"Wake up kids!",shouted the lady. It was morning and Zane bolted up on his bed. He wasn't used to being woken up so early in the morning.
"What's the matter?",he asked the lady."Nothing",she replied."You need to wake up!""But why so early?",asked Zane.The lady rolled her eyes in reply and walked away muttering.Almost all the kids were up and dressed.Zane got up, brushed his teeth, took a bath and changed his clothes thinking that maybe life in the streets wasn't so bad after all but immediately dismissing the thought when he saw the food. It smelled so good that he could hardly control himself. The other nine kids had gathered around the table only Zane was left to take his seat. The girl, Natalie, from yesterday, had seated herself beside him. She smiled at him as he approached.The big table with all the food on it almost reminded him of his own home. In Byrandan. He, his father, his mother, and their other relatives used to sit exactly like that and eat in their big palace. Now it was all gone. Zane served himself and began eating. Something wasn't right. Zane had never been to an adoption centre before but he was pretty sure that it wasn't that good. They had places like that in Byrandan too, for werewolf kids who had lost their parents and the facility was not as good as here. Zane could see that they were being treated too lavishly and royally though he didn't object.When they were done, The lady asked them all to come with her. All of the ten kids followed the lady, she opened a door that was hidden on the floor and asked them all to climb down and wait for her.Zane thought it was some crazy exercise she was making them do. As Zane was climbing down, his steps faltered. He smelled fear, anxiety and nervousness in the air. It all was directed from Natalie. She was shaking and Zane did not know why.Zane wanted to comfort her but she seemed like she wanted to be left all alone. The lady came down after a few moments and cleared her throat,"So children, just gather around. I have an announcement to make!"Some were excited,some were nervous and some were really scared, like Natalie. Zane could smell everything.The room didn't look bad. It was really big. The light was dim and bookshelves were all around them. Ten chairs were placed in the middle of the room, of ten different colours. A big chair was there infront of all of them . And lots of chairs and tables were stacked in the corner."What is this place?",asked a boy"Just hold on to your curiousity for a little while children, I just need to find the paper",said the lady fumbling with a bunch of old papers, finally she looked like she found the one she was looking for."Alright kiddos, look here!",said the lady.'We are looking...",said a girl in a bored voice."Good morning youngsters, I am your guide to helping you achieve your hidden talents.",read the lady."My name is Eva and I work for Queen Isabella. You all are here because you have special powers, powers that others don't have and we will help you discover it. Humans, have lived on for thousands of years, and they have powers none know about. Sometimes they go unnoticed but other times, you aura is strong and you get attracted to this place. It attracts supernaturals. Children like you, so all we want to do is help. In the end, one of you are going to get out of here and go to the palace to work for the queen. You have one year to train, pass the monthly tests every month and finally win the competition. Good luck!"She finally looked up with a glimmer of pride in her eyes."Any questions kids?",she asked"What makes us so special? Why are we the only ones with power?",asked Mick"Not everyone's got powers. There is a small percentage of humans who have. Like, there's a small percentage in Africa, a little in Canada, a little in India, a little in Britain and all over the world and we have orphanages like this all over the world, these powers show up at a very young age. Among all the humans, there's a small percentage of humans who have powers genes in their DNA. It's basically present in everyone, it's dormant but in your cases, it showed up",said Eva."So we need to protect you from yourselves and protect others from you and then you'll advance and work for Queen Isabella"'We are not working for anyone!",shouted a boy, and some others muttered in agreement.The lady, Eva, smiled her sweetest smile and said,"You don't have much of a choice honey and by working I don't mean like a servant, it is more like you'd be the happiest person alive, you would have all the things you wish for but, you will be fighting for the queen, completing quests