"Yeah, so I'll have a large drink- Coke- a Crunch bar, a bag of M&Ms, a Snickers bar, a box of Sno Caps, Butterfinger Bites, Gummi Bears, and Twizlers… Hey, you guys want anything?"

Rose, Ethan's girlfriend, turned to face Layla. "Where does he put it all?" she whispered, hazel brown eyes widened comically. She turned back around to glance at Zach, Magenta, and Will, who were all standing in front of the counter, as Zach, as tall, lanky and undeniably skinny as ever, ordered all of his food.

"I've known him almost my enitre life, and I still haven't figured it out," Layla said with a smile. "I'm not even sure Magenta knows."

Rose shook her head and grinned over at Ethan. "You have such funny friends," she commented, laughing, mostly to herself. She looped her arm through his, and they shared identical giddy grins.

Layla wanted to laugh, but restrained herself. Ethan and his girlfriend were adorable. And Rose was so nice! She didn't have a clue that they all went to Sky High and had their own powers; Ethan had explained to them ahead of time that he told her they all went to a private school out of state.

"Define 'funny,'" Warren grumbled next to Layla. The redhead shot him the evil eye and mouthed, "Be nice."

He rolled his eyes right back. "I'm just saying," he muttered, "We're kind of a bizarre bunch."

Rose, who had heard him, turned around and laughed. "You guys are great," she defended them happily. "All of you. There's nothing wrong with being a little quirky, seeing as how you guys are super-nice."

Without having to look, Layla knew Warren winced when Rose mentioned that they were "super-nice." As she'd just figured out recently, he had some sort of repressed issue with being referred to as nice. Not that Layla minded in the slightest what happened the last time she'd teased him for being nice. In fact, she was kind of hoping she would get the chance to kiss him again sometime soon…

Not that that would ever happen again. She just came out of a long relationship and….

Oh, who was she kidding? She was about 90-percent sure she had already had the beginnings of a crush on Warren, even when she was still dating Will. And, truth be told, they had broken up a week ago. It wasn't like she was rushing into a relationship or anything. She just had a harmless crush. That Warren may or may not have reciprocated.

At least, if the way he'd kissed her the night before, she was pretty damn sure he reciprocated.

Magenta paid for all of Zach's food, and Will just ordered a small bag of popcorn for himself. Rose and Ethan split a large Diet Coke and a medium bag of popcorn, and Layla bought a small one for herself, along with a medium drink. Warren hadn't wanted anything, so without wasting any more time, the seven set out for the movie theater.

Magenta had made perfectly sure her best friend wouldn't feel uncomfortable, and while Layla appreciated this, she didn't want to put anybody out. That was why she felt slightly embarrassed when Magenta practically pushed them into a line so Will was on one end and Layla was all the way on the other end, next to Warren and Magenta. Zach, of course, sat next to her, with Rose on his other side, and Ethan next to her, and Will next to him.

"It's really not that big of a deal," Layla muttered into her friend's ear as they sat down in their seats. Luckily, there were only a few other people in the theater, so they had their pick of seats. "I would've been fine if I had to sit next to Will. It's not like we're gonna start World War III if we're within ten feet of one another."

Magenta waved a hand. "It's better this way," she responded. "I know you guys are more mature than all of that, but I still want everybody to feel as comfortable as possible. You're good at acting like you're perfectly relaxed, but Will's a bad liar. You can always tell when he's uncomfortable. He gets all flustered and gets klutzy and doesn't watch his strength."

Layla smiled. "I know, it's just…" she trailed off, unsure how to handle this delicately. "You're not very subtle sometimes, Mag. And that can make things uncomfortable, too."

"Blame it on Zach," Magenta replied with a knowing smirk. "He must be rubbing off on me."

"Oh, you know it, baby!"

Magenta swiveled around and glared menacingly up at Zach. "Shutting up now," he whimpered quietly, and went back to eating his candy.

"Good boy," she told him, grabbing a handful of M&Ms and smirking impishly.

Layla shook her head at her friends' quirky antics, and focused on the previews, popping a couple of kernels of popcorn into her mouth. She tilted the open bag of popcorn in Warren's direction, not bothering to take her eyes off of the screen.

He stared at her for a few seconds, then acquiesced and took a handful of popcorn. He kept his eyes glued on the screen, but leaned over to murmur in Layla's ear, "How's Homecoming going?"

Layla half-sighed, half-shrugged. "It's going well," she whispered back. "I didn't realize how stressful putting together a dance could be. And half of the people on the committee don't even want to help out during and after the dance- they don't want to leave their dates."

"Speaking of dates, you goin' with anyone?" Warren asked quietly. ""Considering you and Stronghold aren't an item anymore."

