Aberrant: Infinite Earth - Fiction - Being Normal [Complete]

[Elspeth]

(Formerly Teen Dreams)

It was starting to become too much. She was burning herself out with all this ruling business. Over the last year she'd taken back her kingdom, (queendom actually, damned sexist terminology!). She had gained the respect and real loyalty of her army and it's officers. She had exposed an unofficial food embargo imposed by Utopia and gotten it reversed. To keep it from being tried again she had begun to get her people organized, and taken steps to eventually make her people self sufficient by offering strong incentives for people to become farmers, and take up other occupations that the land needed desperately.

And that was just the official acts of her reign. Then there was all the behind the scenes stuff that she been doing. She left clones doing the day to day business of the state while she expanded her powers to warp and do other things. She'd gone from warping to the moon and back, out to the edge of the solar system, then eventually to near by stars, and now she could stretch herself and go anywhere in the galaxy or beyond. She still had room for improvement, but her trips weren't limited to nearby stellar destinations now so she could start the real work of finding her people a new home. There was war coming and it didn't take a sphinx to know it. Someday in the not too distant future she would need someplace for her people to retreat to and she would be ready.

But not today. Today she was sick of it all. It was one thing to have a metabolism that didn't require sleep and that could keep going at a frantic pace for months on end. It was another to be a teenage girl and never ever have a day off from worrying about a nation of nearly 10,000,000 people. What had been the final straw had been Neese, her steward, bringing her an article in a school newspaper that her niece had written about Elspeth. Last summer when the girl had been visiting on vacation Elspeth had walked into the thrown room to discover the girl looking wide-eyed around at the palace furnishings. The young American school girl had been awed by her, and Elspeth for her own part had seen in the girl a chance to sit and talk for a brief time like a real teen. That had been an interesting experience, but it was impossible to separate herself from her duties and she'd used the girl, knowing that what she wrote would be picked up by other news agencies and reprinted around the world. Elspeth saw a sympathetic writer and used the girl manipulating her into asking the questions that Elspeth wanted the public to know. She wasn't proud of it, in fact it made her feel dirty, especially when the girl thought Elspeth was just being friendly.

Now here it was, the article. Neese presented it proudly, both of her niece's work, and of her Queen. In a way Neese had come to be like a mother to her, not that she would ever admit it, nor would Neese ever try to offer even the slightest bit of advice, but despite trying to keep her distance, the woman had grown on her. Elspeth almost refused it, not wanting to be reminded of how she'd manipulated the girl, but seeing the pride on the older woman's face she couldn't do it. She took the paper and began to read as she drank her morning tea.

Most of it was what she expected, the questions she had manipulated the girl into asking. What she didn't expect was that the article was surprisingly well written for a baseline teenager, but more than that, the article captured an aspect of her she tried to hide from others.

Quote:

"Elspeth was all these things and more. It was like sitting and having a conversation with a tornado. She was a force of nature wrapped up in a beautiful human seeming package, but there was a sadness in her so deep I wanted to cry just from feeling it's edges. Storms and forces of nature don't have friends, they have people who fear them, people who respect them, people who envy them; but who loves a tornado? Who is there for Elspeth when she's sad, or hurt, or just needs a hug? I would love to have her powers, I would trade my silly troubles in a heartbeat if I could be like her, but I don't envy her the loneliness of who she is, I think it would crush me like a giant stepping on a ladybug. Elspeth, if you ever just need a friend or a hug, I'm here for you."

She took a sip of the tea to give herself a second before responding. When she was sure she could speak without sounding choked up, she said, "Thank you Neese, she's very talented. She will have a brilliant career as a journalist, I've seen it." Without another word she laid the paper on the table and left the room. When she'd closed the door behind her she teleported. The silence and emptiness of space somewhere out between Sol and Alpha Centauri seemed appropriate to her mood. She wanted to cry, but you can't cry in space. A tear formed but turned to ice the moment it left her cheek and the protective aura of her quantum signature. It would float there in the void for all eons lost between the stars. She screamed her frustration and inner pain into the void making not a sound. She wasn't sure how long had passed before her self-pity turned into resolve and a plan formed in her mind. A smile crossed her face and she returned to the palace, a new adventure planned.

Back in the palace she created two clones. The three Elspeth's smiled at each other knowingly. One of the clones spoke, "Have fun. We will keep an eye on things while you are gone. We always do."

The real Elspeth grinned back, "I have the utmost confidence in you!" The three smiled, each displaying the pain of loneliness in that expression of strange solidarity.

