--

Calculus. Forty minutes of my life wasted away on what I was pretty sure I would never actually need in my life. Add that to Mr. Rosenburg’s boring lectures to match his brown tweed suit. Guaranteed snooze fest.

Half the class was sleeping with their eyes open. The other half stared at their phones or off into space. At least, I’m pretty sure they were.

My senior year, and it most definitely had not gone the way I hoped. I joined the football team, thinking I would raise my social score. But after making the team and getting the starting running back position, they didn’t like me any more than before.

I spent most of the spring and summer training and working out to bulk up my six-foot-two frame. Now I was almost two hundred and sixty-two pounds of muscle.

But none of that changed anything. I was still the guy everyone shunned. They bullied me throughout the previous years. And though I could probably have held my own against them, I still didn’t fight back. My mom always taught me to not give in to anger and rage, and I didn’t.

When the bell rang, everyone jumped up from their desks and headed out to the halls. The volume rose to almost absurd levels as everyone yelled and caught up with friends.

I merely tried to weave my way through the crowded hall without bumping into too many other students. Let me tell you that is not an easy task. Between the number of bodies and everyone trying to rush from one place to another, trying to get anywhere between classes on time was like swimming against a river’s current.

Dodging and weaving, I slipped into the men’s room on the second floor. My class was on the other side of the building on the first floor. But I usually tried to get out of the stampede and wait it out. It was also safer for me, considering half the school was always on the lookout for me.

I closed the door behind me and turned around. Of course, my luck was out that day. Standing across from me, with a smile and his thick arms crossed over his barrel chest, Issac Winston. High school bully extraordinaire, star football player, and general Mr. Popular. Not my best friend, to say the least.

Popping his neck, Issac chuckled, “And here I thought my day was going to be uneventful.”

I stepped to walk around him, but he blocked my path. “Where you think you’re going, loser?”

Again, I tried to step around, “Just let me by, Issac. I’m not in the mood to deal with you right now.”

The minute the words left my mouth, and Issac’s grin turned to a glare, I knew it was a mistake. His hand snapped out for my shoulder, but I shoved it out with my forearm. His other fist came around and connected solidly with my jaw. The coppery taste of blood filled my mouth as I fell to the ground.

Issac chuckled as he crossed his arms over his chest, “That should shut your mouth, loser. And if you ever talk to me like that again, I’ll give you a real beating.”

Two things I learned are: one, football creates injuries, so no one thinks anything when bruises show up. And two, when to keep my mouth shut. At least I thought I learned that lesson. As I got to my feet and glared at Issac, I must have had that knocked out of me. I clenched my fists at my side, and the words kind of leaped out. “Try that again, and I’ll make sure you walk out of here in pain...”

Time slowed as I watched the boiling blood fill Issac’s face. Then his fist came at me, and I moved my hands to cover my face, closing my eyes. I heard the rush of his fist as it went past me, and he stumbled by as well. I lowered my arms and turned as he gained his balance and turned back to face me.

The look on his face was shock, but his voice, pure hatred, “How did you do that?”

I’m sure I looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “I didn’t do anything.”

He growled and charged at me. One other thing I learned, was how to brace for a tackle. Issac rushed forward at full speed, or at least as close as you can get to full speed in a bathroom. I watched as he barreled into me and then through me. A tingling sensation filled me where he ran through me.

I heard him collide with the metal stall behind me. But I stood staring at my abdomen and chest where he ran through me. I reached down and put my hands on my chest. My hands pressed against my chest like I expected to find a hole there.

The breath I hadn’t realized I was holding came out in a sigh of relief as I turned around to face Issac. He was laid out next to the stall he collided with. A large head-sized indentation in the thin metal where he slammed into it. I backed away from the stall, barely feeling my feet hit the floor. I turned and ran out of the bathroom. Shoulder-checking another student as he walked in, I tossed an apology over my shoulder. I sprinted down the near-empty halls as the bell signaling the beginning of the next class rang.

