beside me was grinning broadly.

“Hi,” she squeaked. “I’m Mimi and this is Jonah, and we’re the Student Mentors for House Moore.”

Jonah raised a muscular arm to brush back his dark hair. “Hi,” he said.

“Now we’re all here,” Mimi said through a big smile, “we can go off to take a look at your rooms, and then we’ll take you around the campus. Oh, and we can do introductions as well!”

“Looks like the speech is over,” Jonah said. “Maybe we should do introductions now while the others file out, then it won’t be too busy.”

“Sounds great!” Mimi said. “Jonah, why don’t you start?”

Jonah nodded. “Well, I’m Jonah. I live in Hawaii. My powers are pretty general, but I’m good at psychokinesis with water, and I have some very short-range telepathy. I’m hoping to become a fully-fledged member of the International Vigil some day.”

He was big, and tough-looking, with a soft tan. But he was just wearing a plain white shirt. In a way he looked like the opposite of Mimi whose blonde hair went down below the tabletop, decked out in funny ornaments. I’d never seen one person wearing so much jewelry.

“Thanks Jonah,” she said. “Hi guys, I’m Mimi, from California. I’m a diviner, which is like long-term intuitive stuff, and I get crazy flashes of inspiration to do with the future and sometimes the present, and one time also the past.”

Inside I winced. A diviner from California might make my lie a bit harder to pull off. Even if I knew every detail about Alexandra Collins and none about myself, it still felt wrong to use them. If this was a fresh start, I couldn’t fall back on just being her.

“Crazy story,” Mimi continued, “I actually ran away from home and just came here because a vision told me to! Also I can do a bit of sorcery, not much, but I’m working to get better. I’m hoping to be an independent freelance oracle. Now, how about you?”

She had fixed her smile on a girl with long, jet black hair, pale skin, and bright blue eyes.

“Ok,” the girl said, smiling softly. “I’m Amber. I’m from London. I can control electricity a little bit. I don’t yet know what I want to do, but I’m looking forward to learning about my powers.”

“That’s great to hear,” Mimi said. “You’ll have a great time here. And how about you?”

Next along was a tall, thin boy with a mess of black hair who looked kind of out of it.

“Oh, uh,” he began, looking around the room for his thoughts, “I’m Finn - Finley, but everyone calls me Finn, or at least they did. I’m from Germany, but my family’s Japanese. And I can see things. Like, you,” he pointed at me, “you have, uh, fire coming off you. I don’t know. It’s not quite like seeing stuff but that’s the best way to describe it.”

I nodded slowly. I was less and less confident that I was going to be able to keep up any sort of masquerade.

The other boy leaned forwards towards Finn. He had short black hair and a very plain face, the sort that blends into a crowd. “If you can see things, do I- uh, do any of the rest of us have anything, you know, special?”

Finn shook his head. “No. Lots of other people here do, but nobody at this table.”

The boy nodded in a slightly defeated way.

And now Mimi’s expectant look suggested that it was my turn to talk.

“Ok. Hi, I’m,” I thought about it. Alexandra Collins. It was always Alexandra. She hated being called Alex. “I’m Alex. From California. I’m fireproof, and I’m kind of strong.”

There we go. That was easy. I had had my turn, and now someone else would talk. Mimi smiled at me for a little longer, then gave up and moved on.

“Great,” Mimi said enthusiastically. “Now how about you?”

She turned to our last member, the boy with the plain face. The boy nodded.

“I’m Dan, I’m from Boston, I’m a huge fan of superheroes, and I was actually found and told to come here by Esper himself. But even though he’s completely sure I’m definitely meant to be here, neither of us actually knows what my power is. So, like the rest of you, but perhaps in a slightly more extreme way, I want to learn about my powers. After that, I’d like to join the Vigil, but what part I join really depends on what I can do.”

Mimi nodded slowly - that had caught her out a bit. I was guessing that people didn’t tend to show up here without powers. Dan looked a little concerned.

Jonah put his hand on the table. “Don’t worry about it, man. Lots of people find new powers after they’ve been here for months and years. The school will back you up, especially if Esper sent you.”

Dan nodded.

“Right!” Mimi squeaked. “It’s time for you all to see where you’re going to be living!”

AMBER DAVIES

It’s a strange feeling, to look at someone and know you’re going to be friends with them. These three were going to be my companions through thick and thin. And it was amazing to see everyone’s powers, and know that they were only going to get stronger. Admittedly, the showing from Moore had been a little less impressive than the other houses, but I wasn’t complaining. This was going to be an awesome few years.

Mimi - the one with the exotic jewelry and the long hair - got up from the table.

“Right,” she chirped, “it’s time for you all to see where you’re going to be living!”

We all got up somewhat slowly and walked out of the tent back to the bunker.

“This bunker,” Mimi said, “leads to The Hub, which is the centre of the school. From The Hub, there are five doors, one for each of the houses. You see, every house is located in a slightly different place. Like, oh, say,” she paused dramatically, grinning wickedly, “Oregon, Nevada, Switzerland, London, and Oxford.”

