The start of Homecoming week was pure mania. People were scrambling all over the place to decorate their lockers and ask people on dates to the dance in three weeks despite the fact that the tickets haven’t even gone on sale yet. Everything was pure mania at this point.

"Anna, hey!" Keisha said excitedly, running towards me in the hallway, holding a basket of yellow roses. She handed one to me. "Go to Homecoming with me?"

"Keisha, I don’t exactly-"

"No, it’s not like that." Keisha said, laughing a bit. "I’ve been doing this since my freshman year. I don’t believe in going to dances with a date because I feel like the whole situation would just be awkward. So, instead of asking a random guy out, I ask my friends to go with me. Granted, it’s usually just me and Erika, but I’m actually going to have a whole group this year!"

"So you’re gonna ask everyone in Y.A.K.S. to go?"

"Why do you think I have so many yellow roses?"

I laughed a bit. "I will go to Homecoming with you. Going as a giant group sounds like fun!"

"Cool!" Keisha said as we started walking to the library. "I just feel like the group needs a lot of cheering up right now."

"Yourself included?"

Keisha hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah. Trayvon told me what you guys found down there."

"I know. He asked me to tell him."

"Oh. I thought that he went down there with-"

"No. It was just me, Edward, Becky, and Damian."

"Oh." Keisha said nervously.

"Your dad’s not a suspect." I said quietly.

"He only did those things to support us." Keisha whispered to herself.

"What?"

"My father." Keisha said a little louder. "He only did those things so that he could support us. After I was born, things were bad. My mom, who was a technical support specialist, was fired from her job because she couldn’t do her job and have me to raise. Her work wouldn’t allow that. My father got laid off after the railroad company he was working for went under. He was just trying to come up with some extra ways to get our family some food, water, a roof over our heads, and he accidentally got into some trouble with a gang that was in our old neighborhood. He just got deeper and deeper until, ultimately, he just became one of the most powerful people in that gang. He was still under their thumbs though, so he was forced to do all of those horrible crimes until, ultimately, Brain Dump stopped him. My dad explained the whole situation to him and his colleagues, and the SNL figured out a way to pay my father’s debts to the gang on the condition that my father stopped using his powers completely. I love my father and the stories that they’ve been spreading about my father in our classes just aren’t true."

"That’s… Not what the files said."

"When we were kids and these superpowers popped up, stories started popping up. Stories about who the good guys were, who the bad guys were. Heroes, villains, all like the comic books. The only real difference in the version of events was who was telling the story." Keisha said nervously, staring up at me, her glasses seemingly making her eyes bigger. "You have to believe me, my father is a good man. He always has been. Sure, the ways he went about to protect us were a bit skewed, but he had good intentions. He is not a bad person."

"I was not going to question you about that." I said quickly. "I just wanted to let you know that we weren’t considering him as a suspect, and not just because he’s your father. He couldn’t be Herbstreit because you’d recognize him and he couldn’t be pretending to be Sewage because the party was on a Friday night."

"I just wanted to make sure that you knew-"

"I understand, Keisha." I said, smiling at her positively. "I’d be defensive about my father too if I was in your position."

"It’s just… Ever since the SNL told the public that Gigabyte is my father, people have been looming that over my head ever since I was ten years old. Only person who didn’t was Trayvon, and a couple years after we got to high school he started avoiding me like the plague. Now that we’re becoming friends again, everything is coming back and I-"

"I get it." I said as we entered the library. "Nobody wants their past to come back and haunt them."

"Thanks for… You know, not attacking me about it."

"Of course I wouldn’t attack you." I said, shrugging. "Friends don’t attack each other."

"What do you mean that friends don’t attack each other?" Trayvon asked jokingly as he sat down at the table. "I attack my friends with roasts all the time!"

"You’ve never roasted me." I said, giving Trayvon a confused look.

"That’s because I can’t think of anything to roast you with because you are too good of a person."

"And what about me?" Keisha asked, crossing her arms. "You’ve never roasted me before."

Trayvon hesitated for a second. "That’s because I like you too much and I’m scared that if I say the wrong thing that you’re gonna run for the hills."

"Aren’t you gonna give him the rose?" I asked cautiously.

"Oh. Right." Keisha said, grabbing one of the yellow roses and held it out to Trayvon. "Homecoming?"

"The two of us? Alone?" Trayvon asked cautiously.

"As a group. She’s asking all of Y.A.K.S.." I said, holding up my own rose.

"Oh… Sure. Why not? It’ll be fun." Trayvon said excitedly.

"What’ll be fun?" Becky asked, holding a bunch of flower leis as she handed them out around the table.

"Homecoming as a group." Keisha said, holding up a rose and handing it over to Becky. "You in?"

"Obvi." Becky said, handing me a lei of blue and pink flowers. "I’m guessing that you two are in too?"

"Yeah." Trayvon said, glancing down at the white and purple flowers.

"Uh huh." I nodded, taking off the lei and formed it into a crown. "Gotta figure out a dress, but I’m in."

