Perennial

Chapter 10 -- Perennial

Our first class was, believe it or not, Biology!

I find it all to be rather on the boring side. Biology has never fascinated me. (Psychology, on the other hand...) All in all, I'm glad when it's over, and I have a feeling I'm not the only one.

I almost have to run to keep up with Aether as he exits the classroom. Psaqua strides along next to us. She more than a few inches on me, and her legs are longer, which makes it easier for her to keep up with Aether the Giant. I wish I had roller skates so I could just grab onto the collar of their uniforms and glide along behind them. It would be easier than all this work I have to do to stay with them now.

We're halfway to ET (or so Aether tells me after we slow down just a little) when Tempest joins us in the hall. His presence immediately makes me feel uncomfortable, but I'm not sure why. The conversation we had during breakfast was enough to make me dislike him (I dislike stupidity) but it wasn't enough to make me uncomfortable in his presence.

At first I think it's just me, but then Psaqua casts me a look that says she senses it too: Tempest is tense. He wants to say something but doesn't know how.

I wonder what's changed between breakfast and now to make him like this.

Before I can make up my mind to tell him to spit it out, Psaqua quickly asks me: "How'd you like Phix yesterday? What do you think about her?"

"She was terrifying," I say, sarcastically.

Tempest laughs nervously, taking the opportunity to join our conversation. "They say that even Valor is scared of her. Uh... no offense."

"None taken. Of course Valor is scared of her. They used to be on the same team, back when he was operating in Paradis. She's like weird, intimidating aunt to him," Aether replies good-naturedly.

Sourness radiates off of Tempest in waves, piquing my interest. Again, before I can do anything about it, I'm interrupted. Not by Psaqua though, this time it's by entering the gym.

The first thing I notice? It smells like vanilla, not BO. I immediately glance around looking for air fresheners. I find three plugged into the walls. (Granted, I haven't been to a school gymnasium since I was seven, so I'm not sure what to expect now that I'm older.)

The second thing I notice? The teacher. He's a powerfully built middle-aged man playing basketball on the other side of the gymnasium as we enter, though he stops when he sees us, a gleam in his eye.

"Hello and welcome! It's good to see you all again, and some new faces, too." His eyes lock on me and I immediately look to the ground. I don't want to be the center of attention.

He sets down his basketball and strolls over to us, holding out his hand to me. I reflexively tuck my hand away.

He raises a brow. "Call me Keller. It's a pleasure to meet you...?"

I frown a little. Shouldn't he already know who his new student is? Still, I humor him. "Perennial."

His eyes widen in recognition. "Perennial! Ah, I remember reading the report on you. I've never taught a chloro before, so it's going to be a learning curve for both of us. Let me know if the setup here presents any challenges, and I'll do what I can to help."

I take he means that practicing chlorokinesis indoors presents certain challenges. The biggest I can think of is that people don't usually keep large amounts of plants indoors, and I can't just create a plant out of thin air. There needs to be soil, at the very least.

I take another cursory glance around the room. It's fairly large, with blue mats spread out pretty evenly, except in one place, where the mat is green instead of blue. I have a sneaking suspicion that spot is mine.

Keller steps back to address our group as a whole.

I take a moment to think about why he uses the name "Keller". I don't think that's the name of any super-human operatives I know of. It sounds like he's using his civilian surname. Granted, Keller isn't an uncommon name, but isn't that dangerous? After all, people aren't calling me "Webster" and we aren't calling Aether and Psaqua by whatever their surnames are.

But to each their own, I guess. It's Keller's problem that he's going by an actual name. If he runs into trouble for it, that's his problem. If not, good for him.

"Perennial here is going to need a sparring partner for the year. Any volunteers?" Keller asks.

Of the three people I walked in with, none of them really raise their hands. Aether and Psaqua look at each other and, for a moment, seem to be having a silent conversation which I imagine sounds like:

"You take her."

"No, you take her."

"But I have to deal with her all day. Why can't you have her for one class?"

"That's not fair! I actually have to live with her!"

In the end, it's Psaqua who raises her hand. That's okay, I guess.

As long as they both don't decide to dump me on Tempest, I'm good.

"Excellent!" Keller grins eagerly.

Keller then turns his attention to Tempest. "You're new, too? Tempest, right? Who wants to be his partner?"

Someone else raises her hand.

"Azul! Welcome back. Thank you for volunteering." Keller laughs, mostly to himself. "Alright. Let's get to rollcall. Gotta make sure everyone's here. You wouldn't believe how many kids try to skip this class."

Keller goes through a list of names, most of them mean nothing to me, but I suspect that might change sometime within the next ten years.

Part way through, Keller frowns. "You aren't supposed to be here."

A girl standing a little to my left answers him. "Megan told me to come join your class. She has an appointment with me later."

