Help! I'm Housing a Hero

I felt my head nodding as I began to drift to sleep in my History class. I had pulled another late shift at work last night. Bills already weren’t easy to pay and I am still in high school. I was usually a top-of-the-class straight A student. I had to be. No one wanted to live like my parents had, or rather my single mother raising me. She couldn’t control her ability to have children and after having the sixth baby I decided the house was too crowded and it was time for me to move out.

My dad was killed by some super-tronic android when I was little. Apparently it came through the town like Godzilla crushing people on a whim under another one of those evil scientist’s sure-not-to-fail plans. There seemed to be a great deal of them around, all trying to outdo another that was until a mysterious arrival appeared. Yes, you guessed it: a super hero. He arrived in our loud boisterous city almost two years ago like a sparkling crack of lightening in the night. A particular scientist, one known to have overabundant amounts of money to throw away, had released an army of metal droids to round up the officials and reek all kinds of havoc, then suddenly this stunningly powerful man. Actually he was a boy. Of course, I’d never met him, but I assumed he was a boy. I’m sure all girls had their fantasies about heroes being their age so that they may one day possibly have a chance to be rescued by him and fall madly in love.

I never understood how that worked in story books. How could some damsel in distress be rescued form a life threatening situation and want to immediately throw the hero in their bed as soon as they were deposited safely back in their house? Didn’t girls have morals? Maybe the heroes also had super powers of seduction.

Still, it seemed like I was the same typical girl. I would do anything for something like a life daring rescue to at least spice up my boring life. But I’m sure you want to hear more about this hero. He of course has a costume and everyone assumes he has a secret identity. I mean who would want to walk around in black and red tights twenty-four seven? Either he was really addicted to rescuing or he decided to take root in our city. Whatever his lifestyle was no one really knew. Like all heroes in books they accepted the gratitude form the rescue and then just took off without anyone knowing any more about him except for the fact that he proved once more to be able to rescue someone in the nick of time.

Like all things odd and unusual everyone wanted to give this hero a name. After all you can’t just go around saying, “Oh look there is that guy that rescues people and flies around in uncomfortable looking spandex that might be handsome under that mask of his.” So they shortened it to Hero. I mean, why not call him directly what he was? I was sure the press just had a slow day in the office and couldn’t come up with something like Superman or Amazing Lad. Surprisingly people started calling him Hero and that was all we knew about him.

He knocked out many of the Evil geniuses’ buildings or laboratories and crime started to dwindle, aside from the random bank robberies or suicidal jumpers (who of course were only to be caught in the muscular arms of the ‘Hero.’)

I sighed realizing I was doodling pictures of Hero’s mask in my note margins while trying not to fall asleep. I glanced around the room at the rest of the class, measuring how they were faring against the monotonous drone of the professor. I wasn’t used to being so out of focus in class. As I stated earlier I was once an honour roll student, aimed at success. Mostly my time at home was taken to studying to attempt and block out the chaos of home life. My Mum wouldn’t bother me if he knew I was in my room being productive and trying to make a better life for myself than she had.

She was a drunk. She had been a party girl in her younger years and had completely cleaned up her act for my dad. They were as love sick with each other as you can get and anyone that met them on the street might think that even though they had been married for fifteen years they were newlyweds. That was just their love bond. But after dad died Mum’s soul seemed to go with him and she turned back into her old ways. As the oldest it was my job to take care of the other four (soon to be five then six) children while Mum was out doing whatever it was she did to keep a roof over our heads.

At first I got a job after school to try and help her support us all. She then saw that as an opportunity for me to do all the breadwinning and she decided to stay at home and take care of her kids. I knew for sure that I was the only one my father had created. After his death Mum was a nonstop baby machine. She was careless. Anyway, after Mum stopped ‘working’ and fed me a load of crap about staying home to raise her children like a good mother should, I came home nearly every day to find my eight year old half sister in charge of the other four children. The next oldest was five and she wasn’t much help at anything but drooling like the other three. It was painful, but I didn’t want to be in that situation anymore. I was on the verge of dropping out of school just to keep a roof over our heads, not to mention a meager meal in our stomachs. Mum brought home a new guy that was apparently loaded and ready to take care of Mum and her kids. After he mentioned boarding school and overnight daycare I took that as my cue to leave. He didn’t want anything to do with Mum’s kids and I sure as heck wasn’t going to a boarding school. I’d probably end up having to pay for that myself too.

I found a woman, Ms. Hodgens, who rented out apartments. I wasn’t loaded with money, but I had enough for a down deposit after a generous round of pathetic begging and promising. She said that she would reduce my apartment cost a couple hundred if I was willing to do some odd jobs for her whenever she wanted no matter what time it was at night. I was desperate and she was elderly. The only room she had was a shoddy broken raftered room on the top floor that seemed to be more of an attic than a dwelling. I figured over time I could make it more homely but for now I would accept it for what it was. I wasn’t planning on spending much time here anyway. I figured I’d either be at school or work and I’d only need this place to sleep and bathe.

After a couple weeks I was used to the drafty apartment and had fixed it up as best as I could. Duct tape worked wonders on sealing up the drafty window and holding some of the crumbling rafters together. I even found some slightly holey curtains in the dumpster in the alley behind the building. They were pretty useless since no one could see this high up, but I figured they would make the place look more lived in. A few other things decorated my dreary room, such as a cracked glass table and an older-than-dirt stove. I was anxious about using it since it seemed if I did it might burn the place down, but one night I tried my luck and found that it worked relatively well. That was of course after I found out it continuously shut off after fifteen minutes. I had to keep turning it on. At least I had a stove.
As I thought I really didn’t spend much time there. I usually went straight from my night shift at work to my school in the day. I came home and slept for a couple hours unless Ms. Hodgens had something for me to do. It was a hard life, but a life I was going to get used to. I was determined to stay in school and no problems were going to keep me from achieving that goal.

