Starlight (Book 1)

35: In the Zone

"This is complete nonsense," Jax said, sliding his boots against the linoleum as he slowly inched towards the basement floor, our usual lunchtime spot. "Total utter bullshit. Absolutely unforgivable."

I peered at him. He could have been talking about several different things, all of which qualified as complete nonsense. "What now?"

"So many things," he replied, setting his backpack, which weighed about as heavy as a neutron star—on my knees while he searched through its contents. "So many."

"Uh, question?" I breathlessly asked. "Why is your bag so heavy?"

"That's the first reason. Homework," he grumbled. "Despite the fact that I just caught up. Well, besides English and Social Studies, but those are utterly useless classes."

I mockingly gasped for effect. "English is not a useless class!"

"It is," Jax replied. "Plus, my English teacher forgot my name. He called me Jaxon, for God's sake! I mean, seriously, I wasn't even gone for that long."

"Wait, really?" I pushed his bag off me with a grunt of effort. "Well, that's rude. What's the second reason?"

He folded his hands behind his head and exhaled a deep breath. "Remember? My powers."

I nearly leaned over to cover his mouth. "Say it a little louder, why don't you? Isn't Vivian coming? What if she hears you?"

"She's at yearbook. We're fine," he said. "And I really want to try using it, but Priya said I shouldn't... just in case I end up passing out again." He continued sliding downwards until his head rested on my shoulder. "But I won't. I'll be careful."

"Right, because careful is your middle name," I said. "Ah, now that you've mentioned it, we could try to practice somewhere? Besides... I need a place away from home to meet with Echo. I need to talk to her."

"Talk to her about what?" said Jax. "You talk to other heroes? As in, they're your friends?"

"Sure," I replied casually. "Mirage and Echo are really nice. I have to warn them—when I was still in the hideout, it seemed like Echo was next. And if she loses her powers... then what?"

"I don't know—" he started, but trailed off as Vivian appeared in the hallway. He sprung upwards quickly, like he was planning to make a run for it, (in a way that definitely wasn't suspicious at all) and said, (very, very casually) "I thought today was yearbook?"

Vivian smiled weakly. "Yeah, but I don't need to go this week, since I finished everything else last time. I'm not bothering you two, am I?"

"What? No way!" I said, before Jax could say anything idiotic. I still remembered what she'd said to me about feeling left out, and I didn't want to make it worse. "Come on, you can sit between us."

She inserted herself into the space. "What's up?"

"Nothing much," muttered Jax. He tugged a sheet of paper and a pencil from his bag and began to write. Though I doubted he was actually working on anything, I wasn't going to try to point it out.

"Did you ever hear back from the bakery?" Vivian inquired, earning a scoff from Jax.

"Explaining didn't change much," he said. "I'm still fired. I guess it doesn't matter." He tipped his head outwards to catch my eye. "I have a lot to do anyway, you know."

I nodded, knowing exactly what he was getting at. "No kidding."

Chuckling briefly, we fell into a comfortable chatter until the lunch bell sounded. Looking forward to getting the day over with so I could continue talking with Jax, I impatiently waved Vivian goodbye and took my usual seat at the front of the class.