12. Special K’s Interlude

Chapter twelve

Special K's Interlude

Kyler Copeland – Age 14

M y big brother, Wren, was the most amazing brother ever. I was two years ahead of my age group in school. Yep, a giant nerd, only not so giant. In fact, I was a scrawny kid with a too-big brain and going to high school a lot earlier than most. It would have been like serving up a target on a silver platter to the bullies of the world. So, obviously, I was a little nervous for the first day back. But not Wren. He was excited and swore he would continue to protect me like he had for the last two years. That helped a ton.

I was starting my junior year and Wren was a senior. He was my opposite in so many ways. He was a sporty, charismatic guy. Everyone loved him and, by extension, me. Most of the time.

Mom made us scrambled cheese eggs with toast, and we sat around the table eating together before we all had to go our separate ways for the day. Dad came down to join us, dressed in his suit and tie. He worked for an insurance company, selling life insurance policies. It was a hard job, a hard sell, or so dad always said, but it also made the most money. Thankfully, it had been enough to buy a house and keep us fed and clothed. And we were a happy family.

"Any jelly for this toast?" Dad asked, kissing Mom before sitting at the table with us.

"You'll get in on you. So no," she said but also slid the jelly jar over.

Dad tucked a paper towel into the front of his shirt. "I've got this."

Wren and I both laughed at their antics. It wasn't anything new, but I loved it. We might not have had a ton of extras. I didn't wear a Michael Jordan hoodie or sneakers. No Air Jordan Nike's for me. But I didn't care so much. Because my family loved me. I smiled and ate, taking everything in.

"So, I heard from Jackie Carlton last night." Wren was talking about the head cheerleader and reigning drama queen of Clay High. "Since I made starting quarterback this year, I'm probably going to get Homecoming King. Maybe even Prom."

"Fantastic." I swear Mom had stars in her eyes. She hadn't been the queen, but she'd been a cheerleader and on the homecoming court back in her day. I could hear how fondly she looked back on those days in her voice whenever things like this came up.

Dad cleared his throat after swallowing down some coffee. "Remember. That's not everything. And you won't be able to participate if you don't have the grades."

"If I don't have the grades," Wren said at the same time. "I know, Dad, but I'll have the grades." He did some weird wink and finger-gun thing.

Me? I was never going to be involved with the social aspects of high school despite being Wren Copeland's little brother. All of it seemed superficial to me anyway, so I rolled my eyes. No one was ever concerned about my grades because I was always at the top of the class. I would most likely graduate as valedictorian next year. Hell, I could probably graduate even earlier if I applied myself, but Mom didn't want me to burn out the brain before college. I suspected she wanted me to have some kind of a normal life, so she tried to slow me down. I couldn't help loving her for it, but it felt stifling sometimes.

But not today. Today, it was all about Wren. I clapped my hands. "Go Wren. Football hero and Homecoming King."

"I haven't won yet."

"You will." I smiled at him confidently. He totally would win. Everyone loved him. Not only was he a super athlete, destined for a football scholarship, but he was kind. That meant more than anything in my book.

Then something happened. Wren tried to speak, and it came out funny. He literally squeaked. "What? Mom. Shit. I'm going to be late." Every third word was a high-pitched squeak, making tears well up in Wren's eyes.

Mom patted his shoulder. "Relax. It's normal. And I'll bet half the football team is going through the same thing." She smiled sweetly, but she was lying. Most of the boys had gone through this a few years ago. Wren had complained that he was the only one who hadn't. He was super late.

"It's puberty, Wren. You're becoming a man." Dad puffed his chest out, proud of his son for something no one had any control over.

I wanted to help Wren, make him feel better, or something. He'd always been there for me. "I've heard of this puberty thing, Wren. Once your voice settles down, all the girls will think you're sexy."

My mom's eyes practically bugged out of her head, but she didn't say anything. In fact, my dad and Wren both stared at me with similar expressions.

"Well, it's true."

"Where did you hear that?" Wren squeaked at me.

"I've watched as many movies as you. I read. Even medical journals, which you do not." I pointed at him with my fork. "You'll get more muscles. Since you already work out, I'll bet you'll like explode." I mimed gigantic muscles popping out of my biceps. "And you'll get a hairy chest. Remember that old Magnum PI show Mom likes to watch. He had all the chest hair."

"Kyler Anthony Copeland." Shit. Mom full-named me. I was in trouble.

