A student was paying for their meal with cash when Clark noticed the register open up. And just as it opened, Clark touched the temple of his head. The money within the cash register flew into the air as students began laughing and jumping over one another to catch the dollar bills that came floating down.
“Look up,” Clark told Sarah. “There’s one left.”
Sarah looked up and a single dollar bill drifted above her head. As the dollar bill floated closer to her, like a feather, it twisted and folded itself. When it landed into Sarah’s hand, the dollar bill was folded into the shape of a heart.
“You’re so sweet,” Sarah smiled.
“I told Donny not to show off… then I thought─ what the hell.”
“So you caused anarchy in the lunch room and sent tons of money flying through the air just to impress me?” Sarah laughed.
“Yeah, there’s nothing else to it,” Clark winked.
They sat together and ate lunch when Clark mentioned that Andrew had not shown up for class. Then he mentioned that he had not seen Big Dan all day either.
“Big Dan usually stops by to say hi during lunch,” Sarah said.
“Yeah, I know. And both he and Andrew are missing today. I feel like something’s up.”
“Are your spider senses tingling?” Sarah laughed.
When they finished eating, Sarah suggested they leave the lunch room. Without questioning why, Clark jumped out of his seat and together they headed for the back of the school. They went outside and alone together.
“The lunch room’s just so noisy,” Sarah said. “I can’t concentrate.”
“Yeah,” Clark agreed. “So are you still going for cheer captain?”
Sarah answered his question with a question of her own, “Are you still trying out for the football team?”
“Of course!” Clark exclaimed.
“Think you’ll need any luck?” Sarah asked.
“No, I can do pretty much any…,” Clark paused for a moment before correcting himself. “In fact, yeah, I think I will need a little luck.”
Sarah stood on her toes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him. They continued making out against a school wall until the bell sounded.
“Gotta go!” Clark said.
“Me too!” Sarah nodded.
They entered the same back entrance but quickly parted ways down different hallways. Clark headed to the gym for P.E. and saw Charles along the way.
“Yo, what’s up, bro?” Charles said as they walked into the gym locker-room. “Big day, huh?”
“Just saw Sarah,” Clark said as he pulled his shoes off. “She wished me luck so I think I’m ready.”
“Ha!” Charles joked as he pulled his shirt over his head, “Don’t forget to gimme the details.”
They continued changing into their gym outfits and Charles was showing Clark his newest diamond watch when they both noticed John entering the gym.
“You heard about what happened?” Clark asked Charles.
“Yeah,” Charles said. “Pretty crappy. I know he’s not feeling well so I’m trying to cheer him up. I don’t want my buddy being around a dad like that so I told him he could spend a little more time at my place.”
“What’d he say?” Clark asked.
“He seemed a little reluctant but I swayed him,” Charles said. “He’s gonna spend the rest of the week at my place. Hell, next two weeks if he likes.”
“We can always count on you, man,” Clark said.
John approached them and gave a weak wave before opening his gym locker. He kicked off his shoes and changed into his outfit. After John stuffed his normal clothes into the locker he was bum rushed by TJ the bully. TJ rammed his shoulder into John and knocked him against the locker.
Clark and Charles were terrified of how John might retaliate when they noticed his clenched fists and burrowed brows. John squinted his eyes as TJ laughed at him.
“Look!” Clark whispered to Charles and nudged him. They both looked down at TJ’s feet and watched his shoestrings tie themselves together in a knot. Then the bully’s shorts fell to his ankles. He attempted to take a step and fell over with a thud. The entire boy’s locker-room roared with laughter.
The bully was embarrassed as he quickly pulled his shorts up and tried his hardest to undo the knot that tied both of his shoes together. When he finally succeeded the laughter continued and he bailed out of the locker-room.
“Asshole,” John said under his breath.
“Dude─ that was awesome!” Charles said as he high fived John.
If that wasn’t enough to get back at the kids who taunted him, John’s actions progressed when they all went outside to play kickball. Clark and Charles both played at a normal pace without the use of any superpowers but John used telekinesis to boost his performance on the field. He angrily kicked the ball and the moment his foot connected to it, he used his powers to make the ball fly out of the school zone.
“Jesus, kid! That was some kick!” Coach Smith said to John. “Heck son, we could use a punter on our football team. Try outs are after school today.”
“No thanks,” John said as monotonous as possible.
“I’m going to try out!” Clark yelled to the coach. “I’ll be on the field after school.”
“Then you better impress me, O’Sullivan. I want a kicker like John here.”
After P.E. was done with, Clark had to anxiously sit through one more class before the school day was officially over. When the final bell rang he swept up his backpack and headed directly to the football field. He called his dad and asked to be picked up when tryouts were over. While outside, Clark saw John get into Charles’s car. He was happy to know that John had a friend to look out for him. Clark waved as they left the campus of Franklin Pierce High.
Clark was excited in a way he had never been before. When several other students piled onto the field for tryouts the coach had them place on white helmets and other tryout gear. When the coach asked who wanted to go first, Clark didn’t raise his hand. He waited and allowed the anticipation to build. He knew if he followed after several other students, his performance on the field would seem even more extraordinary.
