Super Girls (Cape High Book 13)

by R. J. Ross

  ***

  "So that's what happened with Skye," Mother says, leaning over Hard Knocks' shoulder now that the screen has gone black. "Good job, sweetie," she adds, kissing the large black man on the temple. "You've done well."

  "Mother?" Jules asks, making her turn and look at the two boys sitting on the second bed of Hard Knock's hotel room. "We made you a picture," he says, holding out a piece of paper proudly. She walks over, smiling brilliantly as she takes the picture. The smile falters, though, falling slightly as she looks at it. "Are those lasers coming from my eyes?" she asks him.

  "It was my idea!" Mitchell says proudly. "Because you're super powerful and your eyes can brainwash people!"

  "I… see," Mother says, a thought occurring to her. She has the father—that much is obvious, but these two… "Mitchell, Jules? Who am I?"

  "You're Mother!" Jules says.

  "Mother!" Mitchell agrees.

  "Good. Don't forget that." She walks over to their father, placing the strange artwork on the table in front of him.

  "I'm bored again," she hears Mitchell say. "And I don't think your kiss-up plan worked, man."

  "It would have worked if you hadn't drawn in the freaky eye lasers," Jules says. "Let's try again—this time you need to make her look super hot. Super ladies always like to be seen as super hot, right?"

  "I don't think so—I think she should look all-powerful, or something, that's why the eye lasers!"

  "But she doesn't HAVE eye lasers!"

  "That we KNOW of! She might have all sorts of powers that she hasn't shown off yet," Mitchell says seriously. "Oh forget it, I'm going to play games," he says with a hint of disgust. "You can draw your own kiss-up pictures."

  "But you're the better artist!"

  "Deal with it," Mitchell says smugly, pulling his phone out of his bag and tapping on it.

  "But why are you going to school, anyway? You haven't shown any abilities at all," Jules says.

  "Sure I did—didn't I?" Mitchell says, frowning. The look in their eyes says that they're starting to remember what's going on. The erratic, fast paced jumping from one subject to another always has been a problem with Mother keeping control of someone. Basically, the more random a person is, the easier it is for Mother's brainwashing to not stick. You don't get much more random than pre-teen boys (unless you're a pre-teen girl, or Skye. Skye definitely tops the list of random.)

  Thankfully, Mother has stopped paying attention to them. "Why don't you call your friend up North, sweetie? Tell him you'll be a little late," she whispers in Hard Knocks' ear.

  "Yes, Mother. Anything you say."

  CHAPTER FIVE

  I hardly slept at all last night. I mean, I TRIED to, but my mind would go straight back to the idea of being a reporter. What type of reporter? I mean, I pictured myself sitting in a plush chair interviewing people like Ace, or Cold Steel—and I couldn't see it happening. Besides, he'd said something about "sneakier aspects." So does that mean I'll be sneaking into secret bases and reporting without the bad guys knowing? I can picture it! I mean, how awesome would it be to see the super villains working behind the scenes?

  My mind would go from one thought to another, the excitement keeping me from sleep—even if I WAS exhausted from the day of swimming. Now I'm yawning loudly as I head out from the dorms to find Nico. He said we would decide on my training this morning, right? And I THINK I'm right about training with Keliah, but I have to know for sure, otherwise she'll run me off again. Probably doesn't want people seeing how bad a shot she is. I wouldn't.

  "Um." I jerk, turning and looking at Freddy blankly for a moment. "I got a bell," he says, holding out his hand and revealing a small metal bell for me to inspect. "Will this help?"

  "You're going to actually wear a bell," I say a bit stupidly.

  "Adanna got it for me," he says. "I figured I'd hang it from one of my earrings. She says it should be quiet enough for most people not to notice—that's okay, right?"

  He's not my type—he's sort of stalker-ish, too, but seriously, this has to be one of the sweetest things anyone's ever done for me. Sad when I have to say that about a stalker. "It's not going to bother you?" I ask.

  He shakes the bell. The sound is a mere whisper of a chime, but in contrast to his usual entrance, it's a start. I mean, I can't even hear his heartbeat with that suit on. With that—my eyes widen and I walk over, grabbing his shirt to feel the material. It LOOKS like jeans and a shirt, right? This is that super grade material—

  "Wh—what the—" he yelps, looking shocked.

