Alright, so we got home from the H.A.A. after some more talk with Dad about how to go about doing this. Also, Brad's Mom, who is actually called Susan when she's not being Brad's Mom, had called him, and after a short discussion, she was brought on board as an executive assistant. While Dad did explain that she was technically underqualified for the position, it would be easier for us to train her up to it than to hunt someone down who was both qualified to our needs, and ready to start immediately without costing us an arm and a leg. He made sure she was set up to be able to take care of her and Brad's home, and we could always create planned raises as he came along. He also paid her a small recruitment bonus to start with, designed to help her with any initial expenses. He then mentioned that I would need some learning materials on accounting, sales, and marketing (Which are apparently different... somehow), and finance. He could do those for now but acknowledging my ability meant that I could easily whip past him. That didn't feel... great. It felt like he knew he'd become obsolete, and minding what I had just gone through with Anna, I spoke up, "Dad, I don't want to get rid of you."

He laughed a little at that, "Marcus, that's what you don't get. If me and your mother do our jobs properly as parents, none of you'll need us. That's parenting, at least, good parenting. If you're a grown adult, and you still need us there to do this kind of stuff, it means we didn't do our job.

"You're getting there incredibly fast, sure, but that's something for me to be proud of. Your mother, too, and the fact that you realize it and that you care means you've got a good head on your shoulders. Don't get me wrong, it's great to feel needed, but the object goal is for you to not physically need us. Me and your mom will still be there for you all emotionally."

He made a stop by Starbucks, getting us both drinks, and a pup cup for Princess, and we hung out for a bit, just watching the river, "If I haven't said it enough, I'm so proud of you, and not in that 'every parent is proud of their kid' way. You could've done anything with your powers. What you chose to do was to help as many people as possible. You helped Fred, you helped Brad and his mom, you helped us. No one would've blamed you if you just went for the fame and money, really. Oh, some people would pick it apart online, but that's just basic grumbling."

I... teared up a bit, but I let it go there, we finished our drinks, and as we were about to pull out, Dad smiled crookedly, "So, about this date of yours?"

I told him a bit about Aimee, how she was on the basketball team at school, and brought up a pic of her on Facebook. Dad looked at it, and remarked, "Now, maybe I shouldn't say this as your dad, but nice pull."

I almost said thanks, but what came out was, "In all fairness, I'm somehow the one who got pulled... Is there any way to not keep feeling like a dumbass around her?"

"Nope!", he shook his head and pulled out.

At home, I went ahead and hit up Steam. I started hitting up strategy games, things like Chess, then saw a thing for Cities: Skylines, so grabbed that, all of the DLC, along with stuff like Crusader Kings, Farming Simulator... actually, I ended up with a bunch of simulators. I switched to Amazon to find a flight controller for the computer. The upside to this little tangent was I had a ton of content I could use for the channels now.

Once I got stuff installed, I went ahead and got started with Cities, since that one seemed the most applicable to my current plans. The basics were easy enough to get down, but it definitely got more complicated as I played along. I had a huge traffic problem for instance, because I hadn't bothered to build mass transit, so that took a while to fix. Once the stream was over, I combed the internet and found some PDFs for the stuff my dad mentioned, and put them onto the Kindle. They are incredibly boring, and I'd thought English was one of the most boring subjects available. I took Princess for a walk and listened to my new language learning, Japanese. I mean, I'm an anime fan, so it was gonna happen, might as well get started on it now.

Darryl messaged me, and we talked for a while. Mostly it was about stuff for the site, the stream, things like that, but he also talked about me needing to go check out a local parkour place. I mean, parkour had always seemed fun, but unattainable for me. Now though, it was a certainty that I could do it. I could take care of that on Monday. For now, however, there was other stuff to think on. Mom did Yoga at a local place, and if I was checking out parkour, might as well get yoga in too. We kept talking until I had another call coming in, this time Aimee. I told him I had to take another call, and he told me he'd catch up with me online later.

I switched over, "Uh, hey Aimee. How're you doing?"

"Hey, Marcus. I'm good. I know you're coming over tomorrow, but the first school dance is coming up, and I've got a game on Thursday. Do you want to go?"

