The Library of Powers

Chapter 9 - Part 2

"I'm not so sure about this," Samantha voiced, while chowing down on a burger. Chase was sitting across from her, eating a very similar burger. She hated it when he did that, it made her feel awkward when someone ordered the same thing as her. Like she was copying them.

Chase seemed to have a pre-planned response. "You didn't see that fight. The kid has serious talent. Plus, if we want to pull off the big score, we need a third."

"Kid? He's the same age as us! Plus, everyone knows what his powers are!" she yelled. Samantha took an aggressive sip of her soda, and scowled at the incredibly attractive man across from her. Damn, she couldn't be thinking like that. Not now.

"But that's the genius of it," Chase explained, "His powers let him get in and out without anyone knowing he was there! It's like super speed but better!"

"But... We don't even know what LRS has planned for our big score. Jackson's kind of a one trick pony."

Chase literally spat out chunks of burger. Samantha cringed, lucky to avoid any of the gross projectiles. "One trick pony? WHAT?" he exclaimed, getting worked up to the point where she was concerned he would make a scene. Luckily though, a look of understanding dawned on Chase. "Oh, you're messing with me."

"Took you long enough. I'm in physics with him. He lit a fire in the middle of class and then instantly put it out. If that's not budding supervillain warning signs, I don't know what is." Samantha took a fry from their shared platter. But upon closer inspection, it had a piece of Chase's burger on it. "Chase, please clean this up before our guest gets here."

He obliged, but she picked up some muttering along the lines of "Guest, this is a damn restaurant. We're the guests..." After depositing the consolidated burger remains into a few napkins, she threw them in the awfully tasteless garbage can. Seriously, it was designed to look like one of those 90s paper cups. Whoever thought that was a good idea should go into the oversized cup with Chef Chase's patty turned ground beef.

"Oh yeah," Chase told her as she was sitting back down at the table. "I told him he could bring a friend or two."

Oh no. Another? It couldn't be...

The door chimed to the restaurant, and Jackson Reil entered with --- is that Melanie Collins? --- in tow. He singled them out instantly and headed for their table. Wow, it really was Melanie. What could have gotten her away from her best friend Selina's party? Well, at least it wasn't that Ivory chick. What would've been the odds?

"Hey buddy, glad you could make it!" Chase called out, putting wayyy too much emphasis on the Y in hey. To her surprise, they shared a warm smile. Buttering him up a little early, aren't you?

Her partner in crime glanced at her, and noticing her sour mood, tried to bring her into the conversation. "Oh yeah, this is my bestie, Sam," he finally addressed Jackson's guest. "You're Melanie, right? Sam, do you know Melanie?"

"Everyone knows Melanie. You know that," she responded, blowing them off. Dammit Samantha, she scolded herself, get your shit together. Sure, it's a high profile student, but that didn't mean she'd have to abort the plan. Just... Enter the subject lightly. "Have you ordered yet?" she asked the newcomers.

"We just got here, you saw us enter," Melanie said matter of factly. With maybe a hint of sass.

Take the olive branch, you rich airhead! "Well, when you do, think about getting the slammer. It's pretty good." To emphasize her point, she held up the burger she had been eating. It wasn't a slammer, but by the time she remembered that, she had already gotten away with it. She mock congratulated herself for "Another successful swindle".

Jackson and Melanie took the opportunity to head over to order at the counter, which gave Samantha the opportunity to yell at Chase.

"The daughter of a superhero? What were you thinking!" she scolded.

"She's the daughter of two superheroes. Plus all her older brothers and sisters are."

"We have to re-evaluate our game plan. We need to get Jackson alone."

"And it was Jackson who invited her. Out of all the kids at the school, it was a pretty slim chance it would be a super."

Samantha stopped her ruminating to butt in on Chase's completely different conversation in which he was basically talking to himself. "Slim chance? This is Vera City and we were at Selina Sadie Demarcsson's party. There was like a 60% chance he would be bringing someone with powers."

"Ehhh, 40%"

"50."

"Why are we haggling this?"

By that point, Melanie was heading back to the table, while Jackson ordered his food. She held one of those red triangles that told the servers where to go. It was number 24. She sat down on the side closest to her, across from Samantha, next to Chase. He scooted further down the booth to make room.

"Ugh. I'm so glad to be out of that party." Melanie started.

Chase took the bait. "Really? Why?"

"All those assholes who think they're so much better than everyone else, just because their parent is a superhero. I mean, sure, my family is a bunch of superheroes, but that doesn't mean I wanna be like them." She twirled the plastic straw in her drink, having opted to not take a lid.

Chase and Samantha shared a look of excitement. Back to the original plan. 

Under the table, Melanie sent a message to Jackson.

It read "we're in."