Losing the Last Dance

Like I said before, I don’t get out very much, so the dance was a scarily new experience for me. Coupled with the fact that I was manifesting a new ability, I was surprised that I was still able to think straight.

Entering the dance, the scent of several colognes and perfumes, mixed with the school gym’s lingering odor of sweat gave me a rather strange high. The dance, and the gym for that matter, was symbols of failure for me. I was always crappy at physical activities and social interaction. Tonight, I was going to turn all these defeats into a resounding triumph.

At first, I was kind of nervous to dance, and I could tell that Erica was nervous as well. After all I was still a klutz. I didn’t want to go out there and embarrass us both. We skirted the edges of the crowded gym while Erica made small talk with some of her friends. It was a rather surprising experience for me. Here were these people who would normally treat me like I was invisible, and now, for the simple fact that I was holding Erica’s hand, we were best friends. “Hey Alex,” a fat guy whose name I couldn’t remember shouted above the music to me. “How’s it going?”

“Good.” I responded, nodding and having no idea what else to say.

“Hi Alex,” called out another girl, who I identified as Ashley. “Make sure and save a dance for me, ok?”

“Sure.”I replied, remembering fully well that last year, Ashley had complained to our History teacher that I wasn’t smart enough to be her partner for a project we had. She complained so much that the teacher had actually switched us. I don’t remember all that well, but I think Ashley failed that assignment. I got an A. But here she was, all nice and flirty with me. It was as if being seen with Erica hand sent me speeding up to the top of the social ladder. I felt an amazing adrenaline surge. I had waited all my life for this and now it was finally mine.

Slowly, we worked our way to the dance floor. The DJ was playing some of the jumpy local music and it wasn’t long before we were mingling and dancing with the others. I always used to think that you had to have some particular type of skill or rhythm to be able to dance with out embarrassing yourself. But as I looked around the room, I saw that no one was doing anything particularly skillful. Everyone was busting there own moves and no one was laughing or making fun of them. I was slowly letting my guard down. This was a life I could learn to love.

The DJ then put on a really slow song. Couples began pairing up on the dance floor. I turned to face Erica. I slipped my arms around her lithe waist and began swaying slowly to the music. She wrapped her hands around my neck and gave me a small smile. She mimicked my movements, and just like that, I was having my first dance. I had a lot of reservations about this moment, but now that it was happening, I could feel all of my tension melting away. It was as if the whole world had stopped and this moment had become eternity. I had been dancing with Erica since the dawn of time and we would keep dancing until it ended. This was the way it was supposed to be, and the way it had always been. Erica looked up and her eyes met mine. I lost myself in those hazel oceans till the only song that I could hear was the one that my vibrating heart-strings were ringing out. I leaned forward slowly towards her and she moved forward to meet me. We were so close that I could feel her breath on my face. I leaned closer and then…I felt a force impact against my back. I stumbled forward, missing Erica’s face, and grabbed hold of her for support. Regaining my footing, I looked back to see some of the members of the football team walking away, snickering as they went. They obviously hadn’t met up with their captain. I felt a burning anger flare up inside of me, contrasting sharply with the drop in temperature I felt on the inside. I felt Erica’s hand on my arm. She looked at me with pleading eyes. “Don’t worry about them Alex.” She begged. “Don’t let them ruin our night.” I let out a deep sigh and smiled. ‘You’re right.” I replied. “This is our night.” The song was over and the moment was gone. I felt a pang of regret that I had missed it and pushed the feeling aside. There would be more special moments for me and Erica, and I was patient enough to wait for them.

Erica felt thirsty so we made our way over to the buffet table. As I was about to put a cup of punch to my lips, I felt my thoughts grow fuzzy as if someone had thrown a blanket over my thoughts. The whispers were back, stronger than ever. This time, I could even recognize the voice. It was…Allison’s? Allison was the source of the whispers? Just then I felt a hand on my shoulder. Alarmed, I spun around, almost knocking Drake off of his feet. “Hey man, calm down.” He said, his hands up in defense. I relaxed. “Sorry.” I replied. “I was thinking about something.”

He smiled and nodded in Erica’s direction. “So how’s the night with Mrs. Dream Girl going?” I turned to look at Erica, who was having and animated conversation with another girl.

“It’s been awesome. More than I ever expected.” I turned back to him. “What about you?” I asked. Drake flashed a big grin and spread his arms out.

“It’s been a blast. The honeys can’t get enough of me!” His smile faded a bit. “Well, all except one.” I followed his hand to see who he was talking about. Standing by herself wit her hands around a cup and wearing a striking baby blue dress, was Allison. It was weird. I never thought much of Allison, but tonight she was stunningly beautiful. She also seemed pretty lonely. It struck me that despite her social status, Allison was as friendless as I was. “Oh crap.” I thought suddenly. “I forgot to call her and ask who she was going with. Some friend I am.” I left Erica and Drake and walked over to her. She was staring at her cup as if it was the only thing in the world. “Hey,” I said tapping her on the shoulder. She looked up and gave me a small smile.

“And it’s the man of the hour. How’s it going?”

“Great.” I said. “What about you? Who did you come with?”

She looked down slightly again. “I came alone.”

“That’s too bad.” I thought. She shot a glare at me. “No it’s not. I think this whole dance thing is a way to get rid of excess hormones.”

“Ok, ok.” I said trying to calm her down. “Well if that’s what you think of it why did you come at all?” If she heard that, she didn’t respond. “But at least pretend to enjoy it. Mingle a little bit. And don’t be so snappy. You’ll keep scaring away the guys. And besides,” I said really staring at her for the first time. “You’re not all that bad looking.”

She gave me a weird look. “Thanks.” She replied, as if she wasn’t sure whether or not I was teasing her. She took a sip of the punch she was holding in her hand. She made a face and then spat it out.

‘What?” I asked. “Is there alcohol in the punch?”

“No,” she replied, looking at the cup as if it contained poison. “It’s more like there’s punch in the alcohol.”

I smiled, “Well that’s high school for you.” I paused. “Well I’m going back to meet Erica now.” I placed a hand on her shoulder. “Live a little, ok?” She smiled. That was the second time I had seen her really smile. She was changing. That was definitely a good sign.

When I got back to the buffet table, Erica wasn’t there. I looked around the gym for her, but with no luck. I bumped into Ashley. “Hey.” She said, again with her overly bright smile.

“Hey,” I replied. “Have you seen Erica?”

