Lightning Girl

by Alesha Dixon

  I had mentioned this to Alexis but he told me not to worry about it and said that it was just because Mum was working really long hours at the moment and had to do a lot of business travelling. According to Alexis, the reason they were getting angry about it was because Dad missed having her around and Mum missed being around, so it was actually a good thing that they were mad, as it showed they cared.

  Which I guess made sense.

  After a few rounds of fetch with her old mangled tennis ball, I brought Kimmy inside and helped Dad set the table. Dad called Alexis and Clara to come downstairs and as we waited for Mum, he decided to keep us occupied by telling us about this big exhibition coming up at the Natural History Museum where he works. He’s a professor of mineralogy, which means he knows everything about dirt and rocks and stuff.

  “Here, I picked up twelve copies,” he said, showing us page seven of the newspaper as we took our places round the table.

  A GEM OF AN EXHIBITION OPENING AT THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, read the headline, with a photo beside it of Dad beaming. He was holding a box containing what looked like a bunch of stones.

  “These precious stones are centuries old!” Dad informed us eagerly. “They’ve been discovered by explorers, buried and lost in the earth. I’ve been studying the markings for weeks but I won’t give it all away! You’ll have to wait for the big opening night to read all about them. Everyone’s invited – it’s a special black-tie do. Alexis, we can get you your first tuxedo!”

  Alexis rolled his eyes but Clara was much more interested. She was the smartest student in her year, and had already skipped a grade. Although she’s only seven, she’s always reading; her brain can store a load of facts about all different types of things. Mum likes to say she’s a mini version of Dad. She even got his strong eyebrows, curious, wide eyes, and a forehead constantly furrowed in concentration.

  “We get to go to the opening night?” Clara asked, pulling the article towards her.

  “Of course! I’m in charge of the exhibition, so my whole family has to be there,” he said, puffing out his chest proudly.

  “Can Kimmy come?” I asked, as she pawed at my leg. “I can make sure she has a bath for the occasion.”

  “As much as I’d love her there, I’m afraid no dogs are allowed in the museum; too many bones on display,” Dad said with a chuckle. “Sorry, Kimmy.”

  I consoled her with a pat on her head and a whispered promise that I’d give her some of my dinner to make up for it. The timer on the oven went off and, just as Dad slid the vegetable quiche on to the table, Mum came bursting through the door.

  “Hi, everyone!” she beamed.

  Alexis’s fork fell from his hand with a loud clatter, Clara stared with her mouth wide open and Dad dropped the oven glove.

  “Mum,” I began, cutting through the shocked silence, “what happened to you?”

  Her normally glossy long brown hair was sticking up in all directions, like some big fuzzball on top of her head, and small plumes of smoke rose from the ends. There was what looked like a scorch mark down her cheek and a sweep of charcoal across her forehead. She looked like she’d been struck by lightning.

  At first, she was confused by our reaction to her entrance, but then she picked up a large silver serving spoon from the table to examine her reflection.

  “I don’t know what you’re all—OH MY GOODNESS ME!” Her free hand shot to her frazzled hair and she began to desperately attempt to pat it down. “It’s all that … hot yoga!”

  “Hot yoga?” I repeated. Mum had never been into yoga or anything like that before.

  But then, she was really good at all sports, so maybe hot yoga was her new fitness thing. Sadly, she had not passed those sporty genes to me. Although, I could totally relate to her current uncontrollable, frizzy hair. That was my permanent look.

  “Yes, I’ve been trying hot yoga out.” Mum laughed nervously. “Great for a workout but perhaps not too good for my hair. Next time, I’ll have to wear a shower cap or something.”

  “Who knew hot yoga could be so lethal?” Alexis said under his breath as Mum tried to rub off the scorch marks with a tea towel.

  The fumes billowing up from Mum’s hair reached the smoke detector above the kitchen door and it responded with a loud wail. Dad leapt up to help Mum as she began flapping the tea towel at the alarm, which gave Kimmy the perfect opportunity to jump up to the table and grab the quiche between her jaws. She smoothly whipped the whole thing off its plate and raced full pelt into the garden with it to do a victory lap, causing bits of pastry and egg to go flying across the grass.

