So, I can blame moving and working twelve hours a day or not having internet, but it doesn't change the fact that I haven't posted in a million years. But, in celebration of my returning interwebs, A CHAPTER! And the next one is in the works. It's a little short, but more shall come.

Chapter 11-

Emm wasn't sure what she had thought would change.

When she'd gotten off the bus in the morning she'd been entertained by a lover's spat between Magenta and Zack, the first she'd ever witnessed. Will assured her it wasn't out of the ordinary but it was nowhere as common as Peace and her fighting. She'd sided with Zack but smartly kept it to herself.

In the halls between class she'd been pleased to see Peace chatting with Maggie (and Maggie free of blushes or fear). He shoved her as she walked by and she easily shoved him right back. At lunch Will had immediately made room for her in her, apparently, given spot in front of Peace. She knew integration had been inevitable once they sat down. Peace had eaten her fries and she'd kicked him under the table while he avoided her threatening spork. Nothing had changed.

When the final lunch bell rang the non-seniors of their respective gangs (or were they one gang now) sent them off with good lucks and smiles and they filed into the gym like they'd done a month ago and waited for Principal Powers. The only real difference this time around was that Peace had elected to sit with them.

Maggie's nerves had returned full force and she'd been moved from her original spot beside Peace to her usual in between Emm and Dan. Their reassurances came much like they had the first time around, but Emm could now count of Principal Powers to think better when pairing Maggie. Last time they'd ignored everything but their own names, this time they kept close attention on every duo called out.

"Bethany Ackles, and Marcus Mathews." Dan sent an encouraging smile to Marcus a row above them. Bethany was a demanding girl and a hydrokinetic, but Dan had always said she was nice. "Ryan Aarons and Andrew Thompson." Emm grimaced for Ryan's sake. "Logan Ayers..."

Emm looked around the gym and immediately spotted Logan's unruly brown head of hair. She hadn't had much interaction with Logan Ayers in her four years at Sky High until she' landed herself a week's worth of detentions. His eagerness to help her weld together a few bits of her project and his honest interest in it had immediately endeared him to her and she'd found he was actually rather funny too.

"And Emmeline Garwin."

When it registered that she'd been paired with her welding buddy she grinned and pumped her fist. "Yes!" It was nowhere near as loud as her reaction last month, but it still caught the attention of the few seated around them.

Logan turned in his seat and spotted her, hard not to in her favorite brilliant yellow jacket, before grinning and giving her a thumbs up.

Peace gave her a sideways look. "I didn't know you and Ayers were such good friends."

Maggie and Dan gave her similar looks. They knew of her welding excursion in the detention room, but she hadn't really gone into any specifics. Sure, she'd danced with him at Homecoming, but she'd danced with lots of people then. "That's my welding buddy." Maggie and Dan took a moment but finally realized what she was referring to and nodded. Peace was not so lucky.

"He was in detention a lot. He helped me put together a bit of my project."

"Warren Peace." Their heads shot up to look at Principal Powers but she had moved on.

Maggie leaned over Emm's lap to look at Peace. "You got paired up with Ian Jacobsen." She looked less worried with the seemingly acceptable pairings so far. Only her and Dan were left among their little group (she could hardly believe he had become part of her group).

His blank look told Emm he had no idea who Ian Jacobsen was. It wasn't hard to imagine as Jacobsen had never really even drawn her attention. "He's alright." She pointed out an anxious looking curly haired boy a few rows down and to their left. "I think he's a good student, but I don't really know much about him."

He nodded at her but seemed uninterested otherwise. For a moment she hoped Jacobsen was only anxious over being paired up and not over Peace. She hadn't yet been able to wrap her head around the fact that most people still considered him a future villain in the making.

The pairings so far seemed quite smart to Emm. She knew Ryan wouldn't take any of Thompson's crap and it was well known that he was friends with Emm, and Juliette (or Freeze-girl as she was sometimes known) had been paired with Katie Lee which she realized was actually a brilliant meshing of their personalities. Principal Powers was clearly bringing her A game.

"Daniel Patterson." Maggie tensed beside her and Emm straightened up to give Principal Powers a very pointed look. She had been doing so well, she couldn't let them down now. "Maggie Rollings."

"Yes!" Maggie jumped in her seat at Emm's exclamation but looked too pleased to really care. Principal Powers returned her pointed look and Emm couldn't help but smile at her. Powers had wormed her way back into Emm's good graces. None of the other pairings really mattered. She did note that Robert Stonewall was the unlucky (depending on how you saw it) hero who'd gone sidekick-less this time around.