for her, dangerous ones of course"The creepiness in her voice was enough to shut them up.Zane had no idea what she was talking about. But he got the idea that she meant that none of them were normal there. They were probably like him or better.For a second Zane felt relieved that he wasn't the odd one out there. But, he remembered what she had said about the queen and the dangerous quests, even if he made out of the orphanage, he wasn't going to be safe, he would have to go to some queen and serve her, but the words of Eva rang in his ears, she had said that they could have anything they wished for , to the queen. What if Zane wished for his family,his planet. Zane made up his mind that he was going to compete and then win. He had nothing to lose but if he won then there was chance that he could see his beloved ones again.Zane raised his hand and said,"What's the competition?"Eva beamed at him and said,"I like this one....well, you are Zane, I can't disclose that but I can tell you that it won't be easy"Another boy raised his hand and said,"How did you manage to find all the children with abilities? None of us even know we have supernatural abilities but you do somehow"The lady smiled and said,"Well Bennett , so you see, all of you are orphans. This orphanage is a supernatural place that attracts the supernatural orphans. I don't need to do any work, I just find you all in my doorstep. You all are 'supernaturally' attracted to this place. I was waiting for five girls and five boys and now that we have all, I think we should get started and train""But we don't even know what our powers are! And I am pretty sure it is not real! How can someone have magic powers?",asked a girlThe lady snapped her fingers and disappeared, everybody including Zane, gasped. The lady appeared back and asked,"Now, does that look not real to you? I said all of you have powers, some or the other thing. You may not know what they are now, but that's what I am here for, I'll help you discover them"The children listened in silence. It was too much for them to take in. Everybody looked shocked and surprised, none of them knew what they were or what powers they had except Zane, he knew what he was and he glanced at Natalie, she still looked uneasy. And Zane had the perfect impression that she knew who she was and she did not want to disclose it."Are we all ready?",asked Eva"Yes!", everyone replied.All of the ten children were standing infront of a table with a thin dirty stick on it.Zane was not sure how that was going to work but they were all ordered to stand there and break that damned stick just with the power of their will. Meaning, they had to break the stick only and only with the help of staring at it and forcing it break with the sheer force of will, definitely without touching it."This is stupid",said Natalie suddenly from behind.Everybody looked at her, surprised. Even Eva suddenly seemed interested in her."I am sorry Natalie, what did you say?",she asked"I-I mean that this is stupid!",she inhaled sharply."NO ONE IS GOING TO HAVE SOME STUPID POWERS ABOUT BREAKING SOMETHING BY JUST LOOKING AT IT! AND WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?! WHY DO SUDDENLY SEEM SO INTERESTED IN ORPHANS?! S
"Let's go to the practice room now!",said Zane, getting up. "Or Miss Eva is going to burst with anger!"Natalie grinned and nodded and said,"Yeah, sure, let's go"The children were all still standing in front of their sticks and forcing it to break merely by the power of them looking at it and it looked like it was definitely not working.When Zane and Natalie entered the room, Eva looked at them sternly but did not say anything.Both of them went back in front of their tables and looked at that unfortunate piece of stick.Zane knew that it wasn't going to work for him so he wasn't particularly concentrating.Suddenly he heard a crack. A stick had broken for someone.Every head turned towards a girl standing with a broken stick in front of her."Miss Helen?",said Eva approaching the girl."You managed to break the stick"The gi
*2 months passed*Zane was sitting in the round table with the other nine children. It was his second month in the orphanageNatalie sat beside Zane and on his other side sat Bennett. Mick, Aidan and the other kids sat around the family like a big happy family. And Eva's voice came telling everyone to meet her at the practice room.All the children gathered in the room with Eva sitting in the front table."Okay children, I am calling out your names and as I do, please come forward and take a seat",said Eva, opening her diary. "Helen, status, a gerfin "Helen went forward and took a seat."Mick, status, a hender",Eva called out and Mick took a seat beside Helen."Bennett, status, a gwentus. Alice, status,a perfa. Derek, status, a zawen. Laurel, status, a qirpelt. Aidan, status, a cozentrer. Emily, status, an aviatell.",said Eva with a glint of pride in he
