The school day blurred together, with each class only thinly veiled in normalcy. They seemed normal enough at first, but when their foreign language teacher could speak any language, and the so-called chef in charge of lunch decided that bamboo shoots and radishes were the height of gourmet cuisine, it was no surprise that Lior couldn’t recall any of the things she was meant to be learning.
Finally, a noise like a cacophony of crickets sounded through the school, indicating that the time was somewhere around three, and all but the most advanced students left behind their mundane classes to develop their more unique skills.
Experimentation, as it was called, was held out on the lawn, well away from any buildings. This was the only class Lior shared with all the other new students, as all the academic classes were divided by age. The small group didn’t wait long before Ms. Essie exited the building and strolled toward them, closely followed by Ms. Al, the librarian, and Madame Moreau, their foreign language teacher.
“Good afternoon, students!” Ms. Essie called as she got closer. “Welcome to your first experimentation class. For most of you, anyway.” As soon as she reached the class, she lowered herself to the grass, nevermind that today’s dress was mostly white. “Sit, sit. We’re going to do a bit of talking first.” She waved them all toward the ground, and most of the class complied as Ms. Al followed suit, while Madame Moreau set out a folding stool for herself. “Now then, how was everyone’s first day?”
It was quiet for an uncomfortable moment before Lior realized Ms. Essie was expecting an answer. Truthfully, she answered, “It was a lot.”
Ms. Essie beamed at Lior. “That’s perfectly understandable, but I’m sure you’ll all get used to it in no time. Anyone else?”
A boy Lior didn’t recognize hesitantly spoke up. “Music was fun.”
“I’m happy to hear that, Elias.” Ms. Essie glanced around their somewhat misshapen circle, and realizing no one else was inclined to speak up, moved on with the lesson. “Today, we are going to talk a bit about one of the ways we classify finniks. Now, every finnik is unique, but humans do love to put things into groups. Can anyone think of a way we might categorize them?”
Viola spoke without raising her hand. “Elements! Like that awesome group of superheroes in San Francisco!”
Ms. Essie nodded. “We could do that, but it might be hard to classify every finnik as an element. Other thoughts?”
Eleanor raised a tentative hand. “How far it can go?”
Ms. Essie nodded again. “Some finniks require physical touch, while others are better at long range, although it’s important to note that can often be improved with practice.”
“What about how strong it is?” Rohan called out.
“And how would you determine strength?”
“If it can destroy buildings!”
“That’s one way, but what about a finnik that can put buildings back together? Isn’t that equally strong.”
Rohan thought about it for a moment then shrugged. “Yeah, I guess.”
“What about grouping them by if they destroy or create?” Alec chimed in.
“That’s a good thought,” Ms. Essie replied. “What problems can you see with that?”
“Same as elements?”
“Correct, not that we don’t try.”
“Are you going to tell us what the answer is?” Elsinore asked.
Ms. Essie turned to the only two students Lior didn’t recognize. “Elias, Moira, would you like to help them out?”
Elias screwed up his face in thought. “It’s something about how it’s used. Um…”
“Oh! I know!” Moira interrupted. “Some of them happen all the time and some of them happen only when you want them to.”
Ms. Essie nodded. “Do you remember the third category?”
Moira made a face at the same time that realization spread across Elias’ face. “It’s the ones that happen accidentally,” he said.
“Wonderful job, both of you.” She saw the confusion on the faces of the rest and reassured them with a warm smile. “Don’t worry, I’m going to explain. We have names for these categories: fixed, regulated, and incidental. Don’t worry if you can’t remember the names exactly; that’s not the important bit. Now then, fixed finniks are those that are always there. They either can’t be turned off or require effort to do so. Our lovely Madame Moreau is a wonderful example of this, as I’m sure many of you realized during your first class with her.” Ms. Essie turned the floor over to the woman in question.
Madame Moreau cleared her throat. “No matter what language someone speaks to me, I will always understand them. It is always working even when I don’t think about it or notice it. That is what makes it a fixed ability.” The language instructor spoke with a heavy French accent, which Lior suspected might be fake. As far as she could tell, the woman spoke every other language with a perfect accent.
