Super Frost: Confessions of a Teenage Superhero

We were in the assistant principal’s office back at school after all the buses had left to take the other kids home. None of us even got the chance to say goodbye to either of our friends or sit on the bus for the ride home. To be honest, sitting there with the four faculty members in the office with us felt like we were arrested by the Spanish Inquisition.

It was a pretty big office for all seven of us to fit in. I’ve seen the principal’s office when I first started here, which was pretty small for an interrogation like this. Rushman’s office was cramped with her big desk, her large bookshelves filled with yearbooks and binders of school academia and rules she had to abide by. She had tons of old student handbooks on that shelf as well, for the student handbooks kept changing every year with the strict rules every student had to go by or risk detention or expulsion. But Oliver Logan’s office was very clean and had enough space for a group of ten teachers to meet at that oval shaped table and have a conference with some kid’s parents. His tiny desk was behind everything and it looked more like a judge’s room without the bench or a jury section.

Rushman paced the floor behind the table anxiously. She fumed, but tried to keep her head on straight.

“You know you were seen by twenty or so college students?” assistant principal Logan said, standing up with his hand on the table. “Civilians?”

“We know,” Jeremy said, leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed like he didn’t care if they suspended him.

“You all showed your powers in broad daylight,” principal Rushman said, who stopped pacing the floor for a moment to coldly stare at us.

“Technically, I didn’t show my powers at all,” I said.

“That doesn’t concern you, Violet,” the principal said. “But you did stray from your peers and the teachers escorting you from the cafeteria while unchaperoned.”

“Actually, I did send them out to go find Sumners myself,” Mr. Oz said, who was calmly sitting at the middle of the table. “We took my car.”

Rushman stopped pacing again. “Bruce,” she snapped at Mr. Oz. “Don’t throw yourself into this. You know this is against the rules and you did take those students off campus when you should have reported it to me.”

Logan turned his head up at her and said, “Actually, he did tell me what he was doing when he saw Miss Harris in the hallway. He was escorting her and her friends from the cafeteria when he heard about what happened.”

“All right, but should Violet have left the rest of her group during the exercise?” she said. “I’ve already given another one of her peers detention for wandering the hallways.”

“We were also safe behind the gate,” Jeremy muttered. “I don’t know why we do any of these exercises anyway. They’re so stupid when we can defend ourselves after all we’ve learned in battle class and all that.”

“But do you know how to control your powers properly, Mr. Russel?” Miss Harley said. “I keep telling you that your powers are extremely dangerous and I voted highly against you competing in battle class because of the trouble you started this year. You’re only a freshman, just like your other two peers here. You need to focus on something calming to get a better handle on you powers, and your emotions.”

“Yeah, I get it, I’m a hot head,” Jeremy spat at them.

“Hey, watch it!” the assistant principal snapped at him. “I will suspend you from school.”

“I must apologize for him,” Mr. Oz said. “He did just save them both from getting shot off by men in uniform.” He turned to Jeremy and added, “I was really proud of you when you used your powers on Violet and helped her save Roger. That was quick thinking.”

“Yes, that was impressive,” Miss Harley said, agreeing with him. “All three of you were very brave and you acted beyond your years to help each other. However, I think it would still be dangerous if you tried doing that again. Roger, I think we need to have a little talk about how to control your power to teleport when you’re nervous or when some problem arises.”

“S-s-sorry, Miss Harley,” was all Glitch could say during that whole meeting. He was trembling and he kept his head down throughout the whole situation in the office. With my hands still covered, I rested my left hand on his hand that he tried to keep steady on his knee. But I could tell he was nervous from bouncing his foot quietly but nervously.

Then Harley looked over at me. “And Violet, I think you need more practice with how to make sure you don’t freeze your friend’s skin when you’re helping them out of something,” she said. “And you should still learn how to get around without your gloves. Those gloves can still protect you, but I think in the long run, you’ll need to learn to keep your powers in check when you go on in everyday life.”

“Think of them as training gloves,” Mr. Oz said, drawing my attention again. “You’ll need them now to keep your hands warm since you’re not using your powers yet. But sometime, you’ll need to learn to live and go about your life without them. You’ll probably be able to do that when you’re a junior or senior.”

“I would say she would need to start earlier than that,” Harley said.

I felt my throat thicken as I almost felt the back of my chair consume me.

“Right, and Jeremy did do a good job at helping you with controlling your frost abilities,” Mr. Oz said.

“Hmm… Perhaps we should schedule a time where both of you can learn from each other,” Mr. Logan said.

Principal Rushman went to Mr. Logan’s side and said, “Are you sure you don’t want to just give them detention?”

“Well, they do have a grudge against each other first of all,” Mr. Logan told her quietly. Even if he thought it, I would be able to hear what he was saying. “This would be a great chance for them to get to know each other and get along better.”

“I don’t know about that,” Rushman said. “Mr. Russel practically suffocated Violet under false pretenses and nearly killed her in battle class. I saw it myself.”

“Think about it, Amanda,” he said. “This could be great for morale for the students. Besides…” In a low whisper, I heard him say, “The boy likes her. I can tell.”

The principal sighed and turned to us. Then she said, “All right, I’ve made up my mind. Starting tomorrow, Mr. Sumners, you will have additional private lessons with Miss Harley to better control your teleportation skills and calm your nerves. Violet, Jeremy, you will participate in some after school training with each other on Metrocosma Community College grounds under supervision of a faculty member. And you are going to learn to work together, or I will put you in detention, or have you suspended. Three times a week, after classes are over. Starting Wednesday. Do we have a deal?”

“This doesn’t seem exactly fair,” Jeremy said.

“I don’t care if this doesn’t sound fair to you, Russel,” Mr. Logan said. “You both need to learn to work together. Can you do that?”

Jeremy humphed. We looked at each other for a long period and I tried to read his mind, but I felt like there was something blocking me. For the life of me, I couldn’t hear what he was thinking. But from the look on his face, I could see that he didn’t like this arrangement at all. His eyebrows were furrowed, and I could tell there was a little bit of his fire ability dancing behind his eyes. His face was still red from the sun.

But then he softened, relaxed his muscles and said, “All right, I’ll do it.”

