One week without any large scale villain attacks stretched into two, then three, though that didn't mean there weren't any disasters looming on the horizon, and by that, I specifically meant Finals Week. In a mere ten days, final exams would commence. I had already committed to a college — a process not unlike throwing a dart blindly at a dart board — but maintaining my grades could make or break my acceptance. No pressure. A more responsible person would have started studying by now.
Unfortunately, I was not a more responsible person.
Nicole had been sporadically reviewing for ages, while Leigh relied heavily on her private tutors to drill two semesters worth of information through her thick skull. Historical record showed both strategies were met with general success, but I lacked the foresight to begin cramming reasonably ahead of time nor the money to purchase aid from others, so I would inevitably have a come-to-Jesus moment the weekend before and choose to replace sleep with truly toxic levels of coffee until I could barely hold a pencil through the caffeine-induced jitters.
That was future-me's problem. Current-me felt very little regret forsaking my textbooks in favor of taking my sister to her school science fair. Since our dads were working, that left l me to go with her and feign interest in erupting baking soda volcanoes for an hour.
I wasted no time turning down my step dad Adrian's offer to borrow his car for this expedition. My exact words may have been, "Over my dead body," because there would be quite a few of those if I got behind the wheel. Enough things went wrong in my life without me operating heavy machinery, so as far as I was concerned I was looking out for the human race by choosing to abstain.
To Alexia's annoyance, that only left the subway.
Leigh agreed to meet us there. For better or for worse, she and my sister got along like a house on fire. A part of me wondered if she simply missed having a sibling of her own to annoy, or if their kinship resulted from only a child being capable of keeping up with her own incessant energy.
"I'm gonna have to be quick, since I have tutoring at 7:30," Leigh announced after greeting Alexia with a big hug and a dangerous spin through the air — dangerous for others, I ought to specify. It was like a windmill of destruction for innocent passerby's who veered too close. "Which gives us an hour so I can leave by 7."
"You could always skip," Alexia suggested chipperly, hands intertwining with Leigh's to tug her through the campus towards the gates and finally past the entry doors.
"You two really are siblings, alright," Leigh laughed. "So, which class is yours?"
"Aaaaaaaaaall the way over here," Alexia replied, her voice growing faint the further she dragged Leigh down the bland halls all the way to classroom number 113, denoting a room on the first floor out of a total of three floors, not including a roof generally restricted to students.
When I caught up, I walked in on Alexia sharing her full analysis of her classmates projects, the good, the bad, and the brutal. For someone who appeared so sweet and dimple cheeked, she was immensely cut throat in her criticisms.
Indiscreetly, she pointed to a gaudy display of lime green and muted brown. "The colors on that one are ugly."
"Lexi," I hissed through gritted teeth, "what did I tell you to do when you have nothing nice to say?"
"Oh!" Her little hand flew up to clamp down over her mouth, then she leaned forward, voice hushed. "You said to keep my voice down."
"What? No! I did not say that. I told you not to say anything at all, remember?" I circled up behind her and wrapped my arm around her throat, miming choking her out of consciousness. "Nothing. At. All."
CZYTASZ
Super•Villainous
Fantasy"I've been looking for you." There was an unexpected rasp to his voice, a hint of desperation. He stretched out one hand, as if to brush it across my cheek, or perhaps wrap it around my throat. Oddly enough, I didn't know which option frightened me...
