The New Normal

by Katrina Kahler

  On my way home, I pulled out my phone to check my social media. Sure enough, it had been blowing up, most of it about Super Teen. And the reviews were mixed. There was even a hashtag now…#SUPTEENHERO

  I had channel 13 news and Oscar Oranga to thank for that. At least that hashtag gave me the chance to easily see everything that everyone said about Super Teen.

  Some people defended me. The defenders were led by Jason; or as he was known on Instagram…@COMICLOVERJ

  @COMICLOVERJ: #SUPTEENHERO is a hero, she saved the shoe store from a crazy mad Android!

  @WENDI: Is #SUPTEENHERO really a hero? She didn’t have to knock out the entire store to stop the Android. She did it on purpose to show her power. That was dangerous.

  @KRISTA: I was there, it wasn’t bad at all. I’m glad #SUPTEENHERO saved us. When I came too, I felt better than ever!

  @WENDI: Krista…that’s because #SUPTEENHERO probably has some weird whammy power that warps your brain.

  That conversation went back and forth. Just like any other argument on Instagram or Facebook that nobody ever won. Everybody thought the same at the end as they did in the beginning. I sighed. Most of the other remarks went from either…“She’s so cool!” or “She’s a threat!” It seemed people were 40 / 60 in support of Super Teen. I smiled when I saw that. Brandon actually questioned Wendi about her comment. I had to admit, it was crazy when I watched everybody drop. Most of them hit the floor before my shoe did. Of course, the excitement was instantly followed by terror and me thinking OMG I can’t believe I did that. I hope they’re all ok!

  Dear Diary: I’m so glad Krista and everybody else in the store is okay. And I’m so glad I stopped that crazy HAR…kind of worried that the people my dad works for were behind all that. But I’m more worried about how people feel about Super Teen from now on. I only want to help others, use my powers for good, make the world a better place. I’m starting to figure out some people will support me no matter what. But some people hate change and Super Teen represents change. Those people won’t accept change no matter what. Words won’t change them but maybe, just maybe, my actions will.

  Family Ties…

  I got home and found Mom sitting in the living room with Grandma Betsy and Great Grandma Ellen. Man, the three of them could pass as sisters. They had a computer open and were skyping with Great, Great Grandma Ann. She’d moved to the Andes mountains in Peru, so people wouldn’t get suspicious of how little the Strong women aged. In fact, Grandma and Great Grandma now even said they were sisters.

  “Looks like you’ve had a busy day!” Mom said as I entered the room.

  I saw on the TV they were watching the Channel 13 news. It was showing the people in the store all falling over. Of course, they had the hashtag: #SUPTEENHERO Underneath the picture. The headline sticker had such interesting updates:

  -BM Science regrets Android HAR’s actions, will give the school new cleaning Androids

  -Mayor TJ Bass undecided if Super Teen is a threat

  -Police Chief Michaels Claims he welcomes the help but is cautious

  -Store Manager thankful for the help and that nobody got hurt

  Grandma and Great Grandma walked over to me and kissed me on the head.

  “We came to help you with your family history report,” Great Grandma said. “We even have my mom online so she can chip in her knowledge. The woman did fight in a world war, after all.”

  Grandma gave me a strong hug. “Of course we are here to talk about your powers as well. That’s if you want to.”

  I sat down on the couch so I could see into the computer screen and waved to Great, Great Grandma. “Hi GGG!” I said. That’s what I’d always call her. Now, of course, it finally made sense why I had so many grandmas and they all still looked great.

  “Hi, kiddo!” GGG said.

  I sighed and knocked over the computer on the table. “Oops, sorry!” I giggled.

  The grandmas laughed. “Just growing pains.” Grandma Betsy said.

  “Can I take my shoes off?” I asked them. “These things are a little tight.”

  “Sure,” Great Grandma Ellen said.

  I kicked my shoes off. Mom and Grandma Betsy were sitting beside me. They both coughed a little.

  “That is pretty powerful,” Grandma Betsy said.

