The news was on in the background while I was texting Anna, and it was mostly ignored, until something caught my attention.
"And in other news," The anchor said. "A new superhero, dubbed Absent Spark, has been spotted in Cross Lake City. She was fighting Master Malum's sidekick, Black Disappear, while Tempest Storm fought Malum himself.
She has not been spotted since the fight that happened two days ago, but she does seem to have some connection to Tempest because when Malum threw her against some machinery, Tempest attacked him out of protection, after making sure she was okay."
They played a clip of when I was thrown against the machinery from the security footage. I winced, I hadn't realized how bad that looked.
"She appears to be able to generate and manipulate electricity." The male anchor chimed in.
This was not the first time I had seen our fight being talked about on the news, it was all over. So it wasn't necessarily surprising that it was on CNN. Brooke walked in the living room and muted the tv.
"Hey, I was watching that story!" I exclaimed.
"Grace, you are that story." He rolled his eyes.
"Oh yeah," I smiled. "So, what do you want to talk about?"
I set my phone to the side, criss-crossing my legs.
"About you being a superhero, I have some rules." He said seriously.
I nodded, a motion for him to go on.
"First off, you will not be missing school to fight unless it is absolute emergency. That first time only happened when it did because I was caught off guard."
"Okay." I said.
"Secondly, you know the button I gave you?"
I nodded again.
"Go get that and your suit." He instructed.
I got out of my chair and went into my room. I went under my bed and grabbed the box my newly repaired suit was in (didn't want Anna or Will finding it) and the button, which was sitting on my nightstand.
I pulled my suit out of my box, and went into the living room. I sat on the floor next to Brooke.
"Okay, so lay the suit down on the floor flat." He instructed.
I did as he said, and looked at him expectedly.
"So, what next?" I asked him.
"Put the button on the suit, and press it." He said.
I gave him a weird look, but did as he said. The same flash of light appeared when I had put the suit on for the first time. When I could see again, the suit was gone, but the button was still there.
"Woah," I whispered in shock. "Did it go back in there?"
"Yeah," Brooke laughed. "Just do that every time and make sure that button is always with you."
"Okay, is that all?"
"That's it. Welcome to superherodom Grace."
I smiled at him, my eyes flickering the the clock, realizing what time it was.
"I have to go. I'm meeting Anna and Will for dinner." I told Brooke, standing up.
"But it's a Sunday night." He frowned.
"I won't be out long. Eight thirty, at the latest." I waved him off.
"Your homework isn't finished." He pointed out.
"It's not due until Wednesday. I was just getting a head start." I informed him, grabbing my purse and shoving my button in it.
I could tell he wanted me to stay home but I wanted to have some fun with Anna and Will, before school tomorrow.
"Okay." He said hesitantly. "Got your credit card?"
"Check."
"Car keys?"
"Check." I said, grabbing them off the table and flashing them at him.
"Have fun, but not to much fun." He said, very seriously.
I laughed as I walked out of the house, and into my car. I made a detour to Anna's house first to pick her up, she couldn't drive, with her car was in the shop. Some dude hit her back bumper and messed it up pretty good and it wouldn't be fixed until tomorrow afternoon.
She was sitting on her front porch steps doing something on her phone. She didn't even see me when I pulled up, so I honked the horn. She gave a little shriek and jumped. She glared at me as she stomped over to my car, purse in hand.
"Why did you scare me like that?" She asked demandingly as she got in the car.
"You didn't look up from your phone," I shrugged. "What were you even doing on your phone that you didn't even see me pull up?"
"I was reading about Absent Spark." She said as I drove on the road.
"Oh, that new superhero?" I asked, hoping I was pulling off the talk-about-yourself-in-third-person game.
"That's her. She seems really cool. I mean being able to generate and manipulate electricity? Awesome!" She squealed.
"Yeah, awesome." I agreed, making the tiniest spark of electricity come out of my pinky.
"Anyways, I was reading about how she might go to Lake Point High." Anna said.
That almost made me slam on my breaks. Almost.
"What?" I sputtered.
"I know, shocking right? It was all because she looks like she's about our age and Lake Point is the biggest high school in the city. It was just some fan theory but it makes some sense."
"Sounds crazy if you asked me." I told her, pulling into the restaurant.
It was some family-owned, hole in the wall Mexican place that not a lot of people knew about but was amazing.
"Maybe." Anna said as we got out of the car.
We walked in, and the hostess smiled.
"Table for two?" She asked, with a thick Mexican accent.
"Actually we're meeting someone here." I told her.
"Oh, is a brown haired boy about your age?" She asked.
I nodded, tucking a strand of hair behind my hair.
"He's already here, right this way." She said, leading us to a table with Will and two empty chairs.
I sat down, and the hostess laid down two menus. She took our drink orders and left, leaving us to talk.
"So, have long have you been here Will?" I asked him.
"Only about five minutes, not too long." He shrugged.
"Good, we wouldn't want to keep you waiting," Anna smiled. "But on another note, I met a guy."
"Oh, do you have a crush?" I teased her, flipping through the menu even though I already knew what I wanted.
"Well, I would assume I would have a crush on my boyfriend." She said kind of smugly.
"What?" Will sputtered, seeming just as surprised as I felt.
"Yeah, we went on a date on Friday night and he asked me to be to be his girlfriend. I said yes." She explained.
"Who even is he?" I asked her.
"Yeah, who is he?" Will added.
"Alex Jones." She sighed dreamily.
"Alex Jones?" I questioned. "That jerk of a soccer captain?"
Anna looked hurt and was about to say something, but a younger looking waitress than the last one came with our drinks.
"One cherry lemonade, one Coke, and one water with lemon," She said, setting our drinks in front of us. "Are you ready to order?"
"Yes," Will said. "The cheese enchiladas and rice for me."
"I would like the steak and chicken fajita nachos." I told her, and handed her my menu.
"Just the regular tacos please." Anna said, glaring at me as she snapped her menu shut.
"It'll be right out." The waitress said once she had written it all down and walked away.
"What do you mean that jerk of a soccer captain? Alex is nice." Anna defended him once the waitress was out of ear shot.
"Nice? He shoved a kid in a locker and left him there all day once." Will said.
"That was last year," Anna waved it away. "Besides he's changed. He's nice and funny and sweet."
I thought about what she said. Alex hadn't really done anything bad this year, but his reputation wasn't exactly the best. I didn't want Anna to be with someone who could hurt her.
"If you say so," I said cautiously. "But if he hurts you-"
"We'll kick him into next year." Will finished for me.
I nodded in agreement with his sentence.
"I'll be fine, I can hold my own." Anna assured us.
We left the topic at that, and didn't talk about it for the rest of the night. Eventually we had finished eating and it was time to pay.
"How much did mine cost?" I asked Anna.
"Um, sixteen fifty three." She said, looking at the check.
"Okay." I said fishing out my wallet.
When I did so, I accidentally took out my button and dropped it on the table.
"What's this?" Will asked suspiciously, picking it up.
"Oh, this old thing? I-I don't know. Something Brooke must've put in here for some reason." I lied, gently taking it out of his hand.
"Okay." He said, not so convinced.
I put it back in my purse, taking out the cash. I left it in the black thing, and stood up.
"You need a ride home Anna?" I asked her.
"No, my mom's picking me up." She said.
"Okay, see you guys tomorrow morning." I smiled at them, and walked out.
I got in my car, and leaned back in my seat and sighed. Will was getting more and more suspicious lately. Actually, when I thought about it, Will had been acting kind of weird for a while now.
Maybe Will knew more than I thought.