Theories

-CEDRIC-

"I didn't know how I even ended up being part of the Alpha Section. Swear!"

As expected, my best friend Andrew asked me how I ended up on that weird section, so that was my response.

It's true. I didn't have any single clue up until now as to why I was suddenly transferred there.

"Maybe you got rank 1 last semester?" Andrew made a guess, a very out of this world theory to be exact. I looked at him in disbelief.

"Really? You think that grumpy old teacher will promote me to being the rank 1 of our class?" I rolled my eyes at him. "She always scolds me and tells me there's no way for me to accelerate in the next years to come. So how was that even possible?"

Andrew suddenly chuckled with that. He, of all people, should know that fact about my former adviser. I always keep him up to date about my status with her.

Eventually he stopped laughing and I was kinda surprised when I felt his right hand resting on my shoulder. I looked up to him and I saw him smiling.

"Anyway, whatever the reason is, I'm happy that you were able to transfer to Alpha Section."

"Thanks bro." I said, smiling back at him.

"Well, you can share to me what you've learned in your classes. In that way, you can help me transfer to your section as well." he suddenly suggested.

"Sure thing--"

I paused for a moment as soon as I remembered rule #3 that Mr. Cruz discussed in class earlier this morning. With that, there's no way for me to share with my best friend here whatever I'll learn from our adviser.

"Bro... is there something wrong?"

My series of thoughts were soon interrupted when I heard again Andrew spoke.

"N-nothing. I said, sure thing I'll be glad to do anything I can to share with you all the things I'll learn in class." I said half-heartedly.

Andrew's face instantly lit up upon hearing that. "Thanks bro. I knew I could count on you."

I let out a lopsided grimace. Sorry bro for lying to you right now.

***

The next morning, I went early to room 409 for our first period class. This is kinda torture for me to wake up thirty minutes than what I was used to do on my previous section.

I was about to open the door of our classroom when someone opened it up on the other end. A few seconds later, I was then face to face with the blind girl, that if I remember it accurately... her name's Elise.

"Good mor-"

I tried to be friendly with her by attempting to say my greetings but she just ignored me and walked away. Maybe she's on her way to the girl's restroom, I suppose?

Curiosity soon got the best of me as I watched her petite figure walking away from me. If she's really blind, then how come she can walk that way with so much ease? You know, most blinds I've watched on tv or seen on the streets have their watch dogs with them or carry a cane to guide them as they walk.

Something's off with her. I can definitely feel it.

"Good morning Cedric!"

My thoughts of this girl were soon interrupted by that energetic voice. I turned to face the girl who greeted me just now and was immediately greeted by Kylie's smiling face. I decided to enter the classroom and went straight to my seat.

"Good morning." I greeted her back.

I heard someone snoring to my right so I turned to face my seatmate. who's currently sleeping soundly in his seat. Looks like someone is suffering the same torture as I was.

"It's normal. He's really a sleepy-head you know. Just kindly wake him up for me as soon as Mr. Cruz arrives here." Kylie explained when she noticed I was looking at my seatmate.

"Alright."

Speaking of which, the door opened once again so we all thought it was already Mr. Cruz. But then we heaved out a sigh of relief when we all saw that same girl who I came across with earlier.

As I watched her closely, I suddenly saw a glimpse of sadness lingering on those grayish eyes of hers, like she's the type of person who never ever smiled in her life. Or is it just me who's imagining things here?

"Elise Salviejo. She's the type of person you don't want to bump into." I heard again Kylie spoke as we watched Elise walk back to her seat.

"Why is that?" I said, pushing back my glasses.

"Her family owns this school." she said as a matter of fact. "So that's why you make sure you don't do anything to her that can expel you from this school."

"I see." My eyes then were focused on the girl we're talking about right now. She's kinda intriguing me, but I'm not sure why.

Soon, Mr. Cruz arrives so I immediately wake my seatmate here. After three attempts of waking him up, I finally succeeded. Still a bit dazed from his quick slumber, Mitch soon got up from his seat.

"Good morning class." Mr. Cruz greeted us with all the energy he could muster. "As what I discussed with you yesterday, can someone share his or her thoughts as to why they're here?"

All became dead silent as Mr. Cruz gave each one of us his meaningful stare. I was kinda surprised though that none of these smart asses dared to raise his or her hand.

"You, Mr. Magbanua, is there something you would like to share in class?" I winced as I heard our adviser called out my name before standing up from my seat. I looked at him, but made minimal eye contact.

"I-I don't have the answers yet, sir. " I said, eyes now glued to the ground. "But what I do know is that I shouldn't be here."

"What do you mean by that? You're quitting from this section?" I heard the seriousness in our adviser's tone. I slowly nodded.

"That's right."

I heard Mr. Cruz heaved out a long sigh before pausing for a moment. Curious as to what he's doing right now, I turned to look up, only to see him getting something from his desk.

It didn't take that long before he waved in front of the class a piece of paper he's now holding to his right hand.

"Here in my hand is the official list given and signed by the school director himself. " His eyes now are gazing on mine. "So that only means I was never wrong of transferring you to Alpha Section because you're on this list, Mr. Magbanua."

I bowed my head in a sincere apology. "Apologies, Mr. Cruz."

