Chapter 1
第一章
“Don't be late, don't be late, don't be late,” Kamala Khan chanted under her breath.
“千萬別遲到,不要遲到,不要遲到。”卡瑪拉·克汗小聲念叨著。
She walked as fast as she could without actually running. Kamala was on her way to school, and she already had three tardies on her record for the month.
她快步流星地奔向?qū)W校,這個月她已經(jīng)遲到過三次了。
“Stupid criminals, always making me late for school,” Kamala muttered. She had her hands full with her schoolwork and her family. Balancing her regular life with her life as the Super Hero Ms. Marvel was always hard. Sometimes it was more than Kamala could handle. But not today. Today was totally under control.
“那幫蠢蛋老耽誤我上學(xué)。”卡瑪拉嘀咕著。學(xué)校和家里的事讓她忙得不可開交。她辛苦地應(yīng)付著日常生活與當超級英雄驚奇隊長的日子,盡力在兩者間保持平衡。有時卡瑪拉確實應(yīng)付不過來,但今天可以,今天,一切皆在掌控之中。
“So far so good,” Kamala said, pausing at a streetlight and checking the time on her phone. “Seven fifty-one. I'm definitely, for sure going to get to school on time. I'm not stopping for anything short of an actual Super Villain.”
卡瑪拉在路燈下停住了,拿出手機確認了下時間,說道:“一切正常。7:51。按時到校沒問題。除了超級惡棍,沒什么能讓我遲到。”
“RRRRRRRIIINNNNNGGG!!!” The quiet morning air was shattered by a loud alarm bell.
“丁零零!!!”響亮的警鈴聲打破了清晨的寂靜。
“Help!” someone yelled. “My store is being robbed!”
“來人哪!”有人高呼,“有人在搶劫我的店!”
There was a pause, then the person added: “By a Super Villain!”
頓了一下,那人又說:“是超級惡棍干的!”
With a weary sigh, Kamala ducked into an alley. She hid behind a dumpster and pulled off her regular clothes, revealing her Ms. Marvel costume.
卡瑪拉疲倦地嘆了口氣,閃進巷子。她躲到垃圾桶后邊,換上了驚奇隊長的戎裝。
“Let's do this,” Ms. Marvel said. That Super Villain was going to regret maybe-probably making her late to school.
“開工了。”驚奇隊長說道。超級惡棍大概又要因為讓她上學(xué)遲到而后悔了。
“RRRRRRRIIIIIINNNNN—CRUNCH!” Ms. Marvel smashed the alarm bell with her embiggened fist. “I'll replace that,” she told the shop owner sheepishly. “It was just making it really hard for me to concentrate.”
“丁零零——嘎吱!”驚奇隊長碩大的拳頭擊碎了警鈴。“我會賠的,”她羞怯地對店主說,“剛才沒控制好。”
Then Ms. Marvel stretched one arm long until she could grab the criminal by the scruff of the neck.
瞬時,驚奇隊長伸長胳膊,一把抓住罪犯的頸背。
The person she pulled out of the store was wearing a hoodie and a... beak?
從店里被拽出來的人,穿著衛(wèi)衣,還戴著……鳥嘴面具?
“Squawk!” she said. “Squawk, squawk!”
“嘎嘎!”她叫著,“嘎嘎,嘎嘎!”
“I wouldn't exactly call her a Super Villain,” Ms. Marvel said to the shop owner. “Super Villains don't usually wear Halloween masks.”
“這也能叫超級惡棍,”驚奇隊長沖著店主喊道,“超級惡棍是不戴萬圣節(jié)面具的。”
“Hey!” the bird-girl said, offended. Her eyes lit up and she zapped laser beams at Ms. Marvel, but Ms. Marvel quickly slapped a hand over the girl's eyes.
女孩憤憤地吼道:“嘿!”她雙眼放光,激光直射驚奇隊長,驚奇隊長立馬沖著她的眼睛猛摑一巴掌。
“Ow!” the girl yelped as she accidentally shot lasers at the insides of her own eyelids.
激光卻誤射到了女孩的眼睛,她痛得尖叫:“哎喲!”
“Put a tight blindfold on her, and you should be fine,” Ms. Marvel told the police, who were arriving on the scene. She handed the bird-girl over to them and hurried back to the alleyway to get her regular clothes back on.
“給她戴緊眼罩,你們不會有事的。”驚奇隊長對趕到現(xiàn)場的警察們說道。驚奇隊長把半鳥女孩交給警察,轉(zhuǎn)身返回小巷,換上了上學(xué)的衣服。
“Don't be late, don't be late, don't be late,” Kamala muttered as she jogged toward her school. “Ammi and Abu would be so mad if they knew where I was!”
“千萬別遲到,不要遲到,不要遲到,”卡瑪拉嘟囔著,一溜小跑趕往學(xué)校,“要知道我還沒到校,爸媽會發(fā)狂的。”
Kamala hated disappointing her parents. The thought of having to explain another tardy on her report card was enough to make Kamala go from a jog to a sprint.
