Sentinels High AU

So this came about as part of a discussion about a high school alternate universe in the letter page discord.  I decided to run with it and created this first chapter to see how it went.

In terms of the setting, some superpowers are toned down a little to fit closer to a low power setting (Legacy and Heritage can only hover instead of full flight and their super strength is toned down, Tachyon is just inhumanly fast rather than faster than light, etc.) as well as other changes to make the setting work as a whole.  I’ve tried to keep the theme of the characters on point however.  There will also be a lot of real name use early on at least, whilst we’re still getting into the setting and superpowers kept on the down low.

Anyway, I’ve wasted enough space explaining things enjoy.

 

Chapter 1

Felicia sighed as she stared out the window of her dad’s car, it was the one loss in the discussion she’d had last night with him and her mother.  He had been upset after discovering that someone had been spreading rumours about her in school, he had been more upset when she pointed out that it was because he was the principal.

So they talked and debated, with her mother acting as the mediator as always, and he had agreed to lay off doting on her in school, and she had agreed to not get so mad at him, but he had stuck out on the car issue.

“Now Felicia,” he had said in his ‘I’m being reasonable’ tone, “Whilst you do have your license and your own car, there’s no point in us driving separately to school.  It’s just a waste of fuel and bad for the environment.”

Her mother had come to the compromise that whilst he would drive her to school, he would at least allow her to get out the car a couple of blocks from school and walk the rest of the way.

She sighed again and tried to think about when to get out the car, she was roused from her thoughts by her fathers cough, she blinked and looked over at him.

“You know that I wasn’t allowed on the school president candidate selection committee this year don’t you?” he asked a frown crossing his face.

“Of course I do dad,” she replied turning to look out the window again, “But the kids spreading these rumours just don’t care, just like they don’t care that Maia didn’t buy her way on, or that Ryan isn’t a charity case.”

“Do you know who they are?” he asked, it wasn’t the first time the question had come up since he had found out.

She shook her head before sitting up straight.

“Hey dad?” she said pointing to a little girl sniffling in the street, “Isn’t that Vanessa’s little sister?”

“Oh no, not again,” groaned her dad, “She needs to stop following Vanessa to school.”

“Let me out here,” said Felicia, “I’ll get her to her own school, then make my own way to school.”

“Are you going to make it on time?” asked her dad glancing at the dashboard clock as he pulled over.

“It’s a couple of blocks away,” laughed Felicia, “Besides, I’m the second fastest girl in the year after Meredith remember?”

“All right,” smiled her dad, “Just make sure Vicky gets to school on time.  I’ll let your tutor know you may be running late.”

Felicia watched her dad drive off before she went over to the crying girl and knelt down next to her.

“Hey Vicky,” she said in her best soothing voice, “Did you try to follow Vanessa again?”

The little girl tried to gulp back her tears before starting, “I wanted to go school with Essa, but I lost sight of her, and now I’m lost.”

Felicia rolled her eyes slightly before smiling and effortlessly picking the little girl up.  “Let’s get you to your school ok,” she said, “You can spend time with Vanessa after school.”

The little girl nodded and Felicia began to walk towards the nearby middle school carrying the young girl.  They’d only gotten half a block when a white convertible flew past them, the noise and rush of wind causing Vicky to cling tighter to Felicia.  Felicia didn’t think much about it and carried on walking until the car pulled up alongside her and sounded its horn.

She looked over to see Meredith behind the wheel with a grin on her face, another friend, Dana, was in the passenger seat.

“Hey there madam president,” laughed Meredith, “Did you get stuck babysitting Vicky again?”

“She got lost following Vanessa again,” said Felicia, “Besides, any excuse to avoid my dad driving me all the way to the staff car park again.”

“Get in,” said Dana pointing to the back seat, “You don’t want to be late for a school do you?”

“Well,” said Felicia remembering the last time she got a lift from Meredith, “So long as your at least keeping to a reasonable speed with a kid in the car…”

“Trust me,” said Meredith who hadn’t lost her giddy grin from the speed she had been doing when they first past Felicia.

Felicia groaned inwardly already seeing the folly of her choice, but she got in the back and made sure Vicky and herself were buckled in.

