The Super 4 : Dark Death (18 page)

“
No thanks, Tommy,” I replied.
“I’ll get there fine on my own.”

“
Very good sir.”

I fast-walked towards the dining room. Mum was
seated eating a scone.

“
Hey mum.” I said.

She nodded at me, her mouth to full of scone
to talk. I smiled and took a seat at the long table.

“
What’s for dinner?” I
asked.

“
Mmhmm.” she
mumbled, incomprehensibly. She swallowed. “We’re going out
to
Le Restaurant de la Brique
Rouge!”
It took my french translator a
while to figure that out.

“
The Red… Brick Restaurant?” I
asked, uncertainly. Mum nodded yes. I smiled. “Is there any special
occasion?”

“
Some political meeting. Dad
stuff.” Mum said. I nodded my understanding.

“
So,” I said, “When do we
leave?”

“
In a couple of minutes.” said
mum. “So go get ready.”

I took the elevator up to my room. Once there,
I peeled off my wet jacket and socks. I hurriedly changed into a
suitable attire of dark jeans, a white shirt and black
Nikes.

I finally
decided to leave my aviator sun glasses.
This was business, not a teen magazine,
I told myself, as I took the elevator to the ground floor.
Mum was all dressed up, wearing a red, short-sleeved dress, that
came up to her knees. Her hair was all curly and loopy. She was
wearing black high heels, which made her a few inches taller. It
also made me a few inches shorter.

“
Let’s go.” Mumsaid.

“
Okay.” I guessed this was an
important person. Mum was just short of sweating. The chauffeur
opened the door to the limo and we took a seat.

Mum looked all around, nervously and kept
tapping her fingers against her knee.

Must be some
guy, if he can make the president’s wife nervous
, I thought.
Who would be able to do
that? The queen of England? I didn’t know. A mass murderer? Maybe.
But he has got to be intimidating.

I couldn’t of been more wrong.

Jake

XXVI

I got to miss
two days of school because of my amnesia. Luckily, I would be back
in time to get my
Best Sports
Player
award. I have seven so
far.

Also I missed Carly. I mean, yeah I see her
all the time, but it’s weird. Seeing someone at school is different
than seeing them in hospital. I knew the difference well. Too
well.

My amnesia turned out not to be as serious as
expected. In a day I remembered everything. Everything.

That included the creepy guy in black. Blond
curls were planted on his evil head and the scary look in his eyes.
I can’t believe I ever forgot that.

I was in the middle of shuddering, when Agatha
and Carly came in with my dinner.

“Hey, Carly,” I said, as Agatha left the room.
“What’s up?”

“Hey Jake.” she responded glumly.

“Is anything wrong?” I asked.

“What?’ she said, “Why’d you think
that?”

“Oh, no reason,” I said. “You just seemed
down.”

“No, nothing’s wrong.” she replied. “Besides,
it’s a happy moment. You’re finally getting discharged from
hospital!”

“Oh, yeah.”

“And report cards are out. That’s why I’m
late. Your Mum gave me this.” She pulled out a white envelope
labeled with his name and grade. Gulping, I took it.

I opened the envelope and looked at my
grades.

Report Card for STUDENT:
PATTERSON, Jake Christopher

MATH:

Teacher: Mr Wharton Grade: B+
Percent: 88 Position: 7th

ENGLISH:

Teacher: Ms Thompson Grade: B-
Percent: 83 Position: 9th

HISTORY:

Teacher: Mr Lin Grade: B Percent:
85 Position: 8th

GEOGRAPHY:

Teacher: Ms Smith Grade: B+
Percent: 86 Position: 8th

PHYSICS:

Teacher: Mr Tibbs Grade: C
Percent: 74 Position: 13th

BIOLOGY:

Teacher: Mr Shay Grade: C Percent:
76 Position: 12th

HEALTH:

Teacher: Mr. Zimmer Grade: D+
Percent: 69 Position: 20th

MODERN LANGUAGES SECTION FOR
QUARTER 4:

DUTCH:

Teacher: Mr Van Houten Grade: C-
Percent: 71 Position: 18th

PERFORMING ARTS:

DRAMA:

Teacher: Mr Russell Grade: A+
Position: 2nd

PHYSICAL EDUCATION:

Teacher: Mrs. Breedlove Grade: A+
Position: 1st

OVERALL ACADEMIC SCORE:
74%

OTHER SUBJECTS: 100%

GPA: 2.7 GRADE: C

Congratulations, Jake! You have
been accepted into ninth grade! Enjoy!The Northview Academy eighth
grade teacher community, would like to take a moment to praise Jake
for his dramatic increase in academics. Keep on trying!

Yours sincerely:

SKamininski
DougTurn

Middle School Principal:
Superintendent:

Shari Kaminski Douglas
Turner

Northview Academy

Filii hodie, et imperantes
cras!

Children today, Leaders
tomorrow!

I’ll admit it. I squealed like a happy
pig.

“
Whaddya get?” asked Carly. She
looked happier ever since my squeal. I guess she was worrying about
me all along. I felt a burst of emotion for her. Yet
again.

“
A two point seven!” I replied
with equal excitement in my voice.

Carly screamed. She started clapping her hands
superfast. Little sparks of electricity burst out her
hands.

“
Oh my gosh! I’m so happy for
you!”

“
Thanks, Carls,” I
replied.

“
No prob, Jake!” She smiled at me
and squeezed me in a killer hug. I touched her lemon scented hair.
It was silky and soft.

She pulled away, a huge smile still planted on
her face. Her cheeks were rosy and her eyes shone with excitement,
her eyes were beautiful.

