With each passing day absent of him using his water powers, Kay’s

  mood got worse.

  Each

  day he would go to school and then

  come home–

  school then home,

  barely existing outside of those two worlds. His

  mornings were ample with study and he

  drowned his nights with TV, movies, video games, and internet

  browsing. His free time had become a binge of media,

  a relentless barrage to quell boredom. But after

  nearly a week of parking his water form, he

  was becoming quite numb to the barrage.

  A

  difficult boss in

  the video game

  got him to ragequit

  and a quick revisit to

  reminded him of the game’s

  complicated spell system.

  After bouncing off of ,

  got the idea of playing

  anything but an

  RPG and loaded up a game from his childhood: Aero the

  Acrobat. Nostalgia

  wasn’t doing the heavy lifting Kay hoped it would

  so he switched over to ,

  something he had never played before.

  It took two stages before Kay realized he wasn’t getting any joy

  from the title.

  He

  then remembered,

  a game he was curious about but he couldn’t find a Sega Genesis

  emulator that ran of his computer so he closed the window in

  frustration, letting out a quiet growl at the pesky application.

  He

  sunk more time by catching

  up on a couple webcomics he liked, but

  there weren’t many strips

  to get updated with so that

  chewed up a few minutes at most. He

  checked out some forums but then AzureHill52 logged into MSN

  Messenger.

  Azure

  had the honour of initiating conversation. “Sup?”

  What

  up? Even behind

  the disguise of SkyWaker, Kay wouldn’t tell anyone on the internet

  that he had superpowers. He it

  was a bad idea even if the

  temptation stuck to him like burs from a field of weeds.

  Kay saw Azure’s chat as an

  opportunity, though, to express

  (without giving away too much truth) how frustrated he was.

  “I’m

  a little down,” he typed.

  “Awwww,” Azure responded. “What’s the matter?”

  A

  swirling warmth took Kay’s cheeks. Someone, a relative

  , was

  concerned for him. He let the feeling of comfort ride down his chest

  and tingle his arms, then he typed, “I’m grounded.” It was a

  decent cover story for what

  was actually going on.

  “That sucks,” said Azure. “For how long?”

  Kay didn’t know what Azure looked like and vice versa, but it was

  easy to imagine him and Azure just sitting in school or on a park

  bench as they talked. Kay could even imagine Azure’s voice:

  youthful but with intelligence and strength.

  “I’m not sure,” typed Kay, which also rang accurate.

  “God,” said Azure, adding a laughing emoticon. “What did you

  do?”

  Kay chortled then responded. “Got in a fight.” That was 100%

  accurate.

  “Did you win?” asked Azure.

  He wanted to lie and say he won, but he was venting and one couldn’t

  vent over non-existent problems, so he responded, “No.”

  “That sucks.” Azure said it before, but said it again with more

  context. “Grounded over a fight you didn’t when, that blows! Hope

  things improve for you.”

  Kay

  blushed. Genuine care. It

  felt nice to be cared for, even with someone he didn’t know

  personally. Maybe there was

  some place on the internet where he could rant about what he was

  going through. Maybe there was a space where he could ask for advice

  anonymously.

  He

  didn’t have the energy to look for that today, though.

  Kay

  gave a relaxed sigh

  and looked outside. The clouds covered the sky like a blanket but if

  it wasn’t the prettiest outdoors, he wanted to get out anyway.

  Turning into the water form

  was still off limits but a piece of him was

  in wanting to get out of the apartment.

  Could he go to the movies? He still wanted to see

  and trailers still played on TV all the time, so it was had to be

  still in theatres. Kay went to the shelf to get his wallet. There

  weren’t dollar bills inside the sleeve, only coins in the pocket.

  Not enough for a movie. He would have to ask Mom for some money.

  He practised asking her for money, practising his tone and word

  choice. How should he have approached? Should he have been honest and

  get right to question or butter her up with asking about her day? He

  bounced back and forth on what method he would use but when he heard

  her come through the door, he knew he shouldn’t have wasted too

  much time since the movie was starting soon. He left his room to

  begin the negotiations.

  Mom was taking off her coat so Kay slowed his approach lest he

  started the conversation awkwardly in the middle of a sleeve removal.

  He let the coat touch the hanger and then he began.

  “Hi Mom,” said Kay.

  Try as he might to make himself sound natural, Kay’s tone was weird

  so Mom instantly got wary. “Hello, Mick,” she replied in a tone

  that didn’t gesture at any emotional state.

  “I wanted to ask if I could have some money,” said Kay, keeping

  his timbre in check. “I wanted to go see a movie.”

