Chapter Two
Fast as Lightning
Summers usually had a way of flying past, as one sunburned day blended into the next, and by the time school rolled around, an entire season had passed in a montage of beaches, picnics, and video games. Unless you happened to be trapped in Smiley’s basement, that is. That classroom was the place where time slowed to a crawl and fun went to die.
Daniel had never been more thankful for Mollie than he was on those long days in summer school, and this included the many times she’d saved his behind. He could have handled getting beaten up by super-bullies, or left at the mercy of the Shroud, but enduring a summer alone in Smiley’s basement was unthinkable. Since this history class was the only thing keeping them from repeating the eighth grade, Daniel and Mollie did try to keep their goofing off to a minimum. But Daniel finally got to see up close just how much of a struggle this was for Mollie. He’d always known that Mollie had trouble focusing on one thing for very long, and that she was super-impatient as well as super-fast, but Smiley’s droning history lectures seemed especially difficult for her to follow. She missed the most important details because five minutes into a lesson she was already flitting through her book, rifling through the pages, or doodling pictures of Smiley with buckteeth and donkey ears with one hand while flicking Daniel on the back of the head with the other.
On one Saturday morning Daniel tried to explain all this to his father while helping him with some home repair and improvement, which in Daniel’s house meant he got to hold the tools while his father did all the work. Even so, his dad listened patiently as Daniel laid out the tortures that awaited him every morning in Smiley’s classroom, and his fears that Mollie wouldn’t pass.
“Sounds like a form of attention deficit disorder,” Daniel’s father said as he straddled the roof with his legs and swung a hammer in one hand. Daniel’s job was to sit in the open window of his attic bedroom and supply the requested tools. His father wouldn’t let him come all the way out. He said it was too high up to be safe.
Daniel looked at the distant clouds in the sky, where he’d flown with Eric countless times before, and thought, Dad, if you only knew.
“Has she been tested?” his father asked. “I mean, I know she’s got those … powers of hers.”
It was funny—the Blackout Event was half a year old and adults like Daniel’s parents still had trouble even saying the word powers. They’d spent most of their lives telling their kids that they couldn’t grow up to be superheroes, and that monsters weren’t waiting for them in the dark. The world now knew that they’d been wrong on the first count, and having fought the Shroud, Daniel knew they’d also been wrong on the second.
“She thinks the powers are the problem,” said Daniel. “It’s getting harder and harder for her to sit still long enough to concentrate. And then sometimes she just crashes, like she’s burned up all her fuel too fast and can’t keep her eyes open.”
“Well, if this teacher of yours isn’t helping her, maybe she could use a tutor,” said his dad.
“That’s an idea,” said Daniel. “But where would she get one?”
“Well, I was thinking— Ouch, darn it!” Daniel’s dad stuck his thumb in his mouth after trying to nail it into the roof.
“You should watch your language, Dad,” said Daniel.
“Yeah, and what made you such a smart aleck?” his father said, sucking his thumb.
“Good genes?”
“Hah. As I was saying, you used to be pretty good at history, when you weren’t slacking off and letting your grades go down the toilet, that is.”
His father was right. Daniel had actually enjoyed history, the great story of it all. It was just hard to keep up your grades when you were moonlighting as a crime fighter.
“So,” continued his father, “I was thinking maybe you could tutor her. Be a good way to reinforce your own studies and help out a friend at the same time. Here, hand me another nail, would you?”
Daniel held out a box of nails for his dad to choose from as he pondered this idea. He couldn’t quite picture Mollie having the patience for any tutor, much less Daniel. But then again, unlike their teachers, Daniel was very used to dealing with Mollie. He’d had to learn patience just to be her friend. In that way, Daniel was exceptionally qualified for the job.
“And voilà!” said his father as he stood a tall metal rod in the base he’d just nailed into the roof. It was long and thin, maybe an inch in diameter, but it reached up higher than the highest tree.
“What is it?” asked Daniel. “Some kind of antenna?”
