Hero's Journey

Changes

Summary: Emma starts to notice some... odd things happening to her. She worries about what it means and if anyone else has noticed.

Pairings: Wally West/OC, platonic

Warnings: mentions of mild abuse/ aggressive argument

Word Count: 1290

Avery Yu belongs to  audreyshiu @audreythetealovingcat, @audreyandherocs

It was Thursday night and Emma was busy preparing the guest room for Avery's visit, with Wally's help. "Hey, does Avery have a favorite flower or special treat she likes? I know lemons, but what else? My mom's gonna pick some stuff up at the store."
Wally finished smoothing out the sheets and picked up a dust rag. "Um, she likes sunflowers and tea. Herbal or green tea."
Emma plucked the rag gently from his hand. "Oh, actually I dusted already. We just need to vacuum and do the bathroom."
Wally stared at his friend and made a note that she seemed to be moving faster than usual lately. "Wow! Done already? That was fast. We're going to have to start calling you Speedy. I just finished the sheets."
"Haha, funny. It's just dusting a few dressers, Feet," Emma rolled her eyes and headed to the bathroom.
"Nah, you forget we have the same gym class. You've been getting some pretty good times on the mile lately, too." Wally pointed out.
"Yeah, well, I've been practicing and training pretty hard in Taekwondo. I guess it's paying off." She shrugged. In a few minutes, she was finished scrubbing the tub and sink. "There. All done."
"Great. Now we just have to vacuum?" Wally asked. He decided not to comment on Emma's quick pace again.
Emma had a different idea, though. She decided to mess with her friend a bit. "Oh. I already did that," she deadpanned. "You must have missed it when you blinked." She watched his face for his reaction. He really was fun to tease.
"What? When? How? I mean, really?" he stares at Emma in disbelief, wondering if it really was possible.
Emma let his mind run for a minute before she smirked and chuckled. "Wally. Of course not really." She noticed he didn't seem completely convinced. "That would mean I went downstairs, got the vacuum, used it, and put it back all without you seeing, in the span of about a few seconds. And you just saw me cleaning the bathroom. I was right next to you the whole time. Oh my gosh, your face though. My mom's using it downstairs, I can't use it till she's done." She took Wally's hand and led him back to the guest room, pointing at the floor. "See any vacuum tracks?"
"Phew. Ok, you're right. Silly me. Why do you like to mess with me like that?" Wally asked, a bit relieved.
"Only because you're so much fun." Emma joked. She hoped her little joke would be enough to put Wally off for a while at least. She couldn't be sure if he suspected anything, but the truth was she had noticed a difference in her speed lately.
Her strength and endurance had improved as well. Three days ago she'd run two miles in gym class in under ten minutes. She'd made the first mile lap without realizing it and ended up doing a second. She hadn't noticed she'd done an extra mile till Wally pointed it out and told her he'd had trouble keeping up. What surprised her, even more, was that her lungs weren't burning and she wasn't desperately grasping for her inhaler at the end. In fact, she'd felt like she could have kept going. Then there was the day that she had accidentally set the leg press at almost double what she was normally able to do. She'd done a full 30 reps before anyone noticed, and she hadn't even been the slightest bit sore. The same thing happened with the chest press. And of course the broken bat from a month ago. She kept replaying it over in her head. She didn't know what but she was pretty sure something was happening to her. There were other changes too. The physical changes weren't too alarming; in fact, she was rather excited about them.
But the past few months she thought she had seen things move around her without anyone touching them. It mostly seemed to occur when she was angry, or scared. Which sadly was happening a lot more often when her father and she argued. The last argument had been over something so small. Emma had wanted to sit on the floor to do her homework and her dad insisted she sit at the table. She just didn't understand why her dad didn't see she couldn't focus like that. They had ended up screaming at each other, with Emma backed against the wall and Mr. Teague a few inches away. He grabbed her arm, trying to drag her to the table. She remembered thinking how badly she wanted to throw something at him or hit him. The next thing she knew her textbook had gone flying off the coffee table and into the nearby cabinet. The noise had been enough to startle her dad back and he let go.
He looked from the book to her and back. Then he stared her down with so much disgust and fear and anger and hatred and spit out "You little shit! Did you do that?"
She had stood there in shock, cowering, bracing for worse. But he had stormed off in a huff. Nobody else was home at the time, and she hadn't told anyone. She suspected Wally might have sensed something was up when he called her later that night. That was two weeks ago. Shortly after her dad had left and Emma had locked herself in her room with her books, Wally had called. It was long enough for her to collect herself and dry her eyes, but Wally had immediately asked her what was wrong. Without her answering, he had offered to make up an excuse to get her over to his house. Wally's call had been a true blessing. She did something she was doing more and more lately; and thanked whatever god was out there.
That one incident with Wally had been easy to account to a coincidence or a blessing. But she sensed there was more to it than that. Lately, she had suspected she had been hearing his thoughts. And not just his, but Avery's as well when she was in town. It sounded like voices in her head, but the voices always had a distinct sound. The first time she noticed had been simple. She'd had a song stuck in her head all day. When she met with Wally later, he mentioned having the same earworm. The next time they were in study hall and she answered his question before he asked it. She had heard it before he said it out loud. Little things like that happened more and more.
Having some sort of telepathic link or whatever it was, was fine with Wally or Avery. It alarmed her, but not too much. But she also had started hearing the thoughts of random classmates. People thinking about sports practice, cheating on a test, their boyfriends and girlfriends, parents, everything. It was like hearing 100 different conversations all at once and not being able to focus on one. She had taken to wearing headphones at lunch and spending as much time as possible in the sanctuary of the library, away from the crowds and noise.
Emma looked back at Wally, afraid he might have sensed what she had just been remembering. If he had, he didn't make any indication, and she was grateful for that. She wasn't sure she was ready to face the music, let alone have anyone find out.