The bell rang with its usual mechanical indifference, echoing through the halls like an afterthought. Raj walked in step with the crowd, head down, hoodie up, the warmth of the sun from earlier still clinging to his skin like a second layer.
The rooftop felt far away now.
The cracked wall. The hovering jump. The glow he'd tucked back inside himself with nothing but breath and willpower.
He should've felt proud.
Instead, he felt numb.
The building smelled like cleaning fluid and stress. Students moved around him in practiced chaos—textbooks balanced, earbuds jammed in, conversations buzzing about grades, gossip, games. The mundane noise of being young and normal.
And he couldn't hear any of it the same way anymore.
Because he could also hear the fly buzzing in the vent three classrooms away. The click of a stapler on the second floor. The soft pop of gum from behind a locker door. Someone's heartbeat quickening as they confessed to a crush near the stairwell.
It was all layered—nothing distinct, but never fully ignorable.
Like the world had been set to surround sound, and he couldn't find the volume knob.
"Yo, Raj!" Ned's voice cut through the noise like a familiar ripple.
Raj turned.
Ned jogged up beside him, grinning. "Where you been all morning? Peter was looking for you."
Raj offered a small smile. "Just needed some air before class."
Ned gave him a look. "You always need air now. You okay?"
Raj hesitated.
He wasn't glowing. His body was calm. His thoughts were quiet.
But something about being asked made him feel... hollow.
"I'm fine," he said.
Ned didn't push. He just nodded, then leaned in slightly.
"But if this is some secret superpower puberty thing, I wanna be your sidekick."
Raj laughed under his breath. "You'd be terrible in a fight."
"I've seen every season of Power Rangers, bro. I'm trained."
"Mentally trained."
Ned shrugged. "It counts."
Raj kept walking. He didn't tell him that he'd already shattered brick with one punch this morning. That his muscles didn't fatigue. That he could feel the temperature of everyone walking past him without touching them.
They turned the corner. MJ leaned against a locker, arms crossed, reading a copy of Slaughterhouse-Five with a pen tucked behind one ear.
She glanced up when they passed.
"Parker's waiting in the chem lab," she said, nodding toward the stairwell. "Told him you were doing your usual moody 'I'm not glowing, you're glowing' routine."
Raj blinked. "I wasn't glowing."
"Not visibly."
She said it without irony. Without teasing.
Like it was a fact.
Ned grinned. "Told you, man. Radiant energy confirmed."
Raj opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again.
Because MJ wasn't joking.
She knew.
Not how. Not what. But something.
He walked the rest of the way in silence.
The chemistry lab was quiet. Peter sat at one of the back tables, scribbling something into a notebook. He looked up as Raj entered.
"There you are," Peter said. "You missed the bell. Again."
Raj sat down across from him. "I took a different route."
Peter gave him a strange look. "What kind of route involves climbing?"
Raj's expression didn't flinch.
But Peter saw it.
"Your shoes are scuffed," he added casually. "And there's concrete dust on your hoodie."
Raj didn't respond.
Peter leaned back. "You're changing."
Raj finally met his eyes.
"What do you mean?"
Peter shrugged, pretending to play it off. "You're quieter. More alert. And you keep disappearing in the morning."
Raj didn't lie.
But he didn't tell the truth either.
"I'm adjusting."
Peter tilted his head. "To what?"
Raj looked down at his hands. Still steady. Still normal.
But something inside him felt warm. A quiet hum beneath the skin.
"To being here," he said simply.
Peter didn't push.
And Raj appreciated that.
The rest of the school day passed like a dream behind glass.
He walked through hallways without noticing posters or announcements. Ate half a sandwich without tasting it. Listened to a math lecture and solved every problem in his head five seconds before the teacher finished explaining.
No one said anything. No one accused him. But the distance was growing.
And not just because of what he could do.
Because of what he was becoming.
He stood by the window in the last period, sunlight brushing his cheek.
He didn't let it sink in.
Not this time.
He breathed evenly. Kept his pulse steady.
The glow stayed locked away beneath his skin.
But he felt it.
He always did now.
As he walked home, Peter's words echoed in his head.
"You're changing."
So was the way people looked at him. Talked to him. Hesitated around him.
It wasn't fear yet.
But it was no longer familiarity either.
They still called him Raj.
But every day, that name felt less like it fit.