Just Like Her Mother

"Someday, Gabriella, you'll grow up to be just like your mother."

Yeah right.

Everyone always said that. They always said Gabriella would grow up to be just like her late mother, whom she was even named after.

Well, their expectations were a bit unrealistic. Before sadly passing away, Gabriella's mother, also known as Cosmic, had saved the world with her superpowers. Flight, laser beams, super strength. Even now, ten years after she died, everyone still talked about it.

And Gabriella's family expected her to be just like her mother.

But unlike her mother, Gabriella had no superpowers. She was just an ordinary fourteen-year-old girl, who went to school, struggled to grasp the difficult concept of geometry, and had like one friend. No superpowers at all. Not even flying.

Yet, every day, her family still said that to her.

"I don't have powers," Gabriella said to her uncle. "How can I be a superhero, like my mother, without any powers?"

Her uncle Frank sighed and sat down in a nearby chair. "Gabby, you know you don't need powers to be a hero."

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. What can I do without powers? Beat supervillains with the power of kindness?"

"Gabby, you are capable of much more than you think," Frank said.

Gabriella looked in the refrigerator for anything to eat. Nothing. She checked the cupboard and grabbed an almost empty bag of chips. Opening it and grabbing a handful, she turned towards Frank. "I can't even get a decent grade in math. How am I supposed to be some kind of hero?"

Just then, Frank's husband, Simon, Gabriella's other uncle, came into the room. "Your grade in math doesn't define your capability."

"He's right, Gabriella. Your mother struggled in math, too. And she saved the world," Frank said.

"With her powers. I don't have powers."

Frank sighed and stopped trying to reason with her. They had this conversation at least once a day, every day. Never worked. Gabriella honestly didn't understand why everyone said she would be just like her mother. She knew that she looked a lot like her mother had, with curly black hair, (though her mother's had been wavy), brown eyes, and freckled dark brown skin.

Gabriella picked up her phone. 5:21 PM. She saw a text message saying her dad would be home soon. Thank goodness. Her dad was nice to her and didn't put as much pressure on her as her uncles.

"Hey, you better not be eating too close to dinnertime," Gabriella heard Simon say.

"It's not close to dinnertime. It's not even 5:30 yet," Gabriella said.

"Yes it is, and by the way, I'm making dinner tonight," Frank said, standing up.

Gabriella smiled. Uncle Frank was an excellent cook. He often made dinner while visiting because Gabriella's dad could barely cook. Only basic things, like peanut butter sandwiches, toast, ramen, etc.

In about ten minutes, Gabriella's dad came home. He, Gabriella, and Simon watched TV together while Frank made dinner. Spaghetti this time. It was delicious.

That night, some time after the uncles went home, Gabriella went to bed. She usually went to bed later, but she felt exhausted tonight for some reason, even though it hadn't even been a long day. She had just stayed home most of the day.

As she drifted off to sleep, a random thought came into her head. It was once again about her mother and following in her footsteps, even though she hadn't even thought about that since that talk with her uncles.

She wondered, how was she supposed to follow in her mother's footsteps anyway?

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Gabriella's sleep was interrupted by the harsh noise of her alarm clock. Groaning a bit, Gabriella turned it off and proceeded to not get out of bed.

Monday.

Gabriella knew she should get out of bed and into the kitchen for some cereal. She had to be at school at 8, and it was 6:45. Yet she couldn't. School was a hellhole for Gabriella. They said that everyone had a class they were good in, but Gabriella struggled in each and every class. Even lunch, aka Socializing Like a Normal Human Being. She was terrible at that. At least she had one good friend who she could talk to somewhat normally.

Plus, Gabriella still felt so tired.

After a few minutes, Gabriella groaned, knowing she had to get out of bed or Dad would come into her room and yell at her. So she finally sat up, rubbed her eyes, and trudged out of her room groggily.

Gabriella pushed a strand of hair out of her face. It was all over the place from being in bed and poofing out from her head like a curly black cloud. She knew cutting it would be easier, but she liked having long hair.

Gabriella yawned as she walked into the kitchen. She was about to just go into the kitchen and get a bowl of cereal, but…

“Hi, Gabs!” Dad said cheerfully, looking up from his newspaper and smiling at Gabriella.

This startled Gabriella from her groggy state, almost giving her a heart attack and making her jump.

And once she jumped, she didn’t land, as one usually would. She stayed in the air, just hovering three inches above the ground.

Gabriella didn’t realize she was floating at first. She looked at her dad’s wide eyes staring at her and scoffed. “Geez, you almost gave me a heart attack! And why are you staring at me like that?”

Then she realized what was happening. She shrieked and toppled to the floor. She hastily got up, breathing hard. “What the heck just happened?!”

“Gabriella…” Dad said. “I think you do have powers like your mother.”

“What?!” Gabriella said. “N-no, that…that can’t be true.”

“Well, like mother like daughter,” Dad said, chuckling a bit. But Gabriella could tell he was also a bit freaked out.

“I…I can’t have powers,” Gabriella mumbled. “Mom…she was a superhero. She saved people every day. I’m just some kid who can’t even get a decent B on a math test.”

“Gabriella, you are not just some kid,” Dad said. “You are extraordinary.”

“Welp, you always said that,” Gabriella said. “Now…maybe it’s true.”

Gabriella took a deep breath, trying to calm down her heart, which was beating a mile a minute. She closed her eyes, and jumped a little. Instead of coming down, she hovered, just an inch off the ground.