"You mean you haven’t gone dress shopping yet?" Becky asked, grabbing the yellow rose and started fiddling with the stem.

"No." I said, shrugging. "Why? Should I have?"

"If you wanted to get a cute dress, then yes."

"Well, where was I supposed to go, Becky? Things have been crazy recently and I don’t know any places around here to go get clothes."

"Uh… The mall?"

"Well how am I supposed to know where the mall is when I’ve been doing Y.A.K.S. things and band stuff since late August? Think, Becky, think."

"Right… I forgot about that..." Becky said uneasily.

"Hey party people, what’s up?" Callum asked, sitting down at the table.

"Nothing." Keisha said, grabbing two roses and handing them to Callum. "Homecoming. You, me, rest of Y.A.K.S.. Damian is invited too, obviously. That’s why I gave you the extra flower."

"Awesome!" Callum said excitedly. "We will definitely be there then!"

"Cool!"

"Okay Keisha," Erika said, plopping down at the table as she held out her hand. "I know that it’s coming, so just hand me the yellow rose already."

"So needy, God." Keisha said, rolling her eyes as she handed Erika a yellow rose. "I already know what your answer is, same as it has been every year."

"You know it." Erika said, pointing finger guns at Keisha.

Braylen walked over to the table cautiously looking over at the table, some of his paler skin showing through the makeup on his face. "Morning guys."

"Morn- Oh my God, what is going on with your face?" Becky asked, dropping a flower lei in surprise.

"Huh?" Braylen asked, giving me a confused look.

"Some of your vitiligo is showing." I said cautiously.

"Shit." Braylen said, sighing heavily. He looked over at Becky. "It’s nothing to worry about, Becky. This is normal for me."

"But what is-"

"You said that it’s vitiligo, right?" Trayvon asked. "Isn’t that what your skin loses it’s color or something?"

"It runs on my mom’s side of the family." Braylen said, laughing nervously. "My great grandfather had it, but then it skipped a couple generations. I’m the only one of my siblings who has it."

"You have siblings?" Callum asked, surprised.

"Yes, he does." I said quickly. "I’ve actually met the two of them over Zoom. They’re really nice."

"How come only you’ve met them?"

"They usually call while I’m at home, but Anna and I were doing some late training and they called, so she’s met them." Braylen lied.

"Can we meet them?"

"I… Don’t think so."

"Why not?"

"His little sister is busy at boarding school and his brother is a CEO of some company back in England. Pretty busy people."

"That makes sense." Keisha said, shrugging. "We’re all kinda busy right now."

"Yeah, well, what are you gonna do, right?" Braylen said, laughing nervously. "It’s family."

"Speaking of family..." Keisha said, grabbing the final rose out of her basket. "Homecoming with the rest of the Y.A.K.S. family."

"Home… Coming?"

"Right, this is your first one." Becky said cautiously. "It’s an American dance type thing. You can go with someone, but we’re all going as a group."

"A… Dance?" Braylen asked, looking over at me cautiously.

"This is more like what you’re used to. Suit and tie. Maybe some slow dancing. But there is also some party music to it."

"Okay, so two things I’ve been exposed to. Cool." Braylen said, giving Keisha a thumbs up. "I’m in."

"Cool! We got the whole squad going."

Trayvon visibly cringed. "Keisha, honey, no."

"Why not?"

"That was so bad."

"Was it?"

"Yes. Yes it was." Callum said, rolling his eyes playfully.

"Cool, now that we got that out of the way, everyone, take a lei and..." Becky hesitated, her eyes floating up to my head as she sighed exhaustedly. "Be a normal human and wear it like it was intended."

"I always do this with my flower leis." I said defensively. "I have so many flower crowns because of this."

"Well, I think it looks cool." Braylen said happily.

"What is the thing with the leis anyway?" Keisha asked, attempting to make her green and orange lei into a flower crown like mine. "Are you just handing these out, or… What?"

"We’re supposed to be handing out different things to the student body this week so that everyone can get excited for the giant parade Friday night." Becky said exhaustedly. "Tomorrow, we’re having a donut sale, Wednesday we’re giving out rubber bracelets, Thursday we’re handing out yoyos, and Friday we’re handing out glow sticks since the parade is gonna be at night."

"I know, I’m so excited!" Callum said happily, clapping his hands together.

"Why? It’s just a parade. Nothing we haven’t done before." I said, giving Callum a confused look.

"Because we get to wear glow sticks in the parade and the different sections of the band have their own dances! Even we get to do dances!"

"Oh good God." I said, laughing as I rolled my eyes. "Of course you would be so freaking excited for rainbow glow sticks and dances. I am seriously not surprised."

"You know that one dance I've been teaching you since the summer?"

"Yeah..."

"And you know how during parades we play Gitchee Gitchee Goo from that Phineas and Ferb show?"

"Yeah..."

"We dance during that song while the other drum majors conduct."

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

"Oh good gravy..."

"Is Homecoming really that big of a deal?" Braylen asked.

