I woke up but I didn't open my eyes. I could hear the murmur of voices all around me, and I wanted to know what had happened to me.

"Are you sure it's her?" a deep voice said to my left.

"I saw it happen. It was incredible," another voice said, this one sounding like a boy's.

"Did you make sure Miss Dillion was alright? And you know Flame isn't anywhere near us?" the deep voice said again. I recognized the name, but didn't remember whose it was.

"Yep and yep. She's pretty talented in controlling her power. Who's going to train her? Demetre, I suppose?" the boyish voice said again.

Wait a second.

I knew that voice!

That was Mathew. And 'Miss Dillion' was Kaira! I didn't know who else was talking, and I didn't know who Demetre was, but I didn't have time to think since the conversation started up again.

"No, I think she would be better with you or my daughter. You're the same age, Mercier." the deep voice said again. After a few more minutes of talking, I got bored and wanted to know where I was and who they were talking about.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked around. I was on a bed, with things that looked like hospital equipment hooked up to my wrists. The walls were a metallic silver color, and the curtains were a teal blue. The voices now had faces. Mathew was looking at the screen of one of the pieces of equipment, a curious look on his face. The man that had been on my left had disappeared, so I only knew that Mathew had been speaking. 

I shifted a little, and he looked at me. His eyes widened.

"You're awake!" He whisper-shouted like he didn't want to be overheard.

"Where am I?" I asked, trying to move around, "And what are you doing here?"

"At a training facility. I'm one of the trainees."

"What are you training for?" I asked. At this, he quieted, then resumed talking.

"Nothing. You had an interesting dream." He said, his eyes narrowing slightly. 

I stiffened. "What do you mean? What dream?" She lied lousily. He looked at me with an 'are you serious? ' look and rolled his eyes. He stood up and I tensed as he walked over to me.

"You were crying in your sleep. Give me your hand."

"No."

"Do it," he said, his voice a different tone. I felt my hand move while I tried to hold it down. It was like it had a mind of its own, and eventually the impulse won over and Mathew took it in his hand.

After a flash of light, I felt the occurrences in the dream replay themselves and my eyes squeezed together from the pain. A minute later he let go of my hand and the pain ceased. I breathed out a sigh of relief. Mathew was looking at me in curiosity.

"Were those your parents?" He asked, in the same tone that he had ordered me to give him my hand. I slapped a hand over my mouth to prevent myself from talking. He smirked, then repeated himself. My other hand went to my mouth, but they were ripped away and I bit my tongue to keep from talking.

"No," I whispered quietly, my speech muffled. He grinned. His trick was working.

"What was that?" He drawled, his grin not wavering. I glared at him.

"No." I spat out again, this time louder. He leaned back in his chair, satisfied with my answer. As I was busy glaring around the room, I noticed two things:

1) Mathew is sitting on a metal chair

2) The metal chair is leaning against a metallic wall

I had to bite the insides of my cheeks to keep from smiling wickedly. I faked a yawn and stretched out to touch the wall, letting enough electricity out of my fingertips to make it sting. I watched as it silently travelled along the wall, finally reaching his chair. When it shocked him he jumped up, rubbing his shoulder. Mathew turned to me and raised an eyebrow. I just smiled innocently.

Right then, the silence was broken by two people walking in. One was a pretty girl about my age with black hair and brown eyes holding a hot pink clipboard pinning several papers. Her matching nails tapped restlessly against the plastic, making me annoyed.

The other was a man in a lab coat with a matching appearance. He was holding some sort of device that looked like it was painful. 

I shrank back in the bed, trying to get away from them. The girl pushed some buttons  on a device and adjusted my bed so I'd have to sit up. I frowned slightly.

"Miss Greene?" The man asked, flicking a few levers on his device. He was the voice I had heard talking to Mathew

"Yes?" I replied sourly. The girl glanced at me then looked back down at her clipboard.

"You have electric based powers, correct?" He asked, not looking up from the device. I shifted uncomfortably.

"I guess."

"Wonderful. Naomi, disconnect her from the TESS, please," the man said, walking back to the door and waiting just inside the curtained room. The black-haired girl, who now I knew as Naomi, wrote something down on her clip board. Then she unplugged the things connecting me to the devices. She took my hand and helped me up , and I noticed I was in the same clothes as this morning. The only difference was that my hair was tied back into a bun, or, as my sister Penny liked to say, a "big fat donut with sprinkles". I smiled a little at the thought of my sister, still at elementary school, probably making macaroni art without me. 

The man cleared his throat and pulled me out of my thoughts. He pointed towards Mathew.

"Your training here with Mathew Mercier will be effective immediately. We have already picked out your dormitory. Naomi here will be your roommate," he rushed. After he was done talking, he walked out of the room and signaled for us to follow. I wearily followed behind Mathew and Naomi, scouting out the place and calculating how many shocks it would take to escape. 

We passed several other rooms like mine, with different colored walls and odd-looking patients. Most of the rooms we passed were empty, but some were practically alive. I saw one girl who was on fire and wasn't screaming. On the contrary, she kept complaining that the fire was too small and the nurses kept rubbing gasoline on her so it would grow.

After a few minutes of walking, we finally came up to a door that said "Girls' Dormitories." Mathew and the doctor stood aside while Naomi opened the door and I carefully walked in. It was a narrow hallway painted white, with pictures of smiling girls on the walls. I heard the door close quietly behind me, and I turned to see Naomi again.

