Well, here's part 2! Hope you guys enjoy!

Purpose of a Hero

The other patrons clearly heard the whole thing, even if the source was hidden behind the kitchen door. Some of the U.S.A.E.I students had to hold in their laughs, but others deliberately showed some sort of awe and surprise in their faces.

Heavy footsteps were heard coming from inside the kitchen, before a lumbering man appeared to greet his new patrons, "Hi! Sorry about the hold-up. What can I—" Carlyle's eyes fell upon the redhead and immediately Melody regretted ever being alive to experience this moment. "MEL—!" His rapturous bellow was cut short, however, when he noticed her classmates. Carlyle blinked a few times, seemingly making sure if he wasn't imagining what he was seeing, "Oh? You brought friends?"

Melody slowly turned around to face her father, "Can you… can we get a couple of tables, please?"

She had given up on thinking. It was better to not think at all, she decided. From the way she heard her father phrased the word, 'friends' was enough for her to realize how detached she was from anyone else beside Nathan, as far as Carlyle knew. "Certainly, my sweet!" The lumbering man had gotten his trademark smile back. With his back straightened, he began approaching the group, "Anything for my dear Melly! Now, how many seats do you want?"

The others were silent. Most likely, they didn't know how to properly react to a man such as this. Even Lyon the most daring one out of the seventeen students here had seemingly got taken aback by Carlyle's presence alone. Even Melody took her time to try and gather whatever was left of her dignity after being called with all the pet names in front of the others. Surprisingly, Eris was the first one to speak up, "Um… seventeen seats, please."

"Seventeen seats. Got it!" Carlyle chirped back, before turning his head back to the kitchen, "ANTHONY! QUICKLY CLEAN THAT MESS UP! WE HAVE NEW ORDERS, DAMNIT!" It was no secret that a middle-aged man of his kind was certainly capable of letting out such beastly roar, but that still didn't mean that anyone wanted to actually hear it. When he averted his attention back to the group of students, most of them were already trying to distance themselves from apparent danger. "I take it you're Melody's friends?" Carlyle said with a smile, "You can call me Carlyle! Melly's number one biggest fan!"

A flustered Melody then hissed at him, "Dad!"

"I-it's nice to meet you, Mr. Halloway," Andi Ena squeaked out, still fazed by his demeanor.

"Oh, don't be like that! Calling me Carlyle is fine! And—AH! Nathan! So good to see you here!" He said to the tailed boy in the middle of the group, "Your classmates here, too?"

"No, sir, just me today," Nathan responded. He was perhaps the only one lax enough to be around the burly man.

"Well, then, since you and Melody are already familiar with how we do things around here, why don't you show them where to sit? Melly can help by picking up the menu," Carlyle suggested before tightening the dirty apron that she wore around his waist, "Take your time picking the goods. I'll wait in the kitchen if you need me!" Even a few seconds after he disappeared completely from sight, the group couldn't deny the awkwardness that formed around them. Melody even refused to look at them directly in the face from just imagining the things that they will think about her later in school. And yet, just as she thought that it was over, a bellowing roar filled the air once again. "GODDAMMIT ANTHONY, WET THE MOP BEFORE YOU USE IT!"

And then it was silence. Even the other patrons had stopped eating their meals for the second time. "Well, you heard the man," Nathan finally decided to take charge as he clapped his hands together to get their attention, "Let's get our seats."

After a few exchanging glances, they all finally moved to Nathan's guidance. While the others were busy picking seats, some were joining the tables to get more space. Nathan also managed to assist the others by gathering more chairs, specifically the ones that were still in decent condition. Of course, some of the class tried to lend a helping hand. Lyon, while busily filling the circle with his usual outlandish chit-chat, helped set up the table with the other boys. While Eris tended to her brother most of the time, she was evidently also putting aside some of her attention into the other girls. It was as if most of them were used to having social outings like this. Melody watched in the distance, still trying to adjust her disorganized emotions. But with one glance towards Kira Kazani, who seemed to be happily enjoying her time with Sirius Wilsk, suddenly all of Melody worries seemed to disappear. So far it wasn't so bad, she thought to herself. For the rest of lunch, she just needed to be herself.

"Hey," Nathan's voice broke her trance, holding a vacant seat next to Andi and another seemingly for himself, "You gonna take a seat or what?"

