Dad was pretty angry when I got home that night. Apparently he had been waiting for me to get home to cook him some dinner. He hadn't eaten and was crabby. The first thing he did when I walked through the front door was sock me one right in the face. I could feel a black eye forming immediately and covered it with a hand as I glared at him.
"What was that for?" I asked and got another slap for my insolence.
"Don't talk back to me! You were supposed to make my dinner!" He was really fuming.
"I was?" I said, confused. Big mistake. His face turned livid. The next fist came so hard I fell against the wall. He glowered down at me.
"Get cooking, now."
He left. I got slowly up off the floor, rubbing my cheek. I quickly made his dinner and retreated to my room, not eating anything myself. For some strange reason I had lost my appetite. Ha, ha. I went straight to bed, careful not to sleep the left side of my face. I drifted into a restless sleep soon after.
0000000
The next day the left side of my face had turned a lovely shade of a purplish-greenish blue. My eye was half-swollen shut and I could barely see out of it. I tried styling my hair differently to cover it but it was no use. My hair was too short to cover it all and it looked strange with my hair plastered against my face. I sighed and washed my face carefully. I slowly put my shirt on, being careful not to let the collar touch my face. Quickly putting on the rest of my "uniform," I cautiously went downstairs to find my father already gone for work. I breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing a bit as I went about making myself breakfast.
The bus arrived right on time and I was waiting for it. I braced myself for the stares and whispers and blocked them out of my head when they started coming. I went all the way to the back of the bus and sat down hard in my usual spot. The others eventually seemed to forget about me and returned to their conversations. I saw a movement beside me and almost jumped out of my seat as Alex materialized in the seat next to me. I frowned at him but he just stared at me. His usually vacant eyes seemed fixed on the colorful side of my face. I thought I saw something flicker in those eyes. What was that? Pity? Understanding? I did not want to try to figure it out. I faced the front and ignored him the rest of the way to Sky High.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully, that is up until P.E. Wouldn't you know it I got picked for Save the Citizen paired up with Warren Peace and facing Layla and Alex. To say I was surprised that Alex was participating in gym class would be a huge understatement. I had never even seen the kid until the other day and now I was suddenly seeing him everywhere. I wonder if he was making himself visible for my benefit. I was also surprised when Layla and Alex picked villains. Layla usually picked heroes mostly because she disliked using her powers for violence. I have never been a hero in Save the Citizen before. I could tell this was going to be an experience I would never forget.
When I first walked into the circle, I saw Layla's eyes travel immediately to the left side of my face. Her eyes filled with tears and I was a bit taken aback. What did she care if my stupid excuse for a father beat me? I knew she knew it was him that did it for she took a step forward and opened her mouth to speak but I held up a hand to stop her, my expression angry. She retreated back to her place next to Alex whose unbroken stare was starting to creep me out. I turned to the pyro beside me but he did not meet my gaze.
Coach Boomer held up his stopwatch. "Lash, Hothead, you know the rules. You have three minutes to immobilize your villains. You, Goth-kid." Alex turned his vacant gaze onto the gym teacher. "Only one power." Alex didn't respond but turned back to stare at me. I saw his eyes flit over to Warren Peace for a few seconds before turning back to me. I guess he was "analyzing" his emotions too. I wondered briefly what he might be thinking but before I could get far on that tack, the bell sounded and Boomer shouted at us to begin.
The first thing that happened was I got a sudden wave of different emotions. I felt angry, then sad, then happy, then depressed. These changes came so fast my head was whirling trying to keep up. I was very confused and my head started to hurt. I turned to Warren, wondering what was happening. He seemed confused as well. I suddenly got the feeling that I was bored and did not want to do this anymore. I started to walk towards the door of the ring then stopped as I noticed Warren doing the same. He stopped too and turned back, throwing a fire ball at Alex. The Goth kid jumped aside and the bored emotion stopped. I realized then what had happened. Alex was making me and Warren feel those emotions. Pretty clever; although I wasn't about to congratulate him on that now.
Warren kept a steady volley of fire balls going at Alex, stopping the boy from concentrating on twisting our emotions. That left me facing Layla. She had a pained look on her face, as if she was reluctant to do anything to me. A flower that she had placed in her hair started growing to an enormous size. Vines slithered out of the stalk and started towards me. They went slowly, almost hesitantly it seemed. I stood still, wondering what she intended to do. The vines started curling around my leg then stopped. I braced myself for the sharp tug and the hard fall following, but it never came.
I looked up and saw a battle going on behind the hippie's soft brown eyes. She obviously couldn't decide whether to let me go or to take me down. Before she could choose which way to go, I had untangled myself from her vines and stood free a bit to her side. I stretched my arm out and grabbed her arm. Pulling her towards me roughly I placed my mouth close to her ear. She was too startled to pull away.
