pieces of the earth

I find out that I have superpowers

-Hayden-

I guess this whole story begins with me, the day that I got the letter.

I had just gotten out of school and was waiting for my brother, Charlie,  to finish talking to his friends so we could walk home. Charlie always had a lot of friends, unlike me, who isn't friends with practically anyone at school. I mean, I have people that I talk to in class, but I wouldn't consider them friends. Charlie and I are complete opposites. He is practically a genius, and he's the most forgiving person on the planet. I, on the other hand, am not the forgiving type. He has dirty blonde hair like my dad's, whereas mine is red. Unlike me, he's short for his age, scrawny too, so his friends just push him around. I've offered to make them stop, but Charlie doesn't want his big sister yelling at his only friends. So I won't get involved. For now.

I see his group of friends start to separate and he walks over to me. I throw my arm over his shoulders.

"How was school?" I ask.

"Fine," he responds. I sigh at that answer, but I can't really call him out on it considering he got it from me.

"Are you excited that there's only a week left of school?"

"Yeah," He says, gloomily.

"Hey, what's up with you? Were those guys messing with you again?"

"They're my friends, they're just joking around. I'm just worried about dad."

Two years ago, when I was twelve and Charlie was ten, our mom drowned at the beach while on a trip with our dad. He was at the beach with her, but she swam too far out and got stuck in a riptide. He couldn't get help in time and he has convinced himself it was his fault. About two months after her death, we moved to California. Then we moved to Colorado, then Wisconsin, then New Jersey. He thinks that the reason he's not happy is that he can't find a good place to start a new life. Everyone else knows that he's just running away from his feelings.

Last week, he decided that Maine would be a good place to live. Charlie and I are trying to convince him that we want to stay. Mostly Charlie. He has made more friends here than anywhere else that we've lived.

"I'm worried too, but who knows? Maybe we will be able to change his mind," I try to reassure him.

We finally reach our house. We only live half a mile away from the school, so it's a pretty short walk. We walk up our driveway and through the front door.  Charlie picks up the mail off of the floor by the door and shuffles through it. I walk into my room and throw down my backpack. My room is painted light grey, with music posters and paintings that my mom did covering the walls. My mom was a painter, but I did not get any artistic talent from her. I did get my red hair from her. She also gave me her ability to always say what I'm feeling, which can be good or bad. It has definitely driven people away at times. As I fall into bed, Charlie walks in and hands me a letter.

"This is for you," he says as he turns around and walks away.

"Uh... thanks?"

He was right, the envelope had my name written in black on the back in smooth cursive, with my address underneath. The return address was somewhere in Washington. I flip it over in my hands and see one of those fancy wax seals with the letters "ANF" on it. I open it and pull out a thick piece of white paper and a brochure. The front of the brochure had a picture of a big, prestigious-looking brick school on the front and the words "Academy of Natural Forces" in big lettering. That's an odd name for a school. Underneath the name, it says "Poulsbo, Washington." There is no way I am going to a school in Washington. That's crazy. Plus, it's probably about a billion dollars a year. I walk to the kitchen and throw the letter and brochure into the recycling pile without reading it and walk back to my room. I go to Apple Music and turn on The Cars. My parents used to play their albums in the car all the time when I was a kid and I guess it stuck with me. I opened my laptop and attempted to start on my history homework.