{Raina}

If things hadn't been so chaotic near the end, I would have been the first to point out the fact that Geoff called me his girlfriend. Instead I hurry along after Geoff and his friend, the big broad-shouldered blond guy who introduces himself as Matt. He has Geoff's arm slung around his shoulders, and we get halfway back to the dorm complex when Geoff peels himself away from Matt, rubbing his face and wincing.

"Thank you, Matt," I say again as we watch Geoff stagger to a patch of grass and fall.

"Hey, it was no problem," he says with a shrug. "I owed him one."

I go to Geoff and kneel down next to him, pushing his hair away from his forehead. "You okay, Geoff?"

"Heya," he mumbles, half his face still pressed into the ground. "How'd we do?"

"If it weren't for Matt..." I glance back at him, shoulders hunched and hands plunged into his pockets. "I don't know."

He grunts, pushing my hand away when I accidentally brush his bruised cheek.

"Do you mean what you said?" I ask him after a beat. "Am I your girlfriend?"

Matt coughs loudly behind me – in a way that sounds suspiciously like Ridley – and Geoff scowls, pushing himself up on his hands.

"What?" I glance between them, unsure of why neither of them are answering.

"It's Ridley," Matt says finally, earning a finger across the throat motion from Geoff. He continues, though. "He's got his sights set on you."

"On me?" I can't keep the surprise out of my voice, although I had a hunch that it was true. "But...I didn't even think he liked me."

Matt shrugs, coming over to us and helping the both of us to our feet. "He's got some sort of master plan in that tiny head of his. Problem is, we can't figure it out."

"And I have something to do with it?"

"Yes," Matt says, at the same time Geoff says "No."

"Which is it?" I look between them. "Do I or not?"

"His problem is with me, not with you," Geoff says, before Matt can speak. "And he's already figured out that I like you. So just to show he can do it, he's going to try to get you on his side."

"But I don't like him," I protest. "He scares me."

Geoff shoots an angry glare at Matt before replying. "I'll make sure his business with me stays between us."

By now we've arrived at the dorm complex, and as soon as Matt peels off again to go back to the bonfire, I turn to Geoff. One of his eyes is so swollen I can only see a small sliver of it. His nose looks crooked too, and there's still blood oozing from it.

"I wish Matt would keep his mouth shut," he says, his hands clenching into fists. "I wanted the Ridley thing kept quiet until we knew what his motive was."

"It's okay, Geoff, I know—"

"No it's not, Raina," Geoff cuts me off sharply. "He's trying to drive a wedge between us, and trying not to look like the bad guy at the same time. I want you to be my girlfriend. But when Ridley finds out...he'll stop at nothing to ruin it."

"Really?" I finally get out. I want you to be my girlfriend stuck in my mind and repeated over and over again. And all of El's warnings about Geoff breaking my heart disappear in an instant.

"Yeah." He shrugs, jams his hands into his pockets. "And I'm sorry I couldn't fight those guys off by myself. They're just too big."

"You did your best, Geoff. That's all that matters to me." I can tell he's embarrassed that Matt had to come to his rescue. "Maybe we'll get a do-over."

"The date, or the fight?" He refuses to look at me, and I can practically feel his humiliation.

"Maybe both," I say with a shrug, swiping my card to let us in. "It's not every day that a guy defends my honor like that."

He says nothing, only shrugs. In fact, he doesn't say anything until we get to my door.

"Consider this not every day, then." He scuffs his foot on the ground. "I want to make this work, you know."

"Me too," I say, and I mean it.

"Good night, Raina," he says, being the first to break the spell. "See you around."

"Good night," I manage before he's gone, so quickly it's like he disappeared into thin air. I let myself in, finding El's not there. Which means I don't have to dress in the bathroom, at least not this time. But as I pull off my shirt my eyes catch the burns on my torso in the mirror. Geoff had noticed me rubbing them, something I did so unconsciously I don't even think about it anymore. He'd been courteous enough to not ask any questions, but they'd come soon enough. And when they did, I would have to be ready for them.

≈

I wake from a weird dream about Geoff, that girl I'd seen him kissing, and Ridley, but it's all so confusing I hardly remember when it's over. He'd mentioned something about her earlier, but I can't remember her name. Either way, I'm trying to get over it.

When I make it down to the cafeteria for breakfast, I hear the recent news: the Blob appeared again, this time oozing itself down over the capitol building. The Red Knight, Sky Scraper, and a couple of Hartford's supers swooped in just in time.

And then, just as I claim a table to wait for El, a hand comes down right in the middle of the photo on the front page of the newspaper. I recognize those long thin fingers and that calculator watch. It's Ridley.

"Do you have a minute?" he says in his soft Tennessee drawl.

"I suppose," I answer, shrugging.

"Think you could help me with something?" He takes the chair across from me, looking around him in a secretive kind of way. He doesn't look like the threat that Matt and Geoff suspect he is, but maybe that's on purpose, to throw everyone off. Even in my short time here I've learned appearances are almost always misleading.

"What?" I have a hard time trusting him after his failed advances on me, but maybe if I attempt to make peace with him instead of fighting it, we'll have less problems.

