My life was turned upside down when I found out about it. It had changed everything. Things that I thought were reality were a complete lie. The only good thing is that I found out the real truth about my life, my real life.

  It happened on my sixteenth birthday. I had woken up, went to the bathroom and did my normal morning routine, went downstairs, and I saw my mother in the kitchen. She was opening the refrigerator to get what looked like her cup of orange juice. I thought it was weird she wasn’t moving. Her arm was just stuck out like if she were going to grab the cup but just froze. I was curious as to what was going on, so I went over to her and waved my hands in front of her face trying to get her attention. I thought it was rather strange that she didn’t even budge, like not even a blink or anything. I looked over at the clock because I had just remembered that it was a school day and I didn’t want to be late again. The clock wasn’t even moving or making a ticking noise, it was dead silent. I just thought the batteries had died so I didn’t make such a big deal out of it. But all of a sudden, it’s like my mother magically unfroze and continued to do what she was originally doing and acted as if she wasn’t just standing like a statue a few seconds ago. Then, I heard a ticking noise and the clock was working again. “Weird,” I thought to myself. From there on out, I thought I was just going crazy and it was just all in my head.

  “Oh good morning Madison, I didn’t see you there,” my mother said noticing my presence. “Happy birthday by the way, don’t think I forgot about it.”

  “Thanks mom,” I said still very confused as to what just happened a few seconds ago. “I’m going to head up to my room again.”
And with that I headed up to my room and decided that since school didn’t start for another two hours, I was going to try and figure out what just happened. When I made it to my room, I went over to my desktop, which was sitting in the corner of my room next to my bed, and started to search the internet and see if I could find anything about this predicament.

  After an hour of researching, I came to the conclusion that it may have something to do with freezing time. The clock had stopped suddenly and then it started again without anyone touching it so, it gave me the idea that it had something to do with time freezing.

  Why did this even happen? Is this all just a dream or is this actual reality? All this stuff could just be in my head since my mom acted normal after the incident. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if I’m just going crazy in general because the more you think about this situation, the more ridiculous it sounds. It’s like I’m apart of one of those movie plots that you would watch on TV and the character suddenly gets superpowers and doesn’t even know why.

  I didn’t think I was going crazy anymore when I tested my theory out later at school that day. It was around lunch time and I was talking to my best friend, Christina when I realized it.

  “Hey, how was that calculus test in third period?” Christina says as we settle ourselves down at the lunch tables in the cafeteria.

  “It was pretty easy if you ask me but then again, I have a 4.2 GPA,” I bragged.

  “Oh, be quiet,” She says while playfully slapping my shoulder. 

  “Why do you always have to brag about your GPA. We get it, you're really smart.”

  I laughed and said, “I like annoying you with my awesome GPA and then you say the same thing every time. Anyway, something really weird happened this morning with my mom.”

  I went on to explain everything that happened this morning regarding the weird encounter with my mother in the kitchen. Let’s just say she didn’t take it as well as I had originally hoped.

  “Well I don’t know Madison, but it just sounds like you’re going crazy.” Christina says.

  “Are you making this up cause if you’re not then, well, I think you should go get some help.” She said in a joking tone.

  “No! I am not making this up.” I argued. “ Look, I’ll even prove to you that I’m not making any of this up.”

  I then close my eyes and think about time being frozen. I open my eyes and I see the clock has stopped ticking in the cafeteria. I then look at Christina and she’s just staring at me. In fact, the whole cafeteria is frozen as if someone had clicked pause on the tv screen.

  “My theory was correct.” I said to myself astonished.

  “How am I going to prove it to her though?” I think in my head. 

  “Oh I know.”

  I then go to my locker and get the extra clothes I have and change into them hoping that when Christina sees me in my new outfit she will think that I actually can freeze time. Once I’m done changing, I head back to the cafeteria and sit back down in my original spot and try to act natural. I close my eyes again and unfreeze time. I open my eyes and Christina is looking at me weirdly.

  “Wait, weren’t you wearing a different outfit a few seconds ago.” Christina says confused.

  “Yes I was, but I changed about two minutes ago.” I said.

  “But how, you changed in like a blink of an eye?” Christina says confused.

  “I told you I can freeze time.” I said convincingly.

  “Well, I guess you aren’t going crazy after all.” Christina says.

  And that’s how I knew my superpowers were real. The funny thing is that I still don’t know how I got these powers like I said before I just woke up with them on my birthday.

