same old story, same old song | the umbrella academy

December 24, 2004

It's been five years since her weird dreams, but the man said the truth. The 43 do have powers, apparently, and two years ago the seven – well, six – children of Sir Reginald Hargreeves were introduced as a team of superheroes.

Pretty cool, thinks Maya. Even cooler that she also has powers. The man was right – no one else has an intuition like she has.

Testing it out was actually pretty easy; she got one of her least moral friends, Ricky, to hold a water gun to her face. Randomly, he would switch it out with a real loaded gun they got from her father's cabinet. Even though her eyes were blindfolded, and her ears covered, she correctly guessed everytime the gun was real. The moment Ricky held it she'd hear a tick, and when he would put it to her head, the most annoying thriink deafened Maya.

It can definitely sense danger. That was proved when Ricky accidentally shot the gun, and Maya found herself back in her bed, waking up in an already lived morning.

Strange, definitely, but very cool. Moving on, that second time she didn't ask Ricky for help.

Beep, beep, beep, beep!

Ah, Christmas Eve. One of her two favourite days – the first one being Christmas, of course.

Her parents are already waiting for her in the car as she rushes to grab her bags and plushies, previously prepared for their visit to her mom's parents. It should last until New Year's. The road trip is usually quick, only lasting two hours, but those two hours are enough to worry Maya. They're two loud hours. Luckily, her dad is a good driver.

Now hyperaware of her intuition, Maya's life has changed, but she can't tell if it's for the worst or the best.

Her need to hear the ticks keeps her on edge at all times, while also making her a little more confident on herself, as she knows she's never going to make a dangerous decision again. Even if she does, she's learned to toe the line of danger; proceeding when she hears ticks, and only stopping at thriinks, having learned the consequences of those.

Even when being mischievous in school, she's always on the lookout while her friends do their thing. Teachers always activate a tick in those situations. Probably because of whatever would happen if they see her and tell her parents.

Speaking of them, they still don't know about her powers.

Tick!

When Maya looks around, she can't find anything out of the ordinary. Maybe a random car just sped past them and that was the danger. But what if it's something worse?

Leaning between her parents' seats, she turns the volume of the radio down.

—Aw, why's that? I love that song. —her mother pouts, but doesn't try to change the volume back,

Maya lies. —Headache. —

Tick!

While she looks around, her mother searches for something in her purse. —I think we should get that checked out, you get so many headaches lately. —she brings out a small pill, and passes it to Maya, —You have water? —

—No, don't worry about that. —she does the gesture of putting the pill in her mouth, but keeps it in her hand. Then, she fake-swallows. She hates drinking pills.

Her father looks at her through the rearview. —Maybe it's stress. School does that to you at that age. Your grades lowered this year, Ya. —

—Well, she doesn't need perfect grades. —her mother shrugs,

—But she likes them. —he's right. —What's going on, Maya? —

She has to admit her intuition is a distraction. Chemistry class activates it almost immediately, because of the chemicals around the room, and even P.E. waves a red flag sometimes. Last year's math teacher was a walking tick.

Tick, tick, tick, tick-

—Nothing. —

Thriink!

Something smashes against the car.