Chapter Six: Changing Tides

I walked along the avenue
I never thought I'd meet a girl like you
Meet a girl like you

I Ran (So Far Away), A Flock of Seagulls

A violent jolt of panic went up and down her spine the minute the shock wore off. She was stuck there standing in front of the table with five pairs of eyes watching her, waiting for her to react. Dragging her eyes over each of their faces one last time, she quickly turned on her heel and started walking in the direction of Gwen's table.

Coward, a little voice whispered in the back of her mind as she walked.

Tell me something new, she shot back, wincing a moment later when she took note of the fact that she was talking to the voice in her head.

She could hear Zach and Ethan calling out from behind her to come back, but there was just no way. Sharing space with Warren Peace was an A grade bad idea. If she didn't do something to piss him off and get a fireball lobbed at her head, then she would instead say something to humiliate herself in front of him and her friends. She had plenty of time to find ways to commit some Warren related faux pas another time. There was no need to rush that happening any time soon. Once school was over, she'd explain why she couldn't sit with them. They'd understand.

What she arrived to at Gwen's table turned out to be a different kind of surreal.

Will was sitting next to Gwen but was barely paying any attention to her. He seemed disturbingly focused on murdering his meatloaf with a spork. A bewildered Gwen sat beside him, trying to engage him in conversation and failing. The rest of the upperclassmen sitting at the table seemed vaguely interested in the strange antics of the freshman and their class president. Her eyes darted from the meatloaf mush to Gwen's face and back and forth a couple times.

This table was no good either.

With Will and Gwen so preoccupied, it was easy to slink off without notice. Well, that Penny girl had noticed, but she and the cheerleader had an understanding of not caring a lick about what the other did. She purposefully kept her gaze averted from the side of the cafeteria where her friends were and wandered the aisles of lunch tables until she found a relatively uncrowded table to sit at. Her new tablemates were somewhat familiar. There was the Beach Ball Girl. Tenni blinked, the sight of the girl summoning memories of terror and falling, and gripping one another tightly thinking they would die. Yup, they'd always have that first bus ride. Shaking it away, she shared a solemn nod with the girl as she took a seat, and glanced at the other girl.

She looked older, by maybe by a year or two, than the freshmen. For almost half a minute she stared Tenni down with her hooded brown eyes and the younger girl got the distinct feeling that if she looked away, or even blinked, she would have failed some sort of test. The air that had been trapped in her lungs when the other girl, the Staring Girl, started looking at her left her in a rush when the gaze left Tenni in favor of food. Glad to be rid of the stifling stare, Tenni took a long breath and started eating her own food.

It wasn't long in the midst of chewing and swallowing food that she lost focus and her mind began to wander. When her mind began to wander, it always ended up lost where she least wanted it.

Layla.

A surge of something hot and cold and heavy and sharp bit at her mind.

Layla and their friends sitting with Warren Peace.

It got worse.

Layla sitting so close to Warren Peace, laughing at something.

Damn headaches.

If she didn't dislike Spex as much as she did, she might have marched right to her office and demanded painkillers. It certainly didn't help that on top of this headache, her shoulder was reminding her of just how not healed it was. She put both hands on her temples and tried to massage the pain out. Pulling her hand away and blinking, the first thing she saw was a pill still in its packaging sitting on the table in front of her. Picking it up, Tenni examined it, and realized it was a Tylenol. Waving at the two other girls at the table to get their attention, she held up the pill and gave them a questioning look. They glanced at each other before looking back at her, their expressions betraying nothing.

Brows furrowing, she looked around the cafeteria, wondering if someone else had dropped it in front of her without her noticing. Who had-? She avoided looking in Will or Layla's direction. All she wanted was to know who was responsible for what looked like a Tylenol being left for her. For some reason, her eyes landed on the secluded corner where Lash and Speed were lurking. And for a crazy moment, she wondered if it might've been one of them.

Then her eyes caught Lash's.

She was treated to a glare before he looked away.

"Yeah right," Tenni muttered to herself.

As if Lash or Speed would ever do something that could even be mistaken as a kindness. Especially for her.

Reaching out, she snatched up the still packaged pill between two fingers, inspecting it closely. After staring at it for several minutes, she held it out to the other girls at the table.