[Elspeth]

It would be the middle of the night in America right now, but that was ok. Elspeth was always at the height of fashion, but that was a relative thing. What she had been wearing for the last four years was mostly formal attire since she was constantly moving in top political circles. You just couldn't wear jeans and a casual blouse when taking tea with the Emperor of Japan's children, or the Queen of England. It just wouldn't do. So it was mostly dresses, and expensive ones at that. Or rather, it was only her suite of Eufiber being modified to look like expensive dresses. The living colony of microorganisms could mimic just about anything at Elspeth's direction.

Unfortunately, she had no idea what to wear while being a 'normal' American teen, and so it was time to do some shopping! Not that she could do any shopping in the middle of the night, or at least not anything resembling traditional shopping. That wouldn't stop the teen nova, not one with her abilities at least. She grinned at the thought of what she was about to do. It wouldn't be stealing since she wouldn't be taking anything out of the stores, but she imagined that the authorities wouldn't be any too happy with trespassing. She willed herself invisible and then focused her thoughts on Houston Texas, or more precisely, on the Galleria. It was a large three story mall on the west side of the city and someplace she had been once as a little girl. Her mother had come here as part of a diplomatic embassy regarding off-shore oil drilling. At age 7 she had been left to roam the mall on her own for a few hours while the conference was taking place in the Transco Tower just down the street.

It had seemed hot to her, hotter than home and the humidity was terrible, the people around her had been sweating profusely. Inside the mall was like stepping into another season. Some adults had wondered what kind of parent would allow a 7 year old child to wander alone and had asked her where her mother was. They had walked away smiling. Even at 7 she could turn away criticism and charm people with her nova charisma and it wasn't like she could be over powered, she was as strong as an olympic weightlifter. She had enjoyed the trip, it had been a lesson in cultural differences. At the time she had been into the Artemis Fowl books and had wandered around playing with the adults by astounding them with her vocabulary.

She smiled to herself at the memory of those childish carefree days. Now she was here to recapture a bit of that carefree feeling. She appeared along one upper tier of the three story mall and looked around. The lights were off and all the stores locked up for the night, but it was as bright as daylight to her vision and metal gates would never stop someone that could teleport. She looked up and down the mall until she spied a likely store, it was a Hot Topic. She might not have much time to be a teen, but she wasn't completely unaware of what was popular. The store had recently had a resurgence in popularity and the dark angstly look that it was known for was in vogue again. There was a part of her mind that couldn't stop analyzing and processing data that knew the look was popular again partly because it had been 15 years since it was last popular and it was just the cycle coming back around, but that it was more. There was a war coming and people could feel it even if they didn't consciously know what it was they were sensing. All the clues where there, it would just take the baselines a few more years before it was 'in their face'. The unconscious psyche of the people resonated with the dark colors and grim outlook that the fashion represented.

Times like this she almost wished she didn't have the nova intelligence, it took some of the fun out of her 'window shopping'. She teleported into the cramped store and wandered around looking at the mannequins and displays. She picked and chose a pair of tight dark colored jeans that she liked the look of and shifted her Eufiber to mimic them, but then added several ivory buttons up the outside of her legs to just above the knees. It added a certain flair that the plain jeans lacked. Her artistic sense told her it would look good with a pair of knee-high boots with buckles up the sides. She wasn't quite ready to commit to the boots in the store, they just didn't have the right look... too shiny and too clunky looking, so she moved on and popped back out into the mall and began to walk. Before she could find boots she saw a blouse she really liked in the window of Lanes. It was a faded dove grey and tailored at the top, flaring at the bottom, and somewhat low cut. She added it to her outfit and moved on. As she went she added small things to the outfit, but finally finished it off when she found the perfect pair of boots. Knee-high just like she pictured with buckles up the sides and very fashionable, so she molded her Eufiber and set the color to a light grey to complement the blouse. She found a mirror in a store dressing room with no cameras and became visible. It didn't matter that the lights were out, she could see perfectly. The new outfit was comfortable and fashionable and would be perfect for her little adventure. Of course it was just a start, she'd have to look through magazines over the next few days and develop other 'outfits' but that would be fun, or maybe she'd make a habit of coming to the mall and shopping like this.

There was just one thing left and that was her face. No clothes would disguise her, she was too famous and very very obviously a nova. She activated one of her less powerful but still useful talents and became far less remarkable in an instant. Even with the power activated she couldn't completely hide her beauty, but now she looked like a striking baseline rather than a powerful nova. A few changes to her physical features and changing her hair to black instead of blond and she was finished.

