Daisy Samuels could hardly fathom the reality she lived in. The last two years of her life had changed everything she knew, and now she was facing another new change: Sky High. She didn't know exactly what to make of it, all she knew were the stories her cousin and her friends had told her. There were kids with all sorts of powers, the teachers were quirky, and the classes were fun. Despite all of the assurances, she still wished to go back to private lessons or just teach herself.
She stayed among her friends, at least as much as she could. They weren't all in the same classes, which was a terrifying fact Daisy had learned early that morning when she had to let go of Layla so she could go to Hero Support 201 with their other friends. The only ones who joined her in her classes were Will and Warren. She felt out of place as it was, but being without all the familiar faces of her friends seemingly made it feel a lot worse.
She had met Will when she moved in with her aunt and cousin a couple of years earlier, but only in the last year had she met the others. Zach, Ethan, and Magenta always came over for study sessions, after homecoming Warren joined them from time to time. Sometimes they went to the Paper Lantern to see Warren. Those were the times Daisy would join them. She had been apprehensive at first, but wherever Layla went she was close to follow. Otherwise she just spent time at home with her schoolwork. She had been scared that they wouldn't like her, but the group had taken to her almost immediately. Of them, Warren and Magenta were easiest to talk to, if Daisy was going to talk to anyone other than Layla.
Before the school year had even started, Daisy was made a hero. Because of her transfer to the school, they had put her in a majority of hero classes. This had called for celebration in Zach's opinion, despite no one else thinking it was that big of a deal. They all congratulated her regardless and agreed that they would at least take Daisy out for a little celebration. She had gone along with it because they were all excited about it, mostly Zach. But since then, she had been extremely nervous to start school. She didn't know what exactly to expect from classes intended for heroes, though it was also the start of a new phase at the school. The principal and faculty of Sky High had decided to start blending hero and hero support classes, citing the incident of the homecoming dance as a reason to treat every student and their potential equally. Daisy couldn't help but think that it was going to take a lot more than just throwing some kids into different classes, just based on the stories her friends told her, and it didn't make her any more confident about starting school.
She was feeling that same worry as she stood in front of a locker wall, looking at her paper schedule as she tried to find her next class. She regretted the decision of going to the restroom in between periods because when she had come out, Will was gone. He had been acting as her escort through the school for the duration of the morning, as he was in most of her classes. When she realized he was gone, she hadn't wandered far from the girls restroom in hopes he'd come back. Then the late bell rang and she decided to try and find her way around the school.
She felt planted to her spot, trying to remember where in the school room 408 was. The 100s were on the first floor, the 200s were upstairs, the 300s were down toward the gym, but she couldn't recall ever seeing any 400s anywhere. She wished she'd taken a map of the school when she'd been offered it, but Will and Layla had assured her that they would be able to show her around and she'd learn the layout of the building in no time. She'd only been there a few hours and only knew where one of her classes and the principal's office was.
"You're standing in front of my locker," a deep voice said.
She jumped, unaware that anyone had even approached her. The halls, as far as she had known, were empty aside from herself being there. She hadn't heard anyone walking, too lost in her own head trying to map out the school in order to find her next class. She stepped aside, not even looking up at the person who had spoken to her.
He stepped forward, fiddling with the lock before opening his locker door and throwing his bag in carelessly. She could hardly see him out of the corner of her eye, her hair blocking the view and cutting her vision down to what was ahead of her. The door closed with a click and a spin of the lock.
"You look lost," he said. She finally looked up. He was tall, really tall, or maybe it was the stripes he wore that made him appear that way. He had dark hair that laid over his forehead and deep, brown eyes. He looked indifferent to her presence there, and something about him felt familiar. It didn't take her long to remember why that was. He was one of the kids at the front of the school that morning, one of the ones Layla and her friends had told her to stay away from. He was trouble, they'd told her, but breezed over any explanation as to why. He was the one that had been looking at her.
