superheroes

1-A superhero in the making

Harry Styles, Holmes Chapel, England, 2007

Harry had a secret. Something so incredible that no one would believe him or he would be locked up in a lab for the rest of his life like a freaking lab rat.

He discovered his secret in his early teens and the first time it happened he freaked out. He had been in a boring math class wishing with all his existence that the hour would pass really fast. He had been staring intensely at the clock on the wall, counting the seconds. They were just five minutes in. He closed his eyes, pressed his eyelids tightly together wishing that the clock would move faster.

All of a sudden the ring signal that announced that the class was over went off. He opened his eyes and stared at the clock on the wall in shock. It showed 16.00. How was that even possible? He must be delusional!

But then his classmates got up from their seats and headed out the door.
"Harry? Are you coming?" His friend Lukas asked and looked at him. 

"What?" Harry asked in confusion. The class just started. The clock must be broken.

"Class is over." Lucas said.

Did he just bend time and space? That was a ridiculous thought. No one could do that! 
"Are you sure? Isn't the clock broken?" He asked and stared at Lucas.

"You're acting weird. Are you okay?" Lucas asked with furrowed eyebrows, eyeing Harry in concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Harry hurried to say and grabbed his bag before he followed Lucas to their lockers.

Later that night when he was laying in bed he tried again. He managed to turn the time ten minutes forward. He could hear the nine o'clock news on the tv in the living room which confirmed that he actually had moved time forward. This was absolutely insane!

He never told a living soul and as the years went by he perfected his skills. He could now stop time altogether. It came in handy when he wanted to cheat on a test. He always fasts forward gym class because he hated it.

He never went back in time tho. He had read everything he could find about time traveling and he knew he could really mess up history based on a theory called the butterfly effect. One wrong move could change everything in present time. He didn't want to risk it. Maybe the world would be absolutely destroyed when he came back because of something he did in the past? He didn't want to risk running into himself either. Who knew if his brain could comprehend it. Maybe he would go crazy?

Nevertheless, he was a time traveler.

Louis Tomlinson, Doncaster, England, 2004

The day after he turned thirteen Louis woke up on Christmas eve. Except he wasn't laying in his bed. He was floating above it. He screamed in fear and fell back into bed. What the hell was that? He laid frozen in bed. His heart was beating rapidly in his chest. No, it must have been a really vivid dream. He got up to celebrate Christmas with his family and went to bed later that evening totally beat.

The next morning he woke up in the air again. He didn't scream this time and he just floated above the bed for a second or two before he fell down again. Okay, this was crazy. He jumped out of bed and dressed warmly. He hurried down the stairs and ran into the kitchen. He poured himself some cereals and ate them by the counter. His mum came inside the kitchen.
"You're up early."

"Yeah, gotta go. Bye, mum!" Louis half-shouted and threw the empty bowl in the sink. 
"Not so fast. Where are you going?" Jay asked.

"I'm just going outside for a while. Take a walk." Louis said and rolled his eyes.

"Dress warmly." Jag smiled and came over to hug him.

"Yes, mum." Louis said and hugged her back before he ran to the hallway to put a jacket on. He found some cover trousers, a beanie, and some gloves as well.

As soon as he put everything on he found his boots and pulled them on as well before he ran outside, slamming the door behind him. He headed in the direction of the small grove a couple of minutes away. What he was about to try out required privacy. 

He made sure that the trees hid him from being seen. He found a good-sized rock and climbed on it. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and jumped to the ground. Nothing happened. He just landed on his feet.

That was disappointing but he laughed at himself. He had to try again so he got up on the rock once more. This time he spread his arms like wings, feeling ridiculous. He jumped again and shouted out in ecstasy when he didn't land on the ground immediately. He floated in the air for a couple of seconds before he hit the ground.

He spent the whole day out in the forest and after a couple of hours, he could float in the air without falling down. He was beyond excited.

He spent the whole Christmas break out there and his mum was getting worried. But when school started again he came back with a life-changing secret. He could fly.

Liam Payne, Wolverhampton, England 2006

Liam stared at the wall in his room in surprise. There was a big, gaping hole where he had smashed his fist. He didn't mean to hit so hard. He had just been angry at his parents for not allowing him to sleep over at his girlfriend's house. He was thirteen for christ's sake! He wasn't a child anymore. His dad came running into his room.
"What happened?"

"Uhm, I broke the wall. I'm sorry." Liam answered with a sheepish smile.

His dad stared at the hole in the wall in surprise.
"How? That's a concrete wall! Must be constructional damage. How's the hand? Is it broken?"

Liam looked down at his hand. It didn't have a scratch on it.
"It's fine."

He soon discovered that he couldn't get hurt and he had inhuman strength. He kept it a secret.

Zayn Malik, Bradford, England, 2006

At age thirteen Zayn started to smoke because he thought it was cool. That was how he discovered that he could do something amazing. He was hiding behind the gym at school to take a smoke, trying to work the lighter but it was out of gas. He sighed. He really wished he had fire right now. He had run into Chester a while ago and that kid always gave him a hard time, teasing him because his dad was from Pakistan. So what?

He pressed his fingertips together and all of a sudden they caught on fire. He screamed but it didn't hurt. He wasn't self-combusting in flames. He stared at his hand and pressed his fingertips together again and the lid up. He shrugged his shoulders and lit his cigarette. This would be his little secret.

Niall Horan, Mullingar, Ireland, 2006

When Niall sat down at the breakfast table on his thirteen birthday he soon realized that something was really wrong. His older brother Greg was sitting next to him.
"Karen has really nice breasts. I wonder if she would let me touch them?"

Niall burst out laughing and turned to stare at his brother.
"What did you just say?"

"I didn't say anything." Greg answered.

What was going on? His parents came and sat down. Niall could hear his dad talk about the upcoming work retreat he was going on but his mouth wasn't moving. Weird. Then he heard his mum rambling a grocery list but when he looked at her she wasn't talking either.
"No fucking way!" He shouted.

"Jesus, don't scream like that. You scared me." His mum said.

"And don't swear!" His dad reprimanded.

He went to school and that was when he really got it confirmed. He could hear people's thoughts. It gave him a killer headache the first couple of weeks before he learned how to control it. He kept it a secret because people would think he was crazy.

He went from a mediocre student to a straight A's student in no time. It was easy when he could hear his teachers thinking the answers to every question. It was really hard sometimes. He heard a lot of things he didn't want to hear but he somehow got used to it.