Diary at super-camp

Status: My eyes only

ok, so really its called the training centre (and everyone says it all official sounding, like Training Centre) but i like super camp because they do try to make it feel like camp. not like the last time i went to camp—no trust exercises so far, thank god—but also no icky cabins. more like dorms.

d&i r sharing 1 dorm with 2 beds, & also each with our own computer & a mp3 player (that 1’s a welcome gift, with music by & about supers and also like a million educational podcasts) & its all clean and decent. not home, but not skanky motel 6 either.

now we’re having a break, and i’m getting a chance to play with the computer. we’re “encouraged” to keep a journal while we’re here, cause of all the major changes i guess, there’s personal space here on the nsc network to keep track of our thoughts and what we’re doing. deena’s like write-write-writing about EVARything and i know that because she’ll stop and be like “hey chelsea was that 1^st session 45 minutes or an hour this morning?” or “did she mention if it’s kristi with a K or a C?” and i’m all psh deena, give it a rest.

but a whole lot has happened since we flew into newark yesterday. we got our bags and then outside by the pickup area there was this black van and this dude with sunglasses & really nice clothes (i know a this season dior coat when i see 1) and as soon as we were outside he came over and introduced himself. we had all been surprised that there was nobody out there with a sign, but i guess they know how 2b sneaky and anyway he must have had our pictures b4.

he took off his sunglasses 2 introduce himself to us & say hi to mom. His name is oliver—he’s the guy who emailed us before—but later on he told me&d that all of his friends call him utah and we should too. when i asked he said that he wasn’t from utah but that’s just his nickname & i said that’s cool my sister’s name’s brooklyn but she’s not from brooklyn and anyway every1 just calls her brook and then deena nudged me to tell me i was rambling and i’m glad she did and then i shut up.

after we said bye to mom, utah took us to the van and we all sat in the back. The windows were all painted over and there was a divider between the 3 of us & the driver so we didn’t see anything else for the next couple hours while we drove to the Centre.

if i haven’t mentioned it yet utah’s totally hot. he’s 24 & asian except his eyes are really pale—pretty sure it’s power related—& when he took off his coat i didn’t recognize his shirt but it was a gorgeous dress shirt & when i asked he said that yeah it was 100% silk.

outside when he met us utah was squinting a lot & put his sunglasses back on right away. in the van it was pretty dark tho so he took off his sunglasses and seemed pretty comfortable. when we asked him about powers he said of course he was a super and his power was perception & he can recognize even tiny changes in things, only all of his senses are 2 strong so he always wears earplugs & sunglasses & has his clothes custom made from the softest material he can & w/ really careful French seams that won’t bother his skin. he also won’t drink tap water or coffee or alcohol & he’s all picky about his food. makes sense i guess. & when he’s not @ the NSC he consults for surgeons & jewelers & high tech manufacturers because he’s good at noticing important stuff they miss. i don’t know if it sounds like a cool or sucky power, but it obviously pays good.

so we drove for about 3 hours and don’t really know where we are except deena says she thinks it might be ny but its probably pennsylvania. there’s nothing around but trees & fields & some buildings & a tall building that’s headquarters. i don’t know if we’ll be allowed in there any time or not.

utah says he’s like our counselor when we’re here, & makes sure we’re doing what we’re supposed to do and going to the right places & all that.

so far the people we’ve met have all been nice. i hope this turns out to be a fun month!

deena says its time to go now. l8r!

(Back to Deena's story.)

Inbox: Coming to the Centre

Sender: Oliver Yu, National Super Council
To: Chelsea Haupenstaat; Deena Markowitz
Subject: Coming to the Centre

To Chelsea and Deena,

On behalf of the entire NSC, I would like to congratulate you on taking the first steps toward safety and security by contacting our regional office last week. I work with many recently discovered supers, and I know from their stories what a leap of faith this can be to reveal yourself to an organization you know very little about. I promise you that in the coming months you will learn everything you need to know about the NSC, and we will do everything in our power to make you feel as comfortable as possible.

