The Super 4 : Dark Death (12 page)

I walked home, pondering over my mysterious
savior, who, apparently, could fly!

It was a mystery straight from Nancy
Drew!

Darryl

XVI

I was in my room reading a book, when Sanjit
walked in.

“Hey Darryl!” He said. “What are you
doing?”

“Nothing.” I said.

“It doesn’t look like nothing to me!” He
responded, annoyingly.

“Well,” I told
him, “If you’re as smart as they say, you would probably know that
I’m
reading
!”

“Which book?” He asked.

I raised the cover to show him.

He frowned at the words. “Well, there’s an ‘I’
and umm...I think that’s an ‘s’. And...um...a ‘j’. And
a-”

“You can’t read!” I exclaimed,
shocked.

He shook his head.

“But...you’re so smart!”

‘I know, but I never learnt to read!” He spoke
with his eyes shining. “You see, I just memorize stuff. Besides,
I’m dyslexic!” He looked like he was on the verge of
tears.

“So how are you in eighth grade?” I asked,
still dealing with the shock.

“I’m a special needs kid.” He said sadly. “I
don’t go to a fancy school like yours, I just...go to public
school. The teachers don’t bother trying to teach me how to read,
they just ask me questions and make me perform my essay
aloud.”

“But...that’s terrible!”

“I know!”

“Hey! If you want I can teach you how to
read!”

“Really?” He asked, surprised. “You would do
that for me?”

“Of course!” I replied. “We’re best
friends!”

“Thanks Darryl! I owe you big
time!”

“It’s fine.”

“So when do we begin?”

“Right now!”

I spent the next few days trying to teach
Sanjit to read. We studied from five am to seven am, and at night
we studied from seven to ten pm.

Despite being a genius, Sanjit found it really
hard to learn.

“That’s an ‘m’...no an ‘n’!” He said,
struggling over the word ‘wanted’. He said something in
Hindi.

He always forgot that I didn’t know Hindi. I
caught the words ‘oh man!’ But after that I was lost.

“What did you say?”

He looks up, as if he forgot I was
there.

“Huh? Oh, I said, ‘Oh man! This is so hard!’ ”
He said, talking in a bored tone- he was very focused on the
‘troubling’ word in front of him.

“You’ll get there!” I said, as reassuring as
possible.

“No I won’t!” He screams, standing up. “I can
read Hindi and speak it, I’m fluent at Spanish! But I can’t read
simple English? I’ll never be able to read! Or get into
Yale!”

He kicks the bedpost, in an attempt to feel
better. Judging by the contorted look on his face, I guessed that
it didn’t help in the least.

“You’ll get there eventually!” I said. “You’re
too old! The older you are the harder it is to read a new language.
Or even understand it!”

“You’re right.” He said, as if it just
occurred to him. “I’m sorry for losing my temper Darryl. Please
forgive me!”

“It’s fine.” I smiled. “Now let’s
continue!”

I arrived at the tree house as the sun was
setting, turning everything to a brilliant gold. I usually loved
these rare moments.

But I couldn’t focus.

So much had happened in the past two weeks,
that it gave me a headache.

Mum had been arrested, I went to a social
home, my best friend gave knocked me out, and now I’m teaching my
best friend to read.

I doubt that happens to normal
nearly-fourteen-years-old people.

I stretched my body to about sixteen feet, and
climbed over the wall.

Once inside, I returned to my normal height of
five foot, three inches. Before I got my powers, I was five foot,
but since then I had mysteriously grown three inches. Most people
tagged it off as a growth spurt, but I knew that that was a little
far from the truth.

Smiling, I made my way to the latest edition.
The tree of powers. At least that’s what I’m calling it. It seems
cool.

I sat down under the tree, closed my eyes and
prayed.

I prayed for wisdom.

I was feeling so conflicted!

Ms. Kidd said I could visit Mum in prison, but
I didn’t have the courage to face her. She was always a tyrant, but
now she was in jail.

She would be Godzilla’s bad side.

Also, I left the hospital last week, on the
day of Harrison and Carly’s little exhibition, but I still got
painful headaches every now and then.

I wasn’t sure whether to go to the nurse or
not. I saw the nurse picking her nose and...eating it!

I was certain that the levels of hygiene in
doing so, were very, very low.

Also, I prayed that Sanjit would be able to
grip the english language reading skills, and be able to go to Yale
like he’s always wanted.

I prayed and prayed. I had no idea how long I
was under that tree. But I knew it was long.

The sky was a deep blue by the time I got back
to FTK.

The moon looked like a giant blot of white
paint, on a sheet of navy paper. The sun shone brightly from behind
the moon. It lit up the floor better than any
streetlamp.

It was then that I realized how powerful the
people who control the elements were.

With fire you could both warm someone and
blind them.

With water you could both make life and end
it.

With air you could make an abundance of
oxygen. Or take it away.

With earth you could create a truckload of
precious stones. As well as an army of destruct bots.

I wished I had fire or water like Harrison or
Carly.

They were so powerful!

And infinitely more popular and easier to talk
to.

Especially Carly.

And it wasn’t all because of her enormous
kindness. For most people it was because she was so
beautiful!

