Unlikely Heroes

The more time Cal spent with Mikaela, the more he found himself wanting to be close to her, and to hold and kiss her. And it seemed she’d been growing more comfortable with him, too, not flinching away when he put an arm around her waist as they walked down the street after leaving the diner. Part of it was because they knew no one would be around to witness them together. Cal was aware that he could never expect her to act like this when people they knew were around. However, he wasn’t going to worry about it and ruin the moments that he did have with her.

He looked over at her and found that she was sort of spaced out, staring straight ahead as they walked. When he stopped, she kept going, snapping back into reality when she realized Cal’s arm wasn’t around her anymore. He smirked and pulled her back by the waist, bending down to give her a kiss that he drew out as long as possible before she laughed softly and pulled away.

“What were you thinking about?” he asked. “Me, I hope.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” she smirked. “I was thinking about what you said earlier. About the suits.”

“You mean the super suits?” he corrected.

“Stop, you make it sound dumb,” she said, rolling her eyes. “But yeah, if we’re going to do this, we should have something a little flashier than black hoodies. And we should have names, so people can call for us without knowing our real identities. And we won’t have to worry about being all sneaky all the time.”

“I’m way ahead of you,” Cal said. “Come on.”

Mikaela gave him a weird look as he ushered her back to where his car was parked, surprised at how eager he was to go. He had been thinking about it a lot. With his mother and sister being designers, he wasn’t ashamed to admit that he did know a thing or two. He was smart enough to know that what they’d need to wear would have to be something they could easily move in. He was also smart enough to know exactly where they could get all of that for free.

Mikaela didn’t ask any questions until she noticed Cal had driven to the fashion district, where the streets were lined with high-end stores and boutiques filled with clothes a majority of people simply couldn’t afford. He pulled into a parking space by a boutique called Cherie Christie.

“Calvin, you leave the house in the same plain t-shirts and old jeans you wake up in,” Mikaela said slowly. “If you’re about to tell me that you shop at a place like Cherie Christie-”

“No, I don’t shop here,” Calvin said quickly, getting out of the car. “You know this store?”

“Are you kidding?” Mikaela scoffed. “Her handbags are incredible. Every girl knows them. I can only dream of getting anywhere close to her new fall collection.”

“The faux bags are nice, I guess,” Cal shrugged. “You’re not into skins and furs and stuff, are you?”

“Cal, I’ll never be able to afford any of her stuff,” Mikaela said, rolling her eyes.

“But if you could afford it?”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t be comfortable unless it was faux, I guess,” she shrugged.

“Great,” he grinned, walking up to the back door that lead into the studio in the back of the store.

“Cal, they’re closed,” Mikaela frowned.

“I know, that’s why I waited until this hour,” Cal nodded.

“You’re not going to break in, are you?”

Cal ignored her as he flipped through his keys, looking for the one he rarely ever used. He glanced through the window to make sure it was still and quiet inside before unlocking the door and holding it open for Mikaela. She just stared at him in utter shock, shaking her head and stepping back.

“You had a key made for this place?” she whispered. “Cal, did you burgle this store or something?”

“No, the key was given to me,” Cal said, gesturing in. “Just trust me on this one, okay? Have I asked you to do things that will get you in trouble before? Well, serious trouble?”

She stared him down for a bit, but reluctantly entered the studio as Cal closed the door and flicked the lights on. The overhead lights turned on and illuminated the design studio they were in, full of plans for future lines and collections and mannequins with half-finished clothes on them. Mikaela’s eyes widened as she looked around, looking at all the mannequins.

“This is ridiculous,” she said, laughing nervously. “These designs are for next year.”

“Yeah,” Cal nodded. “She’s trying out themes as of recent. This one is supposed to be inspired by easter eggs or some shit like that.”

“How do you know so much about this store?” Mikaela asked.

“Maybe I know Cherie Christie herself,” Cal suggested.

“Yeah, okay,” Mikaela smirked.

Cal didn’t say anything more. Not telling her the complete truth wasn’t exactly a lie, anyways. He watched as she wandered around and examined everything, stopping in front of one mannequin in particular that was dressed in an elegant red gown.

“Rihanna’s going to wear that one,” Cal pointed out.

“What??”

“Yeah,” Cal nodded, pointing to the wall. “She does tons of designs for celebrities.”

Mikaela looked at the wall he was pointing to, which was covered in photographs of Cherie Christie posing with various celebrities wearing her designs on the red carpet. There she was next to George Clooney, smiling in a navy blue tuxedo she’d made him by hand, and again with the Kardashians, who each sported one of Cherie’s handbags on their arm.

“I can’t believe you have a key here,” Mikaela whispered. “How?”

“Look, I know people, okay?” Cal said, shaking his head slightly. “I don’t like spending that much time here. Let’s just get what we need, yeah?”

“I can just take it?” Mikaela frowned.

