Similis - There's no such thing as normal

Chapter 03 - The Basement

It took Jen a second to get her act back together. She was still staring at Madison who was already getting on with introductions. She was talking faster than Jen's brain could process.

All Jen caught was that Ponytail's actual name was Yash, his parents were from India, his hair was dyed-not-natural and he went to school... somewhere. The other guy was Bo, apparently his white hair was natural-not-dyed and there was something about cold hands. Madison was 16, went to Sycamore High, and wanted to take law in college, so she had to study a lot to make sure her grades stayed up.

"Oh. We beat you at football last Sunday," was all Jen could come up with.

"Huh? Oh, right. You go to Bakersfield then?"

"Yah."

Jen realised once again how much she sucked at talking to people she didn't know. It was like her otherwise wonderfully functional brain could only serve up the conversational version of overcooked brussel sprouts. The sound of the quickening pulse in her ears didn't manage to fill the awkward silence.

"So, Jen.... what brings you here then?" Bo asked.

"I'm not quite sure. My uncle told me to come here, after I... after something... I don't even know what happened, really," Jen said.

"Come on. What was it?" Yash asked. "Did you light something on fire? Or make it disappear? Did you make someone's head explode?"

"What? No, I..."

"Oh honey!" A cheerful voice came from the door. "Don't let that colourful fool throw you off. We're all just a bunch of freaks here."

Jen turned around to see who had come in. She caught a glimpse of short black hair, and bright green eyes behind orange rimmed glasses sitting on dark skin. Then a set of arms wrapped themselves around her in a giant bear hug, and everything went dark. Jen felt weirdly comfortable in this stranger's embrace. When she resurfaced, those bright blue eyes were looking straight into her heart.

"Hi, I'm KJ. My pronouns are they/them just in case you were wondering, and I'm totally thrilled you're here because I was starting to get a bit tired of these boring farts." They looked at the others with a huge smile and nothing but affection in their eyes. "Alright, who wants a drink?"

KJ let go of her, walked behind the bar, and opened one of the fridges. The others moved towards the counter, the question about Jen's reasons for being here momentarily forgotten. Jen was glad that the centre of attention had moved away from her for now. She sat down on one of the wobbly mismatched bar stools, while KJ was handing out cans of soda.

"So how was everyone's weekend?" KJ asked.

"Was alright. Nothing major I guess," Yash responded and opened his can of coke.

"I played a level 20 DnD campaign with my friends online," Bo said, pride shining in his icy blue eyes. "We finally killed this giant red dragon, and I cast this amazing—"

"Alright there, Gandalf," Madison interrupted. Bo flinched at the blasphemy of her comment, but didn't respond.

Jen's gaze moved to Madison. Her blond hair was tied in a ponytail at the top of her head, slightly off to the side, and fell in beautiful waves down to her shoulder. With her hair tied back, nothing was covering her immaculate forehead. Jen looked at it closely. Not a scratch. She was still trying to work out the whole pool-cue-over-the-head situation in her mind, while Madison was telling her weekend story about malls, nails, and dancing. Maybe the cue was some sort of magic trick prop?

"Hello everybody. I'm glad you're all here. I see you've already met our newcomer. As you know, this is her first time in the Basement, so please make her feel welcome."

A short sturdy woman had come in from a door at the back of the room that Jen hadn't noticed before. She had short curly hair, glasses on the tip of her nose, and gave off a very typical librarian vibe. She walked up to Jen and gave her a firm handshake.

"Welcome Jennifer. I'm Miss Molpe. Your uncle gave me a call and told me all about you. I think you'll fit in great with the rest of the gang." Her voice was very welcoming, and Jen's nervousness calmed down a little.

"Thank you," Jen said. "But, excuse me, what exactly is this place exactly?"

"I guess you can think of it as a youth club with a bit of a twist," Miss Molpe smiled. Jen could tell that she had spent quite some time thinking about this catch phrase.

"We call it the Basement, and it's a place for young people like yourself, to meet other young people... like yourself." Clearly this part of the pitch still needed a bit of work.

"You can hang out together, play pool, and talk about your life and your feelings and such." She really wasn't selling it.

"And of course," Miss Molpe continued, "we're to help everyone figure out their powers. Learn how to hone them and control them. Make sure you use them for good and don't accidentally go on killing someone by accident.

So, let's get started, shall we?"