  “KIMMY, noooooooo!” Dad yelped, running after her and leaving Mum trying to hit the disable button on the smoke alarm.

  I honestly didn’t think my family could get any more bonkers.

  I was very, very wrong.

  3

  A week later, the light-beam thing happened again.

  Our nosy neighbour, Mrs Crow, immediately popped her head up from the other side of the garden fence to see what was going on.

  “Oh my! Gerald! GERALD!” she shrieked to her husband, who swung open an upstairs window and craned his neck over the windowsill.

  “What is it?” he asked grumpily. “I’m in the middle of clarinet practice.”

  “It’s an alien invasion! I saw it! I saw it!” she cried. “A blinding flash of light in next door’s garden! It was so powerful, it nearly knocked down our fence! It blew me right over on to my bottom!”

  “Why are you talking about bottoms?” he asked, twiddling with his hearing aid.

  “I’m calling the Weekly Herald!” Mrs Crow yelled, running across her patio towards the door. “Can you believe it? An alien invasion, right next door! This is front page stuff!”

  I was frozen to the spot where I had fallen backwards, until I heard Dad cough. I looked up to see that he was standing with Mum right behind me. His eyes were wide with shock. Weirdly, Mum’s were filled with excitement.

  “Aurora,” Dad whispered, as Kimmy barked at the empty garden. “Could you come inside for a moment? I think we need to talk.”

  Uh-oh. I was in BIG trouble.

  I obviously didn’t plan on this happening when I got home from school. I was actually planning on perfecting my cartwheel. Everyone in my class can do them except me. Suzie does the best cartwheels in the whole school. She makes it look like it is no effort at all, stepping forwards precisely before neatly ducking her head and swinging her legs swiftly round through the air above her and finishing with her arms pointed up like a professional gymnast.

  “Well done, Suzie!” Miss Nimble, our PE teacher had exclaimed earlier that day, as she watched Suzie cartwheel across her gym mat with ease. “You are as elegant as a gazelle leaping across the plain!”

  Her gaze then drifted towards me at the other end of the hall as I took an enthusiastic run-up, dived forwards and belly-flopped on to my mat with a loud THUD.

  Suzie and her friends burst into hysterical laughter and Kizzy ran over to help, prodding my cheek and asking if I was dead or alive.

  So when I got home I was determined to practice the cartwheel until I could do it and then I would show everyone at school the next day. It was one of the rare occasions that Mum and Dad were both home early, but they were talking in their serious voices in the sitting room, Alexis shut himself in his room as usual and Clara was at a friend’s house for the afternoon, so I had the garden to myself.

  I gave Kimmy a cuddle and left her chewing a new toy in the kitchen before marching through to the garden determinedly. I lifted my hands in the air before falling forwards with gusto but my feet barely left the ground. It was more of a sideways roll. I tried again but the second attempt was even worse and the third, worse than that. After the fourth time, I was ready to give up altogether.

  I sighed. Why was I the ONLY person in the world who couldn’t do a cartwheel? It was so unfair! If Suzie had been there, she would have been shrieking with laughter.

  I felt the
frustration bubbling up angrily inside me and my cheeks grew hot as I remembered Suzie laughing and pointing at me after my humiliating belly flop. Why did she always have to be so mean? I bet she’d told the whole gymnastics team by now. And they’d have told her about my weird scar obsession. They must think I’m the biggest freak EVER.

  My eyes pricked with hot tears and that was when I felt this surge of energy come rushing through my body, shooting down my arms, making my fingers feel fiery and tingling, and suddenly…

  WHOOSH!

  Sparks flew from my fingertips and rays of bright light came bursting out from my palms, nearly stripping the garden of its grass, and knocking over the bird table. As the beams suddenly cut out, I stumbled backwards, tripping over my feet and falling on to the ground. Kimmy came running through from the kitchen to stand over me protectively and bark madly with her ears up, unsure as to what was going on.

