by Lisa Yee
There was a discernible shift in the room as the Supers sat up straight, admiring their own costumes. Then all eyes turned as Supergirl approached the front of the room slowly, her usual enthusiasm dampened with dread. The silence at first appeared to be calculated to ramp up suspense, but it soon turned to awkwardness. Supers glanced around at one another in confusion.
Crazy Quilt leaned into Supergirl. “Everyone is waiting,” he reminded her. She nodded, knowing that she had to say something soon.
Finally Supergirl began haltingly, “I love what everyone’s done.” Cheetah and Star Sapphire gave each other knowing grins. Hawkgirl and Poison Ivy looked serious. Katana looked confident. Harley winked at Supergirl, then focused her camera on her.
“Come on, tell us!” Crazy Quilt cut in, eager to hear the decision. “Who gets the SECA—Supergirl Extra Credit Assignment? SECA! SECA! SECA!” he began to chant, pleased with the sound of his own voice.
“Well, um. No one,” Supergirl said in barely a whisper.
No one in the class moved.
Crazy Quilt shook his head. “No, no, no, no, that’s not how it works, Supergirl,” he gently reminded her. “You pick one design and the student who created it gets the SECA. And as we all know, Crazy Quilt is quite generous with his extra credit!”
Supergirl lowered her head. “I love and appreciate what everyone’s done,” she said to the silent room. “I really, really do. But my costume, the one I showed up in, the one I’m wearing right now, is something I don’t want to change. At all.”
“You could have a change for the better,” Cheetah muttered under her breath. “Your costume is so boringly normal.”
“You see…” Supergirl struggled to explain, absent-mindedly fiddling with her crystal necklace. “My mom made my costume. We worked on it together.” Supergirl took off her cape and showed the class the small white tag on the inside that read MADE BY KARA AND ALURA.
Supergirl put her cape back on and continued, her voice getting stronger. “Red was Mom’s favorite color, hence my red skirt. The royal blue is Dad’s favorite, that’s why my shirt is blue. I like yellow—that’s on the trim. See here? The cape is like the one my dad had when he was a boy.” Supergirl took a breath. “The crest, this big S-shape, has been in my family for generations. And as for my red high-top sneakers, well, I just think they look cool.
“As Crazy Quilt said,” Supergirl continued, her voice getting even stronger, “our costumes tell the world who we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going. My name is Kara Zor-El, only child of Zor-El and Alura. My planet and everyone on it, including my parents, were destroyed. What I’m wearing honors my parents and my planet. This is who I was and still am.”
Supergirl turned to Crazy Quilt. “Please don’t make me change,” she begged.
Crazy Quilt was sobbing, along with half the class. He produced a handkerchief from inside his sleeve and loudly blew his nose into it. “Dear, dear child,” he said, taking her hands in his, “your costume is perfect just as it is.” Several classmates nodded. Harley was crying so hard she could hardly hold up her video camera. “You wear your costume with pride, and as for the SECA, one hundred percent of the extra credit goes to…you.”
After consoling Crazy Quilt, Supergirl turned and faced the class. “I want to share the extra credit with my classmates who worked so hard on my behalf, and divide it equally among them. May I?”
Her teacher nodded and burst out crying again as he answered, “Yes, Supergirl! Yes! Super idea!”
Supergirl had a single blue notebook, albeit a big one, for all her classes. She was sitting in her Super Heroes Throughout History class and had just opened to a clean page when Liberty Belle announced, “I have a fun project for all of you. You’ll be working on your family histories. We’ll unveil them on Parents’ Night.”
A buzz of excitement filled the room. So many of the Supers had rich histories to fall back on. After all, this high school counted many of the most famous super heroes in the universe as alumni, and a great deal of the students were legacies, having had relatives who had gone to the school before them. Still, there were a fair amount of students who didn’t have any super heroes in their lineage—but were about to create a legacy of their own and make their families proud.
If only her parents could see how far she’d come, Supergirl thought. But she gave herself only a few seconds to think about this. She never wanted to be a downer, so she made it a point to be extra cheerful, always ready with a smile, a word of encouragement, or a joke or two. Wonder Woman was always telling people, “That Supergirl fits right in here! She makes me happy just to be around her!”
