by C. C. Ekeke
“Ms. Bauer!” Veronica called after her. “Please, help me!”
Quinn quickened her pace. “Don’t contact me again,” she ordered over her shoulder. Quinn felt sick to her stomach falling for this ambush.
Veronica kept pace. “I wasn’t lying about having new information about Titan’s murder!”
“It’s not my job to glamourize your husband’s crime, Ms. Carson.” Quinn kept walking.
“I can’t afford a good lawyer. The mediocre ones won’t take my case,” Veronica pleaded. “I can prove my husband’s innocence!”
That stopped Quinn, along with the attention this crazy woman was drawing. She turned, staring into Veronica’s desperate eyes. “I’m very sorry for what happened to you. But the history between Lord Borealis and Titan—”
“They'd been friends five years.” Desperation aside, Veronica had the common sense to approach and lower her voice around bystanders. “Titan vouched for Carmine’s rehabilitation when nobody else would. They had met for lunch the day before…Titan’s murder.” She stated those last words with great sorrow, as if mourning a loved one. “Carmine was in good spirits afterward. Does that sound like someone who’d murder their friend?”
Quinn shrugged, unmoved. “Like when Lord Borealis magnetically wrapped a girder from the Golden Gate Bridge around Titan and tried drowning him in 1995? Or when he swapped minds with Titan and attacked other superheroes to damage his reputation in 2001? The list goes on and on.” Her Vanguard research was paying off. When Veronica had no rebuttal, Quinn shook her head. “Five years of friendship can’t erase two decades of hatred, Ms. Carson. When someone shows you who they really are, believe them the first time.” Quinn went to leave again.
“Speak to Carmine yourself,” Veronica hissed. “He’ll tell you what happened the night Titan died.”
Quinn couldn’t believe her ears. “He’s in a supermax prison. How—”
“I’m his wife,” Veronica replied curtly. “You can visit tomorrow. My husband is guilty of many monstrous crimes. Not killing Titan.” She gripped Quinn’s shoulders, a drowning woman desperate for a life raft. Quinn immediately felt unsettled…and awful.
“If you still think he’s guilty,” Veronica said, “then at least you’ve heard Carmine’s story.”
Chapter 22
“You proved me wrong, Bogota.”
Hugo sat in the front passenger seat of Mom’s Forerunner, not believing her words. “I’m sorry.” He poked at his ears. “But did you actually admit fault?”
AJ guffawed in the seats behind Hugo.
Mom scowled. “You were right,” she repeated, which Hugo enjoyed. “Your powers are under control. You haven’t broken anything at home in over two weeks. You’ve earned this beach day.”
Hugo smiled, looking out the open car window. Cool, crisp sea breezes tickled his skin. He tasted ocean brine even with the beach a few miles away. “We’ve earned it.”
The golden mid-morning sun cascaded down as the Malaulos cruised the PCH to Morro Bay. The skies were a cloudless, vivid blue even through Hugo’s sunglasses. He went shirtless for today’s trip, wearing boardshorts and flip-flops. AJ wore swim trunks and a “Remember the Titan” shirt featuring the superhero taking flight. Mom wore a tank top and summer skirt, her thick hair wild and disheveled by the wind. For the first time in months, Hugo felt his family moving forward despite Dad’s absence. Thanks to his daily training, he’d gained enough control over his powers to use them effectively and not endanger his family. Simon had returned from Seoul last week, and they finalized a superhero costume with items purchased at five different clothing outlets.
Plus, school started in two days. I’ll see Brie again. “Thanks for today, Mom,” Hugo stated. “It’s nice to not be a hermit anymore.”
Mom squeezed his hand and smiled. “Of course, Bogota.”
One negative lingering in Hugo’s mind was the girl who’d seen him save Jordana. He hadn’t even told Simon and didn't plan to. Fear of exposure had haunted Hugo days afterward. But San Miguel PD nor OSA hadn’t busted open their door. Meaning either Cardinal hat girl said nothing or nobody she’d told believed her. To be safe, Hugo stayed the hell away from Old Town Paso.
Brie had mentioned Jordana’s incident a few days ago, clueless of his involvement. They talked on the phone several times a week and frequently texted. Hugo liked all Brie’s Snapchat and Instagram posts, typically kissy-faced selfies with her squad while out around town, Los Angeles or San Francisco.
Regrettably, Brie’s eagerness to see him cooled as the new school year grew closer. She expected short, skinny-fat Hugo.