"Do you think this would be safe to take?"

Beach Ball Girl shrugged while Staring Girl just… stared. Tenni didn't even notice her move, until the girl slid an unopened mini water bottle over to her.

"I guess that's two votes for safe-ish." She shot them both wry looks as she uncapped the water bottle and popped out the pill. "If it's poison, I will haunt you two forever after."

The unimpressed and unmoved looks she got made her want to pout, which would be absurdly over familiar for strangers. Giving up, she took the Tylenol with a large swig of water before folding her arms and dropping her head into them. It was time to wait out the headache and the bell.

P.E.

Even when you were having an incredibly terrible day, the world didn't stop throwing awful things at you just because you had had enough.

Tenni had taken her time getting there and dressing, hoping she could avoid Layla and Magenta in the locker room. As far as the plan went, it was a success. They had already dressed and left by the time she arrived. The downside was that she was late.

Coach Boomer didn't tolerate lateness.

And she arrived just as Coach Boomer announced another round of Save the Citizen.

The girl didn't even have enough time to wonder why he was doing Save the Citizen two days in a row before he caught sight of her. A terrible smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.

"Stronghold!" he bellowed, and somewhere in the crowd Will sat up wondering why his name was being called, "As punishment for being late and trying to sneak in like you weren't, you will be our villain today."

The entire auditorium was plunged into silence for all of two minutes before it burst into a cacophony of sound once more. For the second time that day, Tenni felt rooted to the spot, rage mixed with horror washing over her.

That bastard, that bastard, that bastard-

"Sir-" she grit out as loud as she could so he could hear her, barely able to feign the minimum of respect for authority she certainly didn't hold for him, "I can't-"

"You can or you receive a fail for the entire year." His grin made her sick. "And that means summer school make-up work with me."

It was impossible, what he was suggesting. But then again, Boomer had placed Layla in Hero Support just for talking back to him. Principal Powers had actually given Will a detention when he'd gotten pulled into a fight he hadn't started. Said woman was also responsible for hiring all of the staff who, while knowledgeable in their fields, were no good at teaching them.

She couldn't fight this.

Going by the way he was smirking, he knew it.

"Okay."

That was all she could say before the pounding that had been going off in the back of her head took over everything else. She couldn't hear anything anymore. Boomer pointed his finger to the locker room, so she went as if she was being sentenced to death. Her hands trembled as she walked over to the bin with battle gear and began picking out stuff that looked to be her size. Just as she went to go get dressed, someone grabbed one of her hands. Glancing up, she was face to face with Gwen.

"Are you okay sweetie?" the older girl asked her, taking the younger's hand in both of her own and rubbing soothing circles into the back of it.

It was only by tipping her head back so she could stare at the ceiling and will the moisture to return to her eyes, that Tenni avoided sobbing right then and there. She'd been at her wit's end for a long time now and the world kept spinning her up and knocking her down over and over again. To answer Gwen's question, she was most definitely not okay. When she finally returned her head to normal position, she saw that Gwen seemed to have come to the right conclusion on her own.

"I'm also doing Save the Citizen," Gwen explained suddenly, patting her hand before letting it go and reaching into bin to grab herself some gear, "I hope you don't mind that I'm your partner? I volunteered so that Coach Boomer wouldn't pair you up with someone you didn't know or like. So you won't be alone."

Tenni almost staggered back under the assault of affection and gratitude welling up in her. Gwen Grayson was constantly redefining what it meant to hold someone in high esteem. This was a gesture she expected from Will or Layla, or even one of the others. Not from someone who up until now had been little more than a friendly acquaintance.

Who was now dating her brother.

For a moment, she wondered if it had all been a ploy to get in Will's good graces but dismissed it. Gwen had been nothing but kind to her from the beginning, before she had even met Will. Even now, Tenni saw little use in Gwen continuing to butter her up if she had already claimed her prize. No, this really was being done out of the goodness in the other girl's heart.

All she could manage to get out to express how she felt was, "Okay."

"Go finish getting ready," the senior told her, giving her a little push, "I'll meet you out there in a bit. Then we'll talk strategy."

