"ALEXANDRA JUNIPER STRONGHOLD! You are going to be late to school!"
My mom barges into my room and rips my blanket off me. At this point I don't think I've wanted my life to end more. My amazingly lazy summer just finished and now I wake up to an angry mother forcing me to go to high school. Wait. Not just high school, Sky High.
My mom, better known as Jetstream a flying superhero alongside my dad The Commander, is currently angry at me because I have awakened from my slumber a bit later than her liking. I can hear my brother Will in the room next to mine dropping weights, but here I am trying to have a relaxing morning and I get yelled at. She continues yelling at me about needing to get up or she's going to fly me to school in my pajamas.
Whatever, at this point I guess it'd be better if I just listen. So I sit up an glare at her signaling for her to exit my room. She finally leaves mumbling something about lazy children which I presume refers to me. After a deep sigh and an aggressive rub to my face I get up and prepare for the day ahead of me.
I step around the books on the floor and move toward my bathroom. I reach it and brush through my strawberry-blonde hair. It's not too messy today so after pinning the front of it back I put my make up on and get dressed. This seems easy since for some reason everyone wears basically the same thing around here. I put on my ripped skinny jeans, grey tank, white converse, and brown leather jacket. Typical.
"Alex I made you pancakes!" I hear my mom yell from downstairs and on that note I head down to face my day.
"Morning sunshine." my dad smirks at me once I reach the kitchen and I give a little glare back. I can't be mad at him, even in the morning. What can I say? I'm a daddy's girl.
I pour a glass of juice and begin to eat my pancake trying to ignore Will's friend, Layla, droning on about the environment as per usual. I must resist rolling my eyes when she refuses to eat any meat and I take a bite of bacon from the side of my dish. I can't put my finger on why, but Layla's hippie dippie attitude just puts me in a sour mood, well more so than usual.
Maybe a minute passes by before the phone rings telling my parents to go downtown. Well no surprise here the Commander and Jetstream have to go save the city…again. I know I sound like a bitter angsty teenager, but when your family has to be as super as this one you just need to separate yourself a little bit. Honestly, my brother is the lucky one. He doesn't have powers which to him sounds like a problem, but to me it sounds like a blessing. He doesn't have to push to keep the Stronghold name on top, he doesn't have to worry about what problems come with these powers, and he doesn't have to constantly try to please everyone. He doesn't see it, but Will is free to be his own person and live his life as a normal human being… he just needs to tell our parents he doesn't have powers first. Yeah, that'll go over well.
"Alexandra" my mom calls me over, "have a great first day of school. We love you sweetheart." She says it hurriedly as her and my father head toward the secret sanctum. Once they are out of sight I turn to Will.
"Well hasn't this been a super morning?" I say as we walk back into the kitchen and sit down to finish breakfast. Will changes the channel on the TV so we can watch the hero duo defeat a giant robot.
"Shocker"
"They are good" Will states almost as agitated as me this morning and switches the TV off.
I grab my red backpack and we head out the door toward the bus stop. I take the lead trying to separate myself from the dynamic duo behind me.
"Now I know it's just our first day, but I can't wait to graduate and start saving mankind. And womankind. And animalkind." Layla states excitedly.
"Lets not forget about the rainforest"
I stay silent and try to move forward when my phone buzzes. One new message. I open it and sigh after reading it.
We'll miss you today. Good luck at your new private school! -Miranda
Miranda has been my best friend for the past three years, unfortunately she doesn't have any powers and I do so we have to go to different schools. I can't even tell her the real reason why because my parents are convinced that she won't be able to handle knowing that our family has powers and it'll blow our cover. So she thinks I'm being forced into going to a private school downtown. It's all really aggravating to say the least.
Before I can respond the bus pulls up and I put my phone back in my pocket. I look up atthe bus only to see an overweight bus driver in bright clothing opening the door. Will and Layla get on first and I follow behind only to hear Will say somewhat loudly, "Is this the bus to sky high?" Causing the seemingly unhinged bus driver to quickly close the door behind me.
"WHAT THE FU-"
"SHH! Are you crazy!? I guess you want every supervillain in the neighborhood to know we're here!" the bus driver blow up at Will.
"No, I'm sorry." Will murmurs back.
After a moment of angry looks at Will the man asks, "What's your name, freshman?"
I take a deep breath to prepare myself as Will responds back, "Will Stronghold"
The drivers eyes widen while he gulps loudly and immediately stands to announce to the entire bus that this is Will Stronghold, son of the commander and Jetstream! In his excitement he pauses and looks around.
"Where's your twin sister?"
