Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Will Stronghold sat idly in the front steps of Sky High on the first day of his senior year. He sat alone, deserted by all of his friends who'd coupled off the second they'd arrived. His eyes roamed over Magenta and Zach, currently arguing about whatever stupid thing Zach had recently said without thinking, then Ethan and his girlfriend of a year, Thelma. Will could over hear the two excitedly discussing their new classes. His gaze drifted to the last couple: Layla and Warren.
A wry look crossed his face as he saw the last two wrapped up in each other. Who saw that one coming, the Hippie and the Hothead. Will winced when he thought of Layla ending things between them at the end of freshman year because she "just didn't feel that way about him anymore." He'd been floored when Warren and Layla cornered him a month later to make sure he wouldn't be hurt if they started going out. The rest was history. And while he was fairly happy for all of his friends, or at least reluctantly accepting, Will felt a hell of a lot like the odd man out when they were all together. So he'd dated here and there for the past few years, trying to find his own second half, but he still didn't have the results he'd hoped for.
Will checked his watch. Two minutes until the bell rang. Two minutes until he could stop feeling like the awkward seventh wheel and join the gang. Thirty seconds of anxious foot-tapping later, Will decided to cut his losses and head to class early.
He rounded the corner of the hallway and ran into Principal Powers.
"Oops, sorry," he apologized, pulling her up from the floor.
She nodded superiorly at him and dusted off her skirt. "No harm done. Actually, I was coming to find you anyway." She held out a hand to her left and Will finally noticed the person standing next to her. The girl looked about his age, and he guessed she was about five and a half feet compared to his six. She looked decidedly normal; the only outstanding quality was her titian hair.
"I was wondering if you could show Miss. Finnegan around today since you are the class president and everything." She turned to her charge. "Eleanor Finnegan, this is William Stronghold. He's also a senior and I believe has a few classes with you. Okay?" She didn't wait for an answer. "Good. Right then, now that that's taken care of I need to hunt down Medulla."
The two teenagers watched her stalk off in silence before turning back to each other. Will ran a hand through his hair to get it out of his eyes, Great, more responsibility. He looked at the girl standing in front of him, shifting her weight from foot to foot, and felt a little bad for projecting his frustration out on her. He took a deep breath and held out his hand.
"It's Will actually."
The girl held shook his hand and smiled. "I go by Ellie. You don't have to show me around, you know. I've been able to read for a while now."
Will let out a short laugh, liking her a little more. "Of course I have to show you around. What kind of welcome wagon would I be if I didn't? Besides, I bet if we play our cards right, we can swing it so we miss a healthy chunk of first period. Who do you have for it?"
Ellie looked at her schedule before responding. "Boomer for Gym."
"Me too, good, then we can definitely get away with playing a little hookie. You up for it?"
"Absolutely." Ellie smiled back up at him, relief allowing her to relax some. At least there's one nice person at this school. She let him lead the way down another hallway.
They wandered around the school in silence for a while, Will pointing out basic landmarks. After several minutes of quiet, Will tried for a little conversation.
"So, you're a senior huh? Must suck to go to a new school for your last year." Will looked down at her as he walked toward the library.
"Kind of. But my dad got a better job with the sector of the Heroes Intelligence Agency in Maxville, so I didn't really have much of a choice." She shrugged her shoulders and let the conversation lag back into their comfortable silence.
Will picked it back up. "So where were you before?"
"We lived in Texas." She smiled back at him. "So this is the first time I'm going to get to see snow. I am a little excited about that." She entered through the door Will held open for her. "This is the library I presume?"
"You got it. And I think this is the first time I've ever been in here to tell you the truth." He heard Ellie laugh. He turned back to her grinning and started to exit.
"Moving on. So, it's cool that your dad works for the Agency. What does your mom do?"
"She used to do hero work, but she had my sister two years ago and now she just stays at home. What about you? What do your parents do?" She looked up to meet Will's wry smile.
"They're heroes." He left it there, enjoying for once not being labeled as Commander and Jetstream's kid. "So what's your power?" He looked down at Ellie to see a small grimace on her face.
"Tell me yours and I'll tell you mine."
Will laughed. "Okay, I inherited strength and flight." He unconsciously sought Ellie's reaction: she was shaking her head.
"Two? You got two powers?" Will looked sheepish, but nodded. Ellie laughed. "No fair; I only got one and it's so not as cool as either of those. But I was on the hero track at my old school."
Will interjected, "We don't split into tracks here anymore. Everyone goes through the same classes and training."
"That's kind of nice." Ellie nodded.
"So, before I interrupted, you were telling me what your power was…" Will caught sight of Ellie's face, and laughed at her disgruntled expression. "Come on, it can't be that bad if you were classified a hero."
Ellie sighed, "It's not bad, just a little …unpredictable. It's a family power."
Will egged her on, "And…"
"I'm Lucky." Will shook his head, not quite understanding.
Ellie rolled her eyes, she hated explaining this. "That's my power. I'm ridiculously Lucky." She tried again, "My dad's family is Irish, so there you go. I'm Lucky."
Will tried to hold back his smile but failed. "Sorry, it's just…that's unusual."
Ellie laughed a little. "No, it's ridiculous. You can say it, it's no news to me." She laughed a little harder. "You should see the superhero uniforms my family comes up with. They all look like giant leprechauns."
Will laughed in earnest now. "That's awesome. My family looks like they took a cue from Uncle Sam." Ellie joined him in mocking their elders until they'd reached their destination. Will stopped.
"Unfortunately, we've made it to the gym. But," he checked his watch. "We successfully wasted about forty minutes." He heard an empty laugh from Ellie and looked down to see her adjusting her clothes and squaring her shoulders.
