Heroes Big Boom
Chapter 2
As first days go this one this one pretty much sucked Elle thought. The only upside was that she’d managed to avoid the cheerleaders at lunch, they’d had practice, which meant she was spared talking nail vanish and boys or whatever it was they talked about. Although after her performance in gym she doubted whether they’d still want to be friends. The blonde boy hadn’t turned up either and she wasn’t sure yet if that was a good or a bad thing.
To finish off the day she’d had to stay behind after school and go over her transfer papers with the principal Angela Petrelli, who seemed to dislike her on sight. She was walking past the football field when someone tapped her shoulder.
“Hi Elle right? I’m Nathan”
She jumped, not even realizing anyone else was in school
“Sorry I didn’t mean to scare you”
Elle narrowed her eyes, his shit eating grin suggested otherwise.
“I’m fine”
“Why don’t you let me give you the grand tour of the place?”
“No thanks. I´ll look around tomorrow”
“What’s wrong with now? There’s no one else around”
That, Elle thought to herself is the problem. This guy had to be brain dead if he thought she was going anywhere with him.
“I’m going to have to pass on that generous offer”
“Come on let me show you round we won’t get in trouble”
“I have to get home”
“What is your problem?”
“Right now… you”
Okay, so maybe that wasn’t the best thing for her to say, but Elle had met guys like this before and the sooner he realized she wasn’t interested the sooner he would get lost.
Nathan scowled; he’d bet his friends he could get the new girl within a day, it was a bet he was not prepared to lose.
“Maybe you should be a little nicer to me”
He moved forward effectively trapping her against the fence.
“Maybe you should back off a little”
Elle tried to push forward but he just grabbed her arms pinning them above her.
“Stop being such a little bitch!”
He hissed into her ear
Gabriel walked down the corridor detention on his first day. His mom was going to be more than impressed. He couldn’t wait till the year was over and he would finally get to escape this place. He tugged at the main door, and found it locked. That was just great he thought, locked in the school, what more could someone ask for? He doubled back trying the fire escape by the football field.
Elle was panicking now, all the self defense moves her dad had drilled into her had gone out of her head. All she could think was that she was trapped.
“Not so stuck up now are we?”
Nathan sneered at her, pushing himself against her.
Gabriel heard the scream once he walked out of the door, Nathan had a girl pinned against the fence trying to push him away. Before he could think he was running across the field and had thrown Nathan to the floor.
“Get the hell away from her!”
Elle backed away from both of them.
“Are you okay?”
The guy who had saved her was asking, but she was Elle Bishop she wasn’t supposed to need saving from anything.
Gabriel waved his hand in front of her face, she didn’t seem to notice.
Elle blinked coming to her senses, he was waving his hand in front of her face as if she had some kind of trauma. His eyes were wide with concern, concern and pity. She had had the look before, when her dad explained why her mom wasn’t coming home, and from nearly every schools guidance councillor. She didn’t need anyone’s pity and she certainly didn’t need his.
Elle turned round and started running down the pitch she had to get out of there
“Wait!”
She could hear him running after her and spun round to face him
“Just stay away from me!”
“I’m trying to help you”
“I don’t need your help I can take care of myself”
He watched her run off, he wanted to go after her but he knew she didn’t want him there; besides, he had Nathan to take care off.
He walked back to where Nathan was still laid out on the floor and kicked him.
“You’re never going to touch her again! Understand?”
He kicked him again harder and bent down to face him
“If you even go near her; I will kill you!”
He didn’t know why, but he meant it.
Elle risked a glance back in their direction. She saw the dark haired boy kicking Nathan, and she took off again.
She didn’t stop running until she reached her house and that’s when the tears came. Her dad wasn’t in luckily, he wouldn’t understand the tears. He’d raised his little girl to be tough. Bishops never cried; that was the rule. She peeled off her clothes and climbed into the shower, trying to wash away the feel of his fingers on her.
