Stars: The New Beginning

PROLOGUE

It was ten minutes past three in the afternoon, Robyn was in her French class and the teacher Mrs Ralivee had just revealed the test results for the end of term.
"Ere are your paperz. You zhall mark zem as uzual. In five minutez I zhall call out ze register and you zhall tell me your percentagez" said the teacher in the most phlegmatic accent you have ever heard in your entire life.
The front row wiped their faces clean of the teachers disgusting saliva and carried with their work.
'Thank god I'm in the third row' Robyn thought. As she was counting her marks, she noticed that she had missed an accent in one little word so she let out a small squeak. She only had ninety nine percent in her test.
"Robyn, test rezultz zs'il vous plait," sprayed Mrs Ralivee.
Robyn stood up from her seat, and ever so slowly walked up to the teachers desk,
"Er...er...um...erm...nine...ninety...nine...ppp.p…p.pp.percent" Robyn said feebly.
"WHAT! Robyn, Robyn, Robyn, my best student only got NINETY NINE PERCENT?! I cannot believe thiz, you obviouzly have not been paying attention in my clazz. I will have to move you to the....................FRONT ROW!" (De de duuuuuhhhhh!!!) "GEORGE ZTOP THAT INFERNAL RACKET!" screamed the teacher
"Uh...sorry miss" mumbled George at the back of the class, hanging his head in shame.
"Anyway, Robyn zis iz pathetic, I would expect better from.....................uh, whatiz wrong wid your hair?" questioned a suddenly very worried looking teacher.
Robyn’s hair was standing on end,
"And what iz wrong wid your face?"
Robyn’s face was red as sunburnt tomato in mid-afternoon,
"Ehh...what iz gooing onn?"
Robyn’s eyes and hands were sparking electricity.
"I have no idea miss, but next time say it, don't spray it," whispered Robyn, in a calm but extremely angry voice which was several Octaves higher than usual.
"What did you zay to me midget! Detention!" cried Mrs Ralivee, her chair toppling over as she stood up abruptly, pointing a triumphant finger at the small, red-faced girl. Robyn giggled, then laughed, laughed again, and then burst out into insane cackling.
"You called me a midget! Hehehehe, that’s not nice. You gave me a detention, my record is clean! CLEAN!!! And you pointed at me! Tututut. Do you not know it’s rude to point? Rude people must DIE! Or at least get reasonably hurt!" At that very moment in time a huge electric spark shot out of Robyn’s hand, it passed straight through Mrs Ralivee and onto the next person, and the next, and the next....

~~~

Two people witnessed this incident. The first was obviously Robyn. The second, the man. No one knew the man, no one had seen the man, he was just the man, the man at the window.
"Aha, we have found another one. STEPHEN!"
"Yes sir?"
" I need you to run an errand for me. Then, you will write a letter, a very special letter."
"Oh joy! You're having another tea party aren't you? I just love your tea parties! With the chocolate éclairs, the jammie dodgers and the cream buns. Oh the games, the games! Like pin the tail on me, I love being a big part of your parties and getting poked right in the..."
"That's enough Stephen, it's not a tea party letter, though I will do one soon at the school."
"Why do you do this? Why do you toy with me and get my hopes up?"
"Anyway, this letter will be sent to her...

Meanwhile, back in the classroom, Robyn had calmed back down and stared around, looking at what she done.
“Not again, not again,” she murmured, “Why does this always happen?”

She knew what she had to do. Erase herself from this school and move on to the next. The class wouldn’t remember a thing, they never remembered anything. She stepped over Mrs Ralivee, who lay in a heap on the floor, and scanned down the register until she found her name. She got a rubber (the school luckily wrote their registers in pencil) and erased her name and the whole line next to it. Then, silently, she headed in the direction of the office. Somehow, she had to get onto the computer and deleted all information on her. Fortunately, there came a cry from the centre of the school – the unconscious class must have been discovered. Everyone in the office ran out and headed in the direction of the cry. Robyn knew she didn’t have long. She rushed into the office and, being quite gifted at using computers, it took her five minutes to find her files and permanently delete them.  She walked out of the school slowly, keeping to the walls so no one would see her. She’d just gone through the gates and was heading home, or at least what she called home, when she realised a tall, mysterious man was blocking her path. She turned to go back, when she realised there was another person behind her. She started to panic and was about to run when he spoke.
“That was some pretty impressive power you did there.”
“Excuse me?” she whispered, unsure whether she could possibly have heard that right.
“I said you got a decent power. Electricity. Not easily controlled I see but that doesn’t matter now. Don’t look so frightened. I’m not going to hurt you. I’d tell you my name but I can’t until you’ve agreed.”
“To what?”
“Oh of course, I’m rambling again. I’ll start from the beginning. As I’m sure you’ve noticed you’re not like others. You’re unique. You’re gifted. However, you’re not the only one. I can help you. Every school you go to ends like this. You, running away, to a home you don’t have. I can give you a home and you can go to my school, where you’re not an outcast but just one of many. Think about it. In a few days, you’ll receive a letter, from a student, you’re sort of age. It will explain what I’ve just said and what’s going to happen next. Understand, Robyn?”
“Um…yes,” she replied, unsure of what was going on.
“I’ll be seeing you later and until you receive the letter lay low and stay around this area.”
Robyn went to speak again, but he’d gone.

