The Life of Nemera Sandrine, Chapter 1, Part 1

Nemera woke up to the wail of her alarm clock. She felt around on her nightstand for it, since her roommates never hid it in the same place twice. In the process of finding it, she spilled her paper cup of water, lost her place in the latest Jenny Lockhad book, and shoveled off the table her new class schedule. She turned over only to be shaken at lightning speed by her angry roommate.

“Wake up, Winkle! You’re going to be late for class!”

Nemera flipped back over and opened one eye to see Cassie fully dressed and wearing the same scowl as yesterday. She checked the clock. 7:30. Classes started in a half hour. Clambering out of bed, she rushed to the bathroom across the hall.

Once there, she caught her breath and looked in the mirror. She never thought too much about how she looked since she thought herself average. Her hair didn’t have the blue tinge that some shades of black do, but it wasn’t lacking color in the sun. Average. Her eyes weren’t a shocking green, but they weren’t dull. Average. She was 5.5, not too tall or too short, her nose wasn’t fat or skinny, her lips weren’t too thin or really full, she wasn’t skinny or fat or muscular, she just thought herself average and in the middle.

Looking down, she saw a little blob of peppermint toothpaste on the outside of its tube. Scraping it off, she noticed that someone had snipped off the corner.

“I hate my life. Nothing goes the way I’d want it to. Ever,” she thought, sighing.

She continued through her morning routine; brushed her teeth, washed her face, brushed her hair and got dressed, creating a new personal record since she was in a rush.

Her day went just like the one before: She skipped a breakfast of granola bars, went to history, then math, science, art; went to lunch and got a tomato soup stain on her shirt; language arts, and finally her favorite class, ‘Useful Things For Every Powered Person’, where she practiced hacking into a major computer system. As she headed back to her dorm, a blonde girl with a pin-on button saying, ‘Principles Pet’ ran up to Nemera and stuffed an envelope into her hand.

“The principle wants to see you. NOW.”

Startled, Nemera opened the envelope with trembling hands. Had word got out that she skipped history yesterday? Was she going to have to do extra credit work? History was her least favorite, and she had to skip it to attend a ‘Save the Pandas’ strike. She had morphed into a panda and acted as the mascot, since that was her main power. She closed her eyes as she pulled out the note, and when she looked down, the word ‘history’ didn’t pop out anywhere on the page. And it didn't say 'panda'. That was a good sign, so she read it in fuller detail.

“To Miss Nemera Livia Sandrine.

Out of thousands of young adults with superpowers, you have been selected, along with 6 others, to help in the fight against the group known as ‘The Dominion’. Their main goal is to take complete control over the entire earth, and so they cannot be victorious. You can, however, choose not to help, although your abilities to morph into animals and telekinesis will be much needed in our quest to stop them. We request that you think this through carefully, as your life will be in mortal danger quite often. Reply at the next possible opportunity. -The President of the United Sates of America, speaking for The World Leaders.”

Nemera let out a little squeal, thinking that finally something different would happen. She ran until the next ‘no running in the hall’ sign, and even then she walked as fast as possible. Once out the door, she ran across the lawn to the actual college and paused at the principles door. Beaming, she knocked.

“Come in.”

Nemera had to force herself not to burst through the door. The principle looked up from her papers and said,

“So does this mean you’ll be accepting the proposal?”

Nemera tried to restrain herself from knocking her head off its socket as she nodded.

“I’ll call the agency that sent the letter. You’re to meet at the World Leaders headquarters in London. Your flight leaves at 10:00 AM tomorrow, and you’ll be given further instruction there. Any questions?” The principle had gone back to her papers as she said this. Nemera, still beaming, simply asked

“Why me?” The principle looked up, and smiling, stated,

“Because you are one of the most powerful people in the entire world. They looked through thousands of Power Registries, and you were number one on that list.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes, Miss Sandrine, I am very serious. Now go and pack up, you have a long trip ahead of you.”

~Later~

Nemera placed her bag beside her bed and fell face first onto a bunch of pillows. Turning over, she took what would probably be her last look at the “Texas College for the Paranormally and Technologically Gifted” dormitory #12. 125 kids resided in the east side, all surgically transformed into cyborgs to save their lives, 275 in the west side, most of which had superpowers. The rest had advanced intellects. She looked across the room, and soaked in what she saw. The two other beds, which belonged to her one-time roommates, sat against the wall. Their wardrobes, plural, were on the opposite wall, and their makeup bags were spilt uselessly across the gray carpet floor. The white walls held a pattern of red and orange koi, swimming between the lily pads. Pink water lilies barely began to open to the hidden sunrise, with dragonflies darting here and there. The walls were the reason Nemera had picked this room, ignoring the fact that her roomies were complete snobs.

“I think I know how those lilies feel,” she silently thought. “I’ve been closed this whole time, and am just now beginning to open.”

Looking back on her life, she realized that this was the first thing that had ever gone right. Her parents were killed when she was seven, just when she was discovering her abilities to shape shift into animals, all thanks to her mom’s superpower gene. Her mom could talk to animals. Going through countless foster homes, all of which thought she was too dangerous, she developed her own idea of street smarts. As she practiced enduring being shut out by the rest of the world and looked down upon, her abilities grew stronger by these feelings. When she was 18, only one year ago, she applied for the “Texas College for the Paranormally and Technologically Gifted”, and was accepted. Things were little better, but all that much she would tell herself every night. By now, she had developed her powers to be able to just change a single part of her body into that of an animals, turning herself into a freak at will. Her mind had also become stronger, in the sense that she now had psionic abilities. She could drag a human across the room, give him a headache via a psionic blast, and then send him frightful thoughts if she wanted… but she never wanted to. To cause someones hurt, or even death, would bring pain to someone else. And she had already experienced that pain. No one else needed to feel it. These thoughts had put Nemera to sleep, that and the joy of finally becoming something in the world that you could look up to.

Part 2:

The Flight!

…

I welcome all critique, so feel free to speak your mind! I would love to know how to improve my writing! WARNING: This book may get up to PG-13 at times!

Thank you for your advice, anti-pop!

It would never sound so… good… without you!