Viola raised her hand. “But don’t you have some control over what language you speak? Doesn’t that mean it’s more like that other kind, whatever it was called?”
“That is an excellent point, however there is no world in which I simply choose not to use it. When someone speaks to me, say, in German, if I do not think about it at all, I will respond in German. To respond in any other language requires concerted effort.”
Ms. Essie beamed. “Thank you, Madame Moreau. Any other questions?”
When the class remained mute, Ms. Essie continued with the lesson. “Next we will be talking about regulated finniks, which can be used at will. Some regulated finniks can be used anytime while others require something specific to trigger them. Ms. Alina, if you will.”
Ms. Al beamed. “I call my finnik Kaleidoscope,” she began in her wispy voice. She raised a hand and her eyes unfocused for a moment as she stared toward the treeline. At first, it seemed like nothing happened, but then color flickered in Lior’s peripheral and she turned to see a horde of butterflies descending on their group, or more specifically, on Ms. Al. Ms. Al, for her part, looked utterly at peace as the butterflies swirled around her, many settling in her hair or clinging to her clothes. “Did you know a group of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope?” Nobody answered, too rapt by the spectacle, but Ms. Al didn’t seem to notice. “My finnik allows me to call upon insects, arachnids, even crabs, though that one doesn’t come up very often.” She giggled softly and sent the butterflies soaring back to the forest, though a few refused to leave her. “I keep all the buildings bugs free so that everyone is happy and there are no senseless deaths. Oh, except for the library. Maybe don’t visit if you’re scared of spiders.”
Alice raised a trembling hand, a look of terror on her face. “Why are there spiders in the library?”
“They eat the rats,” Ms. Al replied, not really paying attention. Alice did not not look comforted.
“Alina,” Ms. Essie scolded.
Ms. Al finally noticed Alice’s demeanor. “I wasn’t supposed to say that, was I?” She murmured. To Alice, she said, “Don’t worry too much about it. They mostly keep to themselves.” Lior was quite certain, however, that Alice would not be visiting the library anytime soon.
Ms. Essie clapped her hands together in an attempt to get the class back on topic. “Back on the subject of finniks, regulated is the most common type, and many of the most charismatic superheroes have regulated finniks. Often, incidental finniks can become regulated through practice, which brings us to our final category. Incidental finniks are the ones that happen whether a person wants them to or not, either at random times or in response to something. Many are inconvenient or even dangerous because we can’t always predict when they will happen, which is why we put so much focus on training. My own ability, dream walking is both regulated and incidental. Some of you may have received a visit from me in your dreams. This is an intentional use of my ability, but when I am not trying to use it, I often slip into dreams anyway, which is not something I can stop from happening. This is what makes it incidental. Luckily it is an easy one to predict because it will only happen when I am asleep. Any questions so far?”
Rohan raised his hand. “Can we use our finniks now?”
Ms. Essie chuckled. “Yes, I think we’ve done enough talking.” She leapt to her feet and brushed off her dress, which did nothing for the grass stains. “Everybody, up! Rohan, would you like to start us off?”
Rohan grinned. He raised his arms dramatically, then took a step forward and seemed to disappear. It wasn’t until he let out a whoop of excitement that Lior realized he was now standing several yards away from where he had started. Rohan took another step, this time toward them, and in a blink he was back where he started. A few of the students clapped for his display and his grin widened.
“Thank you, Rohan,” Ms. Essie said. “Wonderful control.” She turned to everyone else. “Who can tell me what category we would put Rohan’s finnik in?” A few hands went up. “Kalyani?”
“The one you activate,” Kalyani answered. “Umm, re- reg- regular?”
“Regulated, very good. Rohan can use his finnik when he likes and can generally avoid using it when he doesn’t. As he has so wonderfully demonstrated for us, Rohan has a basic grasp of his finnik, but nobody starts out being able to do everything they possibly could. Rohan, can you think of some limitations you have?”
