Super Girls (Cape High Book 13) (11 page)

"I fully expect you to," he says.

"I should go," I say, heading for the door. "I'll call you again—or you can call me, okay? I just need to talk to Nico before dinner, okay? Wait, he's not here—I've got him on speed dial! I'll call him. I'm just—I—bye!" I say, hanging up as he starts to laugh. "Oh my gosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh!" I squeal, jumping up and down excitedly. "THIS IS AWESOME!" I yell, dancing like an idiot. I blink as one second there's no one there, and the next half of the school surround me, looking curious.

"What's awesome?" Freddy asks.

"Um—I—ah—" I say, feeling ridiculous. "Nothing?" I offer stupidly.

"It's clearly not nothing," Justin says, watching me with a little grin. "You got good news?"

"Shouldn't you all be doing something important?" I ask, trying to distract them. "Like getting ready for dinner?"

"Tell us what's amazing and we'll go," Malina says.

"I… um… I really can't tell," I admit. "I swore I wouldn't. It's super secret stuff. But it's nothing bad?" I offer as I see Elidee watching me along with the rest of them. Where has she been? She keeps disappearing on me. I'm supposed to be watching out for her, right? I feel guilty just looking at her because of that.

"Super stuff," Freddy repeats. "Yeah, we should leave her alone," he says to the others. They nod, heading off their own directions. Only Elidee and Olivia stick back, looking at me curiously.

"You can tell US," Elidee says, crossing her arms. Olivia hesitates before nodding.

"We're friends now, right? The new girls in school," Olivia says.

"That and we practically grew up together," Elidee says, motioning from me to her.

"I've only known you three years, Elidee," I have to point out. "But I CAN'T tell anyone yet," I say, walking closer and lowering my voice. "It could risk something super important for my future if I talk, okay?"

"It's a guy," Elidee says, looking at Olivia.

"You've got a boyfriend?" Olivia asks me. "Do we know him? Is he a super? You're going to break Freddy's heart, you know."

"It's NOT a boyfriend!" I say, starting to laugh. "But it does involve a guy, I guess," I add, since it throws them off track. "Just trust me, it's a good thing," I say, grinning at them and dragging them into an impromptu hug. "It's a REALLY good thing." It is, right? I think being a reporter would be AWESOME—especially one for HTV. Well, no, it'd be VTV, right? Villain TV. SO COOL!

I should totally call Ace and thank him for vouching for me! He is completely forgiven for being creepy, okay? TOTALLY forgiven.

"Why is she hugging us?" Olivia asks Elidee.

"I have no idea," Elidee says, sounding confused. "Maybe she ate something funny?"

"Or maybe her mind just cracked," Olivia says. They both pull away long enough to give me sympathetic looks. "It'll be okay, Jennifer. Everything's okay." She pats me on the shoulder.

I roll my eyes. "I haven't cracked," I tell her. "I just got some good news."

"Your sister was kicked out of the Hall?" Elidee asks.

"How is that good news?" Olivia asks.

"Trust me, you don't know her sister."

"It has absolutely nothing to do with Jetta," I say. That fact makes me even happier. I mean, of all the teenage supers out there—including my older sister with better abilities—Mr. Harrison picked ME to be the first reporter! "But I need to make another call, okay? In private."

They pout at me, but reluctantly head off as the fifteen minute gong sounds. "Oh, and Elidee?" I say, "You really need to call Mr. Harrison and thank him for sponsoring you."

"Sponsoring?" she repeats.

"We have sponsors?" Olivia asks, looking equally blank.

"We have sponsors—although yours is probably your dad," I tell her. "Now get. I've got adult things to do."

"Hah, like she's an adult," Elidee mutters as they walk away.

I stick my tongue out at their backs and look around. The safest place for this chat looks like the top of the steps. I head for them, running to the top of the canyon. There's a little platform on this side of the force field, and I drop down there, bringing out my phone again.

"Speaking," Nico says. I can already tell that I don't have his full attention. I don't care.

"Nico, this is Jennifer," I say. "Um, thanks for the phone, by the way."

"I give them to all the students—it's easier to keep them from being tracked through their phone records. Destroy your old one, won't you?" he adds. His voice says he's still not fully focused on me. I'm good at noticing that sort of thing.

