Charlotte Powers 1: Power Down

by Ben White

  And then I knew. In that instant I knew, she'd just been playing with me, tricking me, that she'd just pretended to like me, to be my friend, that she'd just been setting me up for this. Like Veronica had just given a signal, all of the other girls started laughing and talking at once, all about how clueless I was and how stupid, how they'd been insulting me to my face yesterday and I didn't even notice, that they couldn't BELIEVE how far they stretched Veronica's little pretend-to-be-friends-with-Charlotte scheme without me realising that's what they were doing, pretending, and where did someone as naive as silly little Charlotte Powers COME from? The MOON?

  That's when the spaghetti sauce got dumped over my head. I didn't see who did it, one of Veronica's cronies probably, it doesn't matter. All that mattered was that I was standing there totally humiliated in front of the whole school and they were all laughing at me again, standing there dripping with tomato sauce, all in my hair and over my new clean uniform and seeping into my shoes.

  Worst. Moment. Of. My. Life.

  Worse even than when I realised I'd lost my powers. I don't know why, it just WAS.

  What followed was pretty bad, too. This guy suddenly appeared, a student but dressed in a different-coloured uniform to everyone else, darker and with a band across it, and he started by telling Veronica off so that wasn't bad, but then he turned on me! I couldn't believe it, I was standing there dripping with tomato sauce and he was telling ME off!

  "You might be new here but that doesn't excuse your behaviour," he said. I didn't do anything, though! I haven't done anything bad, just the thing with my guitar which I still haven't gotten back and getting spaghetti sauce dumped over me, what did I do? WHAT DID I DO? Anyway, he wasn't finished telling me off, he went on about me 'causing disturbances' and 'encouraging misbehaviour'.

  "I ... I'm just trying ..."

  I couldn't get anything more than that out. And before you say anything YES I cried AGAIN, why am I such a crybaby? I'm supposed to be a superhero, even without my powers I should have 'inner strength', right? A will of iron? An indomitable presence of mind? An invincible spirit? I always thought I kind of did but now I know that I don't. I'm not strong-willed or indomitable in ANY way, I'm just a stupid weak girl who cries when she's told off. Just pathetic.

  "Trying to do what?" the guy said—he's a head student or something, I don't know, I was too upset for comprehension. "Be a menace to the school? Look, Powers, while you're here you're going to have to do things OUR way. Keep your head down, do your work, and FOLLOW THE RULES. Don't act out, don't rock the boat. The last thing this school needs is another hero. Somebody get her to a bathroom."

  So once again I was escorted to a bathroom, my head spinning. What did he mean? What rules? Nobody said anything about any rules! It's not fair to say that sort of thing and not even tell me what's going on! Give me a pamphlet or something with everything written down, otherwise how am I supposed to know how to behave? And what did he mean, 'another hero', how have I acted in ANY WAY heroic since I've been here? Hah, he doesn't have to worry about that AT ALL, if there's one thing I've learnt since I came here it's that I am DEFINITELY not a 'hero'. At this point I wouldn't even make a good VILLAIN. I'm just a no-power nobody, of no worth to anyone.

  About halfway through getting cleaned up I realised that the person who was helping me was the creepy girl from yesterday, the one who'd warned me about Veronica. Now I realise what she meant, of course, a little too late.

  "Why didn't you tell me!" I demanded—I know it was unfair but I wasn't in a state for reason at that point. She shrank away and I could tell I'd upset her, but to my shame I didn't apologise or say anything, just kept trying to clean up—she'd brought a clean uniform for me but there was a lot of sauce all over me, it got EVERYWHERE.

  After a couple of minutes she spoke:

  "I did tell you."

  That made me feel worse. Horrible, actually. She was just trying to be nice to me and what did I do? Acted like a totally awful person, is what. But ... but I didn't apologise. I should have, but I didn't.

  "I'm Charlotte."

  That was her, a couple of minutes later. Her name is Charlotte, too. Charlotte Crescent.

  "That's my name," I managed to mutter. She half-gasped.

  "I'm sorry, I've offended you—"

  "No, you haven't—why would that offend me?"

