“Dani!...Dani!”
The fact that someone was yelling my name slowly broke through the haze of music in my earbuds while I walked from my last class of the day. I turned to find the source of the greeting and was met with the sight of my best friend Christina barreling straight toward me. The look on her face usually meant there was a question coming and an answer was expected. She could be tenacious like that.
“Dani! Is it true?” Christina demanded as she almost literally skidded to stop in front of me, causing the other students rushing to and from class to hurriedly dodge around her as we stood in the hallway of the LSA building.
“Is what true, and why are you trying to drill a hole through my face with that glare?” I said with a laugh as she stared at me with her hands on her hips. She was clearly ready for battle for some reason, so I put my earbuds in my pocket to give her my full attention.
“That you're dropping out!” she practically shouted at me as I started to realize she was truly upset. Christina could be very emotional and tended to wear her emotions on her sleeve but that was only with friends and family and rarely in public. The fact she was yelling at me in the hallway was a good indicator of how upset she was at me.
“Ah. Who told you?” I very helpfully stuttered. Which, I realized as it left my mouth, was absolute the wrong way to respond. I watched Christina’s expression move from anger to devastation.
“So it is true,” she whispered as tears started to well up in her blue eyes. “You're planning on leaving and you didn’t even tell me,” she choked out through a sob, and god did I feel like trash at that moment. I’d been putting off telling her about my side job because I could never seem to find the right way to tell her. I had kept waiting for the right moment, but it turns out the universe cares so little for me and my plans.
I felt a surge of guilt from seeing the crestfallen expression on her face which made it even harder to answer. “It’s true that I’m not coming back next year, but that’s not the whole story either. I’m planning to take a gap year and then finishing the rest of my degree. I…have some things to work out.”
“Some…things…to work out? I’m your best friend Dani. What could you possibly have to work out that I wouldn’t know about? What is going on that would cause you to bounce on college and our plans? We had our senior year all planned out! Was all of that a lie? Were you just humoring me?” she nearly shouted at me.
“Christina, it’s not like that. Really, it’s not. I was just waiting for the right time to tell you. Let’s go somewhere we can talk. How about that coffee shop on Fifth? I’ll explain everything, I promise.” I pleaded with her as my emotions started to kick in.
Christina was one of my best friends and the absolute last thing I wanted to do was hurt her. We had met as freshmen when we were assigned as roommates in West Hall, and we hit it off right away. From that point on we did everything together, even making plans to become Resident Advisors our Junior year before my condition made it clear that living with others that closely wasn't a good idea. We stayed close though, even after I moved out and into my own place after our Freshman year. In fact, Christina spent almost as much time at my place as she did in her dorm our sophomore year. Still, she wanted to be an RA so with my encouragement she applied and was accepted. She was adamant that she would get enough experience for the both of us and I could live vicariously through her. She was even assigned to our old dorm, West Hall.
“The right time to tell me? And when exactly was that? After we left for summer break! What, were you planning to just ghost me? I had to freaking hear it from counselor Simmons! My god Dani, I can’t even with this. I thought we would be there for each other, but I guess I was wrong,” she snapped trying to hold back the tears before turning and running down the hall away from me.
I was dumbstruck. I’d seen her that angry before but it was usually at her Mom. I’d never seen it directed toward me and I had to admit, it was pretty intimidating. Not as intimidating as Captain Williams or my instructor but close. Dammit, this was not how I wanted this to go. I knew she’d take it poorly, but it really felt like I’d found a new and exciting way to screw it up. Also, note to self, I owe counselor Simmons a conversation about confidentiality.
“Christina wait!”, I yelled at her back after picking my jaw up off the floor, but it was too late. I could see her blonde hair zip around a corner and she was gone. I knew I’d have to let her cool down before I’d be able to make anything up to her, so I’d just have to hope that her anger ran its course in a couple of days and not weeks or months as I’d seen at times with her mom.
Deciding I no longer wished to be the sideshow spectacle in the hallway I took my pity party outside to the diag. Since I didn’t have anymore classes for the day I found a nice little bench under the shade of an old oak tree and fished my phone out of my pocket. There was the usual message from Mom asking if I would be coming home for dinner, so I tapped out a reply letting her know that I wouldn’t make it but that I’d call her soon. The next message was from my Instructor reminding me of my training session at three. I had been looking forward to it but it had lost some shine after Christina went off on me. Still, I couldn’t miss a chance to annoy my instructor a little so I replied “See you soon,” with a bunch of emojis. My instructor was amazing, but he was always so calm and collected, so much so that it was infuriating. Therefore I took it upon myself to make him laugh whenever possible, and ninety-nine percent of the time I was an abject failure at it, but every now and then, I’d get him to smile or chuckle. It was those rare moments that sustained me. It was like winning the lottery, and one day I swore I would get a full guffaw out of him.
