'Kali! Kali honey it's time to get up!'

As her mother's voice resonated through her head, Kali groaned and turned over wishing she could block the incessant voice from her brain. They'd only been in their new house a week but the first thing her mother had insisted on was the comm. devices were installed in every room.

And this was why all Kali could hear when she wanted to go back to sleep was her mother humming, singing to herself and occasionally calling her name to get her up.

'Kali if you don't get up for school right this minute I will drag you out of bed myself do you understand me! Your bus arrives in thirty minutes and you will not be late on your first day!'

Apparently her mother had upgraded the comm. devices to include video cameras as well because Kali was sure her mother could see her. She stuck her tongue out at the general direction of the voice and swung her legs out of bed.

After a quick shower she fell over some unpacked boxes before finding the ones that contained her favourite outfit. Hey, with a new school, you got to feel comfortable with what you're wearing, don't you?

So she pulled her oldest pair of ripped jeans, a Ramones t-shirt and her Docs out of the box and threw them on. She ran some wax through her black, floppy mohawk and fiddled with it until, at last, she was happy. She'd had it cut in at the beginning of the summer, very short and very punk but her mother had hated it and so now she was growing it out. She gave it one last flick and, on her way out of the room, grabbed the wrist and headband given to her by her last boyfriend from the West Coast.

'KAL -,' her mother stopped short of finishing what she was going to yell because Kali swung into the kitchen.

'Darling, you can't possibly wear that on your first day! What will everybody think?'

'Exactly what I want them to think Mom. It's fine, really,' she said, glancing at her mother while she devoured some toast.

'I'll be home when you get back, I want to hear all about your first day, so no dawdling on the way back, understand me?'

'Yes, Mom,' she said in a weary tone that had a slight humorous element to it. They did this drill every time she started a new school.

'And who knows, your father might be home to hear about it too,' her mother said in an overly bright manner.

'And pigs might fly, you never know,' Kali replied in a bitingly sarcastic tone. 'But I'm betting that we'll see airborne pork before Dad remembers that today is my first day at his old school.'

'Your Dad's just…busy, sweetheart, you know that.'

'Too busy to even come home?' she asked. 'I haven't seen him since we moved here and I doubt you have either.'

'What your dad's doing is important love.'

'And we're not?' she said in a bitter tone. 'I better go, wouldn't want to miss the bus.'

And with that she turned, pausing only to grab her bag and jacket and was out of the door before her mother could reply.

Kali walked furiously down the streets towards her bus stop. Her dad hadn't always been such a crappy parent. In fact, up until the move he'd been pretty normal. But now she hardly ever saw him. She doubted if he even knew today was her first day at Sky High.

Much as she hated to admit it, she was looking forward to going to this school. She'd been to a superhero school for her freshman and sophomore years, of course, but this was Sky High. It was legendary. Everyone who went there made something of themselves…good or bad.

She finally reached her stop just before a big yellow schoolbus pulled around the corner. She filed on behind Will Stronghold and Layla Dianthe. She knew who they were, how could anyone have missed what happened with Royal Pain just under a year ago?

But now they were sophomores and she was a junior and in spite of herself, she felt slightly superior to them. She may not have defeated a villain aged thirteen but she felt pretty confident in her power and she wasn't aware of anybody else who had it.

The bus touched down and Kali promptly staggered off and leaned against the side of the bus desperately trying not to throw up. She probably looked ridiculous already but she didn't want to add to the image. Finally she thought her legs would be strong enough to hold her and she followed the instructions sent to her when she'd been admitted to Sky High.

She followed a bunch of petrified freshmen up the steps and through the impressive front of the building into a gym where a man in tiny white shorts stood with a clipboard.

After some time he stopped doing whatever he was doing on the clipboard and opened his mouth. None of them expected what came out but what did actually managed to knock a couple of the tiny freshmen on the floor.

'Ok, freshmen and others I am Coach Boomer. I was Sonic Boom back in the day…ask your parents. This year Power Placement is slightly different to what you may or may not have heard about. Since the…incident with Royal Pain, it has been decided that all students should be aware of everyone's powers which is why the current students will be joining us shortly. Now, I see we have two sophomore students, two juniors and a senior also joining us today. You will go first so you can bond with your classmates over the no doubt, pathetic powers, of some of these freshmen.'

The door at the back of the room opened and the students already in the gym saw an awful lot of students standing outside, waiting to come in.

'Ok, sophomores and juniors on the left, seniors on the right. Come on, come on, and hurry it up! We do not have all day!'

The students hurried to their seats. Watching Power Placement was something new for them all and they were excited so see what the next class would be like.

The new sophomore students went first. One was a boy called Donar who could control and create storms. He made hero, as did Kelly who had blonde hair down to her waist and the biggest blue eyes that drew Boomer into a trance as he mildly ticked the hero box on his clipboard.

She got off the platform to applause from all the students, which seemed to bring Boomer back to earth. He stared around for a short moment before being reminded that he needed to carry on by a telepathic message from Medulla.

'Kali Thomas, you're up next.'

She made her way through the crowd, which parted like the Red Sea had and hopped up onto the platform.

'Power up then,' said Boomer impatiently. He was feeling slightly embarrassed that that Kelly girl had hypnotised him or something so he was irritable now.

Kali held out her hand and in it appeared what initially appeared to be a ball of black flame but the longer Boomer looked at it, the sadder and more depressed he became. In fact, he was almost on the brink of tears when he yelled for the car through in a choked voice.

As it fell on the bungee, Kali threw a fireball, a wave of fire and two streams of concentrated fire energy towards it.

'Hero,' Boomer sobbed. 'Go and sit with your classmates.'

He really wasn't enjoying this year's Power Placement.

A/N: Before I get any flames I would like to say that this character is based on someone I know. She is completely like this character and even dresses the same so don't flame me for a Mary-Sue that doesn't exist. This is not your typical story I promise.