Superkid

by Christina Barr

  Christina L. Barr

  Copyright © 2012 by Christina Barr

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1. 4

  Chapter 2. 9

  Chapter 3. 15

  Chapter 4. 23

  Chapter 5. 37

  Chapter 6. 44

  Chapter 7. 51

  Chapter 8. 65

  Chapter 9. 78

  Chapter 10. 101

  Chapter 11. 112

  Chapter 12. 125

  Chapter 13. 138

  Chapter 14. 155

  Chapter 15. 168

  Chapter 16. 176

  Chapter 17. 191

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR.. 203

  Chapter 1

  My origin is quite simple and very similar to every single other human being. I began as a twinkle in my parents’ eyes. Though I’m not really sure what that means, I hear that’s how all babies in the universe start. I’m not sure how the twinkle makes it into baby form, but I have some ideas.

  Here’s where the origin gets kind of tricky and very epic:

  One day in heaven, all the angels began to get bored from sitting on the clouds and looking down on the earth. You see, heaven is awesome, and angels are kind of like superheroes. They’re like invisible guardians, or so says my mom. They liked to visit earth and help people, but they began to get troubled. Earth almost got too bad, and they sort of didn’t know the point of saving the planet again and again. So most of them decided to stay on their clouds, and they became even more bored.

  One day a band of angels got together and went to God and said, “Hey, God, we’re bored!”

  And then God was like, “Hey, I’m God! I know you’re bored, and I have a solution.”

  Then they were like, “And what’s that, God?”

  Then he was like, “Dudes, just wait.”

  Then God smiled and cracked his almighty knuckles as he began to think about all of the glorious wonder he was about to bring into the world. Then when he had the whole plan worked out in his head, he smirked with pride and began.

  “What earth needs is a hero for itself. It needs someone to inspire its people and show them that they can be good again.”

  The angels nodded in agreement.

  God nodded too, as he thought, Yeah, I know I’m awesome. Then he began to swiftly gather all of the ingredients necessary for a true hero. He started with the heart of a lion for courage. Then he got the mind of a snake, because apparently they’re really clever. Then he borrowed a little bit of innocence from the cherub baby angels with their thumbs-up approval. Then he gathered strength from a bear, the cunning of a fox, and a dove for peace. But he had a problem. He didn’t want his creation to be too peaceful, so he had his greatest warrior angels search the world for ninja dust—it’s like fairy dust, but not really.

  The next ingredient was probably the second most important. God collected two twinkles from the world’s coolest two people. They were a man and a woman who loved each other very much. He was a professional wrestler, a fire fighter, a race car driver, and a president. She was a rocket scientist, a gymnast, a secret agent, and a humanitarian. When they looked each other in the eye, a bunch of cootie, mushy stuff happened to them and a sparkle appeared in their eyes. That’s what God needed to make a baby.

  He also took a little bit of wishful thinking from the man, so it would be a boy. It was best for optimal awesomeness.

  After he gathered all the ingredients, he put them in a big, white pot. God mixed them all together, but he knew that something was missing. He needed something special to top off everything, so he reached inside his pocket and pulled out a vial of his own special Awesome Sauce. As he held it up to all the angels for them to see, they anxiously waited.

  It’s not a well known fact, but God puts a drop of his Awesome Sauce in everyone’s pot. I guess he wants a little bit of himself in everyone. The cooler the person, the more Awesome Sauce drops that he puts in their pot.

  The angels all counted as God carefully added the drops in. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten!” They all gasped and cheered. No one had ever had that many drops of Awesome Sauce. All the angels had a pretty good idea of how great a creation God was making, but no one truly knew just how great it was gonna be.

  Then God raised his hands and called upon lightning to strike the pot; it caused a whirlwind inside to mix it together. Then when he knew everything was ready, he raised his hands and yelled at the top of his lungs, which shook all of heaven and earth. He proclaimed, “Let there be epic!”

  A flash of light swallowed everything, and when it was over, the most handsome baby boy was lying in the pot with the cutest, little dimples. Babies can’t smile, but that baby did. Then God smiled back at the baby, pleased with his creation.

  Then God wrapped the baby boy in a red blanket and raised him up for all the angels to see. The angels all clapped and threw the baby a party for three days and three nights until God’s best stork came up in heaven to take the baby to its twinkle holders.

  God patted his trusted stork on its head and sent it off knowing that what he made was really good.

  The baby boy had an important future ahead of him. He could do so many wonderful things for the world, and his new mom and dad would help him with his talents and mold him into the greatest superhero the world had ever known.

  But then, storm clouds came out of nowhere! Lightning flashed and thunder boomed louder than anything the stork had ever heard, but he stayed calm and kept on his path. He knew that the baby was too important, and he needed to find him safety, or else planet earth was doomed. The stork tried with all of his might to reach the home of the twinkle holders, but the poor stork was struck by a mighty lightning bolt, which made him drop the baby.

  The baby knew he was falling very fast and that he was very far from his true home, but he willed himself to find someplace safe where he could still grow up to be a person with a big destiny. Most importantly, he willed himself to a place where he could be loved.

