It’s the first day, the day my life will change forever. Or at least, that’s what my parents say. I’ll spend two years away from home, so I’ve got to make sure I’m prepared.

  I give my new uniform a once-over. It’s a dark blue, one-piece outfit, with long sleeves and a collar. I pop up the collar and roll up the sleeves. If I’m going to travel, I might as well look good doing it. Underneath the suit, I’m wearing a white shirt and underwear. I’m not some nudist nutjob, after all.

  On my feet are a pair of standard issue black boots, perfect for climbing mountains and kicking faces, as well as casual walks in a park. I run my hands through my golden blonde hair, making sure it’s all swept back. I wouldn’t want it falling in my face in the middle of a conversation.

  My hair reminds me of middle school when everyone called me Golden Boy because of my hair, eyes, skin, and teeth. That’s the magic of genetics, I suppose.

  This uniform belongs to the school, Acerico Preparatory Academy. It’s named after a famous Spanish hero, who could shoot spikes out of her skin. This school is for those with ‘superhuman abilities, which are applicable in enforcing the law and battling those with ill-intent.’ Basically, it’s a superhero training school. I’ll get more into that later.

  I check my school-issue duffel bag, making sure I have everything I’ll need inside it. Seven spare uniforms? Check. An equivalent amount of underwear? Check (thanks Mom). Necessary toiletries? Check. Filing rasp? Check. Driver’s license, with the name Gild Smithson on it, along with my glorious golden face? Check. An unusual amount of gold?

  Not there.

  That’s not good. How am I supposed to go to a school for heroes and show off my powers, if I don’t have any gold? Gold that I spent years pulling from worn-out appliances, cheap jewelry, and the occasional car part. Granted, it’s way easier to find gold when you have a superpower that is related around it and allows you to manipulate it, but it would still take ages to build up the amount of gold that I had packed.

  Now, the amount of gold would’ve looked suspicious if I was traveling in a normal mass transit bus to the school, but luckily enough the academy has a policy where anyone with unusual needs gets picked up by a super-tech bus. So, I might be saddled with some weirdos, but at least I’ll be able to keep my gold.

  Or I would if it wasn’t missing.

  “Mom, you wouldn’t happen to know where my gold is, would you?” I call out into the hallway, from where I am in my bedroom.

  My mom, a beautiful woman with absolutely no flaws whatsoever, who would verbally abuse me within an inch of my life if I said otherwise, popped her head in my room with a look of pure innocence on her face.

  “No,” she said, you know, like a liar, “But I might have accidentally misplaced it.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  I don’t understand how my mother can be so competent in some areas, and so... not in others. If this hadn’t been a trend for the last sixteen years of my life, I might’ve been mad. As it was, I had gotten used to it. I once thought her forgetfulness was supposed to be some kind of test, but the one time she almost left the house wearing nothing but a towel proved otherwise.

  “Alright, Mom, I’ll go look for it. It shouldn’t be too hard; I just have to find the biggest concentration of gold within a five-mile radius.” A five-mile radius, meaning a diameter of ten miles and a circumference of about thirty-one, which is the approximate distance at which I can actively sense gold.

  No time like the present, I might as well walk around the house now. Leaving my room, passing by my mother whose face had absolutely no shame regarding her forgetfulness, I walk down the hall, passing my mother’s room, the bathroom, and the laundry room, ending up in the kitchen. There’s some gold in the microwave, the oven, the smoke detector above my head, and a lot of minuscule amounts scattered throughout the kitchen, but none of the big cubes of gold that I want to find. I could check in the foyer, but it’d be quicker to use my power actively.

  Actively using my power is equivalent to flexing a muscle and holding that flex, for the duration of my time using it. As I’ve aged and used my powers more, it’s become much easier than when I first got them. I could barely hold it for a couple of seconds back then, which is laughable to the two hours that I can do now. This little application is nothing.

  As I activate my power, I can feel the gold all around me. From the minute amounts in the wires in the walls to the bits of jewelry in our neighbors’ houses, I can feel it all. My mind quickly locks in on the cubes I’m looking for, which have somehow ended up in the refrigerator. Opening the fridge, I see it’s underneath a packet of kale. My mother must’ve had the gold in her hands when she was making dinner last night.

  “I found it; you put it in the fridge again!” I shout to my mother, who retreated into her room when I went into the kitchen.

  I snatch up the four cubes, each one exactly three inches by three inches of compressed gold, which would normally weigh enough to break a normal person’s back. Fortunately enough, with both my gold manipulation and the strength I’ve inherited from my mother, it only feels like I’m holding a small cement block. It sucks that I didn’t get my mother’s full strength, but there’s nothing to be done about it.

  With the gold literally in hand, I can finally be on my way. A quick look at the clock tells me I have five minutes until the bus arrives. I go back to my room and dump the cubes in the bag, thankful that whatever material it’s made of can hold the gold.

  Now that I finally have everything, it is time to say goodbye. With only three minutes left, I knock on my mother’s bedroom door.

  “Mom, I’ve got to go, okay? It’s almost eight.” I stand back, bracing myself for what I know is about to happen. It’s the same thing that happened when I decided I’d go to Acerico Preparatory Academy, as well as last night.

  The door bursts open and my mother rushes out, wrapping me in her arms with tears running down her face.

  “Are you sure you have to go? I mean, two years is a long time not to see your mommy. And then you’ll probably get a career where you’ll be fighting people all day long!” She sobs, looking up at me with tear-filled eyes.

  “I’m sorry mom, but it’s what I want to do since I was little. I’ll be fine, and I’ll call you every month, just like we talked about.”

  “And you’ll tell me everything that happens, right?”

  “Of course, of course. Or as much as they let me tell you.”

  “Okay. If you have any girl trouble, you can tell me about that too. Oh, I’m so happy, but I wish I could go with you. My baby’s going to be a superhero!”

  We hug for a minute more, before I extricate myself from her arms, again promising that I’ll call her, then I run out the door, duffel bag slung over my back.

  A new chapter of my life has begun. Let’s hope it’s a good one.