The New Normal

by Katrina Kahler

  Tomas smiled. “Don’t worry! We can talk privately, anybody within listening distance is asleep on their feet right now.” He smiled. “It’s amazing, but my powers don’t work on you!”

  I stopped and looked around. Mrs. Spring who had been weeding her flower bed had her eyes closed. A couple of kids playing tag stood there asleep. Mr. Pool slept as he held a hose and watered his grass. You could hear the snoring from here.

  “What are you?” I asked.

  Tomas held out his hand. “Tomas Richards, half-vampire at your service ma’am!”

  “Half-vampire?” I asked.

  “On my mom’s side,” Tomas answered, as though this was a perfectly normal thing.

  “What does being a half-vampire mean?”

  Tomas got excited. “It means I can go out in the sun and I don’t care about blood. I can make simple minds do what I want them to do. And I’m way strong!” He smiled. “Once on a camping trip, I ran into a grizzly bear. He growled at me. I farted at him. I used him as a footrest for the rest of the trip.”

  “Ah cool, I guess…”

  Tomas looked me in the eyes. “Don’t worry, I didn’t do any real damage. I just showed him who’s boss. Like you did to that herd of cattle.”

  I put a hand over my chest. “What? Me?”

  Tomas laughed. “Oh come on! I know victims of a super fart when I see them on the news. Not that I’ve ever seen them before. That’s why I asked my mom if my aunt could homeschool me for a bit. I wanted to meet you. It’s hard being super and not having somebody to share being super with, who is your age.”

  “I know the feeling,” I sighed. My sigh pushed him back some.

  “Wow! You are powerful!” he said, eyes popping open.

  “Just be glad I didn’t have any garlic today,” I added.

  He looked at me. “So you want to hang out sometime?”

  “I have an idea. Tomorrow, why don’t you meet me and the gang at Mr. T’s after school? You do eat, right?”

  “I do!” Tomas said. “But not sure I should go. I don’t do well with normal people.”

  “I find it’s nice to be around regular people,” I told him. “I try not to stand out.”

  “I’m not a big fan of regular people, as you call them,” Tomas told me.

  I looked him in the eyes. “Trust me, give them a chance!”

  Tomas hesitated, then said, “Fair enough. I will meet you there.”

  “My friend will be okay, right?” I asked.

  Tomas grinned. “Yeah, he will. He won’t even remember I turned him into a dunce.”

  “Okay, I have to go now… but I’ll see you tomorrow!” I told him.

  “Great, I look forward to it!”

  “Do you mind if I tell my mom about you? She’s super too.”

  “Go for it!” Tomas said.

  I turned towards home, thinking, “OMG! I just met a vampire, well half-vampire.” I stopped and turned back to Tomas. “Wait! Does this mean Felipe is a half-vampire too?”

  Tomas shrugged. “He is my blood. So you do the math!”

  Dear Diary: Never think life can’t get any stranger. Now, not only was I super but I was neighbors with a half-vampire teen. A kid who can make people do whatever he wanted and could drop a grizzly with a fart. I could relate.

  Mom wasn’t shocked at all. She told me she figured if we could be super then there had to be other “non-normal-beings” around. She wouldn’t be surprised if more started to show up now that I had kind of presented myself to the public. People were figuring out that supers and normals could live together. I hoped. Actually, I wanted to make people understand that being super didn’t mean a person wasn’t normal.

  Robots not in disguise…

  Thursday started as my most normal day in a long time. No strange things happened in the morning. At lunch, Jessie even answered our questions when we talked to her.

  I felt relief again in History class when my name wasn’t one of the four picked from the hat. Instead, the cheerleaders, Michelle Noah, and Cindy Kay were picked, along with the debate team captain, Jackson Jacobs. Jessie was also chosen. They all seemed far less nervous than me. Jackson actually spoke for twice as long as required. Michelle and Cindy both spoke with a lot of passion. Jessie’s speech was quite deep. She talked about persecution in the past. I guess it’s true what Grandma Betsy says, lots of stuff goes on for people that we don’t even know about.

