by Dee J. Stone
Footsteps stomp down the stairs before they rush into the kitchen. Kaylee jumps onto my lap and wraps her arms around my neck. She’s wearing her favorite bunny pajamas, the ones I bought for her birthday. “Piggyback!”
I hardly hear what she’s saying. All I keep thinking about is what happened today.
“Nick!” Mom yells.
I snap out of it and see Kaylee’s about to fall off my lap. I quickly catch her before she crashes to the floor. She just giggles, not getting that she almost got hurt because my brain’s not here.
Mom takes Kaylee’s hand and helps her off my lap. “It’s too late for piggyback rides, sweetie.”
She pouts. “I waited all day.”
Mom kisses her cheek. “Nick will give you one tomorrow. Right, Nick?”
“Huh? What?”
This look passes over Mom’s face. I don’t know what it means. She tells my sister she’ll tuck her into bed and they leave the kitchen.
I just sit there in my daze.
When she comes back, she sits down and gives me the same look. I stare at the table, those thoughts spinning around in my head. Why the heck couldn’t I be just a few minutes faster?
“Nick, are you doing drugs?”
My head springs up. “What?”
“Are you doing drugs?”
“No, why would you—”
She throws her hands up. “You’ve been moody lately, as though you’re hiding something. You’re over at Maddie’s a lot, doing who knows what. Your grades are plummeting.”
I’m on my feet. “Drugs? That’s what you think this is?” The words come out harsher than I meant. I head for the door.
Mom grabs my arm. “Talk to me, honey. What’s wrong?”
I pull my arm away. “Nothing. I’m fine. Just know that I’m not doing drugs and I’m working on pulling up my grades. Okay? I’m going to my room.”
As I pass the living room, I find Matt lounging there with many snacks on the couch, like he’s some king.
“You.” I march over to him. “Why don’t you tell Mom how all your homework gets done, huh? Tell her how you terrorize those kids to do it for you. You know something? I’ll tell her myself.”
Rage fills Bro’s eyes. He leaps to his feet, ramming his fists against one another. “You’re dead.”
“Matt!” Mom says from the doorway. We both turn around. She heard everything? Guess so, because her face is filled with anger and disappointment. “Is that true?”
Bro glares at me. If looks could kill, I’d be six feet under.
“Go to your room, Nick,” Mom says. “I need to have a talk with your brother.”
After wishing Mom good night, I don’t go to my room. I mean I do, but I climb out the window and onto the roof. I’m in the mood to fly, but I probably shouldn’t leave the house. I’m still wearing my uniform under my clothes. Don’t know why, since I’m done with this stuff.
The TV is on in my room and I can hear every word clearly. Like I expected, some people blame the Blue Masked Hero for not saving the girl in time. Others claim I did well, but they’re idiots. How could they say I did well?
“Hey!”
I look down and find Maddie standing in the yard between our houses. “Hey.”
“Are you okay?”
I shrug. Kinda don’t want to talk to anyone right now.
She raises her hands. “Lift me up?”
I do as she asks and she sits next to me. Gives me a small smile. I wish she’d leave me alone.
“I get that you’re upset,” she says.
I snort.
She puts her hand on my arm. “You can’t blame yourself.”
I pull free. “Can we talk about this another time?”
“No. You ignored my calls all day. I was—”
“Maddie, stop. Just stop. Not everything in the world is about you, okay?”
Her eyes get big. She presses her lips together before saying, “Wow. Okay.”
Quiet.
“I wasn’t being self-centered,” she says. “I tried calling you all day because there were people who needed—”
“You don’t get it.”
“Nick.”
“No, I don’t care about anyone who needs my help. Because when it comes down to it, I’m just a—”
“Nick.”
“See, you won’t even listen to me. You just like the sound of your own voice. You don’t care about me or what I have to say.”
“Nick.”
I turn to where she’s looking and see all the cars on the street floating in the air. I stare down at my hands. They’re fisted at my sides.
Maddie’s hand goes to my shoulder. “You need to relax.”
Again, I pull away. “I was fine until you showed up.”
She’s quiet. I need to fix this before someone sees. I shut my eyes and regulate my breathing. Slowly, the cars are lowered to the ground.
“Good job.” Her voice is low.
I shrug.
“Nick, you need to relax or else you’ll lose control. Do you want the whole world to find out who you are?”
I play with some leaves that have gathered on the roof. “Doesn’t matter, because I’m done.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“Like hell I don’t.”
Yet again, her hand is on my shoulder. “You need some time to process and then you’ll feel better.”
I stand up. “You really don’t get it, do you? A little girl died because I couldn’t get to her on time. Tell me, Mads, what’s the point of having these powers if I can’t save a little kid?”
She gets up, too. “Accidents happen.”
“I’m a joke. A loser. These powers should have gone to someone else. Someone more capable. Half the world out there thinks I messed up really badly.” She’s about to say something, but I continue. “And all you care about is my returning your calls. When all that crap was happening out there, that’s all you care about!”
She stares at me for what feels like hours before she says. “I only wanted you to return my calls because I wanted to make sure you were okay. That you didn’t hurt yourself or something. I was worried about you.”
