Drew groaned as he got out of bed. Drew Simmons was a very unique kid. At fourteen years old, he was 5’ 4”, but he was surprisingly athletic. He had dark brown hair and strikingly blue eyes, and he was an orphan. As Drew pulled on his shirt, he heard shouting from the hallway. He opened the door and peeked out. Standing not far down the hallway was Ms. Baxter, the cook, librarian, and hall monitor. She was staring down a young boy who wasn’t wearing his uniform.

As Drew was peeking out the door, Ms. Baxter caught sight of him and said, “You, boy, shouldn’t you be at breakfast already? You’d better get down there!” Drew nodded and walked past the boy and Ms. Baxter. He walked down the hallway, and once out of sight, he raced to the lunch area. Ms. Baxter gave him the creeps. As he was doing so, he ran directly into one of the tallest men he had ever seen, which wasn’t saying much because he hadn’t seen many adults.

“Hello there. Where can I find the head of this orphanage? I need to speak to her about transferring some students to a test space.” He held himself as if he owned the place, surveying the grimy halls. Drew had a sudden dislike for the man.

“Down the hall, to the right,” Drew said. He had been to visit Mrs. Evans quite a few times, and he never quite knew what to think of her. As the man left Drew in the hallway, Drew continued to make his way towards the commons. As he mulled over the thought of orphans being transferred to a ‘test space,’ he saw the haughty man and the Mrs. Evans coming towards him. He instinctively hid behind the nearest object, which happened to be a trash can.

“I think Drew Simmons would be a good fit, as he is quite well behaved and he gets along with other children nicely. He will be treated well, I hope?” said Mrs. Evans voice.

Then the haughty man’s voice replied, “He will be treated better than he is here. It is quite the luxurious place, I think he will enjoy it.”

The women’s voice then spoke again, “Oh, Ms. Baxter, when you see Drew next could you tell him to come to my office?”

“Yes, of course,” Mrs. Baxter replied. Drew heard footsteps walking away from him down the hallway. He assumed both Mrs. Evans and Ms. Baxter had left, and he peeked out from behind the trash can.

 

“Aha!” Ms. Baxter was looking right at him, “Well, that’s an odd place to be eating breakfast,” she said. She then sighed and said to him, “I would punish you, but Mrs. Evans needs you.” He got up and walked over to Mrs. Evans’ office. He walked slower than he normally did so that he would have time to think about leaving the orphanage. Although he didn’t like it there, it was the only life he knew. He didn’t know how to act in the modern world, yet he couldn’t turn down the offer of a new life. He would go, he wanted a new start. He walked into her office and stood awkwardly in front of her.

“Hello Drew. Have a seat,” Mrs. Evans said. Drew complied. “Now, you might have seen the man that entered the building earlier. He has created a test orphanage. For this orphanage to be authorized, there have to be people to test it. You have been selected to go there, but it’s your choice.” She said all of this with a half smile on her face, and her eyes were begging him to go.

“I might like to go… yeah, I think I will.” Suddenly, the haughty man burst through the door.

“Is he ready to leave yet?” he said as he looked at his watch, “I need him in the car right now. He has to get a tour of the place before lunch.”

“Yes, Mr. Fier. He’s ready to leave,” Mrs. Evans replied. Mr. Fier and Drew walked down the hallway and out the entrance. As he got into the limo, at least he thought it was a limo (he had never seen such a fancy car), he jumped, hitting his head against the ceiling. Two very similar looking teenagers were sitting in the back row of seats. They both had evil grins on their faces.

“Hey there. You must be one of the un-damaged. You’re more fun than the damaged. It’s easier to mess with your heads.”

 

Drew then proceeded to pass out.

 

_ _ _ _ _

 

“Ugh…” Drew groaned. He woke up looking at the ceiling of a car, and it took him a second to get his bearings. He suddenly remembered what had happened. The twins had said something about him being un-damaged, whatever that meant. Then he had fainted. He sat up and saw the limo pull into the driveway of a brand-new orphanage and quickly noticed that the twins were sitting on either side of him.

