True Sidekick
Chapter 5: The New Kid in Town

“I don’t accept that. You shouldn’t either. You can’t just accept things, Oliver. If I had accepted my life, I would be a cocktail waitress in Vegas like my mother, and I never would have gone to college, and I never would have moved a thousand miles away to work at Queen Consolidated, and I never would have believed some crazy guy in a hood when he told me I could be more than just some IT girl.”

~ Felicity Smoak

:Mary:

I was glad to finally be back at school on Tuesday. Father wouldn’t let me come yesterday because I still had a small fever, which I thought was stupid. A headache shouldn’t stop me from getting my education.

Besides, do you know how much work I missed? We had a test on Friday in pre-calculus that I have to make up, we started a whole new topic in AP Biochemistry, there’s a project due in history, and not to mention the fact that we were assigned a reading in Literature that I didn’t know about.

(I’m going to end up going through my whole life without knowing what a parabola is.)

Missing one day of high school, especially at a place like Eldredge Academy, meant missing a whole month worth of stuff.

I mean – if you were careless and cared nothing about your future, like my dear old brother, then you could skip school. But it won’t be my fault when he can’t get into a good college because his attendance records and grades are too low. He won’t be able to cheat off of Olly forever.

But, anyways, the point is that I was finally back in school.

I was at lunch, furiously trying to finish two days’ worth of homework, when I actually looked up and caught a bit of the table’s conversation.

“What were you saying?” I questioned Olly.

“Well,” Ian interjected, “Olly was just talking about this gorgeous new girl in our pre-calculus class. Her flowing dark hair and dark eyes were just to die for, weren’t they?”

“Shut up, Ian.” Olly chided, pushing his friend for his antics.

“Is she prettier than me?” Elise asked with a smirk at her boyfriend.

Olly chuckled nervously. “Definitely not.”

“Guys, you are missing the point!” I exclaimed. “There is a new student at Eldredge Academy. How often does that happen?”

In fact, as far as I knew, that really never happened. Sure, new students were administered at the beginning of the school year, but never in the middle of the school year. Whoever this new girl’s parents were, they had serious connections to get her admitted in the middle of the year. I was curious as to who she was, and if she was as pretty as the boys claimed.

“Well, she seemed really nice. Even Mr. Anderson seemed to like her, and he likes nobody.” Ian added.

Olly scoffed. “Mr. Anderson likes me. You’re the only one he hates.”

“It’s not my fault that I had to suggest a change of toupee for Mr. Anderson. His current one looks a little bit too fake.”

“Ian, he doesn’t have a toupee!” I scolded him.

“That’s what he wants you to think.”

“Umm, can I sit here?”

We all looked up simultaneously. Standing next to our usual table was a literal goddess. She had silky dark hair and eyes that sparkled when she moved her head. Her smile was contagious and her obvious Asian decent made her look about as innocent as they came. But, knowing Elise, not all the ones who looked innocent really were.

I immediately knew that this was the new girl. I knew almost everybody at this school, especially everyone in our grade. This girl was definitely not from around here.

“Yes, of course.” Olly smiled, somehow unaffected by this girl’s beauty.

She smiled gratefully and sat across from me, next to my brother.

“Thank you for letting me sit here. It’s not easy being the new girl. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I didn’t recognize you two from my first period.”

“It’s no problem.” I assured her before the boys could.

She turned my way, like she had just seen me for the first time. “Oh, and what’s your name?”

I grinned, “Mary Thompson. Sadly the sister to Ian, who you’ve already met. The blonde is Elise Howerton, Olly’s girlfriend, and Heather Richards is the one with the dark hair and secret service detail.”

Heather blushed at my introduction of her. She was the First daughter if you haven’t figured it out by now. Her father was the current president of the United States.

The new girl’s smile brightened, not even glancing at Heather, who I’d introduced as possibly the most interesting table member. Her gaze was still fixed on mine.

“Nicole. Nicole Lee.”

God, even her name was beautiful.

“So, Nicole, what brings you to Eldredge Academy?” I asked.

She shrugged. “My parents moved their business to DC. They only wanted me to go to the best school, so they pulled a couple strings with the Headmaster and got me in. I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else but here. I mean, even the people here are nicer than I expected, and not to mention cuter too.”

I laughed. “I’m sure you aren’t talking about my idiot brother.”

“Definitely not.” She agreed, smiling slyly. “I replace the women here much more interesting than the men like him who fill this school.”

I blushed. Surely she wasn’t flirting with me.

“Well, at least you don’t have to live with him. It’s worse for me.”

“Oh, I’m sure. There’s a reason I enjoy being an only child.”