“Hold on tight,” said Meredith as she gunned the engine and sped off, Felicia groaned as Vicky laughed at the speed they were going.  It was already another busy day, and she hadn’t even gotten to school yet.

Chapter 2 – Fumbling in the Dark

The rhythmic thudding of a tennis ball bouncing off the floor then wall sounded though the sports storage room.  Amanda caught the ball deftly and threw it again, bouncing it off the same spots again to catch it.

“You know,” said a white haired girl hanging upside down off the spare bleachers whilst reading a book, “That’s really annoying.”

Amanda turned, her purple hair falling over her right eye, glaring at the girl she threw the ball again and caught it without looking.  “It’s not my fault that rich brat Cassy and her followers turfed us from our usual spot,” she snapped, “Besides, what about all those magic books you keep reading?”

“What should I do?” asked the white haired girl, “Relock their lockers when they open them?  Oh, I know, what about that grace charm you asked me to make for Pete in that attempt to make him less clumsy?”

“I don’t know Faye!” yelled Amanda turning to the girl clenching the ball tightly in her fist, “You’re the one who keeps going on about the usefulness of magic.”

“Girls calm down,” said a young boy sitting on the floor by the door, he stood up and walked over so he was standing between the two girls, “It’s not any of our faults that Cassy is so mean.”

“You can shut up Pete,” snapped Amanda, “You’re completely useless in a fight.”  

With that the flicked her wrist sending the ball at Pete’s forehead, it hit and he stumbled back slightly from the unexpected blow.  He put out his hand behind him to steady himself and pushed over the hurdle right behind him as he fell on his butt.  Pete winced as Amanda and Faye watched in fascinated horror, as like a Rube Golberg machine the sports equipment fell in just such a way as to knock over another piece of equipment.  As Pete turned to see what the noise was about, a single hockey stick fell into the circuit breaker at the back of the room, falling in such a way as to turn off all the breakers plunging the room into darkness.

The three sat in the silent darkness for a moment until it was broken by Pete.

“Oops,” said the young man quietly.

Faye clicked her fingers creating a small orb of light, as soon as she could see Amanda moved grabbing Pete’s arm and heading for the door.  They arrived too late however as she heard the door opening.  She pulled Pete into the corner by the door and covered his mouth as Faye extinguished the light.

The door cast a thin beam of natural light from outside and the tall, gaunt figure of Slim, the schools handyman came in.  He stopped and glanced around into the darkness before going back to his trolley and returning with a torch.  He swept it around before heading over to the breaker.  Amanda watched as he managed to get to the breaker without so much as knocking his foot against the fallen equipment.

Amanda turned to see if Faye was still there, she was standing still against the bleachers, the lights flickered back on and blinded Amanda momentarily, she looked up blinking to see Slim looking in her direction, his cap pulled to hide his eyes as always.

“You three know you’re not supposed to be in here,” he said in a slow drawl looking around the room slowly, “You could have been hurt by the equipment in here when it fell.”

“I’m sorry Mr. Walker,” said Faye, “We came in to see if we could fix the breaker when the lights went out in the hall.”  Amanda looked at the door to the hall, covered over in sports equipment and no way through before looking back at Slim.

Slim nodded at this before speaking again, “Well it’s fixed now, so move along before I have to report you to your tutors.”

The three nodded before practically running out the room.

“We should have snuck out,” hissed Amanda when she was sure they were out of earshot.

Faye shook her head, “It wouldn’t have made a difference, he knew we were there anyway.”

“How?” gasped Pete as he sat down against the wall.

“I’m pretty sure he’s blind,” said Faye as the other two gaped at her, “Haven’t you noticed that when he turns to talk to you he just turns, and then he looks down as though he’s remembering he’s talking to kids and should be looking down.”

Amanda nodded to herself, she had noticed, it was a little unsettling.  It wasn’t as though Slim was a nasty person, he let kids off minor infractions all the time, like being in places they shouldn’t, so long as they weren’t purposely making a mess of it anyway.  She then remembered how he’d walked across a dark storage room with equipment all over the floor, and hadn’t even stubbed his toe.  She shuddered before being pulled out her thoughts by the school bell.

“Come on you pair,” she said pulling Pete to his feet, we need to get to class.”

