AN: Look at this. You see this? A new chapter. I'm so proud of me.
But, it's short.
Peace didn't talk to her for the rest of the day. Or the next. Or the one after that.
At lunch he didn't steal her fries- didn't even sit across from her, but instead on the other side of Will.
And that was fine. Perfectly okay with her. Obviously.
Except she wanted to kick him really badly whenever he brushed past her in the hallway without a word. Which Maggie had expressly forbid her from doing.
Honestly, she didn't get it. Was he mad that she'd called attention to them at the lunch room? He could just deal with it. People were spreading lies about them, it wasn't cool.
And she'd even been the bigger person, greeting him each morning to no results. So screw it. She didn't need Warren Peace to talk to her or acknowledge her or anything. She didn't even like him.
She was just in a bad mood because of reasons. Other reasons.
Maggie leaned over in history class and nudged her shoulder. "You should try and talk to him again."
Emm scoffed.
"Emmeline." Maggie had a very particular way of saying her name that made Emm feel like she was being scolded. "He's clearly upset about something." There was a pointed look thrown in that Emm chose to ignore. "So just make an effort."
"I did." Emm hissed.
"I've never known you to give up that easily."
"Maybe I just don't care enough."
"Clearly. Since you seem to be such a bright mood about it."
Emm sulked some more for the rest of the day, not because of Peace, but because her best friend had seemed oddly disappointed in her.
The Garwin's and Brighton's had known each other for years, since before Emm and Juliette had been born. Back in the hayday of Mr. Brighton's superhero career as the Frost, Mr. Garwin had supplied him (and several other heroes) with a number of fancy gadgets. They weren't best friends, by any means, but many a dinner party, barbeque, and kid's birthday party had included an invitation to the other.
So a "meet your hero/support's family" dinner was really just an excuse to have the whole family over.
Mr. Brighton was a large man, towering well over Elijah and Mr. Garwin, not to mention Emm herself. In his youth he'd also been a veritable brick house, solidly built enough to handle the bad guys even without ice, now he still looked like he could give you a solid beating, but he'd gained a belly too. Emm thought it made him fluffier. The rest of him had changed little in the years. Same blonde hair, same part, same dimpled chin, and same booming laughter.
Juliette's mom, Di as Emm had always called her, was a woman of moderate height who just always appeared tiny beside her husband. Juliette shared most of her looks, from hair color to build, and she looked the same as Emm had ever seen her. Di never seemed to age. She had always been kind and gentle with the Garwin children as well as with Juliette, but Juliette had shown her a video of Di in action in the courtroom- Emm would never underestimate her ability to frighten grown men.
They were excellent dinner company, as talkative and lively as the Garwin's were prone to be, and only sometimes drawn into arguments. The talk ranged from world news to family news (and thus hero news) to work on Emm's flying car and then to school.
"In our day we hardly new our sidekicks-" Mr. Brighton stopped himself and sent Emm an apologetic look "Hero support, before we were assigned them. My hero support left about a year in, became a kindergarten teacher. Nice guy, but we never really clicked."
"I think it's an excellent idea. Emm's made some very nice friends. It makes them branch out, you know." Her mom added.
Di had a curious look on her face, a slight downturn of her lips that made her stern resting face look incredibly cross. When Juliette questioned her she shrugged to herself. "I'm sure it's beneficial to have a more thorough understanding of the people who are meant to be your partners in crime-fighting," Here she made the face again. "But, doesn't it seem incredibly invasive as well?"
Elijah and Emm had discussed something similar before, when the program had first been put into action last year. Elijah nodded, went to speak, remembered he had a mouth full of potatoes, and set back to chewing quickly. They waited for him to finish and take a drink to help wash it down.
"We talked about that," He said. "About how some families probably weren't that great and some poor kid now had to show that to other people."
Superheroes did not always make super parents.
"I mean, look at Dan. His parents aren't abusive or anything," He continued. "But they're never there. So Dan just takes them out to dinner. But, not everyone should have to know about his parents."