“
What time do you get discharged?”
she asked.

I snapped out of my love daze. “Uh… Oh, at
six.”

She glanced at her watch, yes, she has a
watch! She was so smart! “Well it’s five thirty now, so…think they
discharge half an hour early?”

“
Even if they don’t, who can stop
two members of The Super Four?” I asked.

She smiled dangerously. “You have never been
more right!”

She pressed the intercom on my hospital table.
It was used if patients wanted anything, or felt sick. “Agatha? Can
Jake and I go get ice cream?”

“
You know he gets discharged at
six!” I heard her say.

“
Yeah, but… we
wanted to celebrate his report card.” she said. Her next words were
whispered. “
Alone
.” I blushed.

“
Tsk! This generation dates too
early, if you ask me! They shoul-” She was cut of by Carly shouting
a quick thank you and removing her finger from the
intercom.

She looked at me. Her rosy cheeks had turned
tomato red. I’m certain I was no less red-cheeked. “Um… Let’s go.”
I said, after an awkward silence.

“
Sure.” Carly sounded relieved.
“Let’s go.”

I scooped the last of my ice cream in my
mouth. Carly was still halfway. I looked greedily at her
bowl.

“
No Jake.” she said, without
looking up from her bowl.

“
Fine,” I said, reluctantly. I
walked up to the cashier and ordered another rocky road. I drummed
my fingers against the counter, while I waited. The waiter was a
boy about my age. I was surprised. I thought you had to be, like,
sixteen or eighteen to get a job. But what did I know? I accepted
the rocky road. He looked me in the eyes as he handed it over. I
stepped back. I dropped my bowl.

Only my fast
reflexes saved it from crashing into pieces. His eyes.
His
eyes! The Shadowman!
His amber eyes were webbed with black lines. Touches of green laced
his eyeballs. All of a sudden, his eyes turned solid black, a
bright green glow shone from them.

I gulped and stepped back. He smiled at me and
I turned around and raced to my table with Carly.

“
Jake?” she asked, “Are you
alright?”

“
I’m fine,” I said, “It’s just
that the cashier guy had freaky eyes.”

“
Oh,” Carly turned around. “He has
normal eyes to me,”

“
What?” I exclaimed. I turned
around. Gone was amber boy. Now a guy of average height and built
stood in his place. I checked his eyes. A plain brown. Nothing
more. I shook my head in a desperate attempt to clear it. I looked
again. Nope, still a normal man. Despite his crazy pink mohawk, he
was like anyone else in the world.

I turned my head around and stared at Carly in
disbelief. How is that possible?

“
What color were his eyes, Jake?”
she asked, sympathetic.

“
They… they were like Darryl’s
eyes… except… they had these black lines in them. An-And the edges
were… they were bright green! And then, all of a sudden, they
flashed black and these bright green beams emitted from them. It
was scary!”

Carly carefully placed her hand over mine. She
smiled at me. “I believe you,”

“
You do?”

“
Yeah,”

“
Thanks,” I smiled right back at
her. She tossed her hair from her face.

“
Let’s finish this ice cream,” she
said.

“
Okay.” I smiled at her. I pushed
the bowl in the middle and we started eating it. We used two
different spoons, but it was the most romantic thing I’d ever
done.

We kept smiling like complete goofballs, until
the ice cream was finished. I walked her home.

“
Thanks Carly,” I said again, “For
everything,”

“
No problemo, Jake!” she replied,
squeezing my hand. Yes! We were holding hands!

“
You’re amazing!” I told her, “And
you look beautiful,”

It was true. The setting sun made her hair
look like golden fire and her eyes flashed from blue to
green.

“
I know,” she said. “And you don’t
look to bad too.”

I smiled at her.

“
Well,” she began. “This is my
house, so see you tomorrow at the awards ceremony. Bye!” She leaned
over and gave me a quick peck on the cheek.

I smiled at her in disbelief and wonder. She
turned a rosy pink and left. I felt my own cheeks heating up, but I
didn’t care. I could only focus on the bubble of emotion swelling
up inside. “Yes!” I yelled, pumping my fist in the air and kicking
out at an unknown assassin. I ran to my house, ready to tell Dad
and Harrison the good news.

I raced in. “Guys! Guess what?” I said
excitably, “Carly kissed me!”

But my news echoed back to me. The entire
house was empty.

I was alone.

They were gone.

Madame Blaise. Gone.

Mom. Gone.

Dad. Gone

Annoying brat. Gone

Jake. Alone.

I couldn’t stop the tears.

Carly

XXVII

I don’t have a clue what I was thinking when I
kissed Jake. Not a clue.

A rush of emotion just flooded over me when he
called me beautiful. I guess that’s why I kissed him. And I know he
enjoyed it; he smiled afterwards.

I didn’t want to see him, so I opened the gate
and rang the doorbell. I rang it a lot. I didn’t want Jake to think
I didn’t like him, so I kind of slowed down on the
ringing.

But he didn’t
notice. A big smile on his face and his eyes looked everywhere.
Soon he raced off. It actually looked more like teleporting. One
minute he was there and the next
poof!
gone.

Papa opened the
door. I stepped in, took of my shoes and raced to my bedroom to
tell Hilde the good news. I entered our room. Hilde was flicking
through a
Glamour
magazine, when I entered.

“You’ll never guess, what just-” I
started.

“You kissed Jake.” she interrupted. “I saw it
from the window. Ooh la-la.”

She sounded
bored. I frowned, not the reaction I was hoping for.
“
Hva er i veien?” “
What’s wrong?” I asked.