Orion's arms wrapped around me, catching me before I could hit the ground. The air whipped around my face. I winced and squeezed my stinging eyes shut. He swooped, bringing me down on the section underneath the overpass where I would hopefully be able to get far enough away.
He set me down on top of the rubble, patted my head, and told me, "Have a good day at school, Kace."
I didn't have time to respond, but there was also not much for me to say. Without as much as a glance, I turned on my heel and began a slow jog.
I'd always hated running. When we had gym class in middle school, I would always fake sick—Dad's handwriting could pass for a doctor's—in order to get out of running laps. Right now though, I had more important things to worry about than being horribly out of breath.
I wondered about whether Diamond would be okay. She'd seemed pretty beat up, but I knew she was indestructible. Surely Phantom couldn't be more powerful than her...
Each landmark I passed became a new personal record. I tried to distance myself from the fighting: Dad had made it pretty clear that I had no place there, but it wasn't my fault that I was waiting for the bus. This one, I was blaming on Dad, for banning me from the Belt, his so-called enhanced car. I guessed that in his mind, all I needed to do was press a button and the Belt-mobile would sprout wings, launch every rocket, and then explode. Which, I supposed, were things it could realistically do, so perhaps he wasn't totally mistaken.
I kept going, trudging by the cars backed up bumper to bumper on the roads as they honked in a useless effort. The sound became distant as I cut through a gravel path which led me all the way to Rocky Road. Rather aptly named, the street was one of my personal favourites on the walk back home. From there, I waited patiently for the next bus and got on it, despite the lack of progress that any traffic seemed to be making. I sat back and relaxed into my seat as much as I possibly could.
***
***
The bus crawled across the busy street. Jax, I hoped, would not skewer me for leaving him, but I had better things to be doing than algebra. To be clear, anything was better than algebra, but it paid to have an excuse.
I took a moment and texted him back.
Kacie:
did you do it?don't answer:
🚶♂️🚶♂️🚶♂️Kacie:
very funny
did it work?don't answer:
what do u thinkKacie:
that ur dumbdon't answer:
um rude
for your INFORMATION it didnt
stop coming for me
did you actually skip orKacie:
please
do you even know me
YOU ARE READING
Starlight (Book 1)
ActionKacie Janacek dreams of having superpowers like her two fathers, the legendary superhero Almighty Orion and the evil henchman Onyx Spark. After the media captures a photo of Orion saving Kacie from the clutches of a fight, she slowly becomes famous...