Chapter 9: Girl Troubles

--- Jeremy Graham, Before The Event ---

He hated group assignments more than anything else.

Whenever he did a project by himself he could be sure to put in however much effort he needed to to make sure he’d get the best grade possible.

His parents would like that.

Whenever he had to work with someone else however then he had to let them do part of the project or else the teachers would scold him for not working with his peers. And there was no telling if they’d do their parts, or if they’d mess something up, forcing him to accept a grade worse than if he’d just done everything by himself.

His parents wouldn’t like that.

Fortunately, despite being forced into yet another group assignment, he’d lucked out and been put on a team with Max Miller, who while not the most sociable of people was a genius when it came to the technical sciences as demonstrated by her perfect score in their class. Meaning for once he wouldn’t have to worry about his grade in a group project as with or without him their project would be getting a perfect score.

His parents would like that.

While he focused on his half of the project, he idly overheard some of their classmates saying something about Ms. Miller and how she should be in Home Ec rather than advanced tech. Something that had been disproven just by the fact that she was taking a college level technology class in high school, and had passed all of the prerequisite courses.

Not that he mentioned any of this, because unlike Miller he was most certainly not a genius and had to work twice as hard to ensure he got grades even half as good as her own. And given how many times he’d had his own grades dragged down he refused to do the same to hers.

Unfortunately, he became so focused on what he was doing that he didn’t notice as Miller converted her half of their project into a small device that when ‘accidentally’ dropped on their classmate’s project caused the whole thing to catch flames.

He just barely heard her question of “How’s that for cooking?” over the students’ panicked screams and the teachers urging for everyone to remain calm.

By the time the electrical fire had been put out and the students corralled, he found himself next to Miller with the teacher glaring at both of them.

His parents wouldn’t like this…

--- Miles Kennedy, Before The Event ---

“Oh, this is going to be so much fun!” Cory told them for the umpteenth time as she practically buzzed in her bus seat.

“Heh, yeah.” He smiled, forcing down his grimace. (This was a lot easier when I wasn’t on the way to this thing.)

“You okay, Miles?” Micki whispered, more perceptive than most believed.

“I’m fine.” He lied, before glancing out of his window so she couldn’t see his face. “How much further are we from this thing though?”

“We should be pulling up in just a minute.” Cory answered, as she slid on her backpack to run off the moment the bus stopped.

Micki laughed lightly. “The way you’re acting, you’d think you weren’t a part in setting this whole thing up.”

“I was, but this was more my dad and some of the city’s other Practitioners.” Cory explained, looking a little embarrassed. “And I mean this is the first big event we’ve set up since the riots outed us.”

He held back another grimace at that ‘us,’ knowing full well that his friend intended to become a Practitioner like her father despite not being a Deviant herself. “Yeah, uh, just to… Not to be a downer but… you guys have got security for this thing, right?”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Cory’s smile faded a bit and he couldn’t help but feel guilty about that. “Yeah, my uh, my dad got some of his cop friends to work security and then there’s uh, there’s this security company a lot of Deviants work with that’s here too… just in case someone tries something.”

Micki elbowed him, which he deserved, before trying to cheer Cory up because a sad Cory was just wrong. “Look, I doubt anyone is going to try anything. I mean a lot of people are still in denial about Deviants at all, and there were a lot of places outside the city where they didn’t even pop up.”

“Still it’s… disappointing how many people think we’re going to all turn out like the Tallman…” Cory sighed.

“Um, uh,” he glanced around before realizing, “Oh, we’re here!”

Cory blinked before glancing out the window and regaining some of her pep as she realized that they were at the convention center.

As she rushed off the bus Micki grabbed him with a glare, “Miles, I know you’ve got your weird thing with ‘magic’ but don’t ruin this for her.”

“I’m not, it’s just… I’m worried some asshole might.” He tried to explain, rubbing the back of his neck as he realized that was only half of the truth.

Micki kept up her glare for a second longer, likely seeing through him, before shaking her head. “Whatever, just… this is important to Cory. Like, her mom important.”

“I know.” He grimaced, because in the same way this thing was mom important to Cory, it was dad awkward for him. “That’s the only reason I’m here.”

If it weren’t for how important all of this was to Cory, he would’ve mentioned what this convention actually was to his mom and she would’ve come up with some excuse for him to stay home from school and this.

“Come on guys, what’s taking you?” Cory called from the front of the bus.

“We’re coming!” Micki told her, before lightly dragging him up the bus.

--- Aurelio Hermenez, Before The Event ---

He was finding that the longer he lived on his own in the city, the more things he was finding he loved. (Like coffee.)

Oh, they had coffee in his hometown, but that was overcooked garbage water from the local diner or the doughnut shop.

In the city they had all sorts of fancy things that sounded so pretentious on the surface that they would absolutely piss off the people from his hometown. (And that alone is reason enough to love it.)

He’d first tried coffee after moving to the city and being offered a glass by his co-worker Mick on a particularly early morning at the diner he worked at, and had reluctantly accepted it due to exhaustion.

One sip and he was hooked.

Apparently, the old man he worked for had a stash of gourmet coffee to deal with his hangovers and tended to leave whatever was left in the pot to his employees. You just had to make sure the old man didn't mix actual pot into his coffee that morning.

Knowing that he couldn’t just go to work to steal their coffee, he instead tracked down a cafe that was admittedly a bus ride away from his cheap apartment and while the coffee was a little pricey he felt he was worth it.

What’s more he lucked out in the fact that that cute blonde from down the hall worked here.

He hadn’t asked her out yet, but he was planning on it. (Once I improve my game anyway…)

When he’d first gotten to the city and gotten his feet under him he’d gone on a bit of a bend asking out every cute girl he saw -(and daaamn does the city have cute girls and hot girls and-)- The point was he asked out a lot of women, and he was also shot down by just as many women.

At which point he realized that unlike his home town he couldn’t simply ask out someone, because back there everyone already knew everyone while here in the city (they have no idea who I am.)

That thought was as daunting as it was liberating.

Whoever he dated would be dating him for him, not for his father’s money. And whoever he dated wouldn’t sell him down the river due to a few rumors, because the only people who could make rumors about him were his co-workers. And the dozen or so women he asked out, but given how he wasn’t as pushy as he’d seen some of the jocks get in his hometown -something that always made him uncomfortable- he was hoping that would be a point in his favor.

Regardless, unlike his previous attempts he tried to strike up some kind of small talk every time he saw her in the hopes of getting to know her as much as he could without actually going on a date.

Admittedly, he was pretty sure she had a crush on her female coworker -(Not that I can blame her.)- but he as proof that that wasn’t necessarily a deal breaker. And if it was, well they could still be friends. (Never hurts to have more of those.)

He may’ve been a romantic at heart, but he was happy to have people that made him happy in his life however that may be. (For once…)