It was just a skip a hop a skip and another hop. Easy right? Nothing Astra couldn't do. She sucked in her breath, hiked up her skirt and proceeded to hop, skip, skip, hop. Except she missed that last hop, ever so slightly landing on the white chalk line. "You're out!" Mindy cried, "Astra hit the line, Astra hit the line! Bye bye now!" With a slight shrug Astra grabbed her marker and sat down on the side. Ms Mindy Howe threw Astra another "I'm so great" look and then proceeded to hop squares one through seven in perfect form, landing perfectly in the middle each time. Skip skip hop hop skip hop hop. Then back again. Mindy always won at hopscotch, no one could beat her.

Well, that wasn't quite true. Astra could beat Mindy any old day of the week, but Astra wasn't allowed to try her hardest. Astra was actually really great at hopscotch. At home, on her own little hopscotch court, she could skip hop double hop back and forth all day. Sometimes she hopped blindfolded or skipped while standing on her hands, just to keep the game interesting. But at recess everyday Astra would be outside, on the black asphault, losing at hopscotch to Mindy Howe. It really wasn't very fair, because Astra didn't like to lose at anything, much less hopscotch, much less to the obnoxious Mindy Howe. Hopscotch was the official November game for the fourth grade and every week Mindy would take home a thick paper with the words, "Hopscotch Champion" printed on it in big swirly letters.

Astra wanted so badly to beat Mindy at hopscotch, just to show her that Astra Starfall was nobody to be messed with. But Astra's mom didn't let Astra use her powers in public. Which meant no flying, no lifting cars, no super speed, no running around on her hands, and no winning at hopscotch. It didn't used to be this way, Astra had been allowed to use her powers in public if she was careful, after all, if normal human girls could dominate hopscotch, surely a metahuman like Astra wouldn't get a second glance if she seemed to be abnormally strong for a little girl. This all changed three months ago, when Astra started to glow whenever she used her powers. And not just a light shiny glow on her face either, her glow was a full body glow. Bright white light came shining through her skin, through her clothes and even through her eyes and mouth.

Grandpa had a big talk with Astra the day she started glowing. Mom and Dad were away on a “mission” so it was only Grandpa who saw Astra glowing and spinning in mid-air. He explained to her that she had to be very careful now, not to let other people see her use her powers. In fact, Astra had even been taken out of school for a whole week to learn how to control her glowing. She told Mrs. Thompson that she had the measles and no one was the wiser. But now, Astra took every care to not use her powers at school, even a little bit. She didn't want to compromise her secret identity, or something like that. Astra would sometimes make herself lose at things just so it would seem like she were a normal little girl.

But today, today Astra didn’t want to lose. This was the last week of Hopscotch Month and Astra desperately wanted to take home a big certificate declaring her a champion hopscotcher. Astra watched Mindy hop hop skip hop slip. Slip!!! Did Mindy Howe just slip! Yes she did! Mindy Howe had slipped on square number six and now she sat on the ground, her legs in a tumble underneath her. Astra had another chance to win this week and she wasn't going to waste it.

Concentrating super hard, Astra threw her rock into the square and hiked up her skirt again, ready to hip and hop her way to a championship. She could hear all the other kids cheering her on as she started to move forward and backwards across the squares. "Go Astra! You can do it!" Astra was dancing, with her feet touching lightly in the middle of the squares and her eyes focused on the next square. There would be no slipping or line stepping this time for Astra. As Astra finished her routine, the crowd clapped and shouted "Yay Astra! You won! You won!" She did it, Astra Starfall was now the best hopscotcher in the fourth grade.

As Mrs. Thompson shooed the kids into the classroom, Astra saw Mindy walking a little behind everyone and she felt bad. Mindy looked like she was crying and nobody was paying any attention to her. Astra walked up to Mindy and stuck out her hand, the hand that could crush rocks and tear apart metals. "That was a good game Mindy, I got lucky, we'll have to play again next week." With a big smile Mindy looked up at Astra and shook her hand. The two girls ran in just as Mrs. Thompson closed the door.

Mrs. Thompson looked at Astra and exclaimed, "Why Astra, I believe you're glowing!"