Waking up on a Monday morning is akin to voluntarily subjecting yourself to torture. Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to start the week with such cruel machination? Maybe I should just not wake up at all...

  So I randomly thought, groaning and burying my face deeper into my pillow as my alarm clock went on, violently hitting me with its usual godforsaken beep-beep-beep!

  "Ugh... Shut the... fuck up!" I grumbled, waving the finger at the pesky little device.

  The beeping stopped instantly.

  It was only after I lay there for a good few seconds of silence that I processed what had just happened. Lifting my head in surprise, I peeked one eye open at the digital clock on the bedside table to make sure I wasn't hallucinating from lack of sleep.

  Nope, the relentless little torture device had definitely shut up without my hand smashing the sound out of it.

  Well, that was weird.

  I continued to lie there for a minute or two in an unusual silence, careful not to go right back up to sleep—as I had done the many times that I was late—until I eventually mustered the strength and put on my glasses from the edge of my computer table beside the bed. I dragged myself out of the room and stumbled to the bathroom, still half-asleep.

  My reflection in the mirror was its usual charming self: messy brown hair the same color as shit sticking out in all directions, dark circles under my dead brown eyes, which some said looked like caramel but looked just like two drops of dried dog shit to me. In short, I have the general aura of "I feel like shit and don't wanna be awake."

  So I reached for my toothbrush to wake myself up with the bubbly, cool, minty paste that stings the shit out of my tastebuds, and as I did—it floated right into my hand.

  I blinked. Then blinked again. The toothbrush was just there, in my hand, like it had obeyed some unspoken command. Maybe it was the stress of high school or the cumulative effect of watching too many late-night videos of things you shouldn't watch before going to be, but isn't this just funfuckintastic? I'm officially losing it.

  Either way, I didn't have the time nor the attention span to dwell on it as I went through the motions of my morning routine: brushing my teeth, donning yesterday's hoodie and pants, eating my Pop-Tart breakfast while scrolling through some brain-rotting short videos right before going out the door.

  My dear lil' sister would usually make me breakfast, but she left last week; she moved to some obscure private boarding school near the end of the school year for reasons our parents still hadn't told me.

  Mom was already out the door, as usual, off to her early shift at the hospital. My dad was probably somewhere in the city, doing whatever it was he did as a detective. That left me, poor lil' Elexys, who seems to be perpetually alone as of late, to get ready by meself while contemplating my possible descent into madness.

  I jogged, or rather, dashed on the way for the bus stop, not for exercise but out of necessity since I'd once again scrolled too much and hadn't paid much attention to time. And all of a sudden, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

  The world feels a little strange, like that time I hadn't slept for more than three days, and the first time I'd put on my first pair of glasses, everything started looking wobbly yet paradoxically seemed more in focus. The colors seem brighter and clearer, like someone had turned the resolution up on reality. But then I take off my glasses, and it's still blurry as hell...

  Maybe I just needed more sleep or a greater dose of caffeine, as if three cups worth concentrated in a small single cup wasn't enough.

  Sigh...

  This month sure has been nothing but misfortune after the other...

  The first week of this month, I found out my eyes were seeing lights elongated and the world blurring. I thought I was finally awakening something from all the anime I was watching; nope, I was diagnosed with astigmatism, and I'm now wearing glasses for it.

  The second week, I started to hear this weird static noise every now and then or whenever it was too silent; I had hoped it was something special, but nope, I was diagnosed with tinnitus.

  The third, I randomly asked Mom and Dad why everyone in the family has some sort of shade of naturally light blond hair, and I got shitty brown, just for them to say, 'We took you in before you get chewed by a rabid raccoon in a dumpster.' Yeah... I'm actually frickin' adopted...

  And now I'm also possibly going mad? Ain't that just fuckin' great? Life throws whatever random shit it could find at you, and I'm just supposed to 'deal with it.' Like, bruh, life better chill, or I'll fucking quit its shitty ahh.

  So I shook my head, trying to dispel the thoughts of jumping in front of that passing sixteen-wheeler truck and hope that reincarnation is as real as in the animes while I continued to run on the sidewalk with my heavy bag full of notebooks bouncing up and down, hitting my back and straining my shoulders.

  Soon, I arrived at the bus stop a little over half a mile away, which I dashed to in a little less than five minutes. The bus was about to leave me behind, so I quickly jumped aboard before it fully closed its doors, breathing heavily as I tapped my card and sat by the back of the driver while the bus was already moving.

  Most of the occupants are students like me, and are the same as anywhere else I saw them: loners with their noses buried in their phones, friends having a conversation about some random shit they find in the net, and one or two absentmindedly staring at the window, daydreaming about becoming someone great or maybe their heads were just empty.

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  Ignoring them, I pulled out my phone. But before I could wirelessly plug it into my brain with my Bluetooth pods, I experienced something strange yet again. The old balding bus driver glared at a stoplight flashing orange that stubbornly refused to turn green; it seemed broken.

  "C'mon, you piece of junk," he grumbled.

  I glanced at the light, feeling a sudden urge to help. Not that I could, of course. But as soon as the thought crossed my mind, the light turned green. The old man muttered something about finally getting a break and drove on.

  Okay, that was definitely not normal. I leaned back in my seat, trying to piece things together. So far this morning, I'd made an alarm clock shut up, a toothbrush float, and a stoplight change colors. Either my brain cells are now completely cooked from all that doomscrolling, or I had somehow developed superpowers overnight. Given my luck, it was probably the former.

