I jumped off the bus with Kimberley by my side. We walked to the steps that led to the school slowly, since our bus had arrived early. Climbing the steps, we saw a few boys torturing a butterfly. I shuddered and turned my head away from them.

We passed by the office, the nurse's office, and the 9th grade annex before we got to our part of the building. The building for the 12th and 11th graders was apart from the 9th and 10th's to avoid catastrophes. The official name for it was "The Highway" as in the highway to college, but most people, including me, called it The Underworld. It was colored an ugly gray and was chipping away almost everywhere. The lockers were lined on the walls, big enough to fit me inside. That was proven.

I got to my locker and said goodbye to Kim, whose locker was in another hallway across The Underworld. I put in my combination, careful to put my hand over the top to cover it from wandering eyes. Someone getting my locker code would be very, very bad. Like, so bad. I gathered my books and stuffed my backpack in the green locker before slamming it shut. I ran to homeroom and made it right before the bell rung.

I sat down in my seat and breathed out a sigh of relief. The morning announcements appeared on the board second after I settled down, making me stand up again to say the pledge of allegiance. The moment of silence came on right after that and we all sat down. My desk was on the very top left of the room, so I was only next to one person: Marcos Freitas. He was a huge pain in the neck, and he was also very loud. Unfortunately, I have him for every class. Behind me was one of my friends, Lydia Chernowski. We weren't as close as Kim and I, but we were still friends. We had two classes together.

The announcements popped back to the smart board and our principle, Ms. Young, started talking about what we were doing today. My head tuned her out and I opened up my book to start reading. After she had finished blabbering on about absolutely nothing important, the students around me were allowed to run free. The smarter girls regrouped to study for a science test we had on Friday, the boys went on the computer to play video games, and I just stayed seated to read my book. It was a good book, I was liking it so far.

Homeroom sadly only lasted forty-five minutes. Our teacher started going over roll.

"Rebecca Walgren?"

"Here."

"Lucky Salopek?"

"Present," Giggles rippled through the class.

"Mathew Mercier?"

"Here!"

"Elizabetha Greene?"

"Here," I answered quietly. Almost everyone ignored me, and I sighed quietly in relief. Only one head turned: Matthew's.

Matthew, the boy with brown hair and dark brown eyes.

Matthew, the guy I've liked since the fourth grade.

I cleared my throat and opened my book to read again, but the words got scrambled in my head instead.

Through the entire class, I couldn't focus because Matthew kept giving me weird looks. The math was usually a little difficult for me, but now it was impossible.

One unbearable hour later, the bell rung and I gathered my books and got up. My next class was AC Science with Ms. Dudek. I ran out the door and speed-walked to her class, being careful to steer away from anyone and everyone. Once I got there, Matthew ran up behind me and I finally noticed that he had been following me. I said hi to Ms. Dudek and started working on my Do Now that was up on the board. I finished with time to spare and started reading my book again. The class was quiet up until Ms. Dudek left to go talk to someone. Everyone began talking to each other.

As I was finishing another chapter of said book, a paper airplane flew in the middle. I frowned in confusion and looked around. Seeing no one, I opened it up.

"Lizzy!" someone called. Before reading the paper, I crumpled it up quickly and threw it into the trash.

"Amber?" I asked as a brown-haired girl with light brown eyes and a mischievous grin walked up to me. She was my friend since the fourth grade, and she loved teasing me so much. Mostly about who I liked, though. I highly regret that I told her, by the way.

"Yep! How's it going?" She asked, grabbing a chair from a different desk and sitting next to me. I shrugged and re-opened my book. But she wasn't having that. The second my fingers were away from the book, she slapped it shut and took it from me.

"Hey!" I protested, "I don't remember the page number."

"115, paragraph 2. And anyways, answer me. What is Kim so excited about?" She asked. Kimberley and Amber were in the same homeroom and first, so they go to talk after the bus ride. I was surprised he hadn't told her yet.

"Thomas asked him out or something, I dunno. Can I have my book back now?" I sighed. She rubbed her hands together like an evil genius.

"More tease material!" She said in a voice copying Dr. Frankenstein's. I rolled my eyes and snatched the book from her lap. Just as I did so, Ms. Dudek walked in an everyone quieted and moved back to their seats.

