Snippet #2406830

"I don't care what everyone else thinks," Marcus said to Ivy. "Just because your father's a villain doesn't mean you're a bad person." A wry smile appeared on her face as he said that. Oh, but doesn't it? she thought. Ivy was, in a way, a very bad person. She stole and she lied and she cheated people, all because she wanted to. "Besides, I need a mate. And so do you..." he trailed off, taking a bite of what looked like macaroni salad.

"Push me away all ya want but I ain't goin' nowhere," Marcus said with an awful southern accent and a shit eating grin on his face. Ivy gave him a small smile in return. "So I hear you're going first after lunch. A word of advice, don't make Coach Thunder angry, he'll send you through the wall," he warned, pointing to a section of wall across the cafeteria that had a fresher coat of paint than the area around it. "Happened to a guy last year. Pretty funny though."

As Ivy opens her mouth to say something, her stomach makes a loud sound that sounds like a dying whale. The pale girl blushes furiously and wraps her arms around her midsection, trying to ignore Marcus's curious frown. Just then, Samantha takes a seat beside her, saving Ivy from an interrogation.

"Hey, Ivy right?" she asks as she sets her tray down. Ivy nodded, feeling uncomfortable around the other two. It was just a habit. She never really socialized much as a child, or in jail for that matter, and having attention directly on her like this made her want to dissolve into the shadows forever.

"Listen, I know you're both probably nice people in general, but you can stop with the act." Ivy says nervously, knowing that though she's speaking quietly the two can hear her clearly. "I'm the Burning Man's daughter. I've been in and out of jail for years. People aren't nice to me." She stared at the lunch table as her eyes glazed over, refusing to look either Sam or Marcus in the eye.

With that, she grabbed her bag and camera off the table beside her and slid into the shadow, dissolving into the darkness right as the bell rang. After waiting for the gym to refill with people, Ivy reappeared at the edge of the crowd and wiped her teary eyes. She wasn't usually an emotional person but it still upset her to have to walk away from such nice people like Marcus and Sam, even if she knew they were just pretending to not judge her. And especially Marcus... something about him made her feel safe, almost happy, and that made it hurt so much more.

Coach Thunder mounted the steps and stood on the platform for a moment before pointing at Ivy. "You." His voice resonated around the gym as everyone silently turned to stare at Ivy. Swallowing nervously, she masked her emotions and hoped that nobody noticed her red eyes as she shoved her stuff into a corner and came up onto the platform.

"Name?" He asks, flipping through pages on his clipboard although he, along like everyone else in the gym knew her name already.

"Tinkerbell," Ivy responded sarcastically. People throughout the gym snickered and chuckled at her remark. Ivy let her eyes wander briefly to the bleachers where she saw Marcus watching her intently. She dropped her eyes.

"Name?" the coach asks again, clenching his jaw slightly.

"Ivy Abbott."

"Power?"

"I can morph into and control shadows." she answers, already preparing to dissipate into the shadow in front of her at the edge of the platform. The coach smirks as he presses a button on his remote. Without any warning to Ivy, a car drops from the ceiling and lands right where she stands. Only... she's not there anymore. Coach Thunder whirled around, frantically looking for Ivy when he heard a throat clearing from the other side of the silent gym. His head snapped up and his eyes widened in shock.

Ivy stood completely unharmed at the opposite end of the gym, right outside the shadows. A few wisps of her white hair had come out of her pony tail, framing her face as she smirked at the coach and waited for his announcement. Everyone turned to the coach with expectant eyes, whether they wanted to admit it or not, Ivy was meant for the Hero track.

"Sidekick!"