  The good news was that there were no robot attacks in school. BM Science insisted they had taken all the bugs and defects out and Jan the Janitor actually seemed happy to have the help. As well, I made it to LAX practice without anything abnormal, funky or weird happening.

  But of course, that didn’t last.

  I was having a pretty good practice. First, we ran drills. I actually like drills because I enjoy repetition. There is something comforting about doing something over and over and watching yourself improve.

  After that, we scrimmaged a bit. I scored a nice goal where I tucked the ball into the corner of the net above the goalie, Kelly Richard’s shoulder. “Great shot!” Krista said, giving me a high five. Marie followed with a fist bump. Even Kelly acknowledged me with a nod of her head.

  That’s when I heard inside my head:

  “Lia, this is your dad, I’m broadcasting on a frequency only you (and probably your mom and grandmas) can hear. We have a problem at BM Science and we need your help! Over and out, Dad.”

  My first thought was to ignore it. After all, I don’t hear from my father in over ten years and now all of a sudden he reaches out to me, just because I’m super. And only because he needs me! But he was my dad. And he did need me.

  I smiled, knowing Mr. Coach Blue was our coach today. I guess I should clear that up some. We actually have two coach Blues for LAX. They are a husband and wife coaching team. Normally she coaches us and he coaches the guys, but now and then they switch. And Mr. Blue always took it easier on us than Mrs. Blue.

  I walked up to Coach Blue holding my stomach and bending over. “Coach, something I ate at lunch didn’t agree with me at all…” I leaned in close to him and whispered, “I think I’m going to vomit….”

  Coach put an arm on my shoulder. “Take the rest of the practice off, go home and get some rest.”

  I dragged myself off the field, holding my stomach. I heard Wendi mumble under her breath, “Wimp…” Couldn’t let her bother me now.

  I got to the locker room and collected my stuff. Good thing I kept my Super Teen outfit in a bag in my book bag. I also kept a pair of old socks in that bag to stop anybody from looking into it. The smell was even better than a padlock.

  A text appeared on my phone.

  JASON>My dad has been called 2 BMS…something weird going on.

  I text backed> OMW there

  I moved into the bathroom, changed at super speed and leaped out the window. I leaped and bounded my way to BM Science, keeping my book bag by my side. After a few minutes of super hopping, the BM Science lab complex came into view. The place was surrounded by a big fence. Police cars lined the gates but the guards at BM wouldn’t let them pass.

  Using super hearing, I heard Captain Michaels arguing with the guards about how the police had a call regarding an out of control robot. The guards insisted the call was a mistake and shouldn’t have been made. My extra super hearing zoned in on people running and screaming in a courtyard beyond the main building. I knew something bad was going down. I stored my book bag in the highest branch of a nearby tree then leaped over the BM Science fence. Another bound and I was on the flat roof of the main building. For a high tech lab or whatever, the building itself looked like a boring white warehouse.

  Peering down from the roof to the court and lunch yard below, I could see a big blue robot that looked like a 10-foot-tall robot boxer. People were running in fear as the robot smashed lunch table after lunch table. A couple of security people tried to stop it, but the robot pushed them aside like they were flies.

 
; I saw my dad and a couple of people in lab coats watching from inside the main building. I could see them shaking their heads.

  The big blue robot lumbered towards a small blond woman who stood there trembling with fear.

  The robot raised an arm and shouted, “I will prove I am the best. I can’t be beaten!”

  I leaped down between the robot and the woman and caught the robot’s arm on the way down before it could smash the lady.

  “Not happening on my watch!” I told the robot, as I ripped off its arm.

  I felt good about that. The robot reacted fast, way faster than I expected. It swatted me across the face with its remaining arm. That blow sent me staggering back a little.

  “Ha! Human! Your fighting is almost as bad as your banter!” It taunted. It swung at me again. This time though, I blocked it. Then I moved forward and hit it with an open palm to its robot stomach. My blow sent it reeling back. The big squared head bot, looked at me and smiled. “Not bad, tiny human!” it said.

  The bot took a boxing stance. “I have been programmed to fight!”

  I dropped back into a karate stance, “Good, I’d hate to beat up a non-fighting robot!”

