First Day Jitters
In the minutes since I discovered that I already have access to the telekinesis which stands out to so many people as the central thing around which this jump revolves I have entered the school and gone to the building's central office. I am now standing in front of an older secretary who is looking at me in a way that is deeply inappropriate for an adult in her fifties, given that my current form is that of a barely legal teenager.
I silently wait as she converses with one of her colleagues, making inappropriate remarks about me in a language that one of my body mod perks, "Polyglot", is allowing me to vaguely understand but not one I can specifically name. All the while she continues to leer at me.
During this time I've even learned that I have a distinctly Hispanic accent. The sort of accent that some movie characters have. This is definitely new, as back during my first life my English was accented like I was a northerner, even though the most north I ever lived was in the upper part of the Bible Belt. It was really weird since Spanish was my first language and I spent my childhood equally in Latin America and the continental United States.
The sound of a printer fills the air as I awkwardly wait for the woman to finish printing off my schedule. This is the first time I consciously realize some of the negatives surrounding some of the perks I am now a proud owner of.
Chronicle is a fascinating jump because it offers powers that go well beyond the danger level of the setting itself. In a lot of ways someone could argue that it's designed to be a training jump. The perks that are the most damning for me in this situation belong to one specific origin, that of the "Social Butterfly". The perks are designed to enhance one's natural charisma and one shallow but still powerful facet of that is their attractiveness. The very first perk, free to anyone who chooses to be a "Social Butterfly" is named "Chad 101" and it is a powerful freebie.
The perk is the reason why my current body is what English speakers would call "A looker". It enhances every facet of my natural charisma, including my looks. I always thought it was a part of the best origin in the jump, and even as I experience one of the downsides to it my opinion remains unchanged.
I still don't love the idea of creeps of any age getting obsessed with me, but this too is part of the jumper experience. It's not all boss fights and harems, sometimes it's just day to day living and ordinary problems.
The woman glares at the printer when it finally stops making noises and she violently grabs the schedule and gives it to me. I politely thank her and manage to resist my revulsion when she makes a sickeningly sweet offer to call a student to guide me to my classes, which thankfully haven't started yet, and I manage to turn down her offer and tell her that I'll just ask around. She bids me farewell and asks me to come back anytime I need help. I exit the office and find myself in a busy hallway.
This school is different from the ones I went to high school in, it seems much more chaotic here. I study the students and look for one who seems to be about my age, or even Steve, Andrew, or Matt themselves. I have to look for a few moments before I distantly spot Matt Garetty, hanging out with a pretty teenage girl who if I remember correctly is named "Casey" and is his occasional romantic partner.
I begin to fake mild confusion as I tilt my head down and study the paper. I make my way over to the two teens and accidentally bump into Matt. He turns in annoyance, a look of mild inconvenience on his face, but before he can talk I speak.
"Whoa, man. I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going. This school is so much bigger than my last one." I remark, apologetically. This causes his expression to soften in curiosity as he sizes me up.
"Ah, you're good. Are you new?" He asks, and I nod at him.
"Yep. And a senior too." I tell him, which causes him to wince as he imagines how rough that'd be. I nod appreciating the sympathy. This actually happened to me back before my chain. My parents and I moved around a lot, all the way to my senior year of high school. I had it even worse then, than I do in this scenario. I started my senior year in one school and finished in another, in a whole other country.
"Ah that's too bad. Don't you have a student guide?" He asks, sympathetically. I glance at him and at Casey who is eyeing us with amusement and sympathy before I move a bit closer to the two of them and explain what happened in as quiet a voice as I can.
"So the main office lady was like… eyeing me up and down, y'all. Like in a… bedroom sort of way. It was weird. I took my schedule and dipped." I confess, and this makes Casey's look of amusement turn to one of sympathy. Matt eyes me and nods, not in agreement with the secretary but in agreement with my decision.
"Shit that sucks. Here, let me look at your schedule." He says, and I happily hand him the piece of paper the secretary handed me. He looks it over and studies it for a few moments before beckoning Casey over.
"Aren't you in this class? With Andrew?" He asks, and Casey smiles and nods at him.
"Cool, do you think you can take him to it? Maybe see if Andrew can guide him to the other classes on the list?" He asks and she agrees and smiles at me.
