When Luke got home, he closed the front door quietly and tiptoed into the house. If his mom was sleeping he didn't want to wake her.

"Luke, is that you?" she called.

"Yes, it's me," he said, entering the room. "You feel better?"

"A little," she said, raising herself from her pillow to give him a kiss. "How was school?"

"Okay," Luke lied. He didn't want to upset his ailing mom. Two weeks ago she'd collapsed for no apparent reason. She'd never been ill before. Even her doctor couldn't find anything wrong with her.

"I'm going to do my homework, okay?" Luke lied again. He couldn't bear to see his mom like that.

As he got to his room he heard the front door open and footsteps on the stairs. Moments later Bret burst into the room.

"Here already? You must have made tracks!" Bret said.

"Shhh!" Luke hissed. "Mom must get her sleep."

"Not my problem - she's your mother, not mine," Bret sneered.

Suddenly Bret sneezed. "Boy, you're dusty. You've gone and made me sneeze!"

When Bret's dad had married Luke's mom just over a year ago, the two boys had become stepbrothers. Bret, who was two grade ahead of Luke, had initially been nice but had become really nasty recently.

"Here!" said Bret, holding out his shoes. "By tomorrow they must be so shiny they hurt my eyes!" Then he left the room.

Luke collapsed on his bed. Perhaps he should do his homework as he'd told his mom he was going to. It would take his mind off things. He suddenly recalled what the weird man had said. If only he could really be a superhero...He'd even deal with those who'd been ruining the school. It had been going on for weeks. In fact, it seemed as if everything had been going from bad to worse in the past few weeks.

His bedroom door opened. "Luke?"

"Afternoon, Mr. Johnson," Luke gasped, jumping to his feet.

"You can call me Dad here," Luke's headmaster said. Then he frowned. "I thought I told you to come home and change and shake the dust from your school clothes."

Without another word he left the room, probably to see how Luke's mom was. Luke sighed. It wasn't easy when your headmaster was also your stepdad. When Luke opened his wardrobe to change his clothes, his mouth fell open. There was something hanging there that hadn't been there that morning.

He reached in and pulled out a hanger with a costume draped over it - a superhero costume! It was bright red and yellow with green and there was a pair of green boots at the bottom of the wardrobe. And what was this? A mask!

The weird man's words came back to Luke: "You have been selected to stop them. You will be our hero!"

What was going on?

Suddenly the strangest feeling swept over Luke and he just knew something terrible was going to happen at school. He didn't know how he knew it, but he knew it as sure as he was standing there. Could it be he'd been given supernatural powers? There was no time to waste - he had to help!

Source

What was that word the man had used? Presto!

It couldn't do any harm, he supposed. Feeling a little foolish, he whispered: "Presto!"

To be continued

For Part 1, click here

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