'…Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen…'

I was sitting in the highest branches of a tree in a little neighborhood, counting the lights as they went out. Once fifteen more lights in the houses went out, I snuck down from the tree and walked across the street to a house that I knew all too well. The Stronghold house was mostly dark except for two lights: one in the living room and one in Will's bedroom.

Yes, I know the Commander and Jetstream. They took me in after Principal Powers and Sonic Boom rescued me and my siblings from a villain's hideout. But they didn't get there in time, though. He had somehow found a way to make normal people (or kids, actually, since it only worked on us) super and he had already done so to us. About three days after we were rescued, we were all immobilized with pain for a month. And at the end of the month, everyone found out why we were in so much pain: we had grown wings on our backs and our bodies had changed to accommodate them. Our bones became hollow, our lungs stretched a little farther than normal, and our metabolisms had sky-rocketed. Even our hair and eyes changed color. It was a terrible time for us all, even for the heroes. For us, it was because we would never be normal again. For them, it was because they hadn't stopped evil in time to save innocent lives.

But the heroes tried to make up for it. Every hero and heroine in town heard about us, and they all chipped in to buy us a huge house all to ourselves. We loved it, and we all agreed that when we were old enough, we would attend Sky High. We made that promise nine years ago, and we had already gotten a letter from Principal Powers that the new school year would start and we were to attend. And boy oh boy were we excited when we read that letter! And we were the first stop for the bus, too! We could hardly sleep for the following weeks, but here we were, twenty-four hours from seeing our favorite heroes again and going to a place where we can fit in.

I couldn't stay indoors tonight, so I got on the computer and searched where the Strongholds lived, deciding to pay them a visit. And here I am, in front of their house, feeling like a total creeper. 'You haven't seen them in years and you decided to visit them. Now you're here and you can't turn back! Just keep going!' My mental pep talk wasn't helping my situation much, but I was right. I was already here, so might as well face it. I walked up to the door and raised my hand to knock it, but I hesitated. 'What if they don't remember me? What am I supposed to say? "Hi! Remember me? I'm one of the girls you didn't save from the villain in time before he did science experiments on us and you felt guilty about it for months! Remember?" Yeah right! Like I would say that! I'm not a total psychopath!' Sometime during my mental argument with myself, I guess Will was going to visit a friend and he had opened the door, finding me with my hand raised to knock and looking slightly out of it. I stared at him for a moment, thinking about how much he's grown since I last saw him. 'He looks like his mom, but his eyes are SO his dad's.' But he just kept staring at me, surprised at my multiple-shades-of-blue hair and aquamarine eyes.

He finally regained his composure after a few seconds. "Um, are you looking for someone?" he asked.. 'Focus, Malie, focus!'

I leaned in closer so I could whisper in his ear. I didn't exactly want anyone to hear, not that there was anyone around.

"Are the Commander and Jetstream home? I'd really like to see them." I pulled back, and he stared at me with these big, stunned eyes for a moment before his eyes took a deadly serious glare. I giggled a bit, tilting my head towards my shoulder, looking at him from the side. My knee-length hair fell over my shoulder a bit, slightly making my eyes a little darker and, to Will, a bit sexier. "Don't worry, I don't bite. And I wouldn't even think about trying to fight a Stronghold, Will." He was a bit stunned at that, and I could see his face get a little pink on his cheeks.

"U-uh, y-yeah, their home. Want me to get them for you?" His stutter was a little cute, but he was definitely not my type. I nodded, and he turned around slightly to yell into the house.

"Mom! Dad! There's someone here to see you!" He looked back at me, like he was trying to figure out how I knew that his parents were the famous Commander and Jetstream. A few seconds later, I heard a woman yell back from inside, like she was at the back.

"Who is it, honey?" I looked at Will, knowing that he was just as curious. "My name's Malie. And Will, you might want to move out of the way when you tell her." He had a look of genuine confusion on his face, but he took my warning and stepped to the side.

"She says her name's Malie." We stood there for a few seconds before we heard the sound of glass breaking, and in no time at all I was squished in a sandwich-hug between Josie and Steve (who had been in the living room listening to the conversation) on the front porch. Will was standing there looking stunned.

"Malie! Oh, my dear, sweet Malie, how have you been? I'm so glad to see you! Come in, come in, you must be hungry!" Josie was saying very quickly through a fit of happy tears. Steve, on the other hand, was determined to get me talking about my workouts and training sessions. "So Malie, what're you pressing, huh? One-thirty, one-fifty? Come on, I can help you out with those flabby arms of yours!"

