Jackson Humes is Not a Superhero

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Five rapid-fire texts woke me from a dead sleep. I couldn't figure out why Amy was asking where I was until I noticed the time. My first class of the day was starting in two minutes. I jumped out of bed and scanned my room, not really knowing what I was supposed to do first. I grabbed some clothes off the floor and sniffed them; I was so disoriented I could neither remember nor discern whether they were clean or dirty. By the time I finished hiding my bruise with concealer, I was officially ten minutes late.

It was only when I was passing Mr. Saltzman's house that I remembered I had to walk and feed Graham. There was no possible way I was going to make it to my first class on time. Graham must have heard me bounding up the porch steps because he was patiently waiting for me by the front door with his leash in his mouth.

Once I had cleaned up after him, we headed back to the house. The TV was still on and two chatty ladies were happily selling pots and pans. I put out his food and refilled his huge water dish, which was almost empty. I gave him a couple of extra treats to keep him entertained before I gave him a quick scratch behind his ear and headed out.

It wasn't until I was locking my bike up at school that I remembered I had forgotten to bring my suit. There was no way I could make it home and back without missing another class. My aunt would already be angry enough with me for having missed the one. Missing a second one was out of the question.

Oh well, they'll just have to deal with it.

I didn't think he was going to fight me too hard, considering his best friend had broken into my house and the two had discussed it as if it wasn't a big deal. If anything, he was her accomplice and therefore just as guilty. It was bizarre to think that such an idea made me feel so good. My life had really taken a turn.

There were still five minutes left before first period ended. I walked to class with the intention of catching the tail end of it but chickened out at the last second, so I decided to wait for Amy and have her fill me in on what I had missed. I sat down and let my thoughts drift to the events of the previous evening.

Following my discovery, it had taken me less than five minutes before I called Marv to come over. The coffin in the house had totally freaked me out.

"Look, I know it's a little strange, but there's probably a reasonable explanation," Marv said, climbing back down the ladder. "For all we know he could have bought it for himself. In case you hadn't noticed, the man is pretty old."

"What if there's some sort of vampire or monster in there?" The fact that the sun had just set was not lost on me. I watched the window expecting a disfigured creature to come crashing out at any second and swoop down on us with long fangs that would neatly slice our throats.

"Jackson," I could tell he wanted to laugh, "you can't be serious?"

"You can transform yourself into animals, I probably have the ability to fly if I can ever figure out how to do it, and we both saw a little girl break a bat in half with her head and a little boy vanish," I said, ticking each point off on my fingers. "Forgive me if the idea that vampires might be real doesn't seem all that preposterous to me."

He leaned against the side of the house and crossed his arms. "It's just," he tried to suppress a smile and failed, "you're being a bit of a drama queen about all of this."

"Says the guy who just hours ago was a goddamn dinosaur," I snapped back.

"Velociraptor," he corrected with a grin.

"How am I being a drama queen?" I threw my arms into the air, which totally helped prove his point. I shoved my hands in my pockets and spoke in a decisively steady and much lower tone. "The man has a coffin in a locked room. Why would the room need to be locked when no one else lives with him? Who's gonna wander in there, Graham? Besides, what mentally sane person buys their own coffin and keeps it locked in a room in their house? That's just morbid."