"Ah, that would be me. The one in the back squashed by the door that you so graciously closed on me Mr…?"
"Ron Wilson, bus driver" he replies proudly.
"Well Ron, could we please move along here? I'm kind of stuck, man."
He turns to the kids in the first seats, a geeky looking boy dressed in orange and a goth girl with a constantly unimpressed look on her face, and says, "You two, up. The seat behind Ron Wilson belongs to Will and Alexandra Stronghold." Looking past Layla and making eye contact with me.
The boy quickly stood up and smiled, "It would be an honor. I'm Ethan by the way" turning to the girl beside him, "Magenta get up."
She rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Fine, I can't believe I have to give up my seat for the Strongholds"
At that point I pushed Layla a little to get her to move and said, "No, no that's fine we'll be on our way back thanks." Finally they start to walk toward the back of the bus and I sigh as I take a seat next to a guy with braids in his hair and a brown and yellow striped polo on.
"Hey" I say to him, "I'm Alex"
"I'm Marcus" he nods his head back at me. Were pretty quiet throughout the beginning of the trip, but then I get another text from Miranda.
OMG Rachel and Dante just walked into school together! Apparently they hooked up over the summer and they're together now!
"So who's Rachel and Dante?" I look at Marcus next to me who was looking at my phone over my shoulder. I stare back at him for a second wondering why I should even bother giving this snoop an answer, but then I see he's just a nervous guy who's trying to make friends so I decide then and there that I will at least be nice to this kid.
"Uh well over at Grover High School, ya know the normal one," he nods, " they are a girl on the cheer team and a guy whose IQ is higher than this entire bus. They were rumored to have been hooking up, but no one believed it cause she was supposedly dating Chris, the captain of the swim team, but I guess not. Sorry I'm rambling"
He laughs and we start talking about our civilian friends. I was actually having a pretty decent time until we were rudely interrupted by some straps wrapping around us and the bus flying off an unfinished bridge in a construction site.
Screams erupted from everybody on the bus until we realized that we were okay. This bus is meant to fly. We are safe. Well until our bumpy landing of course courtesy of the famous Ron Wilson, bus driver. We landed on what appeared to be a floating high school and then I realized we were here. Sky High.
I picked up my backpack and Marcus and I headed toward the front of the bus. I was stopped before I could walk off however when Ron stepped in front of me and gave me a card with his name and number on it and said he was always there if I ever need anything.
I slowly walked off the bus and turned to Marcus once I was off, "That was creepy right?" I said and he nodded.
We caught up with the rest of the group of freshmen passing up a couple of guys who used their heat vision to zap a girls butt to which she immediately froze them and a girl who was an entire cheerleading team…I wonder if I could get in that or if it's like an exclusive thing just for her. We walked up the pathway talking to each other until a swirling vortex surrounded us pushing everyone closer together. I ended up being pressed against the kid in orange, Ethan, from the bus.
Suddenly the vortex stops and in front of us is a guy with a smug look on his face and a baseball cap on his head.
"Hey freshmen" he exclaims, "Your attention please!"
I wasn't paying much attention to him though because behind him came a guy stretched about fifteen feet tall coming down the stairs toward us and stopping next to the overweight punk addressing us and turning into a reasonably normal height. He was taller than his friend, maybe 6'4, and wore an orange shirt with black and white stripes down his long sleeves.
The tall guy flips his hair an starts talking, "I'm Lash, this is Speed" tapping his friend on the shoulder, "And as representatives of the Sky High welcoming committee-"
"-We'd be happy to collect that fifteen-dollar new student fee" the one now known as Speed finished for him as Lash stretched his arm out to Ethan in front of me.
Ethan looking confused and skeptical replies, "Uh there was nothing about a new student fee in the handbook"
I whisper to Marcus next to me, "Do these two dipshits actually think we're going to pay them?" Lash turns his gaze to me and smirks. I smirk back, if anything this boy was attractive.
Whatever was going to happen next got interrupted by a girl in pink heading down the stairs toward us saying, "Okay guys, very funny. I'll take over from here" She introduced herself as Gwen Grayson and that's about as much as I could follow as I watched Lash and Speed walk away. I continued to watch them behind us as Lash made eye contact with me and winked. I couldn't help but smile before turning back around to pay attention to Gwen.
"And if you just follow those simple rules I promise you won't fall off the edge of the school" she said and everyone laughed. We then began to walk through the school until we reached what appears to be the gym. Gwen left us in there alone for a couple of moments until a fast glowing white orb flew through the air above us and landed behind a podium in front of our group, materializing into a woman in a killer white suit.
