Monday, January 18, 2010

Chapter 4: Every Other Time
Chapter 4: Every Other Time

So, how is it so far? Confusing?

Yes, it is going to become soap opera like as it goes on.


Two Days Later
After school, Detention

I now see why War doesn’t mind sitting in detention so much, it’s actually quite smoothing in a mind-numbingly boring way.

Okay, quick recap on what happen in the past two days…okay, after the big knockdown drag out on the first day everyone in the cafeteria who just watched the fight barring those that got injured now have to do a mandatory 25 hours of community service at the old-folks home. As for Donovan, it seems to just being the nephew of the principal isn’t a ‘get out of jail free’ card especially if you spilled her deep dark secrets in public like that. Donovan now has to wear a custom-made power suppressor bracelet that Hephaestus, Greek God of Forge, made as a favor for Athena. It doesn’t zap away all his powers but now they aren’t as crazy mad as they used to be and every time he uses it Athena and Principal Duke will automatically know. Plus he has to spent the next three months during lunch and after school in our custom made magic neutralizing detention room that again Hephaestus made.

While War…after Principal Duke got Donovan to admit that he provoked War on purpose and several students backed up that claim, War got off easier than usual since this is like his seventh fight during lunch. So, all he has to do is attend anger management class (again) and spent the next six weeks in lunch and after school detention (The school has a completely different detention room for those who superpowers that are science-based).

As for me…well, I can’t exactly get off scotch free after sucker punching the a guy in front of my homeroom teacher and Principal Duke, I got ten weeks of after school detention and…my hero get to decide the rest of my punishment…*yikes* (But that is a story for later).

I slumped back in my chair, thanks to having both detention rooms filled up and the fact out of all three of us I was least likely to try to escape, Principal Duke put me in a regular old classroom. Well, as regular as a classroom could be in a school for super powered teens. There is a whiteboard, a map of the US, a globe, etc…along with those uncomfortable chair/desk things that make it hard to put all your supplies on the desk. Anyway, Mr. Bruce, the superhero ethics teacher, is supposed to be my detention monitor but he always steps out to have a quickie with Health Ed teacher, Ms. Fisher in the janitor’s closest three doors down. (Ironic, isn’t it?)

Basically I probably could escape at anytime but really what is the point?

Suddenly, the door cracks open and Willow steps in. I straightened up in my chair; we haven’t seen each other for the past two days. And behind her is Principal Duke, arms crossed and fingers tapping on her own elbow, “Ms. Williams, please have a seat. Congratulations Mr. Armstrong, you will now have company after school for the next three weeks. I presume that Mr. Bruce will be back any minute?”

With that Principal Duke closes the door behind her, leaving the two of us all alone for the first time in ages. Ever, since the end of freshman year Willow and I haven’t spoken for almost a year and a half.

You see, it happened like this, Willow was actually sort of dating War at the time. She was serious but as it turned out War was only using her to get to me. Originally he had a grudge against me for what my dad did to his dad and he had hoped to use her against me. But than something wonderful happen between us, we fall in love or rather he fall in love with me since from the first day I met him I was already a little in love with him. So, any way we got together secretly, War kept putting off telling Willow, not that I was any better. The coward in me had won over my common sense…in the end, Willow headed up finding out about us when at the end of the year pool party I threw, she walked into the cabana to change and found us…me on my knees blowing War as stood against the wall for support.

I didn’t blame her for not talking to me, after that but I never knew…

“Donovan was wrong you know,” Willow broke the silence. She kept her eyes down but she choose to sit in the desk next to me, “I wasn’t three weeks along it was more like seven or eight, and it was a ectopic pregnancy, so no matter what I would have lost the baby anyways.”

Willow let out a small sob, “I knew I was pregnant but didn’t know that the baby was in my Fallopian tubes. Something didn’t seem right but I thought it was just me being a scared fourteen-year-old girl…. It happened at night, I was sleeping in bed when suddenly I felt extreme pain and will I turned on my light there was blood all over my bed. I remember screaming, than my parents came…they took me to the hospital…apparently I had ruptured…I almost died and…the doctors in order to save my life…they had to do surgery…and now I may never be able to have a baby ever.”

With that, Willow suddenly broke down she covered her face with her hands as she cried so hard my heart broke. Instinctively I reached over and took her into my arms. She let me. Just crying into my shoulder. I cradled her as I would a child. I could feel the walls around us tumble, we may be thousands of miles up in the air but the campus was built on soil.