  "Take this off, would you?" I say. He turns bright red, which would be amusing if I was actually paying attention. Instead, when he doesn't move fast enough, I tug the shirt off of him. We've got an audience of stunned on-lookers, including a handful of thirteen year old girls. Whoops.

  I turn away from him, holding the shirt up to the light. Nothing comes through. It's a surprisingly light material, and really soft! "This is really nice! I want it!" I say excitedly.

  "Uh… I guess you can have it?" Freddy offers, making me look over. He still looks slightly confused. "Not sure it'll fit you right, I mean, it was made for me."

  He actually has a lot more muscle than I thought he would. But anyway—"No, I mean, I'm still not sure WHY it's soundproof, but it's awesome," I admit. "For my future job it'd be perfect!"

  "Future job?" he asks.

  "Yeah, as a—" I stop myself just in time. "As a super villain," I say, instead. I give him a broad grin, handing back the shirt. "You can have this back, thanks," I add, feeling a blush creep over my face. I just stripped the poor guy—I'm never going to hear the end of it, am I?

  I hear something other than laughter. I jerk, looking over at the dorms a bit blankly as a once familiar chime catches my attention. My phone? But my phone is in my pocket—I reach into my pocket, pulling it out. Oh, right, this is the phone Nico made for me. The ringing is my old phone—and that ring tone is—

  I run for the dorm, heading for my room. Class is about to start, but I ignore that fact. I head to my bags, pulling out my old phone and staring at the name on the screen.

  "Is something wrong?" I jerk, looking at Freddy. He followed me?

  I look at the phone again, watching the word "Matt" change to "Missed Call."

  "Freddy?" I ask, standing and taking a deep breath. "Can you do me a really big favor?" I ask, slowly, hesitantly holding my phone out to him. "Can you destroy this?"

  He hesitates. "Can't you do it yourself?" he asks. "You don't look like you want to, though—"

  "It's my old life," I say, looking at the phone with a bittersweet smile.

  "So… I shouldn't do it in front of you, right?" he offers. "It might be too painful or something."

  "Yeah, but—" I say slowly, hesitating. I shove the phone forward as soon as I realize what I'm doing. "Just do it quickly. Nico's orders."

  "Jennifer, time to assign your first hour," I hear Nico say from outside. He doesn't raise his voice. He doesn't need to.

  "Nico's calling. Make sure you destroy it, okay?" I say to Freddy, heading past him.

  "He is?" he repeats blankly.

  "Thanks, Freddy," I call over my shoulder, stopping to feel the wind before heading for where Nico stands at the archery field.

  "Good, now let's get you set up," he says, heading for a nearby shed. It slides open when he waves a hand and I stare blankly at an entire arsenal of bows and guns. "We're going to start simple and work our way up," he tells me. He turns, grabbing a mechanical monstrosity of a bow and examining it for a moment. "This should be a good way to start," he says, handing it over to me. "This one doesn't have the explosive arrows," he adds as he hands me a quiver full of strangely marked arrows. "Oh, don't use the red ones."

  "Why shouldn't I use the red ones?" I ask, wondering why I feel a little shiver of dread go down my spine.

  "They catch on fire."

  "I'll be sure to avoid them, then," I drawl. Really, THIS is the principal? "Actually, why
don't you tell me what ALL of them are, so I don't end up accidentally killing myself."

  "Where's the fun in that?" he asks.

  I stare at him.

  ***

  "Destroy the phone… destroy the phone," Freddy mutters to himself. The phone in question feels like it's burning a hole in his pocket as he heads to his first hour study. He's supposed to spend it keeping out of sight of EVERYONE. He's gotten good at avoiding people, even heroes, but talking to himself is ruining that. He races away as Carla yells out his name, pointing. "I haven't started yet!" he yells over his shoulder as she starts laughing.

  He heads across the massive canyon, to the area where nobody goes. The campus only covers a small portion of it, so that leaves a lot of room. He'd spent his first few weeks hanging out here, since it was easy—it was also boring. Right now he could appreciate that fact. He climbs to the top of one of the larger rocks of the canyon wall, perching there as he pulls the phone out.