Unfortunately, my grades were still falling.

“Miss Riel, do you happen to know?” I heard my name called and I was jolted back into the fact that I was in class.

“I’m sorry I didn’t hear the question.” I said meagerly. I wasn’t used to being the one sniggered at. Usually I was the one doing the eye rolling for some student not paying attention.

“I expect more from you. You used to be such a bright student.” The professor said.

Ouch.

I had to admit that hurt. I had fallen quite low under the teacher’s eyes. I will admit that I used to be the best teacher’s pet. I was once so much of a suck up that I washed one of my professor’s cars just to please her, and I babysat another teacher’s children. They used to trust me back then. I’m sure if I offered to do some babysitting now, not that I’d have the time, they’d make up some grand excuse on how they never really liked leaving the house, or their kids in the hands of someone else. I tried to keep my home life a secret, but after having to explain to your school why you had to change your address and that you were living alone you either get the scolding looks from teachers for being a runaway, or you get endless sympathy that gets on your nerves. I was lucky none of the students had caught on to my plight, or at least there were only mild rumors going around. I just ignored the attention my situation brought to my professors and tried to get through my classes.
When the sniggering died down the professor continued teaching and called on another student to answer the question. I looked around the room and landed on an odd boy in the back of the class. The only person that people wanted to talk to less than me was him. He wore incredibly baggy clothing, thick glasses (that looked like hand-me-downs) and dirty well-worn shoes. He didn’t talk unless he had to. He was mostly invisible to everyone. Even me. I didn’t usually take notice of people, I had my own problems to deal with, but whatever I was going through it almost seemed like he was in the same situation.

I probably wouldn’t have noticed him or known he had existed had I not been in class a couple years ago when he introduced himself as a new student. There was a knock at the door and in walked this boy who looked like he got into a fight at the good will store, or at least had a bad run in at a truth or dare game. His outfit was incredibly mismatched and definitely not something I would wear when coming to school on my first day. He barely spoke above a whisper when he was introducing himself. He said he had come from somewhere. I couldn’t really remember any information about him at all. He was just too odd to take notice and that was back when my studying was a obsession. Whenever there was a blip in class life where the professor stopped talking I made sure to pull out my neatly organized notebook and flip to a random page to stat memorizing notes.

He slipped to the back of my mind just like he did in everyone else’s heads and became invisible to us. I was sure I was one of those invisible people. I wasn’t one of those highly attractive girls. Well, I’m sure I wouldn’t look too bad if I attempted to try and put some effort into how I looked. I’m sure makeup could even do wonders for my appeal. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time for a social lie and the less attractive I was the less people I would have to interact with.

I combed through my curly blond hair and sighed as my fingers got stuck in one of the numerous tangles that were oh-so-abundant in the frizz. Mum always said I had been blessed with dad’s curls. I thought I was cursed. I also had Dad’s green eyes, my only favourite feature of my entire existence. Everything else was from Mum. My long skinny nose, high arching eyebrows, and oddly shaped lips. Well, the bottom lip was plump and normal while my upper lip was sort of thin. People probably didn’t notice, but I still thought it was odd.

I was quite skinny, not by choice. If I had a choice I would love to be slightly overweight. At least when you’re overweight people don’t worry about you too much. I suppose I became this skinny because I only found time to eat probably every other day. I couldn’t exactly remember when I had three meals a day. It was long before dad had died that was sure.
I tapped my fingers impatiently on the end of my desk. I glanced at the clock and found that there was still a dull forty five minutes left before the next bell. I knew I was about to fall asleep if I didn’t do something active. I glanced around the room to entertain myself. All I saw were beautiful blonds checking themselves in concealed mirrors below their desks, or boys drawing on their desks. I sighed and checked out the other side of the room. The only person beside me was the odd boy. I guess it was good that the two most invisible people were together. That way people didn’t have to avoid looking in more than one area.

Andrew, which I believe to be the boy’s name, was sitting with his elbow on his desk and his chin in his hand. He looked like he was bored but diligently listening to the lesson. Despite his disheveled look his notes were nearly as organized as mine, some of them were even colour coded. He took studying seriously. I remembered the good old days when I came to school with my eight different coloured pens and tri-coloured highlighter eager to learn and make information colourful. I glanced at the boy’s attire and then to his face. I was surprised to see him staring straight at me. I was caught. I gave him an apologetic look and he smiled back in understanding. I quickly directed my eyes towards the front of the room and didn’t attempt to look at him again. Not even when my pencil rolled from my desk and on to the floor in his direction. I wasn’t in the mood to take notes anyway.
I was nearly drifting off to sleep again when the bell rang. I stood quickly from my seat, shuffled my papers back in order and was about to leave when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked over instinctively and saw Andrew holding out my chewed-on pencil. I had almost forgotten about it and I would have preferred to have it stay on the ground collecting dust. I mustered up a thankful smirk as I went to reach for the pencil. Just as it was back in my possession he spoke.

“I noticed you looking at my notes.” He said. Great, now I was a slacker in class and Mr. Perfect Notes Invisible Boy was going to take sympathy on me and ask me if I needed tutoring or something. At least he didn’t mention me looking at him too. “Would you like to study some time?”

“Look, I don’t want to be harsh but-“

“Well, I know you are quite smart in History. I’m not very good at it, you see, and I was wondering if you’d want to study together?”

I didn’t expect that. Either he was trying to not seem like he was sympathizing with me even though he was, or he was genuinely bad at History. He’d have to be incredibly bad at it to want to ask for help from almost-falling-asleep-in-class me. I didn’t see how studying would hurt but I didn’t have the time. The only few hours I had between school and work were strain enough. I always had Saturday off, but I usually spent that day attempting to cram what I had learned all week into my head, sleep, or help out Ms. Hodgens.

“I don’t think I have time to study- with you- or anyone, that is.” I said, “I’ve got work and other things to take care of. I’m sorry, you’ll have to find someone else.”