“Yeah. She got a call from her dad. She had to go meet him out by the lawn.”

“The lawn?” Suddenly, the painting jumped straight out at me from the dark recesses of my mind. The painting!

Ashley must have seen the shock on my face. “Is everything ok?” I didn’t have time to explain. I ran through the crowd, pushing people out of the way with a single minded determination to get out of the door. Please God, no. I prayed as I ran. Oh please God, no…

Murphy Manifestation

Sometime ago, there lived this guy named Murphy, who was obviously history's biggest pessimist. He came up with the law that anything that could go wrong would go wrong. And if the manifestation of a new ability in the middle of the most important date of your life counted as something wrong, then there might be some truth to what he said.

It was the evening if the school dance. The day my new life began. I stood in front of the mirror, fussing with my tie one last time. Formal dances were somewhat if a rarity these days, but they were still quite enjoyable, especially when you date was the most beautiful girl at school.

The day before, I sat down after school and told Erica everything. From my episode in the pool to the invisible guy in the AV room. I tactically left out the painting. I didn't see the point in scaring her about something that I myself didn't understand. I didn't want her to be afraid of me, and if we were going to have a future together beyond tonight, I needed to make sure that there were no secrets between us. She listened to everything I had to say, asking questions every now and then. Afterwards, she gave me a kiss on the cheek and said "I always knew that you were special, but I guess I was wrong about how special." Of course, I blushed like the wuss that I was.

Standing at the mirror, I ran my finger through my hair and smoothed my suit. I smiled to myself. "Who could imagine that I would wear a suit?" An image of me in a suit seared through my mind. I was in a suit, kneeling on grass holding a dead girl in my arms...the painting! I shook my head, as if trying to shake the images out of my mind. I ducked down underneath my bed and pulled the painting out. It had stayed there since the first day I got it. I looked at it, going over every single detail. The type of grass I was kneeling on. The lime green dress the the girl, apparently Erica, was wearing. The well lit surroundings. The road next to the patch of grass. Everything there was to see in that picture, I saw. Then I froze it, and let it fall. It shattered into a hundred little pieces. I wasn't about to let my life be ruled by a bunch randomly splattered colors. They say that the future isn't written in stone. Much less painted on canvas."The future isn't written in stone." I thought to myself as I reached for my door knob to go downstairs.All of a sudden, the smooth metal handle became rough and grainy. I pulled back my hand and stared in shock. The door knob was solid, grey stone. I pulled open the door and ran downstairs. That just did not happen.

I sat down on the couch for the next hour, mindlessly surfing channels. My mind was only focused on the night ahead. Everything had to be perfect, or I would flush myself down the toilet. I know, that sounds stupid, but that's how I felt. A car horn honked outside, causing me to drop the remote. She was here! I could hear the beating of my heart of the TV set. No going back from here. I got up and walked to the kitchen where my mom was. "Mom, that's Erica's car. I'm gone."

"A girl coming to pick up her date? How very feminist of her." she replied. I gave my mom a look and then walked to the front door. My heart rate increase to the point that I was genuinely afraid that it would burst. I reached for the front doorknob. Still metal. Good. No creepiness this time. I swung the door open and almost fainted. Standing on the porch was Erica, in the most stunning lime green dress I have ever seen. She literally took my breath away. The dress gripped all of her curves, bringing them out in a way that I had never seen before. It was so stunning! The color was also one of my favorites. The hue of green gave a suave, peaceful look. Wait. Lime green! The image from the painting flashed through my mind. The girl in the picture! She was wearing a lime green dress! Just like this one! "That dress..." I muttered. Erica's expression changed to that of slight disappointment.

"What's the matter?" she asked. "You...You don't like it?"

"No," I said, snapping back to reality, "No, I love it! It looks so good on you. But of course," I said looking at her, "anything looks good on you."

Erica blushed slightly and smiled. "Sweet talk will get you nowhere mister." she said in mock sternness.

"Well, it got me a smile." I said. At this point in time, I had no control over what I was saying. Words were just gushing out of my mouth. I thanked God that they didn't get me in trouble. "Let's go." I said, talking her arm in my own. She smiled again, and we walked off the porch, and got into the waiting limo.

An awkward silence pervaded the back seat of the limo. My constant flow of talk had stopped, and Erica seemed to be rather interested in whatever was outside her window. I had absolutely no idea what to do at this point. "Calm down." I said to myself. "Just relax. This is going to go smooth. As easy as drinking a glass of water." I breathed deeply and leaned back, trying to make myself comfortable. I rested my hand on the armrest connected to the door. I rested there for a second, and then suddenly dropped. I looked down to see what happened and gasped in shock. The armrest was gone! In it's place was a wet spot. My hand was covered in drops of water. Did I just turn the armrest into water?

"Something wrong?" Erica asked. I looked up to see her staring at me.

"Um..No. Nothing at all. Just thinking of a way to break the awkward silence." I smiled nervously. "Guess I did."

She smiled back. "It's okay." she replied. "I've never really been on a date before either."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yes. Why?"

"No reason." I replied, rather foolishly. I guess I always thought that Erica was so popular that she went out a lot. It makes sense though, seeing as hoe she had to be the one to take me to the prom. I sat there for a while, looking at her dress. It was exactly like the one in the painting, down to the seams. It couldn't be just a coincidence that I was also wearing the exact suit as well. "Erica," I began, "I have something to..."

"We're here." she said. I looked outside and saw the school. I took a deep breath. This was it. We got out of the limo and Erica turned back to tell the driver something, probably when to come pick us up. I looked at the school compound. I had never seen it in the dark before. A street light shone, illuminating the patch of grass at the side of the road. Another nightmarish idea raced through my mind. This patch of grass! This is where it all takes place! I immediately became guarded. Grasping Erica's hand tightly, we began walking towards the school.

"Your hands are cold." She said.

"Like I said, I'm nervous." I replied, scanning our surroundings

"Look at you." I said to myself. "Being worried about a painting. You're through the looking glass aren't you?" Something crunched under my foot, making me stop. I looked down to see a piece of glass. "People are so inconsiderate." Erica said. "They left glass here. Bet it's from some bottle."

"Yeah." I replied, and continued on walking with her to the school door. It wasn't from a bottle. When bent over, I realized that blades of grass had literally became glass. The signs were too clear to ignore.  The invisible guy had been right. I had a new ability. This night had already become far more complicated than I thought it would be, and we weren't even inside yet.

