(Inspiration #3.2) Jayme McGhee & the power of attraction

... x-ray vision, extrasensory vision, breathing underwater, cameleon skin, superhuman strength, flying, visual lazer beams, mind-reading, a natural affinity for kung fu, bullet-proof skin, superhuman speed, speed-reading, ability to attract the opposite sex on demand, the ability to speak with animals, extrasensory hearing, innate multilingualism....

13 year old Jayme McGhee quietly sat in her hard, wooden desk in the back of Ms. Boring's classroom.  The morning sun spread its rays through the open window and lit up the old, black chalkboard as Ms. Boring announced the morning journal topic of the day: 

"If I were a superhero, my superpower would be be..."

Jayme's bright, blue eyes slowly spanned the chalk-written phrase... She never knew exactly what to write about for these things, but afterall, Ms. Boring explained time after time that these journals were merely practice in creative writing.

"Expand your mind!  Tap into your creativity!  Writing takes practice... Practice, practice, practice!"

Okay, thought Jayme, pushing her long, blonde hair behind her shoulders, think, think.  Super powers?  Plain-Jane, Jayme. What super power could I ever have? 

 

(continued)

Jayme sat in the back corner of the classroom, cloaked in the shadow of Ms. Boring's tall bookshelf.  As she contemplated her journal topic, Jayme stared out from her shadow and through the window on the opposite side of the classroom.  After coming back to school in January, she had been watching the tall, winter-bare oak outside the window slowly evolve into a Luscous, green tree.  The flourishing tree had also become the spring-time home to families of birds and squirrels. 

Suddenly, a headful of short, black hair bobbed in front of Jayme's window view.  The hair could only belong to Kyle Foxx.  Jayme sat up in her desk, and watched Kyle consider his own superpowers, combing her eyes through every feature of his face, which was now practically glowing by the sunlight .  Next, Jessica Madison leaned over to the edge of her seat, discreetly passing a note to Kyle.

Jessica's short, blonde hair was different than Jayme's hair.  Jayme's hair was dark, caramel blonde.  Sitting in the shadow of the bookcase, she twirled a lock of her own hair around her fingers comparing it to the bright, lemony, blonde hair of Jessica, which seemed to attract the warm sun.  In art class, later that day, Jayme was somehow inspired to illustrate glittering sun rays with hands and feet and tiny smiles that danced in a golden corn field, racing in and out of the mass of bright golden strands.

As she watched Kyle look up from the secret message and flash a quick, brilliant smile to Jessica, Jayme secretly wished that she herself could have been passing the note, a note, any note, to Kyle at that very moment.  Regardless of proximity, there was something else that Jessica had that Jayme did not - that extra something that meant during lunch time, Kyle would sit at Jessica's table - not at Jayme's table.  In fact, Jayme wasn't so sure that she even had "a table."  Struggling to understand this social phenomenon, Jayme thought, How does she do it?  How does she attract guys like Kyle?  Suddenly, it came to her!  

She began to write:

If I were a superhero, my super power would be the power of attraction!  

~Plain-Jane, Jayme

Whatever it was that attracted so many friends - and boys -  to Jessica, Jayme wanted that, too. She imagined the possibilities of such a power...