We Are the Reasons

Andy

I had been an outsider my whole life. I was born and raised in a small Australian town, with only 2% of the population being Kinetics. No one liked the music I liked the music I liked, no one could do the things I could do, and when anyone's bathroom sink got clogged up, I was the one who they called. They saw no problem in calling in the 16 year old boy with a lip piercing and skinny jeans when they needed him; the rest of the time, they averted their eyes.

So when my parents announced to me that we would be spending the last two years of my mandatory education in a city far, far away, I was more than ecstatic. I had had everything packed within three days, even though we had a bit less than a month left in this place.

But that was a long, long time ago.

Presently, I was laying on my bed – or more precisely, my sleeping bag – staring at the ceiling, trying to ignore the fact that my alarm would ring in less than two minutes. I didn't want to get up. I didn't want to go to school. I didn't want to be the outsider again.

Here in New York, they had already started school. They had been in school for months and months. If I had been an outsider in Australia, I didn't want to know how I would be here. Of course, hopefully everyone was a little more open minded than the people back there.

I was tempted to say "back home", but isn't home where your heart is? I don't know where my heart is, but it definitely isn't in that dried up town in the middle of nowhere.

I sighed as my alarm went off. I wasn't stressing about what to wear, or how to get to school. I had gone through it yesterday with my mom, and it was really very straightforward. All I had to take was one metro, and walk a few blocks. Easy, right?

I reluctantly got up, picking up the clothes I had left folded on the floor, and headed to the bathroom to change and do my hair. Looking at myself in the bright bathroom mirror, I sighed. My face was pallid and tired, my blue eyes and blonde hair a stark contrast with the rest of my appearance. I had decided to wear a simple button up shirt and my black jeans. On my right wrist, I had four rubber wristbands: three of them were band ones, and the fourth one was a Batman one. I washed my face in an attempt to wake myself up a bit more, but it was all in vain. I ended up getting water all over the bathroom and none on my face, as usual.

I sighed, crouching down. I closed my hand into a fist, and concentrated as I held it above the water. Like backwards rain, the water droplets came back up, up to orbit my wrist, none of them touching me. I smiled slightly; it was a pretty cool sight, I wasn't going to lie. I had worked long and hard to figure out how to clean up my mistakes, and hey, it was worth it.

I dragged my hand around the bathroom floor and counters, more water droplets joining the small cloud sort of structure that was orbiting my wrist. Then, cautiously, I moved my hand above the sink, and loosened my fist. The water came crashing into the sink, and I watched as it all swirled around the drain before clearing the sink. I looked around the bathroom to make sure that I hadn't left any more wet spots, then continued getting ready.

My father was already eating when I entered the kitchen. He had a box of cereal open on the table, and was reaching into it absently as he studied the metro map.

"Morning," I mumbled, opening the practically empty fridge and pulling out the carton of milk we had bought yesterday. We didn't have any bowls, so I poured it into a glass I had retrieved in one of the numerous cupboards, which had been one of the only utensils my mother had managed to shove away inside our suitcases.

"Good morning!" my father answered. "Ready for school?"

I chuckled, almost bitterly. "Do I have a choice?"

"Don't worry, Andrew. The school assured us you wouldn't fall behind, and that you were actually ahead of all the other students in your grade!"

I sighed, shrugging but not bothering to answer him. He thought that I was worrying about classes, when frankly, they were the last thing on my mind.

"Andrew, by the way..."

"Yeah?" I answered, turning to face him as I ate my cereal out of the glass with a plastic spoon.

"No funny business, okay? I... Just, not so soon."

He looked so concerned, and I just sighed. "Don't worry. I won't overflow the boys' bathroom. Not on my first day."

Yeah, that had actually happened. I was in third grade, I didn't know how to control my strange ability that no one else seemed to have all that well. How could I have known that by simply putting my palm on the faucet, I would cause it to burst due to the sudden overflow of water?

My father chuckled. "I'm being serious."

I shrugged again. "So am I. I'll be careful. Plus, there's got to be more people like me around here than back there..."

"Maybe. But be careful... You should be heading out."

"I know."

I put the empty cup with the spoon in the sink, before returning to my room and getting my bag. I called out a fleeting "Bye!" to my father before leaving the apartment.

