He looked like he just stepped out of a male fashion catalogue. No wonder there were a lot of thoughts shouting towards him, especially from the girls. He really did look good, like Mya had said. His face was a little pale but perfectly shaped. His hair had a little dark shade of brown and it was short and gelled up in a fancy way. His eyes were kind of onyx coloured but that wasn’t too much noticeable. And his mind, it was quiet but I could hear a little humming sound on the background of it.
I could easily see that he wasn’t just human, just like me. But he wasn’t seeing me just yet.
His looks were not exactly what caught my attention. He looked really familiar, like I had seen him somewhere not here. I tried probing my mind to figure out where I had seen him before but before I could figure it out Mr McCoy called the class to attention. He informed us that we’d be handing over the project on the following day in the morning before he started with the lesson. As soon as he told us that, the bell rang and we had to get to our next class.
I packed my books into my bag and stood up to go retrieve my books from my locker for my next lesson. I didn’t glance at Ashton when I took off with Mya for our next class. I got my Math books and headed off to the Math class with Mya. It seemed he was in the same class again. So before the Math tutor started with the lesson, I tried probing my mind to find out where I recognised him from.
It came rushing back into my mind. I remembered being in my dad’s lab toying around with his computer when I came across a website containing information on missing children. There were lots of pictures labelled with their full names and dates of birth. Ashton’s face looked similar to one of the kids’ pictures but I wasn’t particularly sure. So I decided to forget about the issue and focus on the lesson that the tutor was currently giving. I’d go through with it after school.
The lesson went by swiftly as always, I didn’t have any trouble with my studies partly because of my mind reading but also because I was a focused student. After the Math lesson it was lunch time. Immediately after putting my books in my locker we went to the cafeteria. Mya went to get the food while I sat down with my other friend, Brendan Stanford. He’s what some people termed a ‘chatterbox’ because he never ran out of topics to talk about. I guess it did go along with his personality since he’s gay. But he didn’t care about what people said about him, he’s always a happy person. His mind is also pure and full of things that he gets out verbally most of the times.
“So, Lina, who’s the new guy?” he asked.
“Who?” I asked absentmindedly.
“The one who looks like he just walked out of a fashion magazine”, he said with a smile.
I almost laughed at the fact that I also thought of Ashton the same way as Brendan did but I held it back.
“Oh, that’s Ashton Turner. He’s in our class”, I said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Hmmmm, wow. I guess I should pay you a visit in your class very soon. Who knows, he might fancy me, maybe.” He said with a laugh.
I joined him in laughter and Mya appeared at the table carrying a tray with food enough for three. She set it on the table and took a seat.
“What are you two laughing at?” she asked, her voice full of curiosity.
“Brendan is thinking of coming to pay us a visit in our class because of Ashton. He says Ashton might fancy him”, I said, and laughed again.
“Oh wow Brendan. Do you really think you stand a chance?” Mya asked.
“I don’t know, Mya.” He shifted in his seated and looked over his shoulder where Ashton was seated with a couple of guys from our class. “I really don’t know, since he’s eyeing one of us here.”
“Who?” Mya asked quickly and checked for herself.
Simultaneously, they both said, “Lina.”
I didn’t need to raise my head and check to see if they are right. I read it in both their minds but also from Ashton’s own mind. He was eyeing me in a very curious manner and I wondered why he was looking at me like that.
I noticed that I could see through his mind but not everything. It occurred to me that maybe his mind did not work the normal way as others. So I avoided meeting his eyes and focused on the tray of food that Mya had brought.
“Brendan, just because he’s looking at me doesn’t mean that he fancies me”, I said to Brendan while picking at the food with my fingers.
“We know that, but it wouldn’t hurt to have him fancy you. I mean, you have never had anyone fancying you before. So maybe this time you might be lucky”, said Mya while Brendan was nodding in agreement to what she said.
“I don’t know. Maybe I’m just not cut out for the whole dating thing”, I said.
“It’s still early for that kind of predicament. I mean, we’re only 16 so we’re still in the early stages of this kind of issue. So Lina, don’t take it that way. We’ll see with time”, said Brendan.
I dismissed the issue by taking a bite from the Cornish pie from the tray. They joined in for eating and we didn’t talk about that issue again.
After lunch I went back to my classes along with Mya. Mya and I were attending the Science classes while Brendan was taking the Business classes. So we were together during English and Afrikaans classes and also during break time. After school I’d go home with Brendan since we’re staying in the same area. So Mya and I had our classes along with Ashton but we didn’t talk to him again on that day. So I attended Science, the languages classes and Geography. After that we were dismissed and had to go home.
