SECOND CHAPTER
Joan enters the gym to find an impatient Coach Boomer standing on a raised platform.
"Girardi? You're late."
"Sorry Coach, I had to endure an exam by Mr. Medulla."
"That explains your own personal spy satellite."
"You noticed my little friend? I'm just hoping the other students won't be jealous and demand their own. So how does this power placement thing work?"
"You step up on this platform and demonstrate your power. I evaluate your potential and assign you to either the hero track or hero-support, otherwise known as sidekicks."
Shrugging, Joan mounts the platform amd murmurs, "Super strength."
As Boomer begins speaking into a handheld control, Joan is distracted by an astonishing sight. A ghost travels across the gym floor and disappears into a nearby wall. Besides her ability to speak with God, Joan could also discern spirits. All her previous experiences had been with friends who had crossed over, but this was apparently a malevolent spirit who had been causing problems at Sky High for years. God's assignment had been to deal with this angry ghost.
Suddenly Joan is aware of danger and instinctively leaps away. Her newly granted strength carries her across the gym and allows her to easily land on some nearby stairs. Looking back, Joan is amazed to see a car, held by chains, suspended only inches above the platform.
Accusingly, Joan shouts, "Hey, are you trying to kill me?"
"It's part of your test, Girardi. You're suppose to catch it."
"Oh. Maybe a little warning next time?"
Feeling a bit foolish, Joan reclimbs the platform. Effortlessly, Joan uses one hand to lift the car over her head. Appropriately impressed, Coach Boomer makes a notation on his clipboard.
"Girardi... HERO! Now report to administration to pick up your class schedule."
The rest of the day goes by in a blur of activity. Learning the layout of the school, getting introductory assignments in her new classes and keeping a look-out for her elusive ghost keeps her busy. As expected, everywhere Joan goes, she is ostracized by the other students. The floating orb above her head makes Joan a pariah. (Joan smiles as she remembers she once thought that word meant Amazonian death fish instead of social outcast.)
At the end of the day, Joan stops by the nurse's office to visit with Aunt Olive, who invites her to dinner at her place. Remembering what a good cook her great aunt is, she readily accepts. She expects them to travel down to the nearby city of Maxville, but is surprised when they take the elevator to the lower levels and enter a cozy apartment that Aunt Olive proclaims as her own.
"Wow, I had no idea the staff lived at the school."
"Not all of them, but most of the single ones do. The commute to the surface is such a hassle, and besides, for security reasons some of the staff has to be here. Also, there are the night classes to consider."
"I didn't know there were night classes. Who takes them?"
"Lots of people. Heroes who acquire their powers late in life, active heroes who want to keep current with new developments, and those students who can't afford full time attendance. They go to public schools by day, and take concentrated hero classes at night."
"Is living here why we could never get any mail to you?"
"Yes, part of my globe-trotting/free spirit cover story. I know it seems odd protecting my secret identity after all these years, but it's a habit of a lifetime. Have you taken precautions to protect your identity?"
"I haven't told anyone back home about my new power—not even my parents."
"But if Will and Helen don't know, who's paying for your tuition?"
"That would be my benefactor, who is also paying my living expenses at the Camelot Motel."
"You're living alone at a motel? That just won't do. Why don't you move in here with me?"
Joan instantly sees the advantage of living full time at the school. Ghosts are generally more active at night, and this would increase her chances of completing her assignment quickly.
"Won't I be crowding you?"
"A little, but hey, we're family. Besides, when I was sick, the Girardis took me in despite how cantankerous I was acting."
"In that case, I accept."
Joan is surprised by how happy Olive seems by her acceptance. As Olive prepares dinner, Joan tells her about her day, and the older woman seems fascinated by all she has to say. She realizes that Nurse Spex must lead a fairly lonely existence. When Joan gets to the part about power placement, she lays it on thick about the near miss.
"For a moment, I really thought I was about to die."
"Well, super hero training has its' share of risks. The school's job is to prepare you for a lifetime of battles and real dangers."
"Which got me wondering, has any student ever been killed at this school?"
"At this school? No, but we have had some close calls."
"Wait, you're being evasive. You said you attended the original Sky High. Has a student ever been killed at any version of this school?"
Olive sighs and nods. "Sky High opened its' doors in the autumn of 1945, right after the end of the second world war. The original school didn't fly, but instead was located on a high mountain plateau. It was only accessible by aircraft and by those who were flyers. In the late spring of '53, my senior year, the school was attacked by a super villain by the name of General Fanatic. He had been a real army general who had been drummed out of the service for his insatiable brutality. In those days, he was running a small mercenary army that was hired by a cabal of super villains to destroy Sky High. Their revenge against the world's super heroes."
"Ordinary soldiers against super heroes? They didn't stand a chance."
"In most cases you'd be right, but General Fanatic's power was telepathy. By mind-reading, he learned the location of Sky High, and the details of all our powers and weaknesses. He was even able to pick the day when we were most vulnerable: seniors power test day."
"What's that?"
"For any senior to graduate, he or she must run an obstacle course designed to test his particular power to its' limit. The school was much smaller in those days, and there were only 25 students and 10 of the instructors present. When radar detected an approaching attack force, all the instructors went out to meet the enemy. Unfortunately, it was a trick. Robotic drones led our experienced heroes on a wild goose chase while Fanatic, with 500 soldiers, hit us with bombs, rockets, gas, flamethrowers and machine guns. For both sides, it quickly became a fight to the death."
"To the death? But I thought the number one rule for heroes was to never kill."
"That's the tradition, but even heroes have the survival instinct. Did you know, when x-rays are powerful enough, they can fry the skin off a man in seconds?" (Olive shudders at this memory.) "In the end, we killed them all, except for the General, who ran like the coward he was. As for the rest of us, we had nine dead and the survivors all suffered various wounds—five of whom were so badly injured, they never were able to enter service as heroes."
"How horrible. Is that why you went into nursing after graduation?"
"Yes, for years I dealt with the nightmares caused by that day. Helping others helped me to recover and to begin a normal life. When I met and married Henry, I was sure I'd never go into hero work, but fate can be a cruel bitch."
"No kidding. What surprises me is that I didn't see any memorial to the fallen anywheres in the school."
"And you won't. For decades the administrators of Sky High have tried to sweep this under the rug. The school's failure to protect its' students, along with the image of teenagers slaughtering hundreds of combat veterans, was a scandal too huge to endure. The only records of the incident are locked in the secret documents vault in the school library. Only a handful of people have access."
"That's just wrong. A group of students gave their lives for this school. They should be honored for their sacrifice."
"You're preaching to the choir, kiddo. I've brought the idea of a memorial before the board every year for decades. Those stubborn jackasses won't budge. The shame is, with each succeeding generation, the memory of that day fades. When my generation is gone, no one will remember."
Joan thought: Someone remembers, and he will haunt this school forever if something is not done.
TBC/ Please review