When my eyes met the red head’s, she shuddered and blushed furiously. Thankfully one of her friends clapped her in the back and started speaking to her, making her break eye contact. From time to time she would glance back while she talked, smiling at me.

“What happened between you two?” Pearl asked, speaking in his shrill, bitchy voice. He wiggled his eyebrows in a suggestive manner

“Nothing. Don’t know her.” I answered, truthfully.

“Oh, come on!” he drawled. “What did you do to catch that heartthrob’s attention"

I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye and I saw Jezalin shaking her head in disappointment. She was biting her lip bitterly. She had one of those girl next door vibes. Even in this world her face was childish and her build slender and petite

I turned to her and leaned in to ask her why she was acting this way. “Hey, why are you looking at me like that?” My tone was defensive

“Really? You are sleeping around again?” she said, frustrated. “One would think that after all the incidents you had—not to mention the fucking stalker—you’d quit for good. I…I won’t always be there to help you"

Was this world’s me a slut? “I didn’t sleep with her."

Jezalin didn’t believe me, I could tell. “Alright…alright,” she raised her hands up in surrender. “If you say so."

After almost losing her I didn’t want to see her like this, bitter, angry. I didn’t want to fight with her, so I said “Look, Jez, I missed you, alright?” my voice cracked a little from emotion and I cursed inwardly at my weakness. “I don’t want to see you upset, so…so I promise you I haven’t slept with her, so, uh, please believe me, okay."

I could feel and see how the tension that laced her body melted away, replaced by bubbly happiness and a big smile. She surprised me by giving me an impromptu hug.

She kind of crushed me against her body and my cheek was being squished against her left breast, but it was enjoyable. I hugged her back just as fierce.

Suddenly I felt a pressure, an ominous feeling, coming from my right and I turned my head in that direction to see that the class rep was glaring at us intensely. It looked like she was breathing to compose herself. After Jez broke up the hug, she seemed to calm down, using one hand to wipe the sweat on her forehead. Her friends distracted her asking if she was alright, if she needed to go to the nurse.

This chilled me to my core. I remembered previous instances of when I used my power on villains and heroes after getting approval from the hero organization. They looked like this, unhinged, obsessed.

Oh, how I hoped at that moment that I was mistaken that this wasn’t Trailblazer. But I couldn’t fool myself. Deep down I knew it was her, and now I didn’t have the support of my previous team or the organization to clean up my messes.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! What was I thinking?! Man, I’m such a fucking idiot. Should have just waited. I ruined-

“Hey, are you okay?” Jezalin asked, worried. She placed her hand on my shoulder to steady me. “You look like you saw a ghost. Do you want me to carry you to the nurse."

“What happened? He’s sick?” interjected Pearl, trying to be part of the conversation.

“No, no, I’m fine. I just have to think. I have to think is all.” I mumbled. The bell rang right then and I shook her hand off, feeling the need to get some space, some fresh air, yes. I stood up along with the crowd of students and hastily made my way out of the class, losing Jezalin and the rest among the torrent of students streaming out of the classroom.

I entered the first bathroom I saw without hesitation and locked myself in one of the stalls.

I was pondering the next steps: how I was gonna figure out how to live past three weeks, get evidence against the headmistress, and fix my mother when I heard the door of the bathroom bang open, followed by the sounds of a sink being used and some girls chuckling and talking. Fuck, I was in the girls bathroom. How would I get out of this one? Wait until the bell rings and be late for class.

I heard footsteps and then someone pounded on the stall next to mine.

“It’s occupied.” a weary voice called out.

“Oh, fuck, it’s Herbert The Pervert!” one of the girls outside exclaimed in an excited fashion. Then she said, “Oh shit, no way! If you do that you are no cap crazy!” in response to what another of the girls whispered to her.

The person who was inside, this Herbert, rushed towards the door trying to open it and escape, but it was being blocked, since I could hear pounding it repeatedly.

I could hear one of the girls climbing up the stall while another entered another stall next to Herbert's, farther away from mine. Then came the sound of a liquid impacting the floor. A few seconds later when it stopped, someone said in between bursts of mad laughter, “Throw…this dirty shit…at her too! Hahaha!” From the sounds they emptied a trash bin on her stall and then dropped it down on her.

I felt like rushing out there and stopping this, but by this point the damage was done and I didn’t want to go get in trouble, do something stupid, and then go back to the headmistress. Besides, I could get the names from the victim and report them or kick their ass with my hero identity.

When I heard the girls leave, I left my stall and approached Herbert’s. I could hear crying coming from inside and when I opened the door I was greeted by an equally pitiful sight. A thin girl with wavy black hair, glasses, and not much in the way of tits or ass. She was covered in piss and toilet papers from a trash bin that was resting horizontal on the toilet. She held herself and rocked back and forth in fetal position, crying. She kept staring at the flat of her palm which held a big bug I had never seen before; it looked like a cross between a spider, leech, and mantis.

I startled her when I came in and she jumped up, hiding the bug behind her and wiping her tears. She looked at me analytically, wearily. “Why are you in the women’s restroom? What do you want?"

