𝐖𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 ━ five hargreeves

8│THE GREAT DEBATE

"A science experiment," he answered promptly.

"Maybe in the way your father trained you," she responded, ignoring his glare, "but you weren't conceptualized like every other normal baby on earth. You were born like Athena from Greek culture except you didn't pop out of your mother's forehead. Probably."

"It's still not magic," Five insisted as he placed his finished can aside, "it's an anomaly, if anything. Besides, Greek myths aren't based on true facts."

"Isn't there a saying that there's a bit of truth in every myth? Maybe the Greeks predicted how you would be born."

"There's no way that people from thousands of years ago could have predicted events like my birth. I'll allow that they could have thought of versions of modern inventions and similar things before their time but something as unusual as super-powered babies? Do you know how many events had to line up exactly right to get the timeline we're in now?"

"And now you're bringing math into this," Lola sighed, "look, it's proven that magic is just science we don't understand yet. Therefore, your powers can be considered magic."

"But I do understand them," he argued, "I've done the math, I know how time works—"

"Not very well, though," she countered easily, "since you to get stuck here."

Five shot her another glare. "I can admit when I've made a mistake. My calculations were off, that's all. I still understand what I'm doing and could explain it to a reasonably smart person. Hence, it's not magic at all."

"What about your other siblings' powers? How do explain the ability to commune with the dead? Or to alter reality with your voice?"

He felt a prickle of anger at the subject of his family. "Leave my siblings out of this," he snapped as he tried to shut down the pang of loss that followed whenever he thought of them.

"Sorry," Lola apologized— and she meant it, "but I was just trying to point out that not even you understand how those things work. For the common layperson, your family's powers are magical."

"Well, if I had known we were talking about your average, everyday human, then there would've been no point to argue."

She couldn't help but grin, "what other topics do we disagree about?"

✧✧✧

Of course, not all their debates ended in agreement. As the days rolled from smoggy summer to ashy fall, Lola approached the boy one evening.

"I'm leaving," she announced.

He barely glanced up from his book, "what?"

"I'm leaving," the brunette enunciated, "you said I could tag along until I was strong enough to survive on my own. I am now, so I'm leaving."

Still scribbling away, Five rolled his eyes. "No, you're not. You wouldn't survive."

She glared at the back of his head. "I would too. You've taught me how to make a fire. I'm better at finding food than you. I know how to make a shelter. I can survive."

"Oh yeah? And how would you defend yourself if you needed to?"

"We haven't seen anything larger than a rat since we've been here. I'll be fine. Besides, I'm only distracting you from your precious equations." Okay, that was a little passive aggressive. In her defense, she'd been thinking about this for so long but hadn't had the courage to broach the subject until now and he was only making things worse. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you wanted me to stay."