Disclaimer: I do not own Sky High! There I said it! :(
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Chapter 4:
It was late in afternoon when I came walking through the backdoor of my still empty house. Unfortunately, the end of our first day wasn't any less eventful than how it started. After lunch, we were forced to return to the 'Sky High Variety Show', but not before Will made a bumbling idiot of himself in front of Gwen Grayson. When we eventually got to the gym, Will revealed that he had no clue what his power(s) was (are). Coach Boomer thought he was joking, sounding like he actually liked the Strongholds for that, and thought shooting him in the air or dropping a car on him was going to weed out his power. Neither worked, if you were wondering, evidently putting Will as a Sidekick...and in Nurse Spex office for awhile. That subjected us to a depressed Will the rest of the day. It's understandable, now that he has to tell his parents, excuse me, SUPERHERO parents that he is a sidekick.
Oh.
Wait, I have to do that too.
I inwardly groaned as I remember that I am still in the same boat as Will. Though, I think his dad just might blow a fuse whereas I am hoping my parents will be as level-headed as they usually are. I am sure they'll be disappointed but my parents don't dwell too much on things like this…usually. I mean, they did say the night before that 'no matter where I was placed, they knew I would be successful'.
But that's what they all say.
My thoughts were put on hold as I heard the faint ringtone of my cell phone playing from the pocket of my jeans. I kick the backdoor shut with my heel and toss my backpack on the kitchen counter before fishing my phone out of my jeans.
"Hello?" I said, answering the call, almost immediately cringing and pulling the phone far away from my ear as a variety of loud, raucous cheering poured from the ear piece.
I am guessing that my parents are still in China.
"Lexi? Honey, it's mom and your dad is here too!" My mom shouted above the noise.
"Hey, guys, what's up?" I asked.
"Are you back from school yet? How was your first day?" She said.
"It was…" I mulled around for the right word. "Eventful."
Understatement.
"That's good!" She obviously couldn't read further into my words, as she sounded too preoccupied to do so. I was sure that at this moment she was currently waving to millions of Chinese people while she juggled a conversation with me.
"Did you like Sky High? Was it everything you thought it would be?" She asked, with a hopeful tinge in her voice. Ever since I could fully understand things, my parents told me long stories of their days in Sky High, trying to paint me the ideal picture of the institution that harnessed their powers and eventually brought them together.
"Uh, sure it was." I sighed, recalling to mind the long list of unexpected things that had occurred.
"Oh, I just knew you would love it, sweetheart!" My dad's voice chimed in.
There was some shuffling on the other end and I think my mom ended up handing the phone over to my dad. I could tell he was drawing away from the cheering crowds as they became fainter and his voice became clearer.
"You know, I remember my first day at Sky High and my power placement—Oh! That reminds me! How was Power Placement for you?" He asked, eager to hear about it.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, there was the question. I could only wonder how Will was dealing with it right now…or not. The guy spent half of his developing years pretending that he had powers, it wouldn't faze me now to think he was still fooling his parents for just a little while longer.
I sighed and combed my free hand through my hair, putting my thoughts in order. "Power placement was…just…interesting?" I said slowly.
I gave an epic demonstration, had a car dropped on me, and now I am sidekick.
"Interesting, huh? Did you do that electricity containment thing?" My dad asked.
"Sure, did."
"Then I am sure you knocked their socks clean right off. I'm pretty sure you impressed Coach Boomer, didn't you?" His voice had this sort of smugness to it at the mention of Coach Boomer. Now, I was getting slightly more curious about that…
"Well, I wouldn't necessarily say impressed—" I stammered, remembering that Coach was anything but.
"Oh, no matter. You shouldn't think too much on your placement." I relaxed at the sound of that, and prepared myself to break the news, but my dad hadn't quite finished yet. "Because, you need to focus on your new hero classes, now!"
Damn.
"Dad, about hero classes—"
"Daniel, the Chinese president is here!" Mom shouted from the background, drowning out the beginning of my last chanced explanation.
"Sorry, Lexi. You can finish telling us the whole thing when we get home. Duty calls." My dad hastily apologized. I heard him start jogging back to wherever my mom was. "Your mom and I will be home late tonight. Go ahead and call in for dinner, alright?"
"Ok, dad, I will." I sighed.
"Daniel!" Mom shouted again. "Tell Lexi we will see her later!"
