Disclaimer: I don't own Sky High…but I do sort-of own Rory, Jake Daniels, Nat Stronghold, etc. Let's just say that I don't own anything from the movie…happy?
"Mom, you're going to make me late!"
Like most people my age, I enjoyed the overuse of italics, exasperation, and extreme annoyance, and the three of them were often used all in one sentence, such as this one. I'm a rather average-looking sort of person, not the Juliet of my time but not the Hunchback of Notre Dame, either. I was one of those people who could eat tons and never gain an ounce, and therefore I was a skinny girl of fourteen, taller than average yet not tall enough to make people stare. My wavy waist-length hair was a sleek jet-black and was currently tied in a ponytail with a navy blue scrunchie that coincidentally matched my eyes. An expression of extreme annoyance was on my face as Mom fussed over the hat on my head, which had been flipped backwards by me, myself, and I.
"But don't you think it's a bit…tomboyish?" Mom asked me worriedly. "You wouldn't want to make a bad impression on anyone, would you, Rory?"
I rolled my eyes and tapped my foot impatiently. If I'd had my way, I'd have been at the bus stop fifteen minutes ago. But my mother, like all worrywarts mothers were these days, was very fussy about my appearance. "I don't care," I declared for the fifty-millionth time. "And I can't believe that after raising me for nearly fifteen years, you still haven't realized that I am a tomboy." Here I rolled my eyes again. They were starting to get tired from being rolled too long – that happened a lot when I was with my totally mother-ish mother. "Can I go now?"
Mom gave me one of those looks, and I sighed. "Blegh…now tell me again how exactly I'm supposed to make friends at this place if I'm going to be late, I don't have any powers, and people think I'm a b – " Another one of those looks, another sigh from me.
"I'm sure you'll do fine," Mom answered, picking at my shirt with a look of distaste on her face. "But you'll probably get your powers soon…you're just a late bloomer, that's all."
I snorted. "So can I go now?"
Mom looked as if she would refuse, but then she sighed and said, "Fine." That did it for me. I gave my mother a quick hug, grabbed my huge black-and-gray messenger bag, and dashed out the door. I could tell from the look on my beloved mom's face that she'd wanted to freeze me (literally) in my tracks.
"And don't forget – stay away from the Strongholds!" Mom called behind me, thankfully not carrying out with the plan in her head.
I rolled my eyes as I sped away. As if I needed reminding. For some reason, Mom had something against Will and Layla Stronghold, who lived on the other side of town. It was oddly curious, but every time I'd asked my mother about it, she'd pursed her lips and stabbed anything within reach with a pencil, and it had never failed to amuse me, so I didn't question any further. Good entertainment was so hard to find these days.
When I finally reached the corner between Rowan Drive and Potato Ave., the bus was already there, waiting for me – or so it seemed. A rather heavy man in a yellow uniform sat at the driver's seat, his nametag reading 'Don Wilson – Bus Driver'. I quirked a brow at his ordinary appearance but got on the bus anyway.
"So, er…Don, this is the bus to Sky H – " I was cut off by the act of Don Wilson's hand clamping over my mouth, which caused a 'mmph'ing sound that in turn caused the people on the bus to stare.
"Be quiet!" Don hissed. "Do you really want every supervillain in this neighborhood to know we're here?" I just stared at him as the doors closed; I really couldn't do anything else because of shock. My mother was worrying about me making a bad impression? This dude was getting on my nerves already; I had a feeling that clamping your hand on someone's mouth the moment you met them was not an example of making a good impression. Geez.
Finally Don withdrew his hand, staring suspiciously at me. "What's your name, freshman?" he asked, though it was more of a demand than an inquiry.
"First, ever heard of any manners? Second, you should wash your hands – personal hygiene, you know. And third, I'm Auroria. Auroria Hale. Auroria Peace. Rory. Blah. Whatever." Teenage drabble.
Don's eyes widened slightly. "Hale? Peace?" he stuttered. I rolled my eyes again. Man, they were starting to ache. "As in Aurelia Hale and Warren Peace? Ice and Fire? The divorced heroes?"
There I went again, rolling her eyes. I'd definitely need eye drops after this. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, and if you talk about that again I will personally make sure you have a broken nose before I leave this bus," I stated simply, wearing a weary expression, yet eyes flashing dangerously at the word 'divorced'. "Savvy?"
Don gulped and I walked through the aisle with the appearance of a coolly dangerous tomboy – which, as a matter of fact, I was. I had my temper and reputation to make up for the fact that I hadn't acquired any powers yet, so I was partly satisfied. Students stared as I passed and walked to the very back of the bus, casually dropping my bag into the seat next to me expressionlessly. Silence hung heavy and thick over the other occupants of the bus until Don shrugged and drove on.
At the next few stops, nothing interesting happened, but on the fifth after mine, a familiar-looking boy climbed up the steps onto the bus. His hair was a longish light brown color that could be described as a caramel-ish color (hey, I was hungry – living with Mom also meant that you could get so annoyed you forgot to grab something to eat). His eyes were brown also, tinted with hints of gold and hazel. But I didn't pay much attention to his appearance, or him by himself at all. This was Nathaniel Stronghold, only son of Will and Layla Stronghold, the kid Mom had warned me about. He didn't look dangerous, much, but you could never tell with these people. Look at me, for instance. Innocent goody-goody on the outside, all temper and spunk on the inside.
