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AN:

A new story from me that's a bit different from my other multi-chap (that one is about adult intimacies, and this one is about teenage life but both explore meta powers because I think that's so interesting and the show has kind of veered away from that). It's been floating around my brain for a while now and has finally taken written form. Hope you like it!

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"Dude have you heard?"

Barry Allen almost tripped as the excited voice seemed to jump out of the air next to him. But considering the voice belonged to his best friend Cisco Ramon, who had the ability to open inter-dimensional breaches and travel through them, that possibility wasn't entirely out of the question.

"Heard what?" Barry asked as he righted his school bag.

"We've got a new classmate!" Cisco said animatedly.

"For real? In the middle of the semester?" Barry asked.

"Yup," Cisco answered, popping the 'p'. "Apparently there's a whole repression thing going on so McGee wasn't sure they'd be rightly placed here but Wells and Stein argued for it."

Barry frowned. "How do you know that?"

Cisco preened. "I told you I was Wells' favorite."

Barry shrugged that off but then frowned. "No, seriously, how do you know about their situation? And why are you referring to them as 'they'? You don't know if they're a girl or a guy?"

Cisco shifted uneasily.

"You vibed it, didn't you?" Barry said. The other of Cisco's abilities was that he sometimes got visions of future events.

"I only get vibes when they matter to me or to us," Cisco said adamantly. "So whoever this person is, I think they're gonna be our friend. Or maybe they need help from us specifically. Either way I got a vibe about them so it's gotta be important."

"Ok," Barry said. He didn't need to hear much more than that. "Any idea when they're coming?"

"Nope. Maybe Felicity could do her thing and find out?"

"We can ask her," Barry answered, "but first we should probably get to Well's class."

Cisco nodded and the two hurried along. Barry had a penchant for being late, which was in no way countered by the fact that his power was super speed. It proved to him that whoever was up there controlling things had a fairly whacked sense of humor.

But Barry would always be grateful for his speed, for the thrill and exhilaration he felt whenever he used it. It had been a surprise when shortly after his tenth birthday he'd struggled with losing focus on things, moments seeming to either speed up or slow down around him. And then the passing out had started. He'd managed to conceal it for about a week, terrified of what was going on with him and sure no-one would understand. Then he'd had an 'episode' in front of his parents and grandparents at a Sunday dinner and when he was at the hospital he was diagnosed as a meta-human – a human whose DNA had changed, giving them an 'extra' ability.

Before too much freaking out could happen – namely his mom, who couldn't have cared less about what a meta could do and just wanted to see her son safe and looked after – the hospital had contacted the local expert and he himself had arrived to talk to them. Dr Harrison Wells had been researching metas for years, ever since his daughter had displayed an early ability and was diagnosed as one. Back then it had been treated with fear and suspicion so Wells had turned his considerable mind and fortune to the task of finding out more about what was going on. He had published papers, worked with the highest authorities and given the media fair and factual advice about metas. And in the end he had opened a school for meta children so they could have an education on their powers as much as their subjects.

Barry had been enrolled here ever since. Cisco had been his first friend and the two had been together for the last six years. Back when they had started there were a dozen students, all within a few years of age of each other. Now there were over a hundred with a decade between the oldest and youngest.

Dr Wells was a genius and some said a philanthropist but all Barry knew for certain was he was a stickler for rules - and arriving for class on time was a big one.

This morning his timetable was full of ordinary lessons; physics, mathematics, geography. Barry liked all of the sciences and he could just about muddle his way around a map but afternoon lessons were the best. That was power time and he couldn't wait to get back on the special treadmill and see if he could beat his time from last week. Barry had lots of training around his powers but the thing he always wanted to know and wanted to push was how much faster he could go.

He and Cisco managed to make it to class in time, sliding into the bench next to their friend and newbie last year, Felicity. She was a cyberpath, able to interact, create and manipulate computer code with just her mind.

"You guys are pushing it today," she muttered, shoving some of her stuff out of the way.

"For once, not my fault," Barry replied, rummaging through his bag for his notebook. "It was Cisco's."

Felicity turned a disbelieving stare on Cisco.

"I could totally lie right now and you'd believe me," Cisco deadpanned. "But for once it was not the king of late's doing."

Cisco leaned forward with a conspiratorial air, causing Felicity to do the same. Since Barry was sat between them it caused him to lean backwards. And wobble precariously on his lab stool.

"I had a vibe."

"Oooh," Felicity said. "What about?"

"A new student. Someone who's going to be important to us, I'm sure of it."

"What did you see exactly? How are they going to be important to us? What's their power? Do you know when they're coming?" Felicity fired questions.

"Woah, steady on girl. I only get so much info from my vibes. You can't force these things."

"You really need to work on that," Felicity said, shifting back to sit on her stool normally.

Cisco gaped comically and Barry laughed at his friend's face. Secretly he agreed with her; sometimes Cisco thought intuition and gut feelings could make up for useful observations with actual detail. Then again Barry might be just a little bit sore still after that time in the practice lab…

The sound of an electric wheelchair had everybody straightening in their seats and looking dead ahead.