“Aww… the little un-damaged woke up. If he wants to get out, he’ll have to go through us,” the boy teenager said to the girl. Drew tried to shove the girl, thinking she would be easier to get past, but her muscular arms held him back. He struggled for a few seconds, but eventually quit.

 

Just as the girl was about to punch him, Mr. Fier opened the door.

 

“Bethany, Alexander, stop messing with our newest addition to the orphanage! Wait until after he gets his proced-,” he was cut of by the twins waving their arms frantically. He coughed lightly and continued talking as if nothing had happened.

“-his tour. He needs to get a feel for the place first.” Bethany and Alexander gave Drew their signature malicious smiles.

“Umm.. I’m gonna go inside now,” Drew said. He pulled himself out of the car and walked to the entrance.

“Drew, wait for me to unlock the door first,” Mr. Fier said as he caught up with Drew. Drew gasped as the door opened. The walls were covered in dirt and grime, and spiderwebs hung from the ceiling.  As Drew was looking around, a girl around his age handed him clothes similar to the ones the rest of the kids were wearing. They were ragged, and it looked like they had been worn recently.

“They may not be pretty, but they’re the only things your gonna get here,” she said grimly.

“Give him a tour of the place before lunch, and go back and show him things in more detail afterwards,” Mr. Fier called after them. The girl turned around.

“You don’t want me to show him th- the whole, umm… the whole place right now do you? Probably want me to wait on that, right?” the girl asked Mr. Fier.

“No, we’ll do it now,” Mr. Fier said. Drew saw him beckon to two kids who were hanging close behind him, and quickly realized who they were.

 

And, for the second time that day, he passed out.

 

_ _ _ _ _

 

He groaned as his eyes opened. Blearily, he attempted to rub them, just to find that his arms were tied down securely. He started struggling against them, grunting in exertion. Just then, he spotted the girl who had given him the clothes earlier.

“Hey, you! Wha- what’s going on!”

The clothing girl turned around and said, “I’m sorry. I can’t do anything now. Th-they’ve already done… it.”

“Done WHAT?! WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?!”

Suddenly, a terrible pain filled his head. He screamed in agony, and through the pain he thought he saw the light bulb above him implode.

 

And then everything went black.

 

_ _ _ _ _

 

Waking up to the floor isn’t the most pleasant situation. Drew got to experience this firsthand.

He rolled over and yelped. The girl that handed him his clothes was standing directly above him. Involuntarily, he swung a fist at her face. He then felt a jolt as she clamped her hand around his fist. She growled through clenched teeth, “I wouldn’t try that if I were you. You just about KILLED ME! Also, do you know how difficult it is to get broken glass out of your hair?!”

Drew started to reply when the girl shoved him under the operating table and threw open the window. Immediately after, the twins walked in.

He saw them glance towards the open window. Both of them frowned, just as the boy said angrily, “What did you do?! Did you let him ESCAPE?! Oh, you’re gonna be in big trouble with Mr. Fier! There’s no way he’ll let this one slide!”

 

The clothing girl acted angry.

 

“Oh, so it’s my fault the janitor left the window unlocked? I didn’t help him escape!” she growled at them.

The boy twin replied, “How are we supposed to believe you didn’t! You could be the one at fault for all the other missing ones for all we know! We can’t have a bunch of damaged running ar-”

“WE’RE NOT DAMAGED! WE ARE SUPERIORS!” The clothing-girl interrupted.

“Okay, okay. Whatever. Damaged, superiors, whatever you want to call us, we can’t be running around willy-nilly! Especially not ones that are new to their powers!” The girl twin said.

 

Damaged? Drew thought, Superiors? Powers?

 

What have I gotten myself into?

