I slammed my locker door shut. Mateo stood beside me, staring into my packed locker. "Gregory is going to kill us," He said.

"I know," I admitted, my hand melting into my locker door before I smacked my head against the grooves.

"And it's not just him. It's those men I stole the cash from—"

My eyes widened, and I roared, "You told me you won that money."

"I did—sort of?" He confessed. I rolled my eyes, huffing angrily.

"Mateo! You're going to get us killed!" I boasted. Mateo sighed, clenching his sharp jaw.

"Be happy Gregory isn't here today."

I sighed. "How do you know he's not here?"

"I haven't seen him yet."

I breathed deeply. "We're going to die," I muttered, slamming my locker and leading off as the warning bell rang.

∆∆∆

Mateo and I sat at a table, pushing day-old mashed potatoes, Salisbury steak, and gravy on our tray. Gregory and his gang watch from another table, madly dogging us while we avoid them.

"Are you going to tell him, or do I have to?"

I sighed. "We're not telling Gregory anything until we talk to your dad."

We looked back at Gregory, watching him snatch a cake off someone's tray. He opened the packaged cake and ate it, still glaring at Mateo and me.

"We are not telling my dad anything. This might be his mess, but this is our fight."

I scoffed. "Sure," I said, biting into my rubbery steak.

"Someone has to stop him. He's a terrorist." He boasted.

I laughed at his ridiculousness. "Yeah, but it sure as hell will not be us." We watched Gregory finish his cake in one whole bite.

∆∆∆

Mateo and I snuck through the front door, our eyes meeting my father's as he tapped his toes, waiting for us to make a sound, but we were speechless in shock.

Mateo and I dropped his backpacks. My father stood by the counter, sipping a seltzer beer.

"How was your day, boys?" My father asked. Mateo sucked in a sharp breath of air and exhaled. "It was okay, Mr. Lopez." He spoke.

My father sighed, taking a sip of his beer. "Good, good." He huffed, and I knew he was bluffing. "You were supposed to stay home today, Alexander." I sighed and opened the fridge, pulling out two colas. "I went anyway," I said, handing a soda to Mateo and popping off the top, sucking soda from the bottle.

"Alexander Martinez Lopez!" My dad scolded me for my irresponsibility. "You're not understanding. You were struck by lightning, for God's sake. I only want the best for you. I'm concerned about you, Mijo." I shrugged and sucked more soda from the bottle, watching him point to the staircase in rage. "Go to your room!" He demanded.

Mateo spun around to walk off, but my father grabbed his arm, stopping him in his tracks. "Not you, Mateo. Go home." He said. Mateo rolled his eyes and walked off without picking a fight with my father, and my father glared at me, finishing his beer as I wandered out of the kitchen.

I met Mateo in my room, watching him climb through my window. I sat on his bed, flipping through articles about lightning on my phone. Nothing about superpowers came up, which alarmed me. Why was I developing powers?

"Daddy dearest is at it again. What Bullshit..."

"He only wants 'THE BEST FOR ME.'" I said, interrupting Mateo mid-sentence. The terrifying fact that my father would eventually find out about my abilities traumatized me, but I laughed it off.

"What are we doing about Gregory and the thirty grand?" Mateo asked.

I sighed. "I'm not sure... And you're going to get us killed."

Mateo scoffed, slipping onto my bedside next to me. "My dad is a sheriff. What could go wrong?"

"Sure," I laughed nervously. "You say that until your dad finds us face down near the skid row bridge with a bullet in our skulls."

Melissa walked by with a disgusted look while she snacks on red vines. "Yeah, you're an idiot, Mateo." She snapped at him. "Why do you even hang out with him?"

Mateo rolled his eyes and feigned pain as his hand clamped his chest. "Ouch. She's a feisty one today." He said.

Melisa grunted. "I'm on my period, dumbass." She rolls her eyes, biting into her red wine. Then, she flipped the bird at Mateo and walked off—Mateo chuckled at her dramatics.

"That's T.M.I., Mucosa." He snapped.

Melissa poked her head in the doorway again, glaring at my best friend as he sat on my mattress. "I heard that. You are such a little pinchazo. I bite, too."

"Como una maldita sanguijuela." He growled, laughing at her.

"Knock it off, Mateo." My father snapped from somewhere downstairs. Mateo bites his tongue—sucked for him. "Yes, sir," He replied.

"I thought I told you to go home, Mateo." My father said. I snorted, watching the blood from Mateo's face drain.

"Your dad scares me. I should go home. I'll text you updates, though, Bro." He said. Mateo and I slapped their hands, and then his eyes landed on my splinter of doorway, with no exit.

"What happened to your door?" He asked. I wasn't about to come clean about my superpowers to Mateo yet, so I shrugged.

