My save-dar, as my best friend Jay Mcallister had so creatively coined my attentiveness to people who needed help, zoned in on a girl with mousy brown hair shuffling away from a pack of jeering sophomore girls.
"And then she was like-" I held up a finger to cut off Jay as he blabbed on about his third conquest of the week. Some would be disgusted by how many garages he'd parked his car in, but as his best friend for ten years, accepting his manwhorish ways was number one in the job description.
I could feel the heat of Jay's exasperated glare on the side of my face, but by now I have already started my "transformation from a teenage boy to a middle-aged mom", as Jay so eloquently put it.
The shuffling feet, hunched shoulders, and hair hanging limply over her face was a big indication of the girl feeling like she wanted to be anywhere but here. Also, the posse of girls yelling things like "I'll put you in your place, don't think I won't!" was definitely a big neon sign exclaiming that the brown-haired girl was being bullied. Good work, Sherlock, I thought to myself.
Jay had started talking again, and I vaguely heard him whining at me to hurry up and get this over with because we were going to be late for Home Ec. Of course he wasn't rushing me because he couldn't wait to improve his domestic skills. He just wanted to go in early so he could flirt with Delilah Prince, the hottest girl in our school. Hell, the hottest girl in our entire city and maybe even in the entire state of New York.
Either way, I didn't feel like watching Jay throw himself at my little sister's best friend today, so I tuned him out. I marched towards the bullied girl and the bullies, feeling my confidence rise as the girls stopped mid-sentence to stare at me when I stopped right next to the brown-haired girl.
I wracked my brain for the girl's name. She was in my PE class last year, and I was pretty sure she was a sophomore. She'd stepped on a soccer ball once and the thing had completed deflated, and the whole class had started laughing and calling her dumb nicknames like Elephant... or was it Ellie-phant?
Yes, it was.
Feeling proud of my detective work, I slapped a smile on my face.
"Hey, Ellie, there's a party at my place tonight. You should come." I said casually with my most charming smile. From the corner of my eyes, I saw the jaws of the sophomore girls drop wide open.
Jay was popular, my little sister Mckenzie was popular, and her best friend Delilah was popular. Having so many popular people in my ring of friends made me have influence too, and it didn't hurt to use that influence to my bidding at times like these.
Ellie looked up at me with wide brown eyes, and her own jaw was hanging open like the other girls'. I raised an eyebrow, telling her to just go with it, and she snapped back to reality.
She looked at the other girls, who were also quickly recovering. "Uh-um, yeah," she stuttered, glancing back at me again. "Yeah, definitely."
The bell rang and the girls started dispersing, muttering under their breaths. I smiled victoriously. "Great, I'll see you there. You can ask Mckenzie for the details." I started walking backwards, but I continued to smile at her so she knew I was for real.
Ellie blinked at me, probably expecting me to tell her I was joking or something, but honestly, the whole school knew it was in my blood to help out wherever and whoever I can, so this shouldn't shock Ellie that much. Or maybe she was in shock because no one had been nice to her since the Ellie-phant incident.
"Right, okay. I'll, um, I'll see you... there." she mumbled before quickly turning around and darting away.
I watched after her for a few seconds before Jay smacked the back of my head and dragged me down the quickly emptying hallways to our classroom.
When we entered the classroom, there was anarchy. As usual. Our teacher was the slackest teacher in the history of teachers. She was so slack that she often showed up to class fifteen minutes late. The only reason she hadn't been fired yet was because she was banging the principal, or so the rumors went.
Jay strolled down the rows of small kitchen tables, doing his thing and flirting with every single girl along the way, until he reached the end. Mckenzie was also in our class, and she, like Jay, was busy socializing with everyone.
Our school was the school for socialites' daughters and businessmen's sons, so it was natural that everyone acted like socialites and businesspeople. Mckenzie had always been the more sociable one, while I, like the basic son of a multi-billionaire businessman I was, was more tuned towards being responsible. Which was why I didn't plan on joining in on the party tonight, despite what I had implied to Ellie.
"Carter," a girl called out to my left as I took a seat. I glanced at Jay, who was already busy chatting up the redhead in the kitchen table in front of him. She must be new this semester, since Jay tried not to have two-night-stands. Then I finally begrudgingly looked over at the girl who was talking to me.
