The New Normal

by Katrina Kahler

  “Do you play any sports?” Tim asked.

  “Do you have a girl friend?” Krista asked?

  Jason simply rolled his eyes at me. Was Jason jealous of the way I acted around Brandon?

  “I like chess and ping pong,” Tomas said.

  “That’s cool!” Tim said with a nod. “We should play sometime.”

  “Which one?” Tomas asked him.

  Tim took a sip of his milkshake. “Either.” He frowned. “Weird this milkshake has turned warm.”

  Tomas pointed to the TV. My fight was shown on half the screen while Oscar Oranga interviewed people on the other half, asking them what they thought. As always a lot of the people liked me. Some of the people thought I could be dangerous.

  “I think she’s great!” Jason said.

  “I think she’s amazing!” Krista agreed.

  “I think she’s cute!” Tim said.

  “She does have a cool look about her!” Krista added.

  Tomas took a bite out of a burger. “So you guys aren’t scared of her? But she can drop you all with a whiff of her feet.”

  Krista waved at him dismissively. “Nah, I’ve experienced that. It’s not bad!”

  Jason nodded. “That’s what I heard too!” He smiled at me.

  “Man I wished she’d knock me out!” Tim said. “Then she could give me mouth to mouth!”

  “Oh gross!” we all said.

  Tim grinned cheekily. Then we all laughed. Even Tomas almost grinned. We sat there for the next hour or so, just munching and talking. Talking about everything, talking about nothing. I believe Tomas even cracked a smile or two.

  Around dinner time, Tomas, Jason and I started walking home. Jason asked if I was glad about not having to give my speech yet. I nodded and told him, yes, but I also wanted to get it over with. Tomas said how he loved being home schooled as it was less drama. Jason told him that the drama makes life interesting. Tomas just laughed and said he finds life interesting enough without the drama of school.

  I said goodbye to the guys and headed to my house.

  “That was fun!” I heard Tomas say in my brain.

  “Okay, this is weird!” I thought back.

  “Not weird, we’re just advanced… Would you go out with me sometime?”

  Now that was something I hadn’t expected.

  “Tomas, I like you but I just want to be friends,” I thought back.

  “I get it. I’ll see you later.” He cut his reply short and I didn’t hear anything further.

  I walked into the house. I hoped he was okay and wasn’t upset with me. I guessed it could have gone better. These things always could. Before I could overthink it though, my phone vibrated. Two messages. One from Jason.

  JASON> Great job 2day! U were awesome! (muscle)

  I texted back: Tnks!

  The second message was from my dad.

  DR DAD>Thanks for your help, my dear. Love Dad!

  Wow! My dad really was back in my life!

  Dear Diary: Okay, I’m not sure what the coolest and weirdest moments were with these recent events. Certainly beating up the big blue robot felt great. Once that big blue jerk threatened my town and friends, I knew I had to put him down and hard. I certainly do have a lot of punch! The excitement from that made me tingle all over. But that also showed me how I have to keep my calm. I can’t go firing off heat ray vision by accident. Man! That would be bad. Using the freezing breath was, pardon the bad joke, cool.

  On the weirder side, Tomas has an interesting way about him. Not sure what freaked me out more, the fact that he could mind control the entire room or how calm he acted. You know it’s been a strange day when you find out that one of your new friends is a witch, and that isn’t even the oddest part of the day.

  Still, the highlight had to be my dad reaching out to me. It’s great to have him in my life again. Sure, he summoned me with a mental broadcast but I even found that neat. Sure, he wanted me to defeat a crazy robot. Sure, mom thinks Dad may have been testing my limits. But then he texted me afterward! He told me, good job. I bet he was proud of me. I knew he was. He didn’t have to text me. But he did. Yep, my dad was now a part of my life and I liked it.

