Hikari leaned casually against the wall with his black hood up as his sister walked past in a hurry, oblivious to his existence. He took in her appearance and clothing style, which consisted of a Soul Eater shirt and ripped skinny jeans, followed by worn-out black and white Converse sneakers and a pale green book bag. Immediately he was filled with anger and hatred. He couldn't even remember why he felt this way; it had been so long. A man who was around his early twenties leaned toward him. "You can't kill her yet. Amon ordered you not to. We're not even sure if she has powers yet," he warned in his annoying British accent.
"I know, Graham. I'm not an idiot," Hikari said, running his hand through his short locs after pulling down his hood. The back and sides of his head were shaved, and his nose and lips were covered in piercings, making him fit right in with the punk students. He looked around the corner with his dark eyes, but he knew Nadea was long gone. "I had to see her. I can't wait until the time comes for me to-" he started before Graham covered his mouth with a gloved hand.
"Hush! Get us caught why don't you?" A few students stopped to look at them. Sensing the extra eyes, Hikari roughly shoved Graham away from him and walked towards the school exit on the opposite end of the hall.
"I'm going to visit her. Soon."
~
Nadea was a bit annoyed to find that Luca sat next to her in three other classes. She had the ability to move since there weren't assigned seats, but she didn't want to come off as rude, and besides, she wanted to question him. Whenever she tried to ask him about his eyes, he'd either ignore her or change the subject. At the end of the third class, which was chemistry, Luca leaned towards her and whispered, "If you really want to know about me, give me your number." Nadea narrowed her eyes, unsure if he would actually explain what had happened earlier. When she hesitated, he sighed.
"I guess you don't want to know about me then," Refusing to take the bait, Nadea returned her focus to her work.
"They're probably just contacts anyway." She could easily excuse what she'd seen, but not how she felt. Whenever she was near this stranger, she somehow felt what could only be described as alarming familiarity. Regardless of this, she didn't like his cockiness and did her best to hide her emotions. With a smirk, he said, "Suit yourself," and returned to his work.
A few minutes later a girl approached their table and, with feigned shyness said, "Can I borrow a pencil? I misplaced mine."
Nadea watched with disdain as Luca gave her a big smile and said, "Of course. But only if you tell me your name." The girl gave a sheepish smile before leaning over the table to give him an eye-full of cleavage that was barely contained by her v-neck shirt.
"I'm Delilah. You're the new kid, Luca." It wasn't a question. She knew who he was. Handing Delilah the pencil, he winked at her. "I'll see you around," she said as she sauntered back to her desk.
"Not so shy anymore, is she?" Nadea muttered without looking up from her notebook.
"Jealousy doesn't look good on you," he said with an annoyingly cute smirk on his face. Staring at him in disbelief, she scoffed and opened her mouth to offer a smooth rebuttal but the bell cut her off. She began to pack her things, but Luca grabbed her notebook. "Hey, if you change your mind, call me." He scribbled his number on a clear page in her notebook before grabbing his bag and leaving. She glanced at the messy writing before stuffing the notebook in her bag and going to the cafeteria.
As soon as she bought her lunch and sat down, Dante joined her, a bag of Doritos in his hand. "How were your classes?" he asked suspiciously. Nadea sighed in exasperation.
"You were there for the last two." Dante leaned forward.
"What did he say to you?" He stared at her intently.
"Why does it matter?" she asked, eating her lunch. He sat back and ate another chip.
"It doesn't."
Nadea watched Dante closely. Why was he acting this way? She'd had little flirtations with other guys but never had he acted this way. Besides, she didn't even have feelings for Luca; they'd just met! Nadea reached over and took Dante's bag of chips. Munching furiously, she sighed. "Why are you acting so weird, Dante? You know our deal."
Years ago, when Dante and Nadea were in elementary, they'd gotten in a big fight over some small rumor. There had been tension between them but eventually the two got over their dispute, and they made a deal to avoid fighting again. The deal was that if they thought one was mad at another or if there was some sort of tension, they would confront one another and talk things out.
Dante sighed before running a frustrated hand over his short hair. "That new kid. He's…dark," he said. Nadea looked at him. Dante had always been able to tell what kind of person someone was, even when he didn't know them. People would joke that he was a psychic, but Nadea believed him every time.