Supergirl liked hearing that. It felt so good to have friends. When she was with others, there was no time to be anything but cheerful and busy.
However, as cheerful as Supergirl was during the day—raising her hand in class, helping others, joking about her inability to control her new powers—when the sun set and the stars came out, it was an entirely different story.
Nights were hard. When she was alone in bed with the lights out, Kara thought about her parents, her friends, and the life she left behind when Krypton was destroyed.
Sometimes she’d have nightmares about it, waking up and crying out in her sleep, frightening Bumblebee. Other times, Kara would dream that she was having supper with her mother and father and they were talking about the vacation they were planning to take to Wonderful World, the new family theme planet two solar systems over. Kara didn’t know which was worse: the nightmares that startled her awake in a cold sweat, or the dreams that broke her heart when she awoke to find out they weren’t real.
The Knitting and Hitting Club was quite popular, though sometimes it got out of hand, resulting in knitting needles being confiscated and students being sent to detention. Yet no one could deny that the colorful blankets, sweaters, and whatnots that the club members knit, when they weren’t practicing hitting each other, were quite spectacular.
Supergirl signed up for the club with all good intentions. Katana, who had a keen eye for cutting-edge design, had talked her into it. “You can be totally creative here!” she enthused. “Look at this!” Katana unfurled a sleek coat with matching boots, hat, and sword-carrying case she had knit out of gray steel wool and rare yellow-hued Yeti yarn.
As the days at Super Hero High wore on, Supergirl had time to reflect on all that Martha and Jonathan Kent had done for her—taking her in, caring for her when she was at her most vulnerable. Had she even thanked them? The least she could do, she thought, was knit them a present. However, during the first Knitting and Hitting meeting, Supergirl not only managed to unravel a giant ball of yarn, she also got several club members tangled up in it as well. It took the school’s Booby Trap Disposal Club, aka Anti-Evil Engineering Society, to sort everyone out. Though the AEES Supers were adept when working with bombs and other incendiary devices, they had never dealt with yarn before. Once everyone got sorted out, Supergirl apologized profusely, then went right back to work. Her goal was to have the present ready to give to her aunt and uncle on Parents’ Night—that is, if they showed up. Technically, they weren’t her parents.
Later, Supergirl sat on her bed and examined her knitting. It looked more like knotting, she thought as she turned the colorful blob of yarn this way and that. It was so tangled she couldn’t even find the knitting needles.
There was a knock on the door. “Someone request tech services?” Barbara asked, stepping inside.
Supergirl put her knitting down. “I was trying to send my aunt and uncle a weekly update, but I crashed the computer.” Barbara waited for Supergirl to humbly add, “Again.”
Tech was not Supergirl’s strong suit. Luckily, it was something Babs excelled in.
Without even looking, Babs retrieved her tools from her Utility Belt. With the skill of a master surgeon, she began adjusting this and that, and saying mysterious things that sounded like, “Hmmm, looks like a diffused dialectic electric gigabyte whatchama
callit 4.0.”
Supergirl liked having Babs nearby. The two had been honing Supergirl’s superpowers in secret. With Barbara’s analytical abilities, she was able to set up a regime to help Supergirl learn to control her powers. And while Supergirl had improved almost 74.3 percent in strength and stalwartness, and her flying was nearly under control, she had more progress to make with aim, accuracy, and not tripping over her own feet.
“Babs,” Supergirl ventured, “can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” Barbara said as she finished up. To make sure the computer was running properly, she logged onto “Harley’s Quinntessentials.” On the screen they could see Harley interviewing Miss Martian, who kept answering Harley’s questions before she asked them.
“What was it you wanted to ask me?” Barbara said, shutting off the “Quinntessentials” channel. The room was suddenly, blissfully, silent.
