Chapter 2

“Hillary Hills? What’s that?” Annice frowned at her letter. Acacia smiled. “I guess we’ll find out when we go there,” she nudged Annice lightly.

           The hallway was buzzing with never-ending chatter, everyone hassling each other about the History field trip. Claris shoved her way through the chaotic crowd of students, crashing into her locker. She pulled out her letter, scanning it like machinery analysing packages.

            “Aww…I was rooting for the Dinosaur Devil Racecourse,” Claris whined. Acacia placed a hand on Claris’s shoulder. “It’ll still be fun,” she yelled at Claris. It was supposed to be assurance, but over the noise in the Lockers Hallway, she had to shout it.

            “WHY IS IT SO NOISY IN HERE? I WANT SILENCE!” a professor who was walking by shouted. As usual, no one listened. A while later, the bell rang, signalling end of school.

            “So…what do you think Hillary Hills will look like? Boring mountains and over-pretty valleys or small mounds with the word ‘Hillary’ scratched onto it?” Claris grumbled loudly.

            “I’m sure it’ll be nice, but if it isn’t, we’ll figure out how to ditch, deal?” Acacia rubbed her hands together, pretending to be a plotting evil mastermind. “Fine, but you can’t say you were joking later…” Claris teased.

            Another bell signalled the start of dinner in school. Acacia offered to walk with Claris and Annice down the stairs as she could just jump and transport to the cafeteria for dinner. Plus, she wanted to see what Claris and Annice did to go down the Stairwell.

            The Stairwell was really wide and was probably ten average staircases put side by side. It was also beautifully decorated, with mosaics covering the walls and spiralling steps leading down to the cafeteria.

            No one in their school went down the stairs properly as they lived at ridiculously high storeys like the hundred and thirty-seventh storey. Acacia usually (when she wasn’t transporting) used her ability as a Water Elemental and formed a water-surf from water particles in the air. She then surfed through it like she was actually at sea.

            Annice was an Electric Elemental, able to do anything related to lightning—like running at super speeds or charging her iCom (I Communicate) just by touch. She also had the Tail ability—a Superability—which was having a tail that could be extended at will. Claris didn’t have a very useful ability to go down the stairs, so she slid down the handrail while using her Voicer ability to whoop loudly.

            During meals like lunch and dinner, the three main stairwells for the campus were like roads with dozens of carriages and motorfloats trying to go in four directions at once. Since there were seven hundred and fourteen storeys in the school with most of the upper floors being living quarters, the stairwells were all jammed with students, faculty, and non-faculty every time the bell rang.

            Acacia and a few other elementals surfed down the stairs, except for some Earth Elementals like Kara Illognis who used vines to swing down. Claris joined her ‘whooping’ team as they slid down the handrail, leaving Annice to her monkey-like tail and super-speeding electricity to swing down as fast as lightning.

            In the cafeteria, the chatter continued to buzz about. Acacia switched on her iCom, to check for the news update in their school on the field trip. No updates yet. She grabbed a tray from the counter and joined the snaking queue to get her meal. 

            Today, the dinner was supposed to be some pop-cake surprise, made from Dyian fruits like phase lemons and aquaberries. Phase lemons were special lemons that weren’t solid, and only became so when ripe. Aquaberries—also Acacia’s favourite fruit—were small turquoise berries with patterned golden leaves and tasted like honey and strawberries.

            Everyone was excited for the night’s meal. However—the cafeteria cook—Mrs Beatrice had run out of the cakes and had to give the last few girls and boys choco-coa cream cakes—choco-coa sponges with a delicious fruity cream—which weren’t as nice but still delicious.

            And food shortage wasn’t the only challenge in the cafeteria.

            After all, people need to sit down to eat.

            Acacia and Annice pushed their way past wave after wave of students. After finally arriving at an empty table, they quickly sat down in case any table-nabbers came first. “Phew, that was tough,” she wiped her glistening forehead. “Who knew finding a table makes you sweat?”

            To be honest, slipping through gaps between people while balancing cakes on trays and trying not to crash into anyone was a bit like dancing ballet from one end of a room to the other repeatedly.

            As they ate their cakes, Acacia thought about the field trip. It was scheduled for tomorrow, starting early in the morning, and ending after the overnight camp at Hillary Hills. There were activities that sounded kind of cool, like the Muzzle Maze and Lava Dive, especially the Dragon-racing Competition.

            They would be divided into groups of four—and even better, they could choose who to be on their team! Another girl plopped down on the seat beside Acacia, carrying a choco-coa cream cake on her tray. Acacia stared at the girl, finding it strange that she recognized her. “Korii?”

            “The one and only,” the girl—Korii—replied. She and Acacia went to the same Ability-Making class. Their class was special, for the students who were genetically believed to have three abilities instead of the usual two.

            “So…care to introduce me?” Annice mumbled, breaking the awkward silence that followed. Acacia cleared her throat.

            “Oh, yeah. Korii, this is my best friend Annice, and, um…Annice, this is Korii.” Acacia wasn’t used to introducing people formally, which was why she turned tomato red right after. Thankfully, no one noticed, and Annice and Korii shook hands.

            As they ate their cakes, Acacia watched everyone in the cafeteria. Her eyes fell on a pretty girl—probably a cheerleader, talking quietly with a tall boy in a black cloak. Cloaks were common in Dyia, usually used to isolate students to their Houses, used during events like the Inter-House Obstacle-course Racing Championship and also as an accessory. But there was something about the guy that gave Acacia the creeps.

            “Who’s that?” she asked, pointing at them. Annice shrugged—which was expected, since she was in Blue House, not Black House. Korii frowned. “Do you mean the girl or the boy?”

            “Both. Do you know them?”

            “Yes…the girl is Janessa and…umm…the boy is…Kenrii, my brother.”