  Mom nodded. “Yeah, that nervous sweat. It can have quite a kick.”

  Great Grandma Ellen sat directly across from my feet. Her eyes seemed to be spinning in her head. I wiggled my toes without thinking. She slumped back over on the couch.

  “Wow!” Mom said.

  “Super impressive!” Grandma Betsy said.

  “I didn’t expect that!” I said.

  “She’ll come around in a minute or two,” Grandma Betsy assured me. “You just caught her off guard. She wasn’t prepared for that kind of power.”

  “Am I that powerful?” I gulped.

  Mom and Grandma shrugged. “Apparently, but you’ll figure it out with time.”

  Great Grandma Ellen started to stir. She sat up. “Impressive young lady!” she smiled. “Very relaxing nap!”

  I shook my head. “Yeah, I don’t get that. Why do people I knock out with my foot odor seem so happy afterward?”

  “Sounds like your pheromone power is developing,” Mom explained, sounding like a scientist.

  “Pheromones are the scents people give out to make themselves more attractive to others,” Grandma Betsy added.

  “Right, I remember Mom telling me about them.”

  Grandma Betsy smiled. “Trust me, honey it’s a great ability to have. Once you get control of it, you’ll be able to help control any situation. Plus it’s fun. One time I was presenting a demonstration about a product that the company I worked for were trying to sell. I was in front of about 100 people. But there was a very rude man in the audience, calling out and embarrassing me in front of everyone. So, I made him think he was a pussycat and he started meowing. Then he fell asleep in his chair! Everyone started laughing at him. It was a crack up!”

  “Oh my gosh! So it’s like hypnosis?” I asked.

  Mom shook her head. “No, with hypnosis you can’t make people do things they wouldn’t normally do. With pheromones, you can.”

  “Wow,” I said. “Another scary power.”

  Great Grandma Ellen grinned at me. “It’s just another tool in our kit.”

  “You’re so brave,” GGG said, “being the first one of us to openly use your powers in public!”

  I dropped my head. “Not sure if it’s brave or silly!”

  Grandma Betsy put her arm around me. “Definitely brave!” she said.

  I gave them a weak smile. “Thanks!”

  Mom looked me in the eyes. “What else is on your mind honey?”

  I hesitated. “Well, I hate the fact that I have to give an oral report on family history and what the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s were like.”

  Mom shook her head. “Yeah, public speaking can be scary. But I think there’s something else on your mind.”

  “Spit it out, girl!” GGG said from the computer screen.

  I tossed myself back on the couch. “I’m worried that other friends or enemies might figure out I’m Super Teen. I mean my costume isn’t that fancy. Or tricky. I don’t even wear glasses like Clark Kent in Superman. Not only do I not need them but they’d look so bad on me. I’d love to do something extra to add to my disguise.”

  My two grandma’s looked at each other. Grandma Betsy slid behind me. She took my hair gently in her hands and pulled it into two bunches at the sides of my head. “Your hair will look so good like this. And because you never wear it this way, it’ll help to disguise you. Plus it’s easy to put up like this!”

  Grandma Ellen held a mirror up for me.

  I had to admit I did look different. For some reason, I never wore my hair tied up, and it seemed to change my look completely.

  “Any other questions about being super?” Great Grandma asked.

  I nodded. “Well, h
ow come these powers just kick in when we turn 13?”

  Grandma put a hand on my shoulder. “Easy dear, our bodies require at least 4745 days to absorb the energy they need to charge our cells.”

  “Wow!” I said. “That’s a lot of days in just 13 years. I never thought of it like that.”

  We spent the next few hours chatting about the history of the Strong family and how life has changed over the decades as well as how it has remained the same. I learned that before the Strong women came to the US, we were mostly found in Great Britain. Great Grandma thought maybe the Scotland area. Grandma thought Ireland. GGG thought Wales. The point being, the records back then were very thin. All we could determine was that we had ancestors from all over that area. I wondered if any of them were related to King Arthur or maybe even Merlin. Not sure why my mind just goes off track like that sometimes. But it’s fun.

