Super Nobody (Alphas and Omegas Book 1)

by Brent Meske

  ***

  Michael couldn’t believe the party was still going on. Jared told him later that they’d found a liquor store clerk intimidated by Wally’s hugeness. Meanwhile another member of the gang had already talked half a dozen people out of their money.

  Later that evening, Michael crept through the woods, trying hard to stay as silent as that Brian kid. The only thing worse than being not invited to the party in the first place would be getting caught spying on the party. Never mind the super kids and their powers, he would probably die of shame. 

  The woods opened out into a clearing; no, that wasn't right... someone had made a clearing by ripping up the trees and brush. Luckily for Michael, they hadn't thrown the brush very far and made great cover. The clearing was pitted with fresh soil from where the trees had been, and in the center blazed a huge bonfire. The fresh earth and the campfire smells made for a nice atmosphere, and Michael was too far away to smell any alcohol on anybody’s breath.

  One of the kids, probably Max Lebeau, was making shapes and animals appear out of the flames. Danny was hovering everywhere, driving people crazy, trying to get them to splash their drinks on themselves, but mostly everybody was in their little cliques, drinking their little drinks and gossiping to fill up their little lives.

  His cabin mates were in a circle. All of them were there, even Dorf, who still looked about a hundred pounds lighter than he normally did. Mickey was there, but he was off talking to a platinum blonde who was also a new summer addition to Lincolnshire. Maybe he had decided he didn’t fit in with these misfits.

  He wanted to mutter something under his breath, but one of them probably had super hearing too. He pushed away his thoughts of how much it sucked to be here with all these super kids, and focused on

  Himself!

  “What—” he started, but snapped his mouth shut.

  What the devil? Who could… oh.

  How could Charlotte do this to him? He grew upset and excited at the same time. His throat closed up as he strained to listen in to their conversation. 

  "—believe you! You little snake!" Matt was saying. 

  “Anyway, it didn't help me much when I saved all your butts,” the popular and confident Michael said. “I didn't see any of you go up against Trent.”

  “That guy gives me the creeps, mate,” Avery said. “Don't mind lookin the fool neither."

  “That's Dorf's job,” Matt said. 

  “My jobs gonna be to show you what your kidneys look like, and I ain't no science teacher.” 

  Charlotte-Michael said, “You guys aren't really afraid of Trent, are you? Now that all of you have your powers and stuff.” 

  “Well, let's see,” Avery said, “Trent's had an extra couple of years to figure out all the things he can do with his power. We're all under supervision, day and night. Like we're bloody hand grenades.”

  “Seriously,” Wally said, “I don’t feel like I can poop without some teacher there, ready to watch me wipe my butt.”

  “Do the voice again,” Matt urged him. “Do Jackson.” 

  She was almost better at Michael than he was at being himself. She looked around nervously and shuffled her feet a little.

  “I don’t know,” he said. 

  “You can't just do it once and then leave us hangin like that,” Matt said. 

  "I better not... anyway Jackson's not my biggest fan. I'm on his list, if you know what I mean. I always wonder if he's listening or watching or whatever he does, or digging around in my head." She shuddered just like he'd done a hundred times or more when talking about Terrence Jackson and his mind powers. 

  Wally shuddered along with her. “You think Trent gives you the creeps, that's nothing. I have nightmares about Mr. Jackson. I just get smaller and smaller… ugh.” As if Terrence Jackson were actually there, Wally began to shrink a bit. It wasn’t much, but Michael could tell. One minute he was two heads taller than Matt, the next he was only a head taller. Watching him change size like that was wrong somehow, like buildings might suddenly sprout legs and walk over to a spot they liked better.

  “Just do a little,” Avery said. “Jackson would go spare if he heard you.”

  “Come on,” Jason whined. “Come oooooooonnnn...”

  When the other Michael opened his mouth next, Terrence Jackson's voice came out. It wasn't just kids playing and making fun either. This one sounded exactly like Jackson was hiding just behind Michael's shoulder, and nobody was ready for it. 

