What’s the point of the first day of school? It never made sense to me. All we do is sit around, go over what the teacher plans to do. Introduce ourselves.

Candice, it’s cool. I know who you are.

The bell rings and that's it. We do that six times on the first day and the teacher has the nerve to give us homework.

For what? We didn’t do anything!

I tell you bros, all of this is pointless. If you ask me, look at what a prison looks like, the cafeteria mainly, and then look at our cafeteria. Look at the school buses, and then look at the buses that take prisoners to and from jail.

See the connection.

It’s subtle but it’s there if you open your eyes.

I get it. School is needed to be a contributing member of society and all that jazz, but the most successful people dropped out and basically rule the world.

Steve Jobs

Zuckerdroid

Shit, even some United State Presidents dropped out of school.

So hence, I ask you, what is the point of it all?

The sun is out. The winds are calm. Sounds like a beach day my dudes. I just look at all the kids either eager to get inside, or just like me and would rather not. I look back at Dye. Little dude doesn’t know what he’s in for. First day always suck but if he can survive it more power to him, I guess.

My phone is vibrating. I pull it out and it's my guy Rodney.

Dude, swells are killer today. You need to get down here.

Well that’s all I need to justify ditching.

You got an extra wetsuit and board? I type back.

He replies instantly. I gotchu my dude.

Sick.

I drift away from Sam and Mack. They don’t even notice. Those drones.

But as I drift away I’m noticing teachers everywhere. They make sure no one who plans on ditching actually does.

I’m trapped and I need a way to get out. I bring my hand up to scratch my head and I nearly freak out after I realize I don’t have a hand at all. It’s gone, but I’m still here.

At least I think I am.

I look at myself and I’m gone from sight. No one can see me. Students pass right by me. One even bumps into me.

He falls over looking around like what the eff?

I helped him up. brushing him off and fixing him up.

“You cool, bro!” I said. The kid looks around like he’s seen a ghost. “Now get in there and tackle that first day.” I push him forward and he’s freaked out. “Hey! It’s only high school!” I shout back. Must be a freshman.

I see Mrs. Gormir ushering people in.

Ugh, her English class is the most boring waste of time. Everyone dreads it. I would rather jump the grand canyon, blindfolded, on a tricycle than even attempt to sit through her lectures.

Good thing I won’t today.

I blow past her without a second thought. I click my heels, as if people could actually see me, and skedaddle off to the beach.

I suit up faster than a fat kid in a drive-thru. I begin paddling and when I feel the wave beginning to take me, I mount my board, plant my feet and begin to rip it up. The wave crests over me as I glide through the watery tunnel. It's the best feeling ever. Gets me pumped.

Have a bad break-up?

Go Surfing.

Have a huge test and you didn’t even study, bro?

Go surfing.

End of the world is happening and a giant meteor is hurling towards the planet? Well I hope it lands in the ocean because you go surfing, bro!

The wave crashes behind me and I edge myself out and sit on my board, swinging my hair from my eyes.

“WOOO!”

“Bro! You killed that wave!” Rodney paddles up to me. Cool kid. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Typical surfer dude. Usually keeps up with everything surfing related. If you ever want to know where the swells will be next, you ask Rodney. He’s about my age if I had to guess. The only difference is he’s homeschooled.

Which makes me so jealous.

But he’s a cool cat. He’s usually up at the break of dawn just to catch some before having to rocket back home.

“Bro, thanks for the tip! Was not looking forward to school.”

“Dude, anytime!”

“Check it out!” he points over to some hot blonde paddling out to catch the upcoming wave.

Pretty hot.

Rash guard on. Bikini bottoms. Tattoo on her thigh.

Yeah, I can get into that.

Then we see some other dudes trying to show off to get her attention.

“Let’s show these posers!” I say, paddling out to catch the next wave.

Wake up.

Ride to school

Go Invisible

Surf

Go home

That was my routine for the next few days. Of course it wasn’t that cut and dry. I needed to attend a few classes every now and again to keep up appearances. Did I pay attention?

Nope.

Why would I? All I would need to do is read the assignments and I could get away with just about anything. Obviously school isn’t my thing, but absorbing information and regurgitating it out for a test or a paper isn’t hard. Why we’re required to go to this place everyday where we can just do this at home is beyond me.

But the societal fabric must be maintained. I guess?

Ah Lunch. I head for the bathroom. Get into one of the stalls. I focus until my body melts from sight.

Time to go.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Have a good rest of your day!” I say to a kid washing his hands, patting him on the back. He’s freaked out and I enjoy every second.

Actually, I think it’s the same kid from before.

Oh, this just keeps on getting better.

Usually I would stick around and grab what’s good for lunch. Then I thought, I could pass by Tomboy’s at the corner, pick up a double chili burger with bacon and enjoy that. Much more satisfying.

The last couple of days have been fantastic. Turning in homework on time and passing quizzes, and nobody suspects a thing. This is too easy and it almost has me suspicious.

I see this wild video of some golden armor dude saving a couple kids from a burning building. So cool. Dude just tosses a piece of concrete off his shoulder like a big piece of styrofoam.

Whoa.

Whoever this was had my respect. Saving two kids from a building, wearing some sick armor, running at super speed. We had superheroes now. I reach into the fridge and grab a cheese stick, rewinding the video and watching it again and again. Doing my best to analyze every detail of it. I hear the front door close and like a zombie, I enter the living room to see who it is.

It’s Dye.

He’s on the couch. I see him just wrecked. The kid must’ve had a rough one. I figure I’d cheer him up and show him this awesome video. When he sees it he tells me it’s him.

Yeah, right!

My baby brother is this armored dude.

Bullshit!

Then he shows me.