“Are you okay?” I asked while I picked up some clean toilet paper from the roll on the wall. “Here, let me help you.” I extended my hand to clean her.

She stopped me, grabbing my hand. “You think I’ll fall for this? Did Madden send you? Good bully, bad bully?"

“No,” I sighed. Maybe honesty would get through to her. “I just felt threatened by someone and felt…trapped. I needed to go somewhere private and walked into the first bathroom I saw. Sorry I didn’t come out sooner, but I didn’t want to get in trouble with the principal again today.

I expected her to relax, but she remained guarded, waiting for the other shoe to drop. She did take the paper but politely refused to let me dry her.

“Why are they doing this?” I asked the silent girl. I received a shrug in response. “Don’t be like that. You have to help me so I can help you. I already know Madden and if you tell me their names, I’ll report them to the authorities.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “That wouldn’t achieve anything. They’ll get a few days suspension and then come at me even harder. One of their parents is the best lawyer in the city, so even if you got the police involved, my dad would be burdened with legal fees. Maybe he’d even get killed since one of them is also a gang member so they might even kill us if we do that. Thanks for worrying about me, but I’ll be fine.” Her face was serious, like she believed those words.

“No.” I said, firmly. This felt like a life or death situation. I had to do it, to save her. Maybe everything that happened had affected me quite badly. “I can’t leave things like this. I’m a…good person. You are coming with me to the nurse’s office.” I grabbed a hold of her and started dragging her after me forcefully. She struggled at first, but then just gave up and followed after me, her head down, trembling slightly.

We walked and were close to the stairs when we were stopped by a group of three people: The class rep, her flowing red hair shining in the sun like molten copper; a grim looking asian girl with designer glasses and leather gloves, her silver eyes bored into me without emotion; and, lastly, a mean looking latina girl with shortish hair and, running clothes.

The class rep, Trailblazer, looked relieved to have finally found me. But when she saw me with Herbert, her face turned stormy, even more so than when I was with Jezalin. She marched up to me and tore me away from her. Teylore stumbled against the wall from the force.

“What do we have here?!” called out the running girl in a sing-song voice. “If it isn’t little Teylore—little fuckin’ Herbert The Pervert—with a guy no less. Huh, miracles do happen once in a while or maybe that weed has me seein’ shit.” She smiled and looked at her companions as if checking if they were seeing the same.

The asian girl gave her a thin, cruel smile in return. The class rep was the only one that didn’t partake of the game, looking at me with worry now. All traces of anger were gone from her face. “Are you okay? I hesitate to ask this, but did Teylore do anything inappropriate to you? There are some rumors about her and normally I wouldn’t pay them any mind, but you can’t be too careful these days.” Her voice was rich and sonorous, thick with care.

“Why are you touching this poor guy you disgusting pig?!” screeched the runner. “Are you so autistic you don’t know you shouldn’t grab people when covered in fuckin’ piss n’ shit for fucks sake?!"

Teylore was still against the wall, trembling, as asian and runner hemmed her in, closing the trap.

Trailblazer was observing my face and seeing my worry, she spoke up, her voice firm and resolute. “Stop that! Please. We shouldn’t treat our classmates in this manner.” she paused for effect, then continued in a softer tone. “I’ll bring him to the nurse. There’s no telling what bacteria are in Teylor’s…filth. So please, while I’m gone behave."

"Don't you worry, Yagami and me will take good care of our old chum Tey here. Right?" She elbowed the Silver eyed and haired girl who fixed her glasses and responded with "Of course."

The red head smiled and extended a hand towards her friends. "See, rest assured Teylore will be fine. Let's go, Erin." She started walking in a self assured manner pulling me after her, but I dug my heels in the ground

"Wait!" I exclaimed. "Teylore also should come to the nurse. She also has the, uh, bacteria." I had a feeling they were just saying that to calm me down and the moment I was away they'd turn on her like a pack of wolves. I had to help her.

I looked at Teylore who finally looked up from the floor after I said that. She shook her head slightly, furtively telling me no, not to do this.

"It seems Teylore does not want to join us," Trailblazer said, looking at Teylore in a arrogant, weird way, as if she had won, conquered her. "She'll go later once we are done I'm sure, she can be quite shy like that."

No. I wasn't leaving her behind! I yanked my hand from her grip and ran towards Teylor. I attempted to grab her hand but she dodged me frantically. Once. Twice.

"Stop! Leave me alone! You are making things worse!" She hissed at me.

Trailblazer was already coming to separate us.

Seeing as Teylore was playing hardball I chose to hug her like a lifeline. She blushed up to her ears and tried to push me away, but I held and she was unsuccessful.

"Don't you dare touch him, Teylore!" screeched Trailblazer whilst swinging a punch at her, all of her previous composure gone.

Teylore went down hard and I fell to the floor with her. Since we were hugging and close together I fell on top of her. Our faces impacted each other and were touching; this drove Trailblazer into an even deeper fury.