After class finished, I picked up my stuff and headed for the back of the room towards the back door that led to hallway 11c. In the Underworld, they have hallways 11a, 11b, and 11c. 11c is the most crowded, but it's the fastest way for me to get to 3rd period, so I risked it.

Just as I was entering the hall from the door, someone tripped me and I fell forward. Feet bumped all my books away from me and I almost got trampled only trying to reach one. Then I noticed someone else bent down to help me pick up my books. They handed them to me and I was going to say thank you, but the bell rung. We both bolted, not noticing we were going the same direction.

I stepped into my third-period class just as the late bell rung. I took my seat and listened to Mrs. Brown introduce a diagrammed sentence.

I was alright in language arts, but I did not like diagramming sentences. So I asked my desk partner for notes and just copied off the board. Once the rest of the class finished with the sentence, we fell into reading time. I opened the book that had been rudely shut and close to snapping my fingers off to page 115 and started reading. A few pages in, I started day dreaming about what was happening in the story. A few people said I reminded them of the Disney princess Belle, because of my book smarts and love for adventure. But I sadly disagreed with them, because Belle was known to be the prettiest girl in a village. If you put me in a pig pen, I would come out in fourth place of who looked the prettiest.

I had messy and curly brown hair and cat-like green eyes. Since I was used to observing everything, people said my stare is like a cat's: unwavering and calculative. My eyelashes were the only half-decent part of me, for they were long and dark, contrasting my hair. I also had dark eyebrows and peach-colored lips. I never like to use make-up, in fact, I don't believe I have used it yet. All I use is the occasional pair of earrings and chapstick. Belle was beautiful and had a great accent, which is a leg up on me.

The bell rung and knocked me out of my thoughts like a gong. I moved on to my 4th period class with no change. It was utterly and completely boring.

My first connections class is Chorus, so I made my way over to the music room. As I was sitting down, our teacher yelled at us to be quiet. She told us to tell the person in front of us to be quiet. I leaned forward and told the boy in front of me to be quiet.

"Why should I take orders from just a nerd?" He asked. I bristled and bit my lip to keep from retorting.

Because I am not just a nerd, the chances of me being born was one to ten to the power of two million six hundred eighty-five thousand.

I thought. I didn't say it out loud, of course. That would just prove his point. I rubbed my hands together and a little ball of electricity appeared between them. I cupped it in my hands so no one else could see, then it disappeared. A few moments later he was caught talking and given a detention. I smiled a little down at the floor; he should've done what I told him to do. I shivered a bit, uneasiness resting over me like I was being stared at. I looked up and saw Kaira Dillion, my bully since forever, glaring at me. She was quite stupid, bullying me for absolutely nothing.

She made her way over to me with an air of determination. I remained still, the prey to Kaira's fox. She grabbed me by the hair and pulled me up, making me wince with pain.

"I thought you weren't coming today," she snickered. Fridays were the days she delivered a punch to me, no matter where. Usually in Chorus class, though. When I didn't answer, she shook me with a fistful of my hair.

"I changed my mind," I whispered. She sneered and let me go. Only to punch me, I believe. Her hand reared back and I didn't have time to move before she nailed me in the stomach. I resisted doubling over, but something sparked inside me. She reared back again and punched me in the chest. Now the spark was a small flame. Kaira reared back once more. But before she could hit me, I grabbed her fist in midair. A slow smile crept onto my face as I focused my power on her hand. She cried out in pain and fell to the floor, unconscious. I laughed at everyone's shocked faces and started towards the front of the room.

Seeing my reflection in the window as I passed, I saw my eyes were an unnatural electric blue like my energy and my smile grew.

I stepped on the little platform at the front of the room and started talking.

"Sit, everyone," they sat, "So, who's going out first?"

Nobody responded, they were too busy staring. A little corner of my brain was screaming for me to get a grip, but I ignored it. My hand reached out to the left, and zapped people in a row. They dropped like flies, all in order. I finished with the Soprano section, then moved on to the Altos. After I finished with the most people, I stopped. Matthew.

"Don't worry," I said, my voice wavering. I didn't want to shock him, "They're just unconscious."

"I know," he said. "Calm down, Lizzy, this isn't you."

After he whispered that, I felt a wave of calmness wash over me. I dropped both my hands. "What are you doing?" I asked, feeling myself get sleepy.

"Oh, nothing. Just calm down, ok?" He asked, taking a step forward towards me. I nodded against my will and sat down. A few seconds later I blacked out.