Ezra Quinn sat at the back of the classroom, staring at the clock like a prisoner counting down his final moments. Five minutes until freedom. Five minutes until he could escape the exhausting social hellscape known as high school.
"Ez, you good?" Noah nudged him, his voice low enough that their history teacher wouldn't hear. "You look like you're debating the meaning of life again."
Ezra sighed. "I'm just trying to make it through the day without overanalyzing why people breathe so loudly."
Liam, sitting two seats ahead, snorted. "Classic Ezra. Always on the verge of an existential crisis."
Ezra rolled his eyes but didn't bother denying it. The truth was, his mind never stopped racing. He overthought everything—conversations, actions, even what kind of cereal to buy. If there was an Olympic sport for second-guessing, he'd be a gold medalist.
Just three more minutes. He just had to survive—
A sudden wave of dizziness washed over him. The world flickered. His vision blurred for a second, and then—everything changed.
The classroom froze. Or rather, slowed. Every movement around him became sluggish, like he was watching reality in slow motion. His teacher's chalk hovered mid-air, Noah's blinking stretched into an eternity, and even Liam's smirk became an agonizingly long expression.
Ezra's breath caught in his throat. What the hell was happening?
His eyes darted across the room. He could see everything in excruciating detail—the dust particles floating in the air, the subtle way Noah's pupils dilated, the micro-expression of confusion forming on Liam's face. It was like his brain had suddenly been cranked into overdrive, processing reality at a speed far beyond normal comprehension.
Then, as quickly as it came, the sensation vanished. The world snapped back to normal speed, and a sharp pain stabbed into Ezra's skull, forcing him to clutch his desk. His breathing was heavy, his pulse erratic.
Noah frowned. "Dude, you okay?"
Ezra swallowed hard. "Yeah, just... felt weird for a second."
"Weird how?" Liam asked, turning in his seat. "Like, 'I shouldn't have eaten cafeteria meatloaf' weird, or 'I'm about to have a psychic awakening' weird?"
Ezra hesitated. He had no idea how to explain what just happened, but one thing was certain—his life had just changed forever.
The bell rang, signaling the end of class, but Ezra barely registered it. His mind was still stuck in that moment. That feeling. That power.
As he gathered his things and walked toward the door, something caught his attention. His gaze locked onto a girl by the window—Aria Vega, his friend and arguably the smartest person in school. Her fingers were curled in the air as if she had been about to catch something. Her eyes flicked toward Ezra, sharp and assessing.
For a brief second, Ezra had the strangest feeling that she had noticed what happened. That she had seen it, too.
Then she turned away, walking out of the classroom without a word.
Ezra exhaled, shaking off the paranoia. Maybe he was imagining things. Or maybe... he wasn't the only one who felt something change today.
One thing was clear—he needed answers. And something told him that his quiet, unnoticed life was about to get a whole lot more complicated.