The Expanding World Read online

  “Of course, Mr. Ohm, our class advisor says none of this matters until you agree. So do you agree?” Krista asked me, her eyes batting away.

  Before I could respond Wendi sauntered over. “So, Strong, I heard a rumor that you think you can beat me for class president,” she sniggered. “I’m a better LAX player than you. I’m smarter than you. I’m prettier than you. I’m more popular than you.”

  “Yeah, well…” I stuttered.

  “Oh, good comeback!” Wendi replied. “Yep, you have what it takes to run the class,” she snorted.

  I fought the massive urge to blast Wendi with heat vision. Or, maybe use super voice to make her think she’s a chicken or my pet poodle. But no, that’s not how good guys do it. We do it the right way. We let the people pick their leaders.

  “Well, Wendi,” I said, slowly locking my eyes with her perfect blue ones. “Guess we’ll let our classmates decide because I’m definitely running against you!”

  Krista jumped up and down applauding until Wendi stopped her with a glare.

  Wendi held out a hand. “Well then, may the best girl win!”

  I shook her hand.

  Yeah, I can stop a small army of bad guys. I can drop a charging pack of rhinos. However, something told me this would be my toughest test yet. I knew I could do it. At least I hoped I could do it.

  Wendi walked away with her posse. Jason and I headed to my locker so I could store my jacket. Standing next to my locker was a short stocky kid with braces and glasses. His name was Steve Mann.

  “Ah, ah, hi Lia,” he said slowly like he had trouble thinking of the words.

  “Oh hi, Steve.”

  He looked at me and then began tapping his foot. Glancing shyly away, he murmured, “Ah, you know I seconded your nomination for class president.”

  “Thanks, Steve.”

  Jason came straight in, “I would have done it if I had been here.” “Only my BFF and I were still walking into school together like we always do!”

  Interesting. I got the impression Jason was hinting to Steve to stay away. Although Steve didn’t seem to pick up on that.

  “You know Lia, the school has a dance this year,” he stared directly towards me.

  “Yep. They have one every year. Though it’s more of a listen to music, talk and stand around…”

  “I’d love it if you’d go with me!” Steve blurted suddenly.

  “Steve, the dance isn’t for like six months!” I replied.

  Steve nodded. “Yeah, I know.” He looked down. “Has somebody else already asked you?”

  “No of course not, because the dance is still six months away,” I repeated.

  His eyes popped open. “Great! So you don’t have a date?” He looked at me eagerly, like a puppy expecting a treat.

  I really didn’t want to go to the dance with Steve Mann. I didn’t mind that he was a bit of a nerd. It’s just that he happened to be shorter than me. Plus, to be honest, I had never really even said three words to Steve before this. I had no idea why he was so keen for me to go with him.

  “Look, Steve, let me think about it for a few months,” I said slowly.

  “That’s not a no!” Steve said, his voice cracking.

  “No, it’s not a no…,” I said even slower.

  Jason leaned past me. “But it’s not a yes either!” he told Steve.

  Steve smiled and turned and walked away humming. “I have a chance! I have a chance!”

  I sniffed my underarm. Had I forgotten my deodorant? Had my pheromones been firing extra hard? Nope, I smelled like spring flowers. Certainly not my natural scent.

  Jason locked his eyes on Steve’s back. “That kid bugs me. Always talking about how his computer is so fast, how he has a cool drone, how he’s going to go to MIT and will invent the next Google.” He looked at me, “You’re not seriously thinking about going to the dance with him, are you?”

  I’d never seen this side of Jason before. I do believe he was jealous. “No, I just didn’t want to hurt his feelings,” I replied.

  Jason breathed a little sigh of relief. Then the bell rang and we headed to class.

  “Of course, if he is going to invent the next Google, I’d be crazy not to at least consider him!” I added, walking into Mr. Ohm’s homeroom, a wide grin attached to my face.

