by Chara, Mina
“Absolutely, I’d just had enough.” She gave me a look of understanding. “Lisa?”
“Yeah kiddo?”
“Do you think if I can’t handle that stuff, should I even be here?”
“Yes.” she answered without hesitation. “Heck kid, I’ll admit you’re not great in front of the cameras, but you’ve got a good heart. None of us are perfect. Hang in there.”
I nodded to her and she gave me a quick kiss on the forehead before she waved good bye. She was right, I just needed to solve one problem at a time. After all that’s how I’d lived my life for a long time now. Don’t think for too long, just keep moving.
Opening the door to the dorm house was like a cold wind hitting after you leave a warm house. It was empty and icy with no touches of home, and far too much gold. I threw my jacket on the floor of my room, and collapsed onto the hard mattress. My back ached. Stress, most likely. My eyes felt heavy and hot, I must have dozed off, because when I looked up the alarm clock read eleven. Someone knocked on my bedroom door, I stretched my legs, and got up to open it. Ashley stood in my doorway, his hand half-way up the frame. He looked a little different than normal. Concerned. Timid even.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, tired, back pains. I just, sorry. I guess I lost it.”
“It could have been worse.”
“What? No lecture about being a spoiled brat?”
“You need a lecture after that? You stormed out of a three thousand dollar a plate restaurant with a slice of cake in your hand because you didn’t like what the mean old man said.”
“Point taken. What are they gonna do to me?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I’m sure they’ll find something. Veronica was pretty pissed.”
“Hey, how come you’re not at you grandmother’s place?”
“What did I say about talking about that?”
“There’s no one else here,” I said.
“Aya and David are here, who did you think I came back with?”
“Oh, good point,” I said, “sorry, sleepy brain.”
“It’s fine. I only go over when she needs me. I was filling in for someone that day.”
I couldn’t hold back a smile in the low light as I looked up at him, he was so tall, almost as tall as the faux Dr. Dangerous. This time the flicker of a thought about him looking handsome wasn’t just a flicker, the thought lingered. His brown eyes were a warm brown and his hair was silky. I shook my head and blamed it on the sleepy brain. I swore I’d been looking at him too long when he spoke up again. “You know, you never talk about what happened that day, when the Dr. took you.”
My cheeks flared with red and I tried to hide it in the shadows. There was a good reason I never talked about it. How was I supposed to tell someone he tried to use some weird gadget on me, and then we made out. It was too embarrassing to think about. I tried my best to keep it out of my head on a regular basis, but no matter what I did, it kept coming back to send a wave of heat through my body.
“Nothing really happened. Duh.”
Ashley nodded thoughtfully, and seemed to let the subject go. For a moment he flickered in the darkness as the lights of the city danced over the hallway. “You need some sleep,” he said pointing to my bed as though it was a command.
“I’m fine, I just took a nap. I have some work I need to do anyway.” I made to walk past him, but his hand hit the wall in front of me.
“Didn’t you say you have back pains?”
“Well yeah but-”
“If you’re in pain, get some rest. Whatever you need to do, you can do it tomorrow.” I wanted to say something else, but my bones ached, and my eyes were heavy. Ashley sighed and forcefully turned me round. He steered me into my room and to the side of my bed like I was blindfolded. “Get in,” he said as though this was all far too much bother.
I climbed in like a toddler putting themselves in their own car seat. The bed they’d given me was too tall for me to just step into, instead I had to climb it like a mountain. My face scrunched up in shame, but Ashley didn’t seem to care as he pulled the sheets over me. “Thanks.”
His brow raised. “For what?”
“Bothering.”
Neither of us said a word. The silence felt heavy, like I’d just let something inappropriate slip. The weight of the darkness and the silence didn’t lift, it only pushed us closer. He leaned over me and my heart skipped a beat. I found myself pushing up as his thumb brushed over my cheek, trying to bridge the gap between us. Was he going to kiss me? Was I going to kiss him? I moved closer as he did the same. I wanted to kiss him. He was nice, and big, and-
“Ashley we’re going to bed!” Aya shouted from the kitchen.