  She shrank back again and clasped her hands together in front of herself, kind of wringing them together.

  "I don't know," she said, her voice small. "I'm glad I didn't."

  I should have said something, I should have smiled at her, I should have done ANYTHING except just walk out of the bathroom—I was clean and changed then—leaving her to deal with my sauce-covered uniform.

  After that I couldn't really face anything except coming back here to my apartment and taking two showers and then hiding under my bed with Opal set to 'search'. Then after school was out and the grounds were pretty much deserted I went for a signal-search walk. Nothing, though. Nothing at all.

  You know something, though? Even though today was awful and horrible and definitely the worst day of my life, right now, as I write this, I kind of feel ... clear. Like I can think properly for the first time since I teleported here. Maybe I've been suffering some after effects of the teleportation, a kind of brain-scrambling or something, and that's starting to wear off—which might mean that my powers will come back too! Oh, PLEASE let my powers come back. Then I could just ... just run out of this place. Just flee.

  Maybe I should try that anyway. Start walking and don't look back. Or take the first bus out of town, at least until I get an outside signal for Opal.

  That sounds like a good plan, actually. Tomorrow is Friday. Then it's the weekend, which means no school. I probably wouldn't even think about going back except for the other Charlotte, I feel so bad about how I treated her, or didn't treat her, or whatever, I wasn't good and I need to make up for that. Besides which I kind of ... I kind of just want to see her again, she's creepy and weird but she helped me when I needed it, she tried to warn me against Veronica and in my worst moment she was the one who guided me to a bathroom and cleaned me up and oh my goodness I was so totally awful to her. I didn't even say thank you, that's pretty much unforgivable.

  Okay. So that's my plan. Go to school tomorrow to find Second Charlotte and apologise, then on Saturday I get a bus out of this stupid town, get an outside signal on Opal, and call Mum and Dad. They'll know what to do.

  xx48.11.05 / 07:57 / Friday

  I spent an hour this morning trying to make my hand go out-of-phase. Result? Nothing. No sign of any of my powers coming back. I didn't have much hope, but last night I kind of felt ... I don't know. I don't have my powers, that's a fact I'm just going to have to live with.

  Also spent a ridiculous amount of time this morning trying to find out what kind of shoes Charlotte Two was wearing, I don't know why but I can't get them out of my head. Maybe it's because she wears such weird dull clothing otherwise, but such nice shiny shoes. The local nets are a bit limited, but based on some images and descriptions I got from the local KnowledgeWeb I think they're Derbys (Derbies?) or Brogues—boy's shoes, even though she's definitely not a boy. They didn't LOOK masculine, though, they were rounded at the toes and they had a strap across her perfectly white socks—you know, the more I write about this the more strongly I feel that they're not Derbies (Derbys?) or Brogues at all. Maybe I should just call them 'school shoes' and be done with it. I mean, look at how much I've written about them already, it's probably unhealthy to obsess over someone else's footwear this much, especially when the owner of said footwear isn't even particularly important to you.

  Still, she's the only person here who's really spoken to me, apart from stupid horrible Veronica and her stupid horrible friends.

  I'm already kind of late for class. I should get going.

  xx48.11.05 / 12:54 / Still Friday

  No sign of Charlotte II all morning, and she's not in the lunc
h room. Disappointing. Less disappointing is that there hasn't been any sign of Veronica or any of her cronies either. Actually, now that I look around this lunch room is pretty deserted, not even half the tables have people sitting at them. This place was packed the other days, what's going on? Is there some special Friday event I'm not aware of? Maybe I should ask someone.

  ...

  Well THAT was no help. I asked three people and none of them were helpful in the least. They just kind of shifted and mumbled and then told me to go away. "Go away, Fumbles", actually. Apparently I'm still stuck with that stupid nickname, and no closer to an answer about why half the students are missing. There were a lot of empty desks in class, now that I think about it. Morning classes were even more subdued than normal.

