Sorry I've been gone forever. See the authors note at the bottom for any semblance of an explanation. Love you, and enjoy!

X

I left Warren in the hall, and ran to Principal Powers' office. I stopped at Marlene's desk.

"Hey Marlene, I need to see the Principal. It's urgent. Like, way urgent."

She didn't look up from her computer screen, but waved me in with a flick of her super-long, red, ghetto nails and huffed.

Sometimes I just hate office assistants.

I burst through the door and sat in one the highly uncomfortable chairs on the other side of the large mahogany desk.

Powers looked at me and slowly lowered her reading glasses.

"Yes, Miss Sharpe?"

"Turn on Super News Channel Ten. Some guys broke into my sister's school and targeted a hiding super. He just shot her and left. It was scary enough that my sister called me while I was dragging Warren to the nurse. She was really freaked out, and the super police said the girl who was shot had regeneration powers, so she was okay, but I just wanted to know if you guys knew about the situation, or if you wanted to know about the situation, or if it even is a situation. I haven't really been immersed in the whole Super culture, so I don't really know if this is normal, or if it's like a national emergency. So, that's about it."

She watched my borderline-frantic monologue with vague interest. As soon as I was finished, she grabbed a sleek silver remote off her desk. She pointed it at the screen in the corner, and the small flat-screen buzzed to life. She quickly changed it to SNC Ten and watched with a trained eye.

The weird blonde reporter dude gave us the information we needed, and quickly signed off to the sports guy.

She buzzed the television off and turned to me.

"Thank you Miss Sharpe for bringing this to my attention. I will contact the Council and we will create a course of action to make sure that this man, and any others he may be affiliated with, do not end up in Sky High. There will be an assembly tomorrow morning, and we will go over what we know with the school there. Now go and make sure Mr. Peace is situated in the infirmary, and head back to class. You are dismissed."

I stood up from the chair, my armor creaking, and made my way out of the office.

That was weird. She acted kind of odd, especially for a principal. Or maybe that was just me. The only time I had ever been in the principal's office at my old school was to get detention.

I walked to the nurse's office, and didn't see Warren through the glass in the door.

My eyebrows crinkled.

I went back down the hall, and noticed Warren on the floor, about five feet from where I left him. He collapsed again.

Stupid idiot flamed out.

I grabbed his wrist and yanked him to the door of the infirmary.

"Nurse Spex!" The sweet lady opened the door and looked at the unconscious pyro at my feet.

"Oh dear. He flamed out, didn't he?" I nodded and she grabbed his other arm to help me pull him in. She reached into one of her drawers and pulled out a syringe filled with a milky red liquid. She jammed it into his thigh and pressed down. The syringe was thrown into a biohazard bin, and she walked out with a wink.

I sat with Warren, who was still on the floor, and he came around in a minute.

Apparently his muscles had been tensed when her fell, because his arm flung out and smacked me on my chest.

Yes, there.

He looked at me and his ears turned pink.

"Sorry about… that. Did I flame out?"

I hid my blushing cheeks and nodded.

"Dumb moron. I went to go talk to Powers and figured you'd be fine. So imagine my surprise when the pyro, who has about eight inches and forty pounds on me, fell unconscious. Again. So I had to drag your sorry ass to the nurse's office."

He rolled his eyes and stood up, stretching his arms towards the ceiling. His biceps flexed in time with his lower abdominals, and I felt my hormones triple between my hips.

Damn the person who invented spandex.

I turned quickly and headed back to the locker rooms. I heard him walking behind me, and he promised to save me a seat on the bus as I slipped through the door.

The locker rooms were fairly packed, but I managed to get changed and out in under ten minutes. I was tightening my ponytail and walking out the front doors when Lash caught me.

"Hey hot stuff." He leaned against the railing in front of me, and I crossed my arms over my chest.

"What do you want, stretchy?" He smiled wickedly and grabbed my wrist, forcing me against the brick wall. In the distance beyond Lash's head, I saw Warren leaning against the bus, his eyes trained on us.

I focused on Lash's face and his other arm made a grab for my remaining wrist.

I rolled my eyes and flamed up slightly, causing him to hiss and step back.

"Forgot I could do that, huh? So what do you really want?" His eyes flashed with some sort of imperceptible emotion, and he shoved me hard against the wall before walking away.

I crinkled my eyebrows and pulled my bag higher on my shoulder. I frowned at the dull thud across my left shoulder blade, but shook it off and ran down the steps to meet Warren.

"Hey." He nodded at me with a smirk and led the way onto the bus, tucking his phone in his front pocket, showing me a slice of abs when he lifted up his shirt.

I smiled and bit my lip, silently following him. We reached the benches.

Another dilemma.

He said he'd save me a seat, but should I sit where I usually sit and try not to push it? Or should I sit next to him in a casual display of friendliness?

I didn't really have much say in the matter, because he quickly grabbed my messenger bag off my shoulder and threw it into my normal seat. He sat behind me as usual.

I kept my face clean of emotion, but mentally frowned to myself and sat down.

The ride was quiet, much to my dismay, and all too soon, we were at Warren's stop. I heard him stand up, and a small, tightly folded piece of paper landed in my lap as he passed.

The doors closed, and I looked out the window. He was only a few feet away from the bus stop, but turned back and met my eyes.

Maybe it was just the light, but I thought I saw him wink.

We rounded a corner and I settled my head back to facing forward. I grabbed the paper off the fabric of my skirt.

I managed to unwrap the damned thing without tearing it, and blushed profusely at the writing in deep black ink.

It was a phone number.

X

X

Yeah, I know it's short, but I've just been so un-inspired these past few days. I hope this will suffice until I can get on a roll. Another quick word… School will be starting up soon for me, on the fifteenth of August, to be exact. That means that I will be rocking the high school hallways, and won't update as often. I hate it, but school will become my life. But weekends, free-days, holidays, and sick days are all yours.

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