  "All of you best get back to your cabins immediately!" Terrence shouted with Michael's mouth. "You will all be lucky if I don't shut out your access to your powers and turn you into the mental equivalent of three year olds, which is basically what you are anyway! What were all of you thinking?"

  All eyes were turned on Charlotte. A couple of kids started running off until they looked over their shoulders and saw nobody else was running. Oh man, Michael thought, what am I gonna do tomorrow when they start demanding I do it again? 

  She could copy anyone, from their voice to the exact shape of their retinas. 

  A bunch of kids started clapping and cheering her... him on. The fake Michael got a bunch of slaps on the back, and a glass of free punch. He had never been the life of the party before, and wasn't really now. He found he didn't like it. He was upset with Charlotte, for the first time in his life. Why would she do this to him? Didn't she know that when they got back to his cabin they'd find out the truth and ridicule him until the end of his days? 

  But watching Michael there, standing and smiling in the center of attention, he could understand the attraction. There was definitely something cool about having super-powered kids look up to you instead of down their noses at you. All eyes were on him. 

  Except Brian Yamagatsu. He was staring out into the woods, directly at the real Michael. And for some strange reason, he had a sword in his hand. 

  "And that will be enough of that," the real Terrence Jackson said. All terrified eyes (not Brian Yamagatsu, Michael had time enough to see, oh why couldn't he just look where he was supposed to?) turned to stare at the real boogeyman in the flesh. 

  "When I say the word IQ, all of you will immediately return to your cabins, where you will tuck yourselves into your own beds, snug as little flesh-eating bed lice, and make not the slightest peep. Your cabin counselors are upset, and will inform me if you do otherwise. Failure to do so will result in you being sent back to first grade, with the brain of a first grader, since you have all shown about zero brains this evening. You will, following this evening, refrain from talking about this party, especially how solid it was or how heavy, or whatever silly nonsense words you are using nowadays to indicate that you like something. And you are wrong in thinking, Mr. Avery, that I cannot take your ability away. I can and I have done it to others before you. I find it to be as simple as locking a door and throwing away the key. If only Mr. Washington's grandfather would allow me the pleasure of doing so more often."

  "You may nod your heads if everything I have said is understood."

  Everyone nodded. Even the real Michael, way back in the concealment of the bushes. They were too scared to be the one who didn't. 

  "Then, before I must do anything drastic, IQ. Run, you little weasels." 

  They ran. You'd never witnessed such swift and silent flight in your life. Only Charlotte-Michael couldn't go, because Terrence had his hand clamped on Charlotte's shoulder. 

  "Not you. You and I have some discussing to do."

  Michael would have stuck around, but Terrence took the imposter Michael and began to march off into the gloom. Now, without anybody around, the enormous blaze, the picnic table, and the punch bowl looked sad and forlorn, like a final scene in a horror film after everybody’s run away or been eaten by zombies, or the rapture’s come and everybody just up and disappears.

  He figured it was finally safe to move, about six years and a million mosquito bites later. As soon as he stood, a pair of figures entered the clear
ing. They were clearly adults, but one was giggling like a sixth grader.

  “You bad bad boy!” the female voice said. The other chased her in front of the bonfire, where the light wasn’t quite right. It made them look more like silhouettes, like dancing shadows than real people. He couldn’t make out their features in the darkness.

  They embraced and kissed long and hard.

  “Are you sure we should be doing this?” the man whispered.

  “Stop it,” his partner replied. “Kiss me.”

  Ugh. Adults could be so disgusting sometimes. A lot of times actually.

  “But what about the target?”

  “Everything is all set.”

  “That’s what I meant. If they catch us out here—”

  “If they catch us out here, and they won’t, what reason do they have to go searching around in your head for Michael Washington anyhow? How is Jackson even going to know to look?”

  Seriously, what was going on with these people and this town? First it was Mr. Lansing, and now whoever these people were. She had taken his hand and they were moving away from the bonfire.

  “I guess you’re right…” he said reluctantly.

  She sighed. “It’s all set up. That idiot is standing at the top of a deep downward spiral. We’ve been pushing all the right buttons, trust me. We won’t even have to make him jump, he’ll take the plunge all on his own. We have been through this, right? Like a dozen times?”