“I see.”He said and I wasn’t sure if I detected apprehension or sadness. Either way he had been rejected by probably the first person he had ever taken the chance to muster up courage and talk to. A guilty feeling sunk in my stomach

“Well,” I sighed I couldn’t believe I was doing this, “I do normally have Saturday off. I may be free then, if you really need help.”

“That sounds good.” He said, “Where should we meet?” Great. He was already thinking that this was a done deal plan. I guess it couldn’t be helped. I sure as heck wasn’t going to bring him into my apartment. That dreary place would scare anyone away. I also wasn’t going to suggest his place. For all I knew he might have a million siblings like me and it might be hectic. He also didn’t offer his place, so I was sure that he didn’t want to meet there.

“There is a little café not too far from here. How about there?” I asked. I didn’t exactly have money to spend on the five dollar a pop coffees and three dollar scones, but it was either that or the bar next door, and I didn’t exactly feel like taking him into my work place. Sure I had to be twenty-one to work there, but the manager pulled a few strings and told me that if I pulled my hair back I was just slightly attractive enough to attract customers. It also didn’t hurt that I could really swallow my pride and act like an amazing people person through the night.

“I’ll meet you there.” He said and picked up his notes and walked from the room. I can’t believe I had just agreed to this. It was a change talking to someone my own age for once. I usually only talked to grownups at the bar or really drunk people that couldn’t form sentences. It was across the street from my apartment so at least it was convenient. I had learned effective maneuvers on breaking up bar fights but if anything became too dangerous I was always able to just run across the street and into the safety of my own dwelling.

I stuffed the pencil behind my ear and huffed off to my next class. The rest of school went on normally and I figured I could quickly get home and change and be able to get to work early to crank in a few extra hours. I knew I needed sleep, but the weekend was almost here and after my study session with invisible boy I would be able to catch up on whatever I needed.

We had thirty minutes until the last bell would ring when a loud siren went off. It was the emergency siren. It either meant that a bomb was going to blow up the Earth (again) or some mad scientist had come up with some other evil plan to rule the world. I groaned as we all had to shut off the lights, quickly push our desks together and then sit underneath them. Who knew how long this was going to take? The last drill we had lasted two hours. The longest one I ever went through lasted an entire day.

I used to get scared with these drills, but ever since Hero showed up we were always saved. We could all probably go walking safely home and not even take a second glance towards the direction of whatever was happening. We’d probably see Hero zoom by in his black and red, defeat whatever it was and then the siren would stop screaming and we’d be just as safe as we had been under our desks.

I sighed thinking of the lost wages. I could almost see the trash can filling with invisible bills of money as I folded myself up under my desk. I figured since I was wasting money and who knew how long this was going to last I might as well get some sleep. I curled over onto m side and closed my eyes. I heard the sniffling of frightened girls. Some of them cried for attention from the boy’s I’m sure, which they received of course. I wondered if I became a bumbling crying fool if anyone would notice. I wasn’t desperate to find out. In fact, I’d rather sleep through an attack than waste my time trying to think of what the evil scientist had come up with this time. Within a matter of minutes I had drowned out the wailing siren and my heavy eyelids were comfortably closed.

Sleep was peaceful and quite dull. I didn’t have any dreams to entertain me, but I suppose it was all for the best. After all I was trying to relax. I did have an odd feeling of having trouble breathing. When I awoke the sniffling of the girls had stopped and there weren’t any hushed whispers or plans of escape. I sat up and hit my head on the desk. I looked towards the window and found why it was so incredibly hard to breathe. From the light shining through I could see thick smoke all around and from the way the light was shining through it wasn’t a normal coloured smoke. It had a kind of greenish tint.

Another odd thing I noticed was that I was alone. They must have escaped and hadn’t noticed me lying there. I’d have to remember to thank my kind classmates next time I saw them. If I ever saw them. We were supposed to have a buddy system. I guess today my assigned buddy had taken a sick day. Either that or I was so invisible that he hadn’t seen me. Whatever it was I had to get out. I pulled the neck of my shirt over my nose to at least attempt to filter out some of the smoke. I tried to open the window but it had automatically locked. That could mean either two things. One, the system had malfunctioned and caused the window to jam, or two the enemy was inside the building.

All schools and some buildings were designed to have automatically locking windows and doors. That way no one could get out of the building if they had a bad guy trapped. I tried to tell people the system was a dud and that there could be problems with it, but they didn’t want to listen. I suppose they thought their buddy system would be fool proof and everyone would get out safely so they could trap whatever they wanted to inside. I coughed but tried to do so quietly. I didn’t want to attract any attention in case whoever it was in the school was near. I wonder what the evil enemy had business within the school. Probably some rich kid’s parents hid a secret device in their child’s backpack thinking that the thing would be safer away from home.

I jumped on top of the desks and tried to see if the smoke was more thin or thick. With one lungful I could tell that I was safer on the ground. I coughed and sputtered. My lungs felt like they were as dry as sandpaper and my throat was swelling slightly from irritation. Of all the problems I was born with I’m glad it wasn’t asthma. I walked over to the window and tried to open it again but it was still jammed shut. Not even a bomb could open this thing. They were serious about school safety. I crawled on my stomach towards the door and tried to peer out of the bottom. I could see more billowing smoke in the hallway. I knew our school didn’t have a smoke system, so whoever was in here was creating the smoke. School would probably be delayed a couple hours tomorrow for the cleaners to make It safe again.

When I couldn’t see because of the smoke leaking under the door I slowly raised my head up to the window of the door and looked out. Just as I did one of the doors across the hall exploded with a loud bang and was blown off it’s hinges. I saw a person in a long white lab coat and a gas mask storm into the room. Great. If he needed a gas mask that probably meant that whatever this smoke turned out to be wasn’t going to be good. I could only guess what side effects I was going to be suffering from later. I hoped death wasn’t one of them.