She nodded and looked back down at her paper. She just wanted to get to class, talk to no one, and go home. She heeded the warning her friends had made about this boy, but he was the only person around now as everyone else was in their classes. "I am."
He leaned on his locker, giving her a perplexed look. "You're really quiet," he finally said, holding out his hand. She gently placed her schedule in his hand and he took it, giving it a quick glance. "No wonder you can't find your next class. It's down the arts hall."
She took the schedule back when he held it out to her, looking at him with confused eyes. She didn't understand what that meant. "Where is that?"
"Come on, I'll show you," he told her, pushing himself off the wall of lockers and started walking. He took long strides, but she had no problem keeping up. "Coincidentally, we have the same class right now."
"I-I don't believe in coincidences," she said, the little outburst shocking her. She didn't talk to too many people very easily. It had taken months before she even spoke to Zach and Ethan when Layla had first introduced them to her. Magenta and Warren had been a little easier to speak to, but it had still taken over a month before they got past the short answer phase. She looked down, watching her white converse as she walked.
"Huh, then I wonder what that means that you met me," the boy mused beside her. He looked at her, catching her eye as she looked up curiously. She, again, had no idea what that was supposed to mean. "I'm Lash, by the way."
The curious look persisted. "Lash?"
"Just a nickname," he told her with a flippant shrug. She stared at him, waiting for more. "Jake. Is that better?"
She flushed and turned her head down again. "You, uh, you didn't have to tell me that if y-you didn't want to."
He shrugged again, shoving his hands in his pockets. "What's it matter?"
She looked up again and shook her head. "I guess it doesn't?"
She didn't know what she was doing. Talking to someone she didn't know. A guy her cousin had warned her was bad news, at that. She didn't talk to strangers. She didn't like talking to people. She wasn't always the best with words. Her cheeks burned as she realized she hadn't introduced herself.
"I'm Daisy," she told him meekly, looking at the floor again.
"I know," He said. She didn't look up. He seemed to make haste with an explanation to the strange response. "Stronghold told me."
She had wondered what Will had been doing that morning, talking to a group of kids he deemed troublesome. She hadn't thought about it again since that morning, but it became a refreshed question in her mind now that he brought it up. Why had he mentioned her to them? She couldn't begin to comprehend why except perhaps Will was a little protective over her.
"So this is the arts hall," lash said, breaking her train of thought. She looked up, finding them turning the corner of a smaller hallway somewhere in the east side of the building. "It's kind of tucked away because the extra curriculars taught in these rooms usually don't have anything to do with heroism."
He rolled his eyes, but she didn't understand why. She didn't say anything, following him down the hall to one of the last doors on the right. It was open, so before they even stepped inside, Daisy could see the colorful garland hanging on the wall and art posters around the room. The teacher's voice filled the air as she talked across a room full of students working. They sat at long tables, two at a table, filled with cups of colorful markers and pencils.
The teacher stopped talking as they entered the room, turning to them. "Ah, my last two students," she said, smiling at them kindly. The entire room looked up at them too. "Lash, it's so good to see you again, but you're late."
"Found this one lost in the halls, figured I'd end the torture of trying to find this hidden place," he said, nodding his head at Daisy. He smirked as she flushed, noticing all of the eyes on her. She felt embarrassed for being late and bothered that she had interrupted the class.
She held the strap of her bag tightly, nodding to the teacher as if to corroborate Lash's story. She decided to focus her attention on the teacher so that maybe all the student's looking at her didn't feel so intimidating. Their teacher was short and round faced, with short blonde hair and a big smile. Her eyes shined with her bright attitude, crystal blue.
"Oh, you must be Daisy Samuels. I'm Artistry, but most kids just call me Ms. Bea," she said, grabbing her roster and penciling in their arrival. "You'll find your seats just over there. We're taking it easy today and making nameplates."
