The Super Jerk Trilogy (Now 3-in-1)

10. One Call Away

{Sarah}

I'm stunned for a second. Mainly because my doubts of Kaelie having any more viciousness than she had already showed were confirmed. But also partly because other people are beginning to stare and whisper. If she'd been wanting to single me out again, she's succeeded this time.

   "Did you see that?"

   "Yeah. Just flung it in her face."

   I turn and shove my way through the crowd, paying no attention to the indignant remarks I'm getting. Anger and humiliation are both burning in my chest, and I feel hot tears of embarrassment rising fast. I have to get out of here.

   When I finally feel the night breeze on me, I quicken my pace, and pretty soon I'm running, tears blinding me. I don't even know where I'm going. That becomes clear to me when my foot catches on something and I crash to the ground, my cheek slamming into something soft and wet.

   I know it's grass. I bury my face in my arms and sob, feeling helpless to change any of this. I'd been bullied before, but it was nothing like this, a constant and everyday thing. The worst thing is that I don't even know what I did. She just seemed to come after me for no apparent reason. I punch the grass with my fist, envisioning Kaelie's face. I wish I knew how to stand up for myself, and I wish I knew what to say. But I'd never had the right words, not when I needed them.

   Stupid girls and their grudges.

   Finally, when I've stopped crying, I stay there, not even wanting to get up. If that murderer, whoever they are, were to come along right now, I wouldn't be completely opposed to the idea.

   Merlin, I'm starting to sound like Victor. Maybe we aren't so different after all.

   Then, from above me, comes a voice.

   "Sarah?"

   I sit bolt upright, swiping at my eyes and coming face-to-face with a pair of blue knee-high boots. I know who it is even before he speaks again.

   It's Blue Bolt.

   "Whatcha doing out here?" he says when I finally raise my gaze to his face. Something about it seems familiar, but again, I can't place it exactly.

   "Looking at the clouds," I say in only a halfhearted attempt to be sarcastic. Kaelie must have taken it out of me.

   He looks up. "Huh. Kinda dark out, isn't it?"

   "I might as well ask you the same question." I take his hand and let him pull me up. I have to release it immediately, because I feel a current up my arm. Something tells me it isn't just because of his superpowers. "What brings you out here? How'd you find me?"

   "You don't think I'd respond to a distress cry like that?" He crosses his arms and smirks at me. "I saw the way she threw that in your face. Vicious. I'm surprised she hadn't spiked it with some kind of stinging agent for your eyes."

   "Wait...you were there?" He nods. "Why didn't I see you?"

   "I hide in plain sight, Sarah. That's the beauty of being a super."

   "I thought you were supposed to be out fighting your crime, or whatever it is that you do." Again, a tug at the back of my mind. Something about him is familiar. Only I can't place it.

   "This is enough of a situation for me. What happened to you?" He gestures to my punch-stained dress.

   "She splashed it on me. Kaelie did. Just point-blank, no warning."