Freeze Frame

Chapter 48

Third person pov

Pushing her quirk to the limit while she wasn't crying and hyperventilating was a lot different than she thought it'd be. As she jogged around the track, she found her eyes unconsciously straying back to the ball she'd frozen midair. It's like her gaze was drawn to it or something. Looking away for too long made her eyes start to itch. She wasn't sure if that had happened at the USJ, or of maybe she just hadn't noticed due to all her crying.

Her stomach didn't hurt, and it had been half an hour. Sure, freezing a single, inanimate object and maybe a few clouds didn't take much energy. Not as much as freezing a person took, anyway, but she felt happy. She didn't feel like she was going to start hacking up her lungs or anything of that sort. It was a good sign!

She did feel extremely drowsy, however. She found her eyelids drooping a little as she jogged. On that note, she was also strictly going around the track for her workout today. She didn't have to sprint or do any push ups like her two friends due to her quirk being in use. Aizawa didn't want her collapsing. She was glad for that. She didn't really want to feel like her body was being crushed from the inside.

"Hey, Lillian." Neito came up next to her as her eyes unconsciously drifted to the ball again. The urge to stare at the small scene she'd frozen continued to get stronger and stronger as she pattered around the track. She blinked, reaching up to rub her eyes as she looked at Neito and the wheezing Hitoshi. The blonde's expression twisted. "Are you... alright? Your eyes are red."

"I-I think the side effects depend on..." She trailed off, eyes going back to the ball. She continued, not looking away, "depend on how I'm feeling, maybe? At the USJ, I was so panicked I could barely think straight."

"And now you're calm." Neito provided.

"Y-Yeah. It doesn't really hurt. I'm just really tired, and m-my eyes itch. The urge to stare at what I've frozen also keeps getting stronger..." She pried her gaze from the ball, and the itching increased.

"Make sure to tell... Mr. Aizawa." Hitoshi panted, wiping his hand against his sweaty forehead. It did absolutely nothing, as per usual. Neito and Lillian shot him sympathetic glances. While Hitoshi had begun to take okay to the push ups, crunches, and things of that sort, he hated running with a burning passion. Lillian and Neito couldn't figure out for the life of them why he didn't like it, but he didn't.

"I will." Lillian assured. "Chris, is that a weed?!"

"I'm calling the police!" Neito took off sprinting again, Hitoshi groaning and following.

"911, what's your emergency?" The purple-haired boy managed to choke out before he was off and running again as well, looking like he'd rather do a flip off a cliff than do so

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B

y Friday, Lillian had practically turned her house upside down looking for baby photos of herself. She'd hunted down even the most obscure of photographs, but no baby pictures arose. It occurred to her that even if they had been destroyed, there was no way they didn't have digital copies. Sure, computers hadn't been as advanced when she was a baby, but her parents had still backed literally everything up on disks.

Everything but her baby pictures.

She didn't know why the thought of being adopted made her so... sad. These were her parents, no matter what. She knew they loved her, and she loved them just as much. If she was adopted, that meant they'd chosen her to be their daughter. They'd gone and decided that she was the best one for them. Somehow, that thought didn't comfort her in the least.