Seventeen year old Jay Sasaki lives in a world where corporations spend millions of dollars to exploit superpowered children and the media defines good and evil. Cursed with the ability to steal souls, Jay leads a double life as both a normal high s...
That weekend, I slept late, and when I finally did wake up, I decided that I should head to Ellen's castle right away. I wanted to see Percy and Vanessa right away, and I wasn't sure if Carmen needed me for anything. I got ready to leave, but when I started making breakfast, Dad came up to me. It seemed that he had different ideas on how I should be spending my weekend.
"I don't like that you're running around with all of those supervillains," Dad said. "It's nice that one of them got you a job, but those are real criminals that you're dealing with. That Lady Quake destroyed much of downtown San Urbano with that earthquake a few days ago."
"I know, Dad," I said. He had a point. There were superhumans out there who were truly evil. Sometimes, it was hard to tell which supervillains were merely normal people who the media had labeled as evil, and which ones were actually murderers and thieves. I suspected that my newfound friends lay somewhere in the middle.
"Maybe you shouldn't be over there quite so often," Dad suggested. "You do need to work on your college applications, after all."
There was no way to explain the situation with Terry to my dad, so I said, "I can work on my college applications at the castle. I'll just bring my laptop."
Dad sighed and then asked, "What are you making for breakfast, Jay?"
"Scrambled eggs," I answered as I continued to cook the eggs. "They're almost done."
My dad sat down at the table, and I placed some eggs on both his plate and mine. I sat down across from him and tried my best to focus on the food. "So can I go over to the castle?" I asked, bringing us back to our original topic.
"I suppose so," Dad said.
"Can I please borrow the car so I can get there?" I asked.
"Yes," Dad said. He pulled out a copy of the San Urbano Times and began to read it, while I devoured my eggs. We sat in awkward silence until I finished my breakfast and headed out the door.
Just as I was leaving the house, I passed by a small, framed picture. It had always been hanging there, and most of the time, I didn't pay much attention to it. However, as I looked at my father's relaxed smile highlighting his brown, almond-shaped eyes and my mother's laugh as she looked towards the camera and held me in her arms, I thought about the family that I had once had. The photo must have been taken shortly before my mother died - I was just two years old when that happened. I didn't remember Mom, but that picture was evidence that things must have been different when she was alive. I knew that Dad missed her.
I thought that my superpowers came from my mom's side of the family, if only because none of Dad's relatives had powers, and I wasn't sure whether or not that was a good thing. If I had gotten to know my mother or any of her relatives, perhaps I would have known how to control my powers better, but there was no use in thinking too hard about that. Mom was dead, and I had never gotten to know her family.