Retaliation

Everyone cheered for Luke Skywalker and booed the Empire when it “struck back”. But did anyone ever stop to think that made the Empire was just fed up of a kid running around with a light saber causing trouble? It’s really hard not to crush bugs when you know that you are fully capable of doing so. That’s exactly how I felt when I came up against Ethan. And lets just say that the Sith would be very proud of me.

It was the Thursday before the school dance, and I was psyched. Despite all of the craziness of my life, nothing could smother my enthusiasm about going out with Erica. I couldn’t stop picturing the girl of my dreams resting in my arms as we slowly swayed to the music. I lifted my hand and pushed away a bang that had fallen across her face. She gave a contented sigh and locked her beautiful eyes with mine. “Oh Alex,” she said. “This is awesome. It’s more fun than I thought.”

“Of course it’s awesome.” I replied. “I’m in an awesome school, at an awesome dance, dancing to awesome music, and” I looked directly into her eyes, “I’m doing it in the company of an awesome girl.” She blushed and looked away. I touched here chin and raised her head, so that our faces were mere inches apart. Slowly, we moved closer together. I could feel the moisture of her breath. My entire body was tingling with anticipation. I could feel her lips on mine and… “Mr. Peterson, could you please draw your crown out of the cumulonimbus mass?”

“Huh?” I said, shaking the daydream out of my head. I looked up at Mr. Grignard, the Geography teacher. “What did you say Sir?”

“Get you head out of the clouds.” He replied. “Or is the special girl behind your eyelids more important than my class?” The entire class snickered. I felt my cheeks burn as I sunk lower down in my seat.

“Sorry Sir.” I replied. “I’ll try to pay more attention.”

“I’m sure you will.” He answered. “Now,” he said addressing the class, “Let us look at the eroding effect of denudation.” I looked around and caught Allison’s eyes. She shook her head at me and looked away. Behind her, Ethan was trying hard not to burst out in full laughter. “He must be loving this.” I thought in disgust. I had the sudden urge to freeze his face that way. I shook the thought from my head. I gave Allison a hard enough time about misusing her powers. I shouldn’t be doing the same thing.

I barely managed to get by the rest of the Geography class without thinking about Erica. I walked out of the class as if I were in a dream. Allison fell in line with me. “Can’t stop thinking about the dream girl, can you?” she said with her trademark malicious Allison grin.

“Bug off,” I growled playfully. “You of all people should know how I feel about Erica.”

She shook her head. “All to well unfortunately.” She looked away. “Sometimes I wish I didn’t.” she added, with a catch in her voice. Before I could ask her what that meant, she stopped me and said, “I also know how you felt about Ethan after you saw his face in class.” She stopped me before I could protest. “Alex, just because you could doesn’t mean you should.” She said. “We shouldn’t risk any ability screw ups, especially since you chased away our guardian angel.”

“He wasn’t our guardian angel.” I complained loudly. “He was just an advanced Peeping Tom.”

“He got us out of the lab, didn’t he?” I couldn’t argue with her there. “Besides, I know you. You’re a sissy lover, not a fighter.”

“Thanks for the compliment.” I retorted. “Don’t worry. I won’t hurt Ethan.”

“Good.” She replied. “See you later?”

I raised my hand. “Later.” As she walked away, a sudden thought struck me. I never did ask Allison who she was going to the dance with. Allison didn’t have all that much friends, which raised the question if she was going at all. I thought that I should call her later and find out.

The last bell of the day sounded, quickening my pulse. One day down, one more to go. I raced outside to meet my parents. Halfway out, I realized that I had left my math book in my locker. My mind was so occupied with Erica that I started forgetting even simple things. I ran back to my locker and started rummaging through it. My head seared with a sudden jolt. The whispers clouded my head more thickly than ever. That voice! I know that voice! It was trying to say something. Something urgent. “Hey stranger. “A voice said. The whispers dissipated. I stopped and took my head out of my locker. Erica was standing in the hall, all smiles. Most of the kids were already gone, so it was just to two of us. I had to constantly remind myself that this was no daydream. “What’re up to?” she asked.

“Trying to find my math book in all this mess.” I said poking my head back into the locker, in an attempt to hide my blushing. “I know I left it here somewhere. Not that I’ll have time to do the homework, I f you get what I mean.” I snickered. She didn’t answer. “Erica?” I pulled my head out of the locker. She wasn’t smiling anymore, nor was she looking at me. She was staring behind me, with a sort of frightened look on her face. I barely spun around in time to see a fist barreling towards me. I ducked as the fist slammed into my locker door. It door closed to reveal Ethan standing behind it. His face was red with anger. “Hey Peterson, you wanna hear a story?” he said. “There once was this boy who asked a girl out to the dance,” he started, not even waiting for me to say that I wanted to hear the story. “And it so happened that the girl told him no, because she was already going to the dance with a dweeb.” He grabbed my shoulder and pinned me against the wall. “So the boy thought that he’d meet the dweeb after school and get his permission to take the girl to the dance instead, because,” he said balling his hand into a fist, “he could make the dweeb’s life miserable.”

“Stop Ethan!” Erica shouted, “This is exactly why I won’t go out with you!” Wait. Ethan liked Erica? That would explain the dagger looks he gave me when Erica hugged me on my first day back. It was enough to turn me into Swiss cheese. “So what do you say dweeb?”Ethan asked.

“No.” I blurted out before I could stop myself. Did I have a death wish?

Ethan’s eyes widened. “What?!” He punched me in the face. “Wrong answer Peterson.”

“Stop it Ethan!” Erica screamed. “Now!” she grabbed his hand.

“Buzz off.” He answered harshly. He turned and pushed her away. Hard. Erica stumbled back, grasping the locker for support. That boiled my blood. Ethan had been picking on me since I came to this school and I really didn’t care. But not Erica. No way was he getting away with this. “What’s the right answer Peterson?”

“No.” I answered, anger swelling inside of me.

“I don’t think you heard me…” Ethan started.

“No, I think I heard you perfectly fine, and the answer is no. I also suggest that you let go of me before turn you into a human popsicle!”

“What are you babbling about?”
I reached out and grabbed his shoulder. Cold. All the anger that I had stored up inside of me came rushing out. I forgot completely about my promise to Allison. A white patch of ice began to grow on his arm. “What the hell?!” he asked in shock.

“No.” I replied. “Hell is hot. This is cold.” I could hear the venom dripping from my own voice. I grabbed his chin. “That’s a good look for you. Maybe I should keep it that way.” I started freezing his face.

