SuperVillain

4

The smile from my face faded when I saw a girl come through the doors behind Mason the next afternoon. "Who's this? Your girlfriend?" I really wasn't sure why I was saying these things. I'd been acting really strange the past few days.

Mason laughed. "No. This girl just moved here and asked where City Hall was. I brought her, since I was coming anyway."

I raised an eyebrow. "You were?"

Mason's cheeks went pink as he mumbled. "I mean, yeah, 'cause your job must be kinda boring and I thought maybe you needed a friend or something like that."

A friend? A friend. Do I really seem that pitifully lonely? I don't have time for friends!

But before I could respond, Mason turned to the girl. "Why don't you introduce yourself to Ms. Mayor?"

"Oh, please, just call me Leila. I don't care."

The girl walked up to my desk and shook my hand. "My name is Sunshine Carrings. Sunny for short. I just moved here with my parents, and I have a couple papers I need to pick up."

I nodded. "Go see Mr. Madison in the other room. He can help."

"You know, you're more of a secretary than a mayor," Mason said as he propped his elbows onto my desk.

I shrugged. "It's a long story. I won't be mayor much longer."

"Well, I've got time."

I really didn't want to tell Mason everything yet. He was still practically a stranger. "Um... well..." Just then my phone went off. "Oh, darn! I forgot I have to cut the ribbon at the opening of the new supermarket. Mr. Madison! I'm off!" And I ran out the door.

Mason visited every afternoon that week, and I started to realize how nice it was to have a friend. Somebody I could talk to. That was something I'd never really had. Sunshine, as it turned out, went to the same school as Mason, so she came with him. We just sat around City Hall and talked. I tried to say as little about my life as possible, because I'd never had real friends. None of the kids I'd known growing up were trustworthy. How could I know if these two were?

On Friday, the three of us went to get ice cream, which was a step up from sitting around. But I was constantly checking my watch. I was so nervous to get to the jail. When Sunshine set her cup down to go to the bathroom, leave me alone with Mason, he asked, "Why do you keep checking your watch? Is everything okay?"

"Remember when Greed Goblin came to city hall the other day?"

"You know his name?"

I couldn't tell him why I really knew it. Luckily, lying was no hard task for me. "I saw it in the newspaper a while ago."

"You're worried that supervillains will come back to power, aren't you." It wasn't really a question. I nodded, although he didn't know the reason why I was worried about it. "Don't worry. Supervillians have been practically extinct since the Evil Lightning Lord was locked up." I felt the color drain from my face. "Are you sure you're okay?" I saw his hand inch closer to mine. "The good guys always win. Don't worry."

Yanking my hand away, I announced, "I feel sick." I got up and ran to the bathroom. I passed Sunny on the way, who was just coming back.

After doing the best I could to clean up the mess I made, I cried. I sank to the floor of the stall and cried.

When I didn't return to our table, Sunny and Mason must've been worried because Sunshine walked into the bathroom and knocked on the stall door. "Leila, can you please open the door?"

I trembled over to the door and unlatched it, then dropped to the floor again.

Sunshine looked around at the mess. "Hey, are you okay?"

"No!" I cried. "I'm not! And I won't be until I find it!"

"Find what?"

"I don't know! That's why I need to figure out what it is! Which is what I'm going to do. Right now!" I grabbed my bag and ran out of the bathroom, past our table, and straight towards the jail.