The trip was boring, to say the least. Since I lived on the same block as the metro station, I didn't have a whole lot of time to "admire the scenery". However, as I stepped out of the station on the other side, I took a breath, preparing myself for the worst. I walked towards the building, getting mixed up in the small crowd of teenagers pushing and shoving to get in. One of the guys eyed me weirdly. I looked away, not wanting to draw attention to myself. Not just yet, anyways.

I found the main office quickly, remembering the short tour of the school I had taken two days ago. I pushed the door pen, and the red-headed lady I had talked to looked up from her desk.

"Good morning," I greeted her nervously. "I'm the new student, th-"

"Oh yes! Andrew Glass, was it? Here you go, darling!"

I took the paper she was handing me, thanked her, and exited her office before she could say anything else to me.

I stood beside the door, reading over my schedule. First period today was History, with some Ms. Silverman. Oh joy. The paper indicated that it would be in room 317, but no matter how hard I looked, I wasn't able to find it. People were bustling past me, minding their own business. I wasn't quite sure what to do. If there was one thing I had never felt back there, it was being physically lost.

Luckily, a custodian showed me the way to the classroom before the bell. I headed straight to the back, to the table in the far right corner, beside the window. I looked out, past the basketball court and at the trees surrounding the neighbouring street. I sighed. It was a lovely day outside, I wished I was out there instead of this new, confusing place. There were too many people, and I felt almost claustrophobic. This school was so different than my old one. For instance, back there we had double tables: two people were sat beside each other at the same table. In this school, however, we had single seats.

"At least, now I won't have to worry about disturbing the person beside me or taking up some of their space," I said to myself.

As the classroom slowly filled up, I noticed a girl walking towards me. I got nervous, and looked down.

"Hey!" she smiled. "It was about damn time we got some other new faces around here!"

I looked up at her. Her brown eyes were friendly, and her bag was carelessly hanging off of one shoulder. However, when her gaze met mine, she frowned a bit, as if trying to recognize me. "Wait, do I know you?"

I shook my head. "I just moved here, from Australia."

She grinned, sitting in the seat beside mine. "No way! I've always dreamt of going there. What's it like?"

"Where I'm from? Washed up and dead-beat."

She blinked, taking in what I had just said. "Well, that certainly just killed my vibe."

"I'm sorry. Sydney is wonderful, though. It really is."

She smiled. "It seems like it is, from what people tell me."

I nodded, before looking outside again. I didn't want to be rude, I just didn't know what to say. I didn't feel awkward; I felt at a loss for words, unable to grasp on to carry on with the conversation.

"It's a pretty day outside," she commented, and I directed my attention back to her. "My friends and I – well, my friend and I – are supposed to be going out for lunch today, probably just down to the park or something. Would you like to come?"

"Uh..." I hesitated, and she shook her head wildly, her hair flying all over her face.

"If you don't want to, that's totally cool!"

As the bell rang, I realised that I had given off the wrong impression. I waited for it to stop, then reassured her, "No, I'm sorry, I'd like to go out for lunch with you guys."

She smiled widely. "Great! Well, since we appear to be in the same class, I can show you around, too, if you'd like?"

I nodded. The teacher stepped into the classroom not a minute later, and the girl sighed. "Get comfortable, this is nap time."

I chuckled slightly, shaking my head before pulling out a piece of paper to take notes on whatever it was the teacher had started talking about. She handed out a worksheet, and as we did it, she took attendance. It was that time of year when the teachers didn't need to call out names, rather just scan the classroom and see who was missing. However, when my name must have come up, she walked over to me.

"Are you Andrew?" She asked, whispering. I just nodded, looking up at her. She smiled. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too," I whispered back, a bit awkwardly, before she stood up straight and walked back to the front of the classroom.

As the class ended, the girl stood up, leaning against her table as she watched my pack my stuff away. "I'm Callie, by the way."

I swung my bag over my shoulders and smiled at her. "I'm Andrew. But I guess you can call me Andy."

She smiled back. "Come on, the wonders of Maths await us!"

I followed her down a few hallways, before she pushed open a door decorated with graphs and different sorts of curves, all that math stuff.

"Oh wait!" she suddenly cried out. "Can you show me your schedule?"

I pulled out the folded up paper from my pocket, handing it to her. She unfolded it and read over it before nodding and handing it back to me. "Okay, you're good. I was scared you and I might not be in the same Maths class."