Daisy looked across the room, where only one empty table remained closer to the back wall. She followed Lash as he took the lead. They sat down, finding pieces of paper folded in half with their names already written across them in big capital letters. Lash found his with his proper name on his.
He picked it up and turned it over, sighing. "Nameplates? What are we, in first grade?" He turned it over, letting JAKE face down on the table. He grabbed a purple marker and started to write LASH across the opposite side.
Daisy watched him, then reached for two colors, black and yellow. She started outlining her name with the yellow marker. Ms. Bea had started playing soft music from a radio she had at the front of the room, seeming to have forgotten what she had been saying before they entered the room, so she let everyone work in peace.
"Aren't daisies a little cliche for you?" she heard from beside her. She looked up at him, catching the little smirk Lash gave her. She shrugged and turned back to decorating the nameplate with her namesake. He chuckled and bowed his head. She glanced over to see what he was doodling, spying a few skulls.
"If you're finished with your nameplate, take this time to get to know your table partner," Ms. Bea's voice suddenly said over the music. Daisy glanced up. "The person you're sitting with right now will be your partner for the rest of the year. We're going to be doing a lot more partner projects this year since the school would like to build more teamwork skills in all of you before graduation."
Lash groaned beside Daisy and she turned to him confused. He looked at her, a little annoyed. He could see the question in her eyes. "I can only assume that they want to push the whole teamwork thing since there are sidekicks in hero classes and vice versa," he told her, rolling his eyes. "This was one of the few classes that had nothing to do with the whole hero thing."
She nodded, understanding him. When she looked down to draw on the paper some more, coloring in the petals of her daisies with a white pencil, he took notice of all the finer details about her. She had freckles across her cheeks, but one stood out among them, a little dot just under the outer corner of her right eye. She also had brown eyes, but it was hard to tell because they were so dark they nearly looked black. And she had yet to smile whatsoever, there wasn't even a hint of one on her lips. It had that gnawing sensation coming back, or maybe it was impending anticipation of lunch happening in the next hour. Regardless, something about her fascinated her.
As he watched her draw, he finally realized she was wearing fingerless gloves. They were white with small square studs across her knuckles and buckles around her wrists. The straps were actually buckled snuggling to her skin, but they didn't look uncomfortable. He also took note that the only color she wore was sunshine yellow nail polish.
"Those gloves are pretty cool," he told her, leaning over the table and resting his head in his hand. He was done with the nameplate, not because he thought it looked good as is but because he thought doing nameplates in high school was kind of stupid.
She glanced at him before nodding. "Thanks. They're pleather."
"Pleather?" he asked. It looked real to him.
"Environmentalist friendly family," she told him. She finished her nameplate and stood it up, then put away the few materials she had used. "My aunt insisted they be made from fake leather."
"These are specially made?" he asked, actually a little intrigued. He reached out and grabbed her hand, his hold easy as he brought her hand closer to inspect the glove. She tensed and he heard her take a deep breath, but that didn't stop his curious mind from the mini inspection.
She nodded. "Yeah, uh, they're power neutralizing. Um, I have to wear them."
Lash looked up at her, still holding her hand, further attracted to the topic. He had not yet thought to ask her what her power was, though he was naturally curious about that as well. "You have to wear these? Why, is your power dangerous or something?"
She stared at him, cheeks flushed. Her shoulders were tense. She didn't know what to do with him holding her hand, even though he was hardly gripping her hand at all and she could easily pull it from his grasp, she felt a little stiff. With his asking questions, she started to feel her stomach twisting up in knots. "Um, y-yeah."
She didn't like to talk about her powers. The nature of her powers were what made it easy to get into the hero classes, despite feeling as though her powers were far less than heroic. Principal Powers had said the courses would help her come to understand them and how to use them for good. She had yet to believe that.
He dropped her hand and she pulled it to her chest, touching the studs with her finger tips. Their cool surface made her feel a little calm. He looked at her, watched her as she breathed out through her nose, only to take another deep breath. He quirked an eyebrow up, wondering just how dangerous her power could be if she was so nervous about it. "What is it?"
