Funny thing, I've got so much muse all of a sudden for this story that I've neglected to do two take-home exams, a paper, and a bunch of units for school. Guess who's staying up all night? That's right.

I even have chapter eight done too, but I'll hold off on it for a little while, I need to edit a bit.

I still own nothing.

Chapter 7-

It was obnoxiously warm in her room. Her internal clock told her, repeatedly, that it was time to get up but she couldn't bring herself to do so just yet. It served her right, for staying up late the night before last working on her Mad Science project and then waking up before dawn as usual the next day, of course she'd be extra tired today. And then she'd had to deal with going to Peace's house for dinner.

Emm bolted straight up. Her room was never obnoxiously warm because it was a term she reserved for Peace. And her room was never so neat because she always had some odd thingamajig to work on. And her walls were certainly not red.

She let out a loud groan and dropped her head into her hands. Elijah was going to kill her, if she didn't commit suicide first. She glared at the image of Steve McQueen on the DVD case at the end of the bed. If the stupid movie hadn't distracted her they would have just kept fighting until she left. They would not have settled down to watch it instead and, apparently, fall asleep. She groaned again.

"Go to sleep, Garwin."

She squeaked (not squeaked because Emmeline Garwin didn't squeak) and twisted her body around. Sure enough there was Peace, his arm still outstretched from where she assumed she'd fallen asleep. She felt like shoving him off the bed but it was his and she was still trying to work out how he'd even let her fall asleep on him.

"Mom called Elijah when you fell asleep." He motioned to her cellphone, which was now on his nightstand, without opening his eyes. "Had a good laugh, apparently. She woke me up to tell me so."

She wasn't sure what was worse; Elijah having a laugh at it (and probably calling Dan and Maggie immediately so they could share in the mirth), Mae catching her asleep on her son (and just how did she get close enough to Peace for that to happen?), or the fact that it had happened at all. "Awesome." She muttered weakly.

Peace grabbed her arm and pulled her back till she was lying down again. "Go to sleep, Garwin. It's too damn early."

Emm blinked. She was still asleep, that had to be it. Too bad it didn't feel like a dream.

"Sleeping requires closing your eyes for most people and I'm pretty sure yours were closed earlier."

She smacked his chest and he grunted. "This is when I usually wake up anyways."

Warren took a deep breath and finally opened his eyes. "You're kidding, right?" There had to be something wrong with anyone who willingly woke up so early. Of course, he'd known there was something wrong with Garwin for years. "Fine."

He meant to sit up, however grudgingly, before realizing she was on his arm again. And, he couldn't even blame her because he'd been the one to pull her down. His arm was properly numb from her sleeping on it all night but he couldn't remember exactly when she'd ended up on him. She'd been further away when she'd fallen asleep and when he'd been woken by his clearly amused mother she'd still been far enough away that he wasn't too bothered.

This, he decided, was what he got for being a good person and just letting her sleep.

"You're on my arm." She was sitting up before he could finish the sentence. He sat up after her and rolled his shoulder. It was really just too damn early. He'd be completely willing to just let her sleep on his arm if it meant he got a little more sleep. "I can't believe you wake up this early." He yawned. "You're insane."

With that he stood, rustled through his closet and drawers, and left for the bathroom. Garwin fell into the very interesting category of most disliked person he'd put up with and still threaten someone over, so he wasn't about to just make her walk home. He'd shower and get ready for school (too damn early) and then drive her to her house so she could do the same. Still, he could have done the same thing in twenty minutes time and still have at least an hour before the bus came around.

Garwin was ridiculous.

He returned to his room to find she'd once again donned her gray jacket and was tying the laces of her boots. Her hair was wavier than it had been the night before and the loose ponytail she'd pulled it into at the base of her skull did little to control all the shorter strands that flew back when she sat up.

She turned to look at him, mouth already open for what he was sure was the beginning of some smart comment, then blinked and shut her mouth. It was a pleasant change. She cleared her throat and adjusted her jacket, but still said nothing.

He looked at her curiously. "There's an extra toothbrush for you on the counter."

She stood up suddenly and, with a stiff nod, skirted around him and out the door. It wasn't until he was pulling a shirt out of his drawer that he realized why she'd been so quiet. He laughed, really laughed, as he pulled the shirt on. It wasn't every day Emmeline Garwin was embarrassed into silence. He briefly entertained the idea of taking off his shirt every time she just would not shut up, but he figured that would get old fast.

