A mother's hug is quite smothering, and even more so when you're leaving to go back to college.
I try to take a deep breath, but I'm restricted. "Mom, it's okay, I'm coming back next week for Thanksgiving, remember?"
She pretends to wipe her eyes with the sleeve of her t-shirt and fakes a sniffle, "Oh, how will I ever make it that long?" I chuckle at her dramatic antics, even though on the inside I'm dreading this Thanksgiving. Not only do I have to worry about dad reading my mind across the table, but now Karsyn has reminded me that last Thanksgiving I was happily dating someone I thought of as my everything. Now Maggie is just a memory. I can't exactly explain that to anyone in my family, since I never told anyone what really happened. So it seems I'll have to grin and bear it.
What I am excited for is teasing Grayson about dating Karsyn. They had a special type of bond all throughout high school, but never officially dated. Everyone could see they had chemistry, but they never did anything about it. Since both of them are sticking around our home town for college, they should be dating already. They have no excuses left. It still aggravates me that Grayson won't rip the band aid off and just ask her out for real. 'Business partners', yeah right.
"Drive safe and text me when you get back." Mom pats my shoulder after re-thinking a second hug. I think the zipper on my gray jacket is still indented on my sternum.
Dad pipes up, "And text me when you get this Emily thing figured out. I'm interested."
My face heats up, and I know I must look like a tomato. "Dad! Seriously, she's just my tutor. You need to stop reading my mind!"
Dad smirks as he tucks his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. "I didn't have to read your mind, Beck. You turned red at the mention of her name."
Mom is smiling too, "Oh, look at him, Jonas, he's so cute when he's flustered." She leans in to pinch my cheek, but I swat her hand away.
"Okay I'm leaving now! I'll see you on Thursday!" At that I run out the door, covering my cheeks with my hands. I'm only flustered because I don't know how to explain the current relationship I have with Emily. I don't like her, I'm trying to get her to like me. How do you tell that to your parents without sounding like an awful person?
On the drive over to Karsyn's house, I begin to wonder what Emily might say to me tomorrow in psychology. Will she still be friendly or will she see me as another super that needs tutoring? In the case that we're strictly on business terms now, I don't know how that effects how she views me. Would she care to interrogate me if she has no real connection with me anymore? It seems kind of silly to jump through hoops to make her like me when she seems to still like her ex, Eli. The way she looked at him said it all - Emily is not over him.
When I arrive at Karsyn's house, I immediately get Emily out of my head. I'm picking up my super suit, and I have to stay focused on my upcoming assignment: bringing in Jenga. I can't have any distractions.
"Come on in!" Karsyn hollers out when I ring the door bell. I walk right in, as I've done for years. The only reason I rang the doorbell was for the courtesy of her parents, who don't appear to be home.
"Hey, I'm heading back so I thought I'd stop by and get my suit." I look around to find Karsyn in the kitchen, in her light pink pajama bottoms and matching pink hoodie, pouring a bowl of cereal. It's only 10:30 a.m. so I suppose it's still breakfast time, but I know Karsyn will eat cereal any time of day.
"It's right downstairs. I'm so excited to see my best friend become a super hero!" She sets her bowl down on a side table and rushes to lead me down the steps. Knowing Karsyn, she has to make a grand presentation out of giving me the suit.
A pang of guilt hits me as her words echo in the back of my mind. Super hero. Surely she won't be too upset to see her super suit on the news as a villain's disguise. I'll just have to make sure I do the job discretely, so it won't end up in the media.
Keep telling yourself that, Becky.
With each step, my feet feel heavier. When Karsyn shows me her sketchbook design, I flip out internally, and I'm not sure if it's a good flipping out or if I'm overwhelmed with guilt.
"It's great, right? It has the white lightning bolt across the chest to symbolize how you got your power," I nod my head as she explains each important factor. "I made the top a dark gray color and it fades down to a bright blue, because that's the color of your force field. I was going to give you some built-in black gloves, but then I thought they might affect your force field. I settled on gold lightning bolts around your sleeve cuffs." She closes her book quickly and looks at me with more excitement than a kid in a bouncy house. "Are you ready to see it?"
