by Lisa Yee
Wonder Woman was speechless, but Cheetah was not. “This was all your fault. Don’t think I’m going to forget this, Wonder Woman.”
That Cheetah clearly despised Wonder Woman wore on her. Couldn’t Cheetah see it had been an accident? She would never have hurt her on purpose.
Cheetah was hobbling around on crutches, her leg bandaged, telling anyone who would listen that it was Wonder Woman’s fault. Harley scored an exclusive interview with Cheetah. Cheetah told her, “I don’t know if I’ll ever walk again, thanks to Wonder Woman. Ouch! Ouch! Oh, ouch! I’m in such pain! Ouch.”
Though few took Cheetah’s constant complaints and accusations seriously, it didn’t stop them from passing along the gossip. After the accident, the online chatter ramped up tenfold. Everyone had an opinion about Wonder Woman, and for the first time, she was cast as a villain.
Poor Cheetah, one person wrote. She was a frontrunner for Super Hero High’s Super Triathlon team. Could it be that Wonder Woman pushed her off a cliff to make sure Cheetah wouldn’t make the team?
Rumors of a rivalry between Cheetah and Wonder Woman ran rampant. Wonder Woman tried to shake them off, and was actually glad she had after-school detention because no one was allowed to talk there. Plus it gave her time to finalize her design for Crazy Quilt’s class. The big costume presentation was coming up, and it helped take her mind off the gossip, which hurt more than the crush of rocks would have.
When at last the time came for Wonder Woman’s costume unveiling, the room was abuzz. Literally. Bumblebee’s costume had malfunctioned again, sending electrical stings all around the classroom, which heightened the excitement. This was a big deal. If done right, a super hero costume could become iconic. If done wrong, they could be featured on Harley’s new video segment Fashion, Function, or Failure?
Crazy Quilt had erected a catwalk down the middle of his loftlike classroom. Supers sat along the sides in folding chairs. Crazy Quilt himself occupied what looked like a lifeguard chair, cradling his clipboard as he critiqued each outfit.
“Wonder Woman! Let’s see what you’ve got!” Crazy Quilt called through a megaphone, even though a megaphone wasn’t necessary in the small room.
“Don’t mess up,” Golden Glider said to Wonder Woman with a playful grin, blowing snowflakes at her.
“Good luck, partner,” Star Sapphire whispered. “Do well for us!”
“Thank you!” Wonder Woman said brightly. Without Star Sapphire, her costume wouldn’t be half as good it was. Though it was Katana who’d helped Wonder Woman the most, it was Star Sapphire who’d insisted that Wonder Woman keep the long cape.
“Your stumble was purely from inexperience,” Star Sapphire said kindly. “Nothing beats the majestic flow of a regal Amazonian cape in action.” Her violet ring glowed as Golden Glider nodded in agreement.
The crowd gasped when Wonder Woman stepped onto the stage. Her costume looked fresh, but familiar at the same time. Simple…yet functional…smart…yet stylish. Katana had guided Wonder Woman, who had used organic materials recommended by Poison Ivy. The color palette was bold, as suggested by Harley, and the red, blue, and gold complemented each other. Hawkgirl had suggested a clasp on her belt to secure the Lasso of Truth when it was not in use.
Wonder Woman’s pants were bright royal blue with white stars lining the outside seams and a stylish belt of gold around the waist. Her bright red shirt, with capped sleeves, was topped with a golden collar that featured stacked double Ws flaring out like wings on her shoulders. High but flat red boots accented with gold piping and white wings completed her look. And much to Katana’s obvious dismay, Wonder Woman did choose to wear the cape that Star Sapphire had suggested. There was no denying that it brought an air of ceremony as well as spectacle to the princess’s costume, but Wonder Woman liked the addition.
Crazy Quilt pressed the button on a vintage boom box, and disco music began to play as Wonder Woman stepped up her stride. Her friends cheered. Suddenly, a trio of barrels was shot at her. She raised her bracelets and deflected them. As the barrels bounced off the walls, the ceiling opened and a vat of orange Jell-O tilted, poised to splash its contents on Wonder Woman. She leapt out of the way, nearly tripping on one of the barrels. It wasn’t just a catwalk—it was an obstacle course!