The first thing you should know is that we’ve made arrangements for you to come to our Training Centre for a month, to participate in a mid-year accelerated training course. As of now you are the only new supers who will be participating (though there’s always a few discoveries during the holidays, so that’s subject to change), so you’ll both get plenty of personalized attention from our top teachers.

After this month at the Centre, you will almost certainly be sent back home to stay with your families for the spring. After Memorial Day weekend, you’ll come back to the Centre for a more comprehensive summer course. There, you’ll be able to meet other recent supers your own age and get a chance to socialize as well as to perfect what’s bound to be some pretty cool skills.

From our initial investigation it sounds like you have twinned abilities (that’s a little unusual, but can happen between siblings or good friends), so we’ll keep you together most of the time to help you practice working off of each other.

Unless something changes, expect to fly out here a week from now, on Sunday the 20^th. I’ll be sending a follow-up email to both you and your parents in the next few hours, with an eticket as well as all the information you’ll need to know about the Centre. Chelsea, your mother mentioned during her interview that she would like to travel with you to the Centre. Though that is unfortunately impossible, we would be delighted if she wanted to travel with you both as far as Newark International Airport. I’ll pick you up there, and we’ll travel together to the Training Centre.

A lot of people first discover their powers in high school, and we have specialists who are already working with the guidance counselor at your school to make sure that this semester doesn’t adversely affect your GPA. You should consider yourselves “at school” when you arrive at the Centre though, because we view ourselves as the equivalent of an independent study program—and at the end of your time, we will send a formal grade to your school. (Don’t worry—with hard work and discipline, you’re going to ace the experience.)

We’re expecting to send you back home 4 weeks after you arrive, on the 13^th of December. That gives you time to take your finals at high school and celebrate the holidays at home.

Please call or email me if you have any questions. My number is 555-555-5555. I look forward to meeting you next week and working together soon!

Best,

Oliver

(Continue.)

Chat

queendee: just did it.
chelseamorning: u2? how’d it go?
queendee: AWKward.
queendee: like, crazy weird. no yelling, no angry questions. just, like, “o. ok.”
queendee: I don’t think they had any idea how to handle it.
chelseamorning: o. well, my mom knew how to handle it. u’d think i had told her i had cancer or something. she started tearing up & she hugged me close and said we were gonna make it thru this. & she was all worried that i was gonna hate myself.
chelseamorning: she was 1/2way to calling a therapist to set me up an appointment b4 i stopped her.
queendee: lol, so maybe my parents weren’t so bad.
chelseamorning: she was really worried about how brook would react. thought maybe it was better if i didn’t tell her right away.
queendee: *snort*
chelseamorning: tell me about it. i think b was listening at the door. i heard like a coughing noise not 2 far away just then, probably laughing.
queendee: ur family might even be weirder than mine.
chelseamorning: wtf are you talking about? ur family’s totes normal. u have 2 parents who actually live w/ u (i have 0.5) & brothers who are into normal boy stuff (instead of never sleeping & always needing everything 100% perfect like my sister)
queendee: lonely, having that big fancy house all to urself?
chelseamorning: shut it, deena.
queendee: lol. did you mention the nsc?
chelseamorning: yeah. she was all, of course we’ll set u up. i’ll call my exec asst to draw up the paperwork. (i had to stop her from calling her sec & being like, hi, my daughter has secret superpowers now…) :-O
queendee: thats pretty funny.
chelseamorning: i told her some of what we’d researched. she really liked the idea of how midyear discoveries of powers mean a mandatory “accelerated program.” i think it sounded like a college prep thing to her.
queendee: rotflmao
chelseamorning: but i think it went ok. we’re gonna call my dad tomorrow to tell him. email seems like a really bad idea, but he’s not in the country right now so face-2-face can’t really happen.
queendee: skype?
chelseamorning: we usually use the videoconferencing stuff. about the same.
queendee: of course u do.
chelseamorning: meaning?
queendee: nothing. sounds like a good way to keep in touch. where is he right now?
chelseamorning: Amazon. shooting for a story on deforestation & organic farms for Ntn’l Geog.
queendee: ask him to bring you back a piranha.
chelseamorning: he would. probably smuggle it back in a camera bag or something.
chelseamorning: remember, he started part of the mess when he thought brook would like a nice glowstone necklace for her bday.
queendee: right.
queendee: I take it back from b4. my fam’s 110% normal. yours is crazy.
chelseamorning: grumble
queendee: but it sounds like we both survived.
chelseamorning: & now it’s time to register.


