SUPER

Caped Crusader

"Have we been robbed?" I call out as soon as I enter my apartment Friday after school. The place is littered with papers as if an office supply store exploded in my living room. It looks like we've been ransacked.

"No. The only crime is that I have to bring my work home with me again," my fathers smiles as I walk into the kitchen. He's sitting at the table looking over a stack of papers. He does look more stressed then usual. My father always looks suave: full suits, hair combed. Always put together. (I guess that's where I get it from) But lately his outfits are crumpled up and his wrinkles look deeper. Work must really be getting to him.

Sitting across the table is Mr. Flowers, my father's associate. Unlike some of the other people my dad works with (ahem Piper) I actually like Mr. Flowers. "Hello Miss Mack," he calls.
"Hey Mr. Flowers," I smile back, "I can't believe my dad dragged you here to work on a Friday night. Blink twice if you're being held against your will."

He laughs, "It's not fun but someone has to do it. Reyes Inc. has been crazy lately."

My father's boring accounting firm is the last thing I'd call crazy.

"Well I'll let you two get to work. I'm probably going to go out with Cammie later," I tell my dad. I'm about to leave but Mr. Flowers' eyes linger. I raise an eyebrow.

"Sorry," he says, shaking his gaze, "It's just, you look so much like you're mother."

I feel my stomach drop a little like it does whenever my mother is brought up. People tell me all the time that I could be her twin.

"She's beautiful just like Evelyn," my father says with a soft smile before returning to his work. I leave the room, that dry feeling still in the back of my mouth.

I haven't thought of my mother much lately. I was so young when she died that I never knew her. Sure I missed out having a mom but I've always been close with my dad so there was never much of a void.

I stop by her picture in the hall and it is eerie how similar we look: same dark hair, same twitch in our smiles, same everything. For the first time in a long time I miss my mom. It seems silly missing someone you never knew but I do all the same. I like to pretend that I have everything together, that I can handle anything, but right now I feel like a little girl who wants her mom.

My mother was killed when I was two in a mugging incident. She was walking home from work one night when she was attacked and left for dead. Even thinking about it now fifteen years later makes my blood boil. It's not fair. Bad things shouldn't happen to good people.

Maybe that's why I've been so enamored by Finn. There's something encouraging about a hero. Someone who can be a true force of good. Someone who can stand up for innocent people. Someone who could have saved my mom.

Maybe that's why I decided to help Finn against all my better judgement, even though it's more dangerous then I can imagine. Is it so wrong to want a hero?

............

"I'm going to kill Finn," I grumble as I pick at my salad, "I cannot believe he would do this to me!"

Cammie offers me a sympathetic shrug but Mike looks like he might start cracking up.

"Yes, I'm sure he asked Abbey Tanaka to homecoming just to spite you," Mike laughs.

"Well theres no other reason anyone would willingly want to spend time with that she-witch!" I shout, earning a few harsh glances from the neighboring tables. Mike, Cammie, and I are all grabbing dinner at some restaurant in the plaza downtown. Finn is supposed to join us but he's running late. I have no clue how a guy with superspeed it constantly tardy. That's when Cammie decided to break this latest piece of drama from the gossip train.