It was turning light outside when she exited the mall looking like a different person. To kill some time she caught a cab down the House of Pies an all night restaurant that an internet search said had some good breakfast. Her backpack didn't have books in it but instead was stuffed with stacks of American $100 dollar bills. She always kept a few hundred thousand on hand at the palace in case of emergency or necessary bribes to foreign officials. She had dipped into the fund for this little excursion, but she didn't regret it. She was already more relaxed than she'd been in ages. No one in the restaurant had oooh'd and aaaah'd that a nova walked among them... sure she'd gotten some ogling, but not more than any pretty unaccompanied teen girl would get from the restaurant's males. It was kinda nice actually. She did avoid reading their minds however; she didn't want to spoil her good mood.

When she was done she headed back toward the Galleria. Just down the road from it, there was a building full of swank loft condos. They had been built nearly 25 years before and were getting older, but because of their location they were pretty exclusive. The area had always been a bit upscale, but a few years back this area had undergone a renewal and now it was a hot area to live in. A new school had been built a mile and a half away from the loft. It was a good choice. She was waiting at the door when real estate agent arrived.

"Good morning miss. Waiting for someone?" The man spoke politely but not really interested in the answer. He thought the girl must be the friend of one of the condo owners. Besides, he was here to show a condo, the penthouse condo in fact. If he made this sale there would be a nice fat commission and he really wanted the new carbon nanotube golf clubs. Henry down at the country club had shaved three strokes off his game with the Tiger Woods III. He could picture himself on the course grey hair covered by a plaid golf cap and wearing matching shorts, blue polo shirt and his old golf shoes. Elspeth was amused to note that the man's mental image of himself was about thirty pounds lighter than he really was, and it had considerably more hair under that atrocious golf cap. She almost visibly shuddered at the thought of wearing such an ugly plaid.

She smiled politely at the man, "Yes, I am waiting for you. I believe my mother called you to arrange a showing this morning? She couldn't make it so she asked me to come by in her place. I'll be living here with her so if I like it she will too, she trusts my judgement." Mentally she added a memory of the supposed phone call to the man's mind and had her imaginary mother mention that her daughter would be there with her."

"Oh, you must be Elspeth, your mom mentioned you might be with her. Pleasure to meet you, I'm Donald McIntyre with Premax." He was suddenly much friendlier now that she had been upgraded in his mind from shiftless teenager to potential commission.

Elspeth smiled. It still didn't feel natural with this new face, the muscles obeyed, but the shape of the mouth and the bone structure beneath the skin were different so it just felt a little off. "No problem Mr. McIntyre. Thanks for showing it to me."

The older man lead the way and tried to make pleasant conversation, but he obviously wasn't good at talking to kids. After a brief elevator ride they arrived at the penthouse condo; penthouse wasn't really a great description since the building was only six stories tall and surrounded on two sides by much taller business offices. It did have excellent security however, as Mr. McIntyre was pointing out with far too much emphasis on trivial details. Elspeth was familiar with the company that did the security and could probably have told the man more about it than his sales brochures. She waved that away. "Thank you. I'll just look around for a bit if you don't mind."

McIntyre was not very pleased to be cut off, but thought of his new golf clubs and swallowed his pride. These teenagers today were so rude, they had no respect for their elders!

Elspeth almost laughed hearing the thought. It was a novel experience for the world's most charming person to be deliberately rude to someone, but it's what the man expected so it's what she gave him. The condo was nice. It had top of the line finishes for when it was built, which of course looked quite dated 25 years later. It was not a good layout for a mother and daughter as it only had one large bedroom and the rest of the loft was completely open. This too was dated, the big open floor plan craze had moved on and now the trend was for more cozy small spaces. She thought that too said something about the worlds psyche. The home as a metaphor for the womb... she had actually published a paper on it in the British Journal of Psychology a couple years ago under the pseudonym, Fred Ian Schlip.

Of course, there would be no mother with her, and if she needed a mother she could always create a clone temporarily and have it shapeshift into a mature woman to play the part. She would have to do that later today anyway when she went to get checked into the new school. Some things just couldn't be mentally adjusted. There would be too many people at the school to alter all their memories. Far easier just to have her 'mother' there to do the paperwork. She thought about this and planned as she moved through the empty space of the loft condo. This situation on the other hand would be easy. There was only McIntyre and he had such an easy mind to manipulate. She was careful not to do anything that would be against the man's free will, that was a line she did her best not to cross. It was something she realized when she was taking back her kingdom from Jarutu. She could have sat somewhere safe halfway around the world and just rewritten Jarutu's mind one memory at a time until he was her most devoted and loyal subject. It wouldn't have been real though. She had wanted what was hers, but destroying a persons free will was just wrong. Editing their memories, deleting one here, or adding one there, that wasn't so bad as long as you didn't make them do something that went against their principles. That was her compromise between expedience and ethics.

