Six am is just way too early to wake up, but alas, school. Day 73 of high school. So far the only difference between it and middle school is more homework. Supposedly there’s a major difference in social interaction, but Jaime wouldn’t notice that.
His morning routine was the same as always. Hit the snooze button twice, get out of bed, shower, get dressed, skip breakfast, brush his teeth, grab his backpack, and get in the car. He sat in the back seat and Logan drove. Logan was his older brother, at that time a senior in high school. The next year he’d have to start walking, which would probably be an improvement from riding with Logan.
The morning went as it usually did. He walked from class to class without acknowledging anyone, only speaking when spoken to directly. He listened in class…ish. By -ish I mean he paid attention just enough to understand what the teacher was getting at and then stopped paying attention. He was a smart kid, attending mostly advanced classes, but they were still pretty easy for him. If he got too bored he would look out the window, setting random leaves to ashes in the matter of nanoseconds.
Finally lunch came around. He headed towards the vending machine. A water and a granola bat. Same as every other day. As he walked towards the table in the back corner, empty as always, he got a fluttery feeling in his stomach. Jaime really didn’t like crowds so he attributed the feeling to that and ignored it. By the time he walked to his table he to realized it was something else though, a different feeling.
When he couldn’t shake the feeling he glanced around the cafeteria. He watched a kid or two get uneasy when he made eye contact with him.
Jaime had always been tall. At the age of fourteen he had already reached six foot. Now add his silent demeanor, shaggy black hair, and purple eyes to that and you can’t blame the kids for being a bit nervous around him. Even upperclassmen.
With one look around he noticed the odd thing out. Across the cafeteria sat a girl with her back to him. He recognized her, her name was Kallen. Despite the fact her hair was constantly changing color she was easy to pick out. Today, or probably this month, her hair was purple. The color of a plum at the roots, matching Jaime’s eyes, fading to a light lavender at the bottom.
Her hair color wasn’t what stood out to him though. She was reaching in the air, the air, for her orange. Obviously, that wasn’t human. It was a snap of his finger and the orange was gone in a puff of smoke, leaving only the citrus scent behind.
She turned around and scanned the crowd. It was obvious she didn’t know what she was looking for, the only expression she had was complete shock. Jaime shook his head and sat down to eat his lunch.
He had saved her before anyone noticed, he’d done his deed, no need to do anything else. He nibbled the granola bar and downed the water before heading towards his next class with fifteen minutes before the bell.
On the third turn he took he ran straight into someone, or over someone with his height. He had been in his thoughts, not paying attention. He wasn’t used to having to watch out for people this early before lunch was over.
He looked down at whoever’s arms he had grabbed to stop them from falling and saw it was the girl. She looked up at him, wide eyes, she looked scared for her life. It wasn’t because of Jaime though. The padlock on the locker she stood next to was spinning. Spinning fast.
“I-I’m sorry.” She stuttered out.
It was odd to see her like this. This girl, Kallen, was usually overly full of energy and excitement, that fear wasn’t be natural for her.
“What’s wrong?” Maybe it was the fact he knew she wasn’t human, that she might be like him, that he asked. Or maybe it was some other reason. No clue, but normally he wouldn’t have cared, he would’ve just moved on.
The girl shook her head quickly. “Nothing.”
Jaime pointed at the padlock. “That’s not nothing?” He reached out to stop it but it was hot to the touch. Obviously it had been spinning really fast for awhile now.
Kallen looked at him, eyebrows scrunched up enough that they were practically touching. “H-how are you not freaking out?”
He hesitated. This girl must’ve just received her power if she didn’t know what was going on. He held up a hand and fire appeared in it. It almost appeared that he was holding it but it hovered just slightly.
He had to put it out rather quickly though to avoid having the sprinklers go off. He’d accidentally done that in middle school, never again. Ever.
She stared at his now empty hand from a few solid seconds before she looked up to meet his eyes. “What’s going on?!”
“You don’t know?” He wasn’t used to being a giver of words, let alone information. So instead he answered questions with questions.
She shook her head quickly. “Things just keep moving without me touching them, and now you, Mr. Silent Tower is apparently Mr. Hot Silent Tower… I didn’t mean it like that!”
