Choices We Make

Chapter Five: A New Normal

Monday felt weird.

Not the usual "where did the weekend go, why is Monday here already no go away" kind of weird that seemed to latch onto Mondays, but everything was oddly normal.

Meaghan sat in her philosophy class, one that if it was not required for her degree she wouldn't be caught dead taking, and listened to the professor drone on and on about something while surfing the web on her laptop. Around her, the same old classmates sat in the same old classroom, listening to the same old lecture.

It was too normal.

Yesterday, she'd been flying. She'd teleported twice to New York City and found out that Sean had feelings for her, a conversation they needed to have soon.

And today?

This is no fun, no fun, sitting in class. Alex's singsongy thought interrupted her mental monologue. Anyone else bored out of their mind?

History? Meagan shook her head slightly at her friend's antics.

Same old classroom, same old classmates, same old dates I'm not going to remember.

Would you two mind? Some of us are actually trying to pay attention in class?

Meaghan barely held in a snort at Nicole's tone. I'm paying attention just fine, thank you very much.

Please, you're in philosophy. We all know better.

Hush. Meaghan shifted in her seat, glancing at the clock on her laptop. I wish this class would hurry up to an end. Twenty more minutes.

You and me both. Alex let out a mental sigh.

Meaghan looked up and everything seemed to be going like someone was fast-forwarding a TV. Guys, are you seeing this.

Which one of us is doing it? Nicole sounded somewhere between annoyed and amused.

Glancing at her laptop, she saw that it was almost time for this class to end. After a second, it was and time resumed to its normal pace.

I think that might have been me. My bad. But hey, the class is done.

Hopefully, I didn't miss anything important in the last almost half of class.

Meaghan chuckled as she gathered her stuff together and headed outside. Out in the quad, she ran into Sean who was sitting on the edge of a fountain reading a paper. Sitting down beside him, she watched the students go about their day. "It's weird."

"What's weird?" He didn't look up but the corners of his mouth turned up.

"This. Everyone's acting like it's just another Monday."

"It is just another Monday." Sean finally looked up from his book. "At least to them it is. Why would they have any reason to think anything has changed?"

"Has anything changed?" Meaghan looked at her hands. "One second it feels like the world has decided to turn itself upside down, the next it feels like everything's fine."

"There's no rule book for suddenly developing superpowers." Sean looked back down at the paper he was reading.

"Anything good?"

"Just the paper on the Illumious I read ages ago back when he was still developing it. Trying to see if there is anything in the theory that would suggest how you three got your abilities."

"Any leads?"

"Maybe. But you would think Future Bound would keep tabs on it since Dr. Broadhead is on their board and is one of their leading scientists. And why is he marketing something like this as an anti-aging device? The potential it has for helping people..."