Chapter Nine – Somebody's Watching Me

Who's watching
Tell me, who's watching
Who's watching me?
I'm just an average [girl]
With an average life

~ Rockwell ~


Most of Roma's Sundays were spent in one of two ways: doing homework at her grandparents' house or hanging out at Vie after doing schoolwork. Since her grandparents had left on a road trip to Seattle early that morning, the girl had had to work through four hours of homework assignments on her own. After two hours of pleasure reading and another of crafts, Roma finally decided to go visit her father at the restaurant. Sunday evenings usually attracted a good crowd, but the kitchen didn't get as crazy as it did on Fridays and Saturdays.

The sun had just set by the time the blonde girl left her house. The darkness didn't bother her: Maxville was one of the safest small towns in the region. Deciding to take her time, Roma chose to cut through Hamilton Reservation instead of walking on the main streets. An area of Maxville actually belonged to the Hamilton Reservation, a national park area. It could be eerie to walk through those tall trees and trails in the dark, but she'd been doing it for so long that nothing about it bothered her. Roma had the trails memorized already.

Halfway through the reservation, the blonde girl heard a sound that she hadn't noticed before. Leaves and twigs cracked a few feet behind, as if someone was walking right behind her. Roma didn't have a problem with someone taking the same way as her. She had a problem with the fact that nobody was there when she turned around to inspect. The feeling of being followed made the back of her neck feel prickly. Roma tried to shake off the sensation and started walking again, only to hear footsteps again. When she suddenly came to a halt, the sound of footsteps took a moment to fade.

Since her eyes couldn't be trusted, Roma did something unexpected: she closed them and focused all of her energy into her power. If someone was around, she'd know for sure. A few moments passed until she found what she was looking for: just a few yards to her right and back stood a person. Their confusion and curiosity traveled through the air like sound waves, bringing the message loud and clear to Roma. That spot was void of trees and bushes, there was nowhere to hide. Someone invisible was following her.

She didn't want to give away that she was aware of their presence. As calmly as the girl could manage, she bent down and pretended to tie a shoe lace, trying to think of a plan of action. Screaming for help would be no use; she was close to one of the reservation's exits, but people wouldn't be able to hear her. And the thought of explaining just how she knew someone was following her wasn't appealing at all. Roma reached inside the bag she was carrying, grabbed a water bottle, and hurled it in the direction of the invisible stranger before taking off on a sprint.

She ran as fast as her legs could go while trying to keep a hold of the person's feelings. It was hard to do both at the same time and still keep her eyes out for rocks and branches on the trail. Roma made a left turn at the reservation's exit and didn't stop running. In her hurry, she didn't notice a person walking out of their porch and ended up colliding with them. She hit a solid wall of muscle. A pair of arms went around her torso a second before they both fell on the grass with a thud.

"Roma? What's going on?" a familiar voice asked. "Why are you running like a maniac?'

"Someone was following me!" she replied, and then finally realized just who was talking to her. "Warren? What are you doing here?"

"I'm on delivery duty. Did you see who was following you?"

"I didn't see anyone," Roma said as they stood up and brushed off the grass from their clothes. "It was someone invisible. Don't give me that look. I couldn't see them, but I could feel the person."

"Feel?"

"Yes. I have a stupid secondary power that allows me to sense and/or feel people's emotions. It's a thrilling idea for anyone that doesn't actually have the power."

It was almost remarkable how readily Warren accepted the idea of her secondary power. Instead of doubting or asking more about it, he simply wanted to know if the invisible person was around them anywhere. Roma took a deep breath, trying to relax her heart and channel her ability. It took her a minute or two to finally get a hold of her emotions before she could seek out anything around them. There was nothing to feel there besides Warren, her and the people inside the house.

"C'mon. I'll give you a ride to wherever you're going," the dark-haired boy said and started walking toward his car without waiting for an answer.

Turning down the offer wouldn't be the best or safest idea, so Roma decided to simply follow him into the vehicle. When she named her destination as Vie, Warren made a comment about dropping her off in front of the restaurant, but she rattled off directions to the back door – she never used the front entrance when going to visit her father at work. They didn't say much during the short ride, allowing rock music to fill the silence instead. When Warren reached out for Roma's hands on her lap, she figured it was just to keep her from fidgeting.