She heads for the edge of the roof.
“Where are you going?” I ask.
“Home. Clearly I’m not wanted here.”
“Mads, sorry. I didn’t mean—”
She holds up her hand. “It’s okay. I get it. You want to be alone.”
“Can I help you down?”
“No, thanks.” She’s about to swing her leg over the edge, but then faces me. “Just so you know, I don’t think you should stop being the Blue Masked Hero. Yes, something terrible happened today, but you had no control over that. You can do so many great things, Nick, you just need to believe in yourself. And those people out there who blame you are idiots.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “You’ll never understand.”
“Nick—”
“Just go.”
“Fine.”
I make sure she gets down safely. She doesn’t turn around, doesn’t look up. I know she’s trying to help, but she doesn’t get that I don’t want to do this anymore. I can’t do this anymore. It’s too painful.
I take off my shirt and hurl it into the window of my room. Using my telekinesis, I grab my mask, go invisible, then shoot in the air. I hate this uniform and mask, but I can’t risk accidentally going visible and everyone finding out I have powers. With this uniform, my identity will still be hidden.
Maddie and I just don’t see eye to eye anymore. All she cares about is sending me off to do rescue missions. She doesn’t get that all this affects me. What does she know? All she does is bark orders at me, then yells at me for quitting. So I quit. So what?
I don’t know where I’m headed until I find myself in a familiar yet not so familiar place. I stare at the house a few feet away from me. I’ve been here before, but I can’t remember…
Nicole. I’m at Nicole’s house. But why?
<
br /> I’m about to fly off, when a voice says, “Hi.”
I face the voice. It’s Nicole, standing at the doorway of her house. I look down at myself. Visible. I’ve got no clue why I lose it whenever she’s around. Good thing I chose to wear the uniform.
“Hi,” I find myself saying.
She looks at me and I look at her.
“Sorry,” I say. “Don’t know why I came here.”
I turn to go, but she says, “Actually, I’m glad you did.”
I face her again. “You are?”
She nods, then rakes her hands through her hair. “I saw you on the news.”
“Oh.” She probably thinks I’m a failure.
“And I just wanted to tell you how brave I think you are. How selfless it was of you to try to save everyone at that school. And the principal’s daughter.”
“She died.”
Her eyes fill with grief. “I know. I’m so sorry about that.”
“Me, too.”
Again, we just stand there looking at each other.
She smiles awkwardly and gestures toward her house. “Do you want to come in?”
I back away a little. Go into Nicole Watts’ house? “I’d better not.”
She laughs a little. “Right. We don’t need my parents and little brothers knowing I’m talking to the famous Blue Masked Hero.”
“Famous? No.”
Her eyes fill with surprise. “What do you mean? Of course you’re famous. Don’t you hear what people say about you? They love and respect you.”
I gape at her. “Even after causing that little girl to die?”
Her eyebrows knit. “How did you cause her to die?”
“Well, uh. Because of, well I just didn’t get to the school on time and couldn’t save her. If I was only a few minutes earlier, she’d be alive today.”
Compassion registers on her face as she moves closer to me and takes me in her arms. “It’s okay,” she murmurs.
Nicole Watts is hugging me. It seems silly to think about this after everything that happened today, but I can’t help it. Her body is so warm against mine. She’s making me feel loads better. She’s making me feel like I actually matter. Like I’m someone.
“You think I should continue doing what I’m doing?” I ask once we draw back.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t you?”
As I think about it, I don’t even remember why I wanted to quit in the first place. It’s stupid. I can do so much more. Can help people. Protect them, make them happy.
I smile. “You’re right. I can’t quit. Just because something went wrong today, it doesn’t mean I should give up. The little girl will always be in my heart, and that will push me to be better and work harder.”
She smiles.
Again, we stand there awkwardly looking at one another.
“Uh,” I say. “It’s late and I should go.”
She frowns. “Oh.”
“Unless you don’t want me to,” I quickly say.
She cocks her head to the side. “How old are you?”
“Fifteen.”
“In school?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Which?”
I zip an invisible zipper across my lips.
“Okay,” she says. “You want to keep your identity a secret, but it’d be nice for me to know who you are. Or at lease your name.”
I don’t know what to say. Of course I can’t tell her my name. I can’t let her know it’s loser Nick under this mask.
My phone beeps.
“What’s that?” Nicole asks.
“My phone.”
She scans my uniform. “Where…?”
I laugh lightly. “Secret pocket.”
She laughs, too. I can’t believe how much better I feel. Just minutes ago I was in such a rotten mood. Talking to Nicole helps. Helps a lot.
“Okay,” she says. “So you won’t tell me your name. Then what should I call you?”
“Whatever you want.”
Her eyes get small as she thinks for a minute. “I can call you Blue. But then it won’t be special.”
Special? Me?
“Blue’s fine,” I say. “I kinda like it.”
She smiles her warm smile that makes me all hot inside. “I’m Nicole.”
I hold out my hand. “Nice to meet you, Nicole.”
She laughs as she takes my hand. Hers is so small and warm and smooth. Exactly how I imagined it would feel.
“Hey,” she says, dropping her hand. “Don’t you want to check who called you?”
