I Can Not Tell a Lie But I Kind Of Have To
The One Thousand Pound Weight
“Come on Neil!” Millie shouted at me as I failed to lift the 1,000 pound weight. “You are so weak!”
“You try this!” I shouted, straining my voice.
“Well, I’m not telepathic,” she sassed. “Okay, take a break.” I relaxed my mind and the weight dropped the little height I had managed to lift.
“You obviously aren’t focused,” she said, putting her hands on her hips.
“Well, it could be one of two reasons,” I said, holding out two fingers. “One. It’s one at night.” I put down my index finger. She returned the gesture.
“Or two. It’s raining!” I shouted, as more rain ran over my eyes.
“Come on! It’s not that bad,” she said, holding her hand up towards the sky, the rain pouring on her open palm.
“That’s because you get to stand under the castle,” I said pointing to the castle at the playground that we were currently in.
“Just try one more time.”
“This is a one THOUSAND POUND WEIGHT!” I shouted, frustrated at her.
“Close your eyes.” I didn’t.
“Neil, do you want your future little brother or sister to think that you’re weak because you can’t do this?” she asked with a sigh.
“Millie, just because I can’t lift this weight, doesn’t make me weak,” I said. “And no one in my family knows I have super powers.” She looked astonished.
“What?” she gasped. “I thought at least your mom knew.”
“No, nobody knows except for you,” I said. “If I told them, they’d freak.”
“Define the verb freak.”
“My sister would laugh. A lot. My dad would deny ever having a son. And my mom would be too worried that I’d get hurt.”
“That’s not exactly the definition of freak,” she said pointedly. “Just wait until you see how the HQ leader reacts to my latest test grade. But back to this.” She pointed to the weight.
“I can’t do it,” I insisted.
“Nonsense! That’s why you can’t lift it. You’re thinking that you can’t. Your ability to move things telepathically is all in your mind, literally,” she said calmly. “All you have to do is think positive thoughts, like Peter and Wendy when they fly.”
“Who are Peter and Wendy?” I asked confused.
“Have you never seen the movie Peter Pan?” I said nothing.
“Anyway, just think that you can do this and you will be able to do this. Now, close your eyes.” I finally did.
“Now, think of something that could make you fly or smile or just give you that general feel-good feeling.” Leah. I grinned to myself
“Besides Leah. Love usually doesn’t work on things like this.” I stopped smiling. Something that’s good besides love… I got it!
I opened my eyes and miraculously made the lift go higher than the roof of the castle.
“Good job Neil! Now, ease it down slowly, slowly,” she said until it thumped against the ground. I climbed up the ladder and joined her under the shelter of the castle.
“Now, let’s go back to why your family and friends don’t know about your powers,” she said, sitting on the floor.
“Well--” I started to say but was interrupted by a loud boom. We both stood up and leaned out a window. I looked up at the sky and gasped.
“Mr. Wonder and Miss Silver Flame,” Millie read the red fireworks in the sky. “We are on to you.”
“That’s exactly why I haven’t told anyone about my powers,” I said, pointing to the fading words in the sky. “Who’s onto us?”
“I have no idea,” she said faintly, sitting back down. “But whoever it is must be pretty clever. How else would they have gotten fireworks to work on a rainy night?”
“Should we leave?”
“No, if they’re close by then they could follow you home,” she said. “But I better tell HQ about this.” She pulled out her Envy.
“Whoa!” I said, pointing to her phone. “That’s the very first Envy!”
“HQ supplied me with it,” she shrugged. “They’re pretty slow on the society updates.” She finished texting and shut the phone.
“So now do you see why I haven’t told anyone?”
“Yeah, I see your point,” she said, tapping her chin with her finger. “But I’m pretty sure you just used that as a lame excuse and that wasn’t really the reason. So seriously, what’s the real reason?”
“I… I don’t know,” I said, shrugging, “I guess I never really ever thought about telling my friends. I always thought that superheroes had to keep their identities a secret.”
“Well--” she hesitated and then sighed. “Yeah, you technically are, but since when have I played by the rules.” The rain got harder, and I looked out the window. It had started hailing.
“Okay, I’m gonna go home before the hail breaks through the roof and kills me,” I said, standing up and sliding down the fire pole. She nodded and followed me. We ran to the rusty gate. I fumbled with the latch before opening it, and we parted at the sidewalk, me turning left and her turning right. She paused, turned around, and called my name.
