Time for School

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Somehow during the night, I'd managed to fall asleep. Surprisingly enough, I didn't have any nightmares about the freaky guys in black. Instead, I was treated to a more peaceful dream. I dreamt I was just sprawled out in an ocean of colors without a care in the world. Maybe it was an embodiment of what my life had become: like a dream. Maybe it was just my mind trying to keep calm after a terrifying experience. But it was more than likely just a coincidental succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occurred involuntarily in my mind during certain stages of sleep. I awoke as I usually had, without my alarm clock, yet perfectly on time to get ready for school.

The rest of the week was so calm by comparison to everything else that happened ever since I'd acquired my powers. I was just happy to get to see all of my friends, the girls that I'd gotten so very close and personal with, and to steadily build up my grades. All my teachers seemed to take notice, but I was still busy taking notice of the girls. Old habits die hard, I guess. But, I didn't make any sort of moves. I found myself more than content to just ... admire and enjoy.

Jennifer and I were able to maintain our steady love-hate relationship. Talia was still as clingy and as adorable as ever. Eve and Lila still considered me part of their group and I continued to have lunch every other day with them. Eve herself made it a habit to greet me with one of those great little hugs and a kiss every morning before school. Natalie was still as bold as ever. She and I didn't get to talk much, after all she was too busy being an up-and-coming model. I did get to speak with her about the conversation Johnathan overheard. She was actually very apologetic and realized it was a bad move by her. She promised not to bring it up anymore, and that was good enough for me. Ms. Adanna kept our tryst a secret, although she greatly enjoyed my tutelage under her and would give me a gentle stroke of the arm or squeeze of the hand from time to time.

Walking home with Sofia was always the highlight to the end of the school day. She was so talkative, so warm, so comforting to be around. Elizabeta – oh, jeez, where do I even start with her? She took her physicality toward me to another level; shoving, punching, even kicking me just for the hell of it. I knew she enjoyed my company greatly, even if it didn't look like it. Tamara continued to be that amazingly sweet girl that sat behind me in Algebra. She really loved wearing that pink shirt, and did so as often as she could to show she was 'Team Anthony.' Back home, Samantha and I did a whole bunch of catching up and swimming together at the pool. It was great to have my childhood best friend back in my life. As for Sarah? She was still my very good friend, along with Jordan. She remained someone I could talk to about anything and know that secrets would be kept safe with her.

As for the rest of my friends, they were still the lovable, ragtag group of misfits they already were. Frank, Josh and Brandon – my three buds that remained consistent and so much fun to be around. Frank was also really great about keeping the secret of my power a secret. Nora was never bothered by Jason ever again. I was happy to hear that, and so was she. The sweet hug she would give me every time we ran into each other was proof enough of that for me.

Yeah, this was the new normal for me: my normal, supernatural life. It was refreshing, to say the least. Little did I know, however, that 'normal' was about to get a whole lot stranger...

The following weekend, I'd gotten up nice and late like I loved to do on the weekend. I groggily headed into the kitchen to make myself a sandwich for lunch. I held a cucumber down, idly chopping a few slices out of it. At the same time, I closed my eyes and yawned, thinking nothing of the repetitive motion. That's when a searing pain literally cut through my finger.

I looked down, there was blood all over the cutting board already and I swear I could see through to the bone. I panicked and brought my hand over to the sink, bleeding profusely along the way. But that's when I suddenly remembered I could heal myself with relative ease. I just had ignore the splitting pain, focus, and think about my finger not being sliced open. As I thought clearly of my finger being back to normal, my powers had made it so. I sighed heavily as I looked my healed finger over and shook my hand a few times just to be sure it wasn't going to fall off.