Melody merely stared at him, before shaking her head with a sigh. "In a minute, you furball. I gotta take the menu first," She said before leaving the guests on their own. Walking towards the entrance again met her with the menu stand from before, and on it were a stack of hardcover menus and a fully written paper that had a print on top that said 'waiting list'. She picked up the stacks, having only four or five in total. It wasn't the right amount for everyone to hold, but she knew that it didn't really matter. She had seen a lot of people share their menus with the family. Things only get tricky when the patrons wanted something new from the chef.

Looking at the menu now, it was obvious that these were given so little care as seen from the worn-out colors, and an almost ripped spine. She had already proposed more copy of a new and improved menu, but Carlyle insisted on keeping the old one. Of course, she wasn't entirely surprised, considering how bad he was at making new foods… Then again, she could say the same about herself.

Melody pocketed three of the menus between her armpit, readying to rejoin her friends. She brushed off the need to tell Carlyle about replacing the waiting list paper. But when she was only a few steps away from the menu stand, the sound of a bell ringing was heard, signaling the appearance of a new customer. Without thinking, Melody already knew how to tend to them as soon as she heard the sound of the bell. The least she could do was lend them one of the menus in her hands. But just as she was going to greet them, it was as if her body stopped completely. Melody could've sworn that she was thinking about whether or not she was dreaming the entirety of that second. But the moment she stared into those unyielding pairs of abysmal depths, disguised as ruby colored retinas of demonic ambiance, she realized that hell hath no fury like a six-feet-tall Amazonian girl staring her down from above with a bloodthirsty expression enough to match the scorn of the long forgotten elder gods of chaos.

"The fuck're you looking at?" Clara Ramirez seethed her terrifyingly long fangs at Melody. The redhead had immediately forgotten everything that she was about to do. Clara was too, too close. Melody wasn't even sure if the two had been this close to each other before. It was as if time and space dilated by a short margin. Her field of vision was suddenly enclosed in a shape of the girl in front of her, seemingly out of pure primal instinct. Thousands of questions flooded her mind in an instant, and they all seemingly came to an immediate dead end every time she made eye contact. Even imagining the odds of having Clara Ramirez in her family's restaurant was enough to make her question god. It wasn't until another voice called out to them that Melody realized that she had forgotten to breathe.

"Ah! Just in time, Clara! I was wondering where you were!" As Melody turned her head back at her classmate's table in break-neck speed, she saw darkened faces full of wariness and uncertainty… and one full of apparent unadulterated joy as it waved at them in glee.

"See, everyone? I told you I wasn't joking when I said I invited her here!" Said the fiery-haired boy as he nudged another classmate beside him. Of course, it was Lyon McAllister that invited her here. It was the only possible explanation. Melody should've known something inherently worse was coming the second she let her guard down.

"Heh! You wish, you piece of shit," Clara growled back, "I'm only here to see Crybaby's pathetic everyday life with my own eyes!"

Melody's heart suddenly got caught in her throat. Then, the magenta-haired girl passed a glimpse from the corner of her almond-shaped eyes, before grinning like a sadist, "And looking at this dumpster of a restaurant that you'd call home, I'm not disappointed even for a bit."

"Oh, that's good to hear!" Lyon responded. Smiling with an equally unhinged expression, "You'll love the food here! Of course, I haven't had one myself, but—"

"Who the fuck asked you to tell me what I will like and what I will hate?! Huh?!" The grin that was there on Clara's lips was changed into a frown full of abhorrence. The entire restaurant was silent except for these two as they completely filled the atmosphere of the room with an unnecessary amount of oil and water energy, to the point where it was almost toxic. It was thought to be impossible for one to feel completely unnaturally suicidal from watching other people's interaction, but experiencing this scene alone was enough to make the other patrons mirror the cries of their souls into their eyes.

"Well, I would've figured so after I found you eavesdropping on Eris when she was telling Alexander about our visit to Halloway's Pizzeria," Lyon shrugged, running his mouth as if it was his daily job to try and piss people off, "Not to mention, how you didn't eat any of the cafeteria food for breakfast."

Like two players playing dodgeball, the way they keep exchanging more condescending comments about each other in two completely different kinds of tone was uncannily familiar. "Wha—?! You fucking creep, how long have you been spying on me?!" Clara bellowed in anger. There was a tinge of paleness forming on her usually tanned skin.

"Calm down, Ramirez," Eris was the second one to speak. Melody didn't notice it before but it seemed like she had been waiting for this moment also, "I've given you what you promised, right? So, just sit down and order for the time being."

