S.H.I.E.L.D Academy

Laerika Lokison's POV • High School

Eww. Jack and Elias were babbling on and on about cars. Again. After another half hour, I'd had enough.

"Oh. My. God."

"Yes?" Elias turns to me with a mischievous smile.

"Seriously, guys. That joke is way too old." Howard liberates his face from his latest book-affair and gives us the signature "that was so last year" look.

"Sorry, How. But when you get to live as long as we do, sometimes the old material is a must."

Howard shakes his head and sighs in a way that reminds me of his mother.

"Does it ever bother you to think that one day, we'll all be dead while you and Laerika both still look twenty-something?" Derek asks soberly, out of his usual "Mr. Positive" mindset. "I mean . . we'll be long under the ground, and you'll have to find a new circle of friends."

Derek's comment makes me want to cry, but there's no denying the truth in his words. I frown and let the honesty weigh down on me.

"Hey, hey now!" Zaria interjects with something of a cross between a reprimand and an effort to comfort. "This is getting way too depressing."

"She's right," Alise says with a dazzling grin so like her father's. "Come on, we can always just freeze ourselves in blocks of ice once we reach our primes, and Johnny can melt us out again. Worked for my dad." We all crack up, Eugene almost spitting out his lemonade.

Good old Alise. Always the professional mood-lightener.