“Alex, stop!!” Erica’s voice hit me like a cold bucket of water. What was I doing? I let go of Ethan. He fell to the ground dazed. Erica looked at me in shock.

“Erica, please, I can explain.” She shook her head and turned and ran towards the exit. I ran after her. “No, Erica wait!” I caught up with her just before she reached the door. I grabbed her arm and pulled her back. I looked her eyes. They were wild, darting all over the place. “She’s afraid of me.” I thought. “Erica let me explain.”

“How did you do that?” she questioned. “Who are you?”

“Erica, the day I disappeared I realized that I had the ability to freeze things. After my disappearance, I realized that I could control it and I’ve been using it ever since.” I let go of her arm. “But I’m still Alex.” She just stared at me. “Say something, Erica.” No response. “Say something please. Call me monster, call me alien, but please, say something.”

She took a deep breath. “Saturday at seven, right?” she asked.

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Saturday at seven.”

She gave me a small smile and walked out the door. When I was sure she was gone, I pumped my fist into the air. “Yes!!” Our date was still on, and Ethan would never bug me again. But most of all, Erica knew the truth now. I wouldn’t have to sneak around her anymore, and I had someone else to confide in. I couldn’t wait for Saturday to come. It was going to be the day my new life began. But in reality, it became the worst day of my life. That night my whole life came crashing down around me.

Evanescence

Do you listen to Evanescence? I used to, until I saw their album cover covered in occult symbols. That freaked me out a tad bit. Anyway, the Encarta dictionary defines the word ‘evanescence’ as “disappearing after only a short time.” That’s probably a good name for a fantasy rock band. But what about a person?

It was about a week after the physics lab incident. We didn’t have any Physics classes, but that didn’t stop Mrs. Havelock from marking our lab reports. And well, let’s just say that Allison and I are no longer in the running to becoming honor students. Allison insists that it was my fault. As if I told her not to do her reports. My mind was however was occupied with more grave issues. Allison and I still hadn’t figured out how we got form the Physics lab to our rooms. Allison swore that it wasn’t one of her haywire abilities. To reinforce that, she began training with her new ability. Telekinesis she called it. Something she had found on Google. She practiced with mixed results. The Dagger’s had quite a few wares the broke under questionable circumstances. I told Allison about the handprint, but not about the opening and closing door. I figured I was probably just freaked at the moment. I was also unable to reproduce the steel wall that protected me in the lab. No matter how hard I concentrated, all that formed was ice. I was on the verge of believing that I wasn’t the one responsible for it. My life was awfully complicated.

Math period had just finished and I was walking through the crowded halls towards my locker, when I ran into the one person that I really didn’t want to see just then. Erica picked me out of the crowd and waved. “Hey Alex,” she called out and began to make her way over. Don’t get my wrong. I really like Erica, maybe even love Erica, but as I said before I had a lot of stuff going on, coupled with the fact that our relationship kinda disturbed the school’s status quo. I looked around. No exits. No choice but to strike up a conversation. “Hey Erica,” I replied, “What’s up?”
“Nothing much,” she replied, “Just wondering when I would get time to do all this homework. I don’t even have this weekend free.” she said. She turned and gave me a knowing glance. I met it with a blank stare. “I mean,” she said “with the dance this Saturday and all.”

“Oh,” I replied, somewhat shamefacedly. I had completely forgotten the dance in the midst of all the chaos. “I can see how that could be a problem.”

“So,” she asked, “You going with anyone?”

I heard Allison’s words repeated in my head, “…I also know that she’s dying for you to ask her to the dance…”

“No,” I muttered. I stopped and took a deep breath. “Um actually Erica…” She looked at me expectantly, “I wanted to know… I mean I was hoping that…um… maybe… we could go together?” I let the end hang.

“Um, yeah,” she replied, smiling, “That would be cool.”

“So I’ll pick you up around 7?”

“Ah… well my dad said the only way I could go is if our driver took me in the limo.” she replied ruefully. “So is it ok if I pick you up?”

“Not a problem.” I answered. The bell rang, signaling the beginning of the next period.

“Well, I’ve got Biology now.” She said grabbing her books. “See you later.” The shock of the conversation had tied my tongue so all that I could manage was a nod. “Ok then. Bye” she said smiling. She turned and walked off. I stood where I was for a few seconds, allowing the shock to wear off. Then it hit me. I was going to the dance with Erica Simmons! I felt as if I was floating. This was actually happening! I could barely believe it. The world had suddenly taken on a rosy dreamlike quality. “Need me to pinch you?” said a voice, snapping me out of my delightful reverie. I didn’t even need to turn around to know who it was. “Like a cloud on a sunny day. You never cease to dampen my spirits, Allison.”

“Thank you” she replied. “It’s one of my finer attributes. And oh, I’m pretty sure that the water balloon dampened you more than I could.”

“What water balloon?” A wet mass connected with the back of my head, spewing water all over me.

“That one.” she answered. A group from the soccer team walked pass, snickering and giving each other high fives. “How’s the pool, Alex?” asked Ethan, the squad’s captain. This sent them into hysterics. I waited until Ethan had walked pass, and froze the ground beneath him. His laughter was cut short by his butt slamming against the ground. His face went red with embarrassment as the rest of the squad helped to his feet. “Developed a mean streak, have we?” Allison asked.

“Thank Ms. Moral, but that wouldn’t have been necessary if you had given me a heads up.

“Nah,” Allison said, shaking her head. “It’s more fun this way.”

“And I’m the one with the mean streak.” The second bell went, telling me that class had already started. I took my time taking out my books. I had no desire to get to Chemistry on time. “So, you finally asked Erica to the dance.” Allison said. She patted me on my shoulder. “You’re a big boy now.” she added sarcastically.

“Thanks.” I replied. “I would have never guessed that she wanted to go with me if you hadn’t said so.” I turned and looked at her. “I appreciate it.”

“Anytime.” she replied, smiling. We didn’t say anything for a moment. We just stared at each other. Then Allison got this weird look on her face, like someone gets when their disappointed about something. “What’s with the face?” I asked, breaking the awkward silence.

“Nothing.” she replied. “It’s just all this insanity with our powers. I feel as if I’m in way over my head.”

“I know the feeling.” I replied, knowing fully well that that wasn’t the reason for Allison’s sudden change of demeanor.

