"Seven Is An Even Number" IV
Title: Seven Is An Even Number IV
Author: Starhawk
Rating/Category: G, friendship
Characters/Pairing: Warren, Layla/Will, Magenta, Freeze Girl, Ethan, Zach.
Summary: Layla brings her latest problem to lunch and asks Warren for advice.
Quarter By Numbers
by Starhawk
He didn't even look up when a tray hit the table across from him. The table was empty but for them, yet despite the fact that he was clearly busy Layla announced, "I have a problem."
Warren didn't bother to glare at her for one very good reason: experience had shown how little it helped. Instead he kept his gaze on the words in front of him while he inquired, "And I care because?"
"Because matters of social justice concern us all," Layla informed him. "And also because I'm going to keep talking about it until I decide what to do, which will take much longer without your help."
"What do you need Warren's help for?" Magenta asked, claiming the seat beside Layla. The subtle emphasis she put on his name made it clear what she thought about asking him for help in any situation.
"I need everyone's help," Layla said firmly. "It's just that Warren is a particularly good problem-solver. I have a good track record with him."
"You have a good track record with fortune cookies," Warren corrected. He could feel the odd look Magenta gave him without lifting his head.
"Hey, are there fortune cookies?" Will took his seat on the other side of Layla, adding, "I love those things. Did the cafeteria get them today and I missed them?"
"There aren't any fortune cookies," Layla told him.
"Layla needs help," Magenta added.
"What, because she thinks there are fortune cookies?" Will didn't seem to notice Layla's exasperated sigh. "There's no cure for optimism," he told Magenta.
Warren snorted at that. If there was one thing Layla would never run out of, it was optimism. She still talked to him, after all.
"Hi, guys," Annabelle's voice said. Her voice came from over Warren's shoulder, but she stopped there and she didn't sit down. Since he wasn't about to turn and look at her, he had no idea why she hesitated.
"Hi Annabelle," Layla greeted her. She smiled at the older girl, and Will waved over a mouthful of his sandwich. Magenta didn't bother to acknowledge her, but then, Magenta rarely acknowledged anyone.
"Um..." Annabelle still sounded uncertain. "Would you mind if I sat with you again?"
"Of course not!" Layla looked mildly indignant that she would even ask, and she waved with a "come here" gesture. "You help us balance out the gender disparity at our table, for one thing."
Will finally finished chewing and grinned at her. "Plus we like you."
"Well, I wasn't sure," Annabelle admitted, setting her tray down next to Warren and taking Popsicle's seat for the second day in a row. "After what happened with Scott and Michaud this morning... I'm really sorry about that."
"That wasn't your fault," Layla declared.
For the first time, Warren looked up and caught her eye. He raised his eyebrows at her pointedly, wondering what had happened to her "I think you should try to resolve this without violence" attitude. Will was the only one who had ever gotten a pass from her pro-pacifism stance before.
Layla didn't miss the look. "Well, it wasn't," she repeated, apparently reading his expression right. "I think... there are times when you have to physically defend yourself.
"There are definitely times when you have to defend others," Layla added, with more certainty. "And that's what she did."
"Hey, it's the hero of the morning!" Popsicle and Glowstick arrived at the same time, and the short kid set his tray down next to Annabelle before holding up his hand. "Come on, high five!"
Annabelle must have done it, because the kid crowed, "Yeah, you are one cool chick, Freeze Girl! Way to show those guys where it's at!"
Warren rolled his eyes, pretending to concentrate on his book again as the tall kid settled into his seat at the end of the table. "Hey, who likes brownies?" the tall kid wanted to know. "I didn't know they had nuts in them. I hate nuts."
"I hate people who are nuts," Magenta muttered, reaching out to take his dessert. "Sadly, high school is full of them."
"Yeah, speaking of that." The tall kid looked very pleased with himself. "I got detention for skipping first period."
"Zach," Layla chided him. "Why did you skip first period?"
Warren caught the look Zach threw at her out of the corner of his eye. "To get detention," the tall kid said. "Obviously."
"Ethan got detention too," Will told Layla. "They're doing it on purpose, so we don't have to go alone."
"Yeah, I asked Coach Boomer for detention and he just gave it to me," the short kid bragged. "I think we're starting to get along better."
"Zach had to work for it," Magenta remarked. "Boomer wouldn't give him detention for using his power. Or for being obnoxious," she added, with a disgusted look in Ethan's direction.
