Hello, newly-elected League of Liberty Council members. Drake (and he's still Council Prez, isn't he?) said I have to introduce myself (like you don't have anything better to do with the state the world is in and with all the evil villains running around, but whatever).

My name is Jessie Drummond and I'm fifteen years and three hundred and fifty-three days old. Not that I'm counting or anything.

Pertinent facts about me:

1. I have demented, red curly hair that turns into a giant frizzball in the Florida heat.

2. I just started tenth grade in a new school in a new town. Skyville is like the armpit of Florida, but the people are okay. At least some of them.

3. I never, ever have to go to the Home for Aging Kiss-Virgins and live with cats, because I have a new boyfriend and he kissed me. (Actually, he's kissed me a lot since Prom. I've kissed him a lot, too. Really, the whole kissing thing is pretty amazing.) Um, you don't have to tell Mom that last part, right?

4. I suck at algebra.

5. Oh, and I'm the first super hero in generations to have more than one power (mine are super hearing, x-ray vision, super speed, and super strength. And, um, that little problem with exploding things when I get stressed. But that's really more like a hiccup than an actual power). But I guess you knew all that, or I wouldn't have a blog on the League website. Especially not a top-secret one, even. Duh. :)

So, hi and congrats on your election, and democracy in action, and all that stuff. Since you're new and need to get settled in, you probably don't want to bother with making me come visit for my birthday, like the boring old Council wanted, right?

Yours in super-hero-nicity, Jessie

Chapter 1
Countdown to Super 16

"There's no way I'm going to the orthodontist. My teeth look fine." I peered into the mirror with my lips scrunched as far back from my teeth as they could go. I mean, sure, they weren't, like, perfect Hollywood teeth, but who wants to work that hard? And, really, some of those stars were going way too far with the teeth whitener, if you asked me. Who wanted glow-in-the-dark teeth? Especially down here in Florida, where it would just make it easier for the alligators to find you at night when you screamed.

"Yes, you are going to the orthodontist." My mom had her Ôpoor me, I should have had a pet rock instead of daughters' expression on her face as she brought clean towels in to the bathroom and opened the linen cupboard. "The dentist said you might have a problem with your jaw being a little narrow and it wouldn't hurt to get it checked out. That doesn't automatically mean you're going to need braces, Jess."

She turned around and looked at me in the mirror, as she sent the towels floating to their proper place on the shelves behind her.

"Oh, right. The behind-the-back towel-sorting trick. You telekinetics are such show-offs," I muttered.

Mom just laughed and hugged me. "That's me. A big show-off. So the show-off's daughter needs to get ready to go to the orthodontist. Five minutes, kiddo."
The final towels in place, she glanced at the cupboard and the doors swung shut as she left the room.

I just grinned. For two years there hadn't been much laughing or hugging from Mom, as she tried to get over how devastated she was that Dad died. So it felt good, but was a little weird, kind of like when you get a new pillow because your old one was squooshed flat, and the new one feels great but doesn't smell just right yet.

Not that Moms are pillows, but you know what I mean.

"Jessie's getting braces. Jessie's getting braaa-ayces." The biggest annoyance in my life, otherwise known as my baby sister Chloe, skipped into the bathroom.

"Hey, metal mouth, taking a last look at your teeth before they look like railroad tracks? Bet Seth won't want to kiss you then."

She giggled and danced away from me, hair flying, when I tried to swat her. Chloe was blessed with the good hair genes in the family Ð Mom's straight, silky blonde. It didn't help endear her to me, you understand.

She grabbed the hand towel and clutched it to her, then started making fake kissing sounds and talking in a bizarre, high-pitched voice. "Oh, mwah mwah mwah. Oh, Jessie, you are the love of my life, you Ð OW! My lips are stuck in your braces! Ouch! Ow! Ouch!!"

"Get OUT, monster, before I use my super strength and squish you like a bug."

Sadly, empty threats didn't work on Chloe. She stuck her tongue out at me.

"Girls! Get down here right now."

I sighed and grabbed my hairbrush so I could try to detangle the Mop of Doom in the car. After all, Ôjaw a little narrow' didn't mean I definitely needed braces, right? Not with my sixteenth birthday only twelve days, eleven hours, and seventeen seconds away?

No way could Fate be so cruel after the past few months I've had.