I am dreading lunch even more than I was yesterday – I feat I didn't think possible until I realized that this lunch, I had a choice of who to sit with; my brother and his lame friends, or Lash… yeah, did I mention I'm dreading it?
"Hey Jake, wait up!" Oh snap, it's Zach – I really hope he doesn't mention anything about lunch. "It's about lunch." Perfect. "Will is taking all of us to Canada for lunch, do you want to come?" Oh thank goodness – I so have an excuse for this one, and it's beyond believable; although I have always wanted to go to Canada.
"I don't know, flying all the way to Canada?" I try to look as nervous as I possibly can; like I'm having the most intense internal battle. "No, I better stay here on semi-solid ground. But how are you guys going to get back? Ron Wilson said that the location of the school is always moving and 'only available to a handful of highly qualified individuals'.
"I did say Will, didn't I?" Right, I forgot – how, no idea – that Will is practically worshipped at this school. "And we spent most of last night trying to figure out where it rotates. We figure that by lunch time it'll be almost floating right above Canada, so we'll have no trouble with the time part of it, I just hope we aren't bugged for autographs the whole time."
"… and by that you mean Will be bugged for autographs the whole time."
"Yeah pretty much." Zach replies without missing a beat, something I always find awesome about having a twin; whatever I am thinking, Zach's usually thinking the exact opposite. Even our likes and dislikes are opposite; I like vanilla, he likes chocolate, I like salty things, he likes sweet things, he likes pop, I like… tea. Anyways, about something different… "Well, I'll bring you a postcard or something. Do you think Kelly and Anna would want something from Canada?"
"Zach, need I remind you that they have billions of dollars aside specifically for things like that? Besides, the story of you guys flying there during lunch is enough for them; they love hearing about things to do with our powers… or, Will Stronghold's powers." Zach nods in agreement and I continue to my second class, taking a seat beside Warren.
"Hey Jake." I still feel a little awkward around him considering yesterday I thought he was a thirty year old repeat.
"Hi Warren, how's it going?" He shrugs slightly in response, and is about to open his mouth when Mrs. Tex walks in and begins the lesson for today, explaining a partner project in which we will research one famous hero and one famous villain, both preferably deceased – cause you know, it's history. I immediately know what I want to research – my mother. I know quite a bit about her, but a ten year old can only get a hold of so much information, super related or not. Although it would be kind of awkward to explain to someone my whole 'foster parents' situation, but I guess I don't have to say that she was my mother.
"Jake, I'm pairing you up with... Dave." I look around the room to see everyone getting up to find whichever partner they were assigned to, but I wasn't paying enough attention to know who 'Dave' is. Once mostly everyone has paired up I see a kid sitting at a table with his head in his arms, possibly asleep… or crying. As awkward as the latter would be, something tells me he's simply catching up on sleep. I walk over slowly and sit down in – and by sit down in I mean trip in to – a chair beside him, jolting him out of his slumber. "You're Dave, right?" He looks up at me with squinted eyes, obviously slightly confused.
"Um, yeah; who are you?" His words are slightly slurred together, but caught the gist of them.
"I'm Jake; we're partners for the project." He's still displaying the same slightly confused, otherwise blank expression, and I realize it'd be much easier for me to explain it. "We have to research a dead super villain and super hero and do a big biography thing on them." He looks a little less confused now, and sits up in his chair, rubbing his eyes and yawning. He looks familiar, and when he sits up I see that he's just as pale as me, but has bleach blonde hair with dark brown chunks in it – overall, kind of like… Lash, actually, only a little bit more emo with his lip ring and eyeliner. I wonder if they've met.
"Do you have anyone in particular you want to research?" I love it when people ask questions you really want to answer.
"Actually, I was hoping we could research the super villain Mix." He does a sort of shrug/nod thing before speaking again.
"Could we do iron man?" Why am I not surprised; iron man was like, the most respected, valuable super hero there ever was. He was literally made of iron and indestructible; he killed many villains while he was still alive, but eventually died of… get this, food poisoning. After he died they discovered that while his outward body was indestructible, his heart wasn't. I wonder if he killed my mother; that was one of the many things not released to the super community, her killer. But no one cares who kills a villain, as long as their dead. I nod to Dave and we sit for a few moments waiting for the bell to ring.
"Boys, have you decided which hero and villain you'll be researching?"
"Mix and Iron man; is it okay that they died this century?" Mrs. Tex chuckles and nods before moving onto the next pair. "So, when are we going to research this?" This is the awkward part, if, when, and where we do the project. Dave appears to be thinking over his schedule and shrugs moments later.
"Most days are fine for me." I'm about to ask about today when I remember about Lash's band playing, and then start getting excited all over again. "Hey, what's your power?" Oh dear, here I go forgetting that we have these handy things; seeing as it's normally an unspoken rule to, when meeting someone for the first time, demonstrate your power and ask of the other's.
"I can turn into a shadow." I pause for a moment before demonstrating, trying to hide the pain as I materialize once again.
