Steven awoke to the sound of an explosion. It sounded far off, maybe a few hundred yards away. “Must’ve been some sort of car accident. Reckless drivers...how lousy.” He packed his bookbag for school as he always did, only this time he made sure to bring the School Almanac.

Period 4: Journalism

As Steven entered the class, he saw Iris sitting at her desk with her eyes closed. She had the purple flower that Marty gave her in her hair. Marty came into class right behind Steven, breathing heavily with a disheveled expression. He had ran from his previous period, since he didn’t want to be late. Marty strode to his desk.“Sup Steven, Sup Ir…Is she asleep or something?” He asked. Steve shrugged, “I think. Try waking her up.” Marty held his hand out to tap on her shoulder, but Iris grabbed his arm before he could. She still had her eyes open. “What the hell!?” Marty exclaimed. Iris chuckled a little. "I don't know how, but yesterday I gained this ability. I can see around myself, it's a bit like astral projection." Both Marty and Steven were confused. "Huh, how uh...how err...what…" Marty was at a loss of words. Steven was confused. "But it isn't just me with these abilities," Iris explained. "While my eyes are closed, I can see all around, as I've already explained. I can see inside different areas of the school, and I can see other people using their abilities. How did this even happen…" Marty raised a finger. "Iris, I believe I know what you're talking about. In fact, I believe that I have one of those abilities as well. Let me show you." He braced himself, as if he was about to be hit in the head. He closed his eyes and...nothing happened. "Uhh…" Steven said, unimpressed, "I don't think I can see what your ability is." Marty opened his eyes and sighed. "Well it was working yesterday, you saw me with my ability working didn't you Steven?" Steven shook his head. "Nope." Iris had pointed out to Steven, "Hey, if both me and Marty have an ability, then you may have one as well." Steven said “Well I don’t think so because I haven’t felt any different.” But then he came to a realization. “Wait, that reminds me. I have something to show you guys.” He pulled out the School Almanac from his book bag. The bell rang, and Marty quickly got into his seat. “At the beginning of the school year, I planned to write about every 9th grader in this school. However, I forgot to for a while. When I remembered, I opened the book and it started writing itself. About you guys too!” He then opened the book, and it started writing even more. The letters stamped themselves on Iris’ page of the book, putting information about her ability. Then, the dead calm air. The letters were done. “Hey hey hey!” Marty cried. “Lemme see, you said it had a page on me too right?” He grabbed the book, and flipped to his page. “Hmm hmm, let’s see here...” He began to read the book’s contents. “Marty Morpho is a 9th grader who used to go to Ultimala Middle School, just like Steven…” He shut the book. “Honestly, a bit too much information for me to read. But pretty freaky Steven.” Steven agreed, "Mhm. Let's ask some people about it during lunch." So they waited until lunch.

Lunch

During lunch, they asked around to see who had the abilities. They found that only 9th graders had them. "Hmm, why do you guys think it's only 9th graders with these abilities?" Marty shrugged. "Maybe it has something to do with age?" Iris said. The three were pacing around on the courtyard, trying to come up with a conclusion, when all of a sudden… "BANG" went the sound of something at the back of Steven's feet. When he turned to see what caused the sound, it was another 9th grader with a darker skin tone, green hair, and a thick white woolen jacket. “Oh I’m sorry I’m sorry…” He said, getting up. Around him were a bunch of notebooks. “No problem, but you dropped these.” Steven replied. Steven started picking up some of the notebooks for him, as he put it back in his book bag. “Your book bag was opened?” Marty asked. “It seems so. How unlucky…” the student responded. Once he brushed off any dirt that was caught on his jacket, he held his hand out. “My name is Seven Trecidecim, and I’m truly sorry for the inconvenience,” He introduced himself. Steven took Seven’s hand, and gave him a handshake. “Nice to meet you Seven, I’m Steven. My two friends behind me are Iris and Marty. If you don’t mind me asking, what grade are you in and have you adopted any strange abilities? Like being able to see with your eyes closed or having an automatic book?” Seven said “Uhh, no. I think I’ve seen some people doing some crazy things though...OH OH, but there’s this cool trick I learned how to do yesterday.” Steven said “Really, can you show it to us?” Seven nodded. Steven looked intently, and so did Iris. Marty was watching from behind. Seven shut his eyes, and braced himself. Very much like how Marty did. He held his hand out, and bent his thumb all the way back. He started moving the thumb in a circular motion.“Woahhhh,” Iris gasped. “It’s like some sort of stick shift in a car!” Steven ogled. “Well Seven, it was nice meeting you. We’ve got to ask other students questions now, so I’ll see you later.” Steven and Iris turned, and saw that Marty wasn’t there. “Hey where’d Marty go?” Iris asked. The two looked around themselves, and could not see Marty. Only a blue butterfly that was fluttering about. The butterfly went behind Seven on one side, and on the other Marty came out. This was his ability. “So I can turn into a butterfly...but only when others aren’t looking,” Marty deduced. “This is my ability…” Iris started clapping. “Pretty cool, you can fly around and all that.” Marty nodded. “Pretty cool indeed Iris. Now, let’s get to asking more people about their abilities.” So Steven, Marty, and Iris started walking around to see if they could find any other students to question. However, they noticed that Seven was following them. “Uhh. Seven, why are you following us…?” Steven asked. “I...well...I don’t really have any friends. To be honest, you guys are the only ones who’ve talked to me since school started. So like...can I join your friend group?” Steven looked at both Iris and Marty, then said “Why not?” Seven started talking to them about school and whatnot. One thing that he told them came to be relevant. “Oh man, I got real lucky with my schedule,” He told them. “Just today I got switched out of my Gym period that’d be after this. I would not survive on that track.”

