Invisibility was a cool power. I didn’t get why she didn’t think it was awesome. Well, the anxiety thing was lame, but the power was still cool. “You make it sound sad.”
“It was sad, until I became your friend.” She grabbed my hand and smiled. Sometimes she looked at me, and I was still kind of scared of cooties. Sometimes I felt really mushy when I was around her. I didn’t know if it was good or bad.
“Here’s your mask.” She handed it to me.
“Thank you.” It was neat. I understood the importance of keeping my identity a secret. I didn’t want any bad guys to recognize me and find their way to my house. If the bad guys hurt Mom and Dad because of me, I’d never forgive myself.
I put the mask on. It was a little weird, but I felt protected. “You’re so cool, Kiara.”
“But there’s something still missing.” She put her finger on her chin and tapped it. “What else could there be?” She snapped her finger and yelled. “Oh yeah!”
“What?” I asked excited.
“Do you have some paint?”
I nodded and ran off into my room. I liked to finger paint a lot, so Mom bought me some paints. I kept them in a chest in my closet. I got them from my room and set them on the table. “Here you go.”
She looked at the paint and then looked upset. “I’m not a savage, Felix. I need a paint brush.”
That kind of hurt my feelings. “I always use my fingers.”
“Boys are savages, so it’s okay for you to use your hands. Girls are delicate flowers. I need a brush.”
Mom was actually right. Girls didn’t like messes. That was so weird. “Hold on.”
I got her the paint brush and the only color she wanted to use was yellow. “Hold still.” She painted an “S” on my chest. “You’re Superkid, right?”
“Yep.” I was excited that I was finally getting my superhero costume together, but I was kind of worried about what Mom and Dad might think. They didn’t like when I got paint on my clothes. Mom had me change in old clothes every time I used it.
When she was done, she reached on her trusty belt and pulled out a fan and started fanning air toward me. “I want it to dry.”
“What’s going on?” Mom came back into the kitchen. She didn’t sound too happy. She was pretty much yelling at us. “Felix, you know better than to play with paint without asking.”
I put my head down. I didn’t like when Mom was upset. I guess I was getting used to Dad, but Mom never got mad at me. “I know, but we needed to finish my costume.”
“Felix, you should know better! You have to ask me to do things like that.” Mom was pretty upset about it. I didn’t get it though. I had gotten my clothes really dirty before, and I still had lots of shirts.
“I’m sorry, Mom.”
“It’s my fault,” Kiara said. “The paint was my idea.” It was really nice for her to take the blame. The paint was her idea, but she didn’t have to risk getting in trouble for me.
Mom couldn’t stay mad at me long, and she for sure couldn’t stay mad at Kiara. “It’s alright this time, but let me know next time you guys want to paint.”
“Of course, Mrs. Brown.”
Now that my costume was finished, the only thing I had left to do was go find some crime to fight. “Can we play outside?” I asked Mom.
Mom looked really confused. “You both want to go outside dressed like that?”
“What’s wrong with it?” I thought I looked really cool, and Kiara’s costume was pretty much a real superhero costume.
“You do know that superhero is just a game, Felix? You’re not gonna try to fly or break anything with your super strength, right?”
Then I was faced with a big decision—my first major test as a superhero. I could either tell Mom the truth, make her upset, and then make Dad really freak out, or I could tell lie and tell her that it was all just a game. I didn’t lie. I lied to Dad one time over accidentally breaking one of Mom’s vases. He said that breaking the vase wasn’t why he gave me a spanking. It was because he needed to know that he could always trust me. Mom also said that only bad boys lied and I wanted to be a good boy.
I couldn’t lie to Mom. I was a superhero, but I had to make sure I could go outside so I could save people. “I won’t do anything crazy.”
She laughed. “I think my crazy and your crazy are two different kinds of crazies, Felix.”