"Good morning! I am principal powers and on behalf of all the faculty and staff, I'd like to welcome you to Sky High-"
"Yeah!" a bright clothed boy from the group exclaimed earning himself stares from the rest of us and a particularly firm one from Principal Powers.
She soon continued, "In a few moments you will go through power placement and your journey into becoming a hero will begin."
Will leaned over to me and asked what power placement is. I shrugged back.
Ethan leaned into our conversation, "Power placement: Where they decide where you go"
"Yeah, heroes or losers" the goth girl, Magenta, added in unamused.
"Losers? They actually sort people into that category?" a now worried Will asked back.
Ethan, trying to be helpful, assured him, "The appropriate name is Hero Support"
I looked at Will only to see him gulp. He's nervous. I feel bad for him in a way. I know all he's ever really wanted is to make our parents proud and the only way he knows how to do that is by being a hero. Personally, I could care less about what mom and dad want from me but, I don't want Will to be unhappy.
I lightly nudge his arm and grin at him, "Hey, you'll be fine. Don't worry."
"Thanks" he sighs back.
I bring my attention back to Principal Powers, "For now, good deeds and good luck. Let the adventure begin! Comets Away!" she exclaims as her body turns back into a ball of light and quickly exits the room. We watch the light and turn around to see a platform rising from the gym floor with a man in far too short shorts and a track jacket on standing on top. He wore a pair of sunglasses and held a clipboard in his hands which I can only assume is to intimidate us.
"Alright listen up! My name is Coach Boomer, you may know me as 'Sonic Boom'. Some of you may not." He continued, "Here's how Power Placement works. You will step up here and show me your power. And yes, you will do so in front of the whole class. I will then determine where you will be assigned. Hero or Sidekick."
The group around me began to grow uncomfortable as I remained calm. I watched as shoulders sagged and people started to shift their weight or pick at their finger nails. This day was really stressful for some already.
"Now every year there are a few students or as I like to call them, 'Whiner babies' who think it's okay to question and complain about their placement. So let's get one thing straight. My word is law. My judgement is final. I will not tolerate whiner babies. Are we clear?"
Everyone mumbled back a little "Yes coach boomer" as I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms.
Boomer stood up a little taller and removed his sunglasses unveiling his power as he roared another, "I said, ARE. WE. CLEAR!?"
"Yes, Coach Boomer!" everyone shouted back.
He looked among our crowd of freshmen and pointed at a particularly small and dorky kid, "You" he said, "What's your name?"
"L-Larry, sir" the boy stuttered back nervously.
Coach Boomer made a face "Little Larry" he taunted, "Get up here."
Larry gulped and began to approach the platform visibly shaking. He eventually reached the middle of the platform and took off his glasses. In this time I heard Layla mutter something to will about public humiliation to which I had to hold back a laugh. I mean, this is high school, what did she expect?
Larry then did an unexpected transformation from cardigan wearing nerd to giant rock monster. Whelp, that was unexpected. Boomer looked unimpressed and shouted, "Car!" as a car fell from the ceiling and Larry caught it just in time. With his approval Coach said, "Big Larry. Hero!"
And so the placement went on. Boy named Zach who "glows", sidekick. Ethan who melts, Sidekick. A girl who turns into a beach ball, sidekick. Guy who can shapeshift into other people, hero. The Placement went on and on.
Eventually Marcus went up and spit onto a wall which was initially just disgusting and was decided to be a sidekick until we saw that it was acid spit which melted the wall. Hero. I wonder how many repairs this place has to go through every year…
As I was wondering that Coach Boomer turns to look at the group and points at none other than me. "You" he states, "Hurry up here"
I climb the steps and reach the middle of the platform looking at the group in front of me and then to Boomer. I remove my brown leather jacket and hand it to Boomer who looks at me in a second of anger.
"So, uh, Can you drop the car please?" I ask shakily. Honestly the only time I'm ever truly uneasy is when using my power.
Coach presses a button and yells "Car!", but instead of me lifting it or moving out of the way I let it hit me. Around me I hear gasps and screams as people think I'm dead once the car has been lifted off of me. Then unbeknownst to them I begin to shift. People suddenly begin to quiet down and watch me as I crack and crick my formerly disfigured body back into my normal shape. The blood flows back into me and the skin tightens back in. I run my fingers through my hair for a second as people stare in disbelief.
I turn to boomer and retrieve my jacket. He stares at me for a moment longer before asking, "What's your name?"
I sigh and reply, "Alexandra Stronghold"
He writes something on his board and says, "Stronghold, Hero."