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Andrew didn’t really plan to do it, but afterwards, when he thought about it, he realised it would never have gone any other way.
It had started that morning with a hug. (Well, two hugs, technically.)
“Andrew!” Matt exclaimed, running up to him and gesturing wildly. Matt was one of Andrew’s best friends, and one of the only people he knew (aside from himself and Emma, of course) who had superhero parents. (Or, well. A parent. With a superpower. Matt’s dad didn’t actually save the world, unless you counted the fifteen percent discount at Asda.)
“Hey, Matt,” Andrew greeted him warmly, enveloping him in a hug, because today was a great day, today was a day for hugs (well, more than usual), and excited hand gestures, and talking a mile a minute. All of which both Matt and Andrew were well-versed in.
“Today,” Matt said dramatically, pulling away and tugging at his oversized sweatshirt, “is the day.”
“Sky high,” Andrew said.
“Not just, that,” Matt said, eyes lighting up excitedly, “not just that, Andrew Garfield, and guess why.”
“…Why?”
“I got my power today!” Matt reached out and shook Andrew’s shoulder, and Andrew laughed, happy that Matt was happy.
“...Well?” Andrew asked expectantly.
“You can’t see yet, young Garfield,” Matt said haughtily, and Andrew shook his head. Matt was always one for dramatics.
“What, what?” Emma called as she arrived in a whirl of hastily packed bookbag and blonde curls. Andrew smiled at Emma blindingly, because Emma was basically one of his favourite people in the entire world, and this was the best day, and he was excited.
“Matt got his power,” Andrew informed her cheerfully. “And we’re going to Sky High!”
“Of course we are, you nutter,” Emma replied fondly. “And that’s wonderful, Matt, I’m so proud of you.” She leaned over and hugged him. Andrew pouted.
“Why don’t I get a hug?” he asked.
“You don’t deserve one, obviously,” Emma said, rolling her eyes.
“But Em—" Andrew started, but before he could finish a yellow school bus rolled to a stop in front of them.
Andrew blinked. That was a bit… anticlimactic.
“Um,” he said, as the doors opened. He peered through the door cautiously. “…Is this the bus to Sky High?” he whispered loudly.
“Yes it is,” the bus driver grinned at him. “Ron Wilson, Bus Driver.”
“Er,” Andrew replied, a bit underwhelmed. “Andrew Garfield… freshman.”
The man blinked.
“Andrew Garfield, the son of the Commander, America’s finest superhero, and Jetstream, Britain’s most favourite heroine?”
“Yes?” Andrew tried. The bus driver stood up and held out his hand.
“Welcome aboard, Andrew Garfield, it’s such an honour to meet you.”
Emma snorted behind him, and Andrew wanted to pout at her and then hide under the seats. It wasn’t his fault his parents were famous. Matt just grinned cheerfully at everyone, hopping on the bus and waving at the other students, oblivious to the kids who inched slightly away from him. Andrew mumbled his thanks and appreciation to Ron Wilson, Bus Driver, and followed him. Emma was still smirking, Andrew knew. She was terrible like that.
They all sat down, Matt chattering excitedly as kids around them muttered and stared at them, eyes wide.
Andrew tried to ignore them. He didn’t want to be famous or cause a scene. He just wanted to be himself, and enjoy high school, and hopefully not get beaten up too much for being a huge dork (which is what Emma and Ben usually told him was going to happen).
So he was still determinedly cheerful.
But really, he shouldn’t have tried to keep his hopes up.
_____
“What’s your name?”
“Matthew Smith!”
“Power?”
Matt closed his eyes, and Andrew craned his neck, squinting. Matt had continued to refuse to tell either Andrew or Emma what his power was on the entire ride (on the flying school bus) that morning.
“…Well?” Coach Boomer seemed a mix between cross and impatient, and he made Andrew nervous simply because Andrew didn’t do well with intimidation. (Emma said that was because he was a wimp and a pushover, but that’s because Emma was a terrible best friend.)
