Dust, Star

Anastacia

Of the four hundred kids in my high school, there are about ten that I can stand being seen with. Seven of those ten I actually choose to hang out with outside of school, if you can call it that. Six of those seven are in my clique. I'm not talking about normal high school cliques made up of either jocks, nerds, or dancers. "Cliques" are what call the predetermined groups here. Each of us is placed in a clique way before we are even a twinkle in our parents' eye. By whom this decision is made is completely unknown, but it is definitely made. The closest I can come to describing the formation of our cliques is imprinting, only in the least romantic way.

Naveah Arevalo and I were the first of our clique; although that is arguable since Indigo Lochard and Liam Rusesabagina came in already "imprinted" on each other. Kiarra Kozol came next, followed by Kamya Huda. And we got our last member, Zoë Trzcinski this year. The formation of the cliques begins when you start school at Adornetto Academy of Gifted Beings, or double AGB. The way it works is when you make eye contact with someone who is predetermined to be in your clique and once the connection is made it feels like gravity is pulling you toward the person. Basically, you find yourself making eye contact with everyone you see until a bond is found. That's what happened with Kiarra and Zoë. We were eating lunch in the courtyard. Kiarra suddenly got up and walked over to a girl we had never seen before; their hands connected and the bond was made. Everyone had clapped, making a sound like rolling thunder. Different cliques may not get along around here but when it come to someone finding their clique, it's something pretty impressive. It's one of the only things that brings us together. Plus, it's not like the process is boring or anything. When your hands meet the other persons, there is a glow of electric blue that comes out of the the center of your palms. It starts as a small ball of light that expands until it is making an outline of your hands.

The only people outside my clique that I associate with are Naomi Kohn, Mae Kyles, Char-lee Searle, and Xavier Szivos. Naomi and I grew up together but we lost a lot of our connection after we joined up with seperate cliques. Mae and Char-lee are in most of my classes and after being forced to work together so many times, we decided to try getting along, which ended up in a pretty good friendship- one that exists only during school hours. Xavier is kind of the odd one out. He's in a darker clique than I am. When I say "darker" I just mean more mysterious; no one knows- not even me- what they can do. I've never seen Xavier do anything that the rest of us can do. Maybe that's why we get along so well. That, or it's his gorgeousness that engulfs me every time I see him.

Anyway...

Everyone at AAGB can do something. It's like a sort of power, or plague, depending on how you look at it. The kind of cool thing about it is that we weren't born with these "gifts". Just the opposite, actually. Each and every student here had cancer as a child. During treatments we all saw a variety of doctors but it only took one to make us this way. And it's not like we all come from the same place, or even the same hospitals. Not even close. Take my clique for example. Naheah came from England, Kamya(who we call Huda because he thinks "Kamya" is a girls name) is from India, Kiarra and Indigo are from different parts of Africa, Liam is here from Irland, and Zoë and I(Anastacia Denhard) came over from different parts of Greece. The only thing that we had in common at that time was our illnesses and those were also not identical. Liam and Zoë had brain tumors, Kiarra and Naveah had Leukemia, Indigo and Huda had Ewing Sarcoma, and I had Hepatoblastoma. The key to our puzzle is Dr. Julius LaVoie. The good doctor traveled to thirteen countrie in Asia, Australia, Europe, and Russia. On this medical tour of his, he injected a homemade recipe for crazy. Each dose reacted differently to our type of cancer. The amalgam bonded with our DNA and the resulting mutations were incredible.

There wasn't much of an immediate change; Dr. LaVoie said it might take a few days. What he neglected to tell us was what exactly he was pumping into our veins. His goal was to make us better. He wanted us to become an etra ordinary kind of human. To that I say, be careful what you wish for. Sure he cured our cancers, but he also turned us into animals- kind of anyway.

At first, we thought that each DNA mutation was related to the type of cancer we had. In the initial reports made by my night nurse, Miss Athena, that's what it sounded like was happening to all of us. But as more research was done, the more complicated it seemed to get. The kids with Leukemia south of the equator and in their early teen years, gained the ability to run four minute miles, and breathe underwater. Kids with brain tumors and dark skin could read minds while those with lighter skin could communicate through thoughts.

Just when they thought there was a pattern, things changed again. Our physical characteristics began alter. Kids started growing tails or noticing their nose change shape, or their pupils stretch. That was when it got really weird at home. Some kids got kicked out, others just ignored. I'm not sure why we were surprised to see it happen. Dr. LaVoie said we were "inhanced". At least he expected us to use our powers for good.

Then the recruitment began. Dr. LaVoie had a group of crazies to come around to our homes. They told us all about AAGB and our "mission" to save the human race. For most of us, it was our only option. Others fought it, but soon realized how much worse it would be to stay in society. In the world's eyes we were either heros or monsters. Those who believed the later kept watch over their families and community members. People threw rocks at us or even shot at us. Some of us did not make it to the academy at all.

Once we had arrived at AAGB we all laid pretty low. We tested out our abilities and started bonding with out cliques. It took about a week for us to start disagreeing. I mean come on, put four hundred kind from all over the glob in one space and eventually opinions are going to differ. Problems broke out over race and religion, ethics and expectations. Soon there were all out "clique wars". Then everyone realized that fighting was pointless. Still, none of us really like one another, and no one trusts ANYONE outside their cliques. Thank you, Dr. LaVoie.