H
ave you ever wondered what it would be like to pack up your whole life? The memories of your childhood, first crushes, best friends and backstabbers put into multiple boxes on a moving truck and away you go?
A fresh start, my mom says. A clean slate. Nobody knows who you are, merely just another mystery for them to solve.
The window fogged up from the condensation of my breath as I leaned my forehead against the cool glass, watching my brother, Axel, load the last few boxes onto the U-Haul. I shivered as the door to my left opened, allowing the frosty winter air to surround me.
"It won't be as bad as you think." Mom said, scrunching her dirty-blonde hair up into a perfect messy bun; I was always jealous of her in the way her hair always looks good no matter what she did. I ignored her and traced the goosebumps that formed on my pale arms instead. I had a feeling that in my current mood, anything said would most likely be regretted.
"Did you know Westlake has the best superheroes in the country?" She inquired, buckling her seat belting.
"Superheroes are overrated." I rolled my eyes, impatiently running the zipper from my sweater up and down.
"Ashlyn, this move will be good for us." she placed her frail hand on mine, stopping the zipping, and rested it there for a few seconds.
"I just wish it wasn't in the middle of January." I yawned. The drowsiness of sleep has been in the back of my mind all night but only now was it surfacing. Mom suggested we leave at two in the morning; that it would be good for the twelve hour drive. I pulled an all nighter in hopes of sleeping for at least half of it.
The cold wind enveloped me once more as Axel climbed into the car, grunting when he hit his head on the doorframe. I was too tired to laugh.
"Ready to go." He rubbed his head and gazed outside, taking in the view of our childhood house; for once he actually looked sad. Axel Calloway isn't one to ever be sad, his blonde hair, perfect smile and great body (or so most say), made him one of the most popular guys in school.
When the car sputtered to life, I placed my winter hat over my sleepy hazel eyes. It didn't take long before I sunk into a dreamless sleep.
*
"Ashlyn," Mom sang, "It's time to eat sweetheart." I managed to open one eye, I could feel my stomach was on the verge of growling. My eyes fell to the dashboard of the car as it clearly displayed the hour.
11:48
Nine hours. I nodded approvingly.
"Where are we?" I asked, my voice hoarse from sleep. My body was stiff as I sat up.
"Stonerock." She answered, running strands of my chestnut brown hair between her fingers.
"What restaurant?" I laughed, rephrasing my question.
She lifted her head out of the car to check, "Pax Pizza."
"Alliteration," I mused, "must be good."
"Yes, well, your brother is inside already. Come in when your done getting dressed." She gestured towards my pyjamas before exiting, closing the door behind her.
Because I'm paranoid anybody walking past the car will peek in and see me half naked, I threw on grey sweatpants over my pyjama pants and a bulky, burgundy sweater over my t-shirt before heading into Pax Pizza. I didn't bother putting my jacket on because I was only going to be outside for a few seconds and it was lost in the midst of our packed mini-van.
*
Pax shouldn't be disappointed. I ordered a hamburger, because they sell them here, with a side of onion rings and its good. Not as good as Burger Billionaire, another Alliteration using restaurant, but still good.
"How big is our house?" Axel questioned, licking the grease off of each of his fingers.
Mom sighed, threw her napkin on the plate and leaned over the table, clasping her hands together.
"I was meaning to this earlier but it completely slipped my mind," she chuckled; Axel and I shared a look, "do you remember Lance?" She asked.
"Isn't he Aldens' roommate who came to thanksgiving last year?" Axel inquired. Alden is the oldest Calloway child out of us three at twenty, followed by Axel who is eighteen. I have the pleasure of being the youngest at seventeen. Alden moved to Westlake for university last summer, mom's always wanted to be closer to him, not one of us likes a twelve hour drive, so when she got offered a job there, she took it immediately.
"He's so nice," I added, taking another bite of my burger. I wiped of the bit that fell on my chin.
"Yes, that's him," She covered her mouth so we wouldn't see her mastication process, "he moved out, so-"
"-Wait!" Axel hollered, making me jump and scowling eyes from fellow diners to turn to our table, "you don't mean-"
"-were moving in with Alden, yes." Mom interrupted him. You could see the excitement on Axels face as he did an embarrassing dance in his chair, I laughed, dancing is not one of his best qualities.
"Axel!" Mom scolded, "people are watching!"
"They were watching the whole time." I added, dramatically looking around the room, glaring at the individuals who dared stare at us.
"Ashlyn." Mom sighed in defeat.
"What? Starring is rude." I said; Axel nodded in agreement.
When the check was delivered to our table, Mom gratefully paid it, leaving a generous tip. Being chief of police didn't give Mom much cash to fend for us kids, but when our dad left us, he also left all of his money, which was a lot to say the least. I'm not certain what he did for a living, Mom never talks about him.