I love this! I’ve been reading a bunch of Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane recently, so I’mexactly in the mood for superhero high school hijinks :D

Chapter 3 – Techno Clash

The door to the AV room swung open as Devra pushed a laden trolley out into the hall, she had to get a special request ready for the student council’s assembly in a hurry.  The trolley trundled along as Devra kept peering to either side to make sure she didn’t hit anyone.  This went well until she rounded a corner to a cry and the sound of metal and plastic hitting the floor.

“You idiot,” came a voice from the other side of the trolley as Devra peered round to see who’d been stupid enough to stand in the middle of the hall not paying attention, “Do you have any idea how expensive that phone is?”

Devra finally spotted who she’d nearly hit, it was the schools newest student Randall.  He was annoying, always having to have the newest and best of everything, the newest phones, laptops, games consoles, etc.

“Oh god,” muttered Randall, “More examples of how backwards this schools technology budget is.”

“Hey!” yelled Devra, “This technology is far more reliable than your latest smart phone.”

Randall poked at the devices on the trolley, whilst it was all recognisable for its function, most of the things on the trolley were pieces that Devra had tinkered with to keep working, in some places mixing and matching parts to get things working.  Principal Parson loved it, not just because of the money she was saving the school by not having to purchase new AV equipment all the time, but because he said it gave the equipment a unique feel that was uniquely Sentinels High.

“Please, you could get a far crisper image by replacing the projector with a rollup screen,” bragged Randall, “Besides, all sorts of schools are getting increased tech budgets to transfer over to enhanced learning facilities.”

“That’s nice,” said Devra sarcastically, “But Felicia’s asked me to help get this set up before morning assembly, so if you could just move out the way.”

Randall scoffed and scooped up his phone before storming past Devra, she shook her head and pushed the cart into the assembly hall where Tyler was waiting for her, he looked up from his drone controller as she entered.

“You are 2 minutes late Devra,” he barked, “It’s really not good enough, we need to get this set up and I need you to check on some of my drones.”

“Relax,” said Devra cracking her knuckles as the trolley began unpacking itself, “I just bumped into Randall in the hall, besides, it’ll only take a few minutes to set all this up.”  She carried a laptop onto the stage as cables snaked up following her and plugging themselves into the relevant ports and the laptop as she set it down.  The microphone set itself down and speakers set themselves up around the edges of the hall.  She pressed a few buttons on the podium and the laptop expecting something to happen, and it failed to happen.

“You got drone 4C on you?” asked Devra almost spitting the sterile, utilitarian name.

“Of course,” said Tyler putting down the drone control he’d been working on and picking up another, “What do you need me to check?”

“There’s a problem with the projector,” replied Devra pointing to the black box hanging from the ceiling, “It’s been playing up for a week or so, and I just want to check it’s not something we can fix quickly before getting Slim in here with his ladder.”

Tyler nodded and flew the drone up to the projector, Devra walked over and looked at the screen on Tyler’s console.

“Just a lose cable,” she muttered.

“Can you fix it?” asked Tyler, “We don’t want to delay the assembly.”

Devra looked up and took a deep breath before walking underneath the projector, she stood on the seats and reached up pushing her powers to her limits, she swayed as Tyler ran over to catch her and the projector hummed to life.  Tyler left her sitting on the seat to catch her breath and walked over the laptop getting things ready for Felicia’s presentation.

Devra slowly stood up and walked over to the backstage area to work on Tyler’s newest drone, this one had a short claw attachment on the end, useful for grabbing stuff.  She smiled as she picked up a screwdriver and leaned over the chassis marked 6G.  “I’ll call you Mr. Chomps,” she whispered as she began to work.

Chapter 4 – Classroom Chaos

Felicia sat in class, the room was sat in silence watching to the front and had been waiting for 5 minutes.  Feeling put upon Felicia stood up and coughed.

“Sit down Felicia,” said Mr. Rhodes, his eyes hadn’t even opened and he was leaning back in his seat as though trying to nap, “Class will start soon enough.”

“Class should have started 5 minutes ago Mr. Rhodes,” replied Felicia calmly, they’d transferred to Mr. Rhodes that week when they were supposed to be learning modern history, this was their second class with him and Felicia wasn’t impressed.