Wait till she sees the new me. Hugo admired himself in the rearview mirror. He looked chiseled and rock-solid like Titan, but leaner. His new haircut had grown out a little but remained spiky and tousled even without product. One look at him and Brie would drop Baz like a hot mic.
Hugo turned to Mom as she weaved through traffic. “My powers aren’t where they need to be,” he admitted.
Her expression was uncomprehending. “What do you mean?”
Hugo shrugged. “I’m getting stronger and faster every day, but still way below Titan’s levels. I can leap high but can't fly or float. And I don’t know how to shoot heat blasts from my fingers.”
Mom absorbed his concerns, frowning. “I understand wanting to fly. But why are you trying to shoot lasers from your fingers?” She blinked in bewilderment. “Can’t believe I asked my son that.”
Hugo stiffened. He’d forgotten to make an excuse that covered his intent to be a superhero.
AJ chimed in. “Better that you learn how to use them so they don’t manifest randomly.”
Hugo turned to his brother. “Manifest. Nice word.” He then mouthed “Thanks” and turned back to Mom. “Yeah, getting a case of laser fingers during biology next year might raise questions.”
Mom seemed to accept this. “With enough practice, your powers will mature before you know it.”
“There’s also my hearing,” Hugo continued. “I can lower and raise the volume. But when it’s too loud, I can’t pinpoint different sounds.” This bothered him more than flight or laser fingers.
Mom stared ahead a long moment before answering. “Let’s try something.” She gestured at the car’s radio. “Listen for my voice while the radio's on full blast.”
Hugo cringed at the thought of music pounding his eardrums. “Not sure that will work.”
“Try before rejecting it.”
Hugo scowled but saw no other choices. “Fine.”
“AJ, cover your ears.” Mom turned to Hugo. “Look at me when you hear my voice. Ready?”
He nodded. Anxiety curdled in his stomach as he dialed his hearing to hypersensitive levels. Immediately, Hugo heard the car’s tires rolling against asphalt, other cars speeding, Mom and AJ's thrumming heartbeats.
Mom typed a few buttons to select the station and twisted the volume to maximum.
Ear-bursting death metal quaked Hugo’s very bones in their intensity. In the rearview, AJ winced with his ears covered. For the first time in months Hugo envied his little brother. Fighting the overwhelming urge to cover both ears, he clenched his jaw and searched for Mom’s voice. But walls of deafening death metal drowned out the ability to even think.
Hugo shook his throbbing head as thunderous music crashed into him. Not...working, he decided…until finally catching a blip in the musical tsunami.
Mom’s voice, so faint Hugo couldn’t make out the words. He focused on her voice, straining through hammering noise. “Bogota,” she whispered. “It’s Mom. Can you hear me?”
Hugo straightened in his seat. Suddenly, the booming music faded. He turned to see Mom’s lips repeating her message. “Bogota. It’s Mom. Can you hear me?”
Hugo smiled victoriously. I hear you. He tapped her shoulder. Smiling, she turned off the music.
“Thank God!” AJ exclaimed, lowering his hands.
Mom ignored him. “You heard me?”
; Hugo nodded. “Everything else faded except you.” This new level of hearing control would help a lot with superheroing. He blinked in surprise. “Thanks, Mom.”
Mom rubbed his arm lovingly. “Keep practicing until it’s like a reflex. See what happens when you listen to me, Bogota?” She beamed at her own wisecrack. “Get it? Listen to me?”
Hugo groaned. “Really wish I didn’t, Mom.” In the rearview mirror, AJ’s disgust made him laugh.
Once they arrived and parked at Morro Bay, Hugo detected hushed and familiar voices nearby. He turned and grinned.
Their neighbor Ms. Ortiz approached with daughter Zelda. Both looked stunned seeing the Malaulos. The eleven-year-old wore a black one-piece and a towel around her waist, curly hair damp with ocean water. Ms. Ortiz wore massive blue-tinted sunglasses, her thick blonde swathes tied in a long braid under a wide-brim straw hat. Until today, Hugo had never noticed Ms. Ortiz’s heartbreaking long legs under her shapeless, hippy-dippy beach dresses. Hypersensitivity again revealed its perks. She'd stood taller than him before. Now Hugo looked down on Ms. Ortiz.
“Betty!” Hugo’s mother ran over to their neighbor. “How are you?”
Ms. Ortiz returned Mom’s hug. “Lina. AJ. Hello!” She studied Hugo with suspicious eyes.