Mom went to deliver the check to the front desk, and Axel was flirting with a group of girls sitting at the table beside ours, they were twirling there hair and giggling at whatever he said.
Disgusted, I headed outside. As soon as I looked up, I saw a boy, no older than seven, about to chase a squirrel across the road; only he didn't see the eighteen-wheeler about to pummel him.
I'm not a superhero. I have an ability, yes, but that doesn't mean I should dress up in multicoloured spandex and go out to play hero. I will, however, be a normal teenage girl trying to save an innocent boy from his demise.
"HEY!" I yelled, waving my arms in the air, frantically trying to get his attention, it was no use. He didn't hear me; his eyes were glued to the squirrel.
I started running as fast as I could, almost slipping on the ice surface covering the pavement. The semi was coming strong, showing no signs of seeing the boy in its midst.
I could taste the iron in my mouth, my chest heaved up and down and sweat coated my forehead no matter how cold it was outside.
I was extremely out of shape.
The parking lot isn't very big, but, running isn't my superpower. I knew I couldn't make it on time, but that only made me push harder. My feet hit the cement of the road, I reached an arm out to the boy who only now noticed the semi that was inches from out faces.
I wrapped my arms around him, my back faced the truck. My legs felt like jelly and I knew I wouldn't have enough time to get, much less push, him out of the way.
My body prickled up to the point I was vibrating, my molecules moving faster and faster with each passing second.
It was as if the world fell into slow motion as I tried to, somehow, push the feeling onto the traumatized boy. I looked up, watching with startled eyes as the transfer truck skidded, swerving, trying to dodge us but failing miserably.
I held my breath as the truck passed. I couldn't begin to imagine how the poor boy felt, probably somewhere near wetting himself, if he wasn't already dead. We were surrounded by darkness for mere seconds before the truck came screeched to a halt in front of us.
I let out a sigh of relief when I found out the boy was still alive. I swiftly moved to the side of the road before it became too obvious to any onlookers, what I had done.
I just phased through a moving truck.
I can't hold a steady breath, I'm shaking, my stomach hurts and a mix of emotions are running through my mind.
I didn't know I could do it. Sure I knew I could phase through the thin walls of my house but I didn't think I could through a moving truck, much less with another person!
When I finally steadied my breath, I realized I was still hugging the poor kid against my body, suffocating him. I held him by his shoulders and pulled him away, looking into his grey eyes to see if he was in any pain.
I regretted that decision immediately.
The boys' face was ghost pale and his eyes were open wide, shaking back and forth and he was hyperventilating, or so I thought. With a quick jerk forward, he spilled the contents of his stomach all over my sweater, then he ran, tears and snot smeared across his face, off in another direction.
"ASHLYN!" I look up from my sweater to see Axel sprinting straight towards me, almost moving as fast as the semi.
"Your so stupid," He sniffled, engulfing me in a tight hug. I cringed at the thought of the vomit he unknowingly smeared over his jacket, "we thought the truck hit you."
"Axel." I mumbled into his chest.
"Yeah?" He rested his chin on my head, but before I could inform him about the vomit we now shared, I was interrupted when Mom appeared beside us, tears pooling in the corner of her eyes.
"Ashlyn Estelle Calloway I don't EVER want to see you pull a stunt like that EVER again do you understand me?" Mom yelled as she engulfed me into a tight hug.
"Yeah," I hugged her back, "neither do I."
"How did you do it? I could almost swear the truck hit you dead on." I pulled out of the Calloway sandwich to see a small number of people surrounding us.
"Luck?" It came out more like a question then an answer. I shifted uncomfortably under the weight of the stares.
"I tried to stop." The man who must have been the truck driver stated, taking off his hat, "It was like he came out of nowhere." I nodded, still a tad confused, Icould have sworn the boy was in the open. Curious, I looked around to see he had disappeared completely.
"Give her some space!" Axel demanded with an arm draped protectively around me. Reluctantly, people scattered to wherever they were in before the truck incident, still looking over they're shoulder, still amazed as to what just happened.
"Come on Ashlyn, let's get you cleaned up." Mom placed an arm around me, walking me to the car to grab some new clothes.
"Shit!" Axel cursed once he noticed the vomit on his jacket; I laughed hysterically as he struggled with getting the zipper undone when there were nasty chunks in the way.
I couldn't wipe the silly grin off of my face.
I saved someone's life today.
*
The morning sun penetrating the curtainless windows stung my eyes as I woke up from the pounding 7:00 alarm clock. I felt just as bone-tired as I was when we got here yesterday.
