Jeremiah itches his wrist, the ghost of the metal cuff from yesterday still there.

He understands why the school board made the decision to use the power dampening cuffs, but what he can’t comprehend is why everyone needs them.

Maybe los niños starting the fights but not everybody else. Por qué?

No sense to him.

This is what he thinks about as he rushes towards his escuela.

He’s late. Of course.

Normally, he leaves on time and just ends up being late, but today he is even more so. Probably because of the whole dampening powers thing.

While he isn’t very loud about it, he does like his abilities. His connection to nature is a part of him. Like how Lou is connected to animals, especially gatos.

Clinking the bracelet on his wrist, he instantly feels the difference. The sunlight doesn’t absorb in his skin, flowing through his veins. It just feels un poco warm. The ground beneath his feet becomes less apparent. Like there is so much between him and the earth.

In his rush, he nearly runs someone over who is standing still at the front doors.

“Lo siento. I mean, sorry,” Jeremiah stumbles.

There is tres someones actually.

The two niños look to be about his age. Tall like him. Must be brothers with how heavily they resemble one another. The same curly hair and marrón eyes. If not for the different clothing and blue headphones around the one’s neck, Jeremiah wouldn’t be too sure he could tell them apart easily. They had a younger girl with them. Probably a sister. All look confused.

“Why don’t the doors open for us?” The one asks. Jeremiah notices that their wrists are bare, no cuffs.

The two others don’t really look at Jeremiah, but that doesn’t bother him. His little hermanita, Este, often doesn’t give him a second glance when talking. She gets into her own world like he isn’t even there.

“You guys new? These are mandatory,” he answers, holding up his arm, moving back and forth so the metal band jiggles slightly.

“What are those?” The talking boy questions, his brown eyes narrow at it, obviously not knowing the nueva rule.

“Power dampening cuffs. To keep us from using our soulmate powers.”

That gets the other guy’s attention. He does a couple hand signing that Jeremiah realizes is ASL.

That makes mas sense.

The girl glances around nervously. As the two brothers communicate through sign language, she turns to Jeremiah but continues to look past his head. “My name’s Precious.”

Afraid that he’s intimidated the young girl, he thinks of what his soulmate, Roman, always says. That his smile is his best physical attribute so he gives her a wide grin. “Jeremiah. Good to meet you guys!”

“My brothers. Zac and Liam,” she points to them.

Jeremiah takes note that the one with headphones around his neck is Liam and Zac the one that has spoken.

“I have a little sister. A bit younger than you. Her name is Este,” he comments.

“Pretty name,” she says shyly, glancing at the ground.

Even though she can’t see his face, he grins anyway. “She would love yours,” he offers.

Maybe it’s his height that scared her? He is pretty alto. An inch or two taller than her hermanos.

“So can you help us get in?” Zac gestures towards the door that’s still locked.

By now they’re pretty late. Missed most of homeroom.

Hopefully Roman isn’t worried.

“Sure. I’ll bring you to the principal’s office and you can get your cuffs there.”

The door opens when Jeremiah tries it and he keeps his arm on the glass and ushers them in. The escuela should probably fix their tech so that this isn’t possible. But it’s all nueva to them.

As he leads them to the office, Liam keeps staring at his dampening bracelet. His face is very expressive, so even though Jeremiah doesn’t have Roman’s power of emotion aborption, he can tell the guy is nervioso. His fingers moved in a way that looked uncomfortable, but he seemed to be doing it unconsciously.

“Does everyone need them? My brother might not do well with it against his skin,” Zac asks, glancing down at Jeremiah’s cuff as well, the red light flashing.

Without a particularly helpful answer, he shrugs. “You could try to talk to them about it. But your parents would have better luck. Just the way of it here. Maybe they would accommodate you guys since it’s your first day.”

“Ok, thanks,” Zac mutters.

When they arrive at the principal’s office, the secretary eyes them warily, put off by the unfamiliar people. “Jeremiah, stay out here. You can show Liam and Zac to their first classes.”

“Sure.”

So they go into see Principal Colan. He waits.

He can hear Zac talking. Kinda angrily. His guess is that Colan isn’t budging on the bracelet. When he catches part of the conversation, Jeremiah can tell he is talking to their parents on the phone. Colan has a way of articulating when it’s a student vs a parent.

Ria clocked it the moment she met their principal for the first time. He speaks more simpatico. It never makes any sense. Why be a principal to young people? If you don’t like them?

Jeremiah can barely contain his surprise when they come out of the room, Zac and Precious with cuffs and Liam without.

