What's Wrong With Normal?

Boston, 2013

The man held pictures of two people, a girl and a boy, as he stood in front of two photos, one of a boy, one of a girl. Scrawled hastily on the boy's picture were the words: David Parker-Amalgamation. On the girl's, the words were: Claire Parker-Memory Manipulation. The man pulled out letters for both of them, and each had a distinct smell of brownies. He placed both in a mailbox and slowly walked away. He raised a hand and suddenly disappeared, leaving nothing behind but a slight gust of wind that carried the smell of freshly baked brownies.

New York, 2013

David Parker woke up to the sound of his sister blow-drying her hair. He groaned and shoved his head in his pillow. 

"David! Time to wake up! We have pancakes. Also, get your sister out of that bathroom, she's been in there for hours," David's mother called out. David sat up and rubbed sleep out of his eyes.

He banged on the bathroom door. "Claire! Get out! I have to pee!"

"We have another bathroom, idiot" Claire shouted. 

"Just get out, okay?" he sighed and walked into the kitchen, where pancakes were on the table. His mother was cooking, and his father was drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. He sat down in his normal spot and piled some pancakes on his plate.

Claire walked out and did the same. She was completely dressed for the day, while David was still wearing his pajama bottoms and one of his shirts. 

"What's this?" David asked as he spotted a letter written for him.

"Who writes letters anymore? We have e-mail and texting now," Claire said.

"You got one too, sweetie." their mother handed one to Claire. 

"What? It smells like brownies," Claire noted.

David looked on the back and saw what was written- Open when only with your sister. Claire's read the same thing, only with brother in place of sister.

Claire and David looked up at each other. David shrugged and continued eating his pancakes. 

The siblings met in Clare's room, a blue-painted room with pictures of actors and singers dotting the wall. They both held their letters. 

"Okay, I'll open my letter first. He ripped it open and started to read it aloud.

David's read:

Dear Mr. Parker,

My name is Kolber. You must be wondering why you and your sister got these letters. Well, here's why. You have been selected to receive what can only be called, a superpower. Yours is Amalgamation. That means you can take any two objects and merge them into one object. It can even be used on humans, animals, and plants. I do ask that you try out your power now. Just take two objects and press them together to merge them. But beware, once merged, they can not be unmerged. I will meet with you in two weeks, just enough to let you learn how to use your powers correctly.

David frowned after he finished reading it, and looked at his sister's stuffed animals. He grabbed a red teddy bear and a blue kitten. He pressed them together, and a blue flash of light occured. When the light faded, the stuffed animals had definitely merged. 

It now had patches of red and blue fur, and the bear's face had the kitten's eyes, whiskers, and ears. The tail was longer and blue, while the feet were the bear's.

"Woah!" David exclaimed.

"Let me read mine!" Claire exclaimed and tore her letter open. She read it aloud.

Dear Ms. Parker.

My name is Kolber. You must be wondering why you and your brother got these letters. Well, here's why. You have been selected to receive what can only be called, a super power. Yours is Memory Manipulation. That means you can change other's memories, but can not remove or add others. But beware, the changes manifest physically. I will meet with you in two weeks, just enough to let you learn how to use your powers correctly.

"What? Cool!" Claire exclaimed. She concentrated and made David remember being able to breathe and smell with his eyes and see with his nose. 

David jolted and his sight shifted down to where his nose was. He could se his mouth and when he breathed in, he could feel the breath coming in through where his eyes used to be. It wasn't odd, as he remembered being like this, but he knew Claire had done it to him. "Change me back!"

Claire started laughing and collapsed on her bed. She changed him back, but couldn't stop laughing. She changed his memories again, without him knowing, and made him remember that he had blonde hair.

He blinked and his normally brown hair was blonde. This time, he didn't know that Claire made it that way and scoffed. "You are so immature." he told her, running his hands through his newly blonde hair.