Jobless

Heading back home to get ready for a shift at the reclamation yard left me with a gradually increasing feeling of glee.

It was the opposite of having to get ready for school, a weight was being taken off instead of being added.

I'd always liked working the yards. It was hard work, that was for sure, but there was also a cathartic simplicity to it.

If something looked salvageable or had any electronic pieces at all, it went into the reclamation buckets so that the crafters could try and transform it into something new that could either fight against villains or help in the rebuilding of the world.

On the other hand, if there weren't any salvageable elements in any given item, it would be put into the recycling buckets to be broken down and reforged into materials that could help in other ways.

It also gave me a unique chance to look at things that came from the world before ours. Before Gold Dawn.

Ever since I'd received my powers, I'd enjoyed going to the reclamation yards even more. It gave my power a chance to cut loose and come up with all kinds of interesting things, even if I never actually ended up building any of them.

It occurred to me that I could now, though. I could build anything I wanted.

Well, I could build anything I wanted after I had built the team their radio sets. That needed to take priority.

I also wanted to build myself some kind of handheld computer to link into the community's network with. Some Crafters had come up with similar things in the past, and I knew for a fact that the old world had devices just like that called Smartphones.

Then, after the reclamation job, I could meet up with the rest of the group again.

Other than the part where Wildthing had tried to take a chunk out of my hand and my throat, it had actually been pretty nice. I'd hung out with people that were around my own age and I'd actually… I don't know… gotten on with them?

Sure, they may have been villains, but when we were all out of the masks and just hanging out it was hard for me to feel bad about enjoying my time with them. Anyway, if they started to relax around me they might actually end up revealing secrets to me that they hadn't initially planned to share. That totally made it worth it.

By the time I'd gotten home from my run, mum had already left for work. Since she was the best she'd also left me a plate of still-warm bacon, beans and toast to get the day started.

I sat down to eat my food and started thinking about everything that had happened.

Was I actually starting to feel just a little bit happy?

I didn't have to see Micheal or any of his goons for five days. I'd made some awesome new friends, all of them had really cool and powerful superpowers, and I had the beginnings of a plan going forward.

Really, I didn't even need to go to the Rec yard anymore. I could just buy the materials I needed.

I sat there, my fork frozen halfway up to my mouth.

I could just… buy the materials that I needed.

I didn't need to go digging around in the trash for usable parts anymore, I could buy the high-grade crap with the allowance I was getting paid for being a part of the villain team.

I scoffed down the rest of my meal, all but sprinted up the stairs, and threw on some nicer clothes that weren't just jogging bottoms.

My mum would understand if I didn't want to work at the rec yard anymore. I had been volunteering as an aid anyway, I was way too young for them to pay me. If anything, my mum would probably be happy that I'd found some new friends to hang out with.

I stuffed my gauntlet into my bag, I'd repaired it again the night before but it was using some seriously questionable pieces of wire so I didn't really want to use it unless I absolutely had to, and threw my backpack onto one of my shoulders.

If the food was still warm that meant my mum had only left shortly beforehand.

I sprinted back down the stairs three at a time, flung open the door and then slammed it shut behind me before sprinting across the courtyard of Waterloo.

It didn't take long at all to catch up with my mum.

"Hey mum, wait up!" I called out, waving my hand at her as she turned in response to my voice.

"Tristan, what are you doing?" She asked, though I could tell she was happy to see me.

"I uh…" How did I break this to her without making her worried? "I was invited to hang out with some friends today, I was thinking since I'm just a volunteer I could blow off work and go hang out with them?"

My mum's eyes widened a little bit. Whether it was shock, disappointment or happiness I genuinely couldn't tell.

"You've never asked to go and hang out with your friends before," She said. Ah, so it was worry, then.

"Well, I never really had any friends to hang out with, but now I do, so…" I trailed off, leaving the repetition of the question unsaid but heavily implied.

"Well, I definitely have no problem with it. I'll let Bill in head office know that you won't be around today," She replied. "If something was going on though, if you'd joined a gang or something like that, you know you could tell me, right?"

The look in her eyes was heartbreaking. She seemed so worried about me, even though absolutely nothing was going on.

Well, almost nothing, I had sort of kind of joined a gang, but she didn't need to know that.

"Of course mum," I said, and wrapped her in a tight hug. "I'll see you tonight!"

I turned on the spot and started to walk away, only pausing to give my mum a wave when she told me that she loved me.