Keller frowns but accepts the explanation. "Alright, we'll try to fit you in. Aether, why don't you be Tenacity's partner for today?"

Tenacity? How come she gets a cool name and I get a dumb, girly one? That doesn't seem fair.

I can't see Aether from where he stands behind me, but I can feel him shifting uncomfortably. This, if nothing else, makes me wary of her as she draws closer to us.

Psaqua, too, seems set on edge. I look to her for an explanation.

'She's not really anyone special. She came from Midas last year. We used to share some classes together,' Psaqua answers begrudgingly.

I look back around at Tenacity. She has black hair, pale skin, and basically looks like how I'd imagine a stereotypical vampire, but with a disappointing lack of fangs.

Her smile at Aether is predatory. "Long time no see, ghost."

I raise a brow. Her name-calling game needs work.

Still, she seems to be making Aether uncomfortable, and that makes me uncomfortable. I mean, I've only known Aether for a day, but I don't hate him, so watching him squirm isn't quite so fun for me. I can only assume what kind of history these two have to act like this around each other. (Maybe they're exes?)

I note with faint amusement that Aether is trying to shrink behind me, as if someone as small as me can hide someone as tall as he is from Tenacity's gaze. Even while we're on edge, it's still a little funny.

It becomes a little less funny when Tenacity makes a comment on it. "Still trying to hide? And who's this, your new Zed? What, can't cope without a human shield?"

I have no idea what she's talking about, but her tone is anything but friendly. Both Aether and Psaqua flinch at the mention of "Zed".

I purse my lips and wait for Aether to stand up for himself. He just takes a breath and says, "This is Perennial. She's just a new student."

Excuse me? He's not going to say anything else?

Tenacity's eyes flick down to mine, her lip curling in a sneer.

All right. That's it. I might not have known Aether for very long, and I might not even know exactly what kind of school politics are going on, but there's no way I'm going to let someone disrespect him unprovoked, and there's no way I'm going to let this girl just stand there and look at me like that just for standing near him.

Psaqua senses my intentions and shakes her head. I ignore her.

I smile sweetly. Then, I kick her in the shins. Hard.

She squawks and clutches her leg, hopping away. She's looking bewildered and disgusted, but at least she isn't smug anymore. I'll call that a victory.

Keller catches her limping away and gives me a disapproving look, but says nothing. He just takes a deep breath and addresses both Tempest and myself in particular. "I'll be teaching your ET class this year. Since this is your first year I'll let you know that it will not be easy, but I expect you to do your best, anyway."

(As if that wasn't a given.)

"In order to have gotten into this class, you must already have some pretty impressive skills," Keller says to us. Then, he addresses his students as a whole. "Are we ready to get started?"

At least two people raise their hands.

Keller shoos us off to find a place to get started stretching.

As Psaqua and I head off together, I catch Aether's eye. He gives me a tight smile.

Psaqua leads us over to the green mat, a green mat that looks more like a moss carpet up close. As I step up on it, I think I can sense... seeds. There are seeds inside it.

I grin, pleased. Chlorokinesis isn't the easiest elemental power to work with, especially in a world where pavement and concrete are more common than grass and trees. (I can remember the first time I started showing signs of chlorokinesis. It took a while for anyone to catch on to why my father's office plants started thriving and Mémé's rooftop garden was getting unwieldly whenever I was around. The downsides to being born and raised in a city, I guess.) It doesn't help that chlorokinesis is... well, it's not very aggressive. It takes a lot of practice to be able to wield plants as weapons against people.

Psaqua steps past me and over to a small collection of buckets. She picks one up and heaves it back over my mat. When she sets it down, I can see that it's filled almost to the brim with water. How... suspicious.

"When we first met, you did say that you were hydrokinetic, didn't you?" I ask.

Psaqua shoots me a look I can only describe as being "innocent" (yes, the quotes on that word are completely necessary).

"Maybe?" She gives me a small grin. "But you're a chloro, and this mat is special for you. I can't draw water from the air, and you can't create a tree or a vine or something out of nothing, either. This evens the odds."

I suppose that's true.

Keller begins talking us through warm-ups and stretches. His are a lot easier than the Overlord's.

After being in prison for such a long time, actually stretching out feels great. The other kids here do not seem to have the same attitude. A few of them moan and groan about it (there's a few in every crowd, am I right?) but for the most part, the students all do what Keller says without question.

Which is good. I hate those irritating people who question everything. (Yes, I am aware I am one of those people, but at least I don't vocalize it all the time instead of actually listening for the answers I'm looking for.)

All in good time, Keller finally asks for us to review what we remember from previous years, either in school, or out of it.

I look to Psaqua questioningly, resolving to simply follow her lead. She shrugs and falls back into a defensive position.

"You first. Just try not to get too aggressive, okay?"

"Couldn't if I tried." I mutter under my breath, preparing to attack her.

