Come Monday morning, that occupied Zach's entire mind was Terra. He ended up missing the bus because he slept in, dreaming about her.
His friends noticed he missed the bus.
"Where's Zach?" Will asked, looking around the seats for a tall, blonde head.
"I hope he didn't fall asleep at the school again…"Layla rolled her eyes.
"Uh, Layla, he rode the bus home Friday. I don't think that's the case," Ethan pointed out. She took his point and nodded.
The bus arrived at the school and they departed it, going off do their pre-morning class activities. Will and Layla had a special place where they made out. Warren sat slumped on the stairs, unconsciously following Crystal with his eyes. He was going crazy without her. She walked with such grace, and her smile and face were perfect. Her blonde hair bounced and her icy blue eyes glittered. He noticed the Matters sisters all hanging out quite ominously. The whole bunch freaked everyone out. He remembered how he found out their powers. He was in the office; the faculty was pissed off at him for torching the men's bathroom out of anger. Boomer had left his clipboard on the front desk. Warren took the liberty of reading it and was surprised as hell that they had such diminutive supernatural abilities.
The bell rang and the students proceeded to their classes most begrudgingly for it was Monday.
"Hey raindrops," Lash sneered slinking up to Rayne. Rayne pretended he was a mass of carbon and oxygen. He wanted a reaction from her. She seemed to be 'the leader' of the freaky chicks. "Rain, rain, go away, come again another day," he laughed in singsong as she kept walking. People had been picking on them ever since word of what they showed got out.
"Sparkly spark, why are you walking away from me?" Speed barked and whizzed by Byrn, sending her red hair swooshing in front of her face. He came back around and with a cat-like reflex she reached out and sparked him. He stopped and held his arm in surprise.
"For good reason." She snarled and continued. Unlike her sister, she would put up some defense against an asshole besides just the cold shoulder.
Gail wanted them to tease her; she'd play with them well. She smiled tauntingly at Lash and Speed as she passed. They weren't gonna lie, they were freaked out by Gail's black speckled-on-white eyes. Besides, they were seniors and wanted to mess with the older girls.
Zach arrived, and hopped off his hover board on time. It was like a skateboard except it levitated. He was gasping for air since it took a lot of work to make a hover board hover a mile or so above ground.He got to class as the bell to end passing period rang.
"Good morning heroes. Let us now begin to take a look at the minds of super villains. First off, a super villain is caused by one of three types of events. First, it's inherited, second type is because of a disturbing childhood, third is caused because of vengefulness." The teacher spoke, they had to take notes.
Ethan raised his hand in the middle of it, "So…do all kids of super villains become a super villain? Is it possible that Warren Peace could be?"
The teacher chuckled, "In most cases, yes, all the children of super villains will become a super villain. That is why super villains hide their offspring if they have any. As for MR. Peace, his Mother was a hero so it counter-balances. He could become a super villain but it won't be inherited. It would be either because of bad childhood or of vengefulness."
Ethan breathed relieved. Layla had a prick of worry sting her. Warren's childhood hadn't been ideal. She knew because he told her one time when she was eating at the Paper Lantern. She hoped Warren wouldn't turn into a super villain. This brought a question to her mind.
"So any kid with superpowers can become a super villain? I mean if they had a bad childhood or have the need to get revenge?"
"Yes, technically. But most people forgive and forget, that's why a majority of people with powers use them for good."
There was no doubt that the lesson on 'what makes a super villain' was intriguing to all the students. They were still asking questions by the time the bell rang to signal the end of class.
Zach went to the office to work as an aid. He gathered attendances and handed out notes for kids the office needed to see. Which brought his mind back to Terra. When he picked up attendance, he saw that Terra was marked as 'here' and got funny little twists in his stomach. "Aw man!" he jumped in the air happily, out loud since no one was out in the halls. He couldn't wait to talk with her at lunch. He gathered all attendances and then spent the rest of the time looking through the phone book, as a hobby, in case he wanted to throw a party. After agonizingly waiting what seemed all day, the bell for lunch rang. He delightfully accepted his plethora of microbe meatloaf and grabbed a milk carton. He perched himself at the usual table. Layla joined him.
"So how was your weekend?" she asked casually, she didn't go with the microbe meatloaf since she was vegan. She forked her salad.
"Salad is public enemy number one," Zach claimed before saying "OH, my weekend was…fabulouso."
She gave him an intrigued look since He looked so excited. "So what happened?"
He grinned mischievously… "Do you really wanna know?"
"Hi guys," Will joined them with microbe meatloaf.
They waved, Layla wanted to know why Zach was worked up like a fifth grader on ecstasy. "So?" she widened her eyes. He whispered in her ear what happened.
She had a look of confusion and averted her eyes to Terra Matters who was walking next to her sisters with a most melancholy expression.