  Mom must have noticed my mind was wandering as she gave me a little nudge to bring me back to the moment. “I understand this report will be half your grade for this semester,” she prompted.

  “I didn’t tell you that,” I said. In fact, I hadn’t known that.

  “Jason did,” Mom said. “He thought I should remind you,” she smiled.

  “I like that Jason boy,” he has potential, Grandma Betsy said.

  “He’s nice,” Great Grandma Ellen said slowly. “But he’s just so normal.”

  “Normal is good!” GGG Ann chimed in via the computer.

  Great Grandma Ellen smiled. “Now that Brandon fellow! He’s a catch. He’s strong, a leader, smart and hot!”

  “Great Grandma!” I shouted, feeling my face turn red. It sounded so weird to hear her talk like that!

  Her smile grew. “Hey, I may be old but I still know hot when I see it.” She paused for a moment, took a breath then added, “A Strong woman needs a strong man.”

  “Give the girl time, Mom!” Betsy said to Ellen. “She just turned 13!”

  “When I was 13, I was dating a senior, in college!” Great Grandma Ellen grinned, “But of course he thought I was 18.”

  “A couple of us back in the day were married at 14,” GGG chimed from the computer. “Not that I would advise that…. Just saying…”

  “Can we please change the topic back to history?” I begged. For once, I really wanted to talk about history. Nothing more embarrassing than having my grandmothers talk about my “relationship” status, or lack of a “relationship” status.

  Mom spoke up to help me out. “Great Grandma can you tell us about life in the 1950s?” she asked.

  For the next couple of hours or so, my three grandmas and my mom told me about life since the 1950s. It was then up to me to figure out what was alike and what was different, to life nowadays.

  Halfway through, I began to get really hungry, so we ordered pizza and wings and got one pizza with garlic and onions. Let me tell you, after eating that, the four of us could have dropped an army with our breath. And wow, it wouldn’t have even been a close fight. GGG Ann kidded she could smell our breath over the computer.

  Before winding up our discussion, Grandma Betsy had one more suggestion to help with my oral presentation. “Just pop your heels out of your shoes before you talk! Your pheromone power will make sure they all love it!”

  “Mom!” my mother said.

  Grandma Betsy looked at Mom. “Now, Isabel you can’t tell me you’ve never used your pheromones….”

  Mom crossed her arms. “Mom! This isn’t about me.” She looked sternly at me. “I know you’ll do what’s right!”

  I nodded and gave her a weak smile.

  She walked over to me and gave me a big hug. “You might have only just developed your superpowers, but as far as I’m concerned you’ve always had the power! Lia, your presentation will be a smash hit. You have nothing to worry about!”

  I gulped nervously. Something told me, that it was not going to be quite that easy.

  Dear Diary: Amazing! All my grandmas are so alike and yet so different! I love each one of them. I’m glad now I finally understand why I have them all in my life. They were a great help to me tonight. There are some things you rely on friends for but other things you need a family to help you with. I also have to admit that I liked Grandma Betsy’s idea of giving the class a little blast of my foot power. Not enough to drop them all, but enough to make them listen to my every word in awe.

  But then I shook off that idea. For one it was wrong, I can’t use my powers to make my friends do what I want. Yeah, it would be cool, but it’s not what a hero does. Plus, with my luck and lack of control, I might knock out the entire school. That just wouldn’t be good, and awful hard to explain anyway. Besides I was given this power for a reason. I want to help leave my mark on the world. I have an opportunity to make the world a better place. I can help those who can’t help themselves. Oh my gosh, I’m so strong I can even help those who can help themselves. What I’m trying to say (and not doing a great job of), is that I want to make the world better. By better, I mean better for everybody, not just for me. Mom always says, “Competition is fine, but people accomplish great things when they cooperate.” Now that I have this power, I finally get what Mom means. I could change the world, but not just as Super Teen, also as Lia Strong. My personality is as strong as any of my powers.

