Something great about being a teenager is that it's socially acceptable to not hang out with your family on a consistent basis.
Unfortunately, no one else seems to have gotten the memo.
Sorry, Dash doesn't seem to have gotten the memo.
I've recently learned how to create forcefields that I don't have to maintain by focussing too hard on them. I can just keep them in the back of my mind and they usually stay up.
So it's a great room defence system.
Usually I hear the hurried footsteps, a crash, a creak, a crash and then an 'Owww…'. Sometimes I keep the door open to taunt him.
But today, he didn't come up to my room. He just screamed at me from the kitchen.
"VIOLET!"
I'm learning about momentum and energy in physics right now, and the homework is so tediously repetitive that you should believe me when I say I took the invitation.
"What?" I yelled back at him.
"Come down here!"
Fine. I stood up, capped my pen and went to walk out of my room. And crashed into the forcefield. It's a double-edged sword.
I waltzed down the stairs and leaned onto the kitchen island where Mom, Dad and Dash were reading an article in the newspaper.
"What's up?" I asked.
"They're making a movie about us." Dash said.
"About us us or the Incredibles us?"
"The Incredibles us." Dad said.
"Cool." I said. "When's it coming out?"
"Tomorrow." Mom said.
"Great." I said. I went to the fridge and opened a carton of chocolate milk.
"Are they going to be using our civilian identities or just the superhero identities?" Dad asked Mom.
"Doesn't say. Suppose we'll have to watch it and find out."
"You doing anything tomorrow night, Vi? Going out with Tony or anything?"
"Nope."
"Alright, let's go watch it then."
"Sounds good. When's dinner?" I asked.
"Later." Mom said as she continued to pore over the newspaper.
The next day at school I noticed all the excited chatter from people who had snuck out of school early to go and watch the premiere screening of the film.
They'd changed our names in the film. Not really by much, but just enough to get attention off of me. Apparently my name in it was Rose Farr. Not too bad, really. Mom's was Ellen Farr, Dad was Rob Farr, Dash was Richard Farr, and Jack-Jack was just John Farr.
Hopefully no one put two and two together.
Apparently Dash's (sorry, Richard's) nickname was Dick in the movie. Fitting.
And get this, Tony Rydinger became Anthony Rodinger. Are they even trying to stop the connections being made here?
Ah, well.
"Hey, Vi!" It was Tony. Still can't quite believe he not only knows who I am, but goes out of his way to talk to me!
"Hey, Tony, what's up?"
"Not much. You hear about that new Incredibles movie?"
"Are you kidding me? How could I not?" I said. "I've been hearing about it all morning."
"Are you excited about it?"
"Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what it's about."
"Well, I heard it's really good. Do you want to go and see it with me?"
Woah woah woah. A third date with Tony Rydinger? YES.
"Yeah, I'd love to." I said. "I'm going to see it with my family tonight, if you wanted to come. We can sit away from Dash."
"That's probably not the worst idea, hey? But that sounds great!"
"Awesome. So how have you been lately?"
We continued chatting until the bell rang to signal home group time. Together we walked to our home room and sat down with out respective groups when we got there.
It wasn't until Module 2 Physics that I heard any more details.
Apparently they kept everyone's powers pretty much the same. And I must say, I felt my face go pretty red when Tony was talking about how cool he thought Invisigirl is.
"Don't say that in front of Violet, Tony." One of his friends, Carl, ribbed him.
"No, not like that. I just think she's got cool powers is all."
"Oh, yeah, suuure Tony. You reek of 'I have a crush on a superhero.'" Another friend, Adam, said.
"Maybe she has a crush back." I said and continued on working. My comment elicited a round of 'OOOOHs' from the lads and Tony chuckled along with the rest of them.
"Only one way to tell, right?" The third friend, Jacob, said.
"How's that?"
"We go to the next supervillain the Incredibles go to defeat, she's always on the perimeter, right? So you just say hi."
"And ask if she has a crush on me?"
Jacob's face was covered in sudden realisation that his plan was indeed flawed. Well, if they do do it for whatever reason, I'll make sure to talk to Tony.
We all went back to working with the occasional whisper being thrown about.
"Hey, why do you think they named Invisigirl's character Rose when her forcefields are purple?" Kari asked.
Oh, man.
"I mean, wouldn't your name be more appropriate?"
"What, Violet?"
"Yeah. She makes purple, or violet, forcefields, so wouldn't Violet be a more appropriate name?"
"I don't really know Kari. I guess so."
"Cool, thanks."
Good talk.
Our brief silence was interrupted by Carl and Adam.
"Woah! You're telling Tony he has a crush on Invisigirl!"
"What do you mean, Adam?"
"You're drawing her in your book!"
"I'm not!"
Oh, boy, Carl. You have started down a road that you will never live down.
"You are! You have a crush on a superhero!"
"Yeah, well…" Carl said. He stuck his tongue out.
"Boys… That's enough." Our teacher said without looking up from his crossword.
Things quietened down once again.
I wonder how they'd react if they found out that I was sitting next to them. They'd probably lose their shit.
Soon enough though, the bell went and a little while later the bell that signalled the end of the day went too. I hopped in the car and Dash, Mom and I all drove home together.
You know, I was excited to see what happened in this movie that they made about us.