The easy child

The easy child. It came up in every description of her. Oh, she’s the easy child, a parent might say with a small smile, reaching down a hand to ruffle her red curls. She’s an easy student. No surprises, teachers would confide with a charming laugh. Pixie hated it. Every time she heard a variation of those words, it was like a slap, a sharp reminder of her dull non-power. Little Nora could bounce higher than the Statue of Liberty. 10-year-old Devin could ride clouds at speeds faster than any plane. Natalie could shoot lasers from her fingers. Ray, the oldest at 17, could make immense tidal waves at will. And Pixie? Pixie could change her eye color. It was a nice party trick, but that was exactly where its uses ended. She’d never be a real superhero. In fact, she’d already failed out of the school with the extra classes on selflessness, workouts, and whatnot. She’d barely qualified for the afterschool program where they tried to find uses for the non-powers of people like her. They hadn’t been able to come up with anything good for Pixie.

You could be a model, and your eyes would always match your clothes! 

You could be a game show host, with one of those prize wheels. Your eyes could change along with the spinner!

You could be the first eye-artist. Maybe you can concentrate and make cool designs on your eyes?

 They were trying to be helpful, but it only made her power seem more and more useless. However, it was actually true that she could create designs on her eyes. They just seemed to have a very creepy and unnatural effect. She’d used it for a Halloween costume once, when she’d wanted button eyes. Her neighbors completely freaked out. 

Pixie sighed and leaned back into the soft leather armchair. She was still thinking about her parents-

It was a relief to have you Pix, honestly. Did we ever tell you how Natalie almost burned the house down? And remember how Nora leaped crying out of the nurse’s arms just seconds after she was born? It’s so much easier to have a kid with little powers- when Devin walked in. 

 “Hey Pix!” he exclaimed in his usual always-chipper tone. “We were thinking about going to the beach. Wanna come?”

 “Fine.” She knew if she refused Devin too much, no one else would invite her. He was the only one of Pixie’s siblings that actually cared about her. She followed Devin to the shore, where Natalie and Ray were already pulling a battered sailboat to the water. Their house was so close to the beach that it was only about a five-minute walk. Nora, who was bouncing (high) up and down from the sidelines, spotted Pixie and Devin first. 

 “Devin!” she squealed and leaped into his outstretched arms. She saw Pixie watching and glared. Although Pixie was actually older than Devin, she was shorter, and Nora saw her as another little girl to compete with. “He’s my favorite brother,” she whispered threateningly. “And you’re not my favorite sister!” Sometimes Pixie wished Nora wasn’t 6 years old, so she could just punch her without getting in trouble. 

Ray caught sight of them next.

“Guys come on, get in the boat! We can’t wait all day!”

“Yessir!” squeaked Devin, breaking into a sprint. For some reason, Devin was completely in awe of Ray, which was odd because Devin was so nice, and Ray was such a jerk. Devin was still blushing when they got into the boat. It was a funny combination, as he shared Pixie’s bright red curls that grew up instead of down. Not to mention that he, like every one of the Dare siblings, was covered in freckles. 

Natalie must have noticed this too, as she giggled. “Your face is as red as your hair!” She turned to face Ray. “Are you gonna speed this boat up?” He grinned slyly, and they were pushed more than fifty feet up by a colossal wave. Pixie shrieked and clenched the boat’s side so tightly that her fingers turned white. 

“What’d you do that for?” she shouted over the wind.

“You weren’t expecting that we’d actually go on any old normal boat ride, were you?”

The boat dropped and was caught by another wave. “Stop!” Pixie yelled.

“No way!”

“Yeah Pixie, this is fun!” Natalie chimed in.

“Pix, just try to calm yourself down,” Devin said sympathetically. “You know, maybe we can try to sail to some faraway country. Ray, your waves can probably push us far enough.”

Nora’s eyes lit up, and she hopped to the boat’s center. “Let’s go to China!” 

“No, how about Hawaii!”

“Japan!”

“Morocco!”

“India!”

“Home?” Pixie timidly suggested.

“No, come on Pixie, just because you have boring powers doesn’t mean your personality has to be the same.” Ray scowled at her. “Let’s go to Japan, I really feel like sushi for lunch.”

“Does anyone have any Yens?” Natalie asked.

They all fished around their pockets.

“I have some Shekels” Nora proudly exhibited. “I accidentally bounced mom and me to Israel a couple days before break.”

“I have fifteen dollars,” Pixie announced.

“Oh wait, I do! I do!” Devin blurted. “I forgot, I cloud-flew to Japan a couple days ago, I have lots of Yens!”

Ray rubbed his hands together. “Great. Natalie, d’you have Google Maps ready?”

She whipped out her phone. “Yep. Go left, far out!”

“Right”

“Straight ahead…”

As Natalie continued to shout out directions, Pixie leaned back and somehow managed to feel relaxed as the boat shot forward and swerved sharply, the ground zooming farther and closer from her sight. Devin leaned over and tapped her shoulder.

“You know, my powers are super cool, but sometimes I wish I had ones like yours.”

Pixie turned to him, eyes flashing red. “Whaaat?!”

“I mean, Mom and Dad are always so stressed out, what with us always zooming off to different countries. I think you’re their favorite daughter.”

 “No. No way.”

“Yeah. You can stay at home with them. They don’t have to constantly worry about you getting mad and doing something crazy,” he sighed, looking down at his shoes. “Sometimes, I wish my powers were calmer, so I’d be in better control. So it wouldn't take so much effort just to use them. You know how hard it is to aim a cloud in the right direction? To bend it to your will? Making it solid enough to sit on is the easy part.”

Natalie glanced over, stopping with the directions for a moment. “Yeah. You know something Pixie? When you were born, I was so jealous. Devin and Nora too, but especially Pixie. It’s so hard, knowing that if you lose your temper even once, you can kill someone. Your parents, your siblings, your friends, even someone you don’t like very much - one zap and they’d be dead. Your powers are all cool, my powers are meant to kill. To hurt. It’s not nice, knowing that with one wrong move, you can remove someone from this world. Pixie, maybe you don’t know it, but you’re lucky.”

Ray cleared his throat. “When I was just five, I caused a tsunami. I killed so many people, I don’t know how many because Mom and Dad didn’t let me see the news. I caused so much damage. I destroyed so many people’s homes and lives, I just-” his voice broke. “It’s just so hard.” Devin reached a hand out to Ray’s shoulder.

“It wasn’t your fault, you were so small,” he whispered. 

They all looked at Nora, who still hadn’t said anything. “Oh, my turn?” she asked, wide-eyed. “Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I like my powers just fine.” Pixie was the first to laugh, and the rest joined in, giggles quickly turning into loud roars of laughter, tears streaming down their eyes. As they finally tired out, the boat slowed to a stop.

“C’mon,” Ray said, scooping Nora up. “We’re here.”

 They stepped out of the boat, Natalie searching restaurants up on her phone, giggling all the while, Ray being jerky and pushing Nora onto Devin, Devin being awestruck by him and taking her without complaint, Pixie trailing slightly behind as Nora stuck her tongue out at her. If you were an outsider looking in, you might think that nothing had changed, yet it had. They acted the same as always but each of them felt inside more united, more like a family, than they had in a long long time.