Super

23 - One Does Not Ignore A Sex God

"He was trying to be seductive. I had to bite back a laugh. There wasn't a "deep" bone in the Invisible Hand's body; he was as shallow as a kiddy pool. Still, as he stared at me, trying to woo me with his overdramatic and cliché tactics, I realised that maybe it was working because it was him and he had, as all villains did, a flare for the dramatic and a weird taste for uncomfortable spandex." 

– Annie Collins, Super

I had never been more excited for a Friday. Why? BECAUSE I WAS GETTING MY SUPER SUIT THAT DAY!!! WHOOOOOOOO. Okay, so why is that such a big deal, you're wondering? Why are you suddenly so excited to become a living, breathing target? 

You're right, dear reader: I might as well have had a giant red dartboard pinned to my ass, but hey, ever since I first learnt of the existence of supers, you know, in that my best friend was one, I had kindofalwayssecretlywantedtobeasuperhero. Whew. Glad I got that off my chest! And now, in six short hours, I was about to get my Very. Own. Super. Suit! Courtesy of Finn's "guy". The only thing standing in the way of me and my glorious new apparel: school.

Ahh school, the existential bane of my existence and the peak of my very long career of social awkwardness. Sixteen years to be exact. Well, seventeen today, but I'll get to that in a minute. But anyway, I've always been awkward. 

School happened to be particularly awkward on that fine Friday because Ciaran and I spent the day studiously avoiding each other. Has anyone ever called you a bitch behind your back and then you found out and then they found out that you found out and it was just very extremely awkward? No? Well it was like that. And if that's never happened to you, then use your damn imagination. While Ciaran didn't exactly call me a bitch behind my back or anything, it was still really – at risk of over using the term – awkward!

Meanwhile, Dresden was trying not to act awkward about the fact that he had known the whole time – much to Ciaran's annoyance – and for once, I was actually seeking refuge with Asshole #1 (aka Dresden Fox). Yeah. Awkward sure is one hell of an understatement. Then again, so is my life.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Several voices chorused as I walked into math class, much to my disappointment. Come on people, it's supposed to be the whole class here! Don't get me wrong, I still had the whole teenage-angst oh-my-God-please-nobody-point-out-that-it's-my-birthday thing going on, but at the same time, I was turning seventeen, which, at the time, I thought was pretty freaking cool. But I couldn't exactly let people know that, now could I?

"Fan-fucking-tastic," I muttered, shooting Lila a wink as I plopped unceremoniously into my seat. She rolled her eyes at my dramatic entrance before turning to yell at Nick and Ashton who were busy doing the whole, "happy birthday to you, you live in a zoo, you look like a monkey, a-a-and you smell like one too!"

"Love you too, boys," I smirked and flicked my eyes over to see both Ciaran and Dresden watching me. Creepy. I looked away quickly, hoping they hadn't noticed me. Of course, Dresden, being the creepy mind reader that he was, cocked his eyebrow at my scowl and whispered something to Ciaran who also cracked a smirk. 

Why are you conferring with a super villain? I thought very loudly and very rudely, while Dresden just laughed and mimed shooting an arrow in his own heart as he mouthed, I'm wounded Annie.

"Annie! Annie! Annie, look! Annie you're not looking, Annie, look!" Nick poked my shoulder harder and harder with each syllable, but as I was turning to scowl at him, I noticed something very interesting. For the first time in forever (no literally, this has never happened before), Ciaran Hunt was making his way over to our table. Well, our little row of tables.