A full three years have passed. The children are now fifteen. Hendrix has fully assimilated into the Frewin household. The teenagers are once again wasting time in the backyard before dinner. Hendrix plays his guitar next to Vida, who is once again studying the new plants that Mrs. Frewin planted a month ago.
"I liked that song, Hendrix. Do you like the new lilies or the daffodils better?" Vida asks while pointing to the sprouting lilies that she helped plant a month ago. Her dreadlocks grew longer, but they still have the same amount of leaves and vines stuck in them from frollicking around the garden.
"Hard to choose. They're both different colors, they shine in their own way, y'know?" Hendrix smiles at Vida through his amateurly pierced face while noodling on his guitar.
"Eww not you two as well! I came over here to get away from the other lovebirds!" Akilah says while dragging her yoga mat.
Vida and Hendrix stumble over their words to say something like "It's not like that." while Akilah waves them away as she starts another set of push ups.
Vida goes back to staring at the flowers, but as she goes in to feel the petals of the just sprouting lilies a green aura glows from her hand and the lilies quickly grow into fully grown flowers. Vida is surprised as she looks to Hendrix to see if he saw the same thing. Hendrix has the same amount of surprise and awe on his face. The two of them look around to see if anyone else witnessed the miracle but everyone else is fully engulfed in their afternoon activities.
Vida quickly grabs Hendrix's hand as she always does and runs into the house to tell Mr. and Mrs. Frewin about this miracle.
"Mr. Frewin, Mrs. Frewin you won't believe what just happened outside!" She stumbles over her words as she gasps for air after running up the stairs.
"I was going to touch one of the flowers and then this green air went around my hand and the flower grew! It grew like a couple months in a couple seconds! Hendrix can vouch for me!" Vida pointed to Hendrix.
"Y-yeah that happened." Hendrix is still processing everything that is happening.
Mr. and Mrs. Frewin look at each other and smile. "Just in time." Mr. Frewin said.
"It's time we tell all the kids. We can help them before THAT happens." Mrs. Frewin says while she exits the room to gather the children up.
Vida and Hendrix look at each other with confusion, but are quickly ushered into the living room by Mr. Frewin.
In the living room, the five teenagers are gathered on the couch waiting for Mr. and Mrs. Frewin to finish up their private talk in the other room.
"So you made the plant grow? Are you sure you're not going psychotic on us, Vida?" Chase said with one arm around Amora and one hand gesturing a loopy sign towards his head.
Amora pats him on the chest as she begins to speak.
"Hey, don't be so mean to her. You know she said Hendrix saw it too. Maybe it was some magic trick he pulled off to mess with her." Amora said.
Hendrix pointed at the two accusing him of such heresy.
"I would never do such a thing to her, maybe you two though."
Chase pouted as Amora giggled. Akilah lifted her eyes from the book she was reading for the first time during the conversation started.
"I doubt that you would make something like that up, Vida. But are you sure that it's some type of magic? Maybe it really was just some weather coincidence."
"I'm sure! My hand felt all tingly, and Hendrix said that nothing else was weird about the flower!" Vida responded with earnest belief.
As the kids continued to banter amongst each other, Mr. and Mrs. Frewin entered the living room with uncertain and nervous smiles on their faces. The children grew interested in the expressions they carried.
"Is something wrong? Did we do something wrong?" Vida asked.
"No, you did something amazing." Mrs. Frewin responded. She placed her hand on Vida's as she continued to speak.
"What you did was amazing, but what me and Mr. Frewin are about to tell you might be confusing at first. This is all stuff that nobody is supposed to know, but that we want you to know." Mrs. Frewin looked at Mr. Frewin to continue the testament.
"What you did was control your spirit! It's a natural energy that resides in all of us as living beings." Mr. Frewin stopped to let the confusion settle.
"Yeah, okay Mr. Frewin is going off his rockers too, should i walk you to bed old man?" Chase said with his trademark starkness.
"Shut your trap I wanna hear what they're talking about." Akilah said as she closed her book and leaned forward in interest.
"I'm not making this up, Chase." Mr. Frewin laughed as he continued his lesson.
"The government that we live under doesn't want you to know that this power naturally resides in us. Only a few know about this today." Mr. Frewin held Mrs. Frewin's hand as he continued to speak."
"We know this secret through our lineage, we'll tell you all that later, but we want you to reclaim your agency in your natural powers." Mr. Frewin turned to Mrs. Frewin as she began to speak.
"That's right. We'd like you to explore this power that's new to you, and we'd like to guide you through the process. Think of it as training in one of your karate movies, Chase." Mrs. Frewin continued.