"Good morning class," Dr Wells greeted. "I hope you've all done the reading asked of you and are ready for today's research-based project."

There was some shuffling of books as people grabbed the relevant texts and a few murmurs of "Yes Dr Wells."

"Good, good, now for today's lesson we will be jumping straight in the deep end and looking at-"

A knock at the door suddenly interrupted him.

Wells glanced at the door but when no-one entered he let out a sigh. "A small reprieve to start apparently. For those of you not quite confident on your recall abilities," Here Dr Wells glanced around the classroom with an ironic stare "you have a moment to quickly look through the reading that was asked of you."

Dr Wells wheeled himself to the door and out whilst the room erupted into quiet murmurs. Most of the students were mumbling to themselves as they quickly read through their textbooks, perhaps refreshing themselves but more likely reading it for the first time. Dr Wells was no fool. Barry, who had done the reading, leaned towards his friends.

"What do you think's up?" he asked.

"Dunno," Cisco answered. "Must be fairly big though to pull him out of class."

"There's been no data alerts issued," Felicity said, her face scrunched up as she was obviously concentrating on projecting to the nearest school mainframe. "No internal alarms going off."

"Maybe it's a personal thing and not a school thing," Barry wondered.

"Least it gives us a few more minutes to get ready for whatever Wells has planned experiment-wise," Cisco said. "Last time we had a research-based project he give me a C!"

"That's because you spent pretty much all your time trying to vibe the answers rather than read and deduce them like he wanted us to."

Cisco stuck his tongue out at Felicity. "Swot."

"Cheat."

Barry rolled his eyes. There was a reason he sat between the two of them.

The door opened again and Wells wheeled himself back in but he wasn't alone. Barry straightened up in his chair, focusing in on the stranger even as Cisco started elbowing him like mad in the side.

"Class, we have an unexpected but delightful surprise today," Wells said, motioning to the girl who stood behind him. "This is Caitlin Snow and she will be joining our school as of today. I hope you all make her feel welcome. MS Snow if you would like to take any free seat you can see. For today, you can observe and perhaps start your reading, as you will have to be up to speed by the next class to join in the experiment."

The girl was tall and thin, with mousy brown hair that was just slightly curly. Her eyes were fixed on the floor and her whole demeanor was downcast. Her hands were white where she gripped the strap of her over-the-shoulder bag. She nodded at Dr Wells and quickly skirted the walls round to the back of the class where there was an empty bench, picking the seat furthest from anyone else.

Barry couldn't help himself and subtly looked over his shoulder at her, ignoring Cisco for a moment more and focusing on the girl. Why did she look so sad? And why did he want to get up and go over there just so she wasn't alone?

"Dude!" Cisco hissed.

"What?" Barry leaned closer to Cisco as Wells started pointing out lesson objectives on his screen at the front.

"That's her," Cisco said and at this Felicity snapped her attention to Cisco and leaned closer too. "I know that's her. From my vibe. I got a feeling when she walked in. That's her!"

Barry didn't even try to be subtle this time, his body just moving right around to look at her. Brown eyes met his, a storm of emotions running through them and then suddenly they changed, a flash of silver morphed round her irises, glaring back at him for a second. Brown bled back in as she blinked. The girl tensed and then looked away, bringing her textbook up in front of her like a shield.

Barry didn't know what had just happened but he wanted to ask. He wanted to find out if he could help her. He felt like he needed to somehow.

Turning back around he forced himself to pay attention to Dr Wells. Obviously Barry had startled her somehow or something had just happened while he was watching that she wasn't happy with. But he could hardly get up in the middle of class, go over there and ask what was wrong in front of everybody. He'd hate for that to happen to him even if it was a friend and for a good reason (his nearest experience to that was the time he'd skipped breakfast and lunch to revise for a test, passed out and had Cisco shouting him awake in the middle of the quad but at least there weren't that many people around that day). So right now he couldn't do anything without embarrassing both of them - and it was debatable about whether he should as well – so he needed to concentrate on this lesson and then have a pow-wow with Cisco and Felicity about what to do and figure out why he felt so strongly in the first place.

But he hoped Cisco was right about them being friends with the new student.

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A man sat behind a large desk, surrounded by darkness, the only light coming from the computer screen in front of him. He flicked through the footage again, watching the three youngsters at the back of the room engage in a whispered conversation, watching as they reacted to their teacher's presence, watching as they observed their new classmate. Light glinted off his glasses as he smiled grimly, eyes zeroing in on the middle adolescent, scrutinizing the boy's response to the girl at the front.

Everything was falling into place. All the players were coming to the stage.

"Ah, to be young and gifted," He muttered, marking down the date and time. "But not for long."

Very soon now he could put his plan into place. And by the time they knew, anyone knew, what was happening, it would be too late to stop it.

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