"Yeah, I'll ask someone to do that for me," I say. It isn't something I can honestly do myself—well, I mean, I'm CAPABLE of doing it, I just don't think I CAN do it. It's like killing an old friend. "Nico, I want to start that super villain course you were offering. I want to be a super villain."

"You talked with Andre?"

"Yeah. He told me everything," I say, back to feeling like squealing with excitement. "I'm going to be the best I can—that means doing whatever I need to, right?"

"It's good to hear you're committed," he says, his tone changing slightly. So I finally have his attention, huh? "We'll put your training courses together in the morning."

"Thanks," I say. "Did you… did you really tell him you think I'll be good for the job?" I ask.

"I think you will—but that's not what matters. Do you think you can do the job?"

"Not yet?" I admit. "But I can GET to where I can, right?"

"Good. That's all I needed to know. Now get to dinner, it's almost time, right?"

"Yeah."

***

"So," Nico says, hanging up the phone and looking at the holographic screen over his desk. He'd muted the com-system while talking to Jennifer. The entire VTV was a secret, even from—or should he say ESPECIALLY from the right hand man of Isotonic. "You want to enroll your sons into Cape High."

"They're starting to show signs, especially the oldest one."

"I thought they were twins," Nico says.

"They aren't. Jules is about a year older. I'm glad, actually, they were both over nine pounds at birth."

"Nine pounds, huh?" Nico says, looking away. "I'll have to ask Summer how big the twins were."

"Weren't you there?"

"No. I didn't even meet them until they were fifteen," Nico says a bit flatly. "If you think they're ready, bring them back down—after you fill out all the paperwork giving us the right to train your successors in Central," he adds. "It's one thing if they're not officially affiliated; it's another thing completely if they're the kids of acting members. Isotonic will want to make sure they can't be signed off to another branch without his knowing."

"Would you do that?"

"I've got a lot of kids to keep track of," Nico says with a shrug. "As long as they're on my campus, I make sure they stay where they should. Once they're graduated, however, they can do whatever they feel like. It's up to the Hall leaders to keep that in check," he says. "But since I've already got a few wars going on over some of my kids, I thought I'd be a nice guy and warn you ahead of time."

"Well thanks for that," Hard Knocks says dryly. "Is it true that you've got Skystep there?" he asks.

"What, think she's going to go out of control?" Nico asks. "It's true, but she's not a problem."

"Why do you say that?" Hard Knocks asks. "I remember all the reports of how she took down most of South and half of Central just because she was irritated."

"She did, didn't she?" Nico says with a little smile. "I should probably tell you this, actually—she's acting as a substitute teacher. My usual first hour teacher is on a mission with his son's team. So here's your chance to back out—do you really want your sons taught by Skystep?"

"What's she teaching?"

"This morning it was marine biology," Nico says. "I think they were swallowed by a whale."

"How?"

"I've got a psychic that specializes in mental healing," Nico tells him cheerfully. "She can do halfway decent illusions from other people's memories. Skye took advantage of it."

"That makes sense," Hard Knocks says. "Did the kids learn much?"

"Who knows? But they stayed awake."

"Well that's good to hear. I'll be bringing the boys back in the next few days, will that work?"

"That's fine," Nico says. "I'll get two of the rooms set up for them." They hang up and Nico goes back to his work, yet another watch floating in front of him.

***

"So that's what happened with Skye," Mother says, leaning over Hard Knocks' shoulder now that the screen has gone black. "Good job, sweetie," she adds, kissing the large black man on the temple. "You've done well."

"Mother?" Jules asks, making her turn and look at the two boys sitting on the second bed of Hard Knock's hotel room. "We made you a picture," he says, holding out a piece of paper proudly. She walks over, smiling brilliantly as she takes the picture. The smile falters, though, falling slightly as she looks at it. "Are those lasers coming from my eyes?" she asks him.

"It was my idea!" Mitchell says proudly. "Because you're super powerful and your eyes can brainwash people!"

"I… see," Mother says, a thought occurring to her. She has the father—that much is obvious, but these two… "Mitchell, Jules? Who am I?"

"You're Mother!" Jules says.

"Mother!" Mitchell agrees.

"Good. Don't forget that." She walks over to their father, placing the strange artwork on the table in front of him.

"I'm bored again," she hears Mitchell say. "And I don't think your kiss-up plan worked, man."

