Incarnate

The principal called for all students to remain in their homeroom for the remainder of the day. No one was to enter the halls, no one was to leave the classrooms, and most certainly, no one was to leave the school until the police had fully cleared the area.

Quite frankly, this was boring. 

To pass the time, Miss Applebee opted for a quiz, "Just to test your background knowledge of this class."

"What is this class, anyway?" Alice asked as she began to fill out the bubble sheet. 

"International mythology, of course. Did you girls not get schedules in the mail this week?"  Miss Applebee asked with false honesty. 

Lola shook her head. "All I ever got was a note from the principal saying there was some sort of error."

"Sa-darn it!" Hana squeaked. 

"what's wrong?"

"Broke my stupid pencil."

Shaking her head, Lola reached into her bag and pulled out an extra mechanical pencil. "Nana, the last thing we need is you fighting with the pencil sharpener."

Hana smiled gratefully and like a child took great joy in clicking the eraser until the lead came out.
 
There were many things Hana Monroe was good at. Working with a pencil sharpener, among many other seemingly easy devices, was most definitely not one of these things. Had their new classmates known this, they would have gotten up and bowed before Lola in thanks.

Silence fell over the room. The occasional squeak of an eraser was heard, but for much of the class nothing. While most teachers would enjoy the rare class time serenity, it was putting Miss Applebee on edge. She sat on her desk, unable to concentrate on anything. She repeatedly crossed and uncrossed her legs, chewed on her pen, and changed seats, but nothing could calm her down until she had the test results in her hands.

Interrupting the teachers anxiety was a faint rapping on the classroom door. She jumped up and carefully swung it opening, pulling the knocker roughly inside. "Diana, you're late." she scolded.

Diana bit bottom lip. "Sorry Harmony." 

Even though one could clearly tell she was in her mid-twenties, the doll like Diana never failed to soften those calling her out for her own mistakes.

"Whatever," Miss Applebee sighed, "Do you have it?"

Diana nodded, and from a satchel hanging limply from her shoulders, she pulled a small device that, in her own mind, had an odd resemblance to both a taxes and a cellphone, should one ever combine the two. "Better hurry, Gerald can only keep the school secure for so long."

Without answering, Miss Applebee called for her classes attention. "The police suspect that an unidentified chemical has been released into the air. They've asked t have every student scanned privately, just in case."

To Lola's shock, all the students around her willingly accepted to be scanned by whatever that thing was. Even Hana, who'd heard Mary-Lynn's potentially outrageous story about the scanners, had jumped right up and followed the teacher into the supply closet. She returned a few minutes later.

Miss Applebee stared in confusion at her class list. "Um, the only left is Dolores-Olivia?"

"Lola's short for Dolores-Olivia." Lola said with a shrug. A couple giggles filled the room. "Get it out now before it bothers me."

She walked over to the closet, and as Miss Applebee began to shut the door, she saiid, "I mean no disrespect, but in all honest, I don't trust this."

Instead of scolding her, a smile crossed her red coated lips."Finally, someone who isn't going to blindly follow me in here. I was getting a little worried I'd started in a school full of sheep."

"Isnt that what teachers want? Students who'll do what they say?" Lola asked, less than pleasant memories of the rest of Rockford Prep's faculty returning to her mind.

Miss Applebee shook her head. "Great minds, great leaders, and great imagination, that's what I'd like to see."

"So you think I'm a leader?" Lola asked in confusion, "Does that mean--"

"It's still a school mandated scan, even the prime minister couldn't get out of it." Miss Applebee replied bluntly.

Lola signed. She could fight, but she found herself unable to. All motivation, all energy, perhaps even her free will melted away as Miss Applebee held the scanner in front of her forehead. 

"Whoa." the teacher gasped, staring wide eyed at the scanner. She shook her head and returned to reality. "I can't believe it worked that fast, now go on, head back to class.

She was lying, that much Lola could tell. She didn't say anything, and instead, turned to leave, her eyes still locked on her teacher. Whatever that scanner said, it had nothing to do with some mysterious chemical that may or may not even exist. Determination to figure out the truth would likely take over her attempt at ignorance. 

Had only the 11th grader been able to stay only ten minutes after the final bell rang and police escorted students off the campus would she had known.

"Lola's test results were off the charts! I haven't seen an energy level that high since... Ever."

"C'mon Sis, be realistic." Diana said. She took a seat on here sisters desk and began flipping through the days test scores. "But she did get almost a perfect score."

"Most if them did, there was only one student in the class that failed."

"Well its your fault for making me take the test!"

"Shut up Carlton!" Harmony hissed. 

"But--" 

"Did I stutter? You should know these answers better than any of these girls! You're the one who's trained in--"

"Barely! You and Di got all the proper training, I got the hand-me-down lessons!"

"Hey hey! Enough!" Diana slammed her hand down on the desk. "Stop making me be the voice of reason! We need to get to work. If anyone here is half as atrong as you think they are--" 

"Then it's incredible dangerous to leave the girls out there on their own." Harmony groaned and ran her fingers through auburn hair. "They've already started to cause destruction. A fountain exploded in Tokyo from too much water pressure, there were only three kids there, Yuuki and two schoolyard bullies. A fire started in a Chinese dance studio around the time Rena learned of her mother's passing. Similar incidents happened in western Europe, mostly Ireland and England, where both Hana and Alice are from."

"So you're saying--"

"We've still got three girls to find. But until now, we've got five of our incarnates. And I swear, we cannot let them go."