  The amazing thing is that the rest of my day went pretty smoothly. Sure, I had to listen to a bunch of teachers telling me how their subject was the most important subject in the world. Sure, they would each pile on homework like they were the only teachers in the school. Of course, the hot food in the cafeteria was cold, and the cold food somehow hot. But I went through the whole process with my friends and teammates, and that made everything more fun. Besides, while I would never admit this out loud, I liked learning. Oh, and I’m pretty sure I caught Brandon smiling at me.

  After classes, I hit the school weight room with a few girls from the team. Obviously being Super Teen, I didn’t need to train in that particular weight room. In fact, I could easily carry all the weights in that room with one hand. My dad’s company had a set up a special gym and a weight room for me to train in, along with the other super girls, Tanya, Lori, Marie, and Jess. The company weight room has special ultra-mega weights that weighed tons and I could lift them easily. I only came here to keep up appearances and to bond with my teammates.

  Since the weights here also meant nothing to Lori (with her bionics), she and I ran around the room while the other girls used the weights. Marie worked on the bench press while Cindy Love and Michelle Row spotted her up front. Luke Lewis was also there. Usually, the boys don’t lift when the girls do, but Luke was recovering from an injury. I think he has a crush on Marie.

  Marie was going for a record bench press for her, 100 pounds. Impressive, considering that I don’t think Marie weighed 100 pounds soaking wet. Lori and I stopped our running and moved next to the bench to cheer Marie on.

  Marie pulled the weight from the rack. She took a deep breath.

  “You can do it, Marie!” I said.

  “You got this girl!” Lori told her.

  Marie guided the bar slowly down to her chest. She took a deep breath. She pushed up. The weight moved up. She let out a breath. She straightened her arms. She locked the weight back in the rack. She sat up. “I did it!” she shouted.

  Marie shook her head and beads of sweat bounced off her short dark hair. One of the droplets hit Cindy and she turned to gold. Another drop of sweat hit Michelle and she too froze into gold. A couple of drops hit Luke, who became gold as well. Lori and I spotted beads of sweat coming towards us but managed to dodge them. The sweat hit the ground, turning the floor beneath us into gold.

  “Oops,” Marie said. “This is bad.”

  Lori looked at the golden kids and the golden floor. “Marie you could be so rich if you wanted to be!”

  “Oh my, this is not good….” Marie said. “I really didn’t want to do this.”

  Tanya Cane walked into the room. “Oh, now I see why Janitor Jan sent me down here. She thought my time control power might be helpful. I see she was right.”

  Packed

  Tanya looked over the situation. “Wow, Marie! That is a cool power!” She tapped Michelle and Cindy. “They are truly solid gold.”

  I glanced at Tanya. “Can you reverse time to before the accident happened?”

  “Maybe,” Tanya replied. “But time is very particular. It likes to happen the way it’s supposed to happen. So, my guess is if I did it right, Marie would just turn them into gold again. And, if I did it wrong and went back too far, I might turn them all into babies. Which might not be much better. In fact, it could be really messy. Plus, if I do it really wrong, EVERYBODY could turn into babies!” She shook her head. “My power can be tricky to control. That’s why I usually just slow down time… It’s simpler. I’ve already slowed down the school so nobody comes in here and sees this.”

  “Oh my gosh, this would be so hard to explain,” Lori said.

 
I walked over to Marie and put my hands on her shoulders. I let out a little sigh of relief when I didn’t turn to gold. “Marie you did this, and you can undo this,” I told her.

  MAC spoke up from the interface I wore on my wrist. “I’ve spoken to your father. He says he’ll send a relief team if needed. They can move the golden kids to the lab and work on them there.”

  “Tell Dad 'thanks', but not necessary just yet. I know Marie can turn them back.”

  MAC paused for a moment and then informed us, “Your father says he will keep the team on standby.”

  I locked my attention on Marie. “You’ve undone this before, Marie. You can undo it again.”

  “But that was just one person, now it’s three of them.”

