The swath of bodies in the arena impeded Powers' movement as she stood between the two warring groups of adolescents. The crowd would not disperse as she had ordered, and it was making her blood boil at an alarming rate. The Peace's son had at least done as she had commanded and removed Nora from the arena – kicking and fighting – to someplace else. From what Powers could see of the crazed ferality in the child's eyes, the farther the better, and soon.
The stately woman turned back to the situation at hand. The auditorium had bordered on the edge of uncontrollable, mutiny imminent even as the crowd slowly and begrudgingly dispersed back to the bleachers. Powers herself was feeling agitated and anxious, which was quite unlike her steady nature. Now she was satisfied with the crowd's distance from the drama unfolding in the center of the arena, and she promptly turned to face the Belfast group. She was about to demand answers when a voice, shaking with anger, rose to her ears.
"You manipulated the crowd," the boy growled out through clenched teeth.
What was his name again? Stefan, or something of the like. His face was red with anger and his hands shook as he pointed an accusatory finger at the Belfast girl.
"You- you manipulated the crowd into turning against Nora!" His eyes turned hastily, falling on Boomer, then settling on Powers. "Th-that has to be against the rules or something! Coach! Principle Powers!"
Powers, surprised though she was, kept her expression stony and unmoving. If this was true, it would certainly explain a great deal. She turned a cool gaze to the blonde girl, who was now pale in the face.
"I- I didn't do anything," The girl denied, as she quickly recovered an innocent expression on her face. Beads of sweat glistened on her forehead. She turned imploring eyes to the tall and lanky boy standing next to her, who did not meet her gaze.
"Yes you did!" The other boy – an empath, Powers recalled, named Steven. One of Nora's few, and unlikely, alliances. "I could feel it! You worked the crowd into a frenzy to incite a fight, and were going to blame it all on Nora when she lost control of her powers."
The lanky boy's face darkened, realization crossing his features. The Belfast coach began to bellow and object, and the blonde opened her mouth to defend herself.
"That's ridicu-"
"It was you," the tall Belfast boy said in a quiet, enraged tone. All eyes turned to him. "It was you who was trying to break me and Nora up back then, wasn't it?"
He turned on the blonde girl with fervor, eyes dangerous and accusing.
"I knew something felt off that day! Nora was so careful not to hurt anyone, and one day she suddenly lost control of everything? That was so… so not normal! It was you, manipulating her during that game, and pushing her over the edge!" The boy spat out his words with venom, grabbing the blonde girl by the shoulders. Her face had gone from pale to a deadly shade of ashen.
"And when she tried to tell me it was you, I didn't believe her!" He continued, eyes seeming far away now, recalling past events. They refocused on the blonde girl, hard and searching. "You turned everyone against her that day! Why would you do something like that?"
Her mouth opened to defend herself. "Duke," She faltered, and no other words came out. Her small beady eyes and open mouth made her look like a dead fish, Powers thought idly to herself. The young man, Duke, fixed the girl with a glaring stare, and abruptly turned away from her, hands to his head.
Belfast's coach was quick to recover from Steven's accusation, denying everything, although the dangerous look he fixed the blonde girl with – Rebecca, Powers now remembered her name – was enough to convince the principal of the girl's guilt. Coach Boomer immediately came to the offensive, voice loud enough to incite another riot, even without the help of an emotional manipulator.
"I don't care what all this adolescent drama is about!" Powers interjected for the first time, quelling the fight between the two coaches before too many heads could turn from the crowd. "The fact of the matter is, that it is a strict violation of rules to involve anyone but contestants in a Save the Citizen match, including spectators."
"She did!" Steven interjected, upset visible on his face, "I could feel it, she did!"
The Belfast coach made a scoffing noise, turning to Powers.
"These empaths feel too much to tell reality from their own feelings," He appealed to powers, scoffing at Steven. The young boy stuttered, turning red with blush. "He doesn't know what he's talking about. Is this just some kind of act to win the game or what?"
Powers, irritated now at the nerve of Belfast's coach, was interrupted yet again as she tried to speak.
This is becoming tiring, she thought.
"Steven wouldn't lie!" A feminine voice reached her ears, and another of her students came into the circle. Jet black hair, straight and mussed out of place by the recent skirmish, a deathly pale complexion.