Jason (or should I call him Jackdaw?) had warned me about this, so I took the opportunity to look around rather than acting surprised. Dan, one with no powers, looked absolutely stunned, and Finn, the lanky Japanese German, looked pretty puzzled himself. However, Alex, the pretty redhead, looked totally unfazed.

Jonah chimed in. “Frost’s was set up by metahumans, so it’s one of the few places built using superpowers. There are extra campuses in a few other places, and lots of classes in odd spots. You get used to it.”

“Yeah,” Mimi said, loudly regaining control of the conversation, “I actually took a class on wilderness survival last year. If you’re not too squeamish it’s amazing because they just send you off to the most amazing places. Anyway, let me show you the Moore door.”

We wove down the corridor into a large common room scattered with tables, sofas, workstations, and a small cafe. There must have been at least ten doors in and out, but five stood out. Each was particularly large, and though they were all exactly the same size and shape, each door was styled differently, and marked with a plaque. We had just come out of the one marked ‘Nevada - Kirby’, which was built like a blast door, metal, and with a series of strange locks built in. Mimi took us across to the other side of the room, to an antique wooden door. Above it, the plaque read ‘Oxford - Moore’.

“Home, sweet home,” Mimi said.

She pushed open the door, and Jonah went through first, holding it open while we followed into a large courtyard bordered by wild-looking plants. We gathered around a water fountain in the middle, where a selection of bags, including mine, had been neatly piled up.

I paused to consider the implications. In the minutes since we’d been allocated rooms, the details had been passed on to somebody who was then able to move all the bags. This place was going to be interesting.

“This,” she said, “is Frost College, Oxford. Oxford’s a little university town in the middle of England, and the Oxford University is split up into lots of little colleges, each with their own students and lives. This one, set up by one Jonathan Frost, is the place where we provide college education to our more mature students looking to do more advanced work. It is also the lodgings for House Moore. The downside is, if you go out at night after the portals have closed, which you absolutely aren’t meant to do, you aren’t going to find much going on because this is quite a small place. The upside is that usually there’s only one or two Moore students per year so you get your own room. But I don’t think that applies so much to you lot. Actually, this is an unusually large year. You’ll probably get more people showing up over the course of the year, by the way.”

“Also,” Jonah said, “there are parks around here, but if you want to go somewhere green, it’s nicer to go over to Giger, in the forests of Oregon. Moore does have nice architecture and old rooms, but they can get chilly in winter.”

Maybe it was a British thing, but I really liked the architecture. It was charming in the way only old stonework can be.

“Right,” Mimi said, “how about you all grab your bags and come down here.”

She marched off to an open door leading out of the courtyard into a little corridor with four doors on either side. I went over to get my gear. I had brought a modest amount that I thought would be easy to carry, all in one quite large suitcase, on the promise from Jason that if I forgot anything he could ship it to me.

Finn had brought a sensible amount in one large trunk and one smaller suitcase. He went for the trunk to start with, rolling it after him. Alex had brought a very large trunk and a sizeable suitcase. She picked the trunk up, with a little effort, although nowhere near as much as you’d expect a trunk like that to merit, especially from someone with such a slight build. She took the suitcase in the other hand.

Dan had brought a lot. Two big suitcases and a backpack. Jonah went over to help when he saw Dan struggling, and picked up one of the big suitcases. We all went into the corridor.

“Right!” Mimi said, gesturing to two doors. “Boys in this room, girls in that room.”

“A word of warning,” Jonah said. “This is an international school but we run on US time. Washington DC time, specifically. You’re sleeping in the UK. So, US kids, the sun’s going to set here in a couple hours. European kids, intro classes will be mostly in the mornings for the first few days, but try to adapt.”

“Ok,” Mimi said, “take like 10 minutes to freshen up and unpack a bit, then we’ll take you around the school.







Alex took her bags into what I assumed was the girls’ room, leaving the door to swing shut. I followed after her. It was a modestly sized room, probably more than twice the size of my bedroom, built into a sort of L shape - one longer prong in front facing the door, and a shorter one to the right. Each of the two prongs had a single bed, a counter with a lamp, a desk with a pinboard above it, and a wardrobe. On the left, there was a little door which I presumed was the bathroom. So this was my life. Alex was standing in the corner that looked out at both beds, very much blocking my path.

“So,” I said, “which one do you want?”

I wanted the one on the right, a little more tucked away and private. But, well, it’s polite to ask.

“I’ll take the little one on the right,” she said.

She threw her bags effortlessly into her part of the room. They landed with a thud. She walked over, turned, and fell back onto the bed, nestling her hands behind her head.

I sighed, and wheeled my suitcase over to my part of the room.

“We’re going to be roommates for the next year, then,” I said.

“Mm,” Alex murmured back.

“I guess we should get to know each other?”

“Oh,” Alex said, “I guess.”