  Anyway, it's been a few months since I found out about my ability. Since I live in California and it hardly ever snows here, I decide why not enjoy the snow, so I froze time again. I looked out the window and saw this lady that was walking her dog in the little neighborhood that we live in, but is now obviously frozen. I stare out the window for a few more minutes when something catches my eye. It’s a person moving. How could that be possible? When I freeze time everyone is supposed to be frozen, but how come they are still able to move? This has never happened before. I don’t know what to think of it. The first thought that comes in my head is that I need to go find out who they are because they shouldn’t be able to move.

  I get up from the sofa I was sitting on and grab my sweater, my phone, and my shoes before heading out the door. Once I got outside, I looked around and you were able to see the snow falling and sticking together as it touched the ground. Everything was covered in snow as if you were living in the snowy mountains. I continued looking around and when I had turned around the mystery person looked up and met my stare. When our eyes connected, they looked back down and turned to go the opposite direction they were originally going as if they had something to hide. Before they could get away, I ran after them because this may have been my only answer to figuring out how they were able to move or better yet, if they knew anything about my powers. When I caught up to them, I grabbed their wrist and they turned around in alarm.

  “You’re supposed to be frozen, how are you still moving.” I asked them curiously.

  “Let me introduce myself first, I’m James. I may or may not have the same powers as you,” James says shyly. “And I guess you can say that I have been stalking you these past months ever since I found out you were like me and I have been meaning to talk to you but haven’t had the guts to actually do it.”

  “So let me get this straight, you have been stalking me for months now but haven’t had the decency to come up to me and tell me what you have to say.” I say in annoyance and he nods his head shyly.

  “I wanted to know if you knew how you got your powers because ever since I got mine, I haven’t been able to figure it out and I was wondering if you knew.” James ranted.

  “To be honest, no I don’t,” I say truthfully. “I literally woke up one morning, on my sixteenth birthday and?”

  “And just had them. That’s how I got mine too,” James interrupted. “Okay, so I have been doing some research and I narrowed it down to two possible causes of how we both got our powers but I’m not so sure if they are actually true.”

  James went on to explain that there could have possibly been a genetic mutation that occurred when we turned sixteen or there may have been a particle accelerator explosion, which I hardly doubt is the case because there hasn’t been any explosions in Los Angeles, California and we don’t have a particle accelerator either so that crosses it off the list. So, we had a mutual agreement that it had to be a genetic mutation in our genes but we would have to go to the lab and make sure our hypothesis is correct.

  We both didn’t have school so we had decided that we should go to the lab to test out our hypothesis. When we got the results back from the lab, we headed to my house to discuss them and see what they uncover. It turns out that it wasn’t even a genetic mutation. It was just in our genes like if we had inherited it or something. I looked at the file again and something didn’t seem right. It looked like James and I had the same genes. It was as if we were supposed to be siblings. But that would be impossible since we both have completely different parents.

  “Hey, did I ever tell you that this random stranger knocked at my door the other day and said they knew about our abilities and wanted to talk to us about it,” James told me. “They said they wanted to meet at the coffee shop down the street from the high school.”

  “Uh no, you haven’t told me that and when do they want to meet.” I asked.

  “They said later today.” James said. “If you still wanted to go to see what they want, we should start heading down there since it’s almost five o’clock in the afternoon.”

  James and I make our way down to the coffee shop. As we walked over there, I started thinking that it was weird that a random stranger had knew who we were. How did they know we both were able to freeze time.

  When we enter the coffee shop, James recognizes the lady that had told him to meet us there.

  “You look just like your father.” The lady says right when we were about to sit down.

  “Father?” I said really confused, “Do I know you?”

  “Oh uh sorry, I don’t know how else to say this but I’m your birth mother.” and with that I entered a state of shock. I didn’t know what to think. It can’t be possible. How is she my birth mother if I have parents back home. 

  “That actually makes sense.” James says. I look over to him and give him a look that pretty much says “what are you talking about”.

  “All my friends would say that I always looked nothing like my parents but I never really put much thought into it until now,” James explains. “Remember the results we got from the lab, it said we had the same DNA and it all makes sense now that she just said who she is.”

  “So if what you’re saying is true does that mean that we are both adopted.” I asked, “And does that mean we have certain abilities because we inherited it from you guys?”

  “Yes, you guys are adopted and yes, I can freeze time too.” my birth mother says. “We should probably catch up and your father and I could show you how to use your abilities more efficiently.”

  “Yeah that’s sounds like a great start of getting to know one another.” James says amused.

  “Well, I’ll go call your father over and then we all can catch up." our birth mother says.

  When she had left the table, I said happily, “Well I finally got the big, older brother I always wanted.” James looks at me with the biggest smile on his face.

  “And I got the little sister I always wanted.” James said. Maybe it won’t be as bad as I originally thought it would be. The only thing we still have to worry about now is how we are going to tell our adoptive parents about our birth parents and that we are able to freeze time.