You were six years old when you first used your power.
The ball you tossed flew high above everyone else, and you feel proud because you can always throw the ball higher than the rest of your playmates. All the kids were eyeing the path of the red ball when things started to go very wrong.
The ball was going straight to Tyler and it was about to hit his face. You remember Tyler; he pushed you to the ground the other day yelling, "Ew! Girl cooties!" You still panicked because even if he was the meanest boy in school, your mommy thought you that people getting hurt is always bad.
So you run after the ball. In that moment, you wanted nothing more than the ball to stop mid-air so it won't hit Tyler.
Then it did.
Everyone froze with the ball. Plastered in their faces are unmoved expression. The silence was deafening.
You walk up the few meters you are from the immobile ball, you grabbed it, and held it firmly in your hands. Everyone remained unmoved and you started to panic. Just as you were about to cry, the sounds returned and everything was in motion.
In a few moments, they were all staring at you. You stretch out your hands to Tyler and held out the ball. He moved back slowly, a horrified expression on his face. You looked around, confused, only to see that almost everyone was doing the same. Even your seven year-old sister, Trina.
You drop the ball to the ground, the sound of it hitting the gravel pushing everyone to back away quicker. You reached out to Tyler, touching his shoulder, urging him to push you back on the ground and yell at you. You rather have him stare at you with his mean, scrunched up face, than the scared, horrified, disgusted expression he's wearing now. Instead, he turned around and ran away.
It didn't take long for the others to do the same.
Your sister lingered for a few seconds, and you look at her with a teary smile on your face, then she ran away too.
You cried and you cried and you cried. All alone in the playground.
After a while, your parents come after you. Your mother kneeled in front of you and hugged you tightly, placing a reassuring hand on your back. It doesn't help though, because you can see your father over your mother's shoulder, smiling at you. But hiding behind his leg was Trina, who looked at you like they all did.
"It's okay," they kept saying, "it's a beautiful gift."
But then you move to Los Angeles a few days later, and it takes your sister seven months to stop looking at you like a monster.
In the next ten years, it never crossed your mind to use your power again.
Until you met Jade West.