With that said she disappeared, probably to change, Tenni assumed. A little steadier, the girl set about changing into her own suit, her face scrunching in disgust as she caught a whiff of the stench coming off it. Were these things ever washed? Or did they just go year to year collecting the sweat of aggression and battle, and becoming that much more disgusting, every time?

Swallowing a gag down, she tightened her last strap and fiddled with the shoulder pads before heading out. The auditorium was still awash with chatter and Gwen was already out there, dressed in her suit with her hair pulled into a high ponytail. When they caught sight of one another, the older girl waved her over.

"Our opponents are Robert McMurrer, a senior with a sonic voice kind of like Coach Boomer, and Jason Maxim, a junior with the ability to mimic people's powers if he can touch them. I don't know how well they'd fight together, but on their own they're both pretty good," Gwen informed her before shooting her a tight smile, "Your powers are good for this kind of battle, but mine… aren't. The best I'll be able to do is fix the death machine if they break it. Maybe speed it up so it destroys the citizen faster."

"That's fine," the younger girl said, nodding along, "If you stay close to the machine, I should be able to cover you. All we have to do is wait them out right?"

"Yes, I think that will work." The senior put a hand on freshman's good shoulder. "Though I would really like to win, it's not the most important thing. You're still injured. Take care of yourself and try not to get hurt."

"I'll try. Let's just hope that those two aren't the type who like to hit girls," Tenni joked a bit, though the delivery seemed pretty flat to her.

Though she didn't mean to, she looked up into bleachers. Her eyes landed on Will first, who to her disdain was sitting with the cheerleader jerk. He looked worried, his eyes darting between her and Gwen. Nudging Gwen with an elbow and nodding in the boy's direction, the two of them waved at him. The gesture seemed to calm him.

Her gaze wandered as she started to lower her hand, and she flinched when she caught Layla's eyes. The girl looked unhappy. Whether it was because she was worried like Will was for Tenni, or that Tenni was getting along with her love rival, Tenni didn't know. Looking at Layla was starting to make her uncomfortable. Moving along, she tried and failed miserably to ignore the large, dark figure sitting to the redhead's left. His expression was unreadable, and that was also doing nothing to make her feel better.

Moving along. Moving along.

Her last three friends were in varying states of excitement. Ethan looked like he was about to have a panic attack. Zach was up and cheering like this was just another sports match and he was rooting for her as the home team. And then there was Magenta. Magenta whose priorities were so out of whack, she was arching an eyebrow at Tenni and then motioning with her head at Layla and Warren.

Ignore, ignore, ignore.

Soon enough, McMurrer and Maxim were out of the locker rooms and the younger girl started sizing the two up. McMurrer had a stocky build similar to Speed's, but obviously did some kind of weightlifting if the large muscles she could see under the lycra on his arms were any indication. In another world where there weren't superpowers or Sky High had sports worth playing, that guy may have played tackle on a football team.

Turning her attention to Maxim, she groaned internally. Based on what Gwen had told her earlier, she had figured that this guy would be the lesser threat of the two. As long as she didn't let him touch her or Gwen, they would be fine. That plan was blown to hell the moment the guy held out an ungloved fist to his partner and McMurrer bumped it back with his own ungloved fist.

Dammit. Dammit. Obviously, those two had been strategizing as well.

Tenni glanced at Gwen, who looked as wary as she felt.

"Stronghold!" Hearing her name barked, she grudgingly snapped to attention. Boomer's expression still hadn't changed from earlier. "Since you're the little freshman here in her first ever Save the Citizen match, I'll be nice enough to explain the rules for you."

Her teeth gnashed, hidden behind her grimly set lips.

"You and your partner are our VILLAINS. That means you two are the evil bad guys trying to stop our brave HEROES," he paused to point at McMurrer and Maxim who grinned and shifted from foot to foot, "from Saving the Citizen. You have three minutes until the death trap mulches the citizen. Keep the heroes away from the citizen that long and you win. UNDERSTAND?"

"I understand," she muttered venomously.

"Not quite sure I HEARD you."

"I understand!" she yelled, barely stopping it from tapering off into a growl.

"Good." He stopped to pull out his stopwatch as the board beeped, changing to display each of the competitor's names. "Then ready, set, BATTLE!"

This was a disaster.

