Title: Help Save the Youth of America from Exploding
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own Sky High or anything or anyone to do with Sky High. So don't sue me. I mean, you could, but all you'd get is a deflated rugby ball and a computer that freezes every five minutes. So it wouldn't really be worth it. I also don't own the title, which the title of a Less Than Jake song.

Volume 02

The gym was exactly the same as gyms around the world. I guess it was pretty hard to get a high school gymnasium to resemble a museum like the front of the school did. The gym teacher started in pretty much the second all of the freshmen had filed in.

"I'm Coach Boomer, some of you may know me as Sonic Boom," he started off, glowering around the room at all of us like he was psychic or something. Which the codename did not seem to indicate. And Boomer had been what my dad called me when I was a little kid. Wow, now I was not going to be able to get through gym class without being creeped out. Brilliant.

"Now, I'm going to call each of your names and you're going to come up here and show me your power. And then I'll assign you to either hero or sidekick class. Of course, they're both equally important," he said, sneering. Really, he just oozed sincerity. Guy like him had pretty definitely been a hero, and not a sidekick.

Mickey, standing next to be, groaned and covered her eyes with her hand. "This is what I've been dreading," she said, eyes still covered. "Mark told me all about it."

I shrugged, forgetting she couldn't see me with her eyes covered, and couldn't help but feel a little jealous. My mom had gone here, and her sisters, and my cousins, and no one had told me a word of this. Probably because they knew if they had told me I would have been worrying about it all summer and would have made myself sick, but still. They should've told me!

"Delacourt!" Vico went up to the platform and the coach immediately started beaming at him. "Ah, Kismet's kid, huh? You alter 'destiny' too, huh, just like your mom?"

He winced. "Actually… I manipulate density. I think genetics got a little dyslexic along the way."

"CAR!" yelled the coach, and to the surprise and shouts of many, including myself, a car dropped out of the ceiling and onto Vico. It would have crushed him except that it started to… float… about three feet above him. "HERO!" bellowed the coach, smiling. Vico walked off of the platform with a smug grin on his face.

"Delaney!" Coach Boomer – shudder – yelled. I stood there for a moment in disbelief. I was first? What, Vico was the only one who came earlier than me in the alphabet? Typical… I slowly walked forward and climbed on to the platform. And stood there. I was in no rush to show my power, since I knew where it would land me. Everyone in my family who had ever gone to Sky High had been a sidekick. Mostly because we all had nearly the same ability. Except my cousin Kristy, who had managed telepathy instead of simple pre-cognition and had therefore been labeled a hero, but no one really liked her anyway.

"Well? Show your power!"

"Um… well, it's pre-cognition, but-"

"Alright, then, what word am I going to say next?"

"Well, see, it only works if I'm going to be hurt in the next, like, ten seconds, so…"

"SIDEKICK!" His yell blasted me off of the stage and I heard someone whisper, "I knew he was going to say that, maybe I've got pre-cognition." Ooh, when I found out who had said that… I eyed the crowd suspiciously as I picked myself off of the floor.

Rover was up next. I brightened up. He had been refusing all summer to tell us what his power was or even listen to our guesses. I was just hoping it wasn't shape-shifting into a dog, because I'd already run through so many dog-related jokes it was just getting tired.

He was grinning. "Show your power," the coach said in incredibly bored tones, looking down at his clipboard. And then he said it again, only with his mouth closed and Rover's open.

This time he looked up from his clipboard. "What?" he asked. And again, said it again with his mouth closed and it sounding like it came from Rover's.

Wait.

Ah, I got it. So Rover could mimic people, could he? I immediately started thinking up some parrot-related jokes and cunning insults. Oh, revenge would be sweet. Revenge for what? I have no idea. It just sounds better than "insults for the sake of insults would be sweet".

I watched the next ten or so kids go and variously get launched off of spring-loaded platforms or get cars dropped on them. I made a note of who got put in as a sidekick, simply because I was going to be in class with them. Heroes, on the other hand, not so important for memorization. At least not yet. Then, finally:

"Price!"

There was a pause and I waited for Trash to head up to the testing area. His real name was Ryan Price, although I can't remember his parents or any teachers calling him that in the last ten years or so.

"PRICE!"

"Damn it, Trash, that's you!" I yelled, jerking my head at the stage. "Go!"

"Oh, right." He jumped onto the platform and fell flat on his face. I buried my face in my hands. This probably wouldn't end well.

"Show your power."

"I am," Trash protested, puzzled.

The coach was not in the mood for games. "SIDEKICK!" he yelled, only this time it was only loud and not blasting everyone back ten feet. Trash grinned.

"I block other people's powers," he said smugly.

Coach Boomer raised an eyebrow. "Alright, hero!"

I shook my head. It figured. Trash was a hero, and with my luck, I'd end up as his sidekick upon graduation. That was so not right.

A handful of others went through the process, until finally the last person I was really caring about went up with a cry of "Summers!"

"Er, I'm… sort of magnetic. And I can bend metal really really easy."

Coach Boomer looked at her incredulously. "SIDEKICK!"

She hung her head and cleared the stage. I patted her on the back when she reached us. "Cheer up, I'm a sidekick too."

"Oh, I don't really mind being a sidekick," she said, lifting her head up. "It's just that my brother can manipulate metal and turn things into metal and he's a hero and he's totally going to be laughing at me for this."

It seemed like we would find out soon if that would happen, as the lunch bell rang right then and the coach dismissed us. I was just hoping the lunch wouldn't be mutated, y'know, keeping in with the theme of the place and all.