I was jogging down the street. Most kids would take the bus to get to school in Brockton Bay. I could have been too, I had the option. But I wasn't going to be the city's most effective Vigilante if I was riding the bus twice a day going soft! So I was making the jog to school every day as a way of staying in shape and improving my stamina. Once winter rolled around I'd start taking the bus, but it was the first day of school, no way was I going to let herself turn from a lean predator into fat prey. Two miles passed quickly as I jogged down sidewalks on the way to Winslow. The journey was uneventful, something I'd taken before as a way to make sure I had a good route that was likely to take me through any trouble areas. Daytime or not, Marquis' peace or not, there were always idiots out there like the Merchant scum that didn't have enough brain cells to think about what grabbing a kid would mean to their rapidly dwindling future and life opportunities.

It was inevitable though that I would finally get to the school after rounding a corner around an almost reputable looking drug store a block away. Immediately I could see the numerous iconic yellow buses were lined up at the front to offload their passengers while other students were walking or getting rides from family. Already the crowds were pouring in and I could hear laughter echoing on the air as I weaved through slower moving kids my age that were taking the snail paced walk to the building. Even with the building in sight I wasn't about to just stop and rest, no I would finish this all the way.

I made my way up to the front steps to the entrance of what had once, decades before, been a model school. Now as a familiar redheaded girl spotted me and approached waving, I ignored her for the moment instead eyeing the gang tags. There weren't many. Despite the crap school with a budget that would make a deadbeat gambler who'd lost his life savings on the ponies, stop and laugh, I could see the gang tags, all of them freshly painted. Clearly someone, somewhere, had gotten the bright idea that displaying a tag would remind everyone of who was present in the school in membership even if it was the Junior league boyscout versions of the major gangs. I could see the E88 and the ABB tags easily enough. Hell I even spotted a lone Merchants tag, or atleast it might have been a Merchant's tag, it also might have been a bit of mold growing on the brick, which was basically the same thing either way. The Marche wasn't present in the list of tags but that didn't really surprise me. The Marche weren't the hard criminals and killers that the other gangs were. Marquis himself of course had a substantial confirmed body count, and the rumors always whispered of far more, but the rest were all just normal un-powered adults clinging to the skirt of a Cape with a fearsome reputation, and holding their hands out for whatever breadcrumbs he felt like giving them.

The E88 might be a bunch of racist fucks that were all better off dead, and the ABB the same except a bunch of Asians, but they at least weren't a bunch of white collar criminals calling themselves a street gang. As for the Merchants they may be scum, but they were scrappy scum. If it wasn't for Marquis' rep, the whole of the Marche would have collapsed years ago. But of course the villain had earned his rep when he'd killed all the Brigade years ago when they broke the Unwritten Rules to ambush him. The Brigade had the right idea, fuck the criminals. If they wanted to do that, they didn't deserve to have the protection of their civilian identities when they weren't committing crimes at night.

I was forced out of my ruminations as Emma Barnes approached. Despite my best efforts I couldn't resist the urge to glare in annoyance. The girl may have proven she was a fighter, a predator when those ABB fucks had cornered her, but that didn't mean that I liked the clingy behavior the girl had been forcing on me ever since that night.

"Hey Sophia." Emma said, oblivious to the thoughts going through my head of course. "I just wanted to invite you to my place on Saturday afternoon." What again? How many times was this now?! I was seriously starting to regret ever saving the girl and her father if this was what I was going to have to put up with every single Scion damned day. Emma of course continued to talk oblivious to her increasingly regretful rescuer's thoughts. " My dad's making me attend a cook out. His biggest client's divorce just finalized and my Dad invited him and a bunch of friends over for the afternoon. I think he might be trying to set me up with the guy's son, and I really wish you'd be there to help run interference. I met the boy once and he's sooo not my type."

I savored the sour thought 'And what is your type? Tattooed Asians with knives?' But thoughts aside I wasn't about to throw away a useful tool in Emma, and her father. The man was a lawyer, and even if he did divorces, not Cape Law, I wasn't stupid enough to ruin a relationship that might pay dividends down the road just because of spite and an annoying brat.