I didn’t run for my chemistry class, though. Instead, I ran downstairs and straight to the outdoor lunch area. When I stopped between the tables, my breathing was ragged, like I had run lines for the past twenty minutes. My chest locked up, and all I could see was Issac passing through me again. I kept trying to convince myself I imagined it. There was no way Issac could have just passed right through me.

I heard the door behind me open and glanced over my shoulder. A man in jeans and a black button-up dress shirt stepped out and started walking towards me. I rolled my eyes and stood up, forcing myself to get a grip as Mr. Coaler came closer to me.

He stopped a few feet away, and I faced him. His perfect black hair and ice-blue eyes annoyed me, as always. He smiled his perfect white smile. “You okay, Carter?”

“Fine.”

His grin faltered for a second, then came right back. It was annoying how much the man smiled. He was an average-sized man, but everything about him was always so perfect. That he was almost every student’s favorite teacher didn’t help. I still got a weird vibe from him.

On the first day of my freshman year, he had given off some strange juju from the minute I stepped into his English class.

He crossed his arms over his chest, “You sure? You look like you had quite the scare.”

I waved the concern away, “I’m fine. Just running late for chemistry.”

Coaler studied me, amusement lingering on his face, “Better get going then. I’ll see you in class later.”

I walked around him, headed for the door, keeping a reasonable distance between us. Coaler tracked me with those ice-blue eyes, then turned back towards the building and followed me in. The blue metal locker-lined hall was silent, now that classes were going. I passed a handful of students and faculty on my way through the halls.

Every glance felt aimed at me. Like all the whispered conversations were about me and what happened in the restroom.

The fear settled down just enough for the paranoia to take over. As I passed the main office, I expected the campus cop to come out and grab me. But he waved and smiled from behind the glass door.

Surely the kid I bumped would have gone to the nurse about Issac. And I didn’t know how badly he actually hit against the stall. That they were not only letting me pass but not hunting me in force, was strange.

I made it to chemistry without S.W.A.T. breaking through the doors and taking me down.I dropped into my seat at the back of the room and rubbed a hand across my face.

My long-time lab partner, Miles Donovan, looked up at me from behind the laptop balanced against the edge of the desk. His messy dark brown hair stuck out in every direction like he had rolled out of bed five minutes ago, and the fluorescent classroom lights reflected off the thick rectangular glasses sliding down his nose. Acne still clung stubbornly to his pale face, and the oversized black hoodie he wore looked more like a blanket he lived in than actual clothing.

“You okay, man?”

I forced a grin. “Sure. No problem.”

Chuckling, Miles pushed his glasses back up with one finger. His tired brown eyes narrowed at me like he was trying to solve a puzzle. “You’re a terrible liar, bro. What’s up?”

Glancing around the room, I leaned closer to him. “I think I just left Issac knocked out in the bathroom...”

Miles’ eyes widened. “HOLY SHIT!!”

His hands instantly covered his mouth as Mrs. Garner yelled across the room, “Language! Mr. Donovan!”

Miles ducked lower in his seat and moved closer to me, lowering his voice to an excited whisper. “Are you serious?”

Nodding, I sighed. “Yeah. He wanted to fight, and I defended myself. He charged at me and ran headfirst into one of the stall walls. Knocked himself out.”

Laughing into his hand, Miles shook his head. “I would have paid to see that. Does anyone else know?”

“Someone came in as I was running out. I’m surprised they haven’t pulled me out yet.”

Miles stared at me like I was an alien. “Dude. You realize what this means?”

I frowned. “What? That he’s going to come beat my ass with his friends later?”

His dark brown eyes rolled dramatically. Miles sighed. “If no one’s come, then no one but you, him, and that other kid know it happened. You can use that as leverage against him.”

I dropped my head onto my arms and groaned. “Really, Miles? Cops could come rolling in for me any second. And all you can think of is how to use it to your advantage?”

