Emily's Secret

2. My secret superpower

I have a secret superpower.

I bet I know what you're thinking. First, you're thinking, I want to know about the guy who sat down next to you on the bus. Don't worry, I'm getting to that part.

And then you're also thinking, I didn't sign up to read a superhero story. Tell me about the guy!  I wish I was a superhero, but nothing could be further from the truth. I'm just a fat girl who nobody likes. And also, I can move things with my mind.

Not anything big, mind you. It's not like I can make people levitate. I couldn't even make my house keys fly to me from across the room. I know, you're wondering why do I even have house keys? Why don't we have a fingerprint activated lock? Well for your information, there are a lot of people in this world who are too poor to afford to buy a decent modern lock for their front door, and my mom is one of them. But I'll tell you more about my home life later.

A dime is just about the heaviest thing I can move with my mind, and only if I concentrate really hard. So you see, it's not a very useful superpower at all. Even if I saw a dime on the sidewalk, it would be easier to just bend down and pick it up rather than try to use my superpower on it. But I keep it secret because the last thing I need is for people to have another reason to hate me. They already think I'm the freaky scary fat girl, it would only be worse if they knew I had weird powers.

The only people I've talked to about my superpower are the other people who post on a message board on the dark web. There are a few other people like me, some around my age, some are older, we all started manifesting these powers two years ago, which was shortly after that nuclear power plant blew up in Iran. Some people on the board thought it was caused by the radiation, but I don't think that makes any sense. If you remember your history, you'll know that there were two nuclear bombs used during World War II, and nobody got any superpowers after that. Also, Iran is halfway around the world from me. If the radiation was going to mutate people and turn them into freaks, wouldn't it happen to people who lived in Iran?

Hardly anyone posts on the message board anymore. I guess they got bored talking about it, because it's not a very useful power. The last time anyone left a message was two weeks ago.

And now that you know about know about my secret superpower, I can go back to telling you what happened on the school bus.

* * *

"Hi, I'm Rob" he said to me with a confident smile and self-assured voice.

"Why are you sitting next to me?" I asked, suspiciously. And damn it, yes I was suspicious! Why was this guy sitting next to me?

"Why not?" Rob retorted.

"There are way prettier girls you could sit with. I'm the loser that nobody likes. You'd know that if this wasn't your first day here."

"Well I think I like you.  And I don't give a crap what anyone else around here thinks."

"You can't like me, you don't even know me," I said.

"You have really pretty blonde hair," Rob said. "I like your hair."

Oh my god!   I hoped it wasn't obvious that I was blushing.

Just between you and me, I do kind of think I have nice blonde hair. I'm not like one of those fat girls who lets herself go totally to pot and gets a short butch haircut. But it doesn't matter. No one has ever once said anything nice about my hair or anything else, all they see is a fat girl, a loser. Especially,  a super hot guy like Rob has never said anything nice to me.

So it must be a trick. Obviously he was trying to get me to think he actually liked me, and then he would tell me what a fat lardass I was. It must be a cruel joke. He was a bad boy after all. He couldn't be trusted.

"No one told you you can sit here!" I barked at him "There's an empty seat over there! Go!"

"Make me" he said, smiling in a cocky bad-boy manner.

"I can punch pretty hard for a girl. I beat a kid up once. So don't make me mad!" I tried to sound menacing. I did beat a kid up once, as I already told you, but that was a skinny popular girl in middle school, not a big hulking bad boy.

"OK, go ahead, punch me in my arm," he said, still smiling, still cocky.

"What???"

"You said you can punch hard, I want to see."

I glowered at him. "Get lost!"

"Punch me first."

"Fine, if that's what you want." I had enough. I cocked my fist and let loose on his arm. My fist bounced off solid muscle. Rob just smirked, and acted like nothing happened. It was as if a little baby had punched him and not a strong 200-pound girl.

"Maybe you need to work out," he said nonchalantly. "I know a good boxing gym you can go to."

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" I yelled. And then to my horror, I realized that the whole bus was looking at me. They were looking at the crazy fat girl.

I decided to give up. I just looked straight ahead and ignored Rob for the rest of the bus ride. It was a relief to finally get away from him. As I got out of the bus, everyone was talking quietly to each other, looking at me and at Rob. I didn't have any friends to talk to, so I stomped away and headed towards my first period class. I sat down in my seat, a good ten minutes early, and waited for class to start.

The room slowly filled up as more kids wandered in. Of course none of them said hello to me. No one ever talked to me. And then, just as the bell rang, in walks Rob! He walks up to Ms. Greenfield, the teacher, they exchange a few words which I can't hear from where I'm sitting, and then Ms. Greenfield announces, "We have a new student today. This is Rob. Rob, please sit in the empty seat over there." And Ms. Greenfield was pointing to the empty seat right next to me!