She looked up. There, only a few feet away, stood two heroes. Real heroes. She had read about superheroes in other places, but they didn't exist where she came from. She watched as they delivered the final blow, which left the fire-spouting bad guy they were fighting incapacitated. "You okay?" One of them asked her. She snapped out of her trance. "That was so cool...Y'all are real superheroes..." she stated in awe. They gave her a puzzled look. The people of Dakota had come to lose interest in heroes; they were a very commonplace thing after all. "I always waned tuh see a superhero," she said, letting her excitement get the best of her, not noticing the cut on her hand. "Uh, you're bleeding. We should help you to the hospital," the one in the blue outfit said. She looked at the cut. "Huh, didn't notice it. Oh well, it's nothin' tuh go tuh the hospital for," she said casually. "It looks pretty deep, you might need stitches," said the one with the electronics. "So? I got a first aid kit, it ain't like I got a head injury or nothin'" she said, not understanding their concern.

"Rai Martin, what in the world do you think yer doin, botherin these people?" said her mother. "I ain't doin nothin'! Some loony started blastin' fire and then these two were just askin if uh was okay," she said. Her mother always started a scene. "You git yer backtalkin' tail over here 'for I drag it over here," her mother commanded. "'For she starts draggin', could I git yer names?" she asked politely. "I'm Static, and this is Gear," the one in blue said. "Static and Gear, huh? Well, nice tuh meetcha," she said. She returned to her mother. And walked away.

The two exchanged a puzzled look and made their way to their hideout.


"Something about that girl creeped me out," Virgil said. "You mean that weird accent?" Richie asked. "No, it's not that. She shrugged off that cut like it was just a scrape, and then she acted like she'd never seen a superhero before," he said. "That was weird, but who knows, maybe she's just tough," Richie said. "Yeah, maybe. And the accent was weird too. I don't think she's from Dakota," Virgil said. "She was kinda cute though," Richie joked. The friends joked and laughed as they headed home.


The next day was a Monday. Oh joy. She looked at the schedule she had been handed. She walked into the classroom. She was greeted by a teacher and practically dragged to the front of the room. "Class, this is our new transfer student, Rai Martin," he said. She waved half-heartedly and gave a nervous smile. "Nice to meet y'all," she said. "Rai, why don't you tell us a little about where you're from," he said. "Uh, well, as y'all can probly tell from the way I talk, I'm from the south. I'm from a small Mississippi town called Port Carrie* that has a lot of crime issues," as she said this, the class perked up. "But, that's why muh momma made us move up here." . The teacher guided her to an empty seat and she sat down. In a seat right behind Richie.

Richie and Virgil exchanged glances as they saw the girl at the front of the classroom. It was the girl they had saved the other day, and her comment about crime issues didn't make them any more comfortable. "V, it's the girl from the other day," Richie whispered. "I know, I think something might be up with her," Virgil said. "Yeah, I think so too," he said. Even though he had been joking the other day, he did think she was kind of cute. The teacher pointed to a seat behind Richie and she sat down. As she passed, Richie and Virgil noticed she had tended her own injury, as she said she would. Richie felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see Rai smiling at him. "Uh, hi," he said. "Howdy. Just thought since we were neighbers'n'all, I should know yer name," she said. "I'm Richie Foley, nice to meet you," he said a bit nervously. "Nice tuh'meet you too," she said. Richie nervously put out a hand and she shook it a couple of times. "Nice grip," he said, a bit surprised at the strength of her small hands. She smiled. It was cute. "Thanks. Last time I heard that, my cousin was tryin' to get a football out of my hands, 'fore I whooped 'im, but I whooped 'im anyway," she said. He exchanged another look with Virgil. "She is pretty tough," Richie thought. And Virgil thought just about the same thing.

She looked at the blond boy in front of her. He was pretty cute, even though he was kind of scrawny in her opinion. So far this place was nothing like what she had heard it would be. So far, she hadn't heard any comments about her unusual clothes or the way she talked. She had heard from others that most northerners thought of southerners as stupid, dirty hicks and treated them like dirt because of it. So far, that hadn't happened. Yet. Plus, she'd already seen two superheroes, a bad guy, and a cute guy. She shifted her thoughts from boys and superheroes to the lesson the teacher was giving. She jotted down the important points of his lecture and then pulled out the small memo book she used to write her homework in. She was highly organized. She had a different notebook for every class, and always kept them neat and tidy. She had her own system of acronyms and abbreviations that filled her notes. She wrote notes then would organize them later to be neat and systematic. People often questioned her for this, but it was how she had maintained her…unique…status as an over-achiever. She brushed away a piece of long brunette hair that had fallen on her paper. The teacher had finished talking and everyone proceeded to put their things away, which cued Rai to do the same. In the few minutes left of class, her thoughts absently shifted to the blond boy. Richie Foley. She blushed as she remembered the comment she made about a football game with her cousin. Even to most guys in her hometown, a girl who was good at football was a major turnoff. Here, girls couldn't play football well; they probably didn't play at all. She mentally slapped herself. She was going to be more of a freak here than she was back home. She sighed as she realized that there was a major cultural gap, and that even if she wasn't the tomboyish athlete she was, she still would've been different from every one else. "I've never been normal before, so why start now?" she mentally asked herself.

She grinned mischievously. She was going to enjoy showing Dakota how tough a southern girl from the bad side of a small town could be. Starting with teaching some girls to play football. Maybe not.


I'm reuploading all of SSG. Sorry everyone! This time, I'll try to release on a regular basis! I'll reupload the first five chapters everyday from now and then up to chapter nine every week. New chapters will be uploaded on a monthly basis...because I have more written out this time and everything's fixed that I wanted to fix...