"Dunno," I said. Mateo's nose scrunched, and he shrugged.

"See yah, bro," He said, leaving my room. I flattened against my mattress, relieved he was gone, and he didn't question me again about my doorway. I wasn't looking forward to explaining super strength to a superhero geek anyway.

∆∆∆

I jogged down the empty sidewalk with a hoodie flung over my head, sweatpants, and a pair of tennis shoes as the moon beamed down, reflecting on the puddle before me.

I stopped and checked the time on my phone—roughly 12:01 a.m. I probably should have headed home by now, but I moved on.

Looking around and checking my surroundings, I hovered off the ground. A large S.U.V. barreled down the road with three men with guns in ski masks covering their faces. As they inched closer, one man pointed their gun directly at me, and his eyes flickered in bewilderment. I watched as two cop cars, one with Gabriel, pursued the men.

Bang. Bang. Two bullets pushed in my direction, close enough to almost skim Mateo's hoodie. That pissed me off big time.

I swooped after the robbers, landing in front of the car, and I covered my eyes as the hood of the S.U.V. slammed into my chest, bending and crunching to the shape of my body as the car screeched to a halt, shocking the men inside as they froze in place.

The two cop cars barely had time to hit the brakes as tires screamed. Gabriel and three other cops jumped from their vehicles with guns drawn on the four men and me.

I lifted into the air, barely scraped by the car, although his body left an imprint in the engine of the S.U.V., and I was still in shock, wondering how I did that and if I could do it again.

"Son of a bitch," I cursed.

The cops and robbers stare at Alex for a moment, hiding his face from view under his hood as he dangles in the air a few feet. Gabriel pulls his intercom to his lips and speaks.

Gabriel brought his mic to his mouth, yelling into the speaker. "This is Sheriff Hernandez requesting backup and medical..."

A voice grumbles through the other end. "Rodger."

The cops watched me momentarily, and I watched them, hoping Mateo's father wouldn't notice his son's hoodie. There was silence, and then Gabriel nodded in my direction, reassuring me I was safe.

"Are you okay?" He asked me. I didn't quite know how to respond, but I tried my best, deepening his voice and octave with a husky growl, as they did in superhero movies.

"Yeah," I replied, trying not to show fear. My phone chirped, and I groaned, shutting it off from within the hoodie. Gabriel watched me with a curious stare as the pain settled in and the realization of a massive gash in my gut concluded.

"I-I gotta go," I said, saluting the Chief.

"Wait! Who are you?" He asked me. A crowd formed as neighbors wandered outside their homes, snapping photos and videos of a flying boy hiding like a coward under his best friend's hoodie.

"Look," I said, trying to diverge the situation to the three robbers trapped in their van. "I don't know if you know this, but you've got three bad guys trapped in a car."

"I'm aware," Gabe said bluntly.

"Do you need medical to look at your gash?" the other officer asked. I shook my head.

"Nah, I'm sure it'll heal," I replied, saluting the two cops. "See yah, Chief," I said. See you, Chief? What kind bullshit superhero saying was that? Sure, he was the Chief, but I could've done much better than "See yah, chief." Geezus.

While slamming my head on an invisible wall and sucking up the pain from the large gash in my stomach, I nodded at Gabriel, taking one last look at the mess I made, before flying off home.

∆∆∆

I lay on my bedsheets, my muscles compressed as I stared at the two shallow cuts on his stomach and chest. Barely any blood seeped from the wound and touched the injury, and I hardly felt any pain, but it still hurt enough to have me cursing up a storm.

"FUCK. SHIT!" I hissed, slipping off the hoodie and shirt and throwing them onto my mattress. I touched the wound again, and as lightning pulled from my fingertips to my slash, the wound stitched together and faded into fresh, uncut skin. "Fuck." I snapped, grabbing my phone off the side of the dresser next to me, unlocking the screen, and checking his messages.

Screaming downstairs from Melissa, I was booting to the stairway and down the steps into the living room, where the family watched the news.

"There's a super! Holy fucking shit!" Melissa cursed. This could have been better.

"Shut up, Melissa. I'm trying to listen to the TV," Emanuel snapped.

Melissa stuck her tongue out at Emanuel while I got comfy on the couch beside her, avoiding eye contact.

"Who's this..." I air quoted, "Super?" leaning back against the back of the couch, I settled in.

"We don't know, but it's nice of you to join us, Alex," my father spoke, his eyes widening when he stared at my six-pack abs.

"Have you been working out?" My father asked.

I snorted, shrugging. "There could be the worst things I could do," I said, watching Melissa's defiant glare. My phone chirped, saving me from an embarrassing conversation with my family as my eyes pulled to the screen.

"WE NEED TO TALK," Mateo wrote in all caps.

I shut my screen, pulled away from the couch, and bounced on my toes. "I'm going for a walk," I announced.

"Since when do you go out shirtless?" my father asked.

"Since now," I said with a cheeky smirk as I strolled out of the living room to the doorway, feigning confidence as I now had to face Mateo.

∆∆∆

I stood in the cold, shirtless, wishing I had put something decent on before leaving, but I had to let my stupidity succeed this time. Mateo looked anxious, staring at me with wonder as if trying to figure me out for a moment.

"It's so obvious you stopped the robbers, bruh." He suddenly spoke. And there we go. I knew that was coming, and he wasn't wrong. I wouldn't stand here shirtless and lie to my best friend. Not while I was freezing to death in fifty-five-degree weather. "First, you get struck by lightning, and suddenly, there's a super running about being a total fucking badass. Not to mention, I loaned you that hoodie, and I would very much like it back..."

I sighed. "Mateo," I said before lowering my voice to almost a whisper, my breath fogging the cool air. "So, what if it is me? What are you going to do? Tell your dad?"

Mateo laughed, and I shifted nervously in the cold. "No, but I've got something better. You can finally kick Gregory's..."

"I'm not doing shit to Gregory." I snapped, interrupting him. "You know it'll backfire."

"Not if you're wearing a mask. Think about it. I still have mine from three years ago when we dressed up as Robin and Nightwing." Mateo sighed. "Do you know how fucking long I've been waiting for someone to kick Gregory's ass? Year's, Alex. I know you have to. You have superpowers, for fuck—" Damnit. This might have been my worst idea since I challenged Gregory to a fight in the rain.

My body vibrated, nearly losing control, and I shifted behind Mateo, my hand cupping his mouth, hoping it would keep him quiet.

"Yeah, and I would not like the entire neighborhood to know about them," I muttered in his ear. I watched him huff in panic before releasing him from my firm grip.

"That was you, bruh!" He exclaimed. "I want to know about everything, starting with your super strength," he said, shifting his jaw in circles. Rustling nearby startled us as a homeless man approached, surprising us. Shit. Did he hear all that?

"Hey! What are you two boys doing down here?" He lashed out at us. Mateo's and my eyes met, unsure what to do, as panic settled in my gut.

"FUCK!" Mateo screeched. We bolted down the street. I took the front, rushing by Mateo as I tried to match his speed, and stopped when they reached the houses halfway down the road.

"You're not..." He huffed out of breath, "Winded? You really should consider this superhero shit." I rolled his eyes and walked on. Mateo follows behind.

"I'll think about it, only if you promise you won't give Daxon any money and you'll talk to your dad."

Mateo cringed. "Ooh, hard pass. I don't want to get killed for being a snitch."

I raised my hands to the sky. "Fine, no superhero shit." I declared. Mateo stopped me, slamming his fist into my rock-hard shoulder, instantly regretting it as he shook his hand.

"Fine, okay, you win, but only if you promise to show me some of your powers."

I mocked Mateo for his soppy attitude. "Ooh. Hard pass. You'll have to wait and see what I can do."

Mateo laughed, kicking a rock into the paved streets as we looked out into the rows of houses. "You are an asshole, bruh."

Mateo pushed me. Wow, nice. "I have a reputation to withhold. I made a pretty good news story tonight." I said, almost believing I was some hero. I could be a superhero.

"You bet your ass you did. My dad was going nuts! How was your dad's reaction?"

I sighed. "He was... Eh... He cared a little," I said.

Mateo shrugged, huffing the cold air. "Sounds like your dad. See you tomorrow?" He asked.

"Yeah. Text me before school. We have to go over some ground rules," I stated.

Mateo scowled. "Right. See you tomorrow. My dad will kill me if I'm not home by eleven."

I snorted. "Mine too," I mumbled. "You're Welcome, by the way. I saved your father tonight."

"No... You're welcome," Mateo said. "I saved your ass by loaning you that hoodie."

"Oh?" My eyebrow raised as I watched him momentarily with an amused grin before lifting into the air a few inches, watching Mateo's eyes light up in astonishment.

"I want my hoodie back tomorrow," he said, rolling his eyes and scoffing.

"I'll text you in the morning," I said. Mateo saluted me as I lifted higher into the sky. "You better not bail like you always do," He yelled at me."

"I won't," I said—famous last words. I had a habit of bailing on my terms, and as much as I was enjoying my new powers, they were annoying me, too.

"Good night, Mateo." I hollered, saluting him.

"Night, bruh," He shouted. Then I swooped off into the clouds, disappearing into the cold night air, shivering as I flew home.