After a few moments he stormed out of the room and swore so loudly I could understand him through the mask. He was looking for something and it seemed my room was next. I quickly moved away from the door just as I heard something get attached to the outside. Within seconds there was another loud bang and the door became all but nonexistent. More saturated smoke rivered into the room and made it even more difficult to see. The man in the lab coat stormed in through the billowing clouds and it made me think of how an alien would make an entrance in some sci-fi Hollywood movie.

I suddenly coughed and he glanced over in my direction. I hoped the excess smoke would hide me, but he came over none the less. He was going to find me anyway, might as well attempt to defend myself. I stood and readied myself as though I was about to break up a bar fight. A swift kick to the groin area and a couple insult-to-injury punches would have him down and out in enough time for me to jump over him and run form the room. Hopefully I could find a way out of the school by the time he came after me. Knowing mad scientists, when there is a girl in trouble or a hostage situation they tend to go after the girl and forget their mission. It would be just my luck to be held ransom for an object I didn’t know anything about. I’d probably end up becoming the scientist’s side kick because no one would come to help me with ransom money. I began to wonder if I’d look good in a lab coat when I felt a leather covered hand come out of the smoke and latch on to my neck. That caused my reflexes to wake up and my leg shot up so fiercely between his legs I felt I might have permanently lodged whatever he had down there inside him. Just like I planned he crumpled to the ground and moaned in agony through his mask. He sounded like a dying whale.

“You picked the wrong hostage.” I said and jumped over him. I didn’t want to attempt to
punch him in case he had some other great idea on kidnapping me. I figured I’d reserve my punches for later, also seeing that I usually managed to hurt myself whenever I did attempt to use my fists.

I was also beginning to feel a little light headed from lack of air and I surely didn’t want to pass out in front of him. Who knew who would recover first. I’m sure if he did I would suffer a little more pain than a kick to the groin. I might even lose an arm or something.

I quickly made my way towards the door and I would have run out had I not run into someone. Actually, at first I didn’t think it was a person. I thought the smoke had somehow made my mind misjudge my perception and I had run into an extremely tough wall. I fell backwards form the force I hit it and I wasn’t sure but I thought I felt a rib snap. Before I hit the ground the ‘wall’ moved and caught me. Through the smoke I was staring into the stunning blue eyes of Hero.

His black suit looked like it was tightly suctioned around each of his highly pumped muscles. Super hero’s I had read about had nothing compared to his physique. He didn’t look like a body builder, but he was no average boy. No wonder it felt like I had run into concrete. It must have been the smoke but my mind was so clouded that I couldn’t believe I was actually getting to see Hero up close. He had a perfectly angled jaw line and the most gorgeous lips to match. I never was one of those girls who swooned over mere boys, but this was no boy. This was a Greek statue holding me in his arms. I couldn’t see the rest of his face because it was covered by the black mask trimmed in red over his eyes. Did I mention how stunningly blue they were? They were not a normal human blue. They were sky blue and shining. Hey were also fringed with the thickest array of long black eyelashes that I has ever seen. I felt that I could melt into them.
It wasn’t until I had started violently coughing again that I realized I was staring and Hero was talking to me.

“Are you ok?!” He repeated for what must have been the hundredth time. In hind sight I remember him asking me over and over, but just then it sounded like the first time. “Can you speak? Are you hurt? Are you ok?”

He continued to fire questions at me and gently shook me out of my trance.

“I’m-“ was all I could get out before I saw a dark shadow rise behind Hero. There went my escape plan. He was already up. I still wasn’t ready to believe that I was safe, even though the hero of heroes was with me. My body reacted on it’s own and I attempted to push Hero out of the way. He was solid as a rock so it ended up me pushing myself away from him. My side hurt incredibly but I stood and kicked the scientist in the stomach while simultaneously yelling, “Watch out.” The scientist staggered backwards a few steps. With lightening speed Hero caught on and jumped in front of me to protect me. I grabbed my side with my hand to try and stop the pain, but when I moved my arms or breathed it hurt more. Then the coughing happened and the pain became so sharp that I wanted to gasp or do some kind of routine breathing that pregnant ladies usually did when giving birth to block out the pain. Surely I really hadn’t broken a rib?

In one swift movement Hero had the Scientist tied up in some rope he found somewhere (probably form the professor’s closet) and pulled the moaning man to his feet.

“What are you looking for?” Hero yelled at the moaning man. He quickly pulled the gas mask off his face so that he could answer.

The man started yelling for his mask back and almost immediately passed out. I wondered if it was a joke? Maybe the smoke was more potent to some people. I didn’t care. I just concentrated on breathing easily. I couldn’t exactly do that from all the smoke. It had become much more thick and I couldn’t help but cough. It only made my pain worse.
Hero dropped the scientist and came back over to me. “Are you sure you’re ok?” He asked.

“I never said I was in the first place-“ I groaned out.

“Well I figured when you moved like that you had to be.”

“I think my rib is broken or something.” I said just before the coughing began again.

“Hang on.” Was all he said before picking me up in his arms. I really felt like I was in a movie or something. I thought that my side would sear with pain but amazingly he knew just where and how to hold me so that he didn’t injure me anymore. Then before I could think he ran directly at the bomb-can’t-explode-locked window and easily jumped through as though it wasn’t even there. He swung his cape around with one arm to shield me from the shards of glass that were raining down and replaced his hold on me all in one swift movement. Within seconds we were outside and I would have gulped down the clear air had my side not hurt so much.

He knelt down and lied me on the grass. I involuntarily gasped once more at the pain. I glanced at his eyes and saw that he was squinting them and staring at my side where my hands were held.

“It is fractured, but not terribly.” He stated as he un-squinted his eyes and glanced at me.

“Did you just x-ray me?” I asked, wondering how much he x-rayed. He humbly looked down and nodded as though realizing he should have asked permission or something.

“Are you all right?” He asked again.