He only released her hand when they stopped in front of Vie's back entrance. He put the car on park and shrugged off Roma's words of gratitude when she thanked him for the ride. The girl unbuckled her seat belt, but didn't get out. She threw Warren an amused look, thinking to herself that she'd probably never be able to figure him out. One moment he was rude to her and her non-date, the next day he held her hand to keep her from having a nervous meltdown. She thought about Thomas McIntosh's words from the night before, saying that Warren's behavior at the Paper Lantern had been worthy of a jealous boyfriend. Was it possible that Thomas knew something she didn't?

"Warren," Roma said his name tentatively, thinking of how to say what she had in mind.

The pyrokinetic didn't make a sound, though he did look at her expectantly, waiting to hear the rest. Warren's brown eyes were very expressive on that moment, revealing more than he usually let on about his feelings. She could feel the mild buzz of anxiety running through him, even if she wasn't sure of its source. Roma ran a hand through her hair, attempting to organize her thoughts and gather her words, but she still couldn't bring herself to ask one simple question. It would sound so silly and pretentious if all she asked was "do you like me?"

Finally, unable to vocalize the question, she smiled weakly and said "never mind" before thanking him for the ride once more. Roma threw doubt through the window and placed a soft kiss on Warren's cheek. Her lips started tingling with his peculiar warmth a millisecond before she even reached his skin. The sensation intensified when they finally touched, but it didn't feel unpleasant – it was a lot like the feeling she got after taking the first sip of hot cocoa after being out in the cold for a while. The warmth was so enticing that Roma couldn't help letting herself linger in the moment longer than purely friendly kisses on the cheek allowed.

Warren's question and curiosity were written all over his face when she finally pulled away. Knowing that she'd end up blurting out something stupid if they continued staring at each other, the blonde girl threw the car's door open and left the vehicle, closing the door without giving him chance to say anything. Once Roma was safely inside Vie's kitchen, where the staff knew her name and favorite dishes, she let out a breath and tried to think of anything but Warren Peace.

It was impossible to forget that odd moment though. Regardless of how busy she kept herself, Roma would find her mind wandering back to the passenger seat of his car and Sunday evening's events. Not even Sky High's Tuesday morning announcement of a Homecoming dance on Halloween night did much to distract her. Most students, however, were immediately consumed by the idea of costumes and dates. Roma didn't understand the excitement, since super people wore costumes most of the time anyway. When she shared that thought with her friends, Zach was quick to take offense.

"They're not costumes," Ethan explained in all seriousness. "They're uniforms."

"Hey, Roma!" Valerie Tripp greeted with a smile, which she extended to everyone else around the table, as she approached the blonde girl. "Have you thought of any costumes yet?"

"Not really. Coming to a school dance isn't my top priority."

"You're one of those anti-school spirit people, aren't you?" the dark-skinned beauty asked with a chuckle. "You can still help me choose a costume, right? Friday after next?"

As soon as the invitation to shop was out, Roma could feel her friends tense. Warren's body went rigid next to her, stiff with doubt and suspicion. She couldn't blame any of them though, after all, in spite of how sweet and polite Valerie could be, they saw her as the Ice Queen's best friend. And it was no surprise that they'd be wary of the girl's intentions, considering the stunt Amber had pulled the week before. The occurrence was clear in Roma's mind though and she was sure that the African-American girl had had no part in it.

Although shopping for clothes had never been one of her favorite activities, it was hard to pass up the chance of trying on silly costumes. Roma found herself accepting the invitation without much thought, after making sure that Amber wouldn't be joining them. Valerie leaned down to say something in Roma's ear, her voice barely above a whisper when she confessed that it'd be a nice change to have someone give their honest opinion in the changing room, instead of saying whatever guaranteed that they'd be the hottest person in the room.

"Do you know what you want to be already?" Layla asked, excitement evident in her voice. "I'm sure you can pull off any look with a body like yours."

"You're so sweet, Layla! But it's not like you're not gorgeous. I swear, there's no bottle or hair stylist that can give anyone a hair color like yours."

"I told her she should be Jessica Rabbit, from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? you know?"

"That's a great idea, Magenta," Valerie agreed. "Roma, you could be Sleeping Beauty."

"If I was planning to come to the dance, I wouldn't choose to be the princess that gets raped in her sleep," the girl stated, receiving shocked expressions in return. "You haven't read the original tale?"

"No. But did you just say you're not planning on coming to the dance?"