“Lightning rod,” said his dad. “With all the storms we’ve been having lately, I thought, Better safe than sorry.”
Daniel looked up at the spindly metal spire and asked, “Just how is that supposed to protect us from a lightning strike? Isn’t holding up a tall metal pole in a thunderstorm, like, a really bad idea?”
“It is,” said his dad. “But a lightning rod on a house absorbs the strike. It controls the current and redirects it through there.” He pointed to a copper wire snaking along the roof and down the side of the house. “The current follows the wire down and discharges harmlessly into the yard.”
“Sounds a bit risky,” said Daniel.
“It’s a time-proven method. Provide energy with a path of least resistance—the metal wire—and that’s where it’ll go. Ben Franklin invented it!”
Daniel should have known. His dad was a bit of a nut when it came to Benjamin Franklin. Daniel’s hero was the great detective Sherlock Holmes. His dad’s was Ben.
“So now that I’ve helped you save our family from the thunder and lightning, can I go swimming with my friends later? They’re meeting at the swimming hole.”
“You finish this weekend’s history homework?”
“Last night.”
“Fine, go enjoy yourself,” said his dad. “But give some thought to what I said about Mollie. Sounds like she could really use your help.”
Chapter Three
The Swimming Hole
“You came all the way out here just to fall asleep?” said a voice overhead.
Daniel squinted up at Mollie with one eye open.
“Not sleeping. Chillaxing.”
She snorted. “You sound like an idiot.”
“Whatevs.”
“Oh my God, you’re gonna get hit.”
“All right!” said Daniel, propping himself up on one elbow.
Tangle Creek Bridge was Daniel’s favorite secluded spot. Beneath the bridge the creek widened into a natural swimming hole, deep enough to dive. The water was cool, while the flat sandstones on either bank baked in the midday sun. Today, Daniel was stretching out across one of them. Fresh from a swim, he was enjoying the feel of the warm stone on his back as he let the sun dry his skin. Far from the town and its crowds, he would let this perfect day drive away all thoughts of summer school. That is, if Mollie would let him.
“Why aren’t you flying?” he asked. “Thought you’d be dying for a bit of exercise after being cooped up all week with Smiley.”
She sat down beside him. “Michael keeps showing off. Now that he’s gotten his powers back, he’s super-annoying.”
“You mean you keep baiting Michael into racing you, and he keeps winning,” said Daniel.
“Every time,” said Mollie. “Like I said, super-annoying.”
Mollie was wearing a pair of cutoff blue jeans over her swimsuit. The frayed edges had been stained green from the creek water, and she absently pulled at the loose strings as she spoke.
“Where’s Michael now?” Daniel asked.
“Up there somewhere,” said Mollie. “As usual.”
Michael rarely came down. Thanks to the shroud, Michael had spent the last two years on the ground—his powers and memories stolen. Now that he could finally fly again, he seemed to be making up for lost time. Someone recently joked that if he could fall asleep on a cloud, he would, and when Michael had heard that, he paused for a moment,
as if seriously considering whether he could pull it off.
“Have you talked to Louisa?” Mollie asked, still pulling at strings.
A butterfly in Daniel’s stomach did a little flutter at the mention of Louisa’s name. The two of them had shared a kiss last year, Daniel’s first. Literally moments after that kiss, they’d been thrust into a new crisis, and there’d never really been a good moment to talk about what had happened. Saving the town had taken precedence over their young love lives.
But the crisis was all over now and they’d still not gotten around to talking about that kiss. Daniel had been given a slight reprieve when Louisa’s family left for a summer vacation, but they wouldn’t be gone forever. Louisa was a Super and a friend, but if she was going to be something more, then he would have to make up his mind about her, and soon.
“I haven’t talked to her really,” said Daniel. “She said she’d send me a postcard.”
“I chatted with her the other day,” said Mollie.
“Oh?” he said, trying to sound casual. “What’d she say?”
