Layla worries about starting school after the Summer, she wonders if her old friend Gwen will ever speak to her again. Not exactly set in the Sky High universe, more so in the graphic novel Wanted. A brief refrence to a slash in this chapter. Hope you enjoy.

So, here goes, first day back to school, what a Summer, not that it was exciting or anything, it went by pretty slow but rather quickly if that makes any sense; I'm not the kind of girl who goes to parties or drinks or does drugs. I hung out at the mall a few times and met up with a few of my quote, unquote friends, I'm still not sure if they are my real friends which is kind of sad when you think about it, I mean I knew them since I first started school and I consider them to be more than just casual acquaintances.

I'm hoping this year goes better than last, I don't hold much hope since there's still a lot of people at this school who don't know me and I doubt they'll find any time to hangout with me; there was one strong relationship I thought I had when I was in middle school, we were really close, we talked about almost anything; Gwen Grayson was more than your average high school kid, she was drop dead gorgeous, she was very mature for her age too and funny. Rumour had it that she blossomed over the Summer which didn't make very much sense to me because it didn't seem possible that she could be any more perfect. Okay, now I know that you're thinking, I'm some kind of creepy stalker who looks through her window and roots through her garbage or something; let's face it, I am pretty weird but I'm not like that, like I do have common sense and I know when to give people space and respect, it's just that Gwen was always something special to me. She used to sleepover at my house, we both wore braces and were the same height; I remembered that I still had my red hair in pigtails, only back then they were hanging in the back other than now where they flop on the side. We were both skinny, nerdy girls, we thought of ourselves as freaks, we even adopted that name for about a week, which was a month in loser time. We watched movies, we brushed each others hair, what happened? Why was Gwen ignoring me? We only hung out for like a year then we started talking less and less. Then one Summer she started talking to boys and hanging out with much cooler girls; I received the occasional Christmas card, then found out that she put my address down by mistake.

My mom was packing my lunch, as I was getting ready to walk out the door, I kept telling her that I was going to buy my lunch at school and to forget about it, but she would always think of me as that brace-faced little girl. She continued to think that I was still friends with Gwen and asked when she was coming over. I would always tell her that we don't hangout any more but for whatever reason she forgot or refused to believe that. She handed me a brown bag filled with a tuna sandwich, an apple wedge, apple juice, and crackers; you can see where I get my weirdness from, compared to her I'm the most normal one in this family.

"You need your nutrients, I don't trust that school" she said, totally not paranoid, "Now have a good day and say hi to Gwen for me." I was going to correct her but simply nodded, humouring her and walked out the door.

I took the bus, but I guess that shouldn't really big deal, I mean I think most of the students at the school do including Gwen. Something else you should know, I started having a crush on Gwen, I never told her of course and it wasn't really a big deal or anything; I like boys too, it's just that if I were to be with a woman it would have to be Gwen.

As I waited at the bus stop I couldn't help but get the feeling I was being watched, there was no one else around except for a few kids at a stop at the very end of the street and they were too busy hacky-sacking to pay attention to me. I checked my watch, my bus should only be a minute, then I would start this day and quickly finish it, most likely spending the rest of the day locked alone in my room; okay so kind of pathetic. There was a light, warm breeze in the air, it shook my pigtails around, some times I wondered why I still had the things, along with my questionable fashion sense, it wasn't like I was turning heads, not that I would want the attention. Bright greens and purple, my skirt and tight leg stalkings; geek. The wind started to really pick up, I tried to brace myself so I wouldn't be pushed so hard that I would end up face planting the ground. I closed my eyes as dirt and tiny bits of rock were flung around in the air. I heard thunder or at least a crash followed by a voice.

"Get the hell out my way!" I was pushed and fell hard into some garbage cans, luckily my spine broke my fall. I opened my eyes to see the super villain The Tornado which explained why the wind was so strong; he's not really much of a villain, he doesn't have any powers and hasn't really had any plans that succeeded over the years that he took on this role. Nobody was ever sure what his true identity was but since he had a device that could conger up tornadoes everyone naturally assumed mad scientist.

"Why do you bother, Tornado? You never win! You should have given this up years ago!" a heroic voice yelled, it was Captain Windbag; not really his superhero name but I always called him that, he had an ego and would never shut up. I'll admit that he's good at what he does but I think he can be a prick when it comes to dealing with criminals.

"Captain Spiral, you know that my day will come and that day is today!" The Tornado said, hamming it up. Of course he was unable to fight Captain Spiral, arguably the strongest hero in the city and when I say argue I mean I'm literally the only one who argues with that. Captain Spiral used his heat vision on The Tornado's tornado generator he had strapped to his chest causing it to malfunction; I always thought The Tornado had a much better costume than Captain Spiral's baby blue spandex and cape, he was wearing all black with red and gold trim, he also had goggles on that any mad scientist would be seen wearing. After cursing Captain Spiral for destroying yet another tornado generator that bulking, over sized Captain pulled a real dick move by lifting him up by his neck and pounding his skull with his fist; you've got him, you won, there's no need to go any further with this.

