Amped: A Kid Sensation Companion Novel (3 page)

BOOK: Amped: A Kid Sensation Companion Novel
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Chapter 3

I slept in the next day, not getting out of bed until almost ten o’clock. Even then, it was the phone that woke me, and the only reason I answered was because there was a chance that it might be Esper (who still wasn’t back yet). However, it turned out to be my boyfriend Jim’s mother, Geneva.

“Are you awake, Sleeping Beauty?” she asked after I answered the phone.

“More or less,” I replied, stifling a yawn.

“Well, assuming it’s ‘more,’ how’d you like to grab brunch?”

“Uhm, sure.”

“You don’t have to sound so excited about it,” she said sarcastically.

I laughed. “Sorry. I guess I’m still sleepy.”

“Well, go powder your nose and pull yourself together. I’ll be there to pick you up in an hour.”

*****

Geneva picked me up right on time. (Odd how she’s habitually able to be punctual, but her son – who can teleport and has super speed – somehow manages to be late on a regular basis.) As was typical, she seemed bright and cheery as I climbed into the front seat next to her, at which point she greeted me with a hug.

Geneva was an absolutely gorgeous woman, with a naturally exotic beauty that most females could only hope to achieve through the conscientious application of cosmetics. This was, as I understood, the result of having an alien mother – a fact which was also allegedly responsible for her incredibly youthful, twenty-something appearance.

As to the relationship between me and Geneva, I’d be the first to admit that it was unusual. To an outsider, it probably appeared that I was trying to ingratiate myself with Jim’s mother in hopes of making my relationship with him stronger. In truth, however, Geneva and I simply had a natural affinity for each other that had manifested from the moment we’d met and had since grown into a pretty tight bond. Basically, we enjoyed each other’s company, and – as the child of two superheroes herself – she was one of the few people who could relate to much of what I’d gone through growing up.

Our brunch actually took place at a small café near a newly constructed mall. The place was under new management and had just started going after the brunch crowd, so much of the menu was experimental: fried egg pizza, sweet-potato oatmeal, grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and more. Settling on more traditional fare, I went for a cheese omelet and a cinnamon roll, while Geneva had the French toast and a bowl of fruit.

Afterwards, we went on a quick tour of the new mall. It was supposed to be strictly recon – a quick survey and assessment of the stores on the premises (for future reference) – but ended up turning into a small shopping spree. Most of the stores were having “Grand Opening” sales, so I ended up buying a designer blouse that was deeply discounted. Geneva, on the other hand, ended up with about two full bags of stuff. Oddly enough, however, none of the purchases were for herself.

“My dad hates shopping for clothes,” she explained. “He’ll wear a shirt until it’s threadbare and hanging off him in rags rather than go buy a new one, so a couple of times a year I go shopping for him.”

I nodded in understanding. For most of his life, my boyfriend Jim had lived with his mother and grandfather, and the three of them were particularly close. Hearing Geneva talk about shopping for her father was just a reminder of how devoted they were to each other, and momentarily made me wistful for that kind of familial bond.

I was still reflecting on those sentiments when we left the mall, and so wrapped up in my own thoughts that I didn’t notice until a short time later that we weren’t headed back to my house. Confused, I asked where we were going.

“My house,” she answered. “I figured you wouldn’t mind hanging out with me a little longer as opposed to going home and sitting around by yourself the rest of the day.”

I was about to comment that it was nice gesture on her part, then frowned as a thought occurred to me. I turned to her and asked, “How’d you know I’d be alone?”

Geneva gave me a quick, sideways glance and then turned her eyes back to the road before mumbling, “Hmmm?”

I crossed my arms and leaned back. “A moment ago, you mentioned something about me being home by myself. How’d you know I’d be alone?”

She didn’t answer immediately, and for a second I wondered if perhaps she’d read my mind. Not many people knew it, but Geneva was a powerful telepath in her own right, like her parents. However, since I’d begun dating Jim (who was also telepathic), I had put significantly more effort into bulking up my mental shields – something Esper had been on me about for quite some time. Bottom line, I was proficient enough in defensive measures that I was sure she hadn’t peeked into my brain. (Besides, I instinctively knew that Geneva wasn’t the type to do something like that.)

Having failed to receive a response, I was about to ask my question again when the answer hit me.

“Of course,” I said. “Esper. She asked you to check up on me.” The very idea that Esper felt I needed to be chaperoned like a little kid started making me feel heated.

“That’s not exactly what happened,” Geneva chimed in. “I had already planned to ask you to brunch, and I called her a few days ago to clear it with her. She is your guardian, after all.”

“So how do you go from that to knowing that I’d be home alone today?”

Geneva let out a deep breath. “Esper reached out to me last night, not to ask me to be your babysitter but to let me know that she would be” – she spent a moment searching for the right word – “
indisposed
, so there was no rush to get you back, assuming you don’t have homework or something.”