I was a little overwhelmed at the bombardment of questions, but I tried to answer them as best I could. "Yeah, I'm a little hungry, and I've been doing fine. I bench two-twenty, thank you. And that's twenty more than Donovan can press. I know, it's not that much more, but I still feel proud that I'm beating him at something. Yes, meatloaf's fine, thank you. I've always loved your meatloaf!" And that's when I remembered what I came here for.

"Oh yeah! We start at Sky High tomorrow!" That got them to shut up, but only before I was between another Josie-Steve sandwich-hug. "Ouch! Okay, okay, I get it! You missed me and you're proud of me, but stop giving me super-hugs, Commander! They hurt! You're crushing my ribs!" Steve let go of me, giving me childish look and saying a small 'oops.'

"I'm sorry but I can't stay for very long. School starts tomorrow, y'know?" They both nodded and let go of me. I looked at Josie and put on my best puppy face I could muster.

"Can I have that meatloaf, though? The smell's driving me crazy hungry!"

Lmlmlmlmlmlmlmlmlm

"Wake you're lazy ass up, Donovan! The bus gets here in an hour!" All I got in response was a muffled 'shut up.'

It was the morning that the new school year started, and it was havoc in the Grant household. Firenze was running around trying to find her favorite hair products (which were in the girls' bathroom shower, by the way.), Atalanta was looking everywhere for her favorite off-the-shoulder neon green shirt that had the heart design with 'Amour' over the heart (which is hanging in her closet, if she would just look.), Elfreda was making everyone's lunches in the kitchen (the lettuce is in the bottom drawer in the refrigerator.), Lucasta was getting Melusine to help her with her hair (it wasn't holding the curls, but it would if she dried her hair at night.), and Ampelio was waiting outside in the front gardens, picking twigs out of his feathers (thank you, someone who's actually ready!). I, on the other hand, was trying to wake up Donovan.

But I should probably introduce everyone, shouldn't I? Okay, you already know me, Malie, and what I look like. I'm also the oldest of our strange family. My power is pretty useless. I can see what people want and where or how they can get it. You can say it's future-seeing, but it's not. It's what people desire that I see (speaking of which, where are my pa- ah, there they are.). My wings are sapphire blue with turquoise and sky blue tips every other feather.

Donovan is the second oldest. He has shaggy black hair with light gray wisps , making it look silver in the light, and his eyes are a gray-black color. He has a bit of an issue with authority, but when it comes to Sonic Boom, he's a whole different person. His power unique to him is changing his physical features. If he wants bright colored highlights, all he has to do is run his hands through his hair and, boom, neon green streaks. Blue eyes? One blink and they're blue. Darker skin color? Well, I don't know how he does that. In fact, I don't want to know. His wings are black with a dusting of dark grey here and there.

Atalanta is the third oldest. She has shoulder length blonde hair and lavender eyes. She's a sweet girl, but sometimes she does or says things without thinking, which gets her in trouble sometimes. Her power is that she can slow down or speed up moving objects. It comes in handy when she sees someone drop something and slows it down so we can get it before it breaks. Her wings are white at the top, where the shorter feathers are, and as they get longer, they get a bit more purple until they're an amethyst color on the longest feathers.

Lucasta is one of the middle children. She has platinum blonde hair down to her lower back and yellow-green eyes (which are slightly creepy if you have a staring contest with her). She tries to be Switzerland between fights, along with Melusine and Ampelio (sweet kids). Her power is to lighten or darken a room or a certain space. But what's creepy is that in a dark room, her eyes glow like, well, glowsticks. The color of her wings is a light yellow, almost like sunshine.

Firenze is the other middle child. Her hair is red with some yellow, orange and pink strands in there, making it look like actual fire, and her eyes are black, red and orange in a mix-swirl. She's a bit hot-headed. When she gets pissed off, the only advice I have is for you to run! She will fucking kill you! But only Melusine can calm her down (not exactly sure why, though.). Her power is that she can control and manipulate fire and heat (which comes in handy when all the hairdryers are being used. Speaking of which…). Pure fire is what her wings look like, almost the same as her hair, but more intense.

Elfreda is the third youngest. Her hair and eyes are the most normal of the family, being dark brown. She's very sweet, and she tries to be friends with everyone and for everyone to like her. And no, she's not naïve. If you try to get her into a sticky situation, she'll figure it out before you even get the second sentence of your speech. Her power is that she can create force fields. They can block anything, even a punch or an entire building falling on it. Her wings are just like that of a hawks. Like I said, she's the most normal looking of the family.

Melusine is the second youngest. Her hair is tan, brown, white and black (yes, like that one snake.) and her eyes are a light brown. She's very helpful, always helping with the chores or shopping, cleaning up a spill, teaching you a way to remember how to do a certain math problem, anything. Her power is controlling water and ice. And she's very good at ice skating (go figure.). Her wings are dark brown with black tips.