"I'm just trying to help."

"Well, you're not." She gave me the ultimate Mom-look.

"Shutting up now." I pursed my lips together, and Mom shook her head. I could tell she wasn't too mad, but maybe I had overstepped. Well, a little.

The conversation ended then anyway because we had to get moving to start our day. We rinsed our dishes, stuck them in the dishwasher, and grabbed our backpacks. Then we all kissed Mom as Dad ushered us out to the car. He always dropped us off at school. But in the last few years, he dropped us off about a block away, and we walked because Wren was embarrassed to be dropped off by his dad. I didn't care either way. It meant I got extra time with my brother in the morning.

"You gonna be okay, Wren?" It felt odd to ask him that when it was normally the other way around.

"Fss…" He flung a hand up. "Don't be silly. I'll live." His voice waited until the last word to crack. Wren rolled his eyes dramatically, which made me laugh. He ruffled my hair. "Relax, kid. I can handle it."

"Okay. Seriously though. Jackie will love it afterward with all the muscles and the hair."

We both cracked up then. It was probably the last golden moment we had together. Once we got to school, we went separate ways. Wren joined his friends, and I headed to my first class, where I wouldn't have to deal with anyone else except Lori. She was in all of my classes and tried hard to keep up, but I nearly always ended up tutoring her. She didn't seem to mind, but I always found myself hoping she didn't like me like boyfriend-girlfriend-like. That would be hard to let her down, but I wasn't interested in that. She gave me signs sometimes, like that one time she tried to hold my hand. But I played the age card. I said I didn't like girls yet, but I was pretty sure already that I wouldn't ever like girls. And she would never be Chris Hemsworth. I saw all his movies, particularly the Marvel ones. He was ultimate-hot. And the only one I was interested in.

We worked our way through advanced Literature and Pre-Calc. At lunchtime, I got a tray and sat at the table closest to the door. Alone. Sometimes, Lori would join me, but she had a whole gaggle of girls she hung out with. I think she grew up with them.

Dan dropped his tray on the table and sat across from me. "Hey, man."

"Uh, hey." I felt awkward. Dan was cute and on the JV basketball team, but he was also in a few of my classes, so he was smart.

"Did you study for the Government quiz?" He was referring to our AP Government class. The teacher always gave a pop quiz on the first day of school to see what his students already knew. And we all knew about it from the kids who had his class the prior year.

I shook my head. "No. It's not supposed to count in grades. Right?"

"Right. But. I don't want to look stupid."

"You had US History last year, right? You should know some things from that."

"Maybe you could quiz me a little bit?" He grabbed his book from his backpack and slid it across the table. He looked at me with wide brown eyes and a pouty bottom lip. And I got hard. Ohmygosh-ohmygosh!

I figured I better focus on quizzing him simply to get my dick to settle down before we had to go to class. How embarrassing. Unlike my poor brother, I had gone through the voice-change nonsense over the summer. But hitting puberty hadn't done anything for me except make me pop wood at the worst possible times. Like this. I hoped like hell it would go back to sleep before I died a humiliating death from awkwardness. Maybe Lori would come by. At least I could use that as an excuse. I didn't know how Dan would feel about me getting hard for him. And I didn't want to find out. Images of the basketball team ganging up on me to kick my ass flashed before my eyes, and I grabbed the book. "Let's stick with chapter one, though."

"Sure. Thanks, man."

And…thankfully, my traitorous dick settled down before the bell rang, and Dan walked with me to class, completely unaware of my ardor. We talked about Government and what might be on the quiz. I stayed focused. And ultimately, only missed one question. Dan gave me a thumbs up as we turned them in, so I figured he did well too, and I wondered if we'd study together again. And if I could stand that. I imagined sitting with him side by side and the textbook between us, getting bonked by my raging hard-on.

The rest of the day went by quickly, and I walked home. We lived in an old farmhouse outside town, but Mom made it homey. She often told me home wasn't a place—it was the people you loved. That night, she made a fantastic dinner. Spaghetti, one of my favorites. After helping with the dishes, I went to my room to study. Nothing out of the ordinary.

That night, pretty late, something woke me up. It sounded like Wren moaning and groaning in the next room. The walls were thin, and I'd heard similar sounds before. He'd probably woken from a wet dream and was jacking off or something. I was a couple years younger than him and had already had that happen a few times, especially after watching Hemsworth as Thor before bed. Yum!

