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INTRODUCTION
☥ THE WORLD IS FULL OF SELFISH PEOPLE. If there is one thing Kamilah knows, it is that. Selfish people who buy all the water bottles during a hurricane warning. Selfish people who play their music loudly in the subway and smirk to themselves at all the uncomfortable glances people give them.
Kamilah El Masry is not unfamiliar with selfish people, but this is a new level. Portia Clamor, her face pink and puffed, is sobbing loudly next to her. It is 6pm, and Kamilah El Masry is trying to finish her English essay next to a girl who looks like a screaming baby and sounds like one too.
"She- She promised! Why is everyone so mean to me?" Snot runs down Portia's nose as her friend rubs her shoulders sympathetically, "She's such a selfish bitch! I hate her so much! Our ability isn't even that cool, but she told me it would be mine! I hate her!" Portia is about to say more, but her words dissolve into unintelligible sobs.
The thing about the selfish people of the world is that a majority of them share one thing in common. Ability hogging. For the world Kamilah lives in is a world where people have abilities, some god-like, some utterly lame. These abilities are passed down from person to person. Parent to child, friend to friend, stranger to stranger. And once that power is given to another person, it stays with that person, unless they decide to give it to another.
There's a boy in Kamilah's English class who can turn other people (but not himself) invisible. He sits at a lunch table crowded with too many people. There is also a girl in Kamilah's gym class who can make electricity waves flicker for a few seconds. She eats at a table of one.
But most people at Kami's school do not have a power. This is where ability hogging comes into play. The most common way a ability is passed down is from parent to child. But some parents do not want to give their children powers.
Be it because they didn't trust their child with them or because they want the ability all for themselves. But it is tradition on your 16th birthday for your parents to give you their power.
But what if your parents don't ever? What if they die holding the power? Then the power dies with them. It fizzles up into the atmosphere and collects new energy, and soon a baby will be born with that same power a couple of years later.
Kamilah's grandfather is still holding his ability from his son. The whole El Masry family is unsure of what it is, and could care less at this point. It's obviously not important enough that he would boast about it. And he boasts about a lot.
Kamilah's mother can change the density of a liquid. She has no intentions to give it to Kamilah, which Kamilah does not care about. Because even if her mother did try to give Kamilah her power, it would not work.
