Rehabilitation

73

I felt like crap the next day, luckily it was the weekend so we didn't have community service and I didn't have to see Nathan. I didn't know if he'd just pretend it hadn't happened and it would be really awkward or if we'd talk about. I didn't want to talk about it but I didn't want to just pretend like nothing was going on. Thinking about it made me feel sick.

The next day I walked to community service and found the others in the office. They were crowded around watching something on Alisha's phone. I noticed Nathan wasn't there yet and I felt slightly relieved.

"How would you describe your ability?" I peered at the phone and saw a lady holding a microphone interviewing a man.

"I supposed the best way to describe it is, I have perfect aim, when it comes to playing cards," The guy responded, chuckling softly to himself.

"What's it like being called the world's first superhero?" The lady said.

"That has to be the shittest power ever." Kelly said.

"It's better than mine," Alisha said and I thought I saw her glance briefly at Simon.

"You could probably do some serious damage and if you just..." I mimed throwing cards repeatedly, "...or just really piss people off."

"I can't believe this guy has gone public," Curtis said.

"You'd better believe it. Because he's going to make a fortune," I felt my body tense up as Nathan spoke. He'd walked into the office and was now stood behind Alisha, peering down at her phone. He continued, "Maybe we should think about doing the same. The early bird catches the massive pay cheque."

"I don't think going public's a good idea," Simon said.

"Look, we finish our community service soon. I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly swamped with lucrative job offers. We need to think about cashing in on our powers. I mean, I'm immortal. I shouldn't be flipping burgers, I should be eating burgers, massive burgers, the size of my head. Think about it, we could have really cool superhero names. Captain Invincible." He pointed at Curtis, "Mr Backwards."

"I sound retarded," Curtis said.

Nathan pointed at Simon and said, "The Invisible Cunt."

"Why do I have to be the Invisible Cunt?" Simon asked.

"Because you just are, man. Get over it. He then looked at me, "Sock Girl."

I rolled my eyes at him and walked out of the office. So he'd gone with pretend like nothing happened. The others followed me out and into the hallway.

"I mean, what's the point in all of us having superpowers if we can't use them to make obscene amounts of money and shag loads of drunk, impressionable girls? It's clearly what God intended for us, and I, for one, will not let him down."

We all just shook our heads at him as we walked down the hallway. Simon reached the doors leading out of the community centre first and opened it. There were loads of people stood outside, holding cameras. Simon immediately shut the door.

"They know about us," Simon said, "There are reporters and TV cameras outside, lots of them."

"How did they find out about us?" Kelly asked eyeing Nathan.

"What? No, I didn't do anything. I don't think I did. I'm almost certain I didn't," Nathan's face dropped and he pointed behind us, "You told them about us."

I turned to see our probation worker stood in the hallway behind us.

"Yeah," he nodded.

"Are you joking?" I scoffed. He'd basically ignored us the entire time he'd been here and then he does this. Out of all the people to fuck us over I thought he wouldn't have been bothered enough to do it.

"You sit on your arse doing nothing for six weeks and then you sell us out," Curtis snapped.

"Looks like that, doesn't it? Is that ironic? Never too sure," he droned.

"You cock," I mumbled.

"I'm sure you'll be fine," he said.

"Like you give a shit," Alisha scoffed.

"That's a good point. See you," he said and turned around.

"Where you going?" Curtis asked.

"Antigua. So, this is goodbye, so long and fuck off." He turned around again and walked away.

"What are they going to do to us?" Alisha asked.

"They'll treat us like freaks. They'll lock us up in a secret military facility and conduct experiments on us," Simon said.

I was going to laughed at how serious Simon looked but I realised he could be right. This was some crazy shit that hardly ever happened. Whose to say they wouldn't try and experiment on us.

"What are we going to do?" Kelly asked.

"We have to go into hiding. We assume new identities. We break off all connection with our family and friends. We wear disguises and only go out after dark," Simon said. Shit. Two minutes ago our lives had been fairly normal and now everything was going to shit. I couldn't believe this was happening.

"There is an alternative."

I turned around and stood behind us was a women in a grey skirt suit looking at us.

"Who are you?" Alisha asked.

"I'm Laura, the person who can make it so you don't need to go into hiding. If this is handled right, you're all making some serious money."

We all looked at each other and Nathan indicated with his hand for us to move in closer.

"What are we thinking?" Nathan asked, his voice a whisper so Laura couldn't hear us.

"This isn't why we got our powers," Simon said.

"No. There is no why, there's only what.What are we going to spend all our money on?" Nathan replied.

"What about the people we killed?" Kelly reminded us.

"I guess we should ask her about that," Alisha said. We moved closer to her and out of the huddle we'd formed when we were whispering.

"I'm not saying we have, but what would happen, hypothetically speaking, if it came to light that we may have killed one or two people? Probation workers and such. No-one important," Nathan asked.

"I would say that these people you may or may not have killed were evil. You were protecting society. You're not murderers. You're heroes. Superheroes. Rich, famous superheroes. And if that doesn't work, we vanish the bodies and pay off the relatives."

Nathan nodded, looking impressed, "Good answer."

"Sign us up," Curtis said.

"Good," Laura said.

"We're making a mistake," Simon whispered to us as Laura walked over to the exit.

"We should all stick together," Alisha said. I could tell she wasn't convinced either but she was right. If one of us was doing it the rest of us should. And honestly right now I didn't think we had much of a choice.

"They're waiting for you. They're calling you the ASBO Five."