Flipped

1.8

It was after eight when we finally got out of there. It was three days before I could sleep a full night again. And it was a full week before we could meet up again as a group and actually talk.

You never realize how many things are continually competing for your attention until you have something big you need to focus on. Especially something that needs to be kept secret.

Because it wasn't like I could tell anyone what was going on.  How could you even begin to explain it?  Who would I go to and say: "hey, so I've been feeling weird things and my friends can see the future and maybe weasel money out of people without trying."

Hello doctors, police, and a whole lot of trouble.

We met at my mom's house again. We were too tired to try to think of other plans. I got up early on the Saturday morning as I could no longer sleep in, and spent some time drinking coffee and watching the fish in our living room aquarium. We have a large one, which we've filled with a very pretty type of fish called a Green Swordtail.  My favorite right now is actually the Beta fish.  Small deadly fish are a little fascinating, you know? Anyways, afterwards I put on the game system a bit. Quietly. My family was out again, for two weekends in a row -  but my sisters were still sleeping, but it was lucky that they had plans to head out at around 10 am.

Ava and Taylor arrived first. Mike came in later. He was in a bad mood.

"You know," Mike said as he arrived, shuffling through the door a few minutes after Ava and Taylor, "we really don't have to meet in the early morning on a weekend."

"Bad sleep, too?"  I said.  I could see a twinkle in his eyes. The sort of Mike-isn't-taking-this-too-seriously twinkle. "Look at our lives these days. It's ridiculous!"

"I mean," Ava said, "you're not wrong."

"True," I agreed. "Let's see what we can figure out, okay?"

That helped calm him down, a little.

Ava cocked an eye at me. I knew that she realized that I certainly had not been sleeping very well, either.

"Well, aren't we a cheery bunch today," she said. "We've obviously somehow gotten powers of some kind. Anyone else would start celebrating, but here we are, panicking and worrying our faces off."

She looked at all our shocked faces and laughed. "This isn't a movie. Why do we just assume that something bad is going to happen just because we won the lottery?"

"Well, you've certainly come a long way from 'Let's just ignore this and hope it goes away," Taylor said a little wistfully.

Ava nodded, her face turning more serious. "Yeah. I have. I just don't understand why we should be running in fear, you know? It's not healthy. What are we going to get from it? It's a lot all at once, but I'm starting to accept what's going on."

As she spoke, I suddenly felt a weight lift from me. Like I had been fighting something for the past two weeks without even fully realizing it.

I realized: we had to accept what had happened. Things had obviously changed for us but not even necessarily for the worse. And we needed to accept those changes because how could we possibly set back the clock?  How could we go back? 

Mike wasn't so convinced. "This isn't some, like, normal life change. Like getting into a relationship or moving away or something like that. How can you make it sound like the same thing?"

Ava considered. "No, you're right. This is big, which means, I think, that we have to approach it in the most reasonable way we can. We need to cut down the fear. How else are we going to cope?  That starts with accepting what is actually happening and  what's happened." She glanced at me, obviously looking for support.

I shrugged. "I think you have a point. You're right that this is kind of cool. Even though I don't know really if I have any of these 'powers.' It would be nice if we could get some things explained. But it looks like we need to figure this out ourselves."

Taylor had been very silent, but she was listening intently and caught my unspoken question.

"I mean, I was scared for a while, but I'm calming down a bit now," she said. "I get the sense that these powers probably won't hurt us, you know? It wasn't like we had surgery. Maybe it's like some part of ourselves that has been unlocked, I don't know." She shuddered. "Okay. It's a little scary, but Ava's right. We need to accept it together."

"Okay, good," I said. "So now what?"

"I think we need some ground rules," Ava said. "We need to make sure we're all on the same page going forward."

"Right," said Mike. "I think I know what the first rule should be a cone of silence. We can't tell anyone about this. I know that's obvious. But it has to be said - no one at all."

"That I can agree with," I said. "What else?"

It was silent as a car drove by. I realized I must have left the window open.

"I think it's important to keep up communication," Taylor said. "If something strange is happening with one of us, we let everyone else know. Maybe it's another power, maybe we see another person who has powers as well, whatever it is, we need to share it. She looked at Ava significantly. "No secrets."

I got the sense that there was something going over my head in that moment. But I was too tired to pursue it.

"Anything else?" I asked.

"Let's not obviously all become best friends," Mike said. "Think about it," he said over our surprised looks. "Do you want the whole school talking about this?"

I clasped my hands together. "Okay, so that's the plan then? We lie low and keep exploring?"

The others nodded. After all, what other choice did we really have?

Just then, there was a knock on the door.