I try to match her excitement level, "Dude, show it to me already!"
Karsyn claps her hands together and runs over to one of the mannequins in the glass case. She waves her hands in front of it in a jazz-hands motion and I chuckle. But when I see the suit, all laughing stops.
"Karsyn... this is amazing." I breathe out. I'm aware that a drawing is just the idea on paper, but man! This is vibrant, brilliant, stunning even! It's sleek and mysterious but it's also bright and vivid. I never knew such a suit could be created.
"How much do I owe you?" I begin to pull out my wallet, knowing I have enough cash from my paycheck from my grocery store job.
"Oh, don't worry about that, Beck. No cost for my best friend."
And there's the pang of guilt again.
I shake my head with wide eyes, "No, seriously, Karsyn, tell me. This is greater than anything I imagined. You have to let me pay for the materials and your hard work."
Karsyn plops down onto her black spinning desk chair, "You know I'm not going to let you pay a penny for that suit. Now take it and be on your merry way, Becky."
My stomach is officially in knots. Nonetheless, I walk over to her glass case and gulp as I unzip the suit off of the mannequin. Sometimes Karsyn likes the villain, like the Joker and Harley Quinn. I just have to be a colorful and lively villain, right?
"Do you want to hang around a while? Grayson's coming any minute." Karsyn seems to be sketching something in her book so she doesn't have to look at me at the mention of Grasyon.
Meet with my cousin who's the son of two of the city's most powerful heroes? Pass. Sure, Uncle Mason may have been the villain Crossfire way back in the day, but he's a hero now along with Aunt Ash, and they've passed that mentality along to their son. I'd rather not see my cousin right now, I'll just be reminded of the family legacy I'm running away from.
"I'll see him on Thursday for Thanksgiving, and I have some homework so I need to hurry back to my apartment," I begin to walk up the steps and show myself out, when I add, "Tell him I'm sorry I missed him."
"Beckett?" Karsyn's small voice calls up to me from the base of the steps. Before I turn around, I close my eyes and wince. She's onto me and she's about to reprimand me. My cover is blown, I'll never recover.
"Yeah?" I turn around, putting on a puzzled expression.
"You wouldn't mind if I came to your family's Thanksgiving dinner, would you?" I'm taken back at the random question. "Grayson invited me..."
That's when I smirk and give a shake of my head, "Oh that Grayson," I let out a chuckle, "Of course you should come, I'd love to see you there."
Are you sure about that Becky boy?
Karsyn won't stay mad at me for long, if I am caught on the news that is. The worst thing that could happen is she refuses to see me and come to the Thanksgiving dinner. But I'd get her to forgive me by Christmas, because that's just how Karsyn is.
She smiles, a light blush to her cheeks remaining from our talk of her crush, "See you then." I nod, tossing the suit over my shoulder and finally allowing myself to walk out of the house.
With all that's been said, I have a feeling I'm going to be talking to myself a lot on my way home.
***
I make sure my roommates are out of the apartment when I start suiting up. As I plop the suit onto my bed, I lay out everything I'll need for tonight. Karsyn sent me a text saying I should wear tights underneath my suit because it's cold outside, but I refuse to wear tights, so I'll be wearing sweatpants over my suit. My solid black Nike sneakers lay by my beside table.
It's now or never.
I've been listening to the traffic reports for the last two hours. When I got back to the apartment, heavy rain started pouring down, and I could barely see out of my bedroom window. I know there are going to be some fender benders out on the highways and with the ominous thunder and lightning overhead, I think it's safe to bet there will be some power outages tonight.
And Jenga will come to the rescue. That much I can predict.
In the past few hours since I've gotten back, I've done some research on Jenga. She's pretty popular all over America, but we're her main town. According to these fan pages I stumbled upon, (and wish I hadn't) Jenga has been known to dart into alleys after an encounter, unless she's caught by the press.