McIntyre wanted to sell the condo and he couldn't sell it to a kid, so he'd have a memory of Elspeth's mother Cathrine coming into his office to sign the paperwork and do the closing. No harm, no foul as far as Elspeth was concerned, and he'd get the new golf clubs he wanted. Two hours later he left with the down payment for the condo, in cash. He was practically giddy.

Elspeth on the other hand tisked looking around at the condo. There was a ton of work to do. The place needed to be remodeled badly and there was no furniture at all. This time she'd have to do some real shopping and spend money, but that would have to wait till after school....

[Elspeth]

School didn't turn out to be all that terribly interesting. She spent most of the morning sitting in the school office waiting as her 'mother' filled out stacks of paperwork. Then spent another hour being assigned textbooks, a locker, and shown where her classes would be. By the time she was settled the school day was over. She took all her textbooks home with her. Between her photographic memory and her mid-range nova intelligence she would know enough about each subject to ace any test the teachers could give her. Given her charisma she could probably teach the subjects more effectively than any of the teachers, but that would ruin her disguise and negate the point of her being here. Normal teens couldn't out teach their teachers.

After school she spent rest of the afternoon shopping for furnishing for the condo. At each store she and her mother looked through the samples and placed orders. Some were easy, the appliances were purchased from Best Buy just a couple blocks from the condo. She picked all satin black which was the currently trendy color. She combined her artistic genius with her intelligence and mixed in just a bit of precognition to make sure her purchases would help the condo resale for more than she was spending. A tidy profit would make her feel better about the time she was wasting here.

She couldn't help but think of it that way. Back in Sierra Leone she still had the foreign miners to deal with, the government to run, she needed to find a planet for her people to retreat to when the war came and a dozen and a half other things to juggle. When she thought about it, it gave her a guilty feeling like she was avoiding her responsibility. She had a pair of clones back home who were looking after things so it wasn't like she was a abandoning her people, it just felt like it.

She sighed and decided the only way to make the feeling go away was to do more shopping, so that's what she did, right up until the stores closed. 2.5 million dollars spent, but she now owned a nice condo in one of the nicest areas in Houston and was sure she would make a profit on it when she was done. All in all it was a good day. So what she didn't expand the horizon of her abilities to warp beyond the galaxy? She was getting close. She could feel she was on the cusp of a break through and given the past experience with increasing her warp distance she thought she just might make it to the Andromeda galaxy if she tried hard enough. That would be far enough away that no one from Earth would ever bother her people. Well not for a few thousand years at least and by then her people would be well enough advanced to defend themselves.

She nearly growled at herself as she realized she was doing it again. Focusing on the problems she'd come here to get away from... for a while at least.

She took her purchases home, the ones that she and her mother were carrying at least. Almost everything had been scheduled for delivery in the morning, and of course the contractors wouldn't begin arriving until then either. They would tear up the place, pulling out the outdated cabinets and counter tops and appliances.

Elspeth burned a couple hours taking her time with unpacking the few things they had purchased and carried home themselves. Then another couple hours napping which didn't come naturally to the young nova. Afterwords, she got up full of energy and very bored. It was only midnight and she had a good 7 or 8 hours before the deliveries began to arrive and tomorrow was Saturday so she didn't even have school to look forward to.

She picked up the math textbook and began to flip through the pages one at a time committing them to memory. She could barely believe they still used paper and ink for this. 27 years into the nova age and school still had not gone completely digital. It was a disgrace. She would be fixing that in Sierra Leone. She made a note to herself to look into the education system and make sure the textbooks were digital media. There just wasn't any sense in this antiquated book method.

She sighed... she was doing it again.

Sure enough by morning she welcomed the first delivery man as a savior. She had gone through every textbook committing them to memory. Monday she'd take them back to the school with her and leave them in her locker for the rest of her vacation; she wouldn't need them again. She was starting to think the vacation was a bad idea, so far it had been little more than boredom. Could she actually be missing the craziness of ruling a kingdom?

[Elspeth]

Saturday and Sunday went by in an orgy of shopping and decorating the apartment. When she finally came home Saturday night the loft was filled with plastic covered furniture and appliances still cocooned in their cardboard boxes. There were also stacks of paint cans and supplies for painting. Luckily the very expensive contractors she had hired had already come and gone, having ripped out the old kitchen and bathroom and remodeled. "It must have been an absolute mad house in here today."

She checked out the work and was impressed with the tile and drywall work as well as the fixtures that had been installed. There was still work to be done in the bathroom, but the contractors would be there Sunday for that. Elspeth rolled up here sleeves figuratively and got to work painting. In reality she reformed her eufiber into a pair of overalls and a painters cap. She looked in the mirror before getting started and was pleased with the look. Not that anyone would be watching while she painted, but it was possible that deliveries might still arrive. She was starting to really enjoy her vacation and thought she just might try flirting with the delivery man if he were young and hot. Not that she would do anything, but flirting would be fun.