  “I must warn you, silly human, I have been programmed with every style of fisticuffs and martial arts known to man!”

  Okay, I didn’t like the sound of that. I had to hope the robot was bluffing. I leaped up, sending a flying kick to the robot’s chin. It swatted me to the ground before I got to it. I rolled away as it tried to stomp on me. I bounced to my feet.

  The robot laughed, “Ha, I saw that pitiful move coming before you knew you were going to do it!” it shouted.

  I pointed at the bot very dramatically, “Your maker must be so proud!”

  The robot’s stiff face showed a slight smile. “I am not really programmed for emotion or to recognize emotion, but yes I do believe they are.”

  “Then why are you attacking them?” I asked. I didn’t really care, I just needed time to catch my breath and maybe figure out a plan of attack on this big blue bot.

  “They wanted me to show them what I can do. So I did. I figured you would show up. I wanted to beat the strongest human in the world!”

  I kind of liked being called the strongest human in the world. But now I needed to show this bot what that meant. I just didn’t know how. After all, yeah I may have been strong and I might know karate, but I still didn’t have a lot of fighting experience. In karate, they never prepare you for facing off against a 10-foot-tall metal robot.

  “I see you are using delaying tactics, in order to catch your breath,” the robot laughed. “I gave you a sporting chance, but enough is enough.” It started running towards me faster than I thought a bot that size should be able to move.

  The bot was on top of me before I knew it. It grabbed me with its good arm and lifted me off the ground then threw me down heavily. I rolled up again and noticed a “me” sized dent in the ground.

  “Is that the best you’ve got?” I taunted.

  The big blue bot stalked towards me again. “You can take a beating; I’ll give you that! I would be impressed except…”

  “You’re not programmed for emotions,” I said.

  I leaped up into the air, bounced off a lunch table and sprang up over the bot. I forced myself down, jamming my legs on top of the bot’s head. “Like Mario squishing a goomba!” I told the bot.

  The bot crinkled but didn’t break. Now it was maybe nine feet tall instead of ten. It still had fight in it though. “Figures you’d make a geek reference!”

  “Look, if you’re trying to taunt me again by calling me a geek, it won’t work!” I told the bot. “I’m proud of being a geek!”

  The bot let out a chuckle. “Yeah, only a geek would think a pink shirt with green jeans covered in stars, topped off with a black mask would look good!”

  “Nope, that won’t work either!” I pointed to the outfit. “I know this is cool, plus you have no taste.”

  “Hmm, then once I take you down I will head to town and knock the town to the ground!” the robot said.

  Now that really made me mad! One, I hated the rhyme. And two, no robot was going to threaten my friends and my town. I felt the anger building up inside of me. My eyes began to glow. Beams of red hot heat flew from my eyes into the robot.

  The robot exploded with a wondrous BOOM! Robot parts rained down around me. I thought of cold things like eating ice cubes, then blew on the robot parts with icy breath. The robot parts shattered into dust.

  I leaped up in the air. I was due at Mr. T’s 20 minutes ago!

  Vamp Out…

  I felt so powerful! Not only had I taken out a crazy robot, my leaps were growing by leaps and bounds. I made it all the way from BM Science to the tree where I’d stashed my book bag in a millisecond. I grabbed the book bag and made another leap. Within a minute, the city had come into clear view. I bounded home, got changed and then headed to Mr. T’s.

  When I walked into Mr. T’s, my mouth fell open. A kid named Jimmy Wall sat there sucking his thumb. Tony, the bully, danced like a ballerina. Mr. T and Mrs. T were asleep on the counter. Jason clucked like a chicken. Marie and Lori played clapping games with each other. Brandon ran around on all fours barking like a dog. He chased Wendi who hissed like a cat. Krista sat at our table but she was sitting on her head. Tim walked back and forth, arms stiff like he was a zombie.

  In fact, everybody in Mr. T’s was either sound asleep or acting crazily. Well, everybody but Tomas who sat in a chair. The cheerleaders, Michelle and Cindy, massaged his feet. Oh, and for some reason, Jessie sat there at a corner table reading War and Peace.

