Friday detention was reading and copying out the school code of conduct in silence under the watchful eye of Mr Oswald in his lab, deathly boring.

But the afternoon transfigured when he pronounced the magic words, “Ok, you’re done,” and I got to leave the room with Ali.

She was wearing a long denim dress and a brown leather jacket, dark eye shadow and gold-coloured earrings making her look even prettier than normal. I wondered if that was for Sam’s party. Does she know about it yet? I hadn’t told her about it; I was saving that as my ace in the hole. Or has she just dressed up to see me? As we made our way out side by side through the sterile grey corridors of the Science block I said nothing, but imagined taking her hand, or her slipping her arm in mine.

Slow down, Gonzalo, you’re getting ahead of yourself. You’re not at that stage yet. You may have powers, but you still need to step up to the plate. Say something, for goodness’ sake. Why wasn’t she saying anything? Had she forgotten we were going for coffee?

“That was so boring…” I ventured.

Ali glanced sideways at me as we walked, then brushed her dark hair out of her eye. “Yeah, I know. Don’t ever get me in detention again, Gonzalo. That was my first ever one, in this or any country, and I plan on it being my last.”

She was annoyed at me? That wasn’t good. “I’m sorry—It was for me too.” I smiled weakly. “Blame it on the superpowers, hey?”

She stopped in her tracks then, turned and gave me a long, hard stare. Her silver-flecked brown eyes looked right into me. For a moment I met them, but after a moment I had to drop my gaze.

Up until recently, even though we had been lab partners, I had always interacted with Ali at a remove, admiring her over the infinite distance between our two wooden stools and the tacit politeness we kept. Now that we were getting into the habit of having actual conversations with each other longer than a few words, I was discovering there was something more to her, something I hadn’t been able to see before. She was still completely lovely, for sure, but there was also a hidden...wildness to her, a quiet ferocity locked up inside her that I was just starting to glimpse. She seemed just a little dangerous.

“...are you still up for getting a coffee together?” I said, as I couldn’t bear the tension any longer, and looked up at her.

Her bottom lip disappeared underneath her teeth. If anything her gaze intensified.

She started walking again. “Yeah, I didn’t forget. Let’s go.” Forget? I hadn’t even considered the possibility that she might have forgotten. “Where do you want to go?”

We left school and caught the subway to a little coffee shop I had chanced upon. I say ‘chanced upon’, actually in the last week I had spent hours meticulously researching the best possible coffee shop to take Ali to online. This one was called The Magic Bean, those words painted onto its sign to look like they were made from a twisting beanstalk, and was just out of the way enough to make it unlikely that we would run into anyone from school there, but also on the same subway line that led towards Sam’s apartment in Queen’s. Maybe that was why Ali agreed to go there with me. I didn’t mention anything about the party yet, though.

We slouched into two battered old armchairs opposite each other across a round table and sipped warm cappuccinos. The tabletop was painted with a fairytale scene of a knight slaying a dragon to rescue a princess. I had to stop myself from grimacing as I swallowed the bitter, frothy concoction in my mug. I didn’t even like coffee—it made me even more anxious than usual, gave me the jitters—but it was what adults drank and what Ali had ordered and I didn’t want to seem like a little boy by ordering a hot chocolate with extra cream and sprinkles like I usually would.

Ali still wasn’t saying much. Now that we were in the coffee shop, all of a sudden she seemed to want to look at everything but me. She fidgeted with her spoon, stirred her drink, lifted some froth to her mouth, replaced the spoon on the plate, gazed out the window. My heart sank. Even I could tell she was feeling uncomfortable. I needed to do something to make her interested in me again.

“So I went to the doctor’s earlier this week to tell them about my powers. I’m going to get a phone call from the government sometime soon.”

That got her gaze again. Her eyes seemed to double in size and she clenched her jaw tight, some of the colour disappearing from her tan face. She looked like a deer caught in superpowered headlights.

“Yeah,” I continued, “it’s a pretty big deal, right? I mean, I’m not really sure what to expect, but I had to tell someone about what was going on. Apart from you I mean.” And my Mom…

She took a while to speak. “So...that’s the standard procedure, is it? They’re going to call you? They have a way of dealing with the kind of...thing that’s happened to you?”

“Yeah, seems like it.” I leaned in a bit closer, kept my voice low. “The doctor had a file that he had to look at that told him what to do. It looked like there’s a number he has to call. Then he told me to go home and wait for a call myself from the relevant government department.”

“There’s a government department that deals with this kind of thing?” Ali blew out her cheeks, letting a long sigh escape her lips, then shook her head.

“What is it?”

She hesitated again before she spoke. “I dunno, Gonzalo… This is just all so weird… It’s quite a lot to handle, isn’t it? And I’ve only just started getting to know you properly...”

