A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

I opened my eyes and saw a man staring at me.

He stood up and said,"You have to eat something, your blood sugar is low."

"Who are you?! And what did you do to my family?!"I yelled.

"Their location isn't necessary, all that is is that I'm not going to harm you."

"Where's my mom?!"

He looked at me for a few seconds, then left, without a word.

Tears welled up in my eyes when I saw my mother and Alex and ran into their arms.

I yelled,"Mom! I thought you died! I thought, I thought, I don't even know what I thought, I'm just so glad to have you back."

"Oh son, I love you so much but..."She said with tears welling up in her eyes,"I need you to listen to me, you are a very special child, the both of you are and I was very lucky to have you..."

"Mom, why are you saying this?"I asked, anxiously.

"Because..."Tears started streaming down her cheeks,"Because I can't take care of you any longer."

"What?!"Alex and I simultaneously yelled.

"I'm sorry but Felix has reached a stage in his life where, the best help he can get is in the place we're taking him to; Bright Academy."She said.

"Wait, so you're saying..."Alex began.

"Felix, I..."

"No mom! This is all a dream and I'm just going to wake up in bed and everything will be better, I'll be back in Keta and none of this would have happened..."

"Felix please..."

"How could you even think about abandoning me like this?! Don't you love me anymore?!"

"Off course I love you..."She said and hugged us,"...I love the both of you."

I pulled back then asked,"Then why are you sending me off to this military school?"

"Because they could take better care of you than I ever could."She said.

"And how do you know?"I asked.

"Because they took good care of your father..."She said, looking at the man.

I looked at the man, fear, joy and confusion mingled together in my heart as he frowned then asked in a rather agitated tone,"Why did you tell them?!"

"Because they deserve to know."My mom said.

I just wanted the man, my own father, to hug me, tell me everything will be alright, sympathise with me and we'll all be a happy family, but I felt overwhelmed by sleep and fainted into his arms...

Then the shape shifters changed back to their original forms and one said,"If only she were really alive...sir, is something wrong?"

My father held me in his arms, I reminded him of her, quiet, antisocial and alone, he gritted his teeth then placed me down and said,"Take him for orientation."

The people agreed to meet his demands.

***

I woke up again in a lobby, on a white couch this time.

The first person I saw was a silver aged woman.

She smiled warmly and said,"Welcome Felix Oppong, to Bright Academy."

I was confused and looked around for my family, they were nowhere to be found. I looked back at her and she said,"Yes, I know you must have many questions by now."

I let out an involuntary yawn, I could see her but in my mind, I saw a formless blue blob, in a pale blue background on a polka dotted floor, and her voice was crystal clear. I was used to these mind games by now.

She asked if I had any questions and I asked,"Where is my family?"

"I'm sorry but you wouldn't be able to see them indefinitely."She said.

Those words felt like sword thrusts to my heart.

I started crying again and she walked to me and placed her hand on my shoulder and said,"Don't cry Felix, I promise I will try everything in my power to make you see them again soon."

I looked at her with a glimmer of hope in my eyes. She then said,"Now you need your mark."

Then she took a stamp and placed it on the veins of my left wrist.

It was green and she tapped it.

It projected a screen which displayed all my information and a few extra facts I didn't understand:

Unsealed information:

Name - Felix Kwesi Oppong

Age - Six years

Height - 45.1 inches

Weight - 27.1 kilograms

Factor - Mantter

Tribe - Hydrogene

House - Franklin

Level - 0.00

Sealed information:

Duels fought - 0

Duels won - 0

Duels lost - 0

She said,"This is all your basic information, you don't have access to your more critical information until you reach level 5. Stephanie will lead you to your room."

Just then, a blonde haired maid with brown eyes came to me and waved then said,"Hello, my name is Stephanie, if you will please follow me."

I was scared of her and retracted into my seat.

The woman dismissed her and made a call, soon I felt another blob gradually appear at my back, a big one.

I turned back to see...

"Dad!"I yelled as I threw my arms around his waist.

He looked at me then removed my hands and said,"Follow me."

I—without hesitation—obeyed his command.

He took me for a five hour tour of the gigantic school.

The school was so big, it took the space of a whole island.

The school composed of four tall buildings made of steel and solar glass, arranged at the corners of a huge square shaped open field sports centre.

It contained everything an Olympic athletic area will contain, it's just it was super sized.

The school itself was on the North of the sports centre, between two of the buildings, while the lobby was a much smaller building between the South facing buildings.

The residence of the staff was in two other buildings East and West of the sports field.

He pointed out that the four tallest buildings were the houses, where the students lived.

The Northeast one was Frannie, the Northwest was Adam, the Southwest was Franklin and the Southeast was Eve.

I was on the third floor of Franklin and the whole floor was my room, apart from the elevators and stairs.

I didn't say a word during the tour, I just wanted to be with him.

I hugged his arm the whole time but he usually struggled to remove it.

I didn't understand why he was being like this, but I didn't care, I finally had a father.

He took me to the room and was walking away but I couldn't let him just leave, then words just blurted out of my mouth,"Why did you leave?"

He stopped and without turning, said,"I had other priorities."

Then he walked away.

I started crying again and ran to my bed and sobbed on the pillow.

I stayed there for a few seconds till the sound of a housefly played in my mind, seconds before I actually heard it.

I sat up and swayed my hands to drive it away.

I managed to hit it then it became larger and turned into a boy.

I screamed and fell off the bed.

He was clearly in pain, but he attended to my needs first.

He said,"I'm so sorry, I just saw you crying so I wanted to see what was wrong."

I said,"Who are you and how did you do that?!"

"Oh, my name's Cody Rodriguez, your roommate and... you don't know what a light is?"He asked.