Gabriel opened the door carefully. His mom was probably having one of her afternoon naps; he eased his way into the house and up the stairs. He was pretty sure Nathan got the message and if he hadn’t, Gabriel would be only too keen to remind him why he should stay away from the girl. He felt like he had to protect her, though it was clear she didn’t want him to. He would see her tomorrow and talk to her then.
Elle could hear her alarm going off somewhere in the distance. She had already been awake for hours. All she could see was Nathan grinning every time she closed her eyes. It took everything she had to get out of the bed. She had to go in today, not going in would be running away.
She was at her locker when the trouble started.
“Slut!”
Elle turned round to see the three identical blondes.
“What?”
“You heard me, stay away from my boyfriend!”
“Yeah Nathan told us what happened”
“Throwing yourself at him like that is like so pathetic”
Elle slammed her locker shut. This was just too much; she walked straight up to the main blonde
“Unless you want a black eye I suggest you run along”
She might not have defended herself the day before but she as sure as hell wasn’t going to be intimated by these Barbie’s.
“Come on Tracy she isn’t worth it”
One of the sidekicks piped up.
Elle glared until they were around the corner. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She had progressed from victim to school slut in 24 hours. At least the cheerleaders wouldn’t want to hang out any more.
Gabriel had heard the rumors as soon as he was in the school. Different variations of the one lie, the new girl had thrown herself at Nathan, she’d stripped of for him, and it went on. By lunch time she had apparently been caught pleasuring the entire football team and teachers of both sexes.
He saw her standing at her locker and went over.
“Hey how are you holding up?”
Great Elle thought, he couldn’t just leave her alone
“Oh I’m just great now if you wouldn’t mind moving”
“You should tell someone what really happened”
“Look, I’m touched by your concern, but I didn’t ask you to help me yesterday and I sure don’t need any advice from you now”.
“If I hadn’t helped you yesterday who knows what he would have done to you?”
“I had it under control”
“Yeah it sure looked that way”
“Why do you even care?”
“Forget I ever did”
Gabriel strode off fuming. That wasn’t how he had expected it to go, he hadn’t wanted thanks, but she was treating him as if he were Nathan. He just didn’t know what to do.
Elle watched him storm away. Was it so hard just to say thank you, asked a tiny part of her brain? Yes, she thought. Saying thank you would mean he had done something for her, something she couldn’t have done for herself. It would mean admitting what she had been trying to ignore, even since it happened, that if he hadn’t come along she didn’t know what would have gone on. She couldn’t think about what he might have prevented.
Gabriel watched her throughout lunch. The girls avoided her and the boys did mostly the same other than throwing the odd request for sex her way. She ignored it all. She dispatched them with a quick put down and a glare. He kept staring, willing her to meet his eye but she never did. He wished he could take back what he said earlier that he didn’t care, he did care, he just had no idea why. He saw Adam Monroe come sneaking up to her table and sit down opposite her, he waited for her smart remark to come but she just smiled slightly. He had no idea what was going on. Why would she smile at Monroe but not at him? Why was she even talking to him?
Elle ignored the taunts, the whispers. She had been the object of gossip at past schools and she was over it bothering her, mostly it was just because she was new, although there was that fun time in her junior year where she had apparently transferred in from a reform school.
“Mind if I sit?”
She looked up and saw the blonde boy from the day before smiling at her
.
“Depends are you going to proposition me for sex?”
“How could you think that of me? I am a gentleman”
Elle couldn’t help but smile as he slid into the seat opposite her.
Adam was glad she was smiling, he’d heard the rumours and hadn’t believed them for a second, after all any girl who would turn him down was hardly likely to go after Nathan Petrelli.
“I’m Adam by the way”
“Elle”
“Pleasure to meet you Elle”
“So where are you from anyway Australia?”
Adam put a hand to his heart and mock fainted
“England love”
“Never been there”
“I gathered that much”
Gabriel shook his head is disbelief as he watched her joke and laugh with Adam, there was a friendship he just couldn’t understand.
