Jake
II
I awoke the next morning with a cold bucket of ice being dumped on my head. I got up immediately. I spotted my sister’s smirking face looking at me.
Before I could pulverize her she said, “Get up birdbrain, school starts in ten minutes.” I hopped out of bed, shoved my twelve-year-old sister, Jane, out of my room and got ready for the day, at an unnatural pace. I didn’t have any time to ponder this, because just as I finished getting ready the bus arrived on the curb. I picked up my bag and rushed out of the house. I got a snack at the cafeteria and waited for the bell to ring.
I guess I must’ve fallen asleep at some point, because I was awoken ten minutes later by the bell. By the time I remembered where I was the second bell was ringing. I started running. Within seconds I had collapsed in my chair in homeroom.
The second bell was still ringing.
The rest of the day passed in a blur of mixed events. I got a C in math and a B in English, but I didn’t even notice the lectures my teachers were giving me. How could I? I decided I couldn’t keep this in me anymore. I would eventually explode from keeping something that big inside me. I had to tell someone. And there was only one person I trusted to keep a secret: Harrison.
At lunch I dragged Harrison into a private corner of the school. I told him what had happened. For a while he was silent. I wondered if it was a good idea to tell him. If he would think I was crazy.
After what seemed like an eternity he finally responded. “My power is cooler than yours,” he said. What? Then it hit me I had just ran at an unnatural speed, how else could that be described? I had a superpower. Then I realized something else. Harrison said his power was cooler than mine. That must mean…
“You have a superpower too?”
Harrison rolled his eyes as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Well obviously, that’s what I just said”
“So just out of curiosity what is your superpower?”
He didn’t respond for a moment. Then he said: “Fire. And I think I might be able to fly. At least that’s what happened in the movies.”
I thought about yesterday. How weird to have a building in such a remote place. Then I remembered the soda. Harrison’s had fire on it. That same day he showed the ability to create fire. I wondered if the others had powers too. They probably did.
“Hey, Harrison, what if…” I started.
“The others have powers too? Yep, I was just thinking that.”
“I’ll ask Darryl, you ask Carly.”
“Sure.” He paused. “I’m sure you’d prefer me to look like a weirdo in front of your beloved Carly.”
A teacher appeared before I could give him a pounding.
After Phys. Ed. I asked Darryl if anything weird had happened to him. He bit his lip and said no. I shrugged and began walking away. “ Okay just checking. You know me and Harrison felt slightly… powerful” I left the comment hang.
After a moment he responded. “Wait. Okay something weird happened. Everyday I take an online IQ test. And yesterday I had an IQ of-of … four-hundred and twenty-eight!”
“Wow!” I said. I didn’t know much about IQs but I was pretty sure that if Darryl was shocked I should be as well.
“And I made a phone.”
“Okay?”
“And the phone worked. And I made it out of plastic, a bit of glass and two paper clips!”
“Can I see?” I asked. He nodded before continuing.
“Then I put it on top of the roof to hide it, then I went into the backyard to see if it showed and it did, but I didn’t want to climb all the way up to the roof and then I got this feeling I should stretch my hand so I did and my hand stretched all the way up to the roof and moved the phone!”
“I have a theory that it had something to do with…” I started
“The soda? Yeah I think so to.” He interrupted. “Oh right! I almost forgot here’s the phone.” Pulling out a lump of plastic from his pocket I noticed it looked strikingly family to the new state-of-the-art phone. If he hadn’t told me it was plastic I never would’ve guessed.
“Well…Harrison is checking with Carly now, so I guess we’ll find out when school’s out.” I told him. He nodded absentmindedly.
The next class was History. I was barely paying attention as Mr. Nesbitt droned on and on about the “oh-so-fascinating” history of the United States. I heard something about the British and Christopher Cucumber or something like that. Like I said I was barely paying attention.
After what seemed to be decades, the bell rang and hundreds of students left the classrooms without being dismissed. I waited impatiently by the bus. Now that I had super speed the whole world seemed to move at a turtle’s pace. That was both good and bad. Good on holidays and weekends bad on tests and school days.
“Jake!” I heard someone shout. I turned around and saw Carly running towards me.
“Hey.” I said.
“Hey.” She said in return. “ Harrison told me everything. I have electricity and water powers.” She had told Harrison how she had been able to breathe under water and cause a blackout when parents told her off. “So that’s why the power was out.” I thought.” Shame I was watching a football game last night.”
I then told her about my power and Darryl’s power. She said our powers were pretty cool too.
On the bus we decided to meet at Harrison’s tree house to discuss the series of events that had taken place.
I arrived at the tree house first, even though I set off at 2:55, I still got there at 2.56. I decided to admire Harrison’s tree house. The tree house was made completely of blue glass: Harrison’s favorite color. Inside the tree house was adorned with red velvet sofas, two flat screen TV’s and a long oak table with six chairs. On the roof was a Jacuzzi.
A long lake ran across one side of the tree house and from that Carly emerged looking as grand as ever. She smiled and waved. Then Darryl emerged on a motorcycle. My jaw dropped open. I knew Darryl could invent stuff but wow! And then almost as if determined to make a grand entrance Harrison floated down from the sky, straining to keep himself from grinning.
“Wow” I heard Carly whisper softly.
“Let the meeting begin!” Harrison announced when we were all seated around the table with snacks. Harrison held a little hammer that I think was called a gavel, as if he were the judge and we the jury.
“Well Darryl and I have come to an agreement.” I started, pausing for dramatic effect. “It was the soda!”
At the time I didn’t realize how ridiculous that sounded. Even Darryl struggled to keep a straight face.
“No it was the chips!” Carly said, going into a helpless fit of giggles.
Finally, I grabbed the gavel and banged it on the table three times. That got their attention.
“I liked that gavel.” Harrison said.
All of a sudden, a small bolt of lightning came from Carly to Harrison. Somehow Harrison had disappeared. We looked around but all we saw was a reddish puddle.
Then Harrison appeared from the puddle, “Cool” he grinned.
“Oh my gosh!” Carly’s hands covered her mouth. “I’m so sorry, Harrison! I don’t know how that happened! I was probably really excited, maybe spar-”
Harrison interrupted her apology ramble. “It’s fine. Besides, I discovered that I have this awesome liquefying power!”
He smiled excitably. Then he whispered something to Carly a mischievous look crossed her face. Almost immediately a small blast of water came my way.
As if on cue, a sky blue bubble appeared in front of me, deflecting the water and drenching Carly instead.
Carly
III