“Class starts when I decide it starts Miss Parsons,” replied Mr. Rhodes, he opened his eyes and fixed them on Felicia, “I’m fairly certain your classmates are not upset at class not starting yet after all.”

Felicia sat, even if she was inclined to use her connection to the principal to get her way, that wouldn’t work with Mr. Rhodes.  Despite not looking a day over 50 she had heard stories off her father of being in his class.  It was hard to pull “My father is the Principal” to someone who’d known him when he was her age.

She looked around the class, Maia was sitting at the back of the class doing her homework for another class, or so Felicia assumed.  Meridith was sitting at the back passing notes to Dana, the fact that Dana was 4 tables away didn’t stop her passing them personally and being back in her seat before anyone who wasn’t looking for it noticed.

What was once her saddest sight was Ryan, in the special mobile containment unit he needed to survive, an accident when it was younger had permanently lowered his body temperature and made room temperature deadly to him, the containment unit was the only way he could survive outside of a frozen lab environment.

Ryan looked up and nodded over at her before resuming his typing, fed up Felicia decided to take a cue from their teacher and lay her head on the table before the door slammed open.  Felicia sat bolt upright as four figures in black were pushed into the room by Miss Helena, her dark skin and hair cut for an imposing figure as the schools truant officer.

“Found these four trying to hide by the bike shed,” she announced before slamming the door, 3 of the kids pushed in slouched and sulked as though they were hard put upon by the world, the fourth who Felicia recognised as Meredith’s cousin Lillian looked embarrassed and upset.

“Glad you four decided to join us,” said Mr. Rhodes standing up, “Anything to say about being late?”

“Not to you old man,” said the only male of the group tossing back his red hair.

“Of course you don’t Heathcliff,” replied Mr. Rhode’s jovially, “How about you Crimson, Leandra, Nothing?”

Lillian looked up, then away before muttering something.  Mr. Rhodes nodded in response before looking out at the class.

“I’ve left your usual seats open for you,” he said, “All four corners as normal, Heathcliff by my desk, Leandra and Crimson over the other side, and your usual spot by Meredith for you Lillian.”

The four walked over to their seats, Lillian not even meeting Meredith’s eye as she sat next to her.  Mr. Rhodes stood in front of the whiteboard looking out over the class.

“As you have just seen,” he began, “Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it, although, not always twice in one week.  This is only one of the reasons why learning history is important and I hope you take the lessons here to heart.  That does mean you need to stop passing notes to Dana Meredith.”

Felicia turned to see Meredith grinning and Dana blushing, she turned back with a little spark in the back of her head telling her that not only were all the stories her father told her true, but that he hadn’t gotten any less sharp in the intervening years.

Hey guys, just a heads up that there is a content warning for this chapter due to some upsetting moments and bigots.

Chapter 5 – Night Out

Felicia felt nervous, and underdressed, Meredith had suggested a girls night out for the student council, Felicia and Maia had both accepted knowing full well that she meant to ask “Can you cover for my date with Dana?”

Meredith was out publicly, following some jumped up jock pushing her for a date repeatedly, she’d rejected him hard enough that she’d outed herself before her brain had caught up to her mouth.  She’d taken to the looks and prejudices from the other students like a duck to water, fully embracing another thing about her that made her different. 

Dana, who’d been Meredith’s girlfriend as long as Felicia had known, wasn’t out as publicly yet, despite Meredith’s best efforts, although after the look on Heathcliff’s face in class earlier, it was just a matter of time.  So to give some illusion that they weren’t dating, Maia and Felicia had been pulled into their night out.

That being said, for all her denial, Dana’s sense of fashion practically outed herself.  Both her and Meredith were dressed in mirrored dresses, Dana’s was black with her right shoulder exposed, and Meredith’s was white with her left shoulder exposed. 

Maia fit in with the both of them wearing a purple number that Maia probably pulled off better than the model who’d worn it at the fashion show it had debuted at.  Felicia felt out of place in her t-shirt and skirt sitting with her friends who looked like they’d spent more time deciding what to wear than what to drink.

The four had gone to the local nightclub, it was the clubs high school special night, it was a popular night for all the local high school kids and fully supported by the schools due to the no alcohol rules the club strictly enforced.

