A Guide to Being Super

Rule #4

Rule #4: No capes. Do I even have to explain it? Have you seriously not seen The Incredibles? Capes are bad, capes kill you. If tights make you look like an idiot on your comic book cover, capes are what keep you from having a comic book cover. No matter what your super power is, it's no good if you have a cape getting stuck everywhere. Imagine saving a cat from a tree and then having to have to have the firefighters help you because your cape was caught on a branch. And that's the best case scenario.

"Can we just call it a night?"

I was in the middle of my first training session with Dan. It was a few days after the superhero meeting, the one where I told the heroes I would try to help them out, and things weren't exactly going well. I wasn't an athlete and not exactly in good shape, which isn't the best thing when you're training to be a superhero. Dan, who had proved himself over the past few days to be a pretty patient person, was quickly losing patience with me. Both of us were beginning to get very annoyed with each other and there was only a matter of time before we both lost it.

But even as I asked if we could end the session, I didn't know if he would actually say okay. Dan had also proved himself to be very stubborn and it wouldn't be surprising if he said no just because he could. He had actually done that the night before, just to piss me off.

Luckily for me, he was tired enough that he agreed to let me go home. Maybe he said yes just so he could go to bed, or he actually had some feeling of empathy for me. It was very late, I was exhausted, and I hadn't finished my homework yet (but at this point it wasn't going to get done). Dan did, however, try to convince me to stay a little longer and train a little more, but I refused. If I couldn't get my work done, I wanted to at least get some sleep so I could stay awake in my classes tomorrow.

And I did mean to go right home when I left, I really did. But as I left the building and began to fly, I realized that I wasn't flying in the direction of my home after all. Instead, I was flying in the direction of Ike's house. Even though I hadn't thought about telling Ike about any of this before then, I didn't understand it enough to explain it to anyone, but at that moment I had to tell him. I had to tell him everything, it would make me feel better. It was an odd feeling and I didn't know what to make of it. In such a short span of time I had gone through and agreed to so much and it was driving me crazy. Ike would know how to calm me down.

The one good thing about that day was that I had figured out how to fly more smoothly. A few days ago I had only been able to fly around slowly, gaining and losing altitude quickly, but now I could fly pretty quickly without moving up and down. I was able to reach Ike's house fairly quickly.

But my quest (it makes me seem a lot less pathetic when I say quest) wasn't as easy as just showing up at his house. I had to find a way to climb the tree outside his window (the tree was too dense to fly through, how inconsiderate) and then I had to find a way to wake Ike up. I loved the guy (in a strictly "I love you bro" kind of way) but he was a heavy sleeper. Unless I could find a way to open the window, which wasn't going to be easy because Ike always locked his window (he's convinced that some psycho will break in even though he's on the second story and his window can't even be seen from the street because of the tree). My faith that I could actually talk to Ike tonight was fading but I decided to try anyway.

After climbing the tree and finding a branch level with Ike's window (it was surprisingly easy to climb things when you had super strength), I sat there for a few minutes deciding what to do. Ike, unsurprisingly, was sleeping (did everyone else in this stupid city get to sleep but me?) and didn't stir when I banged on his window. I couldn't bang too hard or I'd wake up Ike's parents, and then I'd have a whole new problem on my hands, but if I kept doing what I was doing I would never get in. By now I had come too far to just go home. I needed some kind of reassurance!

I banged on the window a while more until I was too annoyed to keep going. I had considered forcing the window open (and breaking the lock) with my newfound strength and decided against it (like I said, I didn't want to wake up Ike's parents), but now it seemed like a pretty good idea. So, preparing myself to get yelled at by both my best friend and his parents, I put a hand on either side of the window and pulled.

That's when I fell out of the tree. (Apparently Ike had forgotten to lock his window that night.)

Now that I'm past my period of insecurity (I'm mature like that now), I can freely admit that this was a low point for me. Nothing steals your dignity like laying on the grass outside your best friend's window. My training with Dan had made me completely insecure, I wasn't exactly the perfect male specimen, and not being able to get into Ike's room was the ultimate rejection. Especially since the bastard hadn't even woken up when I had opened his window AND fallen out of his tree. Some best friend he was. Could this night get any worse?

Spoiler: it could. Why? Well let me tell you, my dear whoever, it's because I never considered who else I might run into that night. In fact, I didn't think about the one person I should have thought of: Faye, also known as Ike's next door neighbor (that's one of the reasons he and I got so close when we were younger, I was always around the neighborhood stalking Faye).

"Matt?"

One thing you should know about Faye: she's completely gorgeous. Not even in a supermodel type of way. She just glows. Maybe it's an Asian girl thing, their skin seems like it glows more easily than other girls, but she had a quality that was beyond description. Whenever I looked at celebrities with their larger than life everything, I could never see the attraction. Why would I be attracted to girls (I mean, women) who looked so fake when I had Faye? Sure, I knew that she wore some sort of makeup (I had been forced to watch enough makeup tutorials with Rachel to know that) but she used it to enhance her beauty, not to create some sort of manufactured beauty.

Tonight was no exception. She was standing in her window, wearing a cute little nightgown that I could barely bare to look at (I felt too perverted, it was a little see-through, I'm probably the only boy idiotic enough to not look when I had the chance), and giving me this adorable concerned look. She looked like an angel (or maybe I just thought she did because I had just had the wind knocked out of me).

"Hi, Faye," I said, barely getting the words out.

"Are you all right? What happened?"

"I, uh..."

"Do you need me to come down?" She was already moving away from the window.

"No!"

She jumped back, looking hurt. "Okay, I won't then."

"It's not that I don't want your help." I got up slowly, trying to look confident. "It's just that I'm completely okay. There's no reason to worry."

"Are you sure? I'd hate to see you hurt."

I love you, I thought.

"Don't worry, I'm not. I was just trying to get up to Ike's window and fell. But I'm all okay now," I said.

"That's good. But I can still get you an ice pack if you want..."

"No, I don't want to bother you." I tried to laugh it off but instead I sounded like I was choking. "I'm just going to head home."

"Without talking to Ike?" she asked. So far I had been able to avoid embarrassing myself (other than, you know, falling out of the tree), but I had to get out of there before that changed.

"Yeah, I'll just see him tomorrow. It's not that important anyway."

"Okay... See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow!"

I grinned and waved, acting like your usual everyday idiot, until she finally closed her window and turned out the light. As soon as she was gone I was flying off, wanting more than ever to be in my bed. I was going to kill Ike.

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How's your Wednesday going? Hope it's going well, especially if you're someone who's already started school. Today is a little bittersweet for me cause next Wednesday, one week from now, I leave for college. It's freaking me out guys lol.

Anyway, I'll be okay. Everything always works out in the end. Don't forget to comment so you cn have a chance to get the chapter dedicated to you!