"Now, class, today's lesson will be about electricity and magnetism…" Mr. McGill's voice droned on as Virgil struggled to keep his eyes open.

He had spent half the night plotting how he was going to behave around Zoey during school that day. Because, obviously, he and Richie, as civilians, had no recollection of Friday's events. Therefore, they needed to act as clueless as possible.

He supposed he may have been overthinking the whole thing. When they had last spoken with her, Zoey had seemed more concerned about her backpack than anything else, so it was unlikely that she was paying much attention to how he and Richie were acting around her.

Though, Zoey seemed unusually quiet this morning. She had not uttered more than a "hey" to him and Richie before she had sat down at her desk. He figured she was still upset about losing her backpack and whatever was inside it. So maybe it was for the best that she wanted some space, anyways.

"For this problem, we'll need to use Ohm's law…"

Virgil sighed. This was going to be a long class period.

Lunchtime could not come soon enough for Zoey as she stepped out of her fourth hour classroom. She had spent the last two class periods without friends, and, to make it worse, she had homework due in both those classes that she had lost with her backpack. Needless to say, she was kind of grumpy.

As usual, she met up with Frieda outside her fourth hour class and the two walked to the lunchroom together.

"Cheer up, Zoey, I'm sure your backpack will turn up sometime," Frieda said, sensing the girl's frustration.

"I hope so."

Like most days, Frieda headed straight for their usual table to meet up with Daisy while Zoey headed to the lunch line.

Meatloaf. Wonderful, she grumbled to herself as she saw what was being served. The line was pretty short, yet there was no sign of Virgil and Richie.

"Hey stranger," a voice said from behind her.

She turned around to see none other than her two best guy friends standing before her.

"Hey Virgil. Hey Richie," she answered.

The three friends gathered their food in silence before making their way to the table.

"So…how's your day been going?" Richie asked, attempting to make conversation with her.

Zoey shrugged her shoulders. "Not gonna lie, could be better."

Once they reached the table, she set her tray down and took a seat, with Virgil and Richie following suit.

"How was your weekend?" Virgil asked, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.

The dishwater blonde sighed, recalling Friday's events. "I don't even know where to begin."

Her lackluster response caught Daisy's attention.

"What's the matter, Zoey?" the dark-haired girl asked.

Zoey stared down at her food forlornly. "I lost my backpack this weekend. It had everything in it—my homework, ID and my sketchbook."

"Aw man, that stinks," Virgil said, trying to sound as if it were news to him.

Daisy, as usual, was sympathetic. "I'm sorry, Zoe. Who knows? Maybe it'll turn up."

"Well, it wasn't at the mall where I thought I left it. And it wasn't at the police station." Zoey answered. "Even Static and Gear couldn't find it."

Of course, everyone's ears perked up at the mention of the infamous duo.

"Wait a minute, did you say Static and Gear?" Daisy asked.

Zoey nodded. "I maybe…kinda sorta lied to you and Frieda about leaving early to go help my mom with dinner on Friday," she admitted. "What I actually did was I went to the mall to see if I could catch Static and Gear in action."

She hung her head in embarrassment. "I'm sorry for lying to you and Frieda. Everything kinda backfired on me anyways because, instead of running into Static and Gear like I had planned to, I ran into that bang-baby they call Ebon."

Frieda gasped. She obviously hadn't heard this part of Zoey's story. "Ebon?! Isn't he, like, the leader of all the bang-babies?"

Zoey shrugged. She wasn't familiar with the meta-human hierarchy. "I guess. Anyways, he tried to capture me, but luckily, Static and Gear showed up in the nick of time and were able to save me before I was dragged to who-knows-where."

Frieda and Daisy's eyes widened in disbelief.

"So, wait, let me get this straight," Daisy started, "First, you were taken as a hostage by Ebon, the baddest bang-baby of them all. Then, Static and Gear came to save you?"

"Almost taken as a hostage," Zoey corrected her. "But yeah, that's pretty much what happened."

"Wow, that's amazing."

However, unlike her female counterpart, Frieda reflected on the situation from a safety standpoint.

"Zoey, you could have gotten yourself killed!" the brunette exclaimed.

"I know, I'm sorry," Zoey said for what felt like the hundredth time that day. "I won't do it again, I promise."

At last, her millionth apology seemed to satisfy her hyperactive friend.

"Good. 'Cause you're really lucky to be alive right now," she said. "I swear, you, Virgil and Richie have a knack for getting yourselves into trouble with meta-humans lately."

Virgil and Richie exchanged uncertain glances. The topic of conversation was beginning to merge into dangerous territory.

Unfortunately for them, Frieda's remark had reminded Zoey why she had been held hostage in the first place.

"Ebon was trying to figure out Static and Gear's identities," she explained. "And he seemed pretty convinced that I knew something that he didn't know about them."

Frieda frowned in confusion. "Why would he think you knew anything about them?"

Zoey shrugged. "Don't know." Suddenly, a thought struck her. "Ebon also mentioned something about Foley," she said, turning to her two male friends. "Have you guys ever run into him before?"

Richie glanced over at his best friend nervously. He didn't want to lie to Zoey, but he knew they couldn't be completely honest with her either.

"You could say that—" he began before he was immediately interrupted by a jab in the arm from Virgil

"We may have had a little misunderstanding with him at some point," Virgil finished. Boy, that's an understatement.

Zoey's eyes widened. "What ha—" she was about to ask, but Frieda beat her to the punch.

"You two didn't say anything dumb, did you?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at Virgil. She knew the boys—especially Virgil—had a track record for offending bullies with their offbeat humor.

Noticing her attention was mainly on him, Virgil waved his hands in defense. "Hey, why are you looking at me?"

"Because I know you, Virgil," Frieda answered. "And I know that in the past, you've said things that may come off as insensitive."

"What are you, my psychologist?" Virgil teased, though not-so-deep down, he was relieved the conversation had shifted.

"I'm just saying you could work on showing a little empathy," Frieda said, taking a bite of her food.

Virgil rolled his eyes. "Now you're starting to sound like my sister," he replied. "There's no way I'm going to have empathy for a slimy, no good, egomaniac—"

He froze, realizing everyone was eyeing him curiously, Zoey included.

"I mean, at least that's what I think he is."

"Empathy, Virgil. Empathy," Frieda repeated.

While encounters with meta-humans were nothing new to the rest of her friends, Zoey, on the other hand, was interested in learning more about Virgil and Richie's altercation with the dreaded meta-human. For someone who got himself into a quarrel with the baddest bang-baby in town, Virgil seemed awfully calm about the whole thing. Same with the whole Hotstreak incident.

Come to think of it, she never found out what they had actually said or done to Hotstreak to make him come after them either. Knowing what she knew now, she realized Frieda was right—they did have a track record for attracting bang-babies. Even though it was Dakota, an encounter with a renegade bang-baby couldn't have been that common, could it? It had been at least eight months since she had moved to Dakota, and this was the second time in two weeks she had actually seen one. Where were Virgil and Richie running into these bang-babies, anyways? And why did Ebon mention Richie and not Virgil?

Thoughts swirled in her head as she continued to eat her lunch. One thing was for sure: she was gonna need to ask Virgil and Richie some questions. Preferably out of the earshot of Frieda, since they seemed less inclined to discuss certain details with her for whatever reason.

"Oh, by the way, Zoey, our journalism club is meeting after school today," the preppy brunette added.

Zoey sighed. Maybe tomorrow she would have a chance to ask them.