"You don't know the first thing about his powers, you old man!" She declared rebelliously, pink rising to her pale cheeks, a stark contrast to the dark lipstick she wore. Steven looked taken aback. Powers felt amused. Belfast's coach sputtered.
"Sounds like we have a technical foul," Boomer stated triumphantly, smugness in his voice and on his face.
"Sounds like you have a ringer in the game," The Belfast coach sneered back. "Nora Stone is a hero and shouldn't be allowed to play as a sidekick! It- it's unethical!"
Powers couldn't hide her emotions so well this time. The events of the past several months flashed briefly through her mind. Nora involved in fights, siding with Warren, playing on the STC team… the subtle, hidden energy that Powers felt was always just below the surface of the young girl's carefully crafted charade. Powers had sensed it, but wondered why the girl chose not to employ her powers? As much as she loathed to admit it, it made sense that Nora must have lied about her status when she transferred and proclaimed herself sidekick. But why, Powers wondered?
Boomer and the Belfast coach were arguing again, almost to blows. Powers stepped between them again.
"Let's meet halfway then, shall we?" She asked cooly, eyes turned to the opposing team's coach. She noticed the stands were full again, the arena having emptied except for their small group who remained in the middle. Most spectators had taken their seats, but eyes perched precariously on those gathered in the middle arena. This had to be settled, and quickly. Powers continued.
"We will pull Nora and Warren from the game –"
"POWERS!" Boomer began, "You can't do that! They're my second best–"
"- AND," She continued, silencing Boomer with a hand, "You will pull your two… delinquents as well," She cast a steely gaze to the two young Belfast students, the blonde attempting to plead with the lanky boy, who ignored her and walked away. Rebecca's face fell, and panic soon overtook her features as she followed Duke. His form was tense and his muscles coiled tightly, emitting a dangerous aura. Rebecca desperately followed after him, but Powers could tell from the hunch of his shoulders and his clenched fists that her words would fall on deaf ears. She probably deserved it, and more, thought Powers.
The Belfast coach scoffed, but his gaze cast nervously to the retreating blonde, betraying his thoughts.
He knows she is guilty, thought Powers with satisfaction. If he wishes to keep it quiet, he will agree…
And reluctantly, he did. As he stalked out of the arena towards his sidelining players, Powers turned on Boomer.
"Keep the tournament going," She commanded, Boomer's eyes attentive as she spoke. "Do whatever you have to do to keep the games going."
Boomer looked annoyed, and released a long, windy sigh.
"I suppose I could play another pair against Belfast," Boomer conceded, then added, "Will and Layla won their match earlier, so if all goes well, we can at least place second."
Powers nodded. The game didn't matter to her, but to Boomer, maintaining Sky High's status in the Save the Citizen tournament was just as important as breathing – if not more. She turned to walk away, but Boomer stopped her with a firm hand on her shoulder.
"Hey… do you know what's going on?" He asked, eyebrows uplifted in a questioning expression. As much as he pretended not to know – or care – about the goings-on of the student body, he was more perceptive than most people gave him credit for. And, although he wouldn't admit it, he was worried.
Powers smiled and patted his hand reassuringly, detaching it from her shoulder.
"Of course I do," She responded cooly, and hurried out of the arena down the same hallway that Warren and Nora had disappeared down not too long ago.
…NORA'S POV….…
I choked back sobs, but unsuccessfully. My body shook relentlessly, as if overtaken by intense cold, and I slowly came back to my senses. I couldn't tell if I was shaking from the crying, or if my body was fighting the intense after-effects of my powers.
Warren continued to hold me tightly, rocking me in his lap. His familiar warmth and sweaty scent comforted me and soothed my overtired senses. My body and mind melted, and I let myself cry.
I don't know how long that went on. When I finally managed to hold back my tears and take steady breaths, Warren peeled me away to look into my red, teary face.
"How do you feel?" He asked gently, and I could see that his eyes were red, too. Was he that concerned for me?
What a sight I must be, I thought. I usually never cry.
Before I could give him a proper answer, my stomach lurched and I felt nausea wash over me. I could feel the blood drain from my face and saliva began to well up under my tongue.