Maia left the table to get drinks for the group, that’s where Felicia assumed she’d gone anyway, she’d left quietly whilst Felicia was looking around and Meredith and Dana were busy playing footsie under the table. 

As she looked around to find Maia two guys wandered up to the table, neither were bad looking and Felicia found herself blushing as one of them smiled at her.  She shook her head to clear her thoughts and smiled back as the other smiled over at Meredith and Dana.

“Hey there cutie,” said the one smiling at Felicia, “Any chance I could get your number?”

“Maybe,” replied Felicia as he sat next to her.

“Does that mean I have you two lovely ladies?” said the other putting his arms around Meredith and Dana.

“Not interested,” said Meredith pushing his hand off her shoulder.

“I bet your friend is though,” he replied, “And I bet I could change your...”

Before he could finish and even beating Meredith’s shocked reaction, Felica had stood and pulled the guy to his feet, despite being taller and broader than Felicia her enhanced strength was enough for her to pull him away from her friends like he was a rag doll.

“Looks like I win,” sniggered the other guy.  Felicia wheeled on him and pushed his friend towards him.

“Was this all for some stupid bet?” yelled Felicia stepping forwards, her eyes glowing blue, “Did you just have a bet that you could convert a lesbian?”

“Get away from me you freak!” yelled the guy Felicia had pulled away from Meredith and Dana.

“You try and ignore who my friend is and I’m the freak here?” yelled Felicia advancing ready to hit him with the full force of her powers.

“Felicia!” came a voice from behind her, a hand on her shoulder made her blink and stop herself before turning to see Dana trying futilely to pull her back from attacking the two lads, “That’s enough!”

Felicia looked over at Meredith, she was clenching her fists and had her eyes closed in concentration as she visibly vibrated focusing on not using her speed to rip the guy in two.  “Leave us alone,” said Felicia through clenched teeth, “Just let us enjoy our evening in peace.”

“Freaks like you don’t have any place here,” yelled the guy getting up, he went to throw a punch at Felicia only for Maia’s perfectly gloved hand to grab his arm, using his own momentum she threw him to the ground.

“You should move on,” said Maia, her face a picture of perfect calm, “Before I get security involved.”

The guy’s friend pulled him away whilst he screamed about freaks and other disparaging things about Meredith. Felicia started to breathe again and realised she was crying, and that she’d wanted the guy to break his hand punching her.

“I think we should go,” said Maia calmly taking Felicia by the shoulder.  Felicia nodded and turned to check on Meredith and Dana only to notice that the two had already left.  Maia called for her driver as they both left the club.

Chapter 6 – Trouble Dawns

Amanda, Pete and Faye were in the schools outside gymnastics course, it was empty as it normally was during breaks.  Miss Huntly, one of the gym teachers, approved of students training during their free time, but the extra effort in getting the pads and non-waterproof equipment over to the area, as well as the fixed nature of the large equipment meant most students who wanted to train used the indoor gyms instead.  This suited Amanda perfectly however and she used the outdoor course every day she could.

Faye hung upside down on a high bar, she always preferred to study her magic books upside down, she said it enhanced her perception of the magicks.  Pete sat to one side, far enough away that his clumsiness shouldn’t interfere.  Amanda took a deep breath before taking on the course, she ran forwards and leapt onto the springboard she had placed.  A few moments later she had completed the course to Pete’s applause, she stood on the mat she’d placed holding her landing a few moments before stepping off the mat and walking to Pete who offered her a water bottle.

“Perfect as always,” gushed Pete as he handed the bottle over.

“Still,” replied Amanda, “It’s still not good enough to beat Felicia.”

Pete sighed, “You can’t beat her Amanda,” he said, “On her worst day she’s the peak of human physical fitness because of her powers.”

“We’ll see,” replied Amanda darkly before taking a gulp of the water, as she did she noticed the student council heading to the bus parking area, “Where are those five going?”

“Not a clue,” said Faye looking over, “Wanna follow them?”

“What do you think?” said Amanda heading out to the parking area.

The trio arrived to see Principal Parsons already there standing a little distance behind the school council as a bus arrived with the logo of a nearby private school on the side.  As soon as it stopped two guys jumped out and stood either side of the bus door.