  Oh getting back to the males in my life…it was kind of odd that Tomas would ask me out after only knowing me for a few days. After all, Jason and I have been friends forever and he’s never asked me out. Of course, maybe that’s why Jason never asked me out, we were such good friends. Whatever! I just hoped I handled it okay. I do want Tomas to be a friend or buddy. You can’t have too many friends, and man, he would be a tough enemy. I had to hope for the best. Sometimes even superheroes have to hope for the best.

  Hmmm…the new normal!

  Vamps and Witches, Oh my!...

  That evening, I had dinner with Mom and Grandma Betsy. It was a phones off, let’s talk and chat dinner, of grilled chicken breast with Mom’s gourmet sauce and her special salad. Yum!

  “Proud of you for taking out the crazy blue droid!” Grandma Betsy told me. (She was a big Star Wars fan…)

  Mom put a hand on my shoulder, “I am too.” She hesitated a moment. “Just be careful with your dad… That man always has something up his lab coat sleeve.”

  I nodded.

  “Ah, Isabelle, you just don’t like that he always called you Isa,” Grandma said with a smirk.

  Changing the subject, I asked. “Have either of you dealt with vampires and witches?”

  They both shook their heads. “Like I’ve said before,” explained Grandma Betsy, “I’ve always surmised they existed…but they’ve stayed hidden away.”

  “As have we,” she added, grinning at me with her eyes as much as her mouth. “You, my dear, have opened up the world to a lot of new things!”

  Mom nodded in agreement and I gave them both a weak smile in return. I just hoped opening up the world would be a good thing.

  After dinner, I went to my room to do some homework and practice my speech. I worked for about twenty minutes then realized my phone was still off. I turned it back on and texted Jason. I thought for sure, he’d want to chat about my battle with the crazy blue robot.

  LIA>How’s the night going?

  Nothing. I waited a few moments then before sending another text.

  LIA>Knock knock!

  Still nothing.

  A quick check of my social (or unsocial) media showed people once again debating the pros and cons of Super Teen. Surprisingly though, Wendi wasn’t complaining about me. She was worried that she hadn’t been able to contact Brandon all evening. She’d asked his parents but they didn’t seem concerned, and that was strange.

  Now was that just a coincidence?

  I heard a knock. Not on my door, but on my window; which was extra weird considering I’m on the second floor. Turning to the window, I saw Jessie floating there. I jumped up, opened the window and helped her in.

  “Jessie, what’s going on?”

  Jessie looked around my room. “Hmm, I thought there’d be pictures of pink ponies or unicorns or something. Not LAX posters…”

  “I took the unicorns down when I hit 12, but still, a girl can like unicorns, ponies, and LAX as well,” I admitted. “But that’s not why you are here!”

  Jessie shook her head. “No, I figured you might be worried about your buddy, Jason, and the boring perfect looking kid.”

  “Brandon?”

  Jessie nodded. “Yeah that one, he’s so blah with his straight teeth and dimples,” she stuck out her tongue.

  “Jessie, to the point!”

  “The half-vamp nabbed them!”

  “Why?” I asked.

  Jessie shrugged. “Don’t know…vamps are weird.” She looked me in the eyes. “My guess is he’s jealous!”

  “What? You’re kidding me!” I stared at her. “Do you know where he took them?”

  “Kind of,” Jessie told me. “I did a locator spell and it showed me Main Street… vamps can be hard to really get a lock on!”

  As soon as she
said Main Street, I knew where Tomas was keeping them. “The library!” I said. “Tomas said he loves to hang out in the dark basement of the library!”

  Jessie smiled. “Vamps can be so cool!”

  I headed towards my window. “You coming?” I asked.

  Jessie smiled again. “Wouldn’t miss it!”

  We arrived at the library quickly. Since it was dark I figured I’d handle this as Lia Strong, not Super Teen. After all, this was personal, not heroic. We found one of the library main windows had been forced open. We climbed in the window. It felt kind of freaky being in a dark library. The good thing was that my super sight seemed to see perfectly well in the dark.

  The shelves of books made a maze for us to navigate through.

  “I’m pretty sure they are in the basement,” I said.

  Jessie seemed giddy. “This is so cool,” she said.

