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Within a few days, Richard made his way down the east coast, parting with Agent Olin and what few friends he had in Pocomoke City and leaving in a black FAMA car. On the way down, he kept himself occupied on his phone, scrolling through Reddit until his brain felt numb. Alex had recently introduced him to it, and he found nothing else to be a better time sink. 

The ride down I-95 to South Carolina felt eternal. They passed around DC, right through the heart of Richmond, and hit south Virginia by the afternoon, where they stopped at a fast food joint for lunch. These two agents were ones Richard wasn’t particularly familiar with, and he kept his distance appropriately. He spent most of his lunch texting Alex and munching on french fries. The agents stared at him from across the table with curiosity, but said nothing. Their quietness unsettled him. 

By nightfall, Richard arrived in Charleston. There, he stayed overnight at a hotel across from the FAMA station there. He spent most of the night staring out the window from his bed at the city sprawling out around him, trying hard not to think about anything. He slept poorly. 

The agents shuttled him to the bus station early in the morning and he shuffled aboard, awkwardly fumbling with his ID and bus ticket. He took a seat at the very back of the bus, content to spend his time staring out the window and not making eye contact with anyone. Other students came aboard the bus and took their seats. They all looked as scared as Richard felt, and he guessed that was a comfort. Within a half hour of departure, he was fast asleep, his head against the window. 

Richard awoke to the hiss of steam as the bus stopped on the road in front of the academy. He blinked hard to get the sleep out of his eyes and groaned as he rubbed his sore neck. He hung back as others departed the bus, texting with Alex. 

[code] “Guess I’m here now,”[/code] he said. 

[code] “Ur at a school for superheroes, at least try to be impressed,”[/code] Alex responded. 

[code] “None of these people are superheroes, and neither am I.”[/code] 

When everyone else had left, Richard walked to the front of the bus and got off. The heat immediately struck him; the FAMA agents had told him it would be hot in South Carolina, but Richard didn’t realize what that entailed. He had dressed for warmth, in a grey striped tank top and tan khaki shorts. He followed the crowd to the auditorium and found a seat near the back where no one else had gone to. As he looked around, he was astonished by the variety of people in this room. It seemed as if metahuman children from all over the world were in this auditorium, all of them with their own unique gifts. He watched each presented carefully. Adam Blackmore put the fear of God into him. Something about the old man intimidated him, and the threat of expulsion made him shiver a bit. Richard didn’t want to think about going back to Sundew. 

The bug-woman made Richard sit up straight. If there weren’t other people around, he would have gasped. Rich hadn’t been around metahumans long, and still he had trouble getting used to their presence. As the bug-woman talked about teams and games, Richard looked down at the floor and sighed. He held out his hand, palm-open. Tiny beads of liquid gold formed in the cracks of his palm and rolled around lazily like blobs of liquid mercury. He flexed his fingers, and they formed together into a blob the size of a ping pong ball. Then he closed his fist and the ball dissipated, sinking back into his skin. He felt something under his skin shift, like his muscles were sliding beneath it. That part of his power always freaked Richard out. 

Soon, the meeting was adjourned and the kids were herded off to the enormous, spotless cafeteria. The cafeteria was packed with students and the lines for food were becoming quite long. Richard picked one at random and grabbed a porcelain plate from a dispenser. People chattered at all sides of him. Richard talked to no one. Quietly, Richard made it to the front of the line and received a chicken pot pie and green beans. Then he looked around for somewhere to sit. Richard found that finding a place to sit in a cafeteria was perhaps the only part of teenaged life that movies actually got right. He scanned the room in vain, looking for somewhere to belong, for someone he knew or who looked inviting. It felt like everyone was looking at him. His skin crawled. 

Eventually, Richard found a place near the edge of the cafeteria, a long table where only a few people had sat down. To his left, two girls about his age were talking awkwardly. Likely, they were just as out of their element as he was. 

[i][color=powderblue] “So, are you excited to attend *super school*?”[/color][/i] one of the girls said. Richard cringed and looked down at his lunch. He wasn’t excited, but that didn’t particularly matter. It wasn’t like he had a choice.