“Well,” she said, shouldering her backpack, “I’ve got a study period now. See you later.” She turned and walked off. I watched her go. Something was definitely bothering her. She didn’t even give me her cursory sharp tongue remark. I held my books and made my way to the Chemistry lab. Today was supposed to be my crown day, the day I finally asked Erica to go out with me. But for some reason Allison’s attitude had disturbed me greatly. Allison wasn’t really my friend. In fact, I barely even used to speak to her before this whole thing with our powers came up. I guess that it bothered me that the one person I could confide in was having a hard time.

I pondered on these things as I walked pass an empty classroom. I stopped suddenly and looked around. I could have sworn that I heard footsteps behind me. No one was there. The hall was empty since most of the kids were already in class. I shrugged and continued walking. I heard the door to the room behind me open. I spun around just in time to see the door close. What the heck was going on? Was someone following me? “Must be Ethan and his goons again.” I thought. I walked up to the door and opened it. It was the door to the AV room. I stepped inside and looked around. No one. “Whoa Alex,” I thought, “You’re losing it man.” I turned to leave. Suddenly, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I spun around. A bump. Coming from the back of the room. I strained my eyes to see. No one was there. “At least no one you can see.” The thought struck me as absurd. An invisible man? Please, be real. But it gave me an idea. If there was someone in the room, they’d frost over if the room got cold enough. I pulled a chair under the air conditioning unit and placed my hand on it. I focused on making the room as cold as possible without freezing everything. The temperature of the room dropped rapidly, till I could see my breathe coming out in little clouds in front of me. I looked around the room, not knowing what I was even looking for. I scanned the back of the classroom. My eyes froze on a disturbingly shocking sight. Right there, in the back of the room, puffs of breath, just like mine, were coming out of thin air. “Good God!” I thought. There really was an invisible man! I focused even more power on freezing the room. I could feel ice crystals forming on my arms. Gradually, ice crystals formed a humanoid shape at the back of the room. I stared in shock. There, in the back of the classroom was another human with abilities. The ability to become invisible. Whoever it was standing there must have seen me staring at him, because he suddenly began running for the door. I jumped off the chair and began running to cut him off. I froze the ground beneath him, causing him to lose his footing for a second. He got up and continued his mad dash. When he was almost to the door, I froze the ground again. This time he went down hard. When he was about to get up, grabbed one of his legs and froze it. He let out a scream and materialized. He was white, with dirty blonde hair and looked in his late twenties. He wore shirt and pants made out of a black, soft but rugged material. “Who are you?” I asked. He struggled to move, but I held fast to his foot. “Who are you?” I asked again.

“Someone whose been saving your butt for quite a while, Alex.” He sneered. “You could at least show some respect.” He spoke with an American accent.

“Saved me? You’ve been stalking me since the hospital! Why are you following me?”

“I wasn’t following you! I was following Allison!”

“What!?” I looked at him in disbelief. I thought back. Every time I had gotten the feeling that someone was watching me, Allison was there. Except now.

“Well I don’t see Allison here, so that must mean that you were following me. And why in the first place were you following Allison?”

“Because there are people who are interested in our abilities and in protecting people like us. Allison was developing and interesting ability and recently, multiple abilities. They sent me to observe her.”

“And why were you following me?” He began struggling without warning, forcing me to grab on to his foot more tightly. “Why were you following me?”

“Cause I took a sample of your DNA after I saw you use your ability and sent it back to the people I work for. They said that it was possible that you might be developing multiple abilities too.” I looked him in astonishment. Multiple Abilities!? Out of the corner of my eye I saw his hand twitch. As I turned to see what he was doing, he whipped out a canister and sprayed its contents into my eyes. “Arrggghh!!!” I screamed. I let go of his leg and tore at my eyes. “You messed up big time Alex.” I heard him say. “You blew my cover. Next time you decide to trash a lab, I won’t be there to bail you out.” I heard him open the door and leave. I rolled on the floor, trying to use my ability to soothe my burning eyes. I heard the door open again. “Alex?!” a familiar voice said. I opened my eyes. I my vision was blurred, but I could make out Drake’s outline. “Alex, man, what’s happening?” he asked his voice on the verge of hysterics. I looked around. In my pain, I had instinctively frozen the area around me. I sat up, my eyes still aching. “Drake.” I held out my hand. “Help me up.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me up.

“How did you do that?” he asked in amazement. I didn’t answer. I was thinking about what the invisible man had told me. There were others. I was sure of it now. And there were people out there who knew about us. About what Allison and I could do, with enough money and technology to have agents and analyze DNA. And was the invisible man the on who rescued us from the lab? This was way bigger than two high school kids. I looked at Drake. “Drake, you’re my best friend. Can you keep a secret?”

“Of course.” He said instinctively.

I shook my head. “This isn’t like any secret like you’ve kept before. You have to guard this with your life. Literally.” I saw a cloud of worry pass across his face.

“Sure Alex.” He replied. I looked at him full in the face. “I have special abilities Drake.” I was going to tell him the truth. This was spiraling out of control, and it was way more than Allison and I could handle. But had I known what was going to happen over the course of the next week, I would have never told him what I could do.

Out Of Control

My favorite part of the Hulk movie is when Bruce Banner says “But you know what scares me the most? It’s when I can’t fight it anymore, when it takes over, when I totally lose control. I like it.” Like him, I know what it’s like to lose control. So does Allison.
The week after my return to school, was strangely enough like the day I left. There was physics first. And there were lab reports to be done. I sat down at the back of the lab and looked around the class. My eyes met Erica’s. She gave me a shy smile and a little wave. I could feel my cheeks burning as I smiled back. “Wow. You must really like her.” A voice said beside me. I turned to see Allison staring at me with her grey eyes wide open. Since Allison had learnt she wasn’t crazy, she started taking better care of herself, but she still had the crazy look on her face. Coupled with the fact that she could read thoughts, it was actually pretty spooky. “How do you figure that?’ I asked.

“Because, when you think of her, your thoughts are all sappy and muddled.” she replied
I gave her a stern look. “Stay out of my mind please.”

She shook her head. “I didn’t need to read your mind to know that you two have chemistry. I just needed to read hers.”

My eyes opened large “Allison, how dare you…”

“And I also know that she’s dying for you to ask her to the dance two weeks from now.” I opened my mouth to say something but I stopped. Now there was a useful bit of information.

“See, now I bet you’re happy that I read her mind.”