  The baby landed on the doorstep of two very young twinkle holders. They had really big twinkles, so big it was hard to see sometimes. They weren’t superheroes or even very interesting; they sure were surprised when they found a baby at their doorstep. Still, the new momma held her baby in her arms, and she fell in love. The new daddy patted the baby boy on his head and knew the baby would grow up and make him proud one day.

  “I will name you Felix,” he said. “You are now Felix Brown.”

  And that is how Superkid was born.

  Chapter 2

  So you probably wonder why I call myself “Superkid.” If you do, I’m not sure why. If you’re here at this part of the story, then you know about my epic origin. Just in case you skipped the beginning and missed all of the awesomeness, allow me to quickly cover it. I was born to do great things. I have a responsibility to do my absolute best, because I have some kind of huge destiny.

  At least, that’s what my mom always tells me when I don’t do too well on a spelling test.

  That’s a little off topic though. Let me get to the whole point of my story.

  It all started—after the origin of course—when Mom and Dad moved into the house of their dreams. They had been working hard and saved all their pennies and broke their piggy bank for it, so it was really a big deal. I liked my old home before it. It was smaller, but that was the place where I grew up. I had a lot of good memories there, like when Santa gave me my first bike for Christmas, or when I put my tooth under my pillow and caught Dad trying to steal it, so he paid me double what the
tooth fairy would have given me. A lot of cool things happened in that apartment, and I cried a lot when I had to pack up all my stuff. I refused to pack up my red blanket. I carried it with me to the car.

  The only thing that made me feel better on the car ride to our new house was that Mom told me I would still be able to see my friends from school.

  When I saw our new house, I was still sad. I didn’t cry, because I knew it would upset Mom. However, when they took me to the backyard, I was sold. The slide and the swing set didn’t catch my eye. What made me smile from galaxy to galaxy was the lake. It was so big; I bet I could have swum in it and ended up halfway around the world.

  As soon as I saw it, I started running right for it. I wanted to swim. I needed to swim!

  But Dad grabbed my arm and forced me to stay still so he could talk to me. He kneeled down next to me and poked me in my chest and said, “Felix, do not go near that water!”

  I knew when my dad was serious and when I could push him a little bit until I was on the line of punishment. There was no pushing room. I knew he was serious. Dad was gonna kill me if I went near that water.

  That should have been enough to stop me, but it didn’t faze me at all.

  I waited until Dad was at work and Mom was busy working in her garden before I bolted for it. Every time she tackled me to stop me. Then she made a big fuss about how dangerous it was for me to go to the lake. To make things worse, Dad really let me have it when he came home.

  I didn’t understand why they were so worried. I knew how to swim, because I had seen all of those Tarzan episodes with my dad. All Tarzan did was yell and jump in the water, and he could swim. I had been practicing my Tarzan yell ever since I could remember. I was an expert. I could swim all the way around the world if I had to. I could out-swim any fish, dolphin, or shark. Only the real Tarzan could have beaten me in a race, but only maybe.

  I didn’t want Mom to get upset, and I didn’t want Dad to punish me anymore, but when I was in my room at night, I looked out my window at that lake, and I knew that some kind of underwater party must have been going on without me. Mermaids probably were singing songs, dolphins were doing tricks, and clown fish were cracking jokes. But no matter how good of a time they were having, I knew that they were waiting for me to turn the party over from pretty good to pretty epic.

  So I waited really late in the middle of the night—sometime past ten o’clock—and snuck out of my room. I tiptoed past my parents’ bedroom and to the front door. That ninja dust really came in handy, because I didn’t make a single sound on my journey out of the house.

  I was surprised how cold it was outside because I was dressed only in my swimming trunks, but I couldn’t wear a shirt or shoes. After all, Tarzan walked around the jungle all the time in only swimming trunks. If he could take it, so could I.

  When I got to the dock, I looked at my reflection in the water. I looked much too civilized to swim. Tarzan’s hair was wild and free, probably to keep his hair from making him sink. I decided to run my fingers through my hair, just in case my neat hair would end up killing me. Then when I looked at my reflection, I was ready.

  I bent my knees and took in the biggest breath I could for the loudest Tarzan yell ever. I was gonna yell so loud; I would have been able to swim around the world twice before Mom and Dad even knew I was gone. Then just as I pushed off with my feet, I felt my dad yank me back down.

  He punished me good that time, even though I don’t think I deserved it. I knew I shouldn’t have snuck out of the house, but I wasn’t in any danger. I knew how to swim. He should have just given me a chance.

  When I got back in my room, I heard Mom and Dad talking about me for most of the night. Mom started crying, and then I felt bad about what I had done. I wanted to go and hug her, but Dad blocked my door. If I had to use the bathroom or wanted a drink of water, I had to talk through my old baby monitor.

  I’d like to say that I learned my lesson, but I just couldn’t get the thought of those underwater parties out of my mind. Then one night, I looked out my window and saw a pretty mermaid waving for me to come see her. I tried to leave, but Dad knew me too well. I was still a prisoner in my own room.

  A month later, we left. We didn’t even have time to unpack all of our boxes.

