The Change

The Day of Return

It was a foggy winter morning on December 1st, 2014 in Mesquite, Texas. I had recently gotten back from Washington D.C.. Experiments were done on me so they could cure my disease, APlastic Anemia. It took a few days before today to finally get results, but I had been cured completely. The side effects from these experiments were unknown since they altered my DNA.

I had been unsure at first if I should go back to school and finish up my senior year, but I did it anyways. The time had been long since I was gone, people missed and envied me. Then I figured this, since I was specially picked out of thousands of adolescents and children for these experiments. What I did not know was probably more shocking than, well, anything. So I just went on with out knowing.

It was now back to my usual busy schedule of helping my mother with getting children ready for school. My brother Jake had gotten dressed in the bathroom, while my adopted cousin McKenna had gotten dressed in her room. She was only six, Jake had recently turned fifteen, and I was seventeen, going on eighteen in May of 2015. David the other adopted cousin who was 3, was fast asleep since we had woken up early. My mother was Kathy, as old as forty one years, she worked hard for us kids and we all appreciated it.

"Come on McKenna it's 7:15, we gotta get you to school" I called out to my cousin. She came running into the living room towards the front door and walked out with me. "Joseph, may I have a piggy back ride," She asked while jumping about. I replied in a calm tone, "Sure thing." The six year old jumped onto my back, and I held her in place. I then walked from the house and toward the direction of the school, McKenna sitting comfortably on my back.

It took about three to four minutes before we were able to make it to McKenna's school. McKenna jumped off of my back, and ran towards her school doors. Then she stopped, "I almost forgot!" Therefore , sprinting back, she tackled me with a hug and ran back to the school doors. It made me smile, "See ya later today McKenna!"

With a wave, I walked away, towards my bus stop and stood where I usually stood, just a few feet away from the stop sign. I always like waiting for the bus, well not really for the bus, but for my girlfriend. Seeing her always brightened my day. During the trip I got to speak to her on the phone a couple of times, and some on Skype. As I stood on the sidewalk, I could remember that there could be side effects, but I didn't know what they could be. They could be negative or positive.

As I was thinking of this, I didn't really notice there were other students standing around. Then she was coming along, her name, Catherine. To me she is the most beautiful person I have ever met. She was almost here when someone had gripped my shoulder and turned me around instantaneously. It was a boy at the age of sixteen, maybe seventeen if I was correct, and man was he pissed for some reason. Still, I was slightly shaken for the past few days after I got home, and didn't know what had happened over the weeks. All I knew was that I was cured. What did this student want.

"Hmm, let's see brown hair, but a new color of eyes, yellow by the looks of it, and possibly cured of APlastic Anemia, how do ya feel Joseph Alexander Steelman. Do ya feel happy, do ya feel alive and well?" The teenager interrogated. I could hardly respond before the teenager spoke again, "See what I don't get, is why the government chose to help you, I mean you obviously didn't need it. On camera you looked willing to die, but they saved your ass anyways. I have researched your disease, Steelman," the teenager was extremely harsh about it, especially when saying my last name. Catherine got there when he was starting to continue and pushed the boy away from m, "Back off can you not tell he has been through a lot! He came to his home just a few days ago unaware of his surroundings because of the medicine they gave him. Yet you speak to him like he's never left." I had put a calm hand on Catherine's shoulder, "It's okay, he has every right to be envious, who doesn't? Besides, the fact of the matter is that I am home, and slowly getting my strength back. It feels like I was in a test tube recently, I don't want to talk about this anymore, just let it go, the both of you."

Catherine was about to protest, but before she could get a chance the adolescent boy in front of us raised his hands and shouted to the sky, " Oh, okay, you want me to let it go huh, would you want anyone else to? Probably, but I can guess the reason why you feel like you were in a test tube." Catherine suddenly punched the boy in the face leaving a mark across his eye. He groaned in pain, then laughed idiotically. He turned towards me and her, "Damn that was a good punch, had me leaning back for a moment."

I looked at the boy, confused, but then some feeling came over me, I don't know what it was either, but I sat there, waiting for the time to go by. Catherine was pissed now, and the boy had looked over at me, "I see your going to let someone fight your battles for you." I shrugged it off and turned to Catherine, "Kitty cat, calm down please, I don't need trouble right now. Let's just wait for the bus." Kitty Cat was my nickname for her, I thought it was cute.

Catherine massaged her hand, the right one to be exact, and calmed down. The teenager that confronted me, still stood there. He didn't technically leave us alone either, it's like he wanted to see if there was anything about me that could be triggered. I looked at him one more time, when another feeling came over me again, like I could sense what was going to happen next.

Suddenly another punch was thrown, this time by the teenage boy. He didn't really do the right thing. Time slowed for an instant, and my reflexes kicked in. An instinct to fight back at what was coming my way jump started itself, causing me to immediately catch his fist. The boy was surprised, then screaming in agony. I was slowly crushing his hand to nothing but meat and powdered bone before tossing him into the branches of a tree. The instincts stopped, my reflexes went down. Then, nothing but blackness.