“Whoa,” Gabriella said. Now that she wasn’t as freaked out, this was kind of cool. She floated around, this way and that, up and down. She flew up to touch the ceiling, which before she had been able to stroke if she jumped, but now she could lay her hand on it.

As Gabriella landed, Dad watched her, ecstatic. “Your uncles need to know about this!” he said.

Gabriella sucked in a breath. How would her uncles react? Would they be thrilled? Scared? Try to train her to use her superpowers like in all those movies?

It turned out, her uncles were thrilled to see she had powers. “I knew it all this time!” Frank said.

“I knew you’d get powers just like your mom!” Simon said.

“Is that why you always said, ‘Gabriella, you’ll grow up to be just like your mother’?” Gabriella said.

“Yes!” Frank said. “Always knew you had it in ya, Gabby.”

“And even if you didn’t have powers,” Simon said. “Even if you had no powers, you’d still be able to change the world. You do not need powers to be a hero.”

Gabriella sighed. “Yeah, just like all those superheroes who have powers.”

“Batman doesn’t have powers,” Simon pointed out.

“Well, Batman is also smart, good at fighting, and has a whole bunch of cool gadgets,” Gabriella said. “Unlike me.”

“Well, now that you do have powers, you can be like your mom!” Frank said.

“You must have other powers other than flying,” Dad said.

“Oh yeah,” Gabriella said. Her mother had had super strength and the power to shoot laser beams. Did she have those powers as well?

Gabriella walked over to the couch and attempted to pick it up. It was of typical heaviness at first, but then suddenly, it became much lighter in Gabriella’s arms, and she picked it up over her head with ease.

Gabriella heard her dad and uncles cheering, and she turned around, still holding the couch. She almost knocked over a painting on the wall, though.

“Alright, Gabs, let’s put that down now,” Dad said.

Gabriella put the couch down and moved it a little to where it originally was. She then flopped onto it, panting, taking everything in.

If she had flight and super strength…could she also shoot laser beams?

“Justin,” Frank said, turning to Gabriella’s dad. “You might need to excuse Gabriella from school today. She got some powers, and she needs to learn how to use them! To become a superhero like her mother!”

“Frank, dear, I don’t think we should put too much pressure on her,” Simon said. “She’s only fourteen. Her mother got powers when she was twenty-five.”

Frank, Simon, and Dad continued talking, but Gabriella was hardly listening. She was trying to remember her mother. She had died when Gabriella was only around four years old. All she could remember was her warm smile as she sang sweetly to her. No powers, no saving the world. All that information came from old TV broadcasts and her dad’s and uncles’ stories. The only thing in her actual memories was the part of her mother which was her mother.

Did Gabriella really want to be a superhero like her mother? Fighting crime, everything from bank robbers to evil supervillains with death rays? Was she the one who was going to be the next hero, following in her mother’s footsteps?

Gabriella thought about what Simon had said. She was only fourteen years old. She didn’t need to be a superhero yet. She still had fourteen-year-old things to worry about, like school.

Gabriella turned to her dad and uncles, who were still talking about whether she would be superhero trained or not.

“I don’t think I want to be a superhero,” Gabriella said. “I mean, not yet. I’m only fourteen. And there isn’t any immediate danger happening, like a supervillain with a death ray.”

“Gabriella-” Frank said.

“No, Frank,” Simon said. “She’s right. She’s only fourteen. She needs to worry about school and social things. She’s not ready to become a hero.”

“Yeah, he’s correct,” Gabriella said.

“But…but what if a supervillain does attack with a death ray?” Frank exclaimed.

“I guess then I’ll have to rise up and defeat them,” Gabriella said. 

“Well, in that case, you’re still going to know how to use your laser beams,” Frank said. “You can get a day off school, and I’ll attempt to train you.”

Gabriella looked at her dad. Her dad nodded. “I will call the school,” he said.

After a breakfast of French toast, cooked by Frank, Gabriella, her dad, and her uncles drove to a big open field, where Gabriella could practice her powers. Even though Dad, Frank, and Simon had no powers, they were still good at training Gabriella. By around 3:00, Gabriella understood how to shoot laser beams without hurting anybody she didn’t want to and how to fly without crashing into anything. They didn’t focus on super strength much, but they practiced lifting some things.

When they got home, the uncles returned to their place, and Dad and Gabriella returned home. Gabriella looked through an old photo album, back when her mother was still alive.

She saw a picture of her mom, her dad, and herself, two or three years old. They were all standing on a sandy beach, smiling. Mom didn’t look like she could be a superhero, except for her muscular physique. She just looked like a wife and a mother.

Gabriella looked at herself in the picture, being held by her mother. She looked like a typical little kid, band-aids on her arms and legs, her hair braided into little braids, smiling wide for the camera. Back then, did her family think she would grow up to be a superhero just like her mother?

Another picture was of Gabriella on her third birthday. She was smiling in front of a cake with 3 candles. Her uncles and dad were there, not her mother, probably because she was taking that picture.

Gabriella turned the page to another picture of her mother. In this one, she was in her purple, blue, and black super suit. She hardly looked like a mother at all. She looked like Cosmic, a superhero. 

She looked at the picture of her mother in her super suit. Was she going to be a superhero, just like her?

Gabriella closed the album and put it back. Maybe not a superhero just yet, but she knew she was going to change the world.

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Hey guys, sorry I haven't written in forever, lots of other things were happening and I kind of forgot about this place. :)