The way to school was at least 10 minutes by car or bus. Walking would have been the most annoying thing Nate could think of right now.

They arrived just in time, the bell was ringing as he left the car. 

"Have a nice day, dear!", his Mom said after she opened the window, "Be careful not to strain your right hand, okay?"

"Yeah, thanks, Mom, see you later."

Nate took a deep breath, he needed to forget about the Smoke for now or his grades would suffer from it. He ran into the building because he had only two minutes left before class started. He ran through the hallway but made sure to slow down if he saw a teacher that would pass by. The school was strict regarding their rule about running in the hallway. A student could count himself lucky if he would just be punished with detention.

The dumbest thing about Monday morning was that the classroom the first subject, Chemistry, was held in the furthest wing of the school where the labs were to be found. He saw how other people that were late got into their classes and cursed his luck for having Chemistry on the sole day he was late.

The last bell rang just when he was in front of the classroom, the door was already closed. A sense of dread filled his mind. Even though his teacher for chemistry, Mr. Richards, was a rather relaxed man when it came to students talking in class or not paying too much attention, the one thing he could not stand was if the students would come too late to class. He liked to maintain a schedule in class, basically planning every minute of class.

Nate took a deep breath and opened the door. The class had already started and he felt how every single person turned their gaze to him. Mr. Richards, a man who had red hair and always wore his glasses with thick frames, looked at him expectantly, "I hope you can explain to me why you were late, Nathan?"

"Uh... I had an accident," Nate made his splint visible, "The hospital released me just earlier today."

"Hmm... Alright, take your seat," he turned to the blackboard, "Where were we... Yeah, let's continue with what kind of Gas is released if we burn a piece of wood."

Nate walked down the classroom and met the looks his classmates gave him, some were neutral and some discontented but that was probably because of the way Mr. Richards explained things. Nate took his seat and looked up to Mr. Richars who was currently explaining the process of burning wood.

"You know, the wood isn't the thing you need to know but how it happens," Mr. Richards said. "Who can explain me the process of burning wood?"

Some groans were heard as the students hated it when questions were asked, Nate's classmates were lazy people, no one bothered to answer even if they knew it already. With the exception of one person, Emily. Emily was a timid girl with curly, light brown hair. She did not speak too much but when in class she made an hundred-eighty degree turn. She would raise her hand every time a teacher asked something, giving them the correct answer most of the time.

This time she did it as well. Mr. Richards looked around to see if anyone else wanted to answer the question as well and after seeing that no one wanted to, he looked back at Emily and sighed, "You guys should try to take part, you know. It will affect your grades if you don't do anything at all. Emily, please."

"When wood burns it uses the oxygen in the air and turns into carbon dioxide and Ash in form of Smoke," Nate jerked up as he heard the Word "Smoke", "and water vapor."

Nate realized how sensitive he had gotten towards that word and got excited just thinking about his hands. He looked at his left hand and touched the burn marks. He would look into it as soon as he got home.

"You could've explained more precisely but I'll let that count, good job," Mr. Richards said, "You see when wood is burned it actually..."

"So Nate, what happened with your hand?", a classmate asked.

"Nothing really, I wanted to climb a wall and fell down." Nate shrugged, as he tried to play it down.

"I told you that you would fall down sometime, didn't I?", his friend laughed.

"Yeah, you did."

Both of them were following the rest of his classmates to the next classroom, where the worst two lessons of the week would be held. Math class. Nate shuddered by just thinking about Mrs. Finch. She was the reason why he hated math as much. Well, math was pretty much the world thing in the world for him now. He loved it when he was younger but that was probably because he had a teacher that could actually explain things.

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They went up to the second floor and got into the classroom where Mrs. Finch was already waiting for them. They took their places and she did not greet them or anything and started class.

Nate opened the door to his house. Tired as he was he did not go to greet his Mom but went into his bedroom to lay down. He was somewhat sad because he was not able to go to art class. His right hand hindered him from continuing drawing the sketches he loved to make and he was allowed to leave earlier. The whole afternoon was in front of him now and he had nothing to do. Every activity he liked to do was connected with him using his hands, whether a single one or not.

