I don't own these characters. Still wish I did,
but I'll live.
Facets
"What a beautiful day even if it is a Monday," Will Stronghold thought to himself as he sat on the school steps.
Today was a day like any other at Sky High. The sun was shining, the students were hurrying to class, Boomer was yelling at the freshmen, and Warren Peace was smiling.
"Hold up!" Will gasped, "Warren is smiling?"
"Will. Dude," Zach said hurrying over to his friend, "Something is most wrongly wrong!"
"What's wrong?" Will asked in confusion as he looked around, "Everything seems to be just fine."
"Dude! Warren Peace is smiling," Zach whispered conspiratorially, "That just ain't natural man. What's wrong with him?"
"Nothings wrong with Warren," Layla said as she sat down beside her boyfriend since she heard the whole conversation, "He's just in a good mood today. That's all."
"Warren has a good mood?" Zach said in surprise.
"Of course I do," Warren chirped happily, "My mother and I got to spend the whole weekend together for the first time in a long time. We made brownies together like we did when I was a kid. It was fun."
"That's wonderful," Will said glad to see his friend smiling for once, "I used to help my mother bake stuff in the kitchen. I remember that I used to eat most of the cookie dough before we ever baked the first cookie. I really enjoyed that."
"My mom and I still make cakes together," Layla said smiling gently, "I still love to lick the batter from the mixer blades."
"I brought brownies for everybody to sample at lunch today," Warren said grinning, "I'll meet you at my table."
"Cool," Zach said in relief, "I'll see you guys at lunch."
The friends all split up to go to their different classes. By the time lunch rolled around everybody had worked up quite an appetite.
"Warren cooked brownies and was smiling this morning?" Ethan asked everyone in amazement.
"Yes and he's going to share," Layla cheered softly.
"I could go for a good brownie," Will said gleefully.
"Go figure that Super Boy is hungry," Magenta said sarcastically but with a grin to let all know that she was teasing before she excused herself to run to the restroom.
"Where is Warren and his fine delicacies?" Zach asked.
"I'm right behind you Glo-worm," Warren's voice answered.
Warren sat at the table with his lunch tray and a tinfoil wrapped plate. To everybody's surprise he was still smiling from ear to ear.
"Voila!" he said as he unwrapped the edible-looking brownies and presented them to his friends, "Bon apetit monsieurs and mademoiselles."
Each of his friends hungrily took one of the brownies and dug in. Everybody's eyes grew large as they began to chew. Warren watched them with shining eyes.
"Well? What do you think?" he asked eagerly.
"They are wonderful," Layla said before waiting until Warren's head was turned to hide the remains of the brownie in her book bag.
"This is great," Will gasped out as he coughed and grabbed his drink, "I just need to wash it down with some milk."
Will drank his full drink and then drank Layla's.
"Hey! That's mine!" Layla snapped.
"I'll buy you another," Will said as he stood up and called over his shoulder, "In fact, I'll go buy both of us another."
"Will's acting odd," Warren said before turning his attention back to Ethan and Zach, "So what do you think?"
"I love them," Zach said with a watery smile just as Will and Magenta returned to the table.
"Hey Maj," Warren said as he offered her the last brownie, "Tell me what you think."
Magenta didn't see her friends frantically trying to get her attention. They were all miming different negatives to eating the horrid brownie.
"Oh my God," Maj said as her eyes widened and she spat the bite into her hand, "What kind of a sick joke is this? This isn't funny guys!"
"What are you talking about?" Warren demanded as he glared at her, "This is my mom's famous recipe."
"Recipe for what? This takes like death!" Magenta growled as she grabbed the drink from Layla's hand and chugged the whole thing down.
"Hey! That's mine!" Layla whined.
"I had to get this horrid taste out of my mouth. Get over it," Maj snapped before she began wiping her tongue with a napkin.
"Your crazy Rat Girl! The others love my brownies, right?" Warren said turning to look at his friends.
Nobody was able to look him in eyes, which made his formerly good mood blaze away with sizzling intensity.
"Ethan?" he growled turning to the last one in the bunch who had yet to voice his opinion.
"Um…uh…well…" Ethan stammered before melting into a puddle of goo.
"Screw you!" Warren growled as his fists ignited and he stalked out of the cafeteria.
"Magenta! That was too harsh," Will admonished the girl as she continued wiping her tongue.
"Whatever," Magenta snapped, "The brownie was vile. I couldn't help that the truth popped out like that. You eat it if you want to."
"Maybe you should go find Warren before he fries something," Layla said as she drank the rest of Will's drink.
"Fine," Will said as he rose to leave, "You owe me a new drink Layla."
"Uh-huh," she agreed as she chugged his milk down.
Will left the cafeteria in search of his best friend. When Warren was truly angry you could follow the trail of smoke residue left on the ceiling. Will noticed that Warren was headed towards the gym in the wrong direction. This wasn't going to be pretty.
"Is Warren headed to the gym?" Ethan asked as the rest of the gang joined Will in searching out their friend so as to apologize for hurting his feelings.
"I think so," Will said worriedly.
"Dude! He's going the wrong way," Zach said.
"We've got to stop him," Layla gasped rushing after her friend.
Everyone followed Layla at a brisk pace until they finally caught up to Warren's blazing form.
"Warren! Wait!" Layla called out.
"Leave me alone," Warren snapped as the flames ran up his arms.
"You can't do this," Will said to his friend.
"I'll do what I damn well want to," Warren growled as his flames grew hotter and he turned and stomped down the stairs.
"I can't believe that he just went down the stairs that you are only supposed to go up," Ethan said with wide eyes, "That man is such a rebel."
"Whatever," Maj said starting down the "up" steps.
They all hurried to the gym and found Warren hurling fireball after fireball at various targets set up in the gym. He raged on for some time before seeming to cool off enough to sit down in the bleachers.
"Warren?" Will asked worriedly, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Warren said calmly, "I just needed to blow off some steam. I am working on anger control."
"Well that's wonderful!" Layla gushed, "Good job for not destroying anything."
"Thanks," Warren said smirking as he led everybody back up to the cafeteria, "I think I know what's wrong with the brownies. I may have accidentally grabbed brownies from the batch that my mom and I left an ingredient out. I thought that we had thrown that batch away."
"What ingredient?" Zach asked.
"The sugar," Warren said, "Each of us thought the other had added the sugar and one batch turned out awful. Sorry about that guys."
"That's okay," Maj said answering for everybody, "I'm sorry for not considering your feelings before I reacted. That wasn't very nice of me."
"That's okay. I would have reacted the same way if I had been handed that particular batch of brownies," Warren said smiling, "And it was nice of the rest of you to try to not hurt my feelings."
"Layla," Will said as they all sat to finish their lunch, "You owe my a drink."
"Sorry Will. Magenta drank my drink and I had to wash that taste out of my mouth," Layla said, "I don't have any more money."
"But I'm thirsty," Will whined, "Does anybody have some money I can borrow?"
Unfortunately, none of his friends had any money to spare and they all returned to eating their lunches without showing much concern.
"This isn't fair!" Will growled seeing red, "I always help others and now I don't even get a drink? This sucks!"
Will shoved the table across the room and stomped out of the cafeteria. His friends merely stood up and moved their chairs to the new location of the table and continued eating lunch.
"He really needs to work on his temper," Warren said.
"Absolutely," Layla agreed, "You want to split his dessert?"
To be continued…