Chapter One - In Real Life

It was like every other day. I had no interest in school whatsoever, nor did I really care about the nerdy things that Leonne told me. He was always spending his lunches telling me about new TV shows he saw or about why a certain person, usually fictional, is a wonderful addition to the human race. Leonne was my best friend, but sometimes, he just kept going on about things I didn't care about. Sometimes, I would take notice, but that's only when either I have nothing better to do or I actually find it interesting (that only happened once and he was talking about Superman having enormous muscles and chiseled features; what girl, or guy, wouldn't want to listen to someone talking about that?)

"So, this was the first time I saw it right and basically, as soon as I saw it, I was amazed. It was absolutely fantastic. Even the theme is just breath-taking! I mean, really, it's amazing! It is techno and all, so it's really cool! And then Artemis and M'gann… I mean, wow… They are…" Leonne started, playing more with his food than eating it because he was getting so into his story. He whistled at the end of his sentence, so I decided to sound somewhat interested and actually talk to him about it.

"Uh, Lee, what did you say it was called?" I asked, not bothering to look at him. I shoved a spoon of spaghetti into my mouth and wondered why it was called spaghetti. Why wasn't it pronounced spag-hetti? Why couldn't it be 'a wriggly, dinner jelly' or something?

"Young Justice. Like I said, it's awesome. And I mean awesome. I think that you'll like a few of them. Kid Flash and Robin seem to be your type," Leonne chuckled with a wink to me. I scoffed and laughed in reply.

"Uh, Lee, you're forgetting, I like real people. They make me feel warm and fuzzy. Cartoons make me feel pixelly," I joked, punching Leonne softly in the arm.

"No wonder people call you Tempest. You have the personality of a storm; you never know when it'll hit!" Leonne exclaimed, still chuckling. I joined him in chuckling and continued eating, my favourite pasttime.