“Can’t you tell?” Matt said, smiling brightly. “I’m glowing.” He sounded ecstatic.
“…Oh no,” Emma whispered.
“Excuse me?” the Coach said.
“I’m glowing!” Matt opened one eye. “Can’t you tell? Maybe you should turn out the lights a bit.”
“SIDEKICK,” Coach roared, and Andrew winced. Matt sagged, looking crushed, and Andrew knew in an instant that Matt truly thought glowing was the most amazing power he could ever have and he had no idea why anyone wouldn't agree.
So. He didn’t plan it, exactly.
But when his turn came, and Boomer looked at him and asked “Power?”, Andrew glanced off to the side where Matt sat, miserable, and he made his decision.
“I haven’t got one.”
Emma’s eyes went wide, Matt’s head snapped up, and the entire rest of the class gasped.
“You what?”
“I haven’t got a power,” Andrew said again, feeling much stupider this time. His parents were going to kill him. And his brother was going to piss himself laughing.
But, well.
“SIDEKICK.”
_____
The thing was, Andrew thought miserably after her got pushed into a locker, again, he did have a power. It surfaced when he was two, when he'd climbed out of his crib, up the wall, and gotten himself accidentally stuck to the ceiling. His parents had spent all night getting him down, and then had an ensuing debate over how did we get a kid with spider powers?
The final consensus was ‘sometimes these things just happen’, and also his mum’s uncle’s cousin had apparently been a mutant, so there was that.
But the fact of the matter was: Andrew had a power.
He’d just lied. Because he was an idiot.
“I think what you did was very brave,” Emma told him brightly at lunch. She sat down next to him, with Matt on her other side. Emma had refused to show Coach Boomer her power, and had subsequently been stuck in sidekick class as well, because, “You’ve started a movement, Andrew. I frankly think it’s barbaric, this system, and what you did was brilliant, and we’re going to revolutionise what it means to be a sidekick.”
“If you say so,” Andrew told her glumly.
“I think you’re an idiot,” Matt said, shrugging.
“Thanks.”
A group of older students passed them then, snickering, led by a sneering couple.
“Hey Garfield, do your parents know you’re just a loser sidekick?”
“Dude, I heard he was adopted.”
“Oh man, why did he even bother showing up?”
Andrew stabbed his peas with his fork glumly and sighed.
He should’ve known high school was a place for teen angst, and not cheerfulness.
_____
The classes weren’t half bad, though.
Hero Support wasn’t a terrible class, and they did get to do fairly interesting things, like repel down the wall and learn how to change in under a second. Andrew quickly learned it was harder than it seemed to not use his powers, especially when he thought he’d be old hat at this since he’d been doing it in school his entire life.
But, in superhero school, the rules were much different, and Andrew had taken up a constant muttering of ‘I can’t web them to their lockers, I can’t web them to their lockers’.
At least he’d made friends.
Or, technically, Matt had made friends, and sometimes the three of them decided to hang out with Andrew and Emma.
Karen was sweet, and also hilarious, and she didn’t let a little thing like only being able to turn into a hamster dictate her life.
Arthur was a bit shyer, but he was also super smart and practical, and Andrew enjoyed their company immensely.
So, aside from the bullying, and the fact that he hadn’t told his parents about the sidekick thing yet, and the sidekick thing in general, Sky High wasn’t too bad.
Or, it wasn’t until Andrew met Jesse Eisenberg.
_____
He’d heard of Jesse, of course, because everyone had heard of Jesse Eisenberg.
“His mother is Bonabini the Clown,” Arthur said, leaning across to whisper to Andrew and glancing across the room where Jesse sat. “And his dad’s, like, a normal. I heard his mother’s killed hundreds of people.”
“I’ve heard his smile can set you on fire,” Karen said dismissively. “Don’t believe everything you’ve heard, Darvill.”
“But it’s true that she’s evil,” Matt spoke up quickly, eager to join in any conversation involving Karen and Arthur, he two new favourite people. “Andrew’s parents were the ones who put her away.” He smiled winningly at Andrew.