“Isn’t that the nearby private school’s logo?” asked Pete, “The Solarian School of Brilliance or something?”

“The Solaris School for the Fantastically Talented,” said Amanda gruffly as a tall, imposing woman dressed all in red stepped off the bus.  There was a short exchange between Felicia and the woman before she walked over to Principal Parsons, he gave a handshake and a small bow before leading her to the school, going past the trio watching.

“Oh,” said the woman tersely as she saw the trio, “Amanda.”

“Mother,” replied Amanda in the same tone to the shock of Pete and the council members.

“You’re Principal Cohen’s daughter?” asked Felicia stopping allowing her father to take the visitor into the school.

“Oh yeah,” said Faye, “They don’t get on, like, at all.”

“Why aren’t you attending her school?” asked Maia.

“For the Fantastically Talented,” intoned Amanda sarcastically, “I’m as normal as can be remember.”

“Surely she could have gotten you in,” said Ryan from inside his tank, “Hell, I got an invite and my only talent is being stuck in here.”

“Oh, she could have made an exception for me,” replied Amanda darkly.

“So why didn’t she?” asked Felicia.

“Could,” said Amanda, “I never said she would do something like that.”

“She can’t be that cold can she?” asked Pete desperately.

“Let’s put it this way,” said Faye, “Amanda used to go home twice a month to see if the school sent her any mail, and stayed at mine the rest of the time, now her mother sends her mail to my house.”

“It’s not that bad,” said Amanda grabbing Felicia who was about to run after the two Principals.

“I can’t let her be an honoured guest at the school if she treats her own child like that,” growled Felicia.  She pulled away and went to storm off and bumped into Meredith.

“You are the student council president,” said Meredith, “Your actions set the standard for how other schools see the students here.  As vice president I cannot let you blast the head off a visiting principal no matter how badly she treats her own daughter.”

“Then what do I do?” yelled Felicia angrily.

“First we have the assembly,” said Meredith, “As planned.  Then report it to your Father, although knowing him he already knows.  After that, we trash their school in the inter-school sports tournament.”

Felicia calmed down and grinned at this.  “Amanda,” she said, “You were planning on representing our school right?”

“Of course,” said Amanda smiling, “And I plan to take as many events as I can without powers.”

“Perfect,” said Felicia, “Now, do you want some training partners?”

Chapter 7 – Talking Time

Felicia stood outside the door and took a deep breath before knocking.

“Enter,” said the voice from the other side of the door.

Felicia opened the door to the smell of cherry pie, she’d expected that, Mr. Wakara always had a pie ready for counselling sessions, he claimed it was to help create rapport, but secretly she thought he just liked baking pies.

“Hello Felicia,” said Mr. Wakara calmly waving to a seat with a piece of pie in front of it, “Let’s talk about your anger issues.”

Felicia sat and eyed the pie before replying, whilst she may dislike his motives for bringing the pie, it was always very good pie.

Aata watched as Felicia left, he carefully put the remainder of the pie away and tidied up the office before heading for the teachers’ lounge for a cup of tea.  Felicia’s sessions were always a little tense, her power was comparable to her fathers, who also happened to be his boss, even with his experience helping young people he always felt like he’d been sitting on a powder keg after talking with Felicia.

He entered the teachers’ lounge and looked around, on one sofa were Eugene, Nick, and Jackson, Nick and Jackson had been friends since college, and Eugene had just fallen into their group, he also recalled Nick’s adopted daughter Miranda was attending the school as well.

Old John Rhodes was lying across a sofa with a magazine covering his face, any other staff member napping like that would be pulled into Paul’s office for a reprimand but not John.  He’d been here longer than any other staff member and had taught Paul as a kid.  It must have been hard to tell off someone who remembered you in your most embarrassing years.

Aata got his tea and sat down at a table with Hugh, Anthony. and Mack, the three were playing a card game and dealt Aata in as he sat down.  The three were teachers in the school but they always made room for Aata.  Anthony always had his head in the clouds, and the other three were not born in the US making them the outcasts of the teachers’ lounge.

Helena stormed over to the table, she was always a stickler for the rules and the rules did forbid gambling on school property.  Despite the fact that no money ever changed hands she always viewed even a simple game of Go Fish as gambling and would try to bring down the hammer on any games played in the room.