“Then you’re lucky. You don’t know how many nights I wished to be an only child when I was little. Having a conspiracy theorist of a crazy twin wasn’t exactly my dream.” I consoled.

“Conspiracy theorist?”

“Yes, I take pride in that!” Ian exclaimed. “One day I will be the one to tell the world who White Lightning is. Plus, who wouldn’t want a super at their fingertips?”

“If you haven’t figured out his identity by now, you aren’t going to anytime soon. Maybe you are thinking too single mindedly. Plus, maybe having a super at your fingertips isn’t the best thing. Supers aren’t exactly rulers of the universe.” Nicole chided.

“Sure they are,” I argued. “They have superhuman powers, how could they not be rulers of the universe?”

“Just because someone is powerful doesn’t mean that they know what to do with their power.”

“Yeah, but supers like White Lightning are the good guys.”

She smirked, “Yes, and didn’t people think Anakin Skywalker was the chosen one before he went dark? Didn’t people believe Morgana was innocent before she became evil? Didn’t everyone think OJ was the nicest guy until he murdered his wife? Don’t judge people until you know what they are capable of, Mary.”

I huffed. For being a new girl in a new school, Nicole was very blunt.

“Fine, but you aren’t going to get me to stop believing in White Lightning. He saved my life once at a bank robbery. He is as good as his predecessor.”

Nicole shrugged. “Believe what you want to believe, honey.”

I narrowed my eyes at her and she narrowed hers back. I smirked with an evil glint in my eyes, “We’re going to have lots of fun, aren’t we, Nicole?”

“Oh, yes indeed.”

“Nicole is interesting, isn’t she?” I asked Elise on our way to our next class.

“Yeah, she’s just peachy.”

I frowned at her. “Why the tone?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I just feel like there’s something off about her. I feel like I’ve met her before as well, and not in a good way.”

I laughed. “Whatever do you mean? She’s just very strong minded. I mean, besides the fact that she thinks my hero and savior isn’t righteous, she is pretty cool.”

Elise looked me dead in the eye. “You just like her because she’s cute.”

I scoffed. “No.”

“Sure.”

I changed the subject hurriedly. The conversation was getting into too dangerous territory for a school hallway.

I, Mary Thompson, was scared to talk on the subject. Elise already knew, being my best friend and all, but that didn’t mean I was ready to let the world know. I was still wary to talk to Elise about it in closed doors.

I was Bisexual. Yes, I shouldn’t have been as scared as I was to tell people, but you didn’t know what it was like in my family. My mother was the Secretary of the State for crying out loud! If I came out as bi to everyone, it would definitely be in the news. That was something I was not ready for. I wouldn’t have even told Elise if she hadn’t confronted me about it a couple of months ago.

I knew it wasn’t a bad thing. I wasn’t so ignorant as to think like the Baby Boomer generation who thought anyone who wasn’t cis was wrong. I just wasn’t totally confident in telling the world.

The world is getting more compliant with things that are out of the norm. I mean, gay marriage got legalized this summer, a huge step in the right direction. I knew my mother probably wouldn’t freak, and my brother would probably even be okay with it. In fact, I’m pretty sure if my brother knew, he would ask me to go girl hopping with him at the mall.

Of course, if I told Olly, he’d even be nice about it. He’s a nice guy, it’s what he does.

I only came to terms with it last year anyways.

It was why I was a bit nervous at lunch today. Nicole seemed like she was flirting with me, like actually flirting. I’d never had a situation like that, where someone other than an ignorant boy was trying to flirt with me. Not to mention that Nicole was extremely hot.

Besides, my sexuality shouldn’t even matter in the scheme of things. I was still regular old Mary to everyone. I just happened to have no idea whether I would end up marrying a girl or a guy.

But I was probably wrong about Nicole. I mean, what were the chances she actually thought I was cute as well? What were the chances she was also bi or gay? What were the chances that I could ever openly be with her anyways? I mean, a school full of the snobbiest of DC’s finest might not be so open to a ‘taboo’ couple.

I shook my head. There was no point in thinking like that. Besides, it could never happen.

I should just focus on school. School was something I could control. We did the same thing every day, and the people never changed. It was something I could always count on to never change drastically.

I could count on the normality of school no matter what.

Besides, now that everything was back to normal, there was no point in trying to change things. My friends weren’t being kidnapped anymore, and it wasn’t like their lives would drastically change anytime soon.

We would be fine.

There was no point of thinking about things that would never be. I would just have to forget about any feelings with Nicole. I would just think of the normal things, the things that I knew could happen, like pre-calculus homework and Ian’s idiotic-ness.

I took a deep breath. Everything was back to normal, there was no need to try and change that, none at all.