"It would have worked if you hadn't drawn in the freaky eye lasers," Jules says. "Let's try again—this time you need to make her look super hot. Super ladies always like to be seen as super hot, right?"

"I don't think so—I think she should look all-powerful, or something, that's why the eye lasers!"

"But she doesn't HAVE eye lasers!"

"That we KNOW of! She might have all sorts of powers that she hasn't shown off yet," Mitchell says seriously. "Oh forget it, I'm going to play games," he says with a hint of disgust. "You can draw your own kiss-up pictures."

"But you're the better artist!"

"Deal with it," Mitchell says smugly, pulling his phone out of his bag and tapping on it.

"But why are you going to school, anyway? You haven't shown any abilities at all," Jules says.

"Sure I did—didn't I?" Mitchell says, frowning. The look in their eyes says that they're starting to remember what's going on. The erratic, fast paced jumping from one subject to another always has been a problem with Mother keeping control of someone. Basically, the more random a person is, the easier it is for Mother's brainwashing to not stick. You don't get much more random than pre-teen boys (unless you're a pre-teen girl, or Skye. Skye definitely tops the list of random.)

Thankfully, Mother has stopped paying attention to them. "Why don't you call your friend up North, sweetie? Tell him you'll be a little late," she whispers in Hard Knocks' ear.

"Yes, Mother. Anything you say."

I hardly slept at all last night. I mean, I TRIED to, but my mind would go straight back to the idea of being a reporter. What type of reporter? I mean, I pictured myself sitting in a plush chair interviewing people like Ace, or Cold Steel—and I couldn't see it happening. Besides, he'd said something about "sneakier aspects." So does that mean I'll be sneaking into secret bases and reporting without the bad guys knowing? I can picture it! I mean, how awesome would it be to see the super villains working behind the scenes?

My mind would go from one thought to another, the excitement keeping me from sleep—even if I WAS exhausted from the day of swimming. Now I'm yawning loudly as I head out from the dorms to find Nico. He said we would decide on my training this morning, right? And I THINK I'm right about training with Keliah, but I have to know for sure, otherwise she'll run me off again. Probably doesn't want people seeing how bad a shot she is. I wouldn't.

"Um." I jerk, turning and looking at Freddy blankly for a moment. "I got a bell," he says, holding out his hand and revealing a small metal bell for me to inspect. "Will this help?"

"You're going to actually wear a bell," I say a bit stupidly.

"Adanna got it for me," he says. "I figured I'd hang it from one of my earrings. She says it should be quiet enough for most people not to notice—that's okay, right?"

He's not my type—he's sort of stalker-ish, too, but seriously, this has to be one of the sweetest things anyone's ever done for me. Sad when I have to say that about a stalker. "It's not going to bother you?" I ask.

He shakes the bell. The sound is a mere whisper of a chime, but in contrast to his usual entrance, it's a start. I mean, I can't even hear his heartbeat with that suit on. With that—my eyes widen and I walk over, grabbing his shirt to feel the material. It LOOKS like jeans and a shirt, right? This is that super grade material—

"Wh—what the—" he yelps, looking shocked.

"Take this off, would you?" I say. He turns bright red, which would be amusing if I was actually paying attention. Instead, when he doesn't move fast enough, I tug the shirt off of him. We've got an audience of stunned on-lookers, including a handful of thirteen year old girls. Whoops.

I turn away from him, holding the shirt up to the light. Nothing comes through. It's a surprisingly light material, and really soft! "This is really nice! I want it!" I say excitedly.

"Uh… I guess you can have it?" Freddy offers, making me look over. He still looks slightly confused. "Not sure it'll fit you right, I mean, it was made for me."

He actually has a lot more muscle than I thought he would. But anyway—"No, I mean, I'm still not sure WHY it's soundproof, but it's awesome," I admit. "For my future job it'd be perfect!"

"Future job?" he asks.

"Yeah, as a—" I stop myself just in time. "As a super villain," I say, instead. I give him a broad grin, handing back the shirt. "You can have this back, thanks," I add, feeling a blush creep over my face. I just stripped the poor guy—I'm never going to hear the end of it, am I?

I hear something other than laughter. I jerk, looking over at the dorms a bit blankly as a once familiar chime catches my attention. My phone? But my phone is in my pocket—I reach into my pocket, pulling it out. Oh, right, this is the phone Nico made for me. The ringing is my old phone—and that ring tone is—

I run for the dorm, heading for my room. Class is about to start, but I ignore that fact. I head to my bags, pulling out my old phone and staring at the name on the screen.