His hand fell on my shoulder. “Not mine. Yours.”

I barely heard him after that. I couldn’t stop thinking about the tingling where Issac passed through me. I kept trying to force it into something that made sense. Maybe it had been a light flickering. What I saw was an afterimage from the flashing.

Except I didn’t remember the fluorescent lights flashing before it happened. Or anything else flashing, for that matter.

There had to be a reason that didn’t belong in a comic book. I was going to keep picking at it till I figured it out.

The ringing of the bell roused me from my thoughts as Miles smiled at me. “I’m telling you, man, it could be epic.”

I pushed away from the desk and stood. “Let’s not, man. I don’t need any more attention right now.”

Miles grabbed my arm. “But...”

Brushing his hand off my shoulder, I stepped past him. Miles dropped to the floor, screaming, cradling the hand I had barely touched. I fell beside him as the class ran over to surround us.

Miles looked up at me with tear-filled eyes. “My hand... It’s broken....”

I crab-walked backward from him as Mrs. Garner rushed through the crowd. One look at Miles, and she pulled her phone from her jacket pocket. As she dialed, Miles stared at me with wide eyes, then he grinned at me through the tears.

The pain-filled smile creeped me out even more. I got to my feet, and for the second time that day ran.

This time I didn’t stop as I passed Mr. Coaler. I didn’t stop outside the doors, I just didn’t stop. I ran and ran.

It felt like I was running from the shadow monsters that used to haunt my dreams when I was a kid. No matter how fast or how far I ran, didn’t matter; they were still right behind me.

I ran until the whole world blurred together. All I knew was that I was outside the school and in the forest surrounding the town. Trees were flying by, and I still didn’t stop.

I’m not sure how long I ran, but when I stopped, I knew exactly where I was. Aspen trees surrounded me, shading me from the sun overhead. In front of me was the mouth of a cave I had seen a thousand times.

I was standing in front of it, not knowing how or why I came here. The cave was miles from the school. But somehow, I got here without even realizing it.

The cave entrance was hidden behind a group of trees and some camo netting me and Miles had added when we found it.

That seemed so long ago. We were ten years old out exploring the forest for a good place to camp for the night. Miles only lived a mile or two from here, so it wasn’t too far.

When we found it, we, of course, had to explore it with a kid’s enthusiastic curiosity. It became our place, and over the years, we made it more comfortable. We spent hours and days in and around the ‘Bro Zone’, as we called it.

I stepped through the camo mesh and into the cave. The entrance opened up to a chamber ten feet by seven feet, a very uneven circle with rough stone walls and a ceiling. One wall wasn’t a wall at all, though. It was a door, Miles, in all his science genius, made to hide the real ‘Bro Zone.’

Walking over to the wall, I pushed a small rock into the stone and heard the click of the door unlocking. I shoved the heavy stone door open and stepped into a dark tunnel. Pushing the door closed till I heard the lock back in place, I turned and stared into the dark.

After a few seconds, a white-blue glow shone from the walls. According to Miles, there’s a fluorescent moss lining the caves. Gives me just enough light to navigate my way through the tunnel. We wore the floors smooth with years of us passing through.

The tunnel opened up into a massive chamber with the same glow coming from the walls. I reached over and flipped a switch next to the tunnel’s exit. It took a moment as power ran through the system Miles set up. Soft white lights flickered on across the chamber.

The cave quieted the noise in my head a little. Along one rough stone wall were three green military cots with black footlockers at the foot of them. The footlockers held me and Miles’s personal items, like clothes and such.

Our gaming and entertainment area sat in the middle of the chamber. A seventy-five-inch television, three gaming systems, and an awesome stereo. All that was facing our sweet reclining chairs that had a mini-fridge filled with Icicle Fall, Cpt. Senda, and snacks.

