Passage 2 of a Prologue in 6 Parts

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Pop-Tarts and Poisons
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Traverse Town was a bloated little hamlet trying to pass itself off for the big city. Every night, it gussied itself up like a two-bit trollop with its tacky neon lights and flashing signs. It was the single, solitary shining beacon of civilization in the otherwise miserable, lifeless black hole that was the fifty mile radius around our school, so small wonder that I made a beeline for it. And what, you may be asking, was my first stop once I rolled my sweet ride into town with its bustling nightlife?

7-Eleven.

I know, I know. Stealing a Ferrari to go to a crappy little convenience store is kind of like using a jackhammer to squash an ant. But worry not, my friends, the night was still young.

As I parked the car and exited, I was immediately struck by a wall of heat. Mind you, it was nighttime, so I wasn't exactly melting, but it definitely felt like summer. What made it odd was the winter wonderland I had left behind not fifteen miles ago. Looking around now, there was not so much as a snowflake in sight.

"Huh," I grunted as I took off my gloves and scarf and tossed them back into the car. "It's like the campus has its own personal flurry hanging out on top of it."

My Girl Friday got out and closed the door behind her. It did not escape my notice that her gloves remained on. She looked briefly up at the now clear night sky, then shrugged. "Global warming?" she deadpanned.

I snorted and just shook my head before we made our way inside.

"Here, catch," I said as I grabbed something off one of the shelves and chucked it over my shoulder. I heard her fumble with the bag for a second before she presumably had it secure in hand.

"...the Headmaster likes Cheetos?" she asked. I swear I could hear the raised eyebrow in her voice. Don't ask me how that was even possible.

"Oh yeah, the old dude loves that shit, like a cat to catnip. Can't get enough of it," I replied distractedly as I continued perusing the aisles.

"...Flamin' Hot Cheetos?" she pressed skeptically.

"His favorite. Incoming." I tossed a few more snacks her direction. Soon her arms were overflowing with a vast assortment of pre-processed goodies. Hey, this wasn't a free ride. Girl Friday had to earn her keep.

As I balanced a box of Pop-Tarts on top of the pile, she asked, "Should a man his age even be eating this kind of stuff?"

"Who knows. But do you wanna be the one tell him no?"

Her eyes darted to the left.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." It's like I said, Yen Sid was one scary dude. The new girl hadn't been here for a full week yet and even she knew that.

I studied my horde of junk food with a critical eye, then asked her, "You want anything? I'm buying." She blinked up at me. "You know you want to." Her head turned to inspect the shelves for a moment. "There ya go," I nodded in approval as she grabbed a bag while doing her best not to drop everything else I had her carrying. I eyeballed the package of MallowPuffs she had retrieved as we made our way over to the cashier. "Marshmallow fan, I take it?"

"Nope. Can't stand the stuff."

I quirked an eyebrow at her, then chuckled and ruffled her hair. "Lookit you, trying to sass me."

With a tiny scowl, she ducked out of my reach and dumped all the items on the counter next to the cash register. The clerk mechanically began ringing everything up as he stared off into space and I idly wondered if I had an invasion-of-the-body-snatchers situation on my hands. No one looks that brain dead unless they're a pod person. Just saying.

I added a pack of smokes to my purchase, paid the man after he'd bagged everything, then grabbed my things and left. Outside, I leaned back against the front of the Ferrari and patted the spot beside me. She plopped down on the hood and brought her feet up to sit cross-legged. I handed her the MallowPuffs before digging around in the bag again and pulling out the Cheetos, ripping them open, and shoving a handful into my mouth. Ah, that's the stuff.

She frowned at me, resting her unopened pack of candy in her lap. "Aren't those supposed to be for the Headmaster?"

I swallowed. "Well yeah, but gotta test for poison."

"Poison?" she snorted.

"Dude's made a lot of enemies in his longass lifetime. This wouldn't be the first time assassins made an attempt on his life."

Her lips pursed to one side. "...but you just bought those."

"So?" I asked, tossing one into the air and catching it in my mouth.

"So, there hasn't been enough time to poison them. Unless you're suggesting that someone poisoned everything in this one particular store on this one particular night on the off chance the Headmaster got a random, late night craving for Cheetos and Pop-Tarts."

"Were they wrong?" I challenged with a smirk. "These assassins are serious business. They don't mess around, Snow."

Her shoulders tensed slightly. "Excuse me?"

"Got to call you something. Since I don't know your name," I flicked the tip of her braid, "figured going by your hair color would be good enough. People call me Red all the time."

"Oh." Her posture relaxed again. Or maybe it was just my imagination. "And do you like that?"

I pulled a face. "Actually, no. It gets old real fast. Everyone thinks they're so clever when they do it too, when really it's like, congratulations, you just confirmed you're not colorblind. Here's your gold star."

Great. Now I was a hypocrite. And she'd managed to pull that off in five words. At least she didn't seem to mind the newly minted nickname, or if she did, she didn't say so or give me her real name. Instead, she simply rewarded my comment with a small snort and picked up her MallowPuffs once more. She attempted to open them, but seemed to be running into some difficulty with her gloves. No friction.

Now, were I a true gentleman, I would have offered to open them for her. And normally, I am a true gentleman. I'm gallant as fuck. But I suppressed my inner white knight momentarily. What can I say, I was curious. I wanted to see if-

Yup. She removed the gloves in order to achieve optimum bag tearing performance. I politely waited long enough for her to do what she set out to do, but the instant that bag was unsealed, I took her bare hand in mine and brought it up close to my face for scrutiny.