Her blonde hair was pulled up in a high-ponytail, which swished to the side when she cocked her head at me. Her ruby-red lips were curled into a hesitant smile. "Hey, Chloe. What's up?"
I didn't really care what was up with Chloe Benton, but it was hard for me to be mean to someone, and I figured after a week of ignoring her after I'd walked in on her with a guy from the soccer team while we were still together, it was time to get over it and reconcile.
Chloe's smile lost the hesitation and it turned into a relieved grin. "Nothing, just wanted to see how you were..."
Resisting a sigh, I turned so I was fully facing her, and stared into her eyes. "I'm perfect. It's nice to be free again."
She flinched, and I quickly looked away. Oops, that was a bit harsh. But I was allowed to be upset after being cheated on by my now-ex-girlfriend, who I had been with for almost a year. My mother was going to have a fit when she found out my reputation had been stained by Chloe, which was why no one had told her yet.
And while I cared about my reputation, because I definitely had to, it hurt more because Chloe had changed so much since when we started dating. When I first met her, and her parents were going through a rough patch, she had been a vulnerable angel. Now she was a confident vixen. The confidence was good for her until she grew confident enough to cheat on me.
I realized I was staring when Delilah sneaked up behind me and said nonchalantly, "Chloe, I'm going to have to borrow Carter. I have a few party stuff to talk to him about."
Chloe started to say okay, but Delilah hooked her arm in mine and dragged me away to her kitchen table before a word could leave those ruby-red lips.
When we reached Delilah's table, and she turned around to face me, I had expected her to lecture me about what a terrible person Chloe was and how I had to show Chloe what a terrible person she was, but instead, Delilah's light, blue-green eyes widened with shock.
I frowned at her. "What?"
She blinked a few times before her gaze refocused on my eyes and she cocked her head to the side, brows furrowed in confusion. "Your eyes. They were really, and I mean really light."
Delilah still looked a bit shaken and I gave her a small laugh, unease surging through my veins at her simple words.
"Lilah, I'm pretty sure we've already established years ago that I have light eyes." I said smoothly, glad that my voice didn't come out shakily. If she found out that my eyes really did turn clear, and the reason behind that strange color change, hell would break loose.
She looked at me a bit longer before flashing me a wide, close-lipped smile and nodded fervently. "Yeah, right. Of course." she said, folding her arms across her chest, covering the red and gold cheerleader uniform underneath that displayed the word "ARGENT" proudly in the center. "Oops, silly me! Mckenzie's stress over the party must be getting to me."
I raised an eyebrow at her and gave her a small smile back. "It's just one night. You guys will do great. Trust me, everyone's already talking about how perfect the party is and it hasn't even happened yet."
Mckenzie and I, Delilah, and Jay threw the Winter Bash every year, alternating between the three households each year. This year it was Mckenzie and my turn, which basically translates to Mckenzie and Delilah's turn.
Actually, even when it was Jay's turn, it was Mckenzie's turn. But that was Mckenzie. The super-socialite. She thrived in party-planning while Jay thrived in parties. I kind of tried staying away from grinding with girls I didn't know whilst puking my guts out.
Delilah gave me a genuine smile, flashing her pearly-whites. "It'll only be perfect if you actually show up-"
Before Delilah could finish her sentence, someone yelled, from across the room, "Heads!"
We both turned just in time to see the football spiraling straight towards us. Straight towards Delilah's pretty face. My instincts kicked in, and I started to reach out to deflect the projectile, but suddenly, it was plucked out of the air by a large hand.
I whirled around to see Clark Dillon, who must be Superman's doppelgänger with his black wavy hair, square jaw, broody nature, and light blue eyes, staring at Delilah with that ever-present impassive expression on his face. He was holding the football in his hand, which was lifted in the air.
"You okay?" he asked, and I almost rolled my eyes. Of course she was. The ball hadn't come that close to her face.
But Delilah seemed to fall for it, as expected, because when I looked at her, her cheerful face had turned dreamlike and she smiled brilliantly at Clark. And did I see an eyelash flutter there? "Now I am, thanks to you." she breathed out. I glanced back at Clark and noticed that his emotionless expression now had an emotion: pride.
