Stupendous Girl Saves the World

A Story by Alexandria

first issue of stupendous girl

Late one Sunday night, Jessica Herman was struggling to finish her homework. Her parents, her dog, even her stuffed animals had long since gone to sleep. Jessica, unfortunately, didn’t have that luxury. Her eye lids started to slide closed once again and Jessica had to shake herself awake. She needed some help if she was going to stay up all night. “A glass of ice water should do the trick,” Jessica thought as she stood up and headed into the kitchen. But when she opened the refrigerator door instead of seeing a pitcher of water, her eyes were drawn to the beautiful, bubbling two liter bottle of soda. Caffeinated soda. It was exactly what she needed! Checking over her shoulder, just to make sure no one was watching, Jessica snatched the bottle out of the fridge and raced back upstairs. Quickly downing the entire jug, she felt the power of caffeine rushing through her. She was invincible, all powerful, unbelievably hyper! Now she could definitely finish her project. Jessica twirled around and around and around her room, so energized and excited that she could stay awake all night. She was no longer Jessica �" now she was Stupendous Girl! Like all superheroes, Stupendous Girl now had the ultimate responsibility weighing on her shoulders; she had to save the world!

Spinning and whirling round her room, riding a caffeine-induced high, Stupendous Girl accidently tripped over her homework and fell backwards out her window. Always graceful she landed on her back, in a bush. “Stupendous Girl, away!” she cried, flailing until she rolled from the bush and onto the ground. Wandering around her neighborhood, Stupendous Girl realized she had a serious problem: there was no one to save. Though the lamps were lit, the streets were dark and empty. The houses’ glowing eyes and long since faded to black. The only person in peril she could find wasn’t a person at all �" it was a worm, stuck in the middle of the sidewalk. “Big or small, it’s up to me to save them all,” she chanted. Stupendous Girl picked it up and set the worm in the grass. It was a nice good deed, but far short of a heroic act. Deciding to use her Super Sonic Hearing Stupendous Girl closed her eyes, clenched her fists, wiggled her ears and tried really hard to hear someone in danger. Her jaw popped. Resettling herself, Stupendous Girl set her hands on her hips, stared down the moon, and flexed her hearing muscles. This time her ears popped. Just as Stupendous Girl was about to give up her Super Sonic Hearing kicked in and she picked up the distress calls of someone in a nearby tree! Racing over to lend her assistance, Stupendous Girl scrambled up the branchy sapling. It bent and swayed under her thin frame. Still Stupendous Girl inched onward, determined to save �" a… squirrel? “Has someone requested the need for Stupendous Girl?” she whisper-yelled at the tiny creature. The squirrel took this as a threat and began pelting her with nuts. Shrieking in surprise, Stupendous Girl fell the long two feet onto the lawn below. Dusting off her bum, Stupendous Girl grumbled to herself. It was time to head home; there was no saving to be done tonight.

Wading through the bush she had fallen in earlier that night, Stupendous Girl pulled herself through her bedroom window and tumbled sleepily to the floor. Her homework was sticking into her ribs. Stupendous Girl rolled around on her carpeted floor until she found an uncluttered spot to sleep. Nothing had changed while she was on her exhausting adventure. The empty bottle of soda lay open on the floor. Her stuffed animals were strewn about her bed. Her unfinished homework remained spread over the majority of her room. Stupendous Girl groaned; she had completely forgotten about her project. While she was pondering this, Stupendous Girl began to feel her Caffeine Powers slipping away. She was slowly becoming Jessica once again. Unlike Stupendous Girl, had to rise early for school tomorrow and so she drifted off into a plushy, carpeted slumber.

Jessica awoke with a jolt the next morning as her alarm blared. Tripping over her solar system model, she rushed to quiet the noisemaker. Jessica looked down at her stubbed toe; next to it was her half-finished Milky Way model, the homework project that was due today. Plopping herself down on the carpet, Jessica worked to complete her masterpiece. She only had a few more planets to glue on when she realized that the striker marble made to look like earth had rotated dangerously close to the smiling stressball sun. Slowly, carefully, delicately: Jessica arranged the celestial bodies in the correct order, successfully separating her home planet from the fiery grips of the sun Gazing at her completed project, Jessica murmured, “Stupendous Girl has saved the world.”