~~~

"Chaos has been ruling the town this past week, as houses have been set on fire, people injured and small explosions erupting everywhere. Experts can not pinpoint what is causing all of this, but some say it is an extraterrestrial phenomena..."
Robyn sighed and stopped listening through the window of the house. She walked further down into the alley: her home. She slid down the wall and plunked herself firmly on the floor. As soon as she did, she heard footsteps echoing down the alley. They were slow, as if the person was unsure of what they were doing. A nervous voice called out her name and Robyn walked over to see a boy around her age holding a small brown envelope.
“Yes?”
“For you,” he said stretching out his arm.
She snatched the envelope out of his hands and the boy turned away and quickly ran off. She tore it open and read.

Dear Robyn,
                   What did I say about keeping a low profile? You weren’t supposed to attract any attention to yourself, but never mind. Now, as you will recall I had a chat with you earlier this week. Basically, you have electricity powers and I’m inviting you to my academy for gifted students such as yourself. You should accept this offer. It would give you a home, a place where you fit in. No other place will accept who and what you are. Don’t forget, not even your parents accepted you, they abandoned you.

She stopped reading. How did he know that? How did he know what they did to her? She relaxed; stopped remembering her past and continued reading.

Anyway, tomorrow at the crack of dawn, I’ll come and collect your answer. If it’s a yes, then we’ll set off to my school straight away and if it’s a no, well we’ll never bother you again. Of course if you change your mind after saying yes, you can forget it ever happened, but if you change your mind after saying no, you won’t get another chance. Think hard about it.

         Yours sincerely,
                               M.C

She thought about it. For several years now, she’d lived on the streets, managing. It couldn’t hurt to give it a try, judging by the fact that she’d been begging for a home for ages. On the other hand, how could she trust this man, who she’d hardly seen and when she had seen him he’d been blocking her path, seeming to be a paedophile. She sighed deeply and starting making her bed. She sat there, rereading the letter and remembering all that had happened to her. By the time she’d gone to bed, she’d made up her mind.

Robyn woke up. The sun was just rising, but she was being prodded awake. Her vision was a bit blurry, like always when she had just woken up, but she recognized who had woken her and of course knew because of the letter – it was the man.
“You made up your mind?” he asked.
She nodded her head and replied, “I’ve decided that although I can’t probably trust you, it wouldn’t hurt to give it a shot. I mean, there’s not much I have to loose. One thing is bothering me though.”
“What would that be?”
“Well, how did you know about my parents? It was years ago.”
“I do my research, have my sources. Now let’s go.”
“How we getting there? Car? Train? Bus?”
“Transportation actually.”
“Cars etcetera are transportation.”
“What? I didn’t say that, I said…ahem ‘Teleportation actually’.”
“What? You’ve got to be kidding me? You can’t be serious.”
“I am quite serious. I’ll be using my powers to get us there. Now hold on to my coat.”
“You expect me to grab a complete strangers coat and allow him to use some weird power to transport me to some unknown school?”
“Well, yeah I guess. Now can you keep quiet and grab a hold?”
Robyn held onto his coat, but didn’t shut up. She kept saying how it was crazy and she was out of mind, when before she knew she was no longer in her alley, but somewhere else.

~~~

A few minutes later, a towering school was in front if them.
"This is pretty nice"
"Nice? You are at a school, you can't use that word. Besides, our school is much better than nice,” said the man, slightly angry.
"Ok then. Oh my god! This school looks fantastic! I can't believe my eyes!" she exaggerated.
They quickly walked into the school. It wasn’t that big, but there was a huge field behind it that led to another building. All the hallways were just plain white, or at least would’ve been to begin with, now they were a dampening, dull grey. As she walked along, she noticed some of the walls weren’t even painted, they were just plastered, but she thought, the school couldn’t be too bad.
“Oh, by the way, did I mention about the uniform?”
“Uniform?!”
“Yes, here you go,” he said, handing it to her and then pointed to some toilets, “Go get changed in there, I’ll meet you just down the hall.”

A few minutes later, she met up with him.
“How’s the uniform?” he asked.
“I hate it,” she replied, bluntly.
MC sighed then led her into the next hallway. It was deserted.
"Well, I'm going to my class now. You should come too."
"Oh joy. I can't wait." Robyn said sarcastically.

As they went to MC's class, they passed some more toilets. A caretaker stood outside, mopping the floors.
"Why hello sir, little miss. She try to bunk?"
"Hello Frank. No, she's not. She's new."
"So how old are you kid, 12? 13?"
"I'm nearly 15 actually."
"Really? Wow, you sure are a midget!"
"What did you say?"
"I said you're a midget but no offence. Uh…your hair? Why's it sticking up like that? New fashion? Looks pretty stupid if you ask me. Then you have the colour. Horrible. I personally hate gi...”

He didn't get to finish as Robyn had had enough. She erupted and shot a ball of electricity right into his stomach.
"Ouch" he cried, before collapsing on the floor.
"Well, I better get the nurse," MC said, disappearing round the corner. He returned a few minutes later and the caretaker was carried off.
"Anyway, if you'll come with me you can meet my class. They're such a friendly bunch. I'm sure you'll love them and they'll love you." 
“Please don’t try and kid me.”
“Fine. In we go then.”
She followed MC into his class and everyone turned towards her...