  “On a school night?” asked Mom.

  Kay hadn’t take that into account. It was a Wednesday, not exactly

  ideal movie time.

  “I’ll be home before nine,” said Kay. “Maybe even

  It’s not different then when I’m usually out about town.”

  Mom thought about handing him some money, then stopped. “You’ve

  gone to the movies before. Why do you need money now?”

  Kay was in trouble. He couldn’t admit that he had snuck into

  theatres a dozen times, nor could he admit that he turned into a

  water creature while doing it. He dropped his expression. “I...

  used up all that money. You know, birthday money and other gifts.

  Sometimes friends pay for me.”

  Mom went to her purse, and Kay’s heart rose– happy to have

  convinced her. But when Mom came back with a ten and a five, she had

  a serious expression on her face. “Actually, I’ve been meaning to

  ask you if you’ve been thinking about getting a job.”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  A

  job.

  Kay’s heart sunk. He had walked right into a brick wall of

  responsibility and expectation. The money was dangling there so he

  took the money before the offer was rescinded. He gripped the money,

  folding the bills between fingers. “I thought you said that if I

  got good grades I wouldn’t have to find a job? That you would pay

  for me?”

  “ grades,” said Mom.

  “My grades great!” said Kay. He could remember taking

  his eyes down his report card at the end of last year, a lovely crop

  of 70s and 80s.

  Kay didn’t actually mention what grades he was referring to, but

  Mom parsed what he meant– his Grade 10 review. She didn’t have a

  clear memory of what grades he got, but remember him doing well. She

  folded her arms, though. “I don’t think they were ”

  This pierced Kay’s pride. He scowled and his voice crackled with

  outrage. “I got As! My lowest mark was a .

  You bragged about it at Grandpa’s the one time!”

  Why did teenagers have to grow fierce over encouragement, Mom

  wondered. She countered Kay’s scowl with a stern look. “I was

  thinking .”

  Kay puttered. If it wasn’t an after school job, it was 80s across

  the board. Such a high demand for a little spending money. Kay and

  Mom shared a stare at each other, Kay’s brow furrowed.

  He scoffed and turned his head away from Mom. “Were you this hard

  on Aubrey when she was in high school?”

  Mom tilted her head down, looking a little insecure. “N... no.

  But... maybe I should have.”

  Kay didn’t know what to say. A week ago he was flying through the

  rooftops of Toronto and now he was haggling his mother for spending

  money and she was blindsiding him with talks about responsibility.

  It felt like the conversation had hit its conclusion and Kay didn’t

  want to suffer one more second of it, so he waggled the money, said,

  “Thanks, mom,” then went to his room to get his stuff together.

  Mom sighed. He didn’t have be so bratty about it.

  Kay went into his room and took a minute to fume. What a situation to

  be in! Kay hiding his water form had brought him back to awful

  reality: reality where he had to pay money to enter theatres and Mom

  was expecting him to find an after school job.

  “This sucks,” said Kay, repeating the words of his internet chum.

  Kay supposed that even if he still had unproblematic access to his

  liquid form, he would still have a problem here. His mom was asking

  him to use his after school time to get a job. Evenings were meant

  for water nonsense, though!

  School, work, it was all going to take up so much time!

  Kay

  tried to put that aside, though. He had the money in his wallet and a

  movie was waiting for him. He put on a sweater and went

  to get his coat, and left the apartment giving his mom a very neutral

  “bye” before he left to help defuse any tension between them.

  Most

  places around town had their Hallowe’en decorations up or kept up

  their Thanksgiving ones to prolong the aura of autumn. It

  was a bleary day but people

  were still out and excited anyway. Some kids Kay’s

  age were crowded outside a townhouse, chatting at each other with big

  smiles on their faces. A

  couple of them sang a few

  lines from a Jet song, botched the lyrics, and the group of them

  broke into laughter that crackled across the street.

  A

  little farther down and Kay passed by

  Harris Place, a party venue. Coming

  off the street, there

  was a small parking lot. A

  young woman in a nice dress jogged up to the front door as quick as

  she could in high heels, clutching her bare

  shoulders– so cold.

  As

  he walked to the movie complex,

  Kay

  lost himself in his worries. He

  to believe that his life with water time was over. But how long would

  he have to wait until it was safe? That was a question he had no sure

  answer. Was the gang that sent the hit out on him one to hold a

  grudge? If Kay pardoned his water form for a year and then went out

  again in that form, would the gang still be around and attack him?

