Salamander Girl

Twelve

I sat at my desk at home in my room, my nose in the crack between the two pages.

"You know, Samantha, that is a very ineffective way to study." Sammy pointed out.

"Hush, I'm learning through osmosis." I told him.

"That is absurd," the genius salamander told me incredulously.

"If I fall asleep in this biology text book, all the information will absorb into my brain. It's like listening to tapes in another language when you're asleep." I told him with utmost sincerity.

"Samantha, do you want to fail biology or not? Because Doctor Christian's substitute is a nightmare, remember?"

"I know, I was there." I groaned, finally lifting my head from my textbook. I was promptly rewarded with a spinning head with a matching pounding headache from moving too fast.

"Here," Sammy pushed the plate of green apple slices and peanut butter dip in my direction. "You need more protein. You hardly touched your lunch."

"Yeah, well that "Whatever" didn't help my appetite much." I reminded Sammy, shoving three slices smothered in peanut butter into my mouth at the same time.

Sammy sighed. "Nor mine," He admitted, slurping up one of his worms.

I'd seen his face at my chewing with my mouth open. I didn't get to complain about his eating habits if he didn't openly complain about mine. It was a silent deal we'd made.

Speaking of the Whatever, did you find out where he went?" I asked, drinking a glass of apple juice. Sammy insisted on a healthy, brainpower diet that would help me to improve my skills as a hero, since I was starting to take this a bit more seriously. No more oreos and chocolate milk after school for me.

Sammy bounced his head back and forth, trying to decide whether the answer was "yes" or "no".

"I am currently trying to deduce, from its movement patterns in news clips and traffic cameras, where it could have originated, and where it could be headed. However, I have found that the public has become obsessed with your vigilante identity." He pulled up more tabs than i could count, each from a different social media forum or news outlet's website.

"Several youtubers critiqued your performance at the power plant, and I have downloaded the three I thought were actually helpful so that we may use them to compose a training regimen to help you improve. And every social media platform has a thread or two discussing what your appearance means for the general public, but no one can reach a consensus on what to call you other than "San Diego's Vigilante", so you still have a chance to name yourself."

"Well, not every superhero has the chance to do that," I said, trying to sound enthusiastic. Maybe the hero business wouldn't be so bad. If I was dubbed something offensive or completely and utterly ridiculous, being a hero would definitely be miserable.

"Samantha?" Abigail was knocking on my door.

I quickly closed out of all the tabs related to my hero identity, pulling up the Blackboard website detailing my math homework assignment.

"Yeah?"

Abby took that as a sign to open the door, and Sammy dropped down on all fours to avoid attention. I sat in my swivel chair, spinning slowly to follow abby as she closed the door behind herself, and crossed the room to sit on my bed, facing me.

"What's up?" I asked, starting to get concerned for my baby sister.

She sighed, and pulled her phone out of her ever-present sidebag and holding it out to me.

"It's about the vigilante that saved Lexi Dover on Saturday." She said quietly. The article she had pulled up had a photo of an okay quality, showing my leaping down from the transformer after saving Lexi, captioned "San Diego's Hero?"

"What about her?" I asked, nonchalant as I could managed. Sammy nervously busied himself with stuffing his face full of worms.

"I know it's you." Abigail said simply.

Sammy gave the tiniest of coughs as he choked on his worms, and I felt the blood drain from my face.

"What- why- how-"

Abigail sighed and held up her hand for me to stop talking. "I'm your sister. I'm the smartest kid in our family, let alone my grade. I over-analyze everything, and I'm always on the internet. It wasn't too hard to figure out." She said, glancing at Sammy's trembling form.

"I assume the salamander has something to do with it, since he appeared right before your hero-self did," She reasoned, "but I won't ask how."

She grabbed my hand, "I just want to let you know, I won't tell anyone, not even mom and dad if you don't want me to. But as your little sister, I'm proud of what you did at the power plant and if you decide to keep doing it I'll be proud of you too. And even if you don't want to do it anymore I'll still be proud of you because you're my big sister and I love you."

Something caught in my throat, and my white face switched to red. I grabbed her hand and stood up, pulling her into a hug. My little sister wrapped her arms around me tightly.

"I love you too," I whispered, realizing how little I said that to Abigail or to Ammon.

She pulled back after a couple seconds, her affection quota fulfilled for the day, and managed a small smile as she walked out of my room without another word.

I smiled as I sank back into my chair, refreshed more than any nap or glass of water or fresh, nutritious snack could produce.

"Well, I guess I kind of have to be a hero now, don't I?" I joked with Sammy.

"But she just said she was proud of you even without-"

"I was joking, Sam," I chuckled lightly. "I'm still gonna be a hero."

I thought back to my personal prayers over the past few days. Since Saturday night I had been praying to know if following Doctor Christian's plans and going forward with being a hero under Sammy's guidance was the right thing to do.

I had just gotten the answer to my prayer. I still had doubt in my own abilities, my strength, my athleticism, my cleverness. But now, I didn't have to rely only on myself.

In case you want to know, reading back over what you've previously written is actually very beneficial to continuing your stories.

I really do believe that Christ answers our prayers. It's not always in the way or the time that we'd like. Most often, it is through another person that he meets our needs. But he does answer, and he does care about you and what you pray for. He loves you.