It had been from the minute she'd arrived. From the minute that Coach Boomer had set his eyes upon her. Big man, big hero, picking on a girl.

And she'd unintentionally dragged Gwen into this.

Tenni grit her teeth, dug her heels in, and pushed more of herself into her power.

An ice wall grew and towered before her.

Then cracked.

She cursed.

Maybe at one point, it may not have been too much of a disaster. That moment in the locker room when Gwen had taken her hand and told her she wasn't alone. When she stood with Gwen and they made a plan that gave them hope they could do as well as they could.

And then gods damned Jason Maxim copied his partner's power.

Two minutes and fifteen seconds left and Tenni was already struggling to keep the ice wall she'd put between herself and Gwen, and their opponents. She was breathing hard from the circles she had to run around Gwen and the machine over and over again, just to make sure the wall stayed up and protected them from every side. It made her feel like a fool, even if Gwen was her only audience. It was hard to maintain this when two sonic voices were breaking down her defenses instead of just one.

Two minutes left.

Her legs and her lungs burned, and there was little feeling left in her fingers as she continued to freeze, freeze, freeze.

At one minute, fifty-five seconds, she got slower. She faltered. She needed breath.

At one minute, forty-seven seconds, as she drew breath, she slowed too much.

At one minute, thirty-nine seconds, a piece of the wall where she should've been reinforcing it shattered.

At one minute, thirty-five seconds, they were inside and the ice continued to shatter all around.

At one minute, thirty-one seconds, beams of colored light flew at the boys, courtesy of Gwen who cannibalized enough spare parts from the machine to make a ray gun, putting them on the defensive.

At one minute, twenty-seven seconds, Tenni rushed McMurrer, landing a solid uppercut that, while failing to knock him out like anticipated, threw him back.

At one minute, twenty seconds, she followed it up by encasing his mouth and hands in ice so he was out of the game.

At one minute, sixteen seconds, Gwen screamed.

At one minute, fifteen seconds, the other girl turned to see what had happened.

At one minute, fourteen seconds, time stopped mattering.

Maxim had Gwen's ponytailed hair twisted in a fist, the other gripping the back of her neck harshly. This stopped being about a game. All she saw was a guy standing above Gwen, hurting her. She saw red.

The next part was so fast, she wasn't sure what had happened.

When she came out of her rage induced haze, it was to the sound of the buzzer going off and something being violently destroyed. She looked around and didn't understand the sight before her. The first thing her eyes had landed on when she turned to look was the still grating death machine spitting up pieces of limb shaped debris and sawdust. Glancing down to the side, she saw Gwen holding the back of her neck, her eyes teary with pain and her ponytail in disarray. Finally, she looked directly down and started.

That was her foot pressed against Maxim's throat.

Well, she thought it was Maxim. It was a bit hard to tell with his face, considering it looked like it had been savaged beyond recognition. How had that had happened?

The auditorium, once again, was silent, with the exception of the heavy breathing of the people in the arena and the whirring of the machine. Her chest went tight as she realized everyone was looking right at her. Shakily, she removed her foot from where it rested on Maxim's throat and backed away a few paces to Gwen's side. She found herself reaching out for Gwen. The relief that flooded through her when Gwen met her halfway and clasped Tenni's hand in her own began to flush out the tension that had been creeping in on her. Once she pulled the older girl to her feet, she watched as Gwen faced Coach Boomer and spoke.

"Could you call the match, Coach Boomer?" The tone of her voice carefully walked the line between respectful and fed up.

"The heroes have failed to save the citizen," Boomer grunted out, his face pinched, "The villains win. Hit the showers!"

Subdued applause went through the crowd. It was less that the villains had won (because that had never stopped them before when it was Lash and Speed winning), and probably more because everyone was almost as confused as Tenni was about how they had won. Half the battle had happened out of sight behind walls of ice. The walls had only gone down completely when Tenni had come out of her blank out.

Gwen snapped her out of her thoughts by dragging her off, which was starting to become a regular occurrence. Behind her, she could hear Boomer yell for someone to take McMurrer and Maxim the nurse's office, and finally everything started to hit her. They had only just cleared the entrance into the locker room before she fell to her knees and almost took Gwen with her.

