Freddy cornered Billy as soon as class was over. "What the hell happened to you?" He asked as they walked towards Billy's locker.
"Nothing," Billy mumbled in response.
"Nothing, my ass. Who did you get into a fight with? Is there another supervillain? Do we all have to suit up?" He was getting animated now, his voice rising.
Billy shushed him. "No, Freddy. And keep your voice down."
Freddy frowned as the two stopped at the locker, Billy opening it and pulling books out. "Look," Freddy said stepping in front of Billy, "unless you went and beat up yourself, somebody had to give you that bruise." He pointed to the already purpling bruise of the side of Billy's cheek.
Billy just gave him a side-eyed look as he shut his locker door and started walking again.
"Look, I get it. But I thought we had moved past all the," he dropped his voice in tone and put his hand on his hip, " 'I work alone, I don't need a family' ", attitude."
"I don't have that attitude."
"Sure you don't. But this morning you literally left without all of us and then no one sees you until you walk in ten minutes late all beat up."
"Something happened." He stopped Freddy when he saw he was about to interrupt him again. "It wasn't superhero related."
"Was it school related?"
"Not school related, either."
"Well then what else could it have been?" Freddy asked.
"It was nothing."
Freddy stopped. "You are so annoying. Fine, you don't want to tell me, don't tell me. But have fun explaining your face to everyone else when we get home."
Freddy huffed and walked away, leaving Billy to walk to seventh period by himself and wonder what kind of great excuse he was going to have to come up with.
...
Turns out, he didn't need a great excuse. As soon as he walked in the door Rosa and Victor gushed over him.
"Were the kids at school bugging you again?" Rosa asked.
She whisked him away to the kitchen where Victor was getting the first aid kit. "You know, fighting is never the answer but we're proud of you for standing up for your brother."
"Uh, right. Yep." Billy added when he realized the two of them were looking at him.
"Oh." Rosa said pausing. "Freddy let us know what happened at school. He said some kids were picking on him and you tried to help him."
Billy stared at the spot where Freddy had just appeared from, staring at him. "He told you guys that?"
"Yes he did, son," Victor added taking a look at the bruise on Billy's cheek.
Rosa grabbed the shoulder without the tear in it. "And we're really proud of you, Billy."
The two of them smiled at him and fished looking at his face. The only thing they could really do was give Billy an ice pack and tell him to take it easy for the rest of the night. Billy went straight for his and Freddy's room.
"What was that about?" He asked as he walked in, sat on the bed and put the ice pack up to his face.
Freddy shrugged. "Well, since you weren't going to think of anything creative I thought I would."
Billy stiffened. "I would have thought of something."
"Sure you would have." Freddy scoffed. "Are you going to tell me what really happened now that I covered for you."
Billy eyed him skeptically. "Why does there have to be a catch?"
"Because apparently, that's the only way to get you to open up to me."
"Why can't you just leave it alone?"
"Because," Freddy paused, sitting next to Billy on the bed but not meeting his eyes. "You're my best friend and my brother and I don't like to see you hurt."
The two were silent for a second. Freddy laughed nervously. "I'm sorry to get all girly on you but I care about you a lot, Billy. That's what family does. And when I didn't see you today I thought that something had happened. Like, something bad."
"But it didn't."
"But it could have." Freddy lightly punched Billy on the shoulder, "we're superheroes now, dude. You never know what could happen."
Billy and Freddy smiled at each other.
Billy smiled. "I guess we are kinda badass superheroes."
"Kinda? We're not kinda, we are badass."
Billy laughed and Freddy smiled. "So will you please tell me what happened, now?" Freddy asked.
Billy sighed. "Do you promise not to tell Victor and Rosa?"
"Scouts honor."
"I went to see my mom again, today."
"You what?" Freddy yelled. "I thought that you were done with that whole thing."
Billy got a little angry. "No, I'm not done with the whole thing of my mom. I can't just 'be done with it'."
"I thought you said that she didn't want you."
"It's not... it's not that simple."
"It sounds pretty simple to me."
"She wants to get to know me."
Freddy scoffed. "Bullshit."
"No, for real. She said that she wanted to spend more time today but the only time that she was off was during lunch so I got to school early, turned everything in and then... checked myself out." Freddy frowned. He and Billy had agreed that it was in everyone's best interest if they stopped using Billy's 'Shazam form' to check themselves out in case people recognized him and wanted to know why he was hanging around the school.
"I thought you said we weren't gonna do that anymore?" Freddy accused.
"It was just this one time. She really sounded like she wanted to see me."
"So what happened?"
"Well I went to the restaurant she works at and we just... talked. I told her about my life with foster families and about school and... my new family."
"So did she give you the black eye?"
Billy frowned at him. "No, it was her douche bag of a boyfriend. He walked in and mom told him who I was and he didn't like that very much."
"Dude!" Freddy said leaning back. "You could have blasted his ass into next week."
"And then what? Have to explain to my mom and everyone else in the restaurant that how I magically transformed into a superhero? No, I just had to wait it out. It wasn't a superhero necessary situation."
Freddy frowned. "I still think you should have pummeled the guy."
"Hey, I got in a couple of good shots as Billy Batson, thank you very much."
"Sure you did." Freddy smiled.
The two sat in the quiet for a second. "Are you sure you're okay?" Freddy asked.
Billy smiled, placing his hand on Freddy's shoulder. "Yes. I promise."
But Freddy know he was lying. And Freddy had a sneaking suspicion that Billy knew that he knew.
