Not Your Average Hero

•8• mute

"Warned me?" I tilted my head, "about what?"

"He's mute, no one has ever heard the kid speak," She whispered, shaking her head. I almost choked on my spit.

"Mute?" I laughed when she nodded, "Sterling isn't mute." I said the last part a bit to loudly and only the people around us, including Sterling, starred at me. They turned their attention back to Ms. Wilson when I glared.

"Sterling?" Amaris asked, I held my breath. I found out his identity when he introduced himself, would she do the same? "How do you know?" She asked instead.

"Name tag," I lied, "I went to the store where he works and he helped me out." I quickly looked over to Sterling and he, actually showing emotion, smiled and nodded approvingly.

"Helped you out," she paused, "as in he spoke?" I bit the side of my cheek, I wasn't getting out of this one.

"Yeah, he did," I sighed, Sterling was looking at me once again, hurt, as if I just exposed some big secret of his. I mouthed sorry and went back to my conversation with Amaris, catching up on the events of the past week and what-not.

*

Axel was at our lunch table when I arrived, he decided he wanted to spend more time with me because he knows I could be here one second and gone the next; that's what I told myself anyway. He's been uncomfortably clingy and actually nice to me in school for a change. An annoying, but nice change.

Sterling was walking by the table when someone extended their leg and tripped him. He quickly regained balance, there was a small dent on his lunch tray where he clenched his hand, and headed for the table in the corner.

"Invite him over here." Amaris nudged my shoulder when she and Lawson sat down, looking at Sterling as if he could be some pet project of hers.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because he looks so lonely!" She whined, "and I want to hear him speak."

"Isn't he mute?" Axel inquired from my other side. Amaris, finally noticing he was sitting there, went quiet.

"No," I said in a tone that said 'duh'.

"Was he the guy that came over?" Axel asked; my fork stopped midway to my mouth before I slowly returned it to the tray. My cheeks reddened when all three pairs of eyes were bearing into my soul.

"N-no," I tried to make my answer sound confident, but my voice betrayed me.

"Ash," Amaris placed a hand on her heart, "you could have told me!" She pouted.

"He's a pizza delivery guy," I blurted out. Axel was convinced that was the truth because I did order pizza, which we all shared that night, but Amaris was still sceptical.

"Bring him here," Amaris demanded, "pleasssee."

"Why can't you do it?" I grumbled.

"Because your the first person in Westlake history, to ever hear him talk," she rushed out.

"Fine," I gave in to her puppy dog eyes and strolled over to Sterling.

"Hey," I poked his shoulder when I sat down, my legs faced outwards toward the direction I just came from. His eyes fell to my hand, then back at his tray of popcorn chicken.

"You can stop your whole 'I don't speak to anyone because I'm a loner' act, nobody is watching." I rolled my eyes. Sure it was kind of an understatement, nearly half the student body in the cafeteria was looking this way, but I made it my mission to get him to talk.

"You told her my name," he whined. I mentally danced at my victory, even though it was much easier than I expected.

"He speaks!" I threw my hands up dramatically.

"And now everyone knows I can talk," he sighed, looking around, "great."

"What's so bad about that," I laughed at him when he burrowed his head in his hands.

"It helped protect my secret identity," he stuffed a handful of chicken in his mouth at once, making me grimace, "nobody suspects the mute kid to be Redux the: outgoing, hilarious, sexy-"

"-I get it," I muttered, interrupting him before he could continue complimenting himself. When I looked over to where I sit every lunch, Amaris was watching me; she stuck her thumbs up, "do you want to sit with us?" I asked; he shook his head.

"Firstly, everyone knows you can talk now, so why not stop being a wallflower and make friends? Secondly, if you come over I'll tell you what my superpower is." I winked; that seemed to pique his interest.

"Might as well," he sighed reluctantly, "before you accidentally tell everyone who Redux is underneath the mask." I snorted; being the person I am, it's something that could most definitely happen. Sterling picked up his tray, when he noticed I was staring at the dent, he shrugged and displayed a sheepish dimple-grin.

"Sterling, this is my brother Axel, Amaris Rivers and Lawson Bower," I said when we arrived at the table, "guys, this is Sterling-" I scrunched up my nose in thought, "I don't think I caught your last name," I mumbled, slightly embarrassed.

"Denton," he chuckled, ignoring the fact that everyone who is sitting at the tables' eyes bugged out hearing him speak for the first time.

"Sterling." Lawson mumbled his name, just then, something flickered in Lawsons' eyes. He was about to say something else, but Graham sat down next to Axel before he could.

"Hey man, sorry about your brother."

"Me too." Axel mumbled.

"Come at talk to me whenever your ready." Graham patted Axels back, then up and left, not before stealing one of Lawsons' fries.

"The nerve of some people," Lawson muttered.

"Have you guys been watching the news?" Amaris inquired, changing the discussion topic. Axel went quiet, looking down at his food and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sterling tense up. None of us have been watching the news because all it seems to be showing at the moment, is grainy footage people have taken off their cellphones, of Orbit in his prime as some type of memorial. "right, sorry." She mumbled.

"What's on the news?" I asked, she knows it was a hard day for Axel and I so she wouldn't be bringing up his death.

"A new supervillain," she shuddered; Sterling and I shared a look.

"W-what can he do?" Sterling stuttered.

"From what I heard, telekinesis." She waved her hands dramatically. This new villain just might be Cyrus, telekinesis is a mind power, so is mind control.

"I heard about that," Lawson added, "isn't he going by Momentum or something?" Amaris nodded.

"He attacked the hospital last night." She frowned. I was wondering what was going on when my senses kicked in.

"Did anybody get hurt?" Sterling asked, his voice cracked.

"Two deaths and ten badly injured." She answered; I could see Sterlings skin pale, "If only Redux didn't quit. He could have stopped a lot of damage." She sighed, dipping a piece of chicken into the ketchup, she refused to believe he commit suicide.

"Yeah, Redux." Lawson mumbled then looked at Sterlings' tray, "what happened there?" He asked.

"It was like this when they gave it to me," he shrugged. I would have believed it if I didn't witness what actually happened, he's an amazingly convincing liar.

"Right." Lawson scoffed. I didn't have to read Sterlings mind to know what he was thinking.

Lawson knows.