Phoenix

7. An Explanation

"Look, Seth. Sorry about 10 minutes ago. I was on edge about mom not letting me tell you something. It won't happen again. I'll make mom explain everything to you. Even if she doesn't want to. I'll make her tell you the truth. I just don't want to say anything without her here." He explains.

" Good thing she's here then."

She walks in. I watch her as she takes off her shoes and walks over to us. She keeps her head down until sitting across the table from me. She looms afraid of my eyes because she is looking at Jake more than me.

"Explain yourself," I demand.

" How about you? Why aren't you in School?"

I think about it for a minute. "I walked out. I'm not going back there. I can't. Now I'll explain to you why I walked out and refuse to go back after you explain to me, what you don't think I'm old enough to know. What were you talking about?"

She looks over to Jake as if she doesn't know what to say or how to get around it.

" Tell him everything. Tell him the truth. No more lies." He commands.

"Fine." She sighs. "Seth, your fire powers weren't just an 11:11 wish. You didn't just wish for them and you got them. -Well. You did wish for them and then you got them. But there's more to the story."

"Seth." Jake steps into the conversation. "We come from a long ancestry of superhumans."

"What?" I'm so confused.

"Humans with super abilities... Back in the 1400s a scientist, that nobody's really heard of, experiment on one of our ancestors trying to find a way to create a superhuman with the abilities never before thought of. The experiment worked but the scientist was killed by our ancestor. He didn't mean to kill re the scientist, but without control over his newfound power..." She clarifies "Our ancestor was scared so he never spoke another word of it or used it ever again. He lived in fear of hurting someone, for the rest of his life. He became a father about a year after. His daughter got the power. Who's son got the power. And so on." She pauses again."The power ran through on my side of the family and not your father's. He knows about my power. But he doesn't like me using it. That's why we're able to get used to the idea pretty quickly considering it does happen around puberty, so we were expecting it."

"I got my power when I was around 16. Since there are only four rooms in our house and mom and dad need one. All our kids had to share because there wasn't enough space to have sperate rooms. I got my own room because mom and dad knew I'd be first and it's easier to hide it from you and the others with my own room. Since I knew what to do about this I moved down into the basement with you." Jake says.

"When you got your fire powers. I guess it was triggered by the 11:11 wish so it came a bit earlier then it was supposed to." Mom mentions, "We hate keeping this a secret from the rest of the family but it's the only way we don't have to worry about people blabbing to all their friends at school, then everyone knows because the friends told other friends and so on."

"And you thought I would tell everyone?" I think aloud.

"It's not like that. I just wasn't ready to tell you. I made excuses so we wouldn't have to say anything." Mom confesses.

I stay quiet for a few moments, so do they.

" So. Jake." I break the silence after about a minute. "What power do you have?"

He laughs. "Weather and air."

I look over at mom and raise a curious eyebrow. As if to say, what did you get?

"Me? I got healing."

"Healing powers?" I say as if I don't believe her. But I do.

She looks at me as if to say bring it on. "Remember when you were 8 and fell off the trampoline and thought you broke your ankle?"

"Yeah. But you said it was just sprained."

"The bone was broken to pieces. That would have taken years to heal and would never have been the same. I healed it because I couldn't stand to see you in pain. I healed it slower than I usually would because I needed to pass it off a sprain."

I look at her impressed. "Well. You really are, super-mom."

She laughs.

" So. What exactly happened at school today? Why don't you want to go back?" She questions.

I tell her what happened.

"Where do you plan on going to school then? You can't just drop out."

"What about an online school where I can just get my diploma from my bedroom."

"How would you make sure to stay on schedule?"

"I don't know. I'll figure it out. Just. Will you at least talk to dad about it? I just don't want to be in a public school anymore."

"Yeah. I'll talk to dad." She agrees. "Just. Please start wearing your hat outside."

I smile a nod, yes. I go back to my room and read until the school day ends.

I grab my hat and make sure i have my gloves.

I'm going over to see Jackie.