Mr. Logan turned to me and said, “Well, Violet? Are you in or out?”

I couldn’t believe the words coming out of me. I was sure that Jeremy hated me. He was one of the most hated guys in school after all, the bad boy, the guy who treated me like a super villain, or maybe the other way around. Maybe I treated him too much like the villain. Either way, I had to give him a chance. So I said, “Yes, I’m in.”

“Ok, then it’s settled,” Principal Rushman said. “You two will see each other after school on Wednesday, Roger, you will see Jean Harley after school tomorrow. Do not miss more than two lessons or you will be suspended.”

The next day at school, I didn’t expect a whole lot from anybody, but apparently the word did get out that we did something heroic in the real world. Even my parents praised me. My dad patted me on the head and treated me to a chocolate milkshake when I got home because he heard about what I did on the news. Alice and Steve were ecstatic and wanted to know when I would come to their school as their fall guest speaker. My brother Charlie wanted to hear none of it. He wished my parents and his friends would just shut up about me. And my friends Pat and Andy kept asking me questions about how I felt and what was going through my head on the roof. It was amazing for the next 24 hours.

Then Jeremy approached me in the middle of lunch and said, “Meet me in the parking lot after school. I need to talk to you.”

I honestly had no idea what he wanted from me, or what he wanted to talk to me about, but I was kind of hopeful and at the same time afraid. I thought he was going to say something mean to me or start a fight after school, but then again, maybe he wanted to bury the hatchet with me.

When I got to the school parking lot after school and met with him, I felt like Jeremy was dragging me to his car. But then I realized he drove a motorbike. I didn’t like bikes, nor did I like ones that ran on gas or electricity. His bike was more of a sports machine than one of those old time Harley Davidson type of bikes. It was bright red with a big front wheel, and when he turned the key on the clutch, it hummed with an electric buzz instead of a loud gas guzzling engine.

He handed me a black helmet. “Put this on.”

“You sure you don’t just want to take the bus or the boat home?” I said. “The school is out on an island in the middle of the water.”

He smirked and said, “I get seasick and I’ve always hated buses. Don’t worry, I’m a safe driver.”

I put on the black helmet with the clear visor over my eyes. I hope it didn’t ruin my hair. “Well, just don’t drive too fast, ok?”

He chuckled and made me get on the back of his bike. “Hold onto me,” he said.

Riding on the back of a motorcycle is actually kind of tough. This one actually was quieter than the ones I was used to hearing, but it was still loud enough to hear on a highway. When we left the school parking lot and went over the long bridge to the mainland, Jeremy revved the engine a little loud, but I was thankful we didn’t go over any bumps. It was just paved road we went down until we got to the outskirts of Metrocosma. Now I really missed taking the bus, or taking the school ferry out to the parking lot. I looked behind me and saw the huge building of my school on the horizon, being held just above water with Maglev turbines on each corner. But I started to lose my balance that I held onto him tighter so I wouldn’t fall off. He turned and looked at me through the visor on his matching red helmet and said, “You ok?”

“Fine,” I yelled. “You’re just going a little fast.”

“Just breathe,” he yelled back, paying more attention to the road. “You’re doing fine.”

We stopped outside an ice cream parlor in Metrocosma, claiming to have the best ice cream flavors in town. My hair was a little flat from the wind, but Jeremy’s hair was still untarnished. He still kept his blond hair a little on the shaggy side, but looking more like feathers falling around his face.

When we got inside, he ordered a cup of “Cinnamon Bake” ice cream, which consisted of cinnamon, graham crackers, and pieces of churros, and when he asked me what I wanted, I said, “I don’t know, the price of a single scoop looks kind of expensive.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got it,” he said.

So I tried the “Cupid’s Souffle” because it had chocolate ice cream in it. It went perfectly with the raspberry ribbon, the raspberry chocolate heart-shaped truffles, and cake pieces.

I was polishing off the cup when I said, “Not bad for an ice cream place. I never pegged you for a dessert person.”

“Then you don’t know me well,” he said, swallowing another bite of cinnamon swirled in vanilla. “I kind of knew about you well enough not for your parents, but for your aunt. My mom used to tell me that story when I was growing up.”

“Then you don’t know me at all,” I said. “I’m great with my Aunt Betsy, but my parents raised me. My mom always said that her sister had the power to freeze things, but she only wanted to be the hero and save humanity, not kill people. Your father’s death was an accident.”

“Can we not discuss the whole thing?” Jeremy said between bites. “The whole thing of how your family member inadvertently killed my dad is kind of degrading.”

“How so?” I said. I really wanted to see where he was going with this.

“My dad was a villain,” he said. “While he was in school, he did all kinds of bad things, him and my mom. My mom’s still surprised he got away with so many things like larceny and damage to property. Mom didn’t want to use her powers for evil after he died, and when she told me of what happened, she told it to me as if it were a lesson to teach. She always scolded me for things I did, especially whenever she brought strange guys home and I’d do things to trip them up, scare them or hurt them. But I never wanted to kill. She kind of made me lose that streak.

“But when I started going to a new school before Falcon High, all the kids made fun of me for being the new kid. I wanted to inherit my dad’s powers early so I could teach them a thing or two about bullying, but I didn’t get my powers until I left middle school. The bullying got so bad that my mom pulled me out of school and homeschooled me until I was ready for my first year at Falcon High. So that was really the time I learned I wanted to be the hero and kind of end my dad’s evil streak.”

“So why did you go after me like that in class?” I said.

“I had the terrible notion that you were going to go after me like I was the villain my dad was,” he said. “I thought you were going to hurt me somehow, someday, so I just thought I’d be the bigger person and challenge you to battle class so we could both get our negative energy out in the open.”

“Well, then, you don’t know me or my family at all,” I said, licking the inside of the cup. “I’m normally good natured. And when I got the first impression of you, I was really scared, really intimidated by you. I didn’t want you to fight me and I didn’t want to be your enemy. Just so we’re clear, I don’t like the thought of having villains in my life.”

As I continued licking the chocolatey residue left on the inside of the cup, Jeremy said, “Then you wouldn’t do well as a superhero if you try to get everyone to like you, like the way you’re making a mess on your face by licking the chocolate off your cup.”