“We want to test fashion and function,” Crazy Quilt said from his lifeguard chair. His eyes sparkled with glee. “Keep going, Wonder Woman. Let’s see what you and your costume are made of!”
Thrilled, Wonder Woman continued down the runway, batting away rubber bullets with her bracelets, lassoing oncoming drones, jumping over hungry reptiles. Suddenly, the Save the Day alarm went off. This time, Wonder Woman didn’t hesitate. She called to Bumblebee, Hawkgirl, and Katana. “Let’s go!”
The foursome rushed to the top of the administrative building, where the alert was coming from, and stopped cold. Looking up, they saw an incredible scene. A trio of teachers wearing matching sweatshirts had captured Principal Waller and locked her—and her desk—in a sealed glass jail that was perched precariously on the ledge of the roof. If not for the tiny air holes, The Wall would not have been able to breathe for long.
“What does the ‘EV’ on their sweatshirts mean?” Wonder Woman asked Hawkgirl as they flew over to get a better view. Wonder Woman’s long cape was giving her an aerodynamic edge, and she could feel the extra surge of power.
“Evil Villain,” Hawkgirl explained. “Teachers wear EV sweatshirts during the drills when they’re playing bad guys. Although Waller always reminds us that real villains aren’t always that easy to spot.”
“I’m getting bored in here, Supers,” Principal Waller bellowed as she shuffled paperwork at her desk. She looked at her watch. “Someone better get me out of here fast, or everyone is in trouble!”
The glass jail seemed to be magically getting smaller and smaller—or else Principal Waller was getting bigger. Soon she would be squished!
Katana was scaling the building. Lagging behind her was Cheetah with her injured leg.
“Why don’t you just take the elevator,” Green Lantern asked as he flew past them.
The flyers hovered, looking for a way to break Principal Waller out. A few Supers, like Miss Martian, stayed on the ground, not knowing what to do. In the distance, a gray mass had enveloped the clouds and was threatening to storm over Super Hero High.
Harley caught it all on video.
Cheetah and Katana were close to the top of the building.
“I can get Waller out,” Poison Ivy said from below. Only Wonder Woman heard her. She flew back down.
“How?” she asked.
“This,” Poison Ivy said, holding out her hand. A small seed rested in her palm. “I just need to get it into the box.”
Wonder Woman shouted, “Bumblebee, I have a job for you!”
“What’s up?” Bumblebee asked.
“Fly with me and I’ll fill you in,” Wonder Woman said. “Thanks, Ivy!”
Bumblebee made herself small and entered the glass jail through one of the air holes.
“Oh, hello,” Principal Waller said, looking nonplussed. The glass ceiling was practically touching the top of her head.
By then Katana and Cheetah had made it to the roof and were arguing over what to do. Katana was trying to break the glass, and Cheetah was looking for a hidden door.
“Bumblebee, do your thing!” Wonder Woman yelled. She flew higher to get a better view. A gust of wind swirled the cape around and suddenly Wonder Woman was flying backward. As she tried to adjust, Wonder Woman got more tangled up in the material. Instead of rescuing Principal Waller, Wonder Woman worried that someone might have to rescue her. She began to plummet….
The ground came rushing up so fast, Wonder Woman had less than a nanosecond to react. The clasp around her neck that attached the cape to her costume was jammed! In one yank, she ripped it off, and she screeched to a halt inches before she would have slammed into the hard concrete walkway.
As the cape landed
on top of Star Sapphire, the other students cheered Wonder Woman’s close call. However, this did not help The Wall. She was still stuck in her glass jail, only now she had company. Bumblebee grew to her full size and smiled at Waller. But her smile was met with a glare.
“Excuse me,” Principal Waller called down wearily. “But this is no time to play with your cape! Will someone please save the day?”
Wonder Woman rose into the air, higher and faster now without the weight of the unwieldy cape. “Do it now, Bumblebee,” she said, pushing the seed through an air hole to her friend. “Get Principal Waller in the corner with you, throw the seed, stand back, and I’ll handle the rest!”
