“What you gonna do about it, norm?” Caleb laughed, his friends cackling down the hall. He became a blur, running back to his friends and their daily piracy. Yanking wallets and backpacks from terrified teenagers. A couple girls cowered when Laura set their homework ablaze, flames dancing off her fingertips. Terrence duplicated himself, screaming into the ears of a kid with super hearing.
I’d never thought of “norm” as pejorative. Not until it was thrown in my face.
Glued to the floor, I tried to muster the strength I’d had ten seconds ago. The courage to yell “stop.” Like many non-powered people, I’d been ignored throughout middle school. Never bullied, never rewarded. But I knew right and wrong. I knew justice. And now seemed the time to pursue my calling.
Until reality sped in. I had no power, no defence. No real way to stop a runner, pyro, and divider.
Head bowed, I walked away. Chaos filled the hall until security worked to quell the situation. But the rest of the day followed the same. More burning of belongings, more speeding after victims. My attempt to help had been forgotten, just like every norm in the school.
The screech of a straw brought me back to the present. Tanya smashed the ice in her empty mocha, straw crinkling with the effort. “I doubt you were that invisible.”
Jaw locking, I picked at the burrito bowl in front of me. “And how can you judge?”
“Cause I had norm friends. Super quiet and kind of boring, but I noticed them.”
Brow lowering, I measured my words. The story I’d been relaying, the one she asked for, had been nearly a decade in the past. Yet even today, moments from the dream I’d had in middle school, I still felt the pejorative tone of people like her.
Restraining my desire to strangle her, I asked, “You want me to continue?”
Stuffing a chicken wing lathered in barbeque in her mouth, she nodded with a roll of her eyes. “Obviously. Yeesh, you norms are so slow.”
My teeth dug into my tongue while my hands gripped the table. Good thing she wasn’t a telepath; I could think whatever horrid thing I wanted without her knowing. Calming myself, I folded my arms on the table. “Went home with a serious question: did I belong in this new world?”
It felt like yesterday, curled on my bed well past dinner. Too hounded by my thoughts to consider anything beyond the future. Wondering if Dad had been right.
I didn’t realize Mom had come in with a plate until she sat on the bed. Her cropped curls hid under a bandana, leaving her concerned expression unobscured. She asked her daily quandary: how was school? I relayed the horrible truth I’d realized: norms can’t do anything. Not in a world where supes exist.
Then she said something that has never left me. “Don’t give up flying because you don’t have wings.” She said a few other things, putting effort into what you want and life never being easy. But that was the push I needed.
Next day, I borrowed every book on supe anatomy. With nearly four decades of studies conducted after the first supes evolved, I had a wealth of knowledge to pull from. How certain abilities work, where their weak points are.
A clatter echoed in my ears. Knuckles whitening, I considered yanking Tanya’s auburn hair. Raising my eye, I decided to just scold her.
Until I saw her shock. Heart-shaped face crinkled and contorted, she obviously couldn’t tell whether to be mad or impressed. No matter which emotion took over, one question filled her eyes.
I smiled, sipping my water. “Call it my superpower.”
Tanya closed her gaping mouth, glaring at the two trays of food in front of her. “So you learned how to beat supes.”
“Pyros and dividers to start. And runners.”
Her indignation was so satisfying to observe. “’Kay norm. How?”
The nickname still stung, but its pejorative effect was tempered. Cheek in palm, I leaned on the table while running through the facts I’d committed to memory. “Well, pyros don’t do well in low oxygen areas, so I just sprayed Laura with a fire extinguisher in the hall. Dividers have limits on duplicates and can’t retract them through walls. Getting Terrence divided and separated was rather–”
“Runners, Wolfe. How’d you beat me– the runner. Caleb! How’d you get the leader?” Pale skin reddening, her small nose twitched like a rabbit’s.
Pushing on the table, I locked eyes with her. “You pick your destination before you run because you can’t see. Everything’s moving too fast. So if I set a thin wire you can’t see in your path, or say, drop a couple marbles while you’re running, you’re vulnerable.”
Her fury melted into something else. An emotion that puckered her bottom lip and sagged her shoulders. “The norm becomes the terror.”
My glee faded. While that day in middle school had been a victory for norms and kept the supes at bay, I’d gotten in trouble. Dad grounded me for a week, Mom insisted my actions weren’t what she wanted. My few friends abandoned me, worried my presence would provoke retaliation.
Staring at Tanya, the reservation I’d seen so many times in my youth appeared again. Wetting my lips, I shook my head. “Everyone thought that, but I didn’t want to hurt people.”
“Then what?”
“I wanted to make a difference. To uphold the law. I wasn’t born with wings, but knowledge helps me fly.”
For once, Tanya fell silent. Her gaze finally met mine, lips folding into her usual smirk. “Guess a norm cop would need special tricks against criminal supes.” I chuckled, returning to my food. “Still confused.”
I dropped my fork. “You wanted the story of why I’m at the academy. I’m here to uphold justice.”
“No, not that. What was your dad ‘right’ about?”
“Oh.” My cheeks heated. “Right about becoming a dentist.”