I cringed as I took my book out of my locker, hoping quickly the taste in my mouth would evaporate away. I had no doubt Elwin chose the flavor for our dna strips. I hadn't visited his office since level one when I was pulling an object towards me to practice telekinesis and accidentally used too much strength and smacked myself in the face, resulting in a quick trip to make sure I was alright. Still, it felt like a personal attack as I slammed the door closed. 

"Hey Nova!" I turned around and grinned at Blythe, my best friend since I started at Foxfire. I was surprised when she first talked to me, her parents were famous in the Elvin world. Well, at least her dad. Tam Song was one of the closest childhood friends to Sophie Foster, who was basically a legend to the rest of us. I personally thought she was over hyped and married a narcissist, but to each their own. Of course, I was being biased because no perfect couple, as they are described, could spawn such an evil creation as Eamon Foster. He was, so far, the youngest of the Foster-Sencen clan. There has been rumors Sophie is pregnant for the fourth time, though. Also I didn't care much for the face Sophie Foster, to public knowledge, had over three abilities when my parents couldn't even get one. 

Each of the Foster children are unique in their own way, just as their mother. Leulla Foster, the oldest, was the youngest member to be placed on the council in history, taking over the spot Councilor Bronte had ruled over for most likely eons. She was voted in almost too quickly, being seen as the perfect choice since she was one of the few people who had manifested in inflicting, which Councilor Bronte was known for. It was also pointed out that, just like her mother, she was constantly wearing gloves. Everyone assumed that she and Sophie had manifested in abilities dedicated to enhancing others, but nothing was confirmed. I had nothing against Councilor Leulla, she was actually quite nice to me in the one exchange we've had when she visited my parent's restaurant. She was also working to improve the lives of talentless, and making them feel more important to society, which earned a high bonus from me. 

Ivan Foster, the middle child as well as their first son, wasn't really in the spotlight as much. He was currently peacefully spending his time in the Silver Towers, and people went back and forth on debating whether he was single or not. It was obvious he had the hots for Biana and Dex Dizznee's oldest daughter, Celeste, it's just the entire universe was waiting for him to make a move. Ivan had manifested after his father, becoming an empath. Not only that, but he also turned out to be a polygot. He wasn't narcissistic, but he wasn't exactly humble either. 

Now Eamon Foster was another story. Not only was he a narcissis, but like his father before him he was a complete prankster. When I was a level one he attempted to recreate the Great Gulon Incident, except failed and the only thing that happened was I had Gulon poop all over me and he got three weeks detention. I hadn't like him since, and to the rest of Foxfire I was known as "Ploopy" a nickname the man himself coined. Not that he had spoken to me since the one day I got detention and saw him there. He only associated with those he saw worthy, mostly the children of his mom's friends or other important Elvin icons. It also didn't help that he had manifested in telepathy at the young age of nine years old, and so far had been as great if not better at telepathy as his mother. He was also a polygot like his mother and brother. 

They walked around the school as if they actually meant something, despite the fact they did nothing but try and pretend they inherited their parent's legacy by simply being born, and most of the school ate it up. I was lucky to find Blythe, who agreed that they took it too far. I felt bad for her because of the fact she was forced to spend time with them out of school. 

Her parents had always been nice to me, but I could practically feel them disapproving the fact that their daughter wasn't best friends with the popular group like everyone else. 

"So, did you get permission to stay over the night?" Blythe asked excitedly. Despite the fact we had been best friends for years, both our parents had always said no to sleepovers. My parents were afraid that they would take advantage of the fact my parents are talentless and would make me feel isolated. Her mom was always worried about her younger sister and thought that it would distract Gia's sleeping pattern. Now that Gia was a few years older that it wasn't too hard to put her to sleep, Blythe's mom finally agreed to allow me over to have a sleepover. She would've agreed earlier if we wanted it at my house, but there was always the part of me ashamed with my talentless parents. I couldn't imagine the horror if they had been bad matches as well, luckily I was spared from that.

"Yes," I stated, grinning ear to ear. "It took lots of chores and begging on my knees, but my mom finally caved. Once my mom caved my dad gave in immediately." 

"Yay!" she cheered. "My mom is going to be so excited. She's always wanted to allow you to stay the night, she loves having you over, but with Gia it's just been hard." 

"How is Gia?" I questioned as the hallway started to disperse, meaning that we needed to hurry before we were late for our first classes. "I haven't been over your house in what seems like forever. I miss her." 

"She's great," Blythe told me with a smile. "I think my parents baby her too much, I mean she's six. They always said I couldn't have a sleepover until she was six but I thought they were joking. It's ridiculous." 

I chuckled along with her. "Yeah, it's a bit extreme but not as extreme as my parents thinking if I sleep at your house enough I'll forget about them or something. If I thought I was insecure, there's another thing coming." 

"I think it's kind of endearing in a way. Like you're an only child, so you're pretty much all they have. They just love you so much they don't want to share you, kind of thing." 

