Extraordinary Individuals : Josiah Rising

Chapter 5

"You got her number?!" Braxton exclaimed.
I rolled my eyes. "It's not that big of a deal. She said that she wanted to get to know me more."
That's right. Yasmine had given me her number during fourth period and told me to text her after school. The rest of my school day had been uneventful after that. Kato and I got reprimanded for fighting but didn't get in too much trouble with the dean of the school. My talk with Mr Bell had been about my English grade dropping from an A minus to a B which I promised to bring back up to an A minus. Now I was walking home with Braxton, Becky, and Ashley recounting my meeting with Yasmine and my fight with Kato.
"Yasmine Knight is the most well known girl in our grade," Ashley remarked. "I'm surprised you haven't heard anything about her."
"What's she known for?" I asked, cocking my eyebrow.
Braxton chimed in, "She consistently gets the highest scores on every quiz we take and she's the captain of the track team as well as the girl who every guy wants a chance with."
"Yet she chose Josiah," Becky mused. "Wonder why."
I shrugged. I wasn't quite too sure myself. Despite my battle instincts and my intelligence, I wasn't really much compared to the other guys in the school. I was average height and pulled above average grades but I wasn't much to look at from an attractive point of view. I was socially awkward most of the time and had a habit of stuttering when I got nervous. Plus I was masquerading as a gamma when I was actually an omega which meant that I was technically a liar as well. For a girl as beautiful and talented as Yasmine to be interested in me was odd.
She probably just wants to be friends, I told myself.
"Stop it," Ashley chided, hitting my arm lightly. "I can hear your thoughts as clear as day. Reading minds is a sub power of my ability remember?"
I blinked. "Sorry, Ash."
"You're always doubting yourself and downplaying your strengths," she continued.
"You need more confidence, Josiah," Braxton said, throwing his arm around my shoulder. "You've got a lot going for yourself."
I didn't respond. I wasn't the most confident guy. I had a lot of insecurities about myself and certain things that I knew were out of my control but I felt like I could control them. My main insecurity was my physical appearance. A lot of girls in the past had commented that I was a handsome guy but when I looked in the mirror I just couldn't see it. In my eyes I was decent or average looking. My nose was big to me and my eyebrows were thick and grew wickedly. It was one of the main reasons I refused to take selfies of myself. I would take pictures and immediately delete them because the longer I stared at them the more I noticed more of my flaws. You'd never be able to tell though. Cause I was always smiling and laughing. I hid my insecurities behind a veil of humor and sarcasm. I was a guy after all. I couldn't let the people around me see my pain or know about the thoughts that ran through my head.
It's a matter of pride. And that's all I've got at this point.
I smiled at my friends. "Thanks guys. I'm okay though. I'll see you tomorrow."
Before they could stop me I took the shortcut that led to the backyard of my house and slipped in through the back door. The house was silent. Everyone was still probably at work and school which meant that I had the house to myself for a bit. After taking a shower and changing into my pajamas, I started my homework (knocking out the easy assignments first of course) and made myself some ramen noodles to hold me over until my parents got home to cook dinner. I lounged around in my room for bit, did a quick workout and then watched tv. I was so caught up with my show that I didn't hear my phone going off. I had an incoming call from-
Yasmine.
After hesitation, I answered the phone.
"Hello?"
"Josiah? It's me, Yasmine," a melodic voice said on the other end.
"Hey. What's up?" I answered.
She giggled. "You sound so...proper on the phone. It's cute."
I blushed, thankful that she couldn't see my face. I honestly hated the way that I talked. My mom had raised me and my siblings to speak proper English from a young age and it carried over into my teenage years. My friends often called me a walking dictionary cause of my huge vocabulary.
"Yeah, I get that a lot."
Yasmine laughed softly. "There's nothing wrong with it. I like an intelligent guy with a good vocabulary. So, tell me more about yourself."
