Oleander {Being Rewritten, Please Have Patience}

Part 1 - OLD

pt 1

My name is Brooke Atkinson. I come from a family of superheroes. Awesome, right? Not really. I spend every day alone, doing online school, while my family is out saving the city. And I get to hear them brag and compliment each other over dinner. I usually try to eat my food quickly to get away. Everyone else in my family has a power. They think I don't have one, but I do. And I hate it with every bone in my miserable body.

What's my power, you ask? Necrobotany. I'm like something out of a role-playing game, or whatever. If I were in a RPG, I would be a mix between a druid and a necromancer. I can reanimate bones and whatnot, but add nature magic into the mix: my skeletons go from bones to things that can almost pass as humans. The plants give them things that act as muscles, so they can go faster. They can run. And it is.. terrifying. I can never let my family know about it, though. They're very judgmental, and anything to do with death, they see as villainous. I still love them, even though they forget about me a lot. The funny thing is I absolutely LOVE plants and anatomy.

Friday, Dinner Time

"Brooke, darling, pass the salt, please." said my mother, Violet Atkinson.

"Sure, Mom." I said.

As I reached for the salt, my eldest brother, Daniel, used his speed to grab the salt before I could. "Nicely done! Excellent control, Daniel!" praised my father, Robert Atkinson.

"Well done, Dan!" agreed Mom.

I sighed quietly to myself as the twins, Oliver and Emil, shifted into squirrels and delivered the salt to Mom. My parents praised them as well. I finished my food and left quietly. No one noticed, as usual.

I went down to my room, in the basement. 

It was built into a corner, behind the stairs. There was enough rooms upstairs, but Mom and Dad needed offices for their cover jobs, online accountants. So they let the boys pick rooms, then gave me the small room in the basement. I love it, it's peaceful, but gets lonely. I have a secret room beneath it, though. I discovered it one day while I was cleaning out my closet. I was tearing up the carpet someone had tacked into the floor, as I had bought myself some wood to replace it, when I found the opening. It was small, but I still fit into it comfortably. It had a ladder, and it went down to a room directly beneath mine. It was filled with cobwebs and dust. I replaced the carpet with wood, as planned, but added a mechanism to the wood over the opening, so it would recognize a certain pattern of stomps and open. I cleaned it out. I put some plants and anatomy books in there, as well as a dummy for fashion designs, fabric, and sewing supplies.

Anyways, I changed out of my day clothes to my pajamas: soft green, loose pants, and a matching top. I flopped on my bed. "Wish they cared more..." I whispered up at my ceiling, disappointed.

Withered vines crept out of my closet, influenced by my mood. "Not now, Vine." I told the vine, raising my head to glare at it.

It withered even more. I sighed. "Sorry. You know I prefer you to stay in the room, right?"

It swayed. "So go back, please." I told it.

It slithered back into my closet, hiding in the dark. That's when the idea that changed my life started to form.... Hiding in the dark....

What if I became a villain? My family never spends time with me. I just fade into the background, like always. What if I began to hide in the dark? Stop the major villains from the shadows, and pretend to be one of them? What if instead of them ignoring me, they finally pay attention, even if they don't know it is me?

I like it. The flowers I kept in my room began to grow into flowering vines that covered my ceiling. Oleander. How... fitting.

I grab a notebook off of my shelves, and snatch a pen from my desk, before going down to the hidden room. This is going to take some planning....