"Tenni!" Gwen yelped when her arm was yanked down.

"Tenni?" she said again, when the girl didn't move, and once more when she received no response.

"How did they look at me?" the younger girl finally spoke.

"What?"

"I don't know what I did, but it must've been bad," Tenni muttered, staring blankly at her free hand.

"You didn't-"

"This is just supposed to be some stupid game, and…" Her hand clenched into a fist that she pressed against her face. "I didn't want to!" To her horror, tears were starting to leak out of the corners of her eyes. "I didn't want to do that. He made me and I didn't want to."

"Sweetie."

"I bet they all looked at me like I was a…"

Villain. Monster. Evil.

"Hey!" she heard someone snap loud and authoritatively.

Startled, she looked up and saw Gwen looking down at her, a strange intensity in her usually warm eyes. The older girl put a hand on the younger's chin to tilt it up so her gaze remained focused on her.

"They don't matter."

"But-"

"They don't," the brunette insisted again, "The teachers, the students, none of them matter. None of them see you the way I see you."

And even though she was desperate to ask, Tenni didn't dare. She didn't want to risk asking and Gwen telling her what she feared she could. Why would she see anything else but a villain?

"You didn't do anything wrong. Look." Gwen let go of her chin and lifted her ponytail off the back of her neck. There was a bruise forming there, and the cold fury Tenni had felt before when she'd first received it came back. "You saved me, you made him pay for hurting me. That's all that matters."

"Gwen," Tenni sobbed out.

"It's okay now, sweetie," the older girl murmured to her, pulling the younger girl into her arms, "We're both okay. You did so well out there."

She felt like she should protest, tell Gwen that she was wrong. But she was done trying to argue with the girl. If she thought she'd been tired before, she was well and truly past it now. Right now, she just wanted to go home.

Without fussing, she let Gwen herd her into the shower stalls to get clean. The other girl practically had to dress her, she felt so after Tenni was led out of the locker room was kind of a blur. She may have been mobbed, by whom, she wasn't entirely sure. Except for Will, of course. Will was always a recognizable presence to her, even when she was only half conscious. Especially when he got that funny pitch to his voice when he worried.

When the world seemed a lot clearer and steady once more, it was ironic to realize that she had come back to herself on the zipping and weaving bus. Will was right next to her, Zach and Ethan were in the row in front of them straining against their seatbelts to peer over the back of their seat, Magenta and Layla and were in the row across leaning in.

"Will?"

"Tenni!"

She smiled a little, snuggling into his side and pressing her face in his neck.

"Today sucked."

The girl heard her friends give sighs of relief and huffs of exasperation. Her brother awkwardly pushed an arm behind her back so he could wrap it around her.

"Yeah it did," she heard him whisper to her, pulling her closer to him.

Every day without fail, Will, Tenni, and Layla would be the last people on the bus during the ride home. Since they were last to be picked up, they were the last dropped off. Magenta and Ethan were the first to be let off, and both of them were reluctant to go in their respective downplayed and over concerned ways. Zach was the next, clapping Will on the shoulder and ruffling Tenni's hair as he went. Finally, all three of them were let out at their own stop. Ron flashed them a sunny, oblivious grin with a wave before driving off to wherever he parked the bus at end of the day.

Layla gave them a strained smile, quietly telling Tenni she hoped she would feel better and completely ignoring Will as she left them to head in her house's direction. Glancing at Will, the Tenni winced at the confused, hurt look on her brother's face. While she couldn't guess at what he was feeling, she could at least sympathize with him on how little she understood Layla right now. Their best friend had been an open book to them, and somehow that had completely changed over the course of a single school day.

Silence hung heavier than it ever had before on their walk home.

But it wasn't all bad. Will was holding her hand as they walked, and there was never anything wrong with that.

They stopped at the doorstep.

"Do you think…?"

"Oh." It was a testament to how well he knew her, because with one look, he offered, "I can hold them off if you want, tell them your shoulder's hurting and you need rest?"

"If you could?" She was past trying to put up fronts.