Yeah. Mom did do lots of crazy things like eating all of her vegetables without being told twice and never jumping on her bed. I guess I had to explain better to make her calm. “No flying, no super strength. I’ll be as ordinary as possible. It’ll only be a costume.”
That made her smile. “In that case, tell me what the rules are for going outside.”
“I can’t talk to strangers, I can’t go in any backyards except ours, I can’t cross the street without looking both ways, and I can never, ever turn any corners.”
“I’ll leave the screen door open, Felix, and I’ll be reading my book in the living room.” She squinted her eyes and pointed her finger. “I can see any funny business that happens!”
“No funny business. I promise.”
“Come on!” Kiara grabbed my hand and led me to the front door. I hadn’t really played outside a lot. I didn’t have anybody around my house to play with. I didn’t even really know if many kids were in the neighborhood. Mom took me out for a walk once or twice, but that was it.
The coolest thing about my front yard was the hill. As soon as I got outside, I let go of Kiara’s hand and ran for it. Sliding down a hill was so much fun. I couldn’t wait for it to be winter so I could go sledding.
When I got to the bottom, I stood up and started running up the stairs so I could go down again. The only problem was that I ran into Kiara and Mom at the top of the steps. Mom had her arms on her hips, which never meant anything good.
“What did I do?”
“I told you about sliding down the hill, Felix. You’re not invincible.”
I had to be more careful. She didn’t understand that I had super powers. I had to keep it a secret, and I had to keep my promises. I wouldn’t use my powers that day, because I wanted to be a good boy. I was gonna be as ordinary as possible.
“I just wanted to do it once,” I told Mom.
“Well, remember that I’m watching you.” Mom went back inside the house, but I knew she’d still be keeping a close eye on me and Kiara. It was weird. I never felt that she didn’t trust me before. It made me feel bad.
It was all the more reason to keep my promise and not use my super powers.
“What should we do?” Kiara asked. “We can play tag or hide-and-seek.” Then she got really excited. “Maybe we could jump rope or play hopscotch.”
I shook my head. “I promised my mom that I wouldn’t use my super powers, but she told me once that I didn’t need super powers to be special. All I have to do is try.”
Kiara looked confused and that didn’t happen a whole lot. “What do you mean, Felix?”
“I’m saying that we can still help people. Maybe if Mom and Dad know that I can make a difference without my powers, I can show them that I have powers.”
Kiara looked kind of worried.
“You don’t think it’s a good idea?” I asked her.
She sighed, but then she smiled. “I think we should do whatever you think will make you happy, Felix.” She was such a good friend.
“Then let’s save the world!”
“How do we do that?” Kiara asked.
I put my fists on my hips and puffed out my chest as far as I could make it go. I had to be really heroic to start off things right. “We have to help those in need!” I made my voice super deep. I almost sounded like a grownup. Even though I didn’t want to be a grownup, changing my voice was pretty cool.
I was looking around for any kind of trouble. If there was a bad guy, I would defeat them. If someone was in trouble, I would save them. If someone was hurt, I would make their booboos go away. It was all pa
rt of my job.
The only trouble was that nothing was happening on my street. I didn’t really see anyone or even any squirrels and stuff. Maybe everyone was scared to come out because so much bad stuff was in the world. As soon as I fixed all the bad stuff, then I could have a livelier street.
I really didn’t know where to start. How was I supposed to destroy evil if I couldn’t see it?
I didn’t know what to do, so I looked at Kiara. “You’ve got the big brain. Why don’t you suggest something?”
Her eyes got big, and she started turning red again. “Okay.” Her voice was all shaky too. “I can help you out.”
She ran to the edge of the hill and started looking all around. Then she took out a small spyglass from her belt and started looking through it. She had lots of cool little gadgets. She sure was really smart. “I see something!” she yelled.
I ran over to her, and she gave me the spyglass. I looked in the direction she pointed at and saw a boy down the street. He was small, younger than me and Kiara. He looked really sad and was sitting in front of his porch a few houses down. I knew by the look on his face that we were the only ones who could help him. “This boy needs our help!”