“I forgot to ask,” she yelled over the hail. “What was the happy thing you thought of?”
“A place where you weren’t bugging me at one at night!” I shouted. I laughed as her mouth fell open and turned to walk home as the hail pelted my skin.
__________________________
I took the keys out of the ignition and heaved a heavy sigh. Whoever invented Mondays was an idiot. Against my better judgment, I grabbed my backpack and stepped out of the car. Okay, good. No sign of Debra… yet. But when she does find me, who knows what could happen. She could smite me to hell! No, Neil, only God does that… or Zeus… or was it… um… I should pay attention more in history class.
I came back to reality and walked into school. Man this place sucks. One day, I’m going to kill whoever said, “Hey! I’ve got an idea! Let’s strip teenagers of their lives, trap them in their own personal circle of hell, and force them to learn stuff they’ll never need!” I sulked over to my locker and found Daniel standing right next to it.
“Why do you always hang out over here?” I asked him, opening my locker. And it smelled horrible. I slammed it shut immediately.
“Man!” Daniel shouted, making a disgusting face at the putrid smell. “You know you’re supposed to take your gym socks home every once in a while.”
“Shut up,” I said, dropping my backpack to the ground, it landing with a thud. “It was probably you who made it smell that bad.”
“Dude, I don’t know your combination,” he said, pinching his nose. Kyle and Eric walked over and could smell my locker right away.
“God! What the hell is that?” Eric shouted, pulling his sweatshirt over his mouth and nose.
“I have no idea, but you two might know,” I said, pointing my finger at them.
“Look, how could we possibly know your lock combination?” Kyle asked, cover his nose with his hand. “But whoever did that must be really pissed at you.” What if it was whoever shot those fireworks into the sky last night?
“But who?” I asked them.
“Let’s think about it. Who could be that mad at you?” Daniel said. I thought about it for awhile.
“I don’t know. If I did know, I wouldn’t be trying to figure this out then,” I said.
“Let’s ask another question. Who is the only person in this school, besides you, that would know your locker combination?” Kyle asked me. One person came to mind.
“Debra,” I said, snapping my fingers.
“That is so creepy,” Eric said, “that she knows your lock combination.”
“Tell me Neil,” Daniel said formally, holding his pencil to his mouth as if it were a microphone. “How does it feel to have your own stalker?”
“Shut up,” I said, pushing his pencil away.
“Well, that concludes this interview. Back to you Chet,” he said, just as the bell rang. Eric took the pencil and held it to his mouth.
“We will be back after some messages from our sponsors,” he said, walking off to his class. Thank God!
Second period had just finished, and I was thinking of what I should say to Debra when I saw her in third period. And so far, I thought of absolutely nothing. I’ll just wing it. I walked into the classroom and instantly felt a pair of eyes on me. Guess whose eyes?
I sat down, and Debra sauntered over to me. She slammed her hands on my desk, very loudly.
“So Neil, how was your morning?” she asked casually.
“It was pretty good,” I said.
“Was everything okay with your locker?”
“Well, it did smell a bit,” I said, and she burst into laughter before I could say anything else. Well, it was more of a cackle.
“That’s the power of my brother’s hockey gloves and a little bit of onion juice!” she shouted as Ms. Griffon entered the room.
“Debra, take your seat,” she said sternly.
“I was just asking Neil about the homework,” she said innocently.
“There was no homework last night,” Ms. Griffon said. “And since we have a test today, I’m going to assume that you were asking him about answers.”
“No I wasn’t Ms. Griffon,” Debra said. I had a feeling what she was going to say next and crossed my fingers. “I was talking to Neil about what I put in his locker that made it smell so bad.” Nice, Debra. Nice
“Well, in that case you can go to the office,” she said, pointing her bony finger towards the door.
“But I wasn’t cheating!” Debra shouted.
“Well, you defaced school property, and now you’re yelling at a teacher,” Ms. Griffon said pointedly. “Office. Now.” Debra opened her mouth but no sound came out. She grabbed her things and left the room pouting. Good, now that Debra is gone for the day, I don’t have to worry about getting jumped when I turn a corner.
__________________________________
The day didn’t get much better. Millie hijacked me on my way to fifth and pulled me under the stairwell.
“HQ said that it could be one of 12 villains,” she said sincerely.
“What?” I asked confused. She slapped her hand over my mouth.
