I came up with a pretty clever idea.
Hint to Eve that we go to the same school, but not tell her who I am or introduce myself.
If I’d done it differently, I would have come off as some kind of stalker or fan who’d been watching her from afar, who knew about her alter ego.
That’s not a great way to start a friendship.
This way, I could smugly watch Eve’s nervous behavior as she tried to identify me among her classmates.
It was entertaining.
Since we only had one class together, figuring me out was pretty tough.
Not impossible, though.
I’m tall for my age, well-built, and even with my mask partially hiding my face, handsome.
Perfect genetics, not my doing, but still nice.
Typical teenage problems like acne don’t affect me.
The other students?
Let’s just say there aren’t many guys in our age group who fit all the above criteria.
Mostly athletes and other smug jerks.
I’m not biased against sports, but early popularity doesn’t do kids’ characters any favors.
Neither does unpopularity, really.
So after studying the local football and baseball teams in the cafeteria, Eve predictably didn’t find any suitable candidates for a charming, witty superhero.
The guys clearly lacked the latter quality.
Finally, her wandering gaze fell on William’s and my table.
Since he’d learned my secret, shaking him off at school was sometimes difficult.
She didn’t look impressed and her gaze slid further.
Well, damn.
What was I expecting?
Sitting next to William, I was safely protected from female attention.
Even without knowing his secret orientation, I couldn’t imagine a girl who’d want to date that guy.
In the end, she never figured out who was under the mask.
I, all mysterious, didn’t help her identify the mysterious stranger.
Let her suffer a little.
I’d figured her out in two seconds in my past life.
***
Speaking of shared classes and obnoxious athletes, there’s an unexpected connection.
The son of Mr.
Hiesler, our biology teacher, would soon take his own life.
Then his father, grief-stricken and later divorced, would begin his vendetta against obnoxious teenage athletes.
Back then, it cost the lives of three of our school’s best football players and a dozen random victims in a mall where Hiesler Senior blew up his first student.
Yes, that balding, boring biology teacher turned out to be unusually talented at organic terrorism.
He turned the kidnapped football players, and himself, into living organic bombs with timers.
Since I’m here again and his son is still alive, why not prevent that bloody Breaking Bad reference before it even starts?
Mr.
Hiesler revealed the reason for his son’s suicide before he died.
The obnoxious athletes who bullied him.
I’d been watching Richard for a while.
Until recently, he didn’t seem like too much of a loser.
He wasn’t a star of the teen Olympus, but he wasn’t the lowest loser either.
He was one of those natural social climbers who, having no athletic talent of their own, still tried to latch onto popular kids, hoping to feast on the scraps from their table.
Richard was pretty good at it.
He’d found a behavior pattern that kept them from bullying him too badly.
He wasn’t very smart, but he pretended to be a complete idiot.
Understanding that a high status wasn’t in his future, he’d carved out a niche as a likable idiot who never argued with anyone and therefore became everyone’s friend.
But not too long ago, something went wrong for Richard.
His friends’ attitude toward him changed drastically.
I don’t know what he did to go from a safe idiot to an object of ridicule and humiliation, but the result was obvious.
For a week now, all his attempts to cozy up to the cool kids had been met with laughter and new waves of humiliation.
Right now, as Eve scanned the cafeteria, I noticed that young Hiesler had again left the cafeteria with his head down.
Derek Sullivan, a stereotypical blonde jock and football player, separated from the jocks’ table and followed him with a focused expression.
Was this the culmination of the conflict?
“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” I told William.
“Watch my food?”
“Uh…
what?” William asked my back, but I wasn’t listening.
*
*
*
In the hallway, I saw Derek and another guy I hadn’t noticed before put their arms around the victim’s shoulders and lead Richard toward the back of the school.
Two possibilities.
They were either going to make out or fight.
I hoped for the latter.
Witnessing the former, especially in school, was something I had absolutely no desire to do.
Following the sweet trio to that same dumpster where Eve and I used to change into our costumes after school, I listened to the sounds coming from behind the brick and trash piles.
I could use super hearing right now, but even without it, I could make out something threatening, raised voices, and something about a Julie or similar. New chapters come out on g.com first.
So it was about a girl?
A sound of impact.
One of the gates hiding the dumpster from the students shuddered.
They were fighting.
Thank God.
Looking around, no one seemed to be watching, only the janitor melancholically sweeping in another part of the yard.
I ducked in after the pair.
Just in time to see Derek positioning Richard.’s already slightly beaten head against the dumpster while the other bully lifted Hiesler by his legs, helping the process.
“Ugh, how uncivilized,” I commented, closing the gate.
“What?” Derek, who’d been scared for a moment, realized he’d been caught by a fellow student and got angry.
“Grayson?
Get out of here while you’re still in one piece.
This isn’t your business.”
Oh, the football star knew me.
I was popular.
And I’d gladly follow his advice, but such is my heroic burden.
Sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong.
“It’s getting a little crowded in here,” I said calmly and pushed the guy closest to me in the chest, knocking him to the ground.
“You asked for it!” Derek let go of Richard’s head and rolled his shoulder, clearly intending to hit me instead.
But a quick slap interrupted his heroic swing, instantly disorienting him and sending him to embrace the conveniently open dumpster.
“You’ll regret this, Grayson!” the other bully panted from the floor.
“We won’t just…”
The rest of his threatening speech was drowned in the trash that welcomed his too-hot and too-talkative head.
I’m usually against such school humiliations, but they were about to do the same to Hiesler.
Besides, they’d attacked him, already obviously weaker, two on one.
Derek followed his friend headfirst into the dumpster.
The guys struggled, of course, clawing at the edges, but only scraped their hands and made the process more painful for themselves.