We pulled apart, and Ashley cleared his throat before taking a long breath. “Good night.”
I said nothing as I slammed back down onto the mattress and he closed the door behind him. It wasn’t just a flicker, or even a lingering thought. I liked Ashley, a lot.
“Wake up, sleepy head!” Aya screamed in my ear.
I tumbled out of bed from pure shock as Ashley giggled from the hall. “Ow! Come on guys, why?”
“Ashley said you were cute half asleep, I wanted to see if he was right,” said Aya.
“Ashley said that?” My cheeks went red. I looked over to the doorway where Ashley and David stood side by side. David shook his head, but his eyes were smiling.
“Come on, sleepy head, we have eggs and bacon.” Aya said, bouncing.
“You cooked?” I asked.
“Ashley did.”
I raised an eye brow and he shrugged.
“Come on Friday, we’ll be in the kitchen!” Aya sung.
I fumbled into the kitchen wearing a hoodie I reserved for a special time of month and early mornings such as this. Aya finished her breakfast as I settled in, and David turned on the news before passing me the paper.
In one of our first classes Coach Flat had explained why we all needed to stay up to date on the news. Ashley dropped a pancake onto my plate without a word.
“How come she gets your pancakes, but I had to cook for myself?” Aya questioned.
“Because she probably doesn’t know how to cook,” Ashley sighed as he poured more batter into the pan.
“No way! You can’t cook Friday?” Aya dropped her knife like it was red hot, and gaped at me.
“I can cook! Just not very well. At home I always just ate fast food or tried to cook.”
“How come?”
“We used to have a chef, my family I mean, but we had to lay her off, and then, after that, I didn’t have the time, I worked a lot of late hours.”
“That must have been so hard for you.” Ashley scoffed as he flipped the newly formed pancake.
I sighed, trying to convince myself all affection I’d felt for him was gone. “No one ever taught me how to cook, so, thanks for the pancake.”
He ignored me, but still, Ashley had cooked for me, all I could cook was a mess of bacon sandwiches. It sounds stupid, but I had to take a deep breath to avoid bursting into tears. I hadn’t sat around a table eating breakfast someone made for me, I hadn’t done that since I was nine. And it was a really good pancake.
A TV news report on a cat beauty pageant gave way to a segment on last night’s dinner. The story was thrown over to a panel of men and women, the women all blonde, the men all greying. I could already tell it wasn’t going to go well, and just to confirm it my team mates groaned.
“So last night we saw the upfronts, apparently they’re bringing out some new stuff, including a whole new line of photo books called Couple Books.” The man to the left nodded, and continued. “Yeah, apparently this is a thing now?” he said as his head retreated into his neck and he made a meme worthy face.
“Like, what’s up with that?” asked the first blond
“I don’t know Gloria, I really don’t,” replied one of the grey men.
“Oh and get this, the best moment of the night, or should I say worst.�
� Pictures flashed up showing a small figure walking out of the restaurant. My team mates turned, though I wasn’t sure why until I caught up and realized the picture was me. “Reporters caught a glimpse of one of the students walking out; not only that, but she stole some of the restaurants property!”
“I didn’t! I returned it after I ate the cake, so shut up!”
Aya lay a hand on my shoulder, and patted my back to calm me but the men and women on TV had barely started. “So this kid is Friday Fitzsimmons, get this, she was the one with the bomb and, uh-”
“The one in the park with Dr. Dangerous?”
“Exactly, she’s an up-an-comer, and she’s acting like this?”
“I hate to say this, but, can I say this? I’m going to say it anyway, she was acting like a spoiled princess. There I said it!”
“Someone agrees with me for once,” mumbled Ashley.
“How is that even an insult?” I demanded. “Everyone loves princesses!”
“And what about the spoiled part?” Ashley added.
“Spoil is something you do to someone you love. You spoil someone.”