The girl in question gritted her teeth, before hissing back at Melody. "Serve me anything nauseating, and I'll make sure you, your bloodline, along with your whole descendants regret it," She said before stomping over towards a lone table with only one seat in them. The rest of the class didn't say anything throughout the whole exchange. Melody herself found a part of her knowing that it was sort of impossible to do so without having the impression of defusing a time bomb. She could only expect that the others were already used to having a girl like her barge in on the worst times, but none of them knew the churning abdominal pain of having her whole family threatened inside of her own home.

Melody chose to try and pretend Clara wasn't there in the restaurant for the whole day, even when the magenta-haired girl bumped her knee on the edge of her table before letting out a loud "FUCK!" that echoed throughout. "Sorry about that, Melody," Eris comforted the redhead when she rejoined the others with the menu being spread around their table, "I thought it was a good idea at the moment."

"What? Letting her insult my whole family inside of my home?" Melody said with a straight look.

"No, no!" Eris said, having some sort of realization of what she had just indirectly supposed to have caused, "It was supposed to be just a simple bet since… y'know… she said she didn't believe you could make anything decent. So, I invited her here. I didn't really think she would come. Lyon just happened to jump the gun and did the same."

"Oh yes, I never realize how fun it is to supposedly 'jump' on top of a very dangerous weapon!" Lyon stated with a seemingly very satisfied look on his face, "Especially when it is a very successful strategy for manipulating someone in doing your bidding!"

With a blank look on Melody's face, she stared at Eris who—after realizing how wrong Lyon had phrased his statement—shrugged, "I gotta have some sort of fun after our battle!"

"Whatever, alright? Just don't forget she's your problem now. And if anything happens and it is because one of you pissed Clara off at the wrong time, all of you are paying my mortgage," Melody warned, seemingly having picked up all the pride she had lost after experiencing verbal abuse.

"Not even five minutes in and I'm getting service shittier than the outhouse Kazani used to take a shit!" Clara barked loudly from her table, which was several feet away from theirs, "I don't see any menu on my table, Crybaby! Did you forget to buy more after treating your ass for another fucking swig of fermented weakling juice, or did you use it to bake your god-awful excuse of an Italian dish?!"

Oh. There goes her pride, again. After a pause, Melody took another look at Eris. She then snatched one of the menus spread upon the table, and hissed closely on the raven-haired girl's face, "Your problem!"

"Well, that's Mel hating me for the rest of my life," Eris mumbled to herself morosely as Melody tended to Clara.

"Still, I didn't expect you were serious," Andrew told her, "I mean—granted—Ramirez only came here because of a bet, but you must be pretty ballsy to do that."

"Ballsy my fucking arse," Lyle scoffed, "If anything, making someone unwantedly come by here out of their consent and letting them insult the owner of the restaurant's family in front of every patron is what I would call a next-level douchebaggery."

"Oh wow, Wolfsbane. You're such a good fucking friend. Hey, why don't you just ask Melody out right now if you think you're sooooo familiar," Eris sarcastically jibed back, burying her attention into a menu that she had just picked up Diana took the chance to stop Lyle before he could retort any further.

"Anyways, since we can't eat one whole pizza alone, I think it'll be better to order two large pizzas since they have 8 slices each."

"I-I think I'll just have a salad," Sirius declared as he ran through another one of the menus. Suddenly, he began to turn sour before calling out to thin air loudly; "Shut up, Epiphany! I can't eat anything with cheese!"

"I doubt a lot of us want to eat the same pizza," Marcus commented, "I'm feeling olive and anchovy."

"Well, I'll just have a whole pizza for one," Narruk said, looking at the menu Marcus was holding, "Unless any of you want a whole pepperoni pizza."

"Why can't we just have the chef cook one slice of pizza for each person?" Hazel inquired. Nathan merely chuckled at that statement.

"Well, this pizzeria only has three people on its staff, including Melly. Besides, all of their doughs are baked evenly."

"Hmm," Andi mused loudly, "Then, I'll just have another pepperoni pizza as well."

"I second that," Diana told the others.

"Me, too!" Kira enthusiastically joined in.

"Alright. So, one salad, one large pepperoni pizza, one small anchovy, and olives pizza" Eris restated loudly when the majority got their picks, "Anything else?"

Lyon raised up his hand, "Lemme get uhhh—"

"Okay, if nobody's suggesting anything else, I'm getting a regular sized Hawaiian pizza," Eris quickly concluded before placing down her menu, glaring at the auburn-haired boy with a demeaning look out the corner of her eye, "Everyone here fine with Coca-Cola?"