  I nodded in agreement. “That is true, but it’s still the same concept. I know you’ve been working on this with Dad’s people. You can create a field with your power. You should be able to turn all three of them back at once.”

  Lori pointed to the floor. “Why don’t you practice on the floor?” she smiled encouragingly.

  “Lia and I will move the statues close to each other to make it easier for you.”

  Tanya walked Marie over to the golden spots on the floor. “You can do this Marie!” I called over as I picked up the now solid Luke and moved him next to the two girl statues.

  MAC spoke up, “Your father reminds you that you all have a power training session tomorrow. He says that things like this are the reason why we have these weekend sessions.”

  “We’ll be there,” I said.

  “All of you?” MAC said.

  Tanya and Lori both nodded. Marie groaned and said, “Of course I’ll be there! I don’t want stuff like this to keep happening.”

  “I noticed from the school records, Jessica is absent today,” MAC said. “Do you know if she will be coming?”

  I shrugged. “Jess takes her power seriously, so if she’s around I’m sure she’ll be there. But, let’s stick to the problem at hand. We need Marie to turn these kids back!”

  I thought about the situation. The last time Marie’s power misfired she had been thinking about money for college. Maybe it was the same now. “Marie,” I said slowly walking towards her, “Have you been worrying about money again?”

  Marie looked at me. Her eyes popped open. “Yeah, I have,” she admitted. “I was thinking that I need to get stronger and better so I can get a LAX scholarship to college!”

  I touched her gently on the shoulder. “That’s the key to your power misfiring. When you worry about money you tend to turn things into gold.”

  “That certainly would help with the money problem,” Lori said with a grin.

  “This isn’t funny, Lori,” Marie scolded. “I’m dangerous like this! I’m worried that if I sneeze or fart you’ll all turn to gold! Plus, what about having a boyfriend someday? What if I get nervous and turn him into gold?”

  “You might have the perfect boyfriend then,” Tanya snickered. “He’d be worth a lot of money and he wouldn’t talk a lot. Plus, he’d always smell good!”

  Marie turned to her. “Tanya, don’t even kid like that!” she said, poking Tanya on the hand. Tanya’s hand instantly turned to gold. The gold then began to streak up her arm.

  Marie threw her hand over her mouth. “Oh no!”

  Tanya stayed calm. She waved her non-golden hand over the golden one. The skin instantly stopped transforming into gold.

  “Whoa!” Tanya said slowly. “This is a weird feeling. I’ve slowed time around my arm but not sure how long I can hold this.”

  Marie put her hands on top of her head. “Yikes! I didn’t mean to do that. You see, I am dangerous!”

  I looked Marie in the eyes. “Marie, you are one of the kindest people I know. You’re not dangerous. You just need to learn to control your emotions, which will allow you to control your power.”

  She stared back at me and her body relaxed.

  “Take a deep breath and let it out,” I said.

  “I’m afraid my breath will turn you into gold!” Marie frowned.

  I shook my head. “No, it won’t, because you can control this. You can control your power.”

  She took a deep breath and let it out. I felt her breath hit my face and then an instant relief when I didn’t turn to gold.

  “See? I am still flesh and blood!” I told her. “You can control this! Just don’t worry about money. Marie, you’re a strong player and smart. I’m sure you will get a college scholarship!” I patted her on the shoulder.

  Marie smiled. She bent down and touched the gold spots on the floor. They turned back into whatever gray substance weight room floors are made of. Her smile grew. She stood up and tapped Tanya on the hand. Tanya’s hand slowly transformed back from solid gold to flesh.

  Tanya flexed her hand. “Much better. I know they say being golden is good, but nope, it is not.”

  I smiled at Marie. “See, easy peasy.”

  I led Tanya and Marie to the three golden statues. Marie looked at the glistening bodies. “I can do this!” she said. She leaned forward to touch Luke, and then stopped, her hand in mid-air. “Wait, if I turn one person back, how do we explain to them why the others are golden statues?”

  “Good point,” I told her. “I guess this means you’ll have to turn them all back at once.”

