Chapter 13

When I finally awoke with a weak groan, the first place my sleepy eyes went to was over at the table clock. I was about a half-hour early from when I usually got up, so I figured I might as well start my day and get ready for school while I had plenty of time to spare.

Time? Shit—I could've just frozen time, walked across the country and back, and still have a half-hour to get ready for school. That, however, would've taken me years to complete and was probably the stupidest idea I could've ever had anyway. On top of that, the previous night's stroll made me realize it was more fun to be in the real, living world than alone in a stilled land of silence. I wanted to be more responsible with my power and keep its use to a minimum.

Responsible, great, I was already becoming an adult thanks to this power.

I headed on down the city sidewalk and made my way to the bus—my usual trek at its usual time. I contently breathed in the cool, morning air carrying the taste of sea breeze and sighed happily. I felt more refreshed and more ready to take on the day than I ever had during the entire school year.

As I waited at the bus stop, I kept to myself as per usual and started to glance at the other kids. Part of me wanted so badly to brag to them about what I could do, but I kept myself restrained. I didn't want to be a jackass and start getting cocky out of nowhere just because I had sex and had this cool power. Moreover, I couldn't help but feel calm and laid back. I still felt like I was on top of the world—I was just content to keep it to myself.

The bus showed up on time and the rest of the kids and I all boarded into our usual seats. I'd always found that amazing that, day in and day out, we followed an assigned seating pattern we came up with ourselves. It was almost like we had a hierarchy of seating arrangements, where the cool kids would sit at the very back of the bus.

I felt more awake and alert than ever during the ride to school, instead of falling into my habit of letting my head droop or using the window as a make-shift pillow. I sat with one foot up on the seat, my elbow resting on the window with my fingers gently draped over my jaw, and pondered. I assumed the kids on the bus had started to notice the shift in my demeanor, especially with how chill I was on the bus ride home the previous day.

Yes, I said 'chill.'

The sun slowly rose behind us as the other kids talked and laughed along the way to our destination. With a calm smile on my face, I thought about what Jennifer spoke to me about after having sex. She raised my confidence, made me feel wiser when it came to the opposite sex and made me enjoy the moments we shared. It brought out a side of me, a more positive side, that I was embracing and making my own. She made me feel like I could do it all over again with another girl.

And that's when I realized it.

My jaw dropped in disbelief. How oblivious was I? Of course I could do it again! Why that didn't sink into my head earlier remained a mystery. I still retained my time-stopping power—evidenced by a quick blink and a freeze of the world around me—so it wasn't like it was going away or anything.

But questions remained. Who would I try it with? How would I go about it? The possibilities started swirling around in my head and re-ignited my ambitious desire; that initial spark of searching for an intense thrill of the moment as I shared with Jennifer.

Before I let my pupils start dilating and my adrenaline starts pumping, I curbed my excitement. I had to think rationally, not start jumping up and down on the bus seat like a chimpanzee. I'd have to plan, let the moment present itself, and act accordingly. It wasn't about having a crazed sex fest, it was about enjoying the experience and having fun. My lips curled into a huge smile. I knew it was going to be fun for sure.

The bus rolled to a stop and everyone filed out one by one onto school grounds. Just as yesterday, and every other day before it, I went to have breakfast and then hung out with my friends before the morning bell rang. Today was an 'even day,' and a different set of classes than the previous day. First up was Algebra, a fairly simple class.

The teacher began her lessons; writing on the whiteboard and having us flip our textbooks open. My chin rested in my hand and I found myself just carelessly gazing out the window through the open shutter slats. While my newfound confidence was causing me to become more down-to-earth and in tune with myself, it wasn't exactly an immediate change. Sure enough, at that moment I fell back on one of my old habits: daydreaming.

The teacher began talking, though I wasn't listening. I kept thinking about Jennifer and how amazing she was the previous day. I sighed quietly, a dreamy smile upon my lips.

The teacher held her textbook in one hand, reading from it as she slowly paced back and forth in front of the board. When she stopped, she looked around and I idly noticed the other students raise their hands. She searched for someone to respond to her, which was when she spotted me in the middle of a daydream.

From my experience, teachers always loved catching slackers and making them look foolish so they pay attention.

"Anthony?" she spoke up, snapping me out of my daze, "Could you answer the problem on the board?"

I glanced over at it and quickly straightened my posture. It looked like a garden variety mathematic function. "Uh," I uttered as I quickly looked the problem over. Some of the students already began to snicker, certain I wasn't going to answer correctly.

"Looks like 'x' is zero, and 'y' is three," I said.

"Very good," she replied before turning her attention back to the textbook.

It wasn't that I'd never done work in school, I just found it tedious. Then again, what high school kid doesn't find some excuse to complain about their work?

But while doing math was simple enough, trying to plan out how to use my power around girls and not have it scare them to death was much more complicated. Unfortunately, there was no equation for that one.