I forgot to tell you that English isn't my first language. I'm Thai. I only speak English with some of my friends (and myself :D) and during debate tournaments. Sooooo, if there're grammar mistakes, I'm sorry. I'm going back to edit every chapter once the book's done :)
-Ida
Chapter 4-- She throws nice uppercut
"What do you mean? I have to rewrite everything? " 1 day after the near death experience and I had to go back to school to faced Professor Howard in Social Study class AKA a nearer to death experience. Professor Howard adjusted his wire glasses and handed my printed essay back. I wrote that last night at about 1 AM. "You are missing the point of the assignment, Devlin." He said. "You said we have to analyze news about superheroes, Professor Howard." I knitted my brows.
"Superheroes, Devlin. Not super villains. Since you have always done good jobs in every assignment, I'll give you a chance to fix this. Submit it again by the end of today or I'll have to give you a C-." He said, walking away to return the graded papers to other students.
I looked down at my paper in confusion. I wrote a very neat 500 words essay. Even though it was all from the deadline-induced diligence, a rejection sure wasn't what I deserved.
I wrote about Cryonics and how he saved people in the bus from getting pulverized with a coffee bar. My essay should be titled Ode To Cryonics since I knew how much my teacher loves to see dept, metaphors, and overly analyzed scenarios in an essay. I didn't refer to him with that name though. I didn't even think he would use the name I randomly picked for real.
(I decided to skip the fact that this guy supposedly followed me to my house.
And also the fact that he couldn't tell apart Morning Glory and Petunia.)
I felt a pencil poked lightly at my shoulder. I knew who did that and I yanked the pencil from his hand. "Wow. Jamie Devlin's essay got rejected. That's new. I should expect a surprise midsummer snow today." Les who was seated behind me drawled.
"Says a guy who already got a C-." I said venomously.
"You haven't been watching the news, eh?" He said. "You wouldn't have written about that ice guy if you knew."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "He saved my life. I would have died if he wasn't there." And you wouldn't have cared too. "Does that sound heroic enough for you?"
Les raised both his hands up in defense. "Did you know what he did after saving you?" I raised my eyebrows, signaling him to go on. "He broke into that new bank across from the court. There's a footage video on news everywhere. What have you been doing for the past 8 hours?"
Helping the villain pick his name, why? I thought, feeling a chill down my spine.
"This bank is a luxurious one, you see. Most of its clients are politicians." Les took his pencil back. "They hold on to important papers. Not money."
"No freaking way. I saw him saving people."
"Superheroes don't save people then use that as an excuse to act above laws." Les said simply, leaning back in his chair, tipping it backward so two front legs were pointing in the air. "Those who do both things at once are successful super villains."
It took me a few minutes to admit that he's got a solid point.
- - -
"If you are just going to stare at the TV an ignore me, I'll take your gum." I threatened Kat, stealing a piece of her blueberry gum from the package.
"Hush now, Jamie. There's a new superhero in town." Kat said. Her grass green eyes were glued to the small wheeled in television in the middle of the room. It was Mrs. Desjardin's Drama class. First week at school meant the only time of the year that this class had full attendance.
I rolled my eyes and went back to check my phone. Kat hit me on the arm, causing me to almost swallow the gum. Let's not forget that this girl was into boxing and her right hook game is on fleek.
"Ow, Kat! What was that for?"
"Jamie, that's you!"
My gaze followed her pointed finger to the television screen. I saw Cryonics laughing at me who was a) Lying on a bench, b) Looking like a zombie who barely survived a volcano explosion.
"—A super clad in blue with a very cool power appeared saving passengers in a bus heading toward a large obstacle." The male reporter that citizens of our city knew well, Dan Wallace, turned to another female reported next to him.
"However, it looked like this super is not a hero after all, am I right, Chelsea?" Chelsea, the black haired reporter, didn't miss a beat. "This super was later caught on video breaking into the most secured bank in Brackenbridge. Early report said that nothing had been missing yet but should we really look over this action that defies laws?" She turned back to Dan.
"Exactly. There have been several discussions on various platforms on whether this new super is a hero or a villain. Most asked questions would be is this guy the Coldfront, our number one superhero who has gone deadbeat since the epic fight with Hypno 4 years ago." The photo earlier was zoomed in. They forgot to blur out my face so my ash smudged pale face was put on full display.
"For those of you fanclubs out there, we'd like to give you the answer once and for all. This morning, the super was spotted again at the mayor's office. The journalists had finally gotten the name out of him! This super goes by the name--" "Cryonics." I whispered in sync with Dan, my hear beating in my throat. He actually chose that name.
"The mayor is having a word with the Titan about this rogue super tomorrow. Coming up next a new species of frog—"
Titan was the most powerful super in our city. He could slow down time itself. He could fly and use super strength. That was why he was called the Titan.
