Cassie managed not to fall out of her bed that night, even though her dreams were restless. She also got enough sleep to avoid being completely exhausted when Jazz woke her the next morning. The older girl tossed a bag of clothes across the room onto Cassie's stomach, and Cassie opened her eyes after a moment of confusion.

"What's up, Jazz?" Cassie asked, yawning slightly as she spoke. Jasmine rolled her eyes and dug through a set of drawers near the wall opposite the door.

"You were supposed to pick up your other bag. The one with actual clothes in it?" Cassie groaned and shoved her face into her pillow at Jazz's words. "But I did it for you, so say 'thank you'."

"Thanks," Cassie said, sitting up and opening the bag. Inside were a collection of different colored shirts and a couple pairs of jeans and shorts.

Cassie grabbed out one of the pairs of jeans and an orange tee before zipping the bag up again. She placed the duffel with the other bag she had been given the night before—safely underneath her bed. Jazz was messing with the sheets of the top bunk on the bed neither of the girls were using. Cassie looked up at her curiously.

"I'm not used to having anyone else in the room with me, so usually I just change in here but since there are now two of us..." Jazz trailed off for a moment before tossing a layer of fabric down over each side of the bed. "...this should work!"

The top bunk now had a sheet draping down on each edge so that it formed a sort of privacy fort. Cassie raised her eyebrows at Jazz and cocked her head.

"One of us—probably you, because you're smaller than I am—can change in there and one of us can change out here. And then we can just tell each other when we're done," Jazz said poking at the clothes that she had grabbed from the dresser. "I would say that one of us just use the bathroom to change, but the vis-manip girls take forever so I won't put you through that."

Cassie nodded. "Okay, sure."

It was Jazz's turn to raise her eyebrows, looking from side to side for a moment before shoving Cassie lightly towards the make-shift changing room. "Well, hurry up! I want to show you a few things before classes start."

With a small 'oh!', Cassie scrambled into the tent and changed into the armful of clothes that she had sorted out of her bag. Jazz did the same, before calling, "Cassie, I'm done if you're ready to head out."

Cassie rolled off of the bed, narrowly missing an intimate moment with the floor. "Grab your toothbrush and we'll fight the vis-manip girls for the bathroom, okay?" Jazz said, opening the door and slipping out into the hallway.

Almost spilling her things all over the floor, Cassie scrambled for her toothbrush and container of toothpaste. Then she ran after Jazz, out onto the now-busy balcony. People were walking past, mostly teenagers, heading to the staircase. It was clear by the masses of people walking around in the area down below that the Specialties Project was getting ready for the day to come.

Instead of joining them, Jazz pulled Cassie to the bathroom between her room and Brie's. Inside, the younger of the vis-manip girls, Brie and the brunette named Clarissa, were brushing their teeth. The oldest of vis-manips was staring at herself in the mirror intently. Cassie wasn't sure what the girl, who looked around nineteen or twenty, was doing until she noticed the way that her hair was slightly shifting in color.

Brie was by Cassie's side a couple moments after she finished brushing her teeth. "Good morning, Cassie," she greeted her, smiling slightly. Cassie returned the grin before beelining for one of the sinks to brush her teeth.

"I can't wait until I learn how to do that," Brie said, nodding towards where Kayla was gazing at herself in the mirror. Cassie glanced over at the girl. She was now changing her shirt from a plain tee to an elegant blouse adorned with sequins. "We can change how anything looks, apparently. Clarissa can make it look like there's a mouse in my bed, but that's nothing like what Kayla can do."

Kayla laughed when she heard Brie talking about her and turned to face the younger girls. Her now-jet-black hair was several inches longer than the ginger bob it had been when Cassie first walked in. "It just all takes a bit of practice, you know. Like anything."

With that, Kayla tapped on her jeans, changing them to black from navy blue. Then she smiled quickly and flounced out of the bathroom. Clarissa followed after her.

"O...kay then?" Brie said after the other girls filed out as well. "I don't know if I like it here, Cassie."

