It was October now so the m took a little while to get going and the walk to school was under a dim sky. Not that any sunshine was going to exorcise the grogginess out of everyone skulking their way to businesses, schools or bus stops. Kay’s leather jacket served as a det coat as the autumher turhe temperature down.

  Whe to school and found out that the building was too warm for three yers, instead of taking off his leather jacket, he removed his sweater underh ahe jacket oween the jacket (which was fake leather) and his prescription sungsses, Kay had the look of a cssic rocker from the 1970s– or someone posing as a cssic rocker.

  Some teachers didn’t like a student wearing shades indoors but sihey were prescription and Kay had no other pair avaible in building, the teachers resigo letting the student carry on his rockstar e, and nobody cared enough to demand that the student bring his regur eyegsses the day. In the end, he was non-disruptive and while it was too early in the school year to gauge anyone’s performance, Kay was a good student.

  He kept quiet. The only friends he had were the ones he talked t css, neighbours that he developed a basic report. Huxley was one of those neighbours; someone for Kay to discuss old video games with.

  That Tuesday, Huxley leaned over to whispered: “There’s this RPG I’m pying. It got transted retly– Treasure of Rudras.”

  “Oh, okay, I’ll check it out,” Kay responded, adding it to a long list of games that he would have on his puter but never py.

  The teenaged boy seemed normal, and that was all Kay needed. He did his homework and was e so that he shook the boat as little as possible. It was a cover story: an anodyne persona in front of what he did after school– during “water hours”. It was all in service of the euphoria that came with being a water “elemental”, as Kay described himself. It was easy to do schoolwork and chores when it was all in service of his amazing, secret life.

  Maybe it was because he presented himself so fidently, but no one bugged him aside from an occasional crack about his fashion choices. School dismissed and on Kay’s way out some student jeered on him from down the hall with “See you ter, rockstar!” which got ughter from the wannabe edian’s friends. Kay ignored him.

  Outside, there was a bright afternoon waiting for him. Bright, but chilly. After a few minutes of walking home, Kay regretted not slipping on his sweater before he left the building. He zipped up his jacket, put his hands in his pockets, and picked up his walking speed.

  Kay got home and looked around the apartment. It was often that he was the first one home. He walked up to the hallway and didn’t hear his mom or Urban in their bedroom and he didn’t hear Aubrey either. He was alone.

  What was he going to do that day? Oh yeah, he wao hit a movie. Later, though. He went to his room, spped his backpack down by his bed ao his puter. Turning it on aing it load up, he noticed that the big sticker on the side of the tower had a er folding off. Kay took a finger and pressed down on the decal but the adhesive didn’t take. Kay tried his best, but gave up.

  He sighed and stared at the sticker while the puter hummed and beeped awake. It was a sticker for 1020 Bops, Toronto’s oldies station and once Kay’s dad’s favourite radio station. The decal was like his dad’s signature– a parting gift before he moved back to Lithuania.

  The puter was showing its age, though. The operating system loaded up: Windows 95. It pyed the same games it had alyed and ected to the i but Kay found out retly it wasn’t powerful enough to py the PC port of Grand Theft Auto III. No, he would have to settle for ames, includiing Sitles he missed as a kid.

  The absurdity wasn’t lost on Kay; that a person could want to py an old video game when they would be heading out ter to transform into a water being and use those incredible powers to swing around the city in ways that most could only dream– prompting a real adventure for an artificial o was a lesson Kay quickly learned when he embraced his powers at the end of st school year: that everything– including his superhuman abilities– was better in moderation.

  That and some of those video games were pretty cool.

  Kay’s bedroom looked out upon a roof, ohat was level with the bottom of the bedroom window and about five metres wide. The building owners didn’t want anyone walking around up there but if Kay wanted, he could open his window and climb out onto the roof, and then go dowside stairs to an alleyway as an alterhod of leaving his house. Or: someone could reverse it. Someone could climb the stairs, walk across the rooftop, and tap on Kay’s window– wanting in.

  The sudden taps startled Kay, getting the kid to jostle in his puter seat. He looked at the window and who was it? It hilly, Kay’s fox friend, tapping his paws on the s.

  “Hey, buddy!” Philly called through the gss. “Open up!”

  Kay couldn’t believe it. He went over to his window and unlocked the hook to slide it open. “What are you doing here?” he said through the s.

  “I came to see you,” said Philly.

  “You ’t just e here!” said Kay. He put his head to the window and looked around the other buildings. Was ag? He couldn’t know for sure. “What if someone sees you?”

  “All they would see is a fox!” said Philly, straightening his posture and puffing out his fluffy neck proudly, brushy tail curling off of him. “And there’s a lot of foxes around!”