"Gotta go! We'll see you later! Love you, sweetheart!" He had to start yelling into the phone as he was back in the vicinity of the crowds, their cheering severely overpowering their voices.
"Love you too." I weakly replied as the call was cut off early.
This was just great.
I ran another hand into my hair, sighing heavily as my thoughts were becoming jumbled again. I didn't want to prolong this set of news, but I guess when your parents are on the other side of the world, being a sidekick would have to wait just a little bit.
"What am I to do?" I asked myself.
My stomach answered with a loud grumble. I frowned and looked down at my flat tummy, patting it with my hand.
"Fine. I'll feed you first."
With that being said, I grabbed the phone book and called up the 'Paper Lantern' to order myself some take-out, which is funny since I was having it delivered. The call was quick and the food was to arrive in about twenty minutes. In the meantime, I trotted upstairs with my practically empty backpack, seeing as we don't start our actual classes till tomorrow, to leave it in my room and grabbed some money from my wallet.
Finally, the door bell rang earlier than the given time and I went back downstairs, swinging the door open without hesitation because, one, I knew it was the delivery boy, and two, because I was too hungry to think that it was anyone else other than the delivery boy.
However, I feel like I should have looked first, considering I didn't expect to find Warren Peace standing at my doorstep in a delivery boy outfit and holding my dinner.
"Er…hi." I spoke first, drawing his eyes way from the paint job on my house.
His eyes narrowed when he met my gaze and his lips pursed, obviously unhappy to be in this position. His hand tightened a significant amount around my dinner, a faint red glow starting to sizzle the plastic bag. Unfortunately, I had learned today that he was flame-thrower…also an impulsive one.
Wonderful.
"How much?" I suddenly said, not wanting my dinner to burn.
"What?"
"For the food. How much do I owe you?" I asked.
His grip loosened and his skin lost the red glow as he relaxed a bit and grumbled, "Oh, right. $25.60."
I ended up giving him thirty dollars and traded it for my food. He dug into his pocket where he kept the money from deliveries and counted my change out, while I patiently waited by the door.
"We…go to school together." I stated, thinking of trying my hand at decent, civil conversation with him.
"Nice observation." He replied, not losing his focus on counting the change.
"You're Warren Peace, right?" I asked, though it was completely rhetorical. He and I both knew that, but what else was I going to say.
"Sure am." He answered flatly. "And you're Lexi Storm." Warren didn't sound like he had anything against my surname, like he did for the Strongholds.
"Seems about right."
"Friends with Will Stronghold, too, aren't you." He affirmed more than questioned, peering up at me through an inquisitive glance.
"You don't like him." I observed, leaning on my front door.
"That goes without saying." He replied simply, handing me my change and readying himself to leave.
"So I can assume you don't like me either, huh?" I said. He raised an eyebrow and gave me a questioning look, but didn't voice a reply.
"Dislike by association." I clarified with him.
His head nodded slowly in understanding, before he merely shrugged, but I caught the corner of his lip twitching to smile. "Maybe."
I nodded my head before repeating, "Maybe." I sighed and stuck my hand out to him. He stared at it confusedly while I continued. "See you around, Warren Peace."
Warren's tense expression faltered at my words and he hesitantly reached out to shake my hand. "See you around." He said, sounding slightly unsure of himself, and finally backed away from my patio.
After his delivery car drove away, I shut the front door and shuffled my way to the living room, where I went through a take-out container of shrimp fried rice and the first few chapters of 'Jane Eyre'. A while later, my parents were still on their way back from China after possibly having to stick around to receive a number of awards from the Chinese government and an empty house was starting to become a little unsettling for me. It was then, it seemed like a good idea to take a walk down the street, knowing that either Layla or Will were out. But my best bet was on Will, especially after a day like today.
I tied my Converse back on and grabbed my keys and cell phone before departing from my humble abode. The sun was in its last stage of setting when I stepped out onto the sidewalk, knowing that night wasn't too far off. But I needn't worry. Night around these parts of Maxville is completely safe, really, there were still kids out playing street hockey when I rounded a corner to the Stronghold residence, where I found Will and Layla perched on the roof.
I smiled at their predictability and ran up the driveway of the house. I climbed the tree that had grown on the side of the house and carefully hoisted myself onto the roof, where Will and Layla were engaged in conversation.