The only thing to do was roll over and pull my pillow over my head. Ignoring it, I went back to sleep. Until. A loud banging woke me again. It was almost time to get up for school anyway, so I got up to check it out.

Wren came flying out of his room, rubbing the back of his head and mumbling something about low ceilings. He seemed half asleep and was still wearing his boxers and a T-shirt. I followed him to the front door. And my whole world changed.

He walked out. And then up.

"Wren, Wren!" I screamed, running after him. I grabbed his legs and tried to pull him down, but he was rapidly rising into the air.

He screamed unintelligently and flailed his arms around. But the more he did that, the faster he rose, and my feet left the ground. I tried to make myself weigh more by leaning back and pulling down to the earth, but it wasn't working, and my bare toes dragged over the dried, brown grass of the front yard.

"Stop. Breathe. Don't panic, Wren. Please…"

"No, no, no." He wiggled around, trying to shake me off, and unfortunately, that worked.

I hit the ground hard, knocking the breath from my lungs. I scrambled up and ran after him. He was over the street, floating even higher than before, nearly above the tree line. "Grab a tree!" He either didn't hear me or was too panicked because he simply floated higher. I called his name again and ran after, jumping to try and grab him, but he was too high. "Wreeen!"

My parents were beside me, but I couldn't remember how or when they arrived. I could only focus on Wren's body, flying higher and higher.

Mom was on the phone with emergency services, but I knew it was too late. By the time they got here, Wren would be gone. Dad walked up and down the road, looking up at his son floating away. I could still hear Wren screaming. And Dad muttered, "Where? What? How? What's going to happen. Where is he going?"

I knew what was going to happen, though. For once in my life, I felt I knew too much, but I'd worked it out. "He'll pass out. Eventually, when the air becomes too thin."

"And then…" I wasn't sure he really wanted to know.

"Either he'll keep going and… and…" I couldn't tell my dad the words burn up in the atmosphere , so I didn't. "More likely, he'll fall back to earth." My dad started crying. I'd never seen him cry before. "He. He'll likely never wake up." That's all I could focus on.

He'd never wake up.

Because at least it would be painless.

"Maybe…" Mom came over, kneeling beside me, and wrapped her arm around my shoulders. "Maybe he'll get a hold of it and figure it out, and-and simply glide back down. Right?"

"Maybe." But I doubted it. Wren had been completely panicking. He didn't understand what was happening. Really, none of us did.

And then.

Then…

Then nothing.

…

They found his body twelve days later, on the beach in Pensacola. Almost four hundred miles away.

I hoped he never woke up, but if he did, I hoped he saw the beautiful water and sand and felt some kind of peace.

I hoped he had peace.

After his funeral, I swore his death wouldn't be for nothing. I didn't know how or why but I had to make it up to him. I hadn't been strong enough, smart enough, fast enough. I couldn't save him. But if I had, he would have been a hero. Now I had to do it. Even without special abilities. But I did have one.

I was super smart.

And I planned to use that. I just didn't know how. I couldn't let all this anger eat me alive, though I wanted to drown in it. Instead, I made it my mission to be the best non-super superhero I could be. I studied my ass off, and in my senior year, only a month before graduation, I found an online quiz that I thought might help me figure out what to do.

The website was called NaturalAbilities4A77.org. It had stories about ordinary people finding their potential and making life changes that helped them and others. It sounded a little too good to be true, but I took the quiz anyway since I was feeling lost, unable to figure out how to put my Save the World plan in place. It was supposed to help determine my passion and potential. Whatever. I clicked go and answered a series of weird questions. Was I in school and what grade? What was my GPA? Okay, those were easy. Then it went to weird stuff like have you ever dreamed you were a tree . Uh…duh, no. And if you could pick a color for your fantasy house, what would that be? I didn't know what they were getting at with this, but I answered white because that was the color of my parents' house back in Jacksonville.

That was all fine and good, even though I couldn't see how those questions would help me. But then it asked about special abilities. Can you move things with your mind? Can you hold your breath for over two minutes? Do you or any of your immediate family members have some unexplainable talent or ability? And do you want superpowers?

It was all no for me, but then my brother had a talent. He floated away and out of our lives forever. So, I indicated as such. Then, the last question was a free-form text asking me to write my mission statement.

I had to do my part to save the world because Wren couldn't .

Two days after graduation, I was approached by SPAM. They had my answers to the quiz and asked me to join them.