Superheroes

Chapter Eleven - Pathetic Superheroes

A/N: All those people who said they wanted longer chapters, I hope you meant it, because this one is double the usual length. Dedicated to Sepherene, who is writing one of the coolest, most ominous books I ever did read- plus it contains "evidence of homosexuality".

       _____________________________________________________

                               Chapter Eleven - Pathetic Superheroes

On weekends at Hawthorne Academy, students were allowed to hold 'gatherings' in their rooms. A simple set of rules governed these; there could be no alcohol, they were not allowed to disturb the other students on that floor, and they had to be shut down by eleven. Naturally, the student population was a little disappointed with these restrictions, and thus had found their own way to have fun.

Separated from the main school block by the sports fields, the drama studio was about as secluded as you could get at our fine Academy. An old converted barn from back when our humble school had once been an even humbler farm, the studio was practically designed for rebellious raves.

It provided a wide, open space, with plenty of sound insulation built into the walls. So long as you blacked out the windows and kept all of your inebriated attendants inside, it was easy to hold a party there without being detected until the morning after, by which point we would be long gone. The hard part was stealing the keys without getting caught, but James had already taken care of that.

Petrified of what was to come and with a racing heart, I snuck out of the dormitory block and headed through the freezing night over to the studio. I arrived to find the party in full swing, thunderous dance music testing the soundproofing to its limit. Twenty or so boys from my year were present, half making use of the stage for drunken dancing, the rest milling about and drinking. Someone had rigged up the studio's lighting system to mimic the flashing strobe lights of a club, pulsing through every colour of the neon rainbow. Combined with the deafening music, it nearly managed to make me forget that we were still at school.

"Ash, glad you could come," a half-pissed James shouted over the music, cheerfully ushering me in from the doorway. He was dressed in all black and leather, and I could practically hear Andrew's voice in my head drawling what a cliché.

Throwing an arm around my shoulder, James then guided me through the crowd towards the drinks table and gestured to the assorted bottles. "Help yourself." Probably trying to be helpful, he handed me a small pink flask, the label of which had been torn off.

Still recovering from the sudden human contact, I awkwardly slipped from his grasp and went about pouring the mysterious pink liquid into a plastic cup, James watching over my shoulder as I worked. He waited patiently, and then smiled in encouragement as I contemplated actually drinking it. Not wanting to disappoint him - especially since I had no idea what a drunken James was like - I braved taking a sip.

Gracefully, I coughed most of it back up. "It is an honour to witness your first drink, young Ash," James said, patting on me on the back, clearly entertained and definitely patronising. I was pretty sure he was younger than me too, but I made no protest.

The sad fact was it wasn't even my first drink. Back during the summer when I'd first started dreaming with Andrew, I'd taken up the habit of experimenting with whatever liquor I could find in the house. Unfortunately, what my father kept stocked was mainly wine and whiskey, nothing that could prepare me for that. The mysterious pink liquid, whatever it was, tasted like plastic and burnt like hell.

Transferring to another beverage, this one a friendlier yellow colour, I was left to wander. Andrew appeared to either be missing or invisible, as even after I'd circled the room I couldn't find him. Having talked to pretty much no one else in the room before, I started to panic. I'd been nervous enough beforehand, contemplating just how badly I could screw up being in a social situation with people besides Andrew. Discovering that he was absent from the role of some much-needed moral support didn't exactly help.