“Hi, Zelda,” AJ greeted warmly.
“Hey…” Zelda replied absentmindedly, also fixated on Hugo.
After exchanging quick pleasantries, Ms. Ortiz faced Hugo directly. “Is this why we’ve rarely seen you this summer?” she mused in lively airy-fairy tines. “A new boyfriend?”
Mom gagged. AJ guffawed like an asshole.
Hugo’s stomach lurched, but he managed to smile. “Ms. Ortiz. It’s Hugo.”
Ms. Ortiz did an overdramatic triple-take, eyes bulging behind her ridiculous sunglasses. “What the…Hugo? Oh…my…god! Get OUT!” She hugged him, smelling of ocean and jasmine. “Hugo…Oh my God, no waaaaay! How the…OW my GAWD! Stop IT!” Ms. Ortiz jerked back, hands over her stunned mouth. Her brain seemed to have short-circuited. “When the…OhmiGAWD shut UP! Bogota?”
Hugo nearly lost it, while Mom and AJ were dying. “Yep.” He smiled. “Had a major growth spurt.”
Mom intervened after finally regaining composure. “We’re lunching at Beach Bum Burger. Join us?”
Ms. Ortiz clutched the top of her straw hat and nodded. “You better spill whatever magical beans you’re feeding this mountain of a boy.”
Zelda squeezed her eyes shut in embarrassment. “Oh Jesus, Mom—”
“Settle that tea kettle, missy,” Ms. Ortiz snapped.
After lunch Hugo and the kids splashed around in the water, snapping goofy pictures of each other. Zelda was surprisingly enjoyable once she dropped the sullen act. And Hugo noticed AJ’s nascent crush on her growing. Meanwhile, Mom and Ms. Ortiz sat on towels several yards away watching. Whatever they discussed, Hugo didn’t feel comfortable eavesdropping. Still, he hoped today never would end.
Hugo barely slept the night before the first day of sophomore year, needing to go for a run around downtown San Miguel to burn off the nerves. Brie hadn’t responded to his texts about meeting before class to talk about his “Hawaiian summer”. But Hugo wasn’t bummed.
Tomorrow was a new chapter at Paso Robles High. Hugo planned on making it count.
The next morning, Hugo styled up his usual slacker clothes. Dark blue jeans. Off-white long-sleeve Henley snug enough to show off his chiseled torso. New black and red friction-resistant running sneakers. Add some product to the hair and Hugo looked photoshoot fresh. He devoured a quick breakfast and said bye to AJ and Mom before zooming off. His anxiety remained sky-high, but his excitement was higher.
The trip, roughly three miles away, took under a minute. Hugo was cruising at 235 mph. He slid to a stop behind the small shopping center across from campus. Hugo entered a bathroom inside, adjusted anything out of place, then exited.
The sun peeked through the clouds, spilling over Paso High’s sprawling campus. How fitting, since Hugo no longer considered this place purgatory. Simon was waiting at the front of the shopping center. The Korean boy wore his Bose headphones, grooving to Japanese underground rap. He also wore a Geist t-shirt, having bought more since Hugo’s meeting with the vigilante.
Simon nearly jumped out of his skin when Hugo appeared behind him.
“Ready?” the Samoan asked, one fist held out.
Simon recovered and fist-bumped with both hands. “We’re gonna own tenth grade.” He added some swagger in his step as they approached school.
“My mom was extra nagging last night.” Hugo rolled his eyes at the memory. “She was like ‘Be careful, Bogota. Don’t get too excited when you touch or hug someone.’” He recoiled, hearing his mother’s voice leaving his lips. Turning to an equally dumbfounded Simon, Hugo spoke normally. “Did I…speak exactly like Mom?”
“Bro, that was your mom’s voice.” Simon slapped Hugo’s bicep and winced on impact. “Holy shit, you can mimic people??” he whisper-shouted, conscious of other students around them.
“Apparently,” Hugo replied. Another power discovered. The revelation was dizzying.
If Simon was a puppy, he’d be wagging his tail. “Do me, do me.” he whispered.
Hugo smirked, glanced around and mimicked Simon. “How you doing, sweetie?”
The pair chuckled like toddlers getting candy. “We’re so testing this after school,” Hugo gushed.
Simon nodded eagerly. “Of course!” They passed through Paso High’s main gates and metal detectors.
