The Crazy Adventures of Aqua Girl

Chapter 5 - News Flash

"Where in the world were you? I was worried sick." Mom cried, standing in the living room and glaring at me in her pajamas as I dripped rainwater onto the wooden floor.

"I fell off my skateboard in the rain." I replied, emphasizing the word rain and kneeling down as Rufus bounded from his bed to greet me.

"Hm...anyways, get to bed." Mom said, after flopping back on the sofa and continuing the sketch in her large sketchpad. As an interior designer she's always got her head in a sketchpad, trying out new designs and ideas. She's also a scatterbrain. Once she's focused she doesn't even care what's going on around her. I hung my coat in the hallway and padded through the living room into our small kitchen.

"I'm going to get some ice cream and watch Star Wars." I called, testing my luck with Mom's focus.

"Sure thing, sweetie." I grinned to myself as the freezer opened and the glorious sight of tubs of vanilla ice cream graced my eyes. I picked up a tub, closed the freezer and trotted towards my bedroom, with Rufus in tow. Once inside my comfy refuge I slammed the door and bounded over to the shelf in my bookcase which was full of all the Star Wars DVDs. Yeah, I'm a geek. As I pondered which movie to watch this evening Rufus nuzzled my bookshelf, causing a few books to tumble from the top shelf. The Empire Strikes Back, one of my selected favorites. I turned to put the DVD into my TV and looked at the books Rufus had knocked onto the floor. One of which was My Life by Ice Woman, an autobiography. I picked it up and stroked the paperback cover with Ice Woman's face on it. My hero. Heroine. She had saved San Francisco many times from villains and she was my idol. You could probably tell if you stepped in my room. There's limited edition Ice Woman posters all around my walls, along with figurines and toys on my shelves and Ice Woman bed sheets. I even bought Rufus an Ice Woman collar, which was adorned with snowflakes. Cute.

As I settled down in my beanbag for a night of Star Wars, Rufus cuddles and ice cream, there was still a slight pang in my chest. Who was Blaze Boy, and why had today been so crap for me?

Probably bad karma or something.

"Wake up! You're gonna be late for school!" My mother's voice rang through my sleepy head as I slowly lifted my eyelids. I was about to turn over and go back to sleep when I felt a heavy body land on mine and begin licking my face.

"Ew! Rufus get off of me!" I said, squirming to get my dog off of the bed. He simply barked and trotted out of the room at my mom's heels.

After washing, brushing my teeth and putting on my favourite jeans and NASA t-shirt, I scrambled into a dark hoodie, grabbed my backpack and rushed out of my room, almost tripping over Rufus in the process.

"Bye mom!" I yelled, unlocking our apartment door and opening it. My mother came to the hallway and threw a croissant in my direction. I gratefully accepted it. My mom knew I was a sucker for French food. Ooh la la.

"Stay safe today, sweet cheeks!" She called as I slammed the door, munching my croissant. I rolled my eyes. Her nicknames for me were terrible. Just because I used to be a chubby-faced kindergartner, she invented all sorts of cringe-worthy names for me, which I forbid her from saying in public. Seriously.

I bounded down the 4 flights of stairs leading from my apartment and entered the bustling streets of downtown San Francisco. I pushed my way through the crowds of early morning tourist and businessmen to the road, and gazed down the street. Sure enough, there was a yellow school bus on the horizon, stuck in traffic. I sighed and took a seat on a wooden bench by the bus stop, where public and school buses stopped. Lucky for me it was right outside my apartment. After a few minutes of waiting, the school bus pulled up in front of me and I clambered on, nodding to the old driver. Rachael was sat in our usual spot, tapping away on her phone. I dumped my bag on the floor and sat next to her as she looked up.

"Yo." I muttered, looking over at her phone screen. It was her Twitter feed, with some famous person talking about feminism or something political.

"Let's hope today goes better Cass, or else I'm going to go to my mom's yoga therapy place and see if the Buddha has a grudge on me." Rachael scoffed, locking her phone and tucking it into her bag.

"Yeah, let's hope."

The bus ride took exactly 30 minutes today, after a minor car accident left us stranded on 5th street for 10 minutes. Eventually, the bus pulled up to the hellish doors of West Brooke High School, and Rach and I joined the crowds of students piling in.

"What have you got first?" Rachael asked, raising her voice over the noise of high-schoolers.

"Chemistry lab." I replied, getting excited already. Rachael rolled her eyes and waved as her English classroom's door approached in the hallway we were travelling down. I waved back as she entered the room, and continued my route towards Chem lab. Most people in my science classes didn't take anything seriously, but I loved science. Blowing stuff up and making acids. Yup, sign me up. I had countless chemistry sets and experiments going on at home, and there were dents and holes all over my room's walls and ceiling to prove I wasn't afraid of experimenting. Literally. Finally I found my Chem lab classroom and sauntered in, taking my usual seat next to Kyle Ridford. He was a quite dude who normally worked well with me, as I normally just did everything in the experiments while he took notes. It seems to work for us that way.

Our Chem lab teacher, Mr Gates strutted into the room, followed by a boy with dark, floppy hair in a dark hoodie. Bingo. Aidan Smith. The new boy. The whole class hushed as the teacher and Aidan stood at the front.

"Good morning, class. We have a new student with us today. Aidan, would you like to introduce yourself?" After the Mr Gates spoke, Aidan stepped forward and looked up at us, revealing a tanned face with hazel eyes.

"Hi. I'm Aidan. Er....I moved here from Michigan a few weeks ago..." He stammered, looking around the room at all of our faces. "I'm happy to be here." A few of my fellow classmates nodded, and the teacher assigned Aidan a seat....next to me. I opened my textbook as Aidan sat down and I wrote today's date at the top corner of a new page. The teacher told us what we were doing today and then told us to discuss with our groups what equipment we would need. The classroom slowly filled with noise and I looked over at Aidan.

"So, you're Aidan, huh?" I said, trying to make conversation. Aidan simply smirked and I was taken aback by his sudden confidence.

"Were you not listening to me speaking a moment ago?" He replied, with sarcasm in his voice. My nice, caring nature was suddenly switched to my sassy, sarcastic one, and I raised my eyebrows.

"Who knew, the mysterious new boy has got sass.." I mused, studying Aidan's face. He grinned and opened his brand new textbook, finishing the conversation. I was about to introduce Mr Sassy Pants (aka Aidan) to Kyle when Lola Princeton, one of the school's biggest gossipers stood up and screamed. The class fell silent and turned to look up at Lola, who was frantically staring at her phone.

"There's been an attack! Leopard Girl has attacked downtown!" Lola cried, looking around the class. What?! Leopard Girl was one of my favourite superheros. She was a fast as a leopard, strong, and leaped around on top of buildings, always fighting crime. I was sure Lola had gone crazy when Mr Gates looked up from his computer.

"It's true. There's been a superhero attack. Leopard Girl has killed 10 people downtown. Let me show you." Mr Gates quickly projected his computer screen onto the whiteboard to show live footage of the news. The volume was turned on and my heart was thudding uncontrollably. The screen was showing the headline of 'NEWS FLASH: SUPERHERO ATTACKS, KILLING 10 CITIZENS' and a live video of ambulances and police cars swarming a pavement.

"This just in, Leopard Girl has reportedly killed 10 people, and left 13 seriously injured after a surprise attack at a tourist spot in downtown San Francisco." The news reporter sounded as shocked as I was, speaking quickly and frantically.

Why was a superhero killing people?!