19. Facing My Mother
The late afternoon sun casts long shadows on me and Josh as we are walking home from the mall.
"Dude!" Josh swings his fist around in the air in front of him as he walks. "That was the most epic fight ever! You owned that captain jerk!" His voice is loud with excitement, and can't help but sigh under my breath as he continues. "Like, he knocked you to the ground with that shockwave thing, and jumped on top of you and started like punching the hell outta you, but then you flipped on top and..."
"Josh," I breathe, kicking the pavement with my sneaker and wincing as it cracks under my feet.
"What?" I say nothing, so he continues. "So anyway, you like flipped on top of him and started totally hammering him back, but then he turned the tables and flipped back on top of you and-"
"Josh," I say his name with slightly more effort this time, and he turns to look at me. "Please stop it."
"What?" The excitement in his eyes starts to die. "Stop what? Talking?" I give him an 'are-you-serous-look' and he huffs at me. "Why are you grumpy all of a sudden? Dude, you just kicked your enemy's ass! If I were you, I would be celebrating!"
"Yeah," I sigh. I know. I should be feeling stoked after beating him. But I'm not. I could put my bad mood down to the fact that my nose is pounding like mad, is probably broken, and is not healing at any sort of supernatural speed what-so-ever. But's more than that.
I feel dirty and cheap, using the 'look out behind you' trick. I don't feel good about beating Captain Catastrophe. Probably because I know it's only the beginning. How long until the city's other villains get sick of me and decide to go after me as well? I sigh. I should just fly off now while I can.
"Yeah what?" asks Josh.
"I don't feel well." I answer, a half-truth. "My nose is killing me."
Josh nods. "It does look horrible. Like, really bad." We walk a few more metres and he takes another look at it. "Dude, it's like twice the size of your face!"
I grimace at the thought, then wince at the pain I felt from grimacing. Oh man, maybe my nose is broken. Mum is gonna kill me! Oh man, then she's gonna kill me again for having superpowers and not telling her...
Yep, flying away and going into hiding seems like a great idea right now.
Josh walks with me for part of the rest of the way home in silence, before turning off to his block.
By the time I get home, my nose feels so bad that it makes before feel like nothing. I almost trip over my feet as I open the door to our flat. Hey, maybe if I be really quiet, I can sneak inside and pretend that I was asleep in my room the whole time. My mum probably won't be fooled, but at least it's better than being caught with a probably broken nose and my suit in my backpack. I carefully close the door behind me and tiptoe towards the-
"Timothy Darlag!" Mum comes bounding down the stairs, a stern look on her face. Oh man! "You!" she cries as she sees me, "you are so-" her face automatically switches to worry, and I assume she has seen my nose. Is it really that bad?
"Oh my goodness! Tim!" She runs back up the stairs and returns with her car-keys in hand. "You are grounded, after I drive you to the hospital!"
I start to cry in protest at the word "grounded", but stop when the movement results in a sharp jolt of pain through my face. I put my hand to my nose and wince when I remove some dried blood flakes off and fresh blood starts to run down my hand.
Mum sighs and grabs me by the arm. "Leave your bag here. After we get that nose of yours dealt with, we are going to have a talk firstly about not trying to keep secrets from your mother, and secondly learning how to fight properly!"
If it wasn't for the nose, I would have cried in protest at the second thing. I hope she is joking about needing to learn how to fight. Am I really that bad?
I feel like an Egyptian mummy when we return home several hours later, with all the bandages around my face. My nose is broken. I suppose that's what happens when a supervillian punches you in the face, though. I collapse onto the couch, while mum sits down in one of the armchairs and turns on the TV. Suddenly, the box lights up displaying a high resolution picture of me, in my suit, looking annoyed and holding my mobile to my ear. My cheeks blush red from embarrassment, and I slam a pillow over my face. Which ends up being a bad idea, because of my nose. I cry out in pain.
"What's wrong?" asks mum.
"Please turn off the TV," I moan.
"Why?"
"It's embarrassing!"
"Okay, fine." She flicks the remote at it and the screen goes blank. I put the pillow back down on the couch and tenderly touch my nose, wincing at the burning pain. Ten seconds of awkward silence pass, until mum sighs and looks into my eyes.
"I have decided that I don't really blame you for not admitting to me that you have superpowers, as I would have probably done the same in your place. So, I am not going to ground you." I am about to cry out in victory, when she continues. "I am instead going to place you on house arrest."
"Oh come on!" I cry, flinging the pillow at her. She catches it easily, and rolls her eyes.
"Let me finish. You are on house arrest, until you learn to use your powers properly."
I sigh, but don't complain. It probably isn't a bad idea that I stay home and out of trouble until I learn how to control them better. I would like to be able to text without wearing rubber gloves. That would be really handy. At least I don't have to hide my suit from mum anymore, or hide my broken computer, or hide anything else that I happen to break in my lack of control. Speaking of hiding...
"Hey mum," I ask, and she raises an eyebrow at me. "How long have you... uh... known that I..."
"That you have superpowers?" I nod. "Since you got them."
"What... what?" I look at her weirdly. "Am I really that obvious?" I moan.
She shrugs. "Probably not to anybody else. But I am your mother." She winks at me. "I know these things." I moan, and she continues. "For example, I know that Josh tricked you into jumping off a railway bridge to figure out if you could fly or not, but you didn't actually fly until you accidently blasted Julia from the roof of their apartment and leaped off after her." I stare at her, my mouth hanging open. "To be honest, that was a pretty brave, or maybe very stupid thing to do. You are lucky to be alive."
"How... how do you even know all this?" I ask, staring at her in shock.
"Maybe I should just tell you," she sighs.
"Tell me what..?" I give her a sideways look. What is she gonna tell me? I hope it isn't bad...
Tim, she says, without moving her lips. I almost jump a foot in the air in shock, from hearing her voice inside my head. I'm telepathic. I can read your mind.
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