"I'm Casey, and this is Matt. What's your name?" She asks, not having seen it on the paper. Matt glances at it and even as I look at Casey I can see him squint at it as he wonders how to pronounce the thing.
"I'm Luciano, but you can call me anything simpler than that, so long as it's vaguely like my name. I've gone by Luc, L, Lucy, or even Luuchi." I tell her, and Matt by extension. "Luuchi" is pronounced Luu-chi. The two of them smile at me, and when Casey gets a text on her phone she glances at it, spots the time, and gives Matt a kiss on the cheek before telling him we need to go. He nods at her and says farewell to me, telling me we have the same lunch and that I can sit with him, Casey, and his cousin Andrew if I want. I grin at the man and follow Casey so we can get to class.
The walk to the classroom is relatively brief, and we manage to get there a full three minutes before the bell rings. As soon as we walk in I spot Andrew sitting in a back corner, looking both concerned and pensive. I walk over to the teacher, a man in his late twenties, and hand him my schedule.
"Good morning, I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Luciano, a new student." I tell him, and he smiles at me though the smile contains trace amounts of pity and interest.
"A new student and a senior?" He asks, and this begins a conversation I've had hundreds of times and had mostly forgotten about after I stopped being a student. We engage in a short back and forth before he tells me to pick any seat, and I tell him I'm looking forward to being his student. I almost, out of a long forgotten reflect, tell him my mom will email him tonight, but I manage to avoid embarrassing myself that way. My mother was a teacher while I was in school and she knew all of my teachers by name hours after I got home on the first day of any new school I joined.
I walk over to Andrew's corner and take a seat next to him. He looks at me curiously and I decide to feign ignorance for now. While I was talking to the teacher Casey sat down near the front of the classroom. When she turns around she spots me near Andrew and grins at him. He looks at her curiously, but doesn't say anything, right as the bell rings and the teacher, Mr. Kopinsky, gets the attention of the students. I glance at him and opt to pay attention to the class, even though I know what today is: it's syllabus day.
I pay attention to the teacher as he assures us that this will be a fun math class, an oxymoron if I ever heard one. At the same time he selects a student near the front, not someone I know, and has them hand out syllabi before stating that there is a new kid in the class and motions towards me. I nod a bit awkwardly and get up as he tells me to introduce myself.
"Hi there! I'm Luciano, I'm from Puerto Rico, and you can call me Lucy, Leo, Luc, or anything like that if you struggle with saying my name. I'm excited to be here." I tell the group, and I sense curious, intrigued, and even envious glances.
I sit back down and listen as the teacher begins to lecture us about the sorts of subjects we'll be covering. I'm lucky and this is not some sort of IB or AP level course, so if I study and apply myself I can probably eke out a high enough grade to be fine. As I listen to the teacher drone on, I begin to hear other things as well.
My senses are at peak human level. They aren't supernatural or anything, but even being at peak human level is enough for me to be astoundingly perceptive.
I easily listen to murmured conversations and the countless small sounds my senses allow me to detect. There are students taking notes on the subject matter of the teacher's lecture, students chewing gum, students on their cell phones, the professor writing on the board behind him, and quieter noises that are harder to make sense of. I also hear the quiet sounds of students exchanging items, and when I glance at one of the students on the other side of the classroom I spot a small ball made of paper, notebook paper, making its way closer to Andrew and I.
"No way…" I quietly murmur as I wonder if the thing is actually intended for the man of the hour, Andrew. The ball eventually ends up in the hands of someone that many people would describe as a "Jock". He's a larger looking lad, dressed in some sort of cheesy sports jacket. He snickers and without looking flicks the ball of paper towards Andrew.
I don't even bother trying to hide my intervention. Andrew closes his eyes as he spots the ball, leaning away from it in hopes that it won't hit, and so I opt to exert myself just a touch and flick my pencil towards the ball with telekinesis.