Oh, please.
Just like how it was no news to Argent Prep that I was the resident nice guy, Delilah Prince was well-known for falling for the next guy who "saved" her. Of course, she had mistakenly believed that she was in love with me from time to time in the past, as our paths were bound to cross, but we all knew it was just that - a mistake. She had what we called the "Damsel In Distress Syndrome", while Jay would always remind me that I definitely had White Knight Syndrome, which apparently was a real thing.
Now, I watched as Delilah flushed away all of our lectures about her being too naive and visibly fell in love with Clark Dillon. Immediately, the two started talking, and whatever Delilah was going to say to me seemed to leave her mind as she left with Superman.
I let myself indulge in an eye-roll.
Jay came to lean against the edge of the table I was also leaning against and crossed his arms over his chest, shaking his head and clucking his tongue like a disapproving mother. "Five days."
Mckenzie came up from behind us and leaned over Jay's shoulder. "What are we looking at- oh..."
I shook my head at Jay's comment as the three of us continued staring after Delilah and Clark Kent- oops, I meant Clark Dillon. Really, though, what was the difference? "Nah, man. That's being too generous. I say two."
Mckenzie smacked my arm, and then Jay's chest when he started laughing. "You guys are dicks."
Okay, admittedly, it was pretty mean to bet on how long we thought Delilah was going to remain with the guy, but we did it all the time, and most of the time, Delilah proved us right. The only time she didn't was when she managed to end it with the guy earlier than we had bet, just because she'd fallen for another guy.
"It's obviously going to last twelve more hours." Mckenzie said, nodding to herself in certainty. Jay and I whipped our heads in her direction and she widened her eyes when she noticed our stares. "What? We all know it's true. Besides, I'm allowed to say that. I'm always the one to clean up after the mess. Every. Twelve. Hours."
I just laughed and ruffled her perfectly tied hair, which, like Delilah's and Chloe's, was up in a tight high-ponytail because they all had cheerleading practice after school. Mckenzie swatted my hand away and glowered acidly at me, light blue eyes narrowing into slits.
Even though she was only a year younger than me, I still treated her like the bratty little twelve-year-old I remembered her as. She was and always will be my kid sister in my eyes. Which was why I totally did not approve of the way Jay's attention had been subtly shifting from Mckenzie's best friend to Mckenzie at the start of our senior year. I knew Jay would do nothing to mess up the four of us's dynamics with petty relationships, but I was still uncomfortable with his blatant flirting with Mckenzie and Delilah.
Right now, as Mckenzie let her black hair down to retie it, Jay was looking at her like she was a slice of pie. Wait, not pie. Jay didn't eat carbs because he had to "keep the ladies satisfied" with his body. Okay, so he was looking at my little sister like she was a brand new Audi R8. I kicked his shin and he jerked his lust-filled gaze away from Mckenzie's unsuspecting scowling face, which was still directed at me, to blink at me innocently.
The teacher did finally show up. This time she improved. She was just fourteen minutes late. Ah, the joys of corruption.
• • •
After school and after Jay had finished serving his time in detention for pantsing his chemistry teacher because the poor guy had given Jay an F on his latest test, we were sprawled out on my king-sized bed while Mckenzie and Delilah fussed around downstairs. And by fussed, I meant Mckenzie was barking orders to the caterers while Delilah danced around, plucking petals after petals from an unfortunate daisy, still high on cloud nine after flirting with Clark the entire class, and totally ignoring her duties to help the deejay get set up on the mini-stage in our living room.
Jay and I had played our part in the party preparations, and my back was still aching after the intense basketball practice after school and then coming home to being ordered by my little sister to clear the heavy furnitures in our living room.
So there we were, taking a break and lazing around, when Jay decided to disrupt the peace. "So have you told your parents yet?"
I stiffened, all feelings of relaxation on a chill Friday evening gone. "No. Not yet. I haven't even told Kenz."
The royal blue ceiling I was attentively staring at could have held all the secrets of the world, based on how intensely I was staring at it. I felt Jay shift on my bed and suddenly his voice appeared right next to my ear.
"Dude, if you don't do anything about it soon, something bad's going to happen." Jay said ominously from beside me.
