Sky High: Teens In Tights
Chapter 4: Jamal and I Invade the Boy's Locker Room
A/N: Thank you so much for all of your incredible reviews- they really help with the writing process, so keep them coming!
By the time I shook off my lapse in sanity and made my way to the gym, Boomer had gotten through the Q's, R's, and one of the S's. The second I walked into the room, I knew who was missing from the crowd.
Where was my little brother?
I asked Aidan and Sakura when I took a place next to them, and they exchanged a knowing look before Sakura answered.
"He ran out when Boomer sorted him. I think I heard Cory say something about him locking himself in the boy's bathroom," she told me.
"Where did he get placed?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
Aidan shrugged, keeping his eyes fixed to the front of the room. The guy who was being sorted, Desmond Sorel, was teleporting himself all over the place.
"Sidekick," Aidan whispered. "He didn't show any signs of powers."
I groaned- Boomer glared at me from behind the sunglasses- and felt myself pale. "I gotta go find him," I said desperately, before jogging back out of the gym. I was abnormally glad that I had chosen to wear sneakers that day.
The bathrooms, as it turned out, were connected to the locker rooms, and I stood stock still when I saw the dark blue sign with the male stick figure on it.
"It's easy, Mel," I told myself, shifting my weight from foot to foot. "It's just a sign, and Robin needs you. Just go in. Go in. Go in. Go in-"
"Watcha' doin'?" a deep, suspicious voice rumbled from behind me.
I flew around with a gasp and then relaxed when I saw Jamal Beck's frowning face. Then I flushed bright red when I realized what this must have looked like to him. And on the first day of school too. Bummer.
"I-I- Robin- my brother- is in there, and I-" I muttered, staring down at my feet.
Jamal laughed suddenly, shocking me. "Hey, don't sweat it," he said, hooking his fingers through his belt loops. "Want me to go in there and check to make sure there's no one else?"
I nodded and grinned. "Thanks," I said, because, one, I was grateful, and, two, Jamal seemed like a pretty cool dude.
He nodded and pushed the door open, disappearing inside. "All clear," he called out to me, and I walked in after.
The first thing I noticed was the smell: Boy and man all at the same time. Man-boy. Disgusting. It was only the first day of school, so the place was relatively spotless. The bright blue lockers gleamed and the grey tile floor looked clean. Jamal was standing by a row of blue stalls in the back of the room near the showers. I blushed when I saw the urinals.
"Hey, c'mon man," he was saying into one of the stalls. "It's not that bad. And your sister's here to talk to you."
"Yeah? Well I don't wanna talk to her," I heard Robin's voice snap as I approached.
I flinched, then scowled and said, "Too bad. I did not break into the boy's locker room to just turn around and head back out. So get your cowardly butt out of there and talk to me."
Robin grumbled but obeyed, and the door swung open to reveal his scowling face. "What do you want?" he demanded.
My face softened and I stared at him apologetically. "You doin' okay?" I asked in a gentle voice.
He scoffed and leaned up against the stall. "Fine," he said sarcastically. "Just peachy. Will you leave now?"
I glared at him and snapped, "No. And what's with you? I get that you're a sidekick, and, really, that does kinda suck, but what's up with the attitude? I seriously don't appreciate it."
"You're right," Robin answered, "being a sidekick does suck. Especially since I was supposed to be the hero. Not you! But no- no you just had to get powers! And really cool ones too! You couldn't just have a tail or ears or something. Nope! You're a frikkin' ninja! And what am I? Useless," he muttered.
I was stunned for a minute. "Are you kidding me?" I finally said. "Are- are you kidding me? You're complaining that I'm a hero? Are you kidding me?"
Jamal edged toward the door. "I'm just gonna go now," he told us. We completely ignored him as he left.
"Yeah. I am complaining!" Robin yelled, facing turning dark red.
"Oh really? Well, you know what? Go ahead. Be that way! At least now you know what I used to feel like," I replied. "How do you think it felt when Mom and Dad told me, 'don't worry, Mellie, you can always be Robin's side kick'? I hated it! Why did everyone always assume that, anyways?"
Instead of giving Robin anytime to respond- because I honestly didn't care what he had to say- I stomped out of the locker room, letting the door slam shut behind me, absolutely fuming.
I didn't get it. I really didn't.
Why had everyone decided that Robin was the strong one? The better one? Because he wasn't. Power Placement today had proved that, right? Right? Did I just look like a sidekick to people?
Yeah, I wasn't as smart as Robin, and probably never would be. Yeah, I was a girl and Dad paid him more attention than me. And yeah, maybe I had a temper and I was childish and boy crazy and too snarky for my own good and Robin had always been more popular than me, but that didn't mean anything, right?
Apparently, to other people, it did.
But things were different now, I reminded myself. The tables had turned. Now Robin was on the receiving end of things. Now Robin would know how it felt to be underestimated and under appreciated.
And it was going to be awesome; I would make sure of it if it killed me.
Which, as I would find out soon, it probably would.
The second the school bus pulled to a stop, Robin and I had stormed off of it and into our house. Robin tramped up the stairs without so much as a backward glance at me. I glared at his back as he went, and let the front door slam shut behind me. Mumbling curses under my breath, I wandered into the kitchen, dropped my navy book bag with a thunk, and started to look for something healthy to eat.
The hamburger and fries at lunch today had been a splurge. I needed something green and leafy, pronto. And a run around the block, or a punching bag.
