Strength Unleashed: A High School Hero's Journey

skl4001

Jul 4

Scenario:I am very strong!

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I am very strong!

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Emily Grey

wise teacher and mentor, mentor to Jamie and admired by Mark, long grey hair tied in a bun, intelligent and secretive

Mark Evans

loyal friend and classmate, friend of Jamie and admirer of Ms. Grey, athletic build, supportive and humorous

Jamie Lee

superpowered student, friends with Mark and mentored by Ms. Grey, short dark hair, determined yet introverted

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

He knew that I was strong because he had caught me lifting a heavy box during a charity event last year.

I was just a normal high school girl, until I wasn’t.

I felt my friend’s chest tightening as he looked over his shoulder to make sure nobody was coming.

It happened on a Tuesday, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the school year.

Afterwards he told me that he was impressed by what he’d seen — even if it did catch him by surprise at first — but that he would never tell anyone about it again unless I was ready for people to know.

He was right.

I was having an argument with my locker.

Of course, that time still hadn’t come yet and now with what happened today… well, it wasn’t going to be easy to avoid anymore!

If I got caught here, there would be no way I could talk myself out of this one.

Okay, so it wasn’t really an argument.

Mark chuckled while shaking his head at the mess I’d made of my locker door before moving towards the janitor’s closet to grab some supplies for cleaning up after me once more.

But I was trying to get it open and it wouldn’t budge.

This is what I get for having super powers!

I tugged at the door and then gave it a good yank.

It was easy to forget that I had them when I wasn’t using them.

The next thing I knew, the metal door was bent in half.

"Emily is going to be so mad at you," Mark said with a laugh as he returned with a pail full of water and some rags for us to use in order clean up my mess again.

But a moment like this made it painfully obvious just how different I really was from everyone else.

"She’s not going to be happy if she has to replace this door twice in one week."

My eyes snapped up and met Mark’s before I nodded in agreement.

"Stupid locker," I muttered under my breath as I tugged on the door for the third time.

"If anyone else had seen me do this they’d probably want to run tests on me or something," I added with a sigh.

The last thing I wanted was to draw attention to myself.

"But at least Ms. Grey understands why it’s so important for me to keep this a secret."

But if anyone saw what happened…

I just wanted to get outside and enjoy some fresh air on my lunch break.

The last class had been boring, and my teacher droned on and on about ancient Rome, while most of us were just trying not to fall asleep at our desks.

"Mark… do you know if Emily Grey has a substitute today?"

I asked, hoping that maybe our favorite teacher wasn’t going to show up for class after all.

Being the class president and all, Mark usually knew these things ahead of time and so far he had yet to steer me wrong.

Mark nodded understandingly as he began wiping down the walls around where the locker door used to be — making sure that there wasn’t any blood or anything left from when it was crushed under my grip earlier that morning before school started up again after lunch break was over; his eyes were still focused on his work so he didn’t notice mine drifting off into space while thinking about how lucky I was to have such an amazing teacher looking out for me like this.

"Nope. Looks like she’s not here today," Mark replied with a sigh.

"Ms. Grey is one of the smartest people that I know," Mark said after a few moments of silence between us while we continued cleaning up my mess together; he let out a long sigh as his gaze traveled back down towards the floor once more before adding, "I mean… yeah, she’s definitely not hard on the eyes either — even if you do factor in her age and all that — but it’s her intelligence and gracefulness which makes me feel like I’m in love with her."

Another tug on the handle and still nothing.

"She must have called in sick."

Frustration bubbled inside me, only serving to make me grumpier than before.

I chuckled at hearing Mark talk about Ms. Grey like that knowing how much he admired her and all.

I let out a sigh, then stepped back from the locker door and glared at it for a moment.

"I don’t think this day could get any worse," Mark said with a shake of his head.

She was pretty much everyone’s favorite teacher here ever since being hired last year; but even if they got along well enough during class time each day, there was no way that anything could come between them considering their significant age difference!

Maybe I could yank it like a stuck zipper or something?

I reached out once more, but this time grabbed the metal in front of the lock itself instead of the handle.

I gave him a sideways glance as I noticed his eyes staring at the lock on the door.

With all my might, I pulled against the metal frame that held my locker shut.

For a brief moment nothing happened.

Mark had a thing for Ms. Grey ever since she first started teaching here last year.

Chapter 2

Then suddenly there was a loud crack as something gave way under my strength.

She was pretty much the only teacher who treated us with respect, which was probably why so many students looked up to her.

Even Mark’s older brother had her as a teacher when he went to the school over twenty years ago.

The intercom fell silent, leaving an uneasy tension in the air. Mark and I exchanged worried glances. "What do you think that was about?" I asked, feeling my heart rate spike.

"That’s not what I meant," Mark said with a roll of his eyes as he finally noticed where I was looking.

"I’m talking about you bending locker doors in half. You could probably break a bone just by giving me a high five." "Thanks for the vote of confidence," I said dryly, rolling my eyes in response.

My eyes widened in shock as I looked down at my hand to see that the metal door was bent right down the middle.

"No idea," Mark replied, his usual bravado faltering slightly. "But we should probably head to class."

I nodded, trying to shake off the lingering panic about my locker mishap and focusing on the new problem at hand. As we made our way down the hallway, the school seemed eerily quiet, with only the distant murmurs of students filtering through classroom doors.