"Hey, slackers." I teased, wiping my hands on my jeans as I carefully lowered myself onto the slanted roof beside a rather dejected-looking Will.
"Hi, Lexi." Layla greeted with her usual cheerful smile. Will, on the other hand, gave me a weak smile before returning to his original state.
"I'm guessing things didn't go well, huh?" I asked, crossing my legs at the ankles and leaning back on my arms.
Will shook his head. "Things didn't go at all."
I sent a questioning look to Layla, who quickly explained to me. "He didn't tell his parents."
I swatted Will's arm, making him yelp, "Ow! Lexi!"
I gave him a pointed look that silently asked him to explain himself.
"Well, I was going to, I really was. But when I walked into the kitchen, my dad was displaying the robot eye from their latest victory and then my dad took me to the secret sanctum! I mean, what was I supposed to do then!" Will exclaimed, his frustration making itself very clear.
"Will, you have to tell them." Layla stated seriously.
"My parents are the greatest superheroes in the world—"
At that, I violently coughed and cleared my throat, fixing Will with a look.
"Aside from the Storms, of course."
Satisfied, I let him continue. "I mean, can you imagine trying to tell my parents that their only son is a sidekick, and possibly, according to Nurse Spex, never going to get powers?"
Layla and I were silent, seeing as we had no answer to that. I was technically only sharing half of this misery boat with him, at least I had my powers.
"Everyone expects me to be great." He sighed, sadly.
I sat up straighter and fixed an encouraging smile on my face. I reached an arm around him and hugged his shoulders. "You are great, Will." I told him sincerely.
He smiled half-heartedly. "Thanks."
"So what if you're a sidekick? If you can't be great as a hero, maybe you can be great with Lexi and me as sidekicks." Layla said.
"Hm…maybe." He turned to me next. "Well, what about you, Lexi? How did it go for you?"
I sighed and pulled my knees up to my chest. "I'd be lying if I said it didn't go the same way as you."
"You didn't tell your parents either?" Will asked.
"Well, kind of hard to break news to them when they are halfway around the world." I explained.
"They're still in China?" Layla asked. I nodded in reply.
"But they called and it seems they already had it set in their minds that I am a hero. Unfortunately, they were called away by the Chinese president before I could contest that and tell them the truth." I finished quietly.
"At least, you have awesome powers, Lexi." Will reasoned. "You and Layla, both, would have made heroes!"
I scoffed lightly. "Right, if Layla hadn't gone all rebel maybe she would have."
"And Lexi would have too, if Boomer hadn't judged so unfairly." Layla said.
Will shook his head at us. "Either way, are you two actually okay with being a sidekick?"
I shrugged nonchalantly, giving my legitimate reason, "It doesn't make you any less capable of saving the world."
"Yeah, plus I think the whole dividing us into two groups is stupid. Labels? I mean, what is this?" Layla asked.
"High school?" Will answered, with an answer that had all of us nodding in agreement at the more than true to life answer.
"But it's not the end of the world!" Layla suddenly chimed in, trying to salvage her natural brightness for us.
Layla flung her arm around Will, who became struck with a smile and threw an arm around my shoulders, thoroughly linking us all together like we always are.
"You know, what they say: if life gives you lemons—"Layla started, turning over her shoulder to pluck said lemon from the vibrant green plant she just grew. But Will and I were sent into fits of chuckles at the sight of a shiny red apple in her hand, instead of a lemon.
"Make apple juice?" Will finished, taking the apple in his hand and tossing it up and down.
Layla caught the apple midair and scrutinized it, her eyebrows knitting together. "I can't make lemons and I don't know why."
We all shared a laugh before lying down on the roof, pointing out stars in the sky. This was our way of looking on the brighter side of things, lying here with our best friends and picking out familiar constellations, or rather making them up seems more like it.
"Hey! A shooting star! Quick make a wish!" Layla said, pointing to a bright gleam that shot across the dark sky.
All three of us had our eyes squeezed shut, each of us making our own individual wishes. My own concerning that this year would move along smoothly, with not too many rough speed bumps or altercations with Lash…er…bullies. And I think I may have known what Will and Layla were wishing for.
But unfortunately for us, that wasn't a shooting star…who knows what it really was.
Therefore, our wishes wouldn't be coming true anytime soon.
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