The sensation of grabbing the pencil with my telekinesis is a strange one. I instinctively understand the telekinesis partially because I was a big fan of the film so I know that one way to use the power is to visualize it as a tool that I can wrap around something and manipulate that way, which is why I attempt to use it. It works but the pencil feels heavy, and even though I know that this is only due to my inexperience, struggling to even move a pencil is a bit disheartening. Although I suppose this will make my later feats all the more impressive…
The pencil is very lightweight but even so it's still a bit too much for me in my current state. The object is chucked through the air and spins until it hits the ball and the collision drains both of momentum, as I sense blood begin to drip down my nose. I silently sigh and I reach into my backpack and pull out a notebook so I can tear off a bit of a page to use to wipe my nose. Thankfully at this point no one is engrossed in my presence so no one spots me do this, and I manage to do it just quick enough that when Andrew wonders what happened he looks around and only sees me fiddling with my notebook and the small ball made of notebook paper harmlessly on the ground.
The rest of the class passes by uneventfully. One minor thing I discover is that the easiest way to use telekinesis is to apply physics to it, which I discover when I begin to roll my pencil back towards me. This feat is far easier for me to do than something as dramatic as chucking an inert object through mid-air.
Casey walks up to me and Andrew and introduces us. I shake Andrew's hand, and listen as Casey reveals a bit of advanced social jujitsu she happens to know and talks Andrew into walking me to my next class, one which I happen to have with him anyway. She does all of it in the span of forty seconds, and in almost no time at all Andrew and I are walking down one of the school's hallways.
"So you're from Puerto Rico?" Andrew asks as we make our way down the hallway. I appreciate him attempting to make conversation.
"Yep! I transferred here from a high school in Ponce, which is a city on the coast." I reply, smiling at him as I think about the city. I'm not from there, but one half of my family was so I actually did spend a fair portion of things like holiday and summer vacations with family in the city.
"That's cool! Did you like it there?" He asks, as we inch closer to the class. I nod at him before answering.
"I sure did! I'm actually only here to get experience living on the mainland. This is the most English I've spoken in one sitting in years." I say brightly, taking advantage of my accent. I do speak Spanish fluently but it feels… odd to make this part of my backstory. Andrew seems interested in it and begins to ask me questions about Puerto Rico as we make our way to the class. We step into the English classroom and I tell him to save me a seat as I go to the teacher and hand her my schedule before I repeat the familiar song and dance of introducing myself to a teacher and revealing the obvious fact that I'm a new student.
The teacher is a nice-seeming Asian woman and she, graciously, lets me finish my latest performance of this all too familiar routine quickly. In minutes I am seated next to Andrew and I am listening to her deliver the customary first day spiel. One aspect of being a jumper I will not love is listening to this kind of thing over and over, for centuries potentially. Which is a shame since there are many nice jumps that involve being a kid or a teen and going to school.
A student near the front of the class is selected by the teacher and she begins to hand out syllabi. I diligently pay attention to the lecture the teacher is giving us about the important global literary classics we'll be reading this year.
In moments like this I am grateful for the existence of one particular perk in my arsenal that has already helped me out immensely in math class: "I Just Do My Best At Everything". This long-named perk is a handy thing that allows me to do my best every time I do something and helps protect against distractions and other small realities that normally prevent people from doing their very best every time they try something. The perk is actively aiding me as I listen to the teacher's lecture. It will definitely help me when I have to read the books the teacher is assigning.
The rest of the period, until lunch is quick. My perks are already proving their worth, even beyond my telekinesis. As soon as the bell dismissing us for lunch rings I get up and on my way to the door several different students approach Andrew and I, ignoring the lad but focusing on me. This is not super fun to see, so I ignore them and call out to the future antagonist, curious to see what I can do to do away with the plot.
Andrew's story is a tragedy born of neglect and abuse. He is failed by multiple institutions and several individuals before the story comes to an end. To save him, to save a lot of people actually, all it really takes is one person who doesn't fail him. I have perks inspired by the person who comes the closest, the one who starts everything off, and these perks are extensions of his personality, things about him taken just a touch farther than they go in the film, and I believe that since I'm armed with this… There's a real chance I can prevent the tragedies that are destined to shake Seattle and this school in the surprisingly close future.
"Hey man, let's go grab some lunch." I tell the person at the forefront of my thoughts. He grins at me and comes along instead of sullenly walking away from the situation as I imagine he would if I weren't so proactive. We begin to walk towards the cafeteria, him guiding me, and I wonder if I've spoken to Andrew enough that the perks I'm thinking of will already go into effect.
That's not the only reason I make conversation with the bullied teen. Andrew is actually pleasant company, and I think something about the prospect of a new student energizes him because he is active in the conversation and seems much more lively than I remember him being early on in the movie.
