Fire and Ice

Chapter Two

     I wake up to the sound of my alarm clock beeping and look at the clock.  It said 8:00 AM, and I realized that I had to be in work in an hour.  I work as a waitress at a diner down the street part time, because being a masked hero doesn't exactly pay rent.  I get out of bed and leave my room of my apartment, detecting the smell of bacon coming from the kitchen.  I walk in there and my roommate, Lexi, is at the stove cooking breakfast, wearing her nursing scrubs.  She works as a nurse at the hospital downtown.

     "Good morning!"  she says cheerfully.  

     "How could you be so happy in the morning?"  I grumble, tired because I had to wake up before 10.  She's always been a morning person, and I'm sometimes jealous of that.  I've known Lexi since college, and she's probably my best friend.  Actually, I think she's my only friend, since I'm not exactly a social butterfly.  She was there throughout my relationship with Alex, and easily saw the signs of what was going on.  She tried to convince me to leave him, but that's easier said than done.

     "I kind of have to be considering the hours I work."  she answers. Since Lexi's a nurse, her shifts are usually ridiculously early in the morning.  Today was one of the few days when she didn't have to work before 9 AM.  

      "Do you want any eggs?"  she asks.  

     "No thanks, I'm having cereal.  But I will take some bacon."  I steal a piece of bacon from the plate that she placed on the table and then pour myself a bowl of Cocoa Puffs.  

     "You're in the paper again."  she says, passing the newspaper to me.  The front headline said Ember Stops Shooting At Movie Theater.  There is a picture of me in my suit holding two fireballs in my hand.  My suit consists of black combat boots and leggings, and a dark red jacket.  I wanted to wear an orange jacket, but I've never liked orange on me because it clashes with my red hair, even though nobody even sees much of my hair since I always wear my hood.  I also where a dark red mask over my eyes to further protect my identity.  It's actually a pretty good picture.  If I didn't want to keep my identity a secret, I would totally make it my Facebook profile picture.  

     Speaking of secret identities, I should probably mention that Lexi knows about what I do with my free time.  I didn't want her to know at first, but she found out once when I came back to the apartment with a gunshot wound on my arm and had to be stitched up.  Since then, she's basically been my doctor whenever I get injured fighting somebody,  which is nice because explaining my injuries to doctors at the hospital would be pretty hard without explaining my identity.  I think that either was Lexi would have found out eventually, since we live together.  She's the only person that knows about me, though.

     "I should probably get ready at some point..."  I say, after reading what the paper had to say about me and finishing my breakfast.  

     "Yeah, you probably should." Lexi says, smuggly, because she was in love with my job and I absolutely hated working at the diner.

     "What if I call in sick?"  I say, seriously considering the possibility.  

     "Nope."  Lexi answers, popping the p.  "How are you going to pay rent if you don't go to work?"  That's what I like about Lexi.  She's always honest with me when I'm planning on doing something stupid.  

     After getting ready, I make my way to work at the diner.  It's right down the street, so I usually walk.

     I clock in when I reach the diner and grab my notepad and apron from the back.  

   "Hi Amy!"  the cook, Tony, greets me.  If I had to guess, I would say that Tony is about 50 years old, but he is one of the nicest people I work with here.  Linda, my boss, was alright, but sometimes she can get on my nerves when she's so strict on what we wear for our uniforms.  You would think that since we're a small diner, it wouldn't matter that much, but no.  Once, I came to work wearing black socks instead of the white socks I was supposed to wear with my red sneakers as part of my uniform.  You could hardly tell, because my jeans usually covered them, but she noticed when I reached down to tie my shoe.  She made me go home, get white socks on ,and come back.  I don't usually work with anybody else but Linda and Tony, because the diner was small and that's usually all the people we need, but sometimes if it's busy there would be another waitress working with me.

     A few hours later, I'm serving a cheeseburger and salad to a couple at one of my tables when I hear a reporter on the news from the TV we have on one of our walls.  

     "There has been reports of a shooting at Flash City Hospital." the reporter says.  "The police say that he has taken fifteen hostages."

     I almost dropped the plates that I was holding.  I think I may have stopped breathing for a second.  There was a shooting.  At the hospital.  Lexi worked there.

Author's Note

I'm really enjoying writing this so far! Let me know what you think so I know if it's completely awful or not