5.
I walked up to my room after the homecoming dance, and found a strange box on my bed. It was a small gift, wrapped in pretty paper and tied with a bow. Curious, I opened it up - and a mass of colorful butterflies flew out, fluttering around my head.
It was beautiful, but at the same time it was also very strange.
"Mom? Dad?" I called uncertainly, and they rushed upstairs. They stopped, staring, in the doorway. "This is the weirdest thing I have ever asked someone, but did you put a box of butterflies on my bed?" I smiled in bewilderment.
"No, honey," said my Mom in surprise. "And as far as we know, no one else has entered the house all night."
"At least, not through the front door," I realized slowly, troubled.
A box of butterflies was a very harmless thing to leave in somebody's bedroom, but how had it gotten there? Just in case, with a creepy feeling, I shut the window curtains before taking off my garter and my dress.
That night, I had dreams about Justin. Memories morphed into each other, from the way he'd held my hand at the football game to our awkward, laughing dance and our kiss on the dance floor to my hand over his warm, beating heart on the drive home in his car.
"Morrigan Autumn Kent! We're leaving for the farmer's market in fifteen minutes and you haven't done your chores yet!"
(I could do six field hands' worth of farm work in ten minutes. It was why my parents never had to hire anybody.)
I woke up - and stared. I was… floating. Floating above my bed. I thought back to what I'd been dreaming about. I felt a rush of happiness and I floated higher.
I… floated when I was happy?
"Mom, Dad, you might want to come see this," I called, my eyes big. They came upstairs to my bedroom immediately, a bit spooked after last night - and stopped in the doorway. "I can fly," I said with false calm, my face pale. "I think it happens when I think of something happy."
"Can you… can you get down?" my father asked disbelievingly at last.
I thought of going back down to my bed, and moved slowly down with a soft landing on the checkered covers with a thump.
"... What is happening to me?" I asked, staring up at my parents. "I'm a little scared. When will the new powers stop?"
"I don't know, honey," said my father at last, running a hand through his hair. "As soon as you start breaking the law of gravity, we're definitely in uncharted territory."
"But we'll figure it out together," said my Mom, sitting down on the bed beside me. "We'll just take each thing and master it as it comes. There's no reason this has to ruin your cover as an ordinary human. You know how to keep yourself down on the ground, we've already seen that."
I nodded, becoming calmer. "Just don't expect me to start flying anytime soon," I said. They looked at me curiously. I smirked, amused at the irony. "The alien who can fly is afraid of heights."
Justin met us at the farmer's market; he was trying to get into my father's good graces by helping out at our produce stall. We set up our produce, and when no one was looking I shoved the nail for the Kent Organic Produce sign into the stall post with my thumb.
"Now. You over there. You over there." My father pointed at two completely opposite ends of the produce stall.
"Dad," I sighed.
"It's alright. Thanks, Mr Kent," said Justin ingratiatingly, and he went to his assigned place. My Dad stared at him, as if trying to find something wrong with this. Then he humphed and stalked off. My Mom ducked her head, trying to hide her amusement. I looked over at Justin and he smiled and winked.
Our friends came by shopping in the farmer's market, stopping by our stall to say hi to us. I sold countless rounds of produce to passing customers. It was a peaceful, sunny day in Smallville, Kansas.
"Hey, Morrigan." I looked around. Lex was standing there.
"Lex," I said in surprise. "You don't seem like the farmer's market type. No offense."
"There's actually something I wanted to talk to you about," he said, seeming troubled, and he led me away. "I was driving home last night and I heard someone yelling for help out in a field. I went out with a flashlight to go look, and there was some naked bespectacled kid strung up to a post out there. He ran away before I could ask him his name. Said he had something to do. You would still have been at the homecoming dance."
I winced, looking away.
"Morrigan, is this a regular thing?" he asked seriously, looking slightly disturbed. "Because that was some serious Children of the Corn level stuff last night. You have no idea how creepy it was finding him in the middle of a pitch black field. Even the Romans saved tying people to posts for special occasions; the kid could've died out there."
"There's this hazing ritual called the Scarecrow tradition," I said slowly. "Every year, a nerdy freshman boy is selected by the jocks, taken out to Reilly Field, stripped down to his boxers, and hung up in the field like a scarecrow. He's left there all night. It always happens right before the big Homecoming game, near Halloween. And that kid… I think it might have been Greg Arkin. He's the science reporter for The Torch and he has a big bug obsession. People call him Bug Boy. I've always felt a little sorry for him."
Lex's eyebrows had risen. "So much for the ideal of the idyllic small town," he said at last.
"Morrigan, you're needed back at the stall." I turned around to find my father standing there, glaring flatly.
"Mr Kent! It's good to see you!" said Lex with false cheer, sticking out his hand for a handshake.