Two other walls made it obvious which side belonged to each of us. I filled my area with weights and workout equipment. Miles’ is filled with computers and other electronics. I couldn’t identify if my life depended on it.

Miles set up the lighting over the years, so almost every corner was lit up. We could adjust and switch off the lighting with our phones. He made it as awesome as we could think of. And all powered by some kind of solar panels that he designed himself. He claimed that even if we never got another sunny day, the system could stay powered for years.

My thoughts were stuck on Miles and his hand for a good while. I walked to my cot and sat down.

I lay back on my cot and must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew, it was eight o’clock. My cell phone was ringing in my pocket. I quickly pulled it out and answered, “Hello?”

Miles replied, on the other end, “Hey man, you okay?”

I pulled my phone away, staring at it like it was a venomous snake for a second, before putting it back to my ear. I took a deep breath. “Are you?”

Miles chuckled, “A couple of broken bones in my hand, but I’ll live. But I’m not the one that ran out of school like his head was on fire.”

I sat in silence for a minute before he spoke again. His voice lowered to a whisper. “I’m assuming you’re at the bro zone, and I’m headed that way. Stay put so we can talk, man.”

“Fine, I’ll be here.” I hung up my phone and sat there staring at it. I’m not sure how long I sat there like that, but I looked up as I heard the door open up. Miles stepped through and pushed the door shut behind him.

His hand had a black cast wrapped around it, his long-sleeve pulled over. He walked towards me and stopped a few feet away. His eyes looked me up and down before he spoke, “So.....”

Taking a deep breath, my eyes kept going back to the cast, “So....”

He moved to his cot across from mine and sat down. “What happened today?”

I rubbed the back of my neck and looked away. He shook his head, “You really don’t know, do you?”

I looked at him questioningly, “No! I don’t know how me brushing your hand off me breaks bones. Or how Issac charging into and through me ends up with him knocking himself out.”

Miles watched me for a moment, his pimply face all serious, except for the smirk playing at the edge of his mouth. Finally, he laid back on his cot and spoke with a lighthearted tone, “So, Issac just ran right through you, huh?”

Putting my head in my hands, “I... I don’t know... That’s what it looked like to me...”

Putting his hand behind his head, he stared up at the ceiling. “Interesting.”

I glared at him. “Interesting!? What do you mean interesting?”

Miles kept staring at the ceiling. “Interesting. Issac passed right through you, and you brushed my hand and broke three bones in my hand.” He turned his head with a knowing grin. “Look, we can figure this out. Just keep acting like it never happened, and I’ll come up with a plan to figure out what’s going on.”

I shook my head, “And just how do you expect to explain away the broken hand?”

Sitting up, Miles cocked his head to the side. “I already did.”

I stared at him, waiting for that to somehow make sense. One thing that has always irritated me about Miles is that when he knows something, he will wait till you ask the right question. He finds it amusing, just pisses me off when he does it to me.

I sighed, “Alright. How did you explain, without putting it on me?”

A sly grin spread over Miles’ face, “I told them I did it before school.”

Shaking my head, I started pacing between the cots, “There’s no way they bought that.”

He raised the cast and scrutinized it. “Oh, I won’t lie, took some thorough, convincing, but they bought it after a while. Was either that or let them believe I was so fragile that a simple brush-off broke my hand? And well, the school thinks I’m a weakling hiding behind my best friend. The last thing I needed was it getting worse and becoming a pity party.”

“Think of all the hot girls you could get with that kind of attention.”

Laughing, Miles lay back down, “Bout time you cracked. I was beginning to think you forgot how to joke around.”

I dropped back onto the cot, “So what’s your plan?”

Miles spread his hands dramatically, “Not sure yet. Got a few ideas, but let me do some research and see what I can come up with. Right now, let’s pretend as nothing happened as far as everyone else is concerned.”

I leaned back on the cot and frowned. “How do you plan to do that with our parents?”