"Well if they keep working this hard I'm also never getting married," I joked. 

"Oh please," she started as we reached the door to my class, "you weren't going to get married anyways."

"Why is that?" I asked, confused. 

"That would require talking to someone that isn't me." 

I fake gasped and lightly slapped her arm. "I do talk to other people!" I tried to retort, but we both knew I was lying. 

"Okay," she prompted, "name someone you've talked to then." 

"I talked to Mira Collier just the other day," I stated after thinking for a moment. "We were paired together the second round of the splotching match I beat you in." 

"I remember that. You said hi and she told you there was no time for pleasantries before the countdown finished and you had green all over your face," Blythe said, laughing after telling the story. 

"Okay, I'm leaving." I stated as she laughed harder and walked away from the door in the opposite direction, where her class was only a few seconds away as long as she sprinted. Which she usually did. 

"Hello there Novena Madigan," my mentor, Sir Beckett, greeted me. I inwardly cringed at my full name and smiled at him and sat down. Starting Monday morning off with Elvin History was my least favorite part of the week, second only to my Special Ability Focus Session. At fifteen it was obvious that I wouldn't be making it into the Elite Towers having not manifested yet. The fact I was even at Foxfire was the dream though, considering both my parents had met each other while they attended and bonded over the fact neither had manifested yet. The only thing keeping me at Foxfire at this point were my good scores. I tried to shy away from making a big scene, and the school didn't make that big of a deal about me still attending. 

I had one conversation with Master Leto, the man who runs the school, and I was lucky he didn't say anything negative about the fact I was so far talentless, as I heard Councilor Alina used to lecture students on that while she was still in charge. Instead, Master Leto congratulated me on the fact my nexus came off when I was thirteen, and told me that even if I didn't manifest he believed I would make a name in the world. 'Abilities aren't the only talents a person can hold. True talent is what a person can do on their own without the magic tricks.' I was surprised at his use of 'magic tricks,' as that was something a human would probably say, but then again I always had a feeling that Master Leto wasn't just a normal elf. 

Once that session was over I tried to escape as fast as possible. Lectures were boring and I was starving. I wasn't too excited about my afternoon elementalism session, but it was definitely more interesting to me. Yet, probably the least important to me. Considering I still hadn't manifested meaning I wasn't on the elite tower track, there was a definite chance that I would never have to use elementalism. My life was probably just going to be running the restaurant with my parents. 

As I was trying to run to the table I generally sat at with Blythe and a few random friends, I fully body slammed into a random body going the opposite direction, probably meaning lunch detention. "Whoa, sorry," I quickly apologized, standing up. 

"It's alright," the other person said in a deep voice and I looked up to see the man himself, Eamon Foster. "I wasn't looking where I was going," he added. "Too busy talking with someone." He pointed to his head as if it gave away all the answers to questions I wasn't thinking. 

"It's fine," I stated and was about to walk away to my lunch table. 

"Wait, hold on," he stopped me and I looked at him. "Poopy, right?" He grinned at the nickname and my fists clenched. 

"It's Nova," I told him. "Novena, if you want to be specific." 

"No, but I heard Blythe say your middle name is Poopy and I thought that was weird." 

Still with anger at the fact he was calling me poopy, my eyebrows furrowed. "My middle name is Poppy," I corrected. Then I got confused. "I didn't realize Blythe talks to you?" She told me she avoided him. 

"Hence the I heard Blythe say, as in I was in the room and I heard her mom ask about you and it came up," he informed. "Anyways, I've got a date with detention today so I'll be on my way," he grinned. 

"Okay." I was happy to have the conversation over, it was the longest I'd ever talked with him and I could barely stand to be in the same room. He was absolute trouble. It's sad someone so good looking and charming could be so awful. 

"See you Poopy." 

My fists clenched once more. "I thought I just told you-"

"I like Poopy more," he said with a wink and I let out a breath, unclenching my fists. But when I did I let out a quick schreech. 

"Oh this isn't supposed to happen!" I looked at my right hand which was holding fire. Yet for some reason I wasn't being burned. 

"Shoot," Eamon cursed under his breath. "Hold on there, pyrokinetic." 

"Pyrokinetic?" I shouted back at him, horror in my eyes. I looked around, hoping no one saw me. Luckily, it was just me alone because after my internal panic started Eamon ran away to do who knows what. While accepted back into training spots at school and allowing them into the elite towers once they realized leaving them untrained was disastrous, pyrokinetics were very frowned upon and everyone was scared of them. 

It was worse to manifest as a pyrokinetic than to never manifest at all. 

---

so. whatcha think? 

funfact: i went through like seven different abilities to give to her. i originally wanted to give her inflicting and then i was like "telepathy ???" and basically went back and forth between a lot of abilites. i had just settled on mesmer but when i started to type out the way she would find out how she got the ability i realized what the perfect ability would be for her. and now i have the plot line ready :)

shout out to B0wTi3 for naming Novena/Nova. This chap is dedicated to her :)