Layla could feel her stomach already twist and turn into knots, but she managed to respond, "No, I'm not going with anyone. Not that I'd be able to spend any time with them. I have a feeling I'll be running around the gym all night, trying to make sure nothing goes wrong."

"Well, how 'bout we go together?" Warren offered, temporarily dragging his eyes away from the screen to look Layla in the eyes. "As friends."

On the outside, Layla arched an eyebrow, but there was a lot more interesting stuff happening on the inside. Her stomach was doing full-on backflips, her heart was all the way up in her throat, and she felt lightheaded. Somehow, her body had enough coordination to nod and reply softly, "Sure. I mean, so long as you would be okay with the fact that I won't be around very long."

"I think I'll survive," Warren told her sarcastically.

Layla scrunched up her nose. "Are you going to rent a tux?" she asked teasingly, recalling how adamant he was the year before.

"You'll just have to wait and see," he replied evasively.

Layla couldn't stop the giddy grin from spreading its way across her face. She was a patient girl. She had no problem waiting for whatever Warren was willing to dish out.

4

Once the movie was over, they walked back to their respective houses, with the exception of Warren, who headed off to the Paper Lantern to work the night shift. Magenta made sure to lag back and walk next to Layla the second Warren was gone.

"So," she began, narrowing her eyes suspiciously, "Did I hear you two in the theater correctly? Did Warren, Mr. Hothead himself, ask you, the Princess of Peace, to the Homecoming Dance?"

"We're only going as friends," Layla mumbled, praying that Will couldn't hear. He was only half a dozen feet in front of them. She knew he was way too nice to ever get openly jealous that she had so quickly "replaced" him... with his best friend.

"I don't care," Magenta said, gently elbowing her best friend. "I'm just happy you're moving on."

Layla smiled bitterly and replied, "Does everyone really think of me as this helpless flower power child who can't bear to pick up the pieces after my boyfriend broke up with me? I'm not-"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Magenta said, stopping Layla before her voice could rise any higher. "I know you're not helpless- and, by the way, you're not helpless if you're a little upset you just ended a relationship without any warning ahead of time. It's better if you act hurt- at least that way we know you're not bottling your emotions up. But, it's also great that you're willing to not let the fact that Will's dumb stop you from heading off to Homecoming with a date. In fact, that's kick-ass."

Layla laughed and shook her head. "It is kick-ass," she admitted. "But it really is just as friends. Warren probably only asked me because he knows I'm going to be acting crazy all night, running every which way, making sure everything is perfect."

"That's because you need to take a breather every now and again," Magenta replied with a smirk. "You like to freak out if everything doesn't immediately go the right way, so that you totally forget about having fun yourself."

Layla was quiet for a while as they walked down the sidewalk. She was contemplating everything; so much had happened in the first month, and that wasn't even including all the work needed to be finished in class, as well as everything that needed to be put together in time for the Homecoming dance… Magenta was right. She did need a breather.

"I think the Homecoming dance this year will be fun," Layla finally said confidently. "We had a kind of rough year last year, and it's been… difficult these past few weeks, too. That's why we have the Homecoming. It'll be our chance to finally relax and celebrate the fact that we've come so far in one short year. Personally, I'm looking forward to it."

Magenta smiled, staring openly at Zach's back as the group continued their walk down the street. "Me too," she whispered.

Layla beamed down at her friend. Living the life of superheroes-in-training was tough, especially considering they were all teenagers. After all of this work, after kicking Lash and Speed and Penny and Royal Pain's respective asses, and Layla finally going out with Will, and Magenta and Zach dating, and Ethan getting a girlfriend, and Warren becoming social, only for Will to break up with Layla, and Will to also lie about something that was clearly going on, and Layla to start falling for Warren, of all people…

Well, the point was, everything was finally beginning to pay off. They were sophomores (plus one junior), and had more than proven themselves in the past year. They deserved this chance to celebrate.

It was about damn time things started to look up and stay looking up.

She hoped.

4

I told you this was going to be short. It's barely 5 pages long, and barely over 1,750 words. But there really wasn't much else to say. Originally, I wasn't even going to write the Magenta and Layla chat, which would've shortened it all the way to 3 pages and 1,100 words, but I'm happy I included it. It was kind of necessary, now that I've kind of realized where I'm going with this.

Though, I don't think there will be many more chapters after this. Maybe 3, 4 at most. And I have a very good feeling that these last three will be just on the Homecoming. Yeah, there will be a lot happening at this particular dance. Trust me.

Here's hoping I can pull it off…

(Once more, because I can't stop rubbing this in, I did pull it off! w00t! I'm awesome!

Ahem. I'm done now.

Anyway, I like writing Magenta. She's fun and quirky. I might actually write a oneshot- strictly oneshot, not like this- about her and Zach at some point soon.)