She was disappointed that no deliveries arrived that night, but she did get the entire apartment painted and it looked good. Elspeth was nothing if not artistic and her color choices were very harmonious. She wasn't entirely happy with the green, it had dried just a hair darker than the sample in the store, but it wasn't bad enough to be worth changing. She didn't bother unpacking the furniture since contractors would be in and out all the next day.

She had just jumped back to the apartment after getting a quick shower in the palace when the first guy showed up. He was overweight and middle aged and had a serious crack problem when he knelt down to inspect the plumbing that had been installed the day before. Elspeth gave a quiet sigh and went back to hanging artwork on the walls.

Evening rolled around and she still hadn't seen a single cute guy among the workers or delivery men. On the bright side the contractors finished in time for dinner and they had done a great job. She couldn't use the new walk-in full body shower because the grout still needed to dry, but the soaker tub was a different matter. The apartment was all done but for the little finishing touches. As she lay in the tub enjoying the bubble bath she came to the conscious realization that she really like this place. Somewhere over the last couple days of work she'd started to feel like it was really hers, and despite all the noise and confusion of all the workers coming and going, she realized that this was what she was missing, a quiet place away from all the pressure that she could go to get away from it all.

Sunday evening in Texas was not the time for more shopping. Everything closed up by 6:00pm so she simply jumped to India where it was the middle of the day. Besides, what better place to buy fabrics and other little brick-a-brak than the Orient.

By Monday morning Elspeth had a completed apartment fully updated and feeling like home. There were plants and artwork, and lighting and textures and fabric all mixing together to make something you would expect to see in Better Homes and Gardens. Since she was on the top floor she also had a roof that she planned to turn into a roof deck with a pool, but that would take time and some actual construction since the roof would need to be reinforced.

She felt very satisfied as she placed the textbooks back in her locker at school that morning. It was funny, she'd been working her butt off getting the apartment set up but she felt more relaxed than she had in... well, in years, since her parents were alive. The only thing that was weird was not being beautiful. In order to blend in she was masking her true self and that was a shame, but the only way this would work.

Someone bumped into her as she was kneeling in front of her locker and almost knocked her down. Three of her books dropped out of her hands and papers spilled out of her notebook all over the place. The girl that had done it didn't even look down, she just kept walking talking to the girl next to her. They both looked to be cheerleaders.

It was an effort of will not to hang the rude girl upside down by her ankles and make her squeal with invisible swats delivered via telekinesis.

[Elspeth]

She finally just decided to remember the affront for later wrath should the girl be rude again. There were after all, any number of ways Elspeth could make the girl's life miserable if she chose. To go out of her way to avenger herself on the girl would have been inappropriate and that was beneath her, even if she was pretending to be a regular teen.

As she was picking up her dropped papers and books three teens bent to help. Elspeth was actually surprised enough to pause in her efforts. "Uh, thanks."

One of the two girls grinned, and handed her a book, "Don't worry about it, Cindy is a total bitch, she thinks she owns the school just because her daddy is on the school board and the teachers are afraid to punish her." The girl held out a hand, "I'm Jade, and this is Tom and Julia."

Elspeth juggled her stack of books and papers a moment to free up her right hand to shake the offered one. "I'm Elspeth. I just started here today. My mom just got transferred to Houston. And thanks for the help. I guess I'll see you guys around." She stood up and hurried off to class but not before taking a good look at her would be friends. All three were dressed all in black and dark colors and looked to be pretty average. Jade had bottle black hair with some auburn roots howing, dark eyes and a friendly smile. She also had a jade green t-shirt on under her black hoodie. Like Julia, Tom also had dyed black hair, but his eyes were a light brown and even as young as he was there were smile lines at the corners of his eyes. He just looked friendly, which pretty much blew any chance of pulling off the dark and brooding fashion statement he was trying for with his faux-leather trench coat. His nose was a little big and his chin was a little weak to ever be considered good looking, but Elspeth was pretty sure she would like him just based on the smile on his face. The third member of their trio was a different matter altogether, Julia had blue-black hair that was natural if a bit greasy. Her pale sky blue eyes were striking and she had a natural beauty to her features, but she was just a touch chubby and Elspeth could sense the girl had low self-esteem. She just projected an aura of 'I'm not worthy'.

She hadn't turned the corner on her way to Math class and she had already decided to make these three a pet project. They were all dark and gothy and wanna-be vamps by the looks of them, but they had shown her kindness and while it might be beneath her to seek out a snotty teen girl for some retribution over a single petty act... it was definitely not beneath her to reward a single kindness.