Today was supposed to have been a good day I reflected while enjoying the nice spring breeze that was blowing through campus. I’d finished my last exam for the semester and I was going to have one last tune-up session with my training instructor before taking my final test to get my special government First Responder certification at the weekend. If I passed that, then all the training I’d been doing would get put to practical use. I’d be taking on a new role working for the government and that was the real reason I was taking a gap year. It would mean a chance at being able to help people rather than just doing a job. Don’t get me wrong, I love graphic design and being creative, which is why it’s my degree path, but It’s something I can do any time. I don’t want to miss this chance to do something more meaningful.
I figured stretching my legs might help burn off some of the restless energy I had built up so I left my little slice of shade and started across the diag toward the parking garage on the west side of campus. On my way there I passed students rushing to exams or lazily wandering the campus after finishing exams and realized how much I was going to miss it. As I approached the Student Union I could see the seniors lining up to take pictures in their caps and gowns in front of the Union sign with its immaculate flower beds as a backdrop. I was giving up this experience and all the promise a senior year with friends brought with it, and at that moment of reflection, I could understand why Christina was so mad at me. Sadly as much as the pomp and tradition pulled at my heartstrings, I just knew in my heart that I had to follow my current path through. I just hoped that Christina could understand when I could finally tell her why I’d kept things from her.
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Just as I was about to pass the Union I noticed a blur out of the corner of my eye. A student dressed in his cap and gown sporting what looked to be a pair of spiffy Nike Air Max ninety-fives in Comet Red was blurring around a very pretty young lady dressed in a lovely white swing dress by the Union fountain. Judging from his smile and her blush they were a couple and he was doing his level best to get some photos with his phone’s camera. What really surprised me was that he had an ability and was openly using it. From the looks of it, he had some sort of short-range translocation or speed burst ability. I watched for a bit wondering how long he could use it and got my answer after about a minute when he stopped flitting about and put his hands on his knees looking like he might toss his cookies. His girlfriend jumped up to both scold and take care of him, it was pretty cute actually.
Smiling, I left them behind as I continued on to the parking garage. I hope he had a good job lined up with the government or private sector. Something that would protect him as his ability looked useful and that meant he’d need to be careful. Considering only point five percent of all humans have a Supernormal ability, aka superpowers in the parlance of comic books, and having an ability like that would be quite sought after. Point five percent of the world population meant there were just shy of forty million people with Supernormal abilities which is both an incredibly large number and a relatively small number at the same time. All Supernormals in the world are divided into three classifications based on ability level with the most common being the Sigma designation. Sigma class Supernormals could only possess one ability and often they were weak or of no value like being able to grow fingernails at an accelerated rate. Like anything though there was a range and the more powerful abilities caught the attention of those with power. Following on from the Sigma’s are the more rare Delta class supernormals. Loosely defined as those that manifest two abilities that are generally twice as strong as a Sigma of a similar ability. Interestingly some exceptionally strong Delta’s develop a third ability. Lastly is the Quantum class Supernormals, the strongest and rarest of the supernormal classes, who tend to have four or more abilities. Supernormal science was far from settled though so these classifications often saw shifts in how a Supernormals may be classified.
Sadly it wasn’t uncommon for Supernormals to disappear or be killed for their abilities which is why in most countries Supernormals had to be registered. I still didn’t mean that Supernormals weren't treated like an arms race with governments and corporate factions constantly jockeying to have Supernormals on their side, and who would gladly murder a Supernormal to keep a rival faction from gaining an advantage.
I did my best to shake off those dark thoughts but just as I reached the parking garage I was startled by a scream. A young mother was walking with her dog and young son when the dog slipped its leash and ran into the street after seeing a squirrel. The little boy had run into the street calling after the dog and right into the path of a delivery van.
Without thinking I dropped the backpack I’d been carrying and flew into the street racing the van to reach the boy. It was going to be close and I could see the drivers eyes as wide as saucers as she slammed on the brakes.
Right before the van could impact the boy who had frozen at the sight of the vehicle bearing down them I swooped in and cradled the boy to my chest doing my best not to hurt him in the process and spun away from the front of the van while puting my free hand out and pushing the van away causing it to lurch away before stopping.
I picked the little boy up who couldn’t be more than seven or eight years old and said, “It’s okay, you’re okay.”
He looked up at me with big doe eyes that were filled with tears and whimpered, “I want my mommy.”
