The Paladin: A Teenage Superhero Story

Chapter 6

Wednesday

November 24th

Alicia's vibrant blue eyes darted across the computer screen with the utmost intensity and focus as she shoveled in bites of pizza with one hand and clacked away on the keyboard with the other. I slid my backpack across from her seat and plopped my bag and energy drink parallel to her tray. She didn't seem to notice. I sat down and started unpacking my minimalist PB&J on white bread right in front of her and still nothing was registering. Did I do something wrong? The other day she seemed like she was cool, so I figured I was in the clear. Yet here she was, seemingly giving me the silent treatment.

"Alicia?" I greeted. No response. "Alicia," I repeated, waving my hand in front of her line of vision. She snapped out of her enticement and turned towards me.

"Oh sorry Booker, sometimes I just kind of get in a zone-holy hell what happened to your face!?" she exclaimed. Well that's one way to make me feel self-conscious.

"It's nothing, just a couple of bumps and bruises. Happens to me all the time. Listen, I have a favor to ask you," I dismissed, inviting a skeptical look.

"I didn't know we were at the point in our friendship where we were asking each other for favors."

"Okay, I get that, but hear me out. One of my friends has one of your father's ICE phones, and I was hoping to pull a prank on him but you guys have that biometric scanner instead of codes," I started, hoping she might fill in the rest.

"And...?" she replied, clearly not getting where I was going.

"And... do you know of any way around that feature perhaps?" I asked. It was a little forward of me and in hindsight, I probably should have had better excuse. I was a kid that Alicia just met, that brought her a phone, claimed it was my friends, and asked her if she could break into it. I wouldn't have trusted me.

"So to clarify you ditched on my father, chewed me out, and now you're asking for a favor? And not just any favor, but to crack into one of our paying customer's security guaranteed phones. Oh, and it's to prank," she recounted. Well when you put it like that it sounds terrible.

"I thought we were cool with the whole me being bitchy thing," I insisted.

"We are, I'm just letting you know what you're asking. Plus my dad still is pretty pissed about you ditching. He's not used to being ignored," she clarified.

"And I apologize, profusely. I'll make it up to your dad. It's just very important," I assured.

"The prank?" she replied with confusion.

"My friend and I are really competitive," I bullshitted with the utmost confidence.

"Okay... Well there is one way around it I can think of, but I'm going to have to head to my dad's building to unlock it for you. So how about you face the music while I unlock the phone?" she posed. It was the right thing to do, I felt bad for blowing off her father like that.

"Seems fair to me," I agreed. She gave me a curious look and then a sly grin. "What?"

"You're just an interesting person, that's all," she noted.

"Oh, you don't need to tell me," I assured, taking a bite out of my sandwich.

Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap. Alicia looked at me with a face that said 'could you not?'. I ceased rapid-fire tapping my foot. It was a nervous habit I had, probably had something to do with my ADHD, I never noticed I was doing it until people started staring at my jackrabbiting legs, and in a four foot by four-foot elevator it was hard not to notice.