A hand was waved in front of his face
“Earth to Gabriel”
“Mohinder!”
“Back at last”
“Took you long enough!”
“Lets forget the fact I’m a week early, nice to see you as well”
Mohinder plopped down next to Gabriel
“So what did I miss?”
“Nothing much”
Elle brushed the hair out of her eyes, she’d been at Primatech for a month now and it hadn’t gotten that much better. Most of the teachers disliked her presuming the rumors to be true, so much for teacher objectivity, only Mr. Rains had actually given her a chance and science was her favorite subject because of it. Adam also made things bearable; she had never had a close friend until him. Nathan stayed out of her way which she was thankful for. She didn’t know whether she would cry or kill him, maybe both. She avoided Gabriel like the plague, she had leant his name from Adam after a casual inquiry, apparently he’d once tried to blow the school up but she didn’t believe that. After all, she knew first hand the standard of rumors around there.
She glanced at her watch. Detention with Mr. Parkman had set her back an hour; lucky her. She heard a yell from up ahead and crept forward. One of the footballers held up Mohinder as Nathan hit him. She’d seen Mohinder hanging round with Gabriel enough times to know who he was. They hadn’t seen her and she reassured herself she could turn round, find another exit and no one had to ever know. She could find a teacher and point them in this direction. But that wasn’t her, she didn’t know Mohinder, but that didn’t mean she was going to let him get beaten up by Nathan; after all Gabriel hadn’t known her when he’d stepped in.
She was on Nathan before he had time to turn round, giving him a solid kick to the kneecaps.
Mohinder took the opportunity to punch the guy holding him, Doyle something and watch as the tiny blonde beat the shit out of Nathan. He could hear footsteps down the corridors and knowing his luck it would be a teacher. Considering Nathan and his friend were on the floor he didn’t think claiming he had been attacked was going to work, plus Nathan had an immunity when it came to anything school related; must have something to do with him being the principal`s son.
He grabbed the girls arm
“Come on we have to get out of here”
Elle spun round. She had forgotten Mohinder was there, slightly caught up in using all the moves her Dad had spent the last eighteen years teaching her.
“One sec”
She thrust her fist into Nathan’s nose and smiled when she heard the crack.
“Alright let’s go!”
Elle took off running down the corridor Mohinder just behind her.
Gabriel leaned against his locker wearing the biggest smile. Nathan walks on water, Petrelli had apparently been mugged on his way home last night in his opinion it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy. His smile faded as soon as he saw Mohinder.
“What the hell happened to you?”
“It’s only a black eye”
“Only?”
“Trust me you should see the other guy”
Gabriel rolled his eyes, fighting wasn’t exactly Mohinder´s strong point. He would be lucky if the other guy had broken a nail.
“Seriously Mohinder what happened?”
“Maybe you should ask Nathan Petrelli, I’m sure he looks worse”
“You’re trying to tell me you single handily fought Nathan and came out on top?”
“Well maybe it wasn’t exactly single handedly”
Elle could see them at the lockers talking, she had no desire to speak to Gabriel, but she wanted to see how Mohinder was.
Gabriel starred as Elle walked up to Mohinder and punched him on the arm
“Hey fight club how are you?”
“You two know each other”?
“Well I wasn’t going to take on Nathan by myself”
Gabriel frowned; this had to be some sort of nightmare.
Elle grinned. Gabriel didn’t look overly happy with the situation, she turned to him.
“You know wearing a leather jacket in this heat doesn’t make you look cool, it just makes you look slightly simple”
Pleased with herself she nodded at Mohinder and strolled off down the corridor.
“I like her”
Gabriel glared at Mohinder, he liked her too but he wasn’t about to share.
“You don’t even know her”
“Neither do you”
I know that’s she practically bipolar he thought.
Elle sat at lunch picking at her sandwich, Adam had yet another lunch time detention so she was without the pleasure of his company.
Mohinder spotted her as soon as they entered the cafeteria, and headed in her direction.