I unzipped my suitcase and began taking clothes out, hanging them up in the wardrobe.

“So where are you from?” I asked.

“I said earlier. California. You?”

“Well,” I said, “I’m from North London, a place called Camden. It’s a real cultural mix. There’s this huge market and all sorts of”

“London,” she said. “With the Queen, and stuff. You know the Night Guard then?”

Around the corner, where she couldn’t see me, I smiled. My hand touched the necklace.

“Yeah,” I said. “I guess I do. But how about you? California: what part? City or country?”

I finished taking clothes out of the case and moved on to everything else while I waited for her to reply. My old laptop, a few good books, a couple postcards.

“City. Sacramento. Near the edges.”

This was going to be an uphill battle. I leaned over to look into her corner. She was just lying there.

“Are you going to unpack or anything?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said, “I guess.”

I heard the muffled sounds of her getting off her bed and unzipping a case and opening a wardrobe. I began prying pins out of the pinboard above the desk, and putting up my postcards.

After a little while, I leaned back to look at her. Black skinny jeans, a white shirt, and a black hoodie. The outfit gave nothing away. She was very exotic-looking - I don’t think I’d ever seen hair so flaming red - but even her bags were bland - a large grey trunk, and a smaller black suitcase. And she was just lying there, fiddling with something.

“What have you got there?” I asked.

She looked up at me, like she was snapping out of a trance. “Nothing,” she said.

Whatever was in her hand was pretty small. She tossed it into her open suitcase, and I caught a glimpse - it looked like maybe a postcard or a book. Strange.

I took my wash bag out of my suitcase and went through the door to the bathroom. It was actually pretty spacious. I fished out some antiperspirant.

There was a knocking on the door. Alex walked over and opened it.

“Hi,” came Mimi voice. “You guys ready to keep going?”

“Sure,” Alex said.

I walked out of the bathroom and she had already gone outside. I looked over at her suitcase. I could see what she had been fiddling with - a letter, sitting there. This was going to be a strange few years.

I heard a loud thud.

“Uh,” came a shout from nearby. It was Daniel. “Help!”







DANIEL JONES

It had all happened so fast. I’d been slowly unpacking while Finn told me about Germany, and Mimi had come in to tell us it was time to go, and then she went sheet white. A few seconds later she keeled over sideways. I just about caught her.

The weight of her falling on me was enough to knock me back against the wall. I hit it hard.

“Uh,” I shouted, “Help!”

Finn came round the corner and looked down at us, panicked. I lowered her onto the floor. Finn leaned down to put his hand on her face.

“I’m going to check her pulse,” he said, “to see if-”

And then he went pale as well. His eyes rolled up. I reached out to try to catch him, as he tipped over as well, half-collapsing on top of her. I decided that getting my hand under his head was most important, but as he fell, it fell too, and twisted his neck at an odd angle.

“What the-” I exclaimed.

I heard a banging on the door. Finn and Mimi’s bodies were blocking it.

“What’s going on?” Jonah shouted.

“Mimi just went white and fell over,” I said.

“Don’t worry,” Jonah said. “Mimi must be having a vision. Just move her out of the way.”

“No,” I said, stepping over her to pull Finn back until he was leaning on the back of his bed, “but Finn’s passed out as well.”

I pulled Mimi back as well, to lean against my bed, and the door swung open. Jonah stepped in, to look at them.

Amber came in behind him. “What do we do, Jonah?”

Jonah crouched down next to Mimi. “Check Finn’s eyes,” he said, reaching out to raise Mimi’s eyelids slightly. I looked over his shoulder and saw that they were rolled upwards, and shaking around.

“They’re flickering,” Amber said, kneeling next to Finn. “They’re rolled back, and they’re flickering.”

“He said his power was seeing things,” Jonah said. “Maybe he’s seeing her vision.”

“Should I go get somebody?” Alex asked. She was standing in the doorway.

There was another thud, from behind. Amber had fallen over as well, limp, just like the other two.

“No,” Jonah said. “I’ll have to. You don’t know the way. You two stay here.”

He drew himself up and jogged past Alex. I could hear his feet hit the ground hard outside.

Alex kneeled down gently by Finn. “What happened?” she asked, effortlessly lifting Amber onto the bed.

“Wait!” I cried.

But it was too late. Within a few seconds, her eyes rolled backwards too. I lunged over Finn to catch her. She fell into my arms. She was warm to the touch. I dragged her across the room, and lay her down on my bed, next to Mimi.







And there I was, in my new bedroom, with four unconscious people. According to Jonah, Mimi was having a vision, and Finn probably was too. I checked the other two and found their eyes flickering as well, so maybe they all were. For some reason, Jonah and I were fine, but physical contact had caused whatever this was to spread between them. I felt so dumb just standing there, waiting, so I adjusted Finn’s body so he was lying a little less awkwardly. Then I went to do the same to Alex, but it felt a little odd because, well, she was a girl, as were Mimi and Amber, so I left them all be, and sat on the floor in the middle. What were they seeing?