Disclaimer: Not mine

A/N: A few people have commented on how they're glad this isn't a WarrenOC, so now I'm curious. If you had to choose, who would you go for? Lash or Warren?

And thankyou to everyone who took the time to review! It means a lot so please keep it up! I totally promise that this story is going somewhere...

Five – Dentistry

I stared glumly at the bowl of cereal my dad placed in front of me. I didn't feel much like eating. A large blue butterfly settled on the edge of my spoon, slowly uncurling its wings.

"No insects at the table, honey," dad reminded me, opening his morning paper.

I think the worst part of all this was that we didn't get caught. If there was some kind of retribution maybe I'd be able to live with the knowledge that I'd crossed the law I'd vowed to help maintain. But there was nothing. And Lash was probably soaking it up, thinking that everything was right in the world, congratulating himself on a job well done. Well, at least he'd be happy that he'd managed to finally get rid of me.

"Mornin'," my mom said, coming into the kitchen and bending down to kiss my cheek. "How was last night?" She took note of the uneaten breakfast, the butterfly and my lowered eyes. I could already see the conclusions forming in her mind. "Alissa, what happened?"

"Nothing," I mumbled.

"Alissa," she repeated warningly. Sometimes I sort of wish I had the kind of parents that have no idea. I mean, not that mine are the epitome of golden parenting, but they're not completely in the dark. It makes trying to hide stuff from them a nightmare. Whose dad knows his daughter has her first boyfriend twenty minutes after she gets asked out! Seriously!

"Last night was bad," I explained lamely, brushing the butterfly away and stirring the cereal half heartedly.

They exchanged a look over the top of my head. Here comes that guessing again.

"Aunt Laura's in Mexico…" dad began nervously.

"Is it that boy again?" mom interrupted, squeezing my shoulder, "The one who doesn't like you?"

I think that's the understatement of the year, but I was too tired to even try and explain. "Yes."

She clucked her tongue in an 'I knew it' way. Damn mothers and their intuition!

Dad raised an eyebrow. "There's a boy? Is it Brian?"

I rolled my eyes. Dad loved Brian; I swear when we broke up I actually thought dad was going to adopt him just so he wouldn't lose the closest thing he's ever had to a son. Even the fact that Brian could talk to the goldfish didn't put him off.

"No," mom huffed at him, "it's someone else. Alissa likes him, but he's - "

This had gone on long enough. "I do not like him!" I cried, mentally shuddering at the thought. "He's the biggest jerk in the world and, coincidentally, my assigned hero."

Dad looked slightly puzzled, though he tried to hide it. "Ah. And what does that mean exactly?"

"I'm his hero support," I explained. "Sidekick," I added at his blank look, "well, at least I'm supposed to be. I guess now I'll just end up a dentist."

"But I thought you couldn't wait to be a sidekick?" he glanced over at my mom. "Or did I miss something?"

A lump was threatening to rise in my throat and I fought to push it back down. I didn't want to cry over something so stupid as my entire future. I'd had one dream since I was fourteen, to be the best hero support the world had ever seen. I'd been so determined, so sure that it was right. How can one person ruin you so completely? And without even trying!

"Why don't you come into work with us today?" mom suggested with false brightness. "Get out of the house for a bit?"

"Might as well see what the rest of my life is going to be like," I mumbled into my cereal.

"Okay, then!" mom beamed cheerily. She reached down to take the bowl away, seeing that I wasn't going to eat it, as she did she gave a sharp hiss. "Where did you get that?" she demanded, pointing at my wrist.

Overnight it had become stiff and sore, with a healthy dose of swelling to go with that bruising. Too late I realised I should have hidden it.

She let out a shrill shriek and grabbed my wrist. "Oh, baby! What happened to you? Was it that boy?"

I have never heard anyone able to sum up everything wrong with Lash in one emphasised syllable. It would have been quite impressive if my arm wasn't about to fall off from the pain.

"Ow, mom! Let go!"

She was petting my wrist with the frenzy of a madwowan. I had actually almost forgotten about it, what with everything that had happened, and was disgusted to find that it was now mostly a lovely shade of purple-blue. Who knew Lash was so strong? Just another reason to stay away, I guess.

And that's what I was determined to do. No matter what the front page of my dad's newspaper was saying (giant spiders, downtown) the world just didn't need another hero support. I was going to have to live with that.

OOOO

I was staring out the window, watching the cars go by, whilst a woman with a screaming eight year old repeatedly rang the bell at the desk. The receptionist, Karen, once told me that she likes to keep them waiting. At the time I'd been outraged that even such a small dose of injustice was allowed to exist right under my parents' noses, today I found that it didn't really matter.

Outside everything dazzled under brilliant sunlight. It should have been raining, but that's the weather for you.

I sighed heavily as the door opened and a family of three came in. My mom had bandaged by wrist to the extreme and suggested how 'fun' it might be to hand out the new toothbrushes to all their patients. Fun, indeed. I must just look like the coolest person alive. Ahem.