“Well, I don’t recommend running into super heroes that’s for sure.” I said, rubbing my injured rib, “but as long as there aren’t any lasting damages from smoke inhalation I should be able to work again by tonight.”

“Work?” He asked as though I was insane just like all the professors did when they learned of my predicament.

“It’s not like you’ve never worked without an injury before.” I said, “or at least after watching you defeat some of those Godzilla things you’ve probably not escape unscathed.”
He sighed but didn’t let me know if I was right or not. Actually, I wasn’t even sure if he could get injured.

“Riel! Is that you?” I heard a high pitched girly voice approach. I tilted my head up and looked behind me and saw a mass of people gathered around the school. One of the blond rich girls was running towards me in her pink high-heels and a few other clones weren’t far behind.

“Oh Riel, we were so worried about you.” She fakely crooned as she approached, “why when I noticed my buddy wasn’t with me- I just about had a heart attack and I wanted to run back in the school but they wouldn’t let me.”

I rolled my eyes. I knew for a fact my buddy wasn’t a blond girl. I think it was invisible boy, Andrew, but I knew it wasn’t her.

“Why look at you, you’re Hero aren’t you.” She said and stepped over me to get to him. “Why, I’m just so thankful that you were able to save my dear friend here. I don’t know what I would do without her.” She flung her arms around his neck and began to pretend to cry as though losing me would be the end of the world.

“Riel, you should b thankful that such a kind handsome strong man was there to rescue you, otherwise you might have died. Did you know a mad scientist went in the school looking for something. He said it was a device to blow up the world!”

Hero gently removed the blond’s arms form around his neck and stood. “I see you’re in good hands.” He said a little stiffly and looked at me. I made sure to roll my eyes dramatically. Surly he didn’t think she was being serious? Or maybe he was like all boys and really fell for the crocodile tears.

“Of course, you did a rather extravagant job of taking out that scientist before I could get there.” He did a kind of Hero turn causing his cape to swoosh behind him and he flew back into the window we had burst out of. Thick green smoke was billowing out of the side and through some of the school’s chimneys.

Suddenly I was swarmed with classmates, professors, police, medics and a news team.

“What happened in there?” one of the news casters asked.

“Are you hurt?” A medic began pressing fingers into my flesh.

“What did his muscles feel like?” one of the blonds or other girls giggled.

“Did you recognize the man?” A police person questioned.

“Did you inhale any smoke?” Another medic asked.

“Hero said you knocked out the scientist, how exactly did you do that?” The news crew’s questions were endless.

There were so many questions being fired at me that I didn’t know who was asking what. I went from being the most miserably boring person in class to sudden top-of-the-hour news. It was chaos with all the noise and cameras in my face. One of the paramedic’s wandering hands pressed into my rib and I screeched out in pain. Everyone went quiet.

“Yes.” I seethed, “That hurts very much! Please leave me alone.” I sat up despite the pain and attempted to stand. The questions started firing at me again. Just then quiet, invisible Andrew somehow wormed his way into the crowd.

“I’m so sorry.” He said, “I was in the loo and when I came out a professor pulled me into their classroom for safety. It’s my fault you were trapped in there.”

That was just the diversion I needed. I felt bad for letting him take the blame but the new crew sort of turned to him to ask him questions about how the buddy system worked and why he hadn’t tried harder to get to me. The girls stuck to me like glue as I began to walk away and they attempted to get more information out of me.

“Please tell us about his muscles.”

“Is he warm?”

“How did it feel to fly?”

I groaned. They only wanted me for information and I needed to get to work. “His muscles feel like concrete and he caused this injury.” I said and gestured to my side which was now forming a rather large purple lump clearly visible through my ripped shirt. I didn’t know why but for some reason I felt humiliated. I guess it was because I felt like a side show. The news crew stopped Questioning Andrew and came back to me. I saw their shining lights and cameras pointed at my wound. How many hours had I wasted passed out in the school? How much money was lost because of the stupid scientist? If I didn’t make rent this month someone was going to feel my wrath.

I didn’t know why I was so angry. It was probably because of all the attention as well as shock. Hero, the one hero that no one could figure out, the hero that no one ever saw up close, the hero that destroyed evil beings and protected the world had just saved me. Or at least I think he saved me. He jumped me through an unbreakable window and shielded me from glass. He also x-rayed my side, without permission. I guess he saved me a visit to the doctor and some expenses, but other than that I had knocked out the scientist. Or at least the smoke did. I was confused and frustrated.

I was halfway home when the newscasters and other people started to dwindle away. I kept my mouth firmly shut and I wasn’t going to say another word. I was at the bar when the final straggler, Andrew, decided to walk away. Actually, he hadn’t been hounding me for questions or trying to get close to me. I had seen him walking a distance away as though just checking to make sure I was all right. I figured he felt bad for leaving me in the school. I couldn’t blame him, though. It was my fault for falling asleep and a professor had pulled him away. He couldn’t help that. It was protocol for professors to protect students. I glanced over my shoulder before opening the door and walking into the bar. It was already filled with drunk patrons. Most of them were glued to the television or radio and I could see clips of Hero jumping through the glass window of the school in slow motion shielding his rescue form the glass. I rolled my eyes and went to the back for an apron and some ice when my manager rounded the corner and ran into me. I doubled over in pain.

“Whoa, sweetheart, why are you here?”

“To work.” I said while gasping through the pain.

“Honey, you’re hurt. You need to go home. Ain’t you seen the news? Even with those cameras it is easy to tell something happened to you.”

“I need the money, Hank.” I said, straightening up once the pain had dwindled, “besides, won't this story bring in customers? They’ll want’ to meet the girl Hero saved.” I said the last statement as sarcastically as I could.

“That’s right! Big money tonight!”

