There was something different about Hiddenville High.
It didn't take long for fourteen year old Phoebe to notice.
A boy flat out insulted a girl in their biology class, made fun of her glasses and her love for science. Max snorted at the cleverness of the bullies. Phoebe frowned and looked around the room. Why was no one standing up for this girl? In Metroburgh, this wouldn't be tolerated. The girl would've lasered his eyebrows off or froze his feet to the floor.
The victim, though, lowered her head and her shoulders hunched forward. She looked as though she were trying to curl up in a ball and disappear. Phoebe narrowed her eyes.
"Leave her alone," Phoebe ordered, rising to her feet. Max tried to catch her wrist and pull her back, but she was already storming to the bully's face.
The boy grinned down at her. Something about his smile shot chills across her body. "New girl's got some fire, eh? Not surprised really, 'cause you're hot."
Phoebe couldn't help but blush. She'd never been spoken to this way by a boy before; it was kind of nice.
Noticing the reaction, the boy pressed on, "That dress is beautiful, by the way. I bet it would look better on my bedroom floor, though."
Was that a compliment? It didn't feel as nice. Phoebe wasn't sure, though.
The boy chuckled. "Why don't you sit that sweet ass down and mind your own damn business, princess? A pretty girl like you wouldn't stand a chance against me, anyways."
His friends oohed and cheered while he stared down at her, a smug smile on his lips.
Phoebe stood frozen, a million thoughts and emotions running through her head. What should she do? Hit him? Defend herself? Run and hide? From the way his friends were laughing, that last option seemed like the best.
Max didn't know what to do. He'd heard what the kid said, the whole class did. He couldn't see his sister's face, but he knew she was faltering. He watched her shoulders fall forward and she took a few steps back. In a flash, she was out the door, wiping at her eyes and hiding behind the hair falling in her face.
Max wasn't sure how to react; this never happened in Metroburgh. Should he yell at that guy? Run after his sister? Or…
Dr. Colasso once told him that emotions can and will cloud your judgement. The evil bunny demanded Max to ignore any feelings and urges he may have toward other people.
"Especially Phoebe," Colasso said the day before school. "If you want to be a supervillian, you can't go around helping her like a good guy."
Max wanted to be a supervillian.
So, he turned his head and focused on a game on his phone. He didn't look up again until the heels of his sister's shoes disappeared down the hallway.
•••••
There was something different about the Thunder Twins.
It didn't take long for Hiddenville High to notice.
Seventeen year old Phoebe was feeling under the weather one day. She refused to miss a day of school and mess up her perfect attendance record. So, she arrived that morning in a pair of yoga pants and a sweatshirt.
Everything was going fine. She had already finished her homework from her first three classes and her fourth had a substitute, so she and Cherry got to relax and talk about boys. Max was scribbling test answers onto his hand with a sharpie for his next class.
Phoebe got up for a moment to throw something away. As she stood at the trashcan, she felt a presence behind her. A strong smell of cologne filled her nose and hot air breathed down her neck. She shuddered. Then, something grabbed her butt.
"Damn," the boy whispered in her ear.
There was a loud smack and every pair of eyes in the room was on the couple in the front.
The boy was familiar. He was the same bully from three years earlier, the one that had humiliated her on her first day. He stood a few feet away, nursing his throbbing cheek that Phoebe just slapped.
Max dropped the sharpie to the desk and sat up straighter. He leaned forward and whispered to the girl across from him, "Cherry, what happened?"
The blonde looked at him with wide eyes. "He grabbed her butt."
"Still think a pretty girl like me wouldn't stand a chance against you?" Phoebe asked, a smug smile on her face.
The boy smiled. "I could easily take you. Name a place, babydoll. I'll make it worth your while."
Phoebe wasn't sure how Max got to the front of the class so quickly, but suddenly he was there, slamming the boy against the wall with so much force the whiteboard shook.
Max smirked. "You messed with the wrong set of twins, buddy." Phoebe shuddered at how quickly her brother's expression changed. His features darkened and the hands clenching the boy's shirt collar tightened into fists that trembled with anger.
"If you so much as look at my sister again, I'll break every bone in your arm and ruin any chance you have at any sports scholarships."
The class was in shock. Cherry couldn't stop herself from smiling.
Three years ago, Max Thunderman rarely stood up for his sister. As far as the rest of the school knew, their relationship was rocky from the start. They were always arguing in the halls and playing simple pranks on each other.
Three years ago, Phoebe Thunderman would've never been able to stand up for herself. Against mean girls, sure, but not boys. The boys at Hiddenville High frightened her and she usually tried to steer clear of them. Cole was an exception, obviously. Phoebe learned to watch what she wore to school and never got in the way of one of the popular guys.
Now, the Thunder Twins have changed. They're better, stronger.
Max shoved the boy against the board once more for dramatic effect before turning to his sister. "Good job," he complimented, holding out his fist.
Phoebe snickered. "You too, bro." She bumped his fist with her own.
Things were different at Hiddenville High. It was scary and overwhelming and nothing like back home. The twins were afraid once, afraid of change.
Now? Well, now they've changed themselves.
And honestly, they wouldn't have had it any other way.
This was a little all over the place. It's 2 am and I can't sleep and I'm super nervous cause i'm flying in a plane for the first time tomorrow and I'm leaving the country for a week (going to the Dominican Republic for a mission trip weyhey) and ah yeah
So the idea behind this was: I imagine Metroburgh as kind of an equal place for men and women. I figure that if women have superpowers as well as men, that no one would ever think of females being the inferior race. That would mean that boys would never objectify women or treat them as objects they can own rather than treat them like people.
Now, picture two young teens who have grown up in this environment suddenly moving to a place of normal people where the rules are different. Girls are shamed for liking things that are supposed to be 'boy things' and treated only as pretty prizes. I imagined this as being a shock to said teens and thus, this idea was born.
I might've butchered the idea here, though. It sounded okay in my head but I'm really not sure about this people. Oh well, yolo