I paused my tongue from licking anymore melted cream. I swallowed and said, “I’m sorry. Am I being rude?”

“Actually, it’s kind of cute,” he said.

“Then I guess you’d be wrong about being a bad superhero,” I said.

We both laughed. I guess I was kind of wrong about Jeremy, for that was the first time he opened up to anyone. I talked about our conversation with Andy the next day, and he said that he really wasn’t the most open person in the world. But I considered that he probably opened up to me because I can read minds. And I can speak to people with my mind.

When I told Mylana about this, she didn’t want to hear about it for some reason. She just wanted to talk about how hot Tom Larkin was and how I should go up to him and talk so he could take me to this dance, the September Ball. It was kind of like the Homecoming dance, only we didn’t have a football team to do a Homecoming game or a dance at our school. So September Ball it was. It was like a formal dance like the prom, only it was held in our school gym, and it was a big dance to get all the new students like me to chat with the upperclassmen at Falcon High. I really wasn’t sure about going, for I had never been to a dance and I had nothing to wear. If anything, I planned to go alone because I knew Tom was bringing Fiona and I didn’t know anyone else who needed a date for this thing.

Alice said, “I guess you just described the beginning of a love story.” But I didn’t believe her.

The next day, Jeremy told me to stick around after school and go see him by the parking lot. I waited at school until all the buses were gone and everyone had left when I found him waiting for me in the big lobby outside the gym and the new wing. He got me on his motorbike again, and this time I was getting used to riding on the back of a motorcycle. It was kind of like riding with Steve Rogers on the back of his bike, after that big battle of New York. When we arrived, I saw that we were again outside the big basketball court at Metro Community College, the same place where we had combat training for kids going into Falcon High freshman year. Only this time that we were here, I had my powers whereas weeks ago, I was completely powerless.

When we got into the building, the school guidance counselor Steven Crow was waiting for us. “Glad you made it, you’re right on time,” he said, taking down his glasses. “I’m going to be your referee today for your lesson.”

“Wait, I thought Mr. Alexander, the gym teacher was the main referee,” Jeremy said.

“I’m only here as an advisor to Miss Rushman,” Mr. Crow said. “My job is to make sure you two don’t start a fight with each other and you both remain calm during these sessions. We good?”

We nodded. There was no way our relationship would get any worse. He did buy me some ice cream.

We stood in the big arena where the basketball court had their games and exhibitions while Mr. Crow sat in the back with his paperwork and let us do all the teaching to each other.

“I thought you were supposed to be teaching the both of us,” Jeremy said.

“Your job is to learn to trust each other,” Mr. Crow said. “That is how you are going to conduct yourselves; by teaching each other.”

Then Mr. Crow put his paperwork down and came over to me. “Take off your gloves, Violet,” he said. “You won’t need them in here.”

He held out his hand as I stripped my gloves off and handed them to him.

He had me stand in front of Jeremy. Then he backed away and said, “Now, Jeremy, teach her something.”

Jeremy sighed. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he said.

“It’s ok, it’s just a private lesson,” I said. “I promise I won’t hurt you.”

“And I’ll try my best not to hurt you either,” he said. “Do you know how to conjure a weapon with your frost powers?”

“How do I do that?” I said.

“Just put your hands out and think,” he said.

So I did. I spread out my hands and tried closing my eyes. The best I could do was use some ice as knives or maybe a sword. When I opened my eyes again, I was holding two pointed shards of ice, like daggers. They were beautiful ice blue translucent daggers with carefully sculpted ice handles.

Jeremy stepped back and went to my side, clapping his hands. “Bravo,” he said.

“I was originally going for a sword,” I said.

“It doesn’t matter,” Remy said, getting closer. “They’re still good weapons.”

“More like Loki’s choice of weapons,” I said. “Kind of puny, because he kept getting pounded by Thor’s hammer and he was clobbered to bits by the Hulk.”

He laughed. “You just need to figure out the best way to use them in battle, because one day, you’ll need them.”

He moved around the basketball court and stood yards away from me, putting his arms out in an ass-kicking pose. “Ready?” he said.

“Sorta,” I muttered, holing both daggers out.

“Attack,” he told me.

I broke into a run. As soon as I got a few feet away, Remy lifted his hand and made me float up into the air. I tried throwing one of my ice daggers at him, but he deflected it with his other hand, turning the ice dagger into water and steam with his fire. I fell to the ground on my back in defeat.

“Crap,” I muttered.

“Do you know how I averted that?” Remy said.

“By being ridiculously good at moving things and people with your mind?”

“No, I predicted your movements. The thing about fighting your opponents is to be unpredictable. You need to flank your opponents sometimes, or maybe watch your back and attack from behind.”

“But it’s kind of good to know when I’m facing my opponent,” I said. “It kind of feels scary and haunting to know that there might be someone constantly following you and you have to be on your guard at all times.”

“That’s also a slower attack,” Remy said, helping me to my feet. When I was standing, he lifted my right hand that held the other dagger and he said, “It’s very common for heroes to be on their guard at all times. We’re fragile creatures, not everyone is invincible. To use this, you need to stop throwing and start aiming, or swing from the elbow. It takes less than a pound of pressure to cut skin.”

He put his hand on my wrist and made me snap my wrist to swipe the knife across. I looked at him and he was kind of staring at me like he wanted me. The last sentence he said came out very low and smooth, as if he was inferring something I was mainly uncomfortable about. But it didn’t seem weird when I heard it. Also, his hazel eyes weren’t burning through me like they did before. He was actually kind of sweet when I caught him staring at me.

That was when my stomach did a flip or twist and I felt slightly nauseous. My heart also did a click or something, pulsing through my neck. I could feel it. What the hell was happening? For some reason, I wished I could speak with him telepathically so he could read my thoughts and know what I was thinking. I also wanted to hear what he was thinking for some reason, but he was blocking me then. I didn’t know how he could do it. Maybe it was because of his mind power to control objects and physical things, instead of controlling the power to read minds like I did.

“Want to try again?” he said.

I shook my head and snapped myself out of it. I backed away and said, “Yeah, I guess.”

Awkward. Really awkward moment.

