Light of a Thousand Stars

23- Calliope

Just when Theresa felt like she could get some sleep, a slight buzzing sound came from somewhere on her nightstand. She rolled over to check it out, when she finally realized she knew what it was... The bane of her existence. The alarm clock she had set the night prior.

More asleep than awake, she stumbled to take a shower and get ready for the day. She rushed downstairs to find Mayday and Loki already perfectly ready. And fed. Glancing up at the clock, she stuffed a granola bar into her mouth, just before realizing that she had already brushed her teeth, and that the chocolate chips in the bar probably wouldn't fulfill their maximum chocolaty taste. Sighing, she followed her friends out the door, waving goodbye to her grandfather as she did, who she just realized still probably had no idea what was going on. Eh, can't be late for school!

That morning, before Theresa had fully woken up, they had decided that they were going to walk to school. After all, Midtown High wasn't extremely far away from the Stark Tower, and it would just seem suspicious if these three, supposedly unrelated new students showed up in a fancy car. But then again, that was before Theresa had fully woken up, and not to far into their journey, she was already regretting it. She was fit from being a superhero, but thanks to her powers, she usually didn't have to run- or walk- very far, so naturally, her feet started hurting when it seemed to her that they had just left the Tower a few seconds prior. When she realized that they were probably only half-way there, she was almost tempted to activate her suit under her sweatshirt and hover over the ground inconspicuously, but her plan was interrupted by Mayday's voice next to her.

"With all this stuff going on with our parents and Doctor Strange and Uncle Tony, I don't know about you, but I haven't had much time to think about our actual mission. We have to make sure this universe doesn't share the same fate as ours did. So, uh, should we have some sort of plan? Perhaps a way to find Darkhand? Oh, what was his name... Ethan?" Mayday was glancing down, trying to keep her voice down incase someone overheard, but Theresa was sure she wouldn't have to worry. After all, even her friends could barely hear her over the noise of New York City.

And, as she absorbed her friend's words, she realized with a start that she hadn't told her friends about meeting Evan. Why was she realizing so many things this morning? "Oh, uh, about that," she started, "I kinda already met Darkhand. Evan. He was my student ambassador; he showed me around the school and stuff. He actually didn't seem that bad."

Her friends glanced at each other, raising their eyebrows. "Didn't seem that bad?" Loki asked skeptically. "Oh, yeah, he probably was just secretly waiting for the right moment to destroy the universe, no big deal."

Theresa rolled her eyes, glancing away. "I don't know. He just... seemed nice. And I mean, why would someone who hated the world enough to destroy it join student ambassadors? Something must have happened between now and our time that caused him to go evil," I explained.

Loki took another breath, probably to make another sarcastic remark, when another voice filled the space in between them. As if he had heard them saying his name, Evan had appeared somewhere behind the three teenagers. "Hey, Selena!" he called. It took a few moments before Theresa remembered her pseudonym and turned her head, but sure enough, there he was, just behind them. Glancing at her friends, Theresa slowed to allow him to catch up with them.

"Oh, hey Evan! What's going up? Uh- going on?" She asked nervously, not quite sure if the pit in her stomach was him trying to hypnotize her or just her general anxiety of keeping this entire dimension from a horrible future.

"I just wanted to make sure you were alright after that weird attack on the school yesterday," he responded, suddenly aware of the two people right next to her.

Glancing to where his eyes had fallen, Theresa smiled nervously and motioned to her friends. "Evan, these are, uh, my friends. That's... Madeline, and this is... ummmmmmm... Logan. Yeah. Logan. Guys, this is Evan. He's my student ambassador," she explained, feeling dumb that she had to repeat herself, when she had already relayed this information to them less than five seconds ago.

"Nice to meet you, Evan!" Mayday cut in, an obviously fake smile plastered to her face. "I'm. So. Glad. To. Meet. You."

Evan glanced at Theresa, but she couldn't look him in the eyes. "Uh, yeah, it's nice to meet you, too," he replied, our nervousness began to seep into him. Or maybe he was just creeped out by Mayday.