Voltage ϟ Adam Davenport ϟ

ϟ 33 ϟ

WHEN SECRETS SPILL

ϟ 𝐓𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐃𝐀𝐘, 𝟏𝟐/𝟏𝟖/𝟏𝟐 ϟ

"HEY, Ellie, did you wanna come over today after school? I could use some girl time. My brother's are annoying the crap out of me," Bree groaned.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Bree. I can't today. My dad told me to come straight home," Ellie spoke, a look of pity on her face, "But I'll come over sometime soon. I promise. He's been working on a big article recently, so once he publishes it, we could probably have another sleepover like last time!"

"And make some more of that French toast," Bree moaned, the two reminiscing about their breakfast that day. The two giggled as they finally came to a halt at their gym class.

"And we'll definitely do something over winter break -- don't worry," Ellie assured.

"Ugh, I am so excited for break. Junior year has been so exhausting. And chemistry sucks," the brunette spoke inelegantly, entering the gym class.

"And, when we come back, we'll have a different gym teacher. That's a bonus," Ellie reminded the girl, looking over at their teacher. Mr. Veehar was practically too old to do a pushup himself, and he was finally taking a step into the retired life. "I'm definitely not going to become a teacher if it took this long for him to retire."

"Absolutely not. One day as a principal was enough for me," Bree giggled as the two walked into the girls locker room and began to change.

Ellie struggled slightly to pull her hoodie up over her head, but once that was over, her purple Queen t-shirt was easy to take off. She paid no mind to Bree anymore as she dug in her bag for her gym uniform and smoothed the shirt out, trying to orient it correctly so that she could put it on.

She heard Bree suck a long breath in, making her turn around. She was worried, for a second. For most of the year, she had been changing in the stall so that no one would see the bruises she got from training and her hero work. She didn't think she had any today, so she had spared herself the inconvenience. Was it possible she missed one?

When she turned her head, she followed Bree's line of sight -- the scar on her back.

When she turned, Bree's eyes widened to see a mirrored scar on the front, matching the one in the back almost exactly, except more severe.

"Oh," Ellie spoke softly, quickly putting her gym shirt on.

"Sorry, I just -- I've never seen it before. Leo told me about it but. . ."

"Um, no, it's fine. . ." Ellie trailed off, unbuttoning her jeans. "I just forget about it all the time. I don't think about it anymore."

"It's really cool, honestly. It's . . . unique," Bree said, offering a smile to diffuse the tension of the situation.

Ellie chuckled at her friend. "Yeah. . . unique is definitely a descriptor."

"It looks like it really hurt. Did it?"

This was Ellie's least favorite topic, probably of all time. She was able to forget, day to day, what her childhood was like after gaining consciousness at mighty med, what it was like before Leo, but when she was forced to talk about it, she always felt like that scared little girl again, the one that knew nothing about anything, even herself. The one that was learning how to walk again while other kids her age were testing their limits, seeing how fast they could run, how far they could bike, how long they could hold their breath under water.

"Of course it hurt," Bree answered herself. "That was a stupid question."

"No, it wasn't," Ellie assured her friend. It was natural to be curious -- she couldn't penalize Bree for that. "The actual wound didn't hurt too much by the time I woke up, but it was really hard to build the motor skills again. That's what hurt."