6.5

Life in Arcadia I decided was different.

Different from Winslow of which there was no doubt.

Was it better?

I would say yes.

But as they say, the more things changed, the more things stayed the same.

For one I still had to avoid the most popular girl in school.

While Emma would torment me, Glory Girl would instead unmask me.

People still whispered whenever I came near. However instead of it being nasty unhanded insults, they were simple PHO cape nuts who wondered if I was Vim.

Which I was of course but I would never say.

Honestly, the biggest difference, the hardest thing I had to adjust to was the fact that I had a love life. But it was fake. Dennis was nice of course, he was funny and at one stage was my favorite Ward. Besides my interactions with him as Clockblocker I hardly knew anything about him. Things were a bit more complicated than that however.

First of all, we hadn't even been on a single date yet.

Secondly, we only agreed to do it to cover up our Cape lives.

Thirdly, I didn't even know if he liked me as a girl!

Would I even be good girlfriend material? I wasn't girly and I didn't have big…. Assets. Honestly the 'date' that we planned would probably just be a thing between two friends. We'd hang out, have a good time and that would be it. It was almost pathetic how much I clung to the idea of this date honestly. I didn't even like Dennis that way but I still accepted the 'date' regardless. Secretly I was almost giddy, my first date! Was it any better that it was fake? I didn't really know.

If it was just that, I'd probably be able to get over it. But it wasn't.

"OH MY GOD! I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU!" Morgan cried out reaching out to hug me. My palm in her face put a swift stop to that. It didn't stop her from latching onto my hand though. If class had started sooner then there would be no doubt in my mind that the teacher would have berated her by now. As it stood it seemed like they were late leaving us and the rest of the students here to our own devices.

Eventually I was able to untangle the overly excitable Morgan from my arm.

"Yeah, who would've thought someone shy like you could've gotten a guy so quickly." Buzz congratulated me.

I glared at Ash who didn't seem sorry in the slightest, the girl who had blabbed about this to everyone. I raised an eyebrow, silently asking why she would do it. Infuriatingly enough she simply shrugged.

"Morgan would've found out eventually… probably." She replied. With how quickly rumors spread I wouldn't be surprised if the entire school thought I was pregnant by the end of the day.

"Besides." Ash continued. "Vim has a Thinker rating after all."

"Thinker rating?" I asked.

"Yup, she can read minds." I wanted to ask where she got that sort of information, to point out that mind readers didn't exist but previous interactions with the Cape nut had told me that it was a terrible idea. Wisely I stayed quiet.

"SO!" Morgan announced. "When's the date?"

"Uhh, after school." I replied. "We're just going to see a movie and have burgers for dinner."

"Fugly Bob's?" Asked Buzz. I nodded in reply. "Piece of advice? Don't get the challenger, that thing is way too big." Her eyes took on a distant look, as if remembering a great tragedy that had taken place so long ago. Considering the pale tint of green her face had suddenly taken it wasn't hard to guess what had happened.

I hadn't been to Fugly Bob's in awhile but even I knew of the infamous burger. Big, cheesy and oh so expensive. Twelve stacks of ground beef, seven kinds of cheese, two goopy sauces to help hold it together and anything green was absent save a single lonely slice of pickle. It was honestly a miracle that such a monstrosity didn't have a Brute rating.

The challenger was a well named burger. If anyone could finish it then it'd be free.

Only the biggest of stomachs hadn't paid for the meal as Dad unfortunately found out once before and despite her initial protests, Mom was the one laughing the most by the end of it. That was a nice delicious memory.

"Don't worry, I won't go for the challenger, I'm not that silly." It'd be easier for me to eat an entire wheel of cheese then that. Besides, I wasn't that hungry. In fact, now that I thought about it I hadn't been hungry for a long while. Probably something to do with all the potion ingredients I had been snacking on lately.

"So…" Ash piped up. "Have you kissed him yet?" I fought back a blush.

