Super Chel: Part One

      “Yes, I am; it was my birthday present and I want to show it off.” The baby Ogrin pranced around the house to watch her brand new red cape trail behind her. “And anyway, I’m Super Chel! Da da da da da da!”

      “Chel! Take it off! It’s impractical. We’re going to be late. Mommy’s got to go to work and Fyora will be angry if I’m not there on time.” Chel knew that her mother, Ana, a faerie Peophin worked for the Queen Faerie, and she knew that the Queen found punctuality an important value, but Chel was all ready to leave for preschool. Ana was the one making a problem.

      “Will you two just settle down? Honestly.” Daniel stomped into the room, rolling his eyes. “We’re all going to be late. Mom, she’s just a little kid. Let her wear it. No one ever was ruined by wearing a cape once.” The shadow Eyrie flapped his wings irritably and gathered up some paper for the Origami folding he loved so much. “I’m going to school.” Ana at once swooped after her perfect son.

      “I know you’ll do great. You always do. Get good grades, Danny!”

      “It’s Daniel, Mom. He always gets good grades.” When the shadow Eyrie was out of sight, Ana gathered her things for work and called Chel to come with her.

      It was a quiet walk to preschool. Ana dropped off Chel, and quickly flew off so as not to be late; Faerieland was a long flight.

      All the pets were playing in the schoolyard. It was time, Chel decided, for Super Chel to do a super hero action. Super Chel scanned the schoolyard, then gasped. There was the Pant Devil taking away the blocks from a baby Korbat. Super Chel ran over to the Pant Devil. “Sssssshhhhh-ping!” said Chel; that was the noise that all the super heroes in her bedtime books made when they ran.

      “You, Pant Devil! Stop your nefarious acts right this moment! I am Super Chel and I can beat anyone in the Battledome!”

     The Pant Devil was about to run away when Isabella walked up behind Chel and said, “Chel? The Pant Devil’s not here. Why are you acting weird, pretending he is?” Isabella was Chel’s best friend. Chel explained to the baby Aisha that she, Super Chel, was practicing saving people for when her super powers were needed most.

      “But you can’t beat anybody in the Battledome.”

      “Well, Super Chel can beat everybody.” Isabella rolled her eyes. Chel was immediately jealous, and asked how Isabella did that. She began explaining, and the Pant Devil incident was quickly forgotten. Chel continued to try to learn how to roll her eyes, until Ms. Stuart called them to go in. As Chel passed by her teacher, the rainbow Kau complimented Chel’s cape. Chel beamed, and explained Super Chel. Ms. Stuart listened intently. Isabella, who usually waited for Chel so they could walk together, went inside without waiting.

      Then they went inside and Ms. Stuart started teaching them all how to read. Chel knew it said “Bori” but Charlie, who had gotten called on, had to sound it out, very slowly. Ms. Stuart pointed to a word she had written on the board.

      “Boo... ray?” Ms. Stuart shook her head. “Bor... eeh.” Another shake of the head. Charlie paused before realizing “Bori!” Ms. Stuart patted him on the head and moved on to making Trinity read “Ruki”. Chel stopped paying attention. The little Ogrin already knew how to read all the pet names. For her this was baby stuff. Instead she daydreamed.

       “You, Pant Devil! Stop your nefarious acts right this moment! I am Super Chel and I can beat anyone in the Battledome!”

       The baby Korbat looked up at Super Chel in awe. She was so brave. The Korbat hoped he’d get his blocks back.

       Super Chel knew she could never fail. “I will follow you to the ends of Neopia to bring these blocks back to this Korbat,” said Super Chel.

      “Then chase me,” said the Pant Devil. He flew away cackling. Using her super red cape, Super Chel flew after him. The Pant Devil looked back and gasped. “You can fly!”

      “Of course I can! I’m Super Chel! Now save us both time and give me the blocks.” The Pant Devil refused. Super Chel challenged him to a Battledome fight.

      “I accept. Meet me there and be beaten.”

      “I will never be beaten.”

     “Chelsea.” Ms. Stuart’s sweet voice stopped Chel’s daydream. “It’s snack time. Don’t you want some?” Looking around, Chel realized that everyone had already gone to the tables for snack time. Chel hurried over to the snack table and sat down next to Isabella. After they had finished their milk and cookies, all the kids ran outside into the yard to play. Chel galloped outside. She kept running until she tripped and went flying head over heels, a full somersault, and landed sitting, her face slightly surprised, yellow eyes wide, her head tilted. One of Chel’s ears was standing alert, the other down, limp, but somehow her red cape was still perfect, lying on her back, double knotted in the front. Her tail started wagging, then with a shake of her head Chel got up and giggled. Then she jumped around, confronting, and baring her teeth at numerous bad guys. One by one they all ran away.

