"Otenise, or 'O' for short." Her name was absolutely perplexing to Ross. It sounded foreign, but she did not. And as he began to wonder about the origins of her name, he nearly missed the answer to his question. "And I think this is the perfect setting actually, because I'm prepping to grind Plesioth after I make some new armor and stock up on ore and junk." She briefly stopped, before going into a mini-rant about the creature. O definitely seemed to know Monster Hunter very well, more than he had thought possible. After all, that game was huge. "So long as people don't get all splishy-splashy over there, it'll be fine." By now she had finished the quest, which Ross could only tell because he had been staring at the screen for the time she was talking. "So, do you play anything?"

"No, I play absolutely nothing. Not a thing. Nope." Ross stated, staring blankly at the girl. Hopefully, she'd realise that he was joking. After about 5 seconds of joking, Ross broke into a brief laughter. "Well of course I play stuff. I play a bunch of stuff. Zelda, Metal Gear, Mario." After listing only three game series, Ross couldn't be bothered listing anymore. "Y'know, stuff. Although, I only have my 3DS with me right now. My sisters wouldn't let... me..." Just as Ross began explaining how he didn't have any of his systems with him, he noticed something in the corner of his eye. Something muscle-y. His roommate. Dom had finally made his way to the pool. This wouldn't be too much of a problem, if it weren't for the fact that he was now shirtless! Worst of all, Ross couldn't help but stare at the guy.

In an attempt at making O think that nothing was wrong, Ross continued what he was saying. "My sisters wouldn't let me take anything else. So I left them back home, with them." Ross nervously laughed, still distracted by his roommate's annoyingly muscular frame. Hopefully, Otenise wouldn't see him.

It was stupid, it was dumb, it was pointless, it was... dumb and without a point. Will had been at Gilded Halls for less than two hours, and he was already pondering his time there. He had almost two decades of life to work with, but his rumination touched only on all the nothing he'd done so far at his new school. So I got invited to a school for special students for whatever reason... The first thing that seemed to happen when everybody got to the school was a giant pool party before even the first class began... I impressed one of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen enough for her to come up and talk to me, although I'm sure that feeling didn't last long... And that very same girl is my roommate... and there's a ghost that leaves up toilet seats for some reason, or some roomkeeper screwed up, but let's not rule out the ghost.

"Yes, William was it? What did you need dear?" Ms. Fallcrest's voice pulled Liam from his reverie and he looked around in surprise, he had actually walked all the way to the entrance hall during his wondering.

He lightly thumped the back of his head and made a goofy face. "Sorry ma'am, I seem to have gotten lost in my own thoughts and ended up exactly where I wanted to be." All of a sudden the focus drained out of his face and he looked up. "Is that deep and philosophical or is it just silly? Whatever, I came to tell you I'm gonna need a room change. Whoever's in charge of scheduling seems to have put me with a girl, I know that must seem like a dream come true for a teenaged boy, but it's gotta be a lot less pleasant for the other side and I don't want to put her through that."

Ms. Fallcrest smiled the same relaxed, motherly smile that seemed to accompany her so often at Will while she shook her head ever-so-slightly. "There was no mistake dear, Gilded Halls has co-ed dorms and you have indeed been been paired with miss Ginevra."

"Oh." Will would have been more surprised if Ginny hadn't been confident there was no mistake back in the room. So her full first name is Ginevra huh? Never heard that one before, interesting. "Well I guess I was worried for nothing, sorry to bother you." He got ready to leave but paused at the tone echoing through the school, seemed it was time for class if the bell was any indicator. Will dug into his pocket and pulled out the schedule. Elements 101 huh? What's that, science?

While the young man continued to be lost in his thoughts (she was beginning to wonder if his mind was some sort of ridiculous maze he couldn't even navigate himself through) Ms. Fallcrest decided to get him going before he sat there thinking all day. "I'll tell you how you can make it up to me for interrupting my so-very-pressing business William. Why don't you hustle on down to class and be one of the first students there?"

Once again pulled out of his thoughts, Will stared at her for a moment before blinking and refocusing. "Right, you don't have to patronize me, but thank you for keeping me from getting too distracted ma'am." He answered with an earnest smile. "I'll just be on my way then." And he strolled off.

As he walked through the halls Liam's face was tickled by a stray bit of hair and he tried to blow it out of the way, only for it to fall back into place every time, reminding him of a quail from an old cartoon he once saw. Ugh, I really should have taken a shower myself instead of going right to sleep, now I'm gonna have to walk around with my hair even curlier than normal and looking like a doof. He didn't have time to regret looking like he hadn't bothered to properly clean the chlorine out of his hair, it only took him a minute to reach Classroom 1-A. He pulled the door open and looked at the room slightly nervously, but there was no point in trepidation, here were only two other people in the room. He didn't even see a teacher, just some writing up on the board behind some sets of beakers.

