Chapter 3: S.H.I.E.L.D. Stops By For Dinner

I ran as fast I could to my locker, quickly grabbed my stuff, and made a beeline for the bus! Thank God that Crosby and his goons didn't ride on the same bus as me. In the state I was in, I would have probably blown it up with my freaky lightning powers! As I was sitting in the back seat of the bus, trying to slow my heart rate, I became lost in thought. What did I just do?! I didn't mean to do whatever it is I did to Crosby! God I hope he wasn't dead! My heart was racing. I had never gotten into trouble. Well, at least i've never been caught doing something bad. Still, I was pretty sure that blasting my most hated enemy with 10,000 volts of electricity was cause for expulsion, if not incarceration! I was so lost in thought, I didn't realize that the bus was at my house, until the driver called my name, waking me out of my day nightmare.

As I walked towards the door, my heart started to beat uncontrollably. Had the school already identified me as the electro guy? Were there cops inside my house waiting to arrest me (not very smart on my part, considering there were no cop cars around)? Worst of all, did Doris already know what I did? What would she say to me? How would she look at me? I paused at the door, took a deep breath, and opened it. As soon as I was inside, I heard the sounds of the stove boiling water; which meant Doris was cooking.

"Jason, is that you?" she asked me.

"Yeah, Doris," I responded.

"How was your day, sweetie pie?"

"It was ok," I quickly lied; which I felt bad about. "Nothing special happened."

"Ok then. Jason, can you come here and get this flour on the top shelf for me?"

"Yeah, Doris, I'm coming."

Before you meet my foster mom, you need to know something first: she is the sweetest, kindest, and most thoughtful old lady you could ever hope to meet in this lifetime.

She was always patient with me. Never pried for information, or tried to make me change my behavior. She had this cool way of acknowledging the good things I did, and completely ignoring the bad ones. For example, when I came home from a fight, instead of scolding or grounding me, our conversation went something like this:

Doris: "What happened sweetie?"

Me: "I got into a fight."

Doris: "Why?"

Me: "Because this guy threw eggs at my shirt."

Doris: "Did you win?"

Me: "Sure did."

Doris: "Good job Jason! Let's order pizza,"

She never beat me or punished me, even when I really deserved it. Plus, as if she couldn't get anymore awesome, she picked me out of all the kids at that stupid orphanage I used to live at. After my parents died, I lived at that orphanage for two years. During that time, I was the worst, most unwell-behaved kid you could ever meet. Yet even so, Doris still chose me over all of the other kids. Even though everyone was always saying bad things about me, saying that she should choose someone else, Doris said in loud clear words: "I want him." She's been raising me ever since, and it's been the best seven years of my life.

Anyway, when I got into the kitchen, Doris was on a chair trying to reach the flour on the top shelf (seriously, she always does this. Whenever she needs something, it's always where she can't reach it). I helped her down, and got the flour myself. By the way, Doris is about 5'5 in height, likes to wear jeans and weird shirts, and dyes her hair different colors every other month (this month it was a light shade of pink).

"Thanks, honey," she said as I handed her the flour.

"No problem," I said. "So,what are you cooking?"

"Your favorite. White rice with fried cabbage, ham chunks, and fried chicken. Plus, apple pie and hot caramel surprise for dessert."

That immediately made my day! Doris knew that ever since I was little, this was my favorite dinner meal. Oh, and about the hot caramel surprise? You see, about five years ago, since I didn't like hot chocolate very much, Doris made me hot caramel instead. As the years went by, we started to add things into it: sprinkles, strawberries, cherries, even gummy worms. We only made the stuff on special occasions like birthdays and holidays, but I guess Doris was feeling spontaneous today.

"Awesome," I said with a huge grin on my face. "Can I help you cook today?"

"Sure, Jason," she said. "Go upstairs and wash your hands; then we can get started."

