Thanks for the reviews, story alerts, and favorite adds everyone. I'm really glad that people seem to like the first chapter. In response to a question, this story takes place a year after the movie. I always thought Warren seemed older than the others. So I made him two years older than them. In this story the sidekicks from the movie are sophomores, and Warren is a senior.
Anymore questions? Feel free to ask! Oh, and happy holidays to everyone! Please review.
I had to keep telling myself to breath, because if I didn't, I knew that I would stop. Then I would pass out, end up on the floor, and knowing the stupid kids at my school, some of them would try to write on my face or something. I was not, let me repeat that, NOT happy with who my hero was. Warren Peace was not going to be easy to work with.
"Roxanne, are you listening to me?" I heard Becca say. I shook my head to clear my mind. Yeah, it didn't work.
"Huh?"
"I asked if you were ready to go meet with your hero."
"What? Oh, yeah, sure." I stood up from my seat, and watched as Becca practically bounced over to Jonathan. She was all smiles, and I could tell by her posture that she was in flirting mode. Jonathan had a smirk on his face, and just as he moved to place an arm around Becca's shoulder, he looked over at me. I quickly turned away, not wanting to get caught staring. I shouldn't be staring anyway. I should be looking for my own partner.
I looked around the gym, trying to find Warren. I couldn't see him anywhere. All the rest of my class mates had already found their partners. It hadn't even been five minutes and I was already behind everyone else. Wonderful. After one last look around, I decided to give up on finding him. Warren Peace was not in the gym, and I wasn't going to waste my time looking around for him.
I picked up my things, and headed for my home room. I was the first one there, of course. The teacher handed me my big envelope of information, and I started going through it. It was all stuff we had already heard. A list of rules, reasons why we were doing this assignment, and a list of what our homework is each week. This week, we had a survey that we had to hand in. It was pretty easy stuff. Your partner's favorite food, color, animal. Their favorite movies, bands, and TV shows. Stuff like that. Again, pretty easy. Well, except for me. Before I could ask my partner all these, oh so interesting questions, I had to find him first. I soon realized that this was going to be a very long day.
……………………………….
As I stepped off the bus, anyone who looked at me would know to stay out of my way. That no good partner of mine had given me the slip. I had spent my entire day looking for him. He left the school without even saying hello.
Now, I didn't really care to be friends with him. If I could get past this year without even having to look at his face, I would do it. Unfortunately, any idea of not having to spend time with him, wasn't going to work. I suddenly found myself feeling rather angry. This guy was going to make me fail, and I just couldn't sit back and watch that happen. My pack of information included his telephone number, and his home address. I would just march right up to him, tell him we were going to work together, get this year over with, then never talk to each other again. It sounded like such a good idea, I just had to work up enough courage to go through with it first.
I unlocked the door to my house, and made my way to my room. I tossed all my stuff on the floor and then jumped onto my bed. I was going to go visit Warren Peace, but I wanted a nap first. Yeah a nap, and then some food, maybe an hour of TV, maybe I'd call Becca too. Alright, I was procrastinating.
"Roxanne," I heard Berko say, as he pushed open my door. It sounded like he had something in his mouth, and when I looked over at him, I noticed it was his leash. "Can we go for a walk?"
"No. I'm sick," I said, pulling my blanket over my head. Ok, maybe I wasn't suffering from an illness, but just thinking about having to track down Mr. Peace was making feel like I was.
"I hear that going for walks makes a person feel better," said Berko. I felt him drop his leash on my bed next to me. I pulled down my blanket and looked at him. He was wagging his tail like crazy.
"She said no, you annoying pup," said Jasper. He was standing by the door, rubbing his head against it's edge.
"You wouldn't understand. You don't like to go for walks," Berko said.
"Why any animal would enjoy being dragged behind a human by a rope is beyond me. Cats are too good for that."
"But walks are fun!"
"Oh, don't mind him Berko," I said, giving the puppy a pat on the head. "I'll take you for a walk later, I need to do some homework." I walked over to Jasper and picked him up. "And you mister, please be nicer to him. He's just a baby."
"I'll be nicer if you just put me down," Jasper said, struggling to get out of my arms. This only made me hold him tighter and rock him back and forth.
"But I love to cuddle with my little Jasper." I used the baby voice, which he hated.
"I demand that you put me down. I will scratch you!" I laughed, but put him down anyway. I grabbed my bag, and decided that if I didn't go to Warren's house now, I wouldn't have the nerve to do it later. I stepped outside my house and made sure to lock the door. Mom wouldn't be home from work till later.
I took out my sheet of paper, that told me where my partner lived. His house was actually only a street over from mine. I could check off "learning one thing knew about my partner" off of my homework list. Score one for me. I decided to walk to his house. The weather was nice, there was no reason to drive.
I took to the sidewalk, going over every possible thing I could say. When I finally had my mini speech memorized, I realized I had passed his house. Backtracking to the right one, I stood in front of it for a couple seconds. Was I really brave enough to go knock on his door? No, I wasn't, but I needed to talk to him. He had probably already seen me standing outside. I bet he was laughing about how stupid I looked right now. I let out a heavy sigh, and walked to the front door. I pressed the door bell and waited. After a couple of seconds, and no answer, I tried knocking instead. I shifted from one foot to the other, trying to decided if I should try the door bell again. Just as I was reaching to push it for my last try, the door was opened.
"Sorry, I was in the middle of baking, and had my hands full," said the very friendly looking woman, who was standing in front of me. She looked like the typical house wife slash mother. Her face was smudged with flour, and her hands were wet, as if she just quickly washed them to answer the door. I liked her the second I saw her.
"Hello, I'm looking for Warren. Is he home?" I asked.
