Kamala Khan had had the weirdest night ever. She’d snuck out of her house to go to AvengersCon with a seemingly perfect plan…that had immediately gone wrong. She’d fallen out of a tree, then she and Bruno had missed the first bus and almost the second, then she’d lost both her bike and Bruno’s super cool photon gloves. And somehow, despite it all, she was on her roof nearly two hours after she was supposed to be and Bruno had just sworn to keep her biggest secret on pain of death. Okay, so maybe she was exaggerating just a teensy bit. But as she snuck into her room, her mind was somewhere else completely. She wasn’t even thinking about how she’d pulled off the biggest, craziest escape of all time. No, Kamala Khan had even crazier things to things about.
Kamala Khan had…
…been caught. She’d been caught. As soon as she heard her name, Kamala whipped around. The woman in the chair across from her had clearly been waiting for her and was clearly not happy about it. Perhaps Kamala had been a little premature in naming the escape a success. She could see dark clouds beginning to roll across her sunny skies.
“Ammi,” she whispered. Oh, she was about to get it. She was about to get it good. She imagined weeks locked in her room, food slipped under the door, a dragon guarding the entrance.
What she got, though, was nothing close to that. Ammi was angry, yes, but she was far more disappointed, which was somehow even worse. Lying, sneaking out, betrayal. How could Kamala do these things to her family? Even worse, how could she know what she was doing and do it anyway? Kamala knew very well that she was guilty of all of it, and she did feel bad. Like, really bad. She hadn’t wanted to do any of these things. She’d just felt there was no choice. She wasn’t able to do anything. She couldn’t go anywhere, couldn’t wear what she wanted, couldn’t say what she felt. She couldn’t even like the things she liked without being judged. Ammi was right when she said she didn’t know who Kamala was. As far as Kamala was concerned, she didn’t care.
Kamala stood still and quiet, mumbling an appropriate apology here and there. Ammi barely left her a chance to speak anyway. She was giving a lecture Kamala had heard versions of before, about being good over having her head in the clouds, but this time there was something more in Ammi’s voice. She was resigned, and so disappointed it practically dripped off of her, leaving a puddle on Kamala’s floor. It almost seemed like Ammi was giving Kamala a choice. She could be Ammi’s good daughter or she could be the girl living a life that wasn’t her own, but she couldn’t be both.
And then she was gone, and Kamala was alone in her Captain Marvel cosplay and her superhero bedroom. She watched the door, almost expecting Ammi to come back in, yelling at her about the dangers and the outfit and how foolish she had been. She almost wished Ammi would. That would be easier than the puddle of disappointment still on the floor (it was the kind of thing that left a stain). It would certainly be easier than being left at a crossroads. Why was everyone suddenly expecting her to know exactly who she was and what she wanted?
She was just Kamala. Just a superhero-crazed, daydreaming, brown girl from Jersey City who couldn’t even drive. She rolled her eyes and flopped back on her bed, her gaze falling on the poster of Captain Marvel across from her, the superhero zooming fist first through the sky. Maybe, just maybe, Kamala didn’t have to be just Kamala. Maybe she could be something more.
Slowly, she raised her hand to her face, pulling back her sleeve to uncover Nani’s bangle. Focusing hard, she watched in awe as her hand began to glow a bluish-purple. It was easier this time, now that she expected it, and without the terror of earlier, wielding her new powers felt fantastic. Her hand was warm, slightly tingly, and shimmering like a crystal. It was, without a doubt, the coolest, most amazing thing that had ever happened to her.
So what if she had her head in the clouds or was a major Avengers fangirl or was in the midst of an identity crisis? She was sitting on her bed watching her hand glow after putting on a bangle that had arrived on her doorstep in a box from her Nani.
Kamala Khan had superpowers.
Kamala Khan was a superhero.
“Cosmic.”