“Oh, you know Louisa,” said Mollie. “Lots of cute boys on cruise ships apparently. She says that her mom wants her to sign up for the academy when they get back. Her and Rose.”
“Wow,” said Daniel. “Do you think they’ll do it?”
Mollie shrugged. “Louisa’s never been into the whole powers thing, so I can’t imagine she’ll want to. But if her mom pushes it, who knows?”
So Louisa might not be in school with them next year after all. The thought of going to school without her made Daniel sad, but was that because he wouldn’t get to see Louisa the friend, or Louisa the something else? Which one would he miss?
“So, Louisa and Rose are maybes,” said Daniel. “Anyone else we know going?”
“Eric said that Sasha Knowles and Martin Baylor were already enrolled. And there’s Simon—no one’s heard from him in a long time.”
Simon was the Super whom Daniel had failed to save from the Shroud his first year here in Noble’s Green. Although Simon had his powers back now, he hadn’t reconnected with his old friends the way Michael had. Granted, Simon was always kind of a jerk to everyone, but it still felt like a loss somehow. A failure that they hadn’t been able to keep the Supers together—that their friendships had survived the Shroud, but might not survive growing up.
“Georgie’s been asking about you,” Daniel said, deciding that it was time to steer the subject away from would-be love interests and lost friends. “You should come by and see him.”
“Aww,” she said. “How is the little guy? He punch down any more doors?”
“No. Still nothing since the blackout.”
“And your parents still don’t know?”
“I can’t tell them!” said Daniel. His little brother, Georgie, had displayed bouts of super-strength on definitely one occasion, and possibly two. But the only indisputable time had been in their final battle with the Shroud, which thanks to the super-villain’s memory-stealing powers, his parents remembered nothing about. Daniel now found himself waiting for Georgie to do it again, hopefully with his parents around this time. It was like living with a stick of dynamite that threw temper tantrums.
“I guess he’ll do something sooner or later,” Daniel sighed. “I just hope he’s not mad at me when it happens. Could toss me through a wall.”
Mollie laughed. “That’s so messed up.”
“I know, but what else can I do? I guess I’ll just let nature take its course, and someday he’ll smash his tricycle into a little metal ball and that will be that. Then he’ll be my mom and dad’s problem.”
For the next few minutes they just sat there on the rocks together and soaked in the sun. Mollie pulled her shoulder-length hair back into a small ponytail and looked up at the sky. Head tilted back, her bangs fell away from her eyes and the yellow sun lit up her face. She looked different somehow.
“Hey!” said Daniel, pointing at her.
“Hey, what?” said Mollie.
“You pierced your ears,” he said, noticing for the first time two silver studs sticking out of her left ear, and a single one in her right. They glittered in the daylight, but the skin around them looked red and angry.
“Oh yeah,” she said. “That.”
“I didn’t notice before with your hair down,” said Daniel. “When did you do it?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Mollie. “Last week sometime.” Then, as if retreating, she suddenly sank forward until her chin rested on her knees and her hair hid her ears. She sat like that, watching her toes as she wiggled them in the sunlight.
What to say next? Something was expected, and Daniel knew he should probably offer a compliment, but he was honestly a little shocked. It’s not that the earrings looked bad; they didn’t. But they didn’t look like Mollie Lee. Sitting there in the sun with her hair drawn back and silver glittering in her ears, she had looked for a moment like a different girl entirely.
“Yeah, well, on second thought, maybe I will fly a little,” she said after a moment, and before he could blink, she was gone. A speck high up in the sky.
He’d gotten it all wrong. By not complimenting the earrings, Daniel had insinuated that he didn’t like them, which wasn’t the case. They were mostly just surprising, but somehow Daniel didn’t think that “Your earrings are surprising, Mollie,” would have been any better than stunned silence.
If he couldn’t manage to talk to Mollie about her new earrings without hurting her feelings, how was he ever going to manage talking to Louisa about the kiss? Girls used to be easy—they were just like boys, only cleaner. But in the last year or so, he’d felt the differences between the sexes widening into a vast sea, and every time he tried to cross the divide, he just ended up sinking.