"No he's at work." Of course he is. Why would I even think that he would be home?
"Will he be back anytime soon?"
"I'm afraid he'll be there till late tonight."
"Great," I said sarcastically.
"Is there anything I could help you with?" she asked, with a bright smile.
"I'm his assigned hero support…" I started, but she didn't even let me finish. She then proceeded to pull me into a big hug. I wasn't sure why, but she was a sweet enough lady that I didn't mind.
"Oh, how wonderful. What's your name dear. I'm sure you and Warren will be having so much fun together."
"I'm Roxanne Parker. Spending time with your son would be "wonderful" if only he would actually talk to me." I didn't make finger quotes around the work wonderful. I was tempted, but I thought that would come off as a little rude.
"What do you mean?" she asked, her voice sounding a little defensive.
"He didn't meet up with me after we were announced partners and when I went to look for him I couldn't find him anywhere. By the time the end of the school day came, I didn't get to talk to him even once." I felt some what like a tattletale, but, hey, if I wanted to find the kid, what better way than his mother?
"He didn't go meet you? Oh, that sounds just like him."
"I don't mean to start any trouble, I just really want to get this homework done. I already feel behind because we haven't talked yet."
"Don't you feel responsible for any of this Roxanne, dear. He works at the Paper Lantern, you know that Chinese restaurant in town?" I nodded in response. Who didn't know the place? "You march yourself right over there, and don't you leave until he talks to you. If he gives you any of his attitude, you come right back and tell me. I'll take care of it."
"Thank you so much." She gave me another hug, I actually returned this one, and then I took off running back to my house. I wasn't about to walk all the way to the Paper Lantern. It might be in town, but that doesn't mean it was in walking distance of my house.
I got home, pulled out my car keys, and quickly got into my car. My car. A wonderful thing it was. A 1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera. It was on it's last leg (not that cars really have legs) and it looked like death. It was my car though. I paid for it, and I loved it. Who needs an expensive car anyway? You're supposed to have a crappy first car.
It only took a couple minutes to reach my destination. I parked, I stepped out, and I almost got right back in. I didn't though. I forced myself to walk into the restaurant, get a table, and sit down. Yeah, I felt like a loser sitting alone, but oh well. I ordered a water and a small helping of shrimp fried rice. As I waited for my food, I noticed Warren walking out of the back. He walked over to one of the tables and started clearing everything away. So, he was just a busboy. I could work with that. In fact, it was better than him being a waiter. This way, I could get him to talk to me without having to worry about other people trying to get a hold of him for their food, or their bill.
He looked different though. It surprised me. No crazy black, leather clothes. His hair was pulled back and out of his face. The plain t-shirt he was wearing showed off the muscles in his arms, and I noticed something about him that I never noticed in school. He looked, dare I say it, dreamy. Like one of those guys you see in those teen movies that would never actually be going to the same school as you. Well, here was, mister wonderful, and not only did he go to my school, but he was my partner. Too bad he wasn't so wonderful. Too bad he was a heartless, evil, person, who was going to make me fail out of school, thus ending my life.
He was walking over to the table next to mine. As he started clearing everything away, I shouted a "hey" at him. When I say shouted, I mean a little bit above my normal, quiet, voice. He didn't seem to hear me, so I said it again, a little louder.
"Do you need something?" he finally said back. He sounded a little irritated. He didn't even wait for me to answer. He just went back to cleaning up the table.
"I'm Roxanne," I said. He still didn't look up. I got out of my seat and moved to stand in front of him. He gave me a blank look, as if he had no idea who I was. Actually, I bet he didn't know who I was. "Roxanne Parker," I said, adding my last name. Maybe that would trigger something in his head. Nope, it didn't seem to work. He still looked clueless as to who I was. "Roxanne Parker, your sidekick." He let out a heavy sigh, and any confidence that I once had, had disappeared all together.
"Oh, right. Listen Roxie," he started.
"Roxanne," I corrected. I don't like being called Roxie. Don't ask me why, I just don't.
"Ok, Roxanne. I'm at work. Can we talk about this later?" He was just trying to get rid of me, I knew it. He had no intentions of talking to me later.
"Look, ok, I don't like this either, but I'm not about to fail my last year of high school. I know you don't care, or even like me, even though you don't even know me, and we have gone to school together for years, even though we never speak, I just think it would be a good idea to I don't know talk or maybe…"
"You're rambling," he said, interrupting me.
"Yeah, I tend to do that." Before we could continue our conversation, my waitress came back with my food. She gave Warren an evil glare, that pretty much told him to get back to work.
"I'm working, we'll talk about this tomorrow at school," he said, leaving no room for discussion. I might be his sidekick, but that doesn't mean he gets to make all the decisions. He started to go back to his work, when I said something I maybe shouldn't have said.
"We better, or your mom might not be happy."
"What?" he asked, sounding rather angry. I could practically feel the heat coming off of him. Note to self, don't make Warren angry.
"Well, I went to your house today and your mom told me where to find you," I said, in this real quiet voice.
"Never go to my house without asking me first."
"Right, sorry." I wanted to yell at him. I wanted to tell him that I wouldn't have gone to his house if he had just talked to me in school like he was supposed to. He was scary though. You try talking to an angry super with crazy fire powers.
He looked ready to say something else to me, but a lady started shouting at him in a different language. He started shouted back in the same one.
"We'll talk tomorrow," he said, giving me one final look. Then he turned and walked into the back room. I looked after him for a couple seconds, and probably would have kept staring at the door, if my waitress hadn't come by to check on me. I asked her to wrap up my food to go, she did, I paid, and I got the hell out of there. I think it was safe to say that I wouldn't be visiting the Paper Lantern again anytime soon.