I woke up with a start, my heart drumming in my ear, my body soaked in sweat. I dreamed about Dad again. Dad Is the only thing I have dreamed of for the past year. I dream of him screaming, while he is being tortured. I dream he is locked in a cage above a fire.
On rare occasions, I have dreams that are good memories. Like when I was little he would take me to get ice cream every Friday, and once he saw a baby bird on the ground after getting ice cream. He picked up the baby bird and put it back in its nest. He didn’t know that the mama birds would ever come back, since the baby had human DNA all over it.
I swing my legs over the bed slowly, trying to not get dizzy. I creep downstairs and pad into the kitchen. I grab a glass cup and fill it with water. I chug the water in like thirty seconds.
I fill the cup again, and chug again, slamming the cup onto the counter. I use my super speed to go up to my room.I am faster than any normal thirteen-year-old boy. Not so much faster than my father, but pretty fast. And, no, my father is not the Flash.
When I got to my room, I was still shocked to see my room so bare. I have been packing up all my stuff for Hero Training School. HTS is a place where superhero kids go to learn how to be heroes like their parents. My father has been ready for me to go to this school ever since he found out I had powers when I was seven years old. I only have my super speed. My dad says the rest will come to me as time comes. Like puberty.
I honestly don’t think I am going to get any more powers. It has been six years since my dad saw me zoom down the stairs on Christmas morning.
I finish packing my stuff, even though it is five o’clock in the morning. I don’t need to pack this early since the limo is coming at eight, but I’m too excited to sleep. I was just thinking about waking up, and then finishing packing, but now that I am up I just pack like any other kid. My dad gave me a suitcase for Christmas that holds almost everything, kinda like a Mary Poppins purse. I already have most of my stuff in the suitcase.
Mom taps on the door a couple of hours later. “ Andy, honey? Are you all packed and ready to go?” Mom says as she walks into my room.
“Um… I think so. Is my ride here yet?” I ask her.
“Y-yes” She starts crying.
“Oh, mom. There is no reason to cry. I won’t be gone forever. I will come home for the holidays. I will write you letters all the time, I promise,” I say as I hug her.
I can smell my mom's blonde hair, which smells like lavender.
“I love you, honey. Always remember that, okay?” She says as she wipes the tears from her eyes.
“Okay, Mom. I will remember that and I love you too. Bye,” I tell her as I hug her one more time. I walk out of my bedroom and downstairs.
9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoHeIZ3KeQl
My mom has always been protective over me, even more so after what happened to Dad. Even thinking about him makes me sad. But I can’t show that to mom. I have to hold it together for her. I have only cried about Dad once. That was the night after he disappeared. When it hit me that he was probably never coming home.
I let myself cry for hours. Then I pulled myself together that morning. Just like Dad said, “Being whiney gets you nowhere, but being tough will help you make it through life”. So I am being tough. I am holding all my anger, and sadness inside. I will not show weakness. I walk out my front door and see the limo waiting.
A man with a black suit and sunglasses gets out of the driver's side. “Sir, you will have to leave your bags here, and another vehicle will come pick them up,” the man in the suit says while opening the car door.
I duck my head a little to get in. There are three other people in the limo. One is a guy that looks like a bodybuilder, with sandy hair like me. Another looks like his sister. She is a very pretty girl. The last person is a small boy with white hair. I click my seat belt into place.
The older-looking guy, with the big muscles, is smirking at me. “Hey, bro, you're scared we're gonna crash?”
“No, it is just a habit, because my mom tells me to, and you know… She’s not like us,” I say defensively. I feel bad for putting that on mom. But I was not going to have my first impression with people at my school, looking like I was a wimp. I unbuckle my seat belt.
I look out the window, as my house fades out of view.
“Okay, bucko. I am Westly, and this is my sister, July.” The big guy points at his sister. The girl waves at me and starts twirling her hair as she looks back out the window. “We are hulks kids,” Westly says. I widen my eyes.
“Don’t worry. We aren’t going to get mad and turn all green,” July says looking at me with a cut smirk on her face.
“But I may shrink your head if you annoy me,” Westly says.
He shrinks a chocolate bar sitting on the snack bar, it grows twice in size right before my eyes. So that was his superpower. Making things whatever size he wants them to be.
Never going to get on his bad side.
I really don’t want to be a squashed bug on the floor.
“What's your name?” July asks sweetly.