Before I can blink he’s at the top of the stairs. My head explodes. He does it again and in an instant he’s on the couch just chillin’.

No way!

So I find this is as good a time as any to show him what I can do and immediately he is amazed.

As he should be.

Sam walks in and the little dude is in a mood. He figures out that Dye is the golden armor hero everyone is talking about. Never took Sam as the jealous type. Or maybe he’s just irritated that he can’t figure out what or why this is happening to us. He leaves and goes upstairs and I’m left with the idea that I can have armor too.

But how do I get it?

I sat on my board out in the water. The waves passed beneath me as my mind wandered off. Dye was able to get his armor and save a couple kids. We all experienced the same event so logic would dictate that I and Sam would get armor too. Dye made it sound like that whatever this was responded to us whenever we needed it, but how could I need it?

“Hey!” that hot blonde chick paddled up to me.

“Yoo!” I say to her casually.

“Saw you tearing it up the other day. Pretty cool moves.” she said as she adjusted herself to sit on her board. “Kelsy!”

“Jason,” she’s cute. Maybe I’ll ask her to lunch or something. “You’re new around here, huh.”

“Yeah, just moved here from Hawaii.” What? Why move here from Hawaii? I hear North Shore is the place to be. “Mom got a new job. You think you can teach me some of those moves.” She was flirting. Definitely was flirting.

“Absolutely!”

BOOM!

I turn my head swifty to see an explosion on the horizon. Kelsy is already looking at it. An oil tanker out to sea is having some serious issues. “Oh shit!” she says. Oh shit is right.

“I’ll have to teach you those moves some other time.” I say to her.

There’s a wave coming and instinctively we begin on our way to catching it. Then I stop and look at the burning boat.

Here’s my chance.

She catches the wave and returns to shore. I fall off my board and into the water and usually everything is blurred because you know, different medium for light to pass through.

Yeah, you read that right. I understand how this works.

As I was saying, Usually I can’t see anything but now I can see everything crystal clear.

The fish.

The coral

The seaweed.

All of it is beautiful and to my surprise I don’t feel the need to breathe. It’s like I’m flying as the waves pass above me and below me are all different kinds of marine life.

I love it down here.

KABOOM!

There’s another loud explosion on the surface. I can feel the explosion ripple through the water. The fish around me begin to sense it too as they begin to scatter and rush away. I have to do something.

That’s when I feel it.

My body starts to get a rush of cool water, only it’s not water. It’s something else. I look down at my feet and notice something metallic starting to climb up my body. It’s a shiny blue with hints of gold and as it comes to my head my face is enclosed within a metal head behind some cool symbol.

Hell yeah! I got my armor.

Now let’s see what I can do.

Like Aquaman, the Jason Mamoa version, not the Superfriends one, I take off underwater like a torpedo. I swim past all the sea life as I come to the capsizing tanker. I push the boat to the surface, resetting it upright. I circle around and leap out of the water like a dolphin.

I see now why they like to do it so much.

This is so rad.

As I’m in the air I see the entire deck of the ship just blazing. People on the ship are scurrying to put the fire out but honestly I think the equipment is making it worse. I dive back into the water and spin my body into a water spout. I surface again and emerge at the top of the spout and with the wave of my hands I send tendrils of water to put out the flames.

Easy peasy!

The workers on the boat see me and I leap onto the deck.

“Hola brochahos!”

These guys don’t know what to say. They’re all sweaty and dirty and I must be a sight to behold after fighting flames. Time to sound like a superhero.

“Saw the explosion. Thought I’d come and help.”

“What are you? A dolphin?” said one of the workers.

A dolphin? Really? Do you not see how cool I look in this armor?

“Um — No! A shark actually.”

“Listen kid — shark boy,” said another guy, “We got some issues below deck. If we don’t move it we’re gonna have a major oil spill on our hands.”

“Right — um,” thinking on my feet. I’m usually good at this, but with this new power, I don’t know, I’m kinda making it up as I go.

I see rescue vehicles coming to the scene. A few helicopters circle above. I put two and two together and come up with a plan.

“Oil can’t spill if it’s on land right?”

“Technically,” the same guy answers me.

“So I’ll tow it to shore.”

“You can do that?” he said, amazed.

“I can do anything!” I bragged. Not sure if that was true or not.

He pointed to the south side of the beach. “If you can, tow it to the port. They’ll know what to do.”

“That I can do, good sir!”

I dive back into the water and swim underneath the gigantic boat. Could I really tow this bad boy? It was only one way to find out. I see loose chains swaying in the water and grab them. I do my super swim thing and like pulling a heavy box the boat begins to move. I pick up speed and immediately the boat is on its way. I bet people along the shore are looking at this and are having their head explode at the wildness of it all. It’s all good people. Ya boy Jason is on ocean patrol. I got ya covered!

The ship comes roaring into the port, the workers scattering like that scene from the Lost World. It’s cool bro’s, the ship isn’t going to crash. I immediately stop the boat and leap out of the water. The rescue vehicles trail behind the giant tanker as the choppers above circle around. The workers on the port stare at me like they’ve never seen a blue armored dude before.

Newsflash; they haven’t.

I’m one of a kind and wait until Dye and Sam get a load of this new set of armor.

“You folks be safe!” I say, “ And stay out of trouble!”

I dive back into the water, surging away like the awesome hero I am.

This has to be the easiest school year ever. First I get to ditch without anybody knowing. My grades are up and now I’m a superhero.

Yeah baby! This is the life.

I’m on the couch scrolling through my phone when I notice someone has spotted Dye running after some run away monorail. There’s an armored bird looking dude with him. I have to guess that’s Sam. Looks like the little bros could use my help. Time to armor up and see what all the fuss is about.