Growing Up

In the quiet, wind-cut plains of Oklahoma, two boys from different worlds begin their first year of college-both carrying powers they never asked for, and pasts they've never fully faced.

Jesse Rowen, the youngest son of a once-feared military leader from Mexico, lives in the shadow of a man the world once called a hero. After his father was honorably discharged and relocated to the United States under a classified protection deal, Jesse grew up in a small Oklahoma town-raised with strong family values, quiet pride, and the constant weight of legacy. His older brother is following in their father's footsteps, but Jesse... Jesse doesn't even know what his power is. If he has one at all.

Caleb Brooks was raised in chaos. With a mother lost to addiction and a father who disappeared into the brutal underground of illegal powered fights, Caleb has learned to survive through silence, strength, and the gym. On the outside, he's hard, unreadable-a man with a body built for war but a soul still healing from a childhood shaped by fists, fear, and alcohol. His powers? Still undefined. But the damage is already done.

When Jesse and Caleb crash into each other on the first day of college-both literal and emotional-their worlds slowly begin to intertwine. What starts as an awkward rivalry becomes a reluctant friendship, then something deeper neither of them expected.

As the story unfolds, Growing Up explores the highs and lows of small-town life where powered individuals are rare, watched, and quietly resented. But this isn't a tale of saving the world-it's a story about surviving it. About two young men navigating broken families, unspoken trauma, cultural identity, language barriers, and what it means to grow up when the world only sees the weight of who you're supposed to be.