Becky gave him a flabbergasted look. "Of course it’s a big deal! It’s celebrating the first time superheroes came to be in reality! The entire city is celebrating over the next couple weeks!"

"Yeah. I’m going to Damian’s school’s Homecoming dance Saturday night. Supposed to be a lot of fun."

"And then we have the carnival next week-"

"That’s my favorite part of Homecoming." Keisha admitted. "The bright lights, the rides, the food, the games! It’s like it’s right out of that really old YouTube show, Escape The Night!"

"Wasn’t Season 3 the only one with the carnival though?" Trayvon asked cautiously. "Like, everything there was from a creepy carnival. Clowns, snake women, the funhouse guy, puppets and dolls-"

"Not to mention that the big bad of that season is literally named The Carnival Master." I interrupted.

Keisha gave me a surprised look. "You watch Escape The Night?"

"I also own the game, dude. Journalist main all the way." I said, shrugging.

"And then it concludes with the Super Awards, which is an awards show that takes place during the day and gives out awards for the best superheroes that year."

"So they replaced the Grammy’s and the Tony’s with a superhero awards show?"

"They still have those shows around." Becky deflected.

"And it’s also when our team is making a debut." Callum reminded us.

"Are they gonna give us suits?" Trayvon asked.

"My aunt is designing them with my help. Trust me, they’re gonna be absolutely fine."

"Just don’t put a lot of metal stuff on Trayvon’s." I reminded them.

"Why? I could make myself fly!"

"Dude, you do remember what Anneliese can do, right?" Braylen asked cautiously.

Trayvon nodded, then his eyes widened as he pointed one of his fingers at me. "Right, because if I have too much metal-"

"You become a human tesla coil and die." I said, nodding in agreement. "The less metal you have on your person, the better, my friend."

"Right… Callum-"

"I’ve already kept that in mind."

"Cool." The bell rang as we all grabbed our stuff. Trayvon looked at me, a wide smile growing on his face. "We are still on for Saturday, right?"

"You. Me. Your house. Binge watching the whole show."

"Heck yeah we are!" Trayvon said excitedly as the other left the library.

Braylen stuck behind with me, leaning close to my ear. "You weren’t expecting me to ask you out, were you?"

"Not really." I said, shrugging. "I didn’t even expect you to know what Homecoming was. Since we’re going in a group, we’ll still be going together so I really don’t think that it matters right now."

"Yeah. Doesn’t matter right now." Braylen agreed. "See you later?"

"Yeah, definitely. See ya later." I said, waving goodbye as I joined Callum on the staircase, walking with him to Physics.

Callum looked back at Braylen for a second, then smirked at me. "Do I sense a new couple on the horizon?"

"Me and Braylen? No."

"Braylen? Who’s Braylen."

I tried to calm down my reaction, realizing that I just messed up. "Edward. Braylen is his middle name."

"Really? He told me that his middle name was George."

"Godamnit." I cursed. Of course he chose his fake middle name after his favorite Weasley.

"Anna, what’s going on?" Callum asked quietly.

"I’m not allowed to tell you."

"Why not?"

"He made me promise not to."

"Who?"

"Edward."

"But Edward isn’t his real name, is it?"

I hesitated. "Of course it is."

"You hesitated."

"No I didn’t."

"Anna-"

"I can’t tell you."

"Again, why not?"

"Because if I tell you, that’ll be one more person in danger. I’m in danger just by knowing. Edward wouldn’t want anyone else in danger because of him."

"Anna, what do you mean?"

"Edward is in danger. That’s all I can really tell you."

"What do you mean?"

"Callum, please. That’s all I can tell you without putting you in danger."

"Why? I’m team leader. I think I deserve to know exactly what is going on in my team."

"Because you can just as easily figure out who he is just by doing a Google Search." I whispered once we sat down in our seats.

Callum gave me a concerned look as he pulled out his phone, typing something on the screen. Once he was done, his eyes widened. "No way… Edward is-"

"Yeah."

"But why is he-"

"I can’t tell you without putting you in danger."

"But is says that the king, the queen, and Ed-"

"I know, I know, but he’s going to be in danger until we graduate college."

"But shouldn’t his br-"

"No, because he’s technically first."

"Then why-"

"I can’t tell you."

"But Anna-"

"Callum, please. This is for your own safety. If you want to find out why, then you need to figure it out for yourself. I’m not going to tell you, Callum. Technically, I shouldn’t even know, but-"

"Then why did he tell you?"

"I don’t know, because he likes me."

"Anna-"

"I’m being serious."

"I know, I know." Callum said exhaustedly. "I don’t like when obvious things are being kept secret from me. This whole thing is freaking me out."

"Imagine how I felt when I first found out." I said, sighing heavily. "Promise me you won’t tell anyone you found out, okay? Especially not Edward. I don’t want to betray his trust."

"I won’t tell anyone." Callum promised.

"Okay." I said, sighing as I looked at the screen. "Let’s get back to Attack of the Clones."

"Oh joy." Callum said, rolling his eyes. Somehow, that completely conveyed how I felt about this entire situation.