I sighed as I scrunched myself as far away from the guy sitting next to me on the bus as I could. If you haven't noticed, I'm claustrophobic. Like, seriously claustrophobic. I hummed You Can't Hurry Love under my breath, trying to picture somewhere wide and open, just as my therapist in Eldersburg had taught me. The bus turned sharply, causing my seat partner to squish me. I was trapped between him and the window. I may or may not have been hyperventilating. I was getting dizzy, and I just wanted him to get off me. I retreated into my mind, pulling myself into a tight little ball.

"Sorry. Are you all right?"

My eyes were closed tightly, as was my throat. I shook my head. He was still squashing me…

Mercifully, the bus swerved the other way, forcing Bus Guy to get off me. I let out a long, slow breath to calm myself. I opened my eyes to see a guy about my age looking at me apologetically.

"Sorry."

I smiled weakly. "It's…it's all right. I'll live."

"You sure?"

"Uh-huh."

"You seemed pretty freaked out."

"Just a wee bit claustrophobic. Not freaked out."

"Oh. I'm Will."

"Trick."

"Nice to meet you. Are you new?"

I do try to be a kind person. Really. And if I can, I avoid being more sarcastic than necessary, especially to people who mean well. Some times, however, are harder than others, such as when people ask stupid questions.

"Uh-huh," I said, doing my very best to keep my sarcasm under control. I'm usually much better at the whole sarcasm thing, but right after my claustrophobia has been triggered, it's especially hard.

"What year are you?" he asked, apparently trying to make up for nearly smushing me by talking to me.

"Freshman."

"Cool. What's your power?"

"Electricity. Call me Sparky and I'll shock you so bad, your grandchildren will be lit up like a light bulb."

He smiled. "I'll keep that in mind. So, have you made any friends yet?"

I shook my head. "I try not to. Most people and I don't get along too well."

He chuckled.

"What?" I said, a little insulted that he was laughing at me.

"You sound like Warren."

"Warren Peace?" I asked. I'm not sure why I asked. There were lots of Warrens in the world. Just because he knew a Warren doesn't mean he knew…No. I am NOT going to call him 'my' Warren. My neighbor. No. The guy whose window happens to be right next to mine. Yeah. That's better.

"Yeah. You know him?" the Will person asked, mildly surprised.

I nodded. "He's my neighbor. His bedroom window is right across from mine, so when I sat on the roof playing my guitar, he asked me to play something besides One Song Glory."

Will nodded. "That sounds like him."

The bus landed shortly after my conversation with Will. My first class was PE. In my head I was down on my knees gnashing my teeth and crying out "NOOOOOOOOO!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! NO-HO-HO-HO!!!!!! DON'T MAKE EM DO IT!!!!!"

Outside of my head, I was reading quietly, hoping this 'Save The Citizen' thing would pass me by.

"JEFFERSON! JOHNSON!" Boomer bellowed.

I winced. Of course it wouldn't pass me over. That would make life pleasant for me. And we can't make life pleasant for Trick, can we?

"Hi! I'm Belle. Most people call me Tink or Tinkerbell," she said, very bubbly.

I could see why they called her Tinkerbell. She looked like a pixie; she couldn't have been taller than 5'2", and very petite. Her curly, chin-length auburn hair framed her dainty heart-shaped face. The look in her green eyes made me worry that she was going to drop a firecracker down my back. I could so picture her with a pair of wings, flitting around and playing tricks on people.

"Trick," I said, smiling slightly.

Boomer called the team we'd be competing against. "STRONGHOLD! PEACE!"

"I'm telepathic/telekinetic. What's your power?"

"Electricity." I noticed my neighbor and Bus Guy Will step onto the platform. Oh, great.

It just gets better and better, I thought to myself.

Belle looked at me oddly. "Are you all right?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said.

"STRONGHOLD! PEACE! HEROES OR VILLIANS?"