The rest of her day went by in a fog of teen 'normalcy' of classes and boredom and trying to fit in. This was a world without novas and she was using her abilities to disguise what she was, but that made it all the harder on the young Queen. See was used to people showing her deference and clearing the way for her and listening to her every word. Here she was a nobody and no one paid any attention to her more than a normal girl anyway. Even with her abilities cloaked she was still what others would consider pretty and so she received some attention from boys in the school and jealousy from some of the girls. By the end of the day she was becoming comfortable in her new role, but she avoided the Trio, since she had begun to formulate a plan to 'reward' them. They might not appreciate the reward however, and it wouldn't work if she were hanging out with them. She had to admit to herself that she was tempted, they were the only ones so far that she had met that were friendly just to be friendly and not because they wanted into her pants, or to use her or for some other selfish reason.

---

By the end of the week Elspeth was starting to go a little stir crazy. Most of the teens around her were so petty and wrapped up in their own tiny worlds. People were starving, and all kinds of bad things were happening even on this world without novas. The pollution alone in this world without the benefits of the hyper-combustion engine made the young nova want to gag. How can they stand themselves?

She sat at a lunch table by herself listening to a conversation between two girls.

Angela, a big busted brunette in a tight sweater, slurped her milk and snarked, "That skanky bitch is going to regret what she did."

Her redheaded table companion, Charli, nodded eagerly. "I know riight!" She smacked her gum which also annoyed Elspeth.

"I can't believe Cindy. She knows I've had a crush on Jared since 5th grade and we were just hooking up when she took him from me. I'm sure she did it because she knows I like him. She doesn't even care about him, she was talking last week about how he wasn't her type." She actually growled... "That bitch!!!"

Charli patted her friend on the back, but Angela didn't notice, she just gave a truly evil smile and looked at her friend. "She's going to regret it though. You remember Mr. Johnson's biology class last week? He was jabbering on about some procedure he had and they gave him a chemical to change his pee blue?"

The redhead looked curious, "Methel-something? Why?"

Angela giggled and opened her purse secretively, "Methylene Blue. I found some in the chemistry lab. I don't know why they had any in there, but check it out." She covertly picked up the bottle and shook it; it was half empty.

"I slipped some into Cindy's coke. It doesn't just make your pee blue. It makes all your body fluids change, sweat too. Just wait till Cheer leading practice this afternoon and bring your phone to take some video. Mrs. Hennings makes the girls run four laps before they start practice to get them warmed up and the bitch sweats like the sow she is. Blue Bitch is going to look like Smurfette, and Jared will be there to see it since he'll be practicing football."

Charli goggled at the evil plan. "That's sooo eviiillll. I love it!" I'm sooo going to tell everyone to be there."

"You do that, just don't tell them why or we'll get in big trouble." Angela put the bottle back in her purse. "I've got to sneak this back into the lab next period before it's missed."

Elspeth had to agree, it was a pretty devious plan and from what she had seen the snotty teen had it coming. As she finished her lunch she decided it might be worth watching. Even so, it amazed her how petty the kids were and not a day went by that she didn't spend at least a little of her time thinking about things she could do when she got back home to improve the lives of thousands of her people. Still, there was a part of her that looked forward to seeing the emotional meltdown of the girl that had so rudely and purposefully bumped into her that first day.

[Elspeth]

When she arrived in the stands after school there was already a group of thirty or so students gathered and milling about. She sat a little separately watching the football practice and the cheerleaders warm up. Except for the number of kids hanging out and watching the practice it was pretty normal. It was cool despite the cloudless sunny afternoon since it was already pretty late in the football season. Even Houston was cool by November, so Elspeth wore a jacket and pretended that the temperature mattered. That was one thing that bothered her about this 'vacation'. She wanted to see what life was like for supposedly normal teens and experience some of the carefree times that was the media made so much about. The problem was that she wasn't really experiencing it because she had these powers. She could only pretend to be cold, and as for life being carefree.... If there was one thing she had learned in her time so far, it was that most of these kids were stressed out over one thing or another. Hardly any of them had any real reason to worry about anything, but they did anyway.

Elspeth snooped on their thoughts constantly trying to learn what they were like and it amazed her how petty their problems were and yet how important they seemed to them. Bobby Green had cowlicks in his hair and worried constantly that his hair wouldn't do the things that were fashionable. No matter how much gel or spray he used it just wouldn't lay right. And he really honestly thought it mattered. Elspeth wanted to smack him in the head and shout, 'No one cares about your stupid hair! Pretend you've got some self-confidence and no one will ever even look at your hair.' Then there was Selena Lopez, she was so wrapped up in whether or not to go all the way with her boyfriend or not. That was a little more understandable. Elspeth hadn't done anything with anyone yet, not even a kiss, but that wasn't so much by choice as because in her position, anything she did would be dragged into the political arena and the media. If the paparazzi photographed it, her first kiss would be all over every tabloid in the world within a week. She sighed. Selena's issues were so easy. Did she want to or not. It was that simple, and yet, the girl was gnawing at the decision like a dog would on an old bone.