  How about two years?

  thought Kay, the thought of being stuck human for years is

  depressing me.

  He let out a strained exhale. It wasn’t the first time that week he

  had bummed himself out with a spiral of panicked thoughts, but he was

  on his way to a happy place: he was going to see a movie he wanted to

  see. A movie; not a clunker he had to sneak into.

  He tried to keep that in mind.

  The crowd was heavy on that early Wednesday evening. The lobby was

  full of movie watchers hustling around the carpet floor. Kay got in

  line for purchasing tickets. He realized that was the theatre where

  he got a suspicious glance aimed at him on the way out of a movie he

  into. As he got closer to the front of the line,

  he prepared some excuses in case the clerk recognized him.

  The clerk did recognize him. It was a busy job and a clerk

  was not going to remember someone who snuck in a couple weeks ago.

  So Kay got his ticket for without problem and

  walked to the theatre hall. His show was starting in fifteen minutes.

  On his way there he looked over at the concession stand. Would he

  grab a popcorn or drink before heading in? He looked down at his

  money before shuffling it into his wallet. If Mom didn’t ask for it

  back, he was up a couple bucks for anything else later.

  As he passed by the stand, though, a group of people caught his eye.

  Yeah, he recognized one of them: it was Jia from class. She raised

  her eyes and put on a perky grin, waving. “ Kay!”

  “Oh, hi!” said Kay.

  Jia was with a few people. There was a boy that looked her age, Aaro,

  and then two older kids: Liezel, Jia’s older sister, and her

  boyfriend Luis. They exchanged introductions and names and then cut

  to chatter.

  “What movie are you here to see?” asked Jia.

  “,” said Kay.

  Jia giggled. “That’s a kid’s film, though!”

  Embarrassment came over Kay, but Luis offered clarification to the

  crowd. “” he said. He turned to Kay,

  reassuringly. “It’s a good film.”

  “Well,” said Kay, regaining his composure. “What are

  here to see?”

  “” said Jia. Definitely not a

  kid’s film. She flipped a point at Liezel and Luis. “It’s rated

  R so I need a chaperone to get in,” she said, her voice deflating

  under embarrassment. Jia brightened up a smile again. “You could

  join us if you want!”

  Kay had seen the trailers on that one. Apparently it was a remake?

  Kay wasn’t interested. He clutched his ticket. “I already paid

  for .” He chuckled. “I’m not kidding. I

  wanted to see it!”

  Jia giggled, smiling wide. “Don’t worry, I believe you!”

  Kay tossed them a wave and left them to go see his movie. They

  remained at the concession stand as Kay entered his theatre.

  Kay took a spot towards the middle with a couple empty seats adjacent

  to his. As the previews went on showcasing an upcoming Disney

  animated feature and selling Kay on the Will Ferrell vehicle ,

  people filled empty space so while Kay took a place on the outside of

  the row, he was seated beside a middle-aged man.

  His front, rear and sides were occupied. It was quite different than

  his usual of entering through an air duct and crawling into an empty

  theatre to watch some garbage movie. The movie started up and the

  physical credits was an inspired choice, so Kay was expecting

  something good. It didn’t take long to get to the comedy and it had

  been awhile since Kay had been in an audience that laughed at the

  movie. That was something quite lacking when he saw that Child

  Star movie earlier in the month.

  The story got rolling with the main character Dewey Finn getting work

  at a private school and Kay was pleased to see Finn rebel against the

  kids’ modern music tastes and even suggesting classic rock to a lot

  of them. Finn was namedropping bands Kay didn’t even know!

  As the movie went on, Kay’s mind wavered, though.

  He couldn’t help but feel the consequences of his trauma. Was it

  trauma? He wasn’t sure it wasn’t. The gang that was after him;

  were any of them in that room with him? His paranoia danced on his

  shoulder, distracting him minutes apart. He tried to pay attention to

  the film, and for the most part it was a success, but his mind

  drifted into the darkness and he wrestled with worry.

  By the end of the film, with the story leading up to a bombastic (and

  admittedly catchy) finale, Kay’s attention was focused on the

  motion picture. Despite his mind wandering over the course of the

  fim, he grasped the plot alright. When the closing credits arrived,

  some people stayed for a little music video at the end while others

  got up, wanting out. Kay would have liked to see the credits sequence

  but a wave of people were coming his way so he opted to get out and

  join them on leaving the threatre.

  He checked the lobby’s clock on his way to the exit. 8:17. It

  wasn’t even his bedtime; not even close! Wait until Mom finds

  out about this! Kay thought.