Dreamsicles, Kelli G [ebook reader .TXT] 📗

Mutant Love

          Anna Tennyson was a mutant. But she only knew that a couple of days ago when her foster parents told her the truth of her being. She hadn’t really tried flying—well, she sometimes planned to fly but whenever she looked down from the roof, even if their house was a bungalow, she kept on chickening out. It’s not that she didn’t believe her parents, she knew they love her as much as she love them or her mother wouldn’t be crying buckets while confiding in her that she’s a mutant.

          Carla Tennyson always brought Anna extra lunch just in case she’ll finally use her gift and thus use more of her energy. But her father, Benedict Tennyson, kept on whispering that she would never believe that her mother is actually encouraging her to use her mutant powers when her father knew that Carla is afraid of her daughter’s life being in danger when people knew of her powers.

          “You’re mother’s just saying that so that you would never be afraid of who you are. In my case, I’m just afraid of her being afraid for you. So be a good girl and do whatever you’re heart tells you to. Just don’t get in trouble in school.” He would then hug her tight and pat her head before sending her off.

          But the thing is, Anna’s mother is not the only one who is afraid of her daughter being a mutant. The said daughter is also afraid of herself in being a mutant.

          Now as she stood in one of the bleachers for the Freshmen Orientation, strangely held at night, Anna couldn’t help but feel agitated for some reason. She could feel something is going to happen and that something is not good.

          “Hey, Anna!”

          She gasped and turned to see her bestfriend, Zethro, smiling at her. She smiled back at him and quelled the fluttering of her heart.

          Yes, hers was an unrequited love. Bestfriends. Friend zoned. Always afraid to tell what she really feels in fear that she’ll lose something irreplaceable whenever things never go her way. She also know that Zethro is also a mutant like her, always hiding his right eye behind his jet, black hair, giving him the mysterious, bad boy image. She’s the only lucky girl to be given his smiles everyday when a lot of girls fight for his attention.

          “Zethro,” she raced toward him and hugged him. It was what she always did and it was a good excuse to hold him close. She playfully peeked from his bangs to look into his hidden eye and giggled when he pushed her away with cheeks flushing.

          “How many times do I have to tell you to stop checking this out?” Zethro snapped but Anna knew he was not that mad like the first time she tried peeking in his eye.

          She shrugged. “What? I like looking at your eyes.”

          “You haven’t seen me with both my eyes,” he pouted.

          “But I want to. You just don’t want to show me.” Anna frowned and pulled Zethro’s hand—not seeing the way he blushed—and looked for a place for them to sit.

          As people began coming in and filling the bleachers, a faint rumbling made Anna flinch. She gave a jolt when she felt Zethro’s hand on her shoulder.

          “You hear that?” he whispered in her ear.

          She nodded. “Yes.” She turned and saw him say something before the rumbling got worse and the lower part of the bleacher cracked as the place rocked and quacked.

          Screams and shout filled the room as chaos tumbled. People scattered out. The ground shook. Everything was out of control.

          “Anna!”

          Anna turned and gasped, seeing the ground where Zethro was standing began to crack and split open fast. “Zethro!” She raced toward him and reached for his hand while he was reaching for hers but as their fingers were just mere inches away Zethro fell along with the part of the bleacher where he was standing.

          “No! Zethro, no!” Falling on her knees, she watched as he shouted her name and Anna saw everything around her change.

          Closing her eyes, she felt the world slow and as she opened them, she was welcomed by new sights, new senses, new feelings. Without a second later, she dived after Zethro, pulling her arms forward to speed up she was now face to face with Zethro.

          “Anna?! What are you doing?!” he shouted but reached out for her nonetheless.

          Couldn’t help herself, she laughed and hugged Zethro tight.

          “Anna, this is not the time to—W-whoa!”

          Anna laughed as she felt something tingle on her back and a loud swoosh before a faint fluttering noise was heard. Biting her tongue, she struggled to balance Zethro’s weight along with hers and tried to carry the both of them to hover above the crumbling wreck.

          “A-Anna… You can fly?” Zethro asked as she finally kept them a good feet away from the ground.

          “I…” Anna tried looking back to check up on her wings but knew it was not the time to study them. “I think I can. Let’s get out of here.” Holding him close, she flew up to the safest place where the crack stopped, on the roof of the next door building.

          “But there are others who are about to fall!” he protested.

          “My mutant powers don’t cover doppelgangers, Zethro. I can’t let you go!” Anna shouted amidst the screaming of the other people falling. There were so many and if she get Zethro shelter as fast as she could, she still couldn’t save those—

          She squinted at a distance to see a lot of dots in the sky along with the stars. “Zethro, is that—”

          “I think it is.” Zethro looked up and squinted with her.

          They both gasped as something zoomed past them along with flapping, fluttering and buzzing noises. Anna managed to get to the ledge of the roof but she fumbled in her landing and got them both to tumble on the roof, with her lying on top of him.