“Right. Right, let’s get you back to your mom,” I told him and jogged around the back of the van back toward the boy’s mom.
She had collapsed on her knees and was wailing, “Timmy!” near the front of the van. The driver had exited the van and was heading tentatively around the front expecting the worst.
I approached Timmy’s mom but she was so shocked she didn’t notice me. “Excuse me, Miss,” I said as I walked up to her but she didn’t acknowledge me so I tried again this time touching her shoulder.
“Excuse me, Miss. I have your son,” I said gently.
“What!” she exclaimed while turning on me with anger in her eyes until her gaze fell on the sniffling boy in my arms. She exploded up off the ground and grabbed the little boy out of my arms while exclaiming, “Oh my God, Timmy! Are you hurt? I thought you’d been run over by the van. I…I heard the thump. Are you really ok?” she fired at the little boy who had started crying at this point. Poor guy, it had to have been pretty scary for him.
I watched them hug for a few moments before wandering back over toward my bag that was still laying on the sidewalk where I had dropped it. I noticed there was a crowd starting to form due to all he commotion and realized I needed to get moving before I had to start answering questions.
Still, I wanted to make sure the driver was ok so I made my way over to where she was standing with a puzzled expression at the front of her van.
“You okay?” I asked as I walked up to the delivery driver. She looked pretty disheveled and I hoped she hadn’t been injured when I nudged the van.
Her face didn’t show any recognition that I was the one who jumped in front of the van. “I’m okay, but I don’t understand what happened. I thought for sure I was going to hit that kid. There was no way I could stop in time but suddenly the van jumped sideways and no kid.”
“Yeah, crazy right. All I heard was screaming and then your van was sideways in the street. Just glad you’re okay,” I said with a smile.
Right then a small dog came bolting right past us to the other side of the van and we could hear happy exclamations. I made a show of peeking around the van before telling the driver, “Looks like the kid is with his mom so you should probably go talk to them. I’m sure the police will be here shortly.”
“Yeah you’re probably right, but I don’t know how I’m going to explain this,” she said while gesturing to a clear hand print indented in the front quarter panel of van.
“Ooh, that is weird. Well I’m glad you’re okay. I gotta get going so good luck and I hope this doesn’t screw up your deliveries,” I said with a wave and walked briskly into the entrance to the parking garage before I could attract anymore attention. I’m sure I was on camera anyway so I made a note to let someone at the base know in case they wanted intervene.
No one stopped me as I started up the stairs to the top floor and my thoughts drifted away from saving the boy back to Christina and what she’d think if she knew what I was doing. Would she be supportive, or would she think I’m crazy? I had no idea, but I knew I was at a loss for how to talk to her without making her angrier at me.
I mean, I want to help people. The only way for me to do that is to use my abilities to help keep regular people like her safe from the fallout that often came with Supernormal activity. Also Supernormals deserved to have someone looking out for them as well. Being forced into Indentured servitude to shady governments and corporations, or worse being killed for just existing wasn’t right. So many innocent Supernormals were caught up in something they never asked to be a part of.
It always made my stomach turn when I thought about it, but was made worse by the knowledge that many Supernormals perpetuated these acts willingly on their own kind. You could sort of understand the ones that did it for money or because of blackmail, but every now and then you’d hear of one that did it just for the kicks. Those were the ones I truly couldn’t wrap my head around.
I pushed that line of thinking away as I reached the ninth floor and stepped out onto the top deck. The parking garage was just a bit higher than the surrounding buildings so I got a good view of the campus and the surrounding skyline of Michigan City. This time of year it was dotted with the lush green of newly sprouted vegetation now that Spring had firmly taken hold of the Michigan weather. Despite it being one of the better views of the campus, the area was usually deserted which I often used to my advantage.
I walked past a blue sedan to my destination on the southwest corner of the deck to where I knew there was a dead spot in the security cameras. Once I found my spot I unslung my backpack from the shoulder it was dangling from, and fished around inside for the hoodie I always kept inside. Being late April the midafternoon sun made the day quite pleasant but I put it on anyway. A dark navy blue with a single white star on the front, it wouldn’t stand out too much which was perfect. Taking a second to tie my hair back into a sloppy ponytail I noticed how sunbleached it was getting. My normal honey blonde color was now streaked with yellow-white. I made a mental note to remember to be diligent about conditioning as I pulled up the hood and tucked in my hair.
Making sure my bag was all zipped up, I put my arms through the straps and made sure it was snug on my back. I glanced up to make sure I was still in the blindspot of the camera that watched over this corner of the parking deck before stepping up on the ledge. Taking a deep breath I concentrated on centering myself for a second before exhaling and jumping off the ledge.