"Yeah, Zach followed in the footsteps of the master." The short kid leaned around Annabelle to ask, "Hey, Warren, are you still taking on new students? Because I mean, now that I sit at the tough guy table, I have a reputation to maintain."
Warren ignored him.
Stronghold didn't. "You told Zach how to get detention?" he guessed. He sounded thoroughly amused by the idea, and Warren lifted his head to glare at him.
"I didn't tell anyone anything," he growled. "He didn't get detention for skipping. He got detention for following me."
"Really?" Annabelle asked, with obvious interest. "Following you where?"
"To class," he snapped. "Where do you think I go during first period?"
"Well, you were sitting on the steps outside in the courtyard when we left you," the short kid pointed out. "Looked like skipping to me."
"There's a subtle difference between skipping and being late," Warren grumbled, not looking at him. "You don't get detention for missing a few minutes of class."
"Yeah, which is why I think it's funny that he figured out how to get detention from you," Will said with a smirk. "You're not exactly lord of the detention room."
"You know, you can shut up any time now," Warren warned him.
"The first time we got detention together?" Will continued, ignoring him. "Warren tried to roast me, right in front of Principal Powers. Too bad he didn't know powers don't work in the detention room."
"I knew," Warren muttered. "I was just trying to scare you. You should have seen yourself jump."
"You'd never had detention before?" Annabelle sounded surprised.
Warren glared across the table at his former nemesis. Will would know he was lying if he said yes. Great of him to ruin that part of his rebel rep. "Not until I met Stronghold," he said darkly.
"How many times did you two get detention?" Annabelle wanted to know.
"Why do you care?" Warren retorted.
"Twice," Will supplied. "Once for fighting, and once for not fighting."
"Not--oh," she said, with sudden comprehension. He could hear the smile in her voice. "Save the Citizen, right? Warren wouldn't fight after you won."
"Yeah, thanks a lot, by the way," Will remarked, obviously directing his comment at Warren. "My mom really wasn't happy to hear that I was in detention again."
"It's a stupid game," Warren muttered. Whoever won was supposed to stay in the arena until they were defeated. He'd pretty much had enough of being Stronghold's "partner" at that point. He hadn't expected them to win.
"Besides, it's not like your dad cared," Layla added, nudging Will. "He just pretends to yell at you so your mom won't interrupt you two while you're playing pinball."
"Dude, you have a pinball machine at your house?" The tall kid sounded offended that he hadn't been in on the secret. "I didn't know that. Where is it?"
"No," Will said, almost before he'd finished. Warren looked up at his odd tone, just in time to catch the pointed look he gave Layla. "We don't have a pinball machine."
"No, right," Layla agreed quickly. "What I meant was, while you're doing things like playing pinball. I just used pinball as an example to illustrate the how pointless most male bonding activities are outside of the broader social context."
This produced a moment of silence, during which Warren wondered what they were hiding. Then Magenta declared, "You followed Warren to class?" and suddenly everyone's attention was focused on Glowstick again.
"Yeah, so?" The tall kid just shrugged. "It's just a math class. You don't have to be a hero to do math."
"Yes, exactly." Layla jumped in before anyone could point out, as Warren suspected they might, that even if Zach were a hero he wouldn't be any better at math. Which was true, if not in quite the way they would mean it. He figured the tall kid had his own reasons for pretending not to be the brightest bulb on the tree.
So to speak.
"This is part of my problem," Layla was saying. "Heroes and sidekicks are separated into different tracks based on their powers, right? But what do our powers have to do with what we're taught?"
"This is high school," Will put in. "What does it have to do with anything?"
"That's stupid!" Layla burst out. "I'm sick of sub-par education being allowed to slide just because 'that's the way it is'! I'm tired of everyone around me being resigned to a situation that they don't even try to change!"
Warren frowned down at his book. "What's your problem, Hippie?" he asked quietly.
When she didn't answer, he looked up. She was staring at her tray, but she seemed to sense his gaze. Hers was troubled when she lifted her eyes to meet his. "Principal Powers says Coach Boomer wants me in the hero track," she admitted.
"Layla, that's great!" Will exclaimed. "I told you, that's where you should have been all along. At least Coach Boomer knows he made a mistake--" Glancing from her to Warren and then back again, he finally seemed to get that something more was going on. "What?"
Warren didn't take his eyes off of her. "And?" he prompted, forestalling the onslaught of congratuations from the rest of the table.
"And Principal Powers doesn't," Layla said. She was frowning now, although she had managed a small preoccupied smile for Will's enthusiasm. "I don't know whether to argue with her or not."
