Purple Phoenix

Chapter Four

I groaned on Monday morning when my alarm clock rang, jarring me awake. The past weekend was a blur. I had gone to stores to buy any items I needed with the rest of my money. Now I had not only a small TV but also a table and a chair in the dining/living room. I had bought some kitchen items as well as some decorations to liven up my apartment. My bed was supposed to arrive tomorrow, and I already got the bedsheets and a pillow. Once the bed would arrive, I could live like a normal person.

On the other hand, I ran out of money, meaning I needed to get some more soon. I had about $20 left for food. First things first, I had to go to school. At least my bruises healed a bit and the rest could be covered with clothes. I quickly changed, snagged my backpack off the kitchen counter, and exited my apartment.

While flying would be ten times faster than walking, it would draw too much unnecessary attention. I made my way to school, albeit slowly, without any wrong turns. Within thirty minutes, I arrived at the front of the school, wondering again why I bothered to enroll. I could have slept longer. Still, I forced myself to go upstairs and enter the building.

"Hi, Eve! How was your weekend?" I sighed as Soraya showed up beside me, her black hair bouncing up and down with every step. Apparently, Soraya was not hit by a bus as I had hoped she would.

Pretty good I wanted to say, but instead I went with "Okay."

"I'm glad." She gave me a broad smile. "So now that you have lived here in Shard city for a week, do you like it?"

"Yep," I answered, entering Mr. Kelly's classroom with Soraya.

She reached out and took my wrist in her hand, steering me to the back. "Let's sit here. The back is always the best place to sit." I grunted in response, bothered that she would dare to touch me. I couldn't set her on fire here though. That would give me away on who I was.

I was tuning out Soraya's voice as she prattled on with her weekend when I felt my hairs rise up even though I wasn't even cold. I looked up and saw a boy coming into the classroom. His eyes flicked across the room before they landed on mine and stayed there. Electric blue eyes studied me, trying to figure out who I was. His concentration, however, was broken when another kid bumped into his shoulder. He continued walking to his chair.

"Hey, Soraya?" I said, cutting her off midsentence.

She didn't seem bothered at all. "What's up?"

"Who's that?" I motioned with my hand to the guy. He had taken a seat in the front of the room and started taking out his notebook and pencil.

Soraya turned to me and narrowed her eyes. "Why do you want to know?

I shrugged. "I don't know. He just drew my attention." He was pretty good-looking, too.

Soyara gave me a horrified look. "No, not you too!"

"What?" My brows furrowed.

She put her hand on her face and shook her head, groaning. "That's my brother, Axel." I glanced back and forth between them and only saw one similarity between them: their black hair.

I didn't remember him being here last week, though. "He wasn't here last week, right?"

Soraya had put her head on her hand. This was the first time I actually saw her being grumpy rather than happy and jumpy. "Yeah. He's in Speech and Debate and since our school won the semifinals, they got to go to Florida for a week to compete in the finals."

"Oh. Did they win?" I asked. She nodded. Good for them.

Before I could ask her any more questions, Mr. Kelly welcomed the class and started the lecture of the day.

~ ~ ~

"I can't believe they call this lunch," I grumbled, lifting the spongy, greasy thing they called a burger.

Olivia laughed. "Don't worry. You get used to it." I grunted in annoyance.

Once again, I was dragged over to their lunch table, but this time, by Olivia. I didn't like people, and I especially didn't want to be here. I wanted to be home.

Soraya tapped me on the shoulder. "Did you hear about the new villain?" Startled, I dropped my pizza on my tray.

Soraya's face softened, taking my surprise for fear. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't want to scare you." Scare me?

"I'm not scared. Just surprised. Who's the new villain?" I asked.

Olivia's jaw hardened. "She's called Purple Phoenix. Or at least, that's what she calls herself."

"And she's strong?" I hadn't watched any news lately, but I wanted to know how much they knew about me.

"Strong but not smart." I clenched my jaw. Excuse me? Olivia continued, "Her power's fire but not normal fire. It's purple for some reason."

I took a bite out of my burger. "That's pretty cool."

"But it doesn't act like normal fire," Soraya added. It didn't? What does she mean? It was just a color difference.

I rose an eyebrow. "What do you mean, it doesn't act like normal fire?"

"It's hotter, so it burns stuff twice as fast," Soraya said, tapping her fingers on the table. It did? Why didn't I know this?

"Did she do any damage until now?" I asked them.

Olivia nodded. "Yeah. She set a building on fire on Friday evening. Luckily, no one died, but there were some injuries."

I snorted. "Why didn't anyone stop her?"

Soraya and Olivia shared a look, and Soraya turned to answer. "Spectre was there. You know, the hero that can superspeed and phase. She defeated Purple Phoenix, but since the building was on fire, she went in to help the people stuck in there."

Olivia sighed. "Purple Phoenix got away after Spectre left."

"How unfortunate," I murmured.

Olivia nodded. "Yeah, but the superheroes will stop her the next time she attacks. Think about it. If Windrider, Animalia, and Spectre take her on together, she'll have zero chance to win."

"The one problem though is that-" Soraya stopped and glared at someone behind me. Turning, I saw Axel.

"Hey, sis." Axel smiled, showing off his white teeth.

Soraya exhaled out through her mouth. "What do you want?"

He sat down beside me, his arm brushing mine. "Aw, are you still mad at me?" Even though it felt nice, I edged away. I didn't want more people in my life.

"Yes, very mad." Soraya crossed her arms and leaned back.

"Come on, you know I didn't mean to do it."

I gave a look to Olivia that said, what are they talking about?

She rolled her eyes and told me over their banter, "Axel ate the last Oreo."

"Oh no, what a horrible thing to do." I smiled, then noticed I was smiling, so I wiped it off my face. Olivia studied me for a moment but then turned and laughed at something Axel said. Glancing at the three, I realized I didn't belong here. I didn't belong in this world, where everything is perfect. Memories of my past nearly resurfaced, but I pushed them back and shut them out. I excused myself and dashed to the bathroom and entered a stall, locking the door. I took deep breaths to calm down my racing heart. I felt lost. I let a spark of flame loose from my hand. My powers always soothed me somehow.

What was I going to do? I was in a city with numerous supers after me. Alone, I would never defeat any of them. But... if I had partners, I could fight them. Shard city had superheroes, but they also had supervillains. I just needed a way to find them.