“Would you keep it down?” she whispered. “The fireworks last night? HQ called me back this morning and told me that they’ve narrowed it down to 12 villains. I forgot to tell you in math… and in gym. Okay, so be careful.” Then she just left. After that, Ms. Martin piled on the homework in science, and I got called to the office because my mom was on the phone.
“Neil?” my mom said.
“Uh, yeah?”
“On your way home can you buy some Scotch?” Uh-oh. She only drinks when she’s upset.
“Mom, I can’t. I’m only 16.” And now she’s going senile.
“Okay, well then can you pick up some brownies from the bakery?” She didn’t even wait for an answer before I heard a click.
So now I’m here in my driveway, and I’ve been sitting in my car for ten minutes. The engine’s off and I’m border line frost bite, so I have to go in there eventually. I took a deep breath and grabbed the brownies. I walked into the kitchen to see my dad at the kitchen table and my sister on a bar stool, my mother washing her hands at the sink. I set the brownies down on the counter.
“Oh good,” she said cheerily. She opened the bag, took out a brownie, and bit into it.
“Um, Mom? What’s going on here?” Sydney asked her.
“Well, I’m not pregnant,” she said, shrugging her shoulders and finishing off the brownie.
“Huh? How did that work out?” I asked. “Didn’t you tell us you were?”
“Well, I took the home pregnancy test, which aren’t always reliable, so I went to the doctor’s office this morning and they said that I’m not pregnant,” she explained. “Well, not anymore. It was a miscarriage.”
“I’m sorry Mom,” I said, eyeing Sydney when she didn’t say anything.
“Yeah Mom, sorry,” she mumbled. We looked over at Dad, who was still reading the paper. He looked up.
“Oh, um, sorry honey,” he said and went back to the paper. I read Dad’s mind for the first time in my life that night, and I don’t plan on going back there, but let’s just say that he wasn’t too thrilled with the pregnancy in the first place. Mom’s mind was, well, exactly like a woman’s should be. Nagging questions soared throughout her head as she glared at Dad. You could feel the storm brewing in that room. I nudged Sydney and motioned for us to leave.
I made it upstairs before I heard shouting. I don’t need this tonight. I slipped out my window, not wanting to disturb Mom and Dad by walking through the kitchen, and floated down to the ground. I got in my car and drove.
“You try this!” I shouted, straining my voice.
“Well, I’m not telepathic,” she sassed. “Okay, take a break.” I relaxed my mind and the weight dropped the little height I had managed to lift.
“You obviously aren’t focused,” she said, putting her hands on her hips.
“Well, it could be one of two reasons,” I said, holding out two fingers. “One. It’s one at night.” I put down my index finger. She returned the gesture.
“Or two. It’s raining!” I shouted, as more rain ran over my eyes.
“Come on! It’s not that bad,” she said, holding her hand up towards the sky, the rain pouring on her open palm.
“That’s because you get to stand under the castle,” I said pointing to the castle at the playground that we were currently in.
“Just try one more time.”
“This is a one THOUSAND POUND WEIGHT!” I shouted, frustrated at her.
“Close your eyes.” I didn’t.
“Neil, do you want your future little brother or sister to think that you’re weak because you can’t do this?” she asked with a sigh.
“Millie, just because I can’t lift this weight, doesn’t make me weak,” I said. “And no one in my family knows I have super powers.” She looked astonished.
“What?” she gasped. “I thought at least your mom knew.”
“No, nobody knows except for you,” I said. “If I told them, they’d freak.”
“Define the verb freak.”
“My sister would laugh. A lot. My dad would deny ever having a son. And my mom would be too worried that I’d get hurt.”
“That’s not exactly the definition of freak,” she said pointedly. “Just wait until you see how the HQ leader reacts to my latest test grade. But back to this.” She pointed to the weight.
“I can’t do it,” I insisted.
“Nonsense! That’s why you can’t lift it. You’re thinking that you can’t. Your ability to move things telepathically is all in your mind, literally,” she said calmly. “All you have to do is think positive thoughts, like Peter and Wendy when they fly.”
“Who are Peter and Wendy?” I asked confused.
“Have you never seen the movie Peter Pan?” I said nothing.
“Anyway, just think that you can do this and you will be able to do this. Now, close your eyes.” I finally did.
“Now, think of something that could make you fly or smile or just give you that general feel-good feeling.” Leah. I grinned to myself
“Besides Leah. Love usually doesn’t work on things like this.” I stopped smiling. Something that’s good besides love… I got it!
