:Arabella:
My day turned bad as soon as my father came barging in my room unannounced.
I mean - sure - I bet there are some families where it's normal for parents to waltz into their kids rooms without a word. But in my family? This was almost unheard of.
"Arabella, we need to talk."
That's all he said. No apologizing for waking up his only family from a nice slumber. No "Good Morning" or "How are you?" My father was all business.
Ever since he became Mayor a couple months ago he was, well, different. He was always busy when he was a cop, but now he was even busier. I barely ever saw him. I hadn't even thought he came home from his office that night.
Apparently he also thought that being mayor met that that he could just barge into his teenage daughter's room at an hour too early for physical activity.
"Dad! I could've been naked! You can't just come in here unannounced!"
He tilted his head in confusion. "Oh, I didn't think about that."
Of course, he didn't have time to think about that, did he?
"Anyways, what do you want?"
He smiled like the comment from earlier was now forgotten. "I thought we could do something together today. I have some free time in-between meetings and I thought that I could spend it with my favorite daughter."
"Dad," I reasoned, "I'm your only daughter.
But it took me a moment to notice that he wasn't staring at me anymore. Rather, he was staring at a point over my shoulder. Was I that boring to him?
Then Connor spoke. "Hey, Arabella, I hope you don't mind, I-"
I'm pretty sure that was the moment that we all fully registered the situation at hand.
Connor had walked out of my bathroom in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist and my extra toothbrush hanging limp form his mouth. The covers on my bed were on the floor, thrown off during my nightmare last night. And, to top it all off, my earlier comment about being naked if my father had barged into the room at the wrong time didn't help.
(Also, I couldn't say that Connor's abs didn't look to bad without a shirt on.)
It didn't take an idiot for someone to piece together the clues in the wrong way.
"Arabella." My father said in a tight voice. "Who is this boy in your room wearing nothing but a towel?"
My voice caught in the back of my throat and my face turned as red as a fire truck. I was so embarrassed that I couldn't speak in my own defense.
"Sir, I-"
"I didn't ask you." My father interrupted Connor.
It was then that I knew that we were both royally screwed.
"Dad," I placed my words carefully because I knew that they could be my last, "this isn't what it looks like."
"Oh, really? Because I think it is exactly what it looks like."
I blushed even harder and looked down at the floor. This was mortifying. Absolutely and extremely mortifying. Never had I ever been caught in such a position with a boy. Even with Archer we hadn't done anything like this in front of my father.
"I had a nightmare last night and I asked Connor to come over. We talked for a while and we must've fallen asleep. I swear that nothing happened between us."
(Besides the fact that he'd flown in through the window and he held me until my nightmares seemed like something from the past.)
(And besides the fact that I wouldn't have minded if something did happen.)
My father looked between Connor and me with narrowed eyes. He had no reason to believe me except for the fact that he knew how innocent I was.
"Fine, but if he's not gone in five minutes you'll both be grounded. I don't care if this one isn't my own, I'll still ground him for the rest of his life."
With that my father left the room and I let out a small breath.
I turned to Connor. (Who was still just wearing a towel) "Just to make sure, we didn't do anything last night, did we?"
His face was probably about as red as mine from the encounter with my dad, so it took him a little while to get his bearings and answer my question.
"No."
"Good, now get dressed before my father thinks we're doing something inappropriate."
Five minutes later Connor and I were walking downstairs with a respectable distance of three feet between us. I was pretty sure we would both never forget the awkwardness of this situation.
My father was waiting in the kitchen reading the newspaper. I couldn't help but to notice that the front page was an article about the possible super sightings of the missing supers written by none other than Lacey Waters.
"Do you need a ride home, or are you okay to walk?" My father asked Conner without even lifting his head from his paper.
"I can walk." Connor gulped.
And by walk I was pretty sure he meant fly as quick as he could back to his house. I couldn't blame him for not wanting to spend any more time than he had to with my father after the embarrassment of this morning.
Connor gave me an awkward hug and left the house, much to my father's relief no doubt.
"Dad, I swear nothing happened. He's just a friend from college, he also went to Oceanview with me last year. He played the Beast in the musical, remember?"
"Oh, I remember." He said, casually flipping through another page of his newspaper.
"Then why were you being so harsh on us?"
He tilted his head thoughtfully and put down the paper. "I don't like him all that much. He looks like the type of kid who's hiding too many secrets."
Oh, you have no idea, dad. I thought.
"Besides," he said, "We still have the day to hang out. I won't let some hooligan ruin that for us."
I let out a sigh of relief and told him that I would go upstairs and change into my clothes as quick as I could.
When I reached my room I could barely stand. I had never seen my dad so angry that he barely said a word. I was grateful at the fact that I had avoided grounding, but I felt sorry for Connor. He must've been scared, seeing how much of a respectable distance he'd been trying to put between us last night.