I sat forward, "Oh, yeah, of course... for both. I'll do bo- shit. Um, Thursday's not good for me. I've got a Scout meeting, and I'm kinda running things there, so I need to be there, but maybe I could meet you when school lets out? We could stop by Salt & Straw."

"That's great. I could send you the game schedule if you're free for other games!" It came out a little too quickly and didn't sound like it was a question.

OH God, there's another problem: I can't dance for shit. I could fumble my way through a game of DDR, but that was the best I'd ever managed. That would need to take a front seat this week. I didn't need mastery of dance, just enough to not look like an asshole. "Dance is on Friday, yeah?"

"Yup. Did you want to meet there?" There was definitely a question there.

"I can pick you up." That seemed like the right answer.

From there, the conversation devolved into talking about stuff at school. My leaving school was a major bit of news around the school, and apparently, Darryl had joined A/V club, which he didn't mention, but Darryl was generally more focused on my superhero end of things. That and Scouts.

Her best friend Becky had started dating this other guy in our class, Lou. I hated Lou, and the feeling was fully reciprocated. He put on this air all the time as if he was holding royal court, and was always quick to point out he was rich. He wasn't rich, his parents were, and he'd taken it none too well when I'd started pulling in money. The only people he was ever nice to were the ones he decided had the right 'social standing', and Becky was pretty nice and popular in the class. So yeah, both me and Aimee were pretty sure this was going to end pretty badly, but there was no way to get Becky to see it.

Yeah, Brad had been a bully and terrorized kids for years, but it was just anger and frustration, and I got it. Lou had pretty much everything he could ever want, and just lorded it over everyone. The two things, at least in my mind, were not the same. Brad had been dealt pretty much the worst hand you could be dealt, and outside of the bullying thing, had still been a pretty decent kid otherwise. Lou had everything, and he still chose to be a dick to people.

It wasn't until after I hung up that I realized, I hadn't even gotten to the first date and had already lined up two more dates. I mean, it was good, and I wouldn't be able to do much tomorrow, but come Thursday, I could get back to kissing her... I kind of got lost in that thought for a bit, 'til Mackenzie screamed for me to come down for dinner.

The next morning, I got the final tiramisu together early, so it had time to set, and for the powder on top to properly combine, and then off to church we went. I know I was at church, but I'm not certain I heard anything Father Patrick was saying through the service. I pretty much just mimicked the prayers and stuff, and I couldn't keep from bouncing my leg. My 1% was starting to betray me again. I wanted to pay attention, but my mind kept thinking about dinner with Aimee. I was running an ever-descending spiral of interactions. What if I'd screwed up the dessert?! What if her dad didn't like me? Every thought on how I could beef this was flooding through me. I didn't snap out of it until after the service, when Father Patrick put a hand on my shoulder, "Ah, Marcus. Can we talk for a minute?"

Mom nodded, and I looked up... no, I looked even at Father Patrick. I remembered him being taller... right, super-puberty, "Sure, Father. I'm not in trouble, am I?"

He quirked an eyebrow, looking sternly at me, "Did you do something to be in trouble for?"

I considered for a moment before he laughed, "I'm messing with you. Come with me."

Father Patrick had a perverse sense of humor. We went into his office, and he took off his robe and the scarf-thing he wore, "dressed down" in his black button-up shirt and white collar. "I think I owe you an apology. This past month has to have been pretty rough on you, I imagine."

I nodded, "Yeah, it's been really stressing me out, actually."

He took a seat, "That's to be expected. Even if you weren't enhanced, you're still a teenager. I won't pressure you but just know that my door is always open. Do you think you might have some space on your plate? I could use your help."

"Oh, is there a pancake breakfast coming up?" I relaxed a bit. The church chartered my troop, and we got a lot of service hours from them. As SPL, it wasn't that odd that I was being talked to about it.

"No- Well, okay, yes, we are doing one, and the troop's help is always appreciated, but that's not what this is about. What I wanted to ask of you is a bit bigger. As you know, like most churches, we run a soup kitchen, and food bank, parts of the Oregon Food Bank system. What I wanted to ask is if, in some of your spare time, you could look over the operations and see where we could do the job better. Your ability could help a lot of people get better help."

That... could be useful. It was essentially an in on what I wanted to do anyway, to start getting a better idea of how to fix things, and I couldn't do that without an understanding of the internal organization of the food banks, "I'd be happy to. I'm not really in school, so I can take a look at it tomorrow. Mom's got a hard rule against me doing Improvement stuff on Sundays."