Karen finally got around to seeing the woman and her screaming child, leading them out of the waiting room for their appointment. I held up a couple of toothbrushes as the family approached the desk.

"Red or blue?" I asked dully, not really looking at any of them.

"Err…" the kid scratched the back of his head. Ah, the choices of dental care.

"Would you like a blue one, Will?" his mother asked, pointing at the toothbrush in question. I glanced up and felt my eyes go about three times bigger.

"I know you," I said, holding out the blue toothbrush. "You're Will Stronghold." And The Commander and Jetstream; I guess even superheros have to go to the dentist.

Will scrunched up his face, obviously trying to work out who I was. I doubted he'd ever get it.

"We went to same school," I explained. "I graduated this year."

Will's father pounced. "Sky High," he nodded, extending a hand to shake mine. "What's your name? What's your power?"

"Um," I shook The Commander's hand, wincing a bit at his grip. "Alissa. I…" I coughed. How exactly do you tell the greatest hero ever that you are maybe the lamest person to ever walk the halls of Sky High? "I make butterflies," I spat out in a rush, hoping he'd mishear me and assume I could turn invisible or something equally cool.

"Oh," he let go. "I mean, oh! Really great!"

"That sounds very interesting," Will's mother interrupted, offering me a warm smile. "So, how do you like the real world?"

It's great, Mrs Stronghold, except for the part where I'm failing at it. "Fine."

I looked at Will. Fifteen and already everybody knew that he would never have a single problem doing what he was best at. His parents were the greatest superheros ever, what door wouldn't just fall open for him? He could sleep soundly at night knowing that the second he graduated the mayor would be all over him. It must be nice. Why couldn't I have been in his grade? I could have been his hero support.

"Dr Daniels will see you now, Mr Stronghold," Karen announced her return, snapping her chewing gum.

The Commander gave his wife a worried glance and I saw her sigh heavily. "We'll go in together if that's alright, Karen. I'm married to the biggest baby in the universe." Mrs Stronghold turned to her son. "Behave yourself in the waiting room, hon."

Will rolled his eyes as his parents left. There was awkward silence as we both stared at his brand new toothbrush.

"So, um," Will cleared his throat loudly, "who did you get paired with?"

I groaned. "Lash."

His jaw dropped. "Was there a short straw or something?"

"It's not funny," I reminded him.

Will hurriedly shook his head. "No, no, I meant that I'm sorry. Man, I can't imagine anyone worse! Except maybe Speed." He paused, mulling this over. "How's it going anyway?"

"Predictably horrible. Apparently Lash doesn't want to be a hero and I can't make him."

I didn't feel like mentioning that I had witnessed him committing a robbery. It wasn't the sort of depth you went into with near strangers.

Will grimaced. "Yikes. Well, if I were you I wouldn't waste my time. If Homecoming's anything to go by he'll probably be in jail by this time next week."

More likely than you could ever imagine, kid. "Tell me about it."

He seemed to suddenly realise that maybe he's lack of confidence was depressing me, because he added, "But, hey, Mr Boy says there's a lot of freelance work out there. That's probably a better way to start, anyway. Then you can choose your own hero."

"I suppose." There're also a lot of people with cavities.

I watched him cast around for a change of topic. "You said that you can make butterflies? What's that like?"

"It's alright. Slightly humiliating, but I guess I'm used to it."

"Is that what your parents can do?"

I shook my head. "No, they're both normal. I got bitten by a bug when I was a kid."

His face lit up. "Cool! I've always wanted to be a radioactive kid!"

Is that what they're calling us these days? Huh. Obviously Will's confused as to exactly how useless butterflies are. I watched Spiderman when it came out just to, you know, compare. Peter Parker definitely got the better deal. Except maybe for the dead uncle bit. Even his transformation was cooler; mine was nowhere near that exciting.

I smiled faintly despite myself. "It's not as fun as it sounds."

"It never is," Will grinned back at me.

"William Stronghold," Karen was back again, "this way please."

"My dad's probably started bawling," Will whispered before turning to follow Karen. I waved after him, thinking hard.

You spend four years at Sky High where they continuously try to suck the fun out of having superpowers and I'm only now just starting to realise that maybe they were on to something after all. Powers just aren't for everyone. Mine were an accident anyway, it's not like I was destined to save the world or anything. It's not like I'm Will Stronghold. What's the difference between a normal citizen and a girl who can sort of do something special? Not much, it turns out.

Had it all been a big joke, me being hero support? Maybe this was Principal Powers' way of letting me know that I didn't have a chance. Instead of just chucking me out first day, she'd let me get a glimpse at the life I could have had, then Lash had closed the door.