Period 5, Gym

“Alright everyone,” Mr. Rentson called the students. “Follow me, we’re making it to my favorite place in this god damned school; the track.” He walked with all of the students over to the track. As Steven looked at it, he felt it was bigger than it was before...but that was due to the fact that he’d actually end up running on it. “Race. one lap. Winner gets 100%, top 5 get 90%, everyone else gets 0%. If you pass out, I’ll see to it that you’re expelled. Have fun.” All the students just stood there. “Oh, the race starts now by the way.” Mr. Rentson clarified. All the students started running on the track. Marty was at the front, and was being challenged by a student with curly black hair and shorts on. Iris saw that the track was long, and that eventually everyone would start losing speed at a bit around the half. She jogged on the track, breathing in an energy conserving way. And Steven...well Steven had no plan. All he did was run. About 20 seconds had passed, and they were beginning to make it towards the middle point. As Iris had predicted, some students were beginning to slow down due to fatigue. She figured that this was the chance for her to pass them all. She closed her eyes, and while running looked for any non-flat areas on the track. She found that there were small rocks on the ground, and began to step on them, jumping on them and using the momentum to carry her forwards. With her ability, she’d be able to see even the tiniest ones. Marty didn’t seem very fatigued, and neither did Steven. The curly haired boy didn’t either. Instead, he was going faster now. As if he was holding back. The student had passed Marty. And Iris was close approaching Marty. The curly haired boy’s body started moving in a weird way, and he was going at a speed faster than humanly possible. He reached the end, 25 seconds before Iris did. Followed by Marty, followed by another student, followed by Steven. “What in the world…” Steven mumbled under his breath. “My boy! What’s your name?” Mr. Rentson called to the curly haired student, holding out his hand for a handshake. The curly haired boy grabbed his hand, and Mr. Rentson had held it really tightly. “My name is Spencer. Spencer Inson.” “Spencer my boy, do you play any sports?” Mr Rentson asked. “I play football.” “Hah!” Mr. Rentson laughed. “That would explain why you’re so good with feet huh? Well, there’s a club for that kind of thing. You should join it.” Spencer responded, “Alright sir, I’ll make sure I look into that.” Mr. Rentson turned to the other students, clearly dissatisfied. “25 seconds. I counted. Just a reminder that you all are NOT...at Spencer’s level.”

Period 7, Spanish

Steven walked into Spanish class, as he always did. However this time he was greeted by a tap on the shoulder. He turned around to see Seven in the class with him. “Oh hey Seven. I guess we have a class together, pretty nice,” said Steven. Nothing eventful happened in that class.

Afterschool

Different from the other days at school, an announcement played on the school speaker before school ended. “Students,” The principal on the speaker said, “starting tomorrow, on your dorm televisions, a special broadcasting will play about 30 minutes before school starts. This is the morning announcements. As intelligent students, I suggest you watch them. Have a great rest of your day.” Steven met up with his friends like yesterday, only now it included Seven. Seven had told them “There’s this room we can go in to talk. It’s much better than staying out here.” He brought them to Mr. Noronake’s classroom, which was empty. “Nobody comes here so...I don’t think there’s a problem if we stay. Besides, I’ve been coming here since school started.” The four students stayed for a bit, chatting about school and whatnot. When it hit that time, they all went back to their dorms. Steven opened the School Almanac, and it started writing pages for not only Seven, but also Spencer. Something that stood out to Steven was that in Seven’s page, though it was something that Steven had thought he knew for certain, it had nothing about his absence of an ability.