Chapter Two
Lunch time. The one time of the day when all the children can come together and talk about non-sense that no one cares much about. There it was; the table of freshman sidekicks. It was my turn to welcome them. I stood up from Lash, Speed and my table and calmly made my way over to the end of their table. I stopped and placed my palms down on the table bending over slightly as I smiled.
"Hi, I just thought I'd come over here and introduce myself, I'm Hailey Porter," I said cheerfully. The whole table looked at me as if trying to gauge my sincerity. Finally a girl with red hair and a floral appearance spoke up.
"I'm Layla," she offered her hand. I smiled thankfully and took it.
"It's a pleasure, what's your power?" I asked.
"She manipulates plants," a boy with dark brown shaggy hair said.
I raised an eyebrow, "Manipulates plants? Hmm, interesting, how about you?" I asked the boy.
"Will Stronghold…" that was all he had to say.
"The Commander and Jetstream's son, pleasure, what about the rest of you?" I wanted to be the one of the few that didn't gush, and make it a bigger deal than it was. I knew what it was like to be patronized in my parent's stead.
"I'm Ethan, I melt," an African American kid said.
"Zach Attack, I glow!" A brightly dressed kid with bleached blonde hair announced proudly.
"Magenta, I'm a shape shifter," I lit up.
"Yay, a fellow shape shifter! Into what?" I replied.
"Guinea pig, you?"
"Cat! Probably even
slightly less useful" I replied and laughed, "I just got lucky
with another power."
"And what's that?" Layla asked. I
concentrated on the table lifting it a foot into the air. I set it
down gently as they all smiled. "Impressive," Layla complimented.
I smiled.
"Ehh, I guess whatever, so how is power placement going for all of you?" I asked.
"Crappy, you're looking at this year's sidekick crew," Ethan announced. I smiled.
"Hey don't worry about it; I don't believe in all that labeling stuff anyways, it's so useless. I prefer to just be whatever," I spilled the truth to them. Layla seemed to appreciate my point of view the most. "Well hey I got to go, but you guys and gals just hang on, trust me, the year will get better." I turned around to see Warren Peace changing his glare from Will Stronghold to a smile directed at me. "Hey Warren," I greeted him and took a seat next to him. Lash noticed me too, he didn't like Warren, and he especially didn't like me talking to him. Warren and I had been friends for a long time, since we were kids, so whether Lash liked it or not we'd still talk.
"Hey," he said. Warren wasn't exactly known to have a lot of friends; I was one of the few. We had our fathers in common, and we got along fine. I knew the side of Warren very few people knew. He had long shoulder length black hair with a single red streak in it. He wore mostly dark colors and a black leather jacket. People tended to stay away from him because of the intimidation factor.
"And how are you today?"
"Eh okay,"
"I see you starring a hole through Will's head," I joked. He glared at me.
"Hailey you know what his dad did to ours," he whispered forcefully through his teeth.
"Yeah, and Warren, you know what our dad's did to the world," I noticed Warren getting more and more angry by the second. "Never mind, just you know, take it easy on him." I patted him on the back as I migrated back to Lash and Speed.
"You know, for my girlfriend you sure spend a lot of time with other guys," Lash said sarcastically.
"Lash layoff, I was just introducing myself to the new kids,"
"Yeah, freshman losers," Speed clarified.
"Who are you to judge tubby?" I quickly got sick of Speeds arrogance. He thought he was hot stuff, when really, he needed a reality check. Lash knew we weren't totally fond of each other, and time after time Speed was chosen over me, the girlfriend. Well that's what I get for dating a total jerk. I redirected my attention to Penny and Gwen's table which had escalated to an obnoxious volume level. Penny, an African American student who had the ability to multiply herself, as if one wasn't enough. Unlike most heroes who would give their left arm and possibly also their right one just to be able to hang out with them, I preferred to keep my distance. I found them obnoxious and way too into themselves. "Hey, you guys done?" I asked. Gwen and Penny shifted their gaze to me and glared.
"Hailey, why don't you shut up?" the Penny's suggested.
"Oh clever, well I was just thinking the same thing, your obnoxious voices are making it difficult to eat,"
"Don't be jealous," Penny replied. I shrugged. I didn't have the desire or energy to deal with them today. I gave Lash a look and he quickly understood. We got up and left the lunchroom. Lunch time was over.