Powers

The bell rang for the end of school, signaling a rush of shuffling papers and the clatter of chairs. I stood up carefully, trying not to get run over by the rolling backpacks passing by. Just the other day, one of them had rolled over my foot, leaving a large tire track (which later developed into a bruise) on one of my feet. After all the backpacks had passed, I walked out the classroom door and out the school gates. As always, the bright sun showered me in a blanket of heat. In Las Vegas, it was always hot. Because it was summer, the temperatures almost always were over 100 degrees. Here, the sound you most commonly hear is the sound of air conditioners. I stood near the gates, waiting for my mom to come. Dozens of people passed by me, talking and laughing. I scanned the area for my mom’s car, and spotted her relatively easily. Her car was bright orange after all. I ran over quickly, eager to get out of the sun and into my mom’s air conditioned car.
“Hey mom,” I said as I reached her car, and she nodded in return.
“Hi Sara,” she replied. We didn’t talk much after, and I closed my eyes and rested.
Ever since I was young, I’ve had a strange power to see through through things. All I had to do was focus on something to see through it. You might think,”She’s so weird!” but I’ve (almost) always been extra proud of that power. After school, I would always show off my powers at a stand, which was fashioned after a classic lemonade stand. Even now, I perform at the stand from time to time, usually once a week. A few days ago, even a policeman walked by and watched my show for a few minutes!  At first, I had hated the power, but now, it’s almost like a part of me. I could never live without it!

Anyways, when I opened my eyes, I was about half a block away from home. I sat up straight and waited for my mom’s car to get into the garage. We never did. In front of our house, there was a glossy black van with the words Las Vegas Police on them. Seeing us, one of the policemen got out of the van. My mom invited them into the house. As soon as we all sat down, they started to talk. Apparently, the policeman that had watched my show a few days ago had reported my power to his higher-ups.  Since they were skeptical about whether he was being truthful or not, they had come to my house to investigate. To do that, though, they would have to take me to the police station. They turned towards my mom and asked if this was okay with her. After all, I would need permission to go to the station. She agreed readily, delighted that my power was finally coming in use. And of course, I agreed. It would be exciting to test my powers after a (very) long time.

Now that everyone had agreed, I decided to ride the police van (along with my mom) to the station. The drive there seemed to take too long, even though it took only 5 minutes to get there. Finally, we arrived at the police station. The police led my mom and I to a small office where 3 suitcases (which were made of cardboard, metal, and plastic) were set up on a table. Since there was nothing else to do, we started right away. First, the officer that was interviewing me asked me a few questions about when I got my power, do I like them, and so on. Then, he asked me to look through all the suitcases. Every time, I saw what were in the cases correctly. As the news traveled through the station, they decided to trust me for now.

Then, the higher-ups did something that changed my life. They recruited me for the FBI. My mom and I were too surprised to answer. It was the first time someone had recruited me for anything, let alone the FBI! The FBI We told them that we would need some to think about it and sat down on the chairs to have a discussion.
My mom then asked me,”Are you ready for this? You should know, this is a big responsibility.”
I replied,”Yes, I’ve never been more ready in my life!”
Just because she was a very easygoing mom, and I was ready to make decisions for myself (I was already 13!) she agreed to let me into the FBI.

From then on, I helped the police solve many cases-somehow without getting injured. Then came the most important case. I would have to look through a concrete building to see if there were any kidnapped people inside. There had been a recent case of kidnapping in the city, and the FBI had narrowed the place where the captives were down to this building. We had already arrested the suspect, but he refused to tell the police where he had hidden the captives. Because there were almost 5 layers of locks, I was absolutely needed for this job.

I focused on a spot, just like I usually did when I looked through things. But this time, instead of seeing through the wall, I just saw what everyone else would see - plain concrete.  I tried again and got the same results. My power had disappeared! Now, I would have to  tell one of the FBI agents. I reached over and told one of them, and watched as it spread through the crowd. Everywhere, there seemed to be murmurs of dismay.

Though my power had disappeared,we would still have to look through the building somehow. I circled the building twice, looking for openings. Just then, I stepped on something hard. There was a wooden trapdoor! Somehow, the agents had missed it when searching for openings. I called them over, telling them what I had found. The group walked over together, and I opened the trapdoor. The inside was musty, but after climbing in it, I could tell that it connected to the inside of the building. Some of the agents climbed through the trapdoor while others stayed behind.

After a 10 minute wait, one of the agents carried out an exhausted captive, then another. Everyone hurried over to the vans we had come in and celebrated, cheering. They also all congratulated me for my find. I finally had assisted a case with my own strength! Thanks to that, the higher-ups allowed me to stay in the FBI and assist difficult cases, saying my observation skills were “out of the ordinary”. Even though I do miss my power, being able to stay in the FBI is now the most important thing for me… probably.  :)
                              -End-