We continued to practice using our abilities to get ready for class until around five in the afternoon, and he dropped me off at home. The following day, I was a little more exhausted, but I was willing to practice with him at the same place after school on Friday. That day, he took his textbooks and made them float so I could work on target practice. I think I actually hit one of them with one of my ice daggers, but I still missed the center of the book. The following Monday, Remy got me to practice combining his powers with mine. I never knew that our combined powers of ice and fire would be powerful and kind of deadly.

“Can you do wind or frost breath?” he asked me at one time.

“I haven’t even considered that,” I said. “I still think I’m not there yet. I can still chew bubblegum without the bubbles getting brittle or bursting too quickly, though.”

“It’s probably because you’re weak. We need to get your lungs working twice as better. You need more breath support.”

So at first, he told me to lie down and take some deep breaths from my belly, counting out all the way back from twelve to almost fifteen seconds. I tried getting as much air in as I could, but I still couldn’t hold it for very long. But the amazing thing was that as soon as Remy counted up to fifteen and I finally breathed out, my breath was a little foggy as it came out, as if the whole room had turned ice cold and I could see a little bit of smoke coming from my mouth. Even Mr. Crow started shivering from the bleachers.

But I started getting a little lightheaded when I said, “I think that’s the best I can do. I think that’s enough.”

“Ok, you’re doing better,” Remy said. “I think I saw something for a moment, like a little bit of ice. You’ll get better when we work on your diaphragm and your abs, because that’s mainly where you’re getting your frost abilities, like you said.”

The next thing that we did before we went home was that he pulled me to my feet and we did some arm work. I had really weak arms, but Remy went easy on me. We both put our arms out in front of us and forced as much ice and fire power out in front of us. Combined, the ice and the fire met and started creating this fine shield of hot mist spraying in front of us. There was smoke and steam, and it rained heat around us. But as I felt my frost abilities fading, I could feel the heat of his fire getting closer to my hand.

“Stop,” I said. He couldn’t hear me. “Stop!” I shouted.

Finally, he stopped and put his arm down. The fire disappeared. “Oh, I’m sorry,” he said. “Are you all right? I kind of got a little carried away when your ice was fading.”

“That’s ok,” I said. “As long as it didn’t happen when we were in battle class.”

He chuckled and came over, putting his arm around me. “Well, I was a little nervous and kind of angsty that day,” he said. “I finally realized when you saved me that it was unfair to you to be the new kid in school, starting off in battle class without any training. I basically called you out on your first day.”

“Second day,” I said.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “But you are getting better at this. You just need to work on yourself a little more, you know, push yourself harder.”

“Thanks.”

After a while, I noticed he was still holding onto me by the shoulders a little too long. I almost told him that this was a weird feeling because my stomach was starting to feel it, but then he pulled back and said he was sorry just as I was thinking it. Maybe my telepathy combined with his telekinesis made him communicate with me a little better. He was also being much nicer to me the more I got to know him.

I even got to hear the guidance counselor’s thoughts as we left that day. He was thinking along the lines of, “Man, he should have kissed her right there.”

As we walked out to his motorcycle parked outside the art museum across the street, I said, “So is there anything I need to teach you about controlling your powers?”

“Not really,” he said. “The only thing I’m still trying to get the hang of is controlling titanium. It’s the only thing I can’t set on fire or move with my mind. I don’t know what it is with that particular metal, but I can’t do anything with it to attack my enemies, if I have any.”

“Well, maybe we should work on that,” I said.

“Nah, I’ll let my teachers handle it. You know Mr. Crow is kind of like my therapist outside of class. Ever since I started coming here, he’s been helping me control my emotions once a week after dinner so I could get a better handle on my powers. I seem to be really good at handling my fire and my mind over matter control when I’m in between anger and being calm. It works. But sometimes I do get carried away with my fire and I need to lock it down before it consumes me.”

“Oh,” I said quietly. “So maybe you need someone to chill you out.”

We were at his motorbike when I put my hands together, closed my eyes, and I started thinking about something pretty that I could sculpt with my mind. It turned out to be a rock, until Remy took his fingers and started tracing them around it, making it melt a little until it formed a shape. When I looked at the block of ice I made with my hands, I found that it was no longer an ice rock, it was a rose made out of pure ice.

“See? You are improving,” he said.

“So are you,” I said.

We stared at each other for what felt like forever, the ice still cold in my hand. It probably wouldn’t keep up that very long because it was a warm September day and the heat was warming my porcelain skin. I didn’t know how long it would last when I got home to put it in my freezer. But it was lovely.

Then he took the other helmet and handed it to me. “So, home?”

Awkward again. “Yeah, home,” I said.

So he took me home and we didn’t speak of that moment again.

The following day at school, I was tired from the other days’ after school practice. I felt like I couldn’t even keep my eyes open. My arms, abs, and legs were all sore from fighting, and I think I felt my hands feeling warmer than usual. My superpowers were overworked from the other day. When I went to power control class with Jean Harley and Dr. Osborne the flight instructor, I couldn’t make any wind or ice to save my life.

“Come on, Violet, wake up,” Ms. Harley said. “Concentrate.”

I didn’t feel my powers come back to me until the middle of the day. When I sat down at lunch that day with my usual group of guys, I found Jeremy to be sitting with them. He moved over and offered the seat to me, which I thought was a little unlike him. He still wore his leather jacket from the day we rode his motorbike to the ice cream place the other day, still smelling like the city.

“Hey, Remy,” Andy said. “Now that we’re sitting with you, are we now a part of the cool team?”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Jeremy said. “You know the coolest people are Fiona Dangerous and Tom Larkin, whom are both jerks.”

“H-hey!” Glitch called. “D-d-don’t talk about Fiona that way!”

“Somebody’s got a crush,” Pat said.

“Oh, make room for the frost girl,” Jeremy said, turning back to me as I held my lunch tray in hand still stunned. “C’mere, Violet.”

I came back to earth when he told me to come over, so I sat down. “You know, you don’t have to keep calling me frost girl,” I said. “I’m not your enemy anymore.”

“Sorry, force of habit,” Jeremy said.

“So you’re not one of the cool kids?” Andy said.

Jeremy turned back to him when I sat down. “I’m more of the outsider, really,” he said. “I don’t like to fall in with the in crowd because I know they’re all hypocrites and I’d rather do something good for mankind than something cool.”

