Super BLAND

Episode 16 Snap Crackle Pop

April 17th, One day later, School band concert

Amanda adjusted her French horn in her lap and glanced about the other band members, who were busy tuning their instruments and trying not to be too nervous about the spring concert.

Families of band members and other school students had begun to fill the gym, and their music teacher was glad handing proud parents with a glowing smile. Amanda tried distracting her own jitters by counting how many basket balls, softballs and other things that were stuck in the lighting far above her; 13 as it turned out.

Just then, movement to her left caught Amanda's attention and she started in surprise when she saw Tracy creeping around behind the band members to get at the stage- witch wasn't in use that night. Amanda frowned- what on earth was the girl doing!? Tracy didn't play an instrument- she didn't help volunteer to set up- she had no business to be poking around that night! And yet there she was mounting the stage steps and ducking behind the red curtains.

Amanda frowned; what a nuisance! With a glance at her music teacher and a double check of the time, Amanda got up after Tracy- who, Amanda noticed, wasn't doing a good job of pretending to limp.

Amanda mounted the stage steps and ducked behind the curtain; it was dark, and Amanda paused to let her blue eyes adjust. The low hub of people in the gym filling the otherwise silence.

When her eyes adjusted Amanda wasn't surprised to see Tracy blindly making her way forward- that girl had the eyesight of a bat!

"Tracy- what are you doing!?" Amanda called impatiently.

Tracy jumped and knocked over a box full of metal cups that the play was using that year, they clattered to the floor and Amanda winced and sighed in exasperation; this was why Tracy shouldn't be back here!

"Amanda! Um I'm just... I'm fine; go back." Tracy stuttered unconvincingly.

Amanda found it hard to be mean to Tracy- she was such a nice girl- but Amanda's nerves were already fried, and she was sick and tired of Tracy and the others running about keeping secrets and doing weird stuff and only saying things like 'it's nothing' as an explanation.

"Tracy come on- the concert's starting soon." Amanda stepped forward to grab the girls hand, but Tracy stepped back, knocking over another box- it made another loud clang.

That's it!

Amanda reached for Tracy's arm roughly, latching hold of her wrist, she pulled- perhaps harder then she intended.

What followed was the worst thing that Amanda had ever experienced; Tracy's wrist snapped in her grasp. like, there was defiantly a crack and maybe even a pop- Amanda could never remember that moment clearly afterwords.

Amanda felt the girls broken bone twist unnaturally- her wrist turning the wrong way as Amanda pulled. Tracy cried out in muted pain. Amanda dropped her hand and stared in horror and disbelief.

"What! I... Tracy- what- I'm so-s-sorry!" she stuttered in a strange breathless whisper as the brunet doubled over cradling her arm.

Call help... Amanda's mind seemed to suggest as an after thought.

"It's ok! It's ok! I'm alright!" Tracy gasped.

"No- I... your wrist- I broke it!" Amanda's voice rose in panic.

"No! No- look I'm fine!" Tracy held out her damaged arm. Already Amanda felt like she had stumbled into a scenario that didn't belong to her life- but now she felt like she had left reality altogether.

Tracy's wrist snapped back into place- as if on it's own, the deep purple bruising returning to Tracy's normal skin tone.

Tracy flexed her hand and rotated her wrist- there was nothing wrong with it.

It was like all the words Amanda could have said in that moment, had all of a sudden packed up and decided to migrate south. For she opened her mouth- but not even a sound came out- she decided to try screaming- but Tracy clamped her healed hand over her mouth before she could try.

"Sishhhhh! Amanda please! Everything's alright- I promise! Please, just sishhh please, please!" Tracy bagged.

Amanda pulled back, "What just happened- what did you do!?" the words had suddenly reappeared and tumbled out of her mouth like an over stuffed closet, "Your wrist- I saw- it was broken!" she managed to keep her voice at a whisper but she was finding it hard to breath.

"Not anymore." Tracy said with an apologetic shrug, "I... have super regenerative powers." She whispered and bit her lip.

Amanda blinked, "Like... Wolverine!? What!?"

"I don't have time to explain!" Tracy bagged with a glance behind her, the back stage backed onto the cafeteria, and there was a door with a window in it that connected the two, "Me and the others have super powers- and so apparently do you! But I need to go see what Chick is up to!"

Amanda stood still as Tracy scampered off to the door with the window in it, and peeked through.

Super powers...

"Others? Who!?" Amanda's voice wasn't quiet enough for the other girl, and Tracy hushed her as Amanda joined her at the door (her movements felt slow and she wasn't convinced that she was in full command of them).

"Me, Nicky, Mike and Alex..." Tracy mumbled, this reeled through Amanda mind as she looked through the window with Tracy; the cafeteria was dark, the only light coming from the wall of windows that looked out onto the school's main hallway. The table and chairs looked creepy in the dark, and to make it worse, there were two figures huddled together. One of them, short, blonde and beautiful, was Chick. The other was a boy- a tall boy. He wore a bikers helmet, between that and the dark shadows, Amanda couldn't see who he was.

"What?" was the only word Amanda managed to get out.

"Hush!" Tracy warned again, "We think that Chick knows about us and is up to something." She explained.

Amanda nodded- suddenly everything sounded believable- Tracy could have said that it was about to rain marshmallows and Amanda would have nodded just the same!

"Wait!" her mind seemed to have stumbled across something Tracy had said a few moments before and suddenly realized that it was important, "I HAVE SUPER POWERS!?" 

How's that for a cliff hanger?