“I wasn’t being serious.” I said, not wanting to sound conceited. As if people would want to meet me. They were more interested in Hero. I was just another one of those people he rescued. I went to the back and found an apron. I wasn’t going to waste any time going to my apartment to change. I clocked in as soon as my apron was tied and I went to the ice chest. I scooped a generous helping into a plastic bag and gingerly slipped it down the side of my shirt. It was cold but would at least help the swelling. I tied my apron strings high enough to hold the bag in place under my shirt. It was uncomfortable but I’d have to bear it. Just my luck. I get rescued and injured by the same guy. Some hero he was. I listened to the radio as I pleated my hair back.

“Earlier today the head Scientist form Moon Labs broke into a local high school searching for something he said would blow up the Earth. It is uncertain how he knew the object would be in an ordinary high school, but sources say that it could have been in one of the students’ bags possibly put there on purpose. After the signal was sent for the students to clear out of the school it seems everyone got out safely but one. A Miss Riel Glace was trapped in the poison smoke filled building for two hours. Hero, the mysterious wonder boy arrived on the scene and was seen rescuing the injured student from harm’s way. The student was identified as Riel Glace, a Junior and an honour student. We are unable to figure out how she survived the smoke but we have reason to believe Hero may have had something to do with it. Riel was surrounded by friends as soon as she was safely outside and Hero went back into the dangerous building. HE turned over the body of Dr. Pernassus moments later. He had been killed immediately from the smoke, though sources say that the body had been injured in both the genital and stomach areas. Did our hero become defensive over this damsel in distress or is Hero not as kind as we thought? More on this story as it unfolds.”

I groaned. Not only had they said my name, but they also got the facts all wrong. I guess it didn’t matter. I’d probably never see him again. I finished pleating my hair had fastened it with a rubber band.

“Hey, wonder woman. Time’s ticking. We need you out here on the double.” One of the barmaids called to me through the door. We rarely needed to call more people to the front lines at this hour. I really hoped we weren’t going to be this busy all night. I walked out to my station and the bar was packed. Hank was outside playing the role of a bouncer. As soon as I made my appearance the questions started to come at me again. I wasn’t going to survive the night, I could just tell.

“Look, if you want to ask a question you’ve got to buy a drink.” I said. One of the waitress’s jaw dropped as money began flying in my direction and calls for drinks started coming down. Calmly I took all the orders in my head and started whipping up drinks faster than ever. Question after question started firing.

One guy didn’t finish his drink and still left me a 110% tip. I hadn’t even begun answering questions and people were leaving tips. When the majority of the people had a drink I allowed to let the answers to their questions flow.

I answered everything from what his costume looked like to how it felt to fly. I even answered questions about what he smelled like and how he rescued me. I answered so many questions and sold so many drinks that my apron almost couldn’t hold all the money.
By the time the patrons had their questions answered there were a great many drunk people on the floor. I wanted to start on cleanup but every once in a while another person would ask a question and I’d have to make him buy a drink before answering.

Hank closed the bar at three in the morning and said that they would just have to come back tomorrow if they wanted more questions answered. I cleaned up the bar alongside Natalie, one of the rougher girls. She had a mean attitude towards the men but was gentle as a powder-puff when she wasn’t behind the door. She went to the back room and came back with two Advil in her hand.

“Here, Darling, take these.” She handed them to me, “You’re working so hard you don’t even realize you’re in pain.”

I gratefully swallowed down the pills with some water. The ice bag had completely melted and broke during the last hour. I was now aware of the cold water blanketing my side and the dull throb of m aching rib.

“I think this s the time to say, ‘I’m going to feel that one in the morning.’” Hank said, throwing a towel over his shoulder.

“Here, Hank.” I said and pulled a wad full of tip money out of my pocket. He couldn’t possibly let me leave the bar with this much profit, plus the other barmaids had worked plenty hard too.

“No- you keep it.” He said and pushed my hand back. I wondered if he was drunk. He was usually one of the worst penny pinchers. He wouldn’t let anyone have free drinks or anything. “Anyone that works as hard as you did tonight with an injury like that deserves every cent she made. Plus I think tomorrow will be just as busy.”

“Are you sure, hank?” I asked, reluctantly wanting to stuff the money back into my already overflowing pockets. Did I really have a right to take this money anyway? After all, Hero didn’t accept any money after a rescue and media attention. Sure I needed it, but I was beginning to feel as though I had used Hero.

“You’ll probably need that money to see a doctor anyway.” Hank said and gestured to my side.

“A doctor can’t do anything for a broken rib.” I said, “Probably just prescribe pain medication that I can’t afford.”

“You can afford it now.” He said and pointed to the wad of bills that were still in my hand.

“I can’t spend this on frivolous luxuries. I’ve got to save all that I can.”

Both Hank and Natalie sighed and looked at each other.

“Look, sweetie, whatever you do with that money is your idea, but since you got injured over this whole ordeal, you might want to let it pay for itself.”

I nodded.

“I’ll walk you to your building.” Hank offered, “Won’t be safe out there at this time with all that cash.”

“Thanks Hank.” I said.

He walked me out of the bar and across the street. We made it into the building without injury.

“See you tomorrow.” Hank said as I walked in the main door. He walked back down the steps and over to the bar. I began to head towards the stairs when an old croaky voice resounded around.

“You’re late.” She said.

“Ms. Hodgens.” I exclaimed, “you’re up late.”

“Do you know how many people have been knocking on that door looking for you? Did you rob a bank?” She asked and glanced at my pockets.

“No. I’ve been at work.” I said.

“Look, honey, if you’re in trouble with money you don’t need to go stealing money from banks or causing misdemeanors. Just tell me your rent will be late and I’ll understand. Sure, you’re one of my cheapest house guests, but you’ve never been late on a payment. I think I could allow you some lenience.”

“I really didn’t rob a bank.” I said, “I just ran into some trouble and got rescued and now all people want to do is interview me.”

“So that boy in that uniform really didn’t have Halloween messed up?”

“What?” I asked. How had Hero found my home? How had anyone found my home?