I opened my eyes and miraculously made the lift go higher than the roof of the castle.
“Good job Neil! Now, ease it down slowly, slowly,” she said until it thumped against the ground. I climbed up the ladder and joined her under the shelter of the castle.
“Now, let’s go back to why your family and friends don’t know about your powers,” she said, sitting on the floor.
“Well--” I started to say but was interrupted by a loud boom. We both stood up and leaned out a window. I looked up at the sky and gasped.
“Mr. Wonder and Miss Silver Flame,” Millie read the red fireworks in the sky. “We are on to you.”
“That’s exactly why I haven’t told anyone about my powers,” I said, pointing to the fading words in the sky. “Who’s onto us?”
“I have no idea,” she said faintly, sitting back down. “But whoever it is must be pretty clever. How else would they have gotten fireworks to work on a rainy night?”
“Should we leave?”
“No, if they’re close by then they could follow you home,” she said. “But I better tell HQ about this.” She pulled out her Envy.
“Whoa!” I said, pointing to her phone. “That’s the very first Envy!”
“HQ supplied me with it,” she shrugged. “They’re pretty slow on the society updates.” She finished texting and shut the phone.
“So now do you see why I haven’t told anyone?”
“Yeah, I see your point,” she said, tapping her chin with her finger. “But I’m pretty sure you just used that as a lame excuse and that wasn’t really the reason. So seriously, what’s the real reason?”
“I… I don’t know,” I said, shrugging, “I guess I never really ever thought about telling my friends. I always thought that superheroes had to keep their identities a secret.”
“Well--” she hesitated and then sighed. “Yeah, you technically are, but since when have I played by the rules.” The rain got harder, and I looked out the window. It had started hailing.
“Okay, I’m gonna go home before the hail breaks through the roof and kills me,” I said, standing up and sliding down the fire pole. She nodded and followed me. We ran to the rusty gate. I fumbled with the latch before opening it, and we parted at the sidewalk, me turning left and her turning right. She paused, turned around, and called my name.
“I forgot to ask,” she yelled over the hail. “What was the happy thing you thought of?”
“A place where you weren’t bugging me at one at night!” I shouted. I laughed as her mouth fell open and turned to walk home as the hail pelted my skin.
__________________________
I took the keys out of the ignition and heaved a heavy sigh. Whoever invented Mondays was an idiot. Against my better judgment, I grabbed my backpack and stepped out of the car. Okay, good. No sign of Debra… yet. But when she does find me, who knows what could happen. She could smite me to hell! No, Neil, only God does that… or Zeus… or was it… um… I should pay attention more in history class.
I came back to reality and walked into school. Man this place sucks. One day, I’m going to kill whoever said, “Hey! I’ve got an idea! Let’s strip teenagers of their lives, trap them in their own personal circle of hell, and force them to learn stuff they’ll never need!” I sulked over to my locker and found Daniel standing right next to it.
“Why do you always hang out over here?” I asked him, opening my locker. And it smelled horrible. I slammed it shut immediately.
“Man!” Daniel shouted, making a disgusting face at the putrid smell. “You know you’re supposed to take your gym socks home every once in a while.”
“Shut up,” I said, dropping my backpack to the ground, it landing with a thud. “It was probably you who made it smell that bad.”
“Dude, I don’t know your combination,” he said, pinching his nose. Kyle and Eric walked over and could smell my locker right away.
“God! What the hell is that?” Eric shouted, pulling his sweatshirt over his mouth and nose.
“I have no idea, but you two might know,” I said, pointing my finger at them.
“Look, how could we possibly know your lock combination?” Kyle asked, cover his nose with his hand. “But whoever did that must be really pissed at you.” What if it was whoever shot those fireworks into the sky last night?
“But who?” I asked them.
“Let’s think about it. Who could be that mad at you?” Daniel said. I thought about it for awhile.
“I don’t know. If I did know, I wouldn’t be trying to figure this out then,” I said.
“Let’s ask another question. Who is the only person in this school, besides you, that would know your locker combination?” Kyle asked me. One person came to mind.
“Debra,” I said, snapping my fingers.
“That is so creepy,” Eric said, “that she knows your lock combination.”
“Tell me Neil,” Daniel said formally, holding his pencil to his mouth as if it were a microphone. “How does it feel to have your own stalker?”
“Shut up,” I said, pushing his pencil away.