I ran upstairs as fast I could, not wanting to spend a second away from the kitchen than I had to. Once I got to the upstairs bathroom, I flipped the switch to turn the light on, and was unpleasantly surprised when the light bulb overloaded and popped. "Oh yeah," I remembered. "Freaky lightning powers."

"Jason?" Doris called up. "Is everything ok? I heard something break."

"It's fine, Doris," I quickly responded. "The light bulb overloaded. I'll replace it.

I opened the storage closet that was directly across from the bathroom and carefully grabbed a light bulb. I brought it back to the bathroom, flipped the switch off before screwing in the new light bulb, and flipped it back up again. This time the bulb didn't pop. Probably because I wasn't so hyper.

"Ok," I thought. "It looks like my powers respond to emotion. I was angry when I blasted Crosby, I was excited when I overloaded the light bulb, so as long as I stay cool, I can keep my powers contained."

I washed my hands, swept up the glass, and rejoined Doris in the kitchen.

"Ready to cook?" she asked me.

"You bet!" I said.

Here's some free advice. Cook with your parents as often as you can. If you haven't already, start now. Before we got started, Doris handed me my blue cooking apron which said "Mommy's Little Helper" on it. While I was gone, she set up a playlist on her iPod for us to jam to while we worked. Another thing you should know about Doris is that she is a 15 year old fangirl trapped in an old lady's body. Seriously, she has more One Direction songs on her iPod than most school girls do. She has a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and a Snapchat. Plus, she actually knows how to text, use text slang, and has a pillow pet (a ladybug). While we were cooking, we were listening to the best of One Direction, Big Time Rush, Britney Spears, and NSYNC. As we cooked together, I felt all of the troubles of my day just fall off my shoulders. Doris had a way of helping me do that. So what if I blasted a guy with lightning? So what if I was probably going to be expelled from school, and put into prison? All that mattered now was the fact that I was home with my foster mom, cooking food, and having the time of my life.

After about 2 hours, the food was ready to be eaten, and I helped Doris move it to the table. We blessed the food, but before we actually got to eating, the doorbell rang. Immediately, my heart sank so low, it was probably in danger of being digested. We weren't expecting anyone, we didn't order anything, so the people at that door could only be one of the three: cops, lawyers, or federal agents.

"Well who could that be?" Doris asked. "Wait here Jase, I'll check on it."

"Please," I silently prayed to anyone that would listen to me. "Please don't let it be cops, lawyers, or F.B.I."

"Jason?" Doris called in a very concerned tone. "Would you come here please? There are some men here who want to see you."

I slowly walked toward the front door, my heart racing faster than it ever had in my life. Right on the porch, I saw something more or less what I was imagining i'd see. There were three guys dressed in Men In Black type suits. Two of them were tall stocky black guys wearing shades and grim expressions. They were flanking this shorter white guy with neat brown hair, calculating blue eyes, and an expression that was a mix of amusement, seriousness, and judgement. His expression said something like: "You don't look like much, but for some reason, I have to deal with you." For some reason tho, I didn't have the feeling of petrifying dread anymore. Sure, these guys looked like they were the real deal, but if they were gonna arrest me, they probably would have already. Plus their demeanor displayed that of people who wanted to parley. They wanted to talk to me before they took any other action.

"Hello, Jason," said the white guy. " How are you doing?"

Ok, suddenly I was scared again! This guy knew my name, and I don't mean knew it, as in he heard Doris say it, I mean he REALLY knew my name. Looking at this guy, I had the feeling that he knew everything about me. He probably read a file or something on who I was. I was starting to feel sick again.

"I'm fine," I responded. "Yourself?"

"Not too bad. Can you step outside for a second? I need to talk to you alone."

"Now wait a minute," said Doris. "As his mother, I have the right to know what you want with my son."

"Foster mother, ma'am," said the white guy. "Rest assured, Jason is not in any trouble, but we do need to have a quick talk with him to discuss recent events.

"It's ok, Doris," I said. "I have something to tell you anyway. I didn't want to tell you like this, but I couldn't hide it for long."