Now he’d gone and hurt Mollie’s feelings because he hadn’t known the right way to compliment a few pieces of metal in her ears. But there wasn’t anything he could do about it now. He might as well put it out of his mind and go for one last swim while there was still sun on this side of the bridge. Then he’d better put on some more sunscreen if he planned on staying much longer. Daniel never tanned, but he could turn lobster-red in no time at all if he wasn’t careful.
As he moved around the creek bank, Daniel stepped gingerly along the hot sandstone, careful not to slip on the slimy rocks near the water’s edge. He spotted Eric floating out over the swimming hole—not on the water, but hovering about a foot or so above it. He was following the tip of a snorkel that poked up out of the surface and traveled in slow circles beneath him. Eric had always been super-strong, but his strength had never had anything to do with his muscles. Now, however, with Eric’s shirt off, Daniel noticed that in the last year his friend had developed a powerful, lean physique, and long summer days spent outdoors had tanned him to a deep nut-brown.
Daniel became suddenly quite self-conscious. The fluorescent lighting of Smiley’s basement dungeon hadn’t done anything to help his naturally pallid complexion, which, coupled with a seeming inability to put either fat or muscle onto his bony frame, left him with a thin, pale shape that might best be described as wintery.
It was a good thing that Louisa wasn’t around after all.
Daniel watched as Eric did slow rolls in the air, lazily dipping his fingertips in the water and flicking the drops at gnats that were gathering around the shady spots near the shore.
Finally, Eric let out a long sigh. “Bored now,” he said, and with a mischievous wave at Daniel, he began to slowly stalk the circling snorkel. The long breathing tube was still bobbing up and down slightly as the swimmer kicked along beneath the water, oblivious to the world above. Every now and then a flipper would break the surface.
With a wicked grin, Eric reached out and pinched shut the snorkel’s breathing hole. For a few seconds nothing happened, but then the snorkel quivered and shook, and the flippers began kicking furiously as the swimmer appeared, sputtering and gasping for air. Rohan swam for shore, shouting curses
at Eric.
Eric meanwhile had rolled onto his back, still floating in midair and laughing so hard that he had to hold his stomach. In that moment, he reminded Daniel of Peter Pan, who was content to spend forever playing and fighting in the sun. Daniel wished they all could be like the Pan and put off growing up indefinitely. No ear piercing, no summer school, no academy. Just this.
Rohan hauled himself up onto the rocks, where Daniel was waiting.
“He’s such a little kid sometimes,” said Rohan, spitting out greenish water. Then he called over to Eric, “I hope a bee flies up your shorts!”
“He got bored,” said Daniel. “How long were you under there?”
“I don’t know,” said Rohan. “A while. It’s quiet down there. It gives me a break from everything.”
Daniel nodded, understanding. Rohan’s gift was that his senses were attuned to a superhuman scale. It was incredibly useful when one realized the full potential of what he could do, but it also meant that poor Rohan was constantly assaulted by noises and smells and other sensations that the rest of them weren’t even aware of. It must be nice to escape it, if just for a little while.
Rohan poured out the water that had collected in his goggles. Then he pulled out his thick glasses, and Daniel watched his friend clean the lenses with his towel while squinting back at him. It was an ironic twist that the boy with super-vision needed glasses when his power wasn’t kicking in.
“Where’s Mollie?” asked Rohan.
“She flew off in a huff,” said Daniel.
“What’s she mad at you for this time?” asked Rohan.
“Oh, I don’t know,” lied Daniel. “Mollie things.”
“Ah,” said Rohan. “Those are potentially hazardous. Whatever it is, you’d better make up with her.”
“What are you two talking about?” asked Eric, having finished his fit of hysterical laughter.
“Mollie’s mad at Daniel,” answered Rohan. “But it figures, with the two of them spending practically every minute together.”