"Principal Powers disagrees with Coach Boomer?" Ethan repeated incredulously. "Wow. That's wacky."
"Why?" Magenta wanted to know. "I thought the principal didn't have anything to do with power placement."
"She doesn't," Will put in. "My dad says Coach Boomer has the final word when it comes to powers."
"Not for you, Will," Annabelle pointed out. "You got switched out of hero support right away."
"Sure, as soon as they saw me throw Warren through a wall," Will agreed, tossing a half-smile in his direction. "Cause everyone knew the only way the Commander would stand for his son being a sidekick was if it was obvious he had no powers at all." He rolled his eyes, but despite his words he didn't sound bitter.
"Hey," Will added suddenly, frowning at Layla. "Is that why they won't bump you up? Because your parents aren't famous?"
"No," Layla said with a sigh. "Because my mom is, actually."
Will seemed to get that. "You mean as an activist?"
Layla shrugged, picking at the sandwich in front of her. "Practically everyone in Washington knows her. She's totally inactive as a superhero because she doesn't have a secret identity… and Principal Powers is afraid that if I graduate from the hero track, my identity would be compromised too."
"Well, that's dumb," Zach said. "You don't get to be a hero because of your mom?"
Will glanced at him. "I didn't get to be a sidekick because of my dad," he pointed out. "What's the difference?"
"The difference is that no one wants to be a sidekick," Ethan reminded him. "If Layla can make hero, then she should be a hero."
"We shouldn't be split up into heroes and sidekicks to begin with!" Layla protested. "The whole system is archaic!"
Warren reached out and touched her tray, getting her attention immediately. "You're not going to change the school in a day," he told her. "Which is about how long you can expect Boomer and Powers to fight over you. So you'd better think about this deal while it's still on the table."
Layla opened her mouth, then closed it again slowly. "I know," she said at last. "I know that, I really do." She sighed. "I just don't know what to do."
"What do you want to do?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at her.
"I want to do what's right," she said immediately.
"Yeah, fine, very noble," Warren muttered. "But that's not what I asked." He stared at her, seeing in her face the same confusion that had made him sit down across from her at the Paper Lantern that first night. "What do you want, Hippie?"
And now, just like then, he realized he should have known the answer before he asked, because her gaze darted to Will and she didn't even have to say it out loud.
"So," Warren said, sitting back. "Coach Boomer was right."
"Oh, please," Layla said, rolling her eyes. "He doesn't have any idea what he's talking about."
Warren just smiled. The mere fact that she had known what he meant gave the lie to her protest, and after a moment, she seemed to realize it too. Coach Boomer thought that she'd hidden her power to ensure that she ended up in the same class as Will--and Layla had just proven him right.
"Side with the coach, Hippie," Warren told her. "Principal Powers has to listen to him."
Layla's shoulders slumped, and she poked at her sandwich like it had offended her. "I can't switch classes in the middle of the year," she complained. It was so obviously a token protest that he didn't bother to shoot it down.
"Sure you can," Will said eagerly. "Come on, you're like, the smartest person I know."
"Besides, it's not the middle of the year." Magenta sounded bored by the whole thing. "It's the middle of the semester. After midterms all the teachers start new subjects anyway."
"I'd be happy to study with you for a while," Annabelle offered unexpectedly. "If you wanted some extra help or something."
Layla looked from one side of Warren to the other. He didn't get what she was looking for until the short kid said, "You should totally do it, Layla. This is a great opportunity to develop a more well-rounded message. Just think, when you're campaigning for change at Sky High, you'll be able to say that you've seen it from both sides of the school!"
"Plus," the tall kid added, "being a hero is really cool."
Layla sighed again, but she was smiling when she looked around the table. "Thanks guys," she said sincerely. "You've given me a lot to think about."
"Hey," Will said, putting an arm around her shoulders. "That's what friends are for, right?"
Warren glowered at him from across the table. "If you don't stop that, I'm leaving right now."
Will just grinned at him, but Layla pushed him away impatiently. "Will, stop embarrassing Warren," she told him.
He wasn't sure whether that was better or worse than having Will smirk at him.
***
Backstory: part 1, part 2, part 3
Thanks so much for the kind words, on characterization in particular! I work hard at characterization, from dialogue to a realistic point-of-view, so it's so nice to see it pay off. Group dynamics, on the other hand, are something I struggle with (this story is a great challenge in that respect) so that commentary is appreciated on a whole other level. You guys rock :)
Author: Starhawk
Rating/Category: G, friendship
Characters/Pairing: Warren, Layla/Will, Magenta, Freeze Girl, Ethan, Zach.