"What do you mean by dark?" she pressed, needing clarification.
"I don't know," he said with a sigh. "He's not a bad person, but he has the potential to be."
Nadea nodded to herself as she finished his bag of chips, deep in thought. Just noticing that she was eating his food Dante frowned, forgetting all about Luca. "Those were mine!"
After school, Nadea took the bus home. Normally Dante would be with her, but he said he had something to do and couldn't ride the bus with her. At the very least, it had stopped raining and rays of light had begun to peek through the clouds. "Make up your mind," she said to the sky once she was off the bus. Once at home, she opened the door and was caught off guard when Toby flew into her arms.
"Dea!" He squealed, giggling as he smiled at her.
"Hey, Toby. Did you have fun at school?"
"It was okay. They made us eat green beans at lunch," he said with a huff, scrunching up his face and sticking out his tongue. Chuckling, Nadea pinched his button of a nose before sitting her backpack on the dining table. Just then, Julia came rushing through, disorganization personified. She was frantically grabbing things and stuffing them into her giant purse and the pockets of her navy blue scrubs. "Can you watch Toby? I just got a call from the hospital. Rebecca called in, so I have to work a 12-hour shift tonight. I'll be back around five tomorrow morning,"
Of course, she muttered in her head. Nadea liked Toby, but she didn't like watching him almost every night of the week. Masking her annoyance with a forced smile she said, "Yeah, I'll keep an eye on him. What do you think Toby? Wanna watch a movie tonight?" When he began to clap his hands frantically, she took it as a yes.
"Okay, guys have fun. Toby, bedtime is at eight o'clock; don't watch anything too scary," Julia said as she headed for the door.
"Wait! You forgot this." Nadea grabbed Julia's RN badge from the table. "A nurse needs her badge," she quipped.
"Thanks, Nadea. I don't know what I'd do without you." With that, Julia ran out the door, leaving Toby and Nadea standing in the living room.
"Alright," she began, "Here's what gonna happen. I'll give you the remote and you can watch whatever you want, as long as you leave me alone."
"Even the scary movies?" He said, wide-eyed as he stared at the remote in her hands.
"Yes, even the scary movies." Toby agreed, and she tossed the remote at him before grabbing her bag and running upstairs. Going to her room she put in her earbuds and, playing the first song she saw, sprawled out on her bed and stared up at the ceiling, her shoes still on.
Julia had wanted Nadea's new room to be as close to her old one. She'd given her complete authority over everything in her room. The first thing Nadea had done when she moved in with Julia was paint her walls the familiar sage green of her old room. On a white shelf screwed into the wall were two photos; one of her and her parents from a trip to Disney World, and another of them at the zoo five years ago. A part of her wished that she'd taken more pictures with them. Next to her bed was a simple oakwood desk, and on it was her mom's old mug, which held pens and pencils. Next to it was a golden pothos plant, which had long since outgrown its yellow pot.
Here, in this room, it was almost as if nothing had changed. Nadea could pretend that she was still in her old home and her mom or dad would come knocking at her door, telling her to clean her room. I never thought I'd miss doing chores, she thought to herself, still staring up at the ceiling. Her thick white curtains were closed, leaving her room a bit dark. However, as Nadea thought more about her mom, the room grew brighter, drowning out the darkness. Noticing this, she took out her earbuds. "What the hell?"
Sitting up, she squinted her eyes. "Damn, it's bright in here," she muttered. When she tried to shield her eyes the light grew brighter, and she realized that it was coming from her hands. Her palms emitted a white glow, and it seemed to hum as if it were a living, breathing thing. "I'm really doing this…" she said in awe, her eyes wide.
Just then her door burst open and Toby came in dressed as Ironman. Startled, Nadea raised her hands and small, crystal-like shards of light shot out like bullets from her palms. A few embedded themselves in the door frame, others lodged in the walls behind the boy, but the last shard had shot straight at Toby's head. He fell to the ground with a thud. What have I done? she thought, utterly horrified.