I headed straight to the parking lot and got into my Porsche to wait for Brendan. At the same time I was going over the Ashton issue, trying to figure out how he could be categorised under the missing kids. But then, I could be wrong so I told myself not to conclude on it. So I’d go on to the website when I got home and re-check the picture and the name.
Brendan came in and I drove home. I dropped him off at his place and went straight home after that. I went past the lab to see my dad, Dr Andrew Watson, and I found him working on some new gadgets that he invented. I decided not to ask much about them and went straight to the lab computer. I searched through the internet history list until I found the website. I clicked on it and it loaded all the pictures along with the information concerning the pictures shown on the screen. I scrolled down going through all the pictures until I finally found the one I was looking for.
I clicked on the picture and it revealed everything concerning the boy reflected on the picture. There were two things I was sure about when comparing the boy on the screen and Ashton. First, although the boy on the screen was about ten years younger than Ashton, these two had the same facial features but the eye colour was a bit different. The boy on the screen had stormy grey eyes but the shape still looked the same as Ashton’s eye shape. Second, the boy’s name on the screen was Joel Ashton McKenzie but Ashton said his full name was Ashton Turner.
I wrote down all the observations that I got on my notepad, even the things I wasn’t sure about. I knew that as time went by, I’d figure them all out and see whether it’s true or not. I logged off the computer and went over to where my dad was.
“Hey dad”, I said.
“Hi honey. How was school?” he asked while working.
“Same as always, but we have a new student in our class” I told him.
“That’s nice. Boy or girl?”
“Boy.”
“Oh ok. Let me just finish up with this and then I’ll attend to you in a sec.”
“Sure thing. I’ll just get upstairs to my room.”
“Okay”, he called out while I was walking away.
I went into my room and sat on the bed. The bed in my room was something that I used as a prop because I didn’t sleep on it. On the far end of my room, there’s a small part in the wall that served as a mirror. It only hid the main structure of a built-in capsule. It was made of highly fibrenated glass which was unbreakable by mere humans or even by gunshots. This was the capsule that served as my sleeping room since I wasn’t a mere human anymore.
When I was born, my mum immediately died after giving birth to me. The doctors said I wasn’t a normal baby and tried to diagnose me with different kinds of medication but I didn’t change. Although I was perfectly healthy and strong, my heartbeat rate was faster than normal. My dad took me home and had a stay-in nanny who took care of me. I grew up under the care of my dad and my nanny until I got to the age of five, when my nanny retired to go stay with her own family. That’s when my dad started to note the changes in my behaviour.
Whenever I got very happy my eyes would change colour, from brown to sky blue, and I would tremble terribly like I’d been Taser-ed. Whenever I got very angry, my eyes would change colour, from brown to bright red, and my body would heat up in such a way that I’d be untouchable because a person would surely get burnt when touching me. Sometimes my dad would think about something and I would answer a question in his mind like he said it out loud. That’s when we got to know that I could read minds. He found all this pretty strange and since he was already a scientist, he started researching more on how he could help me.
As time went by, these powers overpowered me and made me very weak. I couldn’t do anything anymore and I’d collapse a lot. One day, when I was in the bathroom, the water in the bathtub began boiling around me and I couldn’t stop the heat radiating from my body. Suddenly my whole body was on fire and my eyes were really red. I called out to my dad and he quickly came to the room. He couldn’t help me because I was very hot for him to get me out.
“Stop the radiation through your mind, Lina!” he shouted.
“I can’t! I’m trying but I can’t!” I shouted back.
Suddenly, I felt really worn out and sore from the inside. I let go of myself and the whole thing stopped, including my own heartbeat.
My dad took me to his lab and tended to me immediately in his own scientific way. He changed a little bit of me and inserted chips in my body that contained the strength and willpower to all those powers that I had. He made me a new person who could live with superpowers and learn how to control them. He made me a superhuman.
