I N N O C E N T. I stare at my wrist again, just to make sure, hoping it had been a trick of the light. But there they are, the thick, inky letters on my skin spelling out the word plain as day.

Sighing, I turn my forearm over so I won't have to look at it any longer. So this is what years of waiting looks like. Dissapointment.

If you haven't guessed, today is my 18th birthday. It's what everybody fears, because you can never tell what your mark will be, even if you have specific skills. Most people are innocents, of course, but that doesn't stop most kids from dreaming; me especially. I mean, I thought I was different. But I guess I'm doomed to be the same as most of the people in this world.

"Hey sweetie!" My mom calls as I walk down the stairs. "Did your mark appear yet?"

I nod. "What's for breakfast?"

"What did you get?" she asks, looking up at my frown. "And I made your favorite, waffles."

"Thanks," I smile and reach for a plate. "Nice try, but you know I'm not allowed to tell you."

Mom chuckles. "Alright, I'll stop asking. Have a good day at school!"

After finishing up my waffles I shove all my new school supplies into my backpack and sigh. It's usually always my birthday on the first day of school, but this year I was hoping it would be different. As you can tell I'd been hoping for a lot of newness, which has obviously turned out well so far.

I say goodbye to my little brother, Peter, and then walk out to my car. My college is only a mile from my house, but I don't feel like walking today. Maybe I'm just tired.

When I walk in I temporarily forget my gloomy mood as I remember how much this place excites me. It's my first year, but my sister went here and she had plenty of good things to say about it.

"Hey look, a freshie," I hear a guy laugh behind me.

Turning around, I meet his eyes with a glare. His build tells me he's athletic, and his strong facial features indicate that he's handsome and he knows it. Great. I just walked in and I've already met an arrogant jock.

"Ooh look, the captain of the football team! Oh my gosh I'm so pumped to meet you!" I say as sarcastically as I can manage.

His eyes widen but instead of tightening his jaw as I expected, he laughs. "We have a sassy one, Amber! I'll leave you with her."

Amber, a slim girl with perky red lips and red hair to match smiles brightly and takes my arm. "That's Joe. Jocks here aren't the same as other schools, so you don't worry about him. He was just making an observation. By the way, how'd you know he was captain of the football team?"

I shrug. "He had the Oriole jacket on and a captain's confidence. It was just an educated guess, like how I'd say you're the president of the welcoming comittee."

"Wow! You're good!" Amber looks shocked. "I'll see you around! Oh, and here's your class schedule," she hands me a piece of paper and walks away quickly, targeting another unsuspecting freshmen.

"You guessed that from her button, huh?" a girl with curly black hair and big brown eyes asks as she walks up to me. She is definitely pretty, but she doesn't strike me as a popular girl. Interesting.

"Yes," I reply. "By the way, I'm River."

"Raven," the dark girl bobs her head. "I was just walking by and caught some of the conversation."

I open my mouth to reply, but suddenly I am distracted as another student walks into the building. He seems different from the rest by the way he carries himself; purposeful, yet moody and guarded. What really catches my eyes is his wild, curly, brown hair and wise brown eyes.

He turns to meet my eyes and for a fleeting moment I feel his gaze searching deep into my soul, then his eyes drop and the feeling passes. I stare after him for a moment before I realize Raven is waving her hand in front of my gaze.

"Sorry!" I apologize hurriedly, refusing to blush. "He just...looked familiar. Do you know who that is?"

"Yeah," she chuckles. "That's Orion Parker. He was a freshman last year. He's really quiet, but does his work well. Stays out of trouble. I guess I would call him a generally normal kid."

"Thanks," I reply, unconvinced. He is definitely not normal. "I must have seen him around town recently."

"My first class is about to start, but I'll catch you at lunch. We should go grab a bite, huh?" Raven calls over her shoulder as she walks away, her curls bouncing with every step.

"Sure thing!" I call back, then glance at my class schedule to see what class I have first.

It turns out Orion is in the same first class as I am, which is botany. I watch the students carefully as we work, because when you're 20 you can make your debut as either a villain or a hero. When you're marked, you receive your power as well. Usually they aren't very crazy, like immortality or invincibility, but things like that happen every once in awhile. The maximum abilities a person gets are three. And usually, if they get more than one, they're small.

So far I can tell that at least 13 of the students are innocents, or at least they're good at hiding their powers. But Anna didn't pick up that piece of paper with her hands, and Gilbert didn't grow that flower with sun and rain.

They're little things, things that I've gotten so good at noticing that I can tell who's a hero relatively quickly after meeting new people. Villains are harder, and I haven't really gotten a chance to scope one out, since there are 20 heroes for every 2 villains. And knowing these odds, when there are villains, they usually stay in the shadows and cause havoc only where they know they won't be caught.

I have especially been watching Orion, but so far he has not shown anything special. Like Raven said, he keeps quiet and does his work. It's a bit disappointing to be honest, although I can tell that he is in perfect control of himself, so even if he is special, it will probably take a lot longer to discover than people like Anna or Gilbert.

I meet Raven at lunch as I promised, and we drive to Tim Horton's. I learn a lot about her, such as she works at Starbucks as a barista, she's going to college to be a dance instructor, and that she lives in Miller, the town next to mine. She's got a lovely family of two more sisters, and she's vegetarian. I don't have to ask her if she's an innocent, I can guess well enough that she is.

I tell her about myself too, how I work as a photographer and that I'm going to school to be a botanist (yeah I know, it makes real good money), how I live in Belmere and how I've got an older sister named Cecilia and a little brother named Peter.

We return in time for our next class, and the rest of the day passes relatively quickly, as I only have two more classes. As I walk down the hall towards the exit, I feel a hand on my left shoulder.

I turn around to see Joe towering over me with that signature smirk, still wearing the Oriole jacket. "Hey look! It's Rival."

"River," I correct him, raising an eyebrow. "Have you forgotten already?"

"No, silly," he rolls his eyes in mock annoyance. "It's your new nickname. You know, because you're sassy."

"What?" I look from Joe to Amber, who is standing by his side and who I've guessed is Joe's girlfriend by the way she follows him around.

Amber laughs. "Joe likes to come up with nicknames for everyone. It's his idea of a joke. Yours isn't even half bad, so I wouldn't complain."

"So I guess I can call you Joker then?" I retort, a half smile on my lips. Joe is stunned speechless and turns to Amber who just laughs again.

"I like that one," a warm voice comws from behind me and I whirl around to find Orion smiling at me. His hair and eyes are even more stunning up close...

"She's got too quick of a tongue for me," Joe/Joker shakes his head and turns away. "I'll see you around, Rival."

"No," Orion searches my face."You look more like a River to me."

"Mind reader then?" I ask nonchalantly. "Ooh."

Though I can't see it in his face, I can tell Orion is surprised. "No, just heard Raven yelling your name at lunch."

"And you're Orion," I reply, and when he raises his eyebrows I add,"maybe I'm the mind reader."

"Well, see you around miss clairvoyant," he replied as he turned to walk away, pronouncing the word like it was french.

And that was when I decided I was going to find out just who Orion Parker was.

a u t h o r 's n o t e

i normally hate when authors do this, but i need to know if people are actually interested in this book.
so I will write this book if at least five people add this to their library and comment saying they'll read this.
hope you all enjoyed the first chapter! i'm having having so much fun with this new project!

cheers,
~Joybell ♥