Different Heights [Book Two]

01. Different Heights

Laila Kincaid

It would be easy to start out my story by saying that I came from humble beginnings because all superheroes have those types of beginnings — except for Batman. It would be even easier for me to say that I was born into the perfect family. I had a dog, a cat with one life left, and both of my parents happily married after being together for more than twenty years.

But I don't want to start at my beginning, so I won't. I'll start eighteen years after the day I graced the universe with my exceptional personality and almost illegal good looks. Let's get started, shall we?

*        *        *

"Don't forget to call us before you go to bed, Laila. You know your mother likes to worry," My dad whispered after kissing my forehead and wrapping his arms around me.

Leona, my mother, stood off to the side of my dorm room wiping her tears with a crumpled napkin Avery pulled from his pocket. From the comfort of my dad's arms, I watched as my older brother rubbed her back while making a teasing face at me. My mother cried only five times during the road trip here and Avery dozed off at the wheel only once.

I would miss this. The comfort my parents never failed to give me, the constant reassurance of love and support, and the endless amount of forehead kisses from my dad. I would have to go four years without hearing Avery sing off-key in the shower and bragging about his fiancé to ears that would listen. Four years without seeing my parents cuddled up in the living room watching Wheel of Fortune and shouting the answers as though Pat could actually hear them. Four long years without walking down the cracked sidewalks of St. Louis, running through the halls of the old Hawthorne Heights building, and playing tag on the decrepit basketball court.

I would miss this, but I needed to leave it all behind for the time being and grow accustomed to the pale blue walls of my dorm room. Blue is such an ugly color. And sadly, it was the school's color. Hawthorne University planted large blue flowers all around the large campus, blue and white tiles lead the way to the endless amount of classrooms, and they decided to paint every single dorm room with the same pale blue that I despised. I would have to spend four years surrounded by the color.

My words were tinged with a bittersweet happiness when I whispered back, "Please make sure mama doesn't wear the clothes that I left behind. Take them to the homeless shelter tomorrow morning cause I saw her staring at my sweater."

"Give me one good reason why I can't wear that sweater, little girl," my mom argued, forgetting her sadness. "As a matter of fact, I bought that sweater for you. So technically it's mine. Now hurry up and give me my hug so we can burn out. These kids stink."