“Mohinder where are you going?”
“We can’t just let her sit there by herself”
“But we have our own table”
Gabriel tried not to whine as he said this.
“Which will be fine without us for a day”
Mohinder either didn’t realize he didn’t want to sit anywhere near her or just didn’t care, Gabriel’s money was on the latter.
“This jacket is vintage”
“Of course it is”
Elle looked up to see Mohinder and Gabriel heading towards her, she flashed a smile at Mohinder and then stuck out her tongue at Gabriel. Alright so it was childish but she couldn’t help it. Something about him affected her which was fine when she was avoiding him, but up close it was slightly harder to deal with.
Mohinder sat down next to her, leaving Gabriel the seat opposite. His friend didn’t have the best luck with girls, and this one seemed like his female version. He just needed a nudge to realize it.
“So why was Nathan after you anyway?”
“As if he needs a reason”
Gabriel shot out; there was no way this girl was finding out their secret.
“I guess not”
Mohinder groaned. Could Gabriel be anymore anti social?
“Actually there was a reason this time”
“Oh come on”
Gabriel couldn’t believe it. So now Mohinder was going to reveal all to this girl they barely new. How great!
“We have a little business enterprise going on”
“They sell exam answer papers, need an A, find Mohinder”
Adam commented sitting down next to Gabriel.
“I thought you had detention”
“I sweet talked her into letting me out early, after all, what female could resist my charms?”
Gabriel coughed loudly.
“Don’t worry kid, some day I`ll teach you all I know”
Adam said smirking.
Elle bit back a smile, for someone who had started the year sitting by herself, having three people at lunch was an ultimate record.
“Can I get back to my business enterprise?”
Mohinder said.
Elle gestured for him to go on.
“Alright so while we sell exam papers, we have standards “
“We don’t sell to cheerleaders or the football team”
Gabriel cut in.
“Anyway Nathan decided the best way to persuade me to change our selling options was through violence”.
Elle scowled if it was possible she hated Nathan even more.
“Clearly his plan backfired”
“I feel as though I’m out of the loop somehow”
“Its nothing Adam, me and Mohinder beat up Nathan”
Adam raised his eye brows. He knew Elle was feisty, but she didn’t look the fighting type, especially the kind that could take down Nathan and Mohinder, well that was self explanatory.
“You and Mohinder?”
“Well it was more me than Mohinder”
“She broke his nose”
Mohinder said happily replaying the incident
“This is a hidden side of you love”
“You can’t be an army brat without learning a few tricks”
“Isn’t this cozy the schools trouble makers congregating”
All four of them spun round to face Mr. Bennnet.
“If you hadn’t noticed lunch has ended”
Elle gazed at the other tables true enough everyone had gone.
“I would suggest you all go to class now”
They didn’t need telling twice, Gabriel grabbed his stuff and followed the others out.
Elle took off down the corridor shooting a wave in their direction.
“I can’t believe you told her about this business”
Gabriel hissed to Mohinder
“I can’t believe I was classed as a trouble maker, I won first place in the science fair!”
Gabriel sighed and walked to his lesson.
Elle headed to her locker after class, today had actually been fun, who would have thought they had a secret cheating ring going on. She saw Gabriel lounging by her locker and groaned.
“Lost ?”
“I just wanted to ask you a question”
“Ask away”
“Why is it fine for you to help Mohinder but not fine for me to help you?”
“Because unlike Mohinder I can take care of myself”
“I’m sure”
“I think Nathan’s broken nose speaks for itself”
Elle stared at him, she knew he wasn’t the villain here. She took a deep breath.
“But thanks”
Gabriel blinked; of all the things that could have happened next that was not on his list.
“No problem, he would just have had a broken nose a day earlier if I hadn’t come along”
Elle smiled glad he wasn’t pressing it
“Oh of course”
“So I’ll see you tomorrow”
“Yeah”
Gabriel walked off, how smooth could he get I’ll see you tomorrow, God he was pathetic.
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