Summary: Layla brings her latest problem to lunch and asks Warren for advice.
Quarter By Numbers
by Starhawk
He didn't even look up when a tray hit the table across from him. The table was empty but for them, yet despite the fact that he was clearly busy Layla announced, "I have a problem."
Warren didn't bother to glare at her for one very good reason: experience had shown how little it helped. Instead he kept his gaze on the words in front of him while he inquired, "And I care because?"
"Because matters of social justice concern us all," Layla informed him. "And also because I'm going to keep talking about it until I decide what to do, which will take much longer without your help."
"What do you need Warren's help for?" Magenta asked, claiming the seat beside Layla. The subtle emphasis she put on his name made it clear what she thought about asking him for help in any situation.
"I need everyone's help," Layla said firmly. "It's just that Warren is a particularly good problem-solver. I have a good track record with him."
"You have a good track record with fortune cookies," Warren corrected. He could feel the odd look Magenta gave him without lifting his head.
"Hey, are there fortune cookies?" Will took his seat on the other side of Layla, adding, "I love those things. Did the cafeteria get them today and I missed them?"
"There aren't any fortune cookies," Layla told him.
"Layla needs help," Magenta added.
"What, because she thinks there are fortune cookies?" Will didn't seem to notice Layla's exasperated sigh. "There's no cure for optimism," he told Magenta.
Warren snorted at that. If there was one thing Layla would never run out of, it was optimism. She still talked to him, after all.
"Hi, guys," Annabelle's voice said. Her voice came from over Warren's shoulder, but she stopped there and she didn't sit down. Since he wasn't about to turn and look at her, he had no idea why she hesitated.
"Hi Annabelle," Layla greeted her. She smiled at the older girl, and Will waved over a mouthful of his sandwich. Magenta didn't bother to acknowledge her, but then, Magenta rarely acknowledged anyone.
"Um..." Annabelle still sounded uncertain. "Would you mind if I sat with you again?"
"Of course not!" Layla looked mildly indignant that she would even ask, and she waved with a "come here" gesture. "You help us balance out the gender disparity at our table, for one thing."
Will finally finished chewing and grinned at her. "Plus we like you."
"Well, I wasn't sure," Annabelle admitted, setting her tray down next to Warren and taking Popsicle's seat for the second day in a row. "After what happened with Scott and Michaud this morning... I'm really sorry about that."
"That wasn't your fault," Layla declared.
For the first time, Warren looked up and caught her eye. He raised his eyebrows at her pointedly, wondering what had happened to her "I think you should try to resolve this without violence" attitude. Will was the only one who had ever gotten a pass from her pro-pacifism stance before.
Layla didn't miss the look. "Well, it wasn't," she repeated, apparently reading his expression right. "I think... there are times when you have to physically defend yourself.
"There are definitely times when you have to defend others," Layla added, with more certainty. "And that's what she did."
"Hey, it's the hero of the morning!" Popsicle and Glowstick arrived at the same time, and the short kid set his tray down next to Annabelle before holding up his hand. "Come on, high five!"
Annabelle must have done it, because the kid crowed, "Yeah, you are one cool chick, Freeze Girl! Way to show those guys where it's at!"
Warren rolled his eyes, pretending to concentrate on his book again as the tall kid settled into his seat at the end of the table. "Hey, who likes brownies?" the tall kid wanted to know. "I didn't know they had nuts in them. I hate nuts."
"I hate people who are nuts," Magenta muttered, reaching out to take his dessert. "Sadly, high school is full of them."
"Yeah, speaking of that." The tall kid looked very pleased with himself. "I got detention for skipping first period."
"Zach," Layla chided him. "Why did you skip first period?"
Warren caught the look Zach threw at her out of the corner of his eye. "To get detention," the tall kid said. "Obviously."
"Ethan got detention too," Will told Layla. "They're doing it on purpose, so we don't have to go alone."
"Yeah, I asked Coach Boomer for detention and he just gave it to me," the short kid bragged. "I think we're starting to get along better."
"Zach had to work for it," Magenta remarked. "Boomer wouldn't give him detention for using his power. Or for being obnoxious," she added, with a disgusted look in Ethan's direction.