Pleasedon'tbeheroespleasedon'tbeheroespleasedon'tbeheroespleasedon'tbeheroes…

"Heroes," said Bus Guy. Lovely. Pixie Girl and I get to be the villians.

We lost badly. It was quite sad. I perked up slightly because Belle was in my second period with me. Suddenly, Algebra II/Trig didn't seem quite so brutal.

"I'm surprised to see you here. I thought you were still a sophomore," she said, daintily settling herself in the seat next to mine.

"Freshman," I corrected. "I did Algebra I last year, and geomtry over the summer."

"Impressive. So..."

"Yes?"

"What's up with you and Warren Peace?" she said, grinning like a preteen at a sleepover.

"Nothing. He's just my neighbor."

"But you like him." She did not ask this as a question. She said this as a statement of fact.

"No," I said firmly.

"Yes you do, love. Your subconscious is practically screaming it!" she said gleefully.

I blushed. "Get out of my head," I whined.

She sighed. "Trick, it's not a bad thing to have a crush. I think it's adorable. I do have to say, though, to be careful. Flame Boy's a little..."

"Dangerous?" I supplied. "People have said the same about me. Usually, people are right about that sort of thing. And anyway, I don't want to have a crush on anybody, because it is a bad thing in my case."

"Why?" she asked curiously.

"Bad things tend to happen to people I care about, usually because of me."

"Oh, honey. I'm sorry," she said, putting a sympathetic hand on my shoulder.

I shrugged. "It's fine. It's not like he's interested anyway."

"Well..."

I looked at her, my eyes wide with disbelief. "Are you serious?"

"I'm not saying he's interested, but I did manage to read some very...interesting things in his mind."

I shook my head. This was not happening.

"He probably won't do anything about it," she said hastily.

"Yeah. I hope not. The last thing I need right now is a guy. They're much more trouble than they're worth."

"Yeah. But they're more than worth the trouble," she said dreamily.

"Who is he?"

"There's this guy, a pyrokinetic like Warren, only not as sexy."

"If you like him, why are you saying he's not as sexy as Warren?"

"Because nobody's as sexy as Warren. Anyway, he's a junior, the same as me, he's tall, has amazing blue eyes, and he's very sweet. His name is Westly."

I smiled. "He sounds cool."

She sighed, her chin in her hand. "He is."

We ended up talking for the rest of the class, with me explaining the math problems in between. The bell rang, and we went our separate ways. I got to go to biology. Ugh. There was this one girl who seemed to know everything. Her name was Layla, I think. She was a sophomore, a year older than me. Did I mention that all my classes are the advanced classes? Go figure. I, the slacker, managed to get into the 'smart' classes.

Because I'm in the advanced classes, most of my classmates are a year or two ahead of me. This is why Flame boy is in my fourth, fifth, and sixth period classes. For third period, I had choir, and for seventh I had Theatre. Superhero theatre kids are even weirder than normal theatre kids. I was glad beyond words when the final bell rang, until I remembered the bus ride home.

I got on the bus and sat in the same seat i had sat in that morning, but Will did not. No, instead sat Fire Boy. I silently banged my head against the window. He looked at me oddly.

"What are you doing?"

He was incredibly warm.I could feel his warmth without even touching him. I sighed and ignored him, still banging my head against the window.

"Are you all rgiht?" he asked, raisng an eyebrow.

I shook my head. "Claustrophobic. Don't like flying. Bus is crowded and flies. Yesterday, I reguritated the contents of my stomach into my aunt's rhodedendrons. She was mad."

He nodded and went back to his reading. I couldn't help but notice the book. Was he...? OMIGOD, HE WAS READING IBSEN!!!!

I sighed heavily and held my head between my knees, praying I'd be home soon.

My prayers were granted. This time when I stumbled off the bus, very disoriented, Warren caught me. The place on my arm where he held me up tingled, and it was quite difficult to keep my electricity under control. I mumbled something about having homework, and went inside. This whole 'not falling for Warren' thing was gonna be a lot harder than I thought.