Zoom, Academy for Superheroes: Part 3

Not Like the Movies

        "I didn't feel the fairytale feeling, no. Am I a stupid girl for even dreaming that I could? If it's not like the movies, that's how it should be. When he's the one, I'll come undone, and my world will stop spinning. And that's just the beginning. Snow White said when I was young, 'One day my prince will come,' so I wait for that date."
-Katy Perry

*****

        "Okay, so today, we're going to go through the day as normal as possible, we are not going to talk to Mr. Johnson, we're going to observe him from afar, we'll meet in my English room at twelve thirty during the break to discuss what we've seen so far, and then again at three o'clock before we leave." Marsha said in the cab that morning on the way to the high school.
        "Yeah, yeah, you drilled this into me last night, I'm more concerned about what we're going to do after." Jack
        Marsha glanced his way in confusion, "After?" She said, "After we have to contact Area 52 and give them an update and then probably look over the file once more and decide what we're going to do tomorrow and what the plan is and - "
        "And that can all be done in five minutes." Jack interrupted her, she was stressing him out already and it wasn't even nine in the morning yet. "Come on, we're in a new town, shouldn't we make the most of it and actually do stuff in our free time?"
        Marsha smiled, "I guess having something to look forward to might make today a lot less stressful..." She said uncertainly, and Jack knew to take this as a yes.
        The cab stopped abruptly at the east entrance of the school. They had been asked to be dropped off at separate entrances, so that it wouldn't look like they were arriving together and nobody would have any suspicions. "Okay, see you at twelve thirty." Marsha said quickly before getting out of the car and entering the school.

*****

        It was only ten o'clock in the morning, and Marsha had already thrown away the plan she'd told Jack to follow precisely. She hadn't planned on talking to Mr. Johnson, she wanted to just observe him today, but when he came up to her and introduced himself, she panicked. She didn't even think to realize that maybe she wouldn't be able to avoid him, she was a new teacher, after all, and if Mr. Johnson was a nice guy, he would introduce himself. And he did.
        So it all went down the drain. "Good morning!" He'd exclaimed in the middle of the hallway while all the students had a fifteen minute break. Marsha paused and glanced around herself, wondering if he had been speaking to her. She hoped he wasn't, she hoped he hadn't even noticed her and she could sneak back to her room without having a run in with him until tomorrow as planned.
        But she wasn't so lucky. "You're the new English sub, right? Miss Holloway?" He asked, and Marsha felt herself panick, "I'm Mr. Johnson, Ben." He said with a warm smile. When Marsha didn't say anything, as she was still wondering what to do and what to say, he continued. "So, do you have a first name to go with that, or...?" He continued to smile and speak casually.
        Marsha felt herself relax, as long as she kept her cool, he wouldn't know anything was up. "Marsha," she said with a smile, "it's nice to meet you."
        "Well, Marsha, what brings you to Summerland Secondary?"
        She panicked once more as she forgot her entire backstory. "I, um... " Marsha felt her face turning red as everything went downhill. "... well, I was, um, I went to school in Vancouver and, um, initially wanted to do... " she paused for a second, desperately trying to remember what she had read over and over again the night before. "... journalism, but that's, that's a, um, a tough field to succeed in, and I already had my, uh, I majored in English, so I took a, um, I took another course and got my teaching degree, so... "
        Marsha could tell by the strange look on Benjamin's face that she had completely blown it. "So... I'm just subbing here and there until I, um, until I can find a full time teaching job." She took a deep breath as she finally managed to get out her story. It didn't sound convincing in the least, and she wondered if he knew exactly what she was up to and her and Jack would be sent home by tomorrow.
        The bell rang and the students began to migrate back to their classes, Ben smiled as politely as he could and said "Goodbye" before going back to his own class. Marsha's face was still red and she cursed herself mentally for completely blowing her cover. From behind her, she heard a familiar snicker.
        "Well," she turned around quickly to see Jack leaning against a bank of lockers. "that was certainly interesting." He said sarcastically, as Marsha sent him a painful look.
        "How long have you been standing there?"
        "Longer than you'd like," Jack teased, "I thought we weren't talking to him today?"
        Marsha sighed and went to stand with him in defeat, she didn't have another class to teach until eleven, so she had time to spare. "I didn't know he was going to introduce himself." She said quietly.
        "I'm not going to lie to you, Sweetheart, that was pretty bad."
        Marsha sighed once more and put a hand to her forehead, wondering how on Earth they were going to fix this. He was obviously suspicious now, and if she starts to get close to him and begins asking personal questions, his confusion and suspicion would only grow.
        "I'll tell you what," Jack began, "why don't we just switch up what we were going to do at lunch, and instead of me staying away and you going into the staff room, you stay up here, pretend you got paperwork to do or something, and I'll go in, see what I can find out." He suggested.
        Usually, Marsha would have argued this, she was usually better in the middle of something, while Jack made a mess of things. But after what had just happened, she knew that this was the smarter option.