"Yeah, Zach followed in the footsteps of the master." The short kid leaned around Annabelle to ask, "Hey, Warren, are you still taking on new students? Because I mean, now that I sit at the tough guy table, I have a reputation to maintain."
Warren ignored him.
Stronghold didn't. "You told Zach how to get detention?" he guessed. He sounded thoroughly amused by the idea, and Warren lifted his head to glare at him.
"I didn't tell anyone anything," he growled. "He didn't get detention for skipping. He got detention for following me."
"Really?" Annabelle asked, with obvious interest. "Following you where?"
"To class," he snapped. "Where do you think I go during first period?"
"Well, you were sitting on the steps outside in the courtyard when we left you," the short kid pointed out. "Looked like skipping to me."
"There's a subtle difference between skipping and being late," Warren grumbled, not looking at him. "You don't get detention for missing a few minutes of class."
"Yeah, which is why I think it's funny that he figured out how to get detention from you," Will said with a smirk. "You're not exactly lord of the detention room."
"You know, you can shut up any time now," Warren warned him.
"The first time we got detention together?" Will continued, ignoring him. "Warren tried to roast me, right in front of Principal Powers. Too bad he didn't know powers don't work in the detention room."
"I knew," Warren muttered. "I was just trying to scare you. You should have seen yourself jump."
"You'd never had detention before?" Annabelle sounded surprised.
Warren glared across the table at his former nemesis. Will would know he was lying if he said yes. Great of him to ruin that part of his rebel rep. "Not until I met Stronghold," he said darkly.
"How many times did you two get detention?" Annabelle wanted to know.
"Why do you care?" Warren retorted.
"Twice," Will supplied. "Once for fighting, and once for not fighting."
"Not--oh," she said, with sudden comprehension. He could hear the smile in her voice. "Save the Citizen, right? Warren wouldn't fight after you won."
"Yeah, thanks a lot, by the way," Will remarked, obviously directing his comment at Warren. "My mom really wasn't happy to hear that I was in detention again."
"It's a stupid game," Warren muttered. Whoever won was supposed to stay in the arena until they were defeated. He'd pretty much had enough of being Stronghold's "partner" at that point. He hadn't expected them to win.
"Besides, it's not like your dad cared," Layla added, nudging Will. "He just pretends to yell at you so your mom won't interrupt you two while you're playing pinball."
"Dude, you have a pinball machine at your house?" The tall kid sounded offended that he hadn't been in on the secret. "I didn't know that. Where is it?"
"No," Will said, almost before he'd finished. Warren looked up at his odd tone, just in time to catch the pointed look he gave Layla. "We don't have a pinball machine."
"No, right," Layla agreed quickly. "What I meant was, while you're doing things like playing pinball. I just used pinball as an example to illustrate the how pointless most male bonding activities are outside of the broader social context."
This produced a moment of silence, during which Warren wondered what they were hiding. Then Magenta declared, "You followed Warren to class?" and suddenly everyone's attention was focused on Glowstick again.
"Yeah, so?" The tall kid just shrugged. "It's just a math class. You don't have to be a hero to do math."
"Yes, exactly." Layla jumped in before anyone could point out, as Warren suspected they might, that even if Zach were a hero he wouldn't be any better at math. Which was true, if not in quite the way they would mean it. He figured the tall kid had his own reasons for pretending not to be the brightest bulb on the tree.
So to speak.
"This is part of my problem," Layla was saying. "Heroes and sidekicks are separated into different tracks based on their powers, right? But what do our powers have to do with what we're taught?"
"This is high school," Will put in. "What does it have to do with anything?"
"That's stupid!" Layla burst out. "I'm sick of sub-par education being allowed to slide just because 'that's the way it is'! I'm tired of everyone around me being resigned to a situation that they don't even try to change!"
Warren frowned down at his book. "What's your problem, Hippie?" he asked quietly.
When she didn't answer, he looked up. She was staring at her tray, but she seemed to sense his gaze. Hers was troubled when she lifted her eyes to meet his. "Principal Powers says Coach Boomer wants me in the hero track," she admitted.
"Layla, that's great!" Will exclaimed. "I told you, that's where you should have been all along. At least Coach Boomer knows he made a mistake--" Glancing from her to Warren and then back again, he finally seemed to get that something more was going on. "What?"
Warren didn't take his eyes off of her. "And?" he prompted, forestalling the onslaught of congratuations from the rest of the table.
"And Principal Powers doesn't," Layla said. She was frowning now, although she had managed a small preoccupied smile for Will's enthusiasm. "I don't know whether to argue with her or not."
