Chapter Thirteen

A Single Drop of Light

"Alright!" Brutus hollered, snapping me out of my half-awake state. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and sat back in my chair, looking to the front of the class where he stood against the podium, looking as homeless as ever. He took a look at his hand, probably reading cliff notes on what he was supposed to say. "Assistant Principal Marcus Scott of Imperium High School would like me to inform you all well in advance that at the end of your second quarter at Pathfinder in January for your finals you will be participating in a practical exam that will determine part of your grade."

"Is the practical portion more robots? Because honestly man, I can only do that so many times." Drew asked as he tapped a pencil on his desk and slouched back in his chair. Brutus glared at him.

"No. You're each fighting someone from class 1-C of Imperium. They have ever so kindly allowed us to participate in their final exams." Brutus explained, dropping in a heavy dose of sarcasm as he did. "I had originally planned for you brats to fight each other but this way it's not my fault if one of you gives the other a concussion."

I sat forward in my chair when he said that.

"You'll get two rounds in each of your fights, one in your PE clothes and one in your hero costumes so if your costume needs any upgrades you'll need to see the costume designers at Imperium about that." Brutus then looked directly at me. "And if they got ruined because of an unfortunate training accident, also do that."

I slid back down in my chair as everyone turned to me. Luca smiled sheepishly at me. I returned the gesture and everyone turned back.

"You can see the costume designers any time pretty much whenever from now until January." Brutus continued.

I made a mental note to do that sometime soon because I'd had some ideas for upgrades, namely more protection, seeing as my first costume was about as protective as pajamas.

Brutus spent the next few minutes talking before it was time for PE, where we did even more disaster rescue. I was getting pretty good at it if I do say so myself. One of the disasters we had that day was saving civilians from cars that had been run off off bridges, so we first all had to learn how to dive and swim with all our gear on. Except me. I was still in my PE clothes. Actually, maybe that's why I was so good at it compared to everyone else.

After that, we went back to class for the normal school stuff which was a slog in comparison. When the final bell rang it snapped me out of a stupor like my mind fell back into my body after floating over the clouds. Brutus closed whatever book he was reading out of and briskly left the classroom, something he did almost every day when the bell rang. I asked him about it once and he just said that when the day ended we weren't his problem anymore. Also, he had a TV show to watch.

Ri flicked my ear to get my attention, making me jump about three inches out of my chair. She laughed about it, but I cradled my ear in pain.

"Aww, are you gonna cry about it?" She joked while she laughed herself nearly out of her seat.

"That really hurt!" I told her, trying to sound serious but probably coming across as whiny. I chuckled a bit too, but I tried to hide it.

"I've punched you in the face before, that was nothing." Ri calmed herself down as she packed her things up.

"Alright, that also hurt." I told her. She finished laughing before standing up and leaning on my desk with her elbows, looking down at my work as I gathered it all up to put in my folders.

"You sure about that?" She asked as she pointed to one of my answers on part of a math worksheet. I slid it over and looked at it closer. I looked at her and nodded. She was really close to my face, so close that her hair tickled my forehead. She started laughing, which in turn made me laugh. "Sooooo, do you wanna go to your trainers' gym now or….?"

I exhaled deeply and put everything into my backpack.

"Sure." I agreed.

"Good. I mean, not like I'd have given you a choice." Ri told me. I raised an eyebrow. "I've been waiting for this all day. Plus, sooner we get done training the faster we can get that juice, right?"

I chuckled and stood up, following Ri out of class. We turned the corner and I saw Amy leaning on a wall at the end of the hallway, talking to someone on the phone. For a split second, we made eye contact, but she turned away immediately. I was tempted to stay behind and wait for her to get off the phone so I could check on her, but I kept walking, not wanting to bail on Ri.

The bus we hopped on was filled with students, some from Imperium, but mostly ones from schools I didn't recognize. They were all in uniforms I'd never seen before, including the Imperium ones, meaning they'd probably gotten new ones. Ri and I took to the back of the bus, where I sat by the window and she leaned her back on my arm, stretching her legs across about four other seats.

As soon as the bus started to drive away, Ri opened her phone's camera app to take a selfie with me. Immediately I turned my face away, not wanting to get into the picture. I turned back when Ri reached behind her head and ran her fingers through my hair, making me shiver. She grabbed my scalp and moved my head to see the camera, which made me blush. She gently slid her hand down my head, grazing my cheek as she withdrew her arm. Begrudgingly, I smiled awkwardly for her selfie, making her laugh.