“No, I’m not. You’ve seen enough Saturday morning cartoons to know that you shouldn’t use your powers for evil.”

“I’m not using it for evil.” She replied, somewhat ruefully. “I’m just practicing to use my power. I bet you practiced a lot when you found out you could make snow cones.”

I smirked. “Yes I did, but this is different.”

“How so?”

“Because making snow cones doesn’t violate someone’s fundamental right to privacy.”
She was about to reply, but just then Miss Havelock, walked in and called the class to order. “Well now,” she said, “I hope that you all have finished doing on your laboratory practicals, because there’ll all due for tomorrow.” A collective moan rippled through the class. “Yes, I know, I’m excited too.” A chill ran down my spine. I raised my hand slowly. “Um, Miss Havelock, I wasn’t here for all of these labs.”“I’m aware of that Mr. Peterson, but when you came back from your little excursion, I do remember asking Ms. Dagger to take them to you. You did do them, did you not Mr. Peterson?”

“Yes…yes, I did” I stammered.

“Well you shouldn’t have a problem tomorrow.” She turned to address the rest of the class. “The lab would be open after school for a few hours after school for all those who haven’t finished. Failure to submit them would result in a loss of 50% in your term grade, as well as your partner’s. Now then let’s get on with today’s class.” I turned and looked at Allison. She mouthed the words “Did you do them?” I shook my head my head, slowly from side to side. I didn’t need her ability to know what she was thinking. It was something along the lines of “I’m going to kill you!”

Allison caught my hand in the rush of leaving the classroom and pulled me aside. “You had a month of doing nothing. You mean you didn't come to school a couple of afternoons and do them?”
“I spent most of my afternoons practicing to use my power.” I thought.
“You spent your time playing with your powers? Is that it?” she said angrily. “What about last week?”

“I forgot.” I replied, shamefacedly. “But here’s how I figure it. You’ve done them right. You can give me your reports and I’ll copy them over. I’ll change it up a little so that it won’t look like I copied.” She didn’t answer. “You didn’t do it either, did you?”

“No, I thought you’d do it so I could copy them from you.” She said, wincing.

“You still have those headaches?’ I asked

“No,” she replied, “They went away when I learnt to control my power. More importantly,” she said, “what do we do about these reports?’

“Well I guess we have a late afternoon later.” I answered. I shouldered my satchel and walked out of the lab.
W
e spent a grand total of three hours that afternoon, setting up apparatus and taking measurements. We didn’t even realize when the janitor came to lock up and told us along with the other kids to leave. “You see,” I said on my way out, “we had absolutely nothing to worry about.”
Allison shook her head, “We still have 8 experiments to do. That’s about a third of our grade.” She flinched and shook her head. “We are going to fail.”
I looked back at the lab. An idea began to form in my mind. “We could always go back.”

“When? The reports are all due for tomorrow.”
I looked at her and smiled. “Oh no.” she said in a matter-of- fact voice. “We are not going to break into the lab. That my friend is a crime.”

“Failing physics,” I replied, “that’s a crime as well.” I turned and walked towards to school’s main circuit breaker.

“You think we’re gonna get away with this? There’re security cameras and alarms. How are you going to get past all that?” I put my hand up in front of the circuit breaker and froze it. Power went out throughout the school. She looked at me frowned. “And you were telling me about using my power for evil.” As she said that the power came back on. “Oh well, we tried.” I turned and walked back towards the lab. “What, are you crazy? We’ll get caught for sure now. They’ve put on the generator.”

“When they put on the generators, they take off the security system.” I responded

“How do you that?”

“Last time I got put in detention, they made me work with the janitor. Now do you, have any other questions?”

I froze the lock on the lab and opened the door. “You are digging yourself into such a deep hole.” Allison said, following me into the lab, “Do you know how this would look in your permanent record?” she stopped and held her head, shaking it. “Are you ok?” I asked concerned. “You know I could do this and e-mail, the results to you.”
She shook her head. “I wouldn’t worry about me if I were in your position.”
We walked into the lab and took out the apparatus. “Let’s hurry up and do this.” Allison moaned “I don’t feel that great.”
“Well it would go a lot faster if you would help me.” I said, placing beakers on the table. I placed my hand on her forehead. “You have a temperature. You sure that you don’t want to go home?” She shook her head again. “I’m already committed. Let’s get this over with.”
“Well then,” I said, taking out my scripts, “here we go.” I looked at my sheet. “Ok, pass me the burette Allison.” She didn’t respond. “Allison?” I turned to see what was keeping her. Allison was holding her head, and shaking. “Allison?” She collapsed on the floor and began to convulse. “Allison?” I called out, my voice close to hysterics. Suddenly, Allison let loose a bloodcurdling scream and began to trash wildly on the floor “Allison!!!” I screamed. I heard the equipment fall. I looked around the lab to see objects flying around the room, crashing and breaking on their on accord. I reached to grab her, but I felt myself being lifted up and flung across the room. “Allison, stop it, stop it now!!!!” I yelled. She continued screaming and trash on the ground. The windows shattered and glass flew everywhere. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the door open and close. It wasn’t part of the general chaos. It was as if someone had done it on purpose. I looked back to see shards of equipment soaring towards me. I threw up my hands in a futile effort to protect myself. What happened next happened as if in slow motion. I saw thin wisps of something silver form between me and the shards. Slowly more and more formed, building a wall in front of me. The shards hit it and bounced off. I reached out and felt it. It wasn’t ice. It felt more like some kind of metal. Like steel. As quickly as it formed it disappeared. I sat stunned for a moment. A beaker crashing right next to me brought me back to reality. I ducked and crawled across the room and placed my hand on Allison’s forehead. Her skin was burning up. “Cold.” I thought instinctively. “Make her head cold.” Slowly, her temperature began to drop. I controlled my power so that her whole head didn’t freeze. Gradually, she stopped moving and the objects in the room settled back. I breathed heavily. Allison sluggishly opened her eyes. She looked around disoriented. “Well,” I said to her, “guess we’re not doing any work tonight.” I turned around and began packing up our stuff. A sudden knock on the door surprised me. “Security, open up!” a boisterous voice yelled. I froze. Security! They must have heard the commotion I grabbed my stuff and looked for away out. The lab was on the second floor. There was no way out. “We’re coming in!!” the voice shouted. I cringed. The door opened and… I was in my room. I looked around in confusion. Wasn’t I just in the physics lab at school? My satchel and papers lay at my feet. How? I remembered Allison. Did she do this? More importantly, was she still in the lab. I whipped out my cell phone and called her number. Her phone rang a few times before I got her voicemail. I hung up and called again. On the fourth ring, someone answered. All I could hear was heavy breathing. “Allison?” I asked

“Yeah, I’m here.” She answered shakily.
I
breathed in relief. “Where are you?”