  I thought maybe we would move back to our old apartment, but we didn’t. Some other family had moved in. We moved into another house that had no slide, no swing set, and no lake. Other houses surrounded us; the only plus was that our house was on a very big hill. Nothing looked familiar at all.

  When Mom tucked me in the first night in our new home, she told me that pretty soon I’d be starting school. She said, “Now Felix, you’re gonna be a big boy soon. You’re going to the first grade.”

  I knew that. I couldn’t wait to see all of my old friends from kindergarten.

  “Now you’re going to have to make some new friends, which might be hard, but I know you can do it.”

  “Why do I need new friends?” I asked her.

  She looked sad. “We moved far from your other friends, Felix. You can’t go to school with them anymore.”

  Then everything I ever knew changed. I would be the new kid. I didn’t want to be the new kid. I wanted to play tag with my old friends who were almost as fast as me. I wanted to wrestle with my best friend Duncan and play red rover with my classmates. I didn’t want to go where no one knew me.

  I crossed my arms and lay down in my bed with tears in my eyes. They took me away from my apartment, they wouldn’t let me swim in the lake, and they took me away from all of my friends.

  “Felix,” my dad said.

  I knew better than to cry on my bed when he came into the room. He didn’t like for me to cry unless he thought the reason was good enough. I thought it was plenty reason enough, but Dad was weird sometimes.

  I uncrossed my arms and wiped my eyes. “Yes, Sir?”

  He came inside and sat next to Mom on my bed. “Sometimes we do bad things and nothing happens. But other times we do bad things and have to face the consequences for our actions.”

  “What’s a consequence?” I asked.

  “It’s what happens after we do something,” he said. “Usually when someone talks about consequences, it means that something bad happened. You didn’t stay away from the lake, so I had to take your toys away. You still wouldn’t listen, so I had to spank you. Then you still wouldn’t listen, so we had to move. Now we’ve moved farther away from your friends, so now you can’t go to school with them anymore. Those are consequences.”

  Consequences. That officially became my first enemy. I didn’t want to do another bad thing ever again. If consequences made me have to stay away from my friends, I didn’t want to ever face a consequence in my life.

  “I’m sorry, Dad.” I grabbed his knee and begged him. “Can’t we go back? I learned my lesson!”

  He shook his head. He didn’t even think about it for two seconds! “Sometimes it’s too late to learn a lesson, Felix. That’s why we have to learn as fast as we can. Making a mistake is okay, but you’re supposed to listen to me. I’m your father. If you ever disobey me, I have to punish you. You have to learn lessons. That’s a part of growing up.”

  “But I know how to swim!” I yelled.

  Dad shook his head. “No you don’t.”

  How could he say that? I was so sure! “But you just yell like Tarzan and jump in the water. Then I could have swum around the world and played with the dolphins and the mermaids.”

  “Nothing comes easy in life. You have to work. You have to learn how to swim.”

  “But—”

  “You have an overactive imagination, Son.” I wasn’t really sure what he meant by that, but then he explained it. “There’s no such thing as mermaids, there weren’t any dolphins in the lake, and you would have gotten hurt if you had jumped in that water. You have to start growing up.”

  I knew better than to frown at him, so I waited until after he patted me on the head and left my b
edroom.

  After he had left, I slammed my arms on my bed. “I don’t want to grow up!” I told my Mom. I didn’t want to grow up without my friends.

  “I’m afraid you have to, Felix.” She pinched my cheeks like she did sometimes. “Everybody grows up someday, Mi Niño.”

  I couldn’t imagine what school would be like without my friends. I didn’t even want to go anymore!

  I promised that I would be good for Mom and Dad. I would do what my dad asked. I would never make my mom cry. But the most important thing I promised was that I would never ever grow up.

  Chapter 3

  We had a little bit of time to get used to our new house before school started. I saw a few kids playing outside from my window, but I didn’t know them. I didn’t know what to say to them when I introduced myself. Besides, Dad wasn’t exactly ready to let me go outside yet.

  Dad did give back my toys, so I stayed inside and made up lost time with all of them. I wanted each one to know that I hadn’t forgotten them and that I hadn’t forgotten how to have fun. My toy soldiers fought through an army of block people in The Great Cookie War. It lasted more than an hour, and they gained land from my bedroom to the kitchen. Each side found allies in action figures and stuffed animals alike. They used many tools such as cars and trains and made Play-Doh mound traps. No one knew how far the war would go and who would rise to take the cookie jar. Both sides were surprised when the true victor was me.

  I had to set Sergeant Patches and General Spooner down to climb up on the counter to reach the top cabinet where Mom hid the cookies. They were both helpless to stop me. No one could!

  “Felix!”

  Just as my fingers were inches away from the spectacular jar, my mom came into the kitchen. I was scared of turning around to look at her. She might have been sided with my arch nemesis: Consequences. I had to be brave anyway and slowly turned around.

  She was upset. I could always tell when she had her hands on her hips and a frown, but she wasn’t angry. She didn’t have the right eyes for it. “Felix, you know you’ll spoil your dinner if you eat cookies.”