Cassie swished water around her mouth and spit before packing away her things. "You might grow to like them, who knows? Besides, we're way way younger than them, so they'll think of us as little kids for now, no matter what."

Cassie and Brie left the bathroom, everyone else already vanished from it in favor of the chaos ensuing downstairs. Even Jazz had waved a quick 'see ya later' to Brie and Cassie before leaving after the vis-manip girls.

"Clarissa made it look like there was a mouse on my pillow. That was how she woke me up, by screaming 'OH MY GOD THERE'S SOMETHING BY YOUR HEAD!'" Brie complained, glaring at the ground as she walked with Cassie towards the stairs.

Cassie bit her lip sympathetically. "I'm sorry, Brie. But hey, at least you know that Em and I are nice enough. We'll keep you company, and maybe once I figure out my specialty we can play a few tricks."

Brie giggled and nodded. "Yeah, you're right. It's just like a new school, right?"

The minute the friends reached the bottom of the stairs, they started searching for someone they knew. The first person they found was Em. Rather, Em found them. Cassie and Brie paused at the bottom of the staircase and were immediately crashed into by Em, who had been right behind them.

"Oh, hey guys!" Em said after she stabilized both herself and Brie, who was thrown off-balance by the collision. "Wanna come grab something for breakfast? Everyone has their specialties classes at the same time, first thing, so I have to dash in a couple minutes."

Cassie nodded and trailed after Em, Brie right after her. "What time does class start again?" she asked. Em only answered once they were all in line for food.

"Ten o'clock, on the dot. You do have your schedule with you, right, Cassie?" Em asked, prompting Cassie to frantically dig through her pockets. She was almost certain that she brought it, but...

"Yeah, I got it." Cassie finally pulled out the paper, ripping one corner of it in the process.

Em shrugged. "Well, it has a timetable it in case you don't have me around to be your clock. What room is your specialties class?"

Em didn't wait for an answer, grabbing the paper from Cassie's hands. She scanned it as they moved up to the front of the line before passing it back so she could grab her food. Brie got her breakfast and followed Em soundlessly. Cassie grabbed a tray as quickly as she could before running to catch up with her new friends.

"You have class in that room over there." Em pointed to a door a few yards from the table where they sat. "I didn't check for your other classes."

"Wait, we're on block schedule?" Cassie frowned and looked at her paper, which she hadn't the time yet to read. She had only ever heard of older kids having block schedules. "Okay."

They all finished their breakfasts in a matter of minutes, the room around them slowly emptying of students. A few people were heading back up to their rooms, but all of the school-aged children were off to class. Em tapped Cassie on the shoulder as she walked past, shouting "Bye!" and running off to a door further off.

Brie and Cassie finished their food before heading to the rooms Em had pointed at. "See ya later, Brie!"

Brie smiled shyly and said, "I'll have to show you if I learn anything interesting."

"Yeah, definitely. Me too!" Cassie said, grabbing Brie in a quick hug before jogging to her classroom. She took a deep breath before opening the door and hurrying inside.

The room was not fascinating, identical to the school rooms at Cassie's elementary school. The walls were a deep blue with maps, charts, and periodic tables posted on them. Some posters were stapled on top of one another, leaving parts impossible to read. Jazz sat on the edge of the teacher's desk at the front of the room.

"Hey, Cassie! I was starting to worry that you'd be late. That wouldn't be good for your first specialties class," Jazz said, hopping down off of the desk and pointing to a seat directly in front of her. "Come sit down."

There was only one other person in the room—a man, who was grading papers off to one side. He glanced quickly over at the two girls before continuing his work. Jazz did not let him zone out just yet, though. "Cassie, say hello to Mr. Fink, your history teacher. Well, actually, most of the kids here's history teacher."

Cassie just gave a small wave to the teacher before hurrying to sit down where Jazz had pointed. Mr. Fink raised his eyebrows at Jazz and sighed slightly, then returned to his papers.

"How many Specialties are here? In the building, I mean," Cassie asked, setting the bag with her books on the ground.

