True Sidekick - *Sequel to Hero by Day

Chapter 14 - Secret Identities aren't so secret

"I have been living this life for almost eight years, encountering things that you can't even fathom, and I am still alive. Not because super-speed kept me out of the ground. It was because I realized that I needed to keep learning, keep training, keep getting smarter, and until you get that, despite your best intentions, you will do more harm than good."

~ Oliver Queen (Green Arrow)

:Ian:

Two weeks after the Thanksgiving holidays and I was already begging for Christmas.

Seeing as next week was finals week, the teachers were cramming in as much information as possible. If we passed the finals, they looked like good teachers. The only problem? We were being given stacks and stacks of homework.

I was barely finishing it all with passing grades. Olly looked like he was getting no sleep at all. Elise was strangely alert due to her own massive lack of sleep. Heather looked perfect, as always, but that was probably due to some secret service agent or another doing her homework for her. Nicole looked unconcerned with the homework load, without a crack in her porcelain façade. Mary was, well, Mary looked horrible.

Mary had only been turning in about half of her homework, and the stuff she did turn in was half-assed at best. Mary was the one of us, besides Olly, who turned everything in with perfection. She didn't want to risk a college education on bad grades.

Something was seriously wrong.

She was barely sleeping, like everyone else, but when it was put on top of her newly depressive mode, she looked like death. She wore no makeup, something that never happened, not even on weekends. Her hair was in its natural curly state, a style it hadn't been since she learned how to manage it in middle school.

The circles under her eyes were deep, and her normally bright eyes were glossed over. She was sluggish and uninterested in anything anymore. I mean – I mentioned White Lightning the other day and all she did was grunt.

Sometimes, when I was up late doing homework, I would go to her room, to check up on her, but she wouldn't be there. The window would be open and her biggest coat gone. Mary wasn't the type to sneak out, was she?

I didn't know what to expect from my sister anymore. Something was wrong.

(I mean – she hadn't chided me on not doing my homework for weeks.)

I knew we fought all the time, but I still loved her. I was worried about her. I had never seen her act so strange.

She would only visibly brighten whenever Nicole talked to her. Nicole seemed to be just the right dose of friend Mary needed to get out of her stump.

Elise and I were in in the back of American History when one of us finally brought up the topic of her best friend.

"You know, Mary hasn't been acting herself."

"How so?" I asked, feigning my usual ignorance.

Elise sighed. "She hasn't worn makeup in weeks. Her hair isn't in a much better state than her personality. It's like the life has been sucked out of her. She hasn't asked about my latest date with Olly, which would be strange enough if she hadn't totally forgotten that we were dating in the first place. Hell, she hasn't fangirled over a single superhero since before White Lightning got his new sidekick. Something has to be wrong."

"Yeah," I agreed, "Plus, she hasn't even brought a salad for lunch for weeks. I'm kind of starting to actually miss her controlling personality now that it seems to be gone."