"Is something wrong?" I jerk, looking at Freddy. He followed me?

I look at the phone again, watching the word "Matt" change to "Missed Call."

"Freddy?" I ask, standing and taking a deep breath. "Can you do me a really big favor?" I ask, slowly, hesitantly holding my phone out to him. "Can you destroy this?"

He hesitates. "Can't you do it yourself?" he asks. "You don't look like you want to, though—"

"It's my old life," I say, looking at the phone with a bittersweet smile.

"So… I shouldn't do it in front of you, right?" he offers. "It might be too painful or something."

"Yeah, but—" I say slowly, hesitating. I shove the phone forward as soon as I realize what I'm doing. "Just do it quickly. Nico's orders."

"Jennifer, time to assign your first hour," I hear Nico say from outside. He doesn't raise his voice. He doesn't need to.

"Nico's calling. Make sure you destroy it, okay?" I say to Freddy, heading past him.

"He is?" he repeats blankly.

"Thanks, Freddy," I call over my shoulder, stopping to feel the wind before heading for where Nico stands at the archery field.

"Good, now let's get you set up," he says, heading for a nearby shed. It slides open when he waves a hand and I stare blankly at an entire arsenal of bows and guns. "We're going to start simple and work our way up," he tells me. He turns, grabbing a mechanical monstrosity of a bow and examining it for a moment. "This should be a good way to start," he says, handing it over to me. "This one doesn't have the explosive arrows," he adds as he hands me a quiver full of strangely marked arrows. "Oh, don't use the red ones."

"Why shouldn't I use the red ones?" I ask, wondering why I feel a little shiver of dread go down my spine.

"They catch on fire."

"I'll be sure to avoid them, then," I drawl. Really, THIS is the principal? "Actually, why don't you tell me what ALL of them are, so I don't end up accidentally killing myself."

"Where's the fun in that?" he asks.

I stare at him.

***

"Destroy the phone… destroy the phone," Freddy mutters to himself. The phone in question feels like it's burning a hole in his pocket as he heads to his first hour study. He's supposed to spend it keeping out of sight of EVERYONE. He's gotten good at avoiding people, even heroes, but talking to himself is ruining that. He races away as Carla yells out his name, pointing. "I haven't started yet!" he yells over his shoulder as she starts laughing.

He heads across the massive canyon, to the area where nobody goes. The campus only covers a small portion of it, so that leaves a lot of room. He'd spent his first few weeks hanging out here, since it was easy—it was also boring. Right now he could appreciate that fact. He climbs to the top of one of the larger rocks of the canyon wall, perching there as he pulls the phone out.

Destroying it will be easy, he tells himself. He just needs to crush it—it won't take much effort at all—the thing is norm made. He just can't shake the words "It's my old life" out of his mind, much less the look on her face. He had been happy to throw his old life away—even before he'd been captured by the Collector. His entire past is something he's hidden even from his new brothers and sisters. He feels a little guilty over that fact once in a while, but—

Well, how could he tell them that he'd been stolen from one prison just to be put in another? When Shadowman came, he was about to start his second year in Juvie. He got tossed in as soon as he'd turned thirteen and was caught joyriding in that cop car. Needless to say, he wasn't nearly as traumatized by the Collector episode as the others had been. A part of him figured he was better off.

He shoves the memories down, feeling that old self-hatred welling up. It'd been fun at the time, sure, but seriously stupid. If he hadn't done that, maybe he could have told the others about his past. Another thing? Shadowman had dangled it over his head like blackmail. Not to mention all the silent jeering over how he'd actually STAYED there. First he'd been mocked for being tossed in, and then he'd been mocked for not escaping as soon as he could. Well—he jerks out of his thoughts as the phone dings.

A text? He hesitates for all of a second before reading it.

MATT: Hey, I heard you got transferred—can you get me Ace's autograph?

Matt? Who the heck is Matt? Freddy scowls, trying to shove that hint of jealousy down. It's none of his business who Matt is—

He digs his own phone out of his pocket, scrolling through his contacts and landing on Ace's name. He taps it, waiting impatiently for Ace to answer as the phone dings again.