Smirking, “I already told our parents we were going to be gone all weekend on a camping trip.”

“And the only teacher that seems to wonder about you is Mr. Coaler. He seems to have an eye out for you in particular. Any idea why?”

I thought about it for a few minutes, “I got nothin.”

Miles walked over to his computers, “Let me check some things out. Might give me a plan. I’m guessing you haven’t eaten anything, so why don’t you make a food run?”

I stood up and groaned, “You sound like my mom.”

Miles ignored the comment as his fingers flew across his keyboard, the clicks sounding like a machine gun. I shook my head and made my way outside. The sounds of the forest’s night dwellers soothed my nerves as I made my way back towards civilization.

I lost myself in my thoughts and was at the All-in-One Grocery before I knew it. Grabbing a handbasket, I grabbed a few of me and Miles’ essentials from the shelves. As I was walking towards the checkout, I saw Mr. Coaler round the corner with a full basket.

He looked at me and gave me his perfect smile. He looked strange in worn-out jeans and a faded t-shirt with a gravity logo on it. Walking over, he stopped the squeaking wheel on his cart, screaming till he stopped. His eyes scanned over me, “Carter. We missed you in class today. Everything okay?”

“I’m good.”

Coaler’s smile fell, and his eyes locked in on mine, “Carter, I know something has been going on with you all day. Running out of the building like your ass was on fire. And then bolting out of class when Miles had his accident. So tell me what’s going on.”

I forced a smile, “I’m good. Freaked out a little. Had a panic attack and had to get out.”

I watched him take a deep breath and slowly let it out before he spoke. “Look, Carter, I’m not sure what’s up with you, but I’m not your enemy. I want to help you reach your full potential.”

I rolled my eyes at the cliche, “Thanks, Mr. Coaler, but really I’m okay.”

Moving to step past him towards the checkout, “Have a good night, Carter. I’ll see you on Monday.”

I quickly checked out and headed back to Miles. The closer I got, the more I relaxed. By the time I was in the bro zone, I was halfway through a bag of cheese puffs and a carton of chocolate milk.

Miles didn’t even look up as I put a bag of nacho-flavored chips in his hand. He ripped them open and set them on the only clear spot on his desk. Between the crunching and the clicks of his keyboard and mouse, his little corner was a barrage of continuous noise.

I sat in my chair, switching on the television and my favorite RPG game. Lost in the magic and blood for a while, “Hey.”

Pausing my game, he adjusted his glasses, “What’s up?”

He smiled and went back to his computer, “I got something.”

I jumped up and ran over. “What?”

As I stopped behind him and leaned over his shoulder, he clicked the mouse. I watched the screen show footage from the game against Murphy High. It was one of my best games of the season. I had scored three touchdowns and gotten an interception. “What am I supposed to be seeing here?”

Rolling his eyes at me, Miles pointed to the screen. “Just watch jock. This is that play where that linebacker ‘almost’ hit you.”

I remembered that play; I thought I was going to be a smear across the twenty. Luckily, the three-hundred-pound bulldozer of a linebacker missed me by inches. It was the highlight of the game.

I watched as Miles played it and smiled when the linebacker missed me. I frowned at Miles. “Okay. I’ve seen the footage a few dozen times. What’s your point?”

He backed it up again and zoomed in closer, “Watch.”

I turned back at the screen as the linebacker lined up in front of me, and I stepped left of him. Miles slowed it down as he came just within arm’s reach.

I stared intently as first his hands, and then his shoulder and torso, passed right through my waist. It was like watching an old horror flick where the guy passed right through the ghost.

The shock made me stumble back and fall onto the floor, pulling my legs up to my chest. It felt like the floor had stopped following the rules. I couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t.

Miles’ hand touched my shoulder; I heard him talking to me, but it was like it was in another dimension. I don’t know how long he sat there with me, but at some point, I heard him on the phone talking to someone.