I groaned and felt with my hand until I found his face, then shoved it away. "What do you suggest I do? Talking to my parents won't fix anything. And besides, what's the 'something bad' that could possibly happen? I have superpowers, not AIDs."
Jay shoved me off the bed in response and I landed with a thump on the floor. When I pushed myself up into a sitting position to glare at him, his head popped over the edge of the bed, and his face showed more seriousness than I had thought he had the capability of showing.
"I'm serious, Carter," he said. "You know what the risks are. The guy in Manhattan acting as some kind of a vigilante has been gone for three weeks, right after his apartment 'accidentally' caught on fire."
"Your point is?"
I stood up and walked to my walk in closet to start deciding on what to wear to the party I didn't plan on attending tonight. I knew Mckenzie was still going to force me to at least make an appearance, so that was what I was dressing for. Also, a thought popped into my head, I should probably see that Ellie got settled in before I did my vanishing trick.
Jay could apparently sense my nonchalance to this whole superpower issue he was obsessed with because he jumped off the bed and threw a pillow at me. I turned to flip him off, which proved slightly difficult because I was in the middle of getting my arms out of my shirt sleeves.
"My point is it's the government that set that guy's house on fire. They took him, just like how they'll take you if anyone ever finds out about your powers." Jay pushed, flinging another pillow my way.
I finally got out of my shirt and proceeded to put on a burgundy button up from Armani. "I have an easy solution for that problem."
Jay paused mid-throw and raised an eyebrow, signaling me to go on.
"Don't tell anyone else about my powers. I wouldn't even have told you if I had known you were going to react like a nagging grandma."
The pillow flew at my face, but it was knocked out of the air before it could hit home. Jay scowled at me. Although he was more excited about my powers than I was, since I was still numb from shock after I had levitated off the ground just two mornings ago, he tended not to appreciate it when I used my powers against him.
"So you're just going to do nothing?" he asked as I started pulling on my favorite pair of black jeans.
I glanced back at him and saw he was standing and watching me with incredulity. I didn't know what he expected me to do. It wasn't everyday that you found out you could control the air and wind. I was still hazy on the extent of my powers, but right now I could confirm that I could fly, make things fly, and move things without touching them.
"Yep." I turned back to face the mirror in front of me and started gelling my hair.
Jay didn't respond for a few moments before he let out a reluctant sigh of relief. "Well, I guess that's better than you going off at night and becoming some kind of a superhero or something, like that guy in Chicago did." He then shuddered and whispered, "Chicago's not a place for a superhero."
I ignored that extra comment because suddenly, my brain was wrapped in the new idea he'd planted in my head. My hand paused mid-gelling as my mind whirred.
At my silence, Jay groaned. "You're not going to do that, are you? Because I don't think you need me to remind you of how dangerous it is for you to show you have superpowers right now."
He was right. The Supers who had been popping up in the past decade were suddenly going missing, and the vanishing Supers had started in the beginning of the school year, so that was just less than four months ago. And according to Jay and his Supers-stalking-skills, four Supers had already disappeared all over America in that short time.
I could do the math. According to my first-grade-level calculations, the odds weren't in my favor. But what was a White Knight who couldn't even help his own city?
"Carter..." he warned me, and my eyes refocused on the mirror. I started fixing my hair again.
"No, of course I'm not going to do that."
His dark green eyes flashed in the reflection of my mirror. "Good, because it's-"
"Stupid, I know." I whirled around and motioned to my whole body, eager to change the subject. "How do I look?"
"Like you're about to ignore everything I've said to you just then and put your life in danger."
"Perfect. Just the look I was going for."
• • •
oops a new book i'm terribly sorry but i just can't anymore i really wanted to share this
i've always wanted to write a superhero story, but every time i've attempted one, it had always turned out .... unsatisfying. i've worked through the few knots in this one, and just decided to make this more of a character development / coming of age / teen-fic instead of a full-blown action-packed superhero tale, but dw, there will be lots of that too. i can't help myself.
QOTC (if anyone still reads these LOL): what do you think of carter's "white knight syndrome" / inexplainable urge to feel responsible for people & help people? do you know anyone who's like this? are you like this?
(dedicated to joecool123 for the inspiration - from his book "No Capes")
xx