He nodded, and in the next moment the door was open as they pushed forward. Will immediately moved in front of her and pulled her along quickly. They were at the staircase when Dad emerged from the door that led to the kitchen, Mom right behind him. Her brother quickly shooed her up the staircase before placing a hand on the wooden banister and leaning the rest of his body against the wall opposite. It was an incredibly unsubtle attempt to physically block them off from ascending the stairs after her. Mom knew immediately what he was doing, but didn't call him out on it. She just shot Tenni a concerned look as she disappeared up the steps.

She reached her room, shut the door behind her, and lay down.

Hours passed. She never quite fell asleep, but when she opened her eyes again, the feeling of not wanting to be there swept over her. Which was… so annoying. All day, she'd wanted nothing more than to leave school and come home. Now she was home she wanted to be anywhere else.

Recycling the paper she'd used earlier that morning, she scribbled a note that said she'd be going on a walk. If anyone got that worried, Mom could just fly out and find her.

There was a sense of deja vu and she went through the window and climbed down the tree once more. She almost walked right over to Layla's again, and had to remind herself not to.

Her feet carried her for a long time. When she finally came to her end destination, she wanted to smack her head against the side of the building. Somehow, in trying not to think of or go to the other girl, she'd still ended up in the second place that made her think of her friend most. She might have gone right back the way she came, if not for her stomach's sudden rumbling when someone opened the door and let the scent of something delicious waft out.

"Hungry…" she muttered to herself, grabbing at her midsection.

It had been kind of stupid going for a walk without eating. Why couldn't she have grabbed a granola bar or something on her way out? There was a stash of snacks in her room she could've raided without even having to go downstairs. Man, she was hungry. Maybe, she could try and hustle back home to get some of whatever was for dinner?

The next long rumble emanating from her stomach protested that idea.

Well, she'd never been much of a Chinese fan no matter what Layla had tried, but food was food. And she'd also never disliked Chinese as much as Will seemed to. And the smell was telling the caveman part of her brain to find and devour it.

As the weak threads of reason and sensibility slipped away, she went inside.

"Hello, welcome to the Paper Lantern, how many in your party?" a waitress asked her the minute she set foot inside.

"Just me," she answered, and was led to a booth against a wall.

Surreptitiously, she threw a glance or two around just to make sure Layla hadn't also come here. Thankfully, it seemed like she wasn't. In fact, the place was pretty dead. She'd probably come in not far from closing time. A different waitress came with a menu, and she couldn't have picked if she tried so she asked for whatever was the special.

The special was some kind of soup loaded with thin yellow noodles. When she nudged at that massive lump of noodles with one of those porcelain spoons, she eventually unearthed what looked like a dumpling. And another. A growl reminded her there was something she needed to be doing, so she started eating. She cheated a little by cooling each spoonful a little faster with a cold puff of her breath. Not like anyone would know what she was doing. Or that there was anyone around to see her do it.

At least, that was what she thought.

He caught her mid slurp, as he moved to refill her water glass. She'd reached out to stop him, not very interested in more liquid while eating soup. They both froze as they finally looked at one another.

Like them, the water he had begun to pour hung suspended in the air.

In seconds, Warren Peace composed himself, pulling a scowl over his features as he shifted and took a step back. Tenni found it harder to follow suit, swallowing harshly and pushing herself back into her booth. Why was he here? Over the last two years, she'd eaten at this restaurant plenty of times with Layla and he had never been here before.

"You might want to stop doing that before someone sees."

All of the water arched gracefully into the glass and settled, not a drop wasted.

Why was he here? She wanted to know, but she didn't want to ask. All she could do was sit there and gape at him as he glowered down at her. That and hope he would just go away. That would be a really lovely power to have, to be able to compel people to leave you alone, just because you hoped they would. Unfortunately, that was not one of the things she was capable of, so he continued to loom over her and her booth, his presence ramping up her nerves more and more.

Just when she thought that she could no longer bear him being there without screaming or running, he did something she didn't expect.

He sat down across from her.

The awful squeaky noise that erupted from her mouth was quickly buried under fake coughs and a napkin. She wasn't all that confident Warren was oblivious to what she'd done, but for the sake of her ego, she pretended he was.

So they sat like that. Him, slouched with his arms crossed over his chest. Her, holding a napkin two-handed over the lower portion of her face and looking anywhere but at him.