“Oh, he must love you, then, Garfield,” Karen noted.
Andrew looked at Jesse nervously. He seemed to be quite focused on his lunch, where he sat alone, with a radiating aura of terrifyingness keeping the rest of the school away.
Or maybe that was just Andrew’s interpretation of it.
“He probably doesn’t even know who you are,” Emma reassured him.
“Right,” Andrew gulped. “Why would he?”
_____
Emma was probably right about Jesse not knowing who he was.
And, up until the point when stupid Justin Timberlake and his stupid goon(s) Armie Hammer (and his clone, or possibly his twin? There was always no less than two of them, so Andrew wasn’t quite sure) tripped Andrew and made him spill his entire lunch on Jesse’s lap, Jesse would probably have gone on not knowing who Andrew was.
It all happened so fast; one minute, Andrew was chatting with Emma about the logistics of their latest Hero Support assignment, the next, he was falling, his bowl of soup was splattered all over Jesse’s lap, and he was hitting a hard surface that wasn’t there but was.
He reacted instinctively as his bounced off the invisible force field. Everything seemed to slow down as his abilities kicked in.
Which was why he was still standing.
And there was webbing covering the table.
…Dammit.
The entire cafeteria went silent. Jesse stared at Andrew, and then stared at the spider web.
“…You owe me a new outfit, sidekick,” he said, snorting and getting up from the table.
“You have powers?” Timberlake squawked.
…Dammit.
_____
“This is great!” Emma said. “Now they know you’re a sidekick with superhero powers! We’ll show them, don’t worry.” She hugged him.
“You’re my only friend, Em,” Andrew sniffed. “Everyone hates me.”
“You’re such a dramatic dork, Garfield,” she said, but it sounded fondly exasperated. Andrew buried his face in Emma’s shoulder. She was seriously his favourite.
Maybe one day he’d even get up the courage to tell her about his super huge ultra-secret crush on her, but probably not.
____
Unfortunately, Emma’s idea to revolutionise the sidekick class didn’t exactly go according to plan.
He was promoted to the hero class, for starters.
He was also written up for starting a fight, because the eyewitness accounts had become extremely exaggerated.
Andrew was mostly concerned about the second one, though, mainly because it meant the Principal had called his parents. And he never had gotten around to telling them the truth.
“Wait, so you told them you didn’t have any powers and they stuck you in the sidekick class?” Andrew’s dad asked, looking incredulous. “And now you’re in the hero class because you got into a fight and accidentally used them?”
“Is this a form of rebellion, sweetheart?” his mother asked nervously.
“You’re such a loser,” Ben said, chuckling. Andrew glared. Not everyone could bench press four times their weight and fly around and be part of The Garfield Three.
He sighed deeply. His life was so full of teen angst and woe.
_____
“So, Garfield,” Brenda Song, the most popular girl at Sky High, said the next day, as he nervously took a seat next to her in Mad Science class. “Not hiding anything else, are you?” She looked him up and down, raising an eyebrow.
“Um, no,” he said, “that was pretty much it.”
“Really,” she replied.
“Yeah?” he said.
She smiled at him, winking. “Alright,” she replied.
Andrew blinked. Okay, then.
_____
“Would you like to study some more, after class?” Brenda flicked her hair back, and smiled at him again. It was a bit creepy, actually.
“I kind of fail at this,” Andrew gestured at the ray gun they had been trying to make. “I’m a terrible study partner.”
“Well, I’m a technopath,” Brenda said with a laugh. “I could… help you out.” She took a step forward, looking him up and down again.
“Uh,” Andrew said. “Aren’t you dating Justin?”
She blinked. “What?”
“Never mind,” he said quickly. “I’ll just be going now.”
_____
“I think Brenda Song is a bit… I don’t know, shady,” he told Emma, Matt, Karen, and Arthur the next day.
“Why? She seems nice to me, if a bit plastic,” Emma shrugged.