For the next hour and a half, Yasmine and I traded stories about our childhood and our lives. Yasmine's mother worked as an elementary school teacher and her father was overseas in the military. She was the oldest daughter with two younger twin siblings she was responsible for named Kennedy and Zachariah. Yasmine spent most of her time watching her siblings and writing music since she loved to sing. She was also into anime which sparked another topic of conversation between us about our favorite anime shows, characters and giving each other recommendations. The longer our conversation went on the more I learned about her. She was sweet, goofy, and inquisitive. Everything she did was for her siblings because they were all she had since her mom was always busy and her dad was in a foreign country. She worked a part time job at a retail store near our school when she wasn't doing track meets or after school activities. After some thinking I finally asked the question that had been plaguing my mind since I'd gotten home.
"Hey, Yasmine," I ventured.
"Yeah?"
"What's...I mean, why're you so interested in me?" I asked, bracing myself.
Yasmine chuckled softly. "There's this...enigma surrounding you. I've seen you in the hallways and you always have this detached expression on your face, like you're hard to reach. You're quiet and unassuming yet I feel like there's a secret or a mystery about you. I wanna solve that mystery."
You might not like what you find, I thought to myself.
"There's nothing special about me," I said quietly. "I'm an average guy who just knows how to hold his own in a fight. My ability is nothing special either."
"What is your ability?" Yasmine inquired. "During your fight with Kato I felt the air shift from your punch. Is it super strength or a stockpile ability that lets you turn your physical strength into power?"
"It's neither," I said with a slight laugh. "I'm just that strong."
Yasmine went quiet for a bit before speaking again.
"You're lying."
Her tone was blunt and she sounded slightly disappointed. I swallowed and opened my mouth to speak but I couldn't think of anything to say. She knew I was lying. I sighed tiredly.
"I can't tell you my real ability right now," I said finally.
"Why not?" She asked, her voice soft yet interested.
"It's....risky," I responded. "Only those closest to me and the authorities know about my real ability. I'll tell you. One day. When it's easier for me to talk about."
"Mmm," Yasmine hummed. "Okay. I'm gonna go on a limb and trust you. Don't keep me waiting forever though, Josiah."
"I won't," I promised.
"I'll see you tomorrow. Bye-bye."
I hung up and flopped backwards onto my bed to stare up at the ceiling. I faintly heard the sound of keys and a door closing downstairs but I didn't feel like moving. My mind was racing with many thoughts. I kept thinking back to what Yasmine had said about my punch. Had I really displaced the air? I brought my hand in front of my face and stared at it. I still didn't completely understand my powers yet since there wasn't much information about my powers in the authorities' database because I was the only superhuman with this ability. So me learning about my powers would have to come from experience and practice. Making a mental reminder to practice with my powers this weekend, I headed downstairs to see who had come into the house and was greeted by a mass of deep brown hair as I got tackled to the ground.
"Brother!"
The excitable voice belonged to my younger sister Ebony. Ebony was younger than me by a year due to us having the same mother but different fathers. She was 5'3 with brown skin inherited from her father, brown eyes and deep brown hair she kept cut into a bob or pulled into a ponytail. She was curvy for her age but also fit due to her always working out or playing a sport. She attended the nearby charter school and was in her sophomore year at the top ten of her class.
"Hello, Ebony," I said with a strained voice due to her full weight being on me.
"Where's mom?"
"Probably working late. I think Pops is too," I responded.
Ebony pouted, rolling off of me and standing up. I pulled myself to my feet and made my way to the kitchen, looking through the cabinets to decide what to eat. I had about an hour till the little ones got dropped off from daycare but I honestly didn't feel like cooking dinner tonight.
"Takeout?"
Ebony shrugged. "Sure. I'll order it. Pizza sound good?"
"Get something on the side for Jocelyn," I called, remembering that my youngest sister was lactose intolerant.
After we ordered the pizza, Jocelyn and D'andre (the third youngest) were dropped off and everyone sat down to eat. After dinner I helped the kids with their homework, gave them showers and put them to bed within record time. Around 11:00 pm, Ebony was sleep in her room and I was up by myself. I needed to figure out my powers but I didn't know where to start.
No point in dwelling on it tonight.
I headed up to my room and was out as soon as my head hit the pillow, the day's events finally catching up to me.