Friday

Hansel and Gretel Woods

Samantha Blake
Witches Wood wasn't as scary as I thought it would be.

I suppose I'd built it up in my head that it would be really bad. But then again, woods are really only scary at night aren't they? Not on summer's days.

However, I found the remains of lots of fires. Which makes sense because I saw the glow of a fire last night.

There’s also a big house which is in the middle of the wood.

It’s like something out of a fairytale. I wonder who owns it. I wouldn’t like to live there. It must have at least six or seven bedrooms. It’s old. Probably made from bread.

PS. Woods isn't Hansel and Gretel's surname, in case you thought it was, from the title. I don't know what it was. Kettle? It kind of goes...

Sunday

Bad Things Happen in Scary Woods, Don’t They?

Samantha Blake
For such a quiet place, there’s a lot going on in so-called sleepy Suffolk.

I wish Nina was here. Susan, the girl I met the other day, seems nice, but I really miss my best friend. Nina Palmer and I have been friends for forever, but her parents took her over to India to stay with family after the bombing. Just want someone to talk to. Can only really talk to my brother because he's the only one who really understands what's going on with me.

But you can't talk to your brother about everything can you!?

Witches Wood really fascinates me! It's just across the field from Nan and Grandad's farmhouse.

I think it is because we weren’t allowed in the wood when we were younger. It’s just such a big deal for me. I’m actually more scared now, thinking about going into the wood, than I was I was when I was stuck in the hospital - and all the weird things that went on there!

Thing is, I know there’s nothing bad in the woods, and even if there was, nothing could hurt me.

I'm going to go for a run in the woods later. I want to see the wood for myself.

Things happen in woods don’t they? Scary things. It's supposed to be haunted. It's supposed to  have ghosts in it. People have seen them. I'm scared, but I want to see one too.

Even if there are ghosts, surely they wouldn't be able to hurt me, with my powers?

Wednesday

Is it OK To Fancy Your Sister's Friends?

James Blake
Samantha had a massive go at me yesterday. Ugh. Hate it when my sister does that.

I’ve been practising my teleporting. I went as far as Helmshall St Mary, which is about 7 miles away.

I’ve found a really quiet spot. There’s an old church right on the edge of the village. I don’t think it’s even used. Maybe, I don’t know.

Anyway, I can just land in the wooded bit round the back of the church. No one ever goes there. No houses, no CCTV. So I land there, and then it’s just a 5 minute walk into the village itself. No one sees me come, no one sees me go. Capiche? It's wicked!

Saw Sam out running. She’s got a really hot friend. Is it wrong to fancy your sister’s friends? Is that a good idea? Do I sound like Jez from Peep Show? Hope so. He’d love my powers!

Well, I had to go and say hello, and she was cool. And I think she fancied me. She gave me her mobile number. Sam went off on one to me about it when Susan left. So I just teleported home. That got her even more annoyed. She threw a massive strop about it when she got home, which was about 5 minutes after me. Honestly, what's her problem? Yes I get that Susan is her friend, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't like her too. Ugghh.

I suppose I should think about it, and agonise over the right or wrongs of it. But have you seen her?!
Going to do some more practice today. Teleporting, that is!

Dad mentioned something about us going to Summer school. Seriously? This is the holiday. And I’m traumatised. Doesn’t anyone get that? I need to chill out. And have fun. With Susan preferably. Lucky I don't have flame powers or I'd have burned the farmhouse down by now.

Trying not think about Chief Superintendent Harden and those text messages. And that girl. Yep. That’s it. By simply not thinking about that stuff, it won’t bother me will it? That’s definitely the best idea.

Saturday

My Auntie is a Ghost?!

Samantha Blake
OMG!!!

The people in the village think my Aunty Katie is a ghost!

I just came right out with it and asked Mrs Meredith. Apparently all the village used to say that Katie was evil!!! My Dad’s sister!

Even Mum doesn’t know why. I asked her too. But she didn't know Dad back then cos it was in the 1980s or sometime in pre-history.