  As Mrs Crow shrieked wildly, I considered blaming this on a freak lightning strike or perhaps going along with her alien theory.

  That was obviously before I knew Mum and Dad had witnessed the entire thing.

  I stood up and followed them nervously through to the sitting room, plonking myself down on the sofa opposite. Kimmy refused to leave my side, sensing that something was up. She placed herself next to my feet, still completely alert, and I began stroking her soft ears for comfort.

  “Mum, Dad, you may have noticed that I almost accidentally blew up the garden but—”

  “Oh, honey,” Mum beamed, leaning forwards. “I’m so proud of you.”

  I blinked back at her. Huh?

  “Aurora,” Dad said carefully, “has anything else happened recently? Anything a bit … strange?”

  I nodded.

  “When I saw Clara being picked on the other day,” I admitted quietly. “I stopped them by … well, seeing Clara look so upset, I just felt something bubbling up in my stomach and then I got all hot and it was like fire was running through my veins and then light sparked from my fingertips. That was how I felt just now too. I didn’t mean to ruin the garden, I swear.”

  “Clara was being picked on?” Dad asked in concern. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

  “Aurora,” Mum began in this gentle voice, “I know you must be feeling scared right now. And confused.”

  “Well, yeah. I asked Mrs Damsel about the signs of growing pains, but she didn’t say anything about sparks or light beams.”

  “It isn’t growing pains,” Mum interrupted softly. She turned to Dad. “We need to tell her.”

  He let out a long sigh and then nodded, looking deflated.

  “Tell me what?” I asked curiously.

  “Aurora,” she began. “We have ... superpowers.”

  Silence roared through the room as she waited for my reaction. After a few moments, I started laughing.

  “Nice one, Mum,” I giggled, impressed at how good she was at keeping a straight face.

  She exchanged a worried glance with Dad.

  “Aurora, I’m not joking.”

  I looked from Mum’s serious expression to Dad. He was nodding slowly. I stopped laughing, my breath catching in my throat.

  “W… what?”

  “All the women in our family can control light and energy. Your powers are beginning to come through. Very early, I must admit; my powers didn’t start showing themselves until much later, after I’d left school—”

  “Wait a second… ” I held up my hands. Dad ducked, throwing himself flat against the sofa and covering his head with his arms.

  “Oh really,” Mum scolded, as he peeked at me through his fingers. “She’s perfectly in control of her powers right now.”

  “Sorry. Past experience,” he said pointedly at Mum, sitting up and readjusting his jumper.

  “I have … superpowers?” I whispered, lowering my gaze to my hands. The tingling in my fingers was slowly beginning to ebb away, but now my whole body started to feel numb as I tried to take in what Mum was saying.

  “Yes,” Mum said and smiled. “It’s time to tell you how it all came about. It’s a long story.”

  “I don’t think Aurora needs to hear the story right now, she’s got enough to deal with,” Dad huffed.

  “Of course she needs to know,” Mum told him through gritted teeth, before taking a deep breath and facing me. “A long, long time ago, a great darkness descended over the world. We still don’t know why, but can you imagine a world with no light? Pitch-black, desolate, cold. The only light left was the aurora borealis, otherwise known as the Northern Lights, and even they were fading.”

  “Kiyana,” Dad sighed, running a hand through his hair, “please can we—”

  “While everyone else lost hope,” Mum continued, talking over him, “a brave young girl named Dawn decided to try and do something about it. She was tired of watching her people suffer. She believed that the last remaining light in the world might be the key to saving it, but no one listened to her. Dawn wasn’t going to let that stop her. She began to make her way to the aurora borealis. The journey was very tough, and many times, Dawn wanted to give up, but her courage kept her going. When Dawn got to the Northern Lights, tired and cold, with no energy left, the lights were glowing brighter than they had ever shone. That’s when she found it, the—”

  “That’s enough, Kiyana!” Dad snapped, standing up and coming over to sit next to me, placing a hand on mine and squeezing it. “This is all too much. Aurora, do you want me to get you a glass of water?”

