Blue Masked Hero

by Dee J. Stone

  Maddie’s mouth drops open. “You saved him.”

  “You did. I wouldn’t have seen him if not for you.”

  Her mouth is still open. “Wow. Now I see how you felt when you saved that football player.”

  “Yeah. You just want to do as much as you can to save and protect people.”

  Because all this happened, it’s real late when Maddie and I get to school. We head for history. It’s not our fault we’re late. Mrs. Landon has to excuse us this time.

  “Late,” she says. Her back faces us. How the hell does she do that?

  “We got into an accident,” I say.

  All eyes focus on me, but the only eyes I see are Nicole’s. I can’t understand the expression on her face. Does she still think I’m a weirdo? I shift in place.

  The teacher’s eyebrows furrow. “An accident?”

  “Yeah. The bus almost hit a little kid. You can look it up if you don’t believe us.”

  Mrs. Landon’s gaze moves to Maddie. “It’s true,” Maddie says. The teacher looks from Maddie to me, me to Maddie. I squint my eyes, hoping to have a new power like telepathy so I could control her mind. But nothing happens. Too bad. It would be nice to have telepathy, though it wouldn’t be right to control my teacher’s mind.

  “All right,” she gives in. “Take your seats.”

  All eyes are still on us as we sit down. I peer at Nicole, but she’s not looking at me. She’s doodling. Okay, scratch that. All eyes except for Nicole’s are on us.

  “Nick McGuire,” Mrs. Landon says. “Why don’t you come up and read your report to the class?”

  My heart stops pumping. Report? I look at Maddie. How could she not remind me that we had a report due? Where’s telepathy when I need it?

  “Um…” I scratch my hair. “Don’t have it.” I was too busy trying to fly and convincing my dad that I don’t like Maddie. I forgot to do my homework.

  The teacher rubs her chin. “You come late, you forget your homework. This isn’t looking very good, Mr. McGuire.”

  I hang my head.

  “Detention,” she says. “We’ll work on your report then.”

  I sink in my seat. “But I don’t have time,” I blurt. I need to learn how to fly and to practice my powers.

  “Excuse me?”

  The whole class laughs. Maddie is shaking her head at me. Nicole’s laughing so hard she covers her mouth. I did not mean to say that out loud.

  “What, may I ask, are you so busy with, Mr. McGuire?” the teacher asks.

  I sink down again. Any more and I’ll slide to the floor. “Nothing,” I mumble. “I’ll be there.”

  ***

  “You think I should take my dad’s advice?” I ask Maddie during lunch. She follows where I’m looking—Nicole, who else? She’s sitting with her friends, playing around with her salad. “She did laugh at me,” I continue. “Maybe she thinks I’m funny. Hey, can you find out?”

  “Yeah, right.”

  I watch Nicole’s perfect smile. “What did she do to you?”

  “Nothing.”

  “She had to have done something.”

  Maddie slams down her fork. “I’m sick and tired of this. Either go ask her out or forget about her. I’m not going to spend my entire freshman year listening to you pine after her. Just go.”

  I look around to make sure no one’s eavesdropping. Good thing we’re nobodies so no one’s paying attention. “You’re right. I guess I am being annoying.”

  “Try obsessed.”

  “Man, that hurts. You know how to get a guy right in the heart.” I look at Nicole’s table. Maybe Dad’s right. Maybe I can muster the courage to talk to her.

  I stand. “I’m gonna do it.”

  “Good luck.”

  Seeing her laugh with her friends makes me lose my nerve for some reason. I sit back down. “I can’t do it.”

  “Yes, you can.” Maddie grabs my arm and pulls me toward Nicole’s table.

  I try to wiggle free, but the girl is strong. “What’re you doing?!”

  “Proving to you that you can do this.”

  At Nicole’s table, Maddie pushes me forward. “Hi, Nicole,” she says with a fake smile. “My friend Nick wants to ask you something.” She yanks me even closer to Nicole, gives me a you-can-do-this-look, then walks away.