"If you meet me in the dorm lounge tomorrow night, I'll tell you." He pushes his glasses up his nose, looking around again.

"Why should I trust you?" I drop my voice, earning a scowl from him. It gives me a small spark of satisfaction.

"I know what I'm doing, Raina, believe me," he answers, and when he spots El making her way over to us, he stands up and nods at me. Before she reaches us, he's gone.

"Was that Ridley I saw talking to you?" she says, glancing in the direction he left. "Didn't think the little twerp had it in him, to be honest."

"Yeah." There's something a little off about the way he seemed so secretive, and yet my curiosity seems to be getting the better of me most of the time these days. "It wasn't like that, though."

"What did he want?" El seems confused that I'm even indulging him, but is tactful enough to not pry any further, at least not here in public.

"He was out sick last class," I say, the lie making my tongue burn. "He wants me to help him catch up tomorrow night."

"I see," she says, and I can tell right away she doesn't believe me. But all she does is take my hand and give it a squeeze. "Just be sure you're making the right choice, Rains. That's all I'm going to say."

I say nothing, but the fact that I'm lying to my roommate and my only friend just to do this sends me a clear enough message. There's trouble afoot. And I'm smack in the middle of it.

≈

When I go down to the lounge the following night, it's not without a load of guilt. I'd told El I would consider not going, and just take the fall from Ridley later. And yet here I was, five minutes to midnight, sitting in the empty lounge, the only sound the buzzing lights overhead. I twist my fingers together and scuff my heels on the floor, wondering if Ridley's the kind of person who shows up early or right on the dot.

Except when the clock says midnight, it isn't Ridley that appears. Instead, it's a super in a blue suit that seems to ripple like water, with a big white H on his chest. All I see of his face is his mouth, with lips that seem particularly chapped. It seems such a contrast to Geoff's, who keeps his soft and full.

Snap out of it. The fact that I've even noticed Geoff's lips is a warning sign that I'm in deeper than I thought.

"Where's Ridley?" I ask the super, after I've pushed away all thoughts of Geoff. It's not him who asked me down here anyway.

"Couldn't make it," he answers, his voice surprisingly deep. "So I came instead."

"Who are you?" Something in the back of my mind says I should know, but at the moment I can't think of it.

"Hammerhead," he says, bowing gallantly. "Enchanté."

"Raina," I answer, but then I notice his smirk. "What?"

"I know who you are." He crosses his arms, lowering himself to a couch arm. "I've seen you around."

"Have you? I didn't notice you." The thought that he's somehow been watching me without my knowing creeps me out a little bit, but I say nothing about that.

"No one ever does," he says mysteriously. "How about we get down to business now, huh?"

We go nearly all the way across campus, to the political science building. Right as I'm about to ask him how we get in, he takes my hand and kicks off from the ground, moving almost like he's swimming through the air. We land on the roof in a few seconds, and as soon as he lets go of me, he looks around a little impatiently.

"She should be here," he says, with a scowl in his voice. "She told me she would be."

"Hammerhead." A female voice comes from the shadow of the air vent, and then a figure steps into the weak light of the moon.

"Violet Storm," Hammerhead replies, with a marked embarrassment. "Didn't see you there."

"You should know I'm never late to important meetings," she says, approaching us. Her dark hair, streaked with a brilliant purple the same color as her suit, is braided neatly down her back, and her eyes, flashing the same purple, are unreadable behind the mask surrounding them. Even as they move to me, and she sounds surprised when she speaks again. "You brought company?"

"Raina," I say before Hammerhead can answer.

"I see." She's looking me up and down, and one corner of her mouth goes up. "Keep this one around, Hammerhead, I can already tell we'll get along."

"Noted," grumbles Hammerhead, seeming annoyed that he's been upstaged and we haven't even been here twenty minutes. "Are we going to do what we came here to do now?"

"Impatient, aren't we?" Violet Storm runs a finger down my jaw, and I see her wink at me before she turns back to him. "These things take time, you know."

"Do you want to work together or not?" Hammerhead crosses his arms. Something about that gesture seems familiar to me, but I can't think of where I've seen it before.

"All right, fine." I can practically hear Violet Storm's eye roll. "You name your terms, and I'll name mine."

Hammerhead rattles them off quickly, like he's been thinking about them a long time. Keep the Red Knight off him, using any means necessary. Don't give away anything that passes between them. And don't even think of getting involved with anyone while this is going on.

"Unless it's you?" she says, and I notice his skin redden at that comment.

"You know what I mean." He crosses his arms again.

"Then here's mine. Don't involve civilians, because this doesn't concern them. Play fair, even though I know you and I see you fight dirty. And you stay out of my personal business, and I'll stay out of yours."

He seems to consider this for a second, but if he's trying to find holes in the argument, he's not very successful. Finally he nods, sticking his hand out. "Fair enough. You have a deal."

They shake on it, and then swear me to secrecy as well. It occurs to me that it must be the reason I'm here, to be a witness to their contract. Even though I've agreed to say nothing, I can't keep it a secret. I know I have to tell the Red Knight the next time I see him. If this is anything to go by, I would say that the bad guys are planning something big, and this time, we're all victims.