"Oh," I simply said. I followed her into the room, and we sat at the back. This room was arranged differently as well: the tables were square, and held four people (two on either side). I sat down beside her, and she whispered, "This teacher has basically given up on us, so we can do whatever we want once we're done our work. He doesn't bother to check it, he just picks it up and that's basically it. Every now and then he'll give us a test, but eh. If you can do the worksheets, the test is nothing."

I chuckled, nodding at her. "Okay, I see. Well, that's good."

"Yep."

Needless to say, we spent a decent amount of time in that class just chattering. I found out that she and I liked the same bands, which was a bit weird to me, since literally no one listened to them in Australia.

She chuckled when I told her that. "I don't believe that."

"I'm completely serious! I was also the only Hydrokinetic there. Hell, I was one of the three Kinetics in that town..." Suddenly I felt unsure of myself. I but my lip in anticipation of her answer.

"Damn, I wish I was a Hydrokinetic. But hey, we could probably do some major damage to people, you and I!"

I tilted my head slightly, trying to understand what she was saying.

"Oh, I'm an Electrokinetic. So you know, water and electricity."

"You're a Kinetic too?" was the only thing I could say in response.

She shrugged. "Yep."

"Sorry, I just- it's nice to meet someone who's actually my age and is also a Kinetic. In Australia, the other two were much older..."

"I see!" she nodded. "What about your parents?"

"UnKinetics, both of them."

"That's really interesting."

"Kinda annoying, to be quite honest!"

She chuckled. "I'm sorry. I can imagine. Over here, there's a huge mix."

"Do Kinetics and UnKinetics... Hang together?"

She frowned. "Well, of course!"

"Oh..."

"Different in Australia?"

"It was," I nodded.

She gave me a smile. "Well, I'm sure you'll get used to it."

At lunch, she informed me that it would be just the two of us, since her friend blew her off since she had 'better things to do'.

"I'm sorry if you're getting annoyed by me," she sighed as we stepped out of the school and started walking down the sidewalk lined with shops.

"I'm not," I reassured her. "It's nice to not be alone."

She smiled. "I know what you mean."

As we walked, she pointed out to various shops, saying a little bit about them. We walked five blocks before reaching our destination: a hole in the wall pizza store. Outside, an old blackboard advertised, "$1 slice!" and "$2.50 two slices and one soda!"

"There's a lot of dollar pizza places around town," Callie commented when she noticed me eyeing the sign. "However, these guys are the best. You'll see."

As we stepped inside, I realised something and slapped my forehead. "I'm so stupid. I don't have enough money to get pizza, my mom only gave me enough to get back on the metro..."

Callie chuckled. "You didn't get your student Metro Card yet? Anyways, I'll get you a slice."
"No, really, I d-"

"Look," she looked at me sternly. "I'm not letting you starve on your first day here! Plus, I'm hungry, and that would be awkward if I was eating and you were just sitting there..."

I sighed. I kind of knew I shouldn't even bother arguing with her because I knew she would probably not listen to me and stick to her original plan.

As she was ordering, two other teenagers entered the shop. The girl had a black shirt with a raccoon and "Stay metal" written across it, with forest green bangs, quite a contrast with her dark brown hair. The boy, however, was wearing a white sleeveless top with a strange logo on it. His hair was bright, neon green. He looked over at me, giving me a nod before turning to stand in line behind Callie. He said something to the girl and she nodded, before walking away from the line and sitting down two chairs away from me.

I looked over at her. She was looking at something on her phone distractedly. Suddenly, she looked up at me and I hastily looked away.

"I like your piercing," she said, and I looked back at her.

"Thanks," I smiled self-consciously. "I like yours too."

She tapped at her septum piercing and chuckled. "Thanks."

As the guy with green hair came back towards her, Callie tapped me on the shoulder. I spun around to face her, and she handed me her slice. While she busied herself sprinkling god knows what on her slice, I turned back to see the two of them leaving. I shrugged.

"I liked his hair," Callie commented, looking in their direction as well.

"Yeah..." I replied absently.

She laughed. "Andy, you look like you just saw freaking Billie Joe Armstrong or something!"

I shook my head, blinking and meeting her gaze. "Sorry. Thinking."

"That's okay," she smiled.

~~

That following week, I went out to lunch with Callie to various places, as she was insisting I had to eat more than just pizza for the 'sake of diversity' and 'you'll never know till you try it, will you?'. But the following Monday, we were back in the pizza place, and I insisted I would buy her a slice this time.