“No, I’m good,” I said, shaking my head. “As long as the invitation isn’t just because you think I’m sitting at home all sad and lonesome.”

She let out a chuckle. “If anything, the invitation is to keep
me
from sitting at home all sad and lonesome.”

Chapter 4

It was still early afternoon when we reached Geneva’s house, and a light snow had started to fall. Bundled up against the cold, I took one of her shopping bags as we got out of the car so that Geneva wouldn’t have to struggle with both of them while trying to unlock the front door.

Once inside, I was relieved to find the place nice and toasty. (Apparently Jim’s family didn’t believe in turning down the thermostat when they went out, a fact for which I was grateful at the moment.) We were in a tiled foyer, which led into a good-sized family room. Off to one side, I saw a set of French doors, which I knew to be the entrance to Geneva’s office/study. Directly across from the study was a tastefully decorated dining room where I had enjoyed a number of meals.

“Can I take your coat?” Geneva asked as she placed the bag she’d been carrying on the floor.

I nodded and – after setting down the bag I’d brought in – removed the hooded winter jacket I was wearing and handed it to her. As she went to hang up my jacket and her own, I picked up the two shopping bags.

“Where do you want these?” I asked.

“There’s a closet in my office,” she replied over her shoulder. “You can toss them in there for now.”

I strode towards her office, stepped inside, and – a little awkwardly – turned on the lights while still holding the shopping bags. Geneva made her living as a midlist author of superhero romances, and as I looked around the place, I felt her study reflected that. The most dominant feature of the room was a modest desk on which sat a computer monitor and keyboard, various notepads, and assorted pens and pencils. The wall behind the desk consisted of built-in, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, each of which was stuffed with books. There were a couple of guest chairs in front of the desk, and a small, square table in one corner of the room. A wastebasket on the floor was nigh-overflowing with wadded-up sheets of paper – probably rejected story ideas.

A door in one of the side walls presumably constituted the closet I was looking for. I placed the bags I was carrying in one of the guest chairs and headed over to it. However, as I opened the door, I heard Geneva’s voice speak in my brain almost in a panic.


My mind cut off the rest of what she was saying as I noticed what was in the closet. Sitting on top of a couple of old-fashioned steamer trunks was a large cardboard box. In it appeared to be a number of gift-wrapped items. One of the gifts on top had a sticker with a salutation on it. What had immediately grabbed my attention upon seeing the sticker was that the handwritten greeting on it was addressed to me and stated:

Happy Birthday, Electra.

The handwriting was Jim’s – I’d received enough notes from him since we’d started dating to recognize it anywhere.

Frowning, not caring about the impropriety of what I was doing, I picked up the box and turned, kicking the closet door shut with my leg just as Geneva came into the room. Almost ignoring her, I set the box on the edge of the desk and began removing the contents one by one.

There were other gifts in the box, with various salutations on them. Some said “Merry Christmas,” others said “Happy Valentine’s Day,” and so on. Geneva walked over next to me and stood there silently as I went through everything.

“What is all this?” I finally asked. “Did Jim actually get all this? Is he back?”

“No,” Geneva said, in a voice full of melancholy. “He’s not back. These are things he bought before he left.”

I shook my head, confused. “I don’t understand. My birthday is two months away. And Christmas? We exchanged Christmas gifts before we left. Why would he go get more? Why would he do this?”

“Because,” Geneva said, fighting back tears, “he didn’t know when he’d be back.”

“What?”

“He didn’t know when he’d be back,” she repeated, “but he wanted you to know how much he cares for you. So he bought you gifts for all the upcoming occasions.”

A tear ran down from her right eye, and as Geneva silently wiped it away, I realized the heartache she must be feeling. Her mother, an alien princess, had been summoned back to her homeworld when Geneva was just an infant and had never returned. Now her son had been forced to travel to that same distant planet, and she was faced with the prospect that he – like her mother – might never come back. And the fact that Jim had left future gifts for me made me suddenly realize how real (and possibly permanent) his absence truly was.

Feeling tears welling in my eyes, I stepped to Geneva and gave her a strong, heartfelt hug, which she returned in spades.

“It’s okay,” she said, patting my back. “I miss him, too.”

She took a step back, holding me at arm’s length with her hands on my shoulders. Ashamed of how thoughtless I’d been a few moments earlier – solely focused on how Jim’s actions affected
me
– I cast my eyes downward, unable to meet her gaze.

“Don’t worry,” she continued, lifting my chin and showering me with a smile. “This is Jim we’re talking about. He’ll be back.”

“Yeah, but when?” I asked, glancing at the stack of gifts. If they were any indication, Jim himself realized that he could be gone for quite a long time.

“If I know my son, he’ll be walking through that door any second.”

We were both silent for a moment, each of us plainly wishing for her statement to come true.

“Then again,” she went on as her prediction obviously failed to materialize, “that boy has a talent for being tardy.”