"Cool, must be nice to go unnoticed like that." I never really thought of it that way, but I guess it's like going invisible.
"What's your power?" Probably something much cooler than mine, all tough like iron man… I hope iron man isn't his dad.
"I can read and control people's emotions." He says it like it's a terrible thing, and I raise my eyebrow. "It isn't a bad thing, it just gets kind of tiring, cause I can't talk to someone without automatically knowing how they're feeling. People who are more open with their feelings especially, because in those cases I can read the thoughts that are causing whichever feeling they're experiencing. If I want to change someone's emotion for the better I have to absorb the previous emotion. So if you were feeling really sad right now and I made you happy, I would get all of your sad feelings, and eventually they build up." Oh wow; that's a pretty awesome power. I pause for quite a while, unsure of what to say. "Overwhelming, I know." Thankfully, the bell rings just then and I start walking towards my locker, Dave right beside me. We shoot each other slightly awkward looks before realizing that our lockers are across the hallway from each other. I wonder why I didn't see him yesterday.
"I just got here today, late start." …this will definitely take some getting used to. We walk towards the cafeteria, silently agreeing to sit together, or at least that's how it seems. We both get it line for hero sandwiches, surprisingly edible, and sit at a table near the corner. "Have you been going here since freshman year?" Finally a conversation topic!
"No, this is actually my first year; I went to Sea School before, but my brother's always gone here."
"You have a brother?" He sounds genuinely interested, and it almost makes me excited to start talking about my family.
"Yeah, he's my twin actually, his name is Zach; you have any brothers?"
"Nope, just me and my mom; but when I was younger I hung out with this one kid all the time, so he's like my brother." We continue with the family oriented small talk until Lash walks up and sits down next to Dave. "Hey Lash, what's up?" Lash mutters something quietly and Dave chuckles before taking another bite of food.
"Dave, this is the kid everyone thought was you yesterday." I shoot them both slightly confused looks and Lash clarifies. "I heard that yesterday everyone was saying you were the old friend of mine coming to Sky High this year, but its Dave." That explains a lot. I guess Dave was the younger equivalent of Speed. Speaking of Speed, I guess he must have gone with the Will Stronghold posse, as I don't see him anywhere. Although that's probably a good thing, considering he and Lash aren't really on the best of terms at the moment. But hey, attempted world domination can do that to friends.
"Yeah, me and Jake are doing a project in hero history." Lash nods knowingly.
"Oh, the villain/hero research thing? Yeah, I did that last year, pretty easy. Mrs. Tex gives good grades to everyone."
"Even kids who try to take over the school?" I ask teasingly; woah, I never really thought I'd be at the teasing level of friendship with this kid, but his – and Dave's – laughter confirms it. "Is Dave coming to the practice today?" I ask Lash as soon as the laughter has died down – I actually don't see how it was all that funny, but hey – I'll take what I can get.
"Actually Dave's the guitar player; and there's kind of an ulterior motive in inviting you… can you sing?" That was unexpected to say the least. But honestly, I have no idea if I can sing or not – I've never really tried. Zach says my voice is too whiny, but his even sounds overconfident and cocky, so there we go.
"Umm, I have no idea." Lash and Dave high five and I, once again, raise the eyebrow. I swear I'm going to start growing muscles in that one eyebrow if I keep this up, it's like an exercise. It takes them a few moments to realize I'm waiting for an explanation, but when they do Dave explains quickly.
"It's just that guys who sound like you and don't know if they can sing… usually can sing." I see… what do I sound like?
"…do I have to sing?" They both look up from their food; Dave's pierced mouth hanging open slightly.
"Yeah." They both say at once. "Or we'll make you get an embarrassing tattoo." Lash adds afterwards. We stay at the table for the rest of lunch hour, talking about music and… music. Zach and his friends showed up just before the bell rang, and luckily he didn't notice who I had chosen to sit with… although technically Lash had come to sit with us; although Zach would probably just remind me about the locker shoving, face dunking 'trauma' he and Ethan experienced because of Lash. The two blocks after lunch passed by so quickly I was almost suspicious, but nonetheless got my things from my locker and walked across – almost getting body slammed twice – to Dave's. He had a funny smile on his face, and I had a feeling he had something to do with the extremely short classes. I wait for him to get his things out and lock his locker, and while we make our way to Lash's he spills.
"There's this nerdy kid in my math class after lunch that has the power of time change; I made him feel extremely impatient and a little angry, so he sped up time." Dave is starting to laugh. "It was awesome, because the teachers don't suspect him, because he's such a goody goody." I start laughing to and before long it's the Brady Bunch scene all over again – and that's when I notice that Dave's laugh is exactly the same as Lash's – evil and slightly unnerving. We get to the aforementioned locker, and Lash immediately turns to Dave with a knowing smile.
"You are the man, Dave; that was awesome." Dave chuckles and the three of us make our way out to where the busses line up, and I realize that I'm going to have to mention to Zach that I'm not coming home with him. I tell Dave and Lash that I forgot something inside and run back into the school and straight to Zach's locker, where he's waiting with the paper bag.