“He left you a message.” I followed her painfully up the stairs to her suite, she leaned heavily on my good shoulder for support like she usually did. I tried not to show my injury. I didn’t feel like another doctor visit lecture tonight. I just wanted to crawl in bed and dream that none of this had happened. She walked into the room as I waited outside the door. She appeared a few minutes later and handed me the letter. As soon as it was in my possession she slammed the door in my face and began to mumble something about dark blue tights.

I walked gingerly up the final three flights of stairs to my drafty old room while sleepily tearing open the manila envelope. I pulled out the letter and opened it up. The handwriting was written in sloppy lettering that was somewhat hard to read. I turned on the meager light by my bed and sat down to decipher the handwriting.

“A hero needs a lover. Now that I’ve found you we will be together forever and take over the world. All power will be under our control. Watch for the fireworks, you’ll know where to find me. Tell no one of our love. If you do there will be consequences.”

I nearly gagged and tried to reread the letter hoping I had read it wrong. Who did Hero think he was? Did he just decide to claim a bride, a winning prize? Did he want the girl that brought the most attention? Maybe he wanted a girl that could defend herself. I didn’t care what he wanted. He wasn’t going to have me. Not even after he didn’t apologize for causing my broken rib, but then again, maybe that was mostly my fault for not watching where I was going. But he could have at least stopped me. I growled and crumpled the letter. This is why I didn’t like relationships. Now that I had a hero after me I couldn’t possibly escape the media attention.

I sighed and gingerly lowered myself into bed. The Advil barely took the edge off of the pain but with how tired I was I was about to have the natural pain killer of sleep take over. And just like that, it did. Unfortunately my physical pain was gone but my mental pain wasn’t. All my dreams were laced with the green smoke and images of Hero prancing around the skies with me at the end of a leash. Any time he stopped I would crash into him and gain another injury.

When I finally awoke I felt more injured than when I had fallen asleep. My body felt stiff, my lungs ached, and my side was screaming in pain more than ever. I didn’t want to attempt to take a shower, but with all the grime and smoke I had acquired form yesterday I figured I owed myself at least a bath. It took about ten minutes to get my shirt off from the pain and then I had to figure out how to unclasp my other clothes. The more I moved my right arm the more pain I felt. I finally got myself undressed with one arm and turned on the water.
It was harder than I thought shampooing my hair and washing the rest of me with one hand. Rinsing was also a challenge. When I had about enough of what I could handle I turned the water off and stepped out of the shower. I glanced at the mirror and was completely shocked at the bruise. It was just a rib break, but my entire side was almost a black purple. It must have been where I crashed into him. Heroes were dangerous in motion as well as when they’re standing still.

I somehow managed to get a new set of clothes on after finding one of my leather belts and biting down on it. That belt now has some more permanent holes but I probably wouldn’t use it anytime soon anyway. I turned on my radio and listened for school delays. The high school was delayed for two hours for cleaning and airing out like I had predicted. I still felt tired so I figured I could get some more shut eye. I lied back down on the bead, tired form all the work it took to put a shirt and other articles of clothing on when in so much pain. I closed my eyes and thankfully I didn’t have any dreams.

When I awoke again I glanced at my clock and groaned. I had over slept. School started an hour ago. I had missed my first class and I was going to be late for history. I couldn’t run like I was used to, I’d probably even be late for maths. I attempted to put my hair in a ponytail as I walked, but lifting my right arm was painful. I was so frustrated by this pain. It was debilitating and I was pretty sure I couldn’t go breaking up any bar fights or knock out any mad scientists for a while. Maybe I should think about investing in some pepper spray, though I’m sure pepper spray might not work on a hero. I had grabbed the crumpled letter from last night and I kept it in my pocket. I didn’t know why but I didn’t want anyone finding out about Hero’s infatuation with me.

I made it to the school and saw two news crew vans parked out front. I hoped they weren’t for me. Maybe Hero had decided to make an appearance to swoop me up in his arms and fly me away, or maybe they had come to get another video recording of my injury. For once Hero had actually harmed someone. Mr. Perfect wasn’t so perfect and they wanted a news story. I, however was late to class and I wasn’t going to talk to any news crew. Plus, I wasn’t able to put my hair up and I was sure I didn’t look television ready. I snuck past the two vans and waiting camera crews and dashed into the school. I went to the office to sign in late and the secretary jumped up when she saw me.

There was a news crew already in the office interviewing her about school safety and how what happened yesterday with a ‘trapped student’ could have been prevented. It was obvious she was drinking up the lime light. I didn’t want to disturbed her but the creaking office door announced my presence.

“And here she is now.” The secretary said and came over to me. She placed her hands on my shoulders and smiled brightly at the cameras.

“Ms. Glace why are you coming late to school? Did you get rescued again by the hero? Everyone knows he is infatuated with you.”

“What?” I asked. How had everyone found out? Was he making public statements about his personal life now?

“You didn’t know?” One of the news casters asked, “He left a letter at our station talking about fireworks. Can you explain what that means?” A microphone was shoved under my mouth.

“I can’t believe this.” I grumbled.

“So you wanted to keep your love a secret? You don’t want any evil doers to find out?”

“Of course she doesn’t.” The secretary said smiling a little too widely for comfort. “That means the bad guys might come after her to get to Hero.”

“Great. Thanks for giving them the idea.” I said, not realizing that being the love interest of Hero might make me a target.

“Well, Hero will be able to protect you from them. There shouldn’t be any worry at all.”
I got the sudden feeling that they were actually hoping something big like a kidnapping would happen. If they had a target now they would always have a news story if I was going to be a target they could easily follow. What was I going to have to do? Leave the country for some peace.

“Look, I don’t know who Hero thinks he is, but we aren’t in love. Nothing happened yesterday in the school except for the fact that I got a broken rib and some bruises. I don’t want these cameras in my face ever again because I don’t want stupid news crew rumors putting me in danger just so they can have a good story. I would like to be just left alone so I can recover without having to worry about being saved at the same time.”

