Author's Notes: Hello, again! Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry! It's school again, so yeah UGH! I've been pretty busy. But hey, it got me time to think about how the story's gonna go after this. I don't think I wrote as well in this one, but I may be wrong. Read and let me know! =) Here you go, chapter 3!
The bell rang the end of third period and I started packing my stuff. Today we, the "sidekicks", learned how to use our powers for defensive purposes. Of course, that's the only way I would ever use my powers. As I said, I'm a pacifist! I won't use them unless I have to. But they don't understand that. Whatever.
"Hello, Earth to Layla?" Magenta said waving her perfectly manicured hand in front of my face. "Come on, hurry! They're serving Pasta for lunch today and apple pie as dessert, remember! Don't be a meanie make me miss my favorite combo, okay?"
"But they have that every week! It's not like it's special or anything. Oh, I like your nail polish by the way", I said nodding at her dark purple nails matching the highlights in her hair.
"Oh, thanks!" she said looking at them. "Now, as I was saying…There'll also be avocado and tomato salad with that dressing you like so much." She finished with a sly smile.
I hurriedly put the last of my books in my bag, standing up, "Well, why didn't you say that in the first place?" Aside from being a pacifist, I'm also an environmentalist and a die-hard vegetarian. Maybe that's why my power is controlling the earth and plants? Hmm…who knows!
We left the classroom, managed to make our way through the sea of people in the hallway before finally making it to the cafeteria. It was full of loud chatter, as usual. I tried spotting our "weirdo table" and easily enough saw Zach bragging to Ethan about his glowing power. Well, same as always. I grabbed a tray and stepped in the back of the long line. Gosh, why did I have to be stupid and eat nothing but an apple this morning? My stomach growled softly as if to say 'I told you so'. Oh, keep quiet! You'll be fed soon enough, you fattie.
Then I heard a quiet snort coming from the personin front of me.
"Well that sounds familiar. I swear I've heard it somewhere before, now where could that be? Have any clue hippie?" continued the voice I recognized at once.
I felt a blush creep its way to my cheek and snapped, "Just shut up and turn around Warren! I-it's not funny." I mumbled embarrassed.
He turned his head around and cleverly smiled at me saying, "Oh, you don't have to be embarrassed. No one else heard it…I think."
I simply scoffed at that having nothing to say. Looking at him, I took a look at what he was wearing. He had on his trademark black leather jacket, of course, and slightly baggy black jeans with a silver chain hanging out of his left pocket. He wore black combat boots. Looking back up I saw his dark brown hair was loose stopping at his lower neck. He always dressed in black, and I always wondered why. Was it to appear dangerous?
"Stop staring at me, hippie." He said, his voice dull with a hint of wit, "Yes, I can feel it. It's been a scary enough experience having had to deal with your psycho behavior last night. I think I want to recover now."
Last night.
It's true; he had walked me home and managed not to go mad after 10 minutes of me being anxious of everything I heard and saw on our way to my house. But, come on he can't really blame me, it was like, 10pm!
I heard a rustling sound in the bushes next to the sidewalk and I jumped, pushing Warren off the path.
"Can you PLEASE calm down, hippie?" he said finally exasperated, "It was probably just a cat, which is ten times smaller than you. It looks like it was actually a good thing for me to walk with you after all. If not, you would probably be jumping around scared shitless."
Even though he was right, I wouldn't admit it. I couldn't admit that I was scared to Warren of all people. He would laugh his head off.
"I-I'm n-not…s-scared."I stuttered at the same time wearily looking around. He caught sight of that of course and sniggered to himself.
"Don't laugh!" I snapped, annoyed but embarrassed all the same.
He stopped and said, "It's okay. I won't tell anyone how much of a coward you are."
I was about to protest again when he continued, "It's not like it never happened to anyone to be walking alone at night and automatically switching to ninja mode. But just relax, worst case scenario, I'm here. And you'll make it to your house safely, 'kay? Now stop jumping around."
We continued walking. Was my house really that far? Or was it just the fact that I was scared. Suddenly a brisk and cold wind blew and something went in my eye. Oh, great. Just great! I abruptly stopped trying to get it out. I squinted and tried opening my eyes, but it was still there. Warren noticed and stopped too.
"Wait," he said, grabbing my shoulders and making it to I was facing him. "Open your eyes", he said holding my face in his hands, tilting my head up. His fingers felt really soft and warm against my skin. "Which eye?" he asked, and I motioned to my left eye.
"Keep it open" he requested, and I complied, opening them as wide as saucers. God, I must look stupid. Then he blew gently into it. I felt his breath over my skin and my cheeks grew hot. The speck of sand had apparently gotten out of my eye, but I was transfixed trying to figure out the color of his eyes. They looked brown, but so dark they almost looked black.
"All better?" I heard him say, snapping me out of my dazed state. I realized his hands were still cupping my cheeks and backed away a little, breaking the contact.
"Uh, y-yeah." I stammered, "Thanks." I said, looking ahead of me, trying to avoid his gaze.
"Good." he said. And we continued walking.
When we finally reached my house, I was relieved. And yeah, I thought about how jumpy I was being and realized how stupid I must have looked.
"Thanks." I said to him, though he was already walking away. "Don't mention it." He replied, not turning around. "Really, don't. It'd be a real shame if people found out I babysit scared little kids in my free time, don't you think?"I watched him leave and then went in.
"Wake up, missy! The avocado and tomato salad with carrots or no carrots?" urged the annoyed lunch lady who looked at me as if she had asked that question more than twice.
"Oh, sorry! Yes, please." I answered and she added them to the corner of my plate. Walking towards our table a little detail nudged at the back of my mind. Since I was probably not paying attention when it got to my turn in the line, how come she already served me my favorite salad? Well of course, it's not like she was particularly fond of me enough to know what I liked. Then who could have told her?
I'll figure that out later, right now, I was starving.
"Well, how about if we go to the movies and you drop your phone or something? How will you find it in the big dark theatre if I'm not there to glow for you, huh? TELL ME!" Zach shouted at Ethan. Yup, they were still at it. I sat down next to Magenta and I was almost about to dig into my salad when my eyes fell on the empty space in front of me.
"Um, have you guys talked to Will lately? I wonder where he is." I said, making Zach and Ethan take a tiny break from their heated debate.
"Come to think of it, no." Zach said with a kind of regretful look on his face. "Ever since he got transferred to the 'Heroes' class, it's been sort of hard to get a hold of him."
"Yeah, it's true." Ethan added.
"Oh, come on you guys." Said Magenta reproachfully, taking a sip of her sprite. "You act like spending one day without Will is total agony. Give him a break! I'm sure he has a lot of stuff to deal with right now. He'll be back soon enough."
"It's been more than just one day now." Zach replied, thoughtful.
And he was right. It had indeed been more than just one day.
I managed to tuck that thought away for now and we continued talking and eating. After all, it wasn't like Will was the life of the party. We could still have fun. Finally the bell rang the end of lunch time and Magenta and I picked up our bags, said bye to Zach and Ethan as we headed for Hero Studies class. As usual, there was a big ambush with everyone trying getting out of the cafeteria and Magenta got ahead of me. Some idiot pushed past me hard, knocking me off balance. I expected to land on my butt and become the subject of laughter for the rest of the day but instead my back came in contact with a muscular and nicely toned chest. I stood up straight and started apologizing as I turned around but was stopped short when I came face to face with him
"You're welcome you veggie maniac." Warren said, gently brushing past me, disappearing in the mass of people.
Author's Notes: So? What did you think? Review! =)