Rohan hopped from foot to foot as he thought. “Umm, I can’t go very far, and I can’t make it shorter either.” Ms. Essie nodded for him to continue, but he seemed out of ideas. She turned to the others. “Does anyone else have a thought?”
Alec raised his hand. “Can you go up and down, too?”
Rohan shrugged. “I’ve gone up stairs before, but I don’t know if I could go straight up.”
Viola didn’t bother raising her hand as she asked, “Can you go through walls?” An excited gleam had entered her eyes.
Rohan, however, deflated slightly. “Definitely not.” He absently rubbed at his nose.
Viola looked as if she wanted to ask for details, but Ms. Essie jumped in before the conversation could go further. “Both very good ideas. These are the sort of possibilities we will explore in this class. Now, let’s see. Alec, I left some aluminum cans on the front steps. Do you think you could retrieve them for me?” Alec began to move toward the stairs in question, but Ms. Essie held up a hand. “Without moving, please.”
Alec flushed a bright red and closed his eyes in concentration. After a moment, he opened them again but kept them fixed on his feet. “I don’t think I can,” he muttered.
“Try again,” Ms. Essie encouraged. “In the meantime, Eleanor dear, would you like to demonstrate yours?”
“D-do you have an umbrella?” Eleanor stuttered.
Ms. Essie waved a dismissive hand. “You won’t need one once Viola gets started.”
“Finally!” Viola cried with her usual mischievous grin.
Eleanor paled at her enthusiasm. They had all borne witness to the fate of Viola’s fruit at dinner the previous night.
“I-I think I’d rather be wet,” Eleanor murmured as a dark cloud began to coalesce above her.
“Relax,” Viola scoffed. “I’ve got great aim.” To demonstrate her point, the grass around Eleanor began to smoke and blacken in a perfect ring.
Eleanor jumped nearly out of her skin and the black cloud began to dump water on her. She was instantly soaked, but the rain hissed and turned to steam as it hit the charred ring around her.
“Wonderful!” Ms. Essie clapped. “Now Viola, try to direct the heat above Eleanor without touching her.”
Viola nodded, an unusually serious expression on her face as she clenched her fists and stared hard at the miniature storm. Soon, Eleanor was obscured by steam which lifted a moment later to hover around her head. She looked thoroughly grumpy and bedraggled, but only slightly damp.
“Very good!” Ms. Essie clapped again. “Now, Eleanor, take deep breaths and focus on calming your emotions. Viola, keep evaporating the rain until Eleanor gets rid of the rain cloud.”
Viola hardly nodded in confirmation, but Eleanor turned a ferocious glare on Ms. Essie. “How am I supposed to calm down when I’m one distraction away from being fried?” She snapped. An ominous rumble from the stormcloud punctuated her point.
“I have full faith that Viola will not hurt you. The worst that will happen if she loses focus is you get drenched. Now close your eyes and focus on your breathing.”
Eleanor was hardly appeased, but she closed her eyes nonetheless. Not a moment later, several things happened at once. A pair of aluminum cans flew through the air and struck Viola in the head. Alec’s frantic apologies were drowned out by Eleanor’s shriek and a clap of thunder as the stormcloud collapsed in on itself, leaving behind a soaked and miserable Eleanor. Eleanor turned and stomped toward the building, unable to completely hide her shivering.
“Oh dear,” Ms. Essie said. “Elias, will you show Eleanor and Viola to the nurse?” Elias grimaced but nodded his assent. “Wonderful.” Ms. Essie clapped her hands loudly to call attention through the chaos. “As for the rest of you, I think it would be best if we practice meditation for the rest of class. Everybody sit.” Muted grumbling rolled across the class as they complied, but Lior found she was looking forward to meditation. This was something she could do without anyone realizing she wasn’t entirely there. She closed her eyes and focused only on Ms. Essie’s voice. “As Eleanor so kindly demonstrated, control of your mental state can greatly influence your finnik. Close your eyes and focus on your breathing. In, two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four. Out, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.” Ms. Essie’s soothing voice turned into a buzz in the back of Lior’s head, and without realizing, slipped into another world.
^^Guess who learned how to do author's notes