The Super 4 : Dark Death (17 page)

At first I expected her to either ignore it
completely or hang up. Instead she picked up the phone.

“
Alex?” I asked
uncertainly.

Then I had to hold the phone away from my ear,
as Alex started screaming. I smiled: this was going better than
planned.

“
I’ve got so much to tell you!” I
gushed, excitedly. “So…”

Darryl

XXIV

I know, I know, it probably would
of been nicer to stay at the hospital longer. And yes, in case
you’re wondering, I lied about the FTK closing early. But for good
cause!

Sanjit still had his Reading class. And I was
the teacher.

We wanted to keep it private; no point in him
getting bullied. So everyday at seven we snuck up to the roof and
had a half-hour study session.

We had passed the simplest lessons, and were
now on the more complex words and the silent letters. He also had
to work on his pronunciation of some words.

So in my defense, my lying was for a good
cause! Besides, Sanjit wants to be a doctor when he grows up. And
he wants to own an orphanage. He wants to make sure that those who
went through the same fate as him don’t suffer as badly. By
suffering he means not being allowed two helpings of
dessert.

In many ways he is stupid.

Carlos was also a big factor to me leaving
early.

I had grown to like Carlos even more. Somehow
he was still here. But it wasn’t ‘adopting season’ until summer, so
thankfully for me, he was with us for an extra month.
Yippee?

Man, I’m gonna
miss that guy when he leaves. He’s like really smart. And his
drawings are like
wow!
I can’t believe he’s only six! His drawings are a whole lot
better than mine. And he uses this kind of watercolor effect, that
makes you think it’s a blank paper, but when you look closer you
see that there’s someone hiding in it. He’s
amazing!

He said he was highly influenced by Vietnamese
artists. Those guys are amazing at art! Especially paintings, there
city paintings and trees are amazing. They also use the watercolor
effect.

“Hi Darryl!” Carlos walked over to me, a big,
fat smile was planted on his face.

“Hey little guy!” I responded, ruffling his
hair a bit.

Carlos backed away from me. A serious look was
on his face. “I’m not little! I’m almost seven!”

“I know! You’re a big boy!”

That made him smile a bit. “Do you really
think so?” he asked.

“Of course!”

“Thanks! Most
people don’t. You’re nice, Darryl!”
I smiled, “Hey,
no soy bueno! Sólo digo la
verdad!
” I told him I wasn’t nice, I was
just telling the truth. Carlos smiled, he liked it when I spoke
Spanish. Not many people here are fluent at the
language.

“
Gracias!
”
he told me.

“
De nada!”
I replied.

Carlos’ green eyes twinkled with joy. I felt a
brotherly emotion to him. I prayed that whoever adopted him, as
someone was sure to do, would adopt me as well. The chances were
very rare, but as I’ve said before, a boy can dream. Especially a
deprived one. I would hate to see Carlos go. It would kill
me!

“Darryl! Come
see my
pintura
!”
I smiled as he led me to see his latest painting. As expected it
was amazing.

“Carlos,” I
began. “You’re one i
ncreíble
artist. My personal Picasso!”

Carlos beamed brightly at my compliment. He
opened his mouth to say something else, when Sanjit came marching
down. A scowl was planted on his face. The scowl made my brain
turn.

The session! I
had forgotten about! It was all I could do to not swear.
“I’m
so
sorry,
Sanjit! Can we do it now?”

“Forget it!” He said. “I have better things to
do. Keep hanging out with Carlos” He said this in such a spiteful
way that Carlos’ eyes started tearing up. Soon he was
bawling.

My brotherly
instinct forced me to comfort him, despite how much I wanted to
slap his stupid face! How dare he hurt my
pequeño compañero?
Was he really
that jealous that I was spending my time with Carlos, instead of
him?

I stepped closer
to him, so Carlos couldn’t hear me, “Our little
friendship
is over!
Goodbye,”

I took ahold of Carlos’ hand and led him away.
I didn’t look at him. I didn’t want the tears to show. I started
blinking really fast to try to rid my eyes of the tears. It was
working, but it made my vision blurry.

That was how I ended up in the hospital
again.

“
... and at school, my teacher
said that my painting was really nice!” Carlos told me excitedly.
“I’m gonna paint her!”

“
I bet it’s gonna be the most
amazing thing ever!’ I said.
“Thanks Darryl!” he beamed his famous beam.

I had only been here for a day. School was
over in three days, so I wasn’t missing anything.

Besides, around this time the dances happened.
Hopefully I’d be here long enough to miss the last dance of
semester, but short enough to go to the awards ceremony.

Based on my encounter with Mrs. Kaminski, I
was certain I was top of Honor Roll. In fact even without being
told about skipping a grade, I’d still make it to Honor Roll. I
mean, I do every year! As well as get gold in all academic affairs.
Not meaning to show off, but I’m pretty smart! Even more so with my
little soda boost! I smiled devilishly.

“Why are you smiling?” asked Carlos. “Did you
like my joke?”

“I loved it!” I assured him. “I’ve never heard
anything funnier in my entire life! Please tell it
again!”

“Okay,” Carlos said, smiling. “Why did the
one-handed man cross the road? To get to the second-hand
shop!”

I burst out laughing. More out of my brotherly
love for Carlos, than because of his funny joke.

“Did you really think it was that
funny?”

“
Sí!
” I
assured him.