She cried in my arms for a full twenty minutes before, “Lance, I never blamed you for you and War…it was just…after my parents took me to the hospital and my dad…you know that I have always been daddy’s little girl, but after he found out…he hasn’t been able to look at me since…I never told him about War…”
I knew how painful that must be for her, unlike my own relationship with my father. Willow was really close to her dad and to have that change must have been heart breaking, “I lost my baby, my dad wouldn’t even look me in the eye… I never even had a chance to tell War but he was already moving on, and you my best friend was so busy with …I felt so alone and well, I wanted to be alone. So, I just started pushing everyone away. Especially you…”

I closed my eyes and squeezed Willow in a tight hug, I felt tears fall from my eyes. For the past months I had been wrecking my mind trying to find out what I did, now all I knew all the men in Willow’s life abandoned her at the same time…

Gasp

Willow pull out of my arms, she gently touch my tear-stained cheeks. When she moved her fingers from my face they were bloodstained. “Lance…your tears.”

You see one of my quirks is that I cry blood, which is why I got out of my way to never cry in front of people. I avert my eyes, “Yeah, its one of the weird things that I do. I cry blood.”

Willow is quiet for a moment, than lets out a snort/sob, “What a pair we are.”

I chuckled too I knew what she meant. We aren’t the same as we used to be and things between us weren’t okay. But we were trying.

“So, what brings you to my neck of the woods, little girl?”

She lets out another snort, “You know the Queen Bee, right? Let’s just say she accidentally step into some quicksand and ended up neck deep in the mud after making some less than polite comments about ‘how girls who give it up on the first day get what they deserve.’ Plus she made a couple of cracks about how ‘girls need strong role models and hoes aren’t what they should look up to.”

I hissed. ‘Bitch.’

Yeah, I knew the Queen Bee, every high school has one, and you know the type. She is clichéd evil head cheerleader/Homecoming Queen/A-lister in school that you see in all the teen movies. You know the Mean Girl. Queen Bee aka Callisto Jones-Hart, a
Barbie doll look-alike with blond hair and boobs, she’d had everything except personality, compassion, and heart. Self-absorb, a Grade A bitch, she was a less powerful, not as fine, as well as dumber female version of Donovan. Which just shows how small the school must be to have her as our Queen Bee though I admit she has an awesome power. Too bad, she lacks the brains to put it to good use. She has the power of transmogrification; basically she can turn one object into another just by concentrating on what she wants. Unfortunately that means turning bubble gum wrappers into Prada and Coach bags, milk cartons into Gucci boots, etc…Basically, she is just a pretty dumb blonde that lucked out on the power gene. We used to have a very creative Queen Bee, sure, it turned out that she was truly evil. Our freshman year, we found out that our Student Body President was actually the Evil Death Goddess Nemesis masquerading as a high school senior and she planned on bringing the apocalypse forth. Long story short, it took War, Jamie, Derrick, Lydia, Willow, and I to take her down. We got hailed as heroes for a while but this is high school and teens have short memories, plus the sophomore year, my dad’s protégé, Scotty Rogers came along.

In the end, Willow and I talked the rest of detention. It was nice just like old times when we could tell each other everything. Though there was still some tension in the air, I knew we could work it out eventually.

*********

After two hours, Mr. Bruce with his hair disheveled and his neck covered in hickies came back in and let us go.

As soon as we stepped out the door, I heard a voice call out.

“Willow!”

We both turn around Scotty was walking toward us. I should mention right now, in addition to being my dad’s protégé he is also Willow’s new boyfriend who by all accounts is a great catch: gorgeous, smart, thoughtful, and most of all loyal.

Within seconds, Willow and Scotty were caught up in a passionate lip-lock, the kind that if it were War and I, we would be accused of being too overt with our PDA, but since this is a hetero lip-lock it is perfectly acceptable.

If I am sounding somewhat bitter than it is because I am. Which is something that I shouldn’t be but am. Well, first off I better explain something about becoming a superhero. Thanks to legislation, in order to be a superhero you have to first become licensed and to be licensed you have to go to sidekick school and be a sidekick to a superhero in good standing for at least four years. (You can do this either start this in high school so that by time you graduate from high school you can be a hero or you can wait until you graduate high school and so the apprenticeship until you are eighteen.) For most part, the teens opt for sidekick stint during high school but the problem is that you have to go through a battery of test in order to find dynamic duo compatibility and that slows the process down.