I went back downstairs after putting away my school stuff and went to the kitchen to help myself to something to eat before training.I practice every day so that I know how to control my superpowers and I also learn how to defend myself without using the powers. My dad said it’s good to know both ways so that I am ready for whatever tough situation I may get to face in life.So I started training after my dad woke me up as a new person. He told me that he wanted me to be like any other kids around and even go to school, but to do that I had to learn how to control my powers. So I learnt that at a young age and I got to go to school but I didn’t feel like other kids. I felt different and isolated. That’s when I met Mya, in kindergarten.My dad came in the kitchen to help himself to some lunch before we went to practice. He found me there.“So dad, do you remember the guy I told
Brendan seemed to be having an impatient aura around him. He really wanted to talk about the scene that happened on the previous day after we left school. I didn’t want to talk about it at all because I knew that I’d end up saying something I didn’t want to say. But for goodness’ sake I decided to let him start the issue, we might as well get it over and done with.I took off from his place but not in a very fast pace. I allowed him to take a breather.“So, how did you take it?” he started off by asking.“Take what?”“Oh come on, Lina. You know what I’m talking about”, he said rolling his eyes.“I didn’t take it at all. It’s not my place to take anything. For crying out loud, I’m not even friends with this guy so you really have to stop taking it that way.”“L
It took me a few seconds to notice that the thought came from Ashton. So one of his powers was to read minds, just like me. I noted that he didn’t know that I could read minds so I took him by surprise when I threw back a thought at him.It didn’t take me long to figure it out though, I thought.Lina? He asked.Yeah, who else could it be? I asked.Wow, so you can read minds huh? He tsk-ed in his mind.Just like you, I answered.But how? He asked, still surprised.If it weren’t for the lesson and the teacher in front of the class having a good view on all of us, Ashton would have turned around to look me in the eye and see if he wa
School ended as usual, around three o’clock in the afternoon. I walked off to the parking lot with Mya and Brendan. We were still discussing about the lesson we had in Biology class today. When we got to the parking lot, Mya said goodbye and headed to her own vehicle. Brendan and I headed to my car for departing the school premises.I dropped him off at his place and I headed home. I parked my car outside the garage because I felt like going out for a drive later on. I headed upstairs to my room and put my bag on the bed. I opened it and took out the detector and the manual that my dad had lent to me for the day. I set off to my dad’s lab and I found him working on his gadgets, although he wasn’t alone.I set the detector on his desk and sat down on one of the chairs that the lab offered. I waited for him to finish off what he was doing before I talked to him.“Hey dad”, I called after he
I told Jay everything about Ashton that I knew, including the fact that he could read minds too. I also told him about the multi-million rands car that he was driving, although I don’t know why that was relevant. I told him about how his eyes changed colour mimicking mine. I told him all the minor details I knew about him.With all that I told them, there wasn’t any harmful information that made him or my dad fear for the worst. I still couldn’t get my head around the reason why Ashton’s picture was on the missing children’s website. I decided to toss it aside for some day that might come up with a helpful solution to the puzzle in my head.“Hey dad, I’m going out for some air. I’ll be back soon”, I said that heading to the elevator.“Ok, but be back in time for dinner. And please be careful”, he added with a smile on his face.“A
“So, where are you from?” I asked him as soon as I looked away from him.“I’m from Cape Town, I think”, he said in a tone that implied that there was a lot more from the answer he gave me. “But that’s a story for another day because it’s a long one.”I was about to answer him when Jack came around and said, “Kid, we have to move or else your dad will soon call you to find out where we are.”“Yeah sure, let’s go.” I turned to Ashton and smiled apologetically that our conversation was cut short. He nodded in understanding and flashed a brilliant smile at me. I shuddered and looked away, dazzled. He saw that and he laughed in his mind.“I’ll see you tomorrow at school, then”, he said that and then to Jack, “I’ll see you some other time, champ.”“Yeah, you can cou
School was dragging for the rest of the week as I was still planning on going to the mall with Jack during the weekend. I invited Mya and Brendan to come with me but they said that they already had plans. I wanted them to come so that they would meet Jack so I didn’t tell them about him. When the time came, they would get to know him.On that Friday, during lunch time, Ashton called me, mentally. I didn’t look up but he knew that I heard him.Lina, he called.Yeah? I answered.There’s something I want to ask you, but I’d rather do it verbally, he said.What is it?Can’t say. Meet me by the parking lot in two minutes, in my car, he ended.
That night, I watched movies on my laptop until the wee hours of the morning. I told Jack about the addition to our outing to the mall. He was pretty much excited that Ashton was joining us. I told my dad and Jay about my plans for the weekend and who I was going to be with. They didn’t say much about it, I knew that they would be working all day in the lab and I’d be out of their hair.I slept for a few hours and woke up midmorning. I tidied up my room and then went downstairs to help myself to some breakfast. I wanted something to make me feel energetic since I was to practise earlier that day, before going out. I found my dad in the kitchen.“You slept late last night”, he commented.“Umm, yeah. I was just watching some movies and I got too carried away with them. So I slept around two in the morning.”“Honey, you know that you need enough rest or else you&