Mom and Dad wouldn't be home from work for about two and a half hours, so until then, it was just me and Robin.
Joy.
Needless to say, I was eager to get out of the house.
A quick comb through our nearly-empty fridge confirmed my suspicions that Mom hadn't replaced our groceries from this morning. Grumbling under my breath, I grabbed an orange and peeled it with furious, harsher than necessary strokes. I scowled as I bit down on it, washed my hands, and pounded up the stairs.
I stopped as I passed Robin's room and pressed my ear up against the door. Judging by the whirring sounds and the panting, he was on the treadmill. I sighed and walked into my own messy bedroom.
Moving quickly, I dumped my pretty much empty book bag, pulled my hair into a braid, threw on a headband, and changed into a black tank top and blue sweatpants. Not even bothering to grab my MP3 player- it didn't work anyways- I jogged back downstairs and slammed out the door.
The sky had grown overcast and cloudy while I had been at school. I was glad. It suited my less-than-pleased mood.
The soles of my sneakers squeaked against the pavement as I ran. My socks rubbed against my ankles uncomfortably, and I could feel one begin to slip down around my heel, but I ignored that and kept on, letting myself sweat out my frustrations. Yeah, I was gonna be sore as crap in the morning, but that's what I get for not excersizing over the summer. My legs were starting to burn with exertion and I could feel my head spin. I relished in it, pushing even harder.
I didn't know how long I had been running for, but by the time I felt finished with my wallowing, I was standing in the middle of historic downtown, next to the severely Indie Jamba Juice; a smoothie/coffee shop that hosted a lot of really cool bands I probably didn't know the names of. A girl was standing there, looking at one of the posters for upcoming acts, and I watched her as I tried to catch my breath. I'd turn around and head home for a shower in a few minutes.
The girl had strawberry blond hair, and wore a light purple sweater with polka dot shorts. A camera was on a strap around her neck. She looked vaguely familiar, and I found myself trying to place her.
"Hey," I called, when it didn't look like I was getting anywhere. "Don't I go to school with you?"
She glanced up and checked behind her, as if she thought I was talking to someone else, before saying, in a low voice, "That would depend on where you go to school."
I checked the street. We were the only ones there, so I thought it would be safe to talk in a normal voice. "Sky High," I said.
Her eyes widened in recognition and she nodded quickly. "Then yes," she said. "I'm Violet Todd, a freshman. I just started there today."
"Mellie Quick, also a freshman," I said, holding out a hand for her to take.
Violet grinned shyly and shook my hand with a weak grip. "Nice to meet you. Your Power Placement was really cool," she told me in a small voice.
I bit my lip, trying to think if I had seen hers. I hadn't, probably because I was too busy yelling at Robin, so I said, "I wish I could say the same, but I don't think I was there for yours. How'd it go?"
"I got Hero," Violet said, blushing. "I manipulate sound waves," she explained.
"Cool," I said. I looked at the poster she had been staring at, for lack of anything better to do. "'We the Kings'," I said slowly. I looked over at her. "You like them?"
Violet nodded, still blushing, and stared down at her feet. I pushed up onto my toes and back down on my heels awkwardly.
"Okay then," I said, turning back the way I had come. "I'm just gonna head home... See you tomorrow?" I didn't wait for her to reply and started running again, the storm clouds looming threateningly over head. I didn't want to be caught in the rain.
Little did I know that Violet and I hadn't been as alone as we thought.
I didn't beat the rain home.
I didn't beat my parents home either. My mom called my name as I came through the front door, absolutely soaked, and groaned when she stepped into the entrance hall.
"Head upstairs and shower for dinner," she told me. "Then you and Robin can tell your father and I all about your first day."
I nodded lamely and trudged up the stairs, not looking forward to that particular conversation. Or, more precisely, their looks of shock when Robin told them about Power Placement.
As it always seems to do when I'm not looking forward to something, time flew, and before I knew it, the entire Quick family was seated around our kitchen table, Mom and Dad with raised eyebrows, me with damp hair, and Robin with a surly pout.
"So how did it go?" Mom asked us, like she didn't notice that anything was out of the ordinary. Which, I knew, she did.
I didn't say anything, concerning myself instead with slurping on a spoon full of tomato soup, trying not to look at Robin.
I heard him take a deep breath before saying, "It went...unexpected, to say the least."
"Unexpected?" Dad repeated, setting down his water glass. "Unexpected how, exactly?"
"Mellie's a hero and I'm a sidekick, exactly," Robin explained in a dry voice.
There was silence for a long time after that. I let my spoon drop and started shredding my paper napkin.
"Oh," Mom said. "Oh, that uh- that is pretty unexpected."
Robin banged his glass on the table, shoved his chair back and stomped upstairs. Dad was staring at me, stunned. He had that shocked- insultingly shocked- look on his face that I had been dreading. I bit my lip and glanced down at the strips of paper dotting the table.
"I'm heading upstairs," I said in a dark voice. "Night. See you in the morning."
I followed Robin up the stairs and flopped down onto my bed. I screamed into my pillow for a long time, not caring that it was damaging my vocal chords, and fell asleep like that. The blond-haired boy starred in my dreams once again that night. I didn't remember what he had said when I woke up, only that he called me Cammie.
"Cammie," I thought I heard his voice whisper when my eyes flashed open.
I lay in bed for a while, panting, and glanced at the clock.
2:07 AM, it read.
With a sigh, I stripped off my sweat pants, shut off the light, and slipped under the covers.
