Saturday, 11:06 a.m. – Ty's bedroom, off-campus house that should probably be condemned
Ty woke up face-down in his own pillow with the worst headache of his life and the weirdest taste in his mouth—like copper pennies and blue raspberry. His phone was somehow fully charged and sitting neatly on the nightstand. He had zero memory of the walk home.
He sat up too fast. The room spun.
"Okay, never drinking again," he lied out loud.
Downstairs, something crashed. Then Mace yelled, "HOLY SHIT!"
Ty stumbled down the stairs in boxers and one sock.
The living room looked exactly how they'd left it Friday morning: pizza boxes, empty White Claw cans, a single flip-flop hanging from the ceiling fan. Except now Mace was standing in the middle of the room staring at a floating box of Frosted Flakes.
Not falling. Floating. Three feet off the carpet. Slowly rotating.
Landon sat on the couch in the same clothes from last night, eyes wide, holding a half-eaten Pop-Tart like it was evidence.
Ty blinked four times. "I'm still drunk."
Mace didn't look away from the cereal. "Bro. Watch this."
He squinted. The box shot sideways, smashed into the wall, and exploded in a snowstorm of corn flakes.
Silence.
Then all three of them screamed at once.
Ty: "WHAT WAS THAT?"
Landon: "Did we do drugs last night?"
Mace (grinning like a maniac): "I think the space rock gave us superpowers."
Ty's phone buzzed on the coffee table. It buzzed so hard it started vibrating across the wood, then launched itself into Mace's waiting hand.
Mace caught it mid-air without touching it.
Ty: "Okay. Nope. I'm going back to bed. Wake me when the simulation reboots."
11:19 a.m. – The kitchen, experiment #1
They lined up every object they could find: Red Solo cups, a bag of frozen tater tots, Landon's entire backpack, the Xbox controller that hadn't worked since sophomore year of high school.
Mace pointed at each one like he was Darth Vader on a budget.
Solo cup: lifted, wobbled, smashed into the ceiling.
Tater tots: exploded out of the bag like orange confetti.
Backpack: too heavy. Mace strained, went red in the face, finally got it six inches off the ground before it dropped.
Landon watched with the expression of someone waiting for the hidden cameras to come out.
Landon: "If this is real, try me."
Mace turned and stared at Landon with way too much intensity.
Nothing happened.
Mace: "Maybe you got, like… laser eyes or something."
Landon rolled his eyes. "Great. I got the lame power."
Then he looked at the fridge because he really wanted the last Blue Gatorade. Really wanted it. Like, stop-existing-if-I-don't-have-it levels of want.
And he disappeared.
Not faded. Not blinked. One second he was there, the next there there was nothing
The Blue Gatorade floated out of the fridge, cap twisted off by invisible hands, and took a sip.
Ty and Mace stared at the floating bottle.
Invisible Landon's voice, muffled: "Oh my god."
The bottle dropped. Landon reappeared, soaked in blue, grinning harder than any human should.
Landon: "I'm the lamest and the coolest at the same time."
11:37 a.m. – The front yard, experiment #2 (Ty's turn)
They needed something bigger. The campus shuttle was idling at the stop sign across the street, loading hungover students.
Ty looked at his phone: 11:37. His shift at the library started at 11:30. He was late. Again.
Ty: "I'm so fired."
Then he thought, really thought, not again! I cant be late.
The world blurred.
One second he was on the porch. The next he was standing inside the library, still in boxers, one sock, breathing like he'd sprinted a mile. The automatic doors were just now sliding shut behind him.
The security guard at the desk did a double-take. "Morgan… why are you naked?"
Ty looked down. "Long story."
He blurred again. Back on the porch in the same heartbeat.
Mace's jaw was actually on the ground. Landon was filming vertical video, invisible, so it just looked like a floating phone.
Ty, panting: "I think I just broke the sound barrier in my underwear."
12:02 p.m. – Emergency group meeting on the nasty couch
Rules they agreed on (and immediately broke):
Nobody tells anyone. Ever.
No using powers in public.
Especially Mace.
Mace was already levitating the TV remote in circles around his head like a shark fin.
Mace: "We're rich. Like, stupid rich. We could rob a bank right now and nobody could stop us."
Ty: "We're robbing an ATM for beer money first. Baby steps."
Landon (still tasting blue): "And then we talk to girls. Like, actually talk. Without getting laughed at."
Ty looked at both of them. "We just became gods. And our first plan is still beer and girls."
Mace raised the floating remote like a toast. "Some things are sacred, bro."
2:47 p.m. – First test run, Sunoco gas station ATM on the edge of town
Ty stood lookout.
Landon turned invisible and walked straight into the convenience store.
Mace stood across the street and stared at the ATM like it owed him money.
Thirty seconds later the machine started spitting twenties. Not a few. All of them. A brick of cash shot out like a machine-gun burst, neatly wrapped, and floated across the street into Mace's backpack.
Total take: $13,400.
They sprinted home like they'd just stolen the Declaration of Independence.
4:20 p.m. – Living room, money waterfall
They dumped the cash on the carpet. More money than any of them had ever seen in one place.
Landon whispered, "We're going to hell."
Mace was already shirtless, making it rain on himself. "Worth it."
Ty picked up a stack, smelled it, then looked at his best friends.
Ty: "Tomorrow we buy new clothes. And then we walk into the next party like we own the world."
Landon: "And maybe… maybe Sophia will talk to me for more than four seconds."
Mace levitated a hundred-dollar bill and stuck it to the ceiling. "Operation Get Kissed is officially funded, boys."
They high-fived. The bill stayed on the ceiling.
Outside, the Saturday sun was shining like it approved.
None of them noticed the faint blue glow under their skin every time their hearts beat a little faster.