Episode 2: A Mystery of the Glass Cup
The door slammed open. Matt rushed into his house as fast as he could before anyone of his family members could arrive to see him at the doorway. He has two brothers and one sister. His oldest sister, Kathy, took a plane across the nation to have her own family. His two brothers remain in his household. His second sibling, Jeremy, the oldest brother, was in his fourth and last year of college. While his third sibling, Chris, the brother closest to Matt by age, was still in his last year of high school. His father works for the cable company but he has a hard time communicating with his job because he does not know English very well, along with the fact that he was a complete smoker and drinker. His mother was a good example, however. She was a clean freak who enjoys cooking for her family and she works at the public library nearby Matt’s high school.
Matt ran into his room and locked the door. He stared at the door knob. He was concerned about the lock because it was not an easy knob. He sometimes distrusted the lock because of what happened two years ago when his dad threw a tantrum and messed up the house. As his father was sent to jail, the police arrived and broke open the door from the outside so that it would not be locked anymore. They had no time to go through the window. He returned to the family a year later.
Matt ignored the fact that the knob was distrustful and he sat down on the floor, picking at his hands. He said to himself, “Why am I like this? What’s happening to me?” He clenched his fist and he was shaking. Matt shook his hands but no fire could come out. Matt focused on how it appeared when Santi was about to attack Matt. That was it! It appeared when Matt was in self-defense. However, how could Santi use his timing powers without self-defense? That was something Matt was confused about.
His mother knocked on his door, “Matt? Are you okay? The door is locked but I want to put the towels in your room.” Matt’s room was somewhat like a storage room. His closet consisted of both his parents’ old clothing, along with some of Matt’s new sweaters. His drawers under his bed consisted of his two brothers’ socks and underwear. His clothing drawer had five cases but only two of them were his. Above the clothing drawer is where his mother usually places the towels. Matt panicked as he opened the door. His mother stared at him in confusion, “Seriously, Matt. Is something wrong?”
Matt gave a fake laugh, “Ahaha! Nothing’s wrong, mom! I… ran the mile today and as I got in here, I was leaning on the door because I was exhausted. I guess I accidentally pressed the lock button with my back.”
His mother was smarter than she looked. She questioned him, “You ran the mile on the first day?” However, she was not the brightest, “But then your generation could be different. So I’ll believe you, but don’t make anymore suspicions on me, okay? I want to know your problems so that we can discuss it together. I don’t want you to have a bad life.”
Matt nodded, “I understand, mom. Thanks.” His mother finally left and closed the door. Matt rolled his eyes, “But this problem is something you can’t fix…”
~~~
During the next day of school, Matt came to school in fear. Jen came from behind and scared him, “BOO!”
Matt fell on the floor with flames on his hands but as reached the ground, his hands touched the floor and the flames dispersed. Jen saw the flames. Matt yelled at her, “J-Jen! Don’t scare me like that!”
Jen was confused about his sudden anger. “I’m sorry. Was that fire on your hands?”
Matt got frustrated, “You’re just imagining things!”
Jen looked at his hand closely, “I’m a hundred percent sure I saw it… And what’s going on with you? Usually you wouldn’t yell at me for that though.”
Matt looked away, “Well maybe it’s because I’ve matured or something.”
Jen knelt down with him and stared at his eyes, “Are you sure?~ I heard Freshmen don’t change until their late Freshman year. Some retards would change after two or even three years but that’s just a theory.”
“Good for you. I gotta get to class. See ya!” He stood up and ran away. Matt ran for his first period class but he felt something strange in his stomach. Suddenly, he was back to where he got dropped off at school. Matt turned around quickly to see Jen sneaking up on him.
Jen stuttered, “Ah- How did you know I was coming up to you?!”
Matt looked down at the floor, “I… don’t know. I have to go to class now, bye!”
Jen screamed out for him, “Ah, Matt! Awr… School doesn’t even start until twenty minutes. Which reminds me… why am I here early again? Damn it.” From there, a photo was flowing down onto the ground.
