Tillo Lando March 19th,20XX

Kaja wrapped up the filming with a cheery ending statement, and I tried my best to keep my eyes open to match her energy. I couldn’t let on that I was tired because I’d left all my homework until the last minute and had barely sent it in as an email to the teacher before falling asleep at three in the morning.

For all my sister loved to joke around, she was still fearful of our current situation and wanted the both of us to study hard. I didn’t think Joyce would ever turn us out and leave us to fend for ourselves, but I understood Kaja’s point. If we studied hard and could put that we were graduates of north high on our resumes, then no matter what, we would be able to eke out a living for ourselves.

Kaja was always thinking about the future, no matter how comfortable our present was. Ever since we were kids, she was always thinking about after. What happens after we graduate? What happens if our current caretakers decided that we were too much trouble?

I wished I could be more like my twin sister, but I just wasn’t. I found thinking of what I would do after all of this was over scary, and once I started on that tangent, I found myself plagued with a host of other questions.

After all, what was all of this? What was after?

Was it when I was all grown up, like when I was about Aaron’s age? Or was it after I got used to having powers and hiding them?

And did I want to hide them forever? Could I hide them forever? What if they went away?

Filming for our squire channels was fun, but I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to do this forever. Besides, even if I did, it wasn’t like I could expect Joyce to support me for the rest of my life and even if she offered, I don’t think I would be comfortable with that.

Destia wanted to create her own show, and she had never shied from making that clear. She treated the Squire thing like sponsorship and threw herself into learning as much as possible before striking out alone. Kaja really enjoyed herself with the news segment we currently had going on, and she was similarly invested in it. She sought out information, held interview after interview and even went as far as proposing scripts to our official writers. Archer was the only other person that seemed hesitant about throwing himself into the spotlight and simply reaping the benefits of other people’s work, but he compensated by working extra hard on the work he was given, and sometimes I caught him with such a wide smile on his face as he worked out an instrumental line or a verse. Even Eva was working hard with Kaja on their little documentary. Kaja and Joyce had praised her a lot for the camera work she had done with the tablet, and she had immediately used her allowance to purchase a camera.

Then there was me.

I enjoyed designing things and using my powers to bring them to life, but I didn’t know the first thing about using a sewing machine and mannequins freaked me out. I also didn’t know if I was good enough to even take it anywhere.

“Tillo! We’re done!”

Kaja pulled me up from my seat and pushed me into the pop-up dressing room to get changed. Today we also had to work with the team of scientists to learn more about our powers.

Destia’s powers flipping out the other day had scared everyone, but Aaron had somehow taken the biggest hit and insisted that we all spend an extra day with the scientists on top of the mandated time we had to put in.

But then again, with all the trips and events that had happened recently, I didn’t think I’d spent up to three days’ worth of time with them.

I think that Kaja and I had the best grasp of our powers within the group, but I didn’t fight Aaron’s insistence that we check in and get physicals. I was just about sick and tired of hospitals and checkups since Kaja and I had just gotten our casts off. Walking was still hard, and we still needed to use a crutch or each other to move.

Or well, Kaja had gotten a cane and had personalized it to suit her personality, so I’d gotten one as well. I hadn’t wanted to decorate it at first since the fact that we’d gotten hurt wasn’t exactly anything to be proud of or to show off, but when Kaja had tried to put on a neon pink ribbon onto the highlighter yellow and military green paint she’d sprayed over the actual cane I’d needed to interfere.

There was no way Kaja would have quietly let me paint it green and leave it plain, so I’d needed to get a bit creative. I’d painted on a green camouflage pattern onto the cane and had sprinkled it with silver sparkles and stencils of cool animals, like panthers and cheetahs. It was still a bit tacky, but at least it wasn’t as harmful to the eyes as her previous monstrosity.

I’d painted mine a dark blue with bright yellow lighting strikes around it and gold sparkles to sort of match Kaja’s.

It had been a lot of fun, and I’d gotten the creative bug, but I didn’t really have an outlet. I couldn’t just materialize new clothes out of nowhere and show them to people… or well I could. But if I wanted to go anywhere with my designs, I’d need some practical skills.

“Hey Kaja.”

I tentatively called out to my sister who was in the middle of furiously typing in her group chat of mysterious friends. I was sure that I’d met some of them once or twice, but I hadn’t paid them enough mind to be able to draw any links between real people and the silly names they used on the internet.

Kaja finished up her sentence and put the phone away to listen to me.

“Yeah Tillo?”

“What would you think if I took some of our money and… bought myself a sewing machine?”

We’d both agreed to spend as little as possible and save up the allowance we got from Joyce in case of any emergencies, so I felt a bit guilty for breaking the deal first. Even Kaja with her many impulses had resisted really well.

Kaja furrowed her brow and I winced in preparation for her to say no, but she surprised me.

“Of course, you can Tillo. Just don’t get a super cheap one, it’ll only break and then we’ll have to replace it. I’ll ask one of my friends if they know any good brands. Or wait, ask Destia! She’s friends with Sparrow, the girl that came for our photo shoots. I’m sure she’d know something.”

I must have looked really surprised because she frowned and poked me in the forehead. Of course, her arms were too short to reach across the large van, so she slightly extended them. I wanted to scold her for doing something so risky, but she cut me off with her next sentence.

“Tillo, even though we should be careful its not like there is any immediate threat. Don’t let the future stop you from having fun now. Yeah, the future might be a lot of fun if we save up well now, but it might also really suck regardless of how much we save up. The only thing you can really guarantee is the present.”

My eyes fogged up as she regurgitated the words of an old teacher of ours and my throat choked up enough that I couldn’t verbally respond. I could only nod and retreat into myself.

The drive over would still be another half hour, so I wanted to catch a quick nap.