Amelie hates school assemblies. Literally anything that has all four grades in the same small space is her nightmare. So she must be asleep.

Everyone is so noisy that she can barely hear Ria right next to her.

Bell and Cross are on Amelie’s other side with Roman, Jeremiah, Lou and Jones in the row in front of them. She has to lean forward to understand Jones. “You think this has to do with the latest fight?” He asks.

Ah. The latest fight. Their school has had an uptick in students sparring with one another using their soulmate abilities. It never really affects Amelie since she’s soulmateless and therefore powerless. So she’s never involved in them. Though she has witnessed a few.

“Most likely. Since you know, Lane says Peter had to go to the hospital,” Cross says. “It’ll be the same thing. Lecture us about restraint, and then we’ll be on our merry way,” Roman comments, laying his head back, bored. He too hates big crowds and people being showy with their powers and soulmates. Amelie and him have this understanding. Even though Roman has a soulmate in Jeremiah, he still doesn’t have the best view of fated pairs because of his constantly fighting parents.

“Hello everyone, please quiet down.”

When it most certainly did not get quiet, Principal Colan raises his hand and the noise instantly ceased. Amelie sees her friends’ mouths moving but no sound. That’s the principal’s power, lowering and raising the volume. He’s like a remote control that only has the volume buttons.

“Thank you. Now that I have your attention, I have an important announcement to make.” Principal Colan wipes his forehead with a tissue that already looked used. Amelie wonders what makes him so nervous.

“You think it’s bad? He doesn’t looks so hot,” Amelie whispers to Ria. “Maybe he’s finally going to do something about the fights. About time if you ask me,” Ria answers, keeping her voice hushed, so their principal doesn’t quiet them.

A long pause of absolute silence occurs which makes Amelie uneasy. She hates long pauses. They are awkward. But he isn’t letting them fill it with murmurs.

The secretary walks on stage and hands him a stack of papers. He nods to her and then leans down towards the mic again, though he doesn’t need to.

His booming voice fills the auditorium again. “Because of the latest violent altercation, the school board decided that soulmate powers are prohibited on school property.”

If he not been regulating the sound, you would have heard the shouts and protests. People were already out of their seats, red faced, yelling. With no noise.

Amelie, Bell and Cross aren’t all that bothered. She’s been soulmateless all her life so no powers to dampen. Bell and Cross didn’t know about their powers until recently so they spent most of their lives without abilities as well.

Lou is feverishly petting her lizard, Greg, head switching between looking down at him and up at the principal. Jones has a hand on her arm, saying something Amelie can’t hear. She feels terrible for her. Some people’s powers are so ingrained in their lives that they don’t know what it’s like living without them. Lou loves her power. It connects her to her animals.

Roman and Jeremiah appear to be ok, but Amelie can’t tell with Roman. He is good at hiding his emotions normally. So he may have a lot of emotions about it, but he will have the same expression on his face.

“Settle down. Settle down. I know this seems unjust, but it is all with the intent of your safety. Each student will be getting a dampening bracelet. Every student will need to wear it to enter the school and it will automatically unlock when you leave school grounds.” A picture shows up on the screen behind him of a metal cuff with a blinking red light in the middle.

Bracelets? Amelie has heard of them before but not for students. The only times students use them is if your registered power gives you an unfair advantage in a test or something. But only for the big ones like the SATs.

Otherwise, the most common place is prisons. Prisons use them for the inmates.

And now they are treated like prisoners.

“Wow, they must be really scared of us,” Ria says. Amelie looks over and Ria is staring intently at her phone. She leans over and sees that she pulled up an article about school and the dampening cuffs. Apparently, their school would be the fourth in the country to implement them.

More students are standing and pumping their fists in anger. Another teacher with the ability of creating a shield goes in front of Principal Colan. Just in time too since a couple rowdier classmates blast energy balls at him.

Amelie rolls her eyes. It’s proving the board’s decision right.

“This will be effective Monday. You will receive the bracelets now. Failure to wear them at school will mean no entry,” he finishes up, behind the protection of the shield.

While Amelie isn’t really affected, she does ponder what her friends feel about it. They aren’t adding to the very violent outcry, but some of them are upset.

Their principal must be done because he retreats off the stage rather fast. All the teachers follow him. Now without him in the room, the volume returns, almost exploding Amelie’s eardrums. People are shouting. They are using their abilities. They are angry.

Maybe this was actually the right thing to do?

Fireworks, fire, bouts of light spread in the air. Heat and chill spread throughout the room. Whirls of wind push at the doors, knocking over some chairs. It’s pure chaos with all the powers being used.

Some of the school guards are handing out bracelets that students are outright refusing. It causes another wave of cries.

A man shoves one in her direction. “I’m Amelie Holtz. I’m soulmateless,” she voices, hoping that means she doesn’t need one. Why would she anyway? No powers.

“Everyone gets them,” the gruff guy answers and throws it at her. It would have literally hit her in the face if not for Cross using his telekinesis to halt it in mid air. The heavy metal falls harmlessly into her hands.

“Thanks, Cross.” He nods and receives his own.

It is a sleek metal. It has some heft to it. She guesses they tried making it look more casual, but there is no doubt what it was for. No one with this on their wrist would forget that it’s there.

Some are being escorted out of the school by the guards who have various abilities that help restrain the brutal attacks. Amelie wonders if she’ll see them on Monday forced to wear the cuff or if their parents will pull them out. This’ll be some story for some reporter out there.

“My mom isn’t going to like this,” Bell slumps in her seat, covering her face. “She already is on edge with everything that’s been going on and now this mess. School was my escape from controversial stuff.”

“Well she owes you a shit ton of leniency after what she pulled,” Roman points out.

Bell doesn’t answer and just continues to sink more into herself. Cross lays a hand on her back.

It’s beginning to lessen in vicious protests and they are slowly dismissing the rest of the students to go home. Good thing this assembly was at the end of the day. At least students weren’t storming out in the middle of a school day.

Amelie knows what it’s like to be without abilities. Now the whole school will know what it’s like to be her.

Monday will sure be interesting.