Deviant Academy

Will's POV So you think you want to hear our story. I can understand the appeal, from an outsider’s perspective. We’ve got s*x; we’ve got lies; we’ve got murder; we’ve got magic. We’ve got student-teacher affairs, cheaters, liars, dead moms, and daddy issues. We’ve got a world teeming with disorder and chaos. We’ve got Telepaths, Empaths, Teleporters, Firestarters, Sirens… The list goes on. And to top it all off, the heroes of this story are teenagers. I suppose, to you, all that might sound appealing. I’ll tell you right now, though—think again. This isn’t a story for the faint of heart. It’s a f****d-up, dark, twisted whirlwind of a story that’s going to leave you wondering what kind of s**t show you’ve walked into. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. - - - - -  Since you insisted on staying, I’ll give you a little lay of the land before we dive in. There are three things you need to know about our little magic school—officially known as Mysteria Academy and unofficially known as Deviant Academy. (I’ll get into the Deviant part later.) The first is that every student, along with every teacher, falls into one of six categories: Physicals, Elementals, Telekinetics, Psychics, Shifters, and OP’s. (For those of you who never played video games, OP means Overpowered. Basically, those lucky bastards have multiple abilities, not limited to any one label. They’re rare, but they do exist.) The second thing you need to know is that the Academy is basically Switzerland. Whatever f****d-up s**t is going on in the outside world—and, believe me, there’s a lot of it—we’re left out of it. No matter who our parents are, no matter what our beliefs are about who should be in power, we’re left alone to learn. “Learn” being a loose term for what goes on in those hallowed halls. The third, and most important, thing to know about the Academy is that You Don’t f**k With the Deviant Squad. There are four members of the Deviant Squad: Rachel Rosario, Stella Everette, Dash Teller, and Nate Worthington. They’re all beautiful, powerful, elite, and, if you ask me, totally f*****g evil. But enough talking. I always liked showing better than telling. - - - - -   Our story starts the way all good stories do: at a party. The party is being hosted by Nate Worthington, as most Academy parties are. Most of us live in the dorms, but the Deviant Squad, as usual, are the exceptions to the rule. They live together in a glitzy mansion owned by Nate’s ridiculously wealthy parents that’s nearly the size of the entire Academy, a few blocks away from it. And, since the rules don’t apply to them, they’re allowed to host as many parties as they want there, whenever they want.  “My man!” Nate greets me when I arrive, giving me a fist-bump followed by a bone-crushing hug. The bone-crushing part isn’t entirely intentional; Nate’s an extremely powerful Physical whose strength he can’t always control. “Thanks for coming!” This is the typical reaction to my presence, though it’s not particularly sincere. Some might mistake me for popular, but it’s really just who my father is—Tom Tisdale, the headmaster of the Academy and renowned Psychic who helped establish Mysteria as the “Kingdom of Magics.” Okay, fine—I’ll give you a little more backstory before we continue. Mysteria, formerly known as Canada, is the “kingdom of Magics.” Magics are less affectionately known as “Deviants”—the people like us who were “gifted” with abilities. Mysteria is basically the place the Magics fled to when the Normals started killing us. Which brings us to my mom—killed by Normals. Dad never told me exactly what happened, but I got the gist of it: they were pissed at her and him for founding Mysteria, so they killed her. Tried to kill him, too, but he got away. Pleasant story, right? “Hey, man,” I say politely to Nate as he releases me from his supernaturally tight embrace. “Thanks for hosting.” “Come on,” Nate says, gesturing for me to follow him to the beer pong table. “Whaddaya say we cream these bitches again?” I glance at the beer pong table, where Rachel and Stella are being “creamed,” as Nate so eloquently put it, by Dash and one of his lesser known, yet nearly as handsome, pals. For the record, Dash is an OP - both Telekinetic and Physical. So it's not exactly a surprise that he's winning, considering he can sink the ball into the cup using only his mind. Not that the girls aren't powerful, too; trust me, they are. But neither Stella's Shifting abilities nor Rachel's OP's (Elemental and Psychic) really help them much in beer pong. “Sure,” I manage through gritted teeth. Don’t get me wrong—like any man with a working lower half, I enjoy looking at Rachel and Stella. Rachel is as stereotypically pretty as it gets—legs for days; stick figure; long, bleach-blond hair akin to Daenerys Targaryen’s; baby blue eyes that kill. Stella’s a little less supermodel-ish, though no less beautiful, with a short, curvy figure (huge t**s, if that wasn’t clear by the word “curvy”), stick-straight, honey-blond hair that she keeps cropped in a trendy, asymmetrical bob, and sharp, dark eyes that, frankly, I find a bit scary. That’s the thing, really—the bitches scare me. I don’t like being around them. But I’m already here, so I might as well embrace it. “You asshole!” Rachel whines at Dash as he sinks his ping pong ball into her team’s last cup. She dramatically chucks the ball at him before chugging the beer, then turns her baby blue gaze on me, pouting. “You’ll be kinder to us, won’t you, Will?” “Not a chance,” Nate says for me as he shoves Dash and his cohort out of the way and gestures for another of his mates to refill and re-rack our cups. “You’re going down again, Rosario. One of your favorite things to do.” For the record, no one but Nate would get away with dissing the queen bee like that.  I try to pay attention to the shallow conversations taking place around me as we play our game, but I lose every inch of focus when I see her. Payton Shields. Payton has been at the Academy for two years, yet most of us know almost nothing about her. I, creeper that I am, used my headmaster’s son perks to my advantage to learn what I could: she was smuggled out of America and into Mysteria by her parents, Luke and Maria Shields, who were murdered in the process. Her older brother Liam got her safely to us, deposited her at the Academy, and proceeded to join the Protective Society—the Magic group dedicated to promoting peace and protecting Normals from violent, radical Magics like the Deviant Society. Kind of a weird Society to join when your own parents have just been killed by the very people you're swearing to protect, but frankly, no matter which Society you join, you're screwed. I’ll go ahead and tell you that Stella, Dash, and Nate’s parents are all high-ups in the Deviant Society, and that Dash’s parents even run the damn thing. But all the details can wait. I like to consider myself a deeper and more thoughtful individual than the likes of the Deviant Squad, but I won’t deny the facts when it comes to Payton Shields: she’s absolutely gorgeous, and she makes my heart do cartwheels for days. She’s got this crazy, messy, vibrant red hair that seems to catch the light even in a dark room, and these deep, striking emerald eyes that put even the Academy’s well-manicured lawns and gardens to shame. She carries herself with this unusual, floating sort of grace that no one else I’ve ever met does, and when she smiles, it literally takes my breath away. Unfortunately, I don’t think she has any idea who I am.