Chapter 9

Lauren came for him after last class. Zach was stuffing his books into his already overfull locker when she asked:

"You ready?"

That made him wonder: was he ready?

What did it matter anyway? There was no going back now. According to the council he was a full fledge mutant and it was time to join the Xmen.

Zach locked his baby blues on Lauren's honey brown eyes and chuckled before saying, "Take me to Xavier."

Lauren just snorted at his lame ass joke and led the way.

When they entered the gym Zach was surprised that it looked just like the regular gym.

He couldn't detect any magic being used. It looked just like it always did save for the mats spread everywhere.

They were divided into six sections. On the mats sat the magical students of the school in deep meditation and in front of the entire assembly sat his science teacher Mr. Rothe on a dinky little circular crocheted rug, looking slightly ridiculous.

To the right side of the assembled were the bleachers. Zach made a beeline for them. He was . . . sooo . . . not ready for this. Yup he'd sit this one out. Get the lay of the land as they say.

Coward! He chided himself.

When he heard the squeak of a sneaker clad foot behind him, he turned in surprise to see Lauren following him to the bleachers.

"Aren't you participating today?"

"No," she said, "The guys wanted me to clue you in on a few things to avoid what happened earlier."

He knew it; he had put his foot in it—majorly -- judging by the look on Lauren's face.

Zach threw up his hands apologetically, but before he could say anything, Lauren stopped him.

"There's no need to apologize. We know you had no idea. Look we can't talk during meditation so let's just take a seat and I'll explain when training begins."

The first thing that Zach noticed during the mediation session was how few students were actually there.

For some reason he'd thought there would be more of them. He'd have to ask Lauren if there was another training class, but if this was the only one; then there would appear to be a little over one hundred students from his high school present. That meant that they were in the minority -- making up less than one fifth of the entire student body. Which meant if his math skills could be counted on, which they can't he's seriously shitty at math, then only one in five magical creatures come into their power.

He was literally shocked. He'd thought there'd be more of them. He hadn't realized how rare being Enlightened really was.

Another thing he noticed was that each section of meditating students had a teacher meditating with them on the mats.

There were five other teachers in attendance Mr Knight, his homeroom and Chemistry teacher, Ms Erika Steinman, his geography teacher, Ms Long, the history teach, Ms Murakami, his biology teacher, and Mr Conte, his Spanish teacher.

This made him wonder: were they training too or were they the trainers?

It was at this time that a melodic chime struck from out of nowhere and he felt the now familiar tingle of magic in the air.

The students came to their feet all at once with a collective sigh and the rustling of clothes seemed deafening after the calming silence.

That's when he noticed it. He had to snicker but then he groaned when he noticed everyone's attire. They were all dressed in form fitting black one piece outfits that looked like they were made out of a thick lycra or maybe even Kevlar.

Whatever it was, he didn't want to have anything to do with it. Okay so he didn't mind it on the girls in attendance, but no way in hell was he dressing like a Cirque du Soleil reject with his package in full view.

He turned to Lauren and pleaded, "Tell me I don't have to wear that?"

She just laughed, "We all do and it's not that bad. It's actually pretty comfortable and it also gives you full range of motion, and trust me when I say, you'll want that when sparing with the supes that can be found at this school."

He groaned as he watched the kids stand up and move to the outside of the mats and take a cross-legged seat on the outer edges and facing inward towards their teachers who were now standing in the centre of six different mats.

It was at this time that the teachers began to select students and moved with them to the center of their mats. It would appear they would spar with them as a means of instructing the other students.

Zach's mouth dropped open though when he saw the match-up in the center of the room. On the blue mat stood Travis the man mountain, as he liked to call him, and his social studies teacher Ms Steinman.

The confused teen swiveled his head to give Lauren a wide eyed stare -- telegraphing, a do you see what I'm seeing look.

Her face split into a wide grin and she said, "I know what you're thinking that Ms Steinman is a little person, but in her case she's an actual dwarf. An honest to God dwarf Zach, but there's no need to be concerned for her. I'd be concerned for Travis. He's the one that always holds back.

And Zach was concerned; don't get him wrong, or anything, he imagined the dwarf could fight, and it wasn't as though Ms Steinman lacked the muscle to get the job done. It wasn't the first time he'd noticed she had a professional bodybuilder's physique. It was just that she was only three feet and change and if he estimated generously only one third the size of her opponent.

