Hi guys :)
I'm so excited about this! I'm from Rio so I've gone to the Paralympic Games every single day and it's really wonderful to see those people overcoming their difficulties.
Although this a very delicate subject, after tons of research and a lot of support from my friends I decided to finally write this and I hope you enjoy it as much as I'm enjoying to write!
P.s.: I don't plan on writing the other chapters on first person.
P.s.2: I don't own any of this characters.
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My name is Kara Zor-El.
I was sent to the US after my country, Krypton, suffered from a nuclear accident.
My cousin, Kal-El, fled the country many years before the explosion because we were royal family and he didn't want any part in the nobility. Instead he made a name for himself as Clark Kent, journalist who works for the Daily Planet in Metropolis. He is my last family member alive.
I was 13 years-old when Krypton perished. My mother put me on a jet minutes before the imminent nuclear accident so my life was spared, but I had to watch my whole country destruction from the plane windows.
My cousin took me to a family of scientists in Midvale. He and his fiancée, Lois, didn't know how to care for a traumatized pre-teenager.
The Danvers adopted me. They were a lovely family. The woman, Eliza, was loving and caring, she always tried her best to help me adapt to my new life. The man, Jeremiah, was really protective and did everything within his power to help me fit in, he taught me how to speak English, told me about the US culture and even about science. Their daughter, Alex, was the one I really bounded with, she didn't liked when I first arrived, but after a rough night when I woke up from a nightmare about Krypton's destruction and had a severe panic attack she became like a real older sister to me and has been looking after me from that day on.
After some years of my adoption, Jeremiah passed away when an experiment went wrong on the lab. This unfortunate event brought Alex and me even closer and distanced us from Eliza, causing our move to National City when we were old enough.
Now, I'm 24 years-old and a parachuting competitor, two-times champion of the Parachuting World Cup, three-times champion in the National Skydiving Championship and with more trophies than someone my age can count. This invincibility on most competitions brought me the nickname of Supergirl, which Alex will never stop teasing me about. I absolutely love to skydive, it feels like I'm flying, the freedom I feel is incomparable.
My sister works with athletes physical preparation, she's a doctor. We're still very close, Alex lives in the building across from mine and every day we're not traveling due competitions, she goes to my place to eat and watch movies and series.
I have two best friends. Winn is a pilot at my parachuting academy, he does much more than his work giving me support in all my needs, he even made me my signature jumping suit with the American colors and the symbol of my family, the House of El. Lucy is a fellow parachutist, when she first arrived at the academy we didn't got along very well. Although I knew that she was Lois' little sister, I thought she was really stuck up for all her military prizes in parachutting but after I helped her with a failure of her principal parachute in a difficult jump, she started to see me like a friend and we got along amazingly.
Lucy is also a great friend of Alex. My sister has some military training and had worked for the police some time before succeeding in her career so they are really alike in discipline aspects and in being bad ass. I still remember the first time they meet in my apartment, I thought they were going to kill themselves but now they are like best friends.
Next week I have a really important annual competition in which I've been winning the first place for the last three years. This time I'll perform a different jump, four times more difficult than any other in my entire career. I can't mess this up. Today is the last practice day, this jump has to be perfect.
I couldn't even sleep properly with expectation and stayed up painting until 2 a.m. . It's certainly my favorite hobby besides parachuting, it always soothes me when my mind is too lost in my long dead country or worried about a competition.
Still, I wake up extra early to practice and after showering and having breakfast, I call Alex because I know she usually wakes up abnormally early to do her exercises before going to work. "Hello, sis! Good morning."
"Good morning, Kar! How are you? I know the big day is coming, but you have to take it easy, sis. There's no use on worrying, I'm pretty sure you're are prepared. You're the best parachutist I know!" Alex says genuinely cheerful.
"Firstly, are you I mind reader? I didn't even touched the competition subject." My sister really knew me better than myself, there was nothing I could hide from Alex. "Secondly, you don't know more than two parachutists and I'm sure Lucy would punch you if she heard you depreciating her." Just imagining the provable scene made me laugh.
"I'm no mind reader but I'm pretty sure Hank is. He just arrived at my door with coffee from my favorite place." I can hear Alex humming delighted with the smell of the drink. "I have to go, sis. Gonna talk with you later. I love you."
