Super Powereds: Year 3

by Drew Hayes

  “I appreciate what you’re saying. But at the end of the day, I do have to start carrying more of this weight. Sooner or later, I’ll graduate, and if it’s as a you-know-what, then I have to able to take care of myself. I can’t keep relying on everyone else.”

  Nick’s smack to the back of Vince’s head was more distracting than painful, which was why the ball tumbled into the abyss unstopped by either of the unmoving bumpers.

  “See, this is why you shouldn’t get all up in your head: you start thinking idiotic shit like that,” Nick said. “What do you think teams are for? Hell, what do you think your friends are for? I was as out of this world as out could be, and you jackasses still broke into my mind and saved me, even knowing it could cost you just as much as I’d lost. Do you think those people wouldn’t do the same for you? That I wouldn’t? Shit, Vince, I know we tease, but there’s no way you’re actually so stupid that you really think a thing like graduation will mean we stop looking after one another.”

  “I, um, I guess . . .” Vince bit his lip, unsure of what to say. When Nick laid it out like that, his fears seemed flat-out ridiculous.

  “Everyone gets scared of being left alone,” Nick told him. “But of all of us, you’re the one who should fear it the least. You’ve got a knack for bringing us together. Though, whether that makes you or us the bigger weirdos, I have no idea.”

  “Thanks, Nick.”

  “Thank me by scooting over.” Nick tapped the coin still resting on the glass. “In case you forgot, it is now officially my turn.”

  204.

  Asprin Beach was a relatively small coastal area forty-five minutes away from Lander, with peaceful shops and a charming ambiance. At least, it was that way most of the year. Come spring break, hordes of college students from various universities made it the de facto beach for day trips. As such, it was quickly filled with raucous youths, which resulted in noise, pollution, and a juicy boost to their economy, since the prices on everything the shops sold were temporarily tripled.

  By the time the Melbrook group and friends arrived (which occurred after Chad had conquered every skill-based game in the arcade and had won a ludicrous amount of tickets), the beach was already quickly filling up. They had to scramble to find places to park, then rush out to the beach and territorially stake down a spot. Only after towels had been laid out, and a pair of coolers (one brought by Nick, and the other by Angela) deposited did they begin heading to the changing rooms in shifts, leaving the bulk of the group to guard their carefully carved out patch of beach.

  Camille, Alice, and Mary were sent off in a single group, since Angela had evidently worn her swimsuit under her regular clothes and proceeded to strip out of them the moment they were on the sand. This had led to small panic attacks for the more bashful members of the group, though neither Chad, nor Shane seemed particularly surprised at her spectacle.

  “Be honest,” Alice said, as she adjusted her top, trying to unwind the rear strap so it wouldn’t dig into her spine. “Who else thought Angela was about to just strip down to the buff, right there, in front of everyone?”

  “It . . . it did seem like a strong possibility,” Camille admitted. She was having a bit of swimsuit trouble of her own, as the one she’d bought for last year’s beach trip no longer seemed to fit as comfortably. Another year of training had packed on a bit more muscle to her slender frame, plus, unless she was mistaken, she might have actually grown a half-inch or two.

  “Obviously, I knew she was just trying to get a rise out of us,” Mary said. “But her commitment to the act was commendable. Credit where it’s due, she doesn’t do anything half-way when she wants attention. Unlike two dear friends who are sitting around here primping, making small talk, and wondering what the men they’re interested in will think of their ensembles.” For her part, Mary wore the same one-piece swimsuit she’d had for years. It still fit, since her body had long ago given up on trying to reach any greater heights, and she was comfortable in it. The outfit would hardly turn heads, but after over two years with Hershel, she knew his neck would swivel for her regardless.

  “I certainly have no idea what you’re talking about.” Alice finished untwisting her rear strap and grabbed the bag with her regular clothes stuffed inside. The amount of huff in her voice didn’t fool anyone, but they weren’t really the ones she was trying to lie to in the first place. Alice knew how she felt; it was just troublesome to find a way to move things forward.