The rest nodded in agreement. "Oh! We don't have any Coca-Cola. How about Pepsi?" Nathan added. The others didn't seem to like that.

"Fine. Whatever," Eris said with a dissatisfied grumble, "16 cold Pepsi drinks, one large pepperoni pizza, one small anchovy and olive pizza, one regular Hawaiian pizza, a salad, and whatever the fuck Ramirez ordered."

"Alrighty~! I'll go tell Melody's dad real quick," Nathan told them as he sat up and went into the kitchen. With the orders repeating inside his head, thinking that might as well tell Melody about it, he had unknowingly met the redhead right where he was supposed to meet Carlyle. She seemingly did not notice the tailed boy entering the kitchen, as she was too busy tending to the fridge looking for something.

As Nathan took a closer look at Melody, unbeknownst to her that he was doing so, he realized that she was deep in thought. Under the shine of the bright refrigerator light, completely fazed by whatever was running through her mind, Nathan got a look at the little freckles around her fair cheeks even from afar. He carefully treaded closer without having himself being noticed. The sound of his footsteps suppressed by the soft howling of the air conditioner as he tip-toed on top of the fogged, unpolished pearl marble tiles. When surrounded by the many cooking utensils, passing along the black and burned brick furnace, and as his tail barely nudged the cold metal of the fryers and ovens, it made him remember a moment from deep within his childhood memories.

He was just a foot apart, and yet Melody was still silent. With a little smirk, he leaned in and whispered, "What? Forgot where you put your knickers?"

"Jesus!" Melody jumped back in surprise. Her face reddening in response, "What the heck, Nathan?"

"Wow, jeez, sorry," Nathan reeled back, unable to hide his laughter, "Something wrong?"

"Something wrong?!" Melody asked back in anger, "You're asking me what the hell is wrong with you creeping up on someone?!"

"I didn't think you'd be so jumpy," Nathan leaned into the refrigerator, seemingly feeling a bit embarrassed himself, "What? Was it something that… that Clara girl said?"

Melody took a moment to answer. She only gave him a rather disbelieved stare, "No… She does this all the time. I'm not ticked off about what some… someone who's dad knew my mom said."

"That was oddly specific," Nathan remarked.

"Yeah well, you are unsurprisingly acting really weird," Melody scoffed back. She started reaching into the refrigerator again, and pulled out a small can of ginger ale and a tray of ice, "Just… do yourself a favor and leave me alone. Unless you've forgotten, there are orders to be made."

"Orders…" Nathan repeated. His tone was dry and rather disheartened, "Right. Where's your dad, anyway?"

"He's…" Melody stopped mid-sentence as she walked over towards a cooking table, readying a tall glass for customers along with the can of ginger ale, "He's on the backroom restocking with Anthony."

There was an awful silence between them before Nathan asked again, "… Did he hear?"

"Gah, I don't know…" Melody seethed through her teeth, closing her fists until her knuckles turned white, "I don't care, alright? He... I don't know how he usually reacts to things like this. Ugh, whatever, he'll forget about it tomorrow..."

"But you won't," Nathan's response was almost too quick, "right?"

Melody said nothing. She was pouring the entire contents of the ginger ale to the tall glass, seemingly already filled to the brim with the ice that she took from the freezer. The sound of fizzing filled the damp room, accompanying the soft air howls around them.

"Ah, dang it," Melody groaned, "I forgot the extra utensils upstairs when I bought them last week."

"Can't we just use whatever's available?" Nathan asked.

"Yeah, if you want unclean ones for 17 people," She said again.

"Who even uses spoons and forks while eating pizza?"

"It's a professional courtesy, ya big oaf," Melody scorned with a rather unamused look, "I'm not surprised that you don't know that. Besides, I still need to clean them after I bought them." It was then that several more footsteps were heard from the entrance of the kitchen to the main dining area. When Melody turned her head, she was met with the sight of two of her classmates: Kira and Andi.

"Hiya, Mel!" Said Andi chirpily, seemingly merry to be in the kitchen, "Wow, this place is pretty big!"

"What are you guys doing here?" Melody asked when the two approached her.

"Sorry for barging in," Kira sheepishly said as she scratched the back of her head, "Just thought that I could probably help you in the kitchen since… you know…"

Melody did know, "A-are you sure? Cause…"

"Oh! Naaaah! I wasn't thinking about cooking, anyway!" Kira backtracked when she realized the red flags she was setting up, "Probably something more like setting up the table 'n stuff."

