Good Kids
The monotonous shuffle of feet steadily grew as the alarm blared its annoying tone. Romeo fought a battle to stay awake as he started his early Tuesday morning with a fire drill. Freddy passed him his bag, "uh duuude, I'm so tired" he said, his eyelids thick and heavy like syrup. Freddy tossed his long blonde hair back and Romeo threw his hood up as they walked together with their form room to the small field outside the church near the school. The two of them walked in relative silence amongst the chattering schoolmates until Ellie Evans walked up behind them and tapped Romeo's shoulder, "hey guys, I forgot to congratulate you both on the show, it was really good!" she said in her usual, bubbly voice. Romeo turned his head "thanks Ellie, you were brilliant as well" he said, "yeah but that coat was a little big on you" joked Freddy about his friend's stature. Ellie slapped him playfully and retorted sharply.
As they treaded down the stairs they passed Christina's form class and Claudia bounded up to greet them, she kissed Freddy on the cheek and resumed walking, all the while complaining about the fire drill. Ammar looked on at Claudia and shook his head amusedly. He went to Romeo "hey man, howzit going?" Romeo said, fist bumping his friend "yeah not too bad eh, had a really late night cause I left my homework to the last minute." "Dude" said Romeo "I swear if you weren't so lazy you'd be the best student this school's ever seen." This was a constant joke the two shared. They were led out of school and across the road to the small field outside the nearby church. Claudia and Ammar said goodbye and returned to their form class while the other three went and stood in line in front of Alice. Alice ticked their names off her register as the whole school stood in the field, bored out of their skulls.
The entire process wasted fifteen minutes and at the end Greg, the Dean gave them a lecture about efficiency during a fire. Yasmin, a girl in the other class came over. "Hey Freddy, I was wondering about the music mock, did you study at all?" said Yasmin. "Yeah a little bit but Marge is still gonna kill me" said Freddy in a borderline monotonous voice. They all stood there for another second, wishing for something interesting; they got more than they bargained for. The large cloud that was looming above them suddenly became very violent and large chunks of hail began falling from the sky. One particularly big one hit a car, destroying it and chaos ensued.
Everything that happened next was a blur, flurries of limbs as panicked students ran for cover and bolts of lightning that made the ground quake. Romeo, Claudia, Freddy, Ellie, Ammar and Yasmin ran for a tree, almost making it but they were cut off at the last second by a massive surge of electricity that filled their bodies. While these deadly bolts flooded their essence each of the six had a different thought pass through their minds. Romeo thought if he had only pushed himself to be faster and better then he could have saved himself and his friends; this enraged him. Claudia's thought was one of survival, a desperate plea of survival. Freddy accepted his death and let everything wash over him; Ammar wished he'd sink into the ground and be at peace. Ellie cursed her short stature and lack of speed thereof while Yasmin bizarrely thought about how hot it was that day. They did not realize the impact of these thoughts.
Chapter 1 – What the Hell?
Romeo awoke and found himself on the ground. He turned his aching head and found his friends and the rest of the school in a similar state. "What happened?" said Ellie getting to her feet. Romeo tried to answer but found that it took him a moment before his brain sent the message to his voice and by then all he could say was "ahhhhhh my head hurts." Suddenly a piece of burning debris fell dangerously close to Freddy. It missed him however and hit a target to his left… Claudia. The five of them looked in horror as the shard of metal embedded itself in her chest with a spray of blood. Claudia looked down and fainted when she saw the gaping wound.
Then however the shard began to move back, as if her body was forcing it out, Romeo's mouthed dropped open as Claudia opened her eyes again and sat up. "Whoa Claudia, what the hell!" said Freddy, I eyes glued to the wound that was sealing itself shut. Claudia shrugged but this answer satisfied no one because Ellie said "seriously Claudia, what the hell!" Claudia gave Ellie a serious look and said, "I don't know Ellie! Believe me I'm as surprised as you." It was then that Romeo thought, "where did the metal shard come from anyway?" he turned and saw that the church, which coincidentally was hosting a charity event that day was ablaze. "Hey guys!" Romeo shouted at his friends "argue later, move NOW, we need to do something! That church is full." Without thinking Romeo ran forward and charged with all his might at the large door, which had been fused shut by the fire.
