I'm No Superhero; Just Your Ordinary Freak

I could feel it coming, like nausea after a long night of whooping ass and having people’s feet collide with your stomach.
“Sir,” I shot up my hand, interrupting the teacher as he babbled on about the use of an exclamation point. Next, he was going to start teaching us the method of finger painting; maybe he’d bring in a kindergartener to offer a demonstration. Yawn.
“Yes, Leila,” the teacher seemed obviously annoyed and I had to grit my teeth to maintain a gentle tone.
“Could I please go to the bathroom?”
“No,” he spoke without a second thought, and then returned to the board.
“I said,” I spoke as sweetly as possible, digging my nails into the wooden desk to push back the arising tunnel vision. “Please. May. I. Go. To. The. Bathroom.” The words came out delicately to everyone else’s ears, but they boomed within Mr. Willow’s hollow little head, with more authority than he’d even know what to do with.
“Of course,” he spoke in a dazed tone as the board marker fell from his hand. He wore a wedding ring. I wondered if his wife knew he was sleeping with Lucy, the school secretary.
I sauntered out of the class, my head high as I slowed my mind to delay the inevitable. Finally I was in the girl’s bathroom. I threw myself into the nearest stall and slammed the toilet lit down. I sat and lifted my knees to my head as my vision slowly morphed into something completely different.

“You should have run,” Peril spoke. I knew it was him; him and I had shared many battles, both alongside and against each other. I wondered which this one would be.
“But then I would have ended up with you.” My voice, clear and crisp, and as confident as ever.
I blinked once and realized we were sitting in a crowded mall, which answered my previous question; him and I were on opposite teams. We were seated in a public area, where neither could do anything dangerous. Well, that depends on your definition of ‘dangerous’.
“Now, why would that be so bad?” he leaned forward and his cool breath brushed my skin – even in my vision I could feel the familiar sensation.
I felt my body lean forward, knowing it wasn’t me in the present that was controlling it. I was looking directly into his ruby eyes. All the experiments had odd coloured eyes.
When I spoke it was both mocking and serious. “Because then they’d have two of us.”
Peril’s face, a look of both porcelain and ice, stretched as he offered me a wide grin. “Exactly.”
I felt my head shake and felt the tug as the corners of my mouth curved up. Him and I were still close together. I leaned closer until my lips were nearly brushing his ear. He tilted his head to feel the contact but I moved away slightly. “You’re on the wrong team,” and with that said, I picked up my Louie bag and made my way out of the food court, fully aware of the inexperienced boy following me.

My vision came back, and I realized I wasn’t walking anymore, but was actually sitting on a filthy toilet lid in a graffitied stall.
Peril, I thought, a small smile coming to my face as I leaned backwards. My feet hit the scum-covered floor as I thought back to the last time him and I had been together. When was it last, South Africa?
Peril had an uncanny way of finding trouble, especially when I was involved. Call it a psychic’s intuition. Either way, he’s always been able to track me down, which has served well in times of need, but served to be a pain in the ass when we were playing for opposite teams.
As many times as he’d turned on me, he was a brilliant fighter and having him on your side almost guaranteed your success. Unless he was up against me, of course – he had yet to prove himself a match for me.
I needed him on my team.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey, you okay?” Chris asked as he approached his locker.
I had zoned out, my hand still hanging on the dial. “Yeah,” I shook my head and smiled up at him. “How was art?” I asked as I began to spin the dial. “Draw anything cynical?” I joked.
Chris smiled nervously and shrugged. “It was alright. How are you?” he asked as he began opening his own locker. “I heard about physics.”
I laughed at how predictable everything was there. “Really? What did you hear?” I threw in the books I knew I wouldn’t need for the night and turned back to Chris.
He shrugged dismissively, but his grin gave him away. “Just that you totally just put Whitney Lowe in her place,” he just about shook with excitement. He sighed as he turned to me, looking me dead in the eye. “Leila,” he spoke softly as he leaned against his locker.
“Yeah, Chris?” I waited, unsure of what was coming next.
He grinned again, something that seemed to be contagious since I ended up joining him. “Don’t turn into a bitch. This school needs more people like you.”