Elly Watterson, A-class Superhero

“Elianna Watterson!” “Present!” A tornado in the form of a girl rushed in, making books fly and slamming windows open with a loud bang. She smoothed down her ruffled hair and flashed an apologetic smile. It was so lovely it washed her classmates’ hearts clean of annoyance. With short golden hair as bright as the sun and baby blue eyes, that smile had the potential to end all wars, win a Nobel prize, create World Peace. Unfortunately, Mrs Price has been teaching for 33 years and was impervious to such attacks. She sneered at the girl. “Late again, Elianna.” “It's Elly.” Since the girl was a senior high school student and not a government official, Mrs Price didn't care. “Take a seat, Elianna, and don't be late again.” Elly made a face, giving up, and walked to the back of the class. Nobody looked at her; Elly was almost always late to class. A tardy but endearing popular high schooler, a regular girl: that was the face Elly presented to the world. But she wasn't a regular girl, she had a massive secret but since it wasn't one that would make Mrs. Price call her ‘Elly’ like everyone else does, she let it slide. Mrs. Price continued teaching. “Now, everyone should turn to page 33 of your textbook….” Elly looked at the phone of the girl beside her. In big block text, the news read: “Burglary thwarted by masked superhero!” Elly smiled through her exhaustion. You'd think by now, after all this time, they'd finally give her a name. Elly Watterson had been a masked crusader for about three years. She had no ideas where her powers came from, she woke up one day, basically Superman (or Supergirl, if you want to get technical about it. Doesn't matter though, Supergirl is cooler). In comics, the heroes always think they're going through puberty, which 1) dumb, 2) what?, and 3) wasn't what happened in her case. She realized she had powers, had a minor breakdown, and then started going out into the city; all in one week. The comics weren't lying, it was a hard thankless job. She wasn't getting paid, not that she wanted to, so she basically had two jobs: One at the local drugstore and the other…you know. All in all, she was exhausted. “Elly!” Her friend, Rashmi Singh, called out to her as she entered the cafeteria. Elly se down her lunch tray beside hers. “Hey. What's going on?” Rashmi subtly nudged her and Elly realized they weren't alone. She jolted. “Amaya! Hi!” Another secret Elly had was that she had a huge, full-blown crush on Amaya Robbins. Except it wasn't really a secret, Elly was so f*****g obvious. She met Amaya two years ago, when Elly had come as a new transfer and Amaya had been assigned to show her around. Elly hadn't stood a chance. Amaya had thick coily hair that were now in two space buns, and mahogany skin. Her eyes were a deep golden brown and she always looked like she knew what you were thinking. Amaya Robbins was really, really pretty. Right now, Amaya had an amused look on her face. “Elly. Hi.” Elly laughed awkwardly. It was a regular thing for her, blustering and rambling around Amaya. Maybe Amaya thought Elly was just like that but Elly knew her luck wasn't that good. “I'm here too.” Jao Boonchuy, one of her other friends, announced and Rashmi groaned, flicking a fry at him. “We know.” Elly didn't even realize he was there. She looked away from Amaya to smile at him. “Hey, Jao.” “Elle, I know you weren't in school so you probably didn't hear about the burglary attempt.” Jao shoves his phone in Elly's face and she takes it. Yep, it's the one she stopped before coming to class. She played dumb. “Oh, I didn't see it. It happened this morning?” “Yeah. A group of robbers attacked a family on Spinner's street but the superhero stopped them before the police even showed.” Rashmi huffed. “Typical. Of course the police didn't get there on time.” There is a edge of bitterness in her voice, always present when she talks about law enforcement. Rashmi’s brother was killed in a bank robbery four years ago. Elly tried not to feel guilty, she hadn't even gotten her powers by then. There's nothing she could have done. Rashmi was right, though: the police were terrible at their jobs. That was why Elly had to step in. Elly froze as Amaya leaned over her shoulder to look into Jao's phone. She was close their arms pressed against each other and Elly could smell her perfume. Amaya smelled of coconuts. Amaya hummed, unaware of Elly's fierce blush. “That's good, I suppose. The superhero does her job, at least.” Elly found her voice. “You don't like the superhero?” Amaya met her eyes and Elly lost her voice again. Amaya shrugged. “ I just find it weird that she came out of nowhere. We don't know anything about her: her name, what she looks like. Not even her voice. Who is she?” Elly was so glad she had the brilliant idea to use a voice modulator in her costume. “But she's a superhero. She has to keep her identity a secret.” Elly said, trying to sound casual. Rashmi had a thoughtful look on her face. “Amaya’s right, though. She doesn't even have a superhero name.” “Yeah, people called her Magnum at first, but it didn't stick. She doesn't respond to it, or any other name.” Jao replied, thinking too. That was because Elly didn't realize they were talking to her! Someone had asked for her name when she was still new, but Elly had panicked and said, “I prefer to remain unnamed!” before fleeing. Looks like they had taken her seriously. Her friends were still talking. “She's so mysterious.” “And small too.” Amaya added, making Elly puff up. “We're the same height and I'm not that short.” Silence fell and her friends just stared at her. Oh, Elly f****d up. Why did she say that? Her friends were going to realize that she shared a lot of similarities with the hero, too much in fact. Except, Amaya snorted and they all burst into laughter. Jao snickered. “No offense, Elle but you're really short!” “I am not!” Elly exclaimed, offended now, but they just kept laughing. Sometimes, Elly really hated her friends, except she didn't really. The bell rang and Amaya got up. “That's the bell. Come on Elly, we have calculus.” Elly found the last of her annoyance slipping away. She found it hard to remain angry when Amaya was looking at her. She sprang out of her chair. “Right. Let's go!” Jao snorted, making kissy noises and Rashmi hit him on the back of his head. “Hey!” “Hush.” Elly ignored them both, cheeks flushing, and followed Amaya.