"Yeah, so my mom is fond of these old movies. She really likes musicals and I'll be honest my biggest exposure to Puerto Rico is probably watching like… 'West Side Story' as a kid." He tells me as we enter the cafeteria. At this remark, I feign as though I'm in pain and this elicits a quiet but not silent peal of laughter from him.
"Don't get me wrong the musical is a classic, Rita Moreno is a global treasure, but that's the extent of your exposure to PR?" I ask, and he smiles at me as he nods sadly.
"I'll have to expand your knowledge of my homeland sometime. There's this guy… I think his name is Lin? He's Puerto Rican and if your mom loves stuff like 'West Side Story' I think she'll like his stuff. He wrote this hip-hop musical about a bunch of Hispanic and Black people in New York City. I bet he's gonna be big if he continues to make stuff." I add, vaguely referencing In The Heights which does exist at this point in time, but unable to reference the thing that will make Lin truly famous: Hamilton. It hasn't come out yet, I don't even know how much of it has been written at this time.
Over the course of the next few minutes, the two of us struggle through the line in the cafeteria. I experience visceral memories of the wild wastelands of my high school experience, which was actually ending the year this film came out, as we work to get through the ordeal together. When we have our trays full of what American schools very loosely dub "food" we study the cafeteria.
Truthfully between my perks and my appearance I could probably sit anywhere and be fine. That said, I do want to do something plot-related right now so I opt to look for Matt and Casey. It takes me a second to spot them, but when I do I lightly elbow Andrew and nod in the direction of his cousin. The bullied boy follows my nod and spots his cousin before smiling and walking towards the two of them. I follow right after him, excited to be moving so smoothly.
Right now if I carefully engage with Matt and Andrew, befriend the two of them, and simply steer them towards the party where they go to the cave, I am doing just fine plot-wise. I'm reasonably certain that right now if I do nothing but maintain this trajectory created by what I've already done the initial events of the movie will unfold as they are meant to. I could circumvent the entire plot by simply preventing them from visiting the cave, and while I'll keep that in mind I don't really want to prevent the plot from at least beginning.
"So there's this YouTuber that I watch that has this video camera," Casey says to Matt as Andrew and I sit down. "She said she actually got started filming videos in high school. She'd make video diaries and stuff." The teen tells her boyfriend. This seems to intrigue Andrew, and as Matt turns and greets Andrew and I, I can sense he notices his cousin's interest too. This is fascinating because the audience who watches the movie Chronicle don't ever actually see this.
The events of today are taking place before Andrew gets the camera, and this must be the moment that actually inspires him to get the one he has and uses throughout the film! There is something weirdly exciting about actually, physically seeing the events or background of a film play out in real life.
Funnily enough, I actually had cameras that I used in high school to take pictures of myself and my friends. For the sake of better-remembering stuff when I got older. That… feels a bit too weird to think about right now.
Matt and Casey begin to talk about philosophers and the sorts of insights they'd have on the weirdness of high school. I myself chime in on occasion and I find myself quickly being sucked into a conversational flow that is mildly amusing.
Lunch quickly passes and before I can really blink the rest of the school day also passes. I go to four more classes before the end of the day, two of them somewhat shorter than others. When the day comes to an end I have all afternoon to kill some time, and then the weekend to look forward to. It turns out that today was Friday. I also have Matt's and Andrew's numbers, for what that's worth.
All in all the day has gone incredibly smoothly. I did exactly what I wanted to do, and I made friends with two of the film's three protagonists. That said, now I need to work on getting stronger.
I am currently standing in front of the small but pleasant-looking home I apparently own, mail in hand. I am as certain as I can reasonably be that I do not have parents but if I actually do have some in this world, basic "Drop-In" rules suggest I won't be bothered by them.
It's actually kind of nice to not have to worry about parents or anything like that, though I fully plan to wait and see just in case I do have some. I don't want to assume that an actual jumpchain works just like the game that people in my homeworld said it would until I have more experience and have visited more jumps.
I decide to stop studying my front door and walk into my living room. When in my living room I look for a mirror or a reflective surface so I can practice one of the more unusual abilities I possess. I have to go to the kitchen and grab a glass so I can see my face. I assess my own face, and even practice making different facial expressions. To be fair, until earlier today this was NOT my face so I think I should be given some grace for not being intimately familiar with it.