Although he would enjoy drawing in school right now, he could finally look into what happened with his hands. He changed into comfortable clothes and looked at his hands, the same way he did yesterday. The burn marks on his left hand looked much better than they had the day before, the red color was not as intensive and his skin looked healthier as well. The cream he used was really doing wonders.

After staring at his hands for a few minutes he decided that this would not bring him anywhere. Nate thought about the circumstances when his hands had turned to Smoke and wanted to experiment a bit. The first time when his left hand turned, he did not know how it happened but his right hand this morning turned when it was about to get injured again. Was it a defensive mechanism?

That was why he took another book and let it fall on his left hand. Nothing happened. The book fell on top of his hand and hit it just like it would a normal hand but he was not giving in that easily.

He looked at his closet and thought about what kind of difference the situation from the morning had with the one now. The height was the only thing that came into his mind, so he tried to throw the book into the air and let it fall onto his hand.

The book, a heavy dictionary, was the wrong one to use. The book fell on his hand and it hurt.

Dumb idea, Nate thought.

He continued to use different methods, different angles to land, and different heights, with a lighter book safe to say. That was until his door was opened, it was his sister, Leah. She walked into his room, saw him and froze. "What are you doing here?", she said.

"That's my room, do you expect me to be somewhere else?" Nate was confused.

"At school, don't you have Art Class until six? Well, whatever. I'll leave."

"No, you don't," Nate was suspicious of her, something was wrong. "What did you want to do in my room and why do you care if I'm early at home?"

His Sister's expression flickered, she was hiding something, "Nothing, I just searched for something."

"What did you search?"

"That's none of your business!" She ran out of his room before he could continue.

Nate did not bother to chase her, he would find out sooner or later. He locked his door and sat on his bed. Throwing books around would not help him either. He racked his brain to find another solution but he had no clue about it. Should he look this up on the internet? Look at how the people from superhero movies and comics discovered their powers?

Nate had no doubt that what he had was true and a special power. It was surreal for him because he treated supernatural things with real skepticism but the situation he was in did not allow him to think things the way he used to.

He opened his laptop and searched around. The mainstream Movies like the X-Men, the Avengers, Superman, and Batman. They all got into a fortunate event, were Aliens or had a huge amount of money. The only thing that could be a possibility were the X-Men. But he discarded this option as he would have heard of other people having the same kinds of changes going through their bodies.

He got frustrated with the lack of information and closed his laptop. 

What was it that he had missed? Nate thought about the fall he had, as that was surely some kind of trigger point for him. His hands were able to turn after he fell into the fireplace. 

He jerked up.

The fireplace!

Something about this place was special and he knew it. But he would not be able to go there, it would take at least an hour to go to this place by car. He would have to wait until it was weekend when he would also normally go outside to climb. It would not be suspicious for him to go out for a longer time so he decided to go to the fireplace the first moment he could.

Keeping it a secret would be the best option, Nate thought. He would not want anything unexpected to happen because of it. The best thing would be to stay low and slowly figure things out. 

The remaining day was nothing special, Nate gave up and spent his time watching some videos on the internet and watch TV for a bit. Dinner was also normal with the exception of his Leah avoiding gaze like her life depended on it. She tried so hard to not look into Nate's eyes that their parents noticed it and asked about it. Being the nice brother he was, Nate decided that he would not drag their parents into the strange behavior of hers.

The both of them left the table at the same time after assuring their parents that nothing was going on. Leah immediately went into her room and remained there for the rest of the evening, while Nate also did the same. He went on and watched TV until he prepared his stuff for school and went to sleep.

The next morning he woke up to the sound of the alarm he set up on his phone, it was 6.30 in the morning so no one else had gotten up. His parents both got up on 7.30 and he did not exactly know when his sister went to school, even if they went to the same one. Nate moved his blanket and sat on his bed, he needed to wake up for good. He scratched his eyes and yawned.

After readying himself for school, he went up to his bed for the last time to neatly put his blanket and pillow in the right places. His mother hated it when he left his bed without tidying up. Nate took the blanket and folded it. While he put it on his bed, though, he caught a whiff of it.

That was why his Mom asked whether he smoked or not.

It smelt just like a fire that was burning. Nate opened his window and hoped that his Mom would not come inside.

Only five days remained until he would go to the fireplace.