Months have passed since the incident. Ever since then, you didn't get many chances to use your powers. Although, JC did get to use the paralytic subset of his powers when he accidentally used it on his father. Other than that? None. JC moved out of his childhood home and is too busy scrounging up money to pay his exorbitant rent.
But in the month of November, JC's father called him one day. He still can't believe that their son, who was once just a wee old babe is now a full-fledged adult. Even then, he can't stomach seeing his son struggle financially. He volunteered to pay JC's rent for an entire year.
But with the way his voice is trailing, JC knows it has conditions.
"But you need to come with us to the family reunion," JC's father squeezed in.
JC had only joined the reunion once. And that once was a nightmare to begin with. His cousins relentlessly bullied him, his uncles bathed naked in the lake as if they're supermodels (they're not), and he could still feel the mosquito bites from the vacation home.
"They fumigated the place," JC's father added. "I haven't been bitten by those bloody thirsty suckers since three years ago."
JC weighed in his choices. Spend an entire year working minimum wage in exchange for two-week of immunity against familial embarrassment, or suffer through the two-week ordeal and lessen his financial burden for a year? The answer is clear.
---
JC remembered the villa like he was still 8-years-old. His highly branched family holds a reunion every three years or so. They began doing it a hundred years ago and they'll do it until everyone is dead. Which is highly unlikely. Some of their distant relatives breed like rabbits.
The car stopped to a halt. JC helped his parents and siblings unpack their bags. On the steps of their assigned home, Uncle Horace with his tuchy beard awaits.
"JC, my boy! How you've grown. Still have that pimply arse of yours?" Horace laughed with his booming voice. JC shuddered at the flashbacks when his uncle Horace used to pinch his buttcheeks.
JC groaned as he went inside the house. He placed his things and shut himself for the rest of the afternoon.