  “Truthfully, I don’t even know if Vince notices stuff like this.” Camille gestured down to her suit with a half-hearted wave. “But since Violet threw out my old ones last year, this was pretty much all I had to go to the beach in.”

  “How are things going with that, anyway?” Alice asked. She’d been burning with curiosity ever since Camille and Vince started spending more time together, but he was so dense, and she so shy, that there never seemed a good way to pry into their relationship.

  “Good. Very slowly, but good,” Camille said. “We both like each other, that’s out in the open at least, but I think we’re getting stuck in this light-flirting phase. I don’t know if he’s unsure of what to do next, or if he just really likes to take his time, and to be honest, I have no idea of how to push things myself.” She glanced at Mary, who already knew what her fellow short-statured young woman was secretly hoping for.

  “I can’t tell you what he’s thinking,” Mary replied to the unasked request. “Good or bad, it’s something you have to find out from Vince. I have a very firm policy of thought secrecy.”

  “Sort of assumed you’d say that.” Camille let out a defeated sigh, and then began stuffing her own clothes into her beach bag. She hadn’t really expected Mary to spill, but there hadn’t been any harm in hoping.

  “I will tell you one thing though: Vince doesn’t pay much attention to most girls in their swim suits, but he’s looking forward to seeing you in yours again.” Mary gave her friend a long smile as Camille began to blush. The red glow spread all the way down to her neck, though the pleased look on her face spoke to this not being bad news as far as she was concerned.

  “Lucky you,” Alice chimed in. “I don’t know that Nick has ever seen a girl in a bikini he wouldn’t ogle.”

  “I could say the same for Roy,” Mary pointed out.

  “Doesn’t count. He’s not the one you’re dating,” Alice countered.

  “And neither are you and Nick,” Mary said.

  Alice opened her mouth, struggling to think of a rebuttal, but her own denial of the situation only moments prior had already come back to bite her in the ass. At last, she decided a change of subject was her best possible recourse. “Does anyone else find it strange to be sitting around, talking about boys like we don’t have much bigger shit already on our plates? It’s surreal.”

  “I was more thinking it was a symptom of our situation,” Camille said. “Chad did want to do a normal day, after all. This feels like the sort of stuff girls who don’t get punched across underground bunkers or have their hair set on fire get to worry about.”

  “It’s rather nice, actually.” Mary glanced out the door of the small changing hut, out toward the gently lapping waves of the sea. “I could get used to only having mundane problems to deal with.”

  “Maybe you could, but we both know Melbrook would fall apart in two days without our den mother to hold us together.” Alice gave a side-hug with her long arms, pulling her friend in close and squeezing tightly. It was because of this angle that she missed the brief look of worry that flickered across Mary’s face. By the time the embrace ended, the look was gone, and it was time to head back to the beach and rejoin their friends.

  205.

  Superpowers, at least the superpowers that most of the group who visited the beach possessed, did nothing to prevent sunburn. That required either damage resistance or something similar to circumvent. The majority of the students were fine as they packed up their bags and headed toward the Asprin Beach Boardwalk, but Alice, who had
wanted to get a little color into her naturally pale skin, could already feel a familiar hot glow in her shoulders and on her nose. By the time they actually arrived at the park, her skin was turning pink on its way to what would certainly be a light red and eventually painful peeling.

  “Someone looks extra hot today,” Nick remarked, noting how Alice was already wincing whenever the straps of her tank top rubbed on her soon-to-be-raw shoulders. The sun beat down overhead as they stood on the wooden planks that ran along the midway. Nearby, some simple carnival rides spun about—nothing exceptional by Nick’s reckoning, but enough that Vince and Hershel already seemed visibly excited.

  “Ha. Ha. Unless you have aloe on you, please refrain from mocking my pain.” Alice also looked at the rides, though with a wistful expression instead of an analytical one. This was the part of the day she’d been most looking forward to, something she was never able to do when she was a Powered.

