Heroes

Chapter 6

Mr. Billings glared down at Raven over his thick-framed glasses. "Raven. You must learn to control yourself. I will not permit students fighting in my classroom."

"Yes, sir." Head bent, she tried to seem remorseful, but couldn't stop the grin that twitched at the corner of her mouth. "I'll try to do better."

"Hmph," he grunted. "We'll see. But if this happens again, you will be sent to the headmaster's office."

Raven nodded, not trusting herself to say anything.

"Go back to your seat," he waved his hand as if to dismiss her.

As Raven walked down the aisle between the seats, Liana, the source of the fight, smirked.

"Looks like the new girl's in trouble," she whispered.

"Trouble? You must be dumber than I thought. That was a warning. Like that punch to the face I gave ya."

Liana rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

"Keep rolling your eyes. Maybe one day you'll find a brain back there."

"Well I never-"

"And you never will. Now shut up... Or is that too hard for you?"

Liana's face turned bright red, but said nothing. Some of the other girls snickered, but most were oblivious to the conversation. Mr. Billings continued to drone on about radical equations, very few actually paying attention.

"An equation that contains roots involving variables, such as square root of x-5 = 2, is called a radical equation. The main goal in solving them is to get rid of roots and to convert the radical equation to some simple, known equation. Care must be taken to avoid absurd solutions that either have a negative number under the root, or equate the root to a negative number. Remember, square root only can have non-negative argument and square roots are always non negative as well..."

"Why do we need to know this anyway?" Raven asked.

Mr. Billings turned and looked around the room for the source of the interruption. "Who said that?"

"Who said what?" Raven questioned innocently.

"Who complained and asked why we need to know this anyway?"

"Gee, I don't know. I did't hear anything."

Mr. Billings frowned. "Very well. Let's go on with our lesson."

Under the table, Raven allowed a small fiery sphere to ignite in her hand. She pressed the sphere against the metal bars on the desk until they turned red hot. "Mr. Billings, there's something wrong with my chair!"

"Goodness!" He shouted, throwing his chalk up into the air. "Stand up, immediately! Get out!"

Raven jumped out of the chair, making a real show about it. "Oh, Mr. Billings I don't quite feel well. Could I please go to the nurse?"

"Of course," he waved his hand. "Go on."

Raven was just getting out the door when he called, "wait."

She turned. "Yes?"

"You have to go with a partner. Would like to pick or shall I?"

None of her buddies were in this class. The only girls here were cheerleaders or bookworms. "You can choose."

"Very well," he glanced around the room. "Liana? Would you like to go?"

She grimaced. "I'd rather not."

"Hmph. Well. I suppose Sadie could take you. Would that be alright?"

"Sure."

"Good," he nodded, relief spreading across his face.

A young girl with mouse brown hair and soft blue eyes stood up from the back of the room. Raven hadn't even noticed her. "I'm Sadie," she whispered.

"Raven," she stuck out her hand, but received no response from the other girl. "Okay... Let's go then, shall we?"

Sadie nodded. "The nurse is this way. I'll show you."

As soon as the door had sung close behind them, Raven shook her head. "No, you don't need to."

"Do you know where it is?"

"No, but it doesn't matter. I'm not going."

"Yes you are. Mr. Billings said-"

"I don't care what Mr. Billings said!" Raven inhaled slowly. "You have two options: stay here, or go with me, whatever you pick, you MUST NOT TELL. Understand?"

She nodded.

"Very good. Now what do you pick?"

"I'll go."

Raven smiled. "You've got some rebel in you after all. Welcome aboard, kid."

The two changed out of their school uniform- Raven into ripped black jeans, a black T-shirt and a leather jacket, Sadie into blue jeans and a faded floral blouse. Both wore converse. Glancing at her watch, Raven realized they had minutes until the bell. "We need to leave now."

They scurried down the hall and into the courtyard. "The gates are closed!" Sadie warned.

"Don't worry. I've got a plan."

Sprinting down the courtyard, Raven raced towards the gate. As she drew nearer, she waited until the last possible second before jumping up, using the bars as a boost. She flipped over and landed gracefully on the other side. Sadie jogged closer to the gate.

"Why didn't you just climb up?"

Raven shrugged. "Faster that way, I suppose."

Sadie grinned, then reached up and lifted the latch. "You should have tried it first." Pulling open the gate, she walked through, then closed it. "Let's go."

"It might be good to keep you around after all," Raven commented, then grabbed her arm. "I know a really good pizza place around here. "It's abandoned of course, but the food is still edible."

"Whats pizza?"

"You're about to find out."