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Chapter Twenty Five

Become stronger...

More powerful...

Just like my parents.

Today was Friday, with the past week being nothing but helping Ryan move and meeting Lukas's sister, Lyra (who was just as pretty and angelic as Stephanie). I was meeting most of my two friends' sibling, which was quite nice because that meant they liked me enough to show me their family. This time, I chose to spend time with my own family, with Papa trying to help me bring out the Dream Factory attribute as a fifth one. Mom was watching from the sidelines, noting down how I reacted to certain things.

I was sitting on the lawn, my eyes closed and my legs crossed. The first thing Papa wanted me to do was meditate while I tried to summon the attribute's power. So far, I had been just sitting there, glowing different colors of the rainbow. Green and purple were obviously from my parents, with the time and music attributes. Red and orange were Leo and Julia (as pointed out many times previously), with the other attributes that I technically got from them.

Unfortunately, the blue and yellow were unfamiliar to me. Blue was something I suspected to have been from my mother's weather attribute, and I assumed that would make the yellow the Dream Factory attribute. I'm surprised it isn't the most powerful attribute in the world. Connecting to heaven and hell and the dreams and nightmares of those around you? The only reason the Music attribute is so powerful is because of its flexibility.

"You're still too tense," Papa pointed out. I opened my eyes, looking up at him as he stood in front of me with a cup of tea in hand. "I don't know what's bothering you, but if you keep thinking about it, it'll stop you from any chances of ever reaching Dream Factory."

Mom gave me a small smile. "I have to agree. You're doing great, Meredith, but you're too concentrated on something else."

I groaned loudly and fell onto the grass, my hands on my face. "Ugh..! This is so infuriating!"

Papa pulled me up with his hand, sipping from his mug. "Alright then," he said, "Again!"

~~~

"Should we get her down now?" I heard Mom ask Papa.

After two hours of Papa pushing me to my limits and pressing all my buttons, I was concentrating on contacting the heavenly realm. A few minutes ago, I felt myself rising into the air, slowly but surely. Unfortunately, I had to keep my eyes closed, and the distance of my mother's voice was worrying me. I'm floating. Like a bubble. Nothing will pop me. I inhaled softly, and suddenly, a loud ringing from my bedroom window made me jump, my eyes opening quickly. Before I could react, I felt myself falling from the sky, only for Papa to catch me before I hit the ground.

My computer.

Lukas!

Looking over at Papa, he gave me a hefty sigh and settled me down onto my feet, knowing what I was about to ask. "Alright, alright.. you can go answer your friend's call." He pat my head with a proud smile. "You've done enough for today."

Hugging Papa tightly, I ran into the house, shouting, "Thanks, Papa!"

Bolting upstairs, I was surprised the call was still ringing on my computer, but of course, it was Lukas. He's too persistent sometimes. I sat down on my chair and answered the call immediately. The screen flashed, and Lukas appeared sitting lazily at his desk. He had a pencil on his nose, trying to balance it.

"What in the world are you trying to do?" I asked suddenly, making him jump.

The pencil dropped, and Lukas looked down at it, staring for quite a while. He then looked at me with a childish pout.

"Meredith..!" He whined. "I was almost at 15 seconds too..!"

I couldn't help but laugh at his complaint, a hand to my mouth. "Awh, I'm sorry! Geez, you're such a dork!" An idea came into mind as I laughed at him. Spinning around in my swivel chair, I looked up at him. "Moving onto more important matters, I kinda wanna know what your attributes are!"

Lukas raised an eyebrow at me, putting the pencil down on his desk after picking it up from the floor. "Like, personality wise?" He questioned back. I was sparked by a sudden flint of confusion, only for him to interrupt me and say, "Because if so, you know a lot about them already."

I shook my head, giving him a puzzled expression. He seemed just as baffled as I was. "By attributes..." I mumbled, my fingers pulling on each other nervously. "..I meant the magic-like powers most of the world's population has."

I've never met someone with such a confused reaction when discussing attributes.

Is he perhaps like Stephanie?

That doesn't seem like a likely possibility.

Even though he could be attribute-less, he would still hear of people's attributes and the term would be familiar.

The first thing people ever think of when the word attribute is brought up is the abilities we inherit from our parents. How could he not know that..?

"What are you talking about?" Lukas asked, shaking his head. My eyes widened suddenly when he added, "Are you imagining things? I've never heard of something like that."

My hand clenched into a small fist as I let myself wallow in my thoughts. He.. doesn't know what attributes are...? But California has plenty of people with magnificent attributes!

"What do you mean you've never heard of them before?" I blurted out, my heartbeat increasing. I felt myself slowly falling into panic. "You don't know what attributes are..?" Trying to think of something to jog up his memory, I put my hand out in front of the webcam, and it flashed red. A pen appeared in my hand as I used my Summoning attribute. Lukas's eyes widened as he jumped in his chair, startled by the glowing and the appearance of the pen. "You don't know what this is?"

Lukas was gripping onto his chair like his life depended on it, confused and looking quite shocked by what had just happened. "T-That's a pen," he stuttered, pointing at the pen in my hand. My hand flashed again, and the object disappeared. He jumped again, adding, "b-but what the fuck was that just now?!"

Standing up slightly, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "What do you mean?" I exclaimed. "That was my attribute called Summoning! Surely you have to know what I'm talking about!"

Before Lukas could say anything or yell back, I noticed the gamer-themed calendar hanging on his wall, the one that was face-to-face with where his desk was. I only just noticed it, and with my time attribute, I gave myself time to read it properly. Alongside the calendar was a digital clock, which gave the whole date of the time. My eyes widened at the date and time that displayed from the two time-telling objects.

The year he was living in was 2068.

And yet, I lived in year 3064.