Scarlett Olivia was a normal girl with a normal life and it sucked. Her mother was dead and she lived with her father and her step-mother. Her step mother had three children, Arthur, Ruby and Mary. Arthur and Ruby were excruciatingly stupid and irritating . Mary was fine, she was understanding and everything that her siblings were not.The problem was that Scarlett was rich, like very very rich. Her father was a neurosurgeon and mostly stayed out of town. Everyone thought that Scarlett would be happy because she was so rich, but she was not. Her step-mother made her life living hell.Her father always told her to try and cope with her step-mother because she had too much in her mind too. But all she did was throw parties to her friends and neighbours and find any stupid way to waste money. Scarlett wished her mother was alive, because her mother was the only person apart from Sophia, her friend, who understood her.She studied in
Zane didn't like the girl named Scarlett. He was sitting and talking with Natalie when he saw the girl come in with Eva. She smelled so much sad, hurt, broken, nervous, scared and most of all, she smelled of lies.Zane almost got so confused by the overflow of all the smells of emotions that he had to stop smelling.Eva turned towards Scarlett and said,"If you don't mind then might I just have a word with my kids!"Scarlett nodded and said,"Sure! I will wait in the hallway"Saying this, Scarlett went outside the big room.Zane knew what Eva was going to tell them. She would tell them to control their powers and not reveal a thing about their identity to the girl and that is exactly what she said."Children, try to act normal, as normal as you can be, don't let her get suspicious. I couldn't ask her to not talk to you all because then it would have been even mor
"Are we seriously going to wear that?",asked Natalie"Yes, what's the problem with that?",asked Eva scowling"I mean they are pretty, but we are all wearing the same outfits?",asked Emily"Why Emily? Is that a problem?", asked Eva.Emily frowned and said,"Actually yes. All the girls are wearing pink dress and all the boys are wearing black shirts?! I mean won't we look like a band or something?""Yes Emily so what is the problem with that?",asked Eva."In case you haven't noticed we are not big on money right now....It would be great if you all tried to cope with it, this is what you all are wearing if you want to go to the party with Scarlett, or forget about it"Everyone was silent then Laurel said ,"Okay...we will wear those things, just let's get this over with, Scarlett is waiting outside"Everyone nodded and Eva handed them out
When the bus stopped, Zane thought it was one of those castles from his world.Scarlett's house was huge,it was really big and almost all the kids were staring at it from the window and gaping at it."Oh my God...Do you see that?!",Mick shouted Laurel.Laurel scrunched her nose and said,"Ofcourse I see it! I am not blind!"Laurel had been in a particularly bad mood since she had been made to wear the pink dress instead of the black dress she had been intending to wear.They saw Scarlett gesturing at them to follow her. As they were going to get out of the bus, Eva stopped them.Everyone looked at her and she said,"I won't be following you all inside but I assure I can see how you all are behaving. So all of you, behave yourselves and the only reason I brought you all here is because this is a part of the test. We will be monitoring your behaviour. So do your be
Ruby and Arthur stared at Zane incredulously."I know you from somewhere",said Arthur pulling up a pained expression"Woah....I don't know you from anywhere",said Zane in a convincing tone.Ruby gasped and said,"Arthur I saw this guy in my dreams! His name was something I don't remember..."Arthur shook his head vigorously and said,"I REMEMBER TOO! I SAW HIM IN MY DREAMS TOO!""Pardon?...You saw me in your dreams? Sounds a bit dramatic, don't you think?",said ZaneRuby smiled stupidly at Arthur and said,"Mary said we were mutual dreaming when we saw him in our dreams! Does it mean something?"Arthur shrugged like a big stupid baby boy and said,"I don't know but I think we should talk to him. We don't see a guy in our dreams everyday and see him in real life again!""Uh...I am standing right here",said Zane