"Don't go soft on me just because you know my dad beat me up." I hissed. "Stop acting like you care and play the villain."
I pushed her away and she fell backwards, hitting the back of her head against the wall behind her. She was a bit dazed and I seized my chance. With Warren still distracting Alex, I ran over to the citizen and stretched my arms to get it down. My fingers were just about to grab the rope when a vine came out of nowhere and knocked me on my back. I glared out of my good eye at Layla who stood above me, smiling a bit apologetically. The vines wrapped around my arms and legs until I was tied up in a cocoon of green leafy plants.
I called out for Warren and he glowered at me a bit as he came to burn off the plants. He looked like he might incinerate me instead. I frowned. It wasn't my fault Layla turned rogue. He was just powering up to burn the vines when he suddenly stopped. His face twisted strangely as if he were trying to hold back some emotion. Suddenly he started laughing. I was shocked. Layla even looked startled. I looked past the chortling pyro to gaze at Alex. A small smile hovered about his pale lips.
I looked up towards the clock and sighed in dejection. We had only twenty seconds left. Warren was still laughing so hard he could not catch his breath. The countdown started. For once in my life I felt a pang of regret as the citizen lowered towards the spinning blades. The student body started shouting the numbers as the decreased.
"Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One!"
Everyone cheered as the citizen's plastic body got ravaged to pieces. A sight that used to give me pride now disgusted me. The vines retreated and the colossal flower shrunk back into Layla's hair. Warren stopped laughing and looked confused. Layla held out a hand to help me up but I ignored it, getting up myself. I looked around for Alex but he had disappeared. Layla approached my side.
"Lash," she said softly. "I'm sorry."
I turned to frown at her. "What for? You were the villains, you did your job."
I saw her eyes shift to the swollen half of my face. She lifted a hand to brush my hair away, apparently to get a closer look. I shied away from her fingers and she froze. Her arm slowly lowered as her eyes filled with tears.
"I'm sorry." She said.
My eyes followed her as she turned and fled. I watched her run into her boyfriend's arms. From my perspective it looked like she was crying. Stronghold patted her back and glared at me. I suddenly was very confused. What had I done? She was the one who decided to get all sentimental. I turned on my heel and stalked out of the gym, brushing past the purple girl who had been heading to join her friends.
"Watch where you're going Stretch." She half-growled at me.
I stopped and faced her. "Are you talking to me?" I asked, a bit surprised.
"Do you see someone else with rubber band powers?" She said sarcastically.
"Why are you talking to me?" As far as I knew, she had never spoken to me in her life and that wasn't the first time I had bumped into her.
"Do I need your permission to talk to you?"
Her cynical tone was getting on my nerves so I just shrugged it off and left.
The next period was lunch. I figured after Save the Citizen Layla would not want to reach out to me so I sat inside to eat. I was not expecting my table to be flooded with Stronghold's group as soon as I sat down. They were all talking among themselves and didn't notice the frown I gave them.
"What are you doing?" I asked, looking at Layla.
The hippie lowered her head and did not meet my gaze. The lightbulb kid offered an explanation.
"Well, Layla has been on our case about trying to reach out to you and now that we know your dad beats you it's a bit easier, you know?"
I could feel the blood draining from the right side of my face. The purple girl glared at her boyfriend and gave him a hard punch in the arm. The boy yelped and looked a bit confused.
"Ow! Dude, what was that for?" He said, rubbing his arm and scowling a bit.
His girl friend tilted her head in my direction and I guess the look on my face told him his mistake. Layla looked mortified. The boy had the decency to look sheepish.
"Oh." He said, a bit ruefully.
I stood quickly, my face flushed. "I've got to go." I muttered.
Layla stood as well. "Lash, wait!" She said.
I turned to her viciously. "Look, since you obviously enjoy speaking about my home life behind my back, there's no need for me to be here is there?"
Layla hurried around the table to get to me. She laid a hand on my arm, I jerked away.
"Lash, I promise you, I didn't tell them anything!"
"Then how do they know?" I said bitterly. I grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "Tell me Layla, how do they know?" I choked on the last word. I shook my head, trying to clear my eyes that were filling with tears against my will.
Layla looked fretful. "I don't know." She whispered.
I dropped my hands. "Stay the heck out of my life." I hissed at her. "Do you think I care what you all think? Do you think I care? It doesn't matter what you think. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks, nothing changes!" I turned to the kids who were starting to glance over at us. "Does anyone else want to do an exposé on my life?" I shouted at them. They looked away quickly.
I stretched out my arm and knocked my tray to the ground. Food splattered everywhere. Layla's eyes widened.
"Lash, please!" She said.
"Stay away from me Layla." I growled at her. "I never want to see you come near me again."
That said, I stormed out of the cafeteria.