I'm sure any benefactors watching this must be curious about the oddity of my actions here but there is a purpose to this strange sequence of actions. As I study each centimeter of my face I commit the subtle edges of my current appearance to memory.
In my current form, I stand a nice six feet tall. An interesting facet of one of my new abilities, "Morphic Form" is that I can shift my height by eighteen inches, either becoming taller or shorter as I wish. What this means is that at will I can become seven and a half feet tall, or four and a half feet tall. This is but one application of this rather unusual ability, which also allows me to otherwise shapeshift so long as I remain within the general scope of my base species: a human.
Once I've memorized my face I begin practicing my shapeshifting capabilities. I start fairly simple, making slight alterations to my basic facial structure and minute adjustments to my height. This feels odd but in practice is remarkably simple.
So long as I can focus on the alterations I want to make and don't get interrupted while the changes are occurring it seems to just… work. The sensations I feel are subtle but they are mildly off-putting to the extent that I feel them.
I spend the rest of the afternoon testing my abilities and also texting Andrew and Matt. At first, I am content to only practice one thing at a time, such as spending time experimenting with how far I can take alterations to things like the length of my hair.
Partway through the afternoon I put on the television and surf the channels until I find one that is playing a show in another language. I focus on it and clock it as Japanese, which is a handy language to know. I leave it on in the background and allow "Polyglot" to work while I continue to familiarize myself with my odd new power.
Something that some people could like about Chronicle is that it only gives one true superpower: telekinesis. Since this is my first jump, I only have two true superpowers at the moment: my handy shapeshifting ability and my telekinesis. I have a plethora of supernatural traits and peak-human attributes but my direct, explicit superpowers, especially right now on my first day, are my shapeshifting ability and my baby-level telekinesis.
In time this form of telekinesis will become something well and truly terrifying, a sort of conceptualized envisionment of telekinesis that allows me to do things like heal myself at enhanced speeds, fly, create forcefields, and perform all sorts of other psychic feats but for now… Well, today when I attempt to practice my telekinesis I struggle to do feats as simple as getting a pencil to stay aloft in the air for a few seconds without experiencing mild pushback in the form of a short-lived nosebleed.
Eventually, the sun sets and I continue to work on training all of my abilities. I make a quick dinner consisting of some ramen, which serves as a comical reminder of my college years, and I continue to work on my powers.
I am luckier than Andrew, Steve, and Matt will be when it comes to this sort of thing in a number of ways. The first and most important thing separating all of us is that I have access to my powers before they do. I don't know when they'll be getting their powers, it might actually be next week as in the film the very day that Andrew first brings the camera to school is the day of the party where Steve, Matt, and apparently some other people who don't get powers stumble across the cavern in which the thing that grants them their powers.
In addition to that important difference, I don't have the distractions, of varying levels of seriousness, that they have to deal with. For better or worse I'm alone in this alternative version of Earth, which keeps me from having to deal with abusive or negligent parents or having to worry about the future beyond the next few months. This setup allows me to focus on honing my powers since I have no reason to focus on anything else. I can't go to college even if I wanted to, so this is just a brief chance for me to learn about my abilities.
I also have matured versions of their most pronounced personality traits as mini supernatural attributes. I have an innate knowledge of philosophical teachings thanks to Matt's geekier side, I have an intuitive understanding of social situations thanks to Steve, and I have a litany of curious abilities derived from the tendencies of Andrew's that have yet to really manifest. These minor perks are decidedly supernatural but in terms of raw impressiveness they do not have the flashy piazza of telekinesis, even my underdeveloped form of the power.
I fully explore the house briefly before I go to bed. The small home feels rather cozy and by the time I am laying in bed, I have familiarized myself with the various things I seem to own. I have minimal amounts of every supply I'll really need, from toilet paper to basic and easy-to-prepare foods like ramen and canned spaghetti. I also have enough money on my card that so long as I don't recklessly spend it I can easily last at least part way through October with no financial issues.
I eventually fall asleep and begin to idly dream of fantastical landscapes and amazing superpowers. When I awaken I will be keenly aware that my subconscious is apparently filled with thoughts about what it means for me that I'm on a chain…