We are part of nature, nature is part of us. Within each and every person is the ability to control nature, to a limited degree.

Choose your beaker wisely. Not every road leads to success.

Don't tell me this is magic or something...

The other guys in the room already seemed to be messing with their own beakers, and Will was too curious to worry about them anyways. He grabbed one of the beakers partially filled with water and made his way to a seat in the front away from the other two, so he could concentrate better. Water, I've always liked water, swimming in it, drinking it... bathing with it... no idea why I'm still thinking about this, anyway this should be a good place to start. He sat there staring at the water, and after a few minutes nothing had happened. Guess I better concentrate harder He stared at the water and thought... really hard... and it actually started to move!

"So, right, um... What was I talking abo- oh, right. Well, maybe I could invite ya over sometime, I have a nice big flat-screen and a bunch of Nintendo systems all hooked up plus xbox 360 and bone, and good god all of the games..." A few questions came to Ross' mind when Otenise finished her list. How the hell did she bring all of that here? And had she already set it up? But instead of asking all of those questions and possibly putting Otenise off, Ross slowly nodded. He wouldn't want to ruin his first, possible friendship at this school, after all. "We could play any version of Smash, if you're any good at that."

"Yeah, that sounds awesome. Although, I'd be careful if I were you. I play a pretty mean Sheik." Unfortunately, Ross' cockiness was shot down the second she mentioned tournaments. Otenise had managed to make it to the semi-finals of a tournament, while the best Ross was ever able to do was beat a few friends. Heck, he even lost to his sisters occasionally. "Well, so long as I know ahead of time. I'm sure my roommate won't mind." The girl had stopped playing on her 3DS and had put it into her jacket. "What about you? Who is Ross anyway?"

"Who is Ross?" He repeated to himself, unsure of how he should go about answering. Should he just give her the same treatment as his roommate? Should he say more? Less? By the time Ross' lips started talking, he hadn't exactly figured out what to say. "Well... Ross is just a Canadian guy. Nothing much too him, really. He hasn't done anything spectacular, but he is pretty damn spectacular." Ross laughed. However, before he was able to continue, Ross was interrupted by the all too familiar blaring of a bell. "Welp... I guess its class time." He stated, pushing himself back onto his feet. Ross pulled out a heavily folded map from his pocket and began to study it. "We're here. And the classroom is there. Alright, this shouldn't be too hard to find."
------------------------
When they were closing in on the classroom, Ross noticed that Otenise had fallen completely silent. "O?" He asked, turning his head to face her. However, she was nowhere in sight. Ross briefly looked around for her, before sighing and continuing on his way. "You could've said something..." His footsteps echoed down the lonely hall, only stopping when he came to his destination. Classroom 1-A. He slowly stepped through the open door, expecting to see a teacher teaching. But there only appeared to be other students. Ross knew one of the people in the classroom, his giant roommate. Dom was standing near the front of the class doing something? Ross couldn't really get a good look at his roommate. The other two were practically strangers. And they also seemed to be doing something weird. Scratching his head, Ross moved towards the back of the class, where he noticed the strangest announcement on the whiteboard.

We are part of nature, nature is part of us. Within each and every person is the ability to control nature, to a limited degree.

Choose your beaker wisely. Not every road leads to success.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He mumbled to himself, confused by what had been written on the whiteboard. Ross stared at the cryptic message for a long time, trying to figure out what the (non-existent) teacher wanted the class to do. He looked at the rest of the room and noticed a lot of weird science-y posters plastered on the walls. Oh... Maybe the class was a chemistry class? After all, the name was Elements 101. It'd probably be about the base elements of the world. Stuff like Gold and Argon. And the whole controlling nature deal probably had something to do with how humanity was able to bend the world to it's whim through science and technology.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ross noticed a few of the many beakers scattered around the room. And as he closely examined it, his idea of this being a chemistry lesson became much more unlikely. One of the beakers held sand, while another held water. One held a box of matches and the other held a leaf? Why would you put a leaf and box of matches in a beaker? He looked up at the board again. Choose your beaker wisely. Not every road leads to success. The announcement wanted him to choose one of these wisely. But why?

Ross briefly looked at Dom again, still unsure what he was doing. His roommate seemed to be focusing intently at whatever was in his hands, but Ross still had no idea what it was. And he couldn't be bothered moving closer or asking the giant. Instead, Ross decided to "Choose a beaker wisely." He immediately went for the one that would be able to provide him with the most entertainment. The Matchbox. He quickly opens it, pulling out a single match.