At last, suspiciously, my Dad shook it. "Lex," he muttered begrudgingly, and went back to the truck to remove more crates of produce.
Probably to my father's irritation, Lex followed me back to the stall, hands in his pockets. "At least I got a handshake this time," he said, amused. "So is that the guy you were talking about?" He smirked and nodded to Justin.
I blushed, smiled, and nodded. "He was my date at the dance last night," I admitted.
Lex walked up to Justin. "Lex Luthor," he said, sticking out a hand. "I'm a friend of Morrigan's." In a surreal state of bewildered delight, Justin shook hands with a celebrity. "I heard you're Morrigan's boyfriend." Justin blushed, grinned, nodded sheepishly. "You're a lucky man," said Lex evenly, smiling slightly, hands back in his pockets.
I looked over, and found a strange guy staring at us, half ducked behind a stall. I looked at him in surprise for a moment - and then recognized him. That was Greg Arkin. But he'd undergone some sort of weird overnight transformation. His glasses were gone, as was his acne, his brown hair slicked back.
"Greg!" I called, curious. "You want to stop skulking and come talk to us?"
Greg paused, and then ducked farther behind the stall shyly. "I'll be right back," I said, and walked over to him. "Greg, I heard about the Scarecrow thing," I said sympathetically. "I'm so sorry. It's horrible, what they did to you."
"Yeah," said Greg, looking down, nodding, shuffling his feet. "It was awful." His head perked up. "I got you this," he said, and shoved it awkwardly into my hand. It was a little stained glass butterfly ornament, hung from a car's rearview mirror. "For that car you told me you were fixing up," he said.
"You remembered," I smiled. "Thank you so much." Greg and I knew each other vaguely through the school paper, and also through Pete, who used to be Greg's best childhood friend. "It's beautiful."
"Did you know the average butterfly only lives for eight hours?" he said brightly.
"Do you know, it's funny, I've been encountering butterflies a lot lately," I said, amused.
"So is… is Gaines your boyfriend now?" Greg nodded to Justin. "What is Lex Luthor doing here?"
"Justin and I are dating," I said, smiling and blushing, pleased. "Lex is here as a friend. I saved his life and he took an interest in me." I shrugged.
"You're an interesting person. In a good way!" Greg added quickly. "Hey, look, Morrigan… I'm having some trouble with my homework. That math homework and that literary analysis essay in English - they're kicking my ass."
"And you know math and obscure literature are my two areas of expertise, so you'd like some tutoring," I guessed. "Is that what you were too shy to ask about?"
"Yeah," Greg admitted, nodding.
"Well," I said. "I have some free time on Wednesday afternoon. I know the math assignment isn't due till Friday and the literary analysis essay isn't due till Monday. How about three o'clock in the library? Is that okay?"
"Well, I was thinking we could just go back to my place -" he said, faux casual.
I smiled tightly, uncomfortable. "Library might be easier," I said, pushing back subtly.
"Great. Then it's a date," said Greg decisively.
"In a… figurative sort of way, yes," I agreed cautiously. He watched me walk back toward the stall with Justin and Lex and my parents.
I got into the truck with my parents, Lex got into his car, and Justin got into his. We were driving down a dusty back road in a line toward home after the farmer's market - and suddenly a huge blur of dark speed flung itself from the trees and slammed into Lex's and Justin's cars. They flipped over - I screamed out - and the blur was gone.
Our truck screeched to a halt and I ran in a zip of speed toward Justin and Lex, not even caring if they were still conscious. I pulled them safely out of their cars by ripping off the doors - I was carrying them away - a gas leak had started a fire and I sensed a great explosion - I threw Justin and Lex to the ground and flung my body over them, protecting them from the blast -
I saw red and gold and orange flow all around me, felt warmth lick my skin, but no pain. Then the flames retreated and I looked up. The area all around me was scorched, but I was unharmed, and so were Justin and Lex beneath me. My parents ran over, calling out my name, my Dad reached out toward me - and retracted his hand, hissing.
I'd absorbed all the heat, but was somehow unharmed. I was flame retardant.
I got to my knees quickly and felt over the unconscious Lex and Justin's bodies. "Call an ambulance," I gasped out. "But I think they're alright."
I would visit them at the hospital later, bearing treats and gifts for their medical stay, but I gave no hint of what had actually happened. I pretended to everyone that I had pulled Lex and Justin out of the way of the explosion in time.
Who, after all, would have believed the truth? That I'd survived an explosion and hadn't even caught on fire?
"I'm lucky you were there," Lex said wryly. "Again."
Flying and flame absorption. Two more abilities to add to the list. Despite myself… I still felt alienated from others. Frightened. More than that… what had that dark blur been?