Warren groaned as he rolled out of bed, he was most definitely not ready to get up. Fumbling and still mostly asleep he made his to the bathroom and took a shower. Feeling slightly more human he then headed back to his room to get dressed. Looking into his dresser Warren smirked. 'What should I wear today?' he thought, 'Black, or how bout maybe black for a change' jokingly to himself. Being sleep deprived does that to a person. Warren had worked till 11:30 at the Paper Lantern last night and hadn't gotten to sleep till almost one in the morning. Still half asleep he pulled on red plaid boxers and a pair of dark blue jeans with rips at the knees. Then he grabbed a wife beater and pulled it on, this was followed by a black long sleeved thermal shirt and a red T-shirt with a black skull and crossbones on it. Dressed he made his way to the kitchen. He turned the coffee machine on and poured a bowl of cereal while it percolated. After fixing his coffee and eating his cereal Warren pulled his current novel out of his book bag and began reading. As he read he watched the clock and at about quarter to seven Warren headed out to the bus stop. Still reading he waited the minute or so till the bus arrived and got on, never once acknowledging the presence of the other students who got on the bus at his stop.
Once in his seat in the back of the bus Warren took out his MP3 player. As he sat back in his seat to continue reading his book he paused, and smiled. The first song to play on his MP3 player was one off a CD that Magenta had lent him last night. It was a good song but it made him think about the Goth chick and their conversation last night. Warren liked Magenta. She was funny and sarcastic and maybe they had more in common then he had guessed. After Layla had broken the ice, Zack, Ethan, and Magenta had taken to him pretty quickly and had started hanging around him all the time. Most people were willing to give in to him because of his reputation, they weren't. They had crowed him every chance, talking and pestering, but eventually he had realized it wasn't so bad. He like that people liked him and he even found them pretty funny. When he had first met Magenta she'd gotten on his nerves just like the others. Magenta in particular had stood her ground ignoring the fact that he was any different from the rest of them. While Zack and Ethan were busy copying him or sucking up to him they'd back off his he was nasty. Magenta was always ready with a comeback or biting comment that had made him stop and think before he blew up.
Layla was the first to truly break through his barriers. She had needed his help and he couldn't resist someone in need. Even after the dance and after Layla had gotten Will she kept coming to him for someone to talk to. They had a lot in common; they both advocated environmental causes and hated how fake high schoolers were.
Will had eventually gotten to him too, but it had been a whole different struggle. Warren had hated Will at first sight. Will had symbolized a lot of things that Warren had wanted but couldn't get. Will was popular and even though he had no powers he had friends, but mostly Will had a loving family. Warren's family was to say the least, broken. Warren had assumed that Will had friends because of who his parents were and that made Warren both jealous and angry. He never noticed that Will's shone with sincerity every time he talked and with or without powers he walk kind and honest to everyone. The subject of Warren's father was still pretty touchy, and entirely love hate, but he had never really blamed it on Will or even Will's parents. He had been in a particularly bad mood that day in the cafeteria; Will dumping his lunch had just been the icing on the cake. He'd just flipped. Even while he was attacking Will he'd known he was wrong and that he was being irrational, but Warren had so much anger and resentment built up inside he had needed to release it. Looking back Warren still felt a little ashamed. He had reacted poorly but at the same time he knew he hadn't even really tried to hurt Will. Warren could have incinerated Will in a second but instead he'd bullied Will and scared him, not that much better but still at least no one had been seriously hurt. After that he'd pretty much avoided the subject of Will Stonghold all together, at least until that night in the Paper Lantern. When Layla had look at him all beseeching and asked him to sit he'd felt bad so he had. Then he listened, really listened to her stories about will. In each and every one the Will Stronghold described was someone Warren wished he knew. The more he heard the worse he felt about the situation, not that he was ready to admit it to anyone. After the Royal Pain event he'd finally worked up the resolve and apologized to Will. Will of course true to character had accepted his apology completely and even went on to compliment Warren's control during the fight. That started a conversation about supers who weren't careful about civilians. They had talked until Layla had pointedly interrupted them by asking Will to dance. After that Warren and Will had been friends. They had even more in common then him and Layla, and Will was a good friend.