"You're a dork." Ri told me. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Thanks…?" I said, unsure if that was a good thing.

"It's a compliment, dummy." She reassured me. I looked out the window of the bus as it drove, resting my head on the glass. I couldn't relax for too long. The next red light the bus stopped at was accompanied by a cherry red Hummer pulling up next to us. My breath caught in my throat as the driver, the woman who could turn into metal, looked up at me briefly before saying something to someone I couldn't see. My eyes widened as the Hummer took a right while we kept going forward.

"No, no, no, no…" I whispered to myself.

"What?" Ri asked. I almost stood up for reasons I'd never understand. I couldn't catch up to the car, what would I do? And it's not like I could tell Ri.

"Don't…" I trailed off. "N-Nothing. I thought I saw someone from middle school that I hated."

Ri smirked at me.

"Didn't you hate everyone?" She asked.

"No, no, they hated me." I corrected her.

There was so much I wanted to tell Ri. I nearly did, but a combination of the bus still being relatively full and me not wanting to put her in danger caused me not to. The entire rest of the ride I spent trying to calm myself down.

I knew they knew where I went to school.

I knew they were keeping an eye on me.

So why am I so freaked out now?

I couldn't answer the question. It didn't sit right with me, knowing they were watching me in public. Had they seen me at Nathan's gym? I was snapped out of my thoughts when the bus stopped at our bus stop. The familiar red-brick color on the gym brought me a sense of comfort.

I tapped Ri on the arm and pointed out the window. She immediately smiled and jumped up. Once again, she grabbed my hand and basically dragged me out of the bus, nearly tossing me onto the concrete as she jumped out.

"It's more rugged than I thought it would have been." Ri told me. I humored her, trying to take my mind off of things.

"What were you expecting, a strip mall behind a drug store?" I asked as I unlocked the door for us.

"Pretty much." She admitted. I chuckled as I opened the door.

I was about to warn her not to step on any broken glass, but when I opened the door the place was completely spotless. The mats on the wall were replaced, the glass was gone, and every other thing that had been wrong the previous time I'd visited had been cleaned up or otherwise repaired. It was as if it had never been touched.

"Huh, that's not that bad." Ri said as she stepped into the gym.

"Yeah…" I said quietly.

"Are you sure he needs help?" She asked.

"Uhhh…" I was entirely speechless. "I guess not."

Ri shrugged and flipped the light switch for the stairs on. I jogged up the stairs and pushed open the door to the second floor, seeing that it was similarly spotless as opposed to before when it was cleaned just enough to be used.

"Nathan?" I called out, expecting him to have been either resting or training himself. Every light was on, but he was nowhere to be seen. "Ah, shit."

I looked over to the hallway leading to the showers and saw the lights were also on in there, though I didn't hear any water running. I desperately wanted to be wrong, but I told Ri I'd be right back and went to go look to see if he was passed out in the shower again. I turned the corner and nothing. I let out a quick sigh of relief that was quickly cut short.

"Emmet!" Ri screamed from the other side of the gym. Immediately, I sprinted into the gym, seeing her crouched in front of a janitorial closet, holding something in her arms. It felt like a hot ball of lead had been punted into my stomach when the realization hit me. I was about halfway across the mat when I saw his face.

I grabbed Ri's shoulder and moved her out of the way to get a good look. Nathan was covered in blood, injured in a way he never could have done himself. His nose was bent at a nasty angle, his eyes were swollen shut, and his lip was busted.

"G-g-go c-call a-an-" I frantically stuttered while waving my hand towards the door.

"I got it!" Ri exclaimed as she ran towards the door. I never took my eyes off of Nathan.

Suddenly things started to make sense. Voss had seen me here. This was his way of sending a message. And the things that had been fixed up were probably his doing, to make things look less suspicious. He could have been here for days for all anyone would have been able to tell.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey…" I repeated while slapping Nathan's face gently. His head rolled over and his eyes opened about as much as they could have. "What happened?"

I knew that he probably couldn't talk, some asking was probably pointless. That was confirmed when the only noise he seemed to be able to make was small groans of pain. He moved his hand up to his head, where my hands were and he grabbed one of them. His knuckles were extremely bruised and bloody, signs that he'd put up a fight. His mouth opened, but the only thing that escaped was a rattly breath.