  Destroying it will be easy, he tells himself. He just needs to crush it—it won't take much effort at all—the thing is norm made. He just can't shake the words "It's my old life" out of his mind, much less the look on her face. He had been happy to throw his old life away—even before he'd been captured by the Collector. His entire past is something he's hidden even from his new brothers and sisters. He feels a little guilty over that fact once in a while, but—

  Well, how could he tell them that he'd been stolen from one prison just to be put in another? When Shadowman came, he was about to start his second year in Juvie. He got tossed in as soon as he'd turned thirteen and was caught joyriding in that cop car. Needless to say, he wasn't nearly as traumatized by the Collector episode as the others had been. A part of him figured he was better off.

  He shoves the memories down, feeling that old self-hatred welling up. It'd been fun at the time, sure, but seriously stupid. If he hadn't done that, maybe he could have told the others about his past. Another thing? Shadowman had dangled it over his head like blackmail. Not to mention all the silent jeering over how he'd actually STAYED there. First he'd been mocked for being tossed in, and then he'd been mocked for not escaping as soon as he could. Well—he jerks out of his thoughts as the phone dings.

  A text? He hesitates for all of a second before reading it.

  MATT: Hey, I heard you got transferred—can you get me Ace's autograph?

  Matt? Who the heck is Matt? Freddy scowls, trying to shove that hint of jealousy down. It's none of his business who Matt is—

  He digs his own phone out of his pocket, scrolling through his contacts and landing on Ace's name. He taps it, waiting impatiently for Ace to answer as the phone dings again.

  MATT: R U there, Jenna?

  "Sup?" Ace says, tearing Freddy from the screen. Why, oh why, hasn't she put a lock on this thing, Freddy wonders a bit pathetically. "Freddy? You there?"

  "Yeah, um, sorry," Freddy says. "Hey, Ace? Who's Matt?"

  "Who?"

  "Matt—he's probably from your old school. He knows Jennifer well enough to text her?" Freddy offers.

  "Oh… uh, he's probably the guy that broke his fist," Ace says. "Why?"

  The guy that broke his—Freddy's eyes widen with surprise. "THAT guy?" he says, letting out a bark of laughter.

  "Yeah, pretty sure. Why? How do you know he's texting Jenna?"

  "Jenna transferred over and she gave me her phone to destroy," Freddy says, looking at the phone in question. "I just feel a little wrong about doing it—she called it her 'old life.' That sounds really important, right?"

  "So you're reading her texts, instead?" Ace asks. "You've got a thing for her, don't you."

  "I don—okay, fine, she's a babe, okay? And one of the few girls around my age that aren't related to me as zoo kids," Freddy mutters guiltily.

  "You realize, you zoo kids AREN'T related, right? You could totally date one of them—"

  "Don't even go there."

  MATT: Hey, me and my GF broke up—maybe we could meet up sometime?

  Freddy's hand tightens on the phone and he blinks as the thing crushes.

  "Whoops," he says.

  "Whoops what?"

  "I destroyed it."

  "Wasn't that what you were supposed to do?" Ace asks.

  "I don't like that guy," Freddy says, his irritation showing. "He just texted her because he wanted your autograph, and when she didn't reply, he hit on her."

  "Yeah, but she wanted the phone destroyed, right? So forget about it. Also, you probably shouldn't tell her you read that," Ace says. "Just tell her you destroyed it."

  "I want to be honest," Freddy says, stubbornly. "I mean, she already hates me, so it's not like she can hate me more, right?"

  "She hates you?"

  "She finds me freaky—I guess I move too silently or something," he admits, feeling a blush creep over his cheeks.

  "Too silently? Actually, yeah, I could see that," Ace admits. "But…" he hesitates for a moment and Freddy can almost hear him thinking. "Want to get rid of Matt once and for all?"

  "You might be a super villain, but I ain't!" Freddy yelps, shocked that Ace even offered.

  "Not that way!" Ace says. "It's just from what you told me, he's going to start chasing her to get to me or something, right? If that's the case, she might never get rid of him."

  "Like a stalker?"