  After working our way up an aisle of books and then down a row of books, we found the door to the basement. The door had been smashed open. Pointing at the broken lock, I stated the obvious, “They’re down there for sure.”

  Jessie rolled her eyes. “Wow, brilliant, Sherlock!”

  I shot her a look. She took a step back. “Sorry, I can get cynical when I’m excited!”

  We made our way down the dark staircase. There, sitting in the middle of the basement was Tomas. He was reading a book by flashlight. Tomas sat on top of Brandon and used Jason as a footrest.

  “Oh, so not cool, Tomas!” I said.

  Tomas turned to me. I noticed he was reading The Art of War.

  He stood up quickly. He staggered. He put his hands behind his back, “Oh, hi. Funny finding you here! This isn’t what it looks like!”

  “It looks like you’ve got it in for Brandon and Jason!” I said, thrusting a finger at him.

  Tomas dropped his head. “Okay, it is what it looks like then.”

  I walked over and lifted Tomas off the ground with one finger. “What’s your problem?”

  “You like them better than me!” he replied.

  “Like duh!” Jessie said.

  I shot Jessie a look. She backed up a step and said, “Come on now that was obvious as well!”

  I let Tomas fall to the ground. I took a deep calming breath. Then another and another. “Look, Tomas, I’ve known Jason all my life. Well, at least for all of my life that I can remember. He’s always been there for me. I’ve always been there for him. We’re great friends. Will we ever be more than that?” I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe we know each other too well. But whatever there is between Jason and me, has nothing to do with you.” I poked him with my finger. “Get it?”

  He rubbed the spot where I had poked him. “Yeah, I get it.” He motioned with his head towards Brandon, who was kneeling on the floor on all fours. “What about pretty boy?”

  “Oh, please, he’s Wendi’s boyfriend. He’s not even interested in me!” I said, my face turning red.

  Tomas laughed. “Oh come on! You’re smart, you’re pretty and you’re super powered! Of course, he’s interested in you!”

  “Duh, again,” Jessie said.

  A part of me really liked hearing that. Wow!

  Another part of me told that part to calm down. I had a lot of flaws…not the least being that one of my farts could drop a town. “Look, Tomas, I appreciate the comments and your feelings… I do…but when I said I’m not ready for a relationship, it has nothing to do with these two guys or with you. You’re actually great in your own strange way.”

  “Thanks. I think,” Tomas said.

  “Tomas, my life is really weird right now. I have a lot to take in and a lot to learn about myself. I don’t want to be more than friends with anybody, not yet. Not until I have a better idea of who I am and my place in this world. This world that gets crazier for me by the day.”

  Tomas looked at the two guys and ordered. “Get up, walk up the stairs, out the window and go home. If anybody asks, you’ve been studying late!”

  The two boys obediently stood up and walked away.

  “Thanks, Tomas,” I said.

  He shrugged. “Felipe says I have to learn to read human clues better.”

  “He’s a smart kid!” I said.

  Jessie came up and put her arm around Tomas. “You know, being a mostly good witch, I’m already aware of my place in this world.”

  The two of them smiled at each other.

  “I’ll just leave you two alone!” I said, heading out of there as fast as possible. “Thanks for your help, Jessie!”

  “No, thank you!” Jessie told me with a wink.

  I smiled and caught up with Jason on the walk home. He was confused. So I thought it best that I made sure he got home safely.

  “You know, I have a weird feeling that something really strange just happened,” Jason told me, as we reached his house.

  I shrugged. “Well, the world is a weird and wonderful place, Jason.”

  He nodded. “True, but that still doesn’t explain why I smell feet?”

  Dear Diary: First off, vampires and witches are strange, but in a kind of interesting way. I also have to admit that Tomas made me begin to come to terms with my feelings about Jason and Brandon, kind of.

  The big day…

  On Friday morning, I had a feeling of dread. That could only mean one thing. Today would be the day I got chosen to give my oral report. I stayed longer than usual in bed. Shep, our loyal dog, walked into the room. He nudged me with his nose. Shep hated it when I slept late, especially on school days.