"Don't worry," he said, "It'll be fine. Just…don't take Boomer too seriously. He can be a jerk sometimes."
Ellie smiled graciously up at him. "Okay. Thanks for showing me around."
"No problem," Will answered and opened the door. "After you."
Will and Ellie walked into the gym to see the rest of the class dressed in pads and working in partners. Everyone stopped to watch the two walk in.
"Glad to see you decided to join us, Mr. Stronghold. Who's with you?" Boomer yelled.
"This is Ellie Finnegan. Principal Powers had me show her around so that's why we're late." Will covertly rolled his eyes at Ellie while Coach Boomer scanned the roll sheet.
"Ahh, yes, Eleanor Finnegan. So you're a new student. Well, let's see what you've got. Class, gather round, we're going to have a quick little Power Placement session."
Boomer motioned for Ellie to follow him as he crossed to the middle of the gym and climbed up on the stage there.
"Okay, guys this is Eleanor-"
"Ellie, actually," she interrupted him. She regretted it instantly when he gave her a withering stare.
"Fine, Ellie. Anyway, let's see what the girl can do." A few people clapped their hands.
"Power up!" Boomer demanded.
Ellie looked back at him after a second.
"I said, 'Power UP!" he yelled louder.
"I am," Ellie's voice stuttered. She caught sight of Will in the crowd and felt a little more confident when she saw his reassuring smile.
Boomer shook his head at her, and pulled out a small device. "Alright then. Car!"
Ellie looked back at him eyes wide with terror, as he pushed the button on the contraption in his had.
Nothing happened. Boomer swore under his breath, and pressed the butted harder. When nothing happened again, he looked back at Ellie a little disappointed.
"Well, we'll try something else then." He pressed another button on the device. As he did, the flooring beneath Ellie's feet jumped up, but only caused her to hop a foot in the air.
Boomer swore a little louder this time. "I don't know what's wrong with this thing! Looks like you got lucky, kid. Just tell us what your power is instead."
Ellie crossed her arms over her chest, loathing every minute of being the center of attention. "That is my power. I'm Lucky."
"What?" Boomer asked incredulously. "You're Lucky? What the hell does that mean?"
"I can't really give you an exact definition. It's pretty much like it sounds. Like the car- I don't have superstrength, so if you dropped a car on me, I'd die. But I got lucky and the thing didn't work. Once, a kid who could control wind tried to blow me off of the side of our old school, but "luckily" the strap of my bag got tangled in a tree, so he didn't succeed." Ellie looked at Coach Boomer, willing him to understand. Please just say you get it so I can get off of this stage.
Boomer just looked confused. "Okay. So that's really qualifies as a Super Power?"
Ellie nodded miserably; she'd heard this so many times. Yes it's a power, not a really amazing or consistently effective one, but it's enough to let me go to Super school. She wondered for the millionth time what her life would be like if she'd gotten a really cool power or even if she'd had no power at all. Anything would be better than straddling this fence of hero and citizen.
Coach Boomer tried to wipe the bewildered look off his face, and tried to get control of the class that had erupted into whispers when they'd seen the new girl's "demonstration."
"HEY! Everyone go change back into your street clothes, class is almost over!" The students walked off to do as he said, clumping in little groups to chat. Effectively leaving Ellie behind as she descended the steps of the raised stage. As she picked up her bag again, she saw one person had stayed for her: Will.
"Hey," Ellie started, not really wanting to answer the inevitable questions he had about her pathetic power.
"Hey," Will answered back, noting the defeated slump in Ellie's shoulders. "Who do you have next period?"
Ellie smiled in relief at the mundane question, and rifled through her things to find the paper Principal Power's had given her. "Ummm, I have Defoe for World Geography next."
Will nodded and led her out the gym's double doors. "Okay. I have English, but I'll show you where yours is." He looked down at her, gauging whether or not she was up for hearing what he though about her power demonstration. After a couple awkward seconds of that, Will decided that he'd just tell her anyway.
"So… your power demonstration was awesome." Ellie looked at him sharply, trying to judge whether he was mocking her or not. All she saw was honesty in his face.
"Really?" she asked a little shocked, no one had ever told her that before.
"Yeah," Will laughed. "I have never seen Boomer so tripped up before. He usually just swaggers around like he owns the school, but you threw him for a loop. Everyone was talking about it while you were up there."
Ellie stood up a little straighter. Maybe even if the teachers don't respect my powers I can at least get a little support from the other students.
"Oh," Will thought of another question. "Someone tried to blow you off the school?"
Ellie laughed, "That is a long story for another day."
Will laughed as he stopped outside of a classroom and inclined his head toward it. "Ta-dah, World Geography. In case I don't have a class with you until the afternoon, I wanted to tell you that you should sit with me and my friends at lunch. I mean…you know, unless you have someone else you'd rather sit with."
Ellie smiled earnestly. She'd been fearing lunch since she found out she'd be moving; no one wanted to execute that agonizing walk through the cafeteria searching for a table.
"Thanks, I'd love to sit with you. See you then. And, thanks again for showing me around."
Will smiled in response and walked off down the next hall to his second period, thinking how nice it was going to be to have someone to talk to when the rest of his friends paired off during lunch today.
Okay so this Will story has been on my mind for a while now and all of a sudden yesterday I had the plot. So…it's kind of a nice opposite to Save the Citizen. To go from moody Warren to your basic guy-stupidness of Will. I'm still writing Save the Citizen and Salem Revisited but this one is getting added too.
There will be spies, betrayal, and Warren/Layla vs. Will so that should be fun.
Review and tell me if you like it enough for me to keep going.