Over the last four days I think I've got the hang of this school. I finally learned the shortcut to homeroom, and I stopped accidentally walking into the boy's bathroom. Both Kim and Kaylee have turned out to actually be nice for genuine reasons, and not to manipulate or poke fun at me, or at least as far as I can tell.
Kaylee has already asked me to work over the summer with her at some local hotel, working the front desk, and both Will and Jennie thought it was a great idea to earn some extra spending money. Marcus somehow routed money here to pay for any expenses I have like shopping and eating out, just so I'm not a financial strain on Will and Jennie, but it didn't really matter considering I'd already wired plenty of the three million I'd stashed away with daddy into a Swiss bank account and it's not like I've just let it sit there either. I'd think about going into the hedge fund or stock market business if it didn't draw too much attention to me.
Of course Will and Jennie don't know about that secret account, and neither does Marcus, so using Marcus' money makes it look more believable that I'm here because he wanted me to have a normal and safe life, rather than the truth, which is that I'm on the run from the NYPD.
But not all of my suitcase money went into the account anyway. I had always left some cash in the safe house in case of emergencies and I made sure to leave some for Dave in case he ever needed it for something like new equipment or repairs to the safe house itself. Of course I can't be a big spender off the money I have in my account since no one knows about it, so the summer job idea is looking better and better, if only for undercover purposes.
I wonder if Dave's got a job, I mean even with a few million dollars, if that's all you have to live off of, it could go fast. I mean aren't most lottery winners in debt up to their eyeballs nowadays? And I didn't leave him the money to just sit on his ass. Plus Dave's so responsible, I'm sure he's gotten a job to pay bills anyway.
I'd thought about what Dave was doing during the day somewhat regularly. And it popped into my head again while I was getting dressed for PE. Today was the big day, the day the martial arts guy came to teach us. I don't know where he's come from cause I know Cooper doesn't have any dojos, not that it matters to me, since I'm sure I'm probably more advanced than anyone in Cooper could even think about teaching, but still I was curious where our teacher found this guy.
"Well, let's get this over with." Kim said, morosely and I laughed.
"Come on, you just have to think of it like a game." I encouraged both her and Kaylee, who were both dragging their feet. "Make it fun." I added.
"Well aren't we perky today." Kaylee responded, clearly not interested in taking my advice. I just smiled in response.
The class assembled itself around our teacher and another man dressed in a karate uniform, which I assumed was the martial arts instructor. I could feel happiness and excitement bubbling up inside of me just thinking about what we could be doing today. I was imagining some bad ass kicks and punches when our teacher introduced our instructor and gave him the floor.
"Howdy, I'm Ben and I run a martial arts studio outside Ft. Worth." He said, introducing himself.
Well that explains where he's from, I thought to myself.
"First of all, I want to stress that the things I'm going to teach you today are purely for self-defense purposes. You shouldn't go out after class and start attacking anybody. I just want you all to learn some basic self-defense techniques to keep you safe from attackers."
Well fuck this. All the happiness and energy I felt moments earlier drained out of my body the moment he said self-defense. He's just going to teach deflecting tactics. And to think I was excited about this. Of course after dwelling on this for a few minutes I realized that it's probably a good thing. After all, I don't want to get carried away and either blow my cover, or accidentally kill someone. Can't imagine that going over well. And I guess deflecting moves are important too, I do pride myself on being able to out maneuver any attack.
But still, I was pretty bummed. I was brought out of my reverie when Kaylee pushed me forward. "Mindy will! She's taken martial arts 'fore!" She shouted out. At first I was confused but then the dumb ass instructor motioned for me to come forward.
Oh god, I'm going to be a volunteer or some shit. Thanks a lot Kaylee. I stood next to the instructor and he asked me to introduce myself.
"I'm Mindy." I said, then adding, "Mindy Macready."
"Well, Mindy, it doesn't sound like you're from around these parts." He said, and I wanted to punch him in the face. First he's only going to teach lame karate and now he's drawing attention to the fact that I'm not a Texan, cause I haven't gotten enough of that yet.
"No. I'm from New York." I answered deadpan, holding back a death glare.
"New York! Well, that's a long way to travel just to get martial arts training in PE!" He replied trying to be funny. Some students laughed, I rolled my eyes.
"Well, Mindy, I want you to help me demonstrate a basic defensive technique." He said and backed up into a fighting stance. I automatically crouched down into my stance as well. "I want you to come at me with all you've got, and I'm going to deflect your attack." He said and motioned for me to come at him.
