Hey Y'all! Sorry for being inactive for so long. I kind of lost my inspiration with the sequel to Not A Love Story. I have like three other chapters written but I can't find the inspiration to actually type them up. I started this story and hopefully this will keep y'all entertained while I find my inspiration.
"Hey what's up, man?" Zach greeted as Will and his girlfriend, Layla, walked on the bus.
"Not much." Will replied as he sat next to Layla behind Zach and his girlfriend, Magenta.
"Can you guys believe we're seniors?" Ethan spoke from the seat next to them.
"Not really," Magenta answered.
"It seems like only yesterday my date to homecoming turned out to be an evil old lady," Will added. They sat in comfortable silence for a while, waiting for the bus driver to finish picking everyone up, until Layla noticed they were headed the wrong way.
"Umm excuse me, Mr. Lee? Wasn't that the last stop on the route? I think you're going the wrong way,"
"Relax, girly," Mr. Lee drawled, "I know what I'm doing. There's a new stop on the route this year. A new freshman lives in this area." As he finished his sentence he stopped the bus in front of a modest two story house and honked the horn.
"He's picking up the kid at their house," Magenta wondered aloud quietly. Her friends shrugged and looked out the window trying to get a view of the new kid.
In only took a few seconds for a two kids to come out of the house. One was tall with buzzed brown hair, and darkish skin, he was holding a blue backpack, but he looked too old to be a freshman. He looked more like a senior. The other boy was small with long blonde hair. He walked with crutches and looked too young to be in high school, he looked more like a sixth grader. They couldn't make out which one was the freshman until Mr. Lee opened the bus door and the tall boy helped the small blonde put his backpack on and lifted him over the stairs and into the bus. The tall boy then walked back to the house without so much as a wave goodbye. The small boy suddenly became timid as he looked at the other bus goers staring at him. The boy jumped as Mr. Lee spoke.
"Whoever has an empty seat next to them raise their hand. We need to get going." Magenta, Zach, Layla, and Will looked over at Ethan as he was the only one nice enough to raise his hand. The small boy saw Ethan and slowly, with slight difficulty, made his way over to him.
"Hi, I'm Ethan. What's your name?" Ethan inquired as the small boy sat next to him. The boy stared at Ethan for a second before picking up his backpack and pointing to the name sewn onto it. "Ackley" it read. Ethan and the others looked at the boy confused, except for Layla.
"Ackley?" She asked "Your name is Ackley?" The boy looked up at her and nodded, then untucked a necklace from his shirt and showed it to them. On the necklace was a tiny rendition of a playing card.
"An Ace?" Will asked. Ackley nodded and waited like Will was supposed to realize something. "What?" Will asked after the boy looked at him for a few moments. Ackley just shook his head "never mind", tucked the necklace back into his shirt and studied his shoes.
"Is Ace your nickname?" Ethan asked after a few minutes of thinking it over. Ackley, now Ace, nodded while still looking at his shoes.
"You could have just said so," Magenta declared, irritated at how long it had taken to simply learn the freshman's name. Ace flinched at her outburst, but didn't say anything.
"I'm Layla," Layla gave Ace a smile as she spoke, "And this is Will, Zach, and Magenta," Ace seemed to ignore the introductions and just continued looking at the ground.
"Okay then," Zach said as they all settled back into silence. The group of friends glanced at the odd freshman once in a while only to see him continue to look down, He didn't even move when the bus launched into the sky. When the bus landed at Sky High people stood up to get off until Mr. Lee gestured for them to sit back down.
"Ackley Jones," Mr. Lee called. Ace looked up and gave the bus driver a questioning look. "You're off the bus first. I'm not getting in trouble for you getting trampled on your first day." With that abrupt announcement Mr. Lee stepped off the bus. Ace tried to leave as fast as he could, which unfortunately, wasn't very fast with his crutches. The other kids on the bus giggled when Mr. Lee lifted him off the bus and onto the school grounds. The poor boy looked out right embarrassed. As the rest of the bus goers were let off the bus, Ethan yelled after Ace.
"Hey, Ace! Wait up, man!" Ace didn't even look up as he concentrated on walking as fast as he could to the entrance of the school.
"What are you doing?" Magenta questioned.
"The guy obviously needs some friends." Ethan answered. The rest of the group shrugged and easily caught up with the boy who had stopped to study the stairs.
"You need help, man?" Zach asked. Ace looked at the group, just noticing they had followed him. He then nodded and handed Zach his crutches.
"Woah, man, don't you need these?" Ace shook his head and began to make his way up the stairs. He wobbled at first, but soon looked as stable as anyone else, apart from the look of pain on his face. The group watched him closely, ready to catch their new friend if he fell. Will noticed something peeking out at the bottom of Ace's jeans and gestured for Layla to notice the leg braces. Whatever caused Ace to need crutches wasn't just a temporary injury. When they got to the entrance of the school Zach handed him his crutches back. The group of friends watched Ace as he headed to the gym.
"I don't know about you guys but I kinda want to ditch the whole 'Welcome Back Seniors' assembly and go see what his powers are." Zach mentioned. The other boys nodded.
"He's going to think we're following him." Layla warned.
"We are." Will shrugged.
"Why do you guys even care," Magenta asked.
"He's our friend." Zach answered.
"We just met him." Magenta rolled her eyes as the boys started toward the gym with her and Layla following.
Coach Boomer gave them a curious look but didn't say anything as they took a seat on the bleachers.
"Welcome Freshman!" Boomer yelled, "Let's make this introduction quick, shall we? I am Coach Boomer and you all are going to come up here as I call you and show me your power or powers. I am then going to decide whether you are a hero or sidekick," The group watched as various freshman got sorted, until finally the moment they had been waiting for came.
"You," Coach Boomer said loudly as he pointed at Ace, "You're next." Ace slowly made his way up onto the stage showing no signs of either confidence or sheepishness.
"What's your name and what's your power?" Coach Boomer inquired after Ace finally made it up the steps. It appeared like Ace mumbled something to coach in response.
"I can't hear you!" the coach yelled. Ace flinched in what appeared to be pain at the loudness but never the less spoke slightly louder so Boomer could hear him, but still not loud enough for anyone else to.
"Alright since I doubt anyone heard that!" Coach yelled again, "Ackley Jones, here, says he has atomic manipulation and super hearing! Let's just see if that's true shall we? Car!" Just like that a car dropped from the ceiling but it wasn't a car for long, because as soon as Ace looked up at it, it became a leaf which fluttered gently on to his forehead. There was a long pause as everyone in the gym stared in awe. Ace took the leaf off his head and put it on the ground before backing up. Within an instant the leaf was changed back into a car. The silence continued until it was broken by Coach Boomer.
"HERO!"