Invincible

I almost forget until I look into the mirror. I was born with 2 different eyes. One is pale grey, like all of the life and colour has been sucked out of it. The other is a bright emerald green, which shines in the lighting of the bathroom. Scientists and doctors call it Heterochromia iridum, but most people just call it weird, and so do I. I quickly snap out of my gaze as my mother hollers from downstairs "Conor Sites! Do you want to be late for school again, and especially on your birthday?" I suddenly realize that I have spent more time staring at myself in the mirror then I thought."Coming!", I shout back, quickly running a brush through my chocolate brown hair. I run drown the steps two at a time as the smell of chocolate chip pancakes fills my nose. I grab a jacket and my mother grumbles about how I didn’t have time to eat her special birthday breakfast. I snatch a pancake off the giant stack of them on the table to eat on the way. "Bye mom!" I close the door behind me. "Happy Birthday!" she gets in before the door slams shut. I sigh. Being born on a leap year, my birthday is a joke.

I have to run through the cold February air to get to school. Its below freezing, but the warm pancake I stuff down my throat seems to cheer me up a bit. I squint through the snow, which I can barely see through. When I make it to school I jog through the halls and up the stairs to grab my English books. I can see the streamers from the other end of the hallway. When I reach my locker I realize that somebody has decorated it for my birthday. Blue streamers fly out in all directions, but I’m only focussed on one thing. The big rainbow stick-on letters read "Happy 4th B-Day!". I pick off the 4th without thinking, so instead the sign reads "Happy B-Day!". I would have probably been a little upset about this if I wasn’t in such a rush. However, this stuff didn’t phase me. I had been joked about ever since my first birthday, when all of my friends were four. Sometimes though, it hurt a little to be the only "four year old" in a ninth grade class. I was already awkward enough with my different coloured eyes and lack of friends.

The final bell rings and I realize then that I’m already late for class, so I don’t bother rushing anymore. I buy a soda from a vending machine and amble through the empty and silent hallways. As I round a corner I hear a slam. I chug the rest of the soda down and throw out the can. I scowl when I see Dorte Holm helping her cousin, Benedikte Larsen, pick up her books. Peter laughs and kicks them out of Benedikte’s hands again. "Go back to where you came from loser!" Peter saunters through the hallway and I try to keep my head down so maybe he magically won’t see me. Peter is a freshman like me, but he’s on the football team and is much bigger and stronger than I am. Peter seems to be coming towards me, but his friends shout his name from down the hall, and Peter jogs past me to meet up with his friends, who are also cutting class. I sigh and walk towards Dorte and Benedikte. They immigrated here, to Canada, from Denmark about a month ago. They speak Danish and are only starting to learn English. I help them pick up the rest of their books, although I can see that they barely understand what’s going on. Benedikte stares at me, into my unusual eyes. I dart my eyes away as fast as possible, embarrassed. Dorte seems to be picking up on English, because she can manage a thickly accented thank-you. I smile as they scurry off to class.

I walk into English twenty minutes late. Mr. Lopez rolls his eyes at my tardiness, but doesn’t say anything about it. Perhaps it’s because I’ve never been late before. English flies by. Math is next, and that goes by quickly as well.

At lunch I meet up with my best and only real friend, Toby Shames. Toby has a smaller build, pale skin, and sloppy blond hair. We wait to buy our lunch as he blabs to me. "HEY! WASSUP MY MAN? HAPPY B-DAY TO YOU BROTHER! YOU KNOW WHAT? THE CRAZIEST THING, LIKE, EVER, JUST HAPPENED BRO! YOU CAN’T NOT EVEN, LIKE, GET THIS! TELL ME IF YOU GET THIS? ‘KAY DUDE?", Toby proceeds to tell me a story about how he strategically folded his unfinished Science homework into the best paper airplane ever. Apparently he flew it into his teacher, who was quite impressed with the aerodynamics of the plane, and gave Toby a D on the homework. Toby was very excited about his D, squealing that his mother would be so proud. Even though Toby speaks very loudly, I can’t really concentrate on what he’s saying because of his horrible grammar and his habit of using the word "like"excessively. However, I’m happy to have somebody to talk to. After we both finish buying our lunches, we see that there are no seats available. "How about we walk over to the park for lunch?" I suggest to Toby. "SURE THING MAN! LIKE, SO STOKED! I’VE NEVER DONE NO PICNICS BEFORE! SOUNDS SICK!", Toby runs out the cafeteria doors. "C’MON CONOR!"