“You know gambling is against school policy!” she yelled at the four, “And yet here you are again playing cards.”

“We’re having a friendly card game Helena,” said Hugh with his British accent, “It is a test of skill for nothing more than bragging rights, and perfectly allowed within the rules.”

Helena grunted before grabbing some coffee and sitting nearby, to make sure no money changed hands.  Aata played a few more hands before the door opened and Paul walked in.  He looked around, smiled, and walked over to Aata.

“Aata,” he said jovially, “How was your session with Felicia earlier?”

“You know I can’t discuss that Paul,” replied Aata, “Only if I have serious concerns, and even then Emily needs to be present.”

“Even so,” replied Paul, “Is there nothing you want to tell me?”

Aata sighed as he played a card, “I’m worried about the baseball game, she’s found out about Amanda’s relationship with her mother.”

“Tell me about it,” sighed Paul, “It’s all she talked about on the drive home last night, she got really mad when she found out the school knew about it.”

“She also has some growing resentment towards you,” continued Aata, “And she has some doubts about her powers.”

“Aata,” said Mack warningly, “Should you be saying all this.”

Aata shook his head and stood from the table.  “That’s all I’m saying Paul,” he said, “I’ve already said way too much to you.”  He carefully pushed around Paul and left the room.

Chapter 8 – Play Ball

Felicia looked around the school’s baseball field, it was a full sized field and the bleachers around the field were full, students from Sentinels High on the right hand side from home base, and the visiting students from the Solaris Academy on the right, and straight across she could see her father sitting next to Principal Cohen.  In front of them, using equipment he’d probably had Devra setup, was Joseph King.  He grinned, leant forwards and tapped the mike sending the thuds across the field.

“Welcome everybody,” he announced, “To our inter-school baseball game, just to remind you folks watching the game, powers are allowed, so don’t get to comfy and be prepared to run if the ball heads towards you.

“Solaris Academy won the toss,” he continued as Felicia looked over the Sentinels High team, “And they’ve chosen to pitch first, so up on the mound is the co-captain for Solaris, Hayden Turk, and batting first is Sentinels own Meredith Stinston.”

Meredith eyed down the pitcher and readied a swing, Hayden threw a fastball straight down the centre of the plate, at the last moment Meredith bunted the shot and was on first base, the confused opponents took a moment to see what happened only for Meredith to now be on second, three of them dived for the ball, but Meredith was now on third, one grabbed it, throwing it to third.

“SAFE!” cried the umpire as it left his hand, Meredith looked over her shoulder from home plate with a grin on her face.

“Too slow,” laughed Meredith as she walked over to rest of the home team to high fives and applause, even Principal Cohen, as annoyed as she was, seemed impressed.

Pete was next to bat, after a couple of fouls, his only straight hit managed to land in the mitt of a girl who wasn’t even paying attention resulting in the team’s first out.  Vanessa was next, a quick burst of telekinesis knocked the ball mid flight to prevent the other team catching it, after Vanessa was Felicia herself, but knowing what her father could do they purposely walked Felicia to avoid her bat making contact with the ball.

After Felicia was Amanda, Principal Cohen’s face was one of thunder, she rose from her seat and called for a time out marching across the field.  Principal Parsons followed her closely.

“Amanda,” said Principal Cohen, “This is a competition to show off people with powers, you don’t belong out here.”

“Actually, mother,” said Amanda coolly, “Principal Parsons said anyone who wished to enter was free to do so.”

Principal Cohen looked at Principal Parsons who nodded, “We don’t discriminate by powers here at Sentinels High,” he replied to her look, “You knew that I’d allow non-powered students to enter if they wanted, you just assumed they wouldn’t.”

Principal Cohen span on one heel and stormed back to her seat, as she walked by Hayden she muttered something before continuing to her seat.  Principal Parsons looked from Amanda to Felicia then walked back to his seat.

Amanda gave the bat a practice swing before preparing for the pitch, Hayden pulled his hand back, and his power ignited the ball, he threw the fireball straight down the centre of the plate, it was fast, but Amanda had practiced against Felicia and Meredith’s pitches for the last two weeks, she swung as hard as she could and made contact, she didn’t even look before she dropped the now burning bat and started running.

