Gwen left them at the gym and the group looked around in confusion. A bright star shot over their heads, morphing into the shape of a woman before a woman in a white pantsuit with brown shoulder-length hair appeared.
"Good morning. I am Principal Powers. Oh behalf of all the faculty and staff, welcome to Sky High."
"Yeah! Woo!" Zach explained before I nudged him to quiet him down, as the rest of the people in the room were staring at him for his large level of enthusiasm.
"In a few moments you will go through Power Placement and your own heroic journey will begin."
"'Power Placement'?" Will gulped nervously.
"Sounds fascist." I was with Layla on this one. And I knew where Zach would end up, but he clearly didn't. There was no way I was doing this school year without him.
"Power Placement: it's how they decide where you go," the orange kid whose name I had discovered was Ethan explained.
"The hero track or the loser track," Magenta deadpanned.
"Th-th-there's a loser track?" Poor will, Chandra thought. She already felt sorry for the boy. He had clearly been hoping to fly under the radar. She winced at her own thoughts. Yeah, he wasn't flying anytime soon.
"I believe the preferred term is 'Hero Support.'"
Chandra focused back on the principal.
"For now, good deeds and good luck. Let the adventure begin."
As she turned into a comet and flew out the door, they saw a large man in horrifyingly short gym shorts rise on a platform. They did not need to be looking up at that.
"All right, listen up," the most stereotypical gym teacher boomed.
"My name is Coach Boomer. You may know me as 'Sonic Boom.' You may not." He paced to the side of the platform. "You will step up here and show me your power. And, yes, you will do so in front of the entire class. I will then determine where you will be assigned. Hero, or sidekick. Now every year there are a few students, or as I like to call them" he leaned forwards "'whiner babies,' who see fit to question and complain about their placement. So let's get one thing straight. My word is law. My judgment is final, so there will be no whiner babies. Are we clear?"
Everyone mumbled agreement.
"I said, are we…clear?! He said using his power.
"Yes Coach Boomer," the kids screamed.
"Go-time. You!" he said pointing at the creepy kid who had flirted with Layla. "What's your name?"
"L-L-Larry."
"Little Larry," he sneered.
"Get up here."
As the boy walked nervously up the steps to the stage and put his glasses in his pocket, Layla whispered, "What's humiliating him going to prove? This is so unfair."
"If life were to suddenly get fair, I doubt it would happen in high school." Chandra agreed with Will. High school was not fair. Neither was life. She saw that every day of her life.
The wimp of a boy let out a deep roar and stone burst from him forming armor. Coach Boomer looked impressed as he said. "Car!" as he dropped a car on Larry, who caught it with ease.
"Big Larry. Hero!"
Zach patted my shoulder "So he's good. But I'm better." And Chandra knew he was about to go forward. She tried to grab at him, but he walked up the stairs onto the platform.
"Did I say you were next?"
"Name's Zach, Coach Boomer. Try not to drop your clipboard." He clapped his hands together and spread his arms out as if doing something really amazing. Chandra winced as she realized the lights were too bright in there for people to see him glow.
"Any day now, superstar."
"I'm doin' it"
"Doin' what?"
"I'm glowin'"
"I don't think so."
"Well, it's easier to see in a dark room. Perhaps if you'll turn off these lights, cup your hands around your eyes, and look real close…
"Sidekick," the coach interrupted.
Zach visibly shrunk into himself. "Are you sure you don't want to just…"
"Sidekick!" Coach Boomer boomed as his power sent Zack flying off the stage.
"You, Scargirl! You're up!"
Chandra walked up to the stage. She took a knife that was hidden under her shorts and cut a tiny cut on her finger. She focused and her finger glowed green before healing.
"That's it? Can you heal larger injuries?" Chandra shook her head as Zach's mouth dropped open.
"Sidekick. Perhaps work in the nurse's office."
Chandra walked off the stage to be confronted with a flabbergasted Zach.
"Close your mouth. Something might fly into it." He blinked then a smile spread across his face.
"Thanks, Moongirl."
"Don't make me suffocate you," she whispered.
Layla gasped quietly but Zach just grinned.
"You like it. I can tell."
The coach, meanwhile, had called Ethan up to the stage where he had attempted flattery before melting into a puddle.
"Say, that's pretty impressive…for a Popsicle! Sidekick!"
A kid with size arms walked up to the stage. "Hero!"
He kicked a girl who shapeshifted into a large bouncy ball off the stage as he said "Side…kick!"
A boy spat on a column about 15 feet away.
"Super spit?" the coach wrote on his clipboard "Sidekick," before the kid tapped him on his shoulder and gestured to the disintegrating column. "Acid spit. Hero!"
A kid shapeshifted into Coach Boomer. "Ho! Hero! And a handsome one at that!" The coach hit the kid on the but in a disturbing manner while flirting with his mirror image. "Get out of here, knucklehead," he said as the kid left the stage.
"Purple kid. Let's go."
Magenta walked up the stage, just standing there silently unimpressed.
The coach broke first. "What's your shtick?"
"I'm a shade-shifter."
"OK. Shift it."
She shifted into a black guinea pig with a purple streak down her back.
"A guinea pig?" the coach asked disbelievingly.
"Yep." Chandra nearly smiled at her cute little voice.
