ARKEN

Road Trip

Wendy told Curtis she had a surprise for him Friday morning and he wouldn't get to find out what it was until they went to his house after school. It was a good way to get him to not pay attention in class. He spent most of the day agonizing over what the surprise was and constantly checking the clock.

After several grueling hours, the final bell rung, and they took off. They rode on Curtis's bike back to his house and went inside. She practically dragged him up the stairs and into his room.

Curtis put his bag down and stood in suspense as she locked the door. "Wendy, what's going on? What is this big surprise?" Wendy smiled big at him and unzipped her backpack, reaching inside, "Close your eyes." He did as was commanded of him and waited. He heard her walk behind him to the bed and put some things on it.

"Okay, open them and turn around."

He did so and was indeed surprised. On the bed, Wendy had laid out two things: a plain dark gray hooded sweatshirt and a silver leather jacket with thick fleece sleeves. Curtis was confused, "Jackets? Uh...I think it's going to start warming up pretty soon, but thanks."

"No, that's not why. Just—put them on."

He took off his jacket and slipped on the gray hoodie, then put on the silver leather jacket. It fit well, almost like Wendy had gone out of her way to make sure it did. She reached behind his neck and pulled the hood of the gray hoodie out from under the collar of the leather jacket. She took a few steps back and looked at him. "Not bad. But there's one more thing."

"Is there a hat in there? Or a scarf?" He was joking around, but she ignored it, too enthralled to care. She reached into her backpack again, "Better."

She pulled out something and tossed it to him. He only realized what it was when he had it in his hands, a gray ski mask, the thin kind with only spaces for the eyes to show through. Wendy had taken silver reflective lenses, like the ones from a pair of sunglasses, and attached them neatly over the eye holes of the mask.

"Wendy, what is—?"

"Put it on."

Curtis pulled the mask on over his face, positioning the lenses over his eyes. It fit snugly, and he tucked the excess down at his neck under the collar of the hoodie. She brought him over in front of the mirror and pulled the hood up over his head, positioning it just right.

"What do you think?" She asked. Curtis examined his new outfit in mirror, not sure what to make of it. "What do I think? What is this?"

"Well, you can't be a superhero without a costume."

He looked at her, "Superhero?"

"Yeah. After you saved that guy the other night, I thought about it. You know the whole pep talk; you have an obligation morally to use your powers to help others."

"And I'm supposed to do it wearing this?"

"What? You don't like it?" She feigned being upset, forcing Curtis to walk back his statement, "I like it. I just didn't plan on having a costume."

"Well, now you do. And I've thought up a few names for you to use as well."

Wendy was like a little kid when it came to this, coming up with ideas and doing them before she even thought them through. She took a small piece of paper from her pocket and read each option in a cheesy voice straight out of a comic book, "The Clobberer."

"Uh..."

"No? Okay, what about...Night-Fist! You can choose between N-I-G-H-T or N-I-T-E for the spelling. Ooh! What about K-N-I-G-H-T? Oh, well...I guess you'd have to look more like a knight then, so that one wouldn't really work."