“I’m home,” she said, bewildered, “In my room.”

“How did you get there?”

“I don’t know. I was lying in the lab and I felt someone grab me. Next thing I know, I’m here. What about you?”

“Same thing.” I answered. “Get some rest. We’ll figure this out in the morning.”

“Ok,” she replied weakly. “Good night.”

“Good night.” I replied and hung up. I stared at the phone. Someone grabbed her? I took off my shirt. The security? I held the shirt in my hand. Something caught my attention. I looked closer and stopped in shock. Right on my shoulder, there was a handprint. No one had touched me there today. Somehow, someone in that lab had grabbed my shoulder and brought me here. I thought about the door opening and closing. What was going on here? And what about the slab of steel in front of me. Did they do that too? Who exactly was ‘they’? I shook my head. So many questions, all with no foreseeable answers. For now, a bad physics grade was the least of my worries.

Voices

I once heard of an author that said, “Some people hear their own inner voices with great clarity and live by what they hear. Such people become crazy. Or they become legends.” That’s all well and good until you start hearing other people’s inner voices. Then the whole legends part goes down the drain.

One month after my supposed resurrection, I decided that I had enough of home and wanted to go back to school. Yeah, I know, it’s pretty stupid, but that’s how I felt. A lot of things happened over that month. My therapy sessions were an apparent waste as I never remembered anything about where I was even under hypnosis. My parents always left downtrodden, trying to encourage me, saying that I’d remember next time. As if. What I did remember, I wasn’t going to say, and what I didn’t remember, I just couldn’t say. My powers had developed greatly over that time as well. Since I learnt that my power was reducing kinetic energy, I realized that I could cool things to varying degrees instead of fully freezing them. I practiced every chance that I got, and soon, I was able to freeze things without even touching them. But every time I got excited, I would remember the ghastly painting. It was still under my bed. Part of me wanted to take it out and burn it, and part of me was too scared to even touch or look at it again. For the time being it would remain where it was. I actually couldn’t wait to get back to school. I had a new life now. Maybe school would be much better than it was in the past. There was definitely Erica now to look forward to. That alone was a big improvement.

I have always had a habit of going to school early. Hardly anyone was there yet, and it was a good time to get a few moments of stability before the general insanity of the day set in. Walking down the empty hallway, gave me a weird nostalgic joy. I stopped and opened my locker and started packing out all my stuff that had been there for the past month and a half. That’s when the whispers started. Softly at first, the growing in intensity, stronger then they’ve ever been. I covered my ears and scanned my surroundings. Where was it coming from? And why did it sound so familiar? Not a familiarity that comes from hearing something over and over, but it was as if I could recognize the voice that was whispering. The whispers stopped. I removed my hands from my ears and shook my head. The weirdness had started all over again. I slung my satchel over one shoulder and walked to my classroom.

On opening the door, I noticed someone sitting at the back of the class. The figure raised its head. It was Allison. She stared blankly at me for a second and then resumed staring at her desk. I blinked in disbelief. I hadn’t seen Allison in close to two months. I was expecting some kind of sassy greeting, not a blank stare. I walked slowly towards her. “Morning Allison.” I said hesitantly. She didn’t respond, and that’s when I noticed something more disturbing than her absence of energy. Her appearance. Allison had a reputation for being a neat freak. Now, she was completely different. There were dark circles around her eyes and her black hair was disheveled. The shirt of her uniform was ruffled and her tie askew. Her head rested in the palm of her hands. “Hey,” I said slowly, “you might want to fix that tie.” She looked down at her tie and slowly adjusted it, before resuming her former stance. I sat down directly in front of her, waving my hand before her face. “Hey Allison, is everything okay?” I asked.
She looked at me and said, “It’s quiet here, isn’t it?”

I was taken aback. That’s not exactly what I expected her to say. “Yeah,” I replied. “It is pretty quiet here.”

“When I’m here, I don’t hear them.” she said.

“Hear what?”

“The voices.” she replied, her eyes wide. “The voices in my head.”

I raised an eyebrow. “So it wasn’t aspirin in that bottle after all.” I thought.

She looked up suddenly. “Do you hear that? It’s one of them. It’s saying something about painkillers.”


“Well,” I thought “I think Allison has finally lost it.”

“There it goes again. It just said that I lost it.”
I
froze. I just thought that. Suddenly it struck me. While we were at the hospital, she kept on replying to everything I thought. I had meant to ask her about that, but apparently I didn’t need to. I thought for a second and decided to try something that I had seen in an old movie. “Allison,” I thought, “if you can hear this, look directly at Alex.” Slowly, Allison raised her head and looked directly me. “Now I want you to raise your right hand.” She hesitated for a second. “Come on Allison. You can do it.” She raised her hand. “Now, put it down and raise the other one.” She complied. “Allison,” I thought, “It’s me, Alex.” Her reaction was instant. Her gaze focused on my face, her mouth made a slight ‘o’. “Allison, you’re not hearing voices. You’re hearing my thoughts.” She stared for a moment and then suddenly broke down in tears. Her head dropped and her body shook with sobs. I let her cry for a while. She eventually stopped and dried her eyes. “You have no idea how good I feel to know that I’m not crazy” she said, sniffling.

“I can only imagine.” I replied, a bit sarcastically.

“Everyone in school thinks I am.” she said. Then she stopped. “How did you know that I was hearing thoughts? Why didn’t you think that I was crazy like everyone else did?”

“I didn’t.” I replied honestly. “I just guessed.”

“Why would you guess something so incredibly far-fetched?” she questioned, showing a bit of the old Allison.

“Because, I had quite a few incredibly far-fetched things happen to me over the past two months.” I said. I removed a bottle of water from my satchel. “Look at this.” I poured the water over my hand. It froze before it hit the ground. Allison’s eyes opened wide. “I’m actually quite incredibly far-fetched myself.” I replaced the bottle. “We have special abilities Allison.”

“Why?” she asked.
“
I really don’t know,” I answered, “but you have no idea how good I feel knowing that I’m not alone.” She gave me a small smile, which coming from Allison was as incredible as her power. “I’m going to the café. Do you want to come along?”She nodded and we got up to leave.