     “What are you doing?” asked Isabella.

     “Chasing away bad guys,” said Chel happily. “Do you want to play super heroes with me? It’ll be so much fun. You could choose a super name, then we’d be a dynamic duo and we’d scare away anyone and everyone.”

     “That doesn’t really sound like fun. Why don’t we play dollies like we always do? Our baby dolls need us to take care of them.” Chel looked over at the girls. They each had a doll in their arms and they were feeding them. Then she looked over at the boys; they were having contests to see who could run the fastest. “Though if you don’t want to play dollies, you could always go and race with the boys.” Boys. Chel’s eyes widened at the concept. No self-respecting girl played with boys. The boys never played with the girls. They didn’t even play close to each other.

     “No,” said Chel, “I’ll play dollies.” Isabella pranced over to where the other girls were. Chel trudged towards the other girls and picked up what used to be her favorite doll. Julia was her name and she was a green Ogrin plushie. Chel cared for Julia for the rest of the day. The dollies had a tea party, then had nap time, dinner time, and playtime. These were all things Chel used to love to do, but now she just wondered why she had to be so conventional.

     “Could we play super heroes now?” Chel asked all the girls.

     “No,” said every one of them. Chel lowered her head and went back to changing Julia’s diaper.

     Daniel picked Chel up from school that afternoon. Chel took her cape away from Julia, who had been using it as a blanket because, in the words of Isabella, “mommies just aren’t super heroes.” She stuffed the cape into her backpack and waved good bye.

     “So did you have fun today?” asked Daniel as they walked town the lane towards home.

     “No,” muttered Chel.

     “Aww, was Julia not eating again?”

     Chel ignored him. They walked on in silence for a while before she spoke again. “When you were a little boy, what did you play?”

     “Well, we would never play with dolls,” said Daniel. Chel wondered if Daniel really thought she didn’t know that boys never played with dolls. “We played Islander and Explorer. When I was young, Mystery Island had just been discovered and some of us would be the strange looking Islander and the others would be the brave Explorers.”

     They walked on in silence for a little while longer as Daniel reminisced.

     “Daniel,” said Chel meekly, “did you ever play super heroes?”

     “Nope,” he said, missing entirely the importance of the question. They walked silently home. Chel wondered if she was the only one ever to want to be a super hero. Had no one else ever read Defenders of Neopia and wanted to be just like them? Maybe she was a freak, a weirdo. Tomorrow, she decided, she would not wear the cape.

      And she didn’t.

      “Bring the doll I gave you for your birthday,” said Ana when she saw that Chel wasn’t wearing her cape to school. “I’m sure the girls at school would love to see it. It’s such a nice Kiko plushie.” She flew around the house gathering the things she needed. Chel was ready to go already. Ana stuffed the last of the bagel, then flew out of the house and off to drop Chel off.

      In the schoolyard Chel took the Island Kiko plushie out of her backpack. Below it was the red cape crumpled in a ball where Chel had left it. Chel sighed. Isabella grabbed the plushie.

      “Wow, I’m so jealous! It’s beautiful. I always thought island was a beautiful color. Although I always thought Kikos were rather blobby pets.”

      “Hey!” said Emma, a baby Kiko.

      “Well most of them are, but your color blue is so beautiful it doesn’t matter what pet species you are,” said Isabella dismissively. Emma glowed; she was too easily won by Isabella’s compliments.

     “So, what are you going to name it?” asked Trinity, a meek baby Wocky. Chel told them she hadn’t decided yet.

     It wasn’t long until Ms. Stuart called them all inside. The boys, tired from their racing around the playground, sat on their side of the classroom and noticed a newcomer.

     “Who’s that?”

     “What’s that?”

     “It’s a baby Zafara, you dimwit.”

     “What’s he doing here? He doesn’t go to this pre-neoschool.”

     Everyone sat down, still talking about the new boy that had just shown up as if out of nowhere.

     “Kids,” said Ms Stuart, “this is Eric. He has just moved here from Altador. I trust you will make him feel welcome. Now, Eric, do you want to come up here and tell us a little bit about yourself?”

     Eric stood up. He was blue, like all baby Zafaras, with three black spots on each ear, and tied around his neck was a green cape.

     “H-hello,” he said. “I’m Eric, I just moved to Neopia Central from Altador. When I grow up I want to be a super hero.” He became more confident. “In fact, I’m training already! That’s why I’m wearing this cape.”

     Everyone burst out laughing. That was everyone but Chel. She was thinking of the red ball in the bottom of her backpack.

To be continued...