Ross had nothing to do but stare at the match. It wasn't even lit yet, but it seemed to be the most interesting thing in the room. He could've tried interacting with the other students around him for entertainment or an explanation, but he thought they all looked too busy with their own beakers to even notice him. So he didn't bother. Instead, he waited. Waited for a teacher to burst into the room and begin the lesson. Waited for someone to explain the stupid message on the board. Waited for anything. When 'anything' didn't seem like it'd be showing up, Ross began to get bored. So what does a bored boy do with a box of lighters? Responsibly hand them to an adult? He lights them. But before he was able to start anything incendiary, Ross noticed a familiar voice sitting next to him. "Don't mind, do ya?" Otenise asked, sitting down before he could ever hold an objection. Not that he was going to.

"Nope. You'd be surprised how... focused the rest of the class is. So it'll be nice to have some company again." Ross smiled, hoping that everyone else was too distracted to hear that. He was still slightly bothered by Otenise's sudden disappearance, but she probably just went and combed her hair... or something like that. So he didn't bother asking. "So what are... Oh... That. Whatever that means." Ross could tell that Otenise had discovered the cryptic message on the white-board. At least he wasn't the only one having trouble figuring out what the stupid message meant. It would've been nice to see a teacher standing up in front explaining the whole thing, but no.

Eventually, Ross became fed up with waiting. If something interesting didn't happen in the next 5 seconds, he felt like he'd go insane. 'That's it. I'm lighting one.' He thought to himself, the pain of waiting having become too great (even though it had only been a couple of minutes). Carefully, he lit the match. And with nothing else to do, he held the match in front of his face and stared at it. Unfortunately, watching the lit match was only slightly more interesting than watching an unlit one. He briefly turned to O, only to notice that she had also become focused on one of the beakers.

"Do you know what we're supposed to be doing? 'Cause I sure don't." Ross asked aloud, staring back into the boring flames. After a while more of waiting, Ross noticed something about the match. It seemed to be burning slightly brighter... and faster. He looked at the small cardboard box he pulled it out of to see if it was some kind of special match. But surely enough, it was just a generically labelled packet of matches (Although, it did have very fancy writing on it). When he looked back at the still-burning match, the flames had calmed down. Or maybe it had never intensified and Ross's mind was just playing tricks on him. Deciding it to be the latter, Ross continued to blankly stare at the match.
As boredom caught back up with him, Ross began to imagine the flame becoming much bigger. He imagined it flaring up into a massive pillar of incendiary destruction, aimed only at the stupid whiteboard. Finally, the world (aka Ross) would be freed of the whiteboard's taunting. Back in the real world, Ross' match had begun to burn at a much faster rate. And he didn't notice. Ross was too caught up in his daydream to do so. This meant that his fingers would be burnt in a matter of seconds.

After the swim in the pool and light snack from the refreshments provided, Ashley and Rachel returned to their dorm in order to change and get ready for the day of class ahead. Rachel had been relatively quiet since she came out of the water. The minor freak-out she had endured still sat heavily on her mind, and while she had managed to get over the fear of the idea of someone knowing about her powers... The red-haired girl was still quite embarrassed about how the whole thing had played out.

Rachel glanced over at Ashley, feeling a sense of guilt about the entire thing. Her raven-haired friend had been trying so hard for the girl to finally get out there and make new friends. Instead, all she probably succeeded in doing was making herself look like a complete and total weirdo.

"S-So... Did you meet anyone new?" Rachel asked, finally deciding to break her silence. "Anyone that might a good, potential new friend?"

Ashley looked up, her head mostly covered with a pink towel as she was currently completely drying off her hair, despite having already put on her clothes again. She smiled and nodded her head. "Yeah! I dunno if you saw, but I was talking to a red-haired girl who seemed pretty cool. Her name's Ginny, and she actually said she'd like to meet with you at some point. What about you? I saw you talking to the boy sitting with his feet in the water~" she commented, grinning playfully at her friend.

Rachel felt her cheeks heat up as Ashley spoke. "Y-Yeah, just for a bit though... I don't think it really went all that well... I-I mean, he seems nice and stuff, but... I think I was bit more bland than what he was expecting..." The red-haired girl fibbed. In truth, she really did not want to upset Ashley by telling her the reason it went sour so fast was because of her own worrying. "M-Maybe I can try again another time, though."