Almost immediately, Nathan perked up, "Well, Melody here was just getting new spoons and forks from upstairs. You might wanna come with her in case something happens." Melody raised her eyebrow in suspicion. Signaling a confused look to her childhood friend.

"What?" Nathan shrugged, "You don't know what accidents could happen up there!"

"Unbelievable," Melody said in response as she shook her head, "Fine. But you get the job of preparing everyone's drinks. I assume you already know what they want. If I don't see you working on one when I get back, you'll regret it."

"What are you gonna do? Fire me?" Nathan laughed sarcastically.

Melody merely smirked, "You won't get any free meals anymore."

"Oh, now that's cruel," He laughed even harder. She walked past her two friends, leaving the kitchen entirely to Nathan to use. She didn't bother telling him where to get all the stuff he needed to prepare their drinks, assuming that he was already familiar with where they placed their glasses.

"You two coming or what?" She said while looking past her shoulder. Andi and Kira both exchanged glances.

"Sneaking into Melody's room?" One said.

"And taking notes of her deepest, darkest secrets?" Replied the other.

Then, the two jumped up in excitement altogether, "HELL YEAH!"

"Yeah, yeah," Melody rolled her eyes as she walked headfirst towards stairs towards the living room upstairs, "You two touch anything and it'll be your lunch that is on the line."

Her two friends exclaimed in shock, immediately following her upstairs without any further comments. However, along the way, Melody could hear them giggle under their breaths, most likely because they were having their first-time glancing into Melody's private life while also being allowed to do so by the owner herself. Melody could only roll her eyes in amusement, thinking how childish these two were when left together. Then again, she had seen them firsthand doing imaginary 'shipping' as they would like to call it. It would be dangerous if any of these traits managed to seep into her dad. The room upstairs was highlighted by the window panes that were placed in a row, looking outwards towards the building across the street. The cold metal railing that boxed around the stairwell stopped just beside the living room, right next to the television stand.

"It's really cozy," Andi commented as she stared at the sight outside the windows, "So this is how people in Brooklyn lives, eh?"

"More or less," Melody said, letting the two experience the new environment to themselves, "But back then we had more car sounds outside than where we live now."

"Did they bother you?" Kira asked.

Melody only chuckled, "Oh, you can't imagine just how much they did." As they walked past the couch, Andi ran her hand through the black, chipped off edges of the leather seating and looked at it afterward, "Well if it was me; once I moved here, I would've thought about getting newer furniture."

"Oh, I wouldn't touch that if I were you," Melody warned when she realized where Andi was touching, "Nathan left that there."

"Ew…" Kira playfully said in disgust, "Seemed like he marked this place before."

Melody could only agree, even if it pained her to say it, "He left more, see? Right there on the wall. Did that every time we had a sleepover when we were kids. I'm surprised it took his family about five or six sleepovers to realize how long his nails had gotten."

When Kira's eyes fell upon one particular part of the room, specifically on the side closest to the couch, she saw scratch marks on the brick wall of a hundred jagged white lines on the usual red. She decided not to comment on that, having already familiarized herself with the two childhood friends' relationship from the story that Melody had shared. Nevertheless, it was always fun and fulfilling to see it firsthand. Kira then realized the fan club that could form and most likely prosper from this. Meanwhile, Melody walked over towards the small pantry on the corner of the room, complete with a rather small sink and a stove, with the spatulas and pans placed neatly inside one of the cabinets under them. However, what was interesting about that little corner was the charred bricks that spread around the edges of the stove and around it.

"Woah, what happened there?" Kira whistled when she noticed it as well. Melody merely laughed when she started reminiscing.

"Dad tried to cook. It didn't end well. We had to move a lot of things that used to be there, including what used to be mom's old heroic achievements shelf. Now they're all in dad's room."

"Oh, interesting. Well, it can't be as bad as when I tried to cook," Kira simply stated, giving a small chuckle in response, "Bet Larson did all the cooking."

"Don't kid yourself," Melody responded, before pointing out to a set of photos that stood on top of the TV stand. They were photos of her, Carlyle, and Nathan's family who seemed to be consisting of his mother and his father who looked similarly like a lion. "Everyone who has been here tried cooking once, even Nathan. It was only then that we realized that it was better if we helped each other doing so, or else we'd just get a mess in our hands."

Kira at first was silent, looking down towards her feet with a small unbegotten smile, "If only we were more careful with each other, right?"

