Chapter 4

"Just consider joining." Becky said, pestering me in second hour. I hadn't even realized that we were in the same class until she slammed her hands down on my desk the next day. "It's not as bad as you think it'll be."

"Becky, I already made up my mind. I'm not joining." I said, grabbing my free read book from my backpack.

"Seriously, it's not bad. Mr. Herbstreit helps us learn how to use our-"

"I don't want to learn how to do that." I said, raising my hand. Our teacher turned towards me. The bell rang in the background as the teacher looked at my cautiously. "Can I go to the bathroom, please?"

"Let me write you a pass." She said begrudgingly as I got up from my desk and grabbed the pass and quickly left the room. Right outside the door was a tall, skinny figure with electric blue eyes, cropped black hair, porcelain skin, and dark makeup.

I recognized this person immediately. "Zelena!"

Zelena looked down and jumped a bit. "Anneliese?"

Zelena was a foster kid in my neighborhood. We've been best friends since... Well, since we first met back in grade school. But then... Whatever happened that ended in me getting superpowers happened and we drifted apart, ending with Zelena saying some pretty nasty things about me when we got into a giant fight.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, giving Zelena a confused look.

"What am I doing here, what are YOU doing here?"

"Dad got transferred out here to work as security guard. Now answer my question!"

"After... After our fight, I got transferred out here too. You know how superheroes are with wanting to save everyone."

"So you're living with superheroes now, huh?" I said awkwardly, trying to not think of the memories of our fight. Lots of yelling, cursing, and throwing of various kitchen appliances. My mother's expensive Kitchen Aid mixer never made it through the argument, and the toaster never made it through my post argument anger. I already got in trouble for the toaster. Next time she tries to bake something with the Kitchen Aid, I'm screwed. So many things left unsaid between us that it felt like you could barely see through the pea soup of tension.

"Only the best." Zelena grumbled. "Look, can we... Can we talk?"

"I do have a bathroom pass." I said sneakily, holding up my blue bathroom pass.

Zelena smirked. "To the bathroom!"

The two of us quickly walked over to the bathroom and walked inside. Zelena cautiously looked around, making sure there was nobody watching us or something, before running to the door and blocking it. "So... You remember that night?"

She was talking about the night I got my powers. She didn’t have to say any details about it, I just knew deep down what she meant. "Do I remember that it exists? Yeah. Do I remember anything that happened that night? No. Why?"

"Has anything... Anything weird happened since then?"

I had a sick feeling in my stomach, as if some part of me knew what was gonna happen next despite me having no idea. "What do you mean by weird?"

"Weird like this?" Zelena said, raising her right hand a bit as blue electricity started arcing between her fingers.

I quickly slapped her hand down. "Are you crazy! You can't just go doing that in public!"

"So you do have that ability?" Zelena asked, smirking as she grabbed my glasses off of my face.

"Ze-Zelena!" I stuttered, jumping up as Zelena put my glasses out of my reach.

"Rubber on the inside of your lenses?" Zelena asked, tapping my glasses against the wall next to her. "Plastic frames? Real glass in the lenses? You must be trying hard to stop something from happening."

"What the hell!" I asked, my arm grazing Zelena's hand.

In an instant, my vision went white and I saw Zelena in a dark room, red lightning arcing from her hands towards an unknown target. As quickly as it happened, my vision returned to normal.

Zelena looked spooked, but I took that opportunity to snatch my glasses out of Zelena's hands and quickly put them back on my face. "You don't just do that, Zelena."

"What just happened?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your eyes..."

"Hey!" A voice asked. I turned around and saw Becky standing there, arms crossed, as she glared at Zelena. "What are you doing with her, Zacharias?"

Zelena scoffed, crossing her arms. "We're just having a little talk."

"Doesn't look like a little talk to me. You okay, Anneliese?"

"I don't need you to save me." I said, turning back to Zelena. "Is that all you wanted?"

"No, actually. Meet me after school today."

"After what you just pulled? Fat chance." I said, rolling my eyes as I started walking out of the backroom with Becky beside me.

"You know her?" Becky asked cautiously.

"That's my ex best friend. Had no idea that she went here." I said, crossing my arms. "How do you know her?"

"She transferred in halfway through the school year, around-"

"March. Five months after I got my powers." I said glumly. "And apparently three months after Zelena got her powers."

"You both got powers in the same incident?"

"I'm assuming so, since she just showed me that she had some lightning powers and she was there when I woke up."

"So... You don't remember how you got them?"

"I'm surprised Callum didn't tell you that. He seems to have told you everything else about me."