She shook her head and looked at her hands, still running her finger along the studs of her glove. She didn't want to say. She couldn't. It felt like too much, too overwhelming. Memories began to flood her mind, but she tried her best to block them out. She couldn't start thinking about the past when she was trying to survive the first day of school.
"It can't be that bad," he told her. She thought about how foolish a statement like that was, said with such casualty when he had no idea.
"I-it is," she assured him. She dropped her hands to her lap, rubbing the pleather that hugged the back of her hand. "Trust me."
He watched her bow her head, letting her hair bounce about until it settled to hang in her face. He bit his cheek, humming as he tried to come up with ideas about her powers. What could be so dangerous that she didn't want to say? He tried thinking of any supers that had highly dangerous powers, but he didn't know of any with the last name Samuels. And anyways, she was related to the hippie chick, who came from a family of hippies, so her power couldn't really be that bad could it?
"You're the flower girl's cousin or something, right?" She nodded, but didn't pick up her head. "So is it something plant related? Do you only grow toxic or poisonous flowers?"
She shook her head and he rolled his head back, thinking. When he had another idea, he looked at her, but didn't begin to ask when he saw she'd shoved her hands into the pocket of her hoodie, hiding her hands away. He thought it must have to do with her hands then, but by the way she was starting to close herself off made him think that leaving the topic alone was for the best. He didn't know why, but he wanted to keep talking to her, and that particular line of questioning was driving her away and would make that impossible.
"So, where are you from?" he asked, thinking it was an innocent enough question. He had no idea Williams had a cousin, and had never heard so much as a peep about her. It added another layer or mystery to the girl beside him. When she didn't say anything, he tried again. "Did you just move to Maxville?"
She shook her head, staying quiet. She brought her head up a bit and he noticed the way her eyebrows were pinched, like she was thinking hard about something. She opened her mouth, but it formed a small 'o' as she looked at him. "Well, I was born here, but I moved around a lot as a kid. I moved in with my aunt a couple of years ago."
Lash was further confused, but didn't have the time to ask a follow up question. The bell rang and the classroom became loud with screeching stools and students walking to the door. Lash grabbed his nameplate and sighed. He stood up, walking to the front to give it to the paper desk adornment to the teacher for the day's credit. Daisy followed his lead and quietly followed him out of the class.
Though they didn't walk together, they ended up going the same way. Lash just let himself walk the familiar halls toward the cafeteria, but Daisy was looking around for anything that would direct her there. He stopped and she nearly ran into him, stopping just before that could happen. "You look like a hapless puppy," he said, looking down at her with a small smirk. "Follow me, newbie."
She did, still keeping pace with him even though the halls were crowded with kids making their way through the school to get their lunches or to find some other place to be. He was impressed by it, really, since the only other person who'd been able to keep up with his long stride was Speed.
When they arrived at the cafeteria, they went through the line to get their lunches. She seemed mildly confused by the whole ordeal, shyly ordering her food. They paid for their lunches and turned to the open floor of cafeteria tables. Most of the tables were already full, but neither were paying attention to that. They were looking for their friends. Lash had the advantage of being so tall, seeing over everyone's heads to the back of the room where a nearly empty table sat. Only two people sat there and he grinned.
"Come on, you can sit with me," he told her. He said this remembering good and well what Stronghold had told him that morning. He just didn't care. Plus, he'd said they couldn't bother her, but he hadn't said anything about being nice to her. He smirked as he spotted her friends watching them cross the room. The looks on their faces were priceless, aside from Peace who looked pissed as usual.