"No! I don't, everyone is mentioning it and its creeping me out."

"Well, I have an ability to control anybody, change into any animal, provided I've seen it, heard it, felt it, tasted it and smelled it, and other things with practice."He said.

I said weirdly,"You tasted a housefly?"

He said with his eyes half closed,"I don't want to talk about it, but more to you, why were you crying?"

I sniffed and said,"It's a family matter."

"Oh really? Cause I also have family issues which is a way of life if you live in an extended home with forty three members and counting."

I blinked and asked,"Wait, you're my roommate?"

He said,"One of them, we're four in the room."

I felt selfconscious and he seemed to understand since he said,"Don't worry, one of them doesn't like people. The bore snore over there is Junior, he has an energon factor, that means he manipulates energy one way or the other, he's an enforcer. He controls forces and the last one, who isn't in the room at the moment is Jason, he has an amazing photographic and audiographic memory and with practice will have telekinesis, mind control and other sweet abilities."

I asked,"So everyone here is... different?"

"Well, if you put it that way, yeah, there are only thirty two students in the whole school."

I looked out the window with heavy eyes as I was still sleepy. I saw a basically never ending island and it was occupied by just thirty students?!

That was mind boggling.

I was eating my dinner which the maids had served. My food contained a lot of water, watery soup with mashed water yam and watermelon slices with seeds.

I drank the glass of warm water when I was done and looked at Jason. He had come and hour before the food was served but had not taken his eyes off the big book he was reading, even for a second.

He hadn't even touched his food which was rich in veggies and omegas.

I was about to call him who looked like a normal person with a blue shapeless blob around him and mumbles coming from his rapping lips.

I didn't know why I had felt so sleepy all day but I had and I decided to give my body the rest it wanted so.

I was woken up by Junior.

I saw his chubby cheeks and brown hair.

He had silver eyes and looked Caucasian.

I asked why he woke me up and he said,"You need to get to class."

I sat up and let out a mighty roar of a yawn and stood up then lazily walked to the bathroom.

I had a cold bath(I wanted to) and brushed my teeth.

I saw my bed was already made with a white tuxedo with black revers, the bowtie was also black.

It seemed to be the uniform as it had a badge and the others were also wearing the same thing.

I had no idea where my class was and wanted to ask but before I did, Jason clicked the green mark on my wrist and without removing his finger, said,"You're in level 0 so you're in class A, tell it to show you a map."

I nodded and did just that.

It projected a green coloured map with a red line on it showing the direction. I wondered how he knew what I was thinking.

I followed the line to my class and realized I was late, by 7:12.

The teacher was a short man with a whole lot of gut, he had black hair and a shiny desert in the forest of his hair in the middle.

He told me to take a seat among the other six students in the class.

I sat down beside an Indian girl with hair up to her shoulders. She waved at me and I felt selfconscious and shyly waved back.

I could tell she thought I was rude because of how she looked at me after that.

The teacher said,"So for those of you who are new to my class, my name is Brad Ford and I will be teaching you about brightness, now to begin..."

I wanted to ask what a ' brightness ' was, but I was too shy so he continued,"I want each of you to mention your name and your factor."

Two of them groaned, it was obvious they had done this several times before.

The Indian girl stood up and said,"Hello, my name is Roopa Roberts and I am an Energon."

A boy who seemed African stood up and said,"Hi, I'm Miguel Jacobs and I'm a Mantter."

The next boy, who seemed Asian stood up and said proudly,"I'm Franklin Pitt and I'm both an Energon and a Mantter."

' Wait you can have two factors? ' I thought.

The next was another Asian, but a girl, she said,"I'm Su Lee and I'm an Energon."

The next was a black American girl named Sydney August, she was a Mantter.

The final person before me was an Australian boy who was a Mantter.

I didn't understand any of the terms they were using and it was soon my turn.

I was scared to stand up and slowly did.

When everyone's eyes were on me, my stomach made painful knots and I began to sweat profusely and started to hyperventilate.

A student picked his water bottle and the water was churning, like there was a powerful pump in it.

My heart was thumping and my brain, throbbing then suddenly, I tensed when Mr Ford placed his hands on my shoulders.

He said,"Calm down, breathe, are you okay?"

I nodded rigidly then he said,"Everytime you get a panic attack like that, breathe some cool air or let it touch your torso, it will calm you down."

I nodded then he said,"Now talk."

"My name is...my name is Felix Oppong and I'm a Mantter."

"There, that wasn't so hard, was it?"He asked.

I shook my head and quickly sat down then placed my head on my laps and closed my eyes, yet I could still see the blue blobs and hear their judging whispers.

Mr Ford went forward and said,"Okay, now if you've read your light books you must know everything to know, so, who can tell me the history of lights?"

Three students raised their hands but Franklin seemed to be the most desperate to answer.

Mr Ford picked me of all people.

I almost had a panic attack, but took deep breaths then said,"I don't think most electromagnetic radiation has a history, apart from its radiation from the nuclear fusion in the sun or another star, owing not only to its temperature and gravitational pressure but also the principle of quantum tunneling."

No one seemed to understand and Mr Ford seemed surprised, he said,"Smart answer, but that isn't the light I was talking about Felix, yes Roopa."

She stood up, triumphant over the other two who raised their hands and said,"Lights began when a large meteorite crashed into the ocean and emitted special light that changed the DNA of some special people in the world and it was passed down from generation to generation until it came to us."

"Good answer."Mr Ford said.

' So light came from light? But how? Which kind? What is light? ' I asked myself.

Mr Ford continued teaching but I couldn't pay attention because I was so sleepy.

I didn't know why I was always sleepy now but didn't like it.

I woke up in my room...