FRANKLIN THE FIRST

My mother opened her eyes then immediately saw and ran to Alex then kissed him all over, she thought she had lost him, but where was I?

She looked back when she heard doors opening, with a man coming in.

He immediately started walking towards my mom and disrespectfully tried to grab Alex but before she could resist, she felt a painful surge of electric charges flow through her.

Alex screamed for her as they dragged him away and she tried to get out but she was stuck.

Alex gurgled out water as it was poured directly into his nostrils and he felt like he would drown, then the man said,"Again."

They tried it again, but to no avail, Alex didn't have a light...

' I fell asleep?! I missed the whole lesson! But why wasn't I punished? ' Thoughts like these were racing through my mind.

I sat up and saw my roommates acting like nothing happened.

' Wait, school is closed? How long does it last? ' I thought again.

"Seven hours."

I looked at Jason who hadn't taken his eyes off the book and I asked,"What?"

"School lasts seven hours."He continued.

"How did you know that's what I was thinking?"

"It's a skill I recently learned, how to read minds."He answered.

"Wait, so I've been asleep for seven hours?"I asked.

He nodded.

' What?! ' I yelled.

"Aw, can you please stop yelling."He said.

"Okay..."

I wanted to ask him to stay out of my mind but was too shy, then he said,"I like reading minds, I learn new things."

"But I didn't think."

"I read minds, which means anything related to the mind, the mind controls hormones and thus feelings, I can read those too."

I looked around, I still felt mildly sleepy, but it was under control now. I gathered the courage to ask,"Do you know why I always feel tired?"

He arched a brow and for the first time in all the time I had known him, he looked away from the book, showing his beautiful silvery copper eyes.

He smirked and said,"You really had to do a lot of fighting to say that, didn't you?"

I nodded then he said,"It's your light, you can control and survive in water, this is because your brain sends nerve impulses through your body to the part you want to use to control the water and the ions change the water's properties by ionising it, it changes back to normal in a split second but ' interprets ' (air quotes) the impulses into a ' language ' the water can understand because of its memory properties. The water you want to control ' understands ' these messages and murmurates to do what you want, using the weak nuclear force to help it tell apart different directions then moves around, aka, you control water with your mind. This process uses a lot of brain power so you'll always be sleepy."

' But I don't use my abilities...or is it the blue vision and hearing? ' I thought.

"Yes it is, that is your sixth sense called water vision, it's one of the first skills H 2 Orders like yourself get, it is very similar to the sense of proprioception, some specialized sensory neurones all around your body are able to sense the presence and movement of water in space without you actually seeing, feeling or hearing them."

"Can I like put it off? It's pretty annoying."

"Can you stop hearing? Or seeing? It's the same way, but you can increase your brain power and stop being sleepy by learning new things, the more the better."

"...can you be my teacher?"

He gave me a strict look before saying,"Come on."

I rushed to his side and looked into the book.

I lay down on my bed with the light switched off, regurgitating and analyzing all the new things I had learned before Jason fell asleep.

It turned out, light was the term given to the ability a person had and Brightness was the act of having the gene that gave you the ability. That's where the school got its name.

Also, I could actually manipulate water, or at least had the potential to.

Also the reason we got lights was that a meteorite made of a really radioactive element not even on the periodic table landed not in the ocean, but in the caldera lake Bosomtwi.

This meteorite decayed quickly into more stable elements but the radiation spread all around the world when it orbited the planet before crashing down.

The radiation was very precise and selective, drastically mutating a rare and recessive gene which had basically no use since it was always switched off, but was related to the environment of the person.

The gene changed to have the ability to change the eye colour of the possessor to one that matched it perfectly, that's why I had blue eyes and he had grey- brown ones.

The gene also gave the possessor the ability to either control matter, where they'd be called a Mantter, or energy, where they were Energons.

I closed my eyes when I was sure I remembered all of it.

I woke up and got ready then sprinted to class and got there on time.

Mr Ford began to teach about levels.

He said,"Now, who knows what a level is?"

The same three people raised their hands again but there was one more he gladly picked.

I slowly stood up and said,"Levels are numerical values used to display how powerful a person's light is at the moment, they are measured on the mohs scale of hardness, with each level light only being able to significantly scratch something of a similar number or lower, with the difference between each level being greater than the last."

Everyone was clearly surprised as I took my seat.

I also realized everyone in the class was a different age, I was the youngest with Sydney being the oldest.

Franklin also seemed to be the top student in the class as he always bragged about being only 0.12 digits away from level 1.

Mr Ford dismissed the class after 8:00 and I was confused.

' That's all? But I thought it was seven hours. Unless there is another subject, but what? ' I thought to myself.

I checked the map and the next class wasn't far away, it was English.

' Wait, so they teach us topics like English? I thought it will all be about lights and how to control them. ' I thought.

The English was a slightly more advanced level than my age, but it wasn't that difficult to learn.

After Spanish, which was after English, I was directed to the lunch hall.

I was given a water based meal, as usual, but I didn't care.

I continued my lessons with Jason after that day and became a lot better in academia.

I also realized as the days went by, that I felt less sleepy during the day.

Jason had told me that your body limits your light, if you used it too much, you'd get hurt, so your body had to be strengthened before your light was.

He also told me lights are controlled by your thoughts and actions, that when you want it to work and you move, it will act according to that movement, they could also be controlled by emotions, but that was more dangerous as you had little to no control and it could not be held back by your body's limit.

He also helped me find out why I recently got my light, I always had it, it just wasn't activated. A light could only be activated once you were placed in a life threatening situation related to your brightness and your brain will activate it in hopes of saving your life, or be exposed to gamma radiation of the right frequency to ' jumpstart it '.

I wanted to leave and meet my family as soon as possible so I was determined to become the best of the best.

My mom was being dragged by some men in uniform, probably to a testing facility.

This brought back horrendous memories of her past, then she heard the screaming of a child and screamed then pulled one man's head into the other's, then elbowed the first and placed her hand cuffs on the second's neck till he stopped struggling.

She tried to rescue her son but she was captured again, this time, by using whatever electric charge generator they had on her.

I began training with Junior as well so I could make my light stronger without limits, but how would I do it?

The more I used my light, the stronger it became, but I couldn't even use it. Not once had I made a drop of water float.

I asked Cody to help me learn to control it and he agreed.

On my first lesson, he took me to a pond in the tropical rainforest of the island and said I should make ripples on it.

I closed my eyes and concentrated then swiped my arm so the water will do the same but it was so hard to move it.

There was so much resistance, like moving through mercury.

I tried over and over again and was so frustrated when it didn't work.

I yelled in rage and water just splashed on my feet, just then I felt seriously drained of energy and fainted.

I woke up on a hospital bed with a concentrated oxygen mask on. I sat up feeling very weak and looked around.

My roommates were around me and I asked what happened, Cody told me I got emotional and overused my light which drained all my brain's power, I needed to be put on life support.

"It's that dangerous?"I asked.

Jason removed the mask and said,"Yes, that's why you have to control your emotions when you have a brightness."

I was given some food to increase my blood sugar and restart my brain as I couldn't feel my legs.

I had slept for over two days so I couldn't sleep that night.

I stood in the grassy sports field with the cool misty breeze around me.

I got into a defensive stance and took a deep breath. The air felt purer and better than normal air.

I raised my hand and it was exhausting.

My hand couldn't move. I gave up and sat down then started shedding tears.

I was never going to see my family again.

I felt my reflexes slow down and saw several deep blue blobs floating around in my mind.

I hadn't seen something so deep before and had to see them for myself.

I looked up to see tiny drops of water floating around.