AN: Thanks to everyone who reviewed - particularly StarChild524 and Zack Anderson, for their truly inspiring reviews and their suggestions. Another particular thank-you to my beta-reader, the talented miss Esunamoon, whose fic Out of Bounds will hopefully be coming to soon! Go see it as soon as its up, she has some great stuff.
Chapter 4: Everyday Heroes
Just who does she think that she is, anyways? Sarah had finally released her death-grip on Tony as the three of them approached the mall's cineplex. The redhead still hovered annoyingly around Tony, keeping up a ceaseless chatter and always positioning herself so that Violet and Tony couldn't even really communicate with each other.
She could give criminals lessons in breaking up hero-teams, Violet thought bitterly. I'm playing this the way Sarah wants me to, she fumed to herself. She's so sure that Shrinking Violet isn't going to speak up – that I'd rather have my date snatched out from under me than make a fuss.
Which was, of course, ridiculous! Did Sarah think that, after facing off against Syndrome and the Underminer, Violet Parr was going to be intimidated by a barely pubescent girl with a brainless giggle and a wonder-bra?
Time to regain the initiative, Violet. You can do this! Violet squared her narrow shoulders and stepped directly into Sarah's path, interrupting her. "Sarah, I need to speak to Tony for just a minute. Would you mind saving us some spots in the line?"
Sarah looked at her in shock. Then her eyes narrowed. Whatever scathing remark she was going to make, however, was very neatly derailed when Tony said, "Yeah, that would be great, Sarah. Thanks so much!"
The hostility dropped like a mask. "Oh, anytime, Tony," she simpered. Tony beamed at her, but as soon as she turned her back he and Violet put their heads together for a hurried conference.
"Tony," Violet said quietly, "I like you, but if you don't do something, I'm leaving." Oh my God. I just gave Tony Ridinger an ultimatum… Oh, I am so dumped…
Apparently not, actually. "What do you want me to do, Vi? I can't just say 'Sarah, I'm on a date here, please go away,'" Tony hissed back, keeping a wary eye on the ticket line.
Violet scowled. "Why not?"
"You just can't! Do you have any idea what they would say at school if I did?"
Violet took a deep breath, and then blew it out. "Tony, it's no great secret that I really don't care what they say."
He gave her a look that was half admiring, and half exasperated. "I know you don't, Violet. That was the thing that I thought was so cool about you – you do your own thing, and you're not affected by what anybody says."
Violet felt a tiny bit of heat in her cheeks at the compliment. At least, I think it was a compliment. "So, what's the problem exactly? If you are embarrassed to have asked me out…"
"No! It's not that. It's just, well… some of my friends don't think that your independence is as cool as I do. They gave me a pretty hard time when I asked you out, and if I just go tell Sarah to, you know, take a hike, I'll really never hear the end of it."
Violet was a little hurt, and considered saying something nasty about some of Tony's friends, but she was also touched that Tony was willing to absorb a little flack to go out with her, so she didn't. She suddenly had an idea. "Well, what about if I do something about it? Will you back me up?"
Tony's eyes lit up with mischief and his lip curled into an evil grin. "I think that would be wicked," he replied.
Tony squeezed her hand as the two of them headed back towards the ticket line. The next few minutes were filled with chatter as the three of them seemed to talk amiably. In truth, however, a tiny war was taking place as Sarah constantly moved about, trying to separate Violet from Tony, while Violet stayed close. Violet gripped Tony's hand tightly, and didn't even try to hide a satisfied smirk when Sarah was unable to split them up.
Violet was pretty sure that Tony, with typical male cluelessness, wasn't aware that the girls were jockeying for position, but even he couldn't miss Sarah getting more and more frustrated, while Violet's grin grew ever wider. He smiled slyly at his date, and gave her a tiny wink when he was sure that nobody was watching.
Finally Sarah, impatient with her continuing lack of success, switched tactics. "Oh, Tony," she giggled, "I think I need to slip into the ladies' room for a second, okay? Violet, why don't you come? We can keep each other company!"
