Generation Why Bother

A little while later, October had forced its way into our lives. The weather had cooled down even further and the sun was hidden behind clouds most days, and school had also chilled out to a reasonable pace, letting us breathe. Since the Windy City had lived up to its name and brisk breezes swept across the area, I also finally had an excuse to wear my favorite jacket every day, too. It’s the little things that count.

Of course, this also meant our time as normal teenagers was coming to a close. Every second that went by was another second we got closer to having to deal with superpowers, and as usual, that thought struck terror into my heart. The uncertainty was what really drove it home.

The bit of off-time for Tegan and I was paralleled with Put’emup, Put’emup, too. Since Anthony successfully yelled at Andy and convinced him to chill out, putting certain things in other hands as far as band business went, they had time to breathe as well. They had time to update their Facenook page a lot more often, and apparently, Andy had another little project he finally had the time to complete.

On a Sunday, Andy texted Tegan and I, asking us to come over. He used a lot of smiley faces when he said he wanted to show us something he was working on in the flat, so I just took a wild guess he was really happy about whatever it was – it couldn’t have hurt to check it out and throw him a bone, so that’s exactly what we did. On that lazy Sunday afternoon, we cruised over to the apartment and walked right in to Chance chilling on the couch and Mick playing a handheld video game across from him after Andy answered the door for us.

With a predictably goofy smile, he greeted, “Hey guys! You came over faster than I expected.”

Tegan cut to the chase. “So what’s this surprise?”

He folded his hands together and held them under his chin, looking like an excited puppy. (Well, a little less cute and a little more maniacal, but you know what I mean.) “C’mere, I’ll show you!”

He jogged back into the hallway that we’d never set foot in, and we followed. The reason why we came here had fled my mind and I was just thinking about how awesome it was that we were that close to each member’s personal bedrooms, no matter how tiny they had to be to fit in this building. I didn’t care what went on behind those closed doors. No matter how much time had passed, that slight starstruck feeling never truly left me.

At the very end of the hallway, Andy sharply turned and opened the door to the right. Walking in, he opened it further and said, “Come on in, kiddies.”

It was a workout room.

Not even kidding. There were three treadmills, at least four punching bags hanging from the ceiling, sit-up mats, a weightlifting bench, weight sets, and probably the most drab paint-job I’d ever seen. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Running around my neighborhood was painful enough, and combined with the sit-up routine I’d added recently, none of it looked very…fun.

Not to mention the fact that it was just another reason to spend a lot less time at home, which I didn’t think my dad would be all over…

I didn’t outwardly express my disappointment, but Tegan wasn’t above groaning so loudly that the others probably heard.

Andy conveniently ignored her. “Now, we need to get physically prepared even more than we are. Two of us already have a head start in terms of powers, and as long as we keep ourselves in good condition, that gap shouldn’t matter, especially not when the time comes. Better safe than sorry.”

“I already suck enough at running,” Tegan grumbled, her arms crossed.

“Oh, I feel your pain, trust me,” Andy sympathized, patting her back. “That’s the shit I do not like. But at least you’re skinny to begin with. I’m a fatass.” For the record, Andy was only kind of stocky, but not really chubby, let alone fat.

Tegan was probably about to vocalize that, but Andy cut her off.

“But we have to start really training eventually, and what better time than now?” He walked away from us and kicked a punching bag halfheartedly. “In fact, something’s even showing up on the monitor. It looks like a heavenly body that’s about to collide with Earth, but when we try to look up more info about it, nothing shows up. It could just be a glitch. Who knows? It wouldn’t hurt to prepare, especially since it’s travelling so fast.”

My heart dropped when he said it, and it plummeted even further when he showed it to us. Sure enough, when he opened up the monitor and zoomed in on Illinois, a white throbbing dot was on its path to right where we were. It could’ve been the apartment, it could’ve been mine or Tegan’s house. I tried to think of it as just a glitch. Maybe it was a shooting star that was just going to pass over us. Despite all of the supernatural happenings I’d witnessed up to that point, along with the almost ethereal direction my life had taken in the company of a semi-famous band, I tried to trick myself into thinking it was nothing.

Though it was a pretty short visit to the apartment since my dad said I couldn’t stay there long, it resonated with me. It was part of the reason why I couldn’t sleep that night.