Owen O'Connell sat in an office chair, similar to the one in the principal's office of his old high school. Behind the desk stood a stern-looking woman, her dark hair pulled back into a bun and her eyes almost pointedly staring at Owen.

"I'm sorry," The woman said, her eyes seeming sharper as she spoke. "The Headmaster is about to have a meeting with a prospective student."

"Yeah," Owen said. This happened a lot and he shouldn't have expected this to be any different. "Owen O'Connell."

The woman looked a bit taken aback, her eyes losing their sharp feeling. "Sorry, how did you know?"

"I'm Owen O'Connell."

It happened so much that it almost felt like routine. He knew he'd sent a photo of himself along with his application. There was no reason for her not to recognize him. But again, it happened all the time. It happened with his brothers, who he'd known since birth. It happened with his parents, with family friends, with his aunts and uncles, with his grandparents. He tried his best to be memorable but it felt like no matter what he was always forgotten.

"Apologies, my name is Lillian Hoops, you may call me Ms Hoops." Her voice was strong and clear. She had no reason to throw herself into the focus of others but her voice demanded the focus. Owen wished there was something he could do to make his voice command focus the way hers did.

He kept quiet, with no reason to say anything until the headmaster arrived.

After a few minutes, the same side door opened and a shorter Korean man walked in. He had dark hair that looked almost windswept. He wore a brown outfit that Owen correlated with academics and professors. Black glasses perched atop his nose, thick-framed ones. As he sat down behind the large desk, Owen had the sudden realisation that he was in the same room as a superhero.

Owen wasn't sure if he could put up the front of a boisterous and excited teen in front of this man. He wasn't sure if he wanted to.

"Owen O'Connell?" Titan Jones asked, his voice not exactly what Owen had been expecting. It was commanding and calming but also a bit accented and strange to Owen's ears. It sounded like his brother's best friend, who grew up in the US but immigrated from Korea. Owen assumed a similar backstory for the Headmaster.

He nodded. Not sure what he was supposed to do. He watched in total silence as the Headmaster flipped open the file Ms Hoops handed to him, reading through Owen's academics and application.

"So, tell me about yourself, Owen?" the Headmaster asked, leaning back in his seat.

Owen shrugged, "I play hockey and I play guitar in a band, Kill Time. I live in Queens, and spend most of my time playing hockey, though."

"Okay," Titan said, leaning forward in his seat, his elbows on the desk and his hands clasped in front of him. "Tell me about your ability."

"I don't think I have one." Owen's nail scratched at the cuticle of his pointer finger as he spoke. "My parents think I do but there's no way. I'm not someone with an ability. I wish I was."

Titan cocked his head, looking at Owen with a piercing gaze. Something almost electric passed through Owen's body. Holy shit was Titan using his power to figure out if Owen had an ability? This was the coolest thing ever.

"It feels passive," Titan said, his eyes squinting the more he concentrated. "Like something you can't turn on and off. Something that happens whether you want it to or not."

Owen felt his eyes go wide. He didn't know what Titan was talking about but it sounded pretty cool. But there was no way in hell Owen had any power at all.

"Tell me about your life," Titan said, his eyes still piercing Owen's soul. "The things that happen the most, the things that make you angry, the things that make you happy. Tell me about all of those things."

Owen thought for a minute and then shrugged again, "I mean, what happens the most is being left behind. I don't enjoy crowds of people and sometimes I feel like people don't even see me. It's exhausting. I like hockey, I like music, but I like hockey more. It makes me happy and I do like the fact that no one can forget about me in the rink."

"And it's your ability," Titan said.

What? No. If he was going to have an ability he would have wished for something interesting. Like flying or ice powers. Not this bullshit. "What?"

"It's a low-level telepathic ability. Or at least it's affecting your brain the same way telepathic abilities affect the brain," Titan said, straightening his head and making a note of it in Owen's file.

"So my power is being ignored?" Owen asked. So much was going through his head. What kind of power was that? Does this mean that no one really meant it? Does that mean that he's special for being ignored and forgotten all of the time? Owen felt a burst of anger. "What the fuck kind of power is that?"

Titan took off his glasses in one smooth movement and massaged the bridge of his nose. "I don't know how to explain this to you, Owen. I don't fully understand what your ability is doing because it's not affecting you. I think it's affecting those around you."

Owen watched as Titan turned to Ms Hoops and made eye contact with her. He watched as she nodded, very small and Titan cocked his head again. This time, Owen didn't feel that electric feeling but he was sure Ms Hoops did. After about a minute, Titan broke eye contact and turned back to face Owen. His face was less neutral than it had been before. It was a little bit sad.

"You figured it out, didn't you?"

Titan nodded. "Your ability, it affects the part of people's brains that recognizes faces. It makes it so that no one can recognize your face."

Oh.