“My name is Andy, My dad is—” I start to say, but the boy with the white hair cuts me off, “Yeah, we know who your dad is.” Awe colors his tone. “It is kinda obvious, by where you live,” Westly says, jutting his finger in the direction of my house. My house is huge, and me and my mom stay in only one section of the house. The other section is full of locked doors that lead to Dad's hero headquarters, where most of the superheroes meet. I look at the boy with white hair and ask, “And you are?”
He looks at me with hesitation. Then he looks between Wesley and July. “Man, we aren't going to tell anyone that you are a secret spy or whatever,” Westly says, smiling at him.
July slaps Westly's shoulder and says “Don’t say that, it's your third year back. You should know not to say that kind of stuff,”
The white-haired boy shakes his head, his hair flopping in his eyes. “I am not hiding anything, just people have made fun of my name before, and I don’t want to tell anyone if I am just going to have a hard time about it.”He waits a second, “Badger. My name is Badger. My mom is Black Widow, and I can speak to animals,” he says like he has been keeping a big secret.
“Man, that is the coolest name ever! You are going to see a lot of weird names in this school, you're going to fit right in,” Westly says and plays pouches Badger in the arm. Badger lets out a sigh of relief and chuckles.
“Hey July, Show’em what you can do,” Westly says with excitement and July smiles.
Her face gradually changes, until she looks unrecognizable. She is still really pretty but in a different way. Her hair changed from blonde to hot pink, and her eyes are the only thing that is the same. The same ocean blue. She changes her face back to normal.
Badger looks in satisfaction for a second, then says “Wow, you went from one face to the next, the only thing that didn’t change was your eyes!”
July just shrugs then looks outside. The driver opens the window that is in between the front seat and the back of the limo. “Welcome to HTS, We will be approaching the school in a couple of minutes”, the man in the front says in a bored voice.
I look out my window and see a huge tan building, with lots of windows. The building is bigger than my house and the white house combined. The front has a big water fountain that has the crest of the school in it.. Kids are piling out of cars with their parents, lugging around suitcases. The man opens the door to let us out. Westly jumps out and runs to a group of guys laughing and waving. Badger gets out, staring wide-eyed at the building. I step out and then turn to give July a hand out of the limo.
She smiles at me and takes my hand as she climbs out. “Thank You. This is my first year, yours too, right? Do you want to walk to the dorms together? They already have our luggage upstairs,” She says, smiling a sweet smile at me and taking my hand to pull me away.
We make it to the front doors, which are very big, and wide open for us to come in. I let go of July’s hand and started walking to the map. The first years are on floor three. I walk to the elevator jab the button for up and wait. I look over towards the wall near the elevators and see a bunch of big super heroes’s pictures hanging on the walls. Some doors lead to the cafeteria and more doors lead to offices. The elevator dings open, and a herd of kids walk out ready to get more luggage from the different vans carrying them. I walk into the elevator beside July. She reaches over me and clicks the button for floor 3. I can smell her lavender shampoo.
“Wait, please! Hold the door!” a girl around my age with strawberry blonde hair yells as she is running to the elevator.
I put my arm in front of the door to stop it from closing on the girl. She runs into the elevator and trips on my foot. I reach out and catch her right before she falls to the floor. She starts to stand again, and our eyes meet. Her light green eyes stare at mine, and I feel my stomach lurch, and my pulse starts to quicken.
She smiles and says “Thanks so much! My brother is waiting for me at his dorm,” She is carrying a small bag the size of a Chiwawa.
July’s eyes go between me and the girl and she mutters, “You could have waited for another elevator.”
The girl just smiles and looks at me. “I’m Leaf, you?” She says with excitement in her eyes.
“Andy. You have a pretty name,” I say, smiling. I did not mean to say that last part. “Sure, a very pretty name,” July mutters, crossing her arms, giving Leaf the stink eye. The elevator door opens to floor 3. I walk out and start looking for room 101. Leaf is walking beside me.
She asks, “What room are you in?”
I reach room 101. “This is my room,” I say and turn the knob.
“That is also my brother's room!” she says as she walks into the room before me.