Jazz furrowed her brow before answering, "About two hundred, I believe. I might be exaggerating a bit, though, because most of the people here leave once they're my age."

The two girls looked over to Mr. Fink when they heard a loud cough coming from him. "There will be one hundred and sixty three Specialties studying here once we bring in the rest of the current sixth graders. Not all of them take classes with us, but that is how many are currently living in this facility," the teacher told them.

With a grin, Jazz scoffed, "Yeah, well, I was close enough!" Then she shooed away the other adult's attention, turning back to Cassie. Cassie clasped her hands and waited as Jazz thought to herself for a moment.

"What are we going to do today?" Cassie queried, hoping that the question would jump-start the day's lesson. Unfortunately, Jazz just hummed quietly with a blank look on her face.

Well, we could start with this, Jazz suggested. Cassie breathed deeply as she listened to the young teacher speaking inside her mind. You have to learn the basics of projecting and receiving psychic messages. After a while, you'll be able to access someone's mind when they aren't thinking to you. And then there's also working on protecting your own thoughts from others like me and you... but that's for another time.

"But talking like that gives me a headache," Cassie groaned, resting her forehead on her arms. Even merely listening to Jazz's words was making her head hurt. It hadn't been as bad the last night, but today it was causing a deep and uncomfortable pulsing.

You will grow accustomed to it with time. Last night you were doing very well, by not concentrating so hard on the mental aspect of it. You don't need to really be so... I don't know... focussed. It's just like talking out loud, but not opening your mouth to do it, Jazz told her. Cassie nodded and closed her eyes for a second.

She glanced around the room, looking at the history teacher grading his papers. Cassie was certain that she was going to disrupt him by trying to speak in her mind. Jazz had managed talking with only Cassie, and no one else, but she had years to practice and hone that skill.

Like this? Cassie tried not to shout inside of her mind, knowing that Jazz had said that she shouldn't the previous night. Her teacher frowned and cupped one hand around her ear. Not loud enough, then. What about this?

Better. Try switching from talking out loud to psychically mid-sentence. That's how Ali and I practiced when we were in our first year here.

Cassie whispered "okay" then she paused for a moment, tapping her fingers on her desk. "What do I say?"

"It doesn't matter at all, it'll just help you with getting the volume right on your messages," Jazz said. "I used to practice using the intro to Romeo and Juliet, and going one line spoken, one line mental."

"Okay, well, I don't know that, but I was wondering if you could show me—" some of the other kid's specialties?

Cassie cocked her head before smiling when Jazz held up one hand for a high-five. "Awesome, Cassie! Now try starting the sentence in your mind, like the one you just did."

But really, could you take me around to some of the other's specialties classes? Cassie asked, and again did not receive an answer. Instead Jazz just clapped her hands excitedly. After being stared down for an extra few seconds, Jazz finally answered.

"You know that you're kinda confined to your given specialty, right? You can't just decide to learn how to fly or waterbend or anything because you think that it's cool," Jazz asked, prompting Cassie to roll her eyes. "Specialties are genetic."

"Yeah, I got that part. At least, about not being able to change specialties. That seemed kind of obvious." Jazz shrugged as Cassie told her off. What, did Jazz think she was some kind of idiot? Of course she knew she couldn't change her specialty. If she could, they wouldn't have told her what it was!

"Okay, well, I can ask about giving you a tour tomorrow when we would have class, instead of doing psychic work." Cassie grinned. "Schedule," Jazz said, holding out one hand for Cassie's schedule.

When she did, Jazz took out a highlighter from the desk on which she was sitting and circled a few classes. Then, she passed back the paper to Cassie. Cassie looked over the boxes as Jazz told her, "You don't have any open periods today, but you do have one tomorrow right after this class. Specialties classes are the only ones that we have every day, all of the others are on block schedule."

Cassie didn't know what exactly that meant, but she nodded anyway. She should have known better than to try to hide her confusion from a psychic. "Just keep that page on you at all times until you get the hang of things. You said that you've been hanging out with Emily Rivera, right?"