"Now, that's cool." Kat turned back to me.
"You mean the frog?" She gave me the look that said stop-acting-so-oblivious. Kat harbored special hatred for every species of frogs (or to put it simply, amphibians) ever existed.
"I mean Cryonics, silly! He can shoot ice out of his hands? Can he summon snow?" She said, her voice a little higher than usual. Fun fact; Kat is a singer. Somewhere in the middle of a heated argument, she would hit the note as high as soprano. At least that's what I thought.
"He definitely can break into banks and he did. He is a villain, Kat." I chided.
"But he didn't take anything." She defended him. "Besides, in every superhero movies, the protagonists always have unique ways to solve crimes. Maybe it's part of his plan to blend in with the villains."
"There's a fine line between being unique and being lawless. Breaking and entering still counts as crime."
"He saved your life."
"That doesn't make him a hero of the society." I rebut.
Ms. Desjardin had walked in and stood on the stage like a very colorful statue of a peacock. Unlike the other teachers here, she loved to wear the colorful scarf with colors bright enough to blind the whole class and size big enough to strangle an elephant. She had white papers in her hands. I groaned internally. Homework Alert.
I looked at the back of the room at the clock but something—or rather someone was in my line of sight. That certain someone happened to look alike Cryonics and a model at the same time. He sat in another row to my left, leaving a space of the walkway between us.
His piercing blue eyes met my brown ones and he cracked a small, genuine smile. "Hey." His voice was quite low. I replied with what sounded like a stuttered combination of hey and hello and what's up.
"I remembered I've met you—yesterday, perhaps?" He said, amusement tinting his tone. Kat, at this point, had her attention fully trained on us. "Yeah, I'm Jamie. Are you new here?" I said. "Isaac Thornton and yes, you could say that. I moved back in town last week." He said back and Kat butted in. "Have you known each other before?" "Well, I know that she throws nice uppercut." Isaac smirked and 5 minutes later, I had to listen to the recap of my shameful moment in public.
A moment later, Mrs. Desjardin told us to pass 3 tissue boxes filled with folded pieces of papers around. Green one to the row on her left, pink to the right, and blue one to the row in front of her. "Pick one, pick one!" She said a little bit more enthusiastically than her students. Kat thrust the blue box into my hand and I fetched one blue post-it note out before handing the box to Isaac.
I unfolded the paper. "Mask." I read quietly. "What did you get?" Isaac asked, looking up from his pink post-it note. "Don't let anyone see your paper but you! That's cut all the elements of surprises! The word that you got is your theme." Mrs. Desjardin walked along the row of seats. Her cherry red curls looked so shiny under the orange light that it hurt my eyes.
"Now, this is the fun part!" I heard faint groans from everywhere. I swear to you, our drama teacher does love to make her life an intriguing drama play.
"You can now group up in a group of 6! There could be only 2 people who's got the same color in the same group. I want you all the share your words and together, you have to come up with a play that includes all the 6 words within your group!" She said and waited for the respond. (Dead air. Dead air all the way.)
"This play will serve instead of your midterm test! Feel free to approach me and ask for an examination instead of the play if you feel like you want to." That stirred up some reactions. The whining of my classmates rose up.
Mrs. Desjardin's exams are quite infuriating. With her as the standard setter, we would never pass. There was no multiple choices, only solid writings. In order to gain score, we would have turn that melodramatic switch in our brain on before entering the exam room.
I grouped up with Kat and Isaac. We got 3 more members who I remembered to be the kids in photography and journalism club. Mrs. Desjardin wrote down the members in our group before we exited the room. "Katherine, Jamaima,--" "It's Jamie." I corrected. "Right, Jamie. Dean, Derek, Samantha, and Isaac."
I found out that the blue box contained random nouns while the pink box had verbs. The green box had locations or the settings of our play.
"Crossroad, Forest, mask, Jell-o, canoeing, and skating." Kat read all of the words we got aloud. "That's quite random." Samantha, Sammie, noted. She is about an inch shorter than me even in heels. She looks like a Dutch doll with dark hair and cerulean eyes. She may looks small but you should have seen this girl ran in her heels expertly and interrogate the students for her news scoop with a spoon as her microphone. School journalists are relentless.
"Ooh, can we play the scene that included Jell-o?" Dean asked. "Green Jell-o." Derek added. Dean and Derek Kurt are identical twins with the same curly brown hair and brown eyes. They even got the same fun and uplifting attitude. Fortunately, Derek had only one dimple while his twins showed both when he smiled. That made it easier to tell them apart but still tough nonetheless. (They wouldn't let us get it right. It's frustrating.)
We decided to meet up again here after school tomorrow to work on the plot.
I wondered how (or rather who) would Isaac look like with a mask on.