He slammed into the door and bounced off with nothing gained but a bruised shoulder. Not about to give up yet, Romeo leapt to his feet and slammed into the door again, this time with his hands; he began pushing with all his strength but no matter how hard he tried the door would no budge. Tears began to form in his eyes, tears of anger at himself, at his weak body and his weak mind. He had never been able to step up and do what needed to be done and this was going to be the same. Romeo screamed out in rage and forced his body to keep pushing. He began to feel an odd sensation in his body and opened his eyes. His muscles were swelling and he could feel his strength rising. Not only that but his senses sharpened, his mind cleared and he felt his bones harden. With a renewed determination he raised a fist and slammed it into the door; it was blasted of its hinges and crumbled before it fell.
Romeo ran into the building, he spotted the congregation huddled in the middle of the church; some of them praying silently while others holding each other in what they believed to be their last moments. Romeo ran forward and shouted "HEY IF YOURE DONE PRAYING HOW BOUT WE SURVIVE THIS!" he was really not in the mood for church folk today. A beam fell from the ceiling and would have crushed them but Romeo's new reflexes forced his arms up and he caught the half-ton log. His muscles swelled bigger and he felt the log get lighter. He looked down and angrily realized that the congregation were now thanking the lord for sending them an angel. He shouted "for fuck's sake! I'm not fireproof! get outta here dammit! He was really amazed when some of them still did not budge.
Romeo was not foolish enough to trust his strength to keep growing with the increasing weight and he was not going to test his new powers with lives at risk. But he could not think of a way to make them move. Most had left with his first outcry but seven of them were still huddled on the floor, praying. "Great" Romeo thought, "I am going to die trying to save a bunch of idiots." He knew he must have been holding about a ton now without tire but the whole roof was about to collapse and Romeo did not believe he had that much super strength.
Suddenly the weight was lifted off his shoulders and he looked up. There was Ellie, except she was not Ellie… well she was but she was the size of a building and holding the roof. Then Freddie came literally through the wall, grabbed him and phased back out of the church just as Ellie scooped up the seven prayers and placed them down in the field. Romeo felt an odd sensation as Freddie phased him out, being intangible felt tingly in a way to him and it was bizarre to say the least, he noticed that everything had gone black and white as well and wondered if Freddie saw the same thing.
When they were out of the church Freddie let go and colour returned to the world. Ellie dropped the roof and turned to look at Romeo and her friends. She walked right up to Romeo and smiled down the five-story distance between his eyes and hers. "Yeah just laugh about it why don't you" said Romeo, feeling slightly emasculated. He looked back at the church and said, "Well that's gone"
"Don't worry" said Claudia "we have some people on it" she gestured at Yasmin and Lorena, another girl in their year. Lorena was commanding a rain cloud the size of the church to float directly above it and rain hard. Yasmin on the other hand was absorbing the heat with one hand, which killed the fire, and with the other hand was channelling the heat into the ground, killing the grass and turning it brown.
Within a minute the fire was gone. Lorena ran to talk to Alice while Yasmin came up to her friends to gloat. "So" she said "I can absorb heat." Ellie shrunk to the size of a teacup then grew to twenty feet tall before returning to normal size "and I can change my size" she said. Freddie phased through Ellie to show his power and then they all turned to Romeo "what about you?" said Yasmin. She then noticed his enlargened muscles that were now receding and said, "Aah." A crunch of metal was heard and the gang turned to look in the direction of the sound. Ammar was holding a metal cable from a broken power line. The cables were picking apart the car that had been crushed, freeing the people trapped inside. "hey Ammar" shouted Romeo "why aren't you electrocuted?" Ammar cocked his head to his left; Romeo turned and saw Alisan, his Turkish friend with his hands stretched out at the line connected to the power grid; arcs of electricity flying into his hand before dispersing.
Suddenly the car made a groaning noise. Claudia yelled "Ammar watch out!" and shoved Ammar back. The car exploded and engulfed Claudia in a flash. The gang was knocked backward and dazed. Moments later they all jumped up to see the result of the explosion, worry in their hearts. Ammar was unscathed save some soot, but Claudia was reduced to visible pieces. Ellie and Yasmin screamed; Freddie broke down. Romeo just dropped to his knees in shock. "Can she survive that?" asked Yasmin, not really believing herself. But sure enough the pieces began to roll around and come together. The gang just stared with their jaws on the ground as Claudia's jaw was encased in tissue. Veins realigned, bones cracked into place and muscled wrapped themselves over skeleton; soon the eyes grew back and they looked in Freddie's direction. When all the bones were in place and all the muscles were there, skin began to grow. It enveloped her body and then, lastly her hair grew back. She beamed at Freddie but her look changed to one of confusion at her friends' blushing faces. "What?" she asked "Uuuuum Claudia… Your uh… clothes didn't grow back. Claudia looked down, noticed she was naked save a few bloody rags that covered nothing and fainted.