Chapter 5

I stayed at Geneva’s house about another two hours after the incident with the gifts. I had noticed as we put everything back in the closet that her normally cheerful outlook had quickly reasserted itself, which, in my opinion, showed her strength of character. Personally, I’d have a tough time keeping a sunny disposition if my only child had been ordered to travel to a distant, alien world without any indication of when or if he’d return. (It was tough enough that it was just my boyfriend who had gone off.) That said, Geneva clearly had faith in her child and was secure in her belief that he’d come back to her.

“Jim can take care of himself,” she’d said at one point. “And he’ll have my mother, who won’t let anything happen to him.”

I’d almost raised an eyebrow at that, but kept my opinion to myself. After she dropped me off at home, however, I couldn’t stop thinking about Geneva’s utter certainty and conviction regarding her family – particularly in regards to a mother that she hadn’t had contact with in decades. It made me wonder what my own mother had been like. Was she beautiful? Was she smart? Had she loved me?

Of course, it wasn’t the first time that I’d had these thoughts. In fact, these were questions that had a tendency to pop up on a regular basis – usually around my birthday, when I’d find myself spending more and more time dwelling on where I came from, who my parents were, and so on.

I’d asked those questions innumerable times over the years (almost from the time I could speak), but none of the Alpha League members had ever given me what could be deemed a satisfactory answer. Their responses, I realized as I got older, were evasive more than anything else. In short, I’d rarely gotten any worthwhile information about the subject from any of my guardians. Well, that was going to change
now
.

*****

Esper came home some time after midnight. I was asleep when she came in, but woke up to the sound of a clattering from the kitchen. Reaching out, I could sense that it was her from her bioelectric field. (I could not only sense when people were around that way, but also identify them.) I scrambled out of bed and went downstairs. I walked into the kitchen just as Esper was placing a bowl of leftover lasagna in the microwave. She looked tired; whatever the mission was she’d been on, it had clearly drained her.

“Sorry, if I woke you,” she said as she set the timer for one minute. “I was looking for a quick snack and dropped a bowl. Luckily, it didn’t break.”

“That’s okay,” I said. “I wanted to talk to you anyway.”

Esper raised an eyebrow. “Oh? What about?”

“I wanted to ask again about how the League found me. What you know about my background.”

A distasteful look took root on Esper’s face as she glanced towards the calendar that hung on the refrigerator. I knew what she was thinking:
Is it that time of year again? Her birthday?

Satisfied that she hadn’t lost track of time, she turned back to me. “Why are you asking this?”

“The same reason I always ask – because I want to know.”

Esper made a sound of exasperation. “And it’s the same answer as always: the League found you under some rubble, in an area where a group of supervillains had set off some weird new weapon. They used it to kill a bunch of people – including, presumably, your parents – before we were able to stop them. You were lucky to survive, and the League took you in.”

“But why me?”

Esper frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Well, the Alpha League has saved thousands of orphans of all ages over the years. Why did you guys decide to adopt
me
when you’d never done anything like that before?”

Esper simply stared at me for a moment. This was roughly the point where the conversation would typically get shut down, and she did not disappoint.

“Why is this so important to you? Isn’t it enough that you have a home and people who love and care about you? Millions of kids would kill for that.”

“Yeah, and most of those kids probably have some idea of who they are…where they came from. I don’t even know when my real birthday is! I just have some random date picked based on how old you guys think I was when you found me!”

“This isn’t stuff you need to worry about right now. Plus, your records were sealed when the League became your guardians. You’ll be able to get access to that stuff when you reach the age of majority.”

“Ugh!” I howled in frustration. “You talk like there’s some giant ‘On/Off’ switch on my back that you’ll just be able to flip when I’m eighteen and suddenly I’ll be mature and able to handle things. Well, I’m sorry to tell you, it doesn’t work that way. Plus, what is there to unseal? Nobody knows anything about me anyway.”

Esper took a moment to massage her temples. “You asked why you – why’d we take you in. Fine, I’ll tell you.” She looked up at me. “Basically, the League needed some good PR. We’d just lost a promising young super, Vir, a number of high-profile missions had gone sideways, and the public was starting to sour on capes.”

“So I was just a public relations move.”

“Also, we needed something to keep us grounded, to remind us of what we were putting it all on the line for every day.”

I pondered this for a second. Although it really didn’t tell me much, this was more direct information than I’d ever gotten before.

“Well,” I said, deciding to push the envelope, “what about –”

“No, that’s it,” Esper said, cutting me off with a wave of her hand. “That’s enough.”

From experience, I knew that this was the end of the discussion, but decided that – this time – it wouldn’t be the end of my efforts to find out more about who I was. If I couldn’t get Esper to simply tell me, I’d just find out on my own. With that in mind, I gave her a curt “Goodnight” and went to bed.

BOOK: Amped: A Kid Sensation Companion Novel
6.18Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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