Hugo scanned the throng of students and inhaled, focused on one goal; introducing Briseis El-Saden to the new Hugo. “See you in 2nd period.” He turned to leave.
“Bogie!” Simon called out, making him pause. His best friend smiled encouragingly. “Good luck.”
Hugo hadn’t expected that, since Simon hated Brie. His reassurance meant a lot. “Thanks.” He turned with a spring in his step.
Campus felt foreign through Hugo’s enhanced senses, like he’d been sleepwalking the past two years and was awakening to Paso High’s true potency. Jubilation of students reuniting with friends they hadn’t seen all summer, tales of family trips or near run-ins with the law aplenty. Colors popped from posters promoting sports tryouts, and club registrations were all across campus. Paper flyers promoting this month’s school job fair were ubiquitous, with several megacorporations like Olympian Worldwide and Paxton-Brandt scheduled to attend. Rectangular buildings bordered the quad, four to five stories of red brick, steel and glass, teeming with boisterous warm bodies. It was a lot to process. As students swarmed past, Hugo worried about accidently hurting someone. But by remaining calm, staying present in his body, and listening around him, he encountered no issues.
Both Simon and Hugo had 2nd period with Brie. He’d rather blow her mind beforehand. Stretching his hearing across the cacophony of voices, Hugo listened for Brie’s voice. After a minute he found her beyond the quad near the auditorium with the rest of the Sensational Six. Baz and his idiots were also there, along with some upperclassmen Hugo didn’t know. He headed in that direction, shouldering gently through other students milling about.
As he drew closer, Hugo heard some upperclassman ballplayer named Harlan Mills teasing Brie. “…friends with that Titan-obsessed kid?”
“He’s a nobody,” Brie dismissed. Hugo could taste her irritation. A couple snickers from her squad followed the comment. Hugo stopped several yards away, still excited. He peeked from behind a pillar, zooming in on small figures gathered around a bench. Hugo saw her and gasped.
Briseis looked breathtaking as ever leaning on a bench, hair blown out in stick-straight auburn sheets. Her body was long, lean and lovely in a strappy white minidress covered in black polka dots. Brie’s squad—Jordana, J-Tom, Natalie, Lia and Spencer—flanked her like religious disciples. Baz Martinez sat beside Brie, hair slicked back with too much product, wearing an orange and green San Miguel Titans baseball jersey. Hugo bristled seeing Baz�
��s arm draped greedily around Brie’s shoulders. Cody, TJ and DeDamien flocked nearby of course. Brent wasn’t there, but Hugo might’ve missed the bland blond in the crowd. Other popular kids among them included jocks like Lionel Wagner and his girlfriend McKenna Phillips.
Hugo frowned. I'll talk to Brie in 2nd period. He turned to leave.
“Seriously,” the bald, brown-skinned Harlan pressed, snapping his fingers. “What’s his name?”
“Hugo Malalou,” Natalie replied with a toss of her honey-brown waves. A chorus of derision ensued.
Hugo scuttled back to his hiding spot. Why am I being discussed?
“Right!” Harlan cried. “Hugo was always drooling on you last year.”
“Like a puppy over a bone,” Baz mocked. Loud laughter boomed from the crowd.
“That creepy crawler wants to be all up, gross and personal with Breezy,” Spencer added, a sneer in her voice.
“Stop it, Spence,” J-Tom warned quietly, scanning the gathering with an unsettled look.
Hugo sucked in steadying breaths. They mean the old Hugo. Not him now. He waited for Brie to downplay their relationship, as usual.
“Where is your puppy?” McKenna jeered with laughing hazel eyes.
“Worshipping the new Titan monument downtown,” DeDamien snarked. That drew laughs, especially from Brie’s friends. Not Jordana. She looked great from Hugo’s perspective, her long hair styled in thick braids. For some reason, Jordana looked annoyed and uncomfortable.
Brie pushed Baz off, exasperated. “Hugo and I aren’t friends.” Her green eyes glittered like ice. “I tolerated Hugo because I felt sorry for him after his dad died. Now he’s a Stage 10 clinger.”
Brie didn’t mean that, Hugo told himself. She was stopping them from teasing her, and a little too convincingly.
Brie continued, holding court in that cadence where every sentence sounded like a question. “And I had to hear about his dreams of him and Titan being BFFs…God! Dreams aren’t real, dude!” More thunderous amusement.
Icy disbelief surged down Hugo’s body. He’d revealed those Titan dreams to her in confidence. How could Briseis reveal that so heartlessly?