Descent

Chapter 2

I was thirteen now, and I was much better at using my power. Still didn't know how I'd gotten it though. No one else in my family had anything like it, so my brothers would always tease me about being adopted. I wasn't though; everyone says I look just like my mom and talk just like my dad.

I tossed another couch cushion into the jumble of stuff floating in the air behind me. Nope, it wasn't in the couch. I mentally shuffled around through some papers, throwing them into the pile when nothing fell out.

Mom walked in. She took in the destroyed living room, the floating blob of stuff, and me standing there holding my math book. She put her hands on her hips.

"I was doing my homework and I set my pencil down for a second to answer a text but then I couldn't find it again, so I was looking for it. I'll put everything back, I swear," I said hurriedly.

Mom glanced over at the side table where she had set her keys. "This pencil?" she asked, picking it up.

"Yeah, that's the one!" I said. "Thanks."

"You will put everything back exactly where it was. Right now. And you will do it by hand, no powers. You are lucky I don't ground you for this, missy," she said. Mom was never one for the whole screaming-when-something-goes-wrong thing. She always got really calm and over enunciated when she was mad. It was the scariest thing in the world.

I let the bundle of junk drop to the floor. I'd had to do all chores by hand lately. It was because of a couple weeks ago when I broke a cabinet while putting away dishes. I had gotten a song stuck in my head, and without realizing it I moved the dishes along to the beat. They crashed into the cupboard, and it gave out and all the plates and bowls fell out the bottom. Most of them broke and had to be replaced.

"Hey, I'm going to Tia's. We're gonna go see a movie and then stay the night at her place. I'll be back around noon. Is that cool with you?" I asked after I finished cleaning.

"Sure. Don't forget your toothbrush," she said.

"I didn't," I said. The door swung itself shut behind me.

-----------------------------------------------

"That movie was so great," Tia said as we headed into her basement and laid out our stuff.

"Yes! And that part where he didn't kiss her even though it totally would have been okay to kiss her..."

"So she kisses him instead! It was so romantic!" Tia squealed.

"Best movie ever," I said.

"Definitely," she said. We sat down on the couch and pulled out our phones. The internet was buzzing about some celebrity has been who got terrible plastic surgery done. And also astronauts had done something or other.

"I just realized I never said how awesome your hair looks. Cool cornrows, they make you look a lot older," I said.

"Thanks," Tia said, touching the string thin braids. "Can you pass me a pop? They're in the fridge."

I opened the fridge and pulled out a pop, using my mind. Part of it anyway, I was mostly thinking about what I was reading on my phone.

Tia screamed, and I dropped the pop and the phone, looking around frantically. "What? What is it?"

"The pop can! It was just floating!"

"Oh. Uh, what? No it wasn't. You were imagining things," I said. Over the years, there had been several times when I had forgotten and used my powers in front of Tia. But it had always been something small, and she hadn't thought anything of it, if she noticed it at all.

"No, I wasn't. That was real. That pop can was floating!" she pointed at it accusingly.

My mind raced. What could I say to make her think it didn't happen? You know, maybe I won't have to. Maybe I can just make her think it wasn't me.

"It must be a pretty special pop can," I said solemnly. "Don't you have an aunt who deals with this sort of stuff? She's a scientist, right? We should tell her about it and let her examine the can."

"My aunt's a marine biologist. You know that," she said. Now she turned her accusing eyes to me. "Did-- did you...?"

I swallowed, waiting for her to come to the conclusion. I had been lying to her and keeping secrets the whole time we had known each other. She was never going to talk to me again.

"That is so cool!"