"Yeah," Melody nodded, mirroring the melancholic look, "There's always a second time, and a third after that."

"We could reach about a million tries with me, though," Kira laughed.

Melody also laughed back, "Well, there's no harm in trying and trying again. My mom always said that the best teacher comes from failure."

"Well, come on, then!" Kira playfully nudged her with a hearty smile, "Let's go find this spoons and forks! Then, we'll see if I'm fit to cook again!"

"Woah, there, big girl. Maybe we should leave this one to my dad," If Melody remembered correctly, she had placed her grocery bag somewhere inside the cabinets. The same grocery bag that she had used to carry the stuff that she bought from a cooking store for newer utensils and tools just about a few days ago. She bent down and opened one of the cabinets, and immediately she was met with a sight of glossy moss green in between the dark and damp cabinet space. She must have forgotten to empty the rest of the things she bought out because she could see that the bag was somewhat filled. If the newly bought spoons and forks were somewhere around here, it would be in that bag, between the sink pipes and the frying pans.

"Hey, Melody!" Kira called out from behind her. When the redhead glanced back, she saw the pyrokinetic standing in front of a door, "'This your room?"

It was just a regular door with nothing stamped in front of it. Similar to the one build beside it. Those two were both Carlyle's and her room respectively. Each facing the couch and the TV, divided by a single piece of wall between them.

"Yeah," Melody replied back, unsure of what to say, "You… uhh… wanna take a look around?"

"Would I?!" Kira exclaimed, which was followed by a very enthusiastic Andi.

"Can we, Melody?" Andi said in a jittery tone.

Melody opened and closed her mouth, inexperienced with other people barely containing their excitement into seeing her bedroom, "Umm… I mean, there's really nothing interesting in there. So…"

"Oh, it'll just be a bit, then!" Andi pleaded with wide eyes; her hand was already reaching for the doorknob.

Melody could only roll her eyes when the two barged themselves into her room and turned on the lights. After finally getting the eating utensils out of the bag (they were still wrapped together; both the spoons and forks in a thin, plastic wrapper complete with the price tag still attached to it), she closed the cabinet and joined in on her two friends. It was a small simple teenage girl's bedroom, but not very entirely girlish as anyone would expect from the fairer gender. It was certainly filled with hero related items, including action figures, posters, and some sort of crude elementary school drawings of peoples in spandex and capes. Both Kira and Andi were still looking around the room, taking in the reddish bricks, white eggshell paints, and the entirety of the metropolitan feel, while being lit by just a single lamp hanging from the ceiling.

To them, Melody's bedroom was messier than they thought. It was completely possible that she had no time cleaning anything judging from the fact that she spent most of the time in her dorm room. Other than that, it wasn't as if they were surprised, because the room itself had already mirrored Melody's deconstructed strong feminine character trope. The same Melody that they all know and love. You could say the room had the same melody as Melody. "Welp. There you go. My room," Melody stated in a matter-of-fact sort of tone, "Don't touch anything."

"It's a bit cramped," Andi commented as she moved deeper into the room, passing by the wooden desk and her bed, "Probably because it's really suburban."

"I don't know. I like it!" Kira simply said before jumping into Melody's bed immediately after she took off her shoes.

"Hey, who said you could sleep on my bed?" Melody scorned, watching Kira let herself lie spread-eagled on her back with a blissful look on her face. Meanwhile, Andi was taking her time looking through every nook and cranny of Melody's bedroom. She started with the books that sat on top of her desk, all seemingly consisting of school materials and notebooks, with a few pieces of papers stuck in between, possibly just another school work that Melody didn't bother to throw away. Then, she came upon a leather chest, right when she passed through Melody's wardrobe, just at the corner of the room.

"What's that?" Andi said, pointing at the chest. Melody glanced up and noticed the chest as well.

"Oh… Just storage for old stuff we don't use anymore. There's a lot of dad's things, too. Some of them are pretty old."

"We can sell those."

"Oi!"

Kira laughed, "I'm kidding, I'm kidding."

However, Andi was more than pleased to explore its contents, "There must be some sort of photo albums or anything with Mel's photo when she was smaller and tinier!" With two little clicks to the metal locks on its mouth, the leather chest was open for Andi to see just as she tinkered with it not long after she positioned herself sitting on her knees in front of it. Melody didn't seem like she was going to stop her anytime soon, because she herself wasn't sure what she would find when opening it. It had been a long time since she had seen its contents, and she remembered Carlyle going in and out of her room just to rummage through it several times.

