Morning came... and we were very late.
"Ughhh, why didn't you set an alarm?!" Reina groaned, hopping around the room as she yanked on her socks.
"I thought you were staying at Hotel Me," I said, brushing my teeth. "That means you set the wake-up call."
She flipped me off over her shoulder. "Some hotel service you are."
We barely had time to grab our jackets and sprint across campus, dodging sleepy students, security bots, and one very angry cafeteria worker pushing a cart of spilled smoothies.
By the time we slipped into the lecture hall, panting, everyone was already seated.
And nobody cared.
At a college full of powered students, a couple of late arrivals wasn't even worth blinking at. Some kids teleported to class. Others phased through walls. One guy straight-up slept floating midair.
This was just... normal.
We slid into seats near the back, Reina slouching immediately like she planned to nap.
I pulled out a notepad, just to pretend.
At the podium, Professor Halbern—an old guy with silver hair and half a mechanical arm—clicked his tongue and scanned the roster.
"Repal," he said, glancing up.
"Present," I muttered, raising a hand.
Reina smirked next to me. "Ooh. Repal. Fancy name."
"Shut it."
The morning dragged on with the usual lectures: ethics of power use, city regulation codes, blah blah blah.
But it wasn't until the afternoon that things got interesting.
---
"Alright, everyone," Professor Halbern said, clapping his hands once. "Z Control."
A ripple of excitement ran through the class.
Z Control wasn't just another boring course. It was the course—where students actually got to use their abilities, in a safe, reinforced training hall the size of a football field.
Today's exercise was simple:
Practice fine control.
Manage emotions.
No catastrophic property damage.
(That last one had its own paragraph in the syllabus, thanks to a girl who accidentally turned half the west dormitory into a frozen wasteland last semester.)
The room buzzed as students warmed up.
One kid summoned tiny flame wisps between his fingers.
Another morphed his arms into solid steel.
Even Reina, stretching her arms overhead, popped her knuckles loudly as the faint shimmer of a teleportation gate flickered around her.
Everyone was doing something.
Except me.
And... her.
Iris.
She sat two mats down from me, tying her green hair back into a loose braid.
Her blue eyes sparkled like polished stones, calm and distant.
Iris had already awakened her Z Chromosome a year ago.
No one knew exactly what her power was yet—only that it was classified as "non-aggressive" by the administration.
She wasn't like Reina.
She wasn't loud, or reckless, or in-your-face.
She was quiet.
Graceful.
Beautiful.
My heart thudded in my chest just being near her.
"Hey, Repal," Reina said, sidling up next to me, eyebrows raised. "Not participating?"
I shrugged.
"Two reasons," I said, counting them off on my fingers. "Reason one: I want my power to stay secret."
Reina made a face, but nodded. She knew most people who revealed their powers too early got targeted—either by recruiters, corporations, or worse.
"And reason two?"
I smiled helplessly, glancing sideways at Iris.
"Obvious. Iris is next to me."
Reina blinked.
Then something... flickered across her face.
Something I couldn't quite catch.
She forced a grin, elbowing me lightly in the ribs.
"Perv," she said, laughing it off. "You're lucky I'm too amazing to be jealous."
But her voice cracked just a little.
I didn't notice.
Or maybe I did, and pretended not to.
---
Class ended without incident.
Most students were drenched in sweat or laughter, swapping stories about near-misses and wild power displays.
Reina teleported her bag to herself, the portal snapping shut with a pop.
Iris packed up slowly, her movements careful, precise.
When she stood, I caught a glimpse of the faint glow around her fingertips—a whisper of her ability—but she tucked her hands into her pockets before I could look closer.
"See ya tomorrow," she said, offering a small smile my way.
I nearly forgot how to breathe.
"Y-Yeah! You too!"
She nodded politely and walked off, her braid swinging behind her.
Reina watched her leave, arms folded across her chest.
"You've got it bad," she said.
"Yeah," I admitted, without shame.
For a second, I thought Reina would tease me.
Call me names.
Laugh.
But she just smiled... small and sad.
"She's nice," Reina said softly.
I glanced at her.
"You okay?"
She flashed a thumbs-up. "Totally. I'm, like, too cool to cry over some dumb crush, you know?"
But her teleport gate shimmered wrong—flickering in and out, unstable.
And for the first time, I wondered if maybe Reina's emotions were harder to control than she let on.
---
Later that night, as I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, I thought about her.
Not Reina.
Iris.
The way she moved.
The quiet power she carried without showing off.
The way just standing near her made everything else seem... lighter.
And maybe, somewhere deep down, I also thought about Reina.
The girl who barged into my room, called me slowpoke, threw pillows at my face, and made the whole world feel less lonely.
But I didn't know then—
Not yet—
How much the world was about to change.
For all of us.