  "Pretty much. So we'd be doing her a favor, right?" Ace says cheerfully. "We've got the next three days off—and I could use a little break from the team, so why don't I come on down and get you out of there?"

  "Tonight?" Freddy asks. "Can you do that?"

  "Talk to Nico, tell him you need to go shopping for a—I dunno, something like underwear or whatever."

  "Underwear."

  "Yeah, or something for your room—just meet me outside the canyon after school lets out."

  "Are you trying to get away from Morgan?" Freddy asks knowingly.

  "Shuddup and go get permission."

  "I can't, it's still first hour," Freddy says. "What are we going to do to the guy, anyway? Are you going to give him your autograph?"

  "Freddy," Ace says, "I'm an illusionist."

  "Yeah, but—"

  "I'm hanging up now."

  "Come on, Ace—at least give me an idea!"

  "Here's an idea—try to record Jenna next time she says something. Bye."

  The click of the phone being hung up is all Freddy gets when he starts to ask why. Instead he stares at the phone blankly before pocketing it and looking at the crushed plastic in his other hand. So what should he do with it, anyway? Bury it? Take it to Jennifer to show it's destroyed? He squeezes it again, making sure it's good and broken before tucking it into his other pocket. Sure he feels a little guilty, but he'd done what she asked him to! Eventually.

  ***

  Archery IS fun. Or it would be fun if I didn't have a blonde little girl glowering at me every time I get closer to the target than she does. I have a bit of a headache from all the jealousy filled vibes she's letting off. "Do you want me to help—" I start off, when I catch her staring again.

  "I've been doing this a lot longer than you have!" she says, jerking her head as she turns away from me.

  "Well, yeah, but—"

  "Keep to your side of the field and we won't have any problems, got it?" she says, shooting me a dark look. "Just shows up out of nowhere, taking over MY gig—she's even another blonde! That is SO not right," she mutters under her breath as she creates another arrow out of nothing.

  "I'm not stealing your gig!" I protest, my irritation showing. "I'm just doing what Nico told me to do!"

  "I'M the one that's going super villain archer!" Keliah snarls, her arrow disappearing as she storms over to me. "I've been planning this since I was a kid! But do they even think of that? NO! They just bring you in and hand you all the fancy bows and whistles—"

  "At least I get close to the target," I say, knowing it's childish but not caring. "Maybe you should learn to hit things before you
start claiming to be so great."

  "I've hit things before!" she says. "I blew out a tire!"

  "It must have been a whole lot bigger than your target, then," I say cattily. Hey, she started it! I offered to help—you saw that, right? She's just angry, and I'm not going to put up with it—

  The fist to the face sends me flying before my brain even realizes it's coming. I grunt as I fall to the ground. She just broke my nose, I realize. It's bleeding. "Looks like your nose is bigger than the--oh--oh my gosh," she says, her cocky expression turning into shock. "Are you--I hurt you? You're bleeding--I've never even SEEN that much blood before--" Before I can blink, though, Nico is standing between us.

  "Aubrey, can you come to the archery field?" he says, touching his ear. "Keliah, detention. In fact, we're looking at a little talk with your mother."

  "I didn't mean to--she's older than I am! I mean I'm sorry--but--I would have sworn--what sort of super gets their nose broken?" she asks, looking from me to him and back. "This makes no sense! She's got to have all of her powers already! She's old!"

  "There's a reason I've chosen her to be a sniper type," Nico says quietly. "Keliah, I'm not going to say it again. Go inside."

  "But—" she stops as she sees his face and gives me one last guilty look before heading into the school building, her eyes gleaming with tears. I glance over as I see Aubrey coming out of our dorm building, running towards me.

  "Oh, Jennifer," she says, falling to her knees next to me and reaching up. I force my hands away from my nose so she can touch my face. Her hair starts floating and her eyes glow, but I barely notice it as I feel the relief come.

  "She started it," I mutter as I try to wipe the blood off of my face. Aubrey pulls a handkerchief out of her pocket and starts doing it for me. "I was trying to help her with her aim! It's easier if you understand how wind affects—" I groan, feeling like an idiot. "I want to train when she isn't training," I tell Nico.