"Going to come quietly to jail with me, or are we going to do this again tomorrow?" Captain Spiral asked the villain who by now has a concussion.

"No jail cell will ever hold me!" The Tornado cackled before throwing a tiny ball that burst into smoke, his escape; even though Captain Spiral and other heroes have been able to stop him they've never been successful getting him to jail, he would always avoid capture. After coughing and shielding his mouth from the smoke he turned to me, acting all macho.

"Let me help you, young lady" he said picking me up and holding me in his arms, "Don't worry about The Tornado, he's gone now. You must be on your way to the high school down the road, I will make it my duty to escort you there!"

"No, that's okay" I said turning red from embarrassment, hoping no one was watching, "My bus should be here any time now."

"Nonsense! I am faster than any bus!" Captain Spiral yelled as if he was trying to talk over a loud noise; I'm starting to think he's deaf and that's why he yells every word out like it's it's own individual sentence.

So, yeah, he flew me to good old Cleary High and people were noticing me, which would have been okay if they didn't want to talk about Captain Spiral all day. Word quickly spread that he saved me from a burning building other said from mobsters. I was surprised nobody seemed to care when I told them it was The Tornado he was after and I just happened to be there at the time, I guess they were kind of disappointed. It seemed that I was the only one who thought super villains were cool even though they were doing wrong. They weren't always bad people and they normally stick by what they believe in.

At lunch I found out some very important news from one of my quote, unquote friends that Gwen Grayson was going to start dating girls, "It's what I heard" said pimply faced Tom, "People heard overheard her talking about seeing what it would be like. You know that she's bi, right?"

"No she isn't, she can't be, I've known her my whole life" I exclaimed to the obviously deluded boy.

"You two haven't hung out in years, how would you know? Besides, isn't this good news for you any way?" he said with a smile. Oh no, my secret identity had been revealed, but how could he have found out about this?

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, pretending not to get where he was coming from.

"Layla, I know that you're like a tree hugger and for peace and all that jazz. Plus the way you look at

other girls...I mean aren't you gay?" he said deadpan.

"All because I care about that doesn't mean I'm gay. Wait, the way I look at other girls?" I said with a stern face. I realized that I was getting a little angry and about to fly off the handle but I stopped myself.

"Sorry, it just must be my imagination" he said holding his hands up to guard his pimpled face. Just as I was calming down I caught sight of someone looking especially beautiful. Gwen was walking into the room, wearing a usual pink sweater and short skirt just above the knee. I loved the way her hair was done and then it hit me, she did blossom over the Summer; in the places where I thought she was already quite gifted. Her butt stuck out a little more and her breasts looked bigger. Tom was waving his gross hand in my face to snap me out of the Medusa trance that girl had me in, I think I could feel drool coming form the corner of my mouth.

Gwen walked past a few tables before stopping at ours, I didn't know why, it made no logical sense, "Hi, Layla" she said sweetly with that adorable smile of hers.

"H-hi Gwen" I said, trying not to blush and not look at her boobs.

"I heard you seen The Tornado this morning fighting Captain Spiral."

"Oh, yeah, lame I know" I said, not thinking through that she might actually like that sort of thing.

"What? No. I think super villains are so cool!" Gwen said, taking the seat next to mine to explain.

"Yeah, me too, I just thought I was the only one" I said, smiling like a tool.

"Captain Spiral is cool and all but I think super villains are really unappreciated. I think super villains are the new heroes. I mean, they're bad ass but they're also misunderstood" she spoke passionately, she really believed this even more than I did. After that I'm not really sure what she said, I was still in shock over how good she looked, she smelled good too; Tom is meanwhile thinking I'm a pervert. Eventually, Gwen had to go hangout at another table with her real friends, "Maybe we can hangout some time, Layla, talk more about villains and stuff."

After she left, Tom made fun of me of course, "She was totally flirting with you" he said liting an eyebrow.

"No she wasn't" I said, kicking him under the table. I couldn't be sure if she was flirting with me because I was never sure when anyone was ever interested in me, like really interested or just being friendly. I made some bad calls in the past and was pretty humiliated, I couldn't speak to those people again. I'm not sure if Gwen was into me or not, it was pretty ridiculous, we were friends when we were younger so what would our chances be as a couple? Still it would be nice to take her to prom.

Layla isn't a super villain yet but that will happen in time. Review/Comment, please. I will update soon.