The Girl Who Harnessed Color

Ch. 1

The “Marvelous Competition”

Carley juggled her notebooks in a crane dance as she tried to shimmy her Sociology textbook into her hot pink backpack. Learning about social deviance was a little triggering for her when she started to think about how she was deviant, even if it wasn’t intentional. From the time she was 8 kids like Jody Spencer would whisper behind her back “Maybe she doesn’t get powers because she caused her parent’s accident” Giggles and squeals of laughter were heard just behind her back. She’d always clasp her hands and bow her head as if she could prey away their ugly words. Now though, it was just a slight prickle in the back of her mind, maybe she didn’t deserve powers. Finally, with a thunk, the stupid book fell into place.

Throwing her bag over her shoulder she approached her pride and joy, a hot pink 1997 Bronco her Grandma had gifted her for her 16th birthday. First, her bag was thrust onto the passenger seat with a little less care than was strictly necessary, then her shoes kicked off her feet- sleek pink rubber kitten heals she’d found at a garage sale. Breathing a large sigh of relief (they pinched just a bit but beauty was pain), she blew a kiss towards Grandma’s window and started to make her way towards McKastan High.

“Carley!” It was Tess yelling for me as I shoved my shoes back on. “What’s up Tess?” practically running into me she came to an abrupt stop and started jumping up and down, “Look at this flier I found!”. Glancing at her hand I looked at the information scrawled in punk font along the front, Want to be a hero? Start with the Marvelous Competition, sign up today! Glancing up at her I said the only thing I could think of “Uh.. What?”

“This is it! This is what we’ve been waiting for” giggling Tess pushed the flier at me, I looked at it as one may look at yesterday’s leftovers. “Tess… I don’t have powers, how would this help me?” Tess fluttered her eyelashes “it’s not for you silly, it’s for me” I thought about a few things to retort with before finally settling on “Oooh what else is new?” stalking towards the school cafeteria Tess relented “ok ok that’s fair but seriously, it could be a game changer. You know Jody Spencer is class pick to win the Power Performances.” Jody Spencer was a lot of things but class pick to win the Power Performances? I really couldn’t see it. Jody had charisma I’d give her that but I couldn’t see her winning a competition based on powers after all her only power was to “Flirt”

Tess stared at me. I added “That’s literally her power, she can captivate an audience by flirting” Rolling my eyes I sighed “Tess your power is way better I’m sure you’ll knock their socks off, you always do.” That seemed to cheer her up. We both had English for our first period, I pulled out my tattered copy of Things Fall Apart. Mrs. Prosidio was writing alliteration techniques on the board, I loved her. Most people fell asleep in English, hard not to honestly, the room was always warm and it was first period, why on earth would they make English a first-period class?

Mrs. Prosidio started her long-winded lecture with the quote “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness” Carley pondered what that meant, she wondered if she would live up to her parent’s legacy, or even if she could. Maybe her own fears of inadequacy would be her downfall. Jody took her seat behind Carley and under her breath said “What’s the word Carb-ie?.”

Oh. So today would start like that. Bracing myself I turned slightly so my mouth was close enough for only her to hear “Oh you know Jody, just pondering how many of you it would take to change a light bulb …. wait do you need me to explain what that is?” Sydney across the aisle snickered, she was cool, one of my acquaintances that ate at our table. Her power was pretty epic she could suck the air out of a room, if she wanted to be a murderess, well she really could. Dressed in all black with purple hair that shone-she could fit the part.

Jody struck out, I could feel her foot as she kicked my chair.

Mrs. Prosidio glowered at us from her podium. “Carley.. do you mind explaining to the class what you think this quote is saying?”

Hating the feeling of so many eyes on me, I pretended I was winning an Emmy, instead of being in the front of class explaining Okonkwo’s downfall. “Sure” I edged up so I sat a little taller, “Okonkwo despised the colonization and change happening in his world and his fear of the things he couldn’t fix ate away at him until he treated those he cared about cruelly.”

Mrs. Prosidio nodded and looked back to the room, I on the other hand could only stare at the board. Fear of weakness. What if you were weak, what if it wasn’t just fear of being weak but your reality, what then?

I pondered this on my way to lunch that afternoon. Tess was bubbly and giddy as she told the others about the Marvelous Competition, “Ooh.. and if we join we could be famous.. we could meet Elcastor” Sydney laughed “Who says Elcastor would want to meet you?” Quirking a brow she strode towards our table. Tess had a scrunched expression. Pulling out my PB&J I scooted onto my high chair, “So” I was so engrossed in my sandwich that I didn’t realize Elliot had slid into the chair next to me. Suddenly My apple juice was levitating next to me. I snatched it and glowered at him. “So?” He chuckled “Are you thinking about entering the competition?” I snorted “Yes, of course, I’ll be crowbar girl! Defender of geeks everywhere, puleaz” Elliot shrugged.

Elliot was cute in a not-my-type kind of way. Red curls adorned his cherubic face with light brown eyes and a slight smirk that added to his penchant for trouble. I had always admired his laid-back attitude, I was a lot of things but laid back wasn’t one of them. I bit my sandwich with a little too much force and of course, apricot jam slipped out and onto my newly thrifted velvet coat. Rolling my eyes at the universe I made to get out of my seat but Jill took that moment to send water from her glass onto the patch of goop. “You guys need to learn how to do mundane things well, sometimes you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s somehow refreshing to run to the bathroom and dab at your shirt with a wet paper towel like a normal person!” I stomped off leaving all of them to watch me looking sheepish.

I usually wasn’t so irritable but come on, it’s not easy to be surrounded by so many talented people and realize how inadequate you are. Sometimes, for just a brief second, I wished powers would disappear.

Bruskly Carley moved towards the bathroom, it was decent as bathrooms went with fushia-colored tiles and a pink sink. Unclasping her coat she yanked it off and started to rub the fabric with a wet paper towel, ten seconds later the door opened and Sydney came to a stop next to me. Popping gum she slowly smiled “So, how are all things mundane?” I chuckled “I guess I deserved that” Sydney started fussing with her purple strands.

“Carley.. you know how cool you are right? Even if you don’t have powers you can still be powerful.” I sighed “I know, I know. I just want to be more sometimes, and especially around this time of year, the Power Performances always put me in a bad mood.” Sydney seemed thoughtful for a second, finally, she added “Why don’t you ever hang out with other people who don’t have powers? Like, make a group.” That caused me to have a fit of giggles “Sydney the only people who don’t have powers are like 5-year-olds, that’s probably not going to be the best support group”

She smiled “True, I guess that’s true.” Shrugging on my now somewhat damp coat she clasped my arm and we proceeded to make our way back to the lunch table.