“Oh, so, you want to be like Spiderman, huh?” Pat said. “Do some good but because you feel it’s right, and not what the law says to do?”

“I prefer to be more of a lawful good than a neutral good,” Jeremy said.

“Oh, so like Captain America or Batman,” I said.

“More like Batman,” Jeremy said, turning to me. “I’ve always liked the darker superheroes, to be honest, the ones who are more damaged.”

“What about you, Vi?” Andy said. “Neutral, chaotic, or lawful good? Which one would you be?”

I had to give myself a second to think. “What is each one again?”

“Ok, lawful good is the good guy who goes by the rules and is kind of a boy scout,” Andy said. “Neutral good is the guy who does things because it’s right and it’s also good for himself, but not everyone. Chaotic good is the guy who goes against the law and bucks authority to make things right for everyone, but is not necessarily the kindest person in the world.”

I gave it more thought. “Hmm… I don’t actually know,” I said. “I don’t want to be the bad guy, and I don’t want to go against the law, but sometimes I feel like the rules can be wrong. For instance, I didn’t have powers until a few days ago and all summer I tried to get into this school because I didn’t want to be left out. All I ever wanted was to fit in. And my dream as a hero is that I’ve always wanted to fly. I tried making contraptions out of my dad’s materials from his lair just outside our neighborhood whenever I sneaked in there so I could assimilate flight. Now that I have my powers, Ms. Harley and Oz are telling me I can fly by using my powers. It’s really hard and exhausting to try to do that, but I want to get closer to that. I don’t want to give up until I have half a breakthrough. I want to learn to fly more than anything, and I want to help people, but I just think it’s unfair for kids like me to be kicked out of school because of who they are and what they can or can’t do. I don’t want everyone to be helpless citizens. I want our people to fight stronger.”

Andy and Pat looked at each other and shrugged after my speech. They looked back at me when Andy said, “Survey says?”

“You’re probably in between chaotic good and neutral good,” Pat said. “But if you really think about it, your dad is working closely with the police department and the fire department in case of disasters or attacks. So, not everyone is useless. We still need those people to enforce the laws, serve and protect.”

“The p-police sh-should be respected,” Glitch said.

“Here, here,” Pat said, raising his milk carton.

“I disagree,” Andy said. “What have the police ever done for us, really? With everything superhero related going on, the police and the military have been useless. Guns and ammunition doesn’t always help the cause to kill alien invaders. Look what happened to Metrocosma in 2004!”

“Sorry, what was your superpower again?” Pat said.

Andy scoffed. “Man, you had to ask,” he said.

“I do respect the police,” I said. “Because they protect the public from getting in harm’s way when the superheroes aren’t there to do anything. We can’t save everyone, but we can try our best. I still think that there should be more than just the police to help people like us.”

“Well said,” Andy said. “By a chaotic good hero.”

“I prefer not to determine what kind of hero I am,” I said. And that was the truth. I didn’t want to be defined by what kind of hero I was, just as long as I did some good for the world. That was all that mattered to me.

As we ate our lunch while Andy and Pat had another debate over what kind of heroes they wanted to be, Jeremy got my attention again. “So, I was just wondering, there’s this band that’s playing a show in November,” he said. “Have you ever heard of Magic?”

“I think so,” I said. “Are those the guys who wrote the song about eloping with a girl when her daddy said you can’t have her?”

“Yeah, I think so,” he said. “I think that was the song ‘Rude’, but they have other songs. They’re a reggae band from Canada and they’re really awesome. Anyway, if you want to come with me, I have tickets to their show.”

I sipped my juice and said, “Are you asking me out?”

“Well, I thought it would be nice to get to know each other more without the guys and without the secret lessons,” he said. “Maybe just as friends. What do you think?”

“Meh, why not?” I said.

He smiled. Then all of a sudden, my heart pulsed inside my throat, and I could feel it going faster than I was used to. I tried to steady my breathing by taking a deep breath through my nose, but then I felt this sinking/ flipping feeling in my stomach. I wondered if there was something wrong with me. Maybe I should see the nurse about this, I thought.

“Y-You ok, Vi?” Glitch said.

Without giving it thought, I said, “Yeah, I think so. I just kind of felt nauseous for a second.”

“R-R-Remy d-didn’t get you p-pregnant, did he?” he said.

“Don’t be so ridiculous!” I practically shouted. “We’ve only just started sitting together for lunch.”

“Remy left a little bun in the oven,” Pat said, snickering. Glitch joined him.

“Guys, will you cut it out?” Jeremy said. “We’re not even remotely attracted to each other.”

“We’re just messing with you,” Pat said. “Besides, I’m thinking you guys are more like enemies turned friends.”

“But Glitch isn’t wrong,” Andy said. “He’s seen people fight in middle school when we went to school together, and all of them ended up dating each other by eighth grade. He’s never wrong about these things.”

“Maybe I can prove that possibility wrong,” I said. “You know I’ve got a thing for Tom Larkin.”

“He’s an ass, though,” Jeremy said.

“Well, you didn’t see him when we met,” I said. “He was really nice to me. So why do you have such a grudge against him?”

He looked at me with heat behind his eyes. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he snapped.

“I think it had to do with those two in middle school,” Andy said. “They used to be friends.”

“Enough,” Jeremy spat at him.

“Sorry, man,” Andy said. “If you want to keep that story quiet, then go ahead. But if you want to be up front with your girlfriend, you’d better do it soon.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Jeremy said.

“Whatever you say,” said Andy.

When Mylana arrived, she put her hands on her hips and said, “What are you doing talking to the freaks?”

I turned to her and said, “They’re not freaks, they’re my friends. They’re like the first people who actually talked to me all semester.”

“Whatever, you should be sitting with us!” she said. “We’ve got a really awesome view of the seniors’ tables in the courtyard, and Tom Larkin is at the table next to ours! Come on!”