Outside, I already heard firetruck and ambulance sirens approaching from down the street.

"It's okay, man." I said, not even noticing until just then that tears were rolling down my face. "I know who did it. I'm not gonna let them get away with it, I promise."

I said it with as much sincerity as I could muster. The only thing Nathan could do in return was a groan. The sirens outside grew closer until they stopped outside of the gym, which was followed by the crash of the front door opening and EMTs rushing up the stairs. I got up and stepped out of the way as they took him away on a stretcher. A shadow briefly flew by the window, followed by a thud on the concrete. I glanced out the window and saw a hero in a bright yellow jumpsuit and a white cape on the sidewalk outside talking to some firemen.

The rest of the day was a blur. After the ambulances and firetrucks left, Ri came back up and tried to comfort me.

"They said he should be okay." She said. I stayed quiet. I couldn't get it out of my head that this was my fault. And I know it was.

The entire way back to school I didn't say another word. Ri kept trying to keep my spirits up, which I appreciated, but it didn't exactly work. I kept half-expecting us to get ambushed ourselves by Voss, but it never happened.

When we got back to the dorms, Ri wrapped her arms around me and squeezed me really tight. I didn't reciprocate.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Ri told me. I smiled weakly. Ri turned around to walk back to her room, so I did too.

"What was that about?" Someone asked. I looked over to where it came from and saw Amy leaning on the doorway of the kitchen eating string cheese. I sighed.

"Too much." I said.

"Hm." Amy held out a piece of string cheese, gesturing for me to take it. Realizing I hadn't eaten since lunch, I walked over and took it. I wolfed it down immediately. "It's not a race, dude."

I laughed and hopped up onto the counter, taking a seat on it.

"Are you doing okay?" Amy asked.

"Yeah, I'm good." I lied. "Just got a lotta work to do."

"Such as?"

"Finals." I said. "Gotta get my costume fixed and upgraded before then, so I should probably go tomorrow."

"Dude, that's like two things." Amy complained. "Where're the juicy details?"

"My MMA trainer was attacked and is in the hospital." I said quickly, taking Amy aback.

"Oh, shit…" Amy said quietly. "I'm sorry dude, I thought you were just being angsty."

I chuckled.

"I mean, I am." I said. Amy walked up next to me and hopped onto the counter with me. Her leg pressed up against mine, which made my heart speed up and I instinctively looked around us and out the front door of the dorms.

"Don't worry, he's not gonna see." Amy reassured me about her boyfriend. "I'm really sorry again about what he did, by the way."

"It's fine." I lied again. "I healed up fine. Gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet, and what better way to break them than by… Getting the shit kicked out of you."

"What?"

"That one really fell apart on me." I admitted. "I'm gonna get beat up a ton being, you know, me when I'm a hero. So, why not start somewhere, you know?"

"That makes no sense. But, I also kinda get it." Amy told me. "I'll tell you what. I need to get my costume upgraded tomorrow too. I'll go with you."

"Thanks." I said. Amy held out her hand in front of me. "What-"

"Just watch." She silenced me. I looked at her hand as a small white and blue flower sprouted from her palm. My breath caught in my throat as she plucked it and handed it to me. "Maybe this might help you feel better."

I smiled as I gently took it from her hands.

"No one's ever given me flowers before." I admitted.

"Well… You're welcome." Amy told me. "And, like, obviously don't tell Jason about this. He doesn't like me hanging out with you."

I half-smiled awkwardly and nodded.

"And water it." Amy ordered me as she hopped off of the counter. "I gotta go."

"Thanks for the flower." I told her.

"Yeah… I hope your trainer gets better." Amy told me. "And I hope you feel better."

I smiled at her as I started feeling really warm and fuzzy.

"... You too." I said awkwardly. Amy laughed and walked out of the kitchen.

I stared at the flower and swayed back and forth. I'm not sure if I felt happier or better, but I felt more content. I felt warm inside. It soon dawned on me that I was feeling two things.

One, I was slowly coming to terms with what had happened with Nathan and thinking of what I could do in response.

Two, I was feeling something that I believe most people would call complicated human emotions. Looking at the flower Amy gave me made me feel warm and fuzzy, but thinking of her and by extension, her boyfriend made me feel sick.

I pushed those feelings down and just focused on the flower. As far as I can tell, flowers are ten times better than people. Flowers aren't complicated. They aren't stressed. They just grow.

I wish I didn't have to deal with any of this.