After the dance of course Warren had gotten suddenly popular. He'd had no shortage of pretty girls flinging themselves at him and guys trying to hangout with him because of his new status. Warren was too shy to really do anything about this though. He mostly brushed off the 'groupies' as Magenta had titled them one day at lunch. In the nearly two months he'd mostly hung out with Will or Layla or the whole gang but mostly he was still to busy working to have much free time.
Busy in his thoughts Warren barely noticed when his bus arrived at Sky High. Embarking from his bus he headed towards the steps where the whole 'gang' was waiting for him. Walking over he waved at them and almost grimaced trying to get Magentas very nice rear out of his head as she turned and waved back. The group chorused their "good mornings" and the conversation his arrival had interrupted picked back up.
It was a pretty normal conversation as their conversations go, Zack and Magenta fighting and Layla trying to patch it back up. Although Zack and Magenta had been dating since the Home Coming dance there relationship wasn't quite Will's and Layla's. They fought a lot. When they weren't fighting they were either acting like the friends they had been before they started dating or making out, there was very little in-between. In Warren's opinion they'd be better off calling it quits, but he knew they would be to stubborn to listen to him if he just said as much. Warren almost ground his teeth in frustration listening to them. He might not be entire sure what to do in a friendship but he knew that their relationship was ruining what that had once had.
"I don't like clubbing, I don't get why you're so pissed. You know I hate it, so just go without me!"
"Magenta, you never have time for me!! You never want to do anything fun! God you're so f$#ing boring sometimes!! But maybe, maybe I just wanted to do something with my Girl Friend for once!!!!"
"Zack I'm sorry I have homework to do, maybe if you actually did yours once in a while you'd be passing and I'm sorry that I have chores I have to do, some peoples family's don't have the money to hire maids!!"
"I am too passing!"
"God you're so whiny and spoiled sometimes!"
"Guys, guys, calm down…" Layla tried to little avail.
"What you're calling me whiny!! 'Oh my dark bleak soul…. I have no purpose,'" Zack quoted in a melodramatic voice rolling his eyes. "I'm whiny?! At least I don't write crappy poetry about dieing!!"
"That's private you ass! And it wasn't about dieing or anything like that which you'd know if you EVER actually listened to me!" Magenta retorted now a little flushed in anger, "And don't even talk about my poetry, you're to stupid to get it anyway. You're too stupid to even pass school! Some times you're just f$#ing STUPID!"
"Magenta please, and Zack come on… Stop," pleaded Layla. Will and Ethan watched clearly uncomfortable and not sure what to say or do.
Warren sighed, this was practically a weekly ritual, but this fight was a lot worse then their usual bickering. The whole group was still standing right in front of the school and as the argument escalated from spoken to shouted, the crowd that had gathered to watch grew. Since the Royal Pain incident their click had gotten pretty popular. Everyone in the school knew who they were and Warren wasn't the only one to have 'groupies'. By lunch Warren was pretty sure everyone would have heard about this fight.
Zack and Magenta were beyond caring about an audience at this point. They were both shouting and gesturing and Magenta's last comment seemed to have really done it for Zack.
"I do not call me stupid," Zack whispered fiercely white with rage.
Magenta even had the sense to look a little shamed. She knew that that was Zack's sore spot. Zack's father was hard to please and he rode Zack a lot about his grades. When Zack did poorly, which was often, his father would rage and call him and idiot, loser and, yes, stupid. Magenta knew she had gone too far and tried to apologize, "I'm sorry… I… I didn't really mean it..." but Zack was too angry to be appeased.
Zack might be slow to anger but once angry he stayed angry. "You're 'sorry'! You 'didn't mean it'! I think you did mean it, you think you're better then me. You think you're so f$#ing superior, don't you!! Too f$#ing good to hang out with me! Well maybe you're too f$#ing good to date me!!!" Zack shouted with finality, glowing despite it being light out. Turning to the rest of the group as they stared nearly open mouthed at the brightly shining boy, Zack said simply, "I'm out," before storming into the school.