Anyway, my parents were all set on me being their sidekick when I was just ten years-old, they believed that it would be a great bonding experience and they some how found a loophole to get be a permit to be a sidekick. The problem however is that we ended up getting a 23% compatibility; you need at least 45% for a go. Instead I ended up with a 95% compatibility with my current hero/mentor, the blood thirsty Slayer, Delilah, (Yes, the once every generation’s Chosen One gifted with the skill to battle vampires, werewolves, and demons. Buffy wishes she could be as tough as Delilah). My parents weren’t happy that I ended up with a superhero that was on fringe instead of an A-list one but they agreed…which is when the rife between us really widen.

Anyway, guess who ended up with a 97% compatibility with my dad, Scotty Rogers, it isn’t his fault more like dumb luck but still it is hard at times. Anyway, Scotty is an alien sent to Earth on a rocket ship from a dying planet when he was a baby and ended landing in America’s heartland and being raised by a rancher and his wife who couldn’t have kids of their own. He was taught All-American values such as strong work ethic, politeness, and respect for his fellow man. He is well loved by his parents, my dad who sees him as everything he wished his own son to be, the student body, and basically the world. His alter ego is Amazing Boy, cliché but the public just loves him. Already predicted to surpass his mentor, Scotty may have a physical body but he really is solar-based being capable of absorbing solar energy and converting it into immense physical strength and speed, nigh-invulnerability, flight, and release concentrated blasts of laser-like heat vision through his eyes.

He and Willow really make an attractive couple. Willow is the type of girl-next door pretty that reminds you of Lindsay Lohan, not the out-of-control bleach blonde over bronzed one but the sweet one in Parent Trap and Mean Girls, you know the reddish-haired fresh-faced girl with those cute little freckles over the bridge of her nose and a body that looks like she survives on more than just cocaine and booze. While Scotty in contrast is tall, towheaded guy built like a football player, with broad shoulders and a rugged bearing. He had quintessential All-American-good looks from his thick, blond hair and clear, cornflower blue eyes to his straight, Roman nose.

Parting from the lip-lock. Scotty turns to me flashing a dimpled white-teethed grin, “Hey Lance, you are trying out for the school musical, right? I think that the lead is tailored made for you.”

Another thing about Scotty is that if he weren’t my dad’s protégé, he could probably end up as one of my best friends. Except according to Willow, he wasn’t there on the first day of school on the account that he had to help his dad round up some cattle that day which is probably why he didn’t try to pound Donovan that day. But since hearing about it, he’s wanted to have a talk with War.

“Anyway, your solo was awesome last year. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the whole crowd,” Scotty kept going. “I wish that I could sing one-tenth as good as you can.”

I felt myself blush or what would be considered a blush for me. Another thing that makes me really different from the rest of my family is that none of them can carry a tune. But I have been told many times that I have a voice of an angel. Ironically I sing bass and when I say I sing bass I mean it for some reason I have the deepest voice in school. Funny, since most people look at me, the last thing they think is manly man. (Think Lance Bass from the boy band *Nsync) My voice changed when I was only eleven and for some reason unlike other guys I never had a problem with it cracking. According to my private music instructor I have the perfect voice for Broadway, powerful, sexy, and projective. In fact, Lydia likes to tease me that if I were ever desperate for a job being a phone sex operator would be prefect for me.

“Yeah, I would love to try out, but you know detention and all,” I mumbled as I stared down at my feet. Scotty is really a nice guy, it’s not his fault I am so insecure or that he is everything dad wishes me to be. “So, you waited for Willow?”

“Yep,” Scotty wrapped his arm around Willow who just blushes and leans into his embrace. “But…I got to admit that I have one more reason to stay, I would kind of like a chat with Warwick, if that is okay with you. I just want to talk with him that’s all.”

Willow looks at me for a moment, “Look Lance, I am really happy with Scotty so please understand this isn’t jealousy speaking. But I think that you could do better than Warwick, he is basically a good guy at heart but all know that he has a lot of issues. What attracted me at first was thinking that I could help heal him and I know you well enough to know that you think the same way. I may not have been there for you last year but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t listening. Lance, please just think about it you are the type of guy who wants to save everyone around you need to realize that you need to put yourself first at some point.”

I nodded, “Alright Willow, I will do that.”

I walked away from them before they could say another word. They wouldn’t be saying anything new; Derrick and Lydia had been saying the same thing all summer long.

I quickly walked toward the other side of campus where the detention room for science-based supers would be. Suddenly as I was about to turn the corner…

*CRASH*

I bummed into someone as I rounded the corner. Almost falling on my butt but managing to grab a hold of one of the lockers and quickly went to help the guy I knocked down. But had to phase when I realized who I knocked down.