  I turned to him. “Oh, Shep…” I said. But I couldn’t finish, as the second my breath hit him, he whimpered, went, stiff, and fell over. I shot my hand over my mouth. It seemed like my morning breath of death was back. Yeah, that’s not ever a good sign of things to come. This showed how unique my life had become. I thought nothing of a whiff of my breath knocking out a 100-pound dog.

  After a good teeth brushing and breakfast, Jason and I headed to school. Jason seemed no worse for the events of the night before. He told me he’d had the wildest dreams.

  All through the school day, I hoped something would happen that would call for Super Teen to save the day, anything that would give me an excuse to have to leave the school grounds. But of course, when you want a super villain or something to show up, they never do.

  Before I knew it, I was sitting in history class. Mr. P probably was the neatest man in the world. He never had a hair out of place. It seemed like his clothing never wrinkled. Not sure why I noticed all of that right then. It’s funny the things you pick up on when you’re trying not to freak out.

  Mr. P pulled out a name from the hat, “Lia…”

  “Lia who?” I asked grasping at straws.

  The classed laughed.

  Jason bent over and patted me on the back. “You can do this!”

  I stood up. I walked to the front of the class.

  “You can do this, honey!” I heard Grandma Betsy say in my brain. Not sure how she did that, but it made me feel better. “Just breathe!” she mentally coached. “And don’t fart LOL!” she added. Yeah, she said LOL.

  I stood in front of the class. Stay calm, I told myself. My knees started to shake. I felt my palms sweat. I took a breath. I closed my eyes and then I decided to imagine the entire class in their PJs. Somehow mentally picturing Wendi wearing bright orange Sponge Bob PJs put me more at ease. I smiled.

  Then I started out talking about how my first ancestors came here in the 1600s. Before that, most of my family lived in the England, Scotland and Ireland area.

  “In other words, Great Britain,” Mr. P lectured.

  I went on to talk about how things have changed. How man has walked on the moon. How today we all walk around with little computers in our pockets that are more powerful than the most powerful computer on Earth at the time man walked on the moon. How the internet has given us all access to unbelievable amounts of information. How these days, the trick is to work out what information is true and what isn�
�t. I talked about how Netflix and Chill were unheard of, not even ten years earlier. I also joked about how my grandma can’t wait for her car to be able to drive her to the shopping center of its own accord.

  I closed with what I considered the strong point of my talk. “Probably though, the biggest thing I learned doing this project is, the more things change, the more people stay the same. In fact, despite all the technology today and the fast paced life we have, a pace so fast we have to text by leaving out letters or using cool emoticons or LOLs, we are all still much like our ancestors and each other. We all want to be safe and happy. We all want to be part of something larger than ourselves. Rather, we call it a community, a clan, a tribe, a team or a club. We all want to belong and that’s because we know things are better when we work together. We all have a role to play! The trick, of course, is finding that role!”

  Mr. P gave me a little applause. “Very good, Lia!” I especially loved the conclusion.

  When I looked at the class, they all were smiling, even Wendi. Then they all began to applaud as well. I took that as a sign of success.

  Before I could soak in the glory for too long though, an announcement came over the PA system. “This is Vice-Principle MacaDoo! The rest of the school day and all after school practices have been canceled. All students and teachers please go to the basement! THERE IS A GIANT ROBOT HEADING TOWARDS OUR CITY!”

  Of course, there was!

  Mr. P quickly turned on the TV in the classroom. There, stomping towards town, was a giant robot that looked like a huge three story tall square box with long coil legs and five metal arms with claws attached. The police shot at it, but their bullets just bounced off. From the TV we heard Oscar Oranga broadcasting from the street, “This demolition bot has escaped from BM Science’s facility. BM says they regret any inconvenience this may cause and they will reimburse people for any damages.”

  “Quick everybody, to the basement!” Mr. P yelled.