And I'm back ones more with a chapter.
3 years later
"Time's up, put down your pencils." The teacher said.
Wally got up and got his backpack and was out of the classroom within seconds.
Lia caught up to him before he reached their lockers.
"How did you do?" She asked.
Wally thought about it for a bit. It had been surprisingly easy.
He sighed. "I don't really understand why we have to take an IQ test."
Lia shrugged and opened her locker. "Probably just to torture us."
Wally nodded with a smile. "Seems like a reasonable conclusion." He opened his locker and took out his physics books.
"Let's go to the next class," He then said and grabbed her hand.
Lia closed her locker and followed him down the hallway. She peeked down at their hands, locked together, and swinging back and forth as they walked.
"Do you … mind what the others say about us?" She asked.
Wally looked at her confused. "What do they say about us?"
"That we are boyfriend and girlfriend,"
"Oh, that." Wally shook his head. "No that doesn't bother me at all."
Lia looked down for a second to hide her blushed cheeks and the little smile he had on her lips.
"But do you know what does bother me?" He asked.
"What?" She asked intrigued.
"That the science teacher doesn't take me seriously, I can't wait for middle school, when things get more advanced."
Lia tried not to laugh. The science teacher never did take Wally or his rather odd ideas seriously, but then again most of the time no one understood Wally's idea, not even her.
"Like the crayon house?" She asked with a smile.
Wally sighed dramatically and shook his head slowly. "That was our biggest failure to date."
Lia nodded in agreement.
"But then again," Wally reasoned. "How were we supposed to know, that it was going to be the hottest day of the year?"
Lia shook her head in mock sadness. "It was just halfway melted by the time we got home. If not for the pictures, there would be no proof of our creation..."
Wally smiled at her and was about to say something as the bell rang.
They had to get to their next class now, or they'd be late.
When they stopped outside their houses, Lia just stood there for a few seconds, staring at the pathway to her house.
"Is something wrong?" Wally asked.
Lia shook her head, but there was clearly something wrong.
"I..." She started but didn't continue.
Wally squeezed her hand. "Do you want to come to my house for dinner."
She shook her head, this time with a smile. "There is just something with my dad."
Wally nodded and watched her as they both walked down the pathway to each of their houses.
He hoped, she was okay.
"Dinner," his mom called from the kitchen.
"In a minute," Wally said as he watched his aunt Iris detail how the Flash stopped a robbery.
That guy was just so cool.
His mom appeared in the living room. "It's ready and on the table."
"Coming," he said and got up.
He followed his mom into the kitchen, where his dad was already sat at the table.
"What was so important you couldn't come to the table," his dad asked.
"The Flash!" Wally said with a wide smile and sat down on a chair.
His mother smiled. "You really like that superhero, huh?"
"Yeah," he nodded enthusiastically. "He's so cool, the way he just zooms past people and catches the bad guys." The boy made zooming noises, while his mom gave him some food. "And on top of that, he's like our city's own superhero."
His dad smiled. "Perhaps we should get you involved in running."
"Do you think, I'd be as fast as Flash? Then aunt Iris will make reports about me too."
"Speaking of Iris, she and Barry are coming over tomorrow." His mom said.
Wally stuck his fork in a piece of meat. He liked it when Iris came over, but he didn't like Barry too much. He always smiled … why did aunt Iris have to be with him? She had even gotten married to him about a year ago. Wally had had to be the ringbearer and smile the entire time. That was exhausting.
They continued to talk for some time, but then the phone rang.
His dad got up and answered it.
"Hello," He said and waited for a bit. " Yes... Yes... " He made an odd face and glanced at Wally. "Yes, of course. Goodbye." He put the phone down and gave his son a hard look.
"Wally..." He seemed angry. "What did you do?"
The next day
"What's wrong with you today?" Lia asked concerned. Wally had been deep in thought all the way to school and he had barely answered anything she'd said.
"Sorry," he said. "I was just thinking."