“Well, that concludes this interview. Back to you Chet,” he said, just as the bell rang. Eric took the pencil and held it to his mouth.
“We will be back after some messages from our sponsors,” he said, walking off to his class. Thank God!
Second period had just finished, and I was thinking of what I should say to Debra when I saw her in third period. And so far, I thought of absolutely nothing. I’ll just wing it. I walked into the classroom and instantly felt a pair of eyes on me. Guess whose eyes?
I sat down, and Debra sauntered over to me. She slammed her hands on my desk, very loudly.
“So Neil, how was your morning?” she asked casually.
“It was pretty good,” I said.
“Was everything okay with your locker?”
“Well, it did smell a bit,” I said, and she burst into laughter before I could say anything else. Well, it was more of a cackle.
“That’s the power of my brother’s hockey gloves and a little bit of onion juice!” she shouted as Ms. Griffon entered the room.
“Debra, take your seat,” she said sternly.
“I was just asking Neil about the homework,” she said innocently.
“There was no homework last night,” Ms. Griffon said. “And since we have a test today, I’m going to assume that you were asking him about answers.”
“No I wasn’t Ms. Griffon,” Debra said. I had a feeling what she was going to say next and crossed my fingers. “I was talking to Neil about what I put in his locker that made it smell so bad.” Nice, Debra. Nice
“Well, in that case you can go to the office,” she said, pointing her bony finger towards the door.
“But I wasn’t cheating!” Debra shouted.
“Well, you defaced school property, and now you’re yelling at a teacher,” Ms. Griffon said pointedly. “Office. Now.” Debra opened her mouth but no sound came out. She grabbed her things and left the room pouting. Good, now that Debra is gone for the day, I don’t have to worry about getting jumped when I turn a corner.
__________________________________
The day didn’t get much better. Millie hijacked me on my way to fifth and pulled me under the stairwell.
“HQ said that it could be one of 12 villains,” she said sincerely.
“What?” I asked confused. She slapped her hand over my mouth.
“Would you keep it down?” she whispered. “The fireworks last night? HQ called me back this morning and told me that they’ve narrowed it down to 12 villains. I forgot to tell you in math… and in gym. Okay, so be careful.” Then she just left. After that, Ms. Martin piled on the homework in science, and I got called to the office because my mom was on the phone.
“Neil?” my mom said.
“Uh, yeah?”
“On your way home can you buy some Scotch?” Uh-oh. She only drinks when she’s upset.
“Mom, I can’t. I’m only 16.” And now she’s going senile.
“Okay, well then can you pick up some brownies from the bakery?” She didn’t even wait for an answer before I heard a click.
So now I’m here in my driveway, and I’ve been sitting in my car for ten minutes. The engine’s off and I’m border line frost bite, so I have to go in there eventually. I took a deep breath and grabbed the brownies. I walked into the kitchen to see my dad at the kitchen table and my sister on a bar stool, my mother washing her hands at the sink. I set the brownies down on the counter.
“Oh good,” she said cheerily. She opened the bag, took out a brownie, and bit into it.
“Um, Mom? What’s going on here?” Sydney asked her.
“Well, I’m not pregnant,” she said, shrugging her shoulders and finishing off the brownie.
“Huh? How did that work out?” I asked. “Didn’t you tell us you were?”
“Well, I took the home pregnancy test, which aren’t always reliable, so I went to the doctor’s office this morning and they said that I’m not pregnant,” she explained. “Well, not anymore. It was a miscarriage.”
“I’m sorry Mom,” I said, eyeing Sydney when she didn’t say anything.
“Yeah Mom, sorry,” she mumbled. We looked over at Dad, who was still reading the paper. He looked up.
“Oh, um, sorry honey,” he said and went back to the paper. I read Dad’s mind for the first time in my life that night, and I don’t plan on going back there, but let’s just say that he wasn’t too thrilled with the pregnancy in the first place. Mom’s mind was, well, exactly like a woman’s should be. Nagging questions soared throughout her head as she glared at Dad. You could feel the storm brewing in that room. I nudged Sydney and motioned for us to leave.
I made it upstairs before I heard shouting. I don’t need this tonight. I slipped out my window, not wanting to disturb Mom and Dad by walking through the kitchen, and floated down to the ground. I got in my car and drove.
♠ ♠ ♠
hey so i decided to add in this ending to the chapter. cliff hanger, ooohhhh!!! yeah, not really. comments = love (i'm super excited because the wizard of oz is on right now :D)