New Genesis

Chapter 6

Mark was going to be late for school. His mom woke up late which in turn made him late. It didn’t help that he had stayed up late studying for an in class history essay. He pulled into his parking spot at 7:57. There was no way to get to band in 3 minutes. He got out of his car and started to run. He might be able to persuade Mrs. Johnson to give him a working detention so it wouldn’t go on his record. He wanted to be one of those students that stood up at the awards night for having no detentions for all four years in high-school. He ran as fast as he could but he knew he wouldn’t make it.
         Mark pushed himself and saw that the streetlight which had been green turned yellow. He put on a burst of speed and he ran for it. Before he knew it, he had reached the other side of the light. He stopped for a second a looked back.
         “Woh.”
He had been at least fifty yards from the light when it was yellow. Mark turned back and continued to run. This time Mark noticed a change in his running speed. It changed after he ran for a few seconds and before he knew it he was trying to stop himself in front of the school. He ran into the band room seconds before the bell rang. He rushed to get his stuff and ran up to the percussion.
         “Why were you so late?”
                   Band was over and Mark was walking next to Zach.
         “Woke up really late. Had to run here.”
         “When did you get here?”
         “Three minutes till eight.”
         “You ran from west campus to here in three minutes?”
         “Yeah.”
         “No way. Not possible. Your clock must have been fast.”
         “I’m telling you I ran.”
         “Yeah well see you later.”
         “See ya.”
The day passed quickly enough. Mark was dreading the history essay. He had studied but he was a slow writer and never had enough time to write all of his ideas. Before the class started Mark talked with his friends and tried to calm himself done. The bell rang for the start of class. Mark sat down, got out his pen and prepared to write. Mr. Thorn passed out the essay prompt. Mark looked at what the question asked

         “What aspects of the 1920’s helped start the women’s rights movement?”

Mark was happy about the question because he had studied the topic heavily since they talked about it for two days straight. Mark wrote as fast as he could while making sure he did not misspell something or misquote someone. When he finished, he had written about two pages of information. He looked at the clock and in his astonishment there were still thirty minutes left in the period. He looked at the paper and did not know what to do. He looked at everyone else and saw them writing feverishly. Some looked like they had not even finished a front part of a piece of paper.

What’s going on? he thought.
First I ran fast and now I write fast. Something is going on.

For the rest of the period, Mark checked his work and corrected what he thought was wrong. Mark was sitting, wondering what was going on with him. He was happy when the bell rang. He got up, turned his paper in, and walked outside and waited for his friends. Chewy was the first one out.

“How do you think it was?”
“It was easy, but I didn’t have enough time to include the fact that women were given empowerment in the 1940’s because of World War 2.”
“You do realize Chewy that it asked for the 1920’s only.”
“Yeah, but that stuff had a big impact too.”
“Ok. Josh and Matt how did you do?
“Eh. Ok. I know I missed some key points.” replied Josh.
“It was easy but I didn’t have enough time to write down all that I wanted.” said Matt, “how did you do Mark?”
“I got done really early, so I just checked over it.”
“How did you get done early?”
“I wrote really fast.”
“How much did you write?”
“Almost two pages worth.”

None of them believed Mark. No one can write that fast and that much. Mark said goodbye and went to Chemistry. He listened to the teacher drone about atoms and moles. The teacher handed out a worksheet that was due at the end of class.

“You will need your calculators for this worksheet.”

Mark got his calculator and turned to his group. His group consisted of Laura Endris and Ryan Brennan. Mark liked both of them. He knew Laura from grade school and he had met Ryan at summer camp. The three were worked well together and no one had trouble understanding what they learned in class.

“What did you get for number 4, Laura?
“Um, 4x10^-3 moles.”
“Ok. That’s what I got.”
“Do you understand number 5?”

Mark read the problem, tried a few calculations, and gave an answer. They continued working for ten more minutes. Since they finished before the end of class, they had free time and Mark walked around. He went over to talk to Chewy and Steven because they were both done with the worksheet too.