He nodded his agreement, "Absolutely. Even God took a day off."

Father Patrick then took a small zip drive out of his desk and handed it to me, "I'm not expecting a miracle here, just get back to me when you see what can be worked on. Thank you, really."

I nodded, took the drive, and said my goodbyes. I'd have to get to work on a lot starting tomorrow. I desperately needed an actual office space, not just my room and the dining room at home. I was heading out when I got caught from behind, and as I was exiting the church, heard a voice whispering in my ear that both excited me and reminded me of my dread, "Hey Marcus."

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I turned around to another kiss from Aimee, and after a second, "Hey. So we go to the same church? I need to go to mass more often!"

Wait... that didn't sound stupid. Had my brain actually managed to kick up something legitimately useful around her for once? Awesome, "Wait, um... where's your dad?"

She motioned over, "Oh, he does confession after service every week. He'll be a bit."

Oh good, I wouldn't get murdered in front of a church today. We hung out for a minute, just sort of holding hands. I mean, we were still at church, much as I was really liking the pleated skirt/sweater combination she was wearing. Finally, I got the signal from Mom, who was keeping Mackenzie from just coming over and grabbing me. Mackenzie was... less patient with the waiting, and didn't much care for Sunday church. Normally, I'd share her opinion, since waking up on Sunday to go to mass just seemed wrong, but... Aimee.

Aimee said she'd see me later, kissed me again, and I went off to the wrong car and family, then redirected when I realized it. Mackenzie was less impatient now, and more impish, "Great, so just a few hours til your date. Hopefully, by then, some of the blood'll leave your face."

"What?" I looked in the side mirror, and my whole face was red. Oh great.

Over the next few hours, I went ahead and did some exercises, trying to work off the insane extra energy, and then realized I'd forgotten something. Flowers. Fred Meyer had a flower section, so I ran over there, and my brain kicked up Aimee wearing a lot of purple, so when I found a purple orchid, I went ahead and bought it. I got back home to Merida in a fuss. While Princess had pretty quickly taken to everyone, she kept avoiding Merida. I knelt down, "What's wrong, bit?"

"Princess hates me," she replied, arms crossed as she sat on the floor.

I smiled, "She doesn't hate you. Okay, you remember the first day of school, you were all nervous about the other kids? What if one of them kept running at you?"

"I'd be scared," She sounded so pitiful.

To help her out, I had her pick up one of Princess's toys, staying seated, and call out to her. Princess looked from across the room, and curious, approached slowly. At first, Merida went to go straight for petting, but I stopped her, "Just let her come to you, okay? Talk softly, call her a good girl, that sort of stuff."

It worked. Without the manic level of energy Merida had been trying to use, Princess kept coming closer, eventually taking the toy from Merida's hand, and letting her pet her. That dilemma solved, the next was post-workout showering. I had to ditch the nervousness before I got over to Aimee's house or I was going to have a coronary before I hit the front door.

Considering this, I opted to do something from karate, and I took some meditation time, just emptying everything out and focusing on my breathing. Next up, I put together my initial outfit, only to get it vetoed by Mackenzie, who decided that a full suit was way too formal. After going through several of my shirts, she left the room and came back with one of my dad's work shirts, a purple one that he rarely wore. She then grabbed my nicer pair of slacks, and shoved them into my chest, "There", and out she went. I got dressed, and I looked... "Uh, Mackenzie?! How many buttons?"

She stalked back in, unbuttoned first the top button, then the one just under it, "We done?"

"Yup. Thanks."

Great, all set to leave.... in two hours. Jesus Christ. I went ahead and took to my computer to pass the time, playing some more Cities: Skylines. That I was getting down, but I was still accidentally creating problems, and then having to backtrack to fix whatever new thing I'd messed up. This time, I realized too late that I hadn't placed my sewage runoff properly, and it was a problem. Then people were complaining about the lack of schools, so on we went with adding in an elementary and high school to cover that. It really was pretty-

My phone went off. It was time to go. I grabbed my dessert, and the orchid, and headed out. Aimee lived pretty close as it turned out, so I just went ahead and walked it, rather than needing a lift from Mom and Dad. Aimee lived in one of the various apartment complexes that are pretty common for Portland, a group of three-story apartment buildings, each with about a dozen apartments split between floors. Aimee's apartment was a third-floor one... thank God I do an absurd amount of cardio.

