Chapter 4: Suspension Expansion

So, we got suspended.

"Fighting is absolutely not tolerated in this establishment,” I could remember him saying sternly.

I tried really hard to stay under the radar and the one time I tried to defend myself was when I got suspended. It would never get removed from my permanent record and I’d probably never get a job in the future all because of a stupid jock who slapped the food out of my hands. If I could knock that smug look off this stupid face again, I would, I clenched my fists subconsciously.

“Will,” Danny patted my back. “Look at the bright side.”

“The bright side of getting suspended?” I kicked a rock into the empty street.

“Yeah,” He smiled. “We don’t have to go to school for another week and you saw the news today.”

I started to think about it. The sun was causing me to sweat like crazy, it felt like it was draining the life out of me. They sent us home from school earlier because of the suspension rules and the fact that both our parents were out of town now and usually that would be fine, but this heat felt like it was crawling under my skin. My legs felt numb, my mind went blank and I felt like I could hardly breathe. This heat didn’t seem to affect Danny at all because he caught me when I fainted with relative ease.

I regained consciousness under the shade of an apple tree. It felt as cool as morning air in the countryside, but I felt concerned. Danny sat beside me, loudly munching an apple as he listened to music from his earphones. He didn’t seem to be affected by anything, not bullies, the suspension, this gruelling heat. Nothing. My face still throbbed from Scott’s assault and all I wanted to do was lay in bed and forget that this day happened, but Danny looked like he was having a literal walk in the park. Knowing that, I was a little more comforted. I sat up against the tree and instinctively he tossed me an apple. I caught it and examined it. As a germaphobe, eating stuff directly from trees and the ground always scared me a little, but at that moment I didn’t care anymore.

A few minutes passed and Danny started looking concerned.

“What’s up?” I asked him.

“Well…” He scratched his head. “I’m just a little confused about what your powers are.”

I really didn’t know them either but we did have an entire week and more to figure it out.

“I’m kinda wondering what your powers are too,” I bit into another apple, this one being green.

“I thought I had super speed at first, but it’s just reflex enhancement,” He looked at his hands.

“Reflex enhancement?” My eyebrow raised.

He dropped his hands and looked upwards, “It’s easier to just show you.”

He tossed me the apple cores of all the apples we’d eaten and told me to stand at the other side of the tree. Then he stood up and went into the open area in front of me. He closed his eyes and shouted to me to throw the cores at him and he’d catch them with his eyes closed.

I scoffed. There was no way he’d catch them with his eyes closed. No way except for those superpowers.

Without a warning I threw a core at his chest and before I could be surprised at my own precision, his hand snapped in front of his chest and he caught the core. I threw another and he caught it. Then another, and another, and another until I didn’t have any more left to throw. He caught all of them without breaking a sweat or opening his eyes once.

“See what I mean?” He said as he strolled over to me.

“Yeah…” I sat back down a little mind-blown. “So that just leaves my powers whatever they are.”

“That’s what I was thinking about, Will,” He sat beside me and picked up another apple. “When you were under Scott, you just disappeared.”

“Then I reappeared somewhere else?” I started thinking about it.

The pain from the wounds were finally subsiding so I could think about it a little more clearly and I said the words before I even realized what they meant.

“I can teleport.”

Danny looked like he was going to faint now.

“No way dude,” He facepalmed. “You get to teleport while I get ‘quick reflexes’?”

“I still don’t know how it works though…” I sighed and leaned back on the base of the tree.

“Well why don’t you try it?” He got up again. “Focus on somewhere and try to, I don’t know, be there I guess.”

I looked around. Naturally, I’d wanna teleport somewhere shady because this heat was almost literally killing me. I set my sights on another apple tree that was nearby. Baby steps, Will, baby steps, I thought. At first, nothing happened and I assumed it was because of a lack of urgency. So I closed my eyes and began to recall the scuffle I had earlier. I opened my eyes before the memory of Scott’s punch gave me another headache and I saw nothing, however I did get the same cold feeling as before. That was a good sign. I stuck my hand out and it seemed to disappear, even though I could still feel it. It was hotter and I almost pulled my hand back in but I pushed myself out of wherever that was and stepped onto the grassy area under the tree I was staring at before.

I had just teleported.

“YO!” Danny shouted as he ran over to me. “That was insane!”

I clutched my chest because I was winded and I could feel my hands shaking.

“It’ll take a little getting used to, I think,” I wiped my brow.

“Dude you, like, sank into the ground and came back out of that tree,” He pointed back to where we were. “I didn’t expect that ‘cuz I thought you were gonna just vanish and reappear somewhere.”

“That’s what I thought too,” I agreed.

We sat down again, talking about our powers and how awesome it would be to become superheroes and maybe even meet other superheroes like Frostbite or Shard. When it got cloudy we left the park and went to the apartment and I slept until the afternoon when my sister came through the door.

We spent the afternoon watching tv and playing word games on the couch. Then, she helped me make spaghetti and meatballs with some of the orange juice we had in the fridge. When nighttime rolled around we watched an animated movie about a dog who could fly and an organization of evil cats who wanted to make the world hate dogs forever or something like that. Wendy fell asleep halfway through and I lifted her up and tucked her in for the night.

I wanted to spend more time exploring the extent of my abilities but I already had such a long day and I wanted to sleep and pretend it was all a dream. In fact, all of the stress I’d gone through that day started to pressure me like a car getting crushed into scrap and I’d probably need more than sleep to relieve myself from that. Then, I heard a knock on the front door.

It was Samantha

her unique, yet familiar scent reached my nose before the door fully opened.

“Hey Will,” She brushed her hair behind her ear.

I could feel my heart flopping around and probably somersaulting into my stomach, but I had to remain calm.

“Sup Sam,” I put my hand at the back of my neck.

“Well I heard about what happened today so I decided to check up on you,” She smiled.

It was the kind of warm smile that you couldn’t help smiling back to, the kind of warmth that melted all those bad feelings away, the kind of warmth that I’d probably still collapse to if my ego would let me.

“I appreciate it,” I replied.

She shook her head, “Don’t mention it.”