So I turned and grudgingly nodded. At least the man was a decent cook so the day wouldn't be a total waste, and my mom would be Sooo Happy that she was hanging around with 'that nice upstanding white girl'. "Yeah sure I'll come over. I'm going to need a lift. Jogging to school is one thing, but I'm not about to jog halfway across the city just so you can avoid some boy."

Emma nodded in understanding. "I'll tell my Dad and either he or my Mom can come get you. Dad already invited you so you're good to come." Of course the man did. The warning bell rang and I swore. I didn't give two flying shits about Winslow or school but if I got detentions my mom would flip, which I didn't care about. Plus time in detention was time I wasn't out being a mother freaking hunter/predator, and that was something that I very much did care about thank you very much. And so we made our way into the school and our waiting lockers, put away coats and backpacks, and headed to our homeroom. Somehow and I'm not sure really how it was managed, but our homeroom had been changed a week ago so that we now were together. Officially it was because of a late hiring change in the form of a new english teacher but I didn't buy it for a second. More likely Emma had gotten dear daddy to pull a favor.

We made it into our seats with just seconds to spare. All it took was a glance around the room at all my fellow freshman students as I kicked my feet out under the desk in front of mine's chair and I was already hating this. A glance at Emma who was sitting two seats to the side on the other side of some skinny girl I'd never seen before caught and I caught her eye or at least I tried to. Emma was staring at the teacher's name written on the blackboard.

Then the bell rang and the woman who was our English and Homeroom teacher walked to the door and pushed it shut. She was in her late thirties maybe. Tall, looked like she was in pretty good shape actually beneath the actual suit she wore. Given that outfit, if the woman's hair had been cut short, I would have sworn she was a dyke, but instead the teacher's hair was long, black and had wavy curls. She walked to stand in front of her desk and leaned back slightly against it.

"Good morning class. I'm Annette Hebert and I will be your English and Homeroom teacher. You may address me as Mrs. Hebert." Out of the corner of my eye she could see Emma shift. Past the bored looking skinny girl, Emma had a look of confused surprise on her face. I tried catching her eye again, but rather than risking getting on the bad side of a teacher that looked like she was formal as all hell, she just focused back on the still talking woman, leaving me to turn back to the front and focus on the teach too.

"I am new to Winslow as a teacher but I have several years of teaching in Houston. For those of you, who think that you are all hot shit, please feel free to leave such opinions in your lockers. I have stared down Capes, none of you can compare. Now please pull out your English Textbook, your notebook, and a pen. I expect you all to have each ready at the start of class. I also have a few things to hand out including this year's syllabus and we'll go over what we'll be covering in class this semester."

Okay pausing here for a moment? Points for the intro. It was bullshit of course, a civilian like her making those claims, but if I wasn't a cape myself, if I didn't know better, I'd actually take her more seriously with that little intro. But it was all business after that and we hit the ground running fast.

By the time the class period was over I was forced to conclude it was better than some classes I have had in the past. Hebert may have been full of shit about staring down Capes, but the woman was an efficient and effective teacher. English, a class which I had never cared for, was organized and structured as the teach went over her expectations and how she would be graded. Given that I was planning on joining Cross Country and Track to styay in shape, and of course those required that I needed to maintain an academic standard, I did actually pay attention. By the end of class the no nonsense teacher had grudgingly earned a little of my respect for clearly knowing her subject, and taking her job seriously.

In the hallway after class as they made their way to the next class though I stopped and cornered Emma. "So? What gives? I can tell you knew her." Emma bit her lip for a moment. "I knew her, or I think I did. If she's who I think she is, she's married to my Dad's best friend from when he was a kid. Only I didn't know she was back in Brockton Bay. When I was maybe four or five she and her daughter just left in the middle of the night, no warning no nothing. I mean something had to have happened to just up and bailed but Dad wouldn't have stayed friends with Mr. Hebert if he'd been beating her, but its really weird. I mean Mr. Hebert is a little old fashioned. He doesn't own a cellphone for Christ's sake! But the two never get divorced. My dad would know obviously. But she never comes back. And now she's back... It's just weird."