  I can’t believe Maddie just did that. Nicole and her friends look at me like I shaved my head. My chest is so stiff I can hardly breathe. Why would Maddie do this to me? I told her I’m not ready.

  “Yeah?” Nicole asks with a raised eyebrow.

  I open my mouth, close it, open it. Lick my lips, clear my throat. Shift from one foot to the other. “I…uh…I…” I can’t do it. Just can’t.

  The room starts to sway. The tables and chairs shake like there’s an earthquake. An earthquake in Brooklyn? Since when does that happen?

  Nicole grabs onto the table, while her friends yell. Oh, man, the place is going to collapse. Everything is flying all over the place, and I’m standing there, watching the horror on Nicole’s face. How in the world is there an…oh, god. It’s me. I’m the one doing this.

  Nicole’s plate of salad slams into her, splattering her expensive-looking shirt. She shouts so loud it bursts my ears.

  A hand grips my arm and pulls me away from Nicole. “Nick.” It’s Maddie. “You need to calm down.”

  She hauls me out the door and into the hallway, where most of the students are running to because it’s not shaking. Except it starts to once I enter. Maddie shakes me. “Nick! Focus.”

  I can’t. I’m such a loser. I screwed everything up.

  Maddie shakes me again. “Nick, look at me.”

  I do, and everything stops moving. My chest rises and falls as air gets into my lungs. I shut my eyes and allow myself to relax. I can do this. I can fix this.

  “All better?” Maddie asks after a few seconds.

  I pull away from her. “I can’t believe you made me do that.” I head down the hall.

  She quickly follows. “I’m sorry. I thought if I pushed you—”

  “I didn’t ask for your help, Mads! Now Nicole will never talk to me again.”

  Maddie gapes at me. “That’s all you care about? After nearly tearing the place down, all you care about is Nicole?”

  “No. I don’t only care about her, but she was the only one I looked at. Didn’t really get a good look at everyone else. Did anyone get hurt?”

  She crosses her arms over her chest. “No, no one did. Unless you count precious Nicole’s blouse.”

  I glare at her. “If you want to blame someone, blame yourself.”

  “Learn to control yourself and then these things won’t happen.”

  “You think you know what this is like?” I yell. “I can’t even act normally around my family. I need to always watch my back to make sure nothing is floating behind me.”

  Maddie’s head whips around. There are many people around, but like usual, no one notices us. “Keep your voice down,” she hisses.

  “Stay out of my personal life.”

  “Stop talking about your personal life.”

  “Fine,” I say.

  “Fine!”

  She slides to the floor. I sit down next to her, along with all the other kids who are freaked out. Some girls are crying.

  The principal rushes in, saying, “Remain calm. There’s nothing to fear. Please head to your next class.”

  As I pass the girls’ bathroom on my way to English, I hear Nicole crying from behind the closed door. I feel really bad for destroying her shirt. Wish there was something I could do about it. Well, I guess there is one thing: I need to avoid her for the rest of my high school life.

  During class, a note falls on my desk. It’s from Maddie. She’s apologizing for what happened.

  I wave my hand, telling her it’s okay. She holds two thumbs up, asking me if we’re good. I smile and nod. Yeah, we’re good. I wouldn’t be able to get through any of this without my best friend at my side. She wa
s just trying to help me be more confident, and I can’t be mad about that. I’m just a hopeless case.

  Chapter Eight

  I tell my parents I’m spending the rest of the day at Maddie’s house. After detention, she and I stand in the schoolyard, staring at nothing.

  “I’m not gonna do it,” I say.

  “Come on.”

  “Weren’t you the one who said I need practice? How do you expect me to fly all the way home?”

  She takes my hand. “Well first of all, we have no way to get home and I don’t want to take the city bus. Second, we’re going to make sure you don’t fly too high so we won’t get hurt when you crash.”

  “When I crash. Not if. Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  She tugs at my hand. “Make sure we’re invisible.”

  “Done.”

  She’s quiet, probably looking down at herself. I look down, too, just to be safe. I’m not exactly an expert here. We don’t need anyone seeing us.