Shirt in place, so as to no longer distract Garwin (he chuckled), he headed back to the bathroom. She was rinsing out her mouth and he leaned against the staircase banister right outside the bathroom while he waited. The bathroom light caught in her eyes as she straightened up.

"Your eyes are blue."

She looked at him as though he'd just pointed out that his walls were red. "Yes, they are." She spoke slowly, mockingly.

He shrugged and moved past her to hang up his towel. "I always thought they were brown."

Garwin leaned forward to get a better look at herself in the mirror. He couldn't say that he'd ever studied her, but he'd always been fairly certain her eyes were brown. Her brother's and mother's eyes were both a very light blue, but up until just now he had now he thought she'd inherited her eyes from her father. Like just about everything else. Even if Mr. Garwin hadn't been introduced as such he could have still picked him out to be her father without hesitation.

"They're just dark, but they're blue." She gave him a look. "Pay attention, Peace. I know what color your eyes are."

"Hard as it may be to believe, Garwin, with that giant head of yours, not everyone pays that much attention to you." He was lying, she always drew attention. Be it because of some ridiculously bright yellow jacket, or a fight with him, or a loud expletive, or beating the Tin Man into the ground, Garwin was noticed. And she wasn't unattractive.

She snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Oi! Back to Earth, Peace." He slapped her hand away when snapped again. "Can we get a move on? I'd like to take a shower too."

She walked out of his bathroom like she owned it and he couldn't wrap his head around how she did things like that. The beginnings of another fight were building when they walked out the front door and he walked to the driver's side of the black '63 DeSoto parked on the curb. Like earlier, the words died on her lips.

The look in her eyes was one he generally associated with little kids who'd found a box of free puppies, then he remembered that Garwin was exactly the type of girl who got excited about cars. He could almost see the gears working in her brain and he feared for his car. "Stop molesting it and get in already."

She didn't even have the decency to look affronted over the gentle stroking she'd been giving the car and got in. She seemed perfectly content to stroke the inside of the car too and silence hung over them for a few minutes.

"It was my dad's."

Emm looked at him with mild surprise. He wasn't exactly forthcoming on most topics, much less his father. She gave the dashboard one last stroke. "He's got good taste."

There was a very solid, bold line that Garwin never ever crossed; his father was forever off limits. Right from their first day at Sky High when he'd walked onto the altar in the gym and heard the kids around start whispering about just who he was she'd looked completely uninterested.

They'd gotten into their first fight that day too. He couldn't even remember why or how but he remembered one of the as of yet unsorted kids trying to pull her back to the lunch table, "He's a hero and you have no powers! Don't you know who he is? That's Baron Battle's son.". She'd yanked her arm free and declared to the whole cafeteria that his father could be god for all she cared.

If he was honest he'd say that was the reason he'd never really powered up with her, the reason he'd destroy Thompson if he got anywhere near her.

He was compelled to change the subject again and keep them talking, if only to keep himself awake. "Why the hell don't you have a car, Garwin?" It would have meant a good extra hour's sleep if she had.

"I do have a car." He sent her a dirty look but she was preoccupied with the car still. "It just doesn't run yet." She began stroking the upholstery now. "Well, that's not entirely true. It's a '95 Le Baron; Dad got it real cheap off a friend. It's kind of our pet project, we're going to make it fly."

He had to admit, a flying car was impressive. He still wasn't going to let her anywhere near the hood of his car.

Emm smirked deviously as she poked Peace's head with her straw, again. He'd been trying very hard to ignore her but she could see his arms beginning to smoke and that only amused her more. And Ethan's face was a thing of wonder; he made the best oh-god-here-they-go-again-please-don't-let-me-get-torched faces ever.

He'd been in an extra sour mood all day and she easily attributed that to having to wake up too early, which she would have felt bad for if he hadn't eaten all of her fries. Again. Maggie had shared her own, but that wasn't the point.

"Garwin, I swear to god..." He left the threat hanging and did his best not to look up from his book.

The smirk spread into a full grin and, very slowly and deliberately, she poked him again. The straw was out of her hand and half way across the cafeteria before she had a chance to blink. "You ruin all my fun, Peace." With a huff she looked down the table and decided to instead entertain herself with Elijah. "Integration." She muttered and they rolled their eyes.