I fell asleep on the floor like that. Exhaustion from the strangeness that was the day and my mind in overload. I didn’t even lay down before I passed out.

When I woke up, I was sore all over from sleeping on the hard stone. Miles was sleeping on his cot. For a small nerdy guy, he snored like a giant. I went to the mini-fridge and pulled out a juice and a pastry. My mind was still fuzzy from the day before. As I sat in front of our TV., I took a swig of juice and let my mind settle on what had happened.

I’m not sure how long I sat there nibbling on my breakfast and pondering, but must have been a while. And I still didn’t have a single answer. I gave up as I heard Miles getting up.

I turned, sitting on his cot, stretching and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He pulled his glasses off his little stand and looked over at me. “You done talking to yourself?”

Smirking, I walked to the fridge, grabbing a juice and tossing it to him. I watched him juggle, trying to catch it for a few seconds before it fell to his feet. As he picked it up, I walked back to my chair and plopped down. “Yeah. I’m good. But what am I going to do now?”

Miles smirked as he walked to his computers. “That depends.”

I stood up, “Depends on?”

Miles rolled his eyes at me, a normal reaction for him. He sighed, “Depends on what you decide?”

The next words out of my mouth were a mistake the second they left my mouth. “Decide what?”

Miles let his head fall to his desk with a loud thunk. “You’re an idiot.”

As he lifted his head, I rolled a chair over. “Okay....”

Miles typed away as he spoke, “You have two choices, the way I see it. You can either forget about it and keep trying to live a normal teenage life.”

Miles paused for dramatic effect, his smile widening as he continued, “Or you can embrace all of it. Learn how to control it. Make yourself into something no one has ever seen before..... You could be a real-life superhero!”

I completely lost control and burst out laughing. “A superhero?!”

Miles’s fingers flew across his keyboard, and then he spun his monitor towards me. “This happened last night.”

I leaned forward and read through a news article about a robbery a few towns over. After reading, I looked at Miles, “This isn’t even in our town. I can’t run faster or fly.”

Miles shrugged. “First of all, it proves that even our little shitty ass part of the country is going to shit. Second, you don’t know that you can’t run faster or fly until we put your powers to the test.”

I shook my head, seeing the scenario playing through Miles’ head. “You are not throwing me off a roof.”

Miles laughed, “That obvious, was it?”

“I’ve seen enough movies and cartoons with you to know where you would go. But in all reality, how do you intend to ‘put my powers to the test’?”

Miles’ grin widened more than I thought was possible. He walked over to my gym. “I have a few ideas. The real question is, how much do you trust me?”

I raised an eyebrow. “With my life... I think.”

Nodding, he waved me over. “Good. We should start simple, I figure. So let’s see if you can shift your hand through the weight bar. Start small and work our way up.”

I sighed and walked over to the weight bench. I glanced at it and then at my hand. “What if I can’t?”

Miles shook his head. “Obviously, it’s in you to do it. We just have to make it where you can control when and how it happens.”

Focusing on my hand and moving it towards the bar, I didn’t feel any different from usual. I could feel Miles staring at me with all his might, waiting for something to happen. My hand touched the cold bar, and I shook my head, “I told you, I can’t control it.”

Miles gave me his patented, ‘oh please,’ look over the rim of his glasses. “Try again. It’s like anything else that you do. You can’t do it until you’ve practiced.”

I glared at him and his condescending tone as I lifted my hand and tried again. And yet again was met with the cold steel of my weight bar. I looked at him, and he rolled his eyes, waving for me to try again.

I kept trying, and with each failure, my jaw tightened a little more. Each time making me a little angrier. I brought my hand down hard, my anger coming out in the swing. I felt my hand slam into the bar, and then it kept going. Looking down as the weight bar fell into two pieces. It clanged loudly off the stone floor; the sound echoing off the walls.

Miles’ expression shifted from surprise to an evil-looking grin. He adjusted his glasses and screamed, “That was awesome!”