I locked into autopilot and was inches from his face before I realized I shouldn't actually come at him with all I've got. Shit, the guy's from Ft. Worth, he can't stand a chance against me, and despite him getting on my nerves, I shouldn't obliterate the guy, he's just teaching a high school PE class.
So at the last second I drew back my force and my arm was easily pushed out of the way by his 'defensive maneuver.'
He then turned to the class to demonstrate what he was doing and instructed them to practice the move. The class worked on that one for a few minutes and then moved on to two other techniques that I had to pretend to be a wimp in demonstrating. I tried to channel Dave, pre training with me, just to get through the class.
After it was over I was getting a drink at the drinking fountain when a voice I didn't recognize called out to me.
"Mindy, right?" A guy's voice met my ears, and I stood up from bending over the water fountain. When I stood up I was face to face with none other than the "gorgeous" Patrick Welder.
I almost choked on my water, but then gained composure. "Uh, yeah, Mindy." I replied. I looked him over up close and I could definitely see how Kaylee and Kim liked him. His arms were toned and I could see a light glisten of sweat hanging onto them. But then my mind flashed back to that image of shirtless Dave again and Patrick's attractiveness diminished. But only slightly.
"I'd heard there was a new girl in town from New York, but I hadn't had the chance to meet 'er yet." He said, with a warm southern accent filling his words.
"Um, yeah. That's me." I answered and my face got hot for some reason.
"Well, don't be a stranger." He said and flashed a dazzlingly wide smile. I was definitely blushing then.
"Um, yeah, no. I mean…" I was at a loss for words. What was wrong with me? This is just a dude. I'm just talking with him. No need to freak out. I can chop off people's arms and legs with ease, but talk to a cute boy and my brain stops functioning. Is this a puberty thing? If so, this is bullshit.
He laughed, but in a nice way. "Maybe I'll see you 'round, Mindy from New York." He said backing away.
"Yeah, sure. You too…"
"Patrick, Patrick Welder." He supplied, even though I fully knew his name.
"Yeah, Patrick… From Cooper." I added before he smiled and turned away.
I turned around and was met with two widely smiling faces. I almost punched them out of reflex until I realized it was just Kim and Kaylee.
"Oh good lord." Kim started.
"Look at you! You're grinnin' from ear to ear." Kaylee said. And I realized that I was in fact smiling about as much as they were.
"I can't believe that jus' happened." Kim added.
"What, what happened?" I asked, was there more to our conversation than I realized?
"Patrick Welder jus' came up 'n talked tuh yuh." Kim answered.
"No, Patrick Welder just came up and flirted with 'er." Kaylee corrected.
"What? No, he was just introducing himself…"
"Hell no! He was so into you, I swear." Kaylee interrupted. They both seemed like they were bouncing up and down with delight.
"You really think so?" I asked and looked after the area Patrick had been standing.
"Oh, for sure, hon." Kaylee reassured me.
I smiled again and felt a blush creeping up my cheeks.
"You know, I haven't seen or heard anything about Hit Girl in a while." Todd said as he flipped through the brand new issue of "Hit Girl."
Todd, Marty and I were sitting in our regular booth at Atomic Comics. I didn't really mind spending my day off at the comic store, in fact I'd enjoy it if it weren't for the fact that Todd insisted we go so he could pick up the new issue of the "Hit Girl" comic that came out today.
Todd was obsessed with Hit Girl ever since she stormed onto the scene in that viral video of Frank D'Amico's and saved my life. In fact, we all make fun of him for it.
"Okay Todd, please contain your girl crush so we don't catch your vaginitus." Marty quipped, right on cue. I chuckled. Todd looked up from his comic to give Marty a dirty look, but then went right back to reading.
"I'm serious guys. It's like she's disappeared off the face of the earth or something." Todd said.
"She's probably hiding from the police since she's wanted for killing a shit ton of people dude." Marty told Todd.
"Dave knows." Todd said, turning to me. "You're like team mates, right?" He asked me.
"Dude! Shut up, people are gonna hear you." Marty yelled at him quietly before I had the chance to answer and I was thankful. Mindy had somehow become a topic I didn't want to talk about. Her absence was starting to hit me hard. I'd somehow started to rely on her like a crutch. And without Mary, Todd, or any of the other Justice Forever members to help be either I was starting to get run down.
When I first started being Kick Ass I had so many requests coming in, but I didn't feel bad about telling some of them that I was too busy. Now that I'm graduating high school and not going on to college it's like Kick Ass is all I really am anymore. I go at night and work the streets for hours, come home, sleep for a few hours, get up and work at the pizza place and there are still so many ass holes out there I have to start all over again the next night. I'm starting to feel like I'm running on fumes.