"Yeah…HEY TERRA!" he shouted. The other sisters didn't take notice…Terra turned her head slightly but other than that didn't acknowledge him. His little excited twists became rugged feeling on his insides. She sat down with her sisters like she used to before they knew each other.
"Are you sure?" Layla asked, she didn't think that a girl would kiss a guy and ignore him all within the same week.
Zach swallowed, not understanding. Did he do something wrong? All he could do was stare at her with disappointed bewilderment.
Terra could sense his eyes on her back. So badly, she wanted to go talk to him. She had missed him. Her stomach was turned in angst-ridden knots. She ate viciously.
After the episode in their apartment, Rayne forced her to listen to logic. That it wasn't a good idea to get involved. That Zach could find out about their real powers (not that he didn't know. Terra didn't tell her sisters she told him) and reveal their secret. God, it was just so unfair. She really liked the boy…no she really loved that goofy, tall, blonde kid that could glow. She felt moisture leak into her eyes. She pretended to look at the clock on the wall in the direction Zach was in. In her fast glimpse, all she saw was hurt in the boy's face. Damn it, why did she have to be HER? If she were any other girl in school she wouldn't have to worry about disclosing her power.
Through the rest of lunch she silently cursed her being and her sister's for being unfair, and about every unfortunate circumstance that had happened. Their Mother's recent death, their dad's disappearance, their bankruptcy, and their last devastation occurrence at their old school…she was tired of it.
Near the end of lunch, Lash decided to try to get a rise out of Rayne again. The goth girl had to have some sort of emotion under all her dark façade.
"Sprinkle-pom, oh sugar-shower how about you talk for once?" He crooned with sick sweetness that was obviously a ploy to get her reaction. Like a majority of the time, she ignored him. "C'mon, talk to me you luscious puddle of love," he laughed. You could tell Rayne was about to break. She despised Lash, and the dumb nicknames he'd been making up all semester. She stood, done with her lunch, and began to put her tray with the dirty ones. "Not so fast," Lash quickly stretched his arms out, they wrapped around Rayne's waist and reeled her in to him like a fish. "Now that I've got you, what do you say?" he whispered in her ear and brushed his lips against her lobe.
Her answer was something that neither he, nor anyone else expected. Her eyes became glazed over and she smacked her hands together above her head. It sounded like a bomb went off. First all of the water fountains started spraying water, followed by a downpour of hard, cold rain. Zach noticed that the other girls had stood, with the same unconscious, glazy look. He remembered what Terra had said about their bonds. One sister is pissed off---the rest back her up on it. This scared the crap out of him.
"GET DOWN!" he yelled at his friends, they climbed under the table.
Gail threw her arms wildly above her head. A strong wind gusted through the room. It traveled up her, sending her blonde hair vertical above her and then whooshed out and about the cafeteria, knocking fleeing students over. Lash wasn't afraid of the water or the wind, he was mostly in shock about what they were doing. He still had Rayne in his grasping arms. Then, Byrn pointed at Lash and a river of flames followed her path and landed on him. He let go of Rayne at that point and tried to extinguish himself with one of the busted water fountains. Speed was rushing towards Rayne to snap her out of it. He was too fast for Byrn's flame throwing, and he was immune to Gail's winds.
Zach watched in awe at the sister's at work. The cafeteria was damaged beyond anything he'd seen before. Then he noticed Terra, in the middle walking toward where speed was.
"Terra! Terra! Don't!" Zach screamed and tried running towards her.
"Zach, COME BACK!" Magenta screamed, obviously running toward a psycho powered girl wasn't a good idea.
"Terra!" Zach tried to bring her mind back from her automatic need to help her sister.
Terra slammed her hands down on a lunch table and the whole room shook right as Zach got to her. Pieces of ceiling fell and windows shattered. Everyone was thrown around like rag dolls. Zach looked up just as a piece of roofing slammed onto his arm, he grabbed Terra as he fell. She blinked a lot like she was coming out of sleep, or that the lights had been turned off and someone threw them on after a long time. She looked around-- the cafeteria was demolished. "OWWWW!" Zach screamed as his arm was pinned hard to the floor. He had the look of pure pain and was struggling, each time making it worse."
"Zach?" she cried out in alarm at his situation. She tried touching him but with his free hand slapped her away.
"Don't touch me!"
"Wha?"
"Terra, you totally flattened the place. Thanks for dropping some ceiling me," He frowned and continued to moan.
She looked to her sisters. Rayne was holding her head in an aching way, Byrn was staring at the room, Gail was actually swearing.
"Uh-oh," Terra said, knowing what had happened.
"Alright, let's go," Boomer yanked Terra away from Zach.
"What? NO! He needs help!" Terra struggled until Boomer lifted her up over his shoulder and she stared at Zach who was lying helplessly pinned by her devastation.
