Chapter 1: Preparation

"Here goes nothing," Zoey Parker said as she reached for the eyeliner setting on top of the bathroom counter. It was her first day at Dakota Union High and she wanted to look decent for her first day at the new school. Her parents had gotten divorced that summer and her mother had chosen to move out of their old house in Wyoming and move to Dakota in order to be closer to her new job. It was going to be a hard change since she just got adjusted to attending Joseph M. Carey High School during her freshman year. And now she was going to have to adjust to another school.

Despite this, Zoey tried to be optimistic, which was becoming incredibly difficult with what was currently happening in the bathroom. The struggle to look decent on her first day of school, where first impressions always matter, definitely wasn't helping. Her blonde locks were frizzy from the humidity in the late-summer air, and her hand refused to stop shaking while she was trying to put on eyeliner. She grimaced at the mistake she had just made in the mirror. The smooth, perfect line she had wanted to make was bumpy and uneven. She stared at her reflection in disgust. "I look like a clown," she declared. "Guess I'm not wearing makeup today." The world would just have to get over it and/or deal with it.

She sighed, then stooped down to the cabinet under the sink and found a container of makeup remover wipes and started wiping the messy smudges off her face, praying she wouldn't get any on her favorite Abercrombie T-shirt. After she removed the excess makeup on her face, she examined her hair. There was nothing she could really do about it, since she was already running late. She decided to tie it in a ponytail, revealing her natural light brown hair-color underneath, for the time being.

After she was finished with her morning routine, she checked the mirror one last time. Satisfied, she headed downstairs, sliding down the banister of the town home in the process. She passed by the kitchen on her way to the door, noticing that her mother appeared to have left for work already. She caught a glimpse of the microwave clock. 7:21. She was definitely going to be late. In response, she ran to the front door and snatched her purple backpack, which was resting on the floor next to the coat rack. Slinging the backpack over her shoulder, Zoey looked back at the interior of the house and realized her older sister, Crystal, probably had already left for school. Crystal was a senior and always drove her red Camaro to school. It would've been nice to get a ride from her, but she knew Crystal didn't want her little sister tagging along when she was trying to create a reputation at a new school. Zoey preferred to walk anyways-after all, the school was so close. A little exercise couldn't hurt anyone. She opened the front door, locking it behind her, then stepped out onto the front porch. This was it. The first day of her brand new life in Dakota. All she could do now was hope for the best.

…

Zoey was desperately searching for her first period class. To her, it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. All the halls looked the same; she felt like she was wandering in circles. Of course she had been to a high school before, but it was set up completely different than Carey High. A strand of light hair had escaped the hold of Zoey's hair tie and dangled in front of her eye, tickling her nose. She blew it away in frustration, hoping she would find some enlightenment soon.

…

Both Richie and Virgil were standing by their lockers, waiting for the bell to go to class. Richie had his nose in a book titled Cyber Mechanics and was furiously taking notes, scribbling every precious word onto a little yellow sticky note. Virgil was listening to his iPod, more specifically, one of Adam's new tunes. It was about this time of year when he had first become Static, which reminded him of how difficult it was to keep his secret identity after all the chaos that had happened. Sometimes he wondered what would happen if he and Richie's identities were discovered. How safe would they be afterwards? The other bang-baby criminals could find them anywhere, even at school. How safe would his family be? Or Richie's? The bang-babies would find a good use for them, most likely as bait or bribery to put Static and Gear in their place. That had been the reason for them not being honest with their families. They were a lot safer if their families didn't know their identities. But Virgil had promised himself he would tell his pops one day, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Virgil shook his head; he did not want to think about this right now. He wasn't going to agonize over something that probably was never going to happen. Besides, it was the first day of school. No need to get worked up about anything. Talk about pressure. He decided not to worry about it now.

He leaned against his locker, his foot tapping to the beat of the song and tried to enjoy what little time they had left before they had to start heading to class. He observed his surroundings, his mind lost in another world. Everything was normal, no different than last year. He recognized many faces, most of which who had been in his freshman class as well. He watched the sea of people pass by, though there was one student who seemed out of place. Her bleached blonde hair was tied in ponytail and she was dressed in a blue Abercrombie T-shirt with black yoga pants. She looked lost. Virgil had been taught to help others as he grew up, especially after his mom had died in crossfire when she had been trying to save a wounded gang member. Since then, Virgil had vowed to help others like his mom, which is why he became Static, to protect others from the slime bags most bang-babies had become. It was his duty to help the girl who was obviously struggling. He tapped on Richie's shoulder. "Hey, Richie." Richie glanced up from what he was doing, obviously distracted with new discoveries in reading his book. He was probably coming up with new ideas for new inventions or for upgrading the condition of the abandoned gas station that was also known as their headquarters.

"Yeah, Virgil?" Virgil nodded off into the sea of students making their way to their class.

"See that girl over there?"

Richie adjusted his glasses to make sure he saw what Virgil was pointing at. He followed Virgil's gaze and focused on the girl with the dirty blonde hair in a bun, who was wearing a blue shirt and black pants.

"Yeah...what about her?" he asked. Virgil turned to him.

"She looks lost. Maybe we can help her." Richie didn't respond immediately. Unlike Virgil, Richie had been taught, mostly by his father, to mind his own business and to let people solve their own problems. But after seeing the girl, he now appeared to be analyzing her from a distance. Virgil looked at him impatiently, wondering why it was taking him an especially long time to answer. There were some things about the genius that he just did not understand.

"Sure." Richie finally said. Virgil nodded in approval, and started walking in the girl's direction. Richie shortly followed, tagging behind Virgil. Call it his intuition, but he had a funny feeling that something big was going to happen. Soon.