"Is everyone ready to go outside?" She had walked over to the glass doors on the far wall.
Danny had been so overwhelmed by everything he didn't notice the far wall was all glass and looked out to large trees. It looked like the same area he viewed from his bedroom above.
Sandy pulled two doors wide open exposing the room to the outdoors. The sound of birds invaded the room.
As he walked outside he couldn't help but notice everything looked magical. He was suddenly overwhelmed by the alluringly sweet smell of flowers everywhere. The land was covered in flowering plants. Some were much taller than him. Bees buzzed, butterflies fluttered near and far and hummingbirds did fly by's.
His peers formed a line and went down a narrow trail that was covered in small pebbles. They walked about 50 feet out to a large shaded area covered in short grass. Three wood benches were placed in a half circle.
"Now Danny like I was saying before your questions will be answered. You were chosen to be here because you are very special."
He had heard this speech before. Always getting told how special he was and then getting moved into another home.
"Everyone in this home has powers. Like super human powers."
"What? Oh haha…." He looked around and saw he was the only one laughing.
"Samantha can you please give our new student a demonstration."
"You bet." She stood up and smiled at him. His stomach dropped at her playful flirt. "Eyes on me." She squatted down and then leapt up and flew straight up into the air beyond the trees.
"Waaaaa….oWWWWWW!!!" He was in shock. This was some incredible magic he just saw. He couldn't wait to learn that trick. Now it makes sense. They must do some magic show together. He kept thinking how much fun this home would be to live in now.
"Ohhhhhh Danny…. Yooo hoooo…" Her voice called out and he looked left to right and she was totally out of sight. "Above you silly." Her voice came out of nowhere.
His head turned up slowly as he became nervous about what he may actually see. He could see what looked like dirty bare feet just above him. She was floating above him with no effort. He still didn't believe what he was seeing. She slowly descended right in front of him with her arms crossed.
"How??? That was amazing. Can I learn how to do that?" Still believing they were part of a magic show.
"Oh Danny. Sammy has the power to fly. You have a very unique power." She kept a calm voice which left him intrigued. "Are you ready to find out what your power is?"
It was a strange question. Just yesterday he had a skin disease which was about to kill him. Today he has a super power? Maybe he died and this is heaven. It would seem to make more sense than this place. 'Super power and it was not flight? Hmmm..' He began to think… 'What if I can see through objects?' Then he thought that really wouldn't be that much fun. 'Maybe breathing fire.' He remembered his roommate told him if he realized that he was in a dream he could do anything he wanted. Danny thought… 'Then I can fly and have super strength.' He became excited about the new superpowers he anointed himself with.
"What exactly is my power?" He was curious what she may say now. Since he was in a dream or dead he could do anything he wanted. He imagined her telling him that he had every super power known to Humanity.
"Your skin disease was actually your body's defense. Or at least your ancestors' way to defend themselves. The shot you were given last night caused your sleeping defense to come to life. Your skin reformed to create an exoskeleton that cannot be penetrated by any object. Nothing can harm you now. I'm not being entirely true. You have one weak point. It's your eyes. Your eyeballs are like any other humans. You must keep your eyes closed during any time of danger. Your skin is unlike any other. Let me give you a demonstration."
"What??? What are you talking about?" He started to panic by what she was saying. It made no sense to him.
"Let me start this with a simple demonstration. She made a fist and punched him lightly.
"Haha… You can punch me harder."
Unbeknownst to Danny, His social worker had super strength. The power to stop a fully speeding train with just one hand. Yeah pretty powerful. She made a tighter fist this time and leaned back. The group tried to look away expecting something horrific with her incredible strength. Her fist went dead on into his face. Not even causing movement on his face. Sandy cried out in pain.
"Haha… Very funny…" He looked over at her, she was clearly in pain gripping her fist. He saw blood on her knuckles… "Nooo way. This isn't possible. This isn't funny guys." He liked pranks that were simple. This was well beyond anything he had ever seen.
His peers had scrunched up faces from the painful connection their teacher just made. They had never seen anything like it. Sandy was able to move full grown trees with one hand. His roommates were in shock.
"No one is joking ." Ray said with a new respect for his impressive new power.
"I will be okay.." She was still wincing in pain. Her fist looked like it was throbbing. If she had super powers they were completely hidden right now as she appeared very human. "One more demonstration. Danny can you follow me up into the tree house?"
"Sure?" He had no clue what else she wanted to try. He was beginning to think they were practicing to become amateur wrestlers by doing silly tricks.
The group all got up to walk over to the tree house that was built high into the large oak tree that was providing shade to them. Danny looked up the ladder that looked as though it disappeared into oblivion. 'That's funny' he thought as he stared straight up 'How am I going to get up this ladder?' He was deathly afraid of heights. He became paralyzed with fear.
