Hiding in the Shadows

Chapter 5 - Secretly a Superhero

By the time gym class came around, I was ready to go home. Every class I went in I was underestimated, except for English where apparently you can know things even if you are female. And ironically I felt that that was going to be my worse class, despite Vision having been a wonderful teacher. I was sick of having to prove myself or else have people assume that I was not good enough for the class.

I was given a pair of Midtown High gym clothes when I walked into the locker room, clothes that consisted of a blue t-shirt and sweatshirt with the school name and logo printed on them as well as a pair of yellow gym shorts, also emblazoned with the school logo. I chose not to cover up with the sweatshirt as I was told it was usually quite warm in the gym.

I traveled with the rest of the girls up to the gym and then found Peter and Ned talking together. They stopped as they saw me coming and I wondered whether they were talking about me, or if it was just some subject that they did not yet trust me enough to share.

"Hey, (Y/N), how's your day been going?" Ned asked me, his friendly tone not matching my feelings of the school thus far.

"I've decided that I officially hate public schools and would much prefer being homeschooled," I replied, watching as a middle aged African American man walked into the gym sporting a blue polo shirt, a navy Midtown High zip up sweatshirt, a navy Midtown High hat, and a pair of glasses. Based on his age and the whistle around his neck, I concluded that he must be our teacher, Coach Wilson.

"You really think it's that bad?" Peter asked, bringing my attention back to him.

"I'm not surprised that you don't feel similarly, you're not being judged based on your gender," I retorted, hoping that he would realize how lucky he was.

He was about to respond when Coach  Wilson blew his whistle, ending the various chatter around the room, "welcome back to another year here at Midtown High. Hopefully we'll be a bit more committed to gym class than last year, yes? I know that this is a science and technology school and you guys are all nerds, but can we at least try to appreciate healthy exercise? I figured since it's the first day of school we would play a nice friendly game of dodgeball. But remember, you have to participate and hanging in the back with a ball in your hand but not making a move to throw it is not participating. Also, I've said this before and I'll keep saying it, head shots are not allowed and if you purposely aim for the head you are automatically out of the game."

"Dodgeball?" I whispered to Peter and Ned, confused as to what exactly the rules were. It seems that I kept discovering the drawbacks of launching myself into public school after years of homeschooling.

"Yeah, have you never played?" Peter replied, seeming shocked by that fact.

I shook my head, "apparently it's not a big thing in Massachusetts?"

"Wow, really? I thought that was a staple of high school," he muttered so that Coach Wilson wouldn't notice us talking. "Basically you've got to throw the foam balls at players on the other team to get them out, but you can't cross the center line or hit people above the shoulders. Also if you catch a ball thrown by the other side, you can get that player out."

"Parker, you're on Michelle's team," Coach Wilson called out, signaling for him to leave my side. The teacher continued to assign people to teams until reaching me, "and who are you?"

"I'm (Y/N) (L/N), I'm a new student here," I replied, annoyed that he had left me to be assigned last because he didn't know my name.

"Very well, you can join Michelle's team," he decided, making me flash a smile to my teammate, Peter.

As Peter filled me in on any missed details of the game, Coach Wilson set up the six balls in the center of the court. I, along with only one other person, ran to get to the balls in the center, hastily rolling as many back to my team as I could reach and grabbing one for myself. We managed to obtain control of four of the balls while the other team only got two of them, one held by Flash and the other held by a student I had yet to meet, but she seemed to be semi-athletic.

I saw Flash go to throw the ball in my direction, but I quickly rolled out of the way, sending my ball to an unsuspecting student on the other team. Turns out, Coach Wilson was correct and very few people actually tried to participate in this game so it was only Flash, the girl on his team that had gotten control of a ball in the beginning of the game, and myself who were actually really participating.

My team took heavy losses and soon it was only me up against five of the other team's players. A few people from my team cheered me on from the sidelines, while a few seemed to think that I was done for, and the remainder could care less as to what was going on. Although it seemed unlikely that I would be able to win the game, I knew I had, in a way, been training for this for years. Except where I was concerned, the foam balls were actually bullets.

I easily dodged each ball thrown at me and sent them back with perfect aim until it was only Flash and I against each other. He quickly grabbed a ball from the ground and chucked it at me, causing me to do a foreword flip the avoid it, sending back a ball that had fallen on my side of the court as I rolled out of the landing. The ball struck Flash directly in the stomach and my team erupted into half hearted cheering.

Coach Wilson blew the whistle to signal the end of the game and Ned came up to me, his eyes widened in shock, "(Y/N), you didn't tell us that you were secretly a superhero!"

I nearly had a heart attack as those words left his mouth, before realizing what he had meant by them. Trying to cover up my scare, I shrugged nonchalantly and replied, "I used to do gymnastics back in Boston, I guess I've retained some of the moves."

"That was so cool, Flash has never been beaten in a game before," Ned continued to fangirl before tailing off. "Except for one time when our team decided that we would all gang up on him at the beginning of the game. But even then, his team still won."

"Well, I am honored to add to Midtown High history," I smiled in response, although I felt like I had just had to prove myself worthy enough to be in a class once again.

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(A/N): Don't you just love kicking Flash's butt? I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter!