"Yes, I will tell you more about it tomorrow, but for now I need to get some sleep. . . You know, some people actually do something called sleep. . . Okay, bye." I hung up my phone and sighed in relief. I fell onto my bed and looked up at my dark blue ceiling that was painted with stars to imitate the night sky.

            Today had been . . . something different. After The Marvel left me, I went to find Lacey in the crowd. Lacey, as you might've guessed, was ecstatic about what had happened to me. She was also very jealous that I got to meet her favorite super, and I didn't even have the smarts to ask for an autograph.

            According to Lacey, I was the luckiest girl in the world right now. According to me, I was the unluckiest girl in the world right about now. Tomorrow at school would be hell. Everyone will ask me about what happened, and how it felt to be saved by an actual super. Don't get me wrong, not everyone in our school was super obsessed with the supers, just a good number of them were. And I definitely wasn't looking forward to their fan induced questions about the experience.

            After I got home she demanded to have a phone conversation. She kept me on the phone for three hours, retelling to her every detail about what happened. She demanded to know how he smelled, what color his eyes were, how his voice sounded in person, how it felt to be in the presence of such greatness, and more. I doubt I'll ever be able to forget a detail, I repeated it too many times to ever forget.

            I looked at my watch and sighed again, it was ten at night and I still needed to shower, and do my homework. I decided to do the latter first, so I grabbed my Batman themed backpack and took out my thirty pages worth of AP Calculus, AP English 4, AP Physics homework. Tonight was going to be a long night.

*

*

*

            I finished and finally stepped out of the shower and, wrapping my Superman towel around my body, keeping me warm in the cold air conditioned air of the bathroom. I  picked up my Spiderman toothbrush and brushed my teeth while humming my favorite song. After I was done with that, I finally stepped out into the dark shadows of my room.

            Still humming, I searched through my drawer for something to wear to go to sleep. I finally spotted my comic themed pajama shorts and tank top and grabbed them.

             I turned and stopped in my place. There was a dark figure standing next to the window near my bed. I reached for the light and turned it on its lowest setting so I won't wake up my father. I took my glasses from the counter and put them on, just in case my horrible vision was doing tricks with the light.

            Are you kidding me?

            There, standing in the slight light of my bedroom, was none other than The Marvel. Now most girls in my situation would either scream in joy or run and hide because they just realized that they were still only wearing a towel. Me on the other hand, I just stood there, subconsciously wrapping the towel tighter around me.

            "Hello," the super greeted with a little wave.

            "What the hell are you doing in my bedroom?" I whisper loudly and urgently to him.

            "Well, to answer that, I would have to first answer many other questions that led to my coming here, and I'm pretty sure you don't have that kind of time on your hands." He avoided the question.

            "Well, if you wouldn't mind, I would like to have my bedroom back to myself. Then you can go back to popping into any other teenage girl's bedroom's as long as it's not mine." I spat at him.

            "Ouch, I thought you'd be ecstatic to see me, I am your savior after all." At that last part he placed his hands at his hips and I would bet anything he was smirking under the mask. This guy seriously thought that I was okay with him sneaking into my room at two in the morning? Didn't he know what privacy was?

            "Yeah, a savior that goes barging into teenage girl's room's in the middle of the night!" I whisper yelled at him. "And don't get me started about the laws you are technically breaking right now, violation of privacy, breaking and entering-"

            "I doubt that first one's a law, and technically I'm not breaking and entering, I'm just entering, your window was open, which isn't the smartest decision considering that there is a maniac who breaks into teenage girl's room's on the loose according to you." Gone was the sympathetic guy who only wanted to make sure that I was okay after almost being kidnapped.

            "Ugh! Why are you even here? I would like to think that you have some important reason for 'entering' my bedroom at two in the morning." He gives me a blank stare, as if he didn't think he'd get this far.

            "You know what? I'm going to go change." I walked back into my bathroom and locked the door. The last thing I needed was a super trying to spy on me while I changed clothes.

            After changing, I opened the door a little and stared where he had been standing before. He was still there. So it wasn't just a dream or a hallucination due to not getting enough sleep. I walked put and he turned his head towards me. He had been looking through my photo album while I was changing, not creepy at all.

            "You're still here." I stated and walked around to the other side of my bed.

            "Yeah, great observation skills by the way."

            "Not funny. Why are you here?" I cut to the chase.

            "I wanted to make sure that you were alright. You know, almost being kidnapped is a traumatic event, and I needed to be sure that you were alright." He says.

            "Yeah, and a super popping into my bedroom in the middle of the night isn't traumatic." I say to him sarcastically. "And how would you even know if I was awake at this hour? Most people are asleep by now."

            "But you aren't most people, Arabella."

            He walked around my bed, turning to face me. We were now only two feet away from each other. For some reason, I didn't feel uncomfortable having this stranger so close to me.

            "Touché, Marvel."

            "Ahh, you do have a sense of humor." He chuckled.

            "Who are you, and how do you know my name?" As long as he was here, I wanted to get some information.

            He looked stunned for a moment. "The Marvel." He said it very slowly, just to make sure I wasn't stupid.

            "No, you idiot. What's your real name?"

            "I can't tell you that. I would be breaking the number one rule for supers everywhere." He put up his finger as to illustrate that the rule was the number one rule.

            "What number one rule?"

            "Never give away your secret identity, unless you're an idiot." He smirked.

            I narrowed my eyes. "Please, just get out of my house already." I was honestly getting too tired for this.

            "Since you said please," he trailed off. "No."

            "Are you normally this annoying, or are you just trying too hard today?" I ask him.

            "I think I'm just making a special effort today." He smirks again.

            "This is trespassing."

            "Really? Haven't we already gone over this? After I potentially saved your life?" He chuckled. "What can you even do? Call the cops on The Marvel? Is that really how you want to repay the guy who just saved you less than twelve hours ago?"

            "Please, you're scaring me a little."

            "I doubt that. But there is one other reason that I came."

            "Why?" What other reason would there be for a maniac with superpowers to break into my room in the middle of the night?

            "You never said thank you."

            "What?"

            "I mean, a guy puts on a tight spandex outfit to save a beautiful girl from getting kidnapped by a creep and he never even got a thank you? I mean - it makes me feel unappreciated."

            "Oh, um . . ." I looked at The Marvel. He waited patiently. "Thanks, I guess."

            I gestured for him to leave, but he just stood there. Why was this guy so stubborn?

            "Alright, so you're either extremely prone to horrible situations like potential kidnappings and you've said thank you to a super so many times that it has become repetitive, or you're so insanely starstruck that you can't utter a proper thanks. Which is it?"

            "Neither."

            "Oh, that's going to make figuring you out much harder for me to do. I don't appreciate the extra challenge, but I'll accept." He nodded to himself.

            "This isn't a competition." I say, confused.

            "Oh, but it always is, isn't it?"

            "What do you mean?" I ask.

            He leans in close until he's only inches from my face. If I had leaned in, we would've been close enough to kiss. Woah, let's not start thinking in that direction. I don't want to end up like a fangirl, now do I?

            "It's always a contest, and I intend on winning this one." His breath felt warm on my cheeks, still a little damp from my shower.

            He backs away, towards the window. I can see him open the latch to the window and start to lean outside. I couldn't let him leave just yet, I still had something to say to him. "Wait." I whisper loudly to him.

            He turns and I can see he's surprised that I didn't let him have the mysterious exit that he desired. I wasn't letting him win just that easily. "What?"

            "This isn't a contest, but if it was, I would win. You can't figure me out as easily as you wish you could. And I will find out how you know my name." He stops and thinks about the extra challenge. I can see the gears turning in his head.

            "Fine, but that won't be as easy as you thought, Arabella." He looks at me and gives me his signature wave as he drops out the two-story window. For a second, I forget that he's a super and he can fly. I rush to the window and see him flying off into the distance, probably to save some other random citizen.

            And as my eyes followed him through the night, I couldn't help but to hope that this won't be my last encounter with the infamous and mysterious Marvel.