  When I got to school, it was the usual grind: math class, History class, Science class, and P.E. class—all blurring together in a monotonous drone. I tried to focus, but my mind kept reverting to the morning's strange events.

  So, during lunch, I decided to test out my sanity. Sitting at my usual table in the corner, I eyed my unopened soda can on the table in front of me. And with a dramatic flick of my fingers, I thought, 'Open sesame!'

  The can of pop pops open with a satisfying hiss, spraying stray drops of soda onto the table. This causes one of the only few NPC's in this school I know the name of, Eric, sitting across from me, to look up from his sandwich.

  "Ayo, did you just...?"

  "Yeah," I said, trying to sound nonchalant. "Pretty cool, right?"

  He stared at me, then at the can, then back at me. "How'd you do that?"

  "Magic," I said with a grin, wiggling my fingers mysteriously.

  Eric rolled his eyes. "Right. Well, I'd be more impressed if you can magically ace the P.E. test next period."

  I laughed, but inside, I was buzzing with excitement. Maybe I wasn't going crazy after all. The impossible is possible. Maybe I'm not asleep...

  Maybe I really do have some kind of superpower.

  And so, just like that, the rest of the day passed in a haze of anticipation and examination.

  I kept testing little things—like levitating notebooks and pencils from my bag to my hand so I don't have to reach for them, making lights flicker whenever I walk under them in the hallways, and changing the color of my notebook cover as one more 'trick' to show off to Eric.

  It worked each time.

  Each time, I felt a little more certain that this was real, that this was really happening, and that I'd just awakened a supernatural ability in the real world where all things unscientific are considered fictional and not real.

  After school, I headed home, wanting to experiment in the open without an audience. I closed my bedroom door, closed the curtains, and took a deep breath as I focused.

  Let's see what I can really do...

  First, I tried moving objects around, which I vaguely knew I could do but wanted to be certain. So, I floated a pen, a book, a backpack, and other stuff in the air. With a gesture like waving a hand, snapping my fingers, or even just a mere thought, they obeyed my commands, and now they're all floating mid-air and dancing around at my whimsy!

  That confirms it; I can control things with my mind.

  But simply being able to float things telekinetically doesn't explain how that red light turned green, my notebook changed colors, or the lights flickering on and off in the hallway while I was under them. Thus, waving a hand dismissively, the floating objects unceremoniously fell on the floor as I moved on to my next experiment.

  This time, I should try something more complex. Looking around the room, I looked for objects of experimentation and finally fixated my gaze on the light bulb on the ceiling. Then, with a snap of my fingers, the light turned off, and with another, on again.

  Now, as for changing colors, with more finger snapping, the same thing happened to the walls as it did with the colors of my notebook, as they changed to whatever color I was thinking with a simple snap.

  Well, I'd say that was quite successful.

  But the real breakthrough is just about to come as the real experiment is about to commence. I stood in front of my closet mirror, staring at my charming and very u?n?impressive reflection.

  "Alright, Elexys," I said to myself. "Let's see what you're made of."

  Thus, I proceeded to focus on my appearance...

  Slowly, my reflection began to change. The blemishes of puberty on my face were gone, my unruly hair straightened out, and even my eyes seemed brighter. My muscles formed like a Greek god's, and the sink sank lower—or rather, I grew taller by at least a foot.

  After it was done, I turned from side to side, admiring the very handsome and very manly transformation that had transpired. I made it painless, as I imagine the spontaneous growth of bones and muscles would be pretty painful otherwise.

  "Damn," I said in a much deeper voice than my own, grinning while I pointed at my reflection like that one animated character. "Looking good."

  Just as I was about to look at the serpent and its eggs, however, there was a knock on my door. My heart jumped, and I instinctively made my appearance snap back to how it was before I opened the door and found my Mom standing there, looking tired but smiling.

  "Hey, Mom," I said, trying to act casual while catching my breath.

  "Hey, kiddo," she said, ruffling my already unruly hair. "How was school?"

  "Same old, same old," I replied. "You?"

  "Three Craniectomy procedures in one day kept me busy" she said. "What about you, what've you been up to?"

  "Oh, you know, just... studying," I said truthfully. Studying myself is still technically studying.

  She raised an eyebrow. "Study? On a Monday? Who are you, and what have you done with my son?"

  I laughed, "Yeah, well, things are getting very interesting lately."

  "Well, I'll be downstairs watching my TV shows if you need anything," she said, patting my head again. "Don't get too lost in your 'studying'."

  After she left, I sat on my bed, my mind racing with the possibilities that now opened themselves for me. This power, whatever it was, could change everything. No more boring life, no more mundane existence.

  I could do anything~!

  Be anyone~!

  The possibilities are endless!

  As the day turned to evening, I continued to do more experiments, finding out more things I could do. Telekinesis as I float and control things around the room? Check. Clean my room with a thought? Check. Most importantly, make my homework write themselves for me while I continue to experiment? Check.

  At the end of the day, after having dinner with Mom and Dad, who bought some fried chicken from my favorite chain, I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. What would've been a torturously boring Monday had turned into something straight out of a comic book.

  I now have powers—real, tangible powers that politicians could only ever dream of. And tomorrow, I'll start figuring out what to do with it. But for now, I needed sleep. Well, maybe after I experiment some more.

  But in any case...

  Life was about to get a whole lot more interesting~!