The Rise of Namorigami

By Superfolder Guillermo

 

Sadness and New Beginnings

By Guillermo 

 

“Now, if you ask me, I think that Guillermo and his Spider-Man puppet are as much at fault as my friend. I think that Spider-Fold is a menace and should be suspended for just as long as Manuel!” Pablo finished, with a scowling face.

As soon as I heard the news from Pablo through the TV, I went through many emotions all at once. My expression was at first sorrowful – how could something like this happen to the obvious hero? – but then it turned into something else: anger. Yes, that’s right, anger! 

I was furious that even though I had to risk my life for this school and saved it from the evil Rent Pursuer, I still ended up being hated by the school’s public news. That meant it was a matter of minutes until everyone got told something that isn’t true. That I wasn’t the hero, but the villain instead!

The loudspeaker turned on, and a message came through that I wasn’t surprised to hear. 

“Guillermo Valenzuela, please come to the principal’s office,” the loudspeaker said.

“Jeez,” I exclaimed. I didn’t come up with anything worse. After all, I am a respectable person. 

Heading to the principal’s office I started to ask myself if I had really needed to solve the Case of the Rent. Had it been worth it to lose my reputation? 

I didn’t think so, at least not right then. 

“Guillermo,” the principal said as I sat down, “Since the very first day you came to this school I noticed a great deal of potential in you. You have a lot of talents.

“You’re a straight-A student. You are good at making friends. You’re quite athletic, but there hasn’t been a chance to put those skills to use. I’ve heard you were a swimmer before, yes?”

I nodded, unsure of what was going on.

“The unfortunate thing is, you haven’t been able to live up to your potential here. This is a big school, and I know big schools can be difficult, but that doesn’t mean you are allowed to get into fights every day to, what do you call it? Oh yes, that’s it, ‘defend your school.’ “

I didn’t know what to say. What was he trying to say? Was I suspended? Expelled? Did I even do anything wrong?

 

“However,” the teacher continued. He seemed happy somehow. I could see it in his face. “I am willing to give you a second chance. A chance to redeem yourself” 

“I don’t understand,” I said. “What do I need redemption for? For defending the school? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Guillermo, please, I am not giving you a lecture. I am giving you a chance. An ‘abroad chance.’” 

“Does that mean I get to go somewhere else in Spain or Europe?” I quickly asked, since studying in other places had been my dream since a very young age. 

“You will be traveling further than that,” he said slowly, to make a dramatic effect.  “I offer you the chance to study High School and the rest of your career as a student in the state of New York, USA.”
I jumped out of my seat. “I accept!! I accept!” I blurted out immediately. I thanked him over and over.

“Settle down, kid!” he said, laughing. He really knew how much this meant for me! “Your parents still have to be informed, you need to have their permission, and-“

“How did you manage to do this?” I cut him off. I was so excited!

“I got in contact with schools from other countries who were offering students a chance to study abroad, and thanks to your grades, we were able to get you into a New York school called Kirby High. I’d be very proud. I don’t do this for just anyone.”

I could stand the pure joy, and I could keep it in for the rest of the day. All I wanted to do was to ask my parents permission and search stuff about that school on the internet. 

But, to convince my parents, I would need luck. A lot of luck. 

Guess what? I had it. 

 

Packing

By Guillermo

 

Asking my parents was not as hard as I had expected. In fact, it was a lot easier. 

Due to the fact that we had gone to so many different places around the world, not only had they decided to let me go to New York, but they immediately decided that they were coming with me.
We left in a month. We had to be there before the final exams, so I could pass them with successful grades and join the school. 

“Now, you have to pack your stuff, and I mean all of it!” said my mom.”And make sure to bring all of your paper dolls with you! Including the Spider-Man one, you might need it.” 

“It’s called origami mom!” I corrected. “They are not paper dolls.”
The hardest thing was not moving out of the house I had been living in for 17 years, but saying goodbye to my friends. 

Andrei was as surprised about the news as I had been. Unfortunately, not only was he mad at me, but he was sad too. I had only been there for 4 years, and when I left, I was going to leave him alone, just like he was before I came. 

“Don’t worry, we will still be able to talk,” I reassured him. “I have your email right? I was just trying to make him happy again, but he was always making excuses, probably just trying to stop me from leaving Spain.

“Can you even speak English correctly?” he would say, and I always answered the same way.
“I can speak in English as well as I can swim, and that is at a very advanced level.”