"Like I'm gonna throw up," I mumbled, suddenly scrambling for the classroom's metal trash can. I retched into the bin violently, body shaking and clammy. I was soon aware of Warren's hands brushing my hair back from my face.
"Nora, what the hell is happening?!" He demanded, concern in his voice as he held my hair back and steadied me. My whole body tensed as I threw up into the bin, and I was silently grateful that there was actually contents in my stomach to throw up – there's nothing worse than dry heaving.
I finally found a long enough break between spasms to reply.
"Funny thing," I offered weakly, eyeing Warren from my periphery, "There's a lot of adrenaline that gets produced by my powers, and it has to manifest in some kind of physical form. And if not my powers, then—"
My explanation was cut short by another round, but I think he understood. Warren patiently held my hair away from my face and patted my back as the effects of my powers began to wear off.
As the nausea faded away, I became acutely aware of the pain setting in. Mostly all over my body – I guess I got tossed around a lot – but suddenly a dull, prodding ache in my left shin blossomed into my knee and ankle. The deep pain made it obvious to me that there was serious damage to my leg, and that as soon as my adrenaline wore off, I would feel the full extent of the damage.
All these thoughts came to mind, but none of it felt real to me – the shock of the evening's events made it hard for my mind to catch up to the present. I knew that very soon, I would be in too much pain to think about much else. I looked at Warren – face worried, hair disheveled, and a tiny spot of blood in the corner of his mouth from where Duke had hit him. I knew that I had to come clean quickly, before I passed out, or Powers came to expel me, or worse.
"I have to tell you something," I pulled away from him, sliding off his lap and sitting gracelessly on the floor across from him. Warren looked at me expectantly, eager to finally hear the full story, yet he waited patiently for me to begin. I swallowed, hoping to clear the dryness from my mouth, and continued.
"I'm not a sidekick," I continued, voice surer than I felt. Inside, I was scared – would what I was about to tell him change his feelings for me? How could I know that we would stay friends?
When did I become such a coward? I wondered. I wanted to hide myself instead of confronting the ugly truth. I took a shallow breath. Who was I kidding? Warren knew I was keeping part of myself from him. He had known since the beginning, from all the practices together, the cast party… And tonight, Warren had seen the ugly truth firsthand, in the worst way imaginable. He had seen me be confronted by my past and lose control of myself. Hell, he had seen me wild and crazed, a savage beast clawing at the bars of its cage, and had still held my hair back as I barfed classlessly into a trash can. If anyone would still love me after hearing the truth, it would be him…
Right?
God, I hope… I wished desperately for him to understand, to feel what I felt, to know that the madness he had seen truly had reason. My eyes searched his – warm, brown, comforting – and my last barrier broke down. The words rushed out of my mouth in a frenzy. I told him everything, and held nothing back.
Tears welled up and spilled from my eyes, and I scrubbed them angrily away. I explained everything to Warren – of going to Belfast, quickly rising to the top of the team, of Rebecca's hidden jealousy of my brief relationship with Duke, and of that fateful game. From the sidelines she had whipped the crowd into a frenzy, just as she did tonight – the yelling and banging and fighting had overwhelmed my senses and caused me to lose control (I wasn't as skilled at controlling them then as I was now, I explained, although tonight's events would testify otherwise). Of my expulsion from Belfast, and my swift and final break-up with my two friends.
I went on, my voice becoming more frantic as I rushed to finish the story. The pain was getting worse now. Warren sat patiently as I poured myself out, his expression guarded but eyes attentive. They were on me constantly, and if I hadn't shared so much of my life – good and bad – with him already, I would've shied away from his intense gaze.
"My parents sent me here," I stumbled through the words, "And I – I lied on my transcript. I told them I was a sidekick, and I know it was wrong," I was aware that Will and Layla were still standing in the hall, probably eavesdropping. What did it matter, I figured? By the end of the night, the whole school would probably know the whole story anyways (or some version of it, at least).
"It was wrong to lie and it wasn't really a way to cope with what happened. I was just hiding from it, I guess. But I- I didn't mean to lie to you. I mean, I did, just like I meant to lie to everyone else. But I…" My voice trailed off. I was losing my train of thought. I groaned – half exasperation, half pain – and rested my face on the palms of my hands.