"Rachel, sweetie..." Ashley giggled as she moved the towel down around her shoulders and stepped over to her friend with a smile. "No matter what you might've accidentally said to put him off, he'll forget about it. Know why?" She added with an even more sly smile.

"Um..." Rachel replied, giving the raven-haired girl a curious glance. Suddenly, her eyes lit up with worry. "Y-You're not gonna go give him an atomic-wedgie like that time Johnathan Miller s-stepped on my Pretty Pony, are you...?"

Ashley's expression quickly firmed up, her eyes narrowing a little. "Look, he was asking for it. It's not my fault he tattled on me afterwards. Crybaby." She puffed out her cheeks before shaking her head with a bright smile. "Anyway! No, I'm not. Because..." She nudged Rachel with her shoulder, grinning wryly. "He'll forget about any whoopsies you did because you talked to him while in your underwear." The black-haired girl winked at her friend. "You might as well learn it now. Boys'll forgive alot if you give them... something pleasant to look at. So next time you talk to him, he'll just see you as 'That cute girl from the pool', and you should have no trouble chatting to him." She finished, clapping her hands together in front of her with a smile.

Rachel gave her friend a weak smile. She was not exactly sure that being talked to nice simply because someone was in their underwear was actually a good thing. Still, she could tell that Ashely's heart was in the right place. Glancing up for a moment at the clock, she bit her lip and then looked back at Ashley.

"We should probably get going to class... It wouldn't be a good idea to be late on the first day," the red-haired girl said.

"Oh!" Ashley replied, turning to look up at the clock as well before tossing the towel onto her bed. "You're right! You know which classroom we're going to, Rach'?"

"Um... I think it was 1-A," Rachel replied. "I looked at our schedules for a bit while you were changing. It's supposed to be some class called Elements 101... I think it's a science class, actually... At least, that's what it sounds like from the name."

"Oh, right, yeah. I saw that room on our way through when we arrived earlier." The black-haired girl nodded with a smile, making sure her clothes were in order before opening the door for her friend. "Ladies first~"

The two girls proceeded out of their room, other students scurrying to get ready for class. As they exited the dorms building, the bell chimed, notifying the students it was indeed time for class. The girls arrived not too long after at the classroom, since it was just inside of the door where the path from the dorms building ended, and then a bit further.

Ashley glanced at the label next to the open door. "1-A. Yep, this is definitely here." She proceeded to enter, with Rachel following right behind. The stools and desks were spaced out nicely and placed so that anyone could move around with them, should they decide to work alone, or in a group. Only one other person was in here at the moment, namely, the enormous guy Ashley had noticed earlier. He was completely ripped and seemed way too tall to be around their age.

The black-haired girl tried not to stare and quickly noticed the whiteboard hanging at the back, on the wall. Ashley's brows furrowed a little as she read it out to herself. " '... Ability to control nature?' What a weird thing to write. And... we don't have a teacher?" She glanced back at Rachel with confusion in her eyes before shrugging and proceeding up to the front desk in order to take a look at the beakers placed out for the students, which were filled with various 'elements'.

"M-Maybe she just stepped out of the room for a moment?" Rachel suggested. She glanced at the various beakers, not really sure of what to make of it all. She had always heard that famous academies, colleges, and the sort had always had somewhat odd manners of teaching their students at times. However, Rachel had always assumed this just meant that they maybe went outside for lessons or maybe took more field trips than usual. The red-haired glanced over her shoulder at the rather... impressively fit boy in the room, her cheeks heating up a bit in the process. "M-Maybe he knows something about what's going on or where the teacher is?"

Ashley looked over her shoulder at the boy pointed out to her by Rachel after picking up one of the beakers with the leaf in it to study it a bit more closely. "Hmh... I guess it's worth a shot if anything." She smiled and nudged her friend. "Do you wanna go ask him?"

"M-Me...?" Rachel asked, her face heating up again at her friend's urging. "I m-mean... I dunno, m-maybe you should, you think? H-He looks like someone you'd b-be more interested in talking to..."

Giggling, the raven-haired girl gave her friend a grin, raising her brows. "Rachel, you're not gonna ask him out. Tell you what, I'll follow you over there and stand with you, as long as you promise to lead the word. You have to get comfortable talking to others at some point, right?" Her expression turned a bit more soft as she smiled at the red-head encouragingly.

"W-Well... I... Okay, if you're sure..." Rachel replied. She turned and looked at the tall boy, feeling a bit of unease once more as she slowly made her way over to the boy with Ashley in tow. The closer she got, the more she found herself looking down at the floor once more and feeling more and more hesitant in general. She was just about to voice up and finally ask the question to the boy, when the sound of another student entering caught the red-haired girl's attention. At first, he seemed to be almost as completely lost as she and Ashley were, but he seemed to get over it pretty quickly, taking hold of one of the beakers with water in it instead.

