Victor, Victorious

Chapter Thirty

Saturday morning, Victor walked through Huntley Park, holding the biggest piece of pan dulce they had at the corner market. The sunshine comforted him as he approached Mikaela, who—Thank God!—sat on the bench where he had last seen her.

Victor didn't know how this would go, but he'd discovered recently that he wasn't one to give up too easily in the face of adversity.

When he was a few feet behind the girl, Victor said, "Buenos dias."

Mikaela turned and sighed. She had been drawing. "Great. It's you." She put down her pencil. Closed her notebook.

Victor sat at the opposite end of the bench. "I don't have to be here long if you don't want me to be." Her sarcasm had stung. "I just wanted to see how you're doing."

"Better, I guess. The school called my parents a couple of days ago. Told them they found out who sent the pictures. That they expelled them."

Victor pretended to be surprised. But he hadn't seen Colin around. He suspected it hadn't taken much for Courtney to roll on her brother. Not after all the things he'd done.

"Who was it?" Victor asked. "Did they say?"

Mikaela's look sent shivers down his spine. "Does it really matter?"

"Guess not," said Victor. "Did they say how they found out who it was?"

Please say, "No." Please say, "No." Please say, "No."

"I have no idea," said Mikaela. "You gonna keep talking about this, or...?"

Victor shook his head. "We don't have to." He removed his breakfast and offered her a piece of it.

"No, thanks."

Victor's heart dropped a little, but he kept chugging along, pressing her for some info. "So...You coming back to school any time soon?"

"No," she said. "I'm going to Jefferson Prep now. Started on Monday."

Well, crap. That just about blew his heart apart into smithereens.

Still, he was able to mask his disappointment. "I hear that's a nice school. You'll do real good there."

"No one knows me, at least. That's the nice thing about it."

"Cool, cool." Victor paused, took a deep breath. "You know that wasn't me sending you those messages, right? Someone was just pretending to be me."

"I guess." She broke eye contact with him, looked off into the distance. "Hey, I don't wanna be rude, but I'd kinda prefer to be alone right now."

"Oh. Okay."

As Victor stood, he realized this was it. This would be the last time he ever saw this girl, unless he somehow convinced her he wasn't a total loser.

"Just so you know," he said. "I'm not a bad guy. I know I used to be one, but not anymore. Every change I've made has, in a way, been for you."

She looked right at him now. Turned her head at an angle as if to further inspect him. Was she angry? Annoyed?

She said, "I didn't ask you to change. Why would I? I don't even really know you."

"I know that," said Victor. "But I wanted to change, anyway. And I'm glad I did. I like who I am now. And I...I think that maybe now I'm someone you wouldn't mind getting to know."

Mikaela didn't reply. Instead, she turned away from him.

Victor knew he was a good person. He had thought that positive things would just start coming his way now. That getting Mikaela to like him would be a slam dunk. A touchdown. A homerun.

More like an air ball. A fumble. A strikeout.

His chest was heavy. It was difficult to breathe.

God, was he going to cry? Seriously?

He walked off before she saw that nonsense.

"Hold on! Wait!"

Music to his ears. Victor turned back to Mikaela. She waved him over. He accepted the invitation.

When he was near, he tried to hide his smile. "Yeah?"

"Maybe you can help me with something."

"Sure. Absolutely. Anything. What is it?"

She opened her notebook to a drawing of a girl wearing a long cape. It was a self-portrait. "This is Mighty Mikaela," she said. "She looks like me, but she's much stronger. She doesn't let other people's words get her down."

"You're still here. Seems plenty strong to me."

Mikaela said, "I wanna make a comic book about her. I think my brother would be proud of that."

"Awesome!"

"I've never tried to make one before. Have you?"

"No."

"Oh. I thought that since you said that you read comics that maybe..."

Truth be told, he wasn't much of an artist. But he said, "I'll help you try."

She smiled. "Cool. Have a seat, then, right here."

Victor sat down next to her. He hadn't felt so happy in a looooooong-ass time.

Not when his dad had showed up at school a couple days before and told Victor that he was thinking of checking into rehab.

Not when Victor told Sergio and Bart that he'd snitched on Colin, and they'd said that they wished they'd done the same thing.

Not when Sergio's mom assured Victor that he was in no way responsible for his mother's death.

This. Sitting here with her on this bench. This was happiness.

"I guess I am kinda hungry," said Mikaela. "Can I still have some of that?"

Victor removed the pan dulce from the paper bag and tore it in two. He of course handed her the bigger half.

"Thanks," she said. "Now, I think Mighty Mikaela should have a partner."

"Alright."

"Challenges should be easier for her if she's not alone, don't you think?"

"Yeah."

"You have any ideas about who her partner could be?"

Victor pretended to have to think about it, even though the idea was already at the forefront of his mind. "I think I got something," he said.

"Okay, what is it?"

"A kid named Victor. But, when he fights crime, he goes by 'Victorious'."

"Victor, Victorious," she said.

"Yes."

She said it again. "Victor, Victorious." Again. "Victor, Victorious."

"What do you think?"

"I like him already." She handed Victor the pencil and her notebook. "What's he look like?"

"I don't really draw."

"That's okay. I just wanna see what you can do."

Victor held the pencil's tip over a blank page. "He looks like an ordinary kid. But he's been through a lot and has learned a lot, too. That's what makes him so powerful. His knowledge is his power."

Mikaela let that hang in the air for a bit. "Ehhhh, that sounds kinda lame. Could he also smash through walls and run really, really fast?"

"No, sorry. This guy—he runs really, really, really fast."

"Three 'really's? Now, that's just ridiculous."

She moved closer to him.

Victor grinned.

He put the pencil to paper and drew.