I didn’t even sign my name on the tardy sheet. The news crew would be plenty proof enough that I at least attempted to go into the office and sign in. I stormed out of the room and huffed off to my next class. I constantly kept glancing over my shoulder to make sure no one was following me. I had this uncanny feeling of being watched. I’m sure it was just paranoia now. After that little breaking news story I was going to have people constantly watching me. I really hoped no one intentionally put me in danger to call out Hero. I’m sure after my little speech he wouldn’t be too thrilled to rescue me anyway. That would be fine with me. Once everyone found out that he wasn’t going to rescue me they might get it into their heads that there was nothing between us.

I walked down the hallway that was filled with smoke earlier and I saw that all of the doors still weren’t replaced. I could hear the professors giving lessons all the way down the hall. I wondered how hard it was going to be trying to listen to one professor when another just across the hall was teaching something different. Criminals weren’t very considerate when destroying property. I passed the infamous classroom where I had been trapped less than twenty four hours ago and I saw that the window was still out of commission. I sighed and continued on to my normal class. The rest of the doors were completely fine. He hadn’t had a chance to blow these doors up thanks to my bar fighting skills.

I knocked on the door alerting my presence and then walked in. The class went deathly silent as I made my way to my regular seat.

“Were you with Hero?”

“Did you get kidnapped again?”

“Are you two really going out?”

“When are you meeting up again tonight.”

All the questions started flowing and the professor looked like he wasn’t ready to stop them. He was interested too.

“Look I’m here to learn. I don’t know what crazy rumors you guys are believing but there is nothing going on between Hero and I. I hardly know the guy. Anyway if you want to know anything you’ll just have to wait until after school. I’m not going to talk about it when I tried so hard to get here this morning in one piece.” I crossed my arms as a few people decided to test my patience by asking a few questions but they stopped when they realized how tight lipped I was going to be. I glanced at the professor to give him a cue that it was his time to keep teaching. I of course had no intentions of telling anyone anything after school, but that was the only thing I could think of to satisfy their patience.

The professor began to teach about algorithms but it was pretty pointless. It seemed the students were far too excited to find out more information about yesterday and I wasn’t going to learn anything when I felt all the eyes burning into me.

The bell rang and I slowly put my things away. I didn’t want to be the first one out of the classroom and get accidentally knocked around in the mad rush of students to get out the door. TO my surprise I saw everyone else packing up slowly too, that was except for Andrew. He seemed to be the only student living at a normal pace. He walked out of the room and in a few moments I stood to do the same. The other kids did too.

I sighed. This was ridiculous. If Hero were here I would love to give him a piece of my mind in front of everyone and maybe set an example that there was nothing between us and hopefully things would go back to normal. I tried to be the first on out of the classroom but I was surrounded once I was out of the desk.

“If anyone bumps in to me or causes me so much as a speck of pain I will show you what really happened to that scientist yesterday and why he as delivered to the police dead.” I seethed, but that was actually a bad threat to give. People really seemed to want to know about what really happened now. I rolled my eyes, “Have you ever seen a bar fight?” I asked hoping they would get the hint.

I stormed towards the door and somehow managed to get out without getting hurt. I went to my next class and sat down. Once more I was surrounded. All the popular blond girls were staring at me as though waiting for an answer to their questions. Andrew was in this class of mine too. I never realized it before but he was in all of my classes. For some reason I liked having him there and I wished I could be as invisible as he was again. It was almost like we’ d had an unspoken connection for being the least noticed people in class. Well, at least one of us was still normal.

Questions started up again as new students came into the classroom. The professor was still getting his notes ready to teach and the bell signaling class to start hadn’t rung yet.
All the questions were about Hero this and Hero that. They asked me question after question about him and what information I could give about him.

“If I give you guys some answers will you please leave me alone?” I asked. They all nodded their heads. “Fine- Hero didn’t give me any more information than you guys already know. The only words that came out of his mouth were questions asking if I was all right. I don’t have any romantic feelings towards him and as far as I’m concerned I hope he doesn’t have any towards me. Now since the media has spread these incredible lies about our love together it seems I’m going to be a target for attacks. If you know what’s good for you you’ll stay away from me unless you want to be caught up in whatever Hell I’m going to go through because of all this. Now stop asking questions.” Right on cue the bell rang for class to start.

The class went on as normally as It could and the final classes had the same effect. I answered a few vague questions and the class was able to carry on as normal. I was so relieved when the final bell for school rang. I had hoped and prayed that no sirens were going to go off and trap us in the school again.

When I walked back out in the lobby I saw some students go over to the news teams. They were handed some cash.

“Yeah in class she said-“ I heard one of the students start talking about what I had said about the event. My life had turned into so much of a freak show that even the news was paying my peers to talk about me. I tried to sneak away from the waiting media and students but I must have had a big red bulls eye on me because somehow they found me.

“I have nothing to say to the press.” I said as microphones were shoved under my nose.

“We’ve never had anyone alone in a building with Hero before. You owe it to the public to tell us about Hero. Is he something to be feared?”

“I owe it to the public?” I asked infuriated. “Just because I was unlucky enough to be rescued by someone no one knows anyone about I’m supposed to become a personal eyewitness for the world? I don’t think so. If you are so desperate to get information on him go throw yourself off a building. If you’re lucky he might just come and rescue you. That is of course if he isn’t scared that you’ll interview him to death. If you want my opinion stay away from him. All you’ll get is unwanted attention and grief. I think he’s got enough to worry about saving the world.” The crowd only thickened with more people the more I spoke. I held my good arm over my side to protect it from anyone that wanted to get too close. I then had to stop still. If I wasn’t injured I could just barrel through the crowd. Where was Hero when I needed rescuing now? I was fine in the building with the scientist. It was the media attention and crowds that were scaring me. Where was a hero when I actually needed one?