For the first time he truly looked at his twenty-something teacher, like truly looked.

His German teacher looked like she'd be perfectly at home on the Bavarian Alps blissfully serving steins of frothy beer in an Ale House on Oktoberfest. Everything from her alabaster complexion, to her crystal blue eyes, right down to her platinum blonde hair that was now plaited and circling her round face like a headband, marked her as a perfect Aryan princess warrior in miniature.

And Zach watched as her delicate features took on a kill or be killed expression and suddenly he feared for Travis too.

Lauren as if sensing his thoughts announced with a sigh, "Poor Travis he's too soft hearted. That's why he studies Aikido (that's the study of not hurting your opponent). I hear he was bullied mercilessly before coming here, and as a result . . . , "Lauren leaned in conspiratorially and whispered with a hand held at the edge of her mouth, "I actually think he'd rather die than hurt someone."

In fact he won't even pick up a weapon. He's like that conscientious objector; in that movie what was it called, again? Lauren seemed to ponder it for a moment before she blurted out, "Oh yeah 'Hacksaw Ridge'. Have you seen it? OH my God I cried my eyes out. If you haven't we've got to --"

Lauren's words were cut short by an ear splitting BOOOOOM!

If Zach's eyes had not remained glued to the scene before him he would never have believed it.

Ms Steinman had actually flipped three hundred pound muscle bound Travis over her head and he had landed . . . HARD. Zach let out a low whistle when just as easily she helped him stand up with one hand.

"WOW!" Zach uttered in disbelief.

"I know right? That woman is hella impressive, and super strong. She's also the school's Smithy. She makes all the weapons we work with, and she teaches sacred geometry and iconography too. You'll learn more about that on Monday. We all have to take her class, because it teaches how to map the Ley Lines. I'll explain more about that later." Lauren nattered on excitedly.

Lauren eyes sparkled, her cheeks were flushed with excitement, and for some reason she seemed to be wearing a prema-grin. And to Zach, she'd never looked more beautiful; suddenly, he was struck with the urge to reach out and stroke her rosy cheek with his thumb to see if it was as soft and warm as it looked.

He almost did it, but he caught himself and chided, get a grip Reis, she's just happy to finally be able to share this crazy world with you.

Coming to his senses, Zach thought of another question,"Wait," he asked, "if Steinman's a dwarf, what is Travis?"

"Oh, that's simple he's a halfblood Mountain Troll." Lauren announced matter-of-factly.

When his mouth dropped open, she reached out to close it with the crook of her finger, and it snapped shut with an audible click, making her laugh.

Fifteen year old African American Travis Stone looked like a world champion bodybuilder -- Like Arnold Schwarzenegger pumped. Travis was the shortest guy in their gang, but what he lacked in height he made up for in girth. He was almost as wide as he was tall, and even his muscles had muscle.

And if Zach thought the other match up was impossible he didn't even know what to think about the next pairing.

Steinman called Meghan and Kyle up to the center of the mat.

The red headed beauty took to the mat with her crutches. Megan Merrick had explained to the class when they'd started together in grade seven that her disability was due to a spinal injury when she was very young, and that she couldn't walk without the aid of the crutches. Everyone pretty much learned the first week that she hated people doing things for her just because they thought she couldn't do it for herself, because as they soon found out she could.

But even so, Zach was none too impressed with the pair up.

"Hey what the hell," He complained. "How's she going to fight? She can't even use her hands or stand up without the crutches. That can't possibly be fair," he objected.

Lauren smirked cockily and said, "Just watch."

When Steinman lowered her arm Megan's legs shot out super fast and she seemed to go almost perpendicular to the crutches. Her feet had swung out like a pendulum, making full contact with Kyle's surprised face during their upward accent. He seemed to shake it off though. That was until she landed back down, and using one crutch to stand, she swung the other and made full contact with his blocking arm.

Zach heard a sickening crunch and witnessed Kyle go down like a sack of potatoes -- six foot four Nordic looking Kyle Audney with his honey blonde hair a pale blue eyes had just been taken out by a tiny 5 foot 7 inch red haired waif of a girl on crutches.

