Super Powereds: Year 3 (34 page)

Books and notepads were hurriedly packed away as the class began to exit. Nicholas Campbell took his time. He still had a few hours until the next class, and he wanted to check in with Eliza and Jerome on Nathaniel’s whereabouts. Evidently, the orange-eyed bastard had started attending his classes, although it was at irregular intervals. This distraction was taking time away from his primary puzzle, so Nicholas wanted it dealt with as soon as possible.

He exited the lecture hall, walked purposefully down the tree-shaded sidewalk, and took a moment to enjoy the day. With October only a few days old, the weather had begun to turn cold already. Today, however, a warm front had blown in and heated everything up. People were back in shorts and dresses, knowing full well this would likely be their last chance to dress so casually until spring began its battle against winter’s entrenchment.

Nicholas turned down another sidewalk, intent on heading to grab a quick bite, when he found a beautiful young woman blocking his path. She was clad in a white and pink sundress that would have been unseasonable on any other fall day. Her blonde hair hung below her shoulders, a few stray wisps artfully framing her face—a face that was home to sparkling green eyes and a gorgeous smile. That smile widened as his eyes met hers, and Nicholas felt an unexpected blush try to creep across his skin, as well as a surge of adrenaline race through his veins. He recognized her, of course; she was a prominent person in his files. He just didn’t know why his body was having such a strange reaction to her.

“Hi there,” said the girl, sticking out her hand. “My name is Alice Adair. I wanted to re-introduce myself to you.”

62.

“A pleasure,” Nicholas replied, accepting her hand. Again, his pulse increased slightly, but this time, the effect lingered longer than before. “Unfortunately, I’m certain you must be mistaken. There is no possible way I could have forgotten meeting such a beautiful woman.”

The blonde’s placid expression held for a moment longer, then dissolved as she let out a snort of laughter.

“Holy shit, that’s your new guy?” Alice asked, giggling to herself as she drew back her hand. “I mean, I wasn’t expecting the same thing, but woooow. Do I get some butter with all that corn?”

A small crease appeared in Nicholas’s forehead as his brow furrowed. This was not the reaction he’d anticipated from Alice Adair, given the files his previous self had left him. Despite her capacity for occasional bouts of insight, Alice was supposed to be docile, at least usually. While she had challenged him from time to time, it was never so overt or immediate as this. After all, she had no cause to believe he knew anything about her. Either something had changed, or Nick had left poor notes for Nicholas. The former seemed far more likely.

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” Nicholas said. “I merely meant to politely excuse my absence of memory.”

“Okay, play it however you want,” Alice advised him. “I guess it’s your character, after all.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a pair of tickets. With care, she extracted one and thrust it toward him. “Here. We’re going to see a movie on Friday night.”

“I’m afraid I already have plans,” Nicholas protested.

“Sitting on a bench and pretending to read like a creeper?” Alice asked. “I bet you can shuffle those around. As I remember it, you’re great with shuffling.”

Nicholas battled to keep the annoyance from his face. “If there is something you wish to say—”

“Your last words to me were ‘never forget who I am.’ I’ve been thinking about that for months, and what ultimately struck me is that there is no way you’d ever give up two years of information,” Alice said, interrupting him. “I know you too well to buy into that bullshit. And even if you don’t know everything about me, don’t pretend like you don’t know who I am. You’re better than that. Or, at least, you used to be.”

Nicholas narrowed his eyes at the implication. “Very well, Alice, perhaps you are not entirely foreign to me.”

“There we go, progress. Now take the ticket,” she instructed. Her hand was still extended, holding the white piece of paper. “I even picked something right up your alley.”

Nicholas took the ticket and read the name printed on it aloud. “Ghost-Kicker Seven: The Kickstorm.” He raised an eyebrow and turned his attention back to the beautiful woman staring at him. “What on earth would make you think I’d have any interest in seeing such schlock?”