She pulled me up out of my seat and dragged me away from the guys. She also forced my lunch into my hands, grabbed my books and hurried me to the other side of the cafeteria where the sun was shining from the windows. Mylana’s table was adjacent to the doorway, where a whole bunch of prim and polished girls with fancy manicured nails and designer purses sat eating small snacks like pretzels or fries, barely eating anything at all. They all greeted Mylana when she came back to introduce me as they tapped on their little smartphones. I looked behind me and saw how lonely the guys were without me. As much as I wanted to be popular, I really didn’t want to leave them behind.

I couldn’t remember the girls’ names for the life of me. Most of the time I sat with them, I said nothing and just listened to them talk and think.

’Why is this creepy fat freshman sitting at our table,’ one girl thought. ‘She’s freaking me out with the Bride of Chucky hair. And she doesn’t even shop at the same stores we do. She’s worse than an Abercrombie knock off.’

“So, do you think your boyfriend is taking you to the September Ball?” Mylana asked some girl in a tight pink tube top.

The girl in the tube top answered, “IDK, we might just end up hanging out at the mall. Dances are so boring.”

“And the food from our cafeteria sucks,” the girl who was thinking nasty thoughts about me finally said.

“Well, at least it’s better than Generic High School,” I said. “Their pizza didn’t have any crusts and it looked worse than Ledo’s Pizza. The pizza here is better because it actually looks cooked and isn’t in a rectangle shape.”

They all looked at me confused, as if I had just come down from an alien planet. Then Mylana said, “Sorry girls, she’s new. She didn’t get her powers until a couple weeks ago, so she did some time at civilian school before she was transplanted here.”

The girls nodded their heads and were like, “Oh.” They said that like they didn’t care and went back to nibbling on their soft bread pretzels and typing on their phones.

I thought things weren’t going to get any better until someone tapped me on the shoulder. Thinking it was Jeremy coming to rescue me, I turned around. But when I saw the guy standing over me, I went cold. It was Tom Larkin, showing off his abs and his strong biceps in a white t shirt. I almost melted at the sight of him.

“Hi, Violet, right?” Tom said.

I gave a nervous chuckle. “Yeah, Tom, hi,” I said.

“I was thinking if you didn’t mind going out for dinner tonight, if you’re not busy.”

“Me? Busy? No.” Then I thought about it, remembering what I was supposed to do that night with my family. “Oh crap, sorry, my parents are taking me out to Blue Jay’s Burgers to celebrate me getting into Falcon High. I wish I could, but I can’t.”

“Well, maybe I can come with you to that,” he said.

“You want to come meet my parents and my baby brother?” I said. “Isn’t that a little too fast? Did you want to go on a date first?”

“Actually, I don’t mind it being a first date thing,” he said. “But I would love to meet up with you later if you want to do something for a first date. What do you think?”

“Uh… sure, why not?”

“Ok, great, I’ll see you tonight.”

Before he left, he brushed my white and brown hair back behind my ear, which made me feel gooey all over. I smiled. When he was gone, I turned back to Mylana and her girlfriends as they all started cooing.

“OMG, did he just ask you out?” the girl in the tube top said.

“It sounded like he did,” Mylana said.

“But wait, isn’t he dating Fiona?” the other girl asked.

“Actually, I heard he dumped her,” Mylana said.

“Either way, that’s good news,” the other girl said.

“Like, LOL,” snooty tube top said. She looked up from her phone and said to me, “What are you going to wear to this dinner?”

“Well, I’m going out with my parents for this,” I said. “So it’s really nothing special. I was thinking I could just wear whatever I’m wearing now.”

“No way! You’ve got to wear something sexy,” she said. “Make him go cray cray over you.”

“Girls, chillax,” Mylana said. “This is her first time at this new school and she doesn’t have a whole lot of money. She’s a freshman and she’s going to go steady with this guy. She’s not going to like, go all slutty for him.”

“Ok, that’s rad,” the tube top girl said.

Suddenly, I was becoming the most popular girl in school.

Maybe Mylana’s friends were right in this instance, I started thinking when I got home. If I wanted to impress Tom Larkin, the hottest guy in school, I had to change my look a little bit so he could take me on our first date the next time we saw each other.

I didn’t convince my mom to take me shopping at the mall, but I did go through my closet for some decent attractive clothes. I practically emptied my entire closet just looking for something. I didn’t want to wear anything red, for that would be too showy and revealing. I didn’t want to look like I was trying too hard. I thought about wearing pink, but I realized with my brown and white hair, the pink sort of washed me out. If my hair had gone all white instead of just the white streaks I had, maybe the pink would bring out the rosiness in my cheeks. But when I held the pink blouses to my face, they looked like they washed me out most of the time. Unfortunately, that was most of my shirts in my wardrobe except for my superhero shirts, cast out.

I wondered if a dress, maybe like a sun dress, would be enough. Some of the dresses in my closet were too tight because of my boobs getting too big. I guessed that my chest had now fully developed and it was round and curvy as my butt. I took off the purple sun dress I had on and threw it in the trash. Then I looked at myself in the mirror, in my lingerie. My hips and my chest were almost perfectly aligned with each other. I had that perfect hourglass shape that Marilyn Monroe had in the 50s, only I had a little flab in my belly. That was the only thing I hated about my body. I wasn’t as skinny as the other girls. But I think I grew a cup size or two. I was no longer a 32 B. I was more like a 38 B or a 32 C ever since I got my powers. I had also been craving more peanut butter and jelly, more pastries, and more chocolate over the past couple weeks since I started school. Maybe if I worked out more in gym class, I would have a better body.

The loosest fitting dress I could find in my closet was a royal blue and turquoise halter dress with an ocean wave pattern on it. It was a dress my mom found at the summer festival in Metrocosma a few months ago, and it was the kind of dress you could wrap around yourself in a dozen different ways, because it was a single strip of fabric with ribbon tassels on it. So I wrapped the dress around me in its halter style and tied the tassels around my ribcage in the back.

Now, to do something about that Bride of Frankenstein hair.

My mom had some root touch up dye in the bathroom under the sink. I hoped she didn’t mind if I borrowed it to use on my hair. So I took one of the mini combs of hair dye in the box and put on some plastic gloves. They didn’t exactly keep my hands warm, but I figured they would keep the frost away from my hair and keep the paint from getting on my hands. I combed the white streaks first, then applied the dye starting at the root. At first, the brown paint on the hair started to work, but then slowly, the white of my hair started coming back at the top of my head. I tried re-applying the dye to my hair, but the white didn’t want to go away. Instead, another streak of white hair appeared on the right side of my head, next to the piece of hair I was dying.