“Holy shit,” a shocked Richard said, pressed against the wall, watching the sudden resolution of his adventure.
Now those idiots had a new enemy number one.
They’d probably leave the teacher’s son alone now, or at least not drive him to suicide.
I turned away from the two pairs of legs trying to find their way out of the dumpster and left the trash nook.
“Are you staying here?” I asked Richard before closing the gate.
Only then did he snap out of it and hurry out after me.
It seemed quiet.
Only the janitor gave us a suspicious look.
*
*
*
Richard followed me all the way to the bathroom and then to the cafeteria, not even trying to ask anything.
And I wasn’t in a hurry to find out the details of his conflict with his former patrons.
Honestly, I didn’t care about all this school drama.
But my conscience wouldn’t let me avoid preventing a few senseless deaths when I had the chance.
“What was that?” William protested when I appeared.
“I’m not your babysitter!
And who’s this?”
I demonstratively glanced back at Richard, as if I’d just noticed he’d been following me.
“Derek and some other idiot from the football team were going to beat him up in the back yard.” I omitted the part about the almost dumpster-dunking.
“And you…” William prompted me to continue.
“Gave the idiots a few slaps,” I said, returning to my lunch.
“Cool, I guess.” William sounded disappointed.
“You could have called me.
I’d have liked to see it myself.”
There was clear reproach in his voice.
After hesitating near our table, Richard finally sat on one of the free chairs.
“Um, thanks for helping,” he said.
“But why did you do it?
They won’t let this go, will they?”
“I don’t give a shit,” I answered honestly.
“Let their whole team come.
Why?
I just felt like it.
It’s unsportsmanlike to beat up one guy with a gang.
Will that answer satisfy you?”
“Um…” Even if it didn’t, he wouldn’t argue.
Sheep.
“What happened between you guys?” William, on the other hand, wasn’t indifferent.
He’s a good guy, an idiot, but empathetic.
You can’t take that from him.
“Weren’t you hanging with them?” Get faster updates on g.com.
Hiesler hesitated at first, got nervous, but William managed to get him talking.
By the end of lunch, we knew the tragic story of his unrequited love for some Julie.
Ironically, this Julie, judging by her personality, was an exact copy of Richard himself.
Just as dependent on others’ attention and approval, just as spineless, just as stupid.
According to Hiesler, the girl was taken to one of the sports club parties by her more popular cheerleader friends.
She got drunk, and something terrible happened.
What exactly happened to the drunk fool at the party was left to the imagination.
Richard’s story was vague.
A few days later, Richard found out about it all from Julie herself.
He was her typical friend zone childhood buddy, someone she could trust with secrets but who was too unpopular and uncool for a relationship.
Filled with righteous indignation, he tried to defend his friend’s honor against the one she’d pointed to as the main villain.
He only ended up humiliating himself.
First, Derek beat him up.
Then, when the reason for the “duel” came out, he was laughed at and kicked out of the group.
They said something like, “take that slut yourself if you want.”
And here’s the strangest, most interesting part.
Mr.
Hiesler Jr.
never did get close to Julie.
He was only shamed by her for his worthlessness.
Then the girl, who’d publicly disowned her loser friend, rejoined the same group.
She was still sitting at the football players’ and cheerleaders’ table.
While Richard became an outcast.
Something told me either Hiesler wasn’t telling us everything, or he was idealizing his former friend too much.
No normal girl, after something truly terrible, would willingly seek out the people who’d done that terrible thing to her.
***
My further immersion in the depths of Hiesler Jr.’s love drama was interrupted by the return of Derek and his friend from their trip to the land of waste.
Slightly beaten and angry, they immediately, pushing everyone aside, moved toward me with obvious intentions.
This time, no one bothered with conversation.
The rising star of football decided to conquer me with his professional skills.
Instead of the boxing move that hadn’t worked last time, he attempted a classic football tackle.
Everything would have been fine, but I didn’t just stand there.
I easily sidestepped his desperate lunge, leaving Derek to enjoy the contents of the lunch table with his own face.
His friend tried, covered by Derek’s frontal attack, to hit me with his fists.
Not bad, but as you might guess, just as unsuccessful.
I’d never been into any martial arts, but over two lives I’d gotten some practical experience.
I could have taken on this pair even before getting my superpowers.
Now I just had to make sure my advantage in the fight didn’t look unnatural.
Hearing strange noise behind me, I was surprised to see that Derek, who’d successfully plowed the lunch table with his face, had decided to switch to Richard, who happened to be in the path of his rush.
Maybe now Hiesler Jr.
would find a pair of balls to fight back against his abuser?
He’d tried to defend his friend’s honor before.
I simply subdued the second brawler, twisting his arm and forcing him to his knees.
Mom would scold me for fighting again.
Do I need that?
All this chaos happened amid unprecedented noise and female screams filling the cafeteria.
Such mayhem, of course, couldn’t escape the attention of the teachers and school security.
“What’s going on here?” The principal burst into the room, accompanied by two fat men in their fifties who served as our security.
“Stop this immediately!”
While one fatso worked his mouth, the other two rushed to separate us.
Well, Richard and Derek, really.
I calmly released my opponent and raised my hands to show everything was fine.
But those two…
Hiesler Jr.
again missed the chance to demonstrate his masculinity and mostly got punched in the nose while the security guard pulled Derek away.
“Mr.
Grayson,” the principal attacked me for some reason.
“Would you care to explain what’s happening here?”
“Um…” I hesitated for a second.
“Nothing special.
Those two are fighting over some girl.
Ask them for details.”
I honestly ratted out the would-be lovers.
I didn’t name Richard’s crush, but he gave himself away by staring at her with his black eye.
She only grimaced in disgust.
Yeah, tough case.
I hope I didn’t make things worse by interfering.