"H-He seems to know what he's doing. Maybe we should ask him instead," Rachel decided rather quickly. The red-haired for some reason found the boy with the beaker of water a bit easier to approach and without hesitating a moment longer, she quickly spun around on heel and made her way towards him instead, Ashley looking surprised for a moment before shrugging and simply following her friend. "Um, excuse me...? Have y-you seen the teacher of this class? Or d-do you maybe know what it is we're actually s-supposed to be doing?" she asked softly.

I can't believe it! It's moving! it's actually moving! Will was squealing like an excited kid in his own head, whatever he was doing, concentrating seemed to be doing... something. The water started to stir the least bit, and then-

"Um, excuse me?" Splash! The water in the beaker seemed to forget it's apprehension when Will's concentration was distracted and jumped out onto his head. He blinked a few times and continued to stare futilely at the beaker for a couple of seconds before hanging his head.

"Aw, almost had... something." It was only then it hit him that a voice was what had startled him, and he turned towards the sound to catch the end of the girl's sentence and get the gist of her question. The redhead seemed nervous, what with the stuttering and all, she must have seen the splash and he didn't want her to blame herself if she was sensitive. "Ah well, at least now I don't have to feel bad about not washing my hair again after the pool, would have been pointless anyways." He added with a light smile, before making sure to look her in the eye so she wouldn't think he was zoning out still. "Honestly? I've got no clue what we're supposed to do here, but those other two guys seemed to be trying... something. And the board mentioned controlling nature so from there I just grabbed a beaker like it said and just... well... kinda stared at it for a while.

The black-haired girl, having previously stood behind Rachel, now stepped forward, with a skeptical look on her face and her arms crossed over her chest, one hand sitll holding onto the beaker with the leaf in it. "You can't mean that they're actually expecting us to perform magic tricks, right? I mean, that's just ridiculous." She said this in a more questioning way, rather than accusing or angry.

Will shrugged while he tried to wipe some of the water out of his hair. "Beats me, I'll definitely admit it sounds ridiculous. But all we've been left are instructions and some beakers, and this school seems not to be the norm already what with the immediate pool party even before the first class." He looked at the raven-haired girl who'd made herself known, she looked a lot more confident than the other girl. "Oh, hey you were there too. Name's William, but most people call me Will, or Liam, nice to meet you." And he held out his hand with a welcoming smile on his face.

Smiling in return, the raven-haired girl was almost about to shake his hand when she glanced at Rachel and nudged her a little forwards, still smiling at the boy. "Hey Will. I'm Ashley and this is Rachel. She's a bit shy, but she just has to get to know people to get over it." She added with a wry little grin.

The red-haired girl stumbled forward a small step from Ashley's quick nudge. Rachel had time to shoot her raven-haired friend a quick, annoyed glance, before she nodded at Will, though she really did not do much to actually look the boy in the eyes. She began to fidget with the hem of her skirt a bit as she offered a small smile in his direction.

"Hi... It's nice to meet you too..." Rachel said in her usual hushed voice. The red-haired girl slowly took hold of Will's hand, offering it a small shake as Ashley had wanted her to. "So... Um... We're supposed to do something with what's in the beaker?" She turned to Ashley and gave the girl a curious glance. "Can y-you make it do anything...?"

Ashley blinked and glanced from Rachel, to the beaker in her hands, staring a little intently at it for a few moments before shaking her head with a chuckle. "Yeah, I didn't think so. No way, this can't be right. The teachers here can't be expecting us to, like, move this stuff with our minds."

Pausing for a moment in her tracks, the raven-haired girl glanced down at the boy sitting in front of them with his hair soaked, looking rather thoughtful before nudging Rachel a little closer to his desk as if asking her to take a seat, promptly moving around her to move another desk and table up to his, taking a seat across from the boy, the beaker placed in front of her. She gave Rachel a brief, serious glance, before looking back at Will. "... Unless... you have something you wanna tell us?"

As glad as he was that Rachel wasn't too nervous to shake his hand, Ashley's question perplexed him. "Can't think of any secrets I know of... this school is pretty weird, who knows what they want us to do? I mean, I guess it could be an elabora-" A weird bit of movement caught in the corner of Will's eye and he became very focused on something other than the girls for a moment. "Actually girls... that guy over there was just swirling water in his own beaker... and that giant guy was moving some sand around in his hand. If you add all that to how I just managed to splash that water on my face, then either there's something to all this, or this prank is so elaborate it might convince me they had to use something supernatural just to pull it off anyways.