“She tried to cheat on Justin with me, I think,” Andrew said. Emma’s head snapped up, and she glared.
“Okay, then, she’s totally evil.”
“Wait, really?” Andrew said, surprised. Usually Emma never agreed with what she called his ‘dumb superstitious plots’.
“Well, obviously,” Emma said, shifting in her seat. “You think so too, right?”
“Um,” Andrew said slowly. “I just think she hit on me?”
Emma narrowed her eyes. Andrew crossed his arms.
“Are people not allowed to hit on me without being evil?” Andrew asked, hurt. “Gee, thanks, Em.”
“That’s not what I said!” she replied.
“Whatever,” he muttered, getting up from the table.
He ignored the part of his chest that felt like it was breaking into tiny pieces. He’d always thought his huge crush on Emma was obvious for miles; apparently not if she thought people hitting on him was so ridiculous they had to be evil.
So much for being his best and most favourite friend.
_____
So. Emma and Andrew weren’t talking.
It was maybe Andrew’s fault.
He was maybe ignoring her attempts to apologise.
Whatever. He was nursing a broken heart, okay.
_____
When he saw Emma talking to Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew felt like punching someone.
Maybe Justin.
(Probably Justin.)
_____
“Are you dating him?” Andrew hissed
“So what if I am?” Emma said, straightening her shoulders. “What do you care?”
Andrew sort of wanted to cry. He glared at Jesse instead. Jesse blinked, and then raised an eyebrow.
Andrew wanted to hide. He settled for ducking behind his locker door.
“I thought he was a terrible evil person of… badness?” Andrew tried. “Why would you date him?”
Emma rolled her eyes.
“God, why does no one ever try to get to know him?”
“Because he’s evil?” Andrew tried.
“You’re such a dick, Andrew Garfield,” Emma snapped. “You’re just like the rest of them, I swear.”
“What—"
Emma stomped away.
Andrew stared after her, mouth agape.
“Mate, she is pissed at you,” Matt walked up, clapping Andrew on the shoulder and nodding sagely.
“What are we even fighting about?” Andrew asked, looking down sadly. “I just want us to be friends again.”
“You also want to snog her,” Matt said cheerfully. “It’s okay, I know the feeling. I want to snog Karen mostly always. Or maybe Arthur.” He frowned. “Hmm.”
Andrew groaned, and dropped his head on Matt’s shoulder.
“Life is complicated,” Andrew complained.
“Sure,” Matt said agreeably. “At least now you’re in the hero class?”
“I don’t want to be in the hero class,” Andrew pouted.
“Wow,” Matt said. “I hope you and Emma make up soon. Or make out. Whatever works. You’re really whiny.”
_____
“Alright, Garfield,” Coach Boomer yelled, making Andrew shrink back against the wall. Gym was still his least favourite class, even while using his powers. Coach Boomer was loud.
“Yes sir?” he said.
“You and Eisenberg,” he called. “Save the Citizen. Go.”
Andrew gulped. Great “Against who, sir?”
“Timberlake and Hammer. Get too it, boys!”
Oh, wonderful. Andrew glanced at Jesse, who sighed and slumped into the middle of the floor. The citizen doll hung from the ceiling dejectedly, as if it already knew Andrew wasn’t going to be able to save it.
Andrew maybe overanalysed things, sometimes.
“This is gonna suck,” Jesse muttered. Andrew glanced at him.
“Um. You don’t know that,” he tried. Jesse snorted. Andrew was reminded painfully of Emma. Whom Jesse was possibly dating. Andrew glared at the floor. They deserved each other.
(Except Emma was one of the best people Andrew had ever met, and her smile made Andrew feel all warm and happy and like he could lift the entire school, which was silly, because he wasn’t his dad.)
From across the room, Hammer (there was only one this time; maybe he didn’t have a twin) cracked his knuckles and Timberlake chuckled. Andrew crouched slightly, feeling stupid. Jesse hunched his shoulders.
“GO!” Coach Boomer roared.