"Hold this." She handed him a rock as large as his hand that probably weighed a pound. "I want you to drop it on your foot."
The group looked amused at what was happening.
"Huh? I don't have any shoes on" He looked at the rock knowing it could hurt quite a bit dropping it on his foot.
"You are invincible now. We have to start somewhere. So let's start with a rock and work up from there."
"I guess." Still not convinced and now ready to prove he can feel pain like anyone else he lifted the rock as high as he could. He thought back to just a few days ago when he tried to throw a baseball and just holding it hurt his hand. He let the rock drop and made sure his left foot was the target. The rock dropped and he quickly moved his foot away from the impending doom.
"Can I lift you up?" She asked him calmly without becoming impatient at his natural fears.
"Lift me up?" He was confused about what she was asking. He was nearly 5'4 and over 90 pounds. She was probably just a few inches taller and maybe 30 pounds heavier.
"Put your foot on top of my hand." She placed her hand palm up on the ground. Her hand was much smaller than his foot.
"Sure." He had no clue how she would lift him. He was ready for some magic.
With a thrust she threw him into the air several feet with little effort letting him fly free for a second. The freedom of being in the air was exhilarating. The fear of landing was another story.
A loud scream came from him as he came down to Earth with a thud. Not his thud but the ground below. A small cloud of dust formed over the crime scene as his body lay there.
"Danny… Danny… are you okay?" This made no sense to Sandy. How could he be lying unresponsive? She reached down to touch his arm. Everything felt fine.
"Am I okay?" He said with a grin.
"You tell us."
His roommates became worried until they saw his smile.
"I feel great!!!" He got up and looked over his body. He touched himself feeling for any injuries. "How did you do that trick?"
"Trick… Look behind you?" Julie said with her mouth wide open in shock.
He turned around to look at the space he had just landed. There was an imprint that went into the ground several inches of the position he landed.
"That's crazy!!! Totally totally crazy." Ray was in shock walking around the imprint of his body. "Do it again Danny." His voice was filled with excitement.
"Yeah I guess…" He felt motivated now. No pain today he felt like a new person. He walked over to the tree and started climbing the ladder. Rung by rung not looking down. Okay only a few rungs up the tree until it became too scary to look down. He had gotten about ten feet off the ground. A dangerous leap for most. He looked again and left fear to the wind as he pushed his body off the tree quickly hitting the ground with a thud. He was standing with his bare feet firmly set into the ground. His reaction changed to excitement. He decided to leave reality behind and climb up to the treehouse.
This time as he climbed his fear had passed and he began climbing the ladder like he had to get somewhere. His body felt stronger than ever now. His head finally poked into the floor of the treehouse as he pulled himself in.
"About time you made it." Renee was sitting in a corner patiently waiting.
"Whoa!!!!" He was shocked to see her. He hadn't seen anyone climb up the ladder. "How did you get up… here?"
"Hmmm apparently you still don't know how fast I am." She said with great confidence. "How about we race to the bottom?"
"Hmmmm okay." The ladder was the only way down. No way he could win unless he got in front of her going down… 'Wait a second..' He thought. 'I can jump down there. If this is all a dream it will wake me up.' He still had more confidence he was in a dream than being dead. Magic shows and wrestling were tailing far behind in plausible choices. "Okay let's do it." He walked to the deck outside and looked for the open view to the ground. He stood up onto the railing and looked down and almost lost his balance. His body trembled with fear and then he smiled.
"Countdown from three" She was at the top of the ladder waiting to go down.
"Threeeee" His voice echoed through the trees and into the deep forest.
"Twoo" Renee joined him in the count.
"Goooooooooooo."
Danny dove head first believing this would scare him awake. He started screaming uncontrollably towards the ground. He wasn't waking. Maybe this was a big mistake. Maybe this isn't magic. A thousand thoughts came and only milliseconds passed. The ground got too close to look at. His eyes closed harder than he has ever shut them.
"DANNYYYYYYYY!!!!!" Sandy's voice cried out loud enough the trees shook.
His body was submerged deep into the ground like he was a meteorite that crashed into Earth. His head had vanished several feet into the ground.
She ran over to him and didn't see any blood. Her hopes were high. His legs were sticking straight up like a rocket that nose dived into the ground and hadn't exploded. She put her hand out to grab his feet and he kicked back. Hard enough to knock her down. Somehow he was alive. And incredibly strong.
"Danny can you hear me?" She spoke straight down hoping he could hear her voice.
His body began to wiggle and his arms began to lift his head from the ground. Slowly his head began to appear. It was covered in Earth. No cuts, No bruises, No blood. The only thing damaged was the ground he went head first into.
"WOW!!!! That was soooo much fun!" His first words. His body was almost completely submerged in the Earth and he was smiling. Maybe this wasn't a dream after all.
The kids now looked in awe of their new housemate. His power was real. Now the question became how would he use it.