“How did you do on the worksheet?”
“Chewy did all of the calculations in his head.”
“What?! Did you really?”
“Yeah. The calculations were just really easy to do.”
“Well that’s…..” Mark stopped for a second.
“When did this start Chewy?”
“What do you mean?”
“You being able to do crazy math in your head.”
“Um….. Around Monday. Why?”
“Because that’s really weird and weird stuff is happening to me. What about you Steven?”
“Eh. Not much unless you consider people do whatever I ask them.”
“What?”
“My mom doesn’t argue with me when I ask for something and I got free extra credit in math.”
“Maybe your teacher is really nice.”
“I’m the only one who got it.”
“Prove it.”
“Chewy, give me five dollars.”

Chewy instantly took out his wallet and gave Steven five dollars. Mark did not notice anything weird except for Chewy’s eyes. They were glazed over and stared blankly. Mark’s mouth dropped open as this happened. After Chewy gave Steven gave bill, he returned to normal and looked around.

“What happened? Mark why do you have that look on your face?”

Mark stared at Steven, who nodded and continued.

“They never remember afterwards.”
“That’s crazy! When did this start?”
“Around Tuesday.”
“So people do whatever you say and Chewy has a freakin calculator for a brain. What going on?”
“I don’t know. What do you think we should do?”
“Nothing until Friday when we all go back to the base. Everyone will be there and no one will be able to overhear us.”
The bell rang and the three walked out of class.
“What we can do,” Mark continued, “ is talk to everyone and see if weird stuff is happening to them.”
“What if weird stuff has been happening?” asked Chewy.
“Tell them to not draw attention to themselves. The worst thing is someone finding out and freaking out. Ok, well I got to go. I have to clean the basement before my mom gets home.”

         Mark said goodbye and went to his locker. He opened the door of his locker and stopped it as it sprang back. He got his books and hurried out. He said goodbye to the friends he saw on the way, but didn’t stop because if he didn’t clean the basement, his mother probably would not let him go out Friday. Mark got to his house and ran to the basement.
         It was a mess. Videogames lay across the floor and controllers were tangled together. Mark worked fast to clean up the basement. He filed the games by game systems, untangled the wires, and placed the controllers on their respective game systems. When he finished, he looked at the clock and realized he had spent only seven minutes cleaning the basement. Mark walked back upstairs to finish his homework. The rest of his night was uneventful. He ate dinner with his family and watched television with his dad. Mark went to bed around ten thirty.

         Thursday passed without incident. Mark talked with his friends to see if anyone else was experiencing weird stuff. Some had, but not all of them. Mark told each of them to not draw attention and to make sure they come to the base on Friday. Mark went to sleep Thursday happy and excited about Friday.

         School on Friday passed quickly. Mark was late leaving Chemistry because he had to clean up a lab that they had done. He carefully put away the acids and the beakers. Mark walked downstairs to his locker, got his books, and went to his car. As he neared the parking lot, Mark noticed a group of people in the lot. Mark was able to make out the two groups. One was his friends and the other was Zane and his crew. Mark could hear yelling. Somebody was on the ground and they were not moving. Mark started to walk fast when he saw Jessica take a step forward and yell something at Zane. Mark went into a dead sprint, when he saw Zane back fist Jessica across the face. Zane was about to kick her in the face when Mark rammed his body into Zane’s. Mark had covered the distance of what looked like half a football field in a span of two seconds. Zane was launched across the lot. He skidded to a stop and didn’t get up.
         Mark looked at the body on the ground and saw that it was Blake. Mark checked Blake to see if he was alright. Blake had a bloody nose and a cut under his left eye. Mark stood back up and turned towards Zane’s crew.

“All of you take Zane and leave.”

The crew stood there for a second with fear in their eyes. Mark took a step forward and they all ran away. Some picked up Zane as they ran. Mark turned around to see Jessica getting up.

“What exactly happened?”
“Zane was picking on Blake and Blake tried to defend himself. The next thing I knew Zane had punched Blake in the face two times. I was walking to my car when I saw this happen. Zane’s goons were holding Blake while Zane punched him.”
“That explains Blake but what did you do to piss of Zane?”
“I called him a cock- sucking coward who beat up people because he has low self- esteem and a small penis.”
Mark started to laugh. He could not believe it. Only Jessica would say that stuff to a mobsters son.
“So he hit you because of that?”
“Pretty much.”
Jessica smiled and Mark turned to his friends. They all looked stunned at what happened. Tyler was the first one to speak up.
“Mark what the hell just happened?”
“Well….” Mark looked for the right words  “ I think  it would be better if we talked about this back at the base.”
“Why?”
“Because I think we have superpowers.”