Hammer became four people. Justin hummed, and the entire floor vibrated, which knocked Andrew off his feet while he tried to grab the citizen with his webs. The webbing went wide. (It probably wouldn’t have caught her anyway; his aim sucked.)
Jesse disappeared.
“Hey!” Andrew protested, staring at the spot where he’d vanished. “Come on, Jesse, that’s not fair, don’t leave me.”
“Jesus, I haven’t gone anywhere. Emma was right, you’re ridiculously needy.”
“Why does everyone keep saying that, I am not—" Andrew started, before Hammer punched him in the face.
“Ow,” Andrew said, falling on the ground. “You suck.”
“You’re such a girl, Garfield,” Hammer announced, leaning down to punch him again. Andrew rolled out of the way and flipped over, landing on his feet. Hammer swung again, and Andrew jumped back, then leapt forward over Hammer’s head. But there was another Hammer behind him, so Andrew landed on top of Hammer #2 and they both fell over in a heap.
Justin’s humming got louder.
“Ah, Jesus,” Andrew said as he stood up, wincing. The noise intensified, and it was nothing like Boomer’s screams. This vibrated through Andrew, through the floor, and his teeth were chattering, his ears were starting to pop and bleed—
“Ow! Fuck! Eisenberg, you fucker!” The humming abruptly stopped and Justin started yelling, swatting at thin air and spinning around.
The Hammer collective, who had stuffed their fingers in their ears and doubled over (along with the rest of the class, except for Coach Boomer, who seemed unaffected and like he was enjoying this), started to stir, including the one next to Andrew’s feet.
“Uh, Jesse?” Andrew called out nervously, glancing around. “We should probably do something!”
There were five seconds left on the clock.
Jesse popped into existence ten feet away from him.
“Run and do it, then,” he said, and the Hammers all stumbled towards Jesse at Justin’s shouted command.
Andrew ran and jumped into the air, grasping the doll in one hand and swinging himself to the wall (and out of harms reach) with the other. He took a deep breath of relief and looked back.
Jesse stood in the centre of groaning Hammers (or, really, just one Hammer now, the others quickly disappearing), a smirk on his face and a small untouched radius around him.
Force fields, Andrew thought fondly, remembering that feeling well. Force fields and invisibility. He frowned slightly, then, because he shouldn’t think anything fond about Jesse. Jesse was his most hated enemy.
Right?
Right.
_____
“Jesse is my most hated enemy,” Andrew announced to Matt.
“I don’t know, you seemed like a pretty good pair in Save the Citizen,” Arthur pointed out reasonably. Matt and Arthur were holding hands, Andrew noted. And so were Arthur and Karen.
“That was for class,” Andrew said defensively. “He sucks, really.”
“You’re just bitter because Emma’s sitting with him for lunch,” Karen said knowledgably. Andrew pouted.
“I heard they were going together for Homecoming,” Matt said.
Andrew covered his face and put his head on the table.
“I don’t see how that’s going to help,” Arthur commented.
“Shhh,” Matt said. “He’s angsting.”
_____
“Hey, Andrew,” Brenda Song greeted him the next day in class. Her smile was still creepy. Andrew honestly didn’t know why a senior kept talking to him. She didn’t seem the type of person that Ron Wilson, Bus Driver was (no offense to Ron Wilson, Bus Driver; Andrew actually liked him quite a lot), and yet she kept simpering at him.
“…Hi, Brenda,” Andrew said slowly.
“Did you make your freeze ray?”
“Er,” he said. “Maybe?” he held up his attempt at the homework.
Brenda sighed. “That’s a heat ray,” she said.
“Oh,” Andrew replied, sagging.
“Look,” Brenda leaned in close. “Maybe you really should take me up on the studying.” She raised an eyebrow.
Andrew looked at her, and measured her inherent creepiness against the fact that he really did need to learn how to do this. He glanced at Mr. Medulla, who was staring at Andrew intently.
“Mr. Garfield, can I see your freeze ray?” he asked.