To say her fingers were like ice would have been an understatement. They were more like liquid nitrogen as she wrenched them out of my hand while making a strangled noise in her throat. Face pale and eyes wide, she snapped, "The hell?"

My fingers curled, seeking warmth from my palm, as I gave her a shrug. "Huh. Your hands are normal."

Her eyes darted between my face and my hand a couple times. "Well, duh. What'd you expect?"

"I dunno. Claws, fur, scales… something to explain the deal behind those infernal gloves." I really wanted to know, damn it! At this point, I was more curious about that little bit of intrigue than I was about whatever her power was. True, the two might not be mutually exclusive, but whether they were or not, I'd been at the school for long enough that super powers were old hat by now. Human quirks? Now those were far more interesting.

"Well, sorry to disappoint," she mumbled. She was now just staring at my hand, brow furrowed, and said nothing further. Well, guess that conversation was closed. The mystery of the gloves would remain just that: a mystery. For now.

Her eyes were still fixated on my hand. Not sure what about it had her so enamored, but I decided to take advantage of her distraction by reaching into her bag and pulling out a MallowPuff. That broke her trance and she blinked up at me as I popped it into my mouth and shrugged, saying, "Testing for poison." I chewed for a couple seconds thoughtfully. "Hmm. Not sure. Best to be thorough." I reached in for another one.

Rolling her eyes, she smacked my shoulder with her glove. Somehow I got the feeling she didn't quite believe me. Not sure why, when clearly everything I said to her up to this point was completely honest and one hundred percent legit. Where's the trust, man?

As she donned her gloves again and dug into her candy, I rolled up the half-empty bag of Cheetos and put it back in with the other snacks. Then I retrieved my pack of death sticks and slid one out.

"Checking for poison?" she asked dryly.

I smirked around my unlit cigarette. "Nah. These things'll kill ya already. Why bother?"

I snapped my fingers and the tip flared up orange.

And there it is, kiddos. Hint numero dos. Any guess as to what my ability was yet? And no, it wasn't that I snap my fingers and awesome shit just happens. Though that would have been wicked cool.

If Snow was surprised by my little cigarette trick, she took it in stride. Guess that's just a byproduct of living in the world we do. Things like this that would look like sorcery to your average muggle just doesn't wow you anymore. She did however watch me with some interest out of the corner of her eye as I brought the cigarette to my lips, inhaling deeply before releasing a slow stream of smoke into the air.

"...can I have a drag?"

The cigarette stopped midway to my mouth as I blinked a couple times at her request. That... I was not expecting. She had seemed like such a straight arrow. Coming to terms with the fact that I just might not know everything, I nodded and offered it to her.

She took it gingerly in hand and just stared at if for a second, head tipped slightly to the left. Then she realized I was watching her as I waited and she blushed faintly before hastily putting the cig to her lips and breathing in. Immediately, she all but exploded into a fit of coughs and wheezes, almost toppling off the car. I spluttered at the sight before roaring with laughter.

"That's disgusting," she choked out in a strangled voice, holding it at arm's length now as if it were a rabid monkey trying to bite off her nose.

"Sorry, they were fresh out of the ones that taste like cotton candy and liquorice," I grinned, taking it back from her. Guess my first instinct about her had been right after all. Now I could rest easy having verified that I actually did, in fact, know everything.

I took another hit, then tapped some ash away as I waited for her to recover. After a full minute of her hacking and gagging, she finally settled down. "So," I began and she looked at me, eyes watering and face red from coughing. "Breaking curfew. Trying your first cigarette." Grand theft auto... but she didn't know that. "What made you decide to turn to the dark side tonight?"

She stared down at her feet, fingers toying with the MallowPuffs bag. After a while, she shrugged. "My parents... no matter what I do, they've always seen me as some kind of monster. I guess... I'm tired of trying to prove them wrong. Tired of trying to fight it."

Okay. Clearly this chick was going through something, and there were several ways to approach this. Some people would ask her if she wanted to talk about it. Others would give her a hug and let her cry it out. As for me?

I scoffed and flicked her in the forehead.

Hey, I never claimed to be Mister Sensitivity.

She clasped a hand to her abused brow and looked at me with wide eyes. "Don't be a cliché," I grumbled. "You're better than that."

She frowned, rubbing the sore spot before lowering her hand once more. A crease had formed between her eyebrows as she said flatly, "You don't know me."

"I know enough to know that you," I jabbed my index finger into her collar bone, "are better than that." With a firm nod, I took one more pull from my cigarette before putting it out as I let the smoke trickle out through my nostrils. I tucked the half-finished cigarette behind my ear, picked up my bag of junk food and made my way back towards the driver's side of the Ferarri. "Let's go, Snow."

She stared at me blankly until I got in and started up the car, then she stood. "Back to the Institute?" she asked as she took a seat beside me in the vehicle.

"Sure," I smirked, putting the car into reverse. "Sooner or later."

Author's Note: Thank you so much to Arisa Kiryuu and Amarxlen for being so generous as to take some time to leave their reviews! Thank you so so sooooo much for reading, I super duper appreciate it! If you have any comments or friendly feedback, please make my day and leave a review! Catch you at the next update, lovelies! Much love, peace out, word to your mothers, and other such phrases that shouldn't be coming out of the likes of lil ol' me!