Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or anything else from Sky High, and make no financial gain from this story so please don't sue.

I Know My Place

I stared down in horror at the ... the ... thing sitting on my lunch tray. Did they actually expect me to eat it! I pushed it away from me, wrinkling my nose in disgust, then lent my elbows on the table and looked at the people surrounding me. I could not believe how shallow they were! All they seemed to want to talk about was fashion and boys, like they were the two most important things in the world. When I had attempted to start a discussion about favourite books I had been met with a lot of giggling. It was at that point that I quite firmly decided this would be the first and only time I sat at this table. Unfortunately for me that would mean pissing off the most popular girls in my year. Just wonderful, what a way to start a new school. But after spending the entirety of lunch listening to them talk, I decided I would much rather be a loser than spend two years with friends like these girls.

To their credit they did make an effort to involve me, and that was kind of sweet. But as hard as I tried, I just couldn't seem to find much to say about the new range of sweaters at B.I.A (a popular clothes shop in the mall).

I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when lunch finished, and I rushed ahead to my next class before any of them could attach themselves to me. I arrived first to some class called Mad Science, and chose a seat at the back of the room. The teacher (biggest head I had ever seen in my life) identified himself as Mr. Medulla and smiled at me approvingly, commenting that he was pleased with my enthusiasm and punctuality. The class filled up quickly and I ended up sitting next to a shy red head named Bianca. She was actually pretty nice, and was a technopath, which delighted me to no end when the teacher described the junior course to us. Basically it consisted of building ray guns, bombs and other cool things, as well as knowing how to deactivate any ray gun or bomb that might be possessed by a villain. Just as the class ended to my surprise, Bianca leaned over and whispered in my ear. "Look forward to two years of straight A's" then she winked at me and was gone, running off to her next class.

I pulled out my schedule and was happy to find I had a free period ... well, they were meant to be 'study' periods, but most students saw them as opportunities for sleep, music or social gatherings. I decided to go visit Principal Powers, first of all to try and organize some other way to get to and from school, and secondly to try and weasel out of my after-school detention.

As I approached the large white doors of the office I noticed a slouched figure sitting on a bench just across the hall, above it was a plaque that loudly announced "Trouble Makers." And he sure as hell looked like one. Shoulder-length black hair with red highlights, dark eyes, broad shoulders and a dark tan. He was glaring at the floor in front of his combat boots, and his fists were clenched. I couldn't help myself but smile, put aside the bad ass and this guy was pretty good looking, scrap that, he was hot! As I got closer he looked up and his glare intensified when he saw I was staring. Dropping my head I hurried past and slipped through the doors before he decided to give me a personal demonstration of his powers. Twenty minutes later and I still had detention (which would take place at lunch tomorrow), which put me in a bad mood, and it didn't get any better when I was informed that the only other transportation that could be arranged was flying with a senior, some guy named Will had agreed to take me to and from school. Just my luck, get to be groped everyday by some guy who outranks me. Not my idea of fun, but admittedly more appealing than the bus. So I agreed, very reluctantly.

On my way out I noticed that the scary guy was gone. I couldn't make up my mind as to whether it was good or not, he really was quite easy on the eyes. All that aside, I headed to the library as directed by Principal Powers, to meet with Will, the guy who had agreed to be my ride to and from school.

The librarian ambushed me as soon as I walked through the door and I was left speechless after a five minute lecture about the importance of treating books with the utmost care. Then she introduced herself as Mrs. Griffin and pointed Will out to me when I asked. My eyes followed the direction of her finger and fell on this scrawny little guy sitting with a girl dressed like a hippie. HE was meant to be able to carry me? HAH. I made my way over to him nervously, hoping that maybe the librarian had heard me wrong, or had poor eyesight.

"Will?" I asked in a small voice. He looked up at me and smiled warmly.
"You must be Jessie. It's great to meet you! This is my girlfriend Layla." he said, pointed to the red head beside him. She waved and smiled at me. I smiled back. They didn't seem so bad. There was an awkward silence, then Layla spoke in a squeaky voice that could only be described as cute.
"So what power do you have?"
"I'm a pyrokinetic" I said proudly, seriously though, what power is cooler than being able to control fire? To my astonishment Layla giggled, my face must have shown my confusion.
"Oh don't mind me," she was still smiling, "It's just that we have a friend who was quite pleased when the other two pyrokinetics that went here graduated last year. He wont be impressed to discover he has competition again." Oh great. After discussing the particulars of where and when to meet each day and being invited to sit at a table with seniors (which I still have decided upon accepting) I made my way outside for the rest of the period to listen to some music. The haunting voice of Dolores O'Riordan (aka lead singer of the Cranberries) filled my head, and I closed my eyes and laid back against a tree.

Another head hangs lowly

child is slowly taken

And the violence caused such silence

Who are we mistaken?

But you see it's not me,

it's not my family

In your head

In your head they are fighting

With their tanks

and their bombs

and their bombs

and their guns

in your head

in your head

they are crying

In your head

in your head

Zombie, Zombie, Zombie!

Whats in your head

I your head

Zombie! Zombie! Zombie!

When the bell rang I ran towards the brick wall beside the front entrance to wait for Will. I was kind of nervous about flying, but I trusted him so in a way I was also excited. As I was running my mobile phone started beeping at me, signaling a message, but while I was wrestling with my bag (which was determined in keeping my phone from me) I ran head first into something very solid which made me fall back and land square on my ass. And to my horror, looking up I discovered that it was not a something I had run into, but a someone. The same someone who I had seen earlier in the hallway. And compared to now, he had looked extremely happy on our first encounter. Stumbling to my feet I was about to apologise when suddenly his arms were on fire and he was taking on an offensive stance. Craaaap! I put my arms out in front of me and backed away, but he just advanced, looking more pissed off by the second, and I realised that the only way to get out of this alive was to fight fire with fire, quite literally. So I powered up.

"Please don't make me hurt you." I begged, it was then that I noticed his shocked expression, and then with a roar he hurled two fireballs at me, which I expertly dodged, but the effect was ruined by me squeaking. I am after all, only human. Well, super human, same difference! He was about to attack again when a familiar voice cut through the air, sounding rather pissed!
"Warren! What the hell?" And to my total surprise, with one final glare, the flames were gone and he was stalking off towards a bus.

I powered down, and just kind of stood, rooted to the spot in what could only be described as shock, my brain trying to digest what had just happened. Will and Layla ran up to me, asking if I was ok, I nodded numbly, then realised something.
"Wait ... HE is your friend!" I must have had the strangest expression on my face, because both Will and Layla burst out laughing.