  “She’s stronger than you think she is,” Mum protested. “She needs to hear—”

  “Hear what? A bunch of legends and myths that have been twisted and changed over the years like Chinese whispers?” Dad took a deep breath as Mum pursed her lips. “Kiyana, even you don’t know what is the truth and what is fiction. Let’s just keep things simple for now.”

  “What does this Dawn person have to do with anything?” I asked, my heart slamming against my chest. This had to be some kind of weird joke. Except Mum and Dad weren’t laughing.

  “You’re a descendent of Dawn,” Mum said eagerly before Dad could stop her. “All the women in our family have superpowers. Passed on since Dawn Beam restored light to the world. Her powers have passed down to every generation, to me and now to you.” She paused and then added quickly, “Her powers and her surname. For which you can be grateful, since your father’s surname was Bogglebog.”

  Dad mumbled under his breath about the great legacy of the Bogglebogs and their role in the invention and development of the fly swatter. We both ignored him.

  “I don’t understand,” I said slowly, my head starting to hurt with all this crazy information. “You’re telling me that I have superpowers … and so do you?”

  Mum nodded. “All those times I’ve been away on business trips; I was, in fact, saving the world.”

  “All those times?”

  “Every single one of them. Oh, and … uh … well, that hot yoga class the other day.” She smiled at me guiltily. “A criminal tried to destroy some evidence that would put him in prison, but I managed to rescue it at the expense of my hair. He had fashioned a hair dryer into a destructive weapon, which, come to think of it, was actually quite imaginative for a bad guy, but the downfall was that he needed electricity. So, after dodging a few of his badly aimed shots at me, I just pulled the plug on that one.”

  She burst out laughing at her joke. Dad coughed. I stared at her.

  “Get it? I saved the day, but otherwise it might have been a bit of a hair-y situation.”

  Again, silence roared through the room.

  “Wow. Tough crowd. Anyway,” she shrugged, “now that your powers are showing, it’s time for you to begin your training so that you can become a superhero too and save the world alongside me.”

  Wait. What? Me?! A superhero?? SAVING THE WORLD?? Superpowers are one thing, but a superhero?

  I can’t even do a cartwheel.

  HOW CAN I SAVE THE WORLD WHEN I CAN’T EVEN DO A CARTWHEE
L?

  Dad cleared his throat as I sat there freaking out, a hundred questions clouding my brain. I mean, as well as not being able to do a cartwheel, I kicked a football at a teacher’s head. How can I be a superhero when I kick footballs at teachers’ heads?? That’s surely not a very superhero thing to do. And do I have to wear a cape now?! Superheroes wear capes, right? Would I get to pick the colour of the cape? Suzie would think I was a WAY bigger freak if I walked around school wearing a cape! Do superheroes even still go to school?! Do superheroes have school friends?? Do I have to make up a stupid superhero name, like Lightblaster Girl?!?! I don’t want to be Lightblaster Girl!! THIS IS A TOTAL DISASTER!

  I sat in shock, barely blinking.

  “It’s a lot to take in,” Mum admitted, her big brown eyes filled with concern as she watched me. “Are you OK, Aurora?”

  Hmm. Let me think on that one. Am I OK? Am. I. OK.

  AM I OK??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

  Let’s just take a moment to recap on everything that’s just occurred in the last few minutes of my life, shall we?

  1.Light beams keep exploding from my hands

  2.I found out my Mum is a superhero

  3.I found out that I am descended from a long line of female superheroes

  4.Which means Grandma was probably one too

  5.Which means she’s probably not retired in Cornwall living a peaceful life running a rescue shelter for stray chickens like she said

  6.I found out I have superpowers

  7.I have to train up these aforementioned superpowers

  8.I might have to wear a cape

  9.Despite the whole superhero thing, I still can’t do a cartwheel

  10.MY WHOLE LIFE HAS BEEN A LIE

  The doorbell buzzed suddenly, making us all jump. Dad got up tentatively and went to see who it was, while Mum came over to sit next to me, gripping my hand and refusing to take her eyes off me.

  “Nothing’s really changed, Aurora,” she whispered. “You’re still you and I’m still me.”