Emm's mother was the most easy-going laid back loving person she knew, but when Emm looked at her now it was hard to tell. Her face had darkened like it always did when Dan's parents were mentioned, her lip had curled up into a sneer, nose wrinkled. None of the Garwins particularly cared for the Patterson parents "busy lives", but her mom took it as a personal affront that they would just neglect their son in such a matter.
She had let them know one time, quite loudly, exactly what she thought of their parenting.
"And then on the flipside there's kids who now have to interact with bad families or bad kids." Mr. Brighton pointed out. "If it's anything like in our day, there's some pretty awful kids in that school, just waiting to go darkside. The heroes should be able to take care of themselves, but the others?"
Emm immediately thought of Thompson, dirtbag that he was. She knew exactly what Mr. Brighton was talking about. Bless them for trying, but the entire hero/hero support system was flawed.
"I mean, you got paired up with Baron Battle's kid, Peace. Right Emm?"
Somehow, somehow, she hadn't been expecting that. Despite knowing well enough that he'd played a massive role in Juliette's breakup with Peace, Emm had just forgotten Mr. Brighton's ideas on him.
Elijah and Juliette froze, glancing at her cautiously. Emm didn't look at them, but straight ahead. Out of the corner of her eye she could see her mother looking hurt (no doubt on Warren's behalf) and confused.
"He's Mae Peace's kid too, John." Her father said.
Mr. Brighton rolled his eyes. "Still don't understand how that happened. Mae was always nice, friendly, good person. Don't know how she got rolled up in that."
Her mother spoke up now, brow still furrowed in confusion. "Warren's a nice kid too. A little quiet, but he's sweet."
Emm let the sweet comment go by, not wanting to detract from the argument her parents were making on behalf of Peace. Mr. Brighton had never even met him. He'd fought his father years before, but his assumptions on Peace were utterly unfounded, even if Peace was a big pain in the ass who wasn't talking to her for some stupid unknown reason.
"Abby, you always think the best of people. Battle's son is going to be just like him, you mark my words."
"Have you ever spoken to Warren Peace?" Emm set her fork and knife down slowly. Everyone seemed to stop eating.
Before Mr. Brighton could answer Emm continued. "I don't think you have. Because, if you had you'd know that Peace is a terrible pain in the ass, grumpy, and practically every article of clothing he owns is wrinkled, but he's not a villain. He'll never be a villain." She held up a hand when he made to argue. "If the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, he fell from Mae's."
"Emm, I wouldn't want to get stabbed for implying that you're being naïve, but you haven't really met many villains."
"I've met Gwen Grayson, worked side by side with her. Juliette did too. And Lash, Speed, Penny. All the people who turned us into babies and were going to let our school crash. Peace helped stop them while the rest of us drooled over blankets. The Commander said he was a hero. His best friend is the Commander's son." She leaned forward in her seat. "He's threatened people over Maggie, came and took care of me when I was sick, and deals with people assuming he's going to turn into or already is a villain on the daily."
Her parents furrowed their brows and gave her questioning looks. She would explain her mild cold at some later date.
"If people treated me like a villain all the time I would have become one. I would have become the greatest villain around and I would take care of the people who turned me into one first. But, Peace, he wouldn't. He's dumb and honorable. Drives me nuts, he's the worst, but he's going to be a great hero and you're going to have to deal with that."
Out of the corner of her eye she could just make out Elijah's face- gleeful pride from what she could tell. Across from her Di had raised an eyebrow and was looking between Emm and her husband in anticipation of the rebuttal.
Mr. Brighton was silent for a second. He pursed his lips. After a moment he spoke. "I didn't realize you two were friends." He sounded apologetic.
"I'm not defending him because we're friends. That's a recent development that I'm still not fully accustomed to, but even when you made Juliette break up with him I told her off because there's a bunch of reasons not to date Peace, but villainy is not one." She picked her form back up. "Now, if we're going to keep having a nice dinner you're going to have to stop insulting my dumb friend."
Mr. Brighton opened his mouth, presumably to argue, when Di put her hand over his. "Your food's getting cold, dear."
That was the end of the discussion.
Emm took a determined bite out of her steak. Maybe, just maybe, if she was feeling extra nice she'd go force Peace to talk to her tomorrow. A flying car could be a great conversation starter.