Something My Mind Made Up

12. Ease dropping

"What are they saying?" Archie asked and we all shushed him.

"They'll hear you!"

We all had our ears pressed to the door.

"I can't hear a thing!"

"Me either!"

We all screamed as the door was opened and we fell onto each other.

"What are you all doing? Ease dropping?" Lantern asked.

"No, we all just fell at once against the door as we were passing by." I said pudding Maynard and Gemma off of me.

Lantern laughed and Ezra glared down at me.

"What, I'm being honest." I shrugged at him.

"I hate liars." Ezra said.

"Good to know, I'll be on the look out and let you know if I find any." I said and he glared some more.

I wandered away and found myself in the garden.

I blew out a puff of smoke and fiddled with it.

I made it into a flower, then a knife, then a leaf.

"For a second there, I was gonna tell you off for smoking." Ezra came out from behind me and sat on the bench next to me.

"What's the difference? My lungs are probably rotten by now." I sighed out some more smoke and tried to make a running doggy chase a ball.

"Impressive." Ezra poked the smoke with his finger and it dissolved.

"Wow. You killed him. Are you proud of yourself?" I asked, turning to look at him.

"Very."

I snorted and made an X with smoke.

He nodded.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"How old are you?" I asked and he looked down at me.

"22."

"And you're..."

"White. American."

"I was gonna say also trained by Lantern?"

"Oh, yeah. He started teaching me how to be a fighter since I was three."

"You know him for that long?"

"He's a family friend. My godfather."

"That's cool."

"He's annoying, but he's one of the best. You have to be one of the best to be number 37. He could climb higher but he thinks ranks are a waste of time. He says having fun is better than anything." Ezra said crossing his legs and laying his arms on the backrest behind me.

"I've never heard of Lantern before he tested me. With his personality, I would think he'd love to be all over the news." I glanced at his arm touching my shoulder.

"You'd think."

"How old is Bird?"

"He's 22 too."

"You two seem close."

"I've known him since I opened my eyes. He's like a brother to me."

"That's sweet. Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"One little sister. Her name is Mia."

"Is she a hero too?"

"No. She wants to be an engineer for The Department though."

"Oh, that's cool. How old is she?"

"12. You have a sister too, right? Older? But her last name is Perez?"

"She has my mom's last name. I don't know why."

"Are you two close?"

"Pretty close. Although, she's not to happy that I'm here."

"Really?"

I nodded and tried to control some smoke.

"There's a lot of people that don't like The Department. They're all fools. We're the only ones saving them from The Academy." Ezra snorted.

The Academy.

They're something to be feared I hear.

They call themselves the Academy because they're here to "teach the people".

They send out their "students" to attack the public and fight The Department.

"Why did they give us these abilities? What's the purpose? How are they going to explain this to the public?"

"We're keeping this under wraps."

"Why? Because it's insane?" I asked and he dusted off his pants.

"Because you guys aren't ready to defend yourselves yet. If The Academy finds out about you lot, you're in danger. They'll want you on their team."

I nodded and made two daggers with smoke.

Then I started coughing.

"With time, you'll get better." Ezra pulled a water bottle from his pants pocket and handed it to me.