IntShoWriMo 2014: Day 3

Day 3: The Comic Book Generation

Today’s Prompt: It’s your 18th birthday and, upon it, your parents deliver some pretty shocking news: You’re not really human. They admit that they’ve been covering up the fact that you are actually a (fill in the blank). After hearing the news you still decide to go to school, but this school day is different than all your school days past, especially when it’s revealed to others what you truly are.

— Courtesy: WritersDigest.Com

Word Count: 1,406

            “I can’t make things pop out of thin air if that’s what you’re thinking.”

I could feel their eyes crawling all over me like a million needles and pins.

            “So what exactly do you do, then?” Alicia asked.

            “Maybe, he can spin a web like Spiderman.” Rebecca suggested.

There were a few giggles after that last statement.

            “Well…” I said.

            “Maybe, he can dance standing on his head.” That was Dick.

This announcement was followed by an uproar.

            “I’ve not really attempted that one but yeah, I think, maybe, I could if I gave it a try,” I said.

            “Don’t think. Just do it,” Dick said.

            “You don’t think before breathing, do you?” Rebecca.

            “Or before falling in love,” said a kid with a low punk haircut whom we called Groovy.

That got everybody in the classroom roaring with laughter. Even Amen, my best buddy, was slamming his fist into his desk again and again bellowing a belly laugh.

            “Sshhhh…..”

And the silence held sway for a moment.

Just then some kid in the front seat flung a ball made from crumpled paper at me. I caught if off the air and made a paper aircraft out of it in the space of 5 seconds and tossed it. It glided in an arc round the room and returned to me. I snatched it out of the air.

The silence weighed down on my eardrums like a dead weight. I felt the eyes of the entire class trained on me. As far as I was concerned, I knew I had done something awesome but if you asked me to create a chemical formula to explain the process, you’d be barking up the wrong tree.

            “Dude, how on earth did you do that?” Dick whose eyes bulged with surprise asked.

            “I didn’t think. I just did it,” said I.

            “Do it again,” Shorty said.

            “I can’t.” I lied. “I don’t know how it happened.” Which was true. “Reflexes, I guess.” Which was both the truth and a lie. Read more here IntShoWriMo 2014


Eneh Akpan
June 3rd, 2014