I look down at my pocket. “Totally forgot.” I wave my hand. “It’s okay. Probably wasn’t important.” Maybe Maddie wants to yell at me some more or Mom wondering where I am. Though I guess maybe not, since she probably thinks I’m in bed. I hope she didn’t discover that I snuck out.
“Uh…” I’m about to run my hand through my hair, but then remember that my mask gets in the way. I rub the back of my head instead. “You sure you don’t want to get inside? It’s kinda cold out here.” She’s wearing a robe over her pajamas, but it doesn’t look warm.
She waves her hand. “I’m fine. Unless you want to leave.”
“Not at all,” I blurt.
“We can go up to my room,” she suggests.
I can practically feel my mouth sweep the floor. Go to her room? Alone? It seems so personal. “S—sure. But how? Won’t your parents see?”
“Can you fly up?”
“Yeah. I can. I can, yeah.”
She gives me a curious look. “Are you okay?”
I mentally slap myself for acting like such an idiot in front of her. “Yeah. So I’ll see you in your room?”
She nods before getting inside her house and shutting the door behind her. I look up, not sure which room is hers. I suck at this.
My head’s still raised as I try to figure out where to go, when the window to the room on the second floor opens. Nicole sticks her head out. “Come up,” she hisses.
I swallow the humongous lump in my throat and slowly lift myself. I still can’t believe I’m going to be alone with Nicole in her room.
Once I get to the window, she pulls me inside and closes it. I take a look at her room. She’s got posters of the bands and celebrities she’s into. There’s a mirror, a dresser, a closet, and a TV. I guess it’s a typical teenage girl’s room, not that I know what that looks like since Kaylee is only six, and I’ve never been in a girl’s room before. Except for Maddie, but she’s not like most girls.
Nicole drops down on her bed. “So this is my room.”
“It’s cool.”
“Thanks.”
Silence. I don’t want to be quiet around her, but I’ve got no clue what to say or do. What’s a guy supposed to do when invited into a girl’s room? I’d kiss her, but I don’t think that’d be the right move. Besides, I don’t have the guts to kiss her.
“You can sit down.” She motions toward her bed.
I clear my throat a few times and lower myself next to her. Maybe a little too close. She smells really good. Like fruit. I twiddle my thumbs. So un-superhero like, but I’m pretty much sweating through my uniform. I hope Nicole doesn’t notice. Even my knees shake a little.
She smiles, and it should calm me down, but it doesn’t. “Tell me about yourself.”
“Uh…”
“You won’t tell me what school you go to, but can you tell me if you live in Brooklyn?”
“Yeah, I do.”
She taps her chin. “So you go to a school in Brooklyn. Hmm.”
Good thing there are tons of schools here.
“You’re determined to figure me out,” I say.
She shrugs. “Why not? It’ll be fun.”
I sink a little on the bed. “Keeping myself a mystery is fun, too.”
“I guess you might be right. I love mysterious guys. Okay, I won’t try to figure out what school you go to, but I will eventually find out who you are.”
I paste a huge smile on my face. “
We’ll see.”
Chapter Eighteen
Matt looks bummed when I walk into the kitchen the next morning. The total opposite of me. I feel like I can conquer the world. Like there’s no suffering out there. Like I want to dance and dance until my feet fall off.
Nicole. Nicole. Nicole.
“You’re in a good mood,” Matt says with a sour tone. I don’t know what happened after I went to my room last night, but I bet he got punished. He keeps sending me death glares, but I don’t care. Because Nicole and I shared moments last night. Lots and lots of moments. Like when we hugged and held hands and smiled at one another.
Dad, who’s sitting at the table, puts down the newspaper and raises an eyebrow at me. “What has you all energized?”
I try to hide my smile, but I don’t think I succeed. I’m not going to tell them about Nicole yet. Don’t want to jinx it.
“Nothing,” I say.
Kaylee twirls into the room, humming the famous kids’ song that doesn’t quit playing on the radio. She’s got another dance recital coming up soon and that’s probably why she’s in a good mood, too. I guess she and dance are no longer at war.
When she sees me, she leaps over and flings her arms around my stomach. “Piggyback ride! You promised.”
I do as she asks.
Once breakfast is inside me, I head for the bus stop to meet up with Maddie. I’m in the mood to fly.
Maddie’s not there. Weird, since she’s always early. I check my phone for a text, but I don’t have anything.
I wait a few minutes and she still doesn’t show. I text her, asking where she is. She tells me she caught a ride with her stepdad.
I’m about to shoot to the sky toward school, when an idea pops into my head. After making sure I’m invisible and getting into my uniform and mask, I zoom to Nicole’s house. I hope she didn’t leave for school yet.
I hover outside her window, not sure if it’ll be rude for me to peek inside. Yeah, it probably is rude. Instead, I peer into the window on the first floor, to the kitchen, and see Nicole and her family sitting at the table, talking and laughing. Nicole’s chair faces the window and when she sees me, she drops her fork.
“I’m going to school.” She grabs her bag, kisses her parents goodbye, then meets me outside. “What are you doing here?”
I hold out my hand. “Thought you might want a lift to school.”