Finally it was Clark’s turn. With adrenalin rushing through his veins, he ran across the field and punted the football directly into the goal at a record speed. The coach was wowed and asked to see it again. Clark followed it up with the same maneuver. The coach clapped and asked Clark what else he was good at.
“In football? I can do it all,” Clark said.
“Where the heck does that come from, O’Sullivan?” Coach Smith asked.
“A lot of practice,” Clark answered.
The coach decided to put him to the test. The helmets came off and the coach lined each of the boys up for a running test. Fastest kid from one side of the field to the other was the winner. Clark cleared his mind and sped off at the whistle. He concentrated on his feet and propelled himself forward. For a split second he had to slow down in order appear normal. He beat all of the other boys by several seconds.
“You’ve got talent, kid!” Coach Smith slapped him on the back. “I really didn’t know you had it in you, Clark. Welcome to the team. As for the rest of you─ you can return tomorrow for the second set of tryouts.”
Clark raised his hands in victory.
“I’ll see you in a few days, son,” Coach Smith told him. “Practice begins pronto and we got a gold trophy to win this season!”
“I did it!” Clark yelled when his father arrived in the school’s parking lot.
“Get on it and tell me all about it!” his dad smiled.
Clark hopped into his father’s truck and on the way home he wouldn’t cease his joy of making the team.
“I did it! Dad, you won’t believe how amazing I was. Everyone else has to go back for a second set of tryouts. Me? Immediately put on the team.”
“Wow, you must’ve been pretty damn good,” his dad said.
“I was!” Clark gushed. �
�I was so freakin’ amazing on that field.”
“You know, it runs in the family,” his dad said. “I was on the football team back in high school and college. Good times. Almost too long ago to even remember.”
“What position did you play?”
“Defensive linebacker… I think,” his dad chuckled while reminiscing. “You’re going places, Clark.”
“You think so, dad?”
“Hell, I know so! I’ve been saying since you were born that you were destined for great things. Why do you think I named you Clark?”
“I thought I was named after Mom’s great uncle from Kentucky.”
“Yeah, his name was Clark too but I didn’t give two hoots about him. I named you after my favorite superhero.”
“Does that make you Jor-El?” Clark joked.
“No, son, I’m just a humble Pa Kent.”
Clark’s excitement extended to his mother who jumped with joy at the news when they got home. She told Clark she knew the day would come when he would not only make the team but completely own it. During dinner she told him his hard work had finally paid off and Clark ate up her every word. He didn’t think twice about gaining psychokinetic powers that allowed him to be faster and stronger than others, he merely reveled in his success.
Clark called all of his friends to tell them about the big accomplishment but he saved the call to his girlfriend for last. When Sarah suggested that he use those same powers to make it to a college football team upon graduation, Clark said he hadn’t thought that far ahead. He was a junior but still wasn’t quite ready to leave high school life behind. He was determined to enjoy every lasting moment of it. Clark assured Sarah that he would attend the cheerleading tryouts to lend his support.
“I’ll bring a sign and cheer from the balcony,” Clark laughed.
“Awesome,” Sarah said through the phone. “I’m just so excited for you─ and for me.”
“I know,” Clark said. “It’s hard to express in words. This is all just so life-changing.”
“I believe the crystal chose us for a reason,” Sarah explained. “It had to. Something this incredible doesn’t just happen by chance.”
“I feel the same way,” Clark told her. “I… I mean we… we’re destined for great things.”
“But enough about the future,” Sarah said. “Let’s focus on the present. I’ll be at your place tomorrow morning to celebrate you getting on the team.”
As he usually did when he was excited or anxious, he spent all night speaking to Sarah over the phone. After midnight they were incoherently rambling “I love you more” over and over and were hardly listening to a word each other was saying.
On Wednesday, the next morning, Clark woke up feeling as excited as ever despite only getting five and a half hours of sleep. He sat up, looked at the curtains nearest him, and they zipped open. After he sprang out of bed he faced the bathroom and placed his first two fingers up to his temple. It was a “Professor X sort of notion” that helped him to focus his concentration. Seconds later the shower shot on.
When Clark jumped in the shower, he used it as a chance to perform multiple tasks at once, thus reducing the time it would take him to get ready for class. While he was in the shower a bath sponge was levitating in the air and scrubbing his back. A bottle of shampoo was suspended above his head. Clark twirled his finger and the shampoo bottle opened up and poured just the right amount onto his head. Finally he used his hands to physically lather his hair.
Then he raised his hands while in the shower. A tooth brush zipped into one of his hands and a tube of tooth paste flew into the other hand. He stood under the shower nozzle and brushed his teeth the old fashioned way. When he was done in the shower he looked at the water and it cut off. Then he stepped out of the shower and summoned three towels to simultaneously dry him. One wrapped around his head while the other two patted his body dry. He felt like a pharaoh being pampered by loyal servants.
Clark returned to his bedroom when he realized that there were clothes lying on every inch of his floor. One tap to his temple later and every article of clothing went whizzing through the air and into various drawers.