He sighed and turned off the stove.
“So all I’m hearing is, you’re a princess and everybody loves you, Friday.” I said.
“That’s not what they’re saying Fitz, and it’s definitely not what I’m saying,” said Ashley.
“I bet she has some serious anger issues,” said a voice from the TV.
“This is bullshit,” I said and slammed my knife and fork down on the table.
This time my team mates looked concerned. Aya made no attempt to reach for me this time. The greying man sitting next to the helmet hair blonde, smiled and nodded. Spoiled princess I could handle, sure I’d make a joke out of that, but I was not going to put up with being accused of ‘anger issues’. My knuckles tightened and started to turn white. “Who does she think she is? How’s she going to be a superhero with that sort of an attitude? I mean she doesn’t even fit the profile. Look at her, she has to put a little effort into her looks, smile a little. And what’s up with what she’s wearing?”
The woman next to him nodded. “And it wouldn’t kill her to lose some weight would it?”
My arms twitched at my side, trying to resist the urge to sweep the table, and send everything clattering down to the floor. Ashley reached for the remote and rather than switch the TV off he turned to another channel. My brows shot up and I sat back down, the weight in my stomach lifting as I returned to my food and Happy Magic Princess played. I loved that show so much I hummed the theme tune as it played. Aya sighed and patted me on the back.
“Oh my God, Happy Magic Princess, I love that show! How did you know?”
“It was on your Hero High application form. There’s a box at the bottom that says, ‘describe yourself’. And rather than do that, you just wrote ‘Happy Magic Princess’ and did a doodle of the main character. It was in your file.”
“Huh? I do not remember doing that, but that does sound like me,” I admitted.
“Now I know how to calm you down. Cook for you, and put Happy Magic Princess on.”
“You’re not wrong Ang, you’re not wrong.”
✰✰✰
Coach Flat greeted us in the middle of the mall, surrounded by a camera crew. Outfits were immediately thrown into our arms, and as soon as they were on we were ushered onto one of the large busses striped with adverts and the Hero High logo. I could hear Veronica grumbling at someone below us, but couldn’t make out what it was she was saying. The handlers booths were covered with snacks, drinks and various types of communicator, from ear buds colored in various tones of flesh to tracking devices.
“Hey Aya what’s this?” I asked.
“Not sure. Invisible earbuds for on site extras maybe?”
The lights on the bus spun out of control the same way they had when I’d been with Lisa and Barney and Jake’s voice cut in. “Super villain downtown.”
I rushed down the stairs behind my teammates, and Veronica dashed to the panels of handlers all scanning their computers for a picture of the villain in question. A shaky camera showed up on all the screen’s showing a short man clad in layers of thick wool standing on top of a building.
“Short Fuse, veteran super villain. His power’s referred to as Explosive Excretion.” I nodded along with the rest of my team as they received the same information from their handlers. I tapped my phone, and slipped on my mask with everyone else.
Coach Flat turned to us, and straightened his shoulders. “Alright kids, get out there, don’t die if you want to live.”
“We’re not there yet,” said David.
“What did you think? We’d drive you to the front door in our big Hero bus?” replied Veronica.
I jumped out of the bus as Aya was pushed out the door by Coach Flat and it slammed in her face. I looked down to find my bike hanging under the bus.
“You have a bike?” exclaimed David.
“Of course. Don’t you guys have one?”
“No.”
“Oh, well you’re gonna need one. You can ride with me.”
“You know how to drive?”
“Of course I know how to-“
Ashley slowly wheeled a bike of his own from behind the bus. His was much the same as mine, save for the stealth black paint job, the matte modern metal I suspected was carbon fiber, and the more aerodynamic appearance. I had a junker motor bike, he had a million dollar motor cycle. He looked back at the rest of us in silence. “The more fans you have Fitz, the better the equipment.”
“Then why don’t Aya and David have bikes?” I asked.
“They didn’t ask.”
