by Zoe Wynns
Part Six
I was floating somewhere in space. Wait, not floating, flying. How was I flying? I had never been able to fly before.
I heard a murmur directly in my ear, “There.” I recognized that voice. But my mind felt so fuzzy and light that I couldn’t quite detect the memory. Was it my mother? Did I even have a mother? Who was I? Where was I? What was happening?
“Now, all we can do is wait,” the same voice whispered. I reached out, trying to reach the soft voice that seemed so gentle. And then I was falling… falling… falling…
And then I landed lightly on a hard floor. Whispers were all around me. Who was it?
Memories started hitting me like baseballs. Whap. Welcome to TOCS… Winnie, Cat, Sandra, Jonah, Ty, Etty, Lily, Elias, Josef…
Whap. I was fighting Abomination… Nicole’s lifeless body…
Whap. I was dying… my Power Core was failing…
Then how was I lying on a hard ground if I was dead?
A bright light hit me in the face. I moaned. My head pounded.
An excited murmur arose from the voices in my head. Or were they in my head?
No sooner had I had this thought than I became fully aware of my surroundings. My eyes sprang open and most of the pain disappeared.
A cheer arose from the voices. I rubbed my throbbing head, attempting to sit up. “What? What happened?”
“That’s her cliché,” Josef’s voice said. I looked around. The whole ABC was sitting around me.
“How am I alive?” I whispered.
Davies stepped up. “I will be the first one to say, that I am glad that at least one good thing came out of Nicole’s death.”
“I have her Power Core?” I yelped.
I said this, and a warm glow eliminated the last of the throbbing from my head. “But… how?”
Ms. Walker stepped up to me. “I know how to take Power Cores from one place to another.”
I looked at her with awe. “You saved my life!”
She shook her head. “Not necessarily. Some people take better to Power Core transfers than others. It takes a good, kind, giving, selfless person to be able to give a Power Core, and the same kind of person to be able to receive one. You and Nicole both had these qualities, so, in a sense, you saved your own life.”
“So, what happened to my invisibility?” I asked, trying to turn invisible. Nothing happened.
“It’s gone,” Ms. Walker told me calmly.
“Gone…?” I whispered. “I’m powerless?”
“We didn’t say that, now did we?” Cat took a step to stand in front of me, grinning. “Try jumping as high as you can in the air and focusing on a warm glow from the inside.”
A spark of hope wormed its way inside of me as I jumped. I didn’t have to do a single thing. The warm glow caught me and lifted me up. I was flying!
And I had to say, I liked the glow much better than the punchy-in-the-stomach feeling.
Nearly Five Years Later
It was the TOCS graduation ceremony! I had figured out a way to stay in TOCS, after all, after discovering I was only able to fly for five minutes at a time. But in the past years we’d fixed that up, and I was ready to put my power to the test in front of my parents.
Ms. Walker had taken the parents of all the TOCS students, at least the ones that didn’t already know what the class was for, into the hallway before the ceremony was due to start. She had very calmly told them that their children were Supers, and that they had spent the last five years perfecting their special talents. Ms. Walker told me later that my parents were the most surprised and proud of all, and they were so worried when she told them about my two-minute death.
The graduation ceremony was in a spectacular building. Ms. Walker had figured that we wanted a break from the TOCS area (yep) so she took us to a nearby chapel called Avis. There were stained-glass pictures of various scenes on the beautiful arched walls, and as I waited backstage for my turn to demonstrate my power, I took in the beauty of it all.
Winnie looked at me as I waited. Our friendship had grown leaps and bounds since the battle. Now Lily, Sandra, Winnie and I were inseparable.
“I’m excited to finally see your display, Rose,” Winnie teased me. I had been refusing to show her my performance over the last couple weeks, and she had been getting increasingly frustrated with each day. But now that the day was here, she seemed to forget her annoyance.
“Yup, I’m excited to see yours!” In return, Winnie hadn’t shown me her final routine either. “You nervous?” I asked seriously.
Winnie shrugged, then gave things her signature positive spin. “A bit, I guess. But it’s just parents out there. No biggie. Even if we fail, they’re so happy to see our faces again they won’t notice.”
I heard lots of cheers from the crowd. Jonah, who was up there now, must have done well. I hadn’t even been watching, so preoccupied with my conversation.
Jonah ran backstage, face red. I was worried he had messed up and was embarrassed, but he grinned and then swiped at his cheeks.
“The heat from my spectacular five second Spark!” he yelled, striking a rocker pose.
I heard laughs from in front of the curtain. “I think the audience heard that.”
Jonah’s cheeks got a tiny bit redder.
Winnie took a deep breath. “Ah. Ok. My turn.” But she made no move to leave the safety of the backstage. Clearly, she was more nervous than she’d let on.
I put a hand on her back and said all I needed to say. “You go, girl.”
This gave her the push she’d needed. Winnie nodded once and then ran onstage. I peered my head out from a crack in the curtains.
Winnie lifted her hands, ready to make it rain.
Nothing happened.
Murmurs traveled fast through the crowd.
