It’s Nice to Have a Friend [temporarily on hiatus]

*ding ding ding*
The signal the winter break had finally arrived.
I had finally managed to squeeze out of the final barrier between me and a well deserved intermission of the school year before the next wave of students came rushing out. I had forgotten how cold it really can get in the middle of December as I pulled my sweater closer to my body trying to retain as much body heat as I could.
"I told you should've brought a jacket" my friend bickered. I rolled my eyes as Renee continued on about her 'marvelous plans' as she so lovingly calls it which I know will always end up being her gossiping to me about a new band she discovered over the phone for as long as she could before getting yelled at. I for one don't complain about because shes introduced me to some of my now favorite bands. We turned onto the sidewalk slick with ice as we trekked to our after-school tradition destination. Right as we reached 'Crowley's Corner Delights's door or as we so put it 'heaven in the form of a quaint store', I swore I saw a silver blur for a split second. Seeing as no one seemed to notice it, I put it off as a sign of hypothermia.

I mean it was pretty cold out.
________________________________________

As we walked into the store, welcoming the blast of heat that was stark in contrast with the cold air separated between a glass door, my ears instantly perked up to the sound of Mr. Crowley almost interrogating his new assistant about something I couldn't make out.

"how do twelve boxes of Twinkies magically disappear without a trace?" he questioned.
"I swear I didn't do anything sir, One second they were here and the next the were gone like I never put them out!" his assistant blurted out.

Renee caught on with the situation and called to greet Mr. Crowley in time before anything bad happened.
"How are you doing sir?"
Thankfully It pulled his attention towards us and his assistant shot her a look of gratefulness. Mr. Crowley forgot what he was doing and called over his wife to greet us. I walked away to grab us some colas and saw that they had our favorite sweet on sale. I peered around the corner to make sure no one was watching and started to practice what others called a 'mutation'. For as long as I've known, I've always been able to slow down time. The first time I did it, I scared myself so badly that I almost told my parents. Thankfully I didn't because I wouldn't say they hated mutants but were more scared of them. After hearing what happened on Cuba, they haven't learned to trust them and have always kept their guard up. The only one who knows about my powers is Renee after she caught me as she puts it 'teleporting around'. I had to explain to her that I really just slow time down. She's sworn to secrecy to never tell anyone, even her parents.
As I tossed Renee the sweets and put the colas on the table, I caught onto Crowley's and Renee's conversation. It was mostly her trying to pry out the details from him about the missing sugary treats. Apparently there was no drama at school ever since the local power couple broke up over notes passes in class, so Renee was bored out of her mind.
"Maybe they were misplaced on a different shelf." I concluded, trying to ease the obvious tension floating around the store.
"Hopefully its just a coincidence considering it happened at another store just last week". Renee looked at me with a look of hope but I shot her down glaring back at her with a look of my own saying 'its nothing'. We paid Mr. Crowley and said our goodbyes as we ventured towards the frosty door.
"I guess today wont be the day where Im not totally bored out of my mind." Renee complained. I gave her an amused look as the cold hair hit us.

As I watched her turn down her street and ventured towards m house, I saw a boy around my age with odd colored hair eating
"Twinkies right out of the book?" I smacked my hand to my face as I realized I had said that out-loud. Thankfully he didn't seem to hear me or if he did, didn't seem to show it.
I arrived at my house realizing that we were neighbors due to my excessive staring. I guess I never realized we were walking towards each-other because I was so tuned into the fact that he had silver hair. 'hold on silver?' I thought as it was the second time today I thought I saw the color silver. I pulled myself inside before he could notice my staring and before I could continue about my internal confusion. I roamed up the stairs to my bedroom full of frigid air that followed me in from the outside. As I pulled out the last of my homework, I couldn't stop the flurry of thoughts in my head about the newcomer. I mean yeah he seemed pretty cute but I don't even know him or got a good look to make sure it wasn't a trick of the eyes desperate for friendships or even possibly more. I turned to my window, finishing up my work and saw small snowflakes dancing around. I was pulled from a trance I didn't even realize I was in by my mother calling me down for dinner.

As I served myself some of the varied steamed vegetables my father caught my attention.
"We seem to have some new neighbors" he scoffed due to being quite fond over our old ones who respected our yard and never threw big parties.
"They have a boy around your age, most likely starting at the high school after break is over" my mother added. I really didn't want that to be true because lately I've been using my powers without noticing more often and I didn't want someone who not only lives next to me but now will go to the same school as me to find out and bully me.

Little did I know he was just like me...