(Continue to Brook's outbox.)

Inbox: The meeting with the Ancient

From: The Petrovskis

To: Chelsea Haupenstaat; Deena Markowitz

Subject: The meeting with the Ancient

Hello Chelsea and Deena.

Having met with the Ancient who calls himself David Ages, we have much to think about now. It was good to speak with one of their kind and hear his perspective on both ancient history and the events of the past 30 years. We learned a great deal from the experience—and we think he did, too.

There were two main questions that we were considering, going into the meeting. The first was whether we could trust Mr. Ages, and the second was if we should tell the rest of the Ancients about our presence. Before discussing it together we came to the same decisions about both of these issues, so we will pass along our thoughts to you.

We had wondered for years if the Great Awakening was connected to the Ancients—and of course now we know that it was indeed caused by them. But the connection—even the potential connection—of the one to the other has long left us wondering how we should respond to the Ancients. The early Waking Guard made the decision not to awaken them at the proper time, and we are now so far removed from our own ancestors that we have long wondered if the sleeping Ancients would even recognize us as kin.

After speaking to Mr. Ages we believe we have a reasonable view, though he was very politic and cautious in his descriptions, of who the Ancients are. It seems that they are still ruled by the most powerful survivors of the ancient war that nearly destroyed the world. They have been awake for nearly thirty years and their oldest children are, like Mr. Ages, fully grown and capable of taking on adult responsibility, but still they rule the rest of their people. From what Mr. Ages told us, we gathered the impression that the older generation is not comfortable with the world as it is now, or the role that humans have taken in the long years since their people first began their sleep.

He did not go so far as to say this, but we suspect that a number of the older Ancients have an opinion similar to that of Darcy Ages, the woman who tried to destroy you both. We gathered the impression that some in their “conclave” are disgusted by human/Ancient hybrids (like you, and us, and the thousands of supers in the world) and would like to create a new world order with their kind in positions of power while the rest of us serve them.

They do not all feel this way, of course. (Thankfully, since if they did then we’re sure this would not have been our first run-in with them.) Still, many do—and it seems that it is the weakness of their expended powers, rather than any sense of morality, that stops them from doing as Ms. Ages did.

Because of this, out of concern for your safety, we have asked Mr. Ages not to tell his conclave about your (or our) existence.

We do not feel the same concerns about Mr. Ages as we do about the others of his race. For one thing, he comported himself at all times like a gentleman. We do not assume he is good at heart merely because of impeccable manners, but his behavior did bias us in his favor. As a corollary to that though, he was very concerned with allaying our fears and giving us every bit as complete an understanding of his people as we gave him of ours.

From the story he tells, it seems that he has spent much of his life under the thumb of more powerful members of his race. He (and, he believes, a significant portion of his generation) does not share his elders’ prejudices against the humans and the supers. He seems like a decent enough young man, though unfortunately he has little power at present to influence the opinions of the other Ancients.

We think he was chagrined to learn that we have no contact with other members of the Waking Guard, but nonetheless he expressed willingness to keep our existence secret from his people. He fears that they would react poorly to our presence, and because we can give them so little information about the current status of the Waking Guard, Mr. Ages is convinced that a meeting would bring about more harm than good.

It would seem that very little has come of this meeting. We will continue teaching you all you need to know to be Waking Guardians, and ironically the Ancient in our midst will also go about his daily life.

How odd it seems, to meet a member of the people whom our order once swore to protect, and to simply go about our daily lives. But so much has changed in the ages since our ancestors were first given their charge. Perhaps in time, this strange universe will right itself.

We’ll see you tomorrow. And please, remember to practice!

Yours truly,

Mr. & Mrs. P.

(Continue to Brook's inbox.)