The first time Wally sees her at school, he wonders why he hadn't made the connection before.
It was chaotic and humid inside the gymnasium; the bass undertones and the drums of the school's band vibrated the bleachers under his feet and the heat from the bodies around him was making him flush.
Their school wasn't the largest, but he was sure if he stood outside he could have heard the band playing through the brick. It bounced off walls and made his head pound and for a few moments, he sincerely considered zipping out. There was no point to the rally anyway - he wasn't going to the football game later that night - and watching the dance team perform made him sigh. They were out of sync, rushed, and judging by their pink faces, they were probably just as overheated as the students were in the bleachers were.
They flocked off of the basketball court, replaced suddenly by the cheerleaders, and Wally heard himself sigh. He knew the assembly was probably going to last a lot longer than it should - they always did, always would - and to the speedster, it felt like the time was crawling by slower than a snail.
There was a moment of silence - well, as silent as a gym full of high school kids could be - as the band paused and the cheerleaders took their spots, and just like before, the swell of noise overtook the chatter of the students. That was, until a chorus of cries and hollering rose above the music, ripping Wally from his thoughts.
Handsprings and cartwheels and round-offs, he couldn't possibly name all of the things the girl was doing as she went from one edge of the basketball court to the other, moving so fast that the average person probably saw her blur. But Wally wasn't an average person, and the clarity he saw her flip and land was almost inhuman.
It had to be. There wasn't a way that a regular teenage girl could land something so complex on hard wood, with no give or bounce-back.
She stood up from the series of twists she'd just landed, and Wally caught a glimpse of blond hair tinged with pink, tied up into pigtails and accented with black ribbons. There was a grin on her face, proud and almost a little meek, and I watched her take in a breath, take a step back, before getting a running start and doing the series of tricks all over again.
The grin on his face nearly rivaled hers, and Wally wondered exactly what time this football game started…