"Rosita, wake up! You start school today!" the voice of Francesca Santos rang out as her granddaughter rose up from her bed.
After getting ready for school, she makes her way to the kitchen and sees grandmother cooking breakfast. With her fully knowing that her grandmother is a phenomenal chef, Rosita's stomach starts to growl once she gets a whiff of huevos rancheros.
"Buenos días, mija (Good morning, dear)." Francesca greets Rosita, kissing her on the head.
"Buenos días, abuela (Good morning, grandma)." the pink-haired girl greets back as the two of them sit down to eat breakfast.
Initially, Rosita went to Copper Cove Academy for Powered Beings, but the tuition for the school was too much for Francesca, and so to help out her grandmother, Rosita offered to be transferred out of there and to Sky High, suggested by her boyfriend.
Before Rosita could leave the house, her grandmother's voice rings out. "Remember, Rosita, I want to hear how everything goes." she calls out to her. "Love you, abuelita." Rosita calls out to her as she leaves the house to go to the designated bus stop.
Rosita must've been standing there for a while, because two figures came up to her, a boy dressed up in red, white, and blue and a redhead girl dressed up in green. In a way, they kind of remind her of Captain America and Poison Ivy, but in teen form.
"Are you going to Sky High too?" the boy asks her.
Rosita, who's only interactions are limited to her grandmother, Warren, and Mrs. Lee from the Paper Lantern, rubs her hands together in nervousness.
"Yeah. I'm going in as a Sophomore. I'm transferring from somewhere else." she anxiously rambles to the two.
"I'm Will, this is my best friend, Layla." the boy, Will, introduces.
Rosita could see the look on Layla's face falter a bit when Will referred to her as his best friend, but she could sense something between her and him.
"I'm Rosita." she responds with a small smile as the bus arrives.
"Morning!" the bus driver calls out to the three. While the three were getting onto the bus, Will asks, "Is this the bus to Sky High?", to which the bus driver has to shush him.
"What, are you crazy?" the bus driver hisses before closing the door shut. "Guess you want every super villain in the neighborhood to know we're here."
Will sheepishly apologizes as he, Layla, and Rosita try to find their seats on the bus, only to get stopped by the bus driver again.
"What's your name, Freshman?" the bus driver asks.
"Uh, Will Stronghold." Will replies back, a little nervous.
The bus driver gulps as his eyes sparkle with excitement. "The son of The Commander and Jetstream?" he asks, to which Will nods. The bus driver stands up, both of his hands on his shoulders.
"Everyone! It's Will Stronghold! The son of The Commander and Jetstream!" the bus driver announces. While the bus driver, who Rosita learns his name is Ron Wilson, Rosita purses her lips in awkwardness.
The Commander and Jetstream would periodically drop by her grandmother's house whether to give her condolences or to help her out, only for Francesca to wave the two off or refusing to talk to them.
Ron turns to two kids that were sitting near the front. "You two, up. The seat behind Ron Wilson belongs to Will Stronghold." Ron instructs them.
"It would be an honor." a boy in orange and thick-frame glasses says as he is getting up from his seat.
"Nah, it's fine. You don't have to." Will tells him, shrugging it off.
"No, no, I want to. You're third generation, man." the boy states before turning to his purple-haired friend. "Magenta, get up."
"Why? He only needs one seat." the girl, Magenta, replies back in snark.
"So he can sit next to his girlfriend." the boy, who is still unknown to Rosita, tells her, gesturing to Layla as the girlfriend.
After an awkward conversation about how Layla is his best friend and after Layla briefly got hit on by a boy named Larry. They got up the steps of the bus, Rosita is about to follow them suit, only to be stopped by Ron.
The three venture more into the back and Rosita finds a seat that is across from a platinum blonde-haired boy, who is wearing neon yellow to a point it hurts Rosita's eyes. Layla sits next to her and Will sits next to the blonde boy and has a conversation with him.
"I like your hair."
"I like your necklace."
