“You have a scooter?” Olivia exclaimed in surprise when Pam stopped at the front of the bike racks and unlocked a white electrical scooter.

  “You kids aren’t the only ones that need to get around,” Pam replied as she walked the heavy vehicle over to where Olivia and I had parked our bikes. “Although the staff do need to rent theirs.”

  “Better than walking, I guess,” I said as I struggled with my bike. Because we’d hurried inside to warn everyone I’d let the bike fall where it was, rather than spending the extra five seconds to push it into the rack. The thing was heavy, and a little awkward to pull upright. Thankfully the system had logged me out, and the tires had locked up again, so I didn’t have to deal with it rolling.

  “Having problems?” Olivia giggled. She’d already righted her bike, and was already strapping on her helmet.

  “I’ve never been the most athletic person, and the bike is a little on the heavy side,” I huffed. Once I managed to get it upright I quickly retrieved my helmet and slipped onto the seat before I could lose my grip.

  “Are you kids ready?” Pam asked, looking us over. When I nodded, she smiled. “In that case, follow me.”

  When Pam took off down the path, Olivia swiftly followed. I still had a lot of problems with the bike, I’d only had five minutes of practice between my house and the school, but I felt a little bit more confident than last time.

  I managed to catch up to the other two just in time to catch part of their conversation.

  “We must be awfully lucky to be assigned to the closest building to the residential district,” Olivia chirped. “If we’d been assigned to the far side it could have taken us five or ten minutes to get to class, even with the bikes.”

  “Actually, the fact that you’ve both been assigned to the Darmont building isn’t coincidence, or luck. All Protected students are assigned to that building, and it has both extra safe rooms and security personnel,” Pam explained. “Not all of your classmates will be protected, as a matter of fact most will be standard Empowered people brought over to fill out the classes, but it is the only building where you’ll find protected students.”

  “How many protected students are there?” I asked. Even though I’d only taken my eyes off the path for a second I’d started going off track, so I wrenched the handlebars to try and get back on track.

  “Usually between ten and fifteen, so it’s unlikely that you’ll have another protected person in your class,” Pam replied. “The bureau needs to be very selective on who they offer protected status to, we can’t afford to protect everyone.”

  “This system sucks,” I grumbled.

  “I’m not going to disagree with you,” Pam muttered quietly.

  Even with the light traffic on the paths, and the long sweeping paths, it didn’t take us long to get to the Darmont building. From the outside it looked a lot more modern than the admin building, with large plate glass windows, skylights, and aluminum siding.

  When we got closer I realized that the building was actually split into two separate wings, separated by a large glass fronted atrium. I actually really liked the design.

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  Pam led us to another large set of bike racks, sitting opposite the main doors. She swiftly parked her scooter in an empty spot, then waited for Olivia and I.

  Oliva managed to smoothly maneuver her bike right into the racks without any issue, she’d probably been riding for years, while I took a minute. I didn’t want to use the engine to get over the raised bar that held the front tire in position, so I had to rock the bike back and forth several times to work up enough speed. I hesitantly pulled my hands off the handlebars, making sure that the bike wasn’t going to just topple over before I hopped off and put my helmet away.

  “Not much experience with a bike?” Pam asked, when I finally joined her and Olivia.

  “Nope, my mother struggled to earn enough money to keep a roof over our heads, and everything in the neighbourhood was within walking distance. It was an unnecessary expense,” I said.

  “Unnessisary expense? You can usually get a used one for a couple hundred bucks. I knew you guys were hard off before you came here, but I didn’t realize how hard off you really were,” Olivia exclaimed.

  “Yeah, well, it’s not something I really like discussing with people,” I shrugged. “Besides, our situation has improved immensely ever since we came here. My mother already has a couple good job prospects, it’s safer, and I’ve even made a good friend. Better to look forward, than look back.”

  Olivia reached out a hand and took my hand.

  “That’s it! Be positive!” she exclaimed with a smile.

  “Although I enjoyed hearing your backstory, and seeing this touching act of friendship, we really should get going,” Pam exclaimed with a tight smile. “Do you know which room we’re heading to?”

  Olivia tapped the face of her tracker a couple times, scrolling through the different displays until she found the one she wanted.

  “Room B-213,” she exclaimed, holding up the band so we could see.

  I glanced down at my own tracker, and flipped through a couple of the displays. There was a ton of information there, but I only knew what half of it meant. I’d have to actually do some research later.

  “Easy enough, Darmont has a pretty simple layout. A on the left, B on the right,” Pam explained as she led up to the entrance to the atrium.

  “Then what’s this middle section?” I asked.

  “Study area and cafeteria,” Pam replied. “There are plenty of tables scattered around the area, and even private rooms you can book through your tracker.”

  “Another function of the tracker? Is there anything they can’t do?” I muttered, staring down at the band.

  “Your homework,” Pam smirked. I cocked my head to the side, and looked up at her confused. “Even though you’re Empowered now, doesn’t mean you get to skip out on your school work. This entire campus was built to both help you learn to control your power, and continue your education. Although most Enclaves don’t have a post secondary campus on site, many do offer remote learning, so you can learn new skill… assuming you have the proper grades.”

  She pulled open one of the large plate glass doors, and ushered us into the building before continuing. “Some people believe they get a pass just because they have powers, and that can’t be further from the truth. Make sure you keep up with your classes.”

  “Not a problem!” Olivia chirped, and I nodded in agreement.

  The Atrium was much larger than I expected, probably between sixty and eighty feet across and filled with laminated wood tables. There were a number of students scattered around the area, some a couple years younger than us, and a couple that looked a year or two older. There was plenty of free space between them, which meant that everyone had a moderate amount of privacy, and didn’t have to yell over each other.

  Pam stepped inside and took an immediate right turn, her shoes echoing over the heavy tile floor. “There are three staircases going into each wing. One at each end of the atrium, and one in the middle. The elevators are located next to the middle one.”

  The staircase was a heavy concrete thing, with the same tile flooring, and steel framed, glass railings. It was wide enough to allow a lot of people to travel at once, either two groups going the opposite direction… or a large group fleeing an emergency.

  “Every fifth room is a safe room. I’d recommend you make yourself familiar with the one closest to your homeroom, there might only be a couple steps difference between the two closest ones, but those steps can make all the difference in an emergency.”

  “We’ll check it out,” I promised.

  As we walked down the second level mezzanine I took a quick look in the rooms that we passed. They appeared to be just regular classrooms, containing kids from around grade six or seven, to twelve. They looked so… normal.

  Pam stopped next to a door about half way down, and waited for Oliva and I to catch up. As we strolled up I glanced at the plate next to the door. B-213.

  “Hope you’re ready to meet your new classmates,” she said. I felt my stomach knot up as she reached over and knocked.

  “Like we have a choice,” I muttered under my breath.

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