  I'm starting to think that there's something weird going on here.

  xx48.11.05 / 17:34 / Still Friday

  No C2 (you know, because she's the 'Other Charlotte', the 'Second Charlotte' and also Charlotte Crescent so two 'C's—forget it, I shouldn't explain my jokes) at afternoon classes and I couldn't find her after school, either. Feeling really kind of stupidly awful about that. Now I have to wait until after the weekend to apologise, if I'm even still here then, I might NEVER get the chance!

  Anyway. The feeling that something weird is going on with this school just got stronger this afternoon. Here is a transcript of an attempted conversation I had with a fellow student:

  Charlotte (me I mean, not Other Charlotte): Hi! This class is pretty boring, huh?

  Student: Um. Sure.

  Charlotte: What's your name? I'm Charlotte, Charlotte Powers, I just moved here from out of town, are you a local?

  Student: Um.

  Charlotte: Sorry, I kind of asked too many questions then. What's your name, to start with?

  Student: Um. I really need to concentrate on my work ...

  See? Weird! Nobody answers questions around here, nobody tells me anything.

  Enough of that, anyway. I have to think about tomorrow's bus trip. Could I go today? No, I want to get a good distance away and it's already late, and I don't feel up to an overnight bus ride. This place is surrounded by mountains but there must be a road out, right? The forest I arrived in kind of blocks everything off in that direction and there are mountains behind that, but it's pretty clear the other way.

  ...

  No information on the local nets about bus tickets or anything, I guess I'll just go to town tomorrow morning and ask around. Early night, then, I have to get up early tomorrow!

  xx48.11.06 / 05:02 / Saturday

  far too early don't even know why I'm writing this except had weird thought if students weren't at school where were they?

  another headache today worse than last one maybe I'm not drinking enough water

  okay going out to find bus bye

  xx48.11.06 / 09:41 / Still Saturday

  There are no buses out of town. Is that weird or is that WEIRD? I noticed something else, too, in town; very few private vehicles. It's all taxis and local buses and trams. Some people have bicycles, some people have skateboards. Hardly anyone has a car.

  My headache's getting worse, I bought some medicine but it's not doing much to help. It makes it hard to think straight and I'm really tired.

  On the positive side of things all of the pastries and buns and things I bought for breakfast are delicious and I found a nice poster of a tree. When I get back to my apartment I'm going to put it up on my wall, then I'm going back to bed.

  xx48.11.08 / 07:31 / Monday

  Feeling great today! I slept through most of the weekend, I've never done that before, I was just so tired all the time and also that stupid headache really was a nuisance, it wasn't so bad on Sunday as it was on Saturday but like I said I was just so tired, I just got up once to have a shower and get some food from the vending machine outside and then I went straight back to bed again. Like I said, though, now I feel great! I woke up at six o'clock and went through my whole exercise routine, I admit I've been really bad about it lately but I just had so much energy this morning I thought 'why not?'. I miss the training room, punching Imaginary Bad Guys isn't as much fun as punching Virtual Bad Guys.

  Anyway, off to class!

  xx48.11.08 / 11:55 / Still Monday

  Great morning today! I could feel it in the air as I crossed the school grounds, all the students were smiling and happy, chatting with each other. Some even recognised me! Okay so YES they called me 'Fumbles' but still it was in kind of a nice way. Not ENTIRELY a mean way, in any case. Even Veronica was smiling! I didn't talk to her, of course, but I saw her and her cronies flocking across to admin while I headed for the main building, and they all looked bright and chirpy and hardly at all psychopathic. Maybe they were just happy because they'd figured out a new way to torment me but who cares! They can't ruin my good mood.