Becky grabbed my arm gently, sighing heavily. "Look, he should've told you that we existed before he dragged you there. That was a dick move, I'll admit it. But... Think about giving us a chance? We aren't that bad, I promise. Meeting other people that also have powers, especially at our age... It's crazy."

"More than crazy..." I said, laughing uneasily.

"But we might be the only people who can help you get your power under control." Becky added. "You start sparking when you get anxious, right?"

"Well... Yeah." I guess she's seen me spark more times than I would've liked.

"I had that same problem with my duplication. If you go to a space where you can properly learn how to use it, it helps. Promise me you'll think about it?"

"I'll think about it."

"Good." Becky said, putting an arm around my shoulder. "Now let's get back to class. Whole reason I followed you is because Mrs. Trenchorn was starting to get worried about you."

"Right... I left the room on a bathroom pass."

"Sorry I made you really uncomfortable. I'm an... Upfront person. Didn't mean to spook you."

"It's fine. This... This whole situation is spooking me."

Becky laughed. "I completely understand. Let's just get back to class, yeah?"

After school, Mom teleported me home and I walked up to my room and quickly changed into a pair of leggings and a sports bra, grabbing a red scrunchie to pull my hair back. Once I was done, I walked to the attic where Mom forced Dad to put our home gym stuff, grabbed a boxing bag, and started punching the snot out of it.

Boxing was always a way for me to relieve stress. Heck, any exercise was good. When I was six, I was in ballet and karate all at the same time. Eventually, Dad brought me to the home gym and taught me how to box. It was always a somewhat peaceful way for me to get out my frustrations. Gave me room in my head to think.

"Anneliese?" Dad asked, slowly walking up into the attic and studying me, eyes narrowed. "How long have you been up here boxing?"

There's no clock up here, but I knew that Dad came home from work at 5:30. "Since I got back from school..."

Dad gently put his hand on my shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"Where's Mom?"

"She had to work late. More and more people are either getting laid off or quitting, so she's doing some overtime this week." Dad explained, crossing his arms as he laughed a bit. "Now does this problem have to do with your electricity power?"

I felt my eyes widen. How did he know? "What are you-"

"Don't try lying to me, Anna. Remember when you exploded that toaster five months ago, back in March? That was before you started wearing those glasses, so I kinda figured out that you have powers."

I slumped down, taking off my gloves and setting them on an unpacked box. "You've known since the toaster?"

"Yeah, kiddo."

"Does Mom know?"

"No. I was going to wait until you were in college to tell her." Dad said, sitting down on one of the boxes. "What's going on, Anna?"

"Remember yesterday when I came home early from that club?"

"Yeah. Your mother told me about it."

"Turns out it's a club for people... People like me."

"There are other kids that have powers at this age? What are you doing here then?"

"Callum took me there without telling me what was going on, and now everyone there is expecting me to join their club. I... I don't know what to do, especially since Zelena-"

"Time out: Zelena's here?" Dad asked. I nodded as Dad fiddled with the shoelaces to a pair of shoes I had when I was four that were lying by his box. Why we still had those shoes, I had no idea. "How's she doing? Ever since that argument when you-"

"Blew up the toaster out of frustration, I know." I said, waving my hand dismissively.

"I still can't believe that your mother fell for the 'Zelena dumped water on the toaster out of frustration' lie."

I chuckled a bit. "She looks like she's doing fine. Her hair's way shorter."

"Like a buzz cut?"

"Little longer than that, but yeah."

"Are you up here because of her?"

"No... One of the girls who's in that club I told you about got me away from her. They asked me to join, and I don't know what to do. On one side, I'd be with people like me and be able to train to use them better, but on the other side, I could seriously injure those people because I don't have a good grasp on my powers."

Dad seemed to ponder on what I said, tapping the shoelaces together as he thought. It took a minute of us sitting in silence, watching the sunlight slowly fade and the dust particles disappear with it until Dad spoke again. "I think you should join."

"You do?"

"Yeah. I mean... They're people like you, right? Could be beneficial for you to actually get some experience using your powers before the end of senior year."

"You really think it's a good idea?"

"Anneliese, you're stronger than I could ever be, and more determined than your mother. If this could help you... I don't know... Figure out what you're gonna do with your life after college, then go for it. If it isn't a good idea, you can argue with me about it later. You just have to give it a chance."

I nodded. "I will."

"Good. Now, since your mother isn't gonna be home for a couple hours, I say the two of us make some homemade pizza for dinner."

I laughed, standing up. "Sounds like a great idea, Dad."

Somehow, after having that talk with Dad, I knew that everything was going to be okay. Dad had a way of making you feel comfortable and safe. He was right. No harm in trying.

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