I got up to the door and knocked nervously. I heard Aimee's voice calling out, and when she opened the door, I... stopped being able to form words. She was wearing a really nice lavender sundress, and her hair was down, curls drifting a bit in the draft of the landing, "Hi- Oh my god, is that for me?!"

"Uh..." I fumbled a bit, and then remembered I was holding things, "OhyeahthisforyouIjustknewthatyoulikedpurpleandIsawitatthestoreandifyoudon'tlikeitIcangetyousomethingelse!"

Oh good, total gibberish. I held out the orchid in its pot like I was brandishing a shield, and Aimee was all smiles, "Oh, it's lovely. Does it have- Yup, watering instructions right here! Come on in! Dad's just watching the game."

When I'd heard the word dinner, I had made the assumption of a cooked dinner, so apparently, I was more ambitious than Aimee and her Dad were. Aimee showed me around the apartment, while I worked on my meditative breathing to get control of myself. Her dad paused the game, slung up out of a well-used recliner, and crossed the room. I am pretty tall now, and I still felt like a member of the Lollipop Guild. The childhood game boys play of who could beat up whose Dad died here. He had to be near on seven-foot tall, barrel-chested, and if I remembered correctly, he worked construction as a demo guy. So yeah, he breaks stones eight hours a day, professionally. I was very aware of the fact that my legs were not, in fact, as strong as cement. He looked down at me, standing at full height, "So, you're Mark."

"Yessir, Mr. Palazzi-"

Aimee shot in, "It's Marcus, Dad."

He nodded, and extended a hand toward me, "Good to meet you."

I reached out and shook his hand. My dad had repeatedly impressed upon me the importance of having a good handshake, so I made sure to keep a strong grip as we shook. Still holding my hand, he wasn't quite done with it, "So, Marcus, what are your intentions?"

I cocked my head, "Well, I mean, dinner? I brought a dessert."

He let out a rumbling laugh, and there was a part of me that registered that there was a non-zero percent chance, given the presence of supers, that he was about to breathe fire on me, but instead, he let go of my hand, "Good enough, I suppose. Aims, grab him something to drink."

I was given a can of Pepsi, and I traded it for the tiramisu, which is when Aimee stopped, staring, and started trembling a bit, "Sorry, I just... I need a minute."

She set it on the counter and walked briskly into her room. I wasn't sure what just happened, "I'm sorry, Mr. Palazzi. I- did I do something wrong?"

His eyes were a bit watery, but he straightened himself out quickly, and shook his head, clapping me on the back, "Nah, kid. It's just been hard since..."

Fuck. Aimee's mom had passed away back in sixth grade. I didn't remember the exact reason, but she'd been out of school for a week afterward. I ran my hand over my face, "I'm sorry. I forgot."

I felt his hand on my shoulder, "You couldn't have known. Aims is usually pretty okay, but sometimes a reminder catches her out of nowhere. Katherine used to make tiramisu for her every year on her birthday."

God damn it, it linked to my memory of Aimee finally. I'd placed the tiramisu because I knew she liked it, she'd talked about it every year, and she'd done a show and tell about it. I hadn't been consciously aware of the choice, but it was back there in my head, one of a million tiny details that you just sort of have and don't realize you have til it gets pointed out. Mr. Palazzi signaled me with a head motion to come sit with him and watch the game while he ordered pizza. We sat in silence while we waited for a bit, until he broke the silence during a commercial, "So, what're you studying in school?"

I almost said something really stupid, but caught it this time, "Uh, that's sort of complicated. I'm kind of graduating early, like, now, in freshman year."

He paused the TV, "How the hell'd that happen?"

He doesn't know, "I got a superpower, and apparently, mine sort of kills my ability to just do normal schooling. Um, I can demonstrate, I think. Unpause the game."

I'd studied football, since of course, we have a football team at school. I'd studied the playbook as well, and seen formations in practice, as well as watching games. The players lined up on the forty and I looked at the way they were all setting up, "Blitz."

