Sindara, September 21, 2312.

Iris.

"Iris, wake up, it's 7 o'clock, you're going to be late."

"Just another 3 minutes." 

"3 minutes becomes 10, then 30, then an hour, wake up, today is the day of your school trip and you must not miss the bus."

"Okay, I get up."  

     Iris opened her eyes slowly, she gently removed the beautiful wool duvet that covered her, one leg at the time, she slowly came out of bed. 

     Standing in front of the door, she started inspecting her room attempting to locate her mother. After asserting that she was no longer in the room, she thought 'I should have pretended to be sick last night' before heading to the bathroom. 

     It had been four months since her mother and she had moved to their new home after leaving Pana for Sindara, the second-largest city in Aardes, after Lara, the capital. Today is her first outing, her first real one since moving, or rather since the 'incident' that urged them to move. 

      All her high school had been talking about for more than a week was that trip, and it was finally her class' turn to go see 'Luci'. It was also the first time she will be able to see a stone of origin up close, the one in Sindara is one of the 10 largest stone of origin in the world. 

     Each school had to register their students one year in advance, in order to see it, even though, it is true that being the daughter of the new principal was the reason she was allowed to participate last minute. 

     One hundred and twenty-three years after the appearance of 'Tora' German researchers discovered its origin by analyzing stone samples recovered from the cities in which the first cases of superhumans appeared. They then found out that the virus came from underground rocks, which were accidentally extracted all over the world by drillers. 

     Several theories explaining the formation of these rocks called today 'stone of origin ' existed and many debated about whether or not they were harmful. But after more than 10 years of research and non-conclusive results, they had been deemed non-toxic and are now considered national treasure by the whole world.

     Numerous legends were born from them, but for Iris they were just simple rocks, like any other, at least, that's what she tried to convince herself of.

     After showering and dressing, Iris quickly went down the stairs to the kitchen, she opened the fridge to retrieve a shaker and a sandwich placed by her mother in it, before heading to the dining table.

"Mom, did you prepare my lunch?"  

"Yes, of course, miss vegan but not so much."

"At least I'm not the one stressing over a simple school trip that's not even hers."

"I know" Katherine sighed.

"But, you know..... it's your first school trip to your new school, and maybe..."

"Mom... we've talked about it before."

"It's just that I'm worried about you."

"I'm fine, and this time everything will be fine."

     Iris picked up the sandwich and took a bit of it.

"Best sandwich in the world" she blurted before focussing her attention to the window. Nael the youngest Child of their neighbors could still not control his powers and had burned his mother's rose garden, again. Iris then turned to her mother and smiled 'Everything will be fine' she said to herself.