"Wow…" Andi mouthed in amazement when the chest was opened in its full glory, "… Cat toys!"

Yes, there was nothing more eye-catching on the insides of the chest but a plethora of little cat toys, complete with a little feather duster fishing line, a makeshift ball of thread, and a scratching post to boot. These were obviously Nathan Larson's toys, but considering that the chest was never opened to anyone for a long time, these toys must've been from when Nathan was just a child. To Melody, however, she thought to herself; "Huh, so that's where they were…" as she stared at the contents from behind Andi.

The antennae girl proceeded to rummage deeper into the chest, placing the cat toys beside her as she picked up another item. "Ooh! This must be the album!" She said cheerfully as she held a partly dusted hardcover book, big enough to fit her entire torso, "This thing's loaded!"

Kira crawled onto the edge of Melody's bed, where the owner of the room finally sat beside her with her feet dangling off of the edge. The two were curiously peeking into the photo album that Andi held; it had an off-color white with a collage of many unrelated things like a piano, flowers, and architectures as its cover, and two letters in golden printed cursive that said 'Photo Album'. Opening the first page met them with a letter, which Andi read aloud; "For Harmony…"

Both Kira and her looked at Melody, who was staring deeply into the album with her eyes blank, seemingly in full of thoughts. Then, she breathed out, "Yeah, that's my mom."

"Your dad must love her very much," Andi said as she opened another page, "Hey, these were them when they were young!" Kira and Melody leaned closer and saw a photo of a young Carlyle and a woman beside him, both smiling into the camera with their eyes mirroring each other's emotions captured perfectly in the photo. The woman had raven-black hair and a spitting image of Melody's face, while the man was skinnier than the one that they met not too long ago. The two were posing on some sort of table, and an out-of-focus background.

"Must be pre-wedding," Kira mused, "My parents did that, too. See? There's their wedding photo afterward." She was right, the page next to that was mostly consisting of these two in their wedding dresses, looking as if they were deeply in love with each other, with some even embracing their fated partner with gentleness in their eyes.

"That's odd," Andi said when she opened another page, "Here's a picture of your mom in a hero costume right after their marriage photos. She must've still been in the hero business even after she got married."

"Huh," Melody mumbled under her breath, looking closer towards the photo. It was a picture of Harmony in her old Teardrop costume, complete with vibrant colors and a facemask to decorate her style. She did remember that her late-mother was still working as a pro-hero when she was about four years old. It was the same when she had lost her life in battle as well. However, she did not expect Harmony to start working that early after marriage. Melody wondered if it was the same time Carlyle opened this pizzeria.

"Aww, look at this cute baby Melly!" Andi fawned to herself when she flipped another page, which now starred an entire two pages of a newborn baby still in her hospital tower, sleeping soundly in several different spots, including the incubation room.

"Cuter than the one we have right now!" Kira sniggered.

Melody only gave them a disbelieving stare, "You know what, Kazani? Next time we're visiting your parents I'm not stopping at just your photo album."

"Oh ho, okay," Kira laughed back, "And what are you going to find, Melly dear?"

"I don't know, there must be something I can use as blackmail," Melody said with a confident smile, before laughing it off as well.

"She's got a point, Kira," Andi said to the both of them, flipping simultaneous pages at once, "There's really not much besides her growth from time to time. There are also pictures of—I guess, a four-year-old her and Nathan doing sorts of things with their families, but we already know about that."

And with that, the photo album sightseeing came to a close. "I guess Melody didn't have a secret trait to her character after all," Andi concluded.

"Yeah, there's not much fun to find, here," Kira pouted, rolling onto her back while her head hung downwards from the edge of the bed, "Just date the guy already, you bore me with how long things been progressing!"

Melody groaned in response, "I told you, we're not like that—"

"Woah! Hang on! What's this?!" Andi suddenly shrieked very loudly when she began looking around for things inside the chest again. The two other girls looked at her in puzzlement. She took out several seemingly unrelated things, some Melody could recognize as her father's items from all the time he took out and put in more and more things every time he visited her room. But then Andi's rummaging sounds began to grow louder as if she had just found a jackpot and was digging with all her might through the heaps of dirt. And when she finally pulled out a treasure, even Melody could not believe what she was seeing.

It was a costume; more specifically: a hero's costume.