But that isn’t the strangest thing. Apparently, I look like her! I’ve never ever seen a photo of Aunty Katie, so I don’t know if I really do. But that’s what Mrs Meredith says.

“You’re the spit of her you are,” she said.

Which wasn’t exactly the nicest compliment I’ve ever had. “But you’re a lovely girl,” she added.

Thanks Mrs M. I feel so much better.

Ghost Hunters in Witches Wood - Shocker!

Samantha Blake
I’ve heard Mum and Dad talk about some kind of festival thing with Nan and Grandad. I thought I heard them say “ghost hunters”, although then I heard them talk about a music festival. That might be cool. Think it’s on later in the summer.

Mum and Dad aren’t pleased.  Don’t know why. Maybe they think James and I will want to go? It is sort of right on our doorstep. You probably don’t know this, but my grandparents’ farm is right on the edge of a really big wood. And don’t tell me to shut up, but it’s called Witches’ Wood, although it’s more like a forest. It’s got a reputation for being haunted!

People say they’ve seen ghosts there. Nan would never let us go into the wood when we were younger.

Dad nearly freaked when he heard about the ghost hunters. I was with him at the shops in the local village and we overheard Mrs Meredith talking about it. Mrs M is the local gossip.

Dad is never really comfortable when he comes back home to Suffolk. He never tells us anything, but I think it’s because Dad’s sister, my Aunty Katie, died when she was 16. She had run away from home and was found drowned in the wood. It all happened years ago.

I don’t really know the full story, but it was all really horrible because the people of the village used to say Aunty Katie was a Witch, or something. Reputations like that tend to stick, particularly in a small village. I don’t know why they would say it. Dad never talks about it.

Might try and find out though. Mrs Meredith will know.

Monday

School's Out Of The Question

Samantha Blake
Dad is talking about schools.

It’s officially summer holiday, and he’s talking about school!

Don’t really want to think about school. Makes me think about home, about Ealing, and about the bomb.

Just want to enjoy being here at Nan and Grandad's, and doing stuff. So thank you Dad, but no thank you. He’s already saying that we need to catch up on lessons that we’ve missed. Just can’t think about that now.

I want to experiment with my powers. I've got them, and I want to learn how to use them. Flame power for example. There must be loads of things I could do with that. I need to do some tests.

Sunday

Twitter-Man

James Blake
Dad has come up with a cool thing. Being the IT guru genius he is, he’s set us up with our very own personal Twitter accounts. It’s not real Twitter of course. Wouldn’t be much of a secret would it?  It’s on Dad’s own server. No one but me and Sam will ever see it, so we can say what we like. He says it is therapy.

The tweeting thing is pretty cool I guess. He thinks I won’t be bothered to log on to a computer every day and write in my diary, but I can tweet things from my phone. And he’s right, even I don’t mind doing that. Trouble is, now we’re staying with our grandparents in Suffolk, is anything exciting actually likely to happen to us ever again? I feel like the Fresh Prince, or whatever that show was years ago.

We still don’t really know what’s happening back in London. We’ve sort of escaped from it all. We left the day after everything kicked off. No one is supposed to even know we are here. But I just get the feeling that sooner or later, the police and the press are going to come knocking on our door and start asking some awkward questions about me and Sam and our powers. But I don’t want to think about that right now. I just want to chill out and have a laugh.

The Healing Power of Running

Samantha Blake
Seems really silly to say it, but I'm scared to go to bed. I feel like a kid or something. I used to sleepwalk a lot when I was little, but I'm 14 and I'm not a kid. But I just get scared when the lights go out. Is that stupid? Am I stupid?

I've woken up three times in the night in the last week, just screaming. And then I realise that the bed is on fire. And that's not a dream, the bed really is on fire. I have the power to create fire from my hands. I can also stop fires, so I can quickly put it out when I realise what's happening. But it means that the smoke alarms keep going off, the sheets are ruined, and I've destroyed 5 mattresses since I've been here. It's so .... humiliating.