It was Donovan; apparently he didn’t have time to grab anything and landed on his butt. He must have also bumped his head cause he was rubbing it and his eyes were closed.

I held out my hand and he grabbed it without opening his eyes, helping him up.

When he finally opened his eyes, instead of quickly letting go of my hand, he just stared at me for a moment.

Finally I was the one to break the silence. “Look, normally I would apologize punching you right away but you went too far. Nobody and I mean nobody is allowed to hurt my friends. You can be a total ass to me if you want. But nobody messes with my friends. So, if you are expecting a apology, you aren’t going to get one.”

Donovan nods and lets go of my hand, “Fair enough. I didn’t expect one from you. In fact, I am probably the one that needs to do the apologizing.”

I let go of the breath that I didn’t realize that I was holding. “Say what?”

This was the last thing that I been expecting.

He stuffs his hands into the pockets of his designer jeans, averting his eyes, “Yeah, you probably didn’t expect me to say sorry and guess what? I won’t apologize that just isn’t in me. But I wanted you to know that the thought of apologizing to you did cross my mind.”

Oddly enough, I was touched. Donny was raised by a demi-goddess who instilled in him the belief that he was superior to all mere mortals, supers and civilians alike, the fact that it crossed his mind that it might be the right thing to do to apologize to a mortal is a BIG deal.

Than he went on and kind of spoiled it.

“Anyway, I must admit that I misjudged you. While you are no demigod you aren’t human either. There is a lot of human messing around in your aura so I can’t quite tell what you are exactly. But clearly you are something to be reckon with. You manage to break my nose; it took at least a day to heal. I respect that.”

I could feel my heart break a little when I heard that, no wonder he ended up crushing on Warwick as hard as he did. Donovan had been raised believing to respect only those who had the power to hurt him. Instinctively I reached out and gently touched his cheek. “Look, I don’t want you to respect me for being able to hurt you, I want you to respect people because everyone deserves respect.”

Donovan just lets out a snort, “Than you obviously haven’t met the people that I have met in my life.”

I chewed my lip. “You’re right. I obviously haven’t lived your life but if you want maybe we could be friends so that we can each understand were the other person is coming from.”

He stared at me for a while, “I don’t do friends…but since you look like such a kicked puppy right now, even I’m not that cruel to say no outright.”

I flashed him a smile, “You won’t regard it.”
“Don’t tell me how I should feel.”

*******

I never did see Warwick after school apparently Richard, War’s big brother, personally came right after school to pick him. Due to amount of damage to the school War ended up not having enough money to keep his apartment after paying the restitution. So, he was forced to move back home and Richard put some strict on him. Richard is really a great guy at heart but he had to grow up too fast and sometimes doesn’t remember that he is War’s big brother, not father.

I didn’t have training session with my hero this afternoon, so I ended just going home. Normally, my parents aren’t home with superheroing and running a multi-million dollar clothing company they don’t exactly have time to be home. For as long as I remember, I have been coming home to a empty house more often than not. Usually, I either go over to Derrick’s house, Derrick’s dad Max cooks like a dream than its been forever since I have been able to eat solid food, the food smells delicious or anyone of my friend’s home. All of their parents know the deal with my parents and most disapprove of our arrangement but they all felt the need to watch over me so they always leave their door open for me.

So, it surprised me to realize not only were my parents home, but apparently the whole Armstrong clan was seated in the living room when I walked in the front door.

My late-uncle’s wife, Madeline, a cool elegant silver-headed retired journalist, and my dad’s two other living brothers, Uncle Anthony and Uncle Arthur, along with Uncle Arthur’s two kids, my only cousins, nineteen-year-old Cheryl and seventeen-year-old Clark.

Even my asshole of a grandfather, Lex is here wearing the biggest smirk that I ever seen. (And believe me that jerk loved to smirk). Lex aka Captain Amazing, Golden Age legend, loved by the public who watched him defend countless adversaries who plotted to end the world. Privately hated by his own family, he cheated on his wife countless times resulting in grandma dying of ovarian cancer caused by a untreated STD five years back. Since than he is no longer allowed to come to the house, so whatever this is must be big.

Suddenly my parents who were seated on the couch jump to their feet. Their faces were tear-streaked. My dad cleared his throat, “Son, there is something that we have to tell you.”

I took a seat on the nearest chair. Something told me that whatever is going on is something that I needed to be sitting for.

-TBC


Well, how is it? Reviews? Please.

Is it too much drama? Or it is just right?

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