Superhero Life Simulator

HEADER: Date: October 12, Day 1 of Cycle 1, Location: Midtown High School, New York City, Status: Secret identity unexposed, Current Goal: Settle back into school after your hospital release while mastering your new latent powers.

FORUM & NEWS FEED

*NYC Local Alert: The Shades suspected in theft of medical tech from Manhattan General – 2 hours ago

*Midtown High Student Council: Spring dance tickets go on sale tomorrow, $15 per person

*Subway Alert: L train delays between Bedford and 1st Avenue due to track maintenance

RELATIONSHIP NETWORK

Mia Carter (Best Friend, Classmate): ★☆☆☆☆☆ (1★, Close Acquaintance)

Lila Hayes (Younger Sister): ★★☆☆☆☆ (2★, Family)

Mr. Hale (AP Biology Teacher): ★☆☆☆☆☆ (1★, Casual Acquaintance)

SCENE & STORY NARRATIVE

The crisp autumn air nips at your cheeks as you jog up the concrete steps of Midtown High, your scuffed white high-tops slipping a little on a patch of fallen oak leaves.

It's only been a week since the crash that upended your entire life: you were walking home from your Friday shift at the Roosevelt Avenue bodega, a bag of lemon drops for your 12-year-old sister Lila tucked in your pocket, when a tanker truck swerved around the bend, its side peeling open to spill a thick, iridescent blue chemical across the sidewalk.

You woke up three days later in Bellevue Hospital, doctors muttering that you should have suffered severe chemical burns, that your vitals were stronger than any teen they'd ever treated.

You were released yesterday, and you still haven't told anyone about the strange things that started happening once you got home: the way you could press your palm to the small cut on Lila's finger from her art project and watch it close up in ten seconds, the tingle that hums under your skin when you're around other people, the way your own broken wrist from the crash healed completely in four days.

You sling your thrifted gray hoodie's backpack off one shoulder as you push through the school's front doors, the familiar hum of hallway chatter washing over you—screams from a group of freshmen racing to first period, the rustle of textbook pages, the tinny sound of pop music leaking out of someone's AirPods.

You spot your best friend Mia leaning against your locker, her neon pink hair half-up in a claw clip, a crumpled spring dance flyer in one hand and a vanilla latte from the school cafeteria in the other.

"Took you long enough," she says, pushing off the metal to hand you your algebra textbook she grabbed for you before first period."I thought you'd sleep through your first day back.Mr.

Henderson's already threatening to fail anyone who's late to first period this week.

Also, dance tickets go on sale tomorrow, I'm not going alone, so you better ask Jake if you two are finally gonna stop pining after each other or I'm gonna stage an intervention in the cafeteria."

You laugh, but your phone buzzes in your hoodie pocket before you can respond, pulling it out to see a text from an unknown number, no contact name, just a string of unrecognized digits: I know what happened at the chemical crash last week.

I know about what you can do.Meet me on the roof during lunch, or I send the footage I took of you healing your sister's cut to every news outlet in the city.

Your stomach drops, the familiar tingle under your palms flaring up as you grip your phone so hard your knuckles turn white.

You glance up at Mia, who's rambling about the biology midterm next week that she's already stressing over, then glance down the hallway at the set of locked metal stairs that lead up to the school's roof, only accessible to staff during the school day.

You don't know who sent the text, if it's a prank, if it's someone who also has powers, if you're in immediate danger.

Right now, first period is about to start in five minutes, you have a quiz in AP Bio that you didn't get to study for because you were up half the night reading up on metahuman sightings in New York, and you have to pick Lila up from her middle school after class to take her to her weekly art lesson.

The weight of the secret you thought you'd buried hits you all at once—one wrong move, and everything you've ever known, your family, your friends, your life as a normal teenager, could be gone forever.

NPC MENTAL STATES

Mia Carter: Excited to have you back, distracted by spring dance plans and upcoming midterm stress, unaware of your powers.

Unknown Texter: Calm, calculated, holds concrete leverage over your secret identity.

Mr. Henderson (Algebra Teacher): Impatient to start class, has already marked three students tardy this morning.