Coming up to the table, Daisy saw the two other students who had rounded out Layla and Will's warning. They sat side by side, him eating a burger and her a salad. He was tall and husky, wearing a windbreaker. She was pretty and dressed in an orange and blue school jacket. They looked up at her as she set her tray down, their eyes boring into her with questioning glares. Whatever they had been talking about was no longer important as they shut up as soon as they saw her. She began to wonder if it was a good idea to have followed Lash back there. She could hear Layla's voice in her head, telling them that they were just bad news, but she'd set her tray down and committed to the action. She slid into the seat and looked at her lunch.
"Guys, this is Daisy," Lash said, smirking at his friends. He looked over his shoulder at Stronghold's table, seeing all of them still watching them. He looked back at his friends, chuckling. He saw the glint in their eyes as they understood just what was going on, or at least what they thought was happening. "Daisy, these are my friends, Speed and Penny."
"I'm not their friend," Penny denied, resting her hand on her fist. Her eyes looked over the new girl, taking in her appearance, which hadn't changed from the first time she saw her that morning. "So I'm guessing you're a hero if Lash thought it would be okay to bring you over here."
"Uh, yeah," Daisy said, nodding before she ate a blueberry. Her tray was mostly full of whatever fruit the school offered and a slice of cheese pizza. She didn't know what to make of this table. They sat at one end of the table, the rest of the seat empty and it seemed as though no one else was going to occupy them. She thought it somewhat reasonable if they were truly as bad as Will had made them out to be, but she had yet to see them act out or do anything reprehensible.
Lash bit into his pepperoni pizza and opened his drink. He washed down his food with the grape soda. "We have Bea's class together, and we happen to be table partners."
Speed chuckled, tossing a fry in his mouth. He didn't care if he spoke with his mouth full. "Makes sense," he laughed, but Penny hit him in the stomach and he looked at her with a face that asked, What'd I do?
"Close your mouth, pig. You're gonna scare her away," she sneered, but the disgust didn't reach her eyes.
Daisy looked between them, then looked down. She got a strange feeling watching them, as if she was intruding on something private. She pushed her hair behind her ear, but it was too thick and bounced out of place. So instead she threaded her hand into her hair and held it back so she could eat without getting hair in her mouth.
"You actually have really pretty hair," Penny said after a moment of pause. Daisy glanced up, watching Penny's critical eyes scan over her hair. "How do you keep it so healthy?"
"Uh, my aunt buys this vegan conditioner," she answered, shrugging as she couldn't recall its name. She released her hair as she brought her head up, the curls falling upon her shoulder. Penny continued to inspect her, which caused the girl to blush and look away, her attention turning to Speed as he spoke.
"Oh yeah, you're the hippie chick's cousin," he said, remembering the snippet of conversation from that morning. He ate another fry, but waited to speak again. "So you're a vegan chick or something."
She shook her head. Before she could say anything, Lash cut in. "You idiot, she's eating a cheese pizza. You think this school coughs up money for its shitty lunch food to make vegan pizza?"
"Jeez, all I did was ask a question."
"Yeah, a pretty dumb one."
"She said vegan conditioner, so I thought that meant vegan everything."
"That is the stupidest thing I think you've ever said."
As the two continued to bicker, Daisy turned back to Penny, who rolled her eyes at the boys' antics. Penny looked at her and smirked. "You know, for being friends with Stronghold, you're not terribly boring or aggravating."
"Thanks?" Daisy said, head slightly tilting as she was unsure if that was an insult or a compliment or some combination of both.
The girls quietly ate as the table got a little rowdy. They didn't say anything to each other or look up. The spat eventually died down between the two and the three started a new conversation about their classes. Speed was annoyed or bored with all of them, Penny thought they would be easy, and Lash declared that he was pretty sure one of his teachers hated him. Daisy listened, but her fingers nimbly played with a loose thread on her hoodie without pulling it.
However, she didn't feel all that awkward over it. Even though she sat among supposed delinquents, it didn't make her very nervous. She watched them as they talked rather lively, as if they didn't have a care in the world, and they didn't. They were content at their table of four, all to themselves tucked away in the corner. Daisy kind of liked it.