Principal Parsons moved as soon as he saw the angle of the pitch however, the bleachers cleared as the ball headed for them and into both of the principals hands, he grimaced from the impact and the heat as the umpire announced the home run, a triple.  He walked back to his seat next to Principal Cohen clutching the now black baseball.

“Pretty good for a normal human wouldn’t you say?” he asked sitting down tossing the ball into the air, “Might even make a space for this in our trophy case.”

Principal Cohen hissed and stood up storming away from the field.  Principal Parsons looked after her.  “I would have thought her daughters success would please her a little more,” he mused aloud as he sat back to enjoy the rest of the game.

Compared to the start, the rest of the game was fairly uneventful, Meredith launched Amanda into the air to catch a hit, Devra and Tyler’s baseball drones got removed from play, Pete got knocked out by a fly ball from the opposing team that earned them a run and Pete medical care from Mr. Hernandez, and Devra dragged Joe kicking and screaming from his announcers table for useless gossiping and insulting the other team whilst Maia took over the announcing.

Principal Cohen didn’t return during the game, at the end of the game, after earning a tightly won victory by just 3 runs, Felicia and Meredith shook the hands of Hayden and Lucas, both of who had approving grins on their face.

“You guys played well,” said Hayden gripping Felicia’s hand as hard as he could, “Looking forwards to next year.”

“We won’t be as easily taken by surprise by your non-powered players next time,” laughed Lucas as they walked off.

“They didn’t even mention you by name,” said Felicia as Amanda walked up with some water for the team captains.

“They’re my mother’s favourites,” replied Amanda handing them the water, “When I lived at home I had to spend nights when she had investors come for dinner in my room with some sandwiches, whilst those two got to be shown as shining examples of her school and eat the lavish meals she had prepared.”

“The more I hear about your home life,” said Felicia frowning, “The more I hate that woman.”

“Ehh,” replied Amanda taking a swig of water, “Why do you think I live at Faye’s house?  At least her parents treat me like a person rather than an embarrassing pet.  At least I got to show up her precious students today.”

“But you shouldn’t...” started Felicia before Meredith interrupted.

“Felicia,” said Meredith, “Amanda’s happy how things are, you shouldn’t try and fix things that don’t need fixing.”

Felicia watched as Amanda walked off and turned away.

“Come on Meredith,” she said, “We have to start planning our next school event.”

It’s been a while, but here’s the next part to this.

Chapter 9 – New Staff

Amanda seethed as she walked down the hall to the janitor’s closet, her wet hair dripping along the floor as she walked. There had been a freak rainstorm causing her, Pete, and Faye to have to pull the equipment inside only for Mr Bognetti to demand they wipe the equipment down before they put it away. Faye had already gotten engrossed in her book and Pete was, well, Pete, which left Amanda to get the cleaning supplies to clean the equipment.

She arrived at the closet and knocked before slowly opening the door.

“Slim?” she asked nervously, “I’m just here to get the cleaning stuff for the sports equipment.”

Amanda edged nervously into the quiet, she knew Slim didn’t mind students getting cleaning supplies, she’d even had to clean the sports equipment enough to know where the basket for the supplies was, but the janitor’s closet was supposed to be off limits to students without a staff member present and if she was caught by the wrong staff member, well…

She grabbed the basket and span to the door hoping to get out quick to see someone she had never seen before standing behind the door and staring at her. She quickly flicked the ball from her hand into his face on instinct before she realised he was wearing a janitor’s uniform, a few seconds after this she realised that he’d caught her ball.

“What are you doing in here?” he asked in a quiet voice.

“I came to get the cleaning things for the sports equipment,” she replied holding up the basket labelled “Sports”, “Where’s Slim?”

The figure shrugged before moving aside to free the path to the door, “No clue, he left earlier to do some maintenance or other.”

Amanda moved to the door making sure it was open and she was standing on the other side before turning back to the strange man. “Let Slim know Amanda took the sports basket,” she said, “I’ll return it when I’m done.” She closed the door as the man nodded before running down the hall to the sports storage room.

“What a freak,” muttered Amanda as she ran, “I hope Slim’s back before I take this stuff back.”