Living Illustrations

After taking two hours to prepare for a special meeting, I was finally ready to step out of my room. Brett is seated at his usual spot beside the window, the brightest spot in the whole apartment. We had fought for the sunny area when we barely new each other but I lost because I had no idea how skilled he was in gaming.

I thought I was pretty good with RPG games but after seven days of playing a game we did not already play, I was barely past level one hundred twenty two while Brett was one level above four hundred. I believed him when he said he was a gaming champion ever since his high school days and even now he sits at first place in many games with global rankings. He is always sitting and looking at a screen that I sometimes worry for his health.

Brett is wearing a custom made hoodie with the words 'Hack God' and apparently, he had four more after giving each of us our own. His back hunched over, his eyes were glued to three monitors and he was shouting demands into a headpiece. The keyboards have been clacking away since three in the morning. One of my four roommates spoke into his microphone and spun his chair to look at me with his hazel eyes, "Pause the game guys. I need to say bye to someone."

"Wow, I feel really sad," The second out of four made a grand entrance with his sweaty body glistening in the light. His name is Lorenzo and he is a total fitness fanatic which makes sense as his main job is being an elementary school gym teacher. He always said if he taught at high schools, girls would love him and the jocks would loathe him. Today is Saturday and he just finished his morning workout at five in the morning, right on the dot and on time.

I had to look away from his tan skin and although I've been living with this dork for two years I still cannot get over seeing his abs. I can assure everyone that it is not because they look good. Well, they look pretty good but I always look away like it's instinct. Brett also looked away and I could feel the tension. Lorenzo is bisexual and Brett, he is gay.

"Oh, my bad!" Lorenzo stole a random article of clothing from the coat rack to cover himself. Do not ask how he used my favorite shawl to cover his chest. He is the link between me and Brett because we have been best friends ever since grade six while Brett went to the same college as him and they were on the basketball team.

Lorenzo described Brett as a hormonal teenage boy so I was very surprised to find a guy one year younger than us calmly sipping his beverage. He was wearing headphones in the middle of The Six's Coffee and I had no idea if his music was a bop or if the coffee was messing with him. Unlike Lorenzo, Brett has milky skin and dirty blonde hair.

I was quite shocked to have them ask me if I wanted to room with them since they are both dudes but I was in desperate need for lodging. Their offer came at the right time and I trusted them on the surface while taking fighting lessons from my brother. We were the original three. The others call us the Three OG's which always makes me cringe but I had to put up with it if I wanted to pay only two hundred dollars each month.

Brett waved and returned to his game after making sure I saw his gestures. As Lorenzo opened the fridge and Brett resumes his game, the other two walked out of their rooms looking like they fought each other late into the night. They are twins and you would not guess their gender. They are both guys!

One twin is wearing a lab coat while the other is following him with his dance clothes in his hands. Blake is the one in lab clothes and with his glasses on he kind of looks like a nerd but I like his scholarly look better than his casual look. His dark hair is so fluffy that he just swatted Lorenzo's hand away. He may look annoyed but we all know he likes attention whenever he is not looking at medical reports for school. He is the youngest and probably the most hardworking since he is continuing his education after becoming a new occupational therapist.

His brother, Ryder, is a carefree soul who does a couple things from choreographing ballet shows to dancing on the streets and playing his beloved guitar. To display is fun nature, he sports long hair that he dyed pure white. I sometimes find pieces of dust in his fine white hairs and Blake usually teases him for looking old, especially after dance practices.

Ryder is the artsy brother while Blake is focused more on academics. I find it so interesting that they stick together despite their different schedules and sometimes, I consider them as my younger brothers. I will feel very apologetic if I ever say this to their faces but I like Ryder more. Just a little, not even the width of a strand of hair more.

Why do I live with so many boys yet still pay two hundred dollars every month? I do not know. Housing prices in the most populated city in Canada could be the problem and because I can never dream of getting my own apartment, I live with these dorks. I know that whenever we go outside during the holidays people would look at us and think I am let's say, a player for lack of better words.

Anyways, it feels as if we have all been gathered by outside forces and dumped under one roof which I find to be hilarious. When we finalized the permanent group we admitted one secret and we all had the same secret: I have a superpower. We have been living together for at least two years and at first, we made fun of each other for our confessions because it is pretty childish to believe we have superpowers.

Well, we were proven wrong when we made a game out of the confession and so far we discovered Lorenzo's, Blake's and Ryder's powers and they certainly were not childish stories to boost self esteem. I forgot how we discovered their powers but now that we know, we made a pact to protect their secret from the government and whatnot.

Lorenzo is very athletic and we always compare him to the Flash, Spider-Man and Hulk because his powers are super speed, ability to defy many laws of physics (RIP Blake's science loving mind) and he is extremely strong. He can control the amount of strength he uses and his speed which was a reason it took us so long to find his superpower. He can control himself when he is sober but one night we were celebrating his birthday and he ripped his door out of its hinges like it was a piece of chocolate.

Blake is an occupational therapist but his abilities do not limit him to just guiding people to recovery. He can cure almost every disease as long as it is not hereditary or past critical state. Despite this amazing ability there are some downfalls for Blake. He once helped a young girl instantly heal her dog's leg after it had been caught in an accident and Blake slept through his appointments for that day.

Ryder has perfect pitch which he was happy to show off but his more unique power is the ability to hypnotize people with his dancing. He does not act like the watch dangling in front of our eyes but whenever someone watches him dance they will feel nostalgia, sadness, longing or anger. Once he starts moving his audience is reeled in even if his contorting body looks unnatural. The people unaffected by his dancing would be the ones on stage with him.

We discovered his ability when he was practicing because we were trapped for six hours until he noticed us making googly eyes from the doors of his studio. One of his colleagues had thought we were high school kids coming for a dance lesson. I mean, that must have been a compliment for four people who were finishing or just finished post secondary.

Brett and I have survived to this day because our powers have not been revealed yet but these days Brett has been acting strange. The others know we have powers and are hiding them. Brett and I have made a contract that when one of our secrets are out, the other must reveal their powers but for now The Hunt for the Powers is still ongoing.

If I must be honest I would rather tell them straight out but I guess it is fun for them to act like sleuths and for us to keep them guessing. I remember the first time they were so confident they knew what my powers were. Ryder heard me singing in the shower and they were guessing voice related powers such as super screams.

Brett was caught sneaking out with skating shoes which was suspicious. We all knew he would barely lift his behind from the cushioned swivel chair in front of the three desktop computers and when he was spotted anywhere away from his nest we called him out. It turns out that his superpower was not epic skating and he was just bored when there was a blackout during the winter.