My crew and I met up in P.E. 1, the only class we all had together. We met up at roll call and talked about, well, what just sprung on us this morning. For the time being, everything felt normal.
"And everything is so much lighter," Aaron was saying to his friend Mark, who wasn't in my crew. Mark was athletic, and a bit on the cocky side.
"Cool, man," Mark responded. "So, yesterday, we went…" 916Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv4PNKNCbwm
I walked over to where Jack and Kisa Alvarez were talking about whatever Kisa talked about. God, he was weird. Or should I say she…? Well, it's complicated. Let's just not get into all that.
"Hey, Jack! Hey Kisa!" I greeted. "How're you doing?"
"I've heard certain people are being influenced by your writer," Kisa whispered. She giggled in the Kisa way.
"Don't say that too loud!" I practically scream-whispered.
"Don't worry," she said. "You writer loves you as much as my writer loves me." Kisa was a junior, and like me, she had a secret. But she usually used it for smut. I hated smut and preferred sci-fi by a hundred times. No, a million. No, that's not big enough. I preferred sci-fi infinite times to smut. 916Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDJzcZ2b387
But Kisa's writer loved her a lot. My writer constantly told me about it.
"Not true," I muttered. "Your writer loves you a lot more."
"A fox animatronic," Kisa scoffed. She did a little happy jump, following the beat of the song she was listening to. "At least she promised no–"
"What are you guys talking about?" Aaron assaulted us.
"Your ugly butt," I blurted. I never talked to people without writers about my writer. It was the universal rule among the protected. Never speak about your writer with the non-protected. Of course, some didn't want to follow such rules.
"That's not nice," Kisa protested. Other than being my friend, Kisa was also the class's teaching assistant. She felt it was her duty to police us whenever I was mean to Aaron. Or whenever anything else happened, for that matter. 916Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhDETxiqCcp
She also was one who didn't seem too keen to uphold the protected rule. Of course, I did. No reason for me to follow her.
"Whatever," I said. "We're talking about something you hate."
"What. Your face?"
I cocked my head. "Nope. Yours."
That's when the teacher made her appearance and herded us to our role-call spots. We did our mundane stretch routine, and once again, she didn't pick me to be a stretch leader. Well, it didn't really matter. No one took P.E. stretches seriously anyway. 916Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpMIbLUSP8c
After that, she handed us our mile cards and announced that today, we were to do a two-mile run.
Two miles always felt like a lot, and at that moment, I wished I had gotten gravity, friction, or something good for running. Of course, all of my nerd crew hated running.
As usual, my crew partnered up, except for Cole, who was in a different class. I walked with Jack, Jason walked with Robert, and Aaron with Mark.
Jack and I talked about the potential of his power and the potential of combining powers. 916Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbdQOR2iyBv
"Yes, so if you had friction and air pressure, then you could slow someone's fall so much that they'd survive jumping off a building!" Jack exclaimed.
"It's molecule distance, but yeah," I agreed. "It would be some amazing stuff to combine powers. But I don't think it's happening that way."
"So you know exactly what's going to happen?"
"No," I clarified. "It's like a movie. I can start, stop, and end the thing, but I cannot change it." That was a lot further than I usually told, but since he was part of it, and he was a good friend, I figured it wouldn't hurt too much to tell just Jack.
"Okay," Jack said, contemplating.
The run felt way longer with Jason and Aaron passing us so frequently. Apparently, the lazy bums ditched their regular partners and sat around talking about cat girls for the rest of the period. They were so weird. Robert seemed to disappear somewhere, but it was probably because Jack and I were slow runners.
After the run, which I did not cheat on, for your information, I met up with the rest of my crew.
"What's your thing?" Jason asked. Aaron piqued his interest. I had to deflect him, somehow, but I felt bad about lying to Jason. He was only nice to me, unlike a certain other person I was talking to. But heck, I had my personal safety to defend.
I decided rolling my eyes was a safe call. "Better than yours," I lied. I was good at lying.
The bell rang for the end of P.E. Aaron slunk away.
"See you guys outside," I said as I headed to the girl's locker room.
Snack came after second-period. I waited for my crew in the back courtyard, near the locker rooms and the basketball court. Sitting on top of the wall, I could see the tennis courts, the baseball field, and anyone trying to approach.916Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8PuxlnbXKR
The wind was mean that day and I zipped up my boy's green camouflage jacket. I wasn't pro-army or anything, but I liked the idea of blending in. Too bad forest camouflage didn't work well in the suburbs.
Robert walked over to Cole, talking about some kind of anime. It was kind of strange that I had all these friends that watched anime when I didn't.
"Did yours show up yet?" I asked them.
"Nope," Robert said. His purple hair looked strangely pink in the mid-morning fog.
"I wish," Cole said.
"Don't tell Aaron I didn't get mine yet," I said.
"Oh I won't," Cole said.
"Of course not," Robert agreed. "But what's happening?"
"I think we'll all get something soon," I said.
"Who's 'we'?" Robert asked.
"Me, you, Cole, Aaron, Jack, and Jason," I said. "That's it."
"Why'd you include Aaron?" Cole asked.
The bell rang for the end of snack. People in the back courtyard and the basketball court started shuffling to their third-period classes.
"Because I had to," I said. That wasn't a lie. I had to have both Cole and Aaron in this one. My writer had something planned for this iteration of my secret lie.
"Well, I've got to get going," Cole said. "Bye."
"Bye," I responded. I headed out to my geometry class on the other side of the school. 916Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0kijRp9TVS