“Then let’s go!” Kiara was about to slide down the hill, but I grabbed her arm.
“To the stairs!” I yelled heroically.
Then we ran for the stairs and ran down them really fast. I didn’t run super fast though. Mom might have still been watching and I didn’t want to lose Kiara. We were a team.
The boy was all alone. I think he was crying before we came over, because he started wiping his eyes pretty hard when we started walking up the steps to his house. “Who are you guys?”
I posed and so did Kiara. We were probably the coolest thing he had ever seen in his whole entire life. “My name is Superkid and she’s Princess Lady Diva.”
He was pretty stunned. I could tell that he was so moved by our awesomeness that he didn’t have the right words to say. “What are you supposed to be?”
“We’re superheroes!”
He was still too shocked to really realize how cool we really were. “Superheroes?”
“We’re here to help you,” Princess Lady Diva said. “You’re sad. We’re here to make you not sad.”
“I don’t know if you can.” He sunk his head down all low and started pouting.
I felt bad for him. I knew what it was like to feel like there was no hope. When Mom was pretending to be killed by Dr. Clutter, I thought everything was gonna end after she was gone. That’s why it was important that I tried my hardest to save her. Just because she wasn’t really in danger didn’t mean that I didn’t do my best. That moment still prepared me to one day help save a small boy. “Tell us what’s wrong and we can help.”
“My cat is stuck in a tree, Mom and Dad aren’t home, and my sister said she’s not climbing a tree.” He sniffed and wiped his eyes again. “I can’t get my cat. I’m too small.”
I couldn’t let him down. That’s why I grabbed his shoulders and looked him in the eye. “I promise that Superkid and Princess Lady Diva will get your cat back!”
He smiled so big that it was probably the biggest smile I had ever seen. “Thank you!”
“Now show us which tree she’s in!”
He got up and started leading us back toward my house and then past it a little bit. Mom was watching from the screen door again. I hoped I wouldn’t need to use my powers or else Mom would really be mad.
“My name is Li,” the boy said. “What are your names?”
“We can’t tell you,” Princess Lady Diva told him. “It’s all part of the Hero Civilian Confidentially Clause.”
Li tugged on my cape. “What does that mean?”
“Princess Lady Diva is super smart. I don’t even understand her sometimes.”
She giggled. “You’re so silly, Felix.”
I didn’t get why she giggled like that and neither did Li. We both shrugged our shoulders and kept walking toward the tree.
Li pointed up into the branches of the tree. “She’s there!”
I had to look real careful. The cat was hiding behind a bunch of leaves. No wonder why we didn’t see it at my house. “Hi, cat!”
The cat saw me and hissed! It was the meanest cat I had ever seen in my whole life. I didn’t even know if I could climb the tree and rescue it as long as it was dangerous.
“It’s not really a nice cat,” Li said. “She’ll probably try to scratch anyone who gets close.”
It was an extreme situation. I probably needed all of my powers combined to save Li’s cat and not get hurt by it. It was a very vicious cat, and it was up pretty high. As long as I was pretending to be normal for Mom, I couldn’t use my super powers.
I couldn’t super jump or shake the tree to make it fall. The only thing I could do was climb it the old fashion way and hope that the cat didn’t break its claws on my tough skin. “I’m gonna get your cat!”
I grabbed the tree and started to climb. Then the cat started hissing really mean.
“Felix,” Mom called out to me from my porch. She really was watching me close. I couldn’t let her know I had super powers yet.
I started to climb down.
Li got really sad. “You’re giving up?” I didn’t like looking at him all sad. I was the one with super powers. I should have done something to make him smile.
The only way to get his cat was for Mom to not see us using super powers and for the cat not to see us. I’d have to be invisible!
Then I got the best idea ever! “Princess Lady Diva?”
“Yeah?”
I pointed up to the cat in the tree. “You have to climb the tree and get the cat.”