卡瑪拉不愿讓爸爸媽媽失望,想到得交代清楚成績單上又多了一條遲到記錄,她不由得加快了腳步,朝學(xué)校奔去。
She ran into the classroom as the bell was ringing and slid into her seat just in time!
卡瑪拉踩著鈴聲,及時跑進教室,溜到了自己的座位上!
Later that day, she saw her friend Bruno at lunch.
當天午飯時,她見到朋友布魯諾。
“You look kind of frazzled. Everything okay?” Bruno said.
“你看起來有點兒疲憊啊,一切都還好吧?”布魯諾問道。
“Yeah, I just had a weird morning,” Kamala said. She lowered her voice. Bruno knew about Ms. Marvel, but nobody else at school did. “I foiled a robbery.”
“嗯,離奇的早晨啊。”卡瑪拉說。校園里只有布魯諾知曉驚奇隊長的秘密。她壓低了聲音接著說,“我阻止了一場搶劫。”
“Cool!” Bruno said. “A bank? A hotel? A jewelry store?”
“真酷!”布魯諾說,“銀行搶劫?酒店,還是珠寶店?”
“No,” Kamala said. “A pet store. And the girl who was robbing it squawked at me.”
“都不是,”卡瑪拉回答,“是家寵物店。行竊的女孩沖著我嘎嘎直叫。”
“Squawked?” Bruno said.
“嘎嘎叫?”布魯諾問道。
“And that's not the weirdest part,” Kamala said. “She was wearing a bird mask.”
“那還不是最奇怪的,”卡瑪拉說,“她還戴了鳥面具。”
“You're right,” Bruno said. “That is weird. Oh—here comes Nakia!”
“是挺奇怪的。”布魯諾說,“哎呀——納奇亞來了。”
Nakia did not know about Ms. Marvel, so Kamala and Bruno changed the subject.
納奇亞不知道驚奇隊長的秘密,因此卡瑪拉和布魯諾換了話題。
“Have you started studying for that big Biology test on Thursday?” Kamala asked Nakia.
“星期四生物大測驗,你開始復(fù)習(xí)了嗎?”卡瑪拉問納奇亞。
“Yeah,” Nakia said, “all week. But I need to study more. I can't believe half our grade is based on this one test!”
“嗯,”納奇亞說,“已經(jīng)復(fù)習(xí)一周了,但還需要接著復(fù)習(xí)。我真不敢相信,這個考試占我們成績的一半。”
“I haven't even started studying for it,” Kamala admitted. “I'm kind of freaking out.”
卡瑪拉坦白道:“我都還沒開始復(fù)習(xí)呢,有點兒崩潰了。”
Nakia stared at her. “You haven't even started?” she said, shocked. “But it's half our grade! What would your parents—?”
納奇亞疑惑地看著卡瑪拉。“你還沒開始?”她驚訝地說,“占我們成績的一半呢!你爸媽會——?”
“I know,” Kamala said, glaring at her friend. Nakia cocked her head. “You've been kind of cranky lately,” she said. “Is everything okay?”
“我知道。”卡瑪拉對著納奇亞怒目而視,說道。納奇亞昂起頭,反問:“你最近有點兒暴躁啊,出什么事了嗎?”
Bruno nodded. “I've noticed that, too,” he said. “I know you've been really... busy.” He gave Kamala a knowing look.
布魯諾點了點頭。“我也發(fā)現(xiàn)了,”他說,“我知道你一直都很……忙。”他會意地看了卡瑪拉一眼。
“I'm fine,” Kamala said. The whole conversation was stressing her out, and she wanted it to be over. So she smiled brightly. “See? Fine. Hey, have you guys been playing Pork-Bun Go ?”
“我沒事兒。”卡瑪拉說道。整個談話弄得她緊張兮兮的,她想讓這一話題終結(jié)。因此她爽朗地微笑著說:“看見沒?我挺好的。對了,你們玩‘肉包’了嗎?”
“Oh my gosh, I finally captured a wild spinach dumpling!” Bruno said, pulling up the game's app on his phone.
“哦,天哪,我總算捕獲了一個野生菠菜餃子!”說著,布魯諾便在手機上打開了這個游戲應(yīng)用程序。
Nakia got out her phone. “I don't have any spinach dumplings. But I have eleven shrimp shumais. Want to trade?”
納奇亞也拿出手機,說:“我沒什么菠菜餃子,但是我有十一個蝦肉燒賣,要不要交易?”
“No way,” Bruno said. “But you can have one of my pea shoots.”
“沒門兒,”布魯諾連忙說,“豌豆苗倒還可以考慮考慮。”
Kamala watched her friends with a smile firmly fixed on her face. But inside, it was all starting to get to her.
卡瑪拉面帶微笑地看著朋友們??墒莾?nèi)心深處,一切都開始向她襲來。
Sometimes Kamala thought she just wasn't cut out for Super Hero-ing.
有時候卡瑪拉覺得自己天生就不是當超級英雄的料。