Despite being spotted by Andrea and Angelina, Heath didn't have to confront Sarah or Brandon. His parents, however, were a different matter altogether.

It was two days after the events that they spoke to him about it. Surprisingly, his father opened conversation. He'd always taken his father as the quiet one.

"Heath, we've talked to Ms. Allen again," he said.

Heath's hand tightened on his fork, his knuckles white. Any mention of Ms. Allen wasn't good.

"She says a student told her that you were using your powers in school a few days ago," his mother said, after glancing at her husband.

"And?" he replied bitterly.

"We thought you were trying to stop using them and control it!" she said, her voice raised.

"Well, it's my power," he muttered, stabbing his food with his fork.

"Listen to your mother, boy!" his father said, glaring at him, in a rare burst of anger.

"If you do it once more, I'm moving your therapy sessions to twice a week," she said, her eyes blazing.

"I won't do it again, Mom," he said monotonously, speaking as though he was reading a line off a page.

"Good," she said, her voice returning to normal,"Heath, darling, understand we are just trying to help you."

He didn't respond.

"We're your parents, you can trust us," she continued,"We only want what's best for you. And these powers will cause nothing but trouble."

He was too busy cursing the person who'd snitched on him to listen to what his parents were saying.

"I love you, sweetheart," she said, smiling fondly at him.

Heath nodded, his stomach squirming and his vice-like grip on his fork loosening. His eyes focused on his dinner plate, avoiding his mother's eyes for fear of feeling guilty.

Despite the talk on not using his powers, the first thing he did when he came upstairs was cause several paper clips that were simply lying around to crumple up into a ball.

He would've ranted to Poppy about it if it wasn't for the fact that she was absent again.

He spent the entire day avoiding Sarah and Brandon, worried they'd pull him to side and yell at him for not telling them that he was a super. Or else they'd get angry at him for saying that he hated supers and that he wasn't allowed to hang around them even though he was a super himself. Or may they'd think he'd got what he deserved.

He didn't want to find out what they had to say for certain. Maybe they'd just leave him alone if he avoided them for long enough. He doubted it, but maybe.

He managed to stay out of their way for the entire day, but it wasn't exactly a great day because of that. The day sucked, to be truthful, mostly due to a group of massive guys confronting him for something he didn't do.

He'd just started to walk home from school when he was met by the group.

To say the group was terrifying was an understatement. The shortest of them was head and shoulders taller than Heath and the biggest was twice his size. They were all extremely muscular and not one of them was smiling. Though it probably would've been more terrifying if they were smiling.

He tried to smile weakly at them and sidestep, but with poor results. The big one on the edge just shoved him back. He stumbled and almost fell over but managed to regain his balance.

"Where are they, f*cker?" one of them snarled, after looking around to see if anyone was watching.

"What?" Heath asked, bewildered.

"You know," he hissed,"The drugs."

"The drugs?" he repeated, struggling to process what the guy meant.

"Yeah, them. You took our ones, a*shole."

"I don't do drugs," he said slowly.

"Yeah, right. Why would our seller lie to us then?"

"I don't know. But I didn't take your drugs. I don't do drugs." He took a step back, hoping to get away slowly.

"Stop talking sh*t to us, f*cker," the guy said. He seemed to have used his tiny brain and realised what Heath was trying to get away and grabbed his arm and yanked him forward.

"I didn't take your drugs," he said, his voice slightly raised. His only means of escape was blocked off by the two henchmen who'd stepped behind him.

"Bullsh*t. You keep on lying, and I'll beat the living sh*t out of you to find it," the guy said.

Heath had no idea what to say next. If he told the truth, he'd get beaten up and if he lied, he'd get beaten up. So he just decided it was best not to say anything.

"What, you're not gonna speak, f*cker? Well, then I'll have to beat the answer out of you." The guy grinned and pulled back his fist.

He had very little time to react and in that small amount of time, the only thing he could think of was how the heck had this happened to him.

Then the fist made contact with his face. His face jerked backward, his jaw throbbing from the hit. It hurt like a white-hot poker being pressed to his skin, but it was only a little pain in comparison to what happened next.

The rest of the group joined in.

He was sure he'd been hit everywhere at least once, and his face a minimum of eight times. The punches simply kept coming. Then they decided to begin kicking him. He was beaten to the ground and curled up into a ball, in attempt to shield himself. He wanted to run but he felt too heavy and tired to do that and he was sure he'd be caught before he could get very far. So he just took the hits, one after another, each one feeling more painful than the last.

By the time they'd decided they'd had enough, he felt battered, bloodied, bruised and broken. The urge to stay down and simply lie there was so strong it took all his willpower to climb to his feet.

He managed to walk the entire way home without collapsing, which he thought was quite a feat. However, he was out of breath by the time he'd gotten there.

He rushed upstairs, determined not to let his parents see him and collapsed on his bed. He lay there for what seemed like forever before getting to his feet again and checking how bad his injuries were in the mirror.

Luckily, the only long-lasting injury was his eye, which was swollen shut. Blood was dripping from his nose and his lip. He was tempted to inspect the injuries on his body but decided it was best to leave that till later.

After using toilet paper to clean up the blood on his face, he sat back down on his bed, hoping Poppy would be in tomorrow.

Fortunately, she was.

And she immediately brought up the thing he didn't want to talk about.

"What happened to your eye?" she asked.

"Nothing," he said, avoiding the subject as best he could.

"Yeah, you expect me to believe that," she said, rolling her eyes,"What the f*ck happened to your eye?"

When he said nothing, she began guessing.

"Was it your parents? Or... a group of idiots? Or Andrea?"

He nodded.

"Andrea?"

"Yeah, it was Andrea. No, Poppy, it was a group of idiots, why would it be Andrea?"

"You never know," she said, grinning,"Anyway, what happened?"

"They were looking for drugs or something," he mumbled,"I dunno."

"So they beat you up because they thought you had drugs?" Poppy said, raising her eyebrows,"Sh*t, that's harsh. They were probably a load of thickheads. Anyone sane or somewhat intelligent can see that you're not a junkie."

He shrugged. "I've gotten beaten up before over smaller things." Back then though, he'd had friends who were supers who actually knew how to use their powers to defend him. And they weren't out of school half the time.

"Well, you are skinny and short. Easy victim," she admitted, ignoring Heath's glare,"But this is the best piece of advice I will ever give you in my entire life - "

"Entire life?" Heath repeated incredulously.

"Entire life," she confirmed,"Now shut up, I'm trying to speak. If someone punches you, you gotta punch them back harder."

"Great advice," he said, voice leaking with sarcasm.

"What? It's excellent advice. I mean, a young super attacked me and I hit him back. Taught him a lesson, not to mess with us non-supers."

Heath fell silent. The image of Poppy beating the kid up was seared into his mind. He wasn't sure if he believed the new story.

The phrase 'us non-supers' continued to run through his head. He felt like reminding her he wasn't normal anymore but said nothing. She might think he was being obnoxious or boasting.

She must have noticed though as she quickly backtracked and said,"I non-super. Um, I mean I'm a non-super and you're a super. I can't English today, man, sorry." She laughed nervously.

He just smiled weakly in reply. "S'okay," he muttered.

"Anyway, you should probably plan a revenge on the f*cktards who did this," she said, inspecting his eye,"It'll be fun, trust me. We can go back to the shack of greatness afterwards."

Heath wasn't fond of Poppy's idea of fun but he nodded anyway. He could trust her.

It would be fun.