"Jake seriously, you've got to slow down a little or Sheldon will kill me."
"Uh, I'm actually not coming home on the bus today…" He looks genuinely surprised. "I'm hanging out with Dave, a kid from my hero history, we're doing a project together that's going to be really hard and we're going to get a head start on it because it's such a big project and otherwise we won't be able to complete it on time and we'll fail the entire class because it's 30 of our entire grade." I finish rambling and hope that Zach doesn't realize how much of that was a lie; but luckily he simply nods and I walk until he's out of sight and then sprint out to the bus, narrowly missing the one I'm taking with Dave and… coughLashcough. I bring out the cell phone Anna and Kelly gave me and dial home.
"Hello?" It's Sheldon.
"Hey man, it's Jake; could you let Anna and Kelly know that I'm hanging out with some friends today?"
"Sure thing kiddo, when'll you be back?"
"Umm, not for a while, but I'll call Ben to come get me when I need to come back, alright?" Sheldon makes an agreeing sound and we both hang up. I'm sitting beside Lash near the back, with Dave and some other emo kid I don't recognize sitting in front of him. I elbow Lash lightly and motion towards the boy I don't know.
"Oh right, hey Casey, this is Jake – he'll probably be our new vocalist. Jake, this is Casey, our drummer." I say hi to Casey and demonstrate my power as soon as he asks, returning the question as I materialize once again. He laughs a little and runs a hand through his hair, making it appear even shaggier than it already is.
"I have a never ending energy flow; that's why I'm the drummer." I make a comment on how cool of a power that is, and before long we're at a mall in what appears to be downtown Maxville – I've never really been to this area – and Lash motions for me to get up and follow the other two out the door. We walk for a few minutes before coming to a small coffee shop where two other guys – a little more punk than emo – are waiting.
"Guys, this is Jake, Jake, this is Travis, another guitarist and Riley, the guy we're hoping you'll replace."
Riley laughs a little before speaking in a voice that is slightly similar to mine. "I'm moving." Oh good, that would have been really awkward had he been kicked out or something like that. "I'm a mind reader, by the way, and Riley can shoot water out his wrists; what's your power?"
"I can become a shadow." After two "cool, let's see's" from Travis and Riley, I once again go into shadow form; these two are even more amused, waving their hands over where my face would be and laughing as if it's completely hysterical. I once again become solid and we continue walking until we reach a small building that is quite colorfully decorated… with graffiti. We walk inside and Dave explains that it's abandoned, but they hold battle of the bands there once a year, and they use it for practice. I'm taken aback when we walk inside, it's huge! It's like a real concert stage, with rows and rows of chairs – all brand new. We all walk towards the stage and climb up. Dave and Travis tune their guitars while Lash, Riley, and Casey get everything set up and I stand their dumbfounded like a complete idiot. Before long they're all set up and have started playing an unfamiliar song.
"I'll sing this one so you can get the gist of it and give it a try, okay?" I nod and hop off the stage and into one of the chairs near the front. Before too long Riley starts to sing.
"Father I've sinned, over and over and over and over again, Sorry my friends, I'm such a mess; I'm doing the best I can. She says 'where you going, where you been?' she says 'I don't want you hanging out with them', she leaves like she's never coming back again, on and on... it goes on and on yeah!" By the end of the song my eyes were wider than they had ever been before. I wouldn't dare ask if it's a cover, but am secretly hoped Riley will read my mind and answer the question.
"You think you're ready to try?" Lash asked, beckoning me up to the stage. I hop on, getting more nervous by the second. I start rambling some excuse, but Lash shakes his head. "Do you want to get a horribly embarrassing tattoo?" He says it in a joking tone of voice, but I can tell they're really hoping I'll do this… and not completely suck.
"Okay." I say reluctantly as I step up towards the microphone. We start at a different point in the song, and I feel my voice shaking as I sing the first line. "Mother I've tried, over and over and over to open my eyes; look at my life, tell me when did I die, cause I'm not alive. Skip through the script and tell me what it says, skip through the story tell me how it ends, she says that we're probably better off as friends on and on, it goes on and on yeah!" The chorus is much easier to sing with Lash and Dave screaming along with me, and them not stopping me hopefully means that I'm not too horrible, but there's no way to tell. By the end of the song my throat is getting sore, but I have to admit, it feels good to yell like that.
"Dude, that was awesome!" Oh thank goodness. Not that I'd mind having a less than fabulous voice, but it would make things extremely awkward if they were to say 'yeah… you're… not….too…terrible' in that high pitched kind of voice that is a dead giveaway that you're lying. Anyways, that didn't happen, so there's no need to worry. We practice the song a few more times, some with Riley and I both singing, some just me. After the practice is over Riley, Travis and I help the others pack everything up and set it in the back. "So I lied… we aren't playing tonight, but we are this Friday – you should come, we'll introduce you as our new singer, cause Riley's moving this weekend." I'm so overwhelmed all I can do I nod my head enthusiastically as I pull out my cell phone to call Ben; I need to go home and take some aspirin.