  “What if someone sees me talking with you?” asked Kay.

  “I dunno,” said Philly. “Maybe they’ll think you’re trying to domesticate me?” He pushed on the mesh. “So let me in, slick! The longer I’m out here the bigger ce that I cateone’s gnce!”

  Kay gave o look around as he unlocked the s window and slid it open. Philly ducked his head and stepped into the room, hopping down on Kay’s bed.

  Kay tugged the sheets. “Great. Yetting your dirty paws on my bed.”

  Philly gave him a nasty look. “You’re a fifteen year-old teenage boy. I’m sure this pce is dirty enough already!”

  “Sixteen, actually,” said Kay, closing the windows. He sat down on his bed, fox buddy sitting beside him. “You’re luo one else is home. If someone es through that door, you gotta skedaddle.”

  “I leave–” Philly stopped. Something was weird with Kay’s face; his gsses, actually. His shaded gsses. The fox’s jaw-dropped. “Do you wear those indoors?”

  Kay wasn’t sure hilly was talking about until he noticed the fox staring at his he boy giggled, his embarrassment caught off guard by the fox’s disbelief. He lifted his gsses. “Yeah.”

  Philly puttered out a sigh and drooped his body. Straightening back up, he put on a grin. “I was w if you had given what I said any thought.”

  “You mean… being a superhero?” asked Kay. He took his eyes away and gazed at the floor, “I don’t know...”

  “You’d make a good one,” said Philly. He tapped Kay’s shoulder with a paw. “Plus, you got a disguise built right in!”

  “I’m not a fighter,” said Kay, dragging his eyes back up to Philly. “Look what happened back with Shanda and all that. I didn’t help anything– all I did was get my butt kicked.”

  Shanda. It was hard to believe but Kay realized– October– it was a year ago at that point. Just as his powers started to ma, he met a girl: Shanda. When Shanda was uhreat by a vilin named Deox, Kay stepped in to save the day, or try to. Kay was no match for Deox, helping Shanda not a bit. Shanda’s escape was of her own volition, and she disappeared, leaving Kay to never know where she went.

  It was a tale that could have made the beginnings of any superhero story, but iy, it ended in Kay’s heartbreak and trauma.

  But it was a year ago now.

  “You were in over your head,” said Philly, “having to fly a pne when you haven’t evehe manual!”

  “I don’t think it’s for me,” said Kay. He faked some punches in the air. “I ’t fight.” He rattled on his chest. “I know my water elemental form is resilient but just because I take doesn’t mean I give.” He got up, taking small steps around his room. “I know that from great power es great responsibility, but iy...” He threw his hands up, showing off his nky form to his fox friend, “the person who gets the magical water powers might not be equipped to use them.”

  Philly ked a brow. “Is that so? I heard you’ve been seen around town in your elemental form, using them aplenty!”

  Kay tightened a judging gaze at Philly. “Have you been spying on me?” he said, but he khat Philly was had ears on all things supernatural, including Kay himself funting his water form around town. Kay sat down on his puter chair and tur towards Philly. Philly hopped and walked up to Kay, sitting at the boy’s feet. It embarrassed Kay the way that the fox looked at him– bright eyes and proud grin– like Kay was already a hero. That made it harder to disappoint the fox. “I like using my powers to get around but fighting is a different thiirely.” He swung his chair around to his puter and idly fiddled with his video game. “Doesn’t Toronto have a superhero? Lady Beat? Or is that all made up?”

  Philly repositioned himself beside Kay’s chair and watched along. “She’s real, as far as I tell. Toronto’s a big city, though. And Lady Beat is only one dy.”

  Kay was silent, rudely so. He pyed his game, getting his red-haired knight to attack a couple flying bug creatures with a rge sword. Big purple numbers popped out of the creatures.

  Philly wasn’t much for video games, being a fox, but he found it amusing. He smirked up at his human friend. “You’d rather fight bad guys in video games, huh?”

  Kay mirrored a grin back down at the fox. “If I get hurt in a video game, I don’t get hurt in real life.”

  Sound logic, Philly had to admit.

  The fox hung out a little while longer but sooner or ter one of Kay’s family members was going to get home, perhaps making it harder to Philly to evacuate or maybe some other plication. Kay opehe windows back up for Philly and the fox took to the wind.

  Watg the fox walk away, Kay had to dwell on the meeting. It was versations like the one Kay just had with his vulpine pal that highlighted how strange his situation was. ‘Superhero’… it was a word straight out of fi so it couldn’t have applied to a real person like Kay, could it?