"Principal Powers disagrees with Coach Boomer?" Ethan repeated incredulously. "Wow. That's wacky."
"Why?" Magenta wanted to know. "I thought the principal didn't have anything to do with power placement."
"She doesn't," Will put in. "My dad says Coach Boomer has the final word when it comes to powers."
"Not for you, Will," Annabelle pointed out. "You got switched out of hero support right away."
"Sure, as soon as they saw me throw Warren through a wall," Will agreed, tossing a half-smile in his direction. "Cause everyone knew the only way the Commander would stand for his son being a sidekick was if it was obvious he had no powers at all." He rolled his eyes, but despite his words he didn't sound bitter.
"Hey," Will added suddenly, frowning at Layla. "Is that why they won't bump you up? Because your parents aren't famous?"
"No," Layla said with a sigh. "Because my mom is, actually."
Will seemed to get that. "You mean as an activist?"
Layla shrugged, picking at the sandwich in front of her. "Practically everyone in Washington knows her. She's totally inactive as a superhero because she doesn't have a secret identity… and Principal Powers is afraid that if I graduate from the hero track, my identity would be compromised too."
"Well, that's dumb," Zach said. "You don't get to be a hero because of your mom?"
Will glanced at him. "I didn't get to be a sidekick because of my dad," he pointed out. "What's the difference?"
"The difference is that no one wants to be a sidekick," Ethan reminded him. "If Layla can make hero, then she should be a hero."
"We shouldn't be split up into heroes and sidekicks to begin with!" Layla protested. "The whole system is archaic!"
Warren reached out and touched her tray, getting her attention immediately. "You're not going to change the school in a day," he told her. "Which is about how long you can expect Boomer and Powers to fight over you. So you'd better think about this deal while it's still on the table."
Layla opened her mouth, then closed it again slowly. "I know," she said at last. "I know that, I really do." She sighed. "I just don't know what to do."
"What do you want to do?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at her.
"I want to do what's right," she said immediately.
"Yeah, fine, very noble," Warren muttered. "But that's not what I asked." He stared at her, seeing in her face the same confusion that had made him sit down across from her at the Paper Lantern that first night. "What do you want, Hippie?"
And now, just like then, he realized he should have known the answer before he asked, because her gaze darted to Will and she didn't even have to say it out loud.
"So," Warren said, sitting back. "Coach Boomer was right."
"Oh, please," Layla said, rolling her eyes. "He doesn't have any idea what he's talking about."
Warren just smiled. The mere fact that she had known what he meant gave the lie to her protest, and after a moment, she seemed to realize it too. Coach Boomer thought that she'd hidden her power to ensure that she ended up in the same class as Will--and Layla had just proven him right.
"Side with the coach, Hippie," Warren told her. "Principal Powers has to listen to him."
Layla's shoulders slumped, and she poked at her sandwich like it had offended her. "I can't switch classes in the middle of the year," she complained. It was so obviously a token protest that he didn't bother to shoot it down.
"Sure you can," Will said eagerly. "Come on, you're like, the smartest person I know."
"Besides, it's not the middle of the year." Magenta sounded bored by the whole thing. "It's the middle of the semester. After midterms all the teachers start new subjects anyway."
"I'd be happy to study with you for a while," Annabelle offered unexpectedly. "If you wanted some extra help or something."
Layla looked from one side of Warren to the other. He didn't get what she was looking for until the short kid said, "You should totally do it, Layla. This is a great opportunity to develop a more well-rounded message. Just think, when you're campaigning for change at Sky High, you'll be able to say that you've seen it from both sides of the school!"
"Plus," the tall kid added, "being a hero is really cool."
Layla sighed again, but she was smiling when she looked around the table. "Thanks guys," she said sincerely. "You've given me a lot to think about."
"Hey," Will said, putting an arm around her shoulders. "That's what friends are for, right?"
Warren glowered at him from across the table. "If you don't stop that, I'm leaving right now."
Will just grinned at him, but Layla pushed him away impatiently. "Will, stop embarrassing Warren," she told him.
He wasn't sure whether that was better or worse than having Will smirk at him.
***
Backstory: part 1, part 2, part 3
Thanks so much for the kind words, on characterization in particular! I work hard at characterization, from dialogue to a realistic point-of-view, so it's so nice to see it pay off. Group dynamics, on the other hand, are something I struggle with (this story is a great challenge in that respect) so that commentary is appreciated on a whole other level. You guys rock :)