It was like somebody took a piece of paper and folded it in half like some sort of origami project.

A small part of me was glad that Mark could make jokes about this whole thing because it meant that things weren’t as dire as they seemed.

We slipped into Ms. Grey's classroom just as she was closing the door. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw us but quickly masked her concern with a reassuring smile. "Everything okay?" she asked, her voice calm but probing.

My jaw dropped open and I stared at the damage that now lay before me.

Sure, it sucked knowing that I had super strength and couldn’t tell anyone about it — but there were worse things in life than being able to crush steel with your bare hands.

What… how did this happen?

"Yeah," Mark said nonchalantly. "Just a little locker trouble."

"It’s not like it’s going to come up again anytime soon," I said with a shrug.

Did someone mess with my locker while I wasn’t looking or something?

Ms. Grey's eyes flickered to me, understanding flashing in them briefly before she nodded. "We'll talk later," she mouthed silently.

I let out a panicked gasp when reality began to sink in.

As we took our seats, my mind raced with questions about the security issue and the locker incident. Ms. Grey began her lesson as if nothing was amiss, but I could see the tension in her posture.

If someone saw this, they would all know what I could do!

Mark leaned over and whispered, "Guess today isn't as typical as we thought."

Mark raised an eyebrow at me and I let out a sigh before explaining what had happened to him earlier this morning.

There was no way I could bend the locker back into place without using my super strength, which is exactly what got me into this mess in the first place!

I hadn’t even told Ms. Grey yet because I knew that she’d be disappointed in me if I did.

I couldn't help but agree, feeling apprehensive about what else this day had in store for us all.

She was the one who helped me discover my powers last year, after all — and then warned me not to do anything like this!

I nearly jumped out of my seat when Mark leaned over and whispered in my ear, "There’s something that I need to tell you."

"You’re still upset about this?"

I had been so wrapped up in my own thoughts that I hadn’t even noticed him getting out of his seat two rows behind me or walking down the aisle between desks before leaning in close enough for me to feel his breath against my skin.

It was only then did I realize how much of a hurry he must have been in earlier if he didn’t want anyone else overhearing our conversation!

Mark asked once I finished explaining everything to him.

"Uh, yeah?"

"Nobody saw you do it and Emily can’t get mad at you for something that nobody else knows about."

"She will eventually," I said with a shake of my head.

"What’s up?"

I replied as quietly as I could manage without drawing any unnecessary attention towards us from anyone else in the class.

"Besides, it’s not just a locker door that’s a problem — it’s everything! I have no control over how strong I am anymore. What if I accidentally hurt someone trying to help them?"

Mark looked around once more before lowering his voice even further, making sure that no one would overhear what he was about to say; after taking a deep breath, he finally started talking again."The security threat is real," Mark explained, making sure to keep his voice low enough so that only I could hear him instead of everyone else sitting around us.

"I’m sure if anyone can teach you how to use your powers responsibly, it’ll be Ms. Grey," Mark said with a small smile.

He had always been supportive of me, even when we first met last year and he didn’t know me very well yet.

"I heard Principal Harris talking about it with some other people down by the office before homeroom started up again. He said something about how they’re hiding somewhere right now waiting for their chance…"

With that thought in mind, Mark walked over to an empty locker and slammed his fist into the door until the metal crumpled under his strength.

Mark didn’t finish his sentence but I knew exactly what he was getting at.

The principal had mentioned earlier today that there was a group of people running around looking for students with abilities like mine; they were dangerous and needed to be stopped before anyone got hurt!

But if they were still here somewhere on campus then that meant they hadn’t given up just yet which also meant that we weren’t safe anymore either… "Are you sure?"

I asked, feeling my heart start beating faster once again.

"Positive. Now let’s come up with a plan for what we’re going to do," Mark replied while leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms over his chest before glancing over at me expectantly as if waiting for some kind of brilliant idea to come flying out of my head at any moment now.

"I don’t know," I said with a shrug of my shoulders; it wasn’t every day that something like this happened so I wasn’t prepared for what might happen next at all!

"Well, we have to do something. I can’t just stand by and watch while all of our friends get hurt or worse because of this…"

Mark’s voice trailed off as he glanced down at his desk while trying not think about what might happen next if we didn’t figure out some kind of plan soon enough.

"Ms. Grey will be fine," he suddenly said before looking back up at me with a reassuring smile; it was good for him that he didn’t know how worried I was about her too considering that she was one of the only other people who knew about my powers besides him!

"Yeah, I guess you’re right about that."

I wasn’t sure what would happen if anything did actually go wrong since there was no way for me to help protect her without giving myself away even more than I already had.

But Ms. Grey was extremely smart and could take care of herself when necessary so I tried not worry too much about it while doing my best to focus on other things instead — like coming up with a plan for how we were going stop those people from hurting anyone else!

"I’m sorry for freaking out earlier too," I told Mark after a few moments of silence between us.

"It’s just… ever since everything happened in the gymnasium last year, it’s been hard for me control my strength sometimes."

"I know."

Mark nodded sympathetically; he had been there when everything went down last year and saw firsthand how much trouble it caused me afterwards too despite having finally figured out how use this gift properly instead of accidentally hurting people all time!