Jackson Humes is Not a Superhero

CHAPTER SIX

I was relieved when my aunt dropped me off at school the next morning. It had taken a few tears and some major begging on my part before she finally agreed to keep the truth from Officer Richards. I was still in a world of trouble with her, and she had promised me that she would come up with a fair punishment to fit my crime, which was ridiculous considering I had been the victim.

Things at school weren't great for me. My popularity had soared, but only for being the stupid kid that had wandered into the woods. This humiliation would have been easier to bear had the principal not made a huge stink about it during the morning announcements. She spent a good amount of time espousing Alex's valiant act of bravery to the point that I thought I would actually lose my breakfast. Her tone was decidedly different half-an-hour later when she called me into her office and ripped me a new one, threatening me with a month's detention if I so much as placed a single toe in the woods.

Alex Cole, on the other hand, had gone from a mediocre wrestler most people ignored to a bona-fide hero. I saw him surrounded all throughout the morning by Stanley High's elite. By the time lunch rolled around, I was ready to quit school and move to the Himalayas. On the bright side, if one even existed, Alex hadn't said a word about me or the fact that I had broken the laws of gravity.

"Is the school year over yet?" I asked, throwing the recycled bag I was using as a makeshift backpack down and slumping onto the bench where we'd been eating our lunches since freshmen year.

"Well, seeing as it's only the second day back I think you know the answer to that question," Amy replied. She motioned towards Alex, who was sitting at the cool clique's table, and said. "What an a-hole." Amy never cussed if she could help it.

That made me smile. I had told Amy the real reason I had run into the woods, and even though she didn't know about Marv—her dad was a firefighter and I didn't trust her not to say anything to him—it felt good to have someone on my side.

"Uh-oh," I said, noticing she was smashing a green stress ball in her hand—her mom was a therapist and encouraged everyone to use one. "What's wrong?"

She grimaced before tossing me her cell phone. It was a text from Caleb asking her out on a date. He had attached a selfie of himself flexing his non-existent biceps.

Caleb was also in a wheelchair, which he decorated with colorful flags that shot up from the back of his chair. He was intent on making her his girlfriend and actually believed that if he badgered her long enough she would eventually give in.

Caleb's delusion that they were headed for a happily ever after wasn't entirely misguided. Half of the school egged him on in his quest to win her over. Everyone reasoned that the only two wheelchair-bound students in the entire school had to end up together. It was kismet. This reasoning infuriated Amy to no end. She hated society's shortsightedness and the fact that most people couldn't imagine her dating a fully abled person.

These types of assumptions didn't end with just Amy and Caleb. Most people assumed that Jesse, the other gay guy at school, and me would end up together. Whenever Jesse and I were in close proximity, everyone would stop in their tracks and openly stare at us with a grossed out fascination, as if we would one day suddenly throw our hands up in the air, give in to our gayness, and start making out on the spot. This, more than anything else, was the main reason why I had been avoiding him for years.

"Have you responded?" I asked, handing her phone back.

"Not yet." She mashed the ball a little harder. "I just don't know what to say, you know what he's like. I could tell him no and slap him across the face and he would shrug it off as a love tap and try even harder. I just can't win with him."