I fiddled with the toothbrushes in my hands, letting my eyes fall on the bandage wrapped tightly around my wrist. It stung. Suddenly I just wanted to let loose all the butterflies I could, drown the entire waiting room with them, throw open the door and let them crawl all over Maxville. No one would notice, anyway. No one ever pays much attention to butterflies. Pretty and delicate, harmless and worthless. No one knows what they're good at, not even I do. They are born and they fly and I bet in those moments their whole world is just peachy, everything coming up gold. Then they start to slow, their wings droop and they die a silent death as everything keeps spinning around them as they pass away unnoticed, crushed under feet, snapped up by dogs, choked by pollution. In the end they must realise that everything was stacked against them right from the beginning.

Nothing in their short lives is particularly fair. The only mentionable thing one of them ever did was bite me, and that was probably just a spur of the moment mistake.

I don't feel like a butterfly. I'm clumsy and ugly and I'll never fly. They don't get me anymore than I get them. A butterfly so small it was barely visible crawled over my hands, legs tickling my skin. It took off a moment later, heading straight for the window.

OOOO

As lunch rolled around I got sent off on my bike with explicit instructions not to return unless I was bearing food. A few hours in the dental surgery and I was ready to run away screaming. So much for my future fallback career.

It was so hot that by the time I reached the Maxville mall my shirt was plastered to my back with sweat, my face all red and puffy, hair limp and wet. Its times like this that really make me appreciate air-conditioning. Ah, sweet relief as I stepped through the automatic glass doors! Being the summer holidays, the whole place was packed with kids. I manoeuvred my way around them, heading for the food court. Dad was a sucker for anything covered in sugar (real dentist type that one), and the quickest way to his heart was the bakery.

In retrospect I probably shouldn't be shocked that it would happen. Like I said before, Maxville is not a big city; there are only so many places people can go. The combination of summer weather and boredom send most of them to the mall. But still, I was maintaining the shreds of hope that I would somehow be able to pass through the rest of my life without ever seeing Lash again. The Powers-That-Be really hate me.

He didn't notice me, so I kept walking straight ahead, determined to convince myself that if I wasn't looking at him he wasn't really there. Unfortunately, Speed was with him.

"Hey, Lash!" he appeared at my side in a rush of air, moving so fast he became a blur. "It's your personal loser!"

Was that a step up from sidekick in their books? I couldn't decide so I squared my jaw and continued walking. I was not going to talk to either of them. In fact, I wasn't even going to look at them. I was completely over it. Really.

Speed kept up an easy pace with me, jabbing me in the shoulder the whole time. I guess the whole bully mentality doesn't evaporate just because school's over. Old habits die hard, after all.

"So how did she do last night?" Speed yelled loudly over his shoulder to Lash. I stopped, gasping and flinging a hand over my mouth. People were staring now, and probably interpreting that last line in entirely the wrong way! Speed cackled when he saw my reaction, "Intentional word choice, sidekick."

Lash chose that very opportune moment to make his arrival. Cocking an eyebrow at me he smirked, folding his arms. "Miss me already? Or maybe you need some cash…" his hand itched toward the front pocket of his jeans. I could see a bunch of money sticking out of it. Stolen money. And he was spending it!

That was it. I rounded on him. "You know, I've been trying to decide exactly which part of breaking and entering is more illegal, but I can't. Maybe I should ask the police!"

Lash spread his arms, shrugging carelessly. "Go ahead."

"You'll go to jail!" I practically yelled at him. I was causing a scene, but most of me didn't care at this point. "You're a criminal!"

Speed laughed loudly, drowning out my yells and putting a condescending arm around my shoulders. "You sure are a kidder!" he said loudly, more to the crowd around us than to me.

I shoved him away. It was much harder than it should have been, he was really solid! "Why don't you just rob a bank next time, Lash? I'm sure it'll be much faster!"

"I didn't do anything wrong," Lash maintained cockily.

"Oh, I'm sorry I don't know what kind of crazy transaction system you use, but I'm pretty sure there is no legal way of taking someone else's money!"

Something flashed in his eyes that made me take a step backwards. "You didn't complain last night," he hissed at me dangerously. My mouth fell open. Did he have amnesia? I had done nothing but complain!

"Besides, sidekick," he drawled out the word to mocking point, "you were there, remember? I guess if you turn me in you're going to be sharing a cell with me. But maybe then we can get started on those costumes, right?"

"I hate you!" I have never hated anyone in my life like this; not even Brian! It burned my insides until I felt hollow. It was like physical pain, like something vital was breaking. He could stand there and laugh at everything I held up as important like it meant absolutely nothing! He turned me into a joke, twisted everything with the practised ease of years of tormenting freshmen.

But it was more than that, wasn't it? There was something between shoving a kid in a locker and breaking a safe. Some line that he'd crossed that I wasn't sure he'd ever be able to go back on. School was separated from the real world; somehow the stuff that happened within its walls never carried over into outside life, never held the same weight. You were just a kid in school, just a stupid kid making the most of it. Out here we had suddenly become very real people. And Lash had become a very real kind of bad.

I stalked out of the mall, fists clenched at my sides. If I had thought I never wanted anything to do with Lash this morning that was nothing, nothing, to what I was feeling now. A trail of butterflies followed me all the way out.