"About what?" Lia asked.
"The principal called my dad yesterday," he said, as they walked down the hallway. "They think I cheated on the IQ test.
Lia gave him a funny look. "But you didn't?"
"No!" He said irritated.
"Then I wonder why they would think that."
"I don't know, but I have to go to the principal's office after school with my parents."
"So, you won't be able to go home with me today?" Lia asked.
Wally stopped. "I guess not. I'm sorry."
Lia shrugged and tried pretending it didn't bother her. "Mom will come pick me up then..."
The principal, the math-, science- and physics teachers and his parents looked at him.
"Wallace," the principal started. "It's very clear that you cheated on the test, if you admitted, you can take the test again and we won't put it on your record..."
"But I didn't," The 10-year-old said.
The principal made an annoyed face.
His mother looked from her son to the teachers. "Is there a possibility that he is telling the truth?"
The science teacher made a snorting sound. "Not unless you raised a genius, Mrs. West." He pulled out a piece of paper with a chart on it, he had probably prepared it for the meeting. "According to your son's score he would have an IQ of 198, that's beyond Einstein's."
"Look, does it even matter?" the math teacher asked. "As I understand it, the IQ test was not a serious test, but merely showing the students what an IQ test looks like and how people place on the IQ scale. Why make this big a deal out of one kid cheating on it."
"But I didn't cheat," Wally persisted.
"Why not test him again?" The physics teacher asked. She looked at the 10-year-old boy. He had an aptitude for physics and was very bright, the possibility that he hadn't cheated was there.
She pulled out some puzzle pieces and handed them to the boy. "Can you put these together?"
Wally took them and began trying to put them together.
"They're a different kind of IQ test, that can't be cheated on, so if he really is smart he will..."
Wally handed her the odd shape.
She looked at the complete puzzle, she was astonished. She cleared her throat as she looked at the 10-year-old. "The faster this puzzle, the smarter the person..."
Three months later
"So, what is … 644 times 62?" The blond man asked with an intrigued smile.
The 10-year-old looked at him like he'd just fell down from the sky. "How would I know that?"
"Wally!" His mother warned.
"It's okay." Barry said. "I guess I just thought … It's so cool that the family has their own little genius."
"Yes it is," his mom said and ruffled Wally's hair.
Wally glanced at the TV. it made him feel odd that everyone had started talking about his 'intellect' the last few months.
Aunt Iris was on the TV talking about the Flash again, even though she was also sitting on the couch.
"Isn't Flash super cool?" He asked his aunt.
She smiled. "Yeah, he's very cool."
"You like the Flash?" Barry asked.
"Yeah, he's my favorite superhero." Wally said excited completely obvious to who asked the question.
His aunt Iris and her husband looked at each other and smiled.
"Wally, you've got mail." His dad said as he came into the living room with a stack of letters and handed him one.
Wally didn't even look at the envelope and just opened it.
The adults crowd around him to see what it was.
The letter was odd.
It was written in English, but the letters were weird, like the person writing it had never handwritten anything before or usually wrote in a completely different way. Some of the sentences seemed to have been written right to left, instead of left to right.
It started with: Dear Mr. Wallace R. West, my name is Hiro...
Two months later
The mailman knocked on the door.
Mary answered it.
"Is there anything I can help you with?" She asked confused. Usually, the mail was just put in their mailbox.
The mailman handed her a letter with a decorative envelope and wax seal.
"I just thought I needed to deliver this personally, so it doesn't get ruined or anything." The mailman said.
Mary thanked the mailman and went back into the house.
She recognized the wax seal. But it had been years she had heard from her family. They hadn't contacted her when she had gotten married, or answered the letter she'd sent her mother after she'd had Wally, she'd had to hear about the tragedies of her siblings and their families in the news.
Why did they write now?
A week later
"So, you're also a prince?" Lia asked.
"No, my mom said it's kind of like a royal family, but not really a royal family," Wally explained.