Winnie took a deep breath and lifted her hands again.
Bam! Water poured from the ceiling. Gasps and claps rose up from the thunder.
Winnie directed a lightning bolt towards a piece of wood on the stage. Boom! A fire that was immediately put out by the drenching storm.
After a couple more minutes of spot-on techniques, she finished with a huge thunderclap. The rain lifted, and Winnie had an aura-type glow around her. She seemed perfectly content.
I wondered for the first time how her power felt. A warm glow like my flying? A more painful feeling, like my invisibility? But looking at Winnie’s blonder-than-blonde hair falling around her face and her expression of bliss as the cheers rained down, I knew that I’d never felt anything like her power before.
I smacked Winnie five as she walked back through the curtain. “You were awesome!”
It was my turn next. In another time, namely, five years earlier, I would have been petrified to walk up onto that stage and perform, if even only for adoring parents. But not anymore. I was ready for this.
Was I?
Winnie looked at me. “You’re strong. You’re brave. How could you die and be here right now if you weren’t both those things?”
That was all she needed to say. I turned my head towards the goal and my body followed.
Scattered applause sounded as I walked onto the stage. I turned to face the wall.
Music started playing, starting out slowly. I spun around, flying into the air as I went, then hitting the ground with a flourish.
I twisted and turned in the air as the beat picked up, flying higher and higher and higher and performing amazing feats in the air.
I did backflips, front flips, and a spectacular leap into the crowd, where everyone gasped when I caught myself just in time.
I jumped, I leaped, I twirled, I kicked, I was Rose, and I had the feeling I was discovering myself for the first time.
The music drew to a spectacular close, and I did too, twirling and flinging my arms out wide, feeling finally and utterly free.
The applause was so deafening I could hear no sounds except it, until
a warm glow inside me started slowly burning, drowning around everything around it and letting me know I’d done well.
I rushed backstage. Winnie squealed and hugged me. We jumped up and down like five year olds. “You were Awesome with a capital A!” Winnie told me after we’d broken apart. “You looked so blissful at the end with everyone’s applause washing over you.”
“Poetic,” I laughed. “But you looked the same way!”
Winnie looked surprised. “Really?”
“I guess that’s the way our Powers work. They love being used, they really do,” I said thoughtfully. “I suppose that’s their little reward.”
Winnie nodded. “My power feels like complete relief. When I’m building up for a huge storm, it’s like the weight of the world is on my shoulders, but as soon as I let it go and make it storm, it’s released.”
“Eeeh...” I grimaced, “that doesn’t sound pleasant to me.”
Winnie shrugged. “I’m used to it, and it feels so good when it’s released.”
We shared another hug. “I’m going to find my parents,” I told her. “Even though they seemed not to love me above all, I know they loved me and I miss them.”
“Remember the plan,” Winnie said mischievously, winking.
I waved goodbye, smiling, and vanished into the crowd.
I searched through old and young, through tall and short, through brown hair and blonde. I finally saw a middle-height middle-aged woman with the exact same shade of chocolate-brown hair as me, having an animated conversation with a tall middle-aged man with spiky hair and my exact same piercing gray eyes. My mom and dad!
I ran to them, wildly waving. “Rose!” my mom yelled, giving my dad a small swat and turning his head so it faced me. His eyes lit up in the exact way I remembered and he picked me up and swung me around as if I was a baby again and not a 16 year old girl whose birthday was fast approaching.
“We’ve missed you so much, baby, we really have,” my mom whispered, tears in her eyes.
“We’re so glad you’re coming back to us,” Dad said happily, giving me a real hug.
Then my mom looked at me. “We have big news! I’m going to have a baby girl! You’ll be a sister, Rosey!”
I was thrilled! “When is she due?”
“A few weeks. Your mother’s doctor didn’t want her to come to this ceremony, but she basically ignored him and came anyway,” Dad said, laughing.
I gave them both another hug, then said, “Can I hang out with my friends this afternoon?” Before the ceremony, we had all conspired to convince our parents to give us one more afternoon of hanging out before we went our separate ways. This was the plan Winnie had spoken of with unnecessary glee.
My parents looked at each other. “All right,” my mother said finally. I jumped up and down and ran to tell Josef.
But before I could reach him, a voice that I knew and loved said, “Yo, Rose!”
I searched the crowd until my eyes landed on a familiar face.
It was Alexia! I screamed and hugged her tight.
“I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever!” I yelled, shoving her a little. “Why don’t you ever visit the poor old people in TOCS?”
Alexia had moved into the League of Supers building, and was taking a class with advanced Telekinesists. We saw each other most weeks, but seeing her then made me realize I hadn’t seen her in a couple months.
“Too many stairs,” Alexia grinned.
I laughed. It seemed like a lifetime ago that nine scared children were ushered up the many marble stairs to a large room, and been told that they were Supers. It was hard to believe those same nine kids were the complicated and amazing people we were such close friends with today.
“Hey, Lex, what’s going to happen to you?” I asked her seriously. As far as I know, she needed an adopted family.