I step in and look around. There is a big flat-screen TV on a TV stand with a couch in front of it. There is a small staircase leading to another floor, with the wall missing so I can see what is up on the other floor. The floor is like six and a half feet tall. There are three beds up there with dressers and nightstands by each. A boy is putting up a poster that looks like a Spiderman poster. He is standing on the bed in the middle. He jumps down from the bed, so I can see what he looks like now. He has strawberry-blonde hair. I can see that he and Leaf are related. They look so much alike. The only difference is that the boy has brown eyes, not green. I see a man sitting on the couch watching The news only people in the superhero would watch. The man glances at me and then looks back at the screen. He takes a double take. He is just staring. I look behind me into the empty hallway. Nothing behind me. When I look back he is standing in front of me. He is wearing a Spiderman costume. No, not a costume. A real Spiderman suit. Spiderman is standing in front of me!
“Hi. I’m—” I start to say then Spiderman cuts me off.
“Andy…” He says in a soft voice. Not like it's a question, but like he is looking back on a distant memory.
“Yeah, and you’re Spiderman,” I say with hesitation.
“Yeah, I'm Spiderman, but call me Peter,” He says, his voice sounding distant. The boy steps in front of Peter.
The boy points behind him at Spiderman. “This guy! He does this sometimes when he gets memories about… well you-know-who's death.”
Now I know whose death he is talking about. My dad. But what does Spiderman know about my dad? He has never met my dad, as far as I know. Well, I guess Spiderman is an emotional guy. I don’t judge, I just think it's odd that a superhero is a softy.
“My dad is… um… well,” I start to say. The words won’t come out.
“I’m sorry I hope I didn’t hit a tender spot! It's just your dad and my dad were…close, in a way. Like best friends that saw each other only a couple of times a year,” Spiderman says, scratching his head.
My dad was friends with Spiderman. How could I not have known that? How could Dad not tell me something so important like that? I don’t know, but I guess I shouldn’t be too upset. He keeps lots of things from me and mom. Well… he used to keep lots of things from me and mom.
“This is my twin brother, Newt. Andy, Newt. Looks like you guys are roommates,” Leaf says, motioning toward her brother, breaking some of the tension in the room. I start to walk to the bed on the left of Newt's bed.
“You guys know each other?” Newt asks. When I turn around his eyes are narrowed at me, like he thinks I stole something from him.
“Newty, calm down! We met in the elevator. Not even ten minutes ago.” Leaf says opening the Chiwawa bag.
Newt relaxes some, but his eyes are narrowed. “I have told you so many times not to call me Newty. Andy, don't listen to anything my sister tells you. She thinks she is smarter than everybody. She's not that smart,” Newt says, dumping the snacks and candy out of the Chiwawa bag.
She just glares at him. I start to unpack my stuff. Peter walked back over to the couch, out of the dreamy state he was in. The TV chimes three times, and all of our heads snap over to the noise. An announcement pops up on the screen: Assembly video recording happening at 6:00 pm this evening. Mandatory to watch. We know if you have watched the video.
The screen fades after a couple of minutes. A number one appears in the announcement box.
“Now that is so fun—” Newt starts to say, but Peter cuts him off.
“Language!”
Newt rolls his eyes and says, “That was freakin’ creepy. How do they know if we watched it?”
“They know because you follow the instructions correctly if you listen to what it says.” Leaf responds, “Honestly, do you listen to anything?”
“What happens if we don’t?”
“Probably detention.”
“Oh, so scary,” Newt says, dripping with sarcasm.
“C’mon Andy, let's go help people bring their stuff to the dorms,” Leaf says. walking to the door.
Newt holds me back and waits until Leaf is in the hallways to say “I know I just met you, man. You also seem pretty chill. But my sister has been hurt more than any other girl you will meet. So try anything with her and your charming face, and you won’t have it anymore.”
I step back my hands up in surrender “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
I run to catch up with Leaf. The thing is though, I do dream of it. I can’t deny I might have thought of it a couple of times in the past hour or so, but if the guy says no, I am not going to push it. There are more girls in this school. I'm not as pretty as Leaf, but I will survive. I catch up to Leaf in the elevator. July steps into the elevator, and she glares at Leaf. Why is July glaring at Leaf? She did nothing to her. I push it to the back of my mind. The elevator doors open with a ding and I step out I am already out the door. I could not handle the tension in the elevator for another second. I walk out the huge double doors to the front of the building, where kids are still coming out of cars. After two hours of helping kids carry luggage, I head up to my dorm room. As I am walking to the dorm I keep thinking of how Leaf just disappeared when I was walking through the double doors. I looked back to try to see if she made it out of the elevator without July poking needles in her eyes. She wasn’t there, so I assume she went to the bathroom or something. She got out of the elevator and to the bathroom fast. I made it to my dorm and opened the door. Newts is just watching a movie lying on the floor. “Hey, man! Your sister moves fast! She was in the elevator with me and when I made it to the double doors, I looked back and she was gone.” I say.
