Together or Not At All

Chapter 2

The weather, unfortunately for Callie, had got worse. Brett had said he worked on it, but it really didn't feel like it. The trees had been roaring due to the wind, and the windows were under attack from the rain. People had been advised to stay home as much as possible, only to go out when necessary. And, as per usual, school was considered 'necessary'.

Callie stepped out of her door into a puddle immediately, regretting her life decisions. She hated walking to school, yet she did it every day. The roads were always so busy – Callie would almost be hit at least twice on her way to school. Not only that, but she would arrive to school drenched in puddle water as the drivers never paid attention to where the people walking were.

Understandably, when Callie got to school, she was not in a good mood at all. She sat in her form seat in the back of the classroom, away from the rest of the class. Unfortunately for her, Jamie wasn't in the same form as Callie, so Callie didn't have anyone to talk to. The person next to her, Amy, was nice enough but she had other friends in the form to talk to instead. Callie didn't mind, however, as she would sit and read for half an hour before going to her lessons for the day. Her form tutor didn't do anything productive anyway, so he wouldn't care.

Callie considered herself very lucky today – she had one double period in the morning, and then a scheduled P.E. lesson in the afternoon. The double lesson was history – a subject that Callie loved. They had been learning about Britain in the 19th century, which did slightly upset Callie. She thought there were so many topics that they could cover – why do they have to talk about the things that had recently happened in their country?

Her class was quite small – there were only eight of them. There was Callie, Luke and six other kids that Callie didn't know the names of (even after being at school with them for five years). Again, Callie sat at the back – only this time she didn't sit next to anyone at all. She quite liked it, really. It meant she could get on with her work without interruptions and she was way more productive. At the end of the lesson, her teacher, Mr Jones, set everyone homework to do for their next lesson. A presentation. Great. And what made it even better? Callie had been paired up with Luke.

This seemed to happen a lot to Callie and Luke. It was obvious that they hated each other, yet the teachers would always put them together. Callie suspected it was because the school knew that they both had superpowers, so would make them work together because they 'had something in common'. This annoyed Callie, but she definitely was never going to mention it to any teacher. She would put up with Luke for a week, and then they would go back to only talking at their meetings.

Callie decided she would message Luke when they got home – she didn't want to disturb him in school time anyway. She had two free periods before P.E., so she decided to finish her biology homework from the day before. Biology was an okay subject – she only really took it for the topic on reptiles. Callie had an unusual fascination with reptiles – she had always dreamed that when she was older she would get a house where she could have a room dedicated to reptiles. Callie seriously geeked out when it came to reptiles.

Soon enough, her free periods had passed and she had P.E.. Because she was a sixth former, she had more option of what to do in these lessons. Callie had decided for that term, she would go to the gym to get her stamina up. Being a superhero came with the fact that she had to stay fit and healthy at all times. After all, you could never know when an apocalypse could start.

Callie got to the gym, surprised to see it empty. She shrugged it off, however, and started her warm up. Her headphones were blasting music, and Callie was in her own world. Which is why she didn't notice the other person come in to the room. Not until she got up to go to the treadmill.

"Jesus Christ! What are you doing here?" She exclaimed, scared of the sudden appearance of the guy in front of her.

"It's games, dimwit. I chose to go to the gym. Hence, I am in the gym," Luke replied, a smirk on his face. God, Callie found him annoying.

"Whatever," Callie responded. "I need to use the treadmill." She walked past him, angered by his presence.

Everything resumed as normal, both of them ignoring each other as per usual. That was until one of the windows shattered into pieces on the floor. Callie took her headphones off, aware of her surroundings.

Due to both of them being superheroes, they have both trained constantly in order to attack when threatened. Both of them were on high alert, but nothing seemed to be happening.

Cautiously, Callie edged towards the window, a dumbbell raised next to her. It was a defence mechanism to have something next to her when doing this, and a gym didn't have many dangerous things in it other than a dumbbell. After what seemed like an eternity, she reached the window and peered out.

Nothing.

No one was there at all. Even if they were, the gym was on the third floor of a building and it would have been slightly difficult for someone to destroy the window and then disappear. She glanced back at Luke, confusion on both of their faces. She looked back out the window, and then got whipped in the face.

"Oh for God's sake. The goddamn tree hit the window and broke it." Callie said, removing a twig from her hair. The dumbbell dropped onto the floor, making a bang when it made contact.

Luke was laughing at her – he couldn't believe she actually let herself get hit by a tree. Callie noticed this, however, and brought a mirror from the other side of the room to bang him on the head.

"Serves you right." She said as Luke rubbed the back of his head. "Next time, you're the one investigating. Dick."

After this, both of them continued their respective work outs, pretending nothing happened. Occasionally Callie saw Luke massaging his head, and would smile to herself. Maybe he would stop thinking he was better than her now.

As they left the gym, parting their separate ways, Callie wondered why Brett had let the weather get this bad. Britain never had this bad weather, after all.