Chapter 31: A few months later...

Aug. 18th, 2017

Rick was feeling a bit nervous.

Today, was the first day of school, and he was going to be restarting his senior year, which would have been fine, except for the fact that all of his friends had graduated, and were now entering their sophomore or freshman year in college. Jessica, the girl that he had liked for ages, had already moved on by the time he had gotten back, and now she was a couple of years older than him. He still felt a bit sad about it, especially since now, he had to make all new friends for his senior year.

Cadi was fine. Even though Juno was now a couple of grades ahead of her and a bit older, they were still best friends. In fact, Cadi seemed to like it that he was a couple of years older now. She was always asking the little boy to teach her new things that he had been learning.

His little sister had changed. Before, she was always so dead set against homework, and constantly wanted to play outside. However, over the summer, she had really wanted to study and learn more to make up for being behind in school. He had actually been a little bit confused at first, when Cadi would randomly start spouting information she had picked up, because he didn’t see her reading as much. She had simply smiled at him.

“You haven’t noticed yet huh? I can pause time now without doing it for you too. I have all the time in the world to do whatever I want.”

Because of this, her mother was pleased to find that most of the time, Cadi’s chores were always done, she was never late to anything, and now she was using some of her extra time to learn a lot more.

Rick was proud of her, but found himself slipping into a little bit of a depression in the beginning. The few months with Harry and Emille had really affected him, and sometimes he found it hard to get back into a normal schedule or routine.

But he found solace in practicing with his abilities.

Things seemed to fade away when he discovered he could do new things, or when he got better and faster. Their powers weren’t really a secret, but it wasn’t like he and his sister flaunted them either. There were apparently a lot of rumors about things since they had gotten back, but most of their neighborhood knew the truth. A lot of times, they would even ask him to come over and fix things. Rick didn’t mind at all. In fact, he kind of really liked helping people. Some of them even gave him money for it, and even though he insisted that he could do it for free, they simply told him that he could save up for a car or college, which he couldn’t argue with.

The one thing that was his favorite to do though, was heal people. He had finally learned from Cadi after a few weeks of practice, and he was learning a lot. He had realized he had to really understand what was going on medically, and like Cadi, he finally started doing some studying. Because of this new goal in mind, he was a lot better, and he no longer saw a therapist, but now it was the first day of school, and the anxieties of trying to make new friends was really getting to him.

At the moment, he was walking next to Cadi and Juno, who were also on their way to school. The two kids were taking turns kicking a rock. Cadi groaned.

“Man! I wish I was coming with you to the fifth grade! I’m going to be bored in the third grade.”

“Well, who knows. Maybe they’ll give you some harder stuff to try.” Juno offered.

“But they’re not going to understand. I want to learn pre algebra.”

This took Rick by surprise.

“Pre algebra?” he exclaimed. “How much have you been pausing time?!”

Cadi stopped to think about it.

“Um… I don’t know.”

Rick gave a small smile and rolled his eyes.

“Ok. Whatever. Just be careful. We still don’t know a lot about our powers.”

“Ok Dad.” Cadi joked. Juno laughed.

“Hey Juno-.” Cadi suddenly said with a grin. “You wanna race me to the school?”

“But-I’m like, two years older than you now. Isn’t that a bit unfair?” he asked frowning. Cadi smirked.

“I bet I’ll still beat you.”

Juno narrowed his eyes and stopped, placing his foot behind a line on the sidewalk. Cadi grinned and stood next to him. They both prepared themselves for the race.

“Juno. Just telling you right now. She’s going to win.” Rick chuckled.

“But I’m older! And I’m a boy!”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“You ready Juno?” Cadi asked, grinning mischievously. “On go, ok? Three, two, one, GO!!”

The both of them took off running, and while Juno seemed to be getting ahead at first, Cadi was soon zipping past him at an incredible speed, catching him by surprise.

“H-hey!” he exclaimed, trying to keep up. “How are you going so fast?!” Cadi turned around for a moment.

“Time powers! Duh!”

Rick laughed as Juno yelled that it wasn’t fair as the two of them ran up to their elementary school.

Rick then walked alone as he slowly made his way to the high school. He had more than enough time-after all, if he was ever going to be late, all he had to do was pause time. Absentmindedly, he put his hand in his pocket and brought out a marble that he liked to practice with. While he waited to cross the street, he looked at it, turned it to sand with rewind, and then brought it back to its glass form. He smiled, and then put it back into his pocket.

“Um… hi.”

Rick turned to see a girl with shoulder length, dark brown hair standing there.

“Uh… hi.” he replied, wondering why a pretty girl like her would be talking to him.

“Um…” the girl started nervously, rocking back on her heels. “You’re-you’re Rick-right?”

“Uh. Yeah.” he said slowly. It was then that he noticed her skirt.

“Is that a Pokemon skirt?” he asked. Her face turned a little red.

“Y-yep! I-I made it out of a pillowcase.”

Rick cocked his head.

“Really? That’s pretty cool.”

The girl smiled, her face turning even redder.

“Hi. I’m Darby.” she said, holding out her hand. Rick shook it.

“I’m Rick. But-I guess you already knew that. Speaking of which-how did you know who I was? The news?”

“Um… Not… really…” Darby said sheepishly. “I-I was a sophomore when you-you disappeared, and I just… I guess I just… noticed you is all. But you were always with the older kids, and I guess I was just too scared to introduce myself, so I’m doing it now, and-and-oh crap-I’m rambling. Sorry.”

Rick smiled.

“No need to apologize. It’s nice to meet you.”

And Rick really meant it. It was nice to meet someone new who didn’t immediately want to meet him because of the whole thing that had happened with the scientists.

“Can-can I walk with you to school? We’re in the same grade now.” she asked hesitantly.

“Of course.”

Darby seemed really pleased with this as the two of them crossed the street.

“So, do you know what you want to be when you grow up? Or-or when you graduate I mean?” she asked. This had actually been something Rick had been thinking about a lot lately.

“Yeah. I actually think I want to be a Doctor.” he told her. “It would be something I could really use my powers with, and it always feels good to help people.” Darby looked at him curiously.

“What do you mean by powers?”

“You mean you haven’t heard? I thought everyone around here knew.” Rick asked incredulously.

She still seemed confused, so Rick reached into his pocket to show her his marble. Her eyes grew wide when she watched him rewind and fast forward.

“How are you doing that?!” she asked in awe. Rick smiled.

“Hey-do you-maybe want to hang out after school or something?” he asked. She beamed at him.

“Um-of course!!” she exclaimed. Rick grinned.

Maybe senior year wouldn’t be so bad after all...