"Or, even better, like one of our flowers growing, Vida."
Mr. Frewin opened his hand in an upright position.
"I want you five to watch my hand closely."
Mr. Frewin focused his full attention into his left hand. After two seconds, his hand burst into flames. The kids were in awe and childish excitement at what they could only call magic. Chase jumped out of his seat, Vida flinched away, Akilah leaned in closer, Amora covered her mouth with her hands, and Hendrix stared in confusion.
"WHAT THE HELL!?!" Chase said as he stumbled over the back of the couch.
"Don't worry, it won't spread, I have full control over it, since I used my spirit to make it. You'll be able to do something like this. We'll help you through the process. Of course, this is all if you five would like to learn more about this." Mr. Frewin looked at the children, looking for an answer.
The five of them looked at each other in agreement.
"Hell yeah!?"
Mrs. Frewin laughed
"Haha alright. We'll teach you all about it, but there's one more thing we have to tell you, and this is serious." Mrs. Frewin's face got serious as she continued.
"The regime that we live under is intent on hiding the fact that living beings are naturally able to use their spirit. That is why you five didn't even know that this existed. They'll do anything in their power to keep this natural rule a secret, even through extreme violence."
The children's faces grew somber and confused. Their faces read that their whole world view was being twisted and contorted into a new reality. Before this, they never really gave any thought to the strict curfew, or the brute force used daily by the "Correctional Forces". This country that they lived under, The United Nation, might not be as orderly as they thought it was.
"Should we really be learning about this if the government doesn't want us to?" Amora asked with a concerned demeanor.
"That's up to you guys, but I believe that you guys should. The government isn't run by good people. When you're older, maybe you guys will be able to do something about it. We want to put the tools in your guys' hands to change the world later." Mr. Frewin finished as Mrs. Frewin
"We'll give you guys some time to think. Meet here tomorrow when you guys get back from school, okay?" The two adults got up and started walking up to their room.
"Okay." The kids said bleakly, looking at each other in disbelief.
The next day, the five children were attending their high school classes. To the dismay of all five of them, they didn't have a single class that they all shared together, but there were bigger problems on their minds today.
In their first class of the day, Vida and Hendrix sat next to each other. Their usual joking manner was overcast by the somber mood that the information from last night put them in.
"It is now time for the pledge of allegiance. Please stand and direct your attention towards the nearest flag and bow your heads." The PA system announced.
The children around Vida and Hendrix willingly and cheerfully followed the orders.
"All glory to our sacred nation. Continue to protect us in good will as we would lay down our lives to protect yours. Protect this precious country as we would lay down our lives to protect it." The pledge finished as all the children of the classroom sat down. Vida and Hendrix were quiet the whole time.
A little later in the day, Amora and Akilah entered their second class, they happened to have this one together. They shared the same spacy and somber mood as Hendrix and Vida earlier.
As soon as the tardy bell rang, the teacher got into the lesson.
"Who here can tell me how old our great nation is?" The teacher waved her marker around the classroom looking for an eager student.
"Ooh, ooh, me, me!!" The brainiac of the classroom raised his hand in the eagerness that the teacher was looking for.
"Alright then, answer my question."
"For as long as record history, so the exact number is unknown!"
"Correct! That was a trick question. We don't know the exact number, but we do know that this great country has existed for as long as our records go back."
The teacher continued as Akilah and Amora continued to space out in the back of the classroom, they seemed to have more important engagements at hand.
Later, at the lunch hall. The five teens were able to gather together at their usual table. Chase started the conversation as he broke the silence.
"I say we go for it, I mean who cares if we might get in trouble. It's not their decision to control us like that."
"Babe, quiet down please. You know that Mrs. Frewin said to keep quiet about it in public." Amora put a single finger over Chase's lips.
"For once, Chase is right. I think it doesn't matter if these world leaders don't want us to know, because it's our right to know." Akilah stated.
"Y-yeah." Hendrix said.
The group slowly came to agree with Akilah and Chase's sentiment by the time their lunch shift was over.
Later that day, school was out for the day. The five kids started their walk home as their somber attitudes turned into excitement at the prospect of learning to use such power.
They opened the door to their home. The first sight they saw was Mr. and Mrs. Frewin sitting on the living room couch, waiting for them.
"We wanted to talk more about the conversation we had yesterday. I know it was a lot, bu-"
"Can you teach us how to use that spirit or whatever?" Vida interrupted Mrs. Frewin with a certain sparkling excitement in her eyes that was shared by the rest of the group.
Mr. and Mrs. Frewin smiled at the sight.
"Alright, then let's get to it."