Eventually, the day came, and I had to leave. Was I scared or nervous? No, I was not, on the contrary, (not to brag or anything) I felt like Kirby High would be lucky to have me.
Spoiler: I was sort of right.

 

Settling in

By Guillermo

 

The flight was close to nine hours long, and I was super tired when we reached New York City. Thankfully it had been a direct flight, because had it not been and I wouldn’t have known what to do. 

We rented a car, and thanks to the GPS we were able to find the apartment we would be living in for the rest of my school education, if all went well. 

The house was nice, I mean really nice, the views of the city were truly special. 

I found the skyscrapers quite interesting since we only had one skyscraper in my original city in Spain.

Since we had arrived on a Friday, I had time to explore the place, buy paper for some origami folding, and most importantly, we had time to settle in. 

Kirby High School is in a small town about an hour away from New York City, a town called Madison. We hadn’t been able to find an apartment in Madison, as it seems to be very small and not many people go there. The day after we arrived, I drove to Kirby High, just for the sake of exploring. I found the school pretty amazing. It was a kind of modern, medium-sized school.
From where I was standing on the front steps, I also had time to notice that there was another school called Wheeler Academy. I judged it to be about a mile away from Kirby, on it’s west side. It was a school that had been built during WWII, and had a real rivalry against Kirby High (I got that off the Internet, from blog posts on the Kirby website by a girl named Tilly Waterson). It all just seemed very interesting to me. 

 

My First Day

By Guillermo 

 

Eventually, Monday came, and my dad dropped me off next to Kirby High School after breakfast. I thought the school looked good on a Monday Morning. Not that Clater School was bad or anything, it was just that Kirby had the “DNA”, so to say, of an American School, and I liked that. It meant ‘business’ for me. 

There were loads of kids at the front doors, which looked like they were about to burst. I was now really nervous. If there’s one thing I’m not good at, it’s making friends. It’s mostly chance, you see; you try to make friends with someone that’s not really for you and you might end up screwing up At least, that’s how it works for me. 

Very fortunately, a nice girl approached me. She looked like a good, kind person, and somehow knew I had been coming. 

“Hey there!” she said. “You must be the new student. Thank you for coming!” She held her hand out so I could shake it. “My name is Tilly. Tilly Waterson, the Director of…well, general affairs at the moment. And you are..?” 

“Guillermo Valenzuela, and I come from Spain.” I thought for a moment. “Are you the same Tilly that writes fantastic blog posts on the Kirby High School website?”

Tilly laughed. “Yes, yes I am. Nice to meet you, Guillermo! If you’ll come with me, I’ll show you around before first period starts, ” she said. Now he really seemed like a nice girl!

I noticed she had an origami piece of paper hanging from his pocket. It was white, and looked unfinished. But I could recognize that it was a character. 

“Hey,” I said, pointing to her pocket. “Is that an origami character?”
Tilly glanced at her point and smiled. “Yes, yes it is. I’m trying to get it to work, but it just won’t come out the right way.”

“I didn’t know you guys liked origami too,” I said, amazed. “I used to fold some interesting stuff while I was back in Spain. I used to have an origami Spider-Man, but I gave him up when I came to New York. He wasn’t the character for me. Besides…this is a fresh start for me”

“Yes, it is a fresh start,” Tilly agreed. “We make tons of origami masterpieces in this school, so don’t give up on folding.” She took looked at her own piece of paper again. “You’d think after helping so many of the protectors of this school, I’d be better at folding, but it’s still a work in progress. I really want to be one of the heroes myself, if I could just get this stupid Ca-”

I interrupted her, amazed. “Wait a second, did you say ‘protectors’?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had gone from a school where I was the only one who carried around a finger puppet, to a school where my first friend helped other heroes of their school. And she’d said ‘many’, which meant there had to be more. 

“Yes, we have a group here. They are called the OrigAvengers,” she announced in a radio-announcer voice. Then, she laughed. “You know, like the Avengers? They’re a group of students that try to make peace between Kirby High School and Wheeler Academy. But, I guess if you’ve read my posts, you’re familiar with this war?” 

“Well…yes,” I replied. “It’s a very interesting story. I particularly liked the one about the ‘Foldians’. I just wish it would be finished.”