It was a pretty obvious ploy, but this was what Violet had been hoping would happen, so she played along. "Oh, sure thing, Sarah!" she said with just the slightest trace of sarcasm. "But we'd better hurry – Tony said he would buy my ticket, but we wouldn't want you to have to wait in line again, would we?"
She smirked as Sarah's eyes turned to ice. Score: Miss Disappear, 1, Wonderbra Woman, 0.
The redhead laughed falsely, and then turned on her heel and marched towards the girls' bathroom. Violet followed casually behind. She threw the slightly confused Tony a significant look, and he just shrugged. Boys.
By the time Violet got inside the bathroom, Sarah was already adjusting her makeup in the mirror over the sinks. Violet leaned against the wall by the towel dispenser and waited for Sarah to say something.
"Who do you think you are?" Sarah finally hissed, putting her lip gloss back into her purse.
"Funny," Violet said coldly, "I was thinking the same thing. See, I'm here to see a movie with Tony. I'm not quite sure what you are doing."
"Listen, Shrinking Violet," Sarah said menacingly, "I don't know what kind of deal or blackmail or whatever else you did with Tony to get him to go out with you, but get this straight: he is too good for you. Do you really think that Tony Ridinger would want to date you? Pale, flat, invisible Violet, who wears too-baggy sweaters and hide behinds that nasty curtain you call hair?"
"Are you done?" Violet asked calmly.
"For the moment," Sarah seethed.
"Let me tell you what, Sarah – you seem to be missing one thing. Tony asked me on a date. He didn't ask you. He could have. Even he couldn't have missed the signs you were giving him. But he didn't want to. He wanted to go with me."
Violet approached Sarah, pushing her hair back behind her ears. "And you know what? When we go back out there, he'll still want to be with me. I'm giving you one chance to just leave, right now, and we'll never speak of this again. Otherwise, if you ruin my date, I will make sure that when I get home, I will call everyone I know, and tell them that you did everything short of stick your tongue in his mouth and he still didn't like you. He preferred pale, flat, invisible Shrinking Violet to you. And they will call everyone they know, and so on, and by Monday, the entire junior high is going to be talking about it." Her voice grew progressively quieter until she ended her statement with a whisper.
Sarah stared at her, embarrassment and rage in her features.
"Now, please leave. You are wrecking my date."
Sarah moved numbly to the bathroom door, but before she left, a little bit of her old fire came back. "Tony will get sick of you, you know. You're just a fling, and he'll get bored. You are nobody incredible."
Violet grinned at the unintentional joke. Oh, Sarah, how little you know. "Goodnight, Sarah."
Sarah Satterlee slammed the bathroom door behind her and stormed out of the theater. Violet slumped against the wall and released a long, shuddering breath. "I can't believe that worked…" she said to herself.
Violet rejoined Tony just as he was purchasing the tickets ("Two for the 7:05 Songbirds Fallen, please."). He presented Violet her ticket stub with a flourish.
"What did you say?" he asked, amazed. "I've never seen anyone leave a movie theater so fast."
"Oh, I just pointed out that it would be in her best interest to find something to do elsewhere," Violet said sweetly.
Tony smiled and hesitantly slipped his hand back into hers. "Well, remind me never to make you mad," he teased.
"Oh, I'm sure it will come up at some time," Violet shot back. "Oh God! I almost forgot our popcorn! Here, you go get us some seats, and I'll be right there, okay?"
"Yeah, sure," he said. "Theater six."
"Okay, I'll find you!"
Violet pulled her wallet out of her purse and stood in line at the concession stand. "I am having the best night ever," she cheerfully informed the cashier.
"That's nice," said the girl in a bored tone. "Would you like butter or salt on your popcorn?"
"Both, please."
By the time Violet paid for her bag of popcorn (which was easily enough to feed a third-world country for a week) and got to the theater, the lights were dimming. Tony was sitting near the back. She found her seat, put the popcorn between them and snuggled up next to him.
I'm glad we got this back on track, Violet thought. I hope the rest of the night goes smoothly. Still, she reasoned, nothing was going to arise that she couldn't handle, right? After all, she was a super hero. What could go wrong?