The long slow drag burned, but he enjoyed it. Not trying to look cool, or calm down, smoking was just another symbol of his rebellion from the establishment he once tried so hard to conform to.
Zack stood in the shade of the south wing on the seldom used backwalk which led to one door, the maintenance closet that held lawnmowers, weedwhackers, rakes, and giant sacks of grass seed. He’d found this spot by mistake on his first confusing and lost day, but he’d never been caught here so this is where he spent a great deal of his time.
He held the smoke in his lungs, letting the capacity for exhaling build up, drawing on the energy his diaphragm would store for expelling the toxic exhaust. In a rush, the smoke squirted out of his throat, forming a bizarre arrow shape as it darted at least fifteen feet in front of him before remembering it was lighter than air and letting itself break apart on the indiscernible gusts.
‘See,’ he mused out loud. ‘I don’t need a stuck up school to teach me how to use my talents.’
‘Yes, controlling your lung capacity and diaphragm energy, I’m sure that had nothing to do with the breathing exercises in Miss Guthrie’s class,’ a sarcastic voice spoke up near him. Zack’s head jerked against his will to find his cousin, Jon, standing right next to him, obviously snuck up on him from temporal prime. Guthrie taught what Zack actually thought was an important class: survival. People with the powers of these students often found themselves in dire straits against others of similar talents, as well as natural and manmade disasters, and needed to learn how to not only defend themselves, but recover from superhuman attack or catastrophic calamity.
Zack elected not to respond to his cousin’s ribbing. Jon was undaunted.
‘Planning to skip flight class again?’
‘What use is flight class? I can’t fly.’
Jon was two years ahead of Zack even though they were the same age, but Jon had become a teachers aide, finding the time of course to learn much more than the basics of what the classes taught. He therefore knew Zack’s schedule well.
‘I still think you could possibly store enough potential energy in your legs to push off for one long extended leap. The length of that leap could carry you great distances.’
‘That’s not flight, that’s jumping,’ Zack was going to be stubborn, in a dismissive way, and hope Jon left him alone. ‘And yes, I’m skipping.’
‘Well! Lucky for you I needed to take a potty break before next period, so I’ve given both you and I a little extra time to get there,’ Jon smiled at his unwanted initiative.
Zack rolled his eyes, knowing if he argued the point, or ignored Jon, that his cousin was relentless enough to stand here, forever drawing out the seconds until Zack agreed to go to class. He flicked the butt a good ninety yards away, and Jon watched the impossible arc on the smoking projectile. He appreciated Zack’s power, even if Zack didn’t, even if he was more than a little snooty toward Zack.
Zack sulked off to flight class.
Okay!
