Ari didn't want to sit around in a fancy outfit that was picked out for her and take pictures, but she was forced to by her father.
She wore an off white dress with a black blazer and black knee high boots, paired with gold jewelry. She stood posed next to her brother smiling as the bright lights blinded her while it captured their photos.
"What's your problem with Jordan?" Andre asked through gritted teeth.
"Nothing just stay out of it." She said back in a rude tone, mad that he even asked in the first place.
"Pan down to the left." One of the photographers instructed to the other, trying to get good shots of Ari and Andre, even though they couldn't stop bickering. "And please stop talking." they silenced them.
"Thanks guys we got it." The photographer said once they finally finished.
"Got it?" Andre walked off the set with a nod, upset with his sister.
Their father gave them both a pat on the back, laughing as they all walked together. "First national interview.. I had to rescue matchbox twenty from that nut job at lollapalooza before my first national interview, and here you two are. A junior and a freshman. Damn."
"Yea it's crazy, right?" He paused for a second gathering his thoughts. "Can I talk to you alone dad?"
"I'll just be over there." Ari said aggressively as she pointed to an empty space away from the two.
"Hey, did, um did Luke say..?" Andre asked once his sister was away from them.
"I loved Luke too.. like a son." His father answered, remembering the moments their families had spent together.
"Yea, but did he give you anything?
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing. Never mind. No it's..."
"Luke gave us what got you, and your sister here as the only other freshman in the top ten aside from Marie. An opportunity... I know it's hard." He remembered the last moments he had spent with his late wife. "Look, after your mother died I wanted to crawl into a bottle of Macallan and stay there, but we push through, no matter how hard it's gets. Cause' we're made of steel. You think you can do that son?"
"Made of steel." Andre agreed, or pretended to.
"I'm proud of you. I don't say that enough, but I am. You're gonna be a better polarity than I ever was."
His last phrase made Ari, who was listening in flinch. The curse of compound v was her object manipulation as well as an increase in all of her abilities, including strength and super hearing. "You're gonna be a better polarity..." you. Are. Ari realized that she didn't even have a chance. Ari wasn't ever going to be better than her brother, she wasn't even going to be better than Marie. She felt like nothing, and in her eyes she was nothing.
Marie came around the corner before Andre could respond with Jeff the social media manager. "Courtenay, you dirty slut. Sorry, I mean no disrespect."
"Oh, none taken. Hi." She said getting Marie's attention. "Hi, hi. Im Courtenay Fortney."
"Hi." Marie shook her hand.
"I'm the Vought EP in charge of tonight's interview."
"I have an interview?"
"Yea, one on one with Hailey Miller. Jeff didn't tell you?"
"Oh." Jeff realized he had forgotten to mention it.
"Okay great. You.. do you have clothes?" Courtenay asked Marie before turning to Jeff, acting as if Marie was incapable of answering. "She have clothes?"
"Uh-uh." He nodded.
"Will you grab the Balenciaga rack off the truck!" She yelled to one of her many staff members.
"Hailey Millers gonna ask me questions?" Marie asked.
"Everybody cannot wait to hear from you, Ari, and Andre. You guys are hero's "
"Ari?" She looked confused at the mentioning of her name, not sure what she had done.
"She helped hold off Luke inside the school."
"Oh oka-." Marie was cut off by Courtenay.
"So, currently we're testing out the guardians of godolkin." She spoke moving her hand with each letter of the new name. "Even when I'm saying it now it feels like it's too many syllables, so we'll see."
"It's gonna be big. Like post-9/11 big." Jeff said, immediately widening Ari's eyes.
"Oh- that's not.." Ari whispered, where they couldn't hear her.
"Okay, um.." Marie ignored the clearly offensive quote made by Jeff. "What do I say? I... I've never... I've never been interviewed."
"You don't h.. where are her call sheet and sides?" Courtenay called out.
"Sides of what?"
"No honey, your sides are your script." She laughed, receiving the script from her assistant and handing it to Marie. "God, you're so cute. It's just all written out here." She pointed to it. "You just gotta memorize with that little brain. You got it." She walked away to deal with something else.
"You know, I'm jelly. You're like pretty woman without the, uh, ass-fucking for money." Jeff winked at her. "It was nice meeting you." He used his crutches to get away from her, leaving Marie completely alone, but not for long.
"Hey Marie follow me!" Ari went up to her, leading her to the dressing room.
"If you want my advice I'd choose this." Ari pointed to the white dress with a matching white corset on the rack. "And I'd wear your hair like you did at the club the other night. That was cute and it shows off your earrings."
"Thank you. Why are you being nice to me? You and your friends left me."