Tilly sighed. “I know what you mean.” She led me through the school, right up to the door of my first period class, Maths with Mr. Hammond. “You said that your Origami Spider-Man didn’t suit you. It’s a shame, since we have so many Spider-People running around. But, I’m sure you will find the right character, or, he’ll come to you.” 

Suddenly, the bell rang, it was so loud, louder than in Spain. I started to feel weird, like if a stronger bell meant the classes were more difficult. But, it just meant it was time for first period, Maths class, one of my favorites.. 

“Well, see ya later Guillermo!” shouted Tilly while she quickly ran to her locker. “You seem very interested in our team. Let’s meet at lunch. I might be able to introduce you to the OrigAvengers.”

“Thanks Tilly!” I shouted. I didn’t know if she could hear me, but I just said it anyways. 

  

 

Math Class

By Andy 

 

Tilly told me all about the new foreign-exchange student from Spain, but it was still a little surprising when he walked in this morning. Not for any bad reason, but there’s always a lot of excitement when we have a new student. He’s in my Math class.

We were all expecting a new student today because Mr. Hammond had told us we should be there to greet him. When he walked in, we all did our best to make him welcome. He was quiet, at first. He wasn’t shy, but he looked nervous. 

He found an empty chair and sat. He looked lonely. I knew it was because of it being his first day, and he would be right at home in no time, but I planned to help him out. 

After the new kid had sat down, Mr. Hammond stood up. ” Good morning everyone,” he greeted. “Please take your seats and pay attention! Before we begin, I would like our new student to introduce himself to the class.” 

Mr. Hammond gestured to the new kid. The guy stood up, a bit nervously, and said, “Hello, everyone. I am Guillermo Valenzuela, and I come from Clater School in Spain. I have been given the chance to come here as a foreign-exchange student.” He paused, choosing his words carefully. He had a slight accent. Not so much that he was hard to understand, but enough to be noticeable. 

“I have noticed that this school is good at origami,” he continued. “I have had the privilege to meet the, um, ‘Director of General Affairs’ this morning, she was nice.” I laughed, quietly. Tilly had a new title, it seemed.
I thought he was going to sit back down, but he continued. “I am an origami folder myself. I made an origami Spider-Man who I carried around as a finger puppet in my old school and helped me deal with the stress, but I have since gotten rid of him because Spider-Man does not fit me. I also like water, and swim every chance I have, but my previous school didn’t have a swimming team, so that didn’t work out. Anyways, I’m really happy to be here” 

He sat down, and the teacher rolled his eyes. He obviously hadn’t known Guillermo would give a monologue. Personally, I didn’t mind it. Guillermo seemed a little long-winded, but I couldn’t hold that against him when one of my friends was Clark Largent, king of irritated tirades.
“Well, Guillermo, welcome,” Mr. Hammond said, half-heartedly. “I think people here will really appreciate your origami skills. I have good news; we have a swimming team that would need your help, since there will be a swimming competition that will take place after the final exams, with Kirby against Wheeler.” 

A few students booed as soon as Mr. Hammond said the name ‘Wheeler’. We were getting to reconciliation, but there were still some bad eggs here and there.
“Lord knows the swimming team needs some new blood,” Mr. Hammond commented. “Now, if we don’t have anymore speeches, back to Math class. Today we will discuss… 

“Thank you,” Guillermo said, quietly, earning a glare from the teacher. From what I’d heard, Guillermo seemed to have potential. For good or bad, I didn’t quite know yet.

 

Lunch Time

By Tilly Waterson

 

In what seemed like no time at all, the bell rang and it was time for lunch! As I headed to the cafeteria, I gathered Andy, Laura, Ally, Jesse and Cassidy. Clark was away with his family on a Spring Break vacation, and Jessica just didn’t want to come. Cassidy was, surprisingly, by far the most enthusiastic. Since joining the OrigAvengers, she has done wonders for the public approval for the team. Seriously, most people like us, now that one of the most popular girls in either school is on the team!
“So, why are you calling us all here?” Ally asked, while we walked to the cafeteria.

“We’ve got a new foreign-exchange student,” I explained. “It might help the international OrigAvengers brand if we make a good impression.”

“International brand?” Jesse snorted. “We barely have a local brand.”

“It can’t hurt,” Laura said. “I might be staying with my cousin on the West Coast next year. I could recruit if we had a better image.”

“Point proven,” I said. I was suddenly very interested in this possible trip for my own reasons, but I thought it best not to press. “Thanks, Laura.”