The secretary hands them their schedules. Zac takes all them and gives Precious hers. “I’ll walk her over to the elementary school,” she offers. Which is funny compared to before they had the power dampeners on. She was diferente.

Zac and Liam sign something to Precious and she responds before going with the secretary.

“What’s your schedules like?” Jeremiah asks. Zac has both his and Liam’s in his hand and lets Jeremiah glance at their first periods. The brothers had diferente first periods which looked to greatly concern Zac. From his narrowed eyes and frown, he isn’t happy about that.

Liam’s first class matches Jeremiah’s though.

“Güey, we’re in the same first period! I can with walk you,” Jeremiah states, excited for a new friend. He remembers when he was a new student. Thankfully, Bell brought him into her friend group and then he found his soulmate in Roman. All worked out in the end. But he could be that person for Zac and Liam.

“You ok with that, Li?” Zac asks out loud but also signs. Probably out of habit and not for Jeremiah’s benefit. Though he appreciates the translation nonetheless.

When he doesn’t respond, Zac repeats himself. Then Liam nods, eyes on his schedule.

They did a lot of more nonverbal communication that Jeremiah can’t follow. But eventually, they stop. Jeremiah points Zac in the right direction and he and Liam go the other way.

When alone, Jeremiah gets to speak to Liam one on one for the first time. “Bio with Mr. Row isn’t bad. He doesn’t care as long as you listen to him.”

Liam keeps his gaze on his phone, so Jeremiah figures he didn’t want to respond, but then a voice answers.

“I have autism.”

It takes him a second to realize it’s coming from the curly haired boy’s phone. The voice didn’t sound robotic like he would have assumed coming from a phone. More humanish with different tones and volumes.

“Ok,” Jeremiah simply replies.

For the first time, Liam looks directly at Jeremiah. Only for a moment.

Going back on his phone, his fingers furiously type.

“Most people feel awkward around me.”

Even though the statement was spoken through the phone, Jeremiah can’t help but hear it in a matter of fact tone. Not sad but just like it is normal for him.

“Nope. We all have differences.”

Liam doesn’t answer to that, but Jeremiah sees a small lift of the corners of his lips. He’ll take that as a success.

Fidgeting with his backpack strap and readjusting the books in his hands, Jeremiah could get a small glance at one of Liam’s notebook.

“Wicked! Did you draw that? That’s asombrosa!” Jeremiah exclaims, his voice echoing in the empty halls. Liam winces at the volume.

Typing, he says, “I don’t know what that means.”

“It means amazing,” Jeremiah adjusts his tone so it is much quieter this time. Sometimes his excitement goes so high, he forgets. Indoor voice. He can practically hear his Mamá giving him that warning.

“Thanks.”

“Those are orchids, right?” Having recognized the type of flower, Jeremiah is truly amazed by the fine details. It almost looks like a picture rather than a drawing. Lou likes to doodle cats and he knows Bell’s sister paints, but this is on a whole other level.

“Yes,” Liam answers, pushing the notebook back into place under a folder. Jeremiah hopes he didn’t make him feel self conscious about his ability. He is just amazed.

The drawing reminds him of his connection to nature that he currently doesn’t have. If he had his abilities, he could grow an orchid right here. “I love those! My power without this estúpida cuff is nature based.”

“Ok.”

Jeremiah isn’t bothered by the lack of response. He remembers learning ingles when he was younger. He didn’t speak much at his old elementary school because he was nervous about his pronunciation of words. People might’ve thought he was strange. Being the quiet niño. His mother held him after a difícil day of kids so effortlessly talking in a language he didn’t know well and said how it’s ok because everyone communicates differently. That he would find his voice.

“Have any plans for lunch? You and Zac are welcome to sit with me and my friends. Don’t worry, they are all totally nice! You can meet my soulmate, Roman.”

Liam eyes widen. “You found your soulmate.” It isn’t a question, but Jeremiah treats it as one. His soulmate appears to have peaked his interest.

“Yeah, we met this year actually. He’s super cool.”

While Liam doesn’t reply verbally, Jeremiah can tell he has his attention. “You can meet him at lunch if you want.”

In one swift motion, Liam’s eyes meets his and then goes back down to his device.

“Fine with me.”

Jeremiah can’t wait for lunch.

———

(A big shoutout to Hollow Oaks! 👏🏼 She created Liam, Zac, and Precious! This is just the intro to them. I’ll have stories in their perspectives soon!

In case you’re new to my stories, Jeremiah is Latino, so I try to integrate some Spanish into his vocabulary. Güey means dude, primarily Mexican slang according to Google.)