Newt looks over at me “Ha! She ain’t fast. Her superpower is camouflage.”
That explains a lot. The door to our dorm room bursts open. I am expecting Leaf, But a boy with blonde hair and blue tips comes in. He is wearing cargo pants, with paint all over them. And a White t-shirt with more paint splatters. It’s a pretty cool vibe.
“Sorry! Am I late?” Paint boy asks. “Um… dude what are you late for?” Newt asks.
“My sister said if I’m late someone would take my place in the dorm!” The paint boy says a bit out of breath.
“Chill bro, your sister is a liar,” Newt says
“My sister can be a liar.”
“What's your name?” I said
“The name's Fate,” The boy says then walks over to the bed on the right of Newt.
“My dad is the flash, my superpower is you know…” Fate says then the remote to the TV starts to float into the air.
“Uh… You have telekinesis?” I ask. Newt looks at me like I am an alien from a different planet. “Telekinesis. It is where you have the power to move things with your mind. Without even touching anything.” I answered his unspoken question.
“Bro you're, like, super smart. You better let me copy your homework this year.” Newt says. He looks blown away. How can he not know what telekinesis is? It is the superpower most people want.
Fate's eyes widen “Your dad’s…Superman!” Fate says to me that it is some kind of big deal.
“Yeah, and you better not treat me like I am different or something, understand?” I say harsher than I meant to.
“Yeah, don’t worry about me. I’ll treat you like a jerk if I have to. And I will treat you like a friend if I have to,” Newt replies.
“Yeah, same here,” agrees Fate.
I go to the couch and turn on a movie. After a while, someone knocks on our door. Fate opens the door and a girl older than me and the guys storm in.
“Fate! I know you took it! Where the hell is it?” the girl says searching through Newton's drawers.
“Hey! Crazy lady, get out of my stuff!” Newt yells and pushes the girl away from his dresser. The girl blushes and puts her head down embarrassed.
“I’m sorry. I thought that was Fate's dresser…” Fate opens a drawer on his dresser and rummages through it, then pulls out a glass lighting bolt figure. She runs and grabs it. The Flash's daughter inherited his superspeed.
“Thanks, I am warning you to never touch this again,” She says with an edge in her voice. She leaves the room.
“Who the heck was that?” Newts asks, jamming his thumb at the door.
“That, my friend, is my lunatic sister” Fate answers him.
“Well your sister is hoo-oott” Newt says fanning himself. I expect Fate to get upset like Newt did with me.
He just rolls his eyes “Dude! You know she’s fifteen. Like two years older than you,” Fate says smirking.
“So? I can date older women,” Newt says, laughing.
“Gross, dude!” Fate laughs and punches him. I walk out of the room laughing.
I start walking to the vending machine at the end of the hall. I hear footsteps behind me. But when I look back I see nobody with me. I am alone. Or at least I think I am alone. I keep walking then someone grabs my shoulder. I jump out of my skin. My heart is pounding in my ears. The leaf appears laughing. She really should not do that to people.
“Jeez! Why did you do that!? I can’t get food in peace, without someone scaring the crap out of me!” I say glaring at Leaf.
She is curled up on the floor, holding her stomach laughing like a maniac. “You should… have… seen your…face,” She is still cracking up after I get my Twix from the vending machine.
I stare at her, then start laughing at myself also. She stands up and sighs.
She grabs the chocolate bar from me. “Hey! That's mine!” I say smiling and reaching for the bar. She holds it behind her back. I reach around both sides to get it. I am very aware of how close we are and how my arms are around her. I get hold of her wrists and pry her fingers from around my chocolate bar. I open the wrapper, split it in half, and give her one-half of it. She takes a bite out of it and then disappears. I stand there for a second, and then I see a door to another hallway open by itself, then close. I walk back to my dorm. The guys are playing some kind of car racing video game. I glance at my watch. It's 5:45 pm. I go and sit on the couch to watch the guys play. They are arguing about who is a cheater and who is not. After about fifteen minutes, a video appears. A man with white short hair and a blue suit appears on the screen. “Hello, heroes in training. This is a mandatory video. So I advise you not to mute yours tv’s, or turn them off. My name is Mr. Marvel, I am the principal here at HTS. Your schedules will be in each individual's boxes, which are located in their dormitory room. You must check your boxes frequently. Also, results for tests and assignments will be in them. You will have important information put in there. Dinner is at seven each evening, and dinner is mandatory. We will not make you attend any other meals. Breakfast starts at eight am every morning. Lunch starts at twelve. Classes start at ten o’clock in the morning, Monday through Friday.”
