Green Lantern's Protégée

28: "There's a less chance of the house being destroyed when Cyra's not in it."

"Yeah," he chuckled, uneasily as his mentor's words echoed in his mind. "Hey, are you doing anything after school today. I don't have practice and I was wondering if you'd want to go see a movie?"

Cyra pretended to think about it, even adding in a few hums, before she grinned. "Sure. I think I can scrounge up a couple bucks and we can dig for leftover popcorn in the trash cans like a pair of raccoons. We don't hang out nearly as much."

Charlie felt a nice heat grow in his chest. That was a lot easier than he thought it would be. He choked up a laugh that wasn't as strained as it could have been. "Sounds like a plan. Maybe if I can find an extra five dollars on the sidewalk we can get butter on the popcorn too."

The lies came more naturally now than they first did. Before, everything was carefully analyzed before sliding up his throat and out his mouth. Now, it was almost as if there was no thought at all. His shoulders relaxed naturally into his words and at times, he forgot he was even acting. If only his mentor could see him now—at his finest.

"Too bad I have two classes before the end of the day."

"We could always skip," Charlie shrugged before catching the hesitation that flashed across the blonde's face. Charlie let out a groan. "You've been spending a lot of time in that robotics class. Whatever happened to fun and wild Cyra?"

"That Cyra's still there, just smarter." Cyra tapped her temples with a knowing smirk. "Don't be jealous if I'm finally surpassing you. It was bound to happen."

Charlie's laughter was genuine. He leaned forward on the table. "I highly doubt you're smarter than me."

Cyra mimicked offense. "Fine then! Let's go take an SAT test to find out."

"Go take an SAT test?" Charlie raised an eyebrow, and the pair broke down in laughter.

The bell rang inside the school, only sending a slight murmur outside and Cyra knew how easy it would be to just say she didn't hear the bell and stay out a little longer. Charlie's smile was wrinkling the corner of his eyes and this was the most she hung out with her only normal friend in weeks.

But against her will, she stood up from the table and said she'd meet him after school before heading back inside the newly rebuilt stone-walled hell.

Coast City

November 16, 12:00 EDT

Cyra came out skipping from the movies, pouring the last bit of fresh popcorn in her mouth. Charlie managed to buy some so they were dining out in the trash that night. Charlie followed behind, yelling for her to wait up as a piece of toilet paper was stuck on his shoe from just getting out of the bathroom.

They left the movie theatres in a rush, the mall cop screaming obscenities at them but he couldn't catch up to their sprinting on his little scooter he pushed around.

Breaking through the doors, they leaped over a bush as a shortcut to the corner before they slowed down. Neither were breathing hard as they stopped, Charlie leaning against a corner of the limestone wall more because he was laughing.

"I can't believe you did that. You could have gotten us kicked out!"

"We were watching Jurassic Park, it's not like we haven't seen it a hundred times before anyways," Cyra rolled her eyes. "I was just looking for some entertainment."

"And that included throwing popcorn at the old ladies in front of us?"

"They were mean! They kept complaining that it wasn't loud enough. Well, Karen, you shouldn't have forgotten your hearing aids then," Cyra mocked in a grumpy old voice.