He motions for me to sit, and so I did. Then he starts to roam around his gaze to my other classmates.

"Who else would like to share their thoughts in class?" he asked for the second time, but none of my classmates responded.

"Very well. If you still don't have any idea as to why you're here, maybe this task that I'll be giving will help you out."

That immediately sparked our attention. A task? Why can't he discuss it himself?

"I will let you go to the library now, and search for some information about this section. By tomorrow, you'll have to tell me about the theories you've made based on what you've read. Are we all clear?"

"Yes sir." we all said in unison.

"Okay then. Please utilize the remaining time of our class by going to the library. You're dismissed."

After Mr. Cruz dismissed us with his last statement, we all stood up from our seats and went straight to the library.

I was really amazed to see how vast it is on the inside, like this whole room is somehow equivalent to two classrooms combined.

"Woah. I kinda like it here. This place is huge." Mitch had just said the exact same words that's currently going on in my head.

"You haven't been to this place?" My brows furrowed as I turned to look at him.

I mean, man... libraries are the coolest place to hang out in the entire campus, literally cool. Like this whole room is super air-conditioned, I can just stay here and sleep all day long.

"He's more into mobile games than reading books." Kylie said as a matter of fact. I heard Mitch then hissed.

"Alright. Quit your yapping and let's get to business, shall we?" Mitch was the one who led the way inside and the rest of us followed after him.

We decided to separate ways so that we can scan more bookshelves and can gather a lot of information faster. As for me, I decided to go to the farthest bookshelf standing on the left side corner of the library.

However upon reaching the mentioned shelf, my eyebrows were instantly knitted together as I scanned the books placed on it with my right hand.

It's kinda weird since all the books that are in here talk about otherworldly topics, like telekinesis, telepathy, speed improvement, and all other weird topics that I can only get to see in movies or in fantasy books or comics.

As I slid my fingers to each book on that shelf, it immediately stopped and landed on a slightly thick book with a green cover on it. It's just my instincts that tell me to pull out this book and so I did, only to be surprised by its book title written in bold letters.

"How to improve your property?" I read the title out loud, but not too loud for others to hear. My forehead creased as I read it.

Well, since I'm freakin' curious as to what this book actually contains, I hesitantly opened the said book with one hand while holding it with my other hand. I read the introductory part out loud as well.

"Property... term used for extraordinary powers that a human possess." This made me pause for a moment.

Wait a minute, powers? What is this, some kind of a fiction book? In this modern world where it is run mainly by science and technology, who will believe in such absurd things as the existence of powers, right?

"Tch... powers my ass."

I returned the book to where I had got it from and was about to walk away from here to transfer to another shelf when something caught my eye on my right. I immediately took a few steps towards a shelf that I saw which contains several trophies on top of it.

Above it is a hall of fame board where I can see several photos of students either wearing a medal or holding up a trophy. At the top most part of the board is a photo of a girl who most probably won a weight-lifting competition, based on the background and on the barbel that she's holding with both of her well-toned arms.

Under the said photo were these words:

"The first alpha student and Olympic gold medalist." I read its caption.

Not only that, as I completely scan this whole hall of fame board, I can see other pictures of students that I think have won something in different fields, may it be in sports, music, academics, etc…

So I'm guessing all of the students who are in these photos belong to Alpha Section. And if grouped together, there's this one thing that they are all similar at, that's why they were here in this section.

That's why I'm in this section.

I can't just pinpoint exactly what's that common thing that is true to all of them.

"Hey Cedric!"

I almost jumped out of my skin as soon as I felt a finger pinched the right side of my tummy, stopping my series of thoughts in an instant. As I turned to look at this human being who did that, I was soon greeted by the smiling face of my classmate Kylie.

Behind her is our other classmate Mitch who's currently busy laughing. Good thing there's no librarian assigned here right now or else our asses will be kicked out right at this moment because of the noise that these weird classmates of mine are causing.

"You scared the hell out of me Kylie!" I said, squinting my eyes at her and glaring at Mitch who's still laughing. "Quit laughing, will 'ya?!"

"I'm sorry. You were just this focused and so I was tempted to surprise you." she stated, face flushing.

"You didn't even know that it's already time for our break, don't you?" asked Mitch. And with that, I hurriedly made a glance on my wrist watch.

"Shoot! You're right. I'm sorry, I got carried away... reading books." I shifted my eyes away from them.

"Why is that so? Do you perhaps have any idea now about Mr. Cruz' question?" I saw Kylie arching one eyebrow as she looked at me, arms crossing on her chest.

"Me? No, not at all." I denied, barking a nervous laugh. "I'm still really confused if you ask me."

Actually, I've already come up with my own theory about that. But the thing here is, it's really weird and an out of this world theory that if I tell them this instance, I'm sure they won't believe it either.

"Too bad. We haven't came up with any theories ourselves." Kylie said, smiling.

"Are we guys going to the cafeteria or what? I'm kinda starving in here." Mitch chimed in in a flat tone.

So later on we started to walk towards the door to head out for the cafeteria. But before I completely left the facility, I took my time first to glance over my shoulder to look at the bookshelf to where I went earlier.

For a second back there, I was thinking that maybe Alpha Section is about a group of students born with supernatural powers.

But then again, who would believe in such ridiculous things, right?