I groaned immediately once a certain thought came to mind.
I have to go to school today.
We arrived three hours after our lunch at Pax Pixza. After unpacking the car, we took a tour of the new school, the principle showed us where we'd take our classes except, due to our fatigue, he left out the school rules, sports and volunteering we can do for extra credit, we're supposed to visit his office this morning for the information. Alden was no where to be seen when we came home, claiming he had work; he said he'd be back late and we couldn't get to see him, so we picked out our rooms and collapsed onto bed.
I trudged to the kitchen, scratching my arm and stifling out a yawn. After scanning the conte to of the cupboards, I began pouring myself a bowl of cinnamon-munchies.
"Morning." Alden sang, appearing out of nowhere.
"ALDEN!" I screamed, the spoon dropped out of my mouth and landed with a loud clank on the marble counter. Who cares if everyone was sleeping? They had to wake up anyways.
"Ashes!" He waved his arms around. Even if it was just a few weeks since we last seen each other on New Years, I missed him a great deal.
"I heard about your heroic stunt." He said with raised eyebrows after we hugged; He stopped in front of the fridge, inspecting his options.
"Mom?" I asked, he nodded, deciding on milk.
"Ashlyn -not to offend you or anything- but you should leave the life saving to people with superpowers, you know, who don't actually have a huge risk at dying?" He said, drinking the milk right out of the carton, a circular imprint of the white liquid remained on his lips until he wiped it off using the sleeve of his sweater.
"Well sorry." I muttered, "besides there weren't any supers around!" I added, finishing off my sogging cereal.
"There could have been." He was about to say something else when Axel walked in, he groaned and threw his head back. He wore his usual morning attire, boxers; only they weren't normal boxers, no. These were his special zebra boxers.
"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." I smirked.
"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." He mocked using his 'Ashlyn voice' as he claims it to be, scrunching up his face in disgust.
"I don't sound like that!" I squeaked. Axel was about to mock me once again, I couldn't almost hear the words roll of his tongue but before he said anything, he realized Alden was sitting across from me enjoying the show.
"Waldo!" His scowl vanished immediately replaced by a look of pure delight that most girls fell for if they were on the receiving end of it.
Axel has always thought of Alden as a god on earth, for reasons unknown to me. I would much prefer if God didn't pin me down whenever he felt the urge to 'toot' on someone's face. I cringed at the horrifying memories of my childhood.
"Axis" He nodded his head nonchalantly; I rolled my eyes.
I listened intently as my brothers were in a heated debate; between the superheroes Orbit and Redux, who is better. Axel stated that Redux with his super strength and healing powers, won by a landslide while Alden stayed strong on Orbits' side who can, shocker, manipulate gravity, he even said that Redux is a sore excuse of a superhero to further his point.
It never ceases to amaze me how much they look alike, although Axel has ocean blue eyes where Aldens' are vibrant green, they have same smile and almost the same build; you'd think they were identical twins if not for Alden having dirty blonde hair, close to brown, while Axel had shaggy, sandy blonde hair; they resembled mom.
Meanwhile I looked anything but related to the two, with my wavy brown locks, big, hazel eyes and a minimal amount of freckles plastered on my nose, I resembled dad, or at least that's what mom always says when I make a face that reminds her of him.
I intervened their conversation, calling them dorks and earning myself two glares, before walking back to my room to get ready for the day.
*
I decided to go with comfy-casual for the first day of our new school. I wore a flowy dark blue shirt, black leggings and a pair of brown ankle boots.
"ASH, WERE GOING TO BE LATE!" Axel shouted, so loud, the neighbours could've heard him.
"Coming!" I sang, pulling my winter coat over my body, swinging my baby blue school bag up my shoulders and shouting goodbye to Mom and Alden before heading out the door with Axel.
"Axel?" I hummed, listening to the crunch of snow beneath my boots.
"Yeah?"
"Does my hair look okay?" I asked.
Axel rolled his eyes, "yes."
"Would you tell me if it was bad?"
He pondered my question for a moment, "Nope." He popped the p.
"Thought so."
*
Once we parked the mom-van, Landchaster High, no matter how small it was compared to Greengate Academy, towered over me like a Great Dane to a baby Chihuahua. My stomach felt worse than when I had the 'flu' (I fell ill before obtaining powers). Axel caught me frozen to the sidewalk.
"Don't worry," he mused, his eyes sparkling, "nobody will notice you in my shadow." he winked, continuing his stroll into school. And I thought he was going to say something nice for once.
No matter how much of a teddy-bear-nerd-loving-ish-brother he was at home, he acted like a complete prick at school.
"Yeah, Golden boy." I scoffed before following him into the dungeon.