"I didn't want to leave you, and they are not my friends they are my brother's friend's. ."
"You have a really good friend, Athena. She stayed with me so I wouldn't be alone."
"She's the best." Ari meant it. She could tell that her roommate was going to be one of her best friends "Now you should change and go back out there. We have more pictures to take."
She went back to where the others were, shortly joined by Marie in her new outfit. She looked beautiful, and Ari knew that her outfit was the right choice.
"I'm just going to have Andre pose by himself for a little bit then I'll have you two join in." The lead photographer instructed them.
They took photos of him posing differently before they nodded for the others.
Andre offered Marie a step as she took her place. She seemed uneasy at first, but soon turned out to be a natural as she changed her position and poses, copying Ari and Andre at first, then finding her own moves.
Ari and Andre stepped off the platform to give her, her much needed space. She had truly stolen the show with her looks and confidence.
"Great, beautiful job everyone." The photographer released them, allowing them to leave.
"You're Litterally a natur-." Ari was interrupted by a fan once they got outside into the open.
"Hey, selfie?" A person walked up to the three of them, giving them no time to answer, and instead taking the picture anyways.
They all kept walking once the person went away.
"You know what I've already learned?" Marie asked them.
"What?" Andre responded with much curiosity.
"You can say literally say anything to them and they will still take the photo."
"That's why you say yes, to give the illusion of choice." He laughed.
"Did you get that from your dad?"
"As if he would-" Ari got interrupted again, pissing her off on another level.
"Did.. did Luke say something to you about our dad?" He said sort of defensively.
"He just said 'the woods' whatever that means. Honestly it seemed manic as fuck."
"Ari go on to class." Andre spoke in a suddenly serious tone.
"Fuck no Andre. I want to know what you're going to say."
"God Ari just leave, please. You'd do everyone a favor."
"Okay wow. Fuck you Andre. I'm leaving." She stormed off with her clutch purse in hand.
✯★⁂★✯
The first day of classes were the worst, or at least Ari thought so. She was pissed off at her brother and the way he interrupted her, and she was bored after being asked to audit the junior class to get a look into what she would be doing when she attended the school.
She wanted to sit as far away from Jordan as she could, but she showed up later than the others and had to take one of the only two seats left.
"Professor Brinkerhoff died the same way he taught: a hero. He molded the Lamplighter school of crime fighting into the shining exemplar it is today. Nobody could possibly replace him, so... I will. Or at least I'll try."
Dean Shetty started, placing a spot of unease in Ari's stomach. "We will cover everything Brink would cover but we'll also get into the intersection of superpowers and mental health, which was my dissertation."
The door opened revealing an almost excited Marie.
"Oh. Marie."
"Sorry I'm late." She smiled, putting on a purely excited face.
"I'm dean Shetty. It's a pressure to meet you. Please, take a seat."
Marie nodded taking a seat beside Ari.
"We're letting Ms. Moreau audit the junior-year classes, alongside Ms. Anderson What you, Andre, and Ari did.. well it's obvious you belong here." Shetty continued.
Marie smiled, earning a disgusted look from Jordan.
"Wipe that shitty look off your face." Ari whispered to them, as Shetty decided to carry on by introducing herself and the course work for the rest of the class.
"She didn't do shit. We did that." Jordan started once class was dismissed. "And now you're tenth even though you did more than her and I'm fifth. I went from second to fifth just because being bigender isn't a good look in the south."
"I get you're pissed. You have every right to be, but don't take that shit out on her. We left her." Ari spoke truthfully, still mad that she didn't try harder to go back for them.
"It doesn't mean I deserve to be wrongfully ranked. Please just say something at the interview. We have more to lose than she does."
"You know we don't Jordan. You read her transcript. You rejected her from this crime fighting school. Athena told me yesterday."
"She's a nobody, no one, nothing."
"Wow. You're a complete asshole. What do you think about me? Am I nothing too?" She wanted them to speak truthfully, knowing that's how she saw herself.
Their silence spoke to her in ways their words never would, they could never admit what they really thought, they could never admit what they really thought about her.
"You know what, fuck you. I'm not telling them shit. And you wonder why I can't stand to be around you."
"I didn't say shit." They tried to defend their self, because they really didn't. She was everything to them, she always has been, she just didn't know it yet.
"You really didn't have to. I know it's the truth. You don't think anyone else is better than you are."
"That isn't true."
"It is and you know it."
"I'm leaving. I'm going to confront Marie. You can come with me or stay by yourself like you usually do."
"I want nothing to do with you. Ever." She found herself saying, not knowing that it wouldn't be the truth for long, not knowing that she felt bad for them, and not knowing that she was already starting to open up a sliver of her heart for them.