Chapter 13

I was appalled by how the people in school welcomed Harry when he came through the front doors this morning. Everyone was eyeing him, but not in a very good way. I felt bad because some people started pointing openly at him and laughing because of how he looked. It made me so angry to see the shallowness of the students here, what with all the gossiping about the "fat nerd" as Harry made his way into his first class; he was placed as a sidekick with his power of enhanced hearing.

Harry's first class was just beside my locker, so I saw him walk towards it, carrying new books in his hands. I saw two tall guys walk past him, hitting his shoulder on the way, making the books fall to the ground. The guys just chuckled maniacally as he bent down to pick up his books. Of course, I proceeded on helping him and he said his thanks. I looked up and saw the same guys who had hit him glance our way.

"Oh look, the two newbies meet at last," one of them chuckled and they turned to walk away.

But not before I made some toilet paper appear on their behinds, I heard the laughter moments later from inside their classroom.

"Thanks Alex," Harry said.

"Is this what you were aiming for?" I asked curiously. "To be made fun of?"

Harry just smiled at me. "All part of the plan, and at least no fan girls."

I just shook my head at him and started walking the opposite direction.

"Let's see how your plan goes at the game," I turned back to him and he grinned even more.

As I passed by Warren's locker on my way, I saw that someone had stuck a note on it.

It read: "Come back to school Warren! Feel better!"

It was written on a big heart-shaped pink paper.

I just shook my head.

---

I entered the school's indoor pool for Save the Citizen, taking a seat on the bleachers beside Ethan and Layla. I looked around for Will and Harry and finally saw them come through the doors.

Harry sat down beside us in all his knitted sweater clad glory, glancing at some of the girls around us who were craning their necks looking for a certain someone.

Some people have already asked Will where Warren was, and he just said that Warren was out sick today, earning a big sad response from his fans. It also wasn't a surprise for most to see that the new student had been adopted by Stronghold and co. …they already had me as an example so they just probably assumed that this group had enough pity to take on the new students.

The game began and I groaned in an instant. Coach Boomer picked Annie and some guy in our grade to be villains and they immediately picked on the new kids; me and Harry.

I walked across the changing screen and my clothes immediately disappeared, changed by a horrible blue and orange one-piece swimsuit. I walked to the side of the pool, being careful not to look at my partner.

…Too late I looked at him, and suffice to say I had to cough on my arms to hide my growing laughter. Harry just looked at me and grinned, making me laugh harder.

He was wearing his swimming trunks, his hair still gelled flat, glasses gone but still with acne, and of course, his pot belly. I couldn't help but be proud of my work.

"Ready partner?" Harry asked.

"Of course...Harry," I chuckled as I said his name and I saw him pat his stomach.

"You know this fat you gave me makes me hungrier than usual," he said and I laughed out loud in reply, I covered my face with my hands for a moment to compose myself and Harry grinned in reply.

"So I'm guessing the lack of your tattoos made you nicer then," I giggled. "Let's hope nothing else changes shall we?"

Harry rolled his eyes at me, something very Warren-like, I noticed. "Don't ruin my fun Alex."

I mock saluted him. "Yes sir, Mr. Harry sir. Let's just get this swimming hell over and done with."

Coach Boomer blew on his whistle.

---

Well we lost the game, because everyone knew that Harry's power of super hearing was no use whatsoever under water, and that the two villains had more power than me. Harry and I dived deep into the pool where the citizen was slowly drowning and was knocked over by a big tidal wave courtesy of Winston, the guy on the villain team. Needless to say that killed the citizen and almost drowned Harry and me.

I spat out the nasty, chlorine-tasting, water when I pushed myself up onto the side of the pool, dragging Harry behind me. He really put up a charade of panicking in the water and screaming "Save me Alex!" while flailing his arms in the air, and I heard the collective laughter of our audience in the background.

I grabbed the towels from the rack and threw one at Harry, who was still coughing out water.

"You okay, Barry?" I joked.

"Harry," he corrected me. "And as you can see, I'm perfectly fine."

Coach Boomer shouted. "Heroes lose! Hit the showers Moore and Green."

I stood up and Harry did the same, and we started walking back to the showers while other heroes took our spot in the game. I was giggling again to myself as I looked at Harry's wet hair sticking to his head because of all the dissolved gel.

"Did you hear them laugh at me?" Harry asked when we reached the changing rooms. "That was hilarious."

"I think your pleas for help was what did it," I replied as I opened the door to the girl's changing room. "You never told me you were such a great actor."

"Oh yeah, Harry's great at these sort of things."

I shook my head, smiling as I entered the changing room. I guess this part of Save the Citizen would always be the best.

---

By lunchtime I was pretty much used to seeing Harry's face, and this is why I decided to play cards with him. We were playing speed and when he finally won, he stood up and cheered like a maniac.

"I win!!! Yay!" he shouted happily.

I looked around and saw everyone pointing and laughing at him.

"Okay Harry, not so loud, people think you're already crazy."

"Mission complete don't you think?" he asked me as he started shuffling the cards.

I snorted in reply. If he was having fun with all of this, then I couldn't deny him that happiness.

"Do you want to skip 3rd and 4th period Save the Citizen?" Harry asked.

"Sure," I replied. "We already got creamed last period, why do it again?"

So we said goodbye to the others as they headed towards the pool once again because they were too scared to skip. Harry and I went to the courtyard to relax out on the bright sunshine.

"You know, I saw something this morning during 1st period that I think you'd like," Harry said as he took a book out of his backpack.

"Oh look, you're actually reading your school books! Maybe you should always be Harry during test times or something," I laughed as he glared at me again and flipped the book open.

"Here," he turned the book around so I could see the picture that was on the page. "Straight out of my history class."

My breathing paused for a moment as I looked at the black and white photo of 4 superheroes. The Elements.

"Warren?" I spoke in a quiet voice, my fingers brushing along the photograph.

"Yeah?"

"This is going to be us in a few years."

"I know."

"It's a good thing you have two alter-egos now. People at Sky High will adore Warren Peace after this."

"You had to remind me about that."

I gave him a huge smile and he smiled back. When he did, he looked exactly like the Warren I knew, not Harry's acne-covered face.

"You can thank me later."

A/N. Hope you liked this chap, and thanks for the reviews :) they really made my day. For Leriana, I hope the next chapter will answer some of your questions. I'll try to write as much detail about the whole superhero business in the next chap. It won't be too long...(I hope) :) lol. And I loved how you guys liked the last chapter b/c it was my absolute fave. (did i mention that already? :) It was the very first chapter I wrote actually, and then I built a story around that, funny how that happened.

So yeah, watch out for the next chapter, hopefully I'll post it up by tomorroe. NEW YEAR'S EVE!

Here's a little excerpt:

I suddenly knocked into someone as I started to climb up the stairs, and of course, it wasn't a Vee moment if I didn't bring that person back down with me.

"Owiee…"

"Still a klutz I see," Warren groaned.

"Oh shut up, why did you stop? It's your fault." I untangled myself from him and stood up, rubbing my sore head.

He stood up as well. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

My very good day vanished in an instant when I heard my phone ring, and saw the flashing red lights. Warren looked at me, and then at my phone, and his face changed from carefree to alert. I looked at screen.

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