Aya raised a finger to protest, and then decided against it as she pressed her finger to her communicator, and mumbled something to her handler. She ran to the other side of the road, and raised her hand with something in it. “Last one there’s a rotten apple!” she said as she threw a metal ball into the air and my eyes followed it like a dog. When I looked back to ask her why she’d done that, she was gone.
David waved a hand at me, signaling me to hurry up as Ashley climbed onto his stupid stealth bike. I handed a helmet to David and he wrapped his arms around me. Unlike Jake, he didn’t seem to have any qualms about letting me drive. Ashley tore away in a flash, his engine like a lion’s roar, whereas my bike clattered into life sounding more like a toy airplane.
We were the last to get there. Aya stood at the bottom of the building, already holding the same metal ball in her hand, and readying for another throw. Ashley had stopped at the bottom of the building and I kicked my bike up onto the sidewalk just as he took off his helmet. David got off my bike so fast he knocked it over. I leaned over to pick it up while the drivers behind us yelled curse words for blocking the road. I kicked the bikes stand up just as Ashley’s gadget belt stuck itself to the side of the building. Ashley was already climbing the side, Aya had just thrown her metal ball and disappeared into it and David almost slid up the glass sides with the aid of sticky boots.
“Jake?” I asked.
“Yeah?”
“Do I have any gadgets that help me scale buildings?”
“Nope.”
“Well okay then.”
I blew a stand of hair out of my eyes and walked straight through the front door of the office building. The cameraman followed me in, all excited as though he’d been told I’d come up with an ingenious way to get to the roof. Instead I called the elevator. It was very dramatic. I was sure the editing team would put a choir over it all, and the ping of the doors would sound like the gong before a fight to the death. The cameraman stood frozen for a moment as I turned facing outwards in the elevator; I shrugged and he shrugged back before joining me inside. The doors closed and gentle piano music played. I spied a chocolate bar in his pocket and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Hey, buddy? You gonna finish that?”
The camera turned all of a sudden. It was much too big for the elevator.
“You get that I’m filming this, right?” he said.
“Yeah? So? I’m just asking if you’re going to finish your chocolate bar. Jeez.”
“Go ahead.”
“Really?” I said, trying to hide the pure joy in my voice, “thanks, man.” I picked the chocolate from his pocket, feeling almost guilty, so I broke off a row of squares and set it back in his shirt pocket. “Where’s the other guy? The cameraman who was following me when the Dr., you know?”
“He asked for a transfer, he’s filming pre planned stuff,” he replied, swinging his camera round again.
“Why?”
“Don’t know. Guess he felt bad for running.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but the elevator doors pinged again, and the music stopped all too abruptly. Men and women still sat at their desks in the building, seemingly unfazed by the super villain above them. A few people with headsets turned to look at me as I walked down the aisles of cubicles. “Does anyone know where the stairs to the roof are!?”
A man ssh’d me from his desk, and shook his head.
“Sorry for shouting. Sorry.”
A woman silently pointed to a green sign.
“Oh, thank you! I mean, thank you. Sorry again.” I back tracked to the office kitchen, and had a quick look inside their fridge for something to wash down the lingering taste of sugar. I pulled out a can of cola and left a five dollar note in its place before cracking it open. I pressed the bar to open the exit doors, and held the door open for Kevin, my cameraman. My team mates had probably got rid of Short Fuse, for all I knew they were tying him up at that very moment. There were five more flights of stairs between me and the door labeled ‘exit’; I pushed it open without delay, and burst onto the roof like the cool aid man.
“I’m here! What- What did I- Ugh. What did I miss!?” I panted, resting my hands on my knees. My comms came on with Carey’s voice coming through as he presented the live show. I took my place next to my team mates. A short gangly man stood in front of us, holding a woman by the collar as Carey started his announcement from the comfort of his own bus, like the entrance of a wrestler. “Who’s this!? Could it really be!?” The cameraman ran along our single file line to catch all our reactions before he pointed the camera to our villain. They were so fast I didn’t have time to stop yawning into the camera.