"Not even a swarm of guinea pigs?"
"Uh, no."
"Siiiidkick, Shoo!"
"Bite me." Chandra had to admit that Magenta had spunk. She was silently impressed.
"You. Flower child. Let's go."
"Uh, I believe in only using my powers when the situation demands it."
"Well then, you're in luck. This is the situation and I'm demanding it."
Layla stood her ground. "But to participate in this test would be to support a flawed system. The whole hero-sidekick dichotomy only serves to…"
"Let me get this straight. Are you refusing to show your powers"
"It's more complicated than that," Layla began.
"Sidekick!"
The bell rang.
"We'll pick it up right after lunch. Starting with you." The coach pointed to an obviously terrified Will Stronghold.
As Chandra was trailing behind Zach in the lunch line, she listened to him complain about his placement. "I tell you, Boomer will regret making me a sidekick. All right? Someday, it'll be dark, he'll be all alone, walking to his car, he'll drop his keys, and I won't glow to help him find 'em."
"You got a problem with me?" the coach stood from a table. Chandra was suspicious. Why would the coach be sitting at a table filled with hero students."
"Zach," she started. "He's just messing with you. It's the kid who shapeshifted into Boomer."
The kid groaned and turned back into himself.
"Killjoy."
"You're not supposed to use your powers outside of the school gym!" Ethan called after him.
The cafeteria staff requests sidekicks stop ordering hero sandwiches.
The group sat down at an empty table.
Will looked behind him.
"Am I crazy, or is that guy really looking at me?"
I looked where he had checked to see the fire kid glaring at Will's back. His eyes flickered to me before resting back on Will.
"Dude," Zach said warningly.
"What?" Will asked.
"That's Warren Peace." Chandra was confused. Should she know who he was?
"That's Warren Peace?" Layla joined in.
"Yeah."
"I've heard about him. His mom's a hero and his dad's a supervillain. Baron Battle."
Chandra looked at the boy again. "He doesn't look villainous to me."
Everyone stared at her before Layla shook it off and Will asked. "Where do I come in?"
"Your dad busted his dad. Quadruple life sentence." Ethan said with nervousness and a slight bit of awe.
"No chance of payroll until after his third life," Magenta added.
"That's great. My first day at Sky High, and I already have an archenemy. Hmm."
Chandra couldn't help but butt in. "No, your dad has another archenemy. I don't really know you, but I can tell you're nothing like that egotistical superstar."
"Hey!" Will complained.
"Tell me he'd be proud of you if he knew you're a sidekick?" she dared him.
He looked down. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
Will glanced back at Warren before sullenly eating the rest of his lunch. The rest of the table was quiet, but Zach smiled at the girl. He knew it was the truth, just as he knew Chandra would be the one to say it. He was proud of her.
Lunch ended as the intercom stated, A reminder: There is no smoking on school grounds, or freezing, or bursting into flames.
As the group, now talking animatedly again, walked towards the gym. Will bumped into Gwen.
"I'm.."
"Will Stronghold."
"Aha! Mind reader!"
"No, name tag."
"Right. Uh…" Will said stupidly. "Uh. there are my friends. That's Zach."
"What's up," Zach joined.
"That's Layla. And that's Chandra." Chandra felt honored to be included in the list. She couldn't help but notice Gwen's eyes drift to her scar.
Gwen looked back to Will. "How's Power Placement going?"
"Um…great." Will lied.
"I'm not surprised. I need a freshman rep for the homecoming committee…we could talk about it over lunch."
"I eat lunch." The boy was obviously smitten.
Gwen giggled girlishly. "How cute is he? I guess I'll see you guys around."
"Yeah." Will sighed as she walked out of sight, snapping out of his stupor.
Just then, Ethan walked out of the bathroom in front of them. "See you. And thanks for the swirly."
"What's up guys?" Will asked as if it weren't obvious.
"The kid, uh, looked a little dehydrated."
Chandra may not want to draw attention to herself, but she could easily make them feel pain without being caught. She stared at them intently and they both clutched their chests. She had given them heartburn. Perhaps she should have done different injuries at separate times. That would have been more subtle. Her eyes were slowly turning silver and Zach nudged her, telling her it was about to become obvious who was using their powers. She stopped, tilting her head as the pain left their bodies. The two bullies left…for the nurse's office, she assumed.
Back in the gym. "What do you mean, you don't know what your power is?" Coach Boomer said, negating the attempt at subtlety as Will had whispered in his ear.
"Well, uh…"
"I got it. You're messin' with the coach. Just like your old man! Car!"
Will dropped to the ground, narrowly avoiding being crushed by the car.
"Are you insane?!" He hoarsely screamed. "I don't have super strength."
"Oh, I get it. You're a flier, just like your ma. Why didn't you say so?"
The coach pressed another button and a springboard launched Will into a pillar.
"Quit messin' around. I haven't got all day. What's your power?"
"I don't have one," Will maintained.
"Stronghold…Siiiiide…kick!" Chandra could hear the glass shattering around the school and saw him clutch his chest in pain. That must have hurt. Layla helped Will off to the nurse's office.
Chandra did not envy Will that night. He would have to tell his parents before the school did. Then again, she figured that the school would not want to be the one to break the news.