 

_ _ _ _ _

 

“So… let me get this straight. I have- whatever you call them- powers? As in, I’m like, a superhero or something?” Drew asked suspiciously as he spooned food into his mouth. He was eating in an area with a bunch of other… superiors, the clothing girl included. He couldn’t help but stare at her. She was not beautiful exactly, but she had an aura around her that Drew wanted to stay near. They were hiding out from the head of this operation, which he was told was not actually Mr. Fier. They were all on the “missing orphan” list, which meant that they were being searched for in the town outside of the prison-orphanage thing.

“Well, sometimes, when they perform the procedure to give you the qualities they want, they mess up the operation, and, POOF! Powers,” the girl said. Drew was silent for a moment, but then another question popped into his head.

“What was the operation meant to do in the first place?”

The girl thought for a moment, but eventually replied, “I think they were trying to give girls some of the qualities- take confidence for example- of boys, and boys the qualities- like precision and perfection- of girls.”

Drew shuddered and said, “That’s kinda… weird. So were they able t- to do that to me?”

 

The girl shook her head.

 

“We don’t know. All we know is that that’s their goal.”

“And why is that so bad?” Drew asked. He didn’t understand why they were so mad about this.

“Dude, they’re messing with people’s brains. That’s a little creepy,” the girl replied angrily.

“I just realized, I never even asked your name. What is it?” Drew asked shyly.

“Evelyn. Evelyn Nelson.” They were both quiet for a moment.

 

They sat there, staring at each other, until Drew suddenly piped up, “So, Evelyn. How we gonna fix this?”

“Easy. We take down the head of this, convince the un-damaged orphans of what’s going on… ”

 

She paused for a moment.

 

“Then we blow up this place.”

 

_ _ _ _ _

 

They walked quietly down the halls. Drew had gotten a better handle on his ‘powers’, and he was almost feared by the rest of the kids. Even Evelyn was a little scared of him at times. His were one of the most powerful of the group, as he had recently learned how to explode metal. It took a lot of energy, but it was worth it to see the praise on Evelyn’s face. Drew, being distracted by his thoughts, ran directly into Evelyn when they stopped. His face flushing red, he apologized.

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to, I’ll watch out from now on,” he whispered.

“Shut up. I hear someone coming,” she replied.

Suddenly, Evelyn keeled over. Drew found himself face to face with that terrible grin again.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the twerp who got us in trouble for something your little girlfriend did. Too bad. Now you and your friends will have to pay the price.”

Drew braced himself and stared intently at the necklace on the girl's chest.

“Someone taking an interest in me? Flirting won’t help you now.” the girl twin said. Drew shook his head.

“Yeah, I’m a big flirt. I can be especially… explosive”

The girl looked confused for a second, just as her necklace began burning against her chest. She screamed and scrabbled at it, attempting to wrench it off, just as it exploded into a million pieces. She roared in rage, her face, hands, and neck bloody from the shards of the necklace. She started towards him just as Evelyn got up. The girl screamed again, this time holding her neck as she flew across the room.

“Oh, forget to mention. I’m pretty flirtatious too. I can make someone go… head over heels!”

Evelyn grinned as the twin slammed into the wall.

“Mine was better,” Drew muttered. Just then, they heard voices down the hallway.

“Get down on your stomach, hands behind your back! You’re all under arrest until further notice.”

 

Drew whipped around to the pleasant sight of an officer holding him at gunpoint.

 

_ _ _ _ _

 

5/10

 

Nobody believed the story of genetically modified kids. They especially didn’t believe anything about super powers. But the staff of the orphanage was arrested for not meeting the proper requirements of an orphanage. I heard they’re going to make it into a daycare now.

Anyway, Drew and I got adopted. We live in the same city, but not the same neighborhood.

I have a phone now, and I go to real school. It’s nice because I can ask Drew to hang out after school, and I can remind him that we are hanging out after school. We still keep in touch with the rest of the superiors, (except for the twins, we’re pretty sure they’re in juvie).

Drew decided it would be a good idea to go to an old park and practice our powers. I’m pretty sure he thinks we’re some sort of avengers team. I’m just glad he’s my boyfriend. Now that this whole thing is over, we can live as normal kids.

 

Or at least…

 

superior kids.

 

~ Evelyn Nelson