As he knelt to inspect the weight bar, I could feel my own stupid grin spreading over my face. I may not have accomplished what we wanted, but I just broke a steel bar, and that was freaking amazing.

Miles looked at me. “Dude! This thing looks like someone dropped a weight through it. How it’s snapped. Looks like your hand was so dense that it couldn’t stand up to the weight.”

I raised an eyebrow at him, “In English, Miles.”

Rolling his eyes, Miles stood back up, “It means that at the moment your hand hit the bar, it was harder than the steel of the bar. That’s what must have happened when you swatted my hand earlier.”

I looked down at his cast and instantly felt sorry for it. Miles saw and shook his head. “Man, you can’t blame yourself. You didn’t know about this or have any control. That’s why we are working on it now.”

I nodded to him, not feeling like that was any kind of reason for what happened to him.

One thing about Miles is he can always tell when I’m beating myself up over something. He stepped towards me and put his hand on my shoulder. “Look, I know you aren’t going to just believe me or forgive yourself. But we can get a handle on this situation. We can make it, so it doesn’t happen again.”

Nodding, I closed my eyes and sighed, “Okay.”

Miles smiled and walked over to the weights; I kept a few feet away. We spent hours after that trying to get my powers to work. My hands were bruised by the time we finished.

After a small lunch, Miles looked at me. “So, ready to get back to work?”

I dropped into my chair. “No. My hand is already sore as hell. I have no urge to see if I can break it.”

Laughing, Miles shook his head, “I had something else in mind.”

Cocking my head to one side, I raised my eyebrows. “Like what?”

Miles walked over to an old chest in one corner of the room. Kneeling, he opened it up, glancing at me. “I assume you remember the concept of dodgeball?”

Nodding, I waited for him to continue as he dug through the chest. After a minute of digging, he pulled out an old airsoft rifle. Turning to me, he grinned from ear to ear. “Same theory, but instead of dodging, you’re going to phase, so they pass through you.”

I put my hands up in front of me, “Oh, hell no!”

Miles laughed and nodded. “Come on. It’ll be fun.”

I backed away another step. “I can’t even control what we’ve figured out. And I remember how much those things hurt.”

Miles nodded, aimed the rifle, and fired. “That’s what I’m counting on.”

I raised my arms to cover my face and closed my eyes as I waited for the pellet to hit me. I felt a tingling sensation in my arms and chest and then heard the projectile bounce off one of the stone walls.

Opening my eyes and lowering my arms, I looked behind me and saw where the pellet had hit the wall. Then I looked back at Miles, shocked. “You tried to shoot me!”

Chuckling, he nodded. “But it didn’t hit you. Passed right through you, just like that linebacker.”

I glared at him and took a step forward. “That’s not the point. You....”

Miles jerked the rifle up and fired three more shots. I felt them hit me, but it was like a feather against my skin. Looking down, I saw the three pellets lying on the floor flattened out.

Laughing, Miles fell back in his chair. “That was awesome!”

I stood there, staring at the flat pellets for a minute. My mind racing through what happened on repeat. None of this should have been possible. And somehow it was happening to me. What was I going to do if everyone found out?

Miles must have seen something on my face that gave me away. He walked over and put his hand on my shoulder, his voice calm and sincere, “We got this. We’ll figure out how to control it, and no one will be any the wiser. Trust me.”

I nodded because I didn’t know what else to do, “Okay...”

I can’t say why I believed what he said, but I did. Miles may have been a slightly demented prankster, but at the end of the day, I knew he was my friend. And that he would always have my back.

We spent the next few days trying to get some kind of control over this new ability of mine.

When the school bell rang, I felt a little more confident about my control. And knew that I wasn’t going to accidentally phase through a floor or something.

Miles, of course, had a thousand other things he wanted to try. But I convinced him we needed to act like we normally would, and his experiments would wait till later.

I should’ve known normal was long gone.