“You know, you’re being awfully trusting of me.” She said, back to her former self. “What if I go and tell everyone what I just saw?”

I smiled, “It doesn’t matter. They already think you’re crazy.”

She was about to say something when she stopped abruptly. “Two of what?” she asked.

“Huh?”

“You just said, I mean, thought ‘Two of them’. Two of what?”

“I didn’t think anything.” Without warning, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I glanced around the room. No one else was there. Why was I getting this feeling?

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

“Nothing.” I replied. “Let’s go.” We walked out the classroom. Yup, I thought, school had definitely changed. Whether or not it was better, only time would tell.

The Painting

One of the best things about being dead for a few days is the fact that you get to stay home from school. A lot.

Being an only child means that when your parents aren’t there, you get to be king for the day. After raiding the fridge for breakfast, I sat in front of the television set aimlessly channel surfing. Turns out I had made a big splash in local news, being found after 20 days without knowing where I was. My honest opinion was that it wasn’t any of their business where I was. I mean, I don’t ask them where they go. The one good thing was that I got to see the video that Erica Simmons made. Drake was right. She was crying profusely, her hair matted to here face. Her voice was broken as she spoke. It was either that she really, really liked me or she was a hell of an actress. I think it was a healthy mix of the two. After three hours of mindless channel surfing, I went online got, into a chat about music, and ended up calling everyone idiots before logging off. Still craving mental stimulation, I browsed YouTube for anime music videos. I got up and went to the fridge and to look for something cold to drink. As I opened the door the first thing that hit me was how cold it was. Cold. For some strange reason, my feet began to feel cold too. I looked down and gasped. Ice was spreading across the floor from the soles of my feet. Thoughts flashed through my mind. The cup of water on the door. The breaker and thermometer. The rain. The pool. It was me, I remembered thinking at the bottom of the pool. It was me who was causing thing to freeze.

I walked over to the kitchen sink and turned on the water. I placed my hand under the water, letting it run freely. If I could indeed freeze things, I had to make sure something like the pool incident never happened again. I could end up killing myself for real or worse, someone else. I looked at the water. Every time I had frozen something, I had felt a cold rush. I cleared my mind and concentrated on the water. “Cold” I thought, “I want to make the water cold. Freeze it.” Nothing happened. I tried again. This time I tried to picture the beaker and thermometer in the Physics lab. I closed my eyes and tried to remember the cold draft I had felt. The sound of the flowing water stopped. Slowly, I opened my eyes. The stream of water had frozen, straight up to the faucet head. I breathed heavily. I had done it! I had intentionally frozen something! I stumbled back from the sink. Out of all the people in the world, I, boring old Alex Peterson, had a power that has been the focus of untold human fantasies. I had what every human secretly desired: power that would place him way above his peers. I picked up a cup that was half filled with water. I looked at it and thought about the cold draft. The water froze. Again! I had done it! If I could control my ability, there was no telling what I was capable of.

Rushing back to the computer, I sat and googled ‘ice ability’. Instantly, a load of links to X-men and Justice League fan sites appeared. Sifting through, my eyes lighted on one particular link. It was an article named ‘Cryokinesis ’. I had no idea what it meant, but it sounded cool so I gave it a try. The article read:

“Cryokinesis: The supposed ability, where one is able to reduce the kinetic energy of molecules in a substance, thereby freezing it. Though sometimes confused with the ability to create ice, cryokinesis users can freeze already solid objects, causing them to become brittle and shatter”

I stared at the screen for a while. What if this was the ability that I had? What if I could freeze anything? The thought excited me greatly. There was only one way to find out. I opened one of the drawers in my room and took out an old tennis ball. I held it in the palm of my hand and concentrated on feeling the cold draft. The ball began turning an odd blue color, making a crackling sound while doing so. It gave off a kind of heavy steam, which fell to the ground. I took a deep breath and squeezed it. The ball shattered like an egg. A smile spread slowly across my face. Cryokinesis. Not the ability to create ice, but the ability to freeze anything. There was no limit to what I could do! My body trembled with excitement as wild thoughts about my power raced through my mind.

My euphoric moment was broken by the ill-timed ringing of the door bell. I opened it to see a Fed Ex delivery man standing on my doorstep. “Um, I have a package here for a Mr. Alex Peterson.” He said looking down at his clipboard. “Is there anyone here by that name?”

“I’m Alex Peterson.” I replied.

“Well, could you sign here please?” he asked, handing me the clipboard and a pen. I signed and he handed me square package, hurriedly wrapped in brown paper and left. I went inside and placed the package on the kitchen table. It was about two feet wide and relatively light. My name and address was scrawled across it. I ripped off the paper, and stared in confusion. Was this some kind of sick joke? Who would do something like this?

The package contained one of the most morbid paintings I had ever seen. It was a picture of a young man in a suit, sitting on a patch of grass, holding what appeared to be a young woman in an elegant dress across his lap, her body limp. Blood stained her dress in various places. The young man sat, tears running down his face. I stared at his face. It looked so familiar. It was black, topped of by curly black hair. That face. Suddenly it struck me. Goosebumps grew up my hand, across my body. That face… was my face! It was a painting of me! My hands trembled violently. If it was me in the picture, then who was the girl? I stared at her face. It was obscured by her black hair falling across it. Her body was well shaped despite the horror of the picture. Blood ran from her slightly parted lips. Her face looked pale, but her olive colored complexion was still recognizable… my body went rigid. The girl in the picture …was Erica! Her beautiful brown eyes were wide open, staring at nothing. Dead. I dropped the picture, backing away from it. A piece of paper dropped from behind the picture. I bent over and picked it up, my hands still trembling. It was a note, written in the same scrawled handwriting that was on the package. It read ‘Only you can stop this! Don’t let her die!’ I looked at the picture. This was a picture of what was going to happen. I shook my head. This wasn’t real. Somebody couldn’t possibly paint the future. This was just probably a sick joke from one of those kids at school. I picked up the painting. “Someone can’t paint the future.” I thought to myself again. “Someone can’t freeze a pool of water either.” The thought unnerved me. I held the picture I my hand trying to decide what to do with it. Just then I heard the front door open and my mom call out for me. I ran upstairs and threw the picture under my bed. I would deal with it later. Right now, I had a life to live. I had people to love, and people to protect. With my new power that would be easy. Or would it.