“Thanks!” he said.

“Tell me another!” I ask him. “A knock-knock
joke?”

“Um… Okay!” he scratched his head.
“Knock-knock?”

“Who’s there?”

“Cow goes.”

“Cow goes who?”

“Coes don’t who, the MOO!” We burst out
laughing, all giddy and excited.

Nurse Kate walks in. “Sorry guys, but please
be quiet. People are trying to sleep.”

We whisper sorry, trying to control our
laughter. When she leaves we burst out in silent
laughter.

Hey, who can blame us? We’re kids! Add the
nearness of summer to the mix, and we’ve got perfectly acceptable
summer behavior.

I love summer!

Harrison

XXV

Okay, school
sucks. Agreed? I just wanted to get that clear. I know most people
are giddy with excitement, because of how close summer is, but all
I can think about, is how we still have school. And while
other
people
might
love
not do
anything all day, I have issues with boredom.

During lessons,
I can pay attention, because the teacher’s voice just invades any
thoughts about sleep. So, instead of blissful sleep, I had to
suffer through Mr. Murph yakking away about the,
oh-so exciting,
different ways to use a comma.

Even Carly and
Darryl find her boring. And they’re like, up there! But I’m an
average kid, so while I don’t hate tests, you won’t find me in
the
More Tests!
line. Nope, not over here.

And in my
opinion, how will knowing about photosynthesis or the life of a
dead president, help me in
my
life? It’s crazy! Pure and simple insanity! Pure,
and simple.

Anyway, back to
my point; school sucks! You might say I’m over-exaggerating, but
do
you
honestly
like school? Do you just love waking up early, catching the bus and
then having to race to your class with a five-pound bag? Do you? Do
you really? No, I didn’t think so!

Urgh! All this talk about school is making me
fell sick. Literally. My stomach was queasy!

I raced down the stairs, yelling a ‘See you
later’ to mum. I ran to the tree house. I flew over the
wall.

But instead of getting back on ground, I just
stayed there, floating around.

You never get over the thrill of lying. Ever.
I might’ve acted like it was nothing, but I’ve always wanted to
fly. I loved the idea of just floating around, in the endless sky,
no worries about anything, not a care in the world. Just empty
sky.

I finally touched down on the roof of the tree
house about ten minutes later. I melted and slid down the sides. I
reformed when I got to the ground. Brushing dirt of me, I walked
around the circumference of the area.

Just like flying, you can never get used to
powers. I admired my work, yet I still had trouble believing
whether or not I’m dreaming. Maybe it’s all fake and I’m snoring in
Madame Belle’s classroom. Who knows? Who knows?

I walked around before finally retreating back
in the tree house. It started raining right after I had gotten
myself a bowl of ice cream. I looked at my unsuitable meal and
shrugged. Who cares?

I created a
hovering fire in the seating area, and turned on the TV. I skipped
past news and music, finally landed on a channel with
Total Wipeout!

I settled back and started scooping ice cream
in to my mouth. A lightning bolt arced outside. I ignored it and
focused on the TV.

I had missed the
first round, and was now halfway into the second round.
The Sweeper
!

I laughed as a guy tried to jump over the
sweeper. He failed miserably, and was whacked into the water. He
emerged moments later, swimming to the ladder for try number
two.

I laughed as more famous people got whacked
into the water. This was hilarious!

Another bolt of
lightning came arcing down. This one, closer to the tree house than
the others. But just then the tenth person made it across
The Sweeper
. I groaned.
The person I was rooting for didn’t make it.

My phone rang. I picked it up with my eyes
still glued to the screen.

“
Hello?” I asked.

“
Harrison?” asked mum’s
voice.

“
Yeah mum?”

“
Come home, okay?” she told me.
“This storm is terrible!”

“
Okay, I’m on my way,” I told
her.

“
And you better not be in that
tree house!” she warned.

“
Uh… okay?” I said, avoiding
giving her a straight answer.

“
Harrison,” she said, in a low
warning voice.

“
Okay, okay,” I said. “I’m in the
tree house!”

“
How could you?” she asked. “It’s
raining!”

“
It wasn’t raining when I got
here,” I pointed out.

“
There were storm clouds
everywhere!” she replied.

“
That doesn’t mean it’s gonna
rain!”

“
Urgh!!!” she growled furiously,
“Just hurry home.”

“
Okay,” I replied, “Bye, love
you.”

“
Love you too.” she responded.
“Now hurry!”

Sighing, I placed my bowl in the dishwasher,
and flew out of the tree house. I wielded a shield of fire over my
head. It worked wonders. All the water evaporated on
touch.

I increased the heat of the flames. It had a
blue tinge to it. I was so surprised by the colour, that I dropped
the shield. I was soaking wet in a few seconds, but I didn’t care.
This was a breakthrough!

I remade my fire shield, and made a fire
sword. I increased the heat of the flames. So far, they were all
red, orange and yellow, but a couple of them had a blue tinge. I
ran home, suddenly remembering mum’s growl.

The guards opened the gate. I raced up the
steps to the front door, and knocked hurriedly. Hopping from one
foot to the other. My butler opened the door.

“
Good day, Mr Har-” he
began.

“
S’up Tommy!” I interrupted.
“Where’s my mother?”

“
I believe your mother is
currently in the dining hall. Would you like me to accompany you
there?”