MATT: R U there, Jenna?

"Sup?" Ace says, tearing Freddy from the screen. Why, oh why, hasn't she put a lock on this thing, Freddy wonders a bit pathetically. "Freddy? You there?"

"Yeah, um, sorry," Freddy says. "Hey, Ace? Who's Matt?"

"Who?"

"Matt—he's probably from your old school. He knows Jennifer well enough to text her?" Freddy offers.

"Oh… uh, he's probably the guy that broke his fist," Ace says. "Why?"

The guy that broke his—Freddy's eyes widen with surprise. "THAT guy?" he says, letting out a bark of laughter.

"Yeah, pretty sure. Why?  How do you know he's texting Jenna?"

"Jenna transferred over and she gave me her phone to destroy," Freddy says, looking at the phone in question. "I just feel a little wrong about doing it—she called it her 'old life.' That sounds really important, right?"

"So you're reading her texts, instead?" Ace asks. "You've got a thing for her, don't you."

"I don—okay, fine, she's a babe, okay? And one of the few girls around my age that aren't related to me as zoo kids," Freddy mutters guiltily.

"You realize, you zoo kids AREN'T related, right? You could totally date one of them—"

"Don't even go there."

MATT: Hey, me and my GF broke up—maybe we could meet up sometime?

Freddy's hand tightens on the phone and he blinks as the thing crushes.

"Whoops," he says.

"Whoops what?"

"I destroyed it."

"Wasn't that what you were supposed to do?" Ace asks.

"I don't like that guy," Freddy says, his irritation showing. "He just texted her because he wanted your autograph, and when she didn't reply, he hit on her."

"Yeah, but she wanted the phone destroyed, right? So forget about it. Also, you probably shouldn't tell her you read that," Ace says. "Just tell her you destroyed it."

"I want to be honest," Freddy says, stubbornly. "I mean, she already hates me, so it's not like she can hate me more, right?"

"She hates you?"

"She finds me freaky—I guess I move too silently or something," he admits, feeling a blush creep over his cheeks.

"Too silently? Actually, yeah, I could see that," Ace admits. "But…" he hesitates for a moment and Freddy can almost hear him thinking. "Want to get rid of Matt once and for all?"

"You might be a super villain, but I ain't!" Freddy yelps, shocked that Ace even offered.

"Not that way!" Ace says. "It's just from what you told me, he's going to start chasing her to get to me or something, right? If that's the case, she might never get rid of him."

"Like a stalker?"

"Pretty much. So we'd be doing her a favor, right?" Ace says cheerfully. "We've got the next three days off—and I could use a little break from the team, so why don't I come on down and get you out of there?"

"Tonight?" Freddy asks. "Can you do that?"

"Talk to Nico, tell him you need to go shopping for a—I dunno, something like underwear or whatever."

"Underwear."

"Yeah, or something for your room—just meet me outside the canyon after school lets out."

"Are you trying to get away from Morgan?" Freddy asks knowingly.

"Shuddup and go get permission."

"I can't, it's still first hour," Freddy says. "What are we going to do to the guy, anyway? Are you going to give him your autograph?"

"Freddy," Ace says, "I'm an illusionist."

"Yeah, but—"

"I'm hanging up now."

"Come on, Ace—at least give me an idea!"

"Here's an idea—try to record Jenna next time she says something. Bye."

The click of the phone being hung up is all Freddy gets when he starts to ask why. Instead he stares at the phone blankly before pocketing it and looking at the crushed plastic in his other hand. So what should he do with it, anyway? Bury it? Take it to Jennifer to show it's destroyed? He squeezes it again, making sure it's good and broken before tucking it into his other pocket. Sure he feels a little guilty, but he'd done what she asked him to! Eventually.

***

Archery IS fun. Or it would be fun if I didn't have a blonde little girl glowering at me every time I get closer to the target than she does. I have a bit of a headache from all the jealousy filled vibes she's letting off. "Do you want me to help—" I start off, when I catch her staring again.

"I've been doing this a lot longer than you have!" she says, jerking her head as she turns away from me.

"Well, yeah, but—"

"Keep to your side of the field and we won't have any problems, got it?" she says, shooting me a dark look. "Just shows up out of nowhere, taking over MY gig—she's even another blonde! That is SO not right," she mutters under her breath as she creates another arrow out of nothing.