"Okaaaayyyy," she sighed dramatically, and went to sit down as I ordered the slice. I felt someone come up behind me as I ordered, then when I turned around, I came face-to-face with Septum Girl.

"Sorry!" she grinned, not looking at all sorry.

"It's okay," I shrugged. I was about to go back and sit down to wait for the pizza when she stuck her hand out.

"I like your shirt."

I looked down at it. It was one of my favourite shirts, an All Time Low one. I smiled shyly as I looked back up at her. "Uh, thanks. I... Like yours, too."

To be honest, I didn't listen to the band on her shirt. I had heard the name – they were one of Callie's favourites – but I didn't listen to them.

"Thanks," she grinned.

I peered past her, and noticed Callie staring at the green-haired boy inquisitively. Hunh.

The girl cleared her throat. "Hey, your pizza's here."

"Oh, uh, thanks," I blinked, looking at her quickly before turning around and grabbing the two paper plates, imbibed with pizza grease.

She nodded, before turning to order. I handed Callie her slice, and she thanked me absent-mindedly, heatedly talking with the green-haired boy about something or the other. I sat down to her left and bit into my slice, looking up at Septum Girl. She was staring back at me, and when our gazes met, she wiggled her eyebrows. I laughed, surely looking very attractive with the pizza in my mouth, but hey, she laughed as well. She took her two plates and came over to us, handing the boy his plate before sitting down to my left, three seats down from the boy.

"My name's Rachel," she informed me.

"I'm Andrew. Well, Andy. Any which one you want."

"It's nice to meet you," she smiled. "I would shake your hand but they're all gross."

I laughed. "That's alright."

"Oh my god!" she grinned at me. "Your accent!"

Callie turned around, and both her and the green-haired boy looked over at Rachel.

"Rachel, again," the boy laughed. "A bit too loud!"

"Sorry," she shrugged, again not looking sorry. She took a bite into her pizza before looking over at me. "Where you from?"

"Australia," I nodded. "Moved here two weeks ago."

"Oh my god, that's really awesome! I've always wanted to go."

"It's not that great," I shrugged. "I mean, Sydney is, but not where I'm from."

"Oh," she nodded. "I see. Nothing interesting?"

"Nah, not really. Tiny town."

She smiled. "So how's the city?"

"I like it," I nodded. "Haven't been a lot of places yet."

"Neither have I, and I've been here for so long! Don't worry about it."

I chuckled. "I'll try not to."

"Anyways, if you need people to hang with or show you around, you can call me."

"But I-"

"Holy shit!"

I spun around to see Callie's eyes practically bulging out of her face.

"What?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You- I just- Holy crap. Um. Well, uh. Hi, I'm Callie."

Rachel raised an eyebrow as well. "I'm Rachel..."

"Can we all meet again here, same time tomorrow?"

"Uh, sure?"

"Great! Thanks." And with that, she turned back to the boy, who also seemed very confused.

"Your girlfriend is something," Rachel chuckled, looking back at me.

My eyes widened. "Callie? She's not my girlfriend!"

"So not his girlfriend!" she called out, not looking back at us.

Rachel laughed. "Sorry, jumping to conclusions. Well, I guess I'll be seeing you tomorrow again?"

"Yeah, I guess so," I smiled and nodded.

She got up, threw her plate into the trash can, then pulled the boy's shirt. He shoved his pizza crust into his mouth and waved at Callie before throwing out his plate and following her out of the store.
Callie turned around to face me. "Sorry I embarrassed you."

"You didn't," I shrugged, and the look on her face made me grin. "Don't worry."

"Oh, I'm glad. But Andy, I really... Sorry, I'm just really freaked out right now."

"Why?"

She took a gulp. "You remember that book I briefly mentioned to you?"

"Uh, yeah, the one from that garage sale?"

"Yeah. Well, I just realised... Oh hell, I can't explain it to you. Do you want to come over to my place after school for a bit? I live on 17th and 2nd ave. Not too far from the metro station."

I shrugged. "I think my parents would be okay with that. Might need to call them though... Is there a payphone somewhere here?"

"You know, you can just use my phone..."

She pulled it out of my pocket and handed it to me as we left the store. I chuckled, looking at her old, beat up phone.

“Hey, shut up,” she muttered, adjusting the numerous bracelets on her left wrist. “You know this is the only phone I can use.”

"Have you ever considered getting one of the AntiAbility gloves?"