Seconds later, the ball snapped, and one of the linebackers broke through and slammed into the quarterback, driving him back a few yards before both men hit the ground. I repeated the calls with the next several plays, calling them based on what I was seeing, and Aimee's dad became slack-jawed as it went on. Aimee came out of her room at some point and sat on the couch next to me as I concentrated. Finally, he set down his beer when there was another knock at the door. Aimee popped up to go get the pizza, but Mr. Palazzi looked at me with obvious shock registering on his face, "How long have you been following football?"

"About a month, since the school coach asked me to help out. I feel a little bad I wasn't able to stick with it. That guy's about to go offsides."

Aimee came back, setting the pizza on the dining 'room' table, "Oh, he was doing all sorts of stuff with the school's teams, but really, he's into Boy Scouts. Let's eat! You should see how much he eats, it's crazy."

I wasn't precisely happy with that particular last bit being a thing, but she seemed enthusiastic about it, so I guess it's good? The pizza was much appreciated, since I hadn't so much eaten today, just being too nervous. I got a couple of slices and some of the garlic knots, while her dad fixed his own plate across the table, "So, you heading off to that academy of theirs?"

I shook my head, "No, sir, it'd be the same problem as regular school. I advance too fast."

"Well, you've got a great sports career ahead of you if wanted it."

"I can't. I'm not really an athlete, and I'm not really this smart. The ability is called 1% incremental improvement, and... it would be a cheat. How long's Aimee been working at basketball?" I wasn't trying to be smart, but it would be better to get this particular discussion out of the way.

"Since she was a toddler."

I nodded, "I'd be taking her spot, and I've been playing basketball for all of a month. I'm not an athlete. The drive, the determination, and the discipline are what make you an athlete, not a power. If I went after baseball, I would be able to bat a thousand, then when they started intentionally walking me, I'd perfect stealing second, then third, then home. I'd be a free run just about every time my at-bat came up. Corking a bat would be less of a cheat than having me on the field."

He smiled and nodded, "Well said, Marcus. So what are you gonna do?"

"I'm working on a project, and I've got a job with the online stuff that's taken off. For right now, I'm learning, training, and figuring things out for myself. My sister kinda had to beat it into me that I can still have accomplishments, they're just... different accomplishments is all."

We kept going, and eventually, Mr. Palazzi excused himself from the apartment to go off-property to smoke. Well, there goes my human shield. Aimee leaned over and kissed me on the cheek, "You're really cute when you get to talking."

She really liked me, "I just... you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen, and I... keep waiting for this all to be a dream. It just doesn't make sense."

"I feel the same way, but it totally makes sense. You just don't see it," She scooched her chair over, and twined her fingers up between mine, "I know exactly when I started being into you.

"It was just after... my mom died. I came back to school, and the other kids, they were... nice enough. Except Brad, you got into a fight with him, but I suppose it was more of him fighting, and you not fighting. Anyway, you were waiting for your mom to pick you up, and we were at recess. I was sitting off by myself, and you didn't say anything, but you sat next to me, and you pulled out a Yoo-Hoo and a danish from your lunch bag. You ripped the danish in half and gave it to me, and you shared your Yoo-Hoo with me," She was laying her head on my shoulder, and redirected my arm around her. On instinct, I leaned my head on hers, and it was a good instinct, "You were having a horrible day. You still had one of those bits of cotton in your nose, and your eye was going black, and you still just... cared, quietly. I saw it all over the place after that, like despite everything, you just became nicer, like just in defiance of it all. Did you ever think of me like that?"

I thought for a moment. For once, I was so grateful that my memory had improved because I wanted to hold onto this forever, "It was sort of different for me. You were the prettiest girl in class, and it just never occurred to me that you'd ever like me, that you could ever like me back. You attacked everything head-on, and I just sort of assumed, that if any of us was ever going to get a superpower, it would be you. It should've been you."

I took a chance and reached my hand around to lay on her cheek and turn her face toward mine, and for the first time, I initiated kissing her. We then had to break it up when we heard the front door open back up, and Aimee brought back the tiramisu. After dessert, and talking some more, it was time to leave. I got a final hug walked out to the sidewalk, and headed home, dropping a message to Mom as it got darker out. I had some extra energy I wanted to burn off.

A voice rasped out of the darkness, "Hello, hero. I'm such a big fan!"