Toby is practically leaping to the park but he tries to restrain himself from looking too foolish. Suddenly Toby doesn’t move. Toby doesn’t breathe. Toby doesn’t talk. Toby just stands there, mouth gaping. I sprint to catch up to him. I can hear the suffocated screams. I can see it happening from where I’m standing. I go into complete shock. I can’t hear myself think, so I don’t think. I just run. I run towards the fountain in the centre of the park. I run towards the fountain where Peter thrusts Benedikte Larsen underwater. Peter doesn’t seem to see me. Toby is right behind me, panting. "Oh, Conor. Look at the water.", he whimpers. The water should be crystal blue, like it is everyday, but it’s not. The water is sickly, swampy green. I tackle Peter from behind, which knocks him off-guard, and he stumbles backwards. Toby just stands there in disbelief, not knowing what to do. I’m on top of Peter now. "Why, Peter? Why? Why are you doing this to her?", I shout in his face. "It’s not a she! It’s an it!", he snaps. I slam his head against the ground in rage. He frees his hand from my grasp and shoots green liquid out of his fingers towards me. It’s poison. It can’t be, but it is. I can’t process what is happening fast enough. The vile liquid will hit my face. However, the liquid stops a few inches in front of me. Peter tries to punch me, but his fist stops short."Conor Sites! Get off of me right now! You’ll see what I mean! Just look!", he screeches. I get off of him reluctantly. He stays there, lying on the ground. I turn slowly to in fact see an it.

It’s not Benedikte Larsen. It has the same face and clothes as Benedikte, but this thing has long sharp talons in place of fingers and toes. It has two spiralled horns peeking out of it’s head, and giant feathered, greasy black wings. The creature is floating in the pool of poison, dead. I look over at Toby, who is sprinting back into the school, screaming. I turn towards Peter. He smirks. "Pretty cool, huh? It’s a Danish monster. Pretty rare. It’s called a vakuum fugl, which is Danish for Vacuum bird. It can suck out your power if it sinks it’s claws into you." Peter chuckles as he sticks his fingers into his eyes. He’s taking out contacts. I gasp when I see one eye is a dark, chocolate brown, and the other is a brilliant crystal blue. "I wasn’t born on February 28th, like everybody thinks. I was born today, on a leap year. My eyes are different colours. People like us, they have special powers, Conor. Mine is shooting poison", I watch in absolute disbelief as Peter sprays poison into the air, to prove his point. "Your power, is that you can shield yourself from anything. But you have to watch out Conor, because there are monsters out there too, just like that thing." He motions to the creature in the fountain. "Some will kill you to gain your power. And you have a very strong power Conor. You’re practically invincible. You can’t control or expand that power yet, but I can show you how." This is a joke. It must be. No, it has to be. This stuff can’t happen. Not to me, and not to anyone. But something tells me that this is not a joke. It seems too real. I look at the vakuum fugl, which is slowly fading into nothing but air."They fade to nothing when they die", Peter adds. I try to disguise the look of complete bewilderment on my face. "Oh, um, okay then.", my voice is high and shaky. Peter laughs sympathetically. "I know it’s a lot to take in."

I walk back into the school with Peter, which probably looks strange, seeing that we never talk. I go to find Toby. He’s in the boys bathroom. His face is white and he is scrubbing it brutally. "What are you doing Toby?" I ask calmly. "Dude I think I, like, am going crazy or something!", he speaks in a hushed whisper. "No, you’re really not Toby." I explain to him exactly what happened outside with Peter. Watching his face was entertaining, his facial expressions constantly changed throughout the story. After I was done, Toby’s face seemed to light up. "WOW BRO! I GOT, LIKE, A SUPER HERO BEST FRIEND!", I laughed at the thought of myself as a super hero. "Not really Toby, but you can’t tell anybody about this." I stared at him sternly to make sure he got the point. " YES, SIR SITES!", Toby saluted me. That made us both crack up.

On the way to my next class I think. I may be different than others, but I’m different in a good way. I’ve never really felt self- confident before, but now I feel it. It radiates around me. Power, or no power, I feel invincible either way.