Superheroes, Super Problems

*2* Diversion

Surprisingly, I wasn't suspended from school, just sent home. After five minutes with a distressed Vixen, the principal figured that I was under so much pressure from the past year that a week of detention would do justice. Vixen, oblivious to the real circumstances between me and Nicole and Steele and Sutter, was angry and thought a week's worth of grounding was justified. She scolded me on the way home, which was expected, but I didn't actually hear a single thing.

The Explosion changed everything. That day was the first Saturday that school was out and there was a party. However, even though I planned to go with Sutter, Nicole, and Steele, I changed my plans when my other sister Sage and her super long term boyfriend, Thayer decided to spontaneously elope. So that afternoon we were on our way to the courthouse when the Explosion erupted. At first, it felt like a wave of something went through me, but before I knew it, tires were screeching and the last thing I saw was Thayer jumping between Sage and the airbags before we were in a collision.

When I woke in a hospital, it was weeks later. I had been in a coma with so many injuries and head trauma that they didn't know how I actually survived without becoming a vegetable. But I might as well been one because with head lesions and broken bones that prevented me to walk or go a significant amount of time without pain, I was pretty much confined to bed rest the whole summer. At first, it wasn't too bad being in the hospital with Sutter there all day (despite me telling him to go have a fun summer) and visits from Nicole and Steele. But when I got home, everything sunk in.

It didn't hit me when Sutter carried me to my room and I realized I couldn't do much. It didn't hit me when my room was full of get well cards. It hit me when I woke up one night next to a sleeping Sutter and the house was completely silent. Our house was never silent like this. And then, the silence was broken by sobs. I struggled using my crutches, especially with the pain medication wearing off, but I hobbled out and followed the cries.

It was Vixen.

On the floor of Sage's messy room, she sat crying. As soon as I saw it, I collapsed onto the floor with her and cried and cried. That's when it all hit me. Sage was gone. Thayer was gone. Dad—the lead researcher for the Hydrogen project—was gone. It was so much worse than losing our mom years ago. It all hit me seeing the so-put-together Vixen breaking down. Hours later, we had stopped crying in order to sleep (and in my case, have Sutter carry me back and get me medicine), but the crying didn't stop for months.

Sutter stayed at my side for the critical times of need, still with me urging him to go out instead and stop nursing me, but he always refused. But the month when the first metahuman arose, everything changed. To me, our relationship hadn't changed at all, in fact, it made me love Sutter even more for taking care of me while Vixen assumed the head of household role, but apparently I was wrong. One day out of the blue—the same day I was cleared by my physician to gradually progress with physical activity—I had gone to Sutter's on my way back from the hospital to tell him the good news and he just shut down on me. He said that we should break up and I should go. I failed to believe my boyfriend of two years was breaking things off for no reason so I asked him after two days what was wrong and all he said was that he didn't deserve me and after that, he no longer replied.

I was devastated more than ever losing him, but Steele and Nicole were still there. Steele was there more often than not, driving me places if I needed (because even though our insurance gave us a new car, I couldn't look at it without thinking why it was so new) and he was there for me when Vixen or Nicole couldn't be. The trade-offs happened more frequently when the two broke up. Even though I had known Steele for five years at the time, I had been best friends with Nicole for a decade. I didn't want to choose sides, but to her, me continuing to be friends with Steele proved her suspicion that he broke up with her to be with me. That wasn't my view of things at all, and when I first approached Steele about it, he shared my same platonic feelings. But as the school year began, Nicole hung out with the popular kids and hated me. Steele eventually admitted his feelings, and I assured him they weren't returned, but that didn't mean anything to Nicole.