~~~
Matt found Santi sitting down on ledges nearby the girl’s locker room, eying random students. Matt walked up to him and he said angrily, “What the heck are you doing?! You pervert.”
Santi stood up, “What the hell did you say?” He sighed and said, “Just so you know, you’re not the only one with abnormal powers. No, WE’RE not the only ones. Something with my powers are malfunctioning and I suspected a girl.”
“What are you talking about?” Matt was eager to know.
“Earlier this morning, as I was still at home, I dropped my glasses by accident and it cracked. I reversed time for only a few seconds. However, as I was in the attendance office minutes later, I saw an announcement form. It said ‘from anonymous: I had a déjà vu but it was no ordinary one. It was real, real I tell you. I was pouring a glass of water then suddenly it overfilled. It spilled all over my bedroom! Please take this into consideration.’ Then I looked around to see who placed it there. The exit door was closing but I took a glimpse of a girl with slightly long hair.”
Matt was quiet for a moment. He decided to speak up, “That sounds kind of weird. Didn’t you say you can make ordinary people forget what they were doing?”
Santi sighed, “That’s the problem. She didn’t forget. And her actions slightly stayed.”
Matt said angrily, “Ahh damn it! Well, I have to thank you, I guess. Jen almost found out about my fire ability. She scared me and because I startled, fire appeared out of my hands and she saw. Suddenly things were repeating. But anyway, can’t you just control time around your area only?”
Santi shook his head, “That is one thing I cannot do. Perhaps if I get used to this time magic, I might be able to only rollback time of only my room. In the meantime, I have to universally reverse time. As I was saying, I have to find that girl.”
Matt glared at him, “And you think reversing time where girls change their clothes would help you?”
Santi clenched his fists, “It’s not what you think! If I were to reverse time at a girl who has the hair of the glimpse I saw, maybe she would freak out again and I’d find out what her power is. I’m trying to figure it out…”
As time passed for them, Santi saw a bunch of girls with almost the same hairstyle. Santi tried to reverse time. Of the crowd, one girl complained, “Oh, why do I have two water bottles? Er… wait a minute…”
Santi whispered, “That one!”
Matt jumped, “What are you talking about?! That’s the girl I ran into yesterday. Her name is Shirley Cao.”
Shirley told all the girls to change first. Santi walked up to Shirley and said to her, “What are you?”
Shirley looked up, “Huh? Don’t creep up to me like that! How scary. Sorry, I have to change for my P.E. class.”
Santi stopped her, “All the P.E. teachers like to lag it for ten minutes. Tell me first, what power do you have? The power to produce water?”
Shirley gasped, “What?! What the heck are you talking about?”
Santi pointed at the two water bottles on her hand. Matt jumped, “You can produce water?!”
Shirley screamed at them, “YOU IDIOTS!” She pointed at Matt, “And you have to tell me what was up with that picture!” She said to Santi, “If I were to produce water, then wouldn’t I have one water bottle that will explode?”
Matt said to Santi, “That’s true…”
Santi took both of Shirley’s water bottles and opened them, “There is no sign of them being new. They both didn’t click when I opened them. You duplicated these water bottles.”
Shirley took a step back, “N-No… It came out of nowhere. Time reversed!”
Santi thought carefully then he asked Shirley, “Why do you wear shortshorts?”
Shirley took her water bottles and said rudely, “It’s always hot when I try to sleep. You’re asking too many questions. I’m leaving. My mom told me not to talk to anyone random like you because she got mad about how you people keep bringing me down. Hmph!” She walked away and Santi made an evil smile.
Matt turned to Santi, “What are you smiling about?”
Santi confessed, “I finally figured out what her powers are.”
Matt was surprised, “What?! What is it?”