Supergirl had made many new super hero friends. She was still in awe of Wonder Woman—who wasn’t? Hawkgirl was nice, but such a rule follower that every time Supergirl messed up, which was often, she was afraid that Hawkgirl might report her. Harley was—well, Harley—busy creating her broadcast empire. Katana was great, if sometimes a bit too honest and blunt. Bumblebee was the sweetest roommate ever, never complaining about Supergirl’s nightmares. And while many underestimated her, Poison Ivy was so talented, but a full-on introvert. However, it was Barbara Gordon, who wasn’t a super hero and didn’t even attend Super Hero High, whom Supergirl felt closest to.
“I…don’t really know what a super hero is supposed to do,” Supergirl confessed.
When Babs didn’t answer right away, Supergirl was afraid she was going to get laughed at. But instead, Barbara said, “Maybe we should go old-school for this question.”
Supergirl wasn’t sure what that meant, but she didn’t want to admit it. Barbara Gordon was the smartest person she had ever met. If anyone knew what she was talking about, it was her.
“Follow me,” Barbara said, already out the door.
As they made their way down the empty hallways, Supergirl thought she saw a roundish green creature scampering around a corner. She almost said something to Babs, but instead she kept going, certain she must have been seeing things. Leftover nightmares, Supergirl thought.
Just as they neared the library, a terrifying shadow towered on the wall—this one too large to ignore. When it spoke, both girls jumped back.
“What do you want?”
CRASH!
Supergirl and Barbara were startled by the sound of glass breaking.
“Help me!” someone cried.
Supergirl searched the hallway with her super-vision and spotted a figure stepping out of the darkness. The old lady was nowhere near as big as the shadow she had cast.
“My heart!” she said, clutching her chest and staggering. “Mercy me, you girls really scared me.”
“I’m so sorry, Granny Goodness,” Barbara said, hastily picking up the old woman’s cane and handing it to her.
Supergirl recognized the elderly librarian. She had met her before when she’d knocked down most of the bookshelves.
“Let me help you,” Supergirl said, extending her arm and supporting Granny Goodness as they walked into the library.
“My, but you’re strong, Supergirl,” Granny Goodness noted.
“You know who I am?” Supergirl asked, surprised.
“Yes, of course!” Granny Goodness’s voice was warm and friendly. “I’ve been following your progress…since you helped rearrange my library earlier. You’ve been doing a good job, dear. You’re well on your way.”
On my way where? Supergirl wondered as she helped Granny Goodness ease into a chair.
“We’re here to find books on being a super hero,” Barbara explained. “Stuff that may not be on the Internet. Book books, like with paper pages. Old historical tomes, that sort of thing.”
“Books that smell like books,” Supergirl said helpfully.
“I can certainly help you with that,” Granny Goodness assured them.
As she tottered up and down the aisles, the librarian used her cane to inch books off the top shelves and then toss them to the girls. Babs was carrying an impossibly tall stack, and Supergirl had a stack twice as tall—in each arm.
“I think this is enough for now,” Barbara said as her books swayed precariously.
“More than enough, thank you,” added Supergirl. She wondered how she’d ever have time to read all of them.
“Wait, don’t go yet!” Granny Goodness insisted. She reached into her cookie jar and pulled out two cookies. She popped one into each of the girls’ mouths.
Supergirl smiled as she chewed. The cookies reminded her of home. Her father was famous for his sugar cookies dusted with starlight. He always set aside a batch and hand lettered a fancy K in blue frosting for Kara.
“Come back anytime,” Granny Goodness said, lowering her voice and adding, “Nighttime is especially good; that’s when I get lonely.” Supergirl nodded. She knew how that felt. “And please,” the old lady added, “call me Granny.”
Barbara looked at her watch. “Oh no!” she moaned as they headed back to the dorm. “My dad is going to be so mad at me. I’m late, I gotta go!”
“Thanks for taking me to the library,” Supergirl said, and scooped up the books her friend was carrying. “I’ll see you tomorrow!”
Supergirl continued on alone. She was fairly certain she knew the way back, but with the books blocking her view, she hit a wall and backed up. The door in front of her was made of steel and above it was a small sign that read:
BOOM TUBES
DO NOT ENTER—THAT MEANS YOU!
