Children Of The Crucible

Imposter?

Stevie's PoV
By the time I arrived home, I was still trying to come up with answers.

That tutor. There was something off about him, something not quite right. The way he showed up late and seemed so cheerful and upbeat, as though he was particularly proud of something.

Was he in on it? Had he built the device specifically to give us powers?

The unanswered questioned buzzed around in my head like bees.

I wondered if he would say anything on Monday, when we all met once again for another chemistry session.

Maybe it had been completely unintentional, and he was oblivious to what his machine had done.

I doubted it. Something just didn't fit.

I decided to put the matter to rest, sliding on my headphones to drain out my thoughts, quieting them to a dull whisper. I must have fallen asleep to the music, as I woke up in the morning with my headphones askew and my phone still in my hand.

As I went about my usual routine I pondered whether Mrs Stanley would say anything about the tutor, give us even a slight hint as to what was going on.

I wrote down everything we knew so far, which wasn't a lot, in my A5 notebook when I arrived at school, early as always. By the time I finished, I had filled half of a page with my small handwriting.

Sighing, I closed the notebook over and stared at the cover until it blurred, my thoughts taking me elsewhere. I lazily focused and unfocused my eyes, watching how the individual colours on the cover of my notebook all blended into one.

It was a few minutes until I escaped my thoughts and brought myself back into reality.

As I peered around me, I noticed Gwen, James and Blair has arrived and were sitting at a table across the canteen and seeing as we all had chemistry first period together, I figured I might as well go and join them.

I placed my black fountain pen into my pencil case and put it, along with my notebook, back in my bag. I grabbed my jacket and hauled my bag onto my back and approached their table.

"Hey guys, is it ok if I join you?"

They all nodded in agreement. Taking my invitation, I gingerly took a seat next to James as they continued on with their conversation.

Blair's PoV
I zoned out as James and Gwen continued to drone on about some Netflix show they had been watching. I turned to face Stevie who was also looking pretty bored by the conversation.

"Did you manage to think of the reason why we have these powers?"

She looked over to me before shaking her head in dismay.

"I wrote down everything we know so far, but I couldn't figure anything out beyond what we already know."

She reached into her bag as she explained this, and retrieved a small notebook and opened it a few pages in. I looked down at the page after she placed it on the table.

Olivia - can conduct electricity
Sami - can replay things she has heard in her head
Blair - can zoom vision in and out
Tommy - magnetic hands
James - can bend light with eyes
Gwen - control hair
Me - can turn invisible

Possibly caused by the machine we used to select chemical elements on, as we all felt weird after using it.
Is the tutor in on it?

We both read over her cursive handwriting on the page together but didn't get a chance to try and add anything due to the bell, signalling the start of first period, interrupted us. Collective sighs went round the full table and we grabbed our stuff and made our way to chemistry.

We arrived promptly at the classroom and took our usual seats, awaiting the arrival of the teacher.

She entered the class a few minutes later and began teaching as normal. We all took our books out and began taking notes as she talked about hydrocarbons.

About midway through the lesson I glanced around the room. Everyone else, apart from Stevie, has given up on their note-taking at this point, with their eyes focused either out the window or on the clock which was above the whiteboard. Completely oblivious to the lack of attention that was being paid to her lecture, Mrs Stanley droned on. I turned my attention to the clock, watching as the hands seemed to tick slower and slower with every passing minute. I sighed internally and picked up my pen to continue my notes.

Eventually the end of class came and we all packed our things away. As much as I don't mind chemistry, having it for a double period first thing is definitely not for me.

Just as we were about to exit the classroom and head down to the canteen for break, but Mrs Stanley called out that everyone who had been at the chemistry tutor had to stay behind for a few minutes.

Sami's PoV
Urgh, why did we have to stay behind? I already waste half my Monday night on this subject- why did I need to waste my break as well? I'm sorry Mrs Stanley, but some of us have more important things to do.

We all hung around awkwardly, watching enviously as everyone else left the room to go enjoy their break.

"Sorry to keep you back, it will only take a minute."

Right, ok, well speed it up miss. I want to go and get food. Stop wasting time telling us how long this will take, and get straight to the point.

"But I just wanted to apologise that the tutor couldn't make it on Monday night. He had an important meeting that ran over and he couldn't get to the class."

We looked over at each other in shock, wondering if we had actually heard her right. Gwen was about to speak but James elbowed her lightly and she got the message.

"I hope it didn't inconvenience any of you. I know how disappointed you must have been that you didn't have to undergo a two hour lesson. But I've been assured the class will be running this Monday and I expect you all to be there ready to learn."

We all laughed politely at her sarcasm although none of us found it amusing. I hate having to pretend to laugh at stuff that isnt actually funny. It just makes me feel so awkward.

"Anyway, that's all I wanted to say, so you can all head down for your break now."

We practically ran out the classroom and downstairs. Once we reached the bottom of the stairwell, we looked around at each other, each with the exact same expression on our faces. It was Tommy who broke the silence, speaking exactly what we were all thinking.

"Well shit."

Author's Note
Hey everyone, first of all a MASSIVE apology on the delay on getting this chapter out, hopefully updates will start getting more frequent soon. As always thanks for continuing to read, comment and vote, it's greatly appreciated.