  Nick patted the pockets of his cargo shorts, then ran his hands along the sides of his shirt for good measure. “Nope, no aloe whatsoever. Ah, but what’s this back here?” He reached over and put his hand behind Alice’s ear. Before she could react, he snapped his fingers and pulled his hand back around, holding a shiny quarter before her. “No aloe, but I did find a solution.”

  “You’re going to help my sunburn with a quarter?”

  “Huh? No, that’s dumb.” Nick turned toward the bulk of the group, who were cobbling together a half-baked plan of attack for all the attractions they wanted to squeeze in. “Hey, Camille, can you come here for a second?”

  Camille jogged over, a slightly confused expression on her face as she approached.

  “I think you two should go take some candids in that photo booth over there, on me,” he said. Nick pressed the quarter into Camille’s hand, then held it in his own for a few seconds. “She’s a bit shy about her sunburn, though, so anything you can do to help cover that up will be greatly appreciated.”

  It only took a moment for understanding to twinkle in Camille’s eyes, and as she nodded, Nick released her hand. As she dragged Alice off toward the photo booth, which was nice and private, Nick found himself thankful that there were at least a few people in the group who grasped the concept of innuendo. If everyone was as straightforward as Vince or as unpredictable as Alice, he’d never be able to do any work on the sly.

  A gust of sea wind blew over from the ocean, and Nick wiped some sand from the sunglasses that the day’s activities had actually called for. Out of place as he sometimes felt around his friends, on days like this one, he could almost forget about the hidden agendas, secrets, and danger that plagued them. Almost, but of course, never entirely. As Nick’s eyes roamed the boardwalk, he kept a special eye out for any signs of Nathaniel or his people preparing another attack. Going in for another blow so soon after the last wasn’t usually Nathaniel’s style, but the orange-eyed bastard had clearly been taking pages from another playbook. Nick would be damned if he let his friends get caught that off guard again.

  “All things considered, I think they came out pretty nicely.” Alice’s voice reached him, and Nick realized he’d let himself get lost in scanning the crowd. He quickly turned around to find her and Camille heading back over to him, a large rectangle of low-quality photos clutched in her hand. The pink from her nose and shoulders had vanished, and if Camille ever needed to give someone the light burn of skin damage, she now had a bit more in her arsenal.

  Alice could scarcely hide her joy at being suddenly pain free, and Nick had to work to keep from openly appreciating how beautiful she was when she let herself be unabashedly cheerful. Alice had always been good-looking, but as she grew into adulthood and gained a solid amount of confidence, she had become absolutely stunning. He was grateful for the sunglasses, because it meant he could look at her a little more without tipping his hand.

  “Come on, Camille and I talked while we were in there, and we decided to do the roller coaster first.” Alice grabbed Nick by the arm and began pulling him down the boardwalk.

  “You mean that wooden, rickety thing that looks like it’s two days away from being condemned?”

  “Exactly. We want to hit it before anyone actually has a chance to tear it down.” Alice tugged him along, keeping her grip on his arm firm and forceful. “Besides, you and I need to have a chat, anyway.”

  “Is it about the proper way to treat another person’s arm? Because I can feel mine coming out of its socket.”

  “No, it’s about how we settle our bet.” Alice kept moving forward, purposely facing away from Nick as she talked. Not the most courageous way to breach the subject neither of them had mentioned since the night of the Cowgirl Rodeo, but she was still getting it done. Nick had to give her credit for that.

  “Since it was interrupted, I think we have to call it a draw,” Nick said. “There’s no way to know how it would have gone down.”

  “Maybe I’m not okay with that.” Alice slowed her pace, and loosened her grip on Nick’s arm. “No, I’m definitely not okay with that.” She turned around to face him, meeting his sunglass-shielded eyes with her bright green ones. “I’m tired of the dancing, and the excuses, and the cute reasoning. Even Vince and Camille can admit they like each other, and I refuse to be more emotionally stunted than those two. I like you, Nick. God only knows why, but I do. If you like me, then take me out on a damn date already. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it can’t be bullshit either. Are you in or not?”

  “God only knows why you like me?” Nick said, studying her face carefully.