Andi held it aloft in the air. She stood up, just to show how big it really was. Under the single hanging lamp, a bright green jumpsuit glimmered softly. The more Andi moved her hands, the more the large blue teardrop-shaped insignia that connected the collarless opening began shimmering in bright aquamarine. The blue of the teardrop was encircled by two splitting lines with the same aquamarine color, which extended from its shoulders, and ended on its waist. Both the leg and arm sleeves were also colored differently, giving it an extra hue.

In an instant, as her eyes fell upon the suit, Melody was mysteriously drawn by a sudden odd weight that pulled upon her chest, constraining her breathing completely. When Andi silently handed the costume to her, she was sure it was the actual thing that her mother once wore in that one photo that she saw in her parent's album. It was smooth to the touch. Its exact composition was unknown, but it was different from the rest of the costume's make up. There was so little dust, probably because it had been buried on top of dozens upon dozens of other items. Had she not remembered it being there in that leather chest, just inches away from her face every second she was sleeping soundly in this very room? How come she didn't remember anything about the last suit her mother wore before she died?

No… she remembered something else entirely…

"There's more under here," Andi spoke to them, rummaging through the chest again, and pulled out a matching colored pair of boots, gloves, and a mask, "It's… it's Teardrop's old costume."

"Yeah," Melody mouthed, still having difficulty believing the existence of the jumpsuit that she held in her hands in front of her. She was like a fish out of water, her mouth opening and closing without any words coming out of it, before turning back to Andi, "Is there… anything else?"

"There's not much else, here," The smaller girl said as she double-checked the emptied contents of the chest, "I was hoping there would be some kind of old note somewhere."

"What, you think it just popped up there on its own?" Kira raised her eyebrow.

"You think her mother just left her memoriam in her own daughter's room without telling?"

"Well, I mean, it doesn't necessarily have to be Melody's chest," Kira remarked, "We've seen a photo album belonging to the whole family. I don't know, maybe her dad left it there."

"No," Melody suddenly interjected, "No, I remember… touching this before. It was… God, how long was it?"

"It must be really old, then," Kira said in awe, rubbing her fingers against the hem of the sleeves, "This thing must've gone through a lot of winning battles."

"Except for her last one," Melody mumbled under her breath. Both Andi and Kira hung their heads, seemingly feeling that they had treaded dangerously thin ice. They didn't need to be told twice about who Teardrop was to Melody, and how the passing of a mother could affect her children. It was best to assume that they shouldn't pry into that detail of her past, keeping in mind at how Melody would react if they did. Melody herself, however, felt something else churning inside her stomach, and it wasn't whatever imaginary longing that the two feared.

"Well, if anything," Andi finally said after a suffocating silence between them passed, "You'll definitely look good in that outfit."

When mentioned, the redhead looked at her with a blank expression. Her thoughts practically unreadable through her eyes. It was at this moment that Andi knew that she had snapped some sort of restraint on her friend. Kira's head then turned so quickly, her eyes were already bulging when she glared at the shorter girl, "What are you doing?!"

"Well, I thought it was her size when I first looked at it!" Andi stammered, trying to defend herself, "If she doesn't want to, she doesn't have to!"

"Wow, I can't believe you're that insensitive…" Kira said in exasperation.

"Oh, like you're any better."

"Guys, seriously," Melody interrupted with a chuckle, "I doubt if I'd look anything like my mom."

"Oh, no, no, no! We're not trying to compare you or anything," Andi backtracked, putting up both her hands in a defensive manner, "Besides, you already look like a real hero on your own."

Melody seemed to stop completely, before looking back at Teardrop's costume while uttering; "A real hero on my own?"

How could she possibly seem like a real hero? When she had caused a catastrophe to not only her class but the entire female's dorm, she couldn't do anything. When Clara insulted her family inside of her own home, she didn't do anything. And now thinking that her dad might have heard every insult aimed at his late wife's memories by a child whose father was a childhood friend of that same late-wife, she was already lost in trying to figure out how she could make up for it. Acting as if she was moving forward all the time and never looked back, but who was she kidding? Every step she took only reminded her more of her mother, who she couldn't have possibly hoped to reach. And there was that lingering memory in her mind, still fogged with time, that kept on haunting her. Just where did she touch this costume? Obviously, if it was sitting just inches from her sleeping face, there must be some kind of point in time where she had encountered it before.

She looked back at the costume. And as if time had stopped, she was suddenly given some sort of epiphany. "Hey, guys," Melody called out to her two friends, "I'll be back in a bit."

When they saw her getting up from the edge of the bed and readying to leave with the costume still in her hands, Andi called out, "Where are you going?"

"Just… wanting to remember something,"