Everyone applauded when Bumblebee hurled the seed against the ground, and it immediately grew into a tree so big and strong that it broke through the glass, shattering it. As Waller began to fall, Wonder Woman scooped her up. Several of the other flyers were able to grab her desk and collect her papers as they rained over the school.
If the Supers thought it was over, they were wrong. The gray mass swelled, and lightning began to shoot out of the storm clouds. Wonder Woman looked around. Hawkgirl and Beast Boy—who was in bat form—were flying back to school, just ahead of the mass. Supers began to scatter.
“I got this,” someone said.
Wonder Woman turned to see Golden Glider digging her skates into the icy ground that had materialized around her. With all her might, she conjured up her powers and sent a blast of subzero arctic air into the center of the gray cloud, which looked to be several city blocks wide. Almost instantly, it began to freeze and fall. But before it could cause damage, Katana stepped up and threw her sword, shattering the ice so hard, it turned into hail!
The hail had melted and was just a memory by the time everyone filed into the auditorium.
“A special thank-you to Professor Ivo’s Cybernetic Wildstorm Cloud, the icing on today’s Save the Day drill,” Principal Waller said as Golden Glider and Katana high-fived. “And more importantly,” she continued, “well done, Supers, for your teamwork. Well done!”
When the Supers returned to their classes, Crazy Quilt looked up from the fashion magazine he was perusing. It was dated September 1976.
“Ah, you’re all back at last,” he declared. “Wonder Woman, I have never seen anything like that!”
“The Save the Day rescue?” she asked.
“No, no, no,” he said, motioning to a computer where Harley’s video had been live streaming. “I’ve never seen someone design a costume in midair. It was a bold move! When you tossed aside that hideous cape, it was an inspired moment of fashion meeting function. Clap, clap!” he called out. “Everyone, let’s clap for Wonder Woman and her A-plus-plus in costume design!”
Not everyone clapped.
When Wonder Woman got back to her dorm room, Harley was logging the number of views on her Save the Day video.
“We’ve got a huge following,” she exclaimed. “The WWWs are in full force right now!”
Wonder Woman wasn’t looking at the computer. Instead, she focused on the cream-colored envelope on her pillow. Inside was another note. This time it read Beware and be gone. This is not a joke, even if you are.
“Where are you going?” Harley asked as Wonder Woman headed out the door.
“To see some friends,” she said.
The weekly Metropolis Farmers Market had taken over most of Centennial Park. Colorful tents were crammed with tables heavy with fresh fruits and vegetables, breads and brownies, sacks of grains, and bags of nuts. Poison Ivy looked lonesome sitting at a table with a handmade sign that read Super Delicious Poison Apples! Sadly, no one was buying them.
Wonder Woman purchased three apples—she knew that they were only named after Poison Ivy, not really poisonous—and headed to the Buttery Bakery Homemade Pie booth.
“I’d like one,” she said, pointing at a cherry pie with a golden brown lattice crust.
“One slice of pie coming up!” the woman said. Her cheeks were as ruddy as the cherries.
“No, the whole pie, please,” Wonder Woman said. “And no need to wrap it up. I’ll eat it now.”
“That’s my girl,” the woman said, smiling.
Wonder Woman smiled back and didn’t correct her. She wasn’t that lady’s girl. Her mom lived on Paradise Island. Wonder Woman took a photo of the pie for her mother.
Captain Cold and his cronies from CAD Academy walked past, making piggy noises.
“What?” Wonder Woman asked. The pie was starting to disappear fast. “I don’t get it.”
“You’re eating a whole pie,” Heat Wave pointed out.
“Yes!” Wonder Woman agreed. “And it’s delish!”
When Wonder Woman spotted Lois and Hawkgirl weaving through the crowd, she ran up and handed over the latest note. Lois read it first, then handed her Mandy’s address.
“You don’t stand a chance,” Captain Cold said as the boys took their time strolling past.
“Excuse me?” Wonder Woman answered. Did he know something about Mandy?
“The Super Triathlon. Super Hero High does not stand a chance,” he repeated. “Everyone knows that CAD Academy will come home with the title, just like we did the last time.”
“Yeah! We got a guaranteed win!” Ratcatcher bragged before Captain Cold shut him down with a frosty look.