  “You did turn them all into gold at once,” Lori added.

  Marie leaned back a little. “I can do this. Everything is going to be fine,” she said softly to herself. The only reason I heard her was because of my super hearing.

  She took a deep breath and exhaled on Cindy, Michelle, and Luke, her breath covering all three. Instantly each of them transformed, and we watched the gold coating fade into normal skin.

  “How’d we get over here?” Luke asked, a puzzled expression on his face.

  “Yeah, we were spotting Marie over there,” Michelle said, pointing to the bench.

  Marie laughed a bit nervously. “I made the lift, and then we all came over to this side of the room to try some different equipment. Don’t you remember?”

  I moved forward, focusing on the three of them. “Yes, that was what happened!” I said, in my most forceful command super voice.

  The three nodded. “Yes, that was what happened!” they repeated.

  Lori then led the three out of the weight room. “Okay girls, let’s get going. We’ll see you all on Monday.”

  We all breathed a little sigh of relief.

  MAC chimed in. “See, your father is correct! This is why your weekend training sessions are so important.”

  We all nodded in agreement.

  Dear Diary: Wow! That situation could have become really ugly, but luckily my friends and I kept it under control. I'm amazed by the power we each have. I now truly understand the saying, with great power, comes great responsibility. I also figured out that the way to control our powers is through practice and understanding of our powers. We can all be dangerous if we don’t learn to control the powers we have. But I have faith in myself and my friends.

  I guess I should be thankful that Wendi didn’t come down to check on us. Of course, maybe if she was there, Marie would have turned her into gold as well.

  Now, that would have been fun! Wendi would make such a great lawn ornament or scarecrow!

  Okay, Lia, wipe those thoughts from your mind.

  Practice makes Better

  By the time Jason and I got to BM Science the next morning, Lori, Marie, and Tanya were already there. Hana met us at the gate and drove us into the test building. Yep, BMS had made an entire building just for us.

  Dad and Hana had Marie working with their team of mind experts. They’d arranged for her to do meditation and yoga to keep her powers under control. We saw Marie in a small white room standing on her head and going “Oooohm”. She seemed content.

  Next, we walked past a room filled with weights. Lori had two heavy ton weights over her head, as a trainer looked on giving her encouragement. A couple of peop
le dressed in white lab coats were observing Lori’s progress. One had a stethoscope around her neck to check Lori’s heart rate, and she seemed very surprised at what Lori was capable of.

  The other person was holding an iPad to keep track of Lori’s results.

  “So, what will I be doing?” I asked Hana.

  Hana grinned. “We want you and Tanya to have a friendly sparring match. The goal is for each of you to simply stop the other one any way you can.”

  “Me versus Tanya,” I smiled. “I think I can power through her time control and take her down,” I said confidently.

  Jason looked at me with a frown.

  “What?” I asked him.

  “Lia, don’t get overly confident. You have awesome raw power. All the abilities you have makes you super-duper-uber powerful,” he said slowly. I could see he was choosing his words carefully.

  “Your point?”

  He hesitated. “Tanya is older. She’s had her power longer and her power…wow… she can control time. That’s pretty cool too! If she concentrates her power on you, she can certainly slow you down!”

  Hana grinned. “That’s an excellent point, Jason, that’s why we have you as a consultant.”

  We entered a room shaped like an octagon. The walls were all covered with mirrors. The floor was padded.

  Tanya stood in the room dressed in a pretty blue top, white shorts and electric blue canvas sneakers. She smiled at me. “I see it’s you versus me in a friendly little fight.”

  “I guess so,” I said. I had to admit I was a bit put off by her calmness. After all, I am Super Teen. Nothing she could really do could hurt me. Yet she stood there so steady.

  Hana motioned us both to the middle of the room. “Now, Doctor Strong, Jason and I will be watching from the observation room. The room will flash red and then you two can begin. Remember this is only practice. The winner will be the one who knocks out the other.”