Quirking a brow, Ashley looked over her shoulder at the other students now present in the class room before looking back at Will with a skeptical look on her face. "... Right. So you're saying that everyone here is psychic... because you splashed water in your face?" She then proceeded to look rather skeptically to Rachel besides her.

Rachel glanced back over at Ashley quickly. Even though she did not fully believe that Will's comment was true, the red-haired girl was not about to outright call him a liar about it or risk making him feel bad because of his thought. She returned her look towards Will, offering him a small, if still shy, looking smile.

"W-Well... That might be a possible answer," Rachel said quietly. "But, um... Maybe w-we should keep our options open f-for other reasons before going with this one."

Will wasn't sure why the girls were being so serious about the subject of the class when they had so little to go on. "Like I said I don't really know exactly what's going on. I just came in the classroom, there were vague instructions on the board, I read them, had no better ideas so I stared at the water for a bit. Then some pretty girls startled me and water splashed on my face, I'm not trying to say there's magic afoot. If I had it all figured out I wouldn't be dripping like an idiot the very first time I meet two new people."

He was kind of offended that Ashley had looked at him like he was trying to sell her something when they had asked him what was going on, but he didn't let it show on his face as he continued. "I don't really know what I think, too little information, I'm sorry I don't have a real answer for you. Ya think they'd at least leave a teacher around to explain things to us. Still, I'm sure we'll figure out what this class is about soon enough, even if it is a staff prank or something."

Ashley nodded, looking down at her own beaker with a look as if it was all the leaf's fault. "Yeah. It's kind of irresponsible when you think of it." However, she wasn't entirely convinced by her own sarcasm, as she turned her head and glanced over her shoulder at the other students bent over their beakers and concentrating on doing... something.

After a few moments of thinking, she glanced back down at her beaker and shrugged her shoulders with a smile sent towards Will. "Ah well, I don't have any better ideas. I guess we might as well give it a shot." She smiled to Rachel as well before looking down at the leaf laying at the bottom of the beaker, her eyes narrowing a little as she began concentrating.

Rachel glanced at Ashley, giving the raven-haired girl a small smile before she stood up and made her way towards the beakers to get one of her own. For some reason, she did not find much appeal in the ones with the matches or sand in them. And since Ashley had one of the beakers with a leaf in it, the red-haired girl did not see much of a point in getting the same kind. So, she decided on taking one of the glass containers with the water inside of it. Beaker in hand, Rachel made her way back to Will and Ashley, taking her seat beside her friend once more.

"Hmmm... I g-guess I'll just follow your lead..." Rachel decided.

Will was glad the skepticism seemed to have taken a backseat for the moment, he was just as confused by the class so far as them, and he really didn't want to look like some superstitious goof over it. There wasn't much else to do so he got back to... staring aimlessly at his beaker. For a little while his eyes continuously darted back over towards Ashley and Rachel until he shook his head in an attempt to fight off the scatterbrain. Knock it off, focus! Eventually he managed to concentrate completely on the beaker and the water in it actually started to - almost imperceptibly - stir ever-so-slightly.

It took Ashley several minutes, but eventually, she caved. Fed up with staring at the leaf in the beaker without anything happening (And without her expecting anything to happen), she planted her hands firmly on the table with a frustrated sigh. "Ghh, this can't be right! There has to be some kind of explanation to this. Maybe the teachers are trying to test how clever we are with a riddle or something...?" The black-haired girl folded her arms stubbornly across her chest and leaned back in her chair, staring into the air ahead of her, thinking about the words on the board while trying to crack whatever riddle this might be.

Rachel followed the lead of Ashley and Will, concentrating deeply on the water that sat in beaker on her desk. The red-haired girl really was not sure on just what they were actually supposed to do. She would never have actually admitted it out loud, but Rachel was finding it somewhat ridiculous that this teacher was expecting them to learn something from practically doing nothing. Still, while all these thoughts were running through her head, Rachel kept with her task of focusing solely on the water inside the beaker. A sudden shiver ran up the red-haired girl's back suddenly. She blinked, looking at the beaker with wide eyes as the small sound of something cracking filled the air around her... The water inside had frozen completely over.

A loud and sudden cracking jolted Will completely out of his concentration and he almost smacked his beaker to the floor, barely managing to catch it before it shattered on the ground. After he managed to set the beaker back on the desk without spilling anything he took a deep breath and turned towards the girls. "Sorry I spazzed out, I guess I was deeper in my own head than I thought staring at the water, what was -whoah..." The awed O of his mouth only held for a second before it narrowed and a smile crept it's way to light up his face. "Awesome, wow, you're certainly way better at this than I am Rachel! You're amazing." He couldn't take his eyes off of the beaker filled with ice, it was perfectly level, and there was even some frost on the edges of the beaker's top.