"Love you. Bye." I say and hung up.
Hank is like a father for us. Some time after Jeremiah death, Alex was rebellious and made a few poor choices. She was involved in a small car accident after exceeding the speed limit and Hank was the physiotherapist who helped her with her badly broken arm. I had to drive her to the physio sessions and loved to see them bonding as I waited for her. The older man knew exactly how to deal with my sister's stubbornness and by the time her arm was as good as new, our relationship had already grew exponentially. Hank has a story similar to mine, he's one of the last survivors of his country, the man lost his daughters and wife after a war. As they were about our age I think he sees a little bit of them in us. Now he works with Alex in the DOE, that stands for Department of Olympic Evaluation, they deal with physical preparation and maintenance of Olympic athletes.
I finish getting ready for practice and call Lucy who had promised to go training with me. "Hello, Luce! Are you ready to go?"
"I can't believe you made me wake up so early in this weather." Lucy's voice was still thick with sleep. I look outside the huge window of my living room and see that the clouds are heavy and it's really windy outside, that would definitely disturb my plans for training.
The thing I love the most about living in the top floor is that I have wonderful view of the city and also, my building doesn't have an elevator, it's something about Mother Nature and energy expenditure, so I'm forced to do aerobic exercise by using the stairs.
"Ready or not?" I ask making Lucy groan on the other side of the line. No weather was going to stop my practice on the last day I had.
"Ready." Lucy mumbled.
"You're the best!" I say, she agrees grumpily and hang up.
Arriving at the academy I see Winn already getting the plane ready for practice. I greet him with a hug "Hi, Winn! Awesome day to fly isn't it?" He throws a death glare at me. "Just kidding."
"You know that I hate flying in this weather but I'd do anything for you, Kar." His eyes softens and I'm more than sure that he's being sincere. "So, the big day is coming. Ready to exterminate your adversaries, Supergirl?" He teases.
"Almost. Today will be crucial for my performance, if I get this jump right three times then I'm more than ready. Though I have doubts we'll manage to do this before the rain falls." I look to the sky and sigh. It's seven in the morning and we probably have about four hours until the weather makes it impossible for us to fly let alone skydive. It takes time to jump, we have to prepare the equipment, check, recheck and recheck again the parachutes, check the plane, put our suits, get the plane to the right altitude and speed and then finally jump. "I'm going to get ready, when Lucy arrives tell her to hurry."
"Lucy's here!" She says in the distance and I run to hug her. "You're really hyped up for this jump, aren't you? Looks like a puppy hyperactively jumping around."
"You and Alex have to stop comparing me with young dogs, it's not good for my reputation." I tease pouting.
"So stop acting like one, silly." She sticks her tongue at me. "Besides, you're Alex's sister, I don't think she lets you have a reputation."
"Fair point. Let's get ready to jump." I say not wanting to waste more time.
We get ready and before we board the plane I check my phone. There's a text message from Alex.
"Movies night at your place, sis? I'll bring pop stickers and pizza ;)"
"Of course, you're the best sister ever! Love you :)" I type the reply rapidly. Can't wait to to get home and cuddle with my sister and some delicious food. Yes, if you're asking yourself, I cuddle with food.
The first jump is almost perfect, I got the acrobatics right but watching the video that Lucy made with her GoPro I feel that something is still missing, maybe it wasn't as gracious as I imagined it to be. Nothing that I couldn't get right in the next time.
The second jump is flawless, it's really all that I imagined and the feeling of performing it is indescribable. I feel like a real super hero, going up and down on the air like I weight nothing. There are some moments that I even forget that Lucy is there recording the whole thing, I just feel amazing and can't hold back the giggle that comes from within me. When the last set of acrobatics comes to an end, I activate my parachute and start making faces at Lucy who reciprocates my teasing. You must think we're crazy, I tell you we're just happy.
On the third jump I'm radiant, I just soar in the air like I belong there, even the strong winds that are blowing impetuously can't take me the pleasure of this experience, if I died here I would die happy. Don't take me wrong, I love my life and despite my troubled past, I don't want to die this young. It's just one of this moments that you feel so much peace that's like the world could end and you wouldn't even care. I look to Lucy and she's observing me with the same peace reflected on her features. We land softly on the glade and I'm not sure if I want to call it a day yet.
