The Mastermind ~ Cliche Chronicles ~ Book One

Chapter One

In Which The Protagonist Bitterly Bemoans Her Misfortune

Jayda was having a bad day.

It all started when she was hit by a meteor on her way to catch the bus. That was then followed by...well, do you really need anything else to make it a bad day?

She'd been maybe halfway down the street when there was a massive pain in the back of her head and she momentarily lost consciousness.

When the world world finally flickered back into view, Jayda had a major headache and was royally pissed.

"Alright, who threw that!" She yelled, jumping to her feet and noticing- with some surprise- that she'd been knocked to the ground. After meticulously dusting off the seat of her jeans, she glanced around, looking for the culprit. There didn't appear to be anyone nearby, but Jayda had no idea how long she'd been out for, so they could have had time to run. However, what she did see was a huge, almost lava-like rock vibrating gently on the pavement. The strange lump of earth had a large crack down one side which was a oozing a rather disgusting-looking pale blue liquid. Jayda wrinkled her nose.

And that was when she realized what had happened: she'd been hit by a meteor.

"How did I survive?" She wondered aloud, rubbing at the lump that was forming on the back of her head. Thinking back to all the superhero movies she'd ever seen, Jayda came to the only logical conclusion there was: She was Superman. Well, woman.

Rubbing her hands together in anticipation, Jayda glanced around for something to test her newfound strength on. The conclusion seemed, to her, to be perfectly logical. Susan from Monsters Vs. Aliens had gained her powers from a meteor. Why not Jayda?

A small sapling in front of her neighbor's house caught her attention. It would make for a good first attempt, she figured, a little like picking up a fifty-foot tall tree on a smaller scale.

Darting over, she took a tight (but not too tight) grip on the trunk. Then, bracing herself, Jayda heaved upwards.

Half a second later found her bent over with her sliced and stinging hands fisted tightly against her stomach. Instead of flying up into the sky with the force of her heave, her hands had scraped painfully up the length of the trunk, tearing dozens of long, minuscule scratches into her palms and fingers.

Refusing to accept defeat, Jayda turned her attention to the cause of the trauma raging in the back of her head. It would serve the stupid thing right to get lost in the forest somewhere.

Walking over to the meteor, she took a firm grip on both sides and...

And almost threw her back out. She hadn’t even known that seventeen year-old girls could throw their backs out. 

Spewing curses, Jayda withdrew her hands, then stared at them. She must have put her hands almost directly over the crack in the meteor. She didn’t know what it had done, but her hands felt strangely cold and tingly.

“Oh, gross.” She wrinkled her nose and started wiping her palms on her jeans. The blue came off easily enough, but something about the light blue on dark blue made her notice something she hadn’t seen earlier: The liquid glowed.

“Oh my God! It’s radioactive!” Jayda panicked and began rubbing her palms furiously on her pants, attempting to remove the radioactive stuff.  She was feeling pretty stupid by this point. What in the world had convinced her she had super powers? It must have been the bump to the head. Yeah. That was it. Glancing at the house next to her, she thanked her lucky stars that her neighbor hadn’t been home.

Roughly ten minutes later, Jayda figured she was able to declare her hands and pants radioactive substance-free. Pulling her blonde hair over one shoulder, she checked her watch. Then cursed. Then checked it again. Then cursed again.