  “Wow,” she says. Right. This is her first time seeing this.

  “Yup. It’s really weird seeing it for the first time. Imagine waking up that way and not knowing what the hell is going on.”

  She tugs my hand again. “At least we know now and can practice. Okay, lift us off the ground.”

  “How are you such an expert?”

  “Just do it.”

  “Okay, but make sure not to let go. I can’t exactly see you, you know.”

  She squeezes my hand so tight she’s stopping my blood flow. “Strong enough for you?”

  “Wow, you’re in a mood. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were in a rush to go home.”

  “Will you stop stalling?”

  The truth is I’m scared to fly again. Scared I’ll hurt Maddie or myself.

  “Nick!”

  “All right.”

  I look down and see the ground getting further away. We go higher and higher and then I stop. I can feel the excitement leaping off Maddie. She keeps saying, “Cool,” and “Awesome.”

  “Stay this low and take us home.”

  It’s too bad this invisibility stuff is so limited. Why can’t I see myself and Maddie when we’re invisible? How am I supposed to know if she’s okay?

  “Nick!”

  I shove all my doubts out of my head and steer us toward our houses. I tighten my hold on her because my hand tends to get sweaty when I’m nervous and I don’t want to drop her.

  “I feel like a bird,” she says.

  I felt that way, too, until I crashed. But that’s not gonna happen now, not as long as I’m in charge.

  The wind is being a bully just like yesterday. But unlike yesterday, I expect it, so I know how to avoid it. When it pushes one way, I push the other. Things are going well until a strong gust comes out of nowhere.

  Maddie’s hand slips out of mine. “Maddie!” I manage to grab her arm before she plummets to the ground.

  I lower us behind a tree and turn us visible. “I told you,” I say. “I can’t do it.”

  She leans on the tree, her chest rising and falling heavily.

  “Sorry.”

  She shakes her head, still unable to talk.

  “You okay?” I ask.

  She bends over, coughing. I place my hand on her back. She’s really freaking me out. “Maddie?”

  “I’m…” She coughs. “Fine.”

  “I knew this was a bad idea. Everything goes wrong with me.”

  She shoots me a look. “Will you calm down? You think all the superheroes in the movies get it right on the first try?”

  “Uh, no?”

  “Right. So we’re going to try again. But not here. Somewhere private where no one will see us and where it’s safe.”

  I look at her like I’ve got no clue.

  “My gym,” she says.

  Her stepdad turned their basement into a gym. Maddie never uses it and neither does he. She thinks it was his mid-life crisis project

  “Will he mind?” I ask.

  She waves her hand. “He doesn’t go in there anymore. Mostly uses it for storage. All we need to do is clean it out and it’ll be okay. And once we feel like you’re ready, we’ll practice outdoors.”

  “Maddie, why are you being so cool about this? I coulda killed you.”

  She wraps her arm around my shoulder. “Because we’re best friends, duh.”

  We decide to walk to her house. It only takes twenty minutes and we talk about different things. Nothing superhero related. Or Nicole related. I’m done with obsessing over her. Okay I’m not, but I don’t want to bring it up when I’m with Maddie. I’ll leave her for my dreams and fantasies. Those are the only times I actually have a shot with her.

  “I think I can have your uniform done in a few days if I work on it day and night,” Maddie tells me once we get to her house. Her mom and stepdad both work late, and we have the entire house to ourselves.

  “Whenever you have time. It’s not an emergency.”

  “It kind of is. Remember that kid you saved this morning? There are tons of people out there who need you.”

  People who need me?

  She punches my arm playfully. “Now don’t go getting this huge ego.”

  I laugh. “Me? An ego? Right.”

  She opens the fridge. “Want a snack? Pick something.”

  I peer inside. The fridge is pretty much naked. Her mom’s this health nut and they never have good things in the house. Or maybe it’s because they can’t really afford much.

  Maddie shuts the fridge. “Um. Guess no one went shopping.”