"I knew everything was going to go to shit," I mumbled quietly. "I knew it was going to… to blow up in my face someday. Honestly, I'm surprised I pulled it off this long!" I threw my head back and laughed bitterly, suddenly humored at the irony of it all. I cast my gaze around the room, avoiding Warren.
"I just wish it wasn't tonight," I finished. The room lay quiet for a moment. I waited for Warren to reply, but when he was silent, I chanced a glance at his face.
His features looked pained, brow furrowed and eyes boring into me. He seemed so uncertain. I laughed nervously.
"I understand if this all comes as a shock," I offered lamely, wishing there was something I could do to break this tension, and to make things return to the way they were before.
Warren, hesitantly, began to speak.
"I… think I do understand," He started, his intense gaze breaking away from mine to study his own hands in his lap. His view drifted to the tattoos on his arms, peeking out from behind his gloves. "About not wanting to be a hero, I mean. I opted out of that by becoming a villain instead, but I think the way you did it is much smarter." He smiled at the ground, one corner of his mouth pulling into a lopsided grin. It quickly fell off his face.
"But I'm not so sure, anymore… about you."
My heart stopped and my stomach lurched. I felt like throwing up again but held myself in control as he continued.
"I just feel like, right now, I don't… really know who you are, Nora."
The words, barely more than a whisper, hurt me more than anything else that night. Grief flooded my heart, but I tamped it down with resolve, swallowing the pain his words had dealt.
I deserve this, I thought.
"I'm sorry, Warren," I whispered back. I didn't feel like I had any right to ask him to forgive me, so I didn't. I, too, turned my head down to study the linoleum floor.
"Right now I probably seem like a… stranger, to you," I admitted, "You can have as much space as you need."
God knows, he deserves at least that much…
My eyes traced the patterns on the floor, avoiding the pain spreading like fire in my leg. I looked up to Warren, voice soft and pleading.
"... But I'll always be your partner," I smiled softly, feeling more insecure now than I ever had since I came to this school. Noting the blood still pooled at the corner of his mouth, I reached a hand idly up to wipe it away. To my surprise, Warren's hand came to meet mine and cradled it, leaning his face into my palm. His eyes were closed. His skin on my palm was warm and my heart stopped again.
Warren's eyes opened halfway, and dark eyes – uncertain– searched my face from behind thick lashes.
He's really beautiful…
Warren leaned forward, slowly bring his face closer to mine. For a moment, I thought he might kiss me. I closed my eyes, too scared to move…
But he placed his hand on my injured leg as he leant, his body weight shifting onto it unintentionally.
I let out a scream, eyes flying open. Warren fell back in alarm as I clutched at my bad leg, and the door flew open as Will and Layla burst in (so they were eavesdropping, I later recalled).
"What's happening?!" Will demanded.
My eyes were squeezed shut in pain, arms wrapped protectively around the bad leg as I clutched it to my chest. I gasped out a ragged breath and opened my eyes. Ignoring Will and Layla, I turned again to Warren, searching his expression.
He moved too fast for me to come up with something witty to say. Suddenly we were standing, and he was striding towards the door with me in his arms. I stuttered lamely.
"I'm taking you to Spex's office," He muttered through clenched teeth. His muscles were tense and his skin was starting to feel hot again, and I hesitated to argue that I could walk by myself – which I couldn't. He marched brusquely past Will and Layla, not stopping to address them. Will stuttered as Warren ignored his presence and somehow, that made me feel a bit better.
I remained quiet, not daring to comment for fear of what it might trigger. Instead I settled against Warren's chest and resigned myself to be carried down the hallway, the rhythmic rocking soothing my overtired mind. I set my mouth in a grim line.
There wasn't anything else I could do but let the rest of the night unfold.
….
Thanks for reading! I hope you guys enjoyed the update. As for the chapter title, I'm reading a book right now where the main character speaks a lot of latin. There was no specific chapter name that jumped out at me, so I took a little inspo from my book!
Again, sorry if the formatting comes out weird, but I hope you all enjoyed. : ) See you soon!