And of course the person I want to turn to for advice is gone to who knows where. At least I could answer Todd's question half way, I know she's not in the city.
"Yeah, and Brad could come in any minute." I told Todd, coming back to the conversation. I had invited my coworker, Brad, to Atomic Comics to introduce him to comics since he enjoyed superhero movies, but hadn't ever been into comics before.
"Fine, fine." Todd grumbled. "I was just curious. Besides, knowing Hit Girl, she's probably still fighting crime like a bad ass, she's just being really elusive." Todd added, smiling to himself. I had to smile too, I hoped that what all the bad guys thought and the police too. It's totally believable.
"Seriously Todd, the size of your vagina is making it hard to talk with you anymore." Marty quipped at Todd again. God, I'm gonna miss Marty's messing with Todd when Todd goes off to school.
"Your friend has a vagina?" Came a voice from behind me. I turned around in the booth and Brad was standing there with a quizzical but kidding look on his face.
Marty obviously noticed Brad's kidding expression, "Yeah, Todd here has a HUGE vagina." He said. Brad laughed and fist bumped Marty before sitting down in the booth beside me.
"This is my coworker, Brad, guys." I said. "He's here for a comic book conversion."
"How can you not read comics, dude?" Marty asked Brad.
"I don't know, I like the superhero movies, but I've just never read the comics. I like the stories in the movies, I guess the comics are different." Brad replied.
"So superheroes are your thing, then." Todd asked.
"Are there comics without superheroes?" Brad asked us, looking from face to face.
"Yeah, but the superhero ones are the best." Todd said, which sparked a debate between himself and Marty, which lasted a few minutes.
"Okay, okay. I'm open to non superhero comics then." Brad spoke up, trying to end the spat.
"You've just got here and already pissed off Marty." I joked. "Way to go." I laughed and patted Brad on the back. He chuckled in response.
"Well, if I'd known comics were so controversial I might not have come." He responded joking back. "What's that you're reading now?" Brad asked a still riled up Todd, while motioning towards the open comic in his hands.
This snapped Todd back into fan-girl mode and cheered him up from his fight with Marty. "This is the brand new 'Hit Girl' comic that came out today." Todd explained.
"No way. They have comics for the real live superheroes?" Brad asked.
"Hell yeah! Although there's only two series right now: 'Kick Ass' and 'Hit Girl.' They used to have 'Red Mist' too, but they discontinued it cause he turned into the Mother Fucker." Todd started rambling on.
"Which is kind of strange, just cause a character turned to the dark side doesn't mean that people stop caring or stop reading the comics." Marty added. "I mean look at how many people cosplay as villains."
"I'm pretty sure it's because this is real life, and while Catwoman and Magneto have fans, they're fake, and the Mother Fucker's actually killed real people." I said, the blood starting to boil in my veins. Both Todd and Marty turned to look at me and shared a look between themselves.
"But Todd is probably the biggest Hit Girl fan on the planet." Marty spoke up, diverting the conversation. "He'd have a serious Hit Girl boner if he had a dick. But his giant vagina gets in the way of that."
"Wait, you have a crush on Hit Girl?" Brad asked Todd.
"Well, I mean, she's like amazing. You saw that video right? Where she came in and fucked up everyone?" Todd asked, defending himself.
"Yeah, I saw it, and it was pretty incredible, but she's like thirteen right?"
"Fifteen." I said, quickly, without thinking. Both Marty and Todd both stared at me panic written on their faces.
Brad looked at me strangely and I realized my mistake. Instantly I started searching the corners of my mind for a reasonable explanation as to why I know how old Hit Girl is when she's about elusive as D.B. Cooper.
"How do you know how old Hit Girl is?" Brad asked me. It felt like both Todd and Marty were sending telepathic messages back and forth with me trying to help me out.
"Um…" I tried buying for time and then it hit me. "Todd told me once." I spit out, "He found it online in some forums." I turned to Todd, begging him to take the torch.
"Oh, yeah. There's a forum I like that has all kinds of information speculated about the real superheroes." Todd said, starting to ramble on about some website, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
I'm so used to Marty and Todd knowing about me being Kick Ass I forgot about hiding it from Brad, who already seems like a close friend. If Mindy knew how close I'd come to not only blowing my cover, but hers too, she'd be kicking my ass for weeks.
Dave's back in this chapter, and as a plus this chapter is the highest word count yet!
As usual, I beg of you to leave me a review!
*This chapter has been edited after story completion*