Far Away From Home

Part One

“Come on, Steph.It would be exciting. Have you not always liked the unknown?”

Steph's blue eyes were fixed on the rear window of the automobile parked at the side of the road, her reddish-blonde hair pushed back and secured with a yellow rubber band.
 
"Well, I laugh at the face of danger, Jack, but I am not mature yet," she remarked as she blew at her bangs.

“Everyone has their power, including you, but I don't yet have mine. You ought to hold off till I get mine.”

Jackson rolled his eyes and snorted. That's the same line he's been hearing from his girlfriend. Whenever she doesn't want something, she brings up the fact that she's not yet matured. He's starting to suspect she's lying.

After turning 18, every adolescent becomes mature, or they reveal some innate power. Teenagers who occasionally mature before the age of eighteen do so if their power is too great for their frame.

When this happens, they usually pass away too soon, yet it also occasionally happens that they don't develop until later in life. These late bloomers, as they are called, experience this either because their power is undetectable, too small, or insignificant to qualify as a power, or because it can only develop under extreme circumstances.

In Stephanie's instance, he would assume that either it is so ordinary that she's embarrassed about it or that it would only mature in the face of extreme circumstances that have not yet occurred.

In any case, he is growing weary of his girlfriend. He'd already thought it through. It was fortunate that she was admitted to a different university than his. He would end things with her after they have both started at their respective universities on account of long distance dating being a strain for him.

“Okay. How about this? We will take a count, and whoever wins, we will go with that.”

“What the F is that supposed to mean? You want to go there so badly. She kills people, Jack. She's a cannibal.” She emphasized the word "cannibal."

“Yeah. Then what? That gives us even more justification to visit her. Come on. What if she makes the decision to attack here? What can we do when they are walking meat everywhere? She must be killed before she has that thought,” he said.

“Okay. Let's take a count then.” Stephanie said.

Steph thought about their friends. Despite her immense popularity back in high school, Jackson would most certainly be picked by them, and she is aware of that.

It was only after she realized that her maturity was worthless that she realized how much she hated being afraid. She has long been content and proud, being the daughter of a weather mother who can change the weather whenever she wants and a brainiac father who has an IQ of 500, which means it can't be measured.

She has frequently boasted about the potential of her power. She had always thought it might be a mix of the two, or perhaps either of them. Being an intellectual girl by nature, she was drawn to her father's maturity.

She didn't worry about it even when she was eighteen and still hadn't matured because of the way her father was. Everyone was amazed by his intelligence, which they never questioned until they had to interview him.

She never went to any interviews because she wanted to see the transformation for herself, or perhaps she thought others should, but no one ever mentioned that she always had something intelligent to say. And before she could pass her exams, she still had to read.

Up until she matured, she had no idea why. She felt let down and resentful of herself. She was eager to leave this town and be far from them. She would then sever things with Jackson, move on from her friends, and live her life as she saw fit.