Adam Jones - A Normal Teen

"That'll be five ninety-nine."

I froze, hotdog in hand. The warm buttery bun was still clenched between my fingers, and the mustard smell coming off the frankfurter was nearly making me drool. I'm so fucking hungry.

Unfortunately, I'm also poor.

My eyes slid to the side to look at the guy waiting expectantly behind the sizzling hotdog stand. His apron was smeared with grease and some sort of yellow cheese.

"Five ninety-nine?" I asked, and he nodded.

I sighed and placed the dog back on the counter. My hungry hands reached into my pocket in search of the cash that I knew wouldn't cover this overpriced dog. Six freaking dollars for a hotdog? What has this economy come to? I swear it's like robbery has been normalized among the masses. You don't need to live the risky life of a supervillain anymore to get a quick buck.

Heh, speaking of normalized...

"I have five bucks," I said, retrieving the singular five-dollar bill.

The vendor was not amused; with crossed arms, he gave me a heavy glare, "And what about the ninety cents?"

"Ninety? Or ninety-nine?" The man's lack of a response was telling. Only the active sound of sizzling could be heard from above the grill. "A-Also I thought this was just a few bucks. It's one dog."

"You asked for an extra large hotdog with bacon, cheese, coleslaw, and a side of potato chips. It's five ninety-nine."

"FFFF~Ooh....." I winced upon hearing that, "Yeah, that makes sense now."

With a grunt, the man reached for the hotdog, "If you're not paying for this..."

"W-Woah-W-Woah, Woah!" Feeling the familiar twitch of my normalcy turning back on, I snatched the food before him and stepped back, "Dude, I only got five on me, but I'll get you a nice tip later today!" I called out and took a large bite out of the hotdog, chewing quickly while mumbling through a muffled mouth, "Trust."

The vendor, who had been openly upset previously, gave nothing more than a huff and showed no interest in continuing this confrontation for the remaining cents. And why would he? Why would anyone? With my power of normalcy active, people see whatever I say or do as being uninteresting. Acceptable. Normal. It's the life hack I had for... well, my entire life.

And it's also why I have no money.

But let's take a few steps back so we're all on the same page.

I'm Adam Jones, a regular, somewhat scrawny brunette teen who is unremarkable as they come. And I do mean that literally.

Ever since I could remember, I've been called normal, boring, average... just all the buzzwords, you name it. If it's a synonym for normal, I've been called it. Not due to name-calling or anything of the sort. It was all absolutely true, at least in their eyes. And I never quite realized it until my recent eighteenth birthday. I was normal, to a fault. Everything I do or say is normal. When I was caught breaking the rules for the first time ever with a bottle of **** from my parent's wine cabinet that I wasn't supposed to have, and they didn't even care, it made me realize.

I never got in trouble because I was some saint or an outstanding kid. It was my power that carried me through life. My power of normalcy. And it really was a power, as I tested the hell out of it. Letting my inner desires come into play, it was a rush to realize that I no longer had to try to be perfect. No one could see that I was breaking the rules. Because, in a way, I wasn't.

I started watching porn openly. During breakfast, on the TV for movie night, at the park, and during school. No one cared. My mom didn't care when I stole her bra to jerk off into it while watching **** porn on her bed; my dad showed no interest other than mild annoyance when I took his car out for a joyride. Nor did the policewoman mind when I reared her cruiser, then motorboated her boob sand slapped her ass when she came to investigate.

I was the living embodiment of "Don't like it, don't read" for all my actions. Whatever I did, people simply accepted and moved on. Even if they saw it happening or were involved in it themselves, it didn't matter.

This was my normalcy.

One of the many upsides came in the form of never needing to pay for anything. I would just go in, take what I want, and leave. It was great because I no longer needed that shitty fast-food job.

But over the last few months, I decided to try turning my power off.

See, while lounging about on the couch of my MILF of a neighbor's house and using her lap as a pillow, I saw on the news a report on how The Avenger's just took down A.I.M. in a climatic battle that nearly leveled the entire downtown district.

It got me concerned.

I was going around without a care in the world, using my power unabashedly. But I'm not the only one with powers in this world. The Avengers, The X-Men, The Fantastic Four, S.H.I.E.L.D., there are so many others that are far more powerful, smarter, faster, and just overall better than me, a lot of whom have abilities of their own. And if they find out about me or what I've been doing. Well, I'm not sure if it'll end very well.

Hell. I don't even know if my power would work on them!

And so, at that moment, I told myself I'd try to use my power as sparingly as possible, wherever I could. After some practice, I managed to do exactly that... but only for a few moments at a time. If I focus, my normality powers seem to stop. However, it's never been that way for long. As soon as my focus falters, it turns back on. So, I can only really use it when I have to.

In general, I just try not to do anything brash and focus on keeping my normal power off as much as possible. That can be hard at times, though, considering I am incredibly perverted... Just wanted to put that out there in case it wasn't obvious.

But little did I know, as I ran to school with a hotdog in hand, that the day was going to be a bit different from my 'normal' routine....