What did that mean? Did she mean ‘getting to know you with a view to going out’, or ‘getting to know you with a view to being friends’?

“I know it’s weird…” I said. “But it’s exciting as well. I mean, who knows what the government will want to do with me?”

“Are...are you sure that you can trust them?”

I did a double take. “I...I mean, I guess. It’s the government, right? Their job is to take care of you. Yeah,” I decided. “I’m sure I can trust them.” I said it confidently, but I wasn’t entirely sure how confident I was of it.

“What do your parents think about all this?” Ali asked.

“Oh, it’s just me and my Mom at home. I haven’t been able to get through to my Dad for a while. He might have changed his number. He does that sometimes...”

“I’m sorry.” That look was pity. Pity was not what I wanted. I was more going for ‘attraction’.

“No, it’s ok,” I said hurriedly. “I’m used to it. My Dad’s a total jerk. Mom’s totally fine about it, though. I mean, she has been quite annoying at home lately, and a lot stricter with me. In fact, I’m not really meant to be here right now—she thinks I’m still in detention. But to be honest, I think at the same time she’s a little relieved that someone’s taking care of it and that she won’t have to pay for any more doctors’ appointments for me...”

“Will they help you for free, because of the nature of the…powers?”

“It sounds like it. The doctor said they would take care of my education. He said they would pay for my college tuition. How cool is that?! I might actually be able to go to college!”

She pushed her mug to one side of the table, finished with it, and stuck her tongue into the side of her mouth for a moment. “But Gonzalo...what do you think they’re going to do with you once they’ve put your through college?”

“Well, like I said, I don’t really know. But…the doctor said something about ‘using my gift for good’ and that got me thinking, and I’ve been wondering if… if…”

She looked the question.

It spilled out of me. I couldn’t help myself. “I’ve been wondering if they’re going to train me up to be a superhero.”

She smiled, for the first time that afternoon. “Good one, Gonzalo.”

“I’m not joking, I’m totally serious.” Her smile vanished. “Come on, it’s not that hard to imagine, is it? I mean, it would make sense, right? I’ve developed these amazing powers, and the government want to know about them, and they’re going to want me to put them to work for good, aren’t they? It’s just like the comics and stories and games, only it’s...only it’s real.”

Ali put both her hands on the table, like she was steadying herself. Her nails had shiny black polish on them to go with the eye shadow. I got that this was a lot to take in. But she could handle it. She was kind and sweet and understanding and strong and she could handle it. She was also very beautiful, sitting there, her fingers splayed and grasping the table, dark hair curling down her cheek, attentive and dangerous.

“Ok,” she said, “let’s backtrack. Tell me about your powers again… What exactly is it that you’ve discovered you can do?”

Yes! She was interested in finding out more. I must have infected her with some of my excitement. She already knew about my powers—she couldn’t have forgotten about those—but she wanted to find out more about them.

“Well, it’s really amazing, Ali: I’ve basically become invincible. Or invulnerable. Whatever you want to call it. Nothing can damage me or cause me significant pain. Ever since that fight with Bill Jackson, it’s like I’m untouchable.” I dropped my voice once more. “I’ve done these experiments on myself at home, you see…”

She wrinkled up her forehead but I carried on unperturbed.

“I’ve tried hurting myself with different objects at home, like knives and hammers and stuff, but none of them hurt me.”

The deer-in-headlights look returned. Her arm twitched. For a moment I thought she was about to get up. “I think it’s really good that you’ve been to the doctor, Gonzalo…”

Ah, so she wasn’t excited then, she was just struggling to believe me still. Darn. I had to try harder. “I know part of you must think I’m crazy, Ali.” Wow, where was this confidence coming from? I never imagined that I would ever be able to talk to a girl like this. I loved these powers. “But honestly, I’m really not. You saw what happened with Bill in the Science corridor. I mean, everyone else who was there did too, but you’re the only person who’s kind and honest enough to admit it…”

She hugged herself with one arm and chewed her lip. I carried on.

“And you saw what happened when that metal weight fell on me in Physics lab. I’ve got powers, Ali, I really do. I’d prove it to you again right here and now in this cafe, but I don’t want to draw attention to myself...” I looked left and right. “We’re too conspicuous here. But anyway, that’s not even all of it.” I kept my voice hushed. “I’ve got super strength, as well. I smashed a hole in a wall at home with my fist. I can show it to you sometime if you like… And I’ve done other experiments with my strength too. I broke a video game controller just by squeezing it. I bent my radiator into a funny shape, then bent it back so no one would notice. I can lift our refrigerator with one hand. The other day I pushed a car parked outside our building about a foot.”