"I-uh-wh-what? No! NO!" I think I failed in hiding said blush. "We've only known eachother for-" A bit over a week now I think? "A couple hours! Don't you guys have anything better to do then poke your noses into my love life?" Holy crap it was still so weird to think that I had a love life!

This was unreal. Why was real life so much more weirder than my Cape life? I could carry an entire warehouse worth of stuff on me and I still couldn't comprehend high school. It almost made me miss power testing.

Buzz simply shrugged in response. "I don't wanna perpetuate the stereotype but we're teenage girls." She glanced over to some other boys that were looking our way and gave a toothy smile. I swore some of them blushed before turning away, pretending that they weren't staring at us. "Scratch that, it's a teen thing in general."

"It's kinda nice isn't it?" Asked Morgan. "Everyone thinks we might be a Ward so they're being extra nice to us!"

That made sense and it would explain why stories of bullying were practically non-existent in Arcadia. Kinda hard to pick on someone who might be able to fly, freeze time or turn your desk into a giant death ray. If that wasn't a deterrent then I didn't know what was.

"Doesn't it feel…" I tried to find the proper word. "Disingenuous?" I mean, I don't want people treating me well just because they were frightened of me, because they thought I was a celebrity, something more then I was.

"That's society." It was Ash who answered that. "We all could be mass murdering psychopaths but you don't see me with a knife because if I did go around stabbing people for fun then I'd be tackled and sent to the electric chair."

The conversation seemed to stall as we all tried to digest what she just said.

Undaunted Ash continued. "Think about it, who's to say we aren't actually all bad people, the only thing that holds us back is the promise of consequences." That was cynical. "Hell, even the more powerful Heroes only do what they do for the fame and fortune, I bet if there was none of that then at least half of them would be bad guys! Look at Assault and Battery, anywhere else those would be Villain names!"

"You read the PHO too much." Morgan commented, mirroring my thoughts from this morning. "What about Scion? He's like the most strongest person around and all he does is save kitties and people from burning buildings! He's so strong that I don't think anyone could put him in an electric chair if he goes around being bad."

Ash simply waved her off. "He doesn't count, he's weird."

"What about Glory Girl?" Asked Morgan. "She's super nice!"

"It's in her name, she's in it for the Glory." Ash pointed out. "Did you see what she did before she left? She was going around the Cafeteria telling people she had a Villian to stop, if she was a real Hero she would've flown off straight away instead of telling everyone she was gonna do it."

Actually the exact words that Glory Girl used were "I have a Cape based emergency and have to leave now." and she wasn't leaving to beat up a Villain, she was leaving to avoid unmasking me by accident. It was a temporary solution but after Dennis told Dean who then spoke with her, it was the best idea we could come up with on such short notice.

Armsmaster could probably build me some sort of machine that would absorb the green aura I made given enough time. Worst case scenario, I'd have to avoid Glory Girl's presence all together and wouldn't that be a headache.

Wait.

That wasn't the worst case scenario at all! The worst case scenario would be the PRT deciding that it was too big a security risk to have us both in the same school and having me go back to Winslow! Asking Glory Girl to leave wouldn't happen, she was here first!

Okay Taylor, calm down. No one was going to make you go back to Winslow. Maybe they'd get me to go to that Catholic school, Immaculata High? Or was it a Christian place? Would I have to go there? Doubtful, the place was a private school where only the rich could afford to go. With the amount of money that Dad made it'd be suspicious if I suddenly started attending.

That left Clarendon High and that place had issues of its own. Back when I was still being tortured at Winslow I researched every school I could find in Brockton Bay.

From what I could tell Immaculata was more or less the rich kids school with everything that entailed.

Arcadia was the Hero school that the Wards went to that had a huge waiting list as a result.

Winslow was ass that bred gang membership more quickly than critical thought.

That would make Clarendon High the boring normal place.

Well, as boring and normal as a place in Brockton Bay could get at least. So why hadn't I transferred there first?

Quite frankly the place was too far away. Dad couldn't physically take me that far without being extremely late for work and public transport didn't operate early enough to take me either due to the threat of gang violence at night. I could take the taxi every day of course but that had the same issue with Immaculata in regards to money.

