Spectrum

She had been in the shadows for so long yet now she had become the light, literally. She was just the quiet autistic kid who was too afraid of being judged to make connections. She only had one solitary friend she could trust and even telling him seemed anxiety ridden. He would probably just scream anyway and possibly pass out, Cooper wasn’t very good at handling major news or excitement.

She loved science, but she didn’t want to BECOME a science project! She had just been tinkering with crystals and electricity and when she awoke the next day, she could cast light from her fingertips. The more she tried, she shot bursts of colorful light from her palms. The stronger it got, the more destructive it became as well. How would she explain her broken bookshelf to her Moms? What if it only became more and more powerful and she couldn’t control it? How could she explain that to the entire sixth grade class? Hi hello everyone it’s me! The girl you never notice, Sophie! I’m an autistic firefly, have a nice Thursday! She would surely be deemed a mental emergency or sent to be experimented on if she showcased her light powers.

There was also a part of her that wanted to do something with it. It gave her an extraordinary reason to get out of her comfort zone. She could help people! People like her! The ones being bullied and pushed around. She didn’t want to become a bully herself, she wanted to give bad people a tiny taste of their own medicine.

She stood and looked at herself in the mirror, letting a rainbow of color glow from her fists. A small smile curled over her lips.

“I’m Spectrum,” she grinned. “I’m an autistic superhero.”