Santi explained, “She said she was pouring water into a glass but it duplicated and it poured all over her bedroom. Why would she pour water in a glass in her room? She could have just used a water battle to make it less troublesome. This means her power has something to do with water. When I worked around the box, I decided to ask her why she wore shortshorts. She said her room was hot. So, overnight, she placed ice in her glass cup and put a lid over it so she can drink it the next morning. It would melt.”
Matt questioned him, “Why can’t she just go into the kitchen and grab a cold cup of water?”
Santi added, “She was mad at her mom. She must have met a stranger before us and something bad happened. Shirley and her mom probably had an argument and so Shirley didn’t want to see her mom as much.”
Matt turned to the girl’s locker, “What should we do?”
Santi said, “Let’s go talk to her later when she comes out of the girl’s locker room.”
~~~
As Shirley came out of the locker room, Santi and Matt came up to her. Shirley pointed at them, “You guys stalked me?!”
Matt stood in front of Santi, “Sorry, sorry! We just want you to confess. You have the power of producing ice off your hands, right?”
Shirley froze. Matt took a step forward, “It’s okay. We won’t tell anyone.”
Shirley shook her head, “Stop it… I don’t.”
Matt randomly continued, “We have powers too-“
“MATT!!” Santi stopped him, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
Matt turned around, “But she’s different, just like us. She deserves to know. What if she lives on thinking she’s the only one with weird skills?”
Shirley was blushing. She was on her knees now, “I… I’m weird. I don’t want this! What the heck is it supposed to mean?!”
Matt knelt down with her, “It’s okay. That picture you saw… it was me in a fire. I lived through it. Here, let me show you again.” Matt was ruffling through his pocket, “That’s weird… the picture is gone.”
Santi yelled, “The what?! Matt, how pathetic can you get?!”
Matt was panicking, “I… I don’t know! I don’t know what happened to it. But Shirley, you saw it, right?”
“AND Shirley saw it?!” Santi added.
Shirley smiled, “I get it now. Matt, you survived the fire which was reversed with time magic. If you survived fire, I know what you can do. If it was repeated, I know what Santi can do. Am I right?”
Santi laughed, “Aha, you got me really good there.”
Shirley became serious as she stood up, “Then… what does it mean? Why us?”
Matt answered her, “That’s what I was wondering. Why us three, out of all the people out there?”
Santi concluded, “This was happening by something you all saw in the sky. It shows up sometimes in the sky but only very few people can see it. Actually, I’m not sure how it works. I don’t know why anyone out of their high school years are not getting these powers. That is something I am still trying figure out. I am not some guru here.”
Shirley confessed, “I can’t control these powers very well. I tried and tried in my bathtub and I could only get so far as to produce small ice blocks. That’s just about it.”
Matt looked away in embarrassment, “Better than when your powers only appear if you’re in self-defense.”
Santi explained, “As for me, I need to do close-range time-changing. Obviously I couldn’t control only my life this morning.”
Shirley shook her head, “Eugh, this is creeping me out though. Let’s just pretend none of this happened and continue on with our lives.”
Santi agreed and Matt nodded, “I think that’s a good idea. See ya! And sorry for what we did today and what I did yesterday.”
Shirley giggled, “It’s alright!” Matt and Santi walked away. Shirley thought in her mind, “I have a feeling they’ll have a bigger impact in my life later… Hrm.”
~~~
---- Next chapter preview:
Matt: On the next chapter, a photo of me in flames begins to spread! Who's been exposing these photos? When more and more people find out, they become savages, wanting a reward for catching me. It is no longer safe for me to roam around school now. What will I do? Will this be the end of me and my identity? Next chapter... The Camera Photo Chase!
Santi: Don't get so careless, Matt!
Matt: Ah, I know. Sorry...
Matt: On the next chapter, a photo of me in flames begins to spread! Who's been exposing these photos? When more and more people find out, they become savages, wanting a reward for catching me. It is no longer safe for me to roam around school now. What will I do? Will this be the end of me and my identity? Next chapter... The Camera Photo Chase!
Santi: Don't get so careless, Matt!
Matt: Ah, I know. Sorry...
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