Mum and Dad and my grandparents have been brilliant. And I'm starting to feel better. James has been great too. He deals with it in a different way I think. Boys just do don't they. But I know that he's been feeling all strange and like he's going to explode too.

I've started doing more running. That really helps. When I'm out on the road, it feels like I'm free. Now I've just got to persuade Dad to let me run on my own. He keeps saying he wants to go out with me. But he can't keep up and I worry about him. I mean, he's old! He shouldn't be out there running with me. Not that I don't want him there. I love my Dad. But I worry about him.

Monday

Are Super Powers a Bad Thing?

James
Ok. Sam has done the sensible thing and explained what this blog is for. And dissed the name I created. Which is just wrong, because Class Heroes is a cool name. What’s the point of having super powers, and then not being famous?!

This whole diary thing feels a bit girly to me. I’m ok. In fact I’m better than ok. I’ve got rockin’ super powers man. That’s not exactly a hardship is it? But yes, I’ll do what Dad says, and I’ll write all my very deep and personal feelings down.

Ummmm. Can’t actually think of any...

Actually, Dad did come up with a cool thing. Being the IT guru genius he is, he said he’s going to set us up with our very own personal Twitter accounts. It’s not real Twitter of course. Wouldn’t be much of a secret would it?  It’s on Dad’s own server. No one but me and Sam will ever see it, so we can say what we like. He says it is therapy.

The tweeting thing is pretty cool I guess. He thinks I won’t be bothered to log on to a computer every day and write in my diary, but I can tweet things from my phone. And he’s right, even I don’t mind doing that. Trouble is, now we’re staying with our grandparents in Suffolk, is anything exciting actually likely to happen to us ever again? I feel like the Fresh Prince, or whatever that show was years ago.

We still don’t really know what’s happening back in London. We’ve sort of escaped from it all. We left the day after everything kicked off. No one is supposed to even know we are here. But I just get the feeling that sooner or later, the police and the press are going to come knocking on our door and start asking some awkward questions about me and Sam and our powers. But I don’t want to think about that right now. I just want to chill out and have a laugh.

Friday

Two Cool for School


Hello computer. My name is Samantha Blake.

This is the first post in our Class Heroes blog. Hope you like the name. It was my twin brother, James's idea. He thinks it's funny. He think's he's funny. He's so not.

I wanted to call the blog SamJam. That's what Heat magazine would have called us. Better than JamSam isn’t it?

This blog is my Dad’s idea. He says me and James need to keep a diary, and this it. Our shared, private blog, that no one but us will ever see.

Dad says we’ve just been through a traumatic ordeal, and we need some kind of outlet to deal with what’s happened to us. He’s probably right. Unless you’ve fallen down a big hole over the last couple of weeks, you’ve probably heard about the school coach that got blown up by a terrorist bomb in London. Or you might have heard about the fire at the big hospital in London. Or about the siege in that hospital. Well, all those events involved me and my brother.

We didn’t start the fire (think that’s a line from one of my Dad’s CDs????). Honest. We were the victims of the bomb, and the fire, and the siege. You probably think we’re pretty unlucky after reading that (or as my Dad says “come the end of the world, you wouldn’t want to be standing behind us”.)

I’ll stop talking about my Dad now.

Actually, we weren’t unlucky. We were very, very fortunate. We survived. When I woke up in hospital, I had super powers. Yep. No kidding. So did my brother, James. But it’s a secret. That’s why this a secret blog. And have you ever tried keeping a secret? It's really, really hard, particularly when you just want to show your friends all the amazing things that you can do. Feels like I'll burst into flames if I don't write it all down - which, incidentally, is something that I can do.

At the moment, we're sort of lying low. It's the school summer holidays, and I don't even know what we're going to do about going back to school. James says we're too cool for school now. Or perhaps that should be two cool for school?

Dad is kind of doing my head in. He's so worried about us all the time. I know we've been through a lot, but we are 14! We're not kids anymore! Well, alright, we are. But we're faster, stronger, and better able to look after ourselves than most adults.

Ever thought what it might be like to have super powers, and have an over protective dad? I think I'm going to be finding out...

Samantha Blake