Cassie nodded.

"Okay, well she'll show you to whatever room you need, so flag her down if you're lost." Jazz jumped down once again from where she was sitting. "You actually have your second period class in this room today. Mrs. S's math class. She's nice, and she'll help you get used to everything."

Jazz turned around and glanced up at the clock behind her. It was eleven. "Well, we still have almost an hour left. This class ends at eleven fifty, so..." She turned to Mr. Fink and grinned. "Hey, can we go wander about for a while? I promise I'll keep Cassie in check, but we need a couple subjects."

"Subjects? Do I even want to know?" Mr. Fink laughed as he set a graded paper to the side. Jazz shrugged back, smirking at the teacher.

Jazz replied, "Don't worry, we won't kill anyone with our brains." That only caused the history teacher to look slightly more concerned as Jazz motioned for Cassie to follow her out of the room.

There was a group of teens in a class taught by a older boy floating a few feet in the air. Other than that, the only people around the plaza were a few people Jazz's age or older.

"They're the lucky ones with no matching Specialties here, so no one to teach. I used to be able to do that..." Jazz groaned, before pulling Cassie along to a table about fifteen yards from where two twenty-somethings were talking with one another. "At least I get to do whatever I want after this. For now though..."

Cassie frowned curiously as Jazz poked her shoulder before turning to the older Specialties. The older boy was showing off to the slightly younger one by using his power to change his ears into those of a cat.

"One of the transmutation kids. Some of the boys from their group thought it would be funny to turn into farm animals a few weeks back and muck up this place. So—" I am going to mess him up while he's flirting.

Cassie laughed and pointed over at the others. "So, you've taken us out of class so that we can go and prank some guy?"

"Yes." Jazz's response was one hundred and ten percent serious. "Besides, we'll be doing it using the psychic links. I'll be showing you how to forge one with someone who isn't a psychic. You can talk with me without forging a link because I'm psychic, like you are. For anyone else, you've got to work a little harder. It would be easier to talk with a psychic if you forge a link anyway. This is all totally school-related."

M'kay, so all you have to do is think of tying a rope around the person that you want to talk to. That's why you usually have to know whoever you're trying to talk to. Jazz smirked. But I can see them, so I'm good.

Cassie sat quietly and listened as closely as she could for Jazz's voice. Not for her voice out loud, though, so much as—

TELL HIM YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH HIM!

Jazz smirked as she screamed as loudly as she could at the boy with fox ears. The man, on the other hand, jumped rather violently as he heard Jazz shout. Then he looked around the room frantically, the man he had been standing with taking several steps backwards.

MAKE YOUR EARS INTO BIRDS!

It occurred to Cassie that the second man would not be able to hear any of the things that Jazz was telling the first one, so he probably thought the other guy was absolutely bonkers. Cassie felt a bit bad, so she decided to try to make a mind link with the one who looked incredibly confused by everything happening. She did what Jazz had told her to, picturing herself tying a string around the boy's wrist.

Hey, can you hear me? Cassie asked, trying the method that Jazz taught her about volume control. The fact that her words were neither too loud nor too soft did not stop the man from looking nearly as frightened as his friend. She took that as a sign that he could hear her and continued. Because if you look to your right...

The man turned and glanced over to where Cassie and Jazz were sitting, quiet and still. Cassie supposed that Jazz was still shouting things to the first boy, but she managed to tune her out. Cassie gave a slight wave over at the two men, only one of whom looked to have any comprehension of what was going on.

The man who Cassie had been speaking with tapped his friend on the shoulder. Then both of them looked over to Jazz, who grabbed onto Cassie's arm and tugged her towards their classroom. "Well, time to go now."

Cassie just giggled breathlessly as she was dragged into the room, looking forward more than ever to developing her specialty. She momentarily forgot about her worries for Joshua and Rachel and everyone else. Instead she focussed on her teacher laughing her head off. Cassie couldn't stop laughing either, and she noticed something. There honestly wasn't anything Cassie would rather be doing.