Kingston Academy

THREE

   Class barely begun and Niven already felt a burning gaze right beside him. That guy he bumped into this morning wouldn't stop looking. It made the blond shrink further away into his seat.

He wasn't the only problem. The other boys were also staring at him. From the moment he stepped into class, Niven was sure that he was already being challenged. But it's not like he could go against any of them.

For the entire period as soon as he was done with his work, Niven was surrounded by a small bunch of his classmates. He slumped further in his seat, too nervous to look at any of them.

"So Niven, right?" One of them piped up with a charming grin.

"Y-Yes?"

"From what house are you from?"

"Um..."

"Actually, what about your abilities? What abilities do you have?" That question made a few more of his classmates turn around in their seats to listen closely. Even his teacher looked a bit curious.

Niven flushed under their gazes. "Nothing special, I guess?"

Their gazes suddenly hardened and a mocking smile appeared on the boy's face. He snorted, "How rude. We're just only asking, isn't it common manners for you to respond? Don't tell me... you're a low-echelon?"

Their smiles widened and a few gave cruel chuckles. Niven didn't know what else to do besides staying quiet. Surely his brothers would get angry, they'd also be embarrassed.

In a second, Niven felt his face burning up. He quickly pulled his head back to see a hand with flames too close to his face. The students snickered.

From this moment on, Niven was considered the weakest in their class. He couldn't stand such a little flame.

"You really are weak aren't you?" The student mocked, waving his hand around. The flames grew even wider and a few sparks flew around. "You can't handle a tiny fire? I bet your family is also-"

He stopped as he felt something fly past his ear. The student reached up to find a trickle of blood running down his fingers. Everyone one of them looked behind his shoulder to see a pencil stuck on the wall, and a few cracks that it made.

"Mr. Lancaster, do tell me that you're not about to burn our newest student's face." Mr. Abberline had stood up with a grim smile on his face, and a few pencils on his hands. Niven trembled at the sight of his teacher's arm creating a wave of energy.

The boy who had tried to burn Niven's face now bowed deeply with a bit of sweat appearing on his head. "My apologies, sir-"

"Why are you apologizing to him?" The brunet from this morning interrupted with a dark scowl. "Isn't it supposed to be Niven you're apologizing to? Were you the one who tried burning our teacher's face off?"

"Lord Mirren, it's my duty to punish him correctly." Mr. Abberline cut in. "You don't have to."

The male gave a sudden smile. For a moment, Niven felt like he was back outside at the bridge. This sort of feeling, could it be he's using the same ability again? No, it felt different this time.

That smile was different than any other smile the blond's seen. It was more alluring. He somehow looked different as well. Niven could've sworn that his brunet locks turned purple for a moment, but he blinked and the color was gone.

Mirren turned to the other student and smirked, "What are you waiting for? Aren't you going to apologizing for disrupting class time and your actions towards our new classmate?"

As if he was in a trance, the boy straightened up and looked down at Niven before lowing his head and saying sorry.

Niven was taken aback. How come he's acting this way? The students here were so scary.