Newt groans.
“A new thing this year that we are starting at the school is quad teams. There will be four teams of four people. You will compete on the last Saturday of every month. These teams will be divided between which character trait you possess most. This will be a fifty-question test on paper to see what team —If any— you would fit best into, and if we pick your name out of the hat of whichever team you land on, you will take a test on your brain to see if you truly belong on the team. There are four events in the competition. The four events are swimming, running, battle, and obstacle. One person from each team will be assigned an event. The judges will give you points on how you did in battle, but the other events are about how fast you are at doing whatever event you are placed in. Now you test it in your boxes. You will turn them in to your homeroom teacher on your first day of school. Now I have bored you enough, goodbye!” The man is off the screen in seconds.
“I am definitely going to be on a quad team!” Newt says, grabbing his tests out of his box. The boxes are along the wall, about four feet tall. There is a chute that the letter and mail drops from. The three of us spent a while silently taking our tests. Dinner rolls around and me and Newt walk down the hall, in deep discussion of Quad teams and test scores. Fate said he would catch up with us in the cafeteria. We are in the elevator now with ten other kids. When we make it to the cafeteria my head is overwhelmed with all the smells. We get in line to get our food. There are so many different options for what to eat, I don’t know what I want. I grab my tray and load it with mac and cheese, and mashed potatoes, with a steak. I sit my tray down at an empty table in the corner, by the window. I sit down and start to pick at my food. I expect Newt to find someone else to sit with, but he sits right across from me.
He got the same thing I did. “I am going to get fat by the end of the year, after all this food they are feeding us,” Newt says, shoving mac and cheese in his mouth.
Leaf comes over and sits by us also, with another girl I have not met. The girl smiles at me and then pulls her brown hair into a ponytail.
“Hi, I’m Tuesday,” She says with a wave. She looks over at Newt. Who is sitting right next to her?
“Hi, you must be Leaf's brother Newt. Leaf has told me about you,” she says smiling at him. Newt starts to get red. I smirk at him.
“I’m Andy, it’s nice to meet you, have you got any siblings?” I ask
“Yes my twin sister is over there in line,” She points at a girl with the same brown hair, but that is the only thing that is identical about them. Tuesday waves the girl over to our table. She walks over to us after she gets her food.
“Hi, I’m Sunday,” She sits down on the other side of Newts. He turns even more red. I see Westly walking over with a grin on his face. July is right behind him. She smiles at me then when she sees Leaf sitting next to me, her smile falters. Westly sits next to Tuesday, and July sits on the other side of me.
“Wow, Andy! My man! This is crazy! Look at all these girls. July, my advice is to stay away from a guy who attracts so many girls,” Westly says. Everyone laughs, except July. She just smiled a little.
Westly gets up and says, “Well I have to go eat with my buddies, they would be mad if I ditch them for some newbies,” He leaves the table, and makes his way toward his friends.
Fate shows up a couple of minutes later. “Hey! What's up guys?” he says, sitting in the spot Westly was just in.
We all gave a small hey. We start talking about Quad teams. Another boy shows up in the middle of talking about what different events we should be in.
“Hey, you all are newbies, right? He asks.
“Yeah, we’re newbies,” Tuesday says, sounding annoyed.
“Cool, well I was a newbie last year,” The strange boy with blue hair says, with a smile.
“Ok, so what's your name?” Newt asks.
“Blue, my name is Blue. And before you ask, my dad is Shark boy, and my mom is Lava girl,” He says.
He sits next to Leaf. “So what are all your names?” Blue asks all of us. We all tell him our names.
“Well, cool! Are all you guys for quad teams?” he asks us. After that, we start talking about quad teams again. After dinner, we make our way up to the dorm room. We call it a night and go to bed.
9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjomwIBea3I