Clark got dressed in his jeans and t-shirt and used the novelty trick of “mental shoestring knots” that he learned from John. Due to the dexterity of looping the strings, tying shoestrings by mind took extra concentration.
Just as Clark got dressed, he heard a knock at the door. He heard his mother greet Sarah who was now walking up the stairs to his room. Clark looked at his watch and realized that he had not only forgotten about Sarah coming over for the morning but he had gotten ready so quickly that there remained an additional half hour until the school bus arrived.
“Perfect,” he said just as Sarah walked into his room.
“What’s perfect?” Sarah asked.
“Me getting ready so quickly,” Clark said. He took one look at his bedroom door and it both shut and locked itself.
“I brought my textbooks,” Sarah said as she dropped her backpack on the floor. “But I thought you’d rather celebrate making the football team mister wide receiver or linebacker─ or I know… MVP starting quarterback!”
“I’ll take what I can get. So how are we going to celebrate? How about a party?” Clark asked.
“Let’s see what we can do in half an hour,” Sarah told him. “How about you take your shirt off?”
“Oh come on,” Clark half joked. “I just got dressed. All that effort with my powers and all. You should have showed up five minutes earlier.”
Sarah laughed and drew close enough to Clark to kiss him. She started to unbutton his shirt when Clark stopped her.
“No, no, no,” he said. “We’re much more creative than that.”
“What do you mean?” Sarah asked.
“I mean let’s make it a game. We’ve got to get each other naked without using our hands.”
Sarah thought for a moment and said, “I’m on. But it’s your idea so you go first.”
They each stepped back. Clark extended his arm and reached all of his fingers out toward Sarah. He concentrated and slowly her shirt began to unbutton itself, one button after the other. Then it slipped off of her and fell to the floor. He laughed, “Perfect! Your turn.”
“Oh, come on,” Sarah said. “That’s not fair. You don’t have any buttons. You’re wearing a t-shirt.”
“I don’t know,” Clark shrugged. “I guess you’ve got to be creative then.”
Sarah thought for a minute and told Clark to simply raise his hands. He did so and she pointed her arm out. She lifted her palm toward the ceiling and Clark’s shirt lifted off of him. The neck of his shirt got stuck around his head and took a big tug to finally remove.
“Your turn,” Sarah said once they were both shirtless.
“You’re wearing a skirt, that’ll be easy,” Clark said. He pointed at her skirt and it flew off into the air, revealing her underwear.
“Ah!” she gasped and laughed simultaneously. “My turn. And again, it’s not fair ‘cause you’re wearing pants.”
“Be creative!” Clark told her.
“How about next time you wear the skirt then!” Sarah laughed. She shoved her hand out and Clark fell to the floor as if a burst of energy had struck him.
“Whoa!” he said dizzily.
Sarah pointed at his shoes and they came flying off. Then she pointed at his pants. They quickly unzipped and Sarah made a motion to pull them off. Clark’s pants went flying off of him. Sarah pointed out that she had to be far more creative than him. When they were down to their underwear, Clark decided to change the rules.
“Okay, now underwear can only come off while our eyes are closed.”
They each used one hand to cover their eyes and used their other hand to direct their powers. Clothing and other items went flying everywhere before they were eventually successful. Nearly half an hour passed from the time they began the game to the time Clark laid Sarah on his bed as they made love.
Minutes later, Clark’s mother could be heard yelling from downstairs.
“What are you two doing up there!?” his mother shouted.
“Studying!” Clark yelled from behind his locked door.
“I’m looking out the window,” his mother continued shouting, “And I just saw the school bus enter the neighborhood!”
“Shit!” Clark whispered to Sarah. He bounced off of her and quickly grabbed his pants. The two of them got dressed as speedily as they could.
“Hurry up!” Sarah told Clark as he laced up his shoes.
“I am, I am!” Clark snapped.
“Well we’re going to be late!”
Once they were dressed they grabbed their backpacks and sped down the stairs. Clark waved to his mom and ran out of his house with Sarah. As they got to the street corner they saw the yellow school bus driving off. Clark waved his hands in the air and Sarah yelled but the bus continued off without them.
“Dammit!” Clark said angrily.
“How do we get to class?” Sarah asked.
“I don’t know.”
“We could just skip today.”
“No way, Clark. Today is cheerleading tryouts and I’ve got a captain spot to take.”
“Sorry, Sarah. Almost forgot.”
“Want to call Charles?” Sarah asked.
“No, we don’t need a ride,” Clark said. “Yesterday during football tryouts, I found out I could run at a pretty tremendous speed.”
“So you’ve got the powers of super speed too?” Sarah asked as she folded her arms.
“No,” Clark said. “It’s not an extra power. It’s just about how we use our telekinesis. I propelled myself forward.”
“So you’re suggesting we run to school?” Sarah scoffed.
“No, Sarah. You’re not seeing the big picture! If we can propel ourselves forward─ then we can propel ourselves up.”
“Are you saying we can fly?” she asked.
Ascension (The Ascension Series) Page 9