Suddenly Elspeth's attention was drawn to the track near the bleachers. Cindy had just finished her fourth lap had stopped to stretch. Despite the cool air, most of the cheerleaders were wearing shorts instead of sweats and for the snotty teen it had been a bad decision. She was already starting to take on a distinctly blue tint sheen. El glanced at the other students in the stands. They had noticed too and were starting snicker, but so far were keeping relatively quiet. The crowd and also grown to nearly fifty. Cindy and the other girls on the squad were oblivious still to the reason for the gathering and were preening under the attention.

Looking back to the track El just waited and watched to see how it would all unfold. She smirked a little and tweaked the other cheerleader's thoughts just a touch so as not to give away the situation before Cindy could become more covered in her blue sweat. Another five minutes went by as students used their cell phones to video the practice. Finally, Cindy noticed the sweat, but by then she was pretty blue and really did look a little like Smurfette. She started by yelling at her fellow cheerleaders, then at the crowd, before finally storming off the field. Before she had even begun yelling they were roaring with laughter. Elspeth had to tune the girl's thoughts out, they were very loud. She was angry and embarrassed and there was quite a stream of profanity roaring through the girl's mind.

[Elspeth]

It had been nearly two weeks and the truth was that Elspeth was growning bored. Being normal just wasn't all it was cracked up to be. True, she had learned some things, and experienced what it was like not to have people instantly either fawning over her or her sworn enemy just because of who your parents were, but she had also learned that these teens were probably more stressed out than she ever was. That wasn't to say that she was not stressed, she was taking this vacation exactly because she needed to get away from the constant turmoil that her life was in, but she just didn't have the same kind of the world is going to end if this doesn't happen urgency that many of these high school kids had. Her parents had been murdered in a political coup, she'd been hunted by nova Elite assassins, she'd been captured and nearly forced to marry the man responsible for her parent's murder, she had pulled the trigger herself of the gun he had shot her with, killing him when she was only 13, and since then she'd faced political manueverings by Project Utopia aimed at ruining her and the people she was responsible all because born to nova parents who espoused the Teragen philosophy. So sure, she had some serious stress in her life, but it was over 'real' issues and even amidst the crazyness that her life was, she still managed to remain at least somewhat serene. Or at least I haven't gone batshit crazy and attacked my enemies and crushed them under my heel.

She chuckled quietly as much at her own thought as at the fleeing blue cheerleader. It made her think, Perhaps that's the secret. I know that I can always flee. No matter what else happens, I could always escape to some other planet, or some other version of Earth, or to a vacation like this. I don't explode because I have an escape and I know it. These kids, the ones that are so wound up, think that their petty issues are the whole world, they just don't know they can escape, or that there is something outside of their little piece of it.

She was looking at three of the kids in particular as she thought this. The three that had stopped to help her pick up her books and papers that first day when Smurfette had intentionally bumped her and made her spill them on the floor. Those three were a time bomb waiting to happen, she could see it in their faces. It was time to do something useful with this vacation, she was going to teach those three that life was bigger than their little problems.

*****

The next day was Friday and the last day that Elspeth was planning to be here for her vacation and she had to wrap things up. She was on her way to turn in her books when Cindy grabbed her shoulder from behind and spun her around and hissed, "I know it was you! I saw you sitting in the stands all by yourself laughing. Your going to regret what you did!"

Her instinct was to grab the little tramp with her mind and slam her through the nearest wall, but she controlled the urge and just asked calmly, "Why would you think I had anything to do with it?"

"Because you've been giving me nasty looks every time I see you ever since I accidently bumped into you."

Elspeth laughed, "Of all the people you've hurt, and you think something as small as that would cause someone to get revenge on you?" Her smile was scornful and dismissive as she replied, "I have better things to do than plot revenge against smurfs."

She turned to go but the engraged cheerleader tried to hit her. Elspeth saw the punch coming out of the corner of her eye and to her nova level reflexes and mental quickness it seemed to be coming in slow motion. If this where a real opponent she would have grabbed the hand with telekinesis and guided it to one side and grabbed it with her hand and used the girls momentum and her strength to fling her bodily down the hall. This wasn't a fight however, and the worst thing she could do to this girl wasn't beat her up, the real worst thing would be to ignore her.