“Alright, fine,” Andrew told Brenda, sighing. She smirked and waved her hand, and the gun he was holding flew apart and right back together in the blink of an eye.
“Mr. Garfield, if you don’t mind?”
“Uh, sure, sir,” Andrew called hastily, mouthing ‘thanks’ at her.
_____
“Are you even paying attention, Andrew?”
“Yes!” Andrew said.
“Then why have you reached for the wrong switch three times? Are you sure your parents and brother are actually some of the most famous superheroes the world has ever known?”
“Um,” Andrew replied, at a loss.
They were sitting in Andrew’s living room, in the window seat, and Andrew was still trying to assemble this stupid darn ray gun.
Andrew’s parents had actually been home earlier, too, though they were currently off going to the dance that not even Andrew was going to, since he didn’t have a date. Because Emma was going with Jesse. And not him.
(Though, upon learning that Andrew had a girl over to help him study, his mother had blinked, and repeated, “A girl?”
To which his father had replied, “And a senior!”
“But a girl, Richard,” his mother whispered. “A girl.”
Emma was a girl, Andrew wanted to point out. They saw Emma constantly! Honestly, just because he kissed Matt that one time, it was like now he could never like another girl again. Which he did. And it wasn’t Brenda.)
He leaned down, reaching for what he was pretty sure must be the right switch, seeing as it was the only one left.
“Ah ah ah,” Brenda said. “Close your eyes.”
“Are you kidding me?” Andrew grumbled, but complied. And then he felt something brush his back.
“What are you—" he couldn’t finish his sentence, however, because Brenda effectively muffled it by kissing him.
“Mmfh! Brenda! Stop!” he said, opening his eyes and pulling away, arms wheeling.
“Why?” she said, frowning. “God, are you gay or something? That would explain your parents.”
“No,” Andrew said, covering his mouth and waving the other hand at her frantically. “Well, yes. Kind of. A little bit. But also no. But that’s not the point,” he said firmly, “the point is, I don’t like you like that.”
Brenda snorted. “Everyone likes me.”
“I like someone else,” Andrew explained. “Also you’re kind of scary.”
Brenda glared at him.
“Yeah, like that.”
“You’re useless,” Brenda announced. “I can’t believe I thought I could use you. And to think, I almost took you to the homecoming dance tonight.”
“Oh,” Andrew said. “Sorry? I’m sure you could still find a date, I mean, Justin—"
“Ugh,” Brenda said, disgusted, and then, weirdly, she looked over Andrew’s shoulder. “Stitches?”
“What? No, I mean, once I hit my head during recess and had to get a few on my eyebrow but not—"
And that was the last thing he remembered.
_____
When Andrew came to, his first thought was how do I keep getting hit in the head and his second thought was I knew she was shady!
…He maybe owed Emma an apology, though.
Wait.
“Emma,” Andrew sat up, blinking.
The alarms that signified a break in to the top secret family vault were shrieking overhead, and Brenda had mentioned the school dance right before he blacked out (was hit? It was all so hazy).
The school dance his parents were at.
The school dance his friends were at.
“Oh, crap,” Andrew said. He had to go save everyone.
And he had only been getting a B average in Hero Support.
_____
Andrew’s budding friendship with Ron Wilson, Bus Driver, came in handy for getting to school spur of the moment.
Possibly, the school board might want to look into transport to their schooling system for non-flying supers that wasn’t just a man in a yellow bus.
He burst in, yelling and pointing, and everyone stared at him, including his parents, who were on stage.
“Brenda’s evil!” he shouted.
“Whoa. Just because she turned you down, don’t you think that’s a bit extreme?” a cute boy with big blue eyes, who happened to be standing near him, commented.
And then Brenda pulled out some sort of gun.
“…Never mind,” he said.
“Yeah,” Andrew said sadly. He knew it wouldn’t be that easy.
_____
“She turned my parents into babies!” Andrew yanked on his hair frantically.
“Andrew, you’ve got to calm down.”
“My parents are babies, Emma!” Andrew repeated.