He could not believe the day he was having.

Lauren continued to smirk, "That'll teach you to under estimate a girl." She catcalled across the gym. "

"Wow, she must be some sort of super strong magical creature, right?" Zach said in disbelief.

"Nope, " Lauren crowed, "sure she's fast and heals quickly like the rest of us, but that was all her."

When he still looked confused, Lauren explained, "Zach, Meghan's an Undine that's a water type Fae. In her case she's actually a mermaid, which means she's pretty vulnerable out of the water here on land. She's just hella determined. Cam's an Undine too. He's a Selkie. That's like a seal shifter."

As if he'd heard his name, Cameron cupped both his hands around his mouth and bellowed. "That's right Bae, you show them the art of the deadly crutch!" from across the gym floor.

Cameron Murdoch was tall like Kyle but instead of being built he had more of a swimmers body, all long and lean limbs, making it look like he could slice through the water with ease. His light brown hair and seal grey eyes gave him a stereotypical boy next door appearance, but he gave off an air that didn't scream stereotypical. Right now he was beaming at his red headed green eyed girlfriend from the other side of the room like she had just discovered the cure for cancer.

Oh yeah the guy had it bad.

Kyle groaned dramatically which brought his attention back to him.

He was cradling his grossly misshapen appendage looking like he was about to pass the fuck out, but he managed to squeak out, "Don't encourage her, Brah!"

Zach turned to Lauren and blurted out, "Hey shouldn't we be concerned or something? I mean she broke his arm."

"Nah," Lauren waved off his concern. He'll heal fast. He's a Norse Demi God for gosh sakes. He's the halfblood son of Njord or something, beside there's always troll bile. That stuff is awful, but damn does it work. We drink it at the end of the class. It makes cuts, bruises, and even breaks heal almost instantaneously. The stuff supposed to be illegal, but in the interest of training us without holding back they allow it in the school."

"Gotta turn us into nice little soliders, don't they" Lauren said resentfully.

Just then Zach saw Knight bring over a vial. Kyle downed it with a pained look on his face before gagging several times.

Zach cringed when from across the room he actually heard Kyle's bones snap back in place and knit back together.

"Hey," Zach blurted out, eager to know, "what kind of magical being is Knight?"

"He's not," Lauren said matter-of-factly.

"Huh?" Zach was flabbergasted. Knock him over with a feather flabbergasted. "I don't understand how can he be here then?"

"Good question Zach. The M.A.G.I.C. Council considers anyone who they believe perverts magic," Lauren began to count off on her fingers." Creatures like: witches, warlocks, sorcerers, shamans, and their ilk who are taught how to siphon magic from the Ley Lines through apprenticeship rather than being born with the power to do so, or made magical creatures like a vampire or a werewolf, or even someone who has gained immortality from a divine source -- like Knight – they consider to be perversions and no better than halfbloods."

Lauren turned and fixed Zach with a serious as a heart attack stare and announced, "Zach, Knight is Sir Galahad. The most esteemed Knight of Arthur's round table and the obtainer of the Holy Grail. He drank from the cup and was given immortality."

"And now he's our Chem teacher," he said incredulously.

"Yeah that and our Alchemy and advanced Potions teacher."

O . . .K . . . Zach didn't know if he could get used to this.

He thought he could take it, but really . . . mermaids, selkies, demigods, mountain trolls, and immortal beings, who was he kidding. This was nuts! He wasn't ready for this and a part of him wished he would just wake up already, because this had to be a dream.

He just hoped it wasn't one of those dreams that turns into a nightmare.

This chapter is dedicated to @xxscentedlettersxx and @BrettHicks

Thanks for everything guys. You rock!

********************THANKS FOR READING***************

If you liked this chapter Vote, Comment, add, this book to your reading list, or suggest it to a friend. Thank you all for helping me reach my goal of 1000 reads by the end of the month. But alas Enlightened is still not listed because of a glitch when I first posted. Pray I can get it fixed or I'll have to delete this copy and start all over again.

Stay tuned, because you're going to want to read more;  Zach's weapons training is about to begin. Do you think Zach's going keep his head.

Just an aside question writing some of the seventh book and I need a name for a magic shop run by witches. Something like MissSpelled ? And Go . . .

Best suggestion gets a virtual hug.