🌂

“Ah,” Tommy says, vision swimming, painting his surroundings blue-purple-pink.

“What? What is it?”

Tommy lurches, and through the haze he can feel a hand reach out to steady him. He looks up, and there are tears on Wilbur's face.

“They found out,” Tommy says, and promptly passes out.

or

In a world where everyone possesses mundane powers, only the best and brightest are sent to Aeraces Academy for Gifted Youth to help harness and control their special abilities. When thirteen-year old Tommy manages to escape the Academy, he doesn’t mean to kickstart a grand conspiracy against the very regime that he just left behind. He doesn’t mean to get tangled up with a gang of gifted children, leading a revolt against the very structure of their small town.

“Wait,” Wilbur calls, and Tommy stops but doesn’t turn around.

“What?”

“Why do you keep coming back if you don’t like the apples?”

Tommy turns to face him. He gives Wilbur a small smile and shrugs. For a moment, in the shade of the apple tree, he looks much younger. He wraps a hand around one of the fence posts and heaves himself up, swinging over the fence and disappearing into the orange glare of the setting sun.

or