"It sounds like a fairytale," Lia commented.
"Yeah I know," Wally nodded. "It's a bit odd."
He looked at the girl walking next to him, something seemed off about Lia, she talked like she usually did and smiled like usual, but there was something...
Suddenly Lia pointed to bench sitting on a public plot of grass.
"Can you meet me there after dinner?" She asked.
Wally was confused.
"I can ask my mom..."
"I don't want you to tell your mom," Lia said sternly.
"Why?" Wally asked.
"Because I want to talk to you alone."
Wally looked around, even more confused. "But we're talking now … and we're alone."
"Just, do it please." Lia looked at him with big eyes.
Wally bit his lip. "Then I'll have to sneak out of my room?" His lips curled into a smile.
Lia mirrored his expression.
Then Wally's watch buzzed, he looked at it.
"Oh, I forgot I'd promised Hiro and Lea that I'd chat with them after school, let's go." Wally pulled Lia along with him.
Wally continued to talk about Hiro and Lea, about how great it was that they had found each other and how much fun they were to talk to.
Under the walk home, Wally never let go of her hand, but somehow Lia felt that he was moving farther and farther away from her.
He counted to thirty before he slowly cracked open his window and slowly slit out.
He tiptoed along the side of the house and only let out a breath of relief when he was past both his and Lia's house.
When he got to the bench, Lia was already there.
He crawled up on the bench next to her.
There was silent for a moment.
"What did you want to talk about?" Wally asked.
Lia bit her lip. "My … parents are getting divorced."
Wally didn't know what to say, the only thing he could get out was: "I'm sorry." He had never even met Lia's father, so he didn't know if that was good or not.
She twiddled her thumbs. "Mom says, she finally happy and she wants him to go live someplace else."
Wally didn't know what to do, so he just grabbed her hand.
Lia smiled and looked at him. "Is it bad, that I'm not sad?" She asked.
Wally shrugged. "I don't know."
"If dad didn't leave, we'd have to move, and I don't want that." She said.
"I don't want that either," Wally said.
Suddenly Lia leaned forward and put her arms around him. "I never want to leave, I want to be together with forever, Wally."
Wally put his arms around her. "I want to be together forever with you too."
She slowly let go of him. She was smiling. "Just like with the shooting star."
Wally turned red. "We were seven!"
Lia giggled and looked up at the sky. "I can't wait for summer vacation, then we can play together every day."
Wally began to fidget. "I'm going to visit my grandparents in England, the ones I told you about, during summer vacation."
Lia looked at him, frozen. For some reason, it felt like something inside broke.
Two weeks later
He rocked back and forth on his feet.
"It's almost time to go." Hid dad said.
Wally stared determined into the crowd. "One more minute, she'll come."
His mom was about to start guiding him to the gate when a little dark-haired girl came through the crowd. She wrapped both arms around Wally tightly. "Don't go."
Lia's mother came out of the crowd and smile at the embrace.
"It's only a week, I'll come back," Wally said.
"What if you won't," She said into his shoulder.
"I will, I promise," Wally said and put his arms around her.
"If I promise won't be jealous anymore, can you stay?"
Wally made a face. Lia had been jealous? Of what? When?
Lia broke off the hug and but didn't look him in the eye.
"You always talk about Hero and Lea and now you're visiting your grandparents..." she peaked up at him. "What if you get so many new friends that you forget about me?
Suddenly Wally understood.
"Don't worry," He said and smiled at her. "You'll always be my best friend, Lia."
"No matter what happens?" she peaked up at him cautiously.
"No matter what happens," he confirmed with a smile.
She smiled brightly at him and hugged him again.
He smiled and they hugged each other until Wally had to leave for the gate.
Please tell me what you think.
I might have gotten some things wrong in the school setting because I'm unfamiliar with the American school system, but I've done my best to research it.
The next chapter should be out somewhere between next Friday and the Friday after that.