"I really have to show you Young Justice this afternoon. We're still on for it, right?" Leonne asked, smiling at me. I nodded and continued eating. Every afternoon, I would go over to his house, sometimes to see a new show, sometimes just to talk. He had been my best friend for years and even though he was a complete nerd, I still loved him like he was my own brother.

~~~.~~~

The bell rang as I placed the last little bit of spaghetti into my mouth and shoved the container into my bag. My mum was a great cook and always gave me the leftovers to take to school so that I didn't have to buy lunch.

"What have we got next? I can't be bothered thinking…" I said to Lee, walking next to him like a zombie who's had too much to drink.

"Wow, are you high or something? And we've got English," Lee joked, pushing me away from him lightly and jogging ahead. It was true; whenever Lee and I were together, no one knew what we'd get up to. I guessed it was from listening to so much of whatever he said about superheroes. I could be one if I wanted to, though not a very good one.

"Brains!" I joked, dragging my leg along behind me, my arms outstretched, catching a few odd looks for the passers-by. With only a metre to the classroom and Lee still running, someone opened the door, causing Lee to run straight into it.

"Eurh… Five second rule," I chuckled, helping Lee to his feet, who just shot me an evil stare.

"What?" I asked innocently, "I wasn't the one who just got punched in the face by a door."

Again, another evil stare. As we entered the classroom, the same musty smell that always lurked around the room hit my nostrils, making me pick up the air freshener that the class had decided on keeping in the room and sprayed, making the air somewhat breathable and gaining many sighs of appreciation.

"Well, my job's done," I stated, sitting on the chair in front of Lee. English, in our opinion, was the best class ever. We could do whatever we wanted to do and the teacher didn't care. He just droned on about things and hoped the class would listen. His hopes were defeated.

"Hey, Shay Shay!" I heard a very masculine voice trickle through the air, so I looked to my right to catch a glimpse of Blake, who was winking at me. I fluttered my eyes at him in return and smiled. It was the usual thing. I would always flirt with him, and he would always flirt with me, but we never dated. I was known as the school flirt. But, despite all that, I still had my self-respect and didn't sleep with anyone. Things would stay that way until I was married.

A few times during the lesson, and since I turned to sit with my legs over the right side of the chair so I could talk easier to Blake, I glanced to my right to see Lee drawing a few characters from, from what I guessed, Young Justice. Even though I hated to admit it, I was checking out some of the characters, because Leonne was a really amazing drawer. His attention to detail was outstanding. He had drawn two together and wrote 'Robin' and 'Kid Flash' next to them. I knew that I'd find out who they were eventually.

I just didn't realise how soon.

That afternoon, as the final school bell rang out, I made my way to Lee's place, as I always did in the afternoon. He lived only about ten minutes from me and even though we were already at his house, he'd always walk me home. Lee was a gentleman when he wanted to be.

The afternoon's walk seemed slow and uneventful, with me walking like a solitary bear, ready to pounce on anything that dared attack it. The cracked, cobblestone path that I followed had blades of grass protruding from it and ants smothering it, also. Each step of the lonely way, I took note of everything that I passed, from the colouring of various trees, to the darkness of the sky. That's when something struck me as strange.

When I left the school, which was only a few minutes prior, the sky was bright and clear, but now, everything was growing darker, like a horrible storm was forming.

"You're going crazy, Shay. Just ignore it. It's all in your head," I reassured myself, planting a smile on my face, which was soon smacked off by a crack of thunder, which gave me a heart attack.

"Not imagining it! Not imagining it!" I repeated to myself, running on the path, as fast as I could, toward Lee's house. The faster I got there, the better! But things would be even better if, for once, Lee arrived before me.

It felt like hours passed before I saw the roof of his house over the trees. I breathed a breath of relief, which was soon knocked out of me by another tremendous crack of thunder right behind me. I continued running and as soon as I reached his house, I let myself in.

"Whoo!" I gasped, leaning against the door. For some obscene reason, I felt like the thunder was chasing me, but I knew that only crazy people thought that.

Like usual, the first thing I did was raid his fridge, looking for a drink. All that his fridge usually consisted of was celery, peanut butter, water and cake, but I was on a diet, so the water was all I took.

About a half hour passed before Lee returned home. His parents worked late, well past after when I usually left his home. That's the reason that I was always allowed over; to keep Lee company.

"Where were you?" I asked sternly, sounding like his mother.

"Relax, I was at the video store. I told you I'd show you Young Justice, and that's exactly what I got. With a sigh, I rolled my eyes and sat in the lounge chair right in front of the TV. That was the place that I always sat, and like Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, I refused to give up my spot.

"I hope it's good. I was being chased by thunder, I spent a whole half hour waiting for you to get home and all I could consume was WATER! There was cake, but no. I was being a good girl and just had water," I complained, stretching my arms.

"I think you'll like some of the characters. I reckon you'll think a few of the guys, maybe all, are pretty hot," Lee giggled at me, sitting next to me with the remote after putting the DVD into the DVD player.

"I will not! I don't go after guys that easily!" I retorted, folding my arms and scoffing.

Lee just returned my eye roll and scoff and said, "Are you kidding? You'll flirt with anything that moves! Blake, for example?" I didn't know what to say. It was partly true. I had a thing for always flirting.

But little did I know that all that would end up being a strange, old thing for me.

"Why isn't the player working?" Lee asked, fiddling with the remote. I thought we were still discussing Blake, so I got a little offended.

"He isn't a player! And he is working. Just not right now," I replied, my arms still folded.

"I don't mean him, I mean this. Is it the disc?" Lee muttered to himself, kneeling on all fours and crawling over to the DVD player. All I could muster was a simple 'Oh.'

A few minutes passed and nothing. All that appeared was a picture of some buses on a bridge. That was all. In those few minutes, I zoned out slightly, not realizing what was happening, until I heard Lee hiss in pain.

"Are you okay?" I asked, walking up to him. With a shake of the head, Lee showed me his finger, was hell-bent on bleeding. I jerked my head back a little and repeated what Lee was doing: trying to get the DVD to work. For some reason, a strange zap caused my finger to bleed as well, though I had no idea why.

And with one last look at each other, we both saw black.