  One thing that did slightly bring me down was, again, there being no sign of Other Charlotte. Where is she? Sick maybe? Maybe I'll see her at lunch. Anyway, I got a bit distracted by the second morning class which was Literature—which IS Literature, I'm still in class, we have some free time before lunch so I thought I'd whip out the ol' Opal and write an entry. I'm getting some weird looks, maybe Opals aren't allowed in class? But the teacher isn't saying anything and I'm not trying to hide, right? I'm not breaking some invisible rule here, am I? Now I'm kind of worried again. Well, I'll write about the class, that way I can't be accused of being irrelevant or using class time for non-class subjects. We had a big discussion of New Life, a book I've always both loved and hated so PERFECT for discussion, right? I mean, I love it, obviously it's a classic and very thought-provoking but that ending, oh my goodness, so ... so ... so something, so sad and awful but inevitable, there was no other way it could end. I actually got into an argument—a good argument—about it with everyone else, including the teacher. They all argued that George's final choice was valid, that it WAS a choice, that he WANTED to give up everything to become part of the Collective. Of course I said 'no way!'. He was PUSHED into it, everything that happened was engineered to force him into that 'choice', in fact he had NO choice. If he HAD a choice (I argued, quite well if I do say so myself) then there is NO way he would've let himself be 'collected'. Giving up everything that makes you who you are, just to be accepted? I don't think so!

  Well anyway even though everyone was against me I think I made my point clear and it was kind of a friendly argument and nobody took things personally (well ... except maybe for me, a little bit, it's hard having an unpopular opinion!), so that was good. Oh, there's the lunch bell. Gotta go!

  xx48.11.08 / 12:12 / Still Monday

  Good news, I found Other Charlotte! Or saw her, anyway. Actually she was in the classroom right next to my Lit class, I spotted her when I came out but then lost her in the crowds, she can move surprisingly fast! Anyway, I'm pretty sure she came here to the lunch room so I'm just sitting at an empty table keeping an eye out for her. There are more students around than on Friday but still more than a dozen tables that are completely empty. Where are they all? Maybe doing sports practice or something, or club activities. I suppose—oh, there she is! Okay, I'll write more once I've talked to her and apologised and everything.

  xx48.11.08 / 12:56 / Still Monday

  Well, THAT was a relief. I caught up to Other Charlotte at one of the tables and asked if I could eat lunch with her and she didn't say no. After I sat down I launched right into my apology, I said how sorry I was that I was rude to her and really it was terrible behaviour and I feel so bad about it, and that she was nothing but kind to me and she didn't deserve to be treated like that and so on and so forth, it was pretty long and I repeated myself a bunch so I won't bother transcribing the whole thing here. After I'd finished she did this little head bob, not quite a nod, and she said:

  "I'm glad you told me."

  That kind of left me scratching my head. It's a weird thing to say to someone after they've apologised, right? Normally you'd say "That's okay" o
r "Apology accepted" or "I forgive you", that's what happens in books and TV shows and movies and things, but "I'm glad you told me"? I have NO idea what to make of that. Anyway, I didn't let it stop me, because I had more to say to her than just an apology, so next I thanked her for being so nice to me and helping me clean up, and for taking care of my uniform—she kind of perked up at that, like she remembered something.

  "Oh," she said. "It's at my house. I can bring it for you tomorrow."

  She took it home and washed it for me! This girl is a sweetheart! I was about to say something else but before I could she was gone, she excused herself while she was standing up and before I could go after her she was scurrying away—like I said, the girl can move! I was disappointed that I didn't get to talk to her more and maybe invite her to do something after school, but I guess I'll get the chance another time. I'm just glad she doesn't hate me for being so rude. At least I THINK she doesn't hate me, it's hard to tell with her.

  After that I just finished my lunch and wrote all this out, now I'm—oh, great. Here comes Veronica and her Blonde Patrol (actually not all of them are blonde but anyway).

  ...

  Arrrgh I hate that girl SO MUCH. She did her big 'pretend to be nice to Charlotte' thing again, of course I didn't fall for it but that didn't make it any less infuriating. She came right up to where I was sitting and flashed this big bright smile at me and said:

  "I heard you haven't joined any clubs yet."

  So what? How is that her business? What does she care whether I join any clubs or not, I just got here, I hope I'll LEAVE soon, WHY IS SHE DISAPPOINTED IN ME FOR NOT JOINING ANY CLUBS ARRRRRRGH.

  Of course, at the time I didn't say any of that. I couldn't. My mouth just freezes up when she's around, along with the rest of me. Maybe I mumbled something like "so what?", I don't know. She smiled at me again.