Surprisingly, I also found Guillermo where I found Andy. Guillermo was talking to him in the lunch line already. Turns out he was good at making friends after all!

“Hey, Andy,” I said, “I see you’ve met Guillermo!” 

“Hello, Tilly! ” Guillermo greeted, “Nice to see you again.” 

“The same to you!” I told Guillermo to stay in line for lunch for a second while I talked to Andy and the others. 

I think he saw us conversing, and I think he knew we were talking about him. I hope he didn’t find it rude, we weren’t talking about anything bad about him, we were just discussing important matters. 

“Wait,” Jesse asked, confused. “…Why?”

“I’m a bit confused as well,” Andy said. “Guillermo seems like an okay guy, but this seems like a really quick leap. I mean, he’s just from Spain and allegedly is a good swimmer.”

“Shouldn’t we ask the others, first?” Ally asked.

“And not to be rude,” Laura added, “But you aren’t even technically on the team.”

“That’s hurtful,” I said. “But you guys have just added four members.”

“One of those would be me,” Cassidy said.
“I just mean, he had a puppet already. We don’t have to do it yet, but when the time comes…” 

We got back to Guillermo, who had already gotten lunch and sat down by himself. We sat down on his table and Cassidy asked about his swimming. He responded immediately by saying, very confidently, that he was very good and was going to enroll himself in the Kirby Swimming team and finally beat Wheeler at swimming. 

He seemed very confident, and I saw some potential. This potential could be very great, but I would wait and see if he could be of as much use as the other members I’d recruited. I really hoped he would be.

 

Life in Kirby 

By Guillermo Valenzuela 

 

Ever since I came to the school and met these amazing people, I have not been the same. I live happier now. I go home every day thinking I am living in a different world, where I will just live happy forever, with people that like Marvel Movies and carry Origami Marvel finger puppets to school. 

Just like I knew I would, I joined the swimming team. We had to train a lot because the great competition against Wheeler was in a couple of weeks, and we all had to be ready. 

I met some nice guys in the swimming team too, like this dude named Shawn, who taught me the ways of swimming and had his very own origami finger puppet, Ant Man.

I was surprised that his puppet was Ant Man, because Shawn is really huge. I had expected the welder of Ant Man as a little person, but I suppose Ant Man can also be big, sometimes.

I never thought about any battles against bullies in this school, until today. 

I was walking down the hall looking for the History Class, because I still have some trouble finding these different classrooms, they are so many! It seems really difficult. 

Anyways, I was walking around the hallway, or should I say fast-walking, and I saw some strange dude asking some other guy for his lunch money. I quickly realized that he wasn’t asking; he was intimidating the other guy, who was a bit shorter than the bully. I also realized who the guy that was being intimidated was Shawn. 

I quickly ran into action. “Hey, you!” I shouted. “Get your hands off my friend!” I jumped at the bully and yelled at him, “You want his lunch money? You gotta get through me.”
I raised my hands and started beating this bully up, who, without any hesitation started punching me back. 

“You’re that new kid aren’t you? The one from Spain,” he said, as if he was making fun of me or something. “Do they have these in Spain?” Right when he said that, he punched me so hard on the chest I could barely breathe and fell to the ground. However, I wasn’t giving up.
“Yes, they do have those, but I have dealt with more bullies in my life than you could never imagine,” I answered. 

I got up, and pushed him against a locker, which hit him on the head, and he started to lose it. He hit me everywhere you could think of, and I could hardly stand up when a familiar face stopped him; it was Robby Boone, one of the OrigAvengers!

“Hey, mess with someone else, will ya?” Robby said, wielding what looked like an origami War Machine.

The bully was so scared to see Robby that he got up and ran away like a coward. When he left, we lifted Shawn up and got him to the nurse. He was badly hurt. 

On the way to the nurse’s office, Robby talked to me. “Hey, man, you kind of need to slow down.”

“What?”
“I just mean, you’re coming in and going crazy,” he said, calmly. “You don’t ever have a puppet yet. Nobody is gonna take you seriously for a while. You could have been really hurt by that guy.”

“Well, I beat him up pretty easy before you came, but you really did well too,” I replied.

Robby sighed. “You know, Guillermo? The OrigAvengers have been wanting to branch out with a lot of people. That’s about all I can say, but you’re in that group of people. Try not to get yourself killed before then.” 