In the end the only two places I could realistically go to was Winslow.

That is, until I grew super powers and joined the Wards of course.

Then the treacherous part of my mind spoke up. What if Glory Girl had to move? My powers were more helpful than hers. She was a classic Alexandria package sure but what could she do in the grand scheme of things? She could rescue a bus from falling off a bridge where I could heal an entire building worth of people with my potions! Vim was way more valuable! If she wanted to kick me out of Arcadia then I'd kick her ass first!

I shook my head free of those thoughts. I was a Hero, Glory Girl was a Hero, we were on the same side. There was bound to be a solution that benefited both of us.

"So are you and your boyfriend leaving school together or meeting up at a later time?" A voice called me. Pulled from my thoughts again I noted that it was Buzz who asked me. "You just keep spacing out don't you? I guess I'm not the only astronaut here." She grinned. Spacing out? Astronaut? That was a terrible pun but I couldn't help but grin.

"That's terrible." I told her.

"We were talking about hanging out after school." She admitted. "Wish you could come."

I shrugged awkwardly at that.

"Oh! I know what we can do!" Morgan cried out. "We can get Taylor ready for her date!"

I was glad I wasn't in the middle of drinking anything because I would've choked and died if I was. Didn't she understand the concept of subtlety?

"But, I'll already be at the date!"

"Then we have to be quick! Buzz! If you're Vim you have to call Velocity RIGHT NOW! This is an EMERGENCY!"

It was then I felt someone tap my shoulder causing me to freeze up. Slowly I turned around to see another student, a girl on the verge of giggling hand me a note. Without a word she ran off. Curiosity had managed to silence us.

"Is it a love confession?" Ash asked. I glared at her but her flat, almost passive expression left my vengeance unsatisfied. Sighing I opened up the note.

-Hey sorry for running off, I had to do stuff. Ready for the afternoon? Btw this is Dennis, XOXO <3<3<3.-< p>

Seriously? A paper note? Didn't we have phones for this sorta thing?

Wait…. I hadn't even shared my number with him.

Wait…. Wasn't Arcadia inside something called a Faraday cage? I think Dean mentioned it when giving us the tour. Some sort of machine that stopped phone signals from working so people couldn't cheat on tests. That sounded like something Clockblocker would do.

I looked up from the note to see the red headed demon sitting at the back of the class making finger guns in my direction with a confident smirk. I knew he was just trying to cover my identity as Vim but this was too far! Luckily I was saved from any further embarrassment when the teacher walked into the classroom.

===========

As school came to a close I found that my legs felt like they were made of jelly. School was fine, in fact it felt normal and considering that I had recently come from Winslow it was practically paradise!

What made me feel dread was the 'date' with Dennis. Half the time I felt like classes went too fast, or that they went too slowly. In the end I decided that I would have a good time, regardless if I liked Dennis as a boyfriend or not. In time he would pay for his insolence!

Then my phone rang revealing dad's name. To think that he'd have a mobile phone of his own by now. He'd certainly had come a long way.

It seemed my vengeance would come sooner than I first thought. Answering the call I laid out the plan to Dad.

===========

"Hey Dennis?" I call out. "Ready to go?" My voice hadn't cracked and for that I was grateful. His group of friends made a few wolf whistles and slapped him on the back encouragingly. None of them I noted were the Wards, not even Dean was around. Maybe he was hanging out with Glory Girl?

"Yeah sure." He greeted me. "I'm totally ready for our hot date!" The cocky bastard. It was at this stage that I saw a beat up old truck enter my vision. Grabbing my hand Dennis unknowingly lead me to his own doom. He probably intended to make his way to the bus stop.

Leaning over to me he whispered. "Sorry about all this, couldn't think of anything better. Thanks for playing along." He apologized. "You can dump me later and tell everyone I did something stupid if you want." Straightening up he then asked me something else much louder than before, no doubt for the benefit of all the other students. "So what kind of movie do you wanna watch? Something romantic?"