But what was wrong with me?

I had golden eyes! Shiny white teeth! I’m
pretty sure I was handsome! So why was I so
unapproachable?

Could it be my brain size?

Could they be jealous?

People were so weird! I preferred machines who
did exactly what you wanted them to.

If you built a human friend, they would do
anything and everything they were programmed to.

Why couldn’t I program humans?

That would make life so much
easier.

But the sad truth was life was
unfair!

I sighed as I opened the door.

I muttered a hello to pink-haired reception
lady, Francesca.

She smiled at me and waved.

I waved back.

I climbed the stairs to my dorm room. An
excited Sanjit was waiting for me as soon as I opened the
door.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“I got it!” He said. “The word was
wanted!”

“Well done!” I congratulated him. “I told you
you’d get it!”

“Thanks Darryl!”

“It’s okay.”

He was like the brother I never
had.

Harrison

XVII

“
Thank you very much!” I said,
bowing. “Now anyways Carls, I didn’t save you last night. I was
exhausted and fell asleep before everyone else. I’m really
sorry!”

“
It’s okay.” She told
me.

I sat down in the living room for longer than
necessary.

My brain was having the workout that it hadn’t
had for longer than I could remember.

Wasn’t I the only flier in town?

Heck, wasn’t I the only flier in North
America?

So who was this mysterious person?

Maybe I was sleepwalking. I thought. But I
quickly dismissed the thought, as even if I had been sleepwalking I
wouldn’t of been able to carry Carly to her room.

Or save her at all.

I walked to Jake’s house in silence, my brain
spinning with possible thoughts.

Could Jake have bounced along on
his force fields?

But then Carly would notice, after
all his force fields are a light blue.

I walked up to Jake’s door without even
looking up.

I was staring at the ground. Something I
usually did when concentrating hard.

Jane opened the door.

“
Hi Harrison.” She said, dryly.
She no longer cared for my visits, as she had when I first became
Jake’s best friend.

“
JAKE!!” She yelled over her
shoulder. With her excitement, gone too had her show of politeness.
“HARRISON IS HERE FOR YOU!!!”

“
COMING!!” He yelled
back.

One of the reasons I liked Jake was his
inability to treat me like royalty.

Suddenly Jake’s head popped into the
doorway.

“
Wow!” Jane said, taken aback from
his sudden appearance. “Where’d you come from?”

“
You know me.” He said smugly.
“Quicker than lightning!”

“
Dude!” I said, laughing. “The
phrase is ‘quick as lightning!’ not quicker than!”

Jane and I- finding the whole scene hilarious-
laughed our heads off.

“
Pff.” He says, fuming. “I knew
that! I was just testing your knowledge!”

“
Right...” She says under her
breath.

“
Remember ‘Bullet’?” He asks,
making a quick glance at me.

I realized the connection a few seconds
later.

“
Harrison?” He said. “You might
want to come down to my room.”

“
Sure…” I said uncertainly as he
led me to his soundproof lair.

He sat me down on his bed, while pacing around
anxiously around the room. No doubt thinking of how to
explain.

“
Jake.” I told him, getting
straight to the point. “Would you kindly explain how Jane managed
to find out about your powers?” I asked, with a great deal of
difficulty. My anger was making it hard to keep my voice at a level
tone.

It was also making me speak fancy
talk.

“
Well,” He began. “It happened
like this..”

And then the whole truth was
revealed.

How the crazy guy practically shoved a gun in
his face: told.

How Jane came down to his room to look for a
hairbrush: spoken.

How Jane had saw him use his powers and was
told everything: That too, unfortunately, was said.

I felt like bashing his head into his
neck.

An uncomfortable image of a headless Jake
filled my mind.

“
Look Harrison I’m really sorry!”
He apologized. “But Jane saw me! And if I hadn’t explained
everything people would probably come and experiment on me!” He
sounded really worried and scared. “Then they would use lie
detectors to find out about you guys!”

I thought carefully about what he
said.

Darryl was usually the thinker, but
unfortunately it was just the two of us.

“
Does Jane know about Darryl,
Carly and I?” I asked him.

“
I might’ve mentioned it,” He said
uncertainly. “But then again what difference would it of made?” he
asked. “She would’ve figured it out eventually!”

I knew he was right.

“
Well...if you’re sure we can
trust her….then I guess it’s alright.” I admitted.

He nodded furtively.

“
I trust her with my life!” He
said over exaggerating again.

That was a good sign that he was over the
whole anxiety thing.

“
Well...I hope you placed your
life in the right hands!” I told him. “Because otherwise we’ll all
end up as lab rats in some dank laboratory in Antarctica or like
some other really secluded place.”

Jake looked confused.

“
Quiz time!” He said. “Define the
definition of ‘secluded’!”

“
It means...” I said, thinking of
a fake definition that would fit into my sentence. “...It means
laboratory!”

“
Correct!” He exclaimed. “And your
winner is….” Like a TV. host he did a drum roll. “...HARRISON
WHITE!!”

I choked back a laugh as Jake looked at me
with a smug look of satisfaction.

He was so dumb.

But then I remembered what I was there
for.