  “I don’t know; I’d just assume omnipotence means figuring out the impossible stuff too, but maybe I’m giving him too much credit.” The pink in her nose had been replaced by a bit of red in her cheeks, and yet Alice refused to yield even as Nick attempted to turn things into humor. Faced with a situation where he couldn’t use his charm of obfuscation, Nick was only left with the most desperate of tactics in his arsenal: the truth.

  “Alice, I do have feelings for you, but you understand that my world is complicated, right? Nathaniel is only a small piece of what I come from.”

  “Well, I kicked the shit out of him pretty easily; I imagine I can handle the rest, too.”

  “I mean—”

  “I know what you mean, but we’re not getting married here, just seeing if things can actually work when we stop being such chickenshits and put in a little effort,” Alice said. “Besides, you may have the most colorful past, but at this point, all of our worlds are pretty fucked up. A few more issues on the pile aren’t going to make or break me.”

  “If that’s really how you feel . . .” Nick paused, an inner debate raging within. He should keep her at a distance, he should minimize how deeply he was connected with her, he should be separate and safe. All of that was what Ms. Pips had taught him, had trained into him. But somewhere in the recesses of his mind, he could hear Gerry’s voice, and that one was telling him to quit being such a coward and go for it. Nick didn’t know which voice was actually right, but he certainly knew which one he wanted to listen to.

  “Then, I guess we need to start bickering about where I’ll be taking you. Heaven forbid, I should choose an establishment not up to the princess’s standards, after all.”

  206.

  Though their afternoon at the boardwalk amusement park was filled with screams, for once, none of them were from genuine terror or rage. The screams that rose up from Asprin Beach that day were of excitement, cheer, and the momentary adrenaline rush that a steep dive on a roller coaster can miraculously conjure. By the time they had ridden their fill, Vince was on the verge of being sick, and Alice’s thick hair had been so swept and tangled by the wind that she had conceded defeat and bound it all into a ponytail.

  After a drive that was thankfully long enough for Vince to settle his stomach, the group arrived at a small restaurant that specialized in heartily portioned Italian meals. The students were seated around a large wooden table topped with a massive plastic tab
lecloth, and before the waiter even asked for their drink orders, he dropped off three baskets of steaming bread, which many of the hungry young people fell upon like locusts.

  “Bread before the order; now that shit is classy.” Angela held up a hand to stop the spray of crumbs that were unstoppably escaping her mouth as she spoke. “Find this place online?”

  “No.” Chad hesitated for a moment, a rare event that Angela mentally filed away. “My mother and I had been up to visit Lander in the past. This was one of the restaurants we enjoyed stopping at.”

  “Well, if the food is as good as the bread, I’m going to text your mom and tell her she picks good spots.” Angela grinned as she watched Chad’s eyes widen in a moment of uncontrolled panic, only to shift back to normal as he realized she was screwing with him. It had taken a long while to get used to reading the carefully controlled blond Super, but after years of practice, she’d finally gotten something of a feel for it. Unless she caught him by surprise, the biggest tell that Chad had was in what he didn’t say; the looks he didn’t give, and the words he never let past his lips, those were the things he was afraid of, things that would allow emotion to override his careful system of mental control.

  “Your jests are not as funny as you seem to believe.” Chad met her eyes, but she was pretty sure she saw a twinkle of humor in his stoic expression.

  “Guess I’m just pretty enough to get away with them all, then.” Angela reached over and grabbed another roll, noting that a different waiter was already in route with more baskets. She liked this place. “So, how was your Pinocchio day? Live up to all your expectations?”

  “I don’t . . . ah, Pinocchio wanted to be a real boy. That one was actually a bit clever,” Chad said. He gave Angela a genuine smile, one of the rare few that were a result of sentiment rather than a commanding of his muscles. Those, for some reason, she’d always been able to tell apart. “It was quite fun. I can’t say I completely understand the appeal of all of these activities; however, it was interesting to experience them. I don’t regret the choices I made on how I spent my youth, but it is fascinating to see things from the other side.”