Miss Marvelous: Chaotic Summer

“So how did you make out on that relic sorting job,” asked my foster dad, picking at a piece of a tender, juicy garlic and honey sausage on his plate.

Me and my foster dad were sitting at the little round wooden table in our trailer, having sausages, corn and caesar salad for dinner. However, I have some chicken fingers instead of a sausage (only because I don’t like them since the skin is part of a pig’s intestines. Gross).

“I did alright; I sorted out all of the ancient relic weapons and put them where they belong” I replied, as I cut my long thick chicken fingers into bite sized pieces.

“That’s good”.

Joe took another forkful of salad and slipped it into his mouth.

“I was wondering, did you use a lot of hand sanitizer before you made my sandwich this morning?“.

I nearly dropped my fork when he asked this, because I instantly realized exactly what he was talking about.

“Yeah, why?” I asked, raising an eyebrow and totally regretting using octopus tentacles to make mine and my foster dad’s sandwiches.

“Maybe because I found a bit of it on top of one of my halves”.

“Really? Sorry about that. I just wanted to clean my hands before I made your lunch” I lied, as I continued to eat my supper.

“Well, you could have just used soap and water”.

“True”.

We both continued to eat our meals in silence. Moments later after I had scraped my plate clean, there was a knock on the door.

“I’ll get it,” I said, standing up from the table and walked over to the glass sliding door.

At the door was someone who I never expected to see coming over to my trailer, James.

“Hi Vanessa”.

“Hi, what are you doing here?” I replied, as I slid the screen and the glass sliding door open.

“Well, I was wondering if you wanted to come for a drive with me, my Mom and my friends into Watertown. My Mom’s going to go buy groceries and she told us we could go hang out at the mall or something until she’s done”.

I turned my head towards my foster dad, who had just finished his meal.

“Can I go?“.

He let out a sigh.

“Yes, you may. Just stay out of trouble” he replied, as he collected his and my plate off the table.

I quickly slipped on my tall brown boots, grabbed my satchel out from under the couch and headed out to James’s Mom’s car.

I got to sit next to James in the middle while his two guy friends sat in the back together and his Mom up in the driver seat.

“You must be that new girl that James talks about” said Ms Melo, as she looked at me through the rearview mirror.

“Mom, I do not! I only told you and Dad about her last night” replied James, with his cheeks hot with embarrassment.

“That still counts” she teased, as she started to drive out of the camp.

“So what brings you to The Acres, Vanessa?“.

“Well, my Foster Dad-“.

“Foster Dad? You don’t live with your parents?” piped up one of James’s friends that were sitting behind my seat.

“No, I unfortunately don’t. My parents divorced when I was five and neither of them couldn’t take me in. So I was sent to a foster home and have been living with them ever since”.

“Oh, that’s sad. Do you ever go visit them?” asked James, making eye contact with me.

“Yeah, I do. I go see my dad every now and then, since he owns a camera shop downtown in Manhattan. But CAS nor my foster dad knows where my mom is. The last time I saw her was when she gave me over to them. Then she vanished”.

There was a long moment of silence before James spoke up.

“Will you try to find her one day?“.

“Find her? How am I supposed to find her when not even the FBI can?” I replied, shifted my gaze to the window on my right.

But she might have left me for a good reason.

I continued to stare out the window and watch the world go by, as a conservation between James and his Mom started. Twenty minutes later, Ms Melo drove up to the sidewalk in front of No Frills grocery store.

“Here we are. Are you sure you want to hang out here at No Frills?” asked Ms Melo, as she turned her head to face us four.

“Yes. Mom. The boys wanted to get a few things here” replied James as me and his two friends got out of the red SUV.

“Did you ever ask Vanessa what she wanted to do?“.

“No,” he sighed, feeling guilty.

“Then maybe you should ask”.

James got out of his Mom’s vehicle and waved goodbye to her.

“I’ll be just down the road at Costco if you need me,” she said, before rolling up the window and drove out of the busy parking lot.

James walked over to me and his two tall guy friends, who were waiting for him by the left side of the entrance.

“Me and Brody are going to go ahead and get what we need,” said the taller guy of the two, named Kyle.

“Okay, uh Vanessa are you going to come inside?” asked James, as he shifted his gaze from his best friend, down to me.

“No, I think I’ll just wait out here” I replied, looking into his emerald green eyes.

“Then I’ll keep you company”.

James’s friends Kyle and Brody strolled casually into No Frills and headed for the snack/booze aisle.

Meanwhile James and Vanessa sat down on the edge of the sidewalk, where the road was made lower than the sidewalk.

“So, how come you wanted to hang out here instead of hanging out at the mall?” I asked, talking over the noise of the shopping carts, moving vehicles, and the chattering.

“Well, my friends wanted to buy stuff here, since it’s cheaper than the mall. And then I was thinking maybe we could get to know each other better,” replied James, scooching closer to me.

I shifted my gaze to a scrawny male seagull, which was devouring some split fries in the parking lot, a few meters away from me. Just watching that, somehow reminded me of Taylor’s party.

“Question, why were you at Taylor’s party?” I asked, remembering that I saw him there.

“Well, my parents and I were on our way to The Acres, when I got a text from a friend that there was a party and fortunately, we were passing through Manhattan at the time” explained James, shifting his cute gaze to me.

“Why were-“.

Before he could finish asking me his question, an elderly woman approached us and interrupted him.

“Excuse me, could one of you please help me get my quarter out of my shopping cart, it seems to be stuck”.

“Sure”.

James stood up from the edge of the sidewalk, before he followed the lady into the store, he turned his head to me and said “I’ll be back, V”.

While he was gone to help the lady, something new caught my attention; Thick black smoke was rising out of the massive Walmart department store next to No Frills I was at, quickly blackening the air around the popular store.

Standing up to my feet, I watched as panicked shoppers and employees flooded out, getting as far away as they could from the burning building.

Time for me to be a hero again, I thought as I went and ducked behind a white long van.

I opened my satchel to pull out my hero costume, thinking that I had it in there, but instead found my wallet and a notebook. My mind quickly began to race with endless possibilities of where I last left it.

Did I leave it on my bed? Under my bed? In the trailer bathroom? In the...

In the midst of my thoughts, the diamond bracelet on my right began to faintly glow white, glowing brighter every few seconds. Then I felt a weird tingly feeling, like the feeling I felt when I first shapeshifted into an animal on demand.

As quick as it came it left me. I glanced down at myself and realized why I felt the feeling. Replacing my casual clothes was my black tunic, black pants, brown belt with pockets, my black tall boots, a black mask over my eyes and my purple cloak.

I was now in my hero costume.

Then I shifted my gaze to my bracelet on my wrist and noticed that it was faintly glowing white, getting dimmer every few seconds, until it stopped.

This bracelet is MAGIC!?!?

I know it sounds stupid and you would think I would expect something as simple as a bracelet to be magical, after taking it from a place that stored magical relics safe from the outside world.

But I wasn’t even thinking about its power, I was just drawn to its beauty.

I thought, staring at my own reflection in one of the diamonds/ I silently thanked the relic, before I came out from behind the white van and jogged towards the blazing fire.