I growled as I pitched the dye applicator in the trash. My mom came in, looking kind of worried. “Vi, honey, what are you doing?” she said.

“Trying to cover up this stupid Bride of Frankenstein hair,” I said, rinsing the white streak. For some reason the dye was still there, but it had turned white with the hair. “I look ugly with these stupid white streaks.”

“Why do you want to get rid of them?” mom said. “They make you look more mature. I think they make you beautiful.”

“Yeah, well I look like an old lady with them,” I said, washing my hands afterwards. I rubbed my hands vigorously under the water to keep them from freezing the water as it came from the faucet. I was also using warmer water on them more often to make sure that it turned into steam than ice.

My mom took a brush and said, “Come here.” I turned around as she started brushing my hair. “I think I can fix this. You know we’re just going out to dinner, right?”

“I kind of invited someone,” I said. “A guy from school.”

My mom stood back, almost shocked. “A guy? Do you like him?”

“Sort of,” I said. “His name’s Tom, and he’s kind of like the coolest guy at school.”

She put the brush down and said, “Oh, I see. Could you do me a favor and grab the curling iron from under the sink?”

I went to the other door on the other side of the sink and grabbed it for her. She plugged the curling iron in and continued brushing my hair while it warmed up. “Just relax, I’ve got this. I think with a little curling and some hairspray, you’ll look perfect for him. Is that what you’re wearing?”

“Yeah, it’s the only dress that will fit me and go with my hair,” I said. “I also stole one of your bras earlier. I hope that’s ok.”

She brushed the left side of my head. “Wow, I guess we need to take you shopping for new clothes soon. Seems you’re getting bigger.”

“Yeah, like an elephant.”

“Don’t call yourself fat,” mom said as she brushed my right side. “You’re not an elephant and you’re not a fat girl. You’re still growing. You’re only fourteen. Don’t feel bad about your weight or your body.”

“I don’t know, it’s not how a superhero is supposed to look,” I said. “I’m pudgy.”

“You’re not pudgy, you’re beautiful,” mom said, putting the brush down and pulling my hair back behind my shoulders. “You’re just curvier in a couple areas. You have that hourglass figure I never had.”

When the curling iron was hot enough, mom took a piece of white hair in the front and started curling it with the iron. She curled every inch of my hair, even though a few times my hair didn’t want to curl at all. When I had this ringlet look to my hair, my mom took the hairspray bottle and sprayed my hair into submission, so the curls would stay in place. Sometimes I wish I was born with wavy hair or something other than straight hair so it would do something more than just fall flat.

When I came downstairs, Tom Larkin was already there. My dad wasn’t home yet and my brother still hadn’t come home from karate practice; they were going to meet us at the restaurant later, I assumed. So while I was making adjustments to my makeup, mom must have answered the door and brought him inside. When Tom saw me, he had that stunned look on his face, but it later turned into a smile. He gave me a daisy, which I felt was kind of sweet, but I kind of expected a rose or some other flower that was more romantic. Also, the flower was plastic, like the ones you buy at a craft store.

“You look stunning,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said. “I tried dying my hair to hide the white streaks, but it didn’t work.”

“Actually, I think it’s sexy,” he said.

I blushed hard. I think the warmth was coming back into my face after using my powers in control class, trying to fly.

“Do you wanna go?”

“Absolutely,” I said.

When we got to Blue Jay’s Burgers, dad and Alex were waiting for us. Mom was happy that Tom and I were together, or at least she looked that way. Dad kept a straight face when he shook his hand. I guess dads are still a little protective of their daughters when the daughter starts dating a boy at school. But after the waitress took our order, dad immediately got into the story of how he defeated Volatile, Fiona’s dad, and threw him in prison.

“You should have seen the look on his face when I punched him into the ground,” dad said with a smile. “He had no idea what was coming to him, and he deserved it. Villains are very relentless when it comes to their dirty deeds.”

I rolled my eyes and said, “Dad, is there any way you could be less gruesome about telling us that story?”

“It’s not that bad!” dad said. “Besides, that day was pretty magical, because when I got home that very night, that was when my wife’s water broke, and the very next morning, Violet was born. We celebrate that victory every year on Violet’s birthday, with a white cake made with purple buttercream frosting, the color of her eyes right now, and we usually celebrate her birthday on the beach in Wildwood.”

“That’s a pretty sweet story, Mr. Harris,” Tom said.

Then overhead, I heard an upbeat reggae rhythm tapped on drums and guitar. The singer sounded familiar with his deep, smooth voice, and the lyrics echoed with something along the lines of, “Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.” It was just like the three monkeys that I usually see for sale as bookends next to each other, one with its ears covered, one with its eyes covered, and the last one with its mouth covered.

That band was so familiar to me, for they sounded like the same band that did the song about a guy going up to a girl’s father and asking her for her hand in marriage, only to be turned away- “Why you gotta be so rude?” Oh my god, the Magic concert. Jeremy. I felt that sinking, churning feeling in my stomach when I thought of him. It was my body telling me that I shouldn’t be messing with Tom, or was it? Maybe it was my cream soda that was making me nauseous, I couldn’t tell. I decided to get up and head to the ladies’ room.

“Vi, where are you going?” Tom said, taking me by the arm before I was about to leave the table.

“Just the little girls’ room,” I said. “I don’t feel well.”

“What’s wrong?” he said.

“I don’t know, something’s been bothering me since lunch at school.”

“You can tell me.” He started to get up out of our booth. “Come on, come with me.”

He took my hand and led me outside the restaurant. It was a warm night for September, with a calm breeze drafting in here and there. It was after seven and the sun had just started to sink lower. Tom stood with me on the opposite side of the doors, staying clear from the doorway so people could come and go.

“What’s wrong?” Tom said, taking my hands in his.

“It’s my friends,” I said. “I still want to hang with them, but my best friend Mylana wants me to steer clear away from those guys. And there’s this one guy… He used to be an enemy of mine until battle class and now we’re on good terms. He kind of told me you were trouble.”

