Chapter 3

There use to be a time where the whole town feared walking out of their houses. They were afraid of super villains, but mostly Red Raven. That's right, a teenage boy terrorized our whole town. Really, though, what was there to worry about?

Now I knew why everyone lived in the safety of their homes. Maybe my family continued living life because my dad worked with Titania back in the day. We felt like we could call on her if things got out of hand. What kind of superhero is she? We needed her now more than ever!

"Della. Babe. Earth to Del?" Mickey was trying to bring me back to reality, but I was tempted not to respond. I needed to figure this out, but I didn't want to lose my relationship because I couldn't keep my daydreaming to a minimum.

"Yeah?" I stop biting my thumbnail to face him and his beautiful green eyes. He smiles down at me, then leans forward to pause the movie, 17 Again.

"What's on your mind?" He shifts his body to talk to me directly. It's the little things he does that make my heart race.

"What? Nothing," I knock on my head, "Nope. Nothing going on up there." I mentally shoot myself for being so spastic.

Mickey eyes me skeptically, "Right. It's not like you randomly stare at an object and think about something." He retorts sarcastically, then chuckles as his hand finds the small of my back pressed against the couch cushions.

I sigh, "Just some stress from school."

"Anything I can help with?" He perks up.

"It's actual school work, babe. Not athletics." I roll my eyes as I laugh.

"Hey! I'm good at math. Come on," He pleads, trying his best to help me with something he most certainly cannot.

He starts to stand up and pout until I tell him what's wrong. At this point, as much as I hate watching movies, I'd sit down and stare at the screen intently if it made him leave my thoughts alone. It's not really a problem if I just focus on Zac Efron.

"My brother has third shift at Waffle House, he'll be ticked if you wake him before he has to get up. Sit down!" I hiss in a whisper. I look at my Fitbit to check the time. Mason has one hour before he has to get up, which means I need to keep Mickey quiet for the rest of this movie at least. When my brother leaves, I'll walk Mickey out. He's not allowed to stay past 11, and my parents certainly keep tabs.

"How on earth did you take 20,000 steps today? I barely reach 15,000 on game night!" Mickey exclaims as he holds my wrist in front of him.

It was no secret; my boyfriend was pretty athletic and I was his personal cheerleader in the stands.

"I, um, well..." I drifted off, trying to figure out how to explain why, all of a sudden, my daily step number increased over double the average of a normal human.

"You should join the cross country team, Del."

"I went for one run, Mickey. I almost died."

It wasn't a lie. Red Raven could have killed me if he wanted to.

He starts laughing at me, "Oh I'm sure. Well next time you go for a run, text me. I'll join you." He throws his boyish smile at me.

You couldn't even try to keep up, I think to myself.

I smile back at him, leaning in for a quick peck on the lips before I hear my brother's bedroom door open.

"I don't know who she is, either. No, the councilmen won't release her identity. Dude! I don't know! Okay, let me know if you get anything, this would be great for our final article."

Usually when my brother was talking to someone about news articles and such, I was clueless. His college major was something I didn't ask about because I wanted to stay out of drama. Quite often it was pretty factual, actually. I just despised the news because it never had any positive impact on our town.

When I heard the word "councilmen" come out of Mason's mouth, I realized that they were talking about me.

Suddenly, Mickey stands up and heads for the door. He grabs his coat off the rack.

"Wait, you're heading out already? Mason's leaving early. Why don't you stay?" I beg from the couch. I didn't realize how pathetic and whiny I sounded until Mason rolled his eyes and left the house.

Mickey grabs the door knob after Mason walks out and flashes a regretful smile at me, running a hand through his brown, slightly spiked hair.

"Sorry, Del. I want to stay but my mom texted me to come home. I'll see you tomorrow." I meet him at the door as he leans down for a long kiss. The poor boy probably has back problems due to bringing himself down to my level. I'm basically a munchkin.

"Okay. I'll see you on Monday." I try to put on a smile, but I feel I did something wrong. Slumping into the couch, I press play and watch the movie again.

***

"Della! Della wake up! Duuude! You're drooling!" Jonas pokes at me continuously until I jolt upright. I hate it when I fall asleep in class, especially if I end up drooling. At least Jonas doesn't judge.

"What'd I miss?" I wake up groggy, expecting half the class to be filming the dork drooling all over her english homework. Instead, I see an empty classroom.

"But... Class just-"

"Ended. How do you sleep through that awful bell? You must've been up late last night." Jonas begins to pack up his things, and I realize it's lunch. That's a true friend; one that lets you sleep through class, but makes sure you get to lunch on time.

"I was on Red Raven's page again. I can't dig up any weaknesses. Of course, if you were a reporter you'd have to have a death wish to list Red Raven's weaknesses for everyone to see."

Jonas silently nods and slings his red Nike book bag over his shoulder.

"What?" I cross my arms over my chest and tap my foot. Jonas is never quiet.

He twiddles his thumbs around and then looks up at me. His puppy-like brown eyes stare me down until I break.

"When are we going to be a crime fighting duo?" He barely whispers. I roll my eyes, pleased with the fact he wants to help me so much.

"The next time I run into trouble, try to stay with me." I wink as we walk out of the empty classroom to the cafeteria.

Mason and his friend were trying to get to the bottom of things, and I guess that's all the assurance I needed. Someone was working on finding out who the mystery hero was and have hope I can defeat Red Raven.

Taking my seat at our usual table, I wait for Ash to sit next to me with her lunch bag. Both of us hate the school food. As a matter of fact, it's how we became best friends. We brought our lunch from home in third grade but we were the only kids in our class to do so. To avoid looking like loners, we sat together and have ever since.

"Apple?" She offers. I hand over my banana and look for Mickey absentmindedly.

She snaps the top of the banana to peel it, "You've got it bad girl. Twirling your hair, goofy grin, eager eyes. And you don't even see him yet."

"Please, I'm not that kind of girlfriend. Plus, I'm totally out of the cupcake phase." I continue searching for him, though, until I feel large hands wrap around my waist. Immediately I elbow my attacker but regretfully turn around to find Mickey was just trying to be sweet.

"So," he clenches his stomach as he sits across from me, "You've been running and taking self defense classes. Anything else I should be aware of?" He takes deep breaths as he slowly unwraps his leftovers.

Several things, I reply in my head. Ash knew my secret because she saw me electrocuted by lightning and watched me act abnormal for a few months after the incident. Jonas had been my best friend since middle school and he was so open about his own powers that I decided what could it hurt to share my own secret?

My phone buzzes and I read the news alert.

Breaking News: Red Raven lights main street on fire.

Will our mystery hero come to the rescue?

Ash looks at me curiously before I rush to the bathroom to put on a makeshift mask. I send a quick text to Mickey, telling him I'm sick.

Before I can even think about where I'm going, I arrive at the scene in seconds.

What's left of it, anyways.