"Oh my God Toby! Please tell me you're okay!" With trembling hands, she ran over and shook him. "Wake up Toby! Please don't be dead." The light shards, once a physical thing, began to dim and faded away into nothingness. Groaning, Toby took off the helmet and looked up at Nadea. "That was so cool!" He gave her a huge gap-toothed smile. Sighing with relief, she hugged him tight before inspecting the helmet. There was I small hole in it, but otherwise it hadn't pierced Toby's head.
"How'd you do that Dea?"
Shrugging, she said, "I don't know, but I'm going to figure it out. I could've really hurt you Toby. I'm sorry." Toby, oblivious to everything she was saying, jumped to his feet. "Dea has powers! My big sister's a superhero!" He exclaimed. "Do it again Dea! Do it again!"
"I'm not even sure how I did it the first time," she mumbled sheepishly. "I'm definitely not a superhero though." Getting up, she tossed his helmet on the bed. Turning back to Toby, she froze. He was staring up at her in wonder. "You're like Ironman, but without the suit. We have to tell mom-"
"No!" She snapped. When he looked at her in confusion, she sighed and knelt down. Gripping his shoulders she said, "Julia can't know about this, Toby. Superheroes have to keep their identities secret, right?" Toby nodded. "And as my…" she trailed off, thinking about what to say. "As my sidekick, you have to help me keep this secret. Can you do that for me?"
"Of course, Dea! You can trust me. I won't tell anyone, I promise!" He said before his stomach growled. Laughing, she said, "Alright, I believe you. Let's make something to eat. How about dino nuggets?" Nadea offered. Without warning, he took off down the hall towards the kitchen singing about dino nuggets.
After making dino nuggets for Toby and herself, they sat in the living room and put on a slasher film. Julia really did have a large house. It wasn't a mansion, but it was more space than three people would ever need. There were five bedrooms, three-and-a-half bathrooms, and a dining room with a table big enough to seat eight people. When Nadea had first arrived, Julia was so excited to have someone to add to their family. She and Toby just seemed so…lonely. Although her curiosity ate at her like a swarm of mosquitos on a late August night, she never asked why they seemed so lonely or where Toby's father was. It's none of my business, she thought to herself as Toby leaned against her, chewing on a nugget and staring at the blaring TV.
Nadea's phone suddenly buzzed and, glancing at the screen, saw that she'd received a text from Dante asking what she was up to. The first thing she did was call him.
"Hola mami," Dante started, "I'm always down to talk, but you do know you can just text, right?" Nadea rolled her eyes.
"What I am about to tell you can't be said over text, Dante."
There was nothing but silence on the other side of the phone. Then, worriedly, he asked, "Shit," he muttered. "Is Julia and Toby alright? Are you?" Nadea was hardly ever serious, and the last time she'd called Dante and said she couldn't text, it was because her parents had died.
"Yes, everyone is fine. Well, not me. I can do things, Dante. I need to show you."
"Fuck, don't scare me like that! I'll be over soon, uno momento," There was a click and she chuckled softly at her friend's response. She was smiling to herself before noticing that Toby gave her a grumpy stare.
"What?" She asked, a brow raised.
"You just told someone about your powers! The number one rule that all superheroes have to follow is that they don't tell anyone their secret," he scolded.
"You know Dante. Besides, he's sidekick number two. He'll protect me when you're at school." Toby thought about what she said and, with a satisfied and understanding nod, focused his attention back onto the movie that they had been watching.
Nadea and Toby had just finished watching the slasher film when the doorbell rang. Putting on a cartoon to keep her foster brother busy, she went to answer the door. "So what is it you need to show me?" He asked as he was ushered in. "Also, I brought some leftovers from home. Tamales y enchiladas." He held up a bag full of food.
"Thanks Dante." Nadea said as she led him upstairs to her room. She hurriedly explained what had occurred earlier in her room and how she's almost killed Toby. Sam, munching on a steak taco as he sat at her desk, nodded to himself but didn't say anything. "Well? What do you think?" Nadea pressed.
Sam shrugged. "I believe you. You wouldn't lie to me," he said with a smile. At this moment, Nadea knew how grateful she was to have a friend as genuine as Dante. He always took things at face value and believed her no matter how unbelievable things seemed.
"Also, I saw something at school today," she started.
"Dime, what did you see?"
"That new guy, Luca. His eyes changed. I think he's like me."