Ampelio is the youngest of the family. His hair is the color of a peach and his eyes are the color of fresh turned soil in a garden. Sweet, patient, pacifist kid. Nothing bad about him, and he stay out of fights. But when he does fight, he goes OFF! His power is to control plants, and weird thing is, he can use the plants to find something or someone. I have no idea how he does it, I just go with it. His wings are black, but they reflect green.

Phew! I finally got done introducing everyone! And in that time, everyone got ready and out the door to the street. Donovan had his black hair decked out with neon green and aqua streaks* with a black long-sleeved shirt (the sleeves had rips in them)that had a neon green, red, and yellow design in the middle with black jeans and his signature black high-top Converse ™ with neon blue laces (what can I say? The boy likes color. *shrug*). Firenze had her hair back in a low ponytail with red Volcom™ t-shirt on top of a black long-sleeved shirt like Donovan's (she borrowed one from him) with grey skinnies. Atalanta found her neon green top, and had on a black spaghetti strap under it with black skinnies that had an awesome green dragon drawn going up and around one leg and an amazing tiger going up the other (courtesy of moa). Elfreda had on a Zelda t-shirt with black jeans and black flip-flops. Lucasta had on, for some reason, an orange Aero shirt with blue jeans and red and orange sneakers. Melusine was wearing a sky blue off-the-shoulder top with a dark blue tank underneath and black skinnies. Ampelio had on a green Under Armor shirt with a black long-sleeve button-up over it (un-buttoned) and blue jeans. And, last but not least, I had on an electric blue shirt over an ocean blue long sleeve with sapphire skinnies and blue flip-flops with my hair back in a braid.

It was about five minutes after we got to the bus stop that the bus arrived. It looked like any other bus, inside and out. We all took seats in the middle, so we could stay close together. In about an hour, we had picked up everyone on the route. We were going down the highway when we went on ramp. Before we even knew what was going on, belts came from the seats and secured us to them. I freaked out a little bit, but when the bus drove off the ramp and started free-falling, everyone started screaming! That's when boosters shot out from the back of the bus and plane wings unfolded from the sides, and just like that, we were off to Sky High.

Wfwfwfwfwfwfwfwfwfwfwfwfwfwf

Once the bus touched down on Sky High's campus, the others and I RAN off the bus. Not because we were terrified from the flight (actually, we loved it!), but because we saw a group of people we were dying to see: Principal Powers, Coach Boomer, Professor Medulla, Nurse Spex, the Commander and Jetstream. I don't know about the others, but I knew I wanted a hug from Principal Powers. I ran over to her and caught her in a big hug. She chuckled a bit and stroked my head, hugging me back. I let go of her and took a step back, looking at her like she was my own mother.

"Malie, you've grown up so much! Look at how tall and beautiful you are! Oh, and Lucasta, you look amazing dear! Firenze, I see you look as fiery as ever!" She turned to each of us, gushing compliments and smiling the biggest smile I've ever seen on her face. I turned to Nurse Spex and gave her a big hug. She gave me a tight squeeze before holding me from her at arm's length. She took off her glasses, and I knew what she was doing. She was using her power to see if I was all right (which I was) but I let her anyway. I knew she cared for me, and she was like a grandmother to me. She gave me a few compliments and told me how much she missed me, then she went to say hello to the others. I walked over to Professor Medulla and stood right in front of him, knowing full well that he didn't like to be hugged unless he allowed me. He looked at me up and down. Most people would think that he was checking me out, but I knew better. He was just taking measurements in his head and calculating numbers in his head.

"It seems you've grown two feet, four inches and eleven centimeters and gained at least eighty-five pounds, and the color of your hair and eyes has intensified by at least two shades since I last saw you nine years, six months and seventeen days ago." He said it with such confidence that I knew he wasn't mistaken in his calculations. But I just stood there and looked at him like the dumbass I was, with a confused expression on my face. He sighed and shook his head, knowing I didn't understand a word he said. "I mean you've grown up. Now come here and give me a hug, I know it's killing you." He held his arms open, and I grinned like a fool and leapt into him, hugging him as hard as I could. After I hugged him, I went over to Coach Boomer, but he was busy talking to Donovan and Ampelio.

Since I had already said hello to everyone else, I decided to finally take a good, long look at the school and the other students. And I immediately noticed a guy with really, really long arms, a guy with flames on his arms, and Will. 'Well, this should be fun.' I walked over to a couple of girls that were behind Will and flame guy. One looked like she was trying to stop Will from getting in trouble, and the other was grinning like the Cheshire cat. Since the other girl was busy, I decided to ask Cheshire girl what was going on.

