By Sophie Cupit - Year 9, Gore High School
When I was 10 years old, I remember waking up in the middle of the night to the strong smell of smoke.
I rushed out of my bed to investigate and opened the door to see glowing flames burning in the hallway.
In that moment, I felt the most terrified I ever had.
I raced down to my parents' bedroom, screaming at them to wake up. But they weren't there.
I grabbed the photo of my family and raced out of the bedroom as fast as the speed of light.
I ran out of the house, screaming for my brother and parents.
That night, I lost my mum, dad and my older brother. They all tried escaping, but they sadly didn't make it.
Soon after, I was moved to go live in an orphanage. It was there that I discovered my powers.
Life there was boring, and we never got to play.
We just had to do school work, and even when we got back from school, all we did was clean and do boring chores.
One day at school, the fire alarm went off and everyone started running out of the building.
I saw smoke rising, and that was when everyone knew this wasn't a drill.
I raced into the building and stared at the huge orange flames hissing at me like snakes.
I closed my eyes and concentrated on one thing: the fire.
When my eyes opened, the fire had magically vanished. That was when I realised that I was not a normal girl.
I went back to the orphanage that day with a huge smile on my face, excited for what was to come.
A few months later, I was adopted by a very kind lady called Madeline.
Madeline's house was much nicer than the dark orphanage I had lived in, and was bigger than any house I had ever seen.
It soon became obvious that Madeline was rich. She had a huge back yard with a pool, she drove flash cars, and she had extremely fancy clothes.
In my free time when Madeline wasn't around, I would practise my powers using the grand fireplace in the living room.
One day I was practising my powers and Madeline walked in.
She looked so shocked to see me sitting in front of the blazing fire, talking to it, telling it to stop.
I had to explain everything to her, right from the start.
Madeline decided that she needed to hire me a trainer and buy me some fancy gadgets.
She was very supportive of me becoming a hero.
She had multiple mansions, and when I was old enough, she let me have one to live in.
I now own many fancy gadgets.
My main gadget is my Fire Blaster, which blasts out a dangerous fire and helps me to destroy enemies.
I also own a flash car, which drives a lot faster than most cars can.
It converts into a jet plane with the press of a button. This is very handy during times when I need to escape quickly.
Another piece of technology I own is a map which has a special tracking device in it to help me track down my enemies, or even people who are missing.
I now train every day (unless I'm out fighting crime) for about five hours.
My trainer is called Camille and she helps me improve my strength and fitness, invisibility and fire manipulation. These all play a big role in being a superhero.
My hero name is now Flame because, although the house fire was the worst thing that happened to me, it gave me my powers and helped me find my true identity.