I thought Doris was gonna get mad at me, or cry, or something. But like I said, she's really good at the whole optimism thing.

"Fine," she said, trying for a smile. "Would you three gentlemen like to come in? We were just about to eat dinner, and there is more than enough for everyone."

Imagine eating your favorite meal in the presence of a lion that could choose to tear you to shreds at any moment. Now, multiply that feeling by one-hundred, and you'll get a rough understanding of how I felt during dinner time. Agent Coulson, who introduced himself before we all sat down, never took his eyes off of me for more than 10 seconds at a time. He told us that he and his friends worked with S.H.I.E.L.D., which made me nothing short of terrified. I knew what S.H.I.E.L.D. was; everyone did. They were this super spy agency that handled weird things that happened in the world; like lightning shooting dodgeballers for example. He was very polite to Doris; complementing the house, her cooking, even making small talk about quilt patterns. The other guys pretty much just focused on their food (I didn't blame them, the food was fantastic). After dinner and dessert, everyone moved to the living room couches, and Agent Coulson put some kind of bracelet on my arm.

"Just tell me everything that happened today at school," he said. "Don't lie to me. The armband will shock you if you lie to me."

I didn't know what was more insulting. The fact that he automatically assumed I would lie, or the fact that he put a device on me that would SHOCK me if I lied. Seriously, you're gonna use electricity on me? That's just bad humor. Anyway, I told Coulson everything about my day. From the time before gym, the dodgeball game (I went into detail about that), and the moment where I fried Crosby with electricity and ran away. I willed my hands to surge with a little bit of voltage to get my point across; which wasn't hard, considering how nervous I felt at the moment. Doris made a strangled yelp when she saw that, and I couldn't help but feel guilty. Doris could take a lot of things, but I was pretty sure this was way more than she could handle.

"So why did you run away?" Agent Coulson asked me.

"I was afraid," I responded. "I didn't know what I did. I didn't mean to do it. Is Crosby ok?"

"He's currently in the hospital. He'll be fine, but he won't be in school for the rest of the year."

As if I couldn't feel any guiltier. I may have hated Crosby, but I never wanted to injure him so seriously. Maybe I did deserve to go to prison.

"So what happens now?" I asked Agent Coulson, knowing fully what the answer was probably going to be.

"Now, you come with us to base. We have to-"

"Wait a minute," said Doris. "You said Jason wasn't in any trouble, so why does he have to go away with you?"

"That's classified information, ma'am. Just know that your foster son will be safe, and if all goes accordingly, should be back by Christmas Day.

"But-"

"It's alright, Doris," I said. "We should cooperate with him. I'm not in trouble, and I'll be back soon. It's a win, win.

"Jason," Doris said with a very pleading look on her face.

I didn't have the heart to drag this on any further, so I reached out and gave her a big hug.

"Just promise me you'll be safe," she said.

"I will be," I said. "I promise i'll be back soon...Mom."

I could tell it made her feel better when I actually called her that, and I actually meant it. Doris had been there for me at a time when no one else could be. She was always patient with me, and made sure I was happy, even if I didn't want to be. Whether or not it was biological, Doris was my mother, and I was going to call her that from now on. Agent Coulson pressed a button on his wristwatch.

"Area secure. Stand down and report back to vehicles," he said.

Outside, I heard the sounds of guns clicking; being disarmed. I was going to go to my room and get some clothes ready, but Agent Coulson told me that would be unnecessary, and that I had to go with him now. I grabbed my hoodie, put it on, and followed him and his friends outside. Across from my house were at least a dozen black SUV's. Agent Coulson led me to the one in the middle, and ushered me inside (he even let me ride shotgun). My mom was looking at me from the porch, and I waved bye to her one last time, before I set off to parts unknown with Agent Coulson. He said that I wasn't in trouble and that I would be home by Christmas. The weird thing was, I believed him, but also got the feeling that I would not exactly be "safe". At least not the way I hoped I would be.