I had no idea what to make of the story I'd just been given. This was all assuming this was the same woman in the first place of course. Weird Shit, and I had my own suspicions that Emma's dad, the weakling that he was, just didn't want to see the ugly truth. But I didn't actually care. This wasn't my business and it didn't interest me. "Look, whatever. Forget her, that was a long time ago right?" Emma hesitantly nodded. "I wonder if Taylor is back too..." She quietly muttered. I instantly sighed wishing that the subject was dropped. "Who?" Emma looked at me. "Taylor, her daughter. We used to have sleepovers all the time when we were really young before they left. Hell I called Mrs. Hebert, Auntie Annette!"

I just threw her head back, looking up at the ceiling in exasperation. Where was an E88/ABB brawl when you needed one? "Look just forget about it. Lets get to class. I've got Cross Country practice after school and I don't want to give the coach any reason to drop my ass because some teacher with a stick up their ass gave me a detention for being three seconds late on the first day." Emma nodded and followed in my wake. For all that I hated the clinginess of the girl, at least she recognized who was the superior in our relationship, who was the predator. And for the rest of the day she and Emma didn't talk about a teacher that she might or might not have previously known.

After school I got changed into my athletic outfit and headed out to the track for practice. Emma had already said goodbye as she left when her folks picked her up, I'd bothered to wave even as I headed for the sports fields. Already the field was filled with hundreds of kids. Spotting the cross country runners I walked up to the gathered group of students, most of them looking like they weren't worth my time even for just a glance. So I instead focused on the coach. There was one late arrival but the first meet wasn't for three weeks so everything was good for the new member. I didn't care. I also didn't like that the new girl hadn't even bothered to attend the summer practice sessions like all the rest of us all had. But, whatever, the crybaby would no doubt vanish to never be seen again after the first day.

Everyone got grouped up for the warm up two mile run. Smirking ready to see all the weaklings eat my dust I took off like a gunshot as soon as the coach blew his whistle. I pushed to the front of the pack instantly, unwilling to let the predator in me be led by sheep. Within thirty seconds I'd outstripped them all and with that I was off. Blood pounded in my ear, my breath coming in through the nose, out through the mouth, my form good, never dragging my feet, picking them up as I pushed herself. The sheep may have thought this was just a warm up run. But they were fools and I knew better. Like all of life, this was a test. And I would show everyone why I was the best without match.

That thought went full speed right into a hard brick wall when thirty seconds later I realized someone was actually keeping up with me! Rather than let that slide I just kicked it up a gear and started running faster. Only the runner at my side kept the pace! I glanced to my side. It was the new girl! What the fucking hell? If the coaches weren't watching I would totally just shoulder check the girl. Instead though I just kicked up another gear, really pushing myself in a dead out run now. Let the girl try and keep up with this! This would prove who the predator was and who the sheep was!

Ten seconds became thirty seconds. Thirty Seconds became one minute and then two. I was at my limit and my body was screaming at me in protest. How the hell was this girl keeping pace with her?! This was such bullshit! This newbie who up and joins on a lark is just doing this? It had to be drugs. No way no how was this real. The girl was a Merchant customer and was on some kind of stimulant. A glance behind showed some stragglers a ways back, nowhere near close of course, but close enough, as they ran around the school's outer fence for their warm-up, that someone would see her if I showed the girl her proper place.

Forced to finally slow down as my body's screaming finally became something I couldn't ignore anymore I dropped down into a fast jog. Instantly the girl slowed to keep pace. Oh I definitely was going to make this girl pay. It went without saying that I did not appreciate being made a fool of. When our warm-up run finished the head coach congratulated both of us for being such excellent runners and said that it would be good if we partnered up to run every practice so that they each had someone to compete against and use to push their own limits. I just screamed inside my head. Fuck this bullshit! Somehow, some way. This girl was going to pay!