“Me?” she whined. “But I’ll get scratched!”
I laughed. “No you won’t. Just turn invisible and the cat can’t see you.” She sure was being silly. I didn’t get why she wasn’t using her big brain to figure out everything.
“You can turn invisible?” Li’s eyes got real big and he yelled really excited. “I wanna see!”
“You can’t see me turn invisible!” Princess Lady Diva yelled at him. “That’s the point of being invisible.”
I didn’t get why she was being so moody, but I tried to be really calm when I talked to her. That’s what Dad did when Mom acted all weird. “You can get the cat.” I patted her on her arm.
Then Princess Lady Diva glared at my face and then my hand. “I can’t hold an evil cat and climb down the tree.” Then she grabbed my hand and threw it off her.
She didn’t have to be so mad that she couldn’t come up with any good ideas. I was gonna make it all better. “I’ve got an idea.”
I made a run for the house. Mom was still standing on the porch watching us like we were gonna do something wrong. Getting what I needed was really hard, but I knew I could figure it out. I was becoming the brains of the operation.
“What’s up, Felix?”
“We made a new friend named Li, and we wanna catch a monster.”
“A monster?” She was trying to be calm, but I could tell that she was really worried. “It’s not a real monster, is it?”
“Nope. It’s not a real monster.”
“Then what do you need?”
I smiled and went back to the house with Mom. The only thing I needed was a basket. Mom wouldn’t let me use any of her really good baskets. She gave me a raggedly pink basket that she had been meaning to throw out for the past few days.
When we came outside, Mom stayed on the porch for a second to look at Princess Lady Diva and Li standing by the tree. “What’s with the tree?” she asked me.
“Kiara’s gonna climb it.”
She shook her head. “I’m not sure about that.”
I sighed and then laughed at Mom. “We’re kids, not babies.” It’s not like I was a preschooler or something. “We’ll be super careful.”
Then I heard the phone ringing and Mom always liked to answer the phone. “I need to get the phone, Fe
lix.”
Because she left and didn’t tell me to wait, I figured it would be okay if we continued on with our mission. I ran down the stairs and to the tree with the basket. Princess Lady Diva looked a little scared when she looked up at the tree.
“The cat won’t see you. You can grab it and throw it in the basket. Then I can trap it in the basket with my cape and tape it down.” I pointed to her belt. She had a roll of duct tape. Mom said duct tape could do anything. “You’ll be fine,” I told her.
Then she gulped down all her fears. “The both of you need to turn around and close your eyes.” She took her roll of duct tape off her belt and handed it to me.
We both turned around like Princess Lady Diva said. Then I took off my cape and handed it to Li. “This is my superhero cape. It’s got special powers, so don’t be scared about what we have to do.”
“I won’t.” Li smiled, but I could tell he was still really nervous. “Thank you for helping me with my cat.”
“I’m Superkid. Helping people is my business.” I held up the basket and waited for Princess Lady Diva to do her thing.
Li closed his eyes and then I closed mine. I wished I could watch her until she disappeared. It was probably awesome. Princess Lady Diva thought it was awesome when I used my powers, so it would have been neat to see someone else use really cool super powers. Still, it was gonna be awesome to do our first official save as a super team.
I heard a bunch of funny noises after that. Princess Lady Diva was grunting a whole lot when she was climbing up the tree. I guess she never tried climbing a tree before, but I figured she’d be better at it because she was trained in the art of Kick Butt. Then I heard the cat hissing again. I figured that it was hissing at me, but then she started to whimper and scream.
“Princess!” I couldn’t help it. I turned around and then she turned back to normal.
“Felix!” She grabbed the cat, but it scratched her with its claws. She screamed again, but completed her part of the mission and threw it in the basket.
“Now, Li!” I yelled.
Li was freaking out about his cat hissing, and it was about to jump out of the basket. He acted quickly though and in a mighty wave, he spread out my cape and covered the basket.
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