Unlikely Heroes

The next day, as promised, Mikaela went to visit Cal. She felt awkward and out of place going to his house alone and knocking on the front door. She knew Cal didn't care that she wasn't some wealthy debutante who regularly dined with the Kennedy's or something but it felt too much like a Cinderella story to her. Mikaela was no Cinderella, and she didn't feel worthy of castles and princes. Annie welcomed her inside with a warm smile.

"Cal will be glad you're here," she said with a laugh. "He's on the verge of crawling up the walls cooped up in his room."

Mikaela returned the smile and tried not to be intimidated by the giant house as she navigated to Cal's room with her arms full of text and notebooks. The fairy tale even comes with a fairy godmother, she thought with amusement as she listened to Annie start humming in the kitchen. She found Cal sprawled across his bed with headphones in, playing air guitar. His eyes were closed so he didn't notice her approach. She could hear the music from across the room. She waited until the song was over to start clapping.

Cal glanced over at her and scowled, pulling the ear buds out. "How long were you just going to stand there?" he grumbled.

"I didn't want to interrupt your groove, rock star." Mikaela slipped her shoes off and hopped up on the bed, leaning over to kiss him. He eyed her stack of books with distaste.

"Are you really going to do homework while you're visiting me?" he complained.

"Yes, because some of us need a full scholarship." Mikaela tapped him on the nose with her pen. He toyed absently with her ponytail and watched over her shoulder as she worked. He let her focus for all of five minutes before he sat up and started tickling her sides.

"Cal!" she scolded, swatting at him. He smirked and tugged her closer.

"Come on, I missed you," he said.

"I was gone one night." Mikaela rolled her eyes but smiled. "Does your head feel better?"

"It's fine."

Mikaela was pretty sure he was lying but decided to let him have his pride and not argue. She snuggled against him and read her history book with her head on his shoulder.

"I love October," she said dreamily. "Normally I'm not big on parties but Kaylee Duncan throws the best Halloween party every year and everyone goes. It's actually pretty fun."

"I don't like Halloween," Cal said with a grimace. Mikaela sat up and stared at him in disbelief.

"How can you not like Halloween?" she demanded.

"My mom and sister always made me dress up as lame things."

"Halloween is my favorite day of the year," Mikaela said. "I always love pretending to be someone else."

He chuckled. "That's ironic. Everyone else wants to be you. They can only dream though."

Mikaela smiled faintly. "Don't try to butter me up, Cal. We're dressing up for Halloween."

He sighed dramatically. "Do I have to?"

Mikaela wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him into a long, deep kiss.

"Okay," Cal relented. "Your tactics are immensely unfair."

"But effective." Mikaela grinned.

"So what did you have in mind?"

"It's a surprise."

"That doesn't make me feel any better."

Cal's phone dinged and he glanced at it. "It's a text from Leon. He says we made it onto the news."

"Really?" Mikaela leaned over to stare at his phone as he googled a news report about the incident at the prep school. It looked like it had been filmed not long after they left the day before. An excited cluster of kids told the reporter that the gang members had been taken down by two people in masks.

"There was a guy that could disappear and go right through walls! And the girl took the gun away from the man in our classroom without even going close to him! The gun just flew to her."

The other kids confirmed the wide-eyed boy's story while the reporter smiled and nodded indulgently. Clearly she thought they were exaggerating or making it up. Her patronizing smile wavered though as a perplexed looking teacher backed up the story as well.

"I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it for myself," she admitted. "It still seems pretty extraordinary. But the two of them just showed up in their masks and disarmed the man. I don't even know how they got into the school grounds and then got away again without the police seeing them but they were there and then as soon as the men were apprehended they were gone again."

"It's so surreal," Mikaela remarked. "Being mentioned in the news but no one knowing it's us."

"We're like the Men in Black," Cal agreed. On Monday the school was buzzing with conversation about the alleged super hero saviors at Ulatis. It continued to be featured in the news; the clip of the interview with the students and teacher from the prep school had gone viral. Most people seemed sure it was some kind of elaborate hoax, not that Mikaela could blame them.