Layla and Rosita compliment in unison before giggling.
"I've been actually thinking about dying it a different color. I just don't know how my grandmother and boyfriend would react." Rosita explains to her.
"What do you have in mind?" Layla asks her.
"Blue, maybe." the pink-haired girl tells her.
"Honestly, I think it would fit." Layla tells her, earning her a beaming smile from Rosita.
"What do you mean grandmother? What happened to your parents?" Layla asks out of curiosity.
Rosita lets out a sigh before speaking. "My name is Rosita Cortez." she hesitantly confesses. Layla's eyebrows are scrunched in familiarization.
"Wait, as in King Cobra? That Cortez?" she asks, to which Rosita nods with trepidation.
The tale between King Cobra, her father, and Sirena, her mother, is a tragic tale that is no surprise to anyone.
King Cobra, or better known as Miguel Cortez, can turn invisible and can manipulate the trajectory of what he throws (his specialty is throwing knives). Sirena, who is the daughter of Francesca, can manipulate minds and can create illusions.
Sirena was tragically killed in an accident, an accident where The Commander and Jetstream were also assigned to.
After the death of his wife, something snapped in Miguel. Because of his uncontrollable grief over losing Sirena, he turns to his old high school buddy, Baron Battle, and slowly becomes a villain.
"I'm so sorry to hear what happened to your mom." Layla empathises with her, only to get a tight smile in response.
"It's fine. It's been years since that happened." Rosita blankly tells her.
The bus came to a dead stop, lurching everyone, including the two girls, over. "Sorry!" Ron apologizes as he picks up the last kid.
"That's everyone," he says as he closes the door, switches hats, and rips off a patch of cloth to reveal the Sky High logo.
"Next stop, Sky High!" he announces.
He continues to drive and he gets to a bridge that looks like it is under construction.
"Where are we?" Layla asks, confused like everyone else that is on the bus. Seatbelts and buzz bars appeared over the confused Freshmen and the one Sophomore.
"Hang on back there! We're going offroad." the bus driver reassures them. Rosita scrunches her eyebrows in confusion. Did he say what she thought he said?
Rosita looks out the window to see that a bridge is only partly done. Is this man really driving them off of the bridge?
The bus went flying off the bridge. While the occupants in the bus were screaming, one with joy and the other with fear, Rosita's heart plummets to her stomach, desperately wanting her wings to protrude from her back.
All of the sudden, she felt the bus stop and the bus is now...flying? That's how she interprets it.
While the bus is acting like a plane/roller coaster, within the clouds, they can all see a building floating up in the sky.
"Oh, I get it. Sky High." Rosita giggles to herself.
"There she is, Sky High. Kept aloft by the latest in anti-gravitational propulsion. She is in constant motion against those who might have nefarious plans. Her location is supplied to only a handful of highly qualified individuals, such as myself, Ron Wilson, bus driver." Ron explains.
The bus is now preparing for a landing. "Smooth and easy." Ron says as he prepares the bus for the landing, but it did not go smooth nor easy. "Sorry." he apologizes as he opens the bus doors to let the students out.
"Word of advice, don't wait for the bus, 'cause the bus waits for no one." Ron says to the retreating students. Layla, Will, and Rosita were the last ones to get off the bus. "Except for you, Will Stronghold."
"If you're running late, or you're running early, or you just want to talk…" Ron starts, grabbing the attention of the three teenagers and pulling out his business card. "Give me a call."
"Thanks, Ron." Will thanks him, grabbing the card. "You too, Rosita Cortez." he says, pulling out a card and taking her by surprise.
Going into a new school, she thought that she was going to be only known as the daughter of King Cobra, because the people at her last school waste no time in putting that into her head.
And she doesn't want to know how he found out about her name.
She gives out a kind smile in return and takes the card from him before meeting up with the other Freshmen.
A/N: If anyone is wondering why I also tagged Lash, even though that Warren is the boyfriend in the fic, you all will find out later in the fic