However, I was prevented from burning a hole into Stronghold's head by staring by the clearing of a throat. My head whipped up as I turned my gaze on a tall dude standing half-in front, half-next to me. Diagonal or whatever. He had a weird sense of style, wearing black-and-white stripes for a top, but I suppose the look suited him. I also suppose he was quite good-looking, tall and skinny, yet well built. His hair, a dark brown sort of color, fell into his gray eyes with a casual sort of elegance. It must have taken ages to make it look that perfect.
"What do you want?" I asked snappishly. I wasn't in the best of moods right now.
"You – " He pointed to me. " – are sitting – " He motioned the act of sitting down. " – in my – " He pointed to himself. " – seat." He patted the seat next to mine.
I raised an eyebrow, fighting to keep a straight face. "Oh, so that was why you were acting like some sort of deranged monkey!" I exclaimed sarcastically. "Oh, and there was me, thinking it all had to do with mental problems. My bad." Not the greatest of comebacks, but the reaction was satisfactory.
The corners of the boy's mouth tightened, and I could tell that he was struggling with himself not to beat the stuffing out of me. Now I was describing myself as some sort of turkey…what was the world coming to? Then the stupid kid just put on his dorky smirk again and just plopped down on the seat next to me. Talk about rude. I glared at him menacingly.
"Anyway, I'm Jake Daniels, sophomore." He spoke as if he was the king of the world.
I rolled my eyes. "And I care because…?" I retorted.
"Because I am simply the best-looking male specimen in the entire school population at Sky High," Daniels answered promptly. Honestly, today I probably made an eye-rolling record.
"Yeah, yeah, cut the crap," I said. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have sworn, since that's so not me, but these weren't normal circumstances, so I did swear. Even an idiot could have figured that one out.
"Spunky one, eh?" Daniels questioned, but it was more of an amused statement than a question. "Your name, freshman?"
Rolled my eyes, blew a lock of hair out of face, stared at the dude, and the rest of the clichéd blabber. "The most clichéd cliché of all clichés, it seems," I remarked. "But since you asked so nicely, it's Auroria. Auroria Hale. Auroria Peace. Rory. Blah. Whatever." Talk about repetition.
"The only daughter of Warren Peace and Aurelia Hale…yeah, I've heard of you," Daniels replied nonchalantly. "Well, here's news for you – my parents are Royal Pain and Lash. Or Sue Tenny and Lash Daniels. Or Gwen Grayson and Jake Daniels." He shrugged. "Does it really matter?"
"Okay, I'm lost…I thought you were Jake Daniels," I said cautiously, puzzled.
"Named after my father…duh." It sounded like the first time he'd used the delightful word by the way he was rolling it off his tongue, like he was tasting some foreign food thing. I'm not very good with description, okay?
"That's all very nice, now could you please leave me alone to plan out my first day at the blasted school without any bloody superpowers?" I asked him as politely as I could through gritted teeth. He was trying my patience, and if you asked around, people would tell you I wasn't very well known for it. Or rather, that I had none. Funny, how people can tell these things.
Daniels raised an eyebrow skeptically, and I decided immediately that I hated the way he did that. That I hated everything about the dude. Nothing new. "Ha-ha. Very nice joke," he said, rolling his eyes. Damn the copycat!
"Ha-ha. I'm a comedian – not." I leaned back in my seat and began to ignore the sophomore's presence, which was very easy to do since he wasn't saying anything anyways.
"Wait…so you mean you don't have any powers?" Nod. "You are the daughter of Warren Peace and Aurelia Hale, right?" Nod. "And you don't have any powers?" Nod, muttered comment 'I thought we discussed that already'. "Wow." Nod, the action of taking out an MP3 and headphones, wearing headphones, listening to favorite band – that happens to be Green Day.
Daniels pulled out one of my headphone things. Damn this kid was annoying. "What do you want now?" I asked him irritably, still listening to 'When I Come Around' with the other headphone thing.
He was saved from the trouble of answering by a shout from Don, seatbelt things shooting from out of nowhere and buckling themselves around people, and a THUMPing sound as the bus started to…fly?
"What the bloody frigging hell is going on?" I demanded Daniels as I quickly shut off my MP3 and re-deposited it into my bag.
"We're going to the school, you ruddy pest!" was his friendly reply. Note the sarcasm.
The bus went through a series of loop-de-loops, sharp swerves, dives, and things of that sort you experience on a roller coaster or some other randomly hilariously dangerous ride. Which, might I add, I have probably been on millions of times before. Muhaha. Call me a daredevil. Then I was greeted again with the pleasant THUMP that signified our landing. The seatbelt things snaked away, to my relief, and I was able to sling my messenger bag over my shoulder again.
I made my way across the aisle, not bothering to say anything to anyone as I passed, as the doors creaked open. Boy, did they need oiling. Rolling my eyes for the million gazillionth time, I jumped off to catch my first glimpse of high school.