"Hi, I'm Naomi. I'll be showing you around the Girls' Dormitories because Dr. Willington and Mathew can't," She said, extending a hand for me to shake with a smile. I took it and shook her hand.

"I'm Lizzy, but you probably already know that," I replied, matching her smile. After we had parted, she led us down the hallway and up the stairs to another door labeled "Dormitory Dragonfly".

We continued down another hall, this one painted a mint green. Once we got to the last door to the right, she fished a key out of her pocket and unlocked the door. She stepped inside and I followed her into a light-blue colored room. There was a bunk-bed in the corner with dark blue-and-white spotted bedsheets. In the corner there was a white wooden desk with a thin metallic color-coded pencil cup on top. A few papers rested on it, unfinished. Naomi flopped down on the black futon and stretched.

"Make yourself at home. Your mom dropped off your clothes, just so you know. And bottom bunk's all yours," Naomi yawned.

"Can I ask some questions first?" I asked, and she shrugged. I sat down on the bottom bunk.

"Shoot."

"Where are we?" I questioned first. Naomi made a sweeping gesture across the room.

"OAKS Academy. Stands for Odd Academy for Kid Supers," she said as her arms dropped back to the futon.

"But you said "Academy" twice," I said, confused. She grinned.

"You'll do well here if you always talk like that," Naomi laughed. I rolled my eyes but smiled. Naomi was actually kind of nice.

"Why am I here?" I asked again, looking out the large window. Maybe if I could just squeeze through...

"You're powerful. Electric based, remember?" she replied simply. I shifted on the bed slightly.

"What do you mean?" I muttered. She looked around the room for a second and picked up the pencil cup. She took the pencils out and passed it around in her hand for a second. Then her hand shot out and threw it at my head. I put my arm up to block it, my energy surging through me unwillingly. The cup was zapped in midair and fell down to the carpet, shocking everything that was on that. Naomi gave me a look and I flushed.

"That was p-probably just static," I stammered. She smirked at me and I stopped trying to pretend. Obviously she knew, anyways.

"I'm odd too. Invisibility," she grinned. She held up both hands and I watched as nothingness engulfed her entire body until I couldn't see her. I heard a giggle in the corner to my left, so I turned around and face what I thought was her.

"Why is Flame trying to kill me?" I asked finally. She reappeared on the futon again, looking at me with a cocked eyebrow.

"You don't know?" she asked, her brows creasing together. I shook my head. She let out a long sigh. 

"Well, there's this thing he does. Whenever he creates chaos, he always makes sure to kill just one person. Not two, not three. Just one," she started, looking at me with pity fully visible in her gaze, "And you got away. You're the one he was going to kill..."

"So Mathew goes to your school?" she asked to break the silence, turning invisible again. Her voice echoing across the room. I nodded at nowhere in particular. Hearing some rummaging, I turned and saw my back pack being opened. I rolled my eyes. Naomi wasn't going to find anything important in there. After some looking through my backpack, she gave up and completely disappeared again. There was a knocking on the door and I went too open it, but Naomi seemingly got there first. She came back into full view just as the door opened. Outside was a younger girl about a head smaller than us.

"Dinner time!" She said, running back up the hallway. Naomi led me down the hall to another room where all the girls were pooled together. A big double door way opened and all the girls flooded into another big room.

This room was bigger than the last one, I noticed as I stepped out of the dormitories. There were long tables set up with little stools pulled up to them seating several kids at each table. Just as I walked in, the doors to the boys' dormitories opened and let them in.

Naomi led me to the line to get the food. She instructed me to take a plate and certain kinds of foods.

"Try to get lime, lemon, or grapefruit. It helps your power," she lectured, pointing to things I should pick up. I ended up getting a lemonade and a white bread sandwich. I packed my sandwich with tomatoes and lettuce, and ham and cheese.

Once I was finished, Naomi led me to a table filled with four girls and three boys. We took a seat and Naomi waved someone over as they were finished at the dinner-line. I poked at my food as conversation resumed around me, unable to eat or process what I was doing here. I was just starting to sip my lemonade tentatively when the person Naomi had called over took a seat next to me. Naomi was to the right of me, so I was sandwiched between them.

"Hey, Liz,"  the person sitting to the left of me said. I froze.

Oh, crap.

Mathew again. I just sipped my lemonade and hoped he hadn't noticed me. But he nudged me again. Naomi leaned towards me.

"It's rude not to answer," she said in a sing-song whisper, the hint of a teasing smile in her voice. I mentally glared at her, then turned to Mathew.

"Hi, Mathew," I answered, trying a smile. He grinned back at me and continued.

"We'll start training in the arena tomorrow at nine o' clock sharp," he said. I sighed.

"Okay..." I frowned, taking up my plastic fork and cutting my sandwich into smaller squares. A few minutes passed in silence, and I finished my food and my lemonade. Naomi told me I could bring back a water bottle full of lemonade.

As we were walking back to the dorms, I yawned sleepily. Naomi laughed.

"Get your sleep, Liz, cause tomorrow you'll be training hard," she whispered as we entered our room. I didn't even change, instead just flopped down on the bottom bunk and waited for Naomi to get to the top. The lights switched of and we heard a ding signaling lights out. I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep eventually, pondering what in the world I was doing here.