Alice was good at hiding her feelings, better than his previous incarnation had indicated, and she’d shown up to this encounter prepared to play aloof. However, for a brief instant when Nicholas rebuffed her, he saw the pain his words caused. Genuine, unmasked sorrow filled her for the barest of seconds. Then it was gone, and she was presenting her armored front once more.

“Because the lady chooses, especially when the lady pays,” Alice shot back. “And I’m driving. No offense, but I don’t want to cram into your tiny Bug unless I have to.”

“I don’t . . . fine. You can drive.” Nicholas wasn’t certain why he was jumping on board with this, only that he wanted to get away from this girl and compose himself. Something told him that if he kept fighting her, she would dig in and refuse to let him leave until he consented.

“Great. Pick you up at six,” Alice informed him.

“You don’t know where I live,” Nick pointed out.

Alice laughed, this time, with a tinkling melody that quickened the blood in Nicholas’s veins. “Trust me, I can find you. After all, I found you here, didn’t I?”

With that, she turned and began walking away, her hips sashaying with a method that clearly indicated she was aware that Nicholas was watching her go. As she reached the sidewalk’s corner, a turn that would take her out of his view, Alice threw back one glance to take in the somewhat befuddled form of her once-friend. It was so strange to see him that way. Even before everything they’d gone through, Nick had been an affable, fun guy, if somewhat annoying. His first character had been the sort of person people didn’t mind having around. This new one seemed withdrawn, walled-off. If she assumed his first persona had been crafted to cultivate relationships and gain friends, then it stood to reason this one was here for substantially different reasons. He wouldn’t create a character without a purpose; that simply wasn’t in his conniving nature.

Alice kept walking, back toward Melbrook, where she would undoubtedly tell everything to Mary. Even she wasn’t certain what her movie date strategy was meant to accomplish. She merely knew that it was intolerable to be aware of Nick’s presence and not try and reconnect with him. Maybe it would turn out to be a bad decision. That was okay; Alice had spent her life being a dutiful, proper daughter. She had more than a few bad decisions saved up.

Back by the dorms, standing under the shade of a nearby tree, Nicholas looked again at the ticket in his hand. His pulse was slowing, and he was returning to a normal state. This was of little comfort, though, since it didn’t explain his strange reaction in the first place. Nicholas was not an emotionally predisposed person, however, that was not to say he was ill-versed in common emotions or their effects. In fact, he had quite an in-depth knowledge of such things, years of training and practice making the information readily accessible. Therefore, Nicholas knew that every symptom he’d just exhibited all hinted at having serious feelings for the person he’d come into contact with.

It just didn’t make any sense why he’d had them upon meeting Alice Adair. Nick’s notes never mentioned anything of the sort, aside from her crush on him. Never had it been hinted that he might return such sentiments.

“What have you done,” Nicholas muttered, words directed at a version of himself that no longer existed. He stuffed the ticket in his pocket and headed off toward his apartment. He clearly needed to reread the files.

63.

Alice walked into Melbrook’s common room to discover the rest of the residents were already gathered there, as was Dean Blaine and, surprisingly, Chad.

“Excellent timing,” Dean Blaine greeted her. “We were just about to call you.”

“What’s up?” Alice asked.

“Not sure yet,” Vince told her. “Mr. Numbers and Mr. Transport came and got us from our rooms, and when we came out, Dean Blaine and Chad were here. Maybe we’re throwing a party?”

“I won’t say this couldn’t result in a cause for celebration, however, that is not the primary reason Chad and I are here,” Dean Blaine told him. “As your guardians have informed you, it was decided earlier in the year that, should a suitable and willing candidate appear, Mr. Campbell’s former room would be reoccupied.”

“Well, yeah,” Hershel said. He looked between the two men and comprehension dawned across his continually less-pudgy face. “Wait . . . are you saying Chad wants to move in?”

“I do,” Chad replied. “If none of you have objections, that is. I feel like my current life is a bit too ordered. The solution to that is a bit of chaos here and there. You are, with all due respect, easily the most chaotic bunch currently in the Hero Certification Program.”