I smiled, very enthusiastically. Anything he’d told me before that left my mind. “Thanks, man,” I replied. “It really means a lot. You guys are awesome.” 

 

Competition Day

By Guillermo

 

The day came, the day of the swimming competition. It wasn’t the main tournament, but it’s such a big competition that it was big nonetheless. So, everybody from both schools, Kirby and Wheeler, had attended. 

“OK, boys” said our swimming instructor, right before we got changed. “Give ‘em heck.”

It was time to get changed into the swimming suits. The competition pool was huge. I started to get really nervous, even more than the first time I stepped into Kirby High. This was another type of nervous. I was afraid to lose. 

When all hope seemed lost for my winning feelings, I looked to my right, and saw the OrigAvengers there, a few of them with their puppets out. I even saw Clark Largent, Dove MacLeash, and the guys with OriVision and Black Penther, who I hadn’t even met yet.

That gave me hope, but that was not all. A few of them came up to me right before it started. Andy said, “Give them what you got, and we’ll see at the end.”

“Thanks man,” I answered, suddenly very confident in my abilities. 

Tilly was there, too. “Oh, I almost forgot; seeing as you’re a good swimmer and like water…” she gave me a piece of blue/black and white paper. ” It’s for an origami puppet, Namor, the Sub-Mariner. We guessed it could be your character in the team.”

“Does that mean-” I said, but I was interrupted by Andy. 

“I think so. You win, you’re on the team.”

“Thank you, Andy, and the rest of the team.” I said. “I won’t let you down.”

 

“Hurry up now!” I heard the swimming instructor say. “No time to lose.”

“I have to go now,” I said, and Andy told me one last thing.” 

“Make him…unbeatable.” 

“I sure will,” I said, and ran off to the locker rooms and quickly folded my Namorigami. 

 

******************

 

“On your marks! Get set! Go!” 

The whistle blew.

Both teams from both schools were swimming, and I’ll admit, the Wheeler team is really, really good. But as good as they were, I was way, way better, obviously.

The crowd watched and cheered.

We were both on our first lap, and pretty much neck and neck. I noticed Shawn a few lanes down, falling behind.

We were getting slowed down.

On the second lap, our whole team started to fall behind. Even me! I couldn’t believe it. Deacon James, the star swimmer on the Wheeler team, was leaving us all behind. 

We couldn’t win against Wheeler. 

Kirby was going to lose!

“Make him…unbeatable.” I remembered those words. They gave me strength. 

I remembered Namorigami, my new puppet, sitting in the locker room with my clothes. I didn’t know much about Namor, but what I did remember was that he was a very confident character. I needed some of his confidence right now. And, there it was. As we came to the third lap, I swam as fast as I could. That strength it gave me, was unthinkable. I passed Deacon James.

I reached the goal line before anybody from Wheeler did. 

Kirby High had won! 

There were screamings of joy from my partners, I had not failed them, I hadn’t since I remembered Namorigami.

 

 

Epilogue 

By Guillermo 

 

We won! We beat Wheeler at the swim meet.
With my Origami Namor the Sub-Mariner, or Namorigami as I call him, I had joined the OrigAvengers, and passed from being a nerdy kid from Clater School to a still-nerdy OrigAvenger and the best swimmer in Kirby High School.

All was well. 

 

OrigAvengers Group Chat

Recorded by Clark’s phone 

 

Guillermo V has joined the chat

Guillermo: hello everybody! 

Clark: Wait who the heck is this
Andy: Meet Guillermo. He’s a new member.
Clark: I was not consulted

Dove: Welcome, Guillermo! It is always fun to have a new member join our team.

Jessica: I’m not even gonna ask.

Kev: im fine with it but we need to focus on the task at hand
Kev: remember t.h.a.n.o.s.

Guillermo: what is t.h.a.n.o.s.?

Ally: Don’t worry about it. We’ll fill you in soon enough.

Guillermo: well, cool and if you guys ever need me, ill be there 

Andy: First rule: don’t steal each other’s quotes.

Guillermo: Hahahaha! 

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 I would like to thank Evil Jawa for pushing me towards the EU, and I thank him because he made this possible. Had he not told me to write stories for the EU, this story probably wouldn’t be here. 

I also thank Superfolder Noah for giving me a chance to write this story, and giving me a character in the MOU. 

I thank you both. 

-SF Guillermo

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