“Sure,” he shrugged. “There’s tons and tons of materials here, and at least five rolls of each. Nothing she makes is mass produced, so most of the materials go to waste.”

It took a little bit of effort, but he finally convinced Mikaela that she wasn’t doing anything sketchy or illegal. Cal had certain benefits at the boutique, one of those benefits being taking whatever he wanted. He didn’t normally need things from the studio or boutique, but in times like this, it came in handy. They eventually loaded the back of his car with some stretchier fabrics like spandex and faux leather. Mikaela was careful about what she touched, still seeming a little nervous about where she was. He caught her glancing through the window at the door itself every now and then, seemingly hoping for a glimpse of those handbags she was talking about.

Cal didn’t often use the boutique to grab a girl’s attention, but Mikaela was different. He felt she deserved it more than other girls did. He took his key and unlocked the key to the boutique, gesturing inside. Mikaela just stared at him, then smiled and went inside, looking around the empty store. Cal watched from the front counter as she looked around and ran her fingers over all the clothes, eventually going to the handbags she has obviously looked up before. She picked up one smaller white clutch wallet in particular, which had a blue bow on it. The designers name was printed on it in silver writing. Cal always thought the colors resembled R2D2 so much, but was surprised when Mikaela said it first.

“Kinda looks like R2D2, doesn’t it?” she asked.

“Yeah… It does…,” Cal said slowly.

“It’s really pretty,” she said.

“You can have it, if you want.”

Mikaela stared at him in utter shock, setting the wallet down. Cal frowned and shrunk back slightly, not sure what he’d said that was wrong.

“I mean you can have the bigger bag, if you like that one more…”

“Cal, you’re trying to give me something out of a designer boutique. For free. Do you know how crazy that sounds?”

“It also sounds crazy that you can move things with your mind and and I can turn invisible,” he laughed. “It’s not totally free. I do expect you to say ‘thank you’ and maybe a kiss on the cheek.”

Mikaela just stared at him, then stared at the clutch. “Cal, it’s too much. I’m not worth this much.”

Cal frowned, tilting his head to the side. “Who says?”

“I’m really pretty worthless, Cal,” she said. “What have I ever done to deserve something like that?”

“You’re not worthless,” Cal argued, holding up a hand to count on his finger. “One, you’ve got one of the highest GPAs in our senior class. You work harder than most of us. Two, between all that studying, you’re captain of both the cheer team and the dance team. You’re ridiculously talented. Three, as if all of that wasn’t enough, you’re also going out there with the intention to save people’s lives. And you don’t expect anything in return. Mikaela, did I just describe someone worthless? Or are you going to tell me that you’ve been lying the whole time and you haven’t done any of these things?”

She’d gone completely silent, staring at Cal, and for a moment he thought she was about to cry. He reached over her shoulder and picked up the clutch, putting it back in her hands. She stared at it in her hands for a moment, then suddenly threw her arms around Cal and kissing him. Her reaction initially surprised him, but he didn’t fight it, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her in close.

She just stayed there for at least five minutes, not saying a word, but just hugging Cal. Eventually, she pulled away from him and held the clutch tightly with both hands, glancing at the price tag once more but knowing better than to try and argue with Cal again. She headed back towards the car by going through the studio once more while Cal wrote a quick note to leave on the counter.

Took some stuff.
Some fabric and a wallet.
Will work to pay for it later.

-Cal

He knew everyone would be frustrated to see that note, but they would understand. Cherie would understand. She would have let anything slide for Cal to take a slight amount of interest in her work. He glanced up at the massive modeling pictures on the wall, recognizing one of them as Jessa. She was spotlighted more than any of the other models.

“Hey, Cal? Can you come here, a minute?”

Cal set the note down and walked back to the studio where Mikaela was staring at the wall of pictures, pointing to one in particular. Cal grimaced when he saw which one it was.

“Is that you?” she asked.

Sure enough, it was. Cherie was posing beside Jennifer Lopez in a stunning green gown, and standing by Cherie with her hand on his shoulder was an eleven-year-old Cal in a suit, looking like he would much rather have been dead. He cleared his throat awkwardly and shrugged slightly, putting his hands on Mikaela’s shoulders and leading her out.

“I told you I know people,” he said.

“Yeah, but you know Cherie?” she asked as Cal ushered her into the car.

“It’s complicated.”

It wasn’t complicated at all. She was his mother. She carried him for nine months, and he came out of her. However, he didn’t want to go into it. Mikaela didn’t ask any more questions as he drove away, starting to head back to her house, but noticing along the way that she was still staring at the clutch in her lap, looking a little bit guilty. He knew what kinds of things she must have been thinking about herself. And if there was one place that could cheer anyone up, Cal knew where that was. She frowned as he suddenly made a U-turn, going in the opposite direction of her house.

“Where are we going this time?” she asked.

“I forgot, I need to pick something up. I’ll be quick,” he told her. “You don’t mind, do you?”

“I guess not…”