"I'm pretty sure she didn't tell you I worked here," he finally spoke, breaking the silence between them, "You look too surprised for that. So something else must've brought you here on your own. Has the other Stronghold stood you up, too?"

She glared at him. Under the napkin though, she could feel a blush creeping on, much to her mortification.

"Not that, huh? So why are you here then?"

Her glare sharpened. How dare he ask her that? She didn't owe him any answers.

"Hungry," was what escaped her traitorous mouth.

As muffled as it was behind the napkin and her hands, he definitely heard it. The suspicion he'd been eyeing her with faded some, and to her irritation, he looked almost amused.

"I think there's more to the story than that." He smirked. "And I think you'd never tell me if I asked."

Not wanting - not trusting herself - to speak, her eyes narrowed even further. She was damn near squinting at him.

"You're surprisingly unfriendly," he commented, stunning her.

"Why would you think I was friendly?" she couldn't help but ask, finally dropping the napkin that had covered the frown now on her face.

He shrugged.

"No reason."

It was her turn to wonder what he wasn't saying.

"Sorry to disappoint then," she muttered.

Hoping their (odd and unexpected like usual) exchange was finally over, she turned her attention back to the half-eaten soup in front of her. The spoon she'd left sitting in it was almost fully submerged in what was left of the contents. Fishing it out, she set it to the side and, with great difficulty, tried to eat the noodles with it. Grimacing, she mechanically chewed through the noodles that were now swimming in equally lukewarm broth.

Suddenly, her eating was accompanied by the sound of rough chuckling. As much as she had hoped he wouldn't be, Warren was still sitting across from her, looking a bit startled himself that the sound as coming from his own throat, too. After a couple strange but thrilling seconds more of it, he cut himself off with a cough. She expected him to mock her abysmal chopsticks technique or how her cheeks were puffed out to ridiculous proportions with food that she could not swallow down fast enough. Instead, he shook his head, the little ponytail his hair was tied back into at the nape of his neck swaying with it.

Then he stood, pointing a finger at her bowl.

Blinking, she noticed that this was the first time she'd ever seen his hands without the usual fingerless gloves.

"You want me to heat that up for you?"

It's how he took the bowl without waiting for an answer. Or how he smiled instead of smirked. Or how everything about him in that moment was different than anything else she had seen of him so far.

It's also how she remembered the pounding in her head and the tightening in her chest when she saw him with Layla. And how she hadn't forgiven him yet. And how, above all else, there were reasons why Warren Peace should not matter to her. And how she had always, always been terrified. And how-

The part of her that wanted to stay and wait for him to return grew quieter and quieter, until at last it was silent, drowning under the cacophony of fearful voices she had lived with these last two years.

They crashed upon her and pulled her out the door without a backwards glance.

Chapter Six: Changing Tides - End

Nana: As usual, apologies for how long I have taken. This chapter has been mostly written for a long time, but I couldn't write the ending for some reason. I don't know how, but it finally came through. Surprisingly, Warren showed up in it. (Not the plan originally.) More style play here. And wow, Tenni. I am so sorry. You have just been having a shit day. Anyone who figures out why I chose McMurrer and Maxim's names, cookies to you. Oh, and apparently, the chapter title is also different?

Things that are different from the original: Everything? Tenni didn't hear through the Will-vine and also didn't see it happen either. Beach Ball Girl cameo. And the fight alongside Gwen never happened either. This scene was really big for me, because I need more Gwen in my life (and yeah, maybe a little more Boomer being a dick). Let your imaginations run wild over her motives for volunteering (...as tribute...) to help her. And the Warren thing. Well, I wrote out this entire Warren scene from the original, so it somehow found a way to reassert itself. I can at least say that this interaction, less OOC stalkery Warren.

(I don't know if anyone's noticed, but I've been using popular 80s songs at the beginning of every chapter. It's following the theme of Sky High and its awesome soundtrack, which I think pay homage to the 80s and some really classic high school movies. In an effort to not just use the soundtrack itself, I try to find songs that suit the given chapter. This is obviously a fool's errand. I don't know the 80s and its music as well as I thought I did. If any of you readers do know some good 80s songs, please suggest some of your favorites. It would help a lot.)

Next Installment:

Chapter Seven: Title TBD