Ashley had a completely different reaction to the whole thing, however. Her eyes had widened as she heard the ice cracking and quickly whipped her head over to Rachel, worry quickly filling her. She briefly glanced at Will who seemed pretty amazed and not at all frightened about the whole thing, which she supposed was a good thing, for now. But Will knowing about Rachel came second.

She turned to her red-haired friend and placed a hand on each shoulder, with one of her arms resting behind her, trying to catch her gaze. "Rachel. Rachel, listen to me, it's okay. Nothing's going to happen. Take a deep breath, like we practiced, okay?" she pleaded.

Rachel's stare went from the beaker towards Will instead. The red-haired girl did not know what to think or do at this point. She had been expecting the boy to freak out. She had been expecting him to call her some sort of monster or freak before running off to warn everyone else about what he had just saw. The last thing Rachel had ever expected was for him to be impressed.

"Y-You... You think that was awesome...?" Rachel questioned, the look on her face showing pure disbelief in what she had just heard.

Will's smile grew wider when Rachel looked at him, he didn't expect her to be so shocked at a little praise. "Of course I do! It seems that this lesson is about manipulating elements, or something like it, and you totally did it! And you didn't just move the water, you froze it! And after you gals were so unsure of this whole thing, you must be really talented." He almost couldn't believe what he was seeing, someone had frozen water on their own. The amazing talent being in such a shy girl reminded him of a few shows he'd seen when he was younger, but didn't make it any less amazing.

It struck him that Ashley had mentioned practicing... sure that could just mean taking a deep breath any time she was startled since she seemed nervous, but it still made him wonder if she'd done this before. The last thing he wanted to do though was make her more uncomfortable, so he kept his mouth shut and in an enthusiastic grin.

Ashley, as mentioned, lifted her worried gaze from Rachel to glance over at Will, a look of curiosity, wariness and a slight hint of suspicion in her eyes. She was happy that Rachel hadn't freaked out and her powers had gotten even worse, but now this guy had seen them in action. She couldn't tell if he was genuinely just laid-back and cheerful or if he was doing something more... under-handed.

"... Listen, Will. I'm really happy that you weren't freaked out and you think this is really cool... but you have to promise us to never mention this to anyone, okay?" Ashley gave Rachel a little glance, smiling before letting go of her friend with a little pat on her shoulder, looking back to Will with a more relaxed but still slightly serious look on her face, although it was more of a... pleading tone she was using. "Please?"

That confirmed it, as well as it fit the bill this had nothing to do with the class, Rachel had frozen things before. His own visage took on a much more serious tone and he nodded. "Of course, not everyone reacts positively to special talents like this. There will always be those that fear or decry what is different, however impressive or useful it may be. You don't have to try to sway me with your pretty voice, I won't tell anyone if you two don't want me to. It's not my business to be spreading around."

Rachel sighed softly, a look of relief over taking her features. She had been terrified that Will was going to go running off and tell everyone just what he had seen. Images of the girl being forced back into hiding back home had raced through her mind, and honestly it was not something that the red-haired girl wanted to relive. She patted Ashley's hand gently, before glancing up at Will with a thankful expression.

"Thanks f-for keeping it a secret, Will," Rachel replied, her voice almost a whisper. "I a-appreciate it."

"Well of course, what kind of friend would I be if I went blabbing secrets, especially secrets that could hurt someone." He paused and realized he said friend, then shrugged, it's not like being someone's friend was any huge step after all. "That is if you'd like to be friends, it helps to have people to talk to at a new school right? And I like every chance for I get more, especially when they've got super powers." He added the last part quietly with a wink.

Ashley smirked a little, seeming a lot more relaxed now, nodding her head lightly as the smirk turned into a smile. "Thanks Will. You're a pretty nice guy." She looked to Rachel and offered her the same, warm smile, bumping her shoulder gently with her own. "See? I told you there'd be nice guys around here."

She then looked down at her beaker again, furrowing her brows. "I still don't know what I'm supposed to do with this thing. I mean, I don't have any super powers." She looked up at Will with a furrowed brow and a confused look. "Do... you?"

Will tapped his chin thoughtfully and looked around. "I have a few fairly unique talents, although none of them come anywhere close to a superpower. To be honest I'm not comfortable doing it, it makes me feel like some show off punk trying to impress a couple of pretty girls. But I saw what Rachel can do so it's fair that you two see my 'talent'." He dug around in his right pocket for a second and fished out a smooth black pebble.