"Suuuper romantic." I told him with a smile. His eye twitched slightly in confusion but was quickly masked by an easy confident smile. "I know exaaactly where I wanna go first." Pulling him away from our original path I guided him over to the truck. It seemed he hadn't caught onto my plan yet despite his confusion.

Grabbing his hand I boldly placed it on my hip, allowing him to escort me through the crowds of students and parents.

Coming to a stop Dad rolled down his windows. "Taylor?" He asked looking between both Dennis and myself.

"Hey Dad, meet my new boyfriend." I told him giving him a sly wink. "Wanted to take me out tonight, didn't let me say no, just dragged me into an empty classroom without any warning, photos were taken and everything." Dad simply nodded in understanding as he turned to face my new 'boyfriend.'

Dennis to his credit didn't stop smiling. However his face seemed to pale considerably highlighting his red hair.

"Oh uhh, HI MR Herbert… SIR!" He forced out. "It uhhh, didn't happen like that?"

A brief vicious smile on Dad's face was replaced with a devastatingly judgemental expression. I had to say, his acting was amazing.

"It's Mr Hebert actually." He corrected Dennis. If I didn't know any better I would've sworn that the poor boy had just used his time stopping powers on himself. "Why don't we go for a ride huh?"

Dennis nodded stiffly. I proceeded to lead the seemingly comatose boy to the back seat where I could sit next to him and hold him hostage. Driving off I smiled as Dad began to play the Russian Roulette version of twenty questions with him in accordance to father daughter tradition. The only thing that would've made this better would if Dad had a shotgun on his lap.

"So, what's your name son?"

"Uhh, I'm Dennis…. Sir!"

"Please, call me Danny, Kiddo."

"Uhh, yes sir, I mean Danny!"

"So how long have you known Taylor?"

"Uhh, one day?"

"So how'd you meet her? What made you ask her out?"

"I uhh, we uhh me-met in class?" Dennis stammered. Dad saw the moment of weakness and pounced on it!

"Are you lying to me? I don't like the idea of a liar dating my daughter." It was at this point that Dennis cracked.

"Sir! I'm Clockblocker! I'm just trying to cover Taylor's identity!" He revealed. We were on the road with the windows up so there was little danger of Villains knowing his name. Without missing a beat Dad continued.

"So you're not actually interested in my daughter? Is that what you're saying? It's all work?" Dad retorted. I fought back a chuckle as Dennis seemed to continue floundering. "Is she not good enough for you?"

"NO! She's good!"

"Only good?" Dad asked, slowing down at the stop lights.

"No, she's a wonderful girl! And uh…" He glanced over to me as I continued to hold back the laughter. I knew that I didn't do a good job because his expression of fear turned to confused betrayal soon after. He glanced over to Dad who simply couldn't hold it in anymore and began laughing. "You…. you both were screwing with me!"

I couldn't help it either and the flood gates were let open as I let my amusement free.

"HAHAHA, OH my GOD, I'm sooo sorry Dennis." I told him wiping the tears from my eyes. "I just couldn't help it."

"You… you both pranked me…. Hard!" He slowly tasted the words in his mouth. "What the hell Vim?"

"Oh I see how it is!" Dad shouted at us in mock offense. "Your old man can't call you Vim outside the costume but the moment you get a boyfriend he can?"

"Why did you feel the need to do this to me?" Asked Dennis.

"Something, something Shadow Stalker something Vim." I countered. "Is the famous Clockblocker of all people going to complain about mischief?" He simply nodded in reply. No further complaint was had as he cracked a smile of his own. It was at this point our phones rang in unison.

Picking it up I noted it was just a message.

-Come to the Rig ASAP-

I glanced over to Dennis who tilted his phone my way displaying the exact same message.

"What do you think is going on?" He asked. I shrugged, clueless as he was.

"Uhh, Dad? Can you take us over to a drop off point? We need to get to the Rig. Something looks like it came up."