"I have plans for us tomorrow night," Mikaela told Cal when she joined him in the cafeteria.

"Why tomorrow night?"

"My dad's home today but he's leaving again tomorrow. It's weird, he's been assigned a lot more stuff for work lately. I thought maybe he'd been promoted it something but even he doesn't seem to know why."

"Really? That's interesting. So what's this grand plan of yours? We can carry it out at my place tonight. I don't want you home with him."

His hand reached for hers as if by reflex. Mikaela's stomach did a somersault. She'd never had anyone worry about her before. It was a pleasant feeling but would take some getting used to.

"You're going to watch all the Star Wars movies with me," she said and Cal made a face.

"Why?"

"One, because they're amazing and you're not a whole person until you've seen them. Two, I said so. And three, I've figured out our Halloween costumes." She smiled impishly.

"The things I do for you." Cal shook his head and Mikaela leaned forward to kiss him. For a while Mikaela's life felt like something resembling normal, even though her and Cal's heroic antics at Ulatis were still dominating the news. Her dad was away more than ever before so she rarely had to see him during the entire month of October. She spent almost every free moment with Cal and Moxie, and finally got Cal to stop complaining about their Halloween costumes. It was a week before Halloween when the doll appeared on her porch. Cal was working some overtime at the shelter and hadn't come over yet, so Mikaela frowned when the doorbell rang.

She checked her phone and didn't find any missed calls or messages indicating anyone was coming over. She hadn't head Cal's car pull up, and he hadn't texted to say he was on his way yet. Mikaela felt a stirring of unease and as she padded quietly down the stairs she summoned two large knives from the kitchen to hold in her hands. She stared at the front door, waiting to see if she'd hear another knock or the sound of the doorbell. All was silent. She crept forward on her tiptoes.

"Who's there?" she called. There was no answer. Shrugging off her worry Mikaela flung the door open to find her porch empty. Or so she thought. When she stepped out to scan the yard her foot landed on something soft. She looked down to find a cheap rag doll with dark yarn hair. She bent to pick it up. It was dressed in a poorly made imitation of the blue Ben Franklin High cheer uniform. And it was splashed in red food coloring that looked like blood, the word "slut" scrawled across its forehead in permanent marker.

Mikaela looked up to scan the street again. No one was out but she had no doubts who the doll came from. She stepped back into the house and slammed the door, making sure it was locked. She wasn't afraid of Sadie and her minions but it still made her skin crawl and made her blood feel hot knowing they'd been snooping around her house. Clearly Sadie nor Derek took rejection very well. She tossed the doll in the trash can, turning the TV on to distract her. She opened the door for Cal and Moxie when they arrived, feeling relived not to be alone anymore now that she was used to having them around.

"Are you okay?" Cal asked. "You seem tense."

"It's nothing," Mikaela said, almost automatically. Cal's eyes flicked to the two knives still sitting on the end table. His eyebrows rose. Mikaela sighed, knowing he wasn't going to let it go. She went into the kitchen and returned with the doll. Cal's eyes immediately darkened.

"It's a prank," Mikaela said. "It's just Sadie fucking around because she's still pissed off about us and since it's almost Halloween she thought it'd be cute to do something like this. She probably enlisted Derek and Jeff to leave it here. They're harmless, Cal."

"Harmless? Derek already attacked you once." Cal's jaw clenched and Mikaela sat beside him, prying the doll out of his grip.

"It's a prank," she repeated. "The guys love pulling sick shit like this. It's not a big deal, Cal."

"I hope you're right. If Derek tries to pull anything at this party on Friday I'm going to kick his ass."

"Again," Mikaela said and he cracked a smile.

"You know," Mikaela added slowly. "We could pull some Halloween pranks of our own on Friday. Sadie and the guys will definitely be there."

"Why Psionica, are you insinuating we use our powers for evil?"

"I wouldn't call it evil," Mikaela said with an innocent smile. "I'd call it vigilante justice. That's kind of our thing, isn't it? Derek tried to kidnap and assault me and technically you could consider this doll harassment. Even a threat. As super heroes, it's our duty to teach criminals a lesson."

"I really love the way your devious mind works."