The good news was: Andrew and Emma were talking again.
The bad news was: Pretty much everything else.
Jesse was standing hunched over and with his arms crossed, glaring at the floor, while Matt had his arms around Karen and Arthur was patting them both on their backs awkwardly.
Andrew was pacing up and down the hallway. They had narrowly escaped getting trapped in the gym, but now Hammer and his clones (definitely clones, Andrew was like 95% sure) and Justin and his… evil vocal chords of doom were hunting them down.
Not to mention Brenda, who was evil.
And turning people into babies.
This was the worst day of Andrew’s life. And that wasn’t just the teen angst talking that time.
“Look, we obviously need to come up with some sort of plan,” Karen said. Her boys cuddled around her. Or, mostly, Matt did.
“They cut the generator that keeps the school in the air, or they said they would,” Jesse said. “I don’t know how to stop that.”
“How do you know they were going to cut it, though?” Andrew asked, staring at him. Jesse shrugged.
“It’s easy to overhear things when people think you’re invisible.” He paused. “Even when you’re not trying to be.”
Andrew blinked, and Emma glared at him pointedly. He started to get the sinking feeling that he might have misjudged Jesse a little bit.
Especially since if anyone else he knew looked like that, he would want to hug them until they felt better, and maybe snuggle their face.
“Um,” he said. “I think maybe we got off on the wrong foot.”
Jesse just stared at him.
“You want to do this now,” he said slowly, “when people are attacking the school. Really?”
“Right, yes,” Andrew said, nodding. “Save the school, right. Um. Anyone know how to stop us from falling out of the sky?”
Right as he said that, the lights flickered and the world tilted.
And Hammer and an army of his clones turned the corner.
“Oh, great,” Arthur said.
“…Run!” Andrew said.
_____
Andrew and Emma were back to back, in a room full of Hammer clones (and maybe Hammer himself. Though probably not his twin). Leaves and vines were twirling around some of them; others were hanging from the ceiling and covered in silken webs.
“We make a good team,” Andrew said happily.
“But she’s a sidekick!” one of the Hammers cried.
“We’re more like partners,” Andrew corrected, and Emma grabbed him and spun him around.
“You’re the most ridiculous person I know,” she informed him, “and a stupid idiot sometimes.”
“Most of the time, really,” Andrew said apologetically. Emma huffed out a laugh.
“I’m still mad at you for what you said about Jesse,” she informed him, and then they were kissing.
This was the best worst day of Andrew’s life.
_____
“We saved the day!” Matt said, later. “And I got to see Karen’s cute little hamster butt.” Karen smacked him.
“It is pretty cute,” Arthur said. Karen smacked him too.
“He really does glow,” Jesse said, looking at Matt. Matt grinned.
“Of course I do!” Matt said proudly.
“And Jesse put Justin in a soundproof force field, so the only person he’s hurting now is himself,” Emma said, giving Andrew a sharp glance. “He really helped save the day too.”
Andrew would mind more that he was clearly being yelled at again, except Emma was also holding his hand, so he felt like he was walking on air and nothing could bring him down.
Especially since his parents were no longer babies.
And he had saved the day from Brenda, who turned out to be Royal Pain, who was the same age as his parents.
Man, he couldn’t believe she had been hitting on him.
(Emma and Andrew had had a quick conversation on that, matter, actually, that had gone like this:
“But I thought you were dating Jesse?”
“But I thought you were dating Brenda?”
“No, I think Brenda’s dating Justin.”
“Oh. And no, I’m not dating Jesse, he has a huge crush on this boy in his Heroic History class. We’re just friends.”
“Why did you go to Homecoming with him, then?”
“Honestly? To make you jealous. And also because I like Jesse, he’s a nice guy. You should really try to get to know him.”
“…Oh.”)
Speaking of.
“So, Jesse,” Andrew started brightly, “wanna be best friends?” Jesse stared at him.
“Not really?” he replied.
“Come on,” Andrew said, sidling up to him. “You’re brilliant, and you saved the day, and I’