She ducked just a little to one side letting the fist sail through the air where her head had been and just frowned at the other girl, "I said I have better things to do, now go away Smurfette or you might actually annoy me." She turned to go again knowing the girl would take another shot, but she was ready for it.

Cindy screeched in fury and charged hands extended like claws reaching for Elspeth's hair and clothes. El just stepped sideways far enough that the girl wouldn't collide with her and gently tugged on the girl's wrist with just enough force to make the other girl loose her balance. Cindy when sprawling on her face on the hallway floor. By this time there was a full crowd forming, students were piling out of classrooms and there were shouts of 'cat fight', and 'fight' echoing down the hall.

Sighing at the scene that had been created, Elspeth stepped foward and offered her hand to the other girl, "That was a nasty fall, you should be more careful."

Cindy growled in her throat and slapped the hand away and scrambled to her feet. Elspeth only stepped back a pace to open up some room between the two of them. She could already hear at least two teachers struggling to push thru the crowd to get to them. The infuriated cheerleader tried twice more to attack which only served to make her look more foolish. Just before the first teacher could push make it past the wall of spectators, and while Cindy was panting and deciding whether to make another attack, El spoke one last time, "You blamed me for the prank because you were embarrassed and thought it made you look foolish, but I tell you that a little blue sweat never could make you look as foolish as you've just made yourself look in front of all these people."

This last statement pushed the other girl past all reason and she screamed, "You fucking cunt! I'll see you thrown out of this school and I'll sue you for everything you've got. My father will make you pay you bitch!!!"

Mr. Collins was just in time to see the outburst and he stepped forward, and asserted his authority. "That will be enough of that! You two will come to the office with me at once!" Turning to the crowd, "All of you get to class now, or I'll have you in the office as well."

The crowd melted away almost as quickly as it formed except for a handful of students that the teacher had pointed out. "You lot will come with me as well."

Cindy immediately burst into crocidile tears appealing to Mr. Collins to protect her from the vicious attacks that Elspeth had been launching on her. The other kids just rolled their eyes.

The group made it to the office in short order and the Assistant Principal took testimony from the students one at a time. When it was all done, they were dismissed except for the two combatants, who were sitting in the two chairs before his desk. Mark Sherman was an impossing man with biceps the size of most men's thighs and depsite the slight grey in his hair, he hadn't lost any of his strength since the days he was a coach and a player instead of an administrator. Most of the boys who had gotten whipped by the paddle the big man kept in his filing cabinet chose never to repeat the experience. Elspeth had kept of a constant reading of his mind since being ushered into the office and she was impressed depsite herself. The man's mind was as sharp as his muscles were large, but she didn't envy the man's position. He was worried that anything he did to punish Cindy would mean reprisal from her father who had been known to hold grudges and use his position to get people fired, and he knew the girl was clearly in the wrong and deserved to be expelled.

Finally, he stood and spoke to Elspeth. "I am sorry you are leaving us so soon, and sorrier still that you will be leaving on such a bad note, but I wish you luck at your next school. Just make sure you mother contacts us to have your records transferred when you get settled in at your new home. You may go, but I'll want to speak with your mother when she comes to sign you out."

Elspeth was clearly dismissed and so she smiled politely and left the room, but lingered in the outer office listening to what he would say to the other girl. "Cindy, I hope you aren't hurt. From what the other students say, you were the one that attacked Elspeth. I understand that you were upset especially after the incident yesterday afternoon. By all rights I should be expelling you for three days, but that would go on your permanent record and it would disqualify you from all extra cirricular activities for the next three weeks."

Cindy started to protest, but the big man must have held up a hand or something to forestall her, "In light of the fact you were provoked, and because you've been a model student until now, I will let this go with a warning this one time. However, I want you to know that no matter what someone may say to you that is never grounds for physical violence. If someone attacks you or bullies you in any way you come to me and let me deal with it, that's what I'm here for."

He paused and then the Cindy did speak and there was a nasty tone in her voice, "What about Elspeth? What about punishing her for what she did to me?"

El could tell from his thoughts that he was being very diplomatic in trying not to make an enemy of the girl's father. "We have a strict no tolerance policy for bullying and I could have expelled the girl if you had come to me with proof, but as it is now, I've got several witnesses that say you tried to assault her. I would have punished her and even gone so far as to call her new school to insist they follow up on it, but now my hands are tied. I'm sorry. I've had the secretary call your mother and she's on her way. You can wait in the outer office."

Elspeth was out the door before the other girl came out. Her 'mother' would arrive later to sign the paperwork removing her from the school. For now she had work to do before she went home to Sierra Leone and the people who depended on her. There were three very messed up good samaritans that she wanted to fix first...