Supergirl had heard of the Boom Tubes. They were supposed to take you somewhere, but she was hazy on the details. Maybe, she thought, they could take her back to the girls’ dormitory! Babs had confided that she had discovered all sorts of secret passageways at Super Hero High. Supergirl set the books down and tried the door. It appeared to be stuck, so she tried it again, this time with more force.
Oops.
Supergirl stared at the door handle that had come off in her hand. Her confusion was broken by a loud siren and blinking red and yellow lights.
Panic!
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE AT THIS HOUR?” a voice boomed.
Double panic!!
“Uh, I—I’m lost,” Supergirl sputtered. “I was just trying to find my way back to the dorm. I was at the library. I was…I was…”
Waller looked at the piles of books around Supergirl. “You weren’t trying to access the Boom Tubes?” she accused, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes on the handle in Supergirl’s grip.
Triple panic!!!
“I don’t even know what a Boom Tube is,” Supergirl admitted as the alarm continued to scream. Clumsily, she tried to put the handle back on the door. “I was just trying to get back to my room, honest!” Her voice started to crack. “I’m so sorry for setting off the alarm.” Her shoulders slumped. “I’m not doing so well as a super hero, so I was doing some extra research,” she tried to explain.
“You’re doing fine,” Waller said with a sigh as she turned the alarm off. The lights stopped flashing and the air was filled with a sudden silence. “The Boom Tubes can take you anywhere. But they’ve been off limits for years. No one, I repeat, no one has permission to use them.”
“They can take you anywhere…?” Supergirl asked as she scrambled to pick up the books.
Waller nodded. “Anywhere.”
At that moment Supergirl felt like a failure for breaking the door handle, setting off the alarm, and incurring the wrath of Waller. She wondered if the Boom Tubes could take her to Korugar Academy. If only she knew how they worked.
“You sure ask a lot of questions,” Principal Waller said. Supergirl froze. “That’s a good thing,” the principal assured her. “You don’t pretend to know everything, like some of the other students. The Boom Tubes are teleportation devices. Since you came mid-semest
er, you missed my All-Access All-School Tour. But I’ll fill you in on it now.”
“Teleportation devices?” Supergirl said.
“Yes, they can take you anywhere in the universe you want to go,” Waller repeated.
Supergirl’s heart skipped a beat. “Can they take me back to Krypton to see my parents?”
The Wall shook her head sympathetically. “No, it’s not a time machine.”
Supergirl swallowed her sadness. “Oh, okay. Teleporter, not time machine. I get it now. Principal Waller, everyone here knows so much more than I do,” she confessed. “I don’t think I’ll ever catch up.”
As Waller stared unblinkingly at her, Supergirl fidgeted. Was she in trouble? Would she be expelled? It was hard to tell what the principal was thinking. Even Miss Martian said that she could never read Principal Waller’s mind. Maybe Korugar Academy would take her, Supergirl ventured. She really didn’t have anywhere else to go. She wasn’t even sure if the Kents wanted her on the farm—after all, they’d seemed eager to send her away to Super Hero High.
“Supergirl,” Principal Waller finally said. “You are here because of your potential. Because of what you are capable of becoming.” She paused. “I’m going to show you something no student at Super Hero High has seen. I think you have the maturity to handle it. Are you ready?”
Relief! Supergirl nodded. “I’m ready!” she said, curious as to what was in store.
Waller scanned her credentals on the reader next to the sealed Boom Tube door. A red glow appeared at the security check panel, followed by a low buzz. Silently the double-reinforced unbreakable steel door opened to reveal a large sealed-off room with what looked like portraits lining the walls.
These were the legendary Boom Tubes—the teleportation devices that could take you anywhere in the universe!
Through the round portals, Supergirl gaped at Skartaris, the world at the center of the Earth where a young apatosaurus nibbled on some tree leaves and then happily burped. In Atlantis, the fabled sunken city, it looked like renovations were being completed on an underwater castle. Over in Florida, a rowdy group of retirees were arguing over bingo. And in Korugar, home to the Yellow Lantern Corps, Supergirl could see Korugar Academy students milling around a classroom taking selfies, drinking milk shakes, and passing notes.