Roma rolled her eyes, amused that that was the one thing Valerie decided to focus on. Almost immediately, the African-American girl joined forces with Layla to whine about why nobody should skip out on the Halloween dance. When she didn't seem convinced by their words, the girls tried to drag Magenta and the boys into the argument, but they did little more than nod their agreement. Roma would bet that Warren had no plans of going to the dance either by the look on his face, but he'd been smart enough not to say anything. Although she did her best to steer clear of conversation about the blasted dance, Roma couldn't completely forget about it, because it seemed as if everyone else could only talk about their costumes or dates even as the week went on. After a while, she'd started walking away whenever Layla and Valerie tried to talk her into attending the event, so they didn't bring it up as often anymore.

Instead of having a movie night that weekend, they accepted Roma's suggestion of going to the Bowling Alley. Claudia was very surprised when the whole gang showed up during her Friday night shift. She was so happy to see them there that she didn't even care about Nola being there as well. Patrick's parents enjoyed meeting Roma's new friends and their son's new girlfriend. They were so accommodating that not even Warren could keep his moody demeanor. It was a fun beginning for a busy weekend.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened until Monday afternoon. As she normally did, Roma got into her house through the back door and headed to the front door to check for mail. In between bills and catalogs she found an envelope with her information typed up and no return address. It was a note and another one-hundred dollar bill from Gabriella, asking if they could meet on the following day.

There were a million reasons why the girl shouldn't go to the meeting: Gabriella was a runaway villain; it'd mean ditching her tutoring session and risking her father getting a call from the school to talk about it. But Roma didn't have a way of contacting her mother to say going to the diner on a week afternoon would be impossible. So the girl did the only thing she could think of: she shoved her finger down her throat after lunch, faked a stomach ache while Nurse Spex watched over her, and took the bus home after making a bogus call to her father to inform him of the situation. It wasn't a perfect plan by any means, but Roma would worry about the holes in it later.

As soon as she stepped out of the school bus, Roma walked to the closest pay phone and called a cab service to pick her up a few blocks from the school bus stop. She nervously twirled a strand of hair around her fingers, watching the cab meter change as they neared the diner. When Roma walked into the Moonlight Diner, Gabriella was already occupying a small table inside, casually flipping through a magazine, dark sunglasses perched at the top of her head.

"Oh, you're right on time, my dear. Would you like anything?" Gabriella asked with a smile, but Roma declined the offer, as her stomach was still recovering from her actions. "I just wanted to know how you're dealing with your power. What they're teaching you at Sky High about it."

"It'd be much easier if you had a phone and could just call me," the girl joked lightly, but didn't get a reaction – clearly, her mother was in no mood to joke. "Nobody really knows much about power mimicry, except that it's very rare."

"I bet they all gush about it, wishing they could do a tenth of what you can do."

"Um, yeah. Kind of."

"Do people know about me? That I'm your mother?"

"Principal Powers knows; Grandma and Grandpa insisted told her. Nobody else knows."

"Why not? You shouldn't hide, Roma. You are meant for great things," Gabriella sounded almost prophetic with her words, "I hope I can guide you through your journey to greatness. You're a god among rats."

The girl wasn't so sure she'd refer to non-super people as rats. After all, her father and her best friends didn't have powers and she could never think of them as rats or anything besides human. They were a few of the best people she knew. Gabriella didn't seem bothered by her daughter's lack of reply, simply moving on with the conversation, directing it back to power mimicry and the lessons Mr. Sutherland had taught Roma. She seemed sincerely eager to learn more about what Roma could do, and it pleased the girl in an odd way. At least her mother was interested in one aspect of her life.

They spent over an hour together, a very long time compared to their previous meetings. Roma didn't think they would've cut their conversation short if her phone hadn't started ringing with calls from her father. Apparently, Nurse Spex had called the restaurant and left a message about how Roma had been ill and sent home. He wanted to check on her and to say that he'd be home early to look after her. Gabriella gave her an extra fifty dollars before leaving the girl at the cab stop.

Roma asked the cab driver to stop two blocks before her house. By the time she got inside, she only had a few moments to change into pajamas and do her best to look slightly sick. Her father was so worried, he didn't even realize she was faking it all – except the guilt eating her up inside.


Author's Note: a HUGE thank you to the people that took the time to read and review this story. Thanks for adding this to your favorites or alerts list. Sorry about the lack of updates. Life's crazy at the moment. Any suggestions or critics, let me know. I love talking to people!