"Hey, Luce! Want to jump one more time before we go home? It looks like this bad weather is doing wonders for us." I say happily, slightly hopping on my feet.
"Oh, I'm pretty sure it is. You should have seen your face up there. We can go, just one more time though. We go back to hangar, get ready, jump and then home for us, right?" Lucy says folding her parachute.
"Right!" I jump hugging Lucy. "You're the best!"
"Hey, hey, hey! Calm down excited puppy. You're going to break my bones." She says hugging me back when I loosen my hold on her.
When we get back to the hangar Lucy's boyfriend, James, is there waiting for her with a bouquet of flowers and suited up. I can't hold back the look of curiousness that crosses my face.
James is a photographer at the Daily Planet, he works with my cousin. I don't have any idea what he's doing here now, but by the looks of it he came to surprise Lucy and apparently will jump with us.
"Hey, sweetheart! Did you like the surprise? I came all the way from Metropolis to jump with you. It's been a long time since we jumped together. I missed it." He handed her the flowers and kissed her on the forehead.
"Honey, I don't think it's a good idea, the weather is not favorable and you are not an experienced parachutist. A beginner shouldn't be jumping in this conditions." She says seriously.
"It's okay, Luce! Let the boy have some fun. We are with him, what could go wrong? We were jumping again anyway." I say because I know Lucy is more strict than she had to sometimes. "I'll go and tell Winn that we're going one more time."
We prepare ourselves and once we are on the plane it starts raining lightly, James starts to get a little scared, I know he's a beginner and never jumped in this weather conditions before so it's perfectly normal to be nervous.
"James, are you sure you want to do this?" Lucy asks. "You can stay here with Winn and meet us on the glade."
"No honey, I'll go. Can't give up now in front of the girls." He says trying to sound brave.
We jump together and after some minutes James starts having trouble on keeping stability. I try to help him and he gets his balance for a few more minutes only to lose it again. Lucy tries to help too, but we all know she's small and won't be able to get a man as tall and built as James on the right course.
I start worrying about our altitude and coach him to open his parachute at the same time as mine. It was all under control when suddenly a strong wind tangles our parachutes and we start to lose altitude fast. I know that James won't be able to handle a difficult move so I don't think twice, he's in danger and I have to save him, with one last look at Lucy's desperate eyes I cut my parachute ropes.
After some seconds of being thrown by the wind, I manage to open my back up parachute. It's a risky move as I'm caught in a wind current so it throws me even more off course and above some trees that's exactly where I don't want to be. I can hear Lucy and James shouting my name, but there's nothing I can do as I plummet to the ground at surreal speed and I'm thrown upside down with full force at a tree.
I brace myself for the impact and feel a horrendous pain when the nape of my neck collides with a particularly thick branch, I feel like electricity coursing through my body and then everything feels numb. When the world stops spinning the pain in my neck is unbearable, my left arm is hurting like hell, definitely broken, and I can see a thin branch stuck all the way through my calf, it's bleeding a lot. Shouldn't I be feeling it? It looks far worse than my arm, why isn't it hurting? I reach for a stable branch with my good arm, but my fingers don't seem to cooperate with me.
I can feel myself slipping and if I do nothing, I'll fall a good 8 ft head first to the ground. I try again but my noncooperative fingers can't grasp the branch enough to hold me up. I feel my shoulders scraping on the rough wood and I know that's nothing I can do. I can hear Lucy and James landing and screaming for me but they won't arrive fast enough.
I can only hope that I'll meet with my parents and that Alex knows how much she meant to me, she was the better sister I could have. I can feel that I'm falling and then there's a sharp pain in my head. Everything turns black.
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I hope you guys liked it and want to read more!
Please tell me what you're thinking about it, your feedback is highly appreciated.
If someone knows more about this subject and is willing to help, I'll explode from happiness. In this story Kara will have a C8 spinal chord injury. Even after tons of research I don't feel totally prepared to write about it so I would love some help.
Have a wonderful week and God bless you all :)