Disclaimer: Sky High and it's related characters (in this chapter Will Stronghold and Warren Peace) are property of Disney and their individual creators. I can only claim Noa and Reed. I am making no money off of this story and will willingly remove it if necessary due to a violation of copyright. Thanks.
Chapter 1: Finally
The trip to Sky High was about as terrifying as Noa expected: not particularly. Her older sister briefed her in advance, and she'd flown before with other people. A slight smile betrayed her amusement at the others' expense; her seatmate, of course, noticed.
"Not too impressive, I take it?" the boy questioned. She looked up at him with no real recognition; then again, what freshmen recognized each other if they hadn't already met? Perhaps if someone famous – Will Stronghold, for example – had been in her class, but otherwise the bus was full of strangers. A rough, tanned hand presented itself, as the boy divulged his name, "Right, I'm Reed. Reed Masterson. You're?"
"Noa," she responded, shaking his hand – an awkward endeavor considering their proximity. "Not necessarily a boring ride, but expected. I had fair warning," she announced by way of explanation. Jostled by the bus, strands of dark hair fell from their place, exposing a small cut in the process of healing, an unfortunate casualty of attempting to use super speed without developing adequate control; Noa was intimately acquainted with various trees and other objects that often found themselves in her line of motion. "Older sister," she clarified.
The primary benefit of the bus, its speed, delivered them onto the ground before the conversation went much beyond brief introductions. However, in the tradition of socially anxious freshmen, the two forged a bond that remained intact if only to protect them from not knowing anyone. As her feet touched the concrete, Noa regarded the school as levelly as possible, which wasn't very. Simply, Noa Cade nearly burst with enthusiasm and nervousness and sheer anticipation. After all, hadn't the previous fifteen years been composed of her lying dormant, waiting for this moment? Growing up further out from the city, apart from the majority of her peers, Noa rarely saw powers other than those of her family. Striding towards the entrance with all these thoughts playing racquetball in her brain, she inhaled as much of the sight as possible. Teenagers flying about, counteracting each other's elemental powers, stretching and shrinking and shifting – overwhelming understates everything. Eyes appraised their surroundings like the rest of the freshmen, who found themselves being scurried towards the gym.
Whispers broke out through the crowd. "I heard they nearly did away with Power Placement." "Remember Lash? He only made hero because his father complained." "Warren Peace earned his father's pardon with the heroics last year." "I hear they did do away with Power Placement." The potential for truth – after the fiasco last year, the administration spent their summer holed up in the building and created potential reactions against the obviously flawed education their previous students had slipped through cracks in.
Inevitably, the resolutions held back, avoiding most drastic changes. The freshmen were still divided into two courses, but flexibility existed so that a particularly gifted sidekick could, eventually, work their way up the ladder. Noa, with her barely-controlled but definite speed found herself easily sorted into the supposedly more "desired" hero section, but even its appeal was semi-debatable. With the proclamation by the Commander the previous year that a small group of hero support actually consisted of heroes, the negative stigma nearly disappeared. More of the course load was deemed necessary for both sections, meaning the classes combined often.
Reed, with an uncanny ability to control various properties of air, joined Noa quickly and the two followed their classmates into an auditorium. Evidently Principal Powers established what would continue on as an Annual New Student Introduction in which various upperclassmen would conduct speeches and demonstrations and offer themselves up to aid the incoming year of students.
Backstage, Warren Peace grumbled at his newfound friends; try as he might, the pyrotechnic could not deter Stronghold's groupies from flocking towards him. Consequently, they'd adapted into a comfortable routine which should not have included his forced participation in some ridiculous orientation for freshmen Warren hoped would still avoid him despite his current reputation. Upon Layla's suggestion he'd begun wearing his hair pulled back, which earned him some bizarre attention from girls who had earlier feared direct eye contact; to try and counteract this effect, he forced Will to accompany him on a voyage to get his lip pierced. Unfortunately, the reaction failed to affect his classmates how he'd anticipated. Either way, Warren Peace was still sitting behind the curtain for this ridiculous idea courtesy of Principal Powers. He couldn't leave because his name was on the list – sloppily written in Will Stronghold's handwriting – and he knew his absence would most likely earn him a detention, and on some matters fate wasn't worth tempting.
Ironically, his contemplation was interrupted by his cue to enter the stage to discuss rules and discipline. He quickly rushed through the major rules at Sky High – most of them were focused around not powering up outside of the gym and not touching anything inside of the Mad Science Lab – cursing the principal who grinned happily at the situation.
Like every other girl her age, Noa was already aware of Warren Peace. After assisting in the foiling of Royal Pain's plot, he'd earned his way into several publications standing alongside the rest of the "team." And perhaps she'd noticed, just a bit, that he was attractive. But that was to be expected – Noa was notorious for obsessing over minor celebrities, proclaiming her perfection for the individual, her unyielding adoration of their looks or talents or skills. On the same token, her passions wore out nearly as quickly; name after name replaced itself in her speech. It could, most likely, be blamed on an obsessive nature coupled with her previous all-girls education. Seeing him at the podium was surprising, but also placed him in a more human context.
Uproarious applause followed a moment later as the school's current golden boy, Will Stronghold, stepped onto the stage. Reed, sitting next to Noa, suddenly looked up happily, attentive. Another twenty minutes of lecturing on Sky High's new programming – focused closely on the newly integrated courses – led into a bizarrely eventful lunch period.
The Author Remarks On…
The Origins: I'm at a serious writer's block point and it's been extremely difficult for me to make any headway in my normal fandom on my current stories. I've since realized the best way to handle this is to write something completely different (think Monty Python). So my goal is to write good OC het romance. It may not have much in the way of plot (it doesn't now, at least), but hopefully it will be good.
The Characters: I also feel the need to point out that, after writing the first few pages of this, there will be characters from the movie actually important to the plot. However, I figured an incoming freshman really wouldn't meet and become best friends with the sophomore and junior classes instantly, so that's what's going on there.
Mary-Sues: Hopefully Noa won't seem to be a Mary Sue. She's definitely an OFC and this is a romance, so those are two strikes against her. However, I'm trying to make her a particularly humor character. I also feel the need to point out that she isn't a Self-Insert by any means. I named her after my eight-year-old second cousin, but that's as close as we are.
Cut Sentences: You'll be happy to know that I did in fact edit this slightly. One of the casualties of my edit (which I found particularly humorous, I must say), was "a small smile crept up with all the stealth of a tick and none of the lime disease."
Author's Notes: I want to write them more than the story, I know. It's a disease. They do get shorter after the first.