Reefside: The "AAR" Chronicles – Part 4

Ability Overload

By Justin Jack

Beth headed out of the girls locker room and into the gym. She had changed from her street clothes into her workout gear that consisted of a pink skin tight muscle shirt, black sweat pants with red and white stripes going down each side and a green hair band to tie her hair back into a ponytail.

She thought it was funny that even though she wasn't a ranger, she still found herself wearing her parents' former ranger colors in some form or another.

Beth walked around the gym, looking around at all the other students stretching and getting ready for various tasks that were handed to them. Out of the corner of her eye, Beth saw a balance beam on the left side of the room. She cracked a smile and headed over to it.

She climbed atop the beam and steadied herself. With a deep breath, she lunged into two back flips and landed perfectly on the end of the beam. Beth smiled, if only her mother were here to see her she would be so proud of her little girl. She smirked as she decided to do a big finish. She poised herself for one final flip off the beam, and pushed off with all her strength.

She completed the flip, but she didn't feel her feet hit the mat. "What the hell?" She looked down to see herself floating about two feet above the floor.

"This is weird, even for ranger standards," she told herself.

"Very impressive, Miss Oliver."

Beth whipped her head in the direction of the voice. As she did, her feet hit the floor with a thud.

"Oh, thanks Coach. Gymnastics runs in the family," she said with a put on smile. "Among other things," she added under her breath.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, nothing. That last flip made me light headed and a little nauseous, can I have a pass to the nurse's office?"

"Okay, but be more careful in the future and don't rush it."

The Coach printed out a hall pass from his clip pad and handed it to her.

"Thanks Coach, you're a lifesaver."

"No problem, just take it easy and if I don't see you later, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Thanks sir, I'll be back tomorrow."

Beth ran back to the locker room and started to punch in the combination on her locker when she noticed her hand starting to fade again, only this time it didn't stop at her wrist. It was moving up her arm.

"Oh shit, not again!"

She runs to the mirror and watches in horror as her whole body starts to become transparent.

"I really gotta find Dad. Maybe he can stop this."

After trying to concentrate on getting herself visible again, she had no such luck.

"Damn it! I do not want to spend the rest of the school year in-freaking-visible!"

Suddenly, she couldn't feel the ground beneath her feet. She looked down at her legs that have not yet gone invisible and saw herself floating again.

"Great, I'm either going to fade away to nothing or float off the face of the Earth."

Beth grabbed her backpack out of her locker and swung it over her shoulder causing her feet to land on the floor.

"That's one problem solved. Now I have to get out of here without being seen."

Beth slapped herself on the forehead.

"Great choice of words Beth," she told herself.

She opened the door to the locker room and peeked out to see if the coast was clear. Seeing this, she makes a mad dash for the side exit and runs toward the main building, looking over her shoulder to make sure nobody saw her. All of a sudden...WHAM! She runs right into Bryce, who's coming the opposite way.

Beth hits the ground with a thud knocking her back into solidity. Bryce looks down and sees what he banged into.

"Oh Beth, Sorry, I didn't see you...there."

He extends a hand to help her up looking around puzzled wondering where the hell she'd come from.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm just on my way to see my Dad," she answered, trying to cover up her current situation.

"Do you need me to walk with you?"

"NO!...I mean no, thank you. It's not that far, I can make it."

Bryce looks down at her panicked face.

"Are you sure you're okay? You look like you just saw a ghost"

"You have no idea. I'm fine, I'll talk to you later. I gotta go, sorry."

She runs off toward the main building. Bryce turns around and sees Beth's MP3 player laying on the ground.

"Hey, you forgot your...," He turns around and sees her nowhere in sight, "player."

He looks the player over, stuffs it in his bag and continues on his way.

End of Part 4

TBC