Coach Boomer walked up to Alexia, crossing his arms and taking a strong stance in front of her.
"Is there a reason you're disturbing my class?" he asked loudly. Some of the other students began to whisper to each other, wondering aloud and to each other who the strange new girl was.
"Um...apologies sir," Alexia said quietly, "Principal Powers sent me here for power placement."
Coach Boomer glared at her for another second, then looked down at his clipboard.
"You must be Ms. Allen then," he said, and looked back up at her. She took a quick gulp and nodded in agreement. "You're late."
"I'm terribly sorry sir," Alexia began, "I lost my way trying to find your gymnasium and-"
"Just follow me," he said, cutting off her apology, and turning back to the rest of the class, "Continue capture the flag! James! You'll be reffing this round until I finish with this one."
Slowly the other students began to shuffle back to their places as Alexia followed Coach Boomer to the opposite end of the gym. A platform began to rise out of the floor at their destination, leaving a large oval shaped stage a few feet above the original gym floor. Alexia walked up the stairs leading to the top of the platform, standing on the same level as Coach Boomer. Presuming some sort of physical activity was going to ensue, Alexia used the hair tie around her wrist to pull her hair back into a ponytail. The game of capture the flag was going quietly, and looking around with large green eyes she was unsurprised to see most of the students playing slowly, more interested in what was going to happen on her end of the gym. They seemed to be more expectant of what was waiting at the top of the platform than she was. Everything around her seemed to pause as she caught the eyes of the same boy from the bus, Layla and the other's friend. She thought they said his name was Warren.
"So how strong is this water power of yours?" Coach Boomer asked Alexia, prompting her to look back around to the task that was ahead of her.
"Well, I'm not quite sure what you mean by strong…" Alexia started and then trailed off. Coach Boomer produced a small remote-like device with several buttons on it before yelling "Car" and pushing the ominous looking red button. Alexia barely had time to glance upward before seeing the car hurtling towards her from above.
The process began again. Alexia separated water from blood and controlled it against the air, this time aiming at the car falling towards her.
A thin layer of water engulfed the car, and Alexia balanced it against the air, slowing the fall significantly, so much so that it had almost stopped completely. The concentration visible on her face, Alexia's mind focused on the water molecules individually. Slowing them, they became cold, hard, and frozen, until they completely stopped, setting the temperature to nearly -22 degrees Celsius.
A sharp pain began to form between her temples, and Alexia's balance faltered. The speed of the falling car began to increase again. Her concentration fell apart completely and she fell back as the car's weight brought it down to the ground and shattered into hundreds of pieces. Coach boomer used his clipboard to shield his face from the flying debris, and Alexia held up her arm. The silence following the loud crash was deafening, and the other students slowly began to break into whispers across the gym.
"Allen!" Coach Boomer said, "Hero!"
'What the bloody hell does that mean' Alexia wondered inwardly, standing up and brushing pieces of metal off of her jeans. The frozen debris was smoking against the air behind her as Alexia followed Coach Boomer down the stairs of the platform. He walked quickly across the gym towards the double doors she had entered through, and alexia had to hurry to keep up with him. The coach turned to face her so abruptly that she nearly ran into him. He shoved a piece of paper in her face, and she stared at it with a bewildered expression.
"Your schedule," Coach Boomer stated, as if talking to a three-year-old. Alexia took it from him carefully and barely glanced at it before the coach began to speak again, but this time directed at his students. "I need someone to show Allen to her next class. She'll be disruptive enough without wandering the school for a half hour."
A few of the senior girls tittered and whispered behind their hands to each other, more than likely about her. She disliked being eyed at by the older students like some kind of fresh meat.
"I can show her around."
Alexia glanced around for the owner of the voice, and caught the hazel eyes of one of the most attractive boys she'd ever seen. Tall (at least six feet), broad-shouldered (the body type of someone who was familiar with sports), sandy-blonde hair and lightly tanned skin. He reminded her more of the boys back on the lower west coast, the boys she had spent the last year hanging around and going to school with.
"Ok Barton," Coach Boomer said, taking a tone that seemed more like he had chosen the boy rather than volunteering himself, "But I want you back here in 10 minutes. Show her to the classroom and then get back here. IMMEDIATELY!"
The last word blew Alexia's ponytail into her face, as the wind Coach Boomer's shouting voice produced whipped around the gym. The boy walked to the door and smiled at Alexia, showing the kind of shiny white and perfect teeth you see in commercials for toothpaste, before pushing the door open and motioning for Alexia to go out ahead of him. Adjusting her bag and pulling the tie out of her hair as she went, Alexia walked out the door ahead of the boy and stood in the hallway, completely confused to what direction she had even originally come from. Running her hand through her hair with her free hand, she spun around quickly and nearly knocked into her new tour guide. She gave him a tiny half smile, something she tended to do in every situation.
"So…" he started, and actually looked as nervous as she felt on the inside. "Where are we off to?"
"Science," Alexia answered after a quick glance at her new schedule, "Lab 3."
"Alright then," he said, looking to the left then the right, and then shooting Alexia a small smile, he beckoned for her to follow him towards the right. They walked in silence for a few seconds before they both tried to speak at the same time. Taking a moment to laugh it off, Alexia let the boy speak first. "So Allen, is that your surname? Or do you go by something else? Boomer has a tendency to call everyone by their last name or an insult."
"It's Alexia," she said with a smile, "So Barton isn't just a very original first name then?"
"Nope. It's Hunter."
"Still a bit different than the average."
"Yeah, I guess so. I take that you're not from around here Alexia."
"London, by way of California for the last year or so. I suppose it was the accent that tipped that one off? Really most of it's gone away by now."
"Don't let it. I like it."
Alexia couldn't help but let a small smile slip as she cast her eyes to the ground. The two teenagers continued to chat, mostly about music (Alexia was surprised that Hunter had a musical taste somewhat similar to her own) and the differences between California schools and Sky High. She looked up and around curiously at their familiar surroundings.
"Hunter," she said confusedly, "haven't we been down this hallway already?"
"Yah," he replied, smiling and almost blushing, "I didn't want to miss the opportunity to ditch class with the new girl. Medulla's classroom is right over here."
"I ought not to keep you out of class," she said and followed him to the laboratory door, "According to Coach Boomer I've been enough of a distraction already."
"You're the best distraction I've had all year Alexia," Hunter said with a smile and a turn, walking back down the hallway and turning the first corner out of Alexia's sight. Once again Hunter had made Alexia smile, and she turned to face whatever teacher and class might be on the other side of the classroom door with the sense that she might do quite well in this school.