  “I’m not hungry. Wanna help me practice?”

  We go down to the basement and move all the things aside. Once there are no safety hazards, Maddie instructs me to climb onto a chair.

  “We’re going to do this slowly,” she tells me. “I know we need you out there saving people, but you’re no good unless you’re ready. We don’t want anyone getting hurt or dying.”

  I swallow. People will be relying on me to save them. To protect them. How can I be that guy? I was barely able to keep my goldfish alive for more than a day last year.

  Maddie snaps. “Nick, pay attention.”

  Right. Focus.

  “Relax,” she says. “Take a deep breath.”

  “How do you even know what you’re doing?”

  She shrugs. “I don’t know. It just feels right. Slowly lift yourself off the chair. You don’t have to do anything amazing or crazy yet. Just get used to being in the air.”

  I hold my arms over my head and hover a few feet off the ground. “Flying isn’t the problem. It’s the wind.”

  “I know, and we’ll get to that later. Right now, you need to take control over your telekinesis.”

  I spend a few minutes flying around the gym. It’s so easy doing it indoors, but Maddie won’t let me out. Not until she feels I’ve completely mastered this skill.

  “Bored,” I complain.

  “Just do it,” she says from the floor, where she’s doing her homework. Ugh, homework. How am I going to catch up when I need to practice?

  I soar over to her. “Here’s an idea. How about you do my homework for me and in exchange, I become protector of the world.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “All I’m doing is floating around.”

  “You’re not ready to go out yet.”

  “Says you,” I mutter. “Again, what makes you such an expert?”

  She drops her pen on her notebook. “I’m not an expert. It only makes sense that you need to practice indoors, since you almost died twice outdoors.”

  Fine, she has a point. “But I’m ready now.”

  “Tomorrow.” She grabs my hand and pulls me down beside her. “Now, we study for our history quiz.”

  “Or I can cheat off you.”

  She glares at me.

  “You know I’m just kidding.”

  Chapter Nine

  On Saturday morning, I’m on my roof, watching everything going on out
there. Maddie and I spent the past few days practicing flying and I’m almost sure I’ve got the whole thing down. The wind usually gets in the way, but I think I’ve figured out how to evade it.

  Maddie told me my uniform should be ready today. I’ve been sitting here for three hours waiting. She doesn’t answer my calls, probably because she’s putting the last-minute touches on it. I can’t wait to see how it’ll turn out. Can’t wait to get out there and do good. Make a difference. Yeah I’m nearly peeing myself on the inside, but I can handle it. I hope.

  The cars zoom by. Families walk. It’s just a normal Saturday. Mom, Dad, Matt, and Kaylee are all out visiting my granddad. I didn’t go, not because I don’t want to visit him in the nursing home, it’s just that he freaked out the last time I was there. Thought I was his friend from sixty years ago who died and came back to life. Mom suggested I skip this visit until my grandfather remembers me. She called a few minutes ago to tell me he misses me. I’ll go see him next weekend.

  Something hits me in the head. A small ball. Looking down, I see Maddie standing there. “I’ve been calling your name for, like, an hour.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “Okay, two minutes. Are you going to come down or do you expect me to climb up there?”

  With a mischievous grin, I lift my hand and she rises toward the roof and is lowered right next to me.

  “Nick, someone will see!”

  “Sorry.”

  “You can’t be lazy and careless. People have cameras everywhere and on their phones. You want to end up on the six o’clock news?”

  I smile as I picture it. “Yeah.”

  “Not as your alter ego. As you.”

  “Oh.” I frown. “No.”

  “That’s what I thought.” She shoves a bag in my arms. “Happy birthday.”

  “The uniform?” I peek inside and pull it out a little, not too much so no one will see. It’s… “What’s with all the blue?”

  “It’s your favorite color. I didn’t want to do anything too fancy or flashy. I think simple is better.”

  I pull it out a little more and touch the fabric. Seems soft and comfortable. And when I dig even further inside, my fingers brush over a mask. “Cool, thanks. These are amazing.”