“I don’t know that I’d go that far,” Alice muttered.

“Kidnappings, beach weekends, mind-jackings, and former-Powered-status-revealing ambushes, just to name a few examples off the top of my head,” Chad countered. “I’m not insinuating that these things were all your fault, I’m merely stating the simple truth that your lives are somewhat more unexpected than an average person’s.”

“That’s probably the nicest way anyone has ever called me a weirdo,” Hershel said. “I’ve got no qualms, and I doubt Roy does either. Just don’t be shocked if he’s all over you about gym-time and sparring.”

Chad allowed a small smile to run across his face. “I would expect nothing less.”

Mary sighed audibly. “Great. So I trade the guy who was constantly masking his thoughts for the guy whose thoughts I can’t read in the first place.” Then she grinned, because she and Chad had been on excellent terms ever since co-chaperoning last year’s river trip, and they both knew it. “I look forward to living with you.”

“All I’m going to say is this,” Alice chimed in. “Don’t leave a mess in the kitchen or the common lounge. Seriously, I’ve almost got Vince and Roy trained, and I don’t want to start over from square one.”

“What about Hershel?” Chad asked.

“Hershel is the gold standard in cleaning up after one’s self,” Alice told him. “Follow his lead on all things, and you’ll be fine. Welcome to Melbrook,” she added at the end, just so he knew she actually had no real objection to his moving in. It was still slightly hard for her to imagine another person living in Nick’s room, especially so soon after seeing what amounted to another person living in his body.

All eyes turned to Vince, who was the final resident to give his opinion.

“Are you sure about this?” Vince asked. “Chaos aside, we live with more observation and scrutiny than anyone else on campus. Some of that is bound to spill over onto you.”

“I’ve got nothing to hide,” Chad replied immediately.

“And then there’s the part about us being prototypes. We’re holding together well, but there’s always the possibility something could go wrong, and we could lose control.”

“Vince, you have my solemn word that if that should happen, not only am I unafraid to be here, but I will personally be part of the effort to stop you.” From almost anyone else, in nearly any other situation, Chad’s words would have been a threat. To Vince, however, they represented a promise that Chad would use his tremendous power to stop Vince from hurting anyone else. Aside from keeping the bathroom clean, that was the most desirable trait he could have asked for in a dormmate.

“I appreciate it,” Vince said sincerely. “And I welcome you to our—sorry, your—Lander home. Do you need any help moving?”

“It’s been handled,” Dean Blaine interjected. “Chad’s things will be moved in on Friday, while you are all in class. By the time your day is done, he will be set up as a Melbrook resident.”

“That’s awesome,” Hershel said. “We should do a dinner or something.”

“Definitely,” Vince agreed.

“I’m on board with that, but could we maybe do it Saturday instead?” Alice asked hesitantly. For the first time, some of the others noticed how nicely she was dressed, and curiosity bubbled up in the corners of their minds.

“That’s right, Alice and I already made plans,” Mary jumped in. “We’re off to do some spa treatment she insisted on. It’s already booked and paid for, otherwise, we’d move it.” She resisted the urge to lock eyes with Alice. By this point, they’d been friends long enough that her blonde dormmate would know to roll with the lie. It wouldn’t fool Mr. Numbers, and it likely wasn’t enough to trick Dean Blaine, but that was fine. They weren’t the people she was trying to keep in the dark. Nick’s return to Lander was a delicate situation; it needed to be handled with care.

“Saturday would be fine with me,” Chad said, “if we do anything at all. I don’t require any fuss.”

“Chad, didn’t you say you were moving in specifically because your life needed more fuss?” Hershel asked.

“Not in those exact words . . .”

“It was still the gist,” Vince agreed. “Okay, so everybody make sure to get Saturday off, and we’ll do a dinner, or something like that, to welcome Chad properly.”