^^Chapter title credit: Song by the Style Council.^^

Happy Halloween, everyone! :)

{Raina}

"So you took him at his word?" El gives me an incredulous look when she manages to get it out of me later.

"I mean...he did seem like he had a headache last night—"

"Raina," she says, stopping me. "Honey. You can't just take these guys at their word."

I bite my lip. "Why not?"

She rolls her eyes. "Seriously? You don't think that every time they speak there's tons of subtext? He probably already has another girl that he's sleeping with. Or a couple, if we're being honest."

"You think so?" He'd seemed so sincere. And the way he smiled at me made me blush. A guy had never smiled at me like that.

"I know so," she says, taking my hand and squeezing it. "Trust me, Rains. You'll only get your heart broken by someone like him. Happens all the time."

I guess I have to trust her. She's probably been through this kind of thing before.

Neither do I have a chance to prove her wrong. I don't see him at all as the week starts, not even before my Intro to Econ class. The one I do see, however, is Ridley. He catches my eye in the class we have together, giving me an uncharacteristic wink. That makes me notice the bruise on his cheekbone, spreading up and around his eye. Someone's already made a bad first impression, I guess.

After class, right as I'm packing up, his hand lands on mine right as I reach for my notebook. I freeze, because I don't like the feeling I get when he touches me. Like he could hurt me at any second.

"I missed you the other night, Raina," he says. His voice is low and soft, almost soothing if his eyes weren't so off-putting. "I'm surprised I didn't run into you at least once."

"Did you?" I try to keep my eyes on his face.

"Look, Raina. Us outsiders, we need to stick together. Geoff, Matt, they're nice and all, but they're part of the crowd. The majority."

"Ridley..." I try to tug my hand away. "I'm not interested."

"Not interested in what I have to say, or me?" His grip tightens, crushing the bones in my hand, and his eyes turn dangerous.

I shake my head. "Don't make me—"

"Raina." He catches my chin in his fingers, digging them in so deep it hurts. "You'll have to face it sometime. We could do it. We could make it together."

"Ridley, let go of me." I have to stay calm, or else I'll slip straight into a panic attack. "Please."

"Just think about it," he says, releasing me all at once. "See you around."

I wait until I'm sure he's not coming back, and then I shove everything into my bag and hurry out, making a beeline for the women's restroom. I slam the stall door behind me when I get there, leaning against it and squeezing my eyes shut. Still, my tears push their way out. I'm not sure if it's because of what Ridley did, or if it was what he was implying, but whichever one it is, it's brought a flashback with a vengeance. Dad had done the exact same thing when he found out that I'd started going through puberty.

Girls. Why are they so f—kin' moody all the time?

I sink down to the floor, covering my face and trying to shut the memory out. Most of it's a blur, but the fear and panic I felt comes back. He was my dad. He was supposed to support me, help me understand what was happening to me.

I hear an ugly barking noise, and it takes a second to realize it came from me. It happens every time I cry, guaranteed. I hate the sounds I make, and maybe it's because Dad told me to. You're such a noisy crier, kid, shut up, won't you?

After a few tries, it works. I stop crying, and I pull myself up from the floor. When I catch my face in the mirror, however, it's completely evident. My eyes are red and still brimming with tears, and my face feels swollen and hot. But I have to compose myself, even if I'm now fifteen minutes late to my next class. Mom's words come to me, and I repeat them in my head like a mantra.

If you never let your pain show, those who hurt you lost.

But if that's true, then why won't it go away?

≈

"Hey, Rains, check this out," El says towards the end of the week, coming into the room holding up a newspaper. It's not the school paper — instead it's the local one. On the front page is a photo, of two supers, one in red and the other in blue. "Looks like we got some new supers in town."

She tosses it to me. I smooth it out, glance over the title — Flying High, how original — and then skim it. Apparently they've exposed two villains, a super called Hammerhead, and the other they just call the Ooze.

"The Red Knight," I murmur, running one finger over the caption. "I've never heard of him."

