Bumblebee tried not to laugh. Her parents were always worried about her. That was why she played down the danger of the battles she fought. “You know the news channels—they make things seem so much bigger than they really are,” Bumblebee would say. This was the strategy lots of Super Hero High students used with their families.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t around when the tree fell,” Bumblebee said. “I could have stopped it. I should have been here.”
It was rare for her to skip visiting her parents on Sunday; however, Bumblebee had planned to stay at school to work on an extra-credit project for Mr. Fox’s Weaponomics class. She had a 97 percent average in the class, and the extra credit would have brought her up to 99. Also, there was Harley’s Super Hero of the Month party.
“How?” Mr. Andrena-Beecher asked. “How could you have stopped it? It was nature taking its course.”
“The termites must have been working away at this tree for months. Something this big just doesn’t topple overnight,” Ms. Andrena-Beecher observed.
Bumblebee nodded. Still, she felt funny inside. After all, wasn’t she the super hero in the family? Wasn’t it her job to thwart disasters? Her parents could have been seriously hurt, or worse. Surely there was something she could have done. As Mr. and Ms. Andrena-Beecher talked with the neighbors, who showed up bearing cookies and thermoses of coffee, Bumblebee returned to what was left of her lab.
She picked up her poster of Mary Jackson, a trailblazing African American engineer who worked for NASA, and smoothed it out. Tape could fix that tear in Mary’s nose. Bumblebee rolled up the poster so that no more damage could be done. For the most part, her tech lab lay crushed and in pieces on the ground.
The police came over and began putting yellow and black caution tape around the scene, forcing her to back away. Besides, not much was left anyway. There were piles of wires and cables, melted metal and control panels. She saw some tech tools scattered about, but most were broken and could not be salvaged.
Bumblebee tried not to shed a tear. That would be silly, right? Everyone was safe. That was what truly mattered. Still, she had a hard time reconciling herself to the fact that her lab was gone—and that meant so were her projects.
“My parents are staying with my cousin Keisha’s family while the house is rebuilt,” Bumblebee explained. She was back in her room at school, surrounded by friends: Poison Ivy, Big Barda, and Batgirl. Wonder Woman and Supergirl dropped in to offer condolences. And Harley volunteered to do an exclusive video as a fundraising effort for the family.
“Thanks,” Bumblebee said, holding up her hand to block Harley’s video camera. “But this is nothing compared to true natural disasters happening all over the world.”
“It’s amazing no one got seriously hurt,” said Batgirl as she took off her purple hoodie and shook out her auburn hair. “What will you do next?”
“Next…for what?” Bumblebee asked. She wondered how long it would take for her dad’s broken arm to heal so he could start taking photos again.
“Your tech lab. All your stuff. Your experiments,” Batgirl reminded her.
Bumblebee fell onto her bed and hugged her pillow. “Urgggggh!” she cried. “My lab!”
“Tea time!” announced Katana as she did a shoulder roll into the room, landed upright, and set down a tray.
“Thanks!” Bumblebee savored a sip of the warm ginger tea. She was glad Katana had added extra extra honey, just the way she liked it. “I guess I’ll have to put everything on hold for a while. It’s too bad; I was developing a new battery pack, one with a much longer life. I’ve been having problems with my current one. I think it’s just too old. I’m lucky it’s lasted this long.”