As they filed out to the courtyard to meet with their new partners Maggie was ecstatic. Her excitement was contagious and Emm was hard pressed to wipe the grin off her face. Dan looked rather pleased himself. Even Peace, it seemed, was being caught up in the happy storm that was Maggie Rollings.

When an arm landed hard around her shoulders she stumbled and had to thank Peace for catching the back of her shirt. She looked up into Logan's grinning face.

"Oops. Sorry about that." Logan adjusted his arm around her to accommodate Peace's hold on her shirt while she straightened up. "So, should I invest in an arc welder for the duration of our partnership?"

His eagerness made her smile. Her friends were usually willing to help with whatever new experiment or project she was working on, but few had been quite as excited as Logan was. "No need. I have near full access to Mr. Medulla's stores and with you around I can't imagine I'll be lacking anything." Logan had the very useful ability to duplicate and control just about anything and Emm could already see the benefits of his power.

Logan towered over her, even more so than Dan and Peace, and she had to crane her neck to look at him straight on. He looked over her head to Dan, Maggie, and Peace and nodded his head to each of them. "So, Peace, anything I should know about being her hero? Any tips you can divulge? I could tell you a few things about Ian, seeing as how we kind of just traded partners."

Peace raised an eyebrow at Logan and she realized for the first time just how close he was standing. With Logan's arm still around her she was caught in between them and she nearly felt like an Emm sandwich. And Peace was really very warm.

"She's a pain in the ass. Don't let her near your car, don't let her meet your mother, don't ask her about music, and don't let her hold any drinks." With that, he walked away.

Emm had the decency to look insulted. "Hey! Bring Jacobsen over and I'll give him a nice little lesson too!" She shot Maggie and Dan a look at their laughter. "Traitors."

Hero Support 101.4, as taught by Mr. Boy, had always been an interesting class. Well, maybe not on the days where they learned proper grappling hook maintenance or things of the sort, but Mr. Boy was energetic and fun and he never minded when Emm suddenly needed to go to Mr. Medulla's class. Today he had given them the job of organizing a proper utility belt, which every single one of them could do blindfolded at this point, and let them chat amongst themselves about their new heroes.

Maggie's good mood remained in tact and it was only helped along by Emm's. Principal Powers really had done well this time. She'd spent some time talking to Katie and assuring her that Juliette and her would get along great before making Ryan promise that he'd let her have a go at Thompson if he so much as mentioned Maggie.

When Ian Jacobsen passed by their table Emm leaned back in her seat to catch him. "Hey, Ian," He looked startled and once again nervous. "Want a few tips on dealing with Peace?" She was still a little sore over his "tips" to Logan. When he didn't answer she took it as a yes.

Righting herself in her chair she scooted it back to get a good look at him. "Alright, he's a pain in the ass of epic proportions. He'll eat your fortune cookie or throw it at your head, he'll eat your fries, his taste in music is questionable, he's a neat freak, he's selfish with his car, he complains about when you wake up, he complains about how much you drink, he complains about the engine parts in your room- wait, that wouldn't really matter to you-"

Maggie put her hand on Emm's knee and she realized the others were laughing. "Emmy, those aren't really tips, they're complaints."

Emm blinked at her. "But, they're perfectly valid complaints." Ryan snorted and was set off into peal of laughter. Which set Katie off as well. "Oh, alright."

"When you visit his house you suddenly feel like nothing could go wrong in the world and you find you can't argue with anyone, that's his mom trying to make you feel at home, don't be alarmed. If you're cold and want him to power up so you start arguing with him, he'll catch on, it won't work." She tapped a finger to her chin as she thought. "Don't molest his car, he doesn't like that."

She was trying very hard to come up with actually useful tips to give Ian as opposed to the crap tips he'd given Logan. "Don't leave a jacket lying around his room, he'll give you dirty looks all day. If you go see him at the Paper Lantern try to not be seated by Christine- though, it might not be the same with you because you're a boy, or maybe she'll think you're gay." She trailed off, wondering exactly how Christine would react to a boy asking for Peace.

Ryan and Katie were still laughing and Maggie had rejoined in the fun. When she looked up at Ian's face she realized why. He had somehow managed to appear terrified while looking at her as though she'd sprouted a new head and was now singing "Camptown Races". She patted his arm. "You know what, I think you'll be fine."