She suddenly snatches the paper from me. "Rains, no offense, but what did you actually do in your hometown? The Red Knight is, like, everyone's dream super. He can fly, shoot lasers, make himself invisible, and there's a rumor that under his helmet, he's super attractive."

"No pun intended?" I manage a small smile.

"Fine, you got me," she says, with an eye roll. "But really, Rains, this right here...this is big. Whenever a new villain emerges, us non-super people have to brace for catastrophe."

"Why? Does Hammerhead pose a threat?"

"They all pose a threat, Rains," she says, completely serious. "Because if past experience is anything to go by, all villains want is power, and they won't stop until they have it."

≈

The first time I meet the Red Knight, I'm on the way back to the dorm. Halfway there, I notice two guys following me. At first I think they're just headed the same way I am, but when one of them suddenly whistles at me, I know that what they're doing is intentional. I have a small can of pepper spray in my bag, but it's only for dire emergencies. I hope this isn't one.

So as unobtrusively as I can, I start to walk faster. I'd made a point earlier last week to start looking for landmarks to help me navigate the campus. Our complex looks down on a quad with a fountain in the middle, which is just past the student lounge, a wide-open space that the RA told us was the chapel at one time. I see the old steeple across the street, and I know I'm almost there.

Unfortunately, the guys speed up too, and before I know it, they've overtaken me, cutting my path off.

"You lost, babe?" says one, his small beady eyes looking me up and down. The way he's doing it makes me uncomfortable.

"No, I just—" I try to sidestep, but the other one puts his arm out, stopping me.

"Whoa. We don't wanna hurt you, babe. We just noticed you out here all by yourself."

His arm is so thick and meaty I know better than to resist. "Well, that's gentlemanly of you, but I'm just over there—"

"How 'bout we walk you there?" suggests the first guy.

"Yeah, just to make sure you get there safe," says the second.

"Really, I don't—" My hand closes around my pepper spray. Dire emergency it is.

"C'mon babe, don't be a tease," says the first, suddenly stepping forward and grabbing my arm.

Then two things happen at once. I pull the can out, at the ready, when both guys grunt with pain, the one holding me letting go.

"Are these two bothering you?" says a deep voice from behind me.

I whirl around, coming face-to-face with a huge man in red armor, fitting together so closely there's no cracks anywhere. His helmet, covering his whole face, shows nothing but two eye holes. But I can't see into them, even when he looks right at me.

"I—" I say, completely lost for words.

"Aw, dude, we were just gonna walk her back," one of the guys says, rubbing the back of his head and wincing.

"Yeah, we didn't mean no harm to her, honest." The second one looks slightly more guilty.

"That's not what I saw," growls the super I now recognize from the paper as the Red Knight. "Leave her alone, and don't touch her again, if you know what's good for you."

They don't protest, slinking off and muttering something like "total buzzkill, man." Then the Red Knight looks back down at me, and I suddenly feel much smaller. I swallow hard, the tension I see in his posture making me nervous.

"Are you going to use that pepper spray?" he asks, making me remember that I'm still holding it at the ready.

"No, no, I just..." I slide it away. "Sorry."

"There's a scumbag born every minute," he says, and I can hear the scowl in his voice. "Like those two. What're you doing out here all by yourself, Miss...?"

"Just call me Raina." I never wanted to hear anyone say Miss Hardy again, like the officer who arrested my dad, and the principal at school every time I was sent to the office. "And you're the Red Knight, aren't you?"

"The one and only," he says, his shoulders dropping. "So you've heard of me too?"

"Not until recently, if you can believe it," I answer honestly, which earns me a shocked head turn my way from him. "Small town. I don't think we even had any supers."

"Unlikely, but I'll take it." Because he seems to be speaking through a voice moderator, I can't tell what he's thinking. "Every town's got at least one, no matter what the size."

"So you're really that common, huh?"

"I wouldn't say common. Just...a lot more numerous than you think." I see him nod towards the dorm. "Now where was it you said you were going?"