"Seriously though, 'Lijah, we've talked about this, just go."

Elijah looked at her in surprise before realizing what she was talking about and tried to stave off the blush climbing up his neck. "No way, Emm, I changed my mind. I can't do it." He ducked his head and busied himself with his jello.

Dan and Maggie seemed to clue in at about the same time. Dan sighed. "This again, huh? Come on, 'Lij, you know she isn't going to drop this."

The others seemed to lean in to find out what it was that Elijah was so reluctant to do but they needn't wait long. Elijah was far too honest a person to really keep any secret of his own for long.

"Emm! Look at her, she probably already has a date."

Emm and everyone else, save Peace, turned to look even if they didn't know what they were looking for. Dan clarified that they were looking for Anna Golightly. Anna was a pretty sophomore flier with curly blonde hair and bright green eyes that Elijah had been smitten with for weeks now.

"If she already has a date I'll lock him in a box."

"She doesn't have a date yet." They all looked to Magenta who took another bite of her school lasagna. When she'd swallowed she elaborated. "Some kid asked her in the hall today and she turned him down, nicely."

Elijah sputtered a little at the expectant looks coming at him from all angles. "See, she's getting offers from everyone, why would she say yes to me?"

Emm let out a dramatic, world-weary, sigh and shoved aside her lunch to show this was serious business. Peace looked up expectantly. "Elijah James Garwin, you are brilliant and kind and have more of a sense of humor than most of the schmucks running around this place and, last I heard, girls are into that sort of thing." She held her hand up to stop him from interrupting. "You're my brother and as such I'm a little biased, but she'd have to be an idiot of epic proportions to turn you down."

She risked one last glance at Anna over her shoulder. "And if she does I'll rig the sprinklers to follow her around the school." There were a few chuckles but it was Maggie's disapproving face that let everyone know she was very capable of doing exactly that. "Look at that face, you are a Garwin! Who could turn that down?"

She kicked Peace under the table when he snorted. Elijah seemed motivated enough though and stood, before realizing what he was doing and looking at them in panic. Emm had inherited the majority of the bravado in the family, clearly. Eventually, Dan threatened to freeze him to Anna if he didn't go ask her already and he was forced to cross the cafeteria and face her.

The whole table, again save Peace, had turned or sat up to get a good look at them. Emm's careful observation was interrupted when she felt someone slide into the seat next to her. Surprised she turned to find Ryan Aarons smiling at her.

Ryan's face had almost completely healed and she'd finally begun to look at him without wishing she could crawl under a rock somewhere. He'd had a good few laughs at her expense in class and enjoyed the jokes of how much better he'd taken her abuse than Thompson, but she continued to feel guilty.

"Well, hello there."

"I need to ask you for a favor."

She snorted and pointed to his face. "After that you could ask me to marry you and I'd have to."

A "yes!" from her other side reminded her of Elijah and she swung back around to find her brother sauntering back over to the table with a wide grin. He looked like the cat that ate the canary.

Emm affected her own grin and winked at him as he sat back in his seat. After a few congratulations from the table she turned back to Ryan. "Sorry, Elijah just got a date."

Ryan's smile was still in place and she wondered how much it had hurt to smile in those first few days. "That's good, because I'm actually here to ask you to come to homecoming with me." He batted his eyes at her dramatically.

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Didn't we talk about this? Weren't you going to man up?"

Ryan shrugged. "I'm a coward, what can I say? Rejection terrifies me."

Homecoming always had a habit of sneaking up on Emm when she wasn't expecting it. While other girls were buying their dresses and setting up their dates weeks in advance Emm had only been reminded of it earlier that morning when she'd finally gotten home from Peace's and spoken with Elijah. Now, with the dance just next week, the energy have begun to bubble and everyone had started to worry over the dates they didn't already have.

She made a face at him and pretended to ponder it for a moment. "Oh, alright. But, on one condition, you have to dance at least one dance with her. And if you get cat hair on my dress I'll kick you."

Emm had no problems with being Ryan's safety date. Maggie and Dan were already attending together, as per usual, and now Elijah had a date too. Emm had somehow always managed to score a date at the last minute but she'd never really bothered herself with it. Oftentimes it was just a friendly affair.

"You, Emmeline, are the best." With a hug he was gone.

Another dramatic sigh came out as she turned to face the others again. "Don't I know it." She kicked Peace harder when he snorted again.