She spoke hesitantly. “That really is...amazing, Gonzalo... But...why that combination of powers? What is it that you think has happened to your body?”

I had an answer for that. “Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about that too, and I think I’ve worked it out. I think what I’ve basically got is what you’d call ‘hyper-muscle-density’.”

“Meaning what?”

“Remember when Mr Oswald in Physics class taught us about density and about how the denser an object is the tougher it is? It’s like that. My muscles must have become hyper-dense. That’s the best way of explaining the phenomena I’m experiencing. When Jackson hit me, it hurt him, because my muscles are so dense it was like he was punching metal. Denser than the bones of his knuckles. Also, the density must mean I have way more, like trillions more, atoms inside my muscles, which means that the sinews and ligaments and stuff are stronger, which is why I have the super strength as well. But it doesn’t look like I have super strength—I’m not really ripped or toned or built or anything, just so you know... But I don’t need to be, because my muscles are hyper-dense.”

“Nice,” said Ali when I finished, and nodded, with a smile. “That makes sense, I suppose.”

“But the thing is, I’m not completely invincible.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, I’ve found out through the experiments I’ve done at home. If I try hard enough I can still pierce my skin and feel tiny amounts of pain.” She frowned at that, so I moved on quickly. “And not every part of me is immune to pain. My nose and my ears aren’t, for example.”

“Why those?”

“Well, they’re cartilage, aren’t they? Not muscle. Remember it’s only hyper-muscle density.”

The smile was back. “That’s pretty clever, Gonzalo. That’s pretty clever. But...why do you think you’ve developed these powers all of a sudden? Where would they have come from?” Ali was getting quite animated, gesturing with her hand as she spoke. I knew that she believed me fully now. I knew that she was on my side.

“Well, they’re superpowers, aren’t they?” I said. “I don’t know where they came from. They’re like a kind of miracle. Maybe I was exposed to some high levels of radiation without realising it. Maybe I’m an alien. Maybe my parents have superpowers too, but they’ve just kept them a secret all this time—I don’t know! Maybe the government will be able to tell me where I got them from.”

Ali nodded again. “That’s great, Gonzalo. It’s really cool that there’s a government department that deals with this kind of thing and that they’re going to help you with your powers. It’s...encouraging.” She looked at her wrist watch. Surprise moved across her face. “Ah! Sorry, Gonzalo, but I’ve really got to go. Thanks, this has been fun.” She started to gather up her satchel-bag.

“Wait! Really? Do you have to go now? We haven’t even talked about you yet!”

The silver in her eyes shone. “You’re right, Gonzalo, we haven’t talked about me.” She stood up. “But I’m sorry, I really have to go.”

I stood too. “I’ve been invited to Samantha Summer’s sixteenth birthday party tonight!” I said, playing my ace all at once with absolutely zero lead-in. Smooth. “She says that you can come too!”

Ali looked even more surprised than when I was telling her about my superpowers.

“What?” she said. “When?” She seemed disbelieving. Was it so hard to believe that I had been invited to a party?

“When I was at the doctor’s Sam was there too, in the waiting room. She invited me.” I stuck my chest out slightly. It was good to say it, all the more because it wasn’t even a lie. “She invited you too, through me. Sort of by proxy, kind of thing. I hadn’t told you yet because we hadn’t had Physics again until today and I don’t have your phone number...yet. We can go together?”

I hadn’t meant it to sound like a question, but I couldn’t stop the little rise in pitch at the end of my sentence.

Ali looked at the door. Then she looked back at me. I had put her through a lot of different emotions this afternoon, I knew. It can’t have been easy to hear about my superpowers and what was happening to me and the great things that I was going to do. It was shocking. But she was sweet and brave and kind and strong. She could handle it.

“Alright,” she said. “Let me just go and make a quick call.”

“And then you’ll come?”

“Maybe. Give me a minute.”

She left for the coffee shop restroom and, I assumed, to make her call. I wondered who she was calling. She was probably calling her parents to ask for permission. That must mean she hadn’t been invited to the party already. That must mean she had gotten dressed up just for me! I stirred the dregs of my coffee in its cup with a wooden stirrer. Excitement bubbled inside me, but apprehension about what the government were going to do with me and about disobeying my mother stirred up too. I ignored them.

“Fine,” Ali said when she reappeared all of a sudden. “Since Sam invited both of us, you can go with me to the party, but you’re not going ‘with’ me.” She sounded a little exasperated, but I could tell she was excited too.

I put on my best smile. “Got it.”

Still friends, then, for the time being.

Not quite the outcome I would have liked, but I didn’t say anything about that.

I didn’t want to ruin my chances of things developing later—which I hoped they would.