          Thanking the darkness of the night for hiding her blush, she gazed up to apologize only to find Zethro looking back at her. His blue eye glittered like the stars and she forgot what she was about to say. But the buzzing and the fluttering came back, breaking the magical moment they both had making them jump back away from each other.

          “I’m sorry.” They both said simultaneously and smiled timidly after but still looking into each other’s eyes.

          Zethro cleared his throat. “L-let’s check the noise out,” he suddenly declared and Anna nodded before following his lead to watch over the roof.

          Anna’s eyes widened as she saw people—they’re considered as mutants now—with butterfly, dragonfly and bumblebee wings catching falling people from the wreckage.

          “Hey, is that… is that the seniors?” Zethro pointed to a man with bumblebee wings.

          “Whoa! A senior? A student in this school? Mutant?” Anna asked, dumbfounded.

          The seniors zipped past the roof they are on and flew towards the roof on another building. Anna’s feet and wings are itching to fly towards the seniors and ask them a lot of questions.

          “Go on, Anna.”

          Anna whirled back and saw Zethro smiling softly at her. “What?”

          He nodded over the next roof. “Go on and ask away.”

          She smiled. She knew that Zethro could read minds so she also know that if she concentrated into not letting her feelings go into that surface of her mind, she’s safe from Zethro’s uncontrollable powers. But if he uses his other eye… then, she’d better brace herself for him to know the truth.

          “Thank you, Zeth.” She quickly kissed his cheek and fluttered her wings before flying away to where the seniors are.

          As Zethro watch Anna fly away—one thing that he unfortunately didn’t have as a mutant, he sighed sadly at the one thing he will never have. Sure, having the mutant powers of flight is a really cool thing but being cool is not the reason why he was forlorn because he doesn’t have the flight. Without flight, he couldn’t be with Anna.

          Having the mutant powers of mind reading didn’t quell his satisfaction when all he wanted to know from the minds of that certain someone is that she… Nah, never mind.

          “What do you wish?” a lone voice composed of a million voices drifted faint in the air.

          “W-who goes there?” Zethro circled around but found no one.

          “I could give you everything you want.” the voice continued.

          “What are you talking about?” He kept himself alert and scanned his environment.

          “You could have power. You could have wings. You could have… her.”

          “W-wha—” Zethro felt some unseen power force to tilt his head to look at that silhouetted figure floating in the middle of the moon. “Anna?”

          “Yes. Just ask. And you can have her.”

          “I… I…” His speech wavered and his eyes glowed unnaturally bright. And he spoke, in his unusual way. “I will have her.” With a speed of light, he disappeared from where he’s standing and left a trail of greenish, smoky light in his wake.

          As the trail fade, Anna finished chatting with the seniors and was happy that the school she was attending was a mutant school in disguise. It must be why a huge envelope with the school’s name on it came in their mail. She was more than happy to know that she’s attending school with Zethro again.

          Speaking of Zethro, Anna faced the roof she left Zethro and found. No one. Where is he?

          “Nikolo, I felt some strange, yet powerful magic nearby.” someone informed the head senior.

          “We must be on a look-out, everyone—”

          “Aaaaarrrrgggghhhh!”

          Anna quickly turned around to see Zethro on the edge of a nearby roof of yet another building, charging fast towards her in speeds she could never trace. She didn’t get a chance to scream when he leapt out of the roof and aimed at her.

          “Whooooooaaaaaa!!!” She screamed as she was trapped in Zethro’s embrace, pinning her wings and felt them falling.

          “New girl!” She saw Nikolo prepared himself to save her but he held back when Zethro speared him a slashing look—which, literally, slashed open his uniform.

          “I-I can handle him, Senior Nikolo!” Anna shouted to them. “Zeth, what are you doing?!” she demanded.

          “You fool! What are you doing?!” Anna gasped at the million voices that melded into one. “You are wasting the powers I lend you!”

          Anna wrapped her arms around Zethro’s neck. “W-who was that, Zeth?”

          “I am doing what you told me to want.” Anna squinted at the sight of Zethro talking but his voice was not his own.

          “I made you, you imbecile. You follow what I order you.” the million voices screamed, sending the windows of the building they were falling over crashing.

          “You are what I am. And I am what you are. But that doesn’t give you control over me. In the end, I am me. And I know who I am now.” Zethro gazed into Anna’s eyes so deep that she felt like she’s been sucked into a vortex which she would happily be in.

          She forgot where they are, that they are falling into the ground, that her wings are still pinned by Zethro’s embrace, and that they are going to die if she didn’t get out of his arms and give them a lift. But she didn’t care. She didn’t want to. And she didn’t know why. All she ever wanted was that moment with Zethro.

          The wind picked up and swirled around them, letting his hair fly about his face, giving her glimpse of his other eye. Anna skirted a hand on his right cheek and slowly lifted it under