She laughed like she was enjoying the scene, and turned to me with a smirk. "Lash pissed off Will and Warren. So now Layla's trying to calm Will down and no one will touch Warren. My name's Magenta, by the way. Is this your first year?" I smiled at her, knowing that Melusine or Lucasta would do the same thing for Will.

"Yeah, along with my seven siblings. And I think I know someone who can help to calm Warren down." I glanced over my shoulder and saw that the teachers were coming over, along with the superheroes and my siblings. Firenze was at the front of the group, and she saw when I waved her over. She came running over and asked what I needed. I smiled at her and pointed to Warren, knowing she would understand instantly.

And she did. She smirked at me and walked up behind him, the she snaked her arms around his waist and (since she was kinda taller than most girls [we all were]) she put her chin on his shoulder, next to his ear, and murmured in a seductive voice.

"Come on, babe, calm down. You'll get detention, and we don't want that, now do we?" And you could literally see Warren tense up. When he turned around to see who it was, Firenze took three steps back, making sure that if he lunged, she could dodge him. But he didn't, he was too busy being stunned by her hair, how it looked like a river of fire cascading down her back, and her eyes, how they looked like lava flowing down the hardened magma on an island mountainside.

I saw an image form in my head, transparent in my vision right now, but I saw a hallway in the school, and I saw Firenze standing in front of a locker, putting away some books. When I looked down the hall, I saw Warren walking towards her, a cold expression on his face. He walked up right beside her and looked her in the eyes, and asked her a question. I was seeing what Warren desired at that moment.

I was about to start laughing like crazy when I felt two long (and dare I say it, strong) arms wrap around my waist and pull me towards the stretchy guy (what did Magenta call him? Lash?) . He pulled me flush to his chest, and I could feel his heart pulsing under the black fabric of his shirt.

"Well, who is this? Are you a new sidekick, or are you a new hero?" And I knew that this guy gave me the creeps. And as soon as he finished that sentence, he leaned his head down to try and kiss me! 'Oh, this is SO NOT happening! Uh-uh!' When he was close enough, I turned my head quickly to the side, and closed my eyes to concentrate (my power works through physical contact or if you really concentrate on what you want.) when he kissed my cheek.

An image started to form behind my eyes. I saw a man with brown hair and serious brown eyes looking at some business papers. Then a woman walked in, humming a sweet song when a small boy ran through the kitchen, laughing. The woman called to him, telling him that he better wash his hands and get back in the kitchen if he wanted to help make cookies. It was a sweet scene, like a family movie, but then it changed, moving forward in time. What I saw next was the same house, but it didn't have the comforting feel that it had just moments before. I looked around, and saw the present-day Lash sitting in a recliner talking on the phone. I automatically knew he talking to his parents that were on a business trip. They were always on business trips, and when they were home, they were only home for about a week before they left again. I knew what Lash desired.

I kept it to myself though. It would mean big trouble if I told him I knew. But I wasn't going to let him get away with restraining me. "Hey, ass-hat! Let me go! I don't want to smell like dog shit." He didn't exactly like my attitude, and he squeezed me tighter, and I let out a loud yelp.

Firenze was still behind me, and she heard me yelp and leaped into action. She started running towards Lash, but a blur went in front of her and she spun to the ground. As she was getting up, I saw that she was shaking with fury.

"Oh shit! Melusine! Melusine, get your scrawny ass down here! Firenze is gonna flip her shit!"

phew. i've been writing this all day. and im not kidding. so, i'm actually kinda lazy, and i get ideas from compliments and consstructive critisism. so please tell me what you think.

*I used the colors from Splat™ hair dyes.

Another thing. Their names actually have meanings. here's a little chart:

Malie (pronounced Maleah)-*Hawaiian*- Calm

Donovan-*Irish, English*-Dark

Atalanta- She's actually in Greek mythology. She was a fast-footed maiden who refused to marry anyone who could not beat her in a race. She was eventually defeated by Hippomenes, who dropped three golden apples during the race causing her to stop to pick them up.

Lucasta-*Literature*-This name was first used by the poet Richard Lovelace for a collection of poems called 'Lucasta' (1649). The poems were dedicated to Lucasta, a nickname for the woman he loved Lucy Sacheverel, who he called lux casta "pure light".

Firenze-*Various*- The name of an Italian city, commonly called Florence in English.

Elfreda-*English*- Elf strength

Melusine-*Mythology*-Meaning unknown. In European folklore Melusine was a water fairy who turned into a serpent from the waist down every Saturday. She made her husband, Raymond of Poitou, promise that he would never see her on that day, and when he broke his word she left him forever.

Ampelio-*Italian*- Vine

Mental Rubick's cube, i know. well, tell me what you lovely readers have to say. but for now, i'm going to bed!

~WistalaJizara279511~