I slipped on my clothes for the day and then packed my new super suit in a small backpack just in case. You never knew when Nemesis would decide to come an pick me up, especially since the deadline of three days went up this afternoon.
I walked downstairs to find my father in a better mood than before. He'd dressed in a simple polo shirt and shorts, even though it was December. It seemed that California had other ideas when it came to the weather.
"Where are we going to go?"
He smiled. "I thought we could go out to lunch and then visit one of my old friends. The last time I saw him he wanted to meet you. I said so much about my daughter that he swore that he needed to match a face to the name."
Oh, great. Time to meet old people who only talked about business.
"Where do you two know each other from?"
"Oh, old business associates. I recently helped him with getting out of a tight spot and he agreed to help me with some of my new policies as mayor. I really think that together we can change this city for the better."
"That's great, dad."
It really was. I knew how much my father wanted to make a difference as mayor. And I really thought he was growing as a person as well. He wasn't as hard on the supers in our city lately, making me proud of him.
You see, my mother died when I was very little. Back then, when The Avenger and Smith had The Great Battle and then died, my mother had been caught in the crossfire and died. It was only later that I learned that she had been specifically targeted by Smith under the orders of Nemesis.
My father blamed all super-kind for her death and became hostile towards all supers, good or bad. It was what made his work as police captain so biased. But then at the end of senior year he changed suddenly.
It was the day that I had been saved from the Ferris Wheel by The Marvel. He was convinced that The Marvel was to blame for the fight starting, even though Tornado had baited him under the orders of Nemesis.
After that night he became even more biased towards all supers, even Blue Archer, a vigilante with no real super powers.
I think becoming mayor had done him some good. He hadn't made any anti-super laws, so I knew he must've changed a little for the better after the battle with the Terror Trio. That battle had, after all, been the reason all of his competition for mayor had dropped out.
By the time we had gotten to our lunch place of choice, we hadn't mentioned the events of the morning or anything about the supers. And, for us, that was progress.
We had decided on a fancy Italian place in downtown. It was right next to his office and pretty close to Main Street. I wasn't used to fancy places like this, but now that he was mayor I guess he could eat wherever he wanted.
We took a seat at a table close to the window that looked out over the chaos that was Empire City. We ordered our drinks and then food, all the while getting along and avoiding sensitive topics. That is, until I mention Lacey's newest article.
"Allen is even thinking of having her as the main journalist on the big stories. Caine hasn't turned anything good in for days. I'll be glad when that little weasel is finally fired from that place."
"Speaking about Lacey, how does she get her quotes from all these supers? Does she know them or something?"
I laughed a little uncomfortably. There was no way that I could tell him that Chase Carlton, Lacey's boyfriend and the guy who owned a good quarter of the city, was Blue Archer.
There was no way he could know that Connor Collins, the boy he caught in my room, was none other than The Marvel.
And I would never tell him that my ex0boyfriend was Tornado, and my two friends from Iris City were Calico and White Static.
There was also now way in hell that I could ever tell him that the day that I had shown up unconscious on the opening night of the musical senior year was the night that I gained superpowers because a psychopath with a grudge against supers made me into a super that could run at the speed of light and was known to the public as Sonic.
"I have no idea. Maybe she just had connections in the super crowd."
"Yeah." He looked at his watch. "my friend should be meeting us for lunch very soon, though."
"Cool." I said, anxious for a change in topic.
"What about you? You ever see The Marvel much after senior year ended?"
I almost choked on my water.
I imagined all the times I'd seen Connor ever since Senior year. Back before the fight with the Terror Trio. When I remembered that he was The Marvel. Back in the Archer Cave just a couple days ago. And then this morning in my room, wearing nothing but a towel.
"Excuse me?"
He apologized. "I only meant if he ever visited you. He seemed to save you a lot back then."
"No, I guess he was busy with saving the city."
He sighed. "That's too bad. I was really hoping to meet him. You know, trade information about helping the city. Supers and mayors of the big cities are notorious for working together."
"Oh, great."
Then my father got a call on his phone.
"Hello?" He answered. "Oh . . . I see . . . Are you sure? . . . Now? . . . Okay, I'll be there right away."
"You're leaving for another meeting, aren't you?
My father gave me an expression that suggested that he was sorry, but we both knew that it wasn't as sincere as it looked.
"I'll see you later, alright?"
I nodded and watched as he rushed out of the little restaurant and out into his car. I was left alone at the table when the waiter brought out our food. I took our food to go and called Lacey to take me home, seeing as the newspaper company was only blocks from the restaurant.
I could only wonder who dad's business associate had been, the guy who he wanted me to meet so bad, and why his meetings were always more important than me.