  “Hey, Lia,” Jessie said, as I walked by.

  I stopped. “You’re still you!”

  Jessie nodded. “Yeah, the little half-vamp is too smart to try and mess with me,” she said.

  “Ah, why is that?” I asked.

  Jessie pointed to Tomas and the two poor cheerleaders massaging his feet. “Don’t you have more important things to do right now?”

  “Good point.” I turned and headed to Tomas.

  “Tomas, what are you doing?” I shouted.

  Tomas looked at me. “You’re late…”

  “Yeah, something came up!”

  Tomas pointed over his shoulder to the TV that was showing my fight with the bot. “You look cool!”

  “Ssh,” I told him.

  Tomas grinned. “None of these people can hear anything besides my commands. Well, besides the witch, and she already knows!”

  I looked over my shoulder at Jessie. She gave me a wave. “You’re a witch??”

  Jessie nodded. “Don’t fret, I’m a mostly good witch.” She pointed at Tomas. “Deal with the issue at hand…”

  Shaking my head in disbelief, I looked directly at Tomas, “Why are you doing this?”

  “You told me these people were nice and that I could fit in. But when I told them I was a half-vamp, they laughed!” He pointed to the cheerleaders massaging his feet. “Ha! I’m the one laughing now!”

  I thought about how to approach this. For one thing, Tomas’ feet certainly did smell. I have no idea how Michelle and Cindy were handling it. I pointed to the two poor cheerleaders. “How come they can do that without fainting?” I asked.

  Tomas took a sip from a milkshake. “I won’t let them faint. This is too much fun!”

  I sighed, and my breath knocked Tomas off the chair. The two cheerleaders smiled.

  “We’re free!” they said.

  Then they both passed out on the floor.

  “Man, you are strong!” Tomas groaned, standing up.

  “Listen, Tomas, these people are nice, or mostly nice, or kind of nice, but they don’t take different that easily. You can’t just tell them you are a vampire!”

  “Half-vampire.”

  “You can’t tell them you are a half-vampire and expect them to believe you, and not think it’s a joke, or that you’re crazy! That doesn’t mean they are bad or unaccepting, the
y are just used to their world being a certain way.”

  “But the world changes,” Tomas argued.

  “Agreed, but we need to ease people into the changes,” I told him sincerely.

  He pointed to all the people now acting as animals or babies or statues. “Ya gotta admit this is fun!”

  “You do have a certain, ah, flare, I’ll give you that… but can you make them all normal again?”

  Tomas looked at me and frowned.

  “Please!” I asked putting my hands together.

  “Fine!” he sighed.

  I pointed to his shoes. “Oh, put your shoes on first, so they don’t all faint after you bring them back to being themselves!”

  “Man, you are no fun!” Tomas complained as he slipped his feet into his shoes.

  He snapped his fingers. “Everybody back to how you were. You don’t remember anything about the last ten minutes!”

  Everybody snapped back to normal. They all acted like nothing had happened.

  “Oh hi!” Krista said to me. “I hope you’re feeling better.”

  “Hey girl, when did you get here?” Tim asked.

  Jason came over to our table. “Nice to see you’re feeling better!” he told me. He took a bite of a fry. “Why are these cold?”

  I sat down. “I invited Tomas to join us today. Since he’s home schooled, I thought it would be nice if he got to meet you all!”

  Brandon walked by our table, with Wendi close by his side of course. I smiled. Brandon stopped. “You feeling better, Lia?” he asked. I swear his white teeth sparkled almost as much as his eyes.

  My face became a giant grin. Brandon had noticed me. “Yes, thanks,” I replied, my cheeks flushing with happiness.

  Wendi dragged Brandon away. “She’s fine, she probably just got a whiff of her own breath. That would make anybody want to throw up!”

  “Now, Wendi, that’s not nice. Lia smells just fine!”

  “Stop smelling other girls!” Wendi ordered.

  My group all stared at me as I dropped down in my chair. Trying to take their attention from me, I directed the conversation towards Tomas. “So, Tomas, tell us what you like to do?”