FIVE

One Day Ago

Katie was having breakfast with Hank and her parents. Her mom, a brunette like she was, served them pancakes. Katie was almost amazed her mom always managed to get her make-up on before breakfast. Looking perfect in a blazer and skirt, ready for her work as an Assistant D.A.

“I hope you like pancakes, Hank,” she said.

Hank nodded. “I love them. Thank you so very much!”

“I called school. It’s okay to stay home. There will be quite some stuff to arrange. Mike will help you.”

Katie’s dad, Mike, put a hand on the kid’s shoulder. “We’ll deal with it, buddy.” As a freelance writer Mike was able to work from home. Where Katie’s mom, Marjorie, always looked perfect her dad preferred to wear jogging pants and geeky T-shirt around the house.

The radio was on, as Marjorie liked to hear the morning news when she got up. Katie’s interested was peaked when she heard the newscaster say, “…the firefighters are busy fighting the fire with all their might but there is talk about some people trapped inside the building…”

“That’s terrible! What a nightmare that must be, trapped inside a burning building like that!” Katie said.

“Yes. Poor people. I hope the firemen get them out,” Mike said. “Such heroes, those guys.”

“I do hope so as well. It won’t be easy though,” Marjorie said. “A burning building is so very dangerous. You’re not just dealing with the fire but with the risk of the building collapsing as well.”

Katie thought about that. Regular firemen ran the risk of burning, being crushed by the collapsing building. But if she was really invulnerable she wouldn’t be at risk at all, right?

“And then of course there’s the smoke,” Marjorie said.

Okay, maybe there would be some risk. She had no idea if inhaling the smoke could hurt the new invulnerable her. But for sure she would have a better chance at surviving something like that than the firemen. She couldn’t just sit there doing nothing, right?

She stood from the table. “I totally forgot to put some stuff in my bag for school today. Gotta run, sorry.”

Before her parents could protest she ran up the stairs to her room. She really felt she needed to try and make a difference over at the fire. She also didn’t want people to know she had these superpowers until she was sure what she wanted to do with them. So she went through her closet, looking for the dark blue spandex costume she’d worn for Halloween. She was dressed up as a female version of Thespian. It was quite a hit among the boys, but mainly for the skintight way it clung to her body, not for how much she looked like the superhero. She found it. It had a mask attached she quickly cut up a bit so it wasn’t Thespian’s mask anymore. She put on some brown boots and gloves on as well. She looked into the mirror and felt something was missing. She put on a brown belt she had in a drawer. Still not right. It looked a bit too dark. She put on a pink beanie. Perfect. Now to get away from there as fast as possible. She decided the quickest way out of there was the window.

She opened the window and jumped from it. With her athletic abilities she landed on her feet a like cat, her invulnerability making sure she wasn’t hurt. She got on her scooter and sped off to the fire, ready to play the hero as only an invulnerable girl could. She chuckled a bit, thinking “I’m an Invulnergirl now.”