I slowly open my eyes, wincing as the bright sunlight streaming into the room lands on my face. Wait? Sunlight? It was dark when I got here. I must have been unconscious for a while now. I sit up, noticing as I do so that I don't have any bruises. Will must have caught me before I hit the ground.

I internally roll my eyes at myself. I still can't believe that I fainted. I was basically told that I was an extremely powerful Alter, and how do I choose to prove myself? By giving an expressive display of power? By brushing it off like I already know how powerful I am? No, of course not. I choose to have a panic attack and pass out like a helpless damsel in distress, just waiting to be rescued by my shining knight in armor. Get a grip on yourself already, Kyla. You're supposed to be powerful not powerless.

As I sit in bed griping, a door I didn't realize was there opens, and Will walks in. When he sees me sitting up in bed, a grin lights up his face. "Kyla! You're awake! I was starting to wonder if you'd traveled to another dimension or something. I thought you'd miss your first day of classes! You've been asleep forever." He drags out the r so long it seems like he's going on forever.

I interrupt before my head explodes. I haven't had any caffeine yet, and I wouldn't want to start my first day by strangling one of my peers. "Where am I? I definitely didn't pass out here."

"Oh!" Will perks up as if he's been waiting for the question. "You my dear, are in your very own dormitory! A state of the art room, for you, and only you." He starts moving around the room, giving an exaggerated tour of the room, flinging his arms out like a cheesier version of Vanna White. "Here is your dresser, with a fingerprint lock." He places his finger on the scanning pad to demonstrate how his print doesn't work. "Only your prints will work on it, so you don't have to worry about people stealing your clothing." He looks me up and down. "I don't know if you would have to worry about that anyway though." I laugh as he continues. "Here is your bathroom, with - get this - a self flushing toilet." The look he gives me is so full of awe that I have to laugh at him again.

"Okay, okay. That's enough." I say, still laughing. Will doesn't seem irritated by my laughter though, he seems encouraged.

"Oh no, my lady. I can't stop now. You haven't gotten your full complimentary tour package yet." He walks up to the bed and helps me up. Suddenly serious, he continues. "I have to show you what you'll be doing from now on. Can't have you looking like an inexperienced newbie when classes start, now can we?" Then Will takes off, dragging me along with him.

He practically sprints to each of his destinations, with me in tow beside him. If by beside him you mean right behind him. And by right behind him you mean..Nah, you know what, let's go with right behind him.

Will finally slows after we've seen the office, the staircase, and the examination rooms, letting me catch my breath as we near a huge doorway. "Where...where...where are we?" I pant, struggling to catch my breath. Yeah so what? I'm not the most in shape of people. Netflix and cookies are my friends and I'm proud of that.

He instantly goes back to his Vanna White act, gesturing wildly at the doorway. "This," he pauses for dramatic effect."Is the training room. It's where us trainees will spend most of our time. We will learn here, fight here, and hang out here." He pauses to look at me. "You can do other things too." He wiggles his eyebrows at me and I laugh.

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Will." I chuckle. "You'll get like a demerit or lose some points, or something at least. This place seems too orderly for you to say things like that."

"That's where you are wrong. The headmaster and teachers actually don't care what we get up to. As long as it doesn't make us unable to fight and learn, we can do whatever we want. We have a basic list of rules, but nothing too serious. So I can do this," he waggles his eyebrows at me again, "all I want."

"But we have rules?" Will nods. "What are they?" I'm genuinely curious. I've never been the most well-behaved of children, my past teachers can all tell you that much, but I at least like knowing the rules. Nothing is worse than breaking a rule you didn't know existed.

Will recites the rules as if they've been drilled into his brain. By the look of this place, they probably have. "One: Do not injure another student outside of organized combat areas. Two: Do not go into any area that is outside of your clearance. Three: Don't do any act that may hinder your participation in classes. And of course, four, the most important rule. Don't show your powers or reveal yourself to a Nonie."

"A what now?" I ask, thinking he must have mispronounced a word or something.

"A Nonie. A non-Alter? We call them Nonies so that they don't know that we are referring to their lack of powers. Calling someone a non-Alter raises questions that we can't answer. But calling someone a Nonie can be brushed off as a pet name." Will shrugs. "We don't want to risk breaking that fourth rule."

"What happens if you do?" I ask curiously. Will seems afraid of even talking about breaking the rules. It's gotta be something good. I mean. Not good, like wow that's great. Good like a good punishment. Ah forget it. You know what I mean.

Will looks around nervously. "I-I don't know if I'm allowed to tell you that, Kyla. You just shouldn't break the rules, okay? If you don't break them, you'll never need to know what happens. And besides, you're new. You don't want to ruin your reputation this early in the year by asking about forbidden topics."

Forbidden huh? Fine. I can wait. I'm sure I can find somebody to tell me. That reminds me...

"Yeah that makes sense. Hey Will? When will I meet some of the other Alters?" He looks crestfallen at my words and I quickly backtrack. "Not that you aren't great, but I've been living for 16 years thinking that I was the only one. Now I've learned there's a whole bunch of us and I really just want to meet them all."

Will immediately brightens. "Oh, okay. Everybody is just right inside these doors. Most of the time if you want to find any of the trainees, they'll be in the training room."

"Cool. So can we go in or is there more to my amazing deluxe tour package?"

"Sure." Will shrugs. "We could have stopped a while ago. I was just wondering how long you were going to hold up before you got tired of running around. You lasted a lot longer than I thought. Most people stop at the office and just make me take them to the most important rooms."

My eyes open wide. "You mean I could have been spared from all of this torture?" He nods, not seeing my point. "You better run, Will." I warn.

I don't know whether it's the look in my eyes or the tone of my voice, but he does, straight into the hall. I chase after him until I can't run anymore. As in, I run thirty steps and then clutch my side as I'm struck with a cramp. I hate running.