My phone buzzes and I pick it up off of my bed as I slip on the suit, only to see a notification waiting for me to open it. I'm not proud, but I followed one of the Jenga fan pages and they give updates when she's live on t.v. or when she's been seen diving in and out of alleys. It took me hours to find this resource, but this is the only sure way of finding Jenga before my deadline.
I tap on the headline that reads, "Jenga live on channel WX 2!"
I throw my phone down and sprint to the living room to turn on the t.v. There she is, in all of her bright blue attire. How is Jenga so good at hiding when she's dressed that way?
"We're here with Jenga to get more information on the phenomenon on the Worth street bridge in Corpus Christi. Can you tell us what happened?"
I was prepared to dash away the second I got her location, but now I'm curious to know what the phenomenon is.
Go, Beck, go! She doesn't stay in one place for long!
For once, the evil little dude on my shoulder is right. I'll record this so I can watch it later. Within seconds, I'm rushing out the door and jumping into my car. The Worth street bridge is only 5 minutes from my apartment. Only, with this traffic, it'll probably be more like 10 minutes. I internally groan. If only I had Vortex's teleportation power. Now knowing that my mom was Rapid Glare makes me realize my grandpa is Vortex, the retired sidekick of Titania, who is my grandma. Yeah, yeah, I see the parallels too - my dad was my mom's sidekick as well. Don't get any strange ideas, I work alone.
The rain has let up a bit and as I get closer to the bridge, I see fire trucks whizzing by in the left lane, slowing traffic down even more. I gradually pull out from my lane of traffic to follow the last firetruck I see and hear.
The firetrucks are parked all alongside of the road as far as I can see, and I know this is about to be a catastrophic scene. This is more than a traffic accident. The news station said it was a phenomenon... this can't be good.
Speaking of the news station, I see their van parked at the convenient store parking lot, with the cameramen scattered around all over the place. Once I find a spot to park at the same convenient store, I immediately start looking for Jenga. She may not be interviewing anymore, but with all of the firetrucks and EMTS just now arriving, I feel like her job isn't over quite yet.
When I get out of my car I can hear the news anchors chattering all around me, and mixing that with the sound of sirens is utterly deafening.
"Come on, Jenga." I grit through my teeth in a whisper. She has to be around here somewhere.
All of a sudden I hear footsteps behind me. A familiar voice that I can't seem to place speaks up before I turn around. "Well you're new."
I spin on my heel to face whoever is calling me out. Great, it's another super, not Jenga. I've never seen this super before. The girl in front of me has long, golden blonde hair, which automatically makes the wheels in my head start turning. She's wearing a dark green suit that would blend in perfectly amongst treetops because of the light green vine pattern swirled around her sleeves. Her mask is sparkling gold. I know this girl, I know I do. There's something too familiar about her.
"And you're a creepy tree girl. Glad we can meet officially." I roll my eyes and cross my arms over my chest. Honestly, who is this girl?
"The name's Geo, newbie. Now do we need to waste anymore time or are you ready to get in there and help Jenga?"
Oh. Oh wow, this is my chance! I thought this Geo girl was going to beat me to a pulp before I could get to Jenga, but she thinks I'm here to help! I can go undercover because no one knows who I am. Plus, I'll get Jenga to trust me and it'll be easier to bring her in.
I give Geo an eager nod, "Of course. Lead the way."
A/N
Hey guys! We finally get to see Becky boy in his super suit but... sounds like he's going a bit bonkers, huh? What do you think of this chapter? Let me know!
As promised, here are the 2 entries I got for the super suit contest. Since there were only 2 entries and you both did such a wonderful job, I just decided to follow both of you and give you both shoutouts. Let's give it up for Mystery346 (1) and electricaa (2)!
(1)
(2)
Thank you for your time and effort and artistic abilities! Keep up the awesome work!
Thanks for reading!
Always, Sunny