She smiled. “It’s all worked out. I tried out for the League of Fighting Supers yesterday…”
“And…?” I prompted, her grin already giving away the answer. And
“I MADE IT IN! I’m the youngest LOFS member in over a CENTURY, did you know?” Alexia yelled. Everyone stared at her, but in typical Alexia fashion, she ignored it.
I gave her a huge congratulations and we talked for a minute more. She was going to live in the LOFS dorms, while making constants visits to my house, she promised.
“I’ve got to go, actually,” Alexia said, looking at her LeagueMessenger. I felt only slight jealously. “The LOFS need me back at headquarters.”
I hugged Alexia tight, and she scurried off.
Now that I’d seen Alexia, I felt ten times happier (which hardly seemed possible, considering my level of joy already), so I ran to find Josef.
I had a good feeling about this talk.
Things were a bit complicated with me and Josef these days. We were super close friends, but I desperately wanted him to ask me to be his girlfriend. It was cool that he’d gotten a lot nicer to everyone, but he’d still kept his sense of humor and love of sarcasm and pranks.
Josef saw me coming towards him and beckoned to me, pulling me into a nearby room.
We stared at each other for a minute. “Awesome performance today,” Josef finally said, taking a step closer to me.
I nodded, feeling my face slowly turn pink. “You too.” He had thrown fireballs around Lily onto a wooden board and didn’t hit her once. I think it still gave him immense satisfaction to be so close to harming her.
We stood there in silence for a couple moments, Josef’s hand inches from mine.
Josef suddenly blurted, “Willyougooutwithme?”
“Yes!” I said breathlessly, so relieved. “I’ve just been waiting and waiting for you to ask me!”
Josef leaned towards me. “I was just trying to get my courage up,” he admitted.
I looked into his eyes. Was he going to…?
Suddenly I heard a very stifled giggle outside. I looked around the room we’d picked. There was one large window in it. As I looked, Lily, Sandra, and Winnie peeked into it, and ducked down below and collapsed into giggles.
I touched Josef on the shoulder and motioned to outside the room. Josef listened for a moment, eyes wide, then he narrowed his eyes angrily, but they still had their signature twinkle in them.
“They are so dead,” Josef whispered.
I laughed and pulled him towards the door. “One, two, three!”
We burst open the door. The three girls stared at us, eyes wide, and then everyone started laughing hysterically.
“I’m so glad he finally did it,” Winnie gasped after we could catch our breath.
“Well, yeah, me too,” I said with feeling.
“Come on, let’s get the rest of TOCS together and spend one more afternoon together,” Lily said happily, walking towards where the rest of our group was gathered.
But for some reason, this made Winnie stop in her tracks. “Actually, guess what. This might not be our last afternoon together. Guess where I live,” Winnie said excitedly, turning to me.
A thought dawned on me. “No… In North Ashdon Neighborhood?”
“YES!” Winnie squealed, and we jumped up and down together. “This is the first of many fun times!” I said happily.
Sandra looked at us and laughed. “Nobody cares that I also live in North Ashdon, do they?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.
We all but screamed as we imagined the fun times that were yet to come with us girls.
“Well, I don’t,” Josef said, looking at the ground, dejection in his voice. But then he allowed his eyes to grow wide. “I live in South Ashdon Neighborhood!”
“Awesome!” I yelled, giving him a quick hug, laughing. Always the prankster. “I’ll walk to your house anytime I want!”
As we walked out the door to head to a café we found in town, we found out that Lily lived a couple towns away but was going to my same high school, same with Elias. Ty and Etty lived a few hours away, so we promised to write a
nd stay in touch with them. Jonah lived near an hour away, but not quite. We vowed to get together with our entire group again soon at a meeting point between the places.
Cat caught up with us at the door and asked if she could join us. Uh, yeah! Without saying another word, she stared at Winnie, Sandra, Josef and I, and declared that she was Winnie’s next door neighbor. Winnie laughed, a tad bit nervously. “No secrets now, I guess,” she said awkwardly.
Cat grinned. “Don’t you worry, I’ll never tell anyone what I see in your mind.”
Since Ms. Walker was Cat’s aunt, Cat decided to have Ms. Walker and her husband Miles come visit for a few weeks. “She’s hoping that little Nikki is born by then so she can come and visit,” Cat said, looking directly at me.
My heart gave a little jump. “You read my parent’s mind to find out what they were naming my baby sister, didn’t you?”
Cat didn’t deny it. She just smiled.
I threw my arm around Josef and struck up a conversation with Lily when in truth, my mind was on that fateful day five years ago when a good girl lost her life. I was glad that a tidbit of her would live on, though, both in my Power Core and in my baby sister’s name. And I knew this was what Cat was thinking of when she told me what she’d found out in my parent’s mind.
We made it outside into the bright sunshine. I smiled, letting the warm glow surround me. True, in past years there had been times when I had wished I could have my invisibility. But now I knew who I was. I knew that I was not meant to be afraid and shy. I wasn’t meant to hide from the light anymore. I was made to soar.
The End…
Or is it?
Keep watch for the sequel, coming soon!