"I can be pretty precise and accurate when I want to be, almost unnervingly so. I'd show you but it's getting more crowded here and I think throwing rocks in class would make a scene. I'd hate to do that to Rachel, and I don't exactly want to advertise it either."

Glancing curiously at the pebble in his hand, Ashley then picked her phone from her pocket, checked the time and tucked it back. "Class is almost over. We could head outside and you can show us before next class starts?" Ashley had to admit to herself that she was getting pretty curious about this place, and definitely about Will as well. Before all that though, she had to make sure Rachel was okay with it, and as such, she glanced to her red-haired friend with raised brows. "Rach'...?"

Rachel merely nodded her head in response. She seemed a bit hesitant about the whole thing at first. The very thought there could be someone out there with weird and unexplained powers like her was a concept that was more or less foreign to the girl. Rachel wondered if Will showing off his powers was a good idea or not, considering that they were in the middle of a school and all. At the same time though, she was curious to see what the boy could do.

"Let's just be careful... and find somewhere where it won't d-draw a lot of attention, okay?" Rachel asked, looking between Ashley and Will. "I d-don't want there to be a scene j-just because Will wanted to show us what he can do."

Will shrugged and slid the pebble back into his pocket. "It's not so flashy or impressive that I'd expect anyone to notice it outside, but it's not anything all that special to begin with, so if we did go it would probably feel anticlimactic and disappoint you gals anyways. But Ashley asked, so it's up to you." He couldn't help messing with the pebble now that he was thinking about it, he'd always liked smooth stones.

"We can just go to the gardening shed. And if we go now while class is still going, we should be alright, you know?" Ashley added in, sending Rachel a soft smile before looking back to Will and nodding firmly. "Alright Will, lead the way. Let's see what you can do!"

No one came to the aid of Ross' poor fingers, who were currently sitting on the verge of incineration. Ross would be getting a big boo-boo in a second and there was nothing he'd be able to do about it. No, the boy was lost in his day-dream of destroying the white-board. Any second now, the flames would touch his fingertips. He'd yelp out in pain, cry over the loss of his fingers, etc. 3... 2... 1... Strangely, Ross wasn't hurt at all when the flame touched his skin. In fact, he wasn't even alerted to it. The flame tried it's hardest to scorch the boy, but it just wasn't happening. Eventually, the flame completely devoured the stick and fizzled away.

After a few more seconds of day-dreaming, Ross noticed something strange. His hands were empty. This could only mean one thing. He had dropped the lit match and it was now somewhere in the classroom, preparing to burn it to a crisp. Immediately, he dropped onto the ground in search of the 'missing' match. "Crap... Oh crap..." He continuously muttered to himself as his eyes scanned the floors. There was absolutely no way he'd be able to find it fast enough to stop it from spreading. Maybe he could get Otenise to help him find it? Ross jumped onto his feet and turned to face Otenise... Or at least, where she used to be sitting. Somehow, she had disappeared again. Without saying a word... again. "She's gone... And everyone else is way too focused to help look for it... Welp, we're all screwed." He sighed to himself, waiting for the entire class to start burning to the ground instead of telling anyone about it. They probably wouldn't care anyway.

However, his state of inaction was quickly interrupted by an idea. 'Everyone is focused on the beakers... So if I use my ability, I'd be able to move around the classroom much faster, and no one will notice.' Of course, there was a large risk to what he was about to do. At any moment, someone could suddenly look up, and see someone disappear in front of their eyes. But, if he was going to stop the classroom from burning down, it'd be a risk he'd have to take. Once again, Ross dropped onto the floor. He pressed his hands against one of the shadows underneath a desk, and waited to sink into the ground. His body quickly disappeared, leaving only his shadow on the floor.

'Now... where to start.' He thought to himself whilst scanning the room from a different perspective. Ross hasn't used this ability much, so seeing the world like this was still a bit of a surprise. He quickly scurried underneath where he thought he had dropped the match. However, as he looked around, he was unable to see it. This must've meant that the match had rolled away. He continued to travel throughout the class, searching high and low for the missing flame. Ross' search reached an end on the ceiling. He had looked throughout the entire classroom for the match-stick, but it was nowhere to be found. 'I guess it burnt out.' He thought to himself, starting to make his way back onto the floor. Unfortunately for Ross, his time was up.

Ross felt a strong, pulling sensation wrench him out of his shadow. And, with nowhere to go but down, Ross fell onto one of the desks below.