Tom looked at me and sighed. “Jeremy Russel?”

“Yeah, someone said you have a bad rep with him.”

“Yeah. He’s not the nicest guy in the world.”

“I know that. But after battle class, he stood up for me. He even asked me to go to a concert with him.”

He laughed and sighed again. “Wow, you’re really into him, aren’t you?”

I paused to think about it. I told him the truth about how I felt. “No. I like you more than him.”

He smiled in a big way. “That’s a big relief for me. I feel the same. It’s just, Jeremy’s not the nicest guy… I don’t think you want to know.”

I didn’t want to hear it, but my heart filled up with words that shot through my mouth. “No, you can tell me. I’ll keep it secret.”

Tom smoothed his hair with his hand and shook it up a little in the back. “Well, it kind of started in middle school when we started getting our powers. Jeremy was kind of a mean friend back then. He used to bully me while we knew each other, and then say he was sorry and tried to make it up to me. I guess you could say he was only being mean so he could look cool in front of the cool people. Anyway, there was one time after school when I was trying out for the morning announcements team, to be a kind of anchor person, reporting things about the events after school. And you know I’m kind of photogenic with the camera, since I’m also the student body president at Falcon High.”

I nodded. I was well aware of the fact.

“But when I went to the place where they were having the tryouts,” Tom continued. “I had no idea that Jeremy was hiding out right behind me, behind the desk. The script I was supposed to read from, he set the pages on fire. I tried the best I could to put the flames out, but the script was already ruined and I couldn’t read for the morning announcements. Then I heard him laughing from behind and I knew it was him. The very next day at school, I grabbed him, without using my powers, that is, and we kind of got into a tussle.”

That sounded horrible. “God, how cruel,” I said.

“So, yeah, I had to wait another year until I got what I wanted. We both also got suspended from school for getting into a fight on school grounds. We’ve sort of been enemies ever since.”

“That sucks,” I said. “So in real life, Jeremy’s a nasty jerk.”

“Exactly,” Tom said, putting his hands on my shoulders. “That’s kind of why I think it’s best that you stay away from him. I can’t imagine what he could do to you.”

Something told me deep down that maybe none of this was true. “Well, I don’t know… He did take me out for ice cream after we had our fight in battle class. And he’s not so bad when he’s not fighting. He can be kind of nice when he’s calm and not using his powers.”

He stared at me and gave me a smirk. “Seems like you’ve got bad taste in guys.”

“No I don’t!” I nearly yelled. “You’re just making it a little hard for me to be comfortable in my own skin.”

“Oh, I make you uncomfortable?” He started rubbing my arm.

The fuzzy feeling in my head started going crazy. But there was no flipping sensation in my stomach. He was a little intimidating for me, almost like he was smothering me with nervousness. He was cute, but I was scared to let my guard down around him. I nodded a little shakily, over-exaggerating my expressions. “Sort of… yeah… maybe.”

He took his hands away and said, “Well that should tell you something… That I’m the better guy for you, and you don’t need to be with anyone else but me.”

“What about Fiona?” I said.

“I dumped Fiona last night,” he said. “She was basically looking to be the senior class’s prom queen someday, and I hate people looking for publicity. You’re not into that sort of thing, are you?”

“No… I really like you. I couldn’t care less about being popular.”

He took a deep breath. “That’s good. Just do me a favor… Stay away from Jeremy.”

I nodded and took his hand.

“You feeling better now?” he said.

I took a deep breath. “Yeah, we’re good.”

“Ok, let’s go back inside, come on.”

And as he put his arm around me, I felt like I just made a promise I couldn’t keep. I kind of liked Jeremy, and I didn’t want to miss out on what I had with my new friends. With Tom, I could have everything. But with Jeremy, I didn’t know. I kind of figured I could have someone worth having ice cream and similar music tastes with. I kind of liked Magic.

When we got home, I told my parents I would get inside a little later. We stood on the porch alone while mom, dad, and Alex did whatever to wait for me. I hoped mom wasn’t watching us from the window. Thankfully, I didn’t see any prying faces there.

“Ok, so, I guess this means goodnight,” I said.

“Wait, there’s something I wanted to ask you before I go,” Tom said.

“What’s up?”

“I was thinking about going to the September Ball next weekend, but since I broke up with Fiona, I figured I don’t want to go at all… unless I had a date.”

My heart quickened. “Oh really?”

“I got a few girls asking me to go with them to the big dance, but I turned them all down,” he said.

I could feel my heart pounding in my ears. I stared at him, wondering what he was about to say next. Please say it, please say it, say it, say it, say it! Just go ahead and ask me already!

“Do you want to be my date?” Tom said. “Without your parents, that is.”

I couldn’t believe my ears when he asked me. In that moment, I forgot all about Jeremy, all about school, my friends on the inside and outside of Falcon, my parents, and my high school rep, all at once. I didn’t care if my friends would approve or not. I didn’t want to be popular at school, but I knew I wouldn’t disappoint Mylana and her clique of girls. But something in my stomach said not to accept, something in the back of my head. I didn’t know what it was, but I felt like there was something wrong with this whole thing.

I still didn’t care. Without giving it a single thought, I immediately said, “Yes!”

He looked stunned when I said it. “Yes? You’re coming?”

I repeated my answer. “Yes! Are you kidding me? I don’t have a single thing to wear, but I’m sure I’ll find something. I can’t wait!”

He chuckled and said, “All right! Awesome! I’ll see you at the dance!”

Then he did the weirdest thing instead of kissing me. He put up his fist to give me a fist bump. My heart finally slowed as I decided to respond in kind and put my fist up to clink our hands together. He made his fist “explode” and then went down the steps to his car. That should have been the first sign that we weren’t meant to be. I sighed, got out my house key, and started for the front door.

But then he came back to me on the porch and said, “Wait, I almost forgot.”

“What?” I said, turning around.

He kissed me on the cheek goodnight and said, “See you on Monday, babe.”

Or maybe, he was a keeper after all. Then again, I thought as he finally left, I was getting a lot of mixed signals from him. Either he wanted to be buddies with me, or he wanted to be my first love. I couldn’t tell the difference between what he wanted from me and what he wanted to do with me.

Most of all, I had doubts about trusting him to the full.