As our fight begins, I notice that Psaqua holds back a lot, hesitating. If this is her fighting without her powers, then I don't know what to expect when we do start using our elements.

When I throw her to the mat for the fourth time in a row, I can't take it anymore.

"Why are you holding back?" I ask, striving for a neutral tone.

"I - I don't want to hurt you," she admits, her voice getting quieter as she says it.

"You won't," I reassure her. "Besides, I'm here to learn, not get babied. I can't do that if you're not doing your best. Visa versa is also true, you can't learn if I hold back, either."

Psaqua considers this, and then nods firmly. "I'll try."

She lets out a grunt of effort and throws herself into a practiced move that I counter easily. This blow was better than the previous times, but it still lacks any real force. I make quick work of tossing her to the floor again.

"You know," I begin lightly, "In real life, criminals will not hesitate to kill you. You'll probably need to fight on the same level that they do. That doesn't mean you have to kill them, just hurt them, maybe. Incapacitate them, usually."

Keller begins making rounds, checking up on each pair. When he's done, he calls out for us to begin incorporating our elements.

I dig my heels into the mat, (briefly wishing that I wasn't wearing any shoes, it's always easier to sense things without them) reaching down to get a feel for what I'm working with, and find what feels like vines. Not the worst thing to work with, I suppose DSHA can do something right once in a while.

Meanwhile, Psaqua takes an odd stance, one that looks like some kind of weird (or maybe just obscure) yoga martial art, and starts to draw what water she'll need.

"I know," she says. Her voice is strained. "I know the people that I might be fighting in the future will try to hurt me. How could I not know? It's... it's just...."

"Just what?"

"It's just - What if I accidentally do something wrong? I could easily get someone killed!" Her voice drips with a fear I don't think she wants me to know about.

I shrug and tell her what Jason told me when I first started training, when I was only six and he was twelve.

"Then practice, and when the time comes, don't get it wrong," I pause, and then thoughtfully continue, "It usually helps if you don't put much thought into the intricacies of what you're doing." Psaqua gives me a look that says she thinks I still haven't completely answered her question, so I quickly add, "Of course, all of us inevitably make mistakes. The best we can do is to prepare ourselves enough to minimize how big they are and how often they happen."

She lets out a sigh, the water she's drawn from the pool floats around her in a gentle dance, responding to the flicks of her fingers. "So... what you're basically saying is... you want me to hit you really hard?"

I nod. Sure, why not? "As hard as you can."

And so she does. Did you know you that getting slapped by water can leave a welt? I didn't. Now I do.

It's a little embarrassing; especially when she keeps apologizing each time she hits me.

To be honest, I thought she wasn't going to take what I said to heart at all. Now it seems I've severely underestimated her ability. I smile to myself as I dodge one of her blows and return one of my own, earth (of a sort, chlorokinesis is not geokinesis) versus water. I can see now that she's not that bad. I'd say her melee fighting ability is definitely on par with what I'd expect from someone in this class.

I especially admire the practiced precision of the movements she executes in order to manipulate the water, graceful and fast. They look like a kind of martial art that I don't recognize.

"Where'd you learn to do hydrokinesis like that?" I ask between matches.

"Oh... Um... I..." She mumbles something under her breath.

"What?"

"I watch a lot of anime." She speaks a little louder, avoiding eye contact.

Stunned, I let out a small ring of laughter. "You learned hydrokinesis from anime? That's... awesome! It must've taken a lot of effort and attention to detail. I don't think I could do something like that."

"Well... I'm sure you could," she says, seemingly taken aback by my acceptance.

"Maybe, but I don't want to. I already know how to use chlorokinesis." My chlorokinetic style is based on fast moving acrobatics, gymnastics, and parkour. Unfortunately, even though I'm small, this requires a lot of space to move around in, and acrobatics, gymnastics, and parkour work better as travel methods, so I've had to incorporate some martial arts into my style as well.

I dodge one of Psaqua's attacks, shielding myself with twisting, writhing vines which, when Psaqua focuses her water enough, she can cut through easily. Chlorokinesis attacks mostly look like me trying to grab her wrists and tie her down, which she can easily block with a shield of water, but I can tell she finds it more and more frustrating as the fight goes on and I don't give up.

Keller wanders by and says something about everyone doing a good job. All around us, the other kids are beating the crap out of each other. Occasionally, Keller has to yell about being required to use our powers this round. We need to stay in practice.

I don't know when it starts, but slowly, I begin to have fun. This reminds me of the mock fights the Overlord made me do with Digit and Jason. Those were good times. A weird sense of something akin to satisfaction fills me. I'm not used to feeling whatever this is (Camaraderie? Happiness?), but it feels good.

I know I can't stay here, in DSHA, forever, but maybe, just maybe, my stay here won't be so bad.

Because it's definitely not as tedious as I thought it was going to be.