“Live evil!” the CAD Academy boys kept chanting as they retreated. “Live evil!” Even after they were gone, everyone could hear them.
“So glad they’re out of here,” Lois said. “Wondy, that’s the address you asked for. What are you going to do with it?”
“I’m going to go see Mandy,” she said. “And apologize.”
“For what?” Hawkgirl asked. “You didn’t do anything wrong. For all we know, this Mandy person could be dangerous!”
“If she is, I want to find out,” Wonder Woman said. “And if she isn’t, well, I want to find out why she left Super Hero High.”
“I’m not so sure you should just show up at her house…,” Lois said, thinking out loud.
“But if Mandy knows she’s coming, and she’s the guilty party, it could be dangerous for Wondy,” Hawkgirl reasoned.
“What are you going to do?” Lois asked.
“I’ll know when I get there,” Wonder Woman said. She returned to the Buttery Bakery booth. “May I have another pie?” she asked.
“Sure thing!” the lady said. “You want this one for here or to go?”
“To go, please,” Wonder Woman said, explaining, “There’s someplace I need to be.”
From the clouds, Wonder Woman watched her friends and fellow students milling about, munching on roasted corn on the cob and causing general mischief and mayhem. She could not believe how far removed Metropolis was from Paradise Island’s tropical seas, gently swaying palm trees, and Greek palaces. Still, Wonder Woman loved both places fiercely and could not imagine being without either one. The mere thought of ever having to leave Super Hero High weighed heavily on her.
Later, as Wonder Woman consulted a map and flew toward a remote area of Metropolis called Hobb’s Bay, she saw a huge suspension bridge stretched across a calm blue sea. Curious seagulls flew alongside her before veering off to places unknown. Wonder Woman continued over a steep, crooked road and then hovered over a purple Victorian house with pink trim and gingerbread details on the eaves. There was a yellow bicycle with a flowered basket on the porch. Music wafted from one of the open upstairs windows.
Wonder Woman had never heard anything so beautiful in her life. It was as if the music were calling out to her, pulling her toward it, touching her heart. So lovely were the sounds that she began to weep with joy. Who was playing this powerful music?
Wonder Woman flew to the open window and peered inside. A girl with dark cropped hair stood with her eyes closed, playing a violin. She looked as though she were in another world. When the music stopped, her eyes fluttered open. The girl looked directly at Wonder Woman and gasped.
“Oh, hi!
” Wonder Woman said, waving. “That was beautiful. I’m Wonder Woman.”
“I know who you are,” the girl said, not hiding the surprise on her face. “I’ve been watching you on HQTV.”
Wonder Woman shivered slightly. Mandy Bowin had been watching her?
“Why are you here?” the violinist asked. “Is that pie for me? I love pie.”
Wonder Woman had forgotten that she was carrying the cherry pie from Buttery Bakery. “Well, yes. Then this pie is for you,” she said. “I just stopped by to talk to you. You are Mandy Bowin, correct?”
The girl nodded. She looked younger than most of the kids at Super Hero High. Her face was friendly and open, her smile bright. Mandy did not look like the sort of person who would get expelled from anywhere.
“Would you like to come in?” Mandy asked. She didn’t seem surprised that Wonder Woman wanted to talk to her.
“Yes, thank you,” Wonder Woman said, climbing through the window.
“I’ll get some plates for the pie,” Mandy told her, setting her violin down. “Make yourself at home.”
Wonder Woman put her lasso on the floor next to the bed, as she always did at home and in the dorm. She placed the pie on the desk and looked around. On the walls were posters of famous musicians. The shelves were crammed with music awards. Nothing seemed suspicious. On the desk was a photo of Mandy with a serious-looking man gripping a fiddle. They had the same brown eyes.
When Mandy returned, she tripped on the Lasso of Truth. Wonder Woman caught the plates and forks, but the milk flew into the air, spilling on Mandy’s violin. As she lay tangled in the Lasso of Truth, Wonder Woman asked, “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” Mandy said honestly. She had no choice. “Though it was difficult leaving Super Hero High. I’m glad Principal Waller was so great about letting me leave.”
Letting her leave?
“So you weren’t expelled?” Wonder Woman asked Mandy as she untangled her.