  Okay, now I’m rambling on and getting a bit carried away. I get like this from time to time. Maybe I should nab more of that pizza? OMG! Why am I writing this down?

  Another New Kid in Town?

  Jason played it pretty smart during our walk to school on Monday. He was being very tactful and didn’t even bring up the fact that I knocked out an entire store and part of the mall with super foot odor.

  Instead, he focused on our assignment. “How’s the report coming along?”

  “I feel much better about it now that I’ve talked with my grandmas,” I replied. “I’m still nervous as anything about talking in front of the class, but at least I now have some good things to talk about.”

  Giggling, I continued, “One of them even suggested that I pop my shoes off before I talk, just to put everybody to sleep and then get them to love what I’m saying.”

  “Okay, I’m not sure what to make of that,” Jason answered slowly. Hesitating for a moment, he continued, “Do you want to talk about what happened at the mall?”

  I nodded, slightly embarrassed.

  We were in front of Ms. Jewel’s house. Her mean and nasty Doberman, Cuddles, began to run towards us. The dog stopped and sniffed the air. Then he turned and ran back into the house, tail between his legs. Ms. Jewel just waved to us from her porch. “Have a good day at school, kids!”

  Jason and I waved back and kept walking, as that had become our new normal way of dealing with big fierce Cuddles, who realized it was me and then becoming a scared little puppy. It felt both good and weird at the same time.

  “Yes, yes I do want to talk about what happened at the mall,” I nodded. “I need to talk it out with a friend.”

  Jason smiled. “I think it’s really cool, as long as you can learn how to control it.”

  I nodded again. “Yes, I’m working on it.”

  “How do YOU feel about it?” Jason asked, curiously.

  “On one hand, it feels great knowing I have this power. I stopped that HAR easily. I loved it. On the other hand, I’m a little worried that part of me got a tiny bit excited about knocking the store out so easily. I could have had an awesome shopping spree and taken whatever I wanted. Nobody could have stopped me.” I noticed my heart pounding and I was forced to take a couple of breaths to calm myself.

  Jason smiled at me. “Lia, you stopped yourself from doing that. And that’s what’s important. It’s only natural that you would question your power and want to experiment to see what you can do with it. We all have thoughts that are less than good now and then. It’s part of human nature I guess. Apparently, superhuman nature is no different.”

  “How’d you get so smart?” I asked him.
/>   “You have feet that can drop a team of ninjas. I have brains!” He smiled.

  “I’m smart too!” I said giving him a little shove.

  “Yeah, I have to agree with that, I guess,” he grinned back at me.

  “Hi, Lia! Hi, Lia’s friend!” Felipe shouted from across the street. He stood waiting for the school bus. A short older blond kid stood next to him. It was nice the kid seemed to be looking out for Felipe. But that kid gave me a weird chill.

  “Hi, Felipe!” I shouted back with a wave. “Hi, Felipe’s friend!” I added.

  Jason just waved.

  We kept walking. “Do you know who the older kid with Felipe is?” I asked.

  Jason nodded. “He’s Felipe’s older cousin Tomas. For some reason, he’s staying with them for a while.”

  “Why doesn’t he go to school with us?” I asked.

  Jason shrugged. “I think he’s homeschooled.”

  “How do you know everything?” I asked.

  Jason shrugged again. “When you have open ears and eyes and your dad is police chief, you learn stuff.”

  I grinned at Jason. I loved that our relationship hadn’t changed. It remained nice and normal.

  Just then I heard in my mind, “You’re different girl!”

  Okay, so much for normal. I didn’t know where that thought had come from. Or if I’d really heard it at all.

  Jason looked at me curiously. “What’s wrong?” he asked, a worried expression suddenly appearing on his face.

  I shook my head. “I think I heard something in my head….it said…” I whispered to him, “You’re different girl!”

  Jason patted me on the shoulder. “That’s probably just your subconscious talking to you. Letting you know you are different. Which you are… but different is good.”

  “You sure?” I asked, eyebrows raised.