Her eyes widened and she shook her head. "No way. Those are too expensive. And I doubt the knockoff ones you find for five bucks even work, so... No point risking it."

I nodded. "Yeah, I understand. They really are ridiculously expensive."

She nodded, but didn't say anything else. I typed out a short text to my mom telling her that I was going over to Callie's house for a bit, then returned her phone to her.

We reached school within the next five minutes, and she sighed. "We have yet another long week ahead of us..."

I sighed in agreement. "I know."

Just then, a group of girls passed by in front of us, giggling stupidly. One of them eyed me, batting her eyelids overly dramatically. I gave her a small, awkward smile, before looking away.

"You're quite the ladies' man, eh?" Callie giggled, elbowing me. "I've never seen Aly - Alyssa - flirt so obviously with someone before."

"Wait, that was Alyssa? Your Alyssa?"

She sighed and shrugged, scratching the back of her head. "Yeah. 'My' Alyssa."

We reached her locker, and she opened it, her bag tumbling down to her feet. "That was easy," she shrugged again, picking it up and swinging it on her back before slamming the locker shut.

We walked over to mine in silence. I wanted to ask why she and Alyssa didn't talk anymore, but I had already done that twice before and still didn't understand. Callie hadn't given me a proper reason. All she had mentioned was a thick, second hand book with strange illustrations in it.

I was sitting on Callie's desk chair, watching her rummage through one of the blue cardboard boxes stacked up along the wall beside her bed.

"There we go!"

I frowned as she pulled out a thick, brown book with yellowing pages.

"Now, don't freak out..." She mumbled, putting the book down on her bed and sitting down. I rolled the chair closer.

"Why would I?"

"It's just... It's weird. I... You're going to think I'm crazy."

"No, please, go ahead."

"This book... The lady who sold it to me couldn't read what was inside it. She saw only blank pages. Alyssa... Well, Alyssa had a very strange reaction to it, as you can surely see. My parents can't see what's in it, either. But my brother and I can."

I frowned. "Is it some sort of thing where only Kinetics can see it?"

She shook her head. "Those type of stuff are very, very rare, practically inexistent. Plus, both of my parents are Kinetics."

"Right, okay," I took a deep breath. "And why... I don't wanna be rude, but why do you want to show this to me?"

"If my theory is correct..." She started, picking the book up and looking for a page, holding it up so I could only see the cover. "You should be able to see what's in it as well."

She put it down flat, and turned it so it was the right side up to me. I frowned slightly, trying to understand what she was showing me.

She pointed to the page on the right. "Look at this, if you can see it..."

"Well, I can definitely..." I trailed off, my eyes widening. "How the..."

Staring back at me was a portrait of myself. Or if it wasn't me, it sure as hell looked a lot like me. The boy's eyes were the same piercing, light blue as mine; our complexions, the same tone. No lip piercing in sight, but the same light hair colour and style.

I shook my head. "No, this is insane. This is- Is this some sort of joke?"

She winced, looking up at me with desperate eyes. "No, I promise you. This is no joke, I swear. I'm... I'm as freaked out as you."

I took a breath as she turned the pages and showed me another portrait, this time a portrait of a girl.

"That looks like... You," I commented, looking over it quickly and looking up at her.

She nodded, turning the page twice. "And look at this."

If my eyes could widen any more, they would have. The portrait this time represented another girl, with straight, dark hair falling to her shoulders. Her eyes were fierce and angry, her tee shirt tattered.

"That's Rachel."

"Exactly," Callie whispered. "Do you see how freaked out I am now? I've never seen Rachel before, not until last week. I mean, I didn't really go to that pizza place a whole lot during lunch hours before, but the few times I have been, I've never seen her..."

"I don't understand."

"Neither do I. Do you want to see more?"

I looked at her and nodded. "Might as well, now that we've started."

She bit her lip and nodded before turning the page. This time, it was a portrait of a boy with light brown hair, sticking up at odd angles. He was the only one with a somewhat cheerful expression, but he wasn't really smiling. He just... It was hard to explain. He seemed more optimistic than the others. His skin tone was pale, paler than anyone I had ever seen before... Except the boy with neon green hair.

"Rachel's friend, Michael," Callie nodded, almost as though she was reading my thoughts.

I looked up at her, and I knew the confusion and slight fear painting her face was reflected in mine. "I don't understand."

"Neither do I, Andy. Neither do I."