That was more like the girl he recognized, spouting off without a filter. “This isn’t a good place to explain.” Jaime figured that there really wasn’t any good place to explain, but he didn’t want to keep talking.
“Please, please, pleeeassse.” She begged. “It’s freaking me out! What am I supposed to do? What even is it?!”
Geez, she was loud, and that spinning lock was really getting annoying. He sighed, no real human interaction with anyone besides his parents and brother for years made it hard to talk to someone else, but this girl obviously needed help. He remembered when he first got his powers. That’s when his life went crazy… maybe he could help her, explain things, just this once.
He still had one hand on her arm that he hadn’t been thinking about till that second. The next second they were in the park, he dropped his hand.
“Whoa! Whoa! No! Where are we?! What just happened?!”
So, maybe this was a bad idea. She really was rather loud. He’d better make it short and sweet then. “You have super powers. At least one of your parents probably do to. It seems you have something like telekinesis.” He didn’t feel the need to explain his powers. “You need to learn to control yours. Fast. If normal humans see airborne oranges, you’re in trouble.”
Kallen blinked. “What?!”
Jaime shook his head, he wasn’t repeating himself. He knew she had heard him. “You should stay home till you have it figured out.”
“You’re name is Jaime, right? That’s what people say. Not that you’ve probably introduced yourself to anyone for what? Five years?” She didn’t want him to leave her so she kept a conversation going, if you could call it a conversation. While he was silent, he didn’t seem to be flat out rude. He held doors at school when a person was close enough behind him and other little things that jerks just didn’t do.
“Six.” He deadpanned.
“Close enough. But anyways, Jaime. No way either of my parents has… Super powers?” The concept still seemed just wrong to her.
Jaime shrugged. “That’s what I thought too.” However, he had been proven very wrong.
Kallen shook her head. “My parents aren’t actually my parents. I was abandoned so they adopted me, I don’t even remember whoever I might’ve gotten these powers from.”
Well, that changed things. She might not actually have anyone to learn from… Not that he did for very long. His dad left, or his mom made him leave. Depends on how you looked at it. That’s beside the point. Jaime had his dad, who was his parent with super powers, for maybe a week after he got his powers. After that he only saw his dad in the summer. Learning how to use his powers had been difficult, and when he got his second one he had no clue what was going on all over again.
“You should still ask your parents.” He said even though he was fighting an urge to explain more. He had to admit that knowing another kid with super powers was nice. His brother treated him like such a freak for something he couldn’t control, at least he wasn’t the only freak anymore.
It was then she started to panic. Later he found out random bouts of emotion were normal for most people, especially when thrown with a major change. Even later he experienced the sensation himself. Though that took a lot.
“What are they going to do?! No way do they have any clue about this? How am I supposed to stop myself from throwing an orange at there face?! Or at my siblings?!” As if to give an example a squirrel flew towards him.
He ducked. “Don’t kill it!” He actually raised his voice just slightly. “Concentrate on setting it down gently.” He quickly calmed. He didn’t personally have telekinesis but he knew a main part of controlling your powers was focus.
The squirrel was inches from hitting a tree before it slowed to a stop in mid air and was gently set down on the ground where it promptly passed out. Kallen looked at him, eyes wide. “Whoa!! Does that work with everything?!” Her gaze shifted from the squirrel to a nearby bench.
“Where do you live?” He asked quickly, this wasn’t going to be a safe place for very long if he let her stay.
She rattled off her address and before she even got the last direction out he had touched her and they reappeared on her door step.
A shiver went down Kallen’s spin. “That is so freaky.”
Jaime just shrugged in response.
“So, uhm, do you want to come in to?” She asked. “Sorry, that might be weird to you. I don’t really know how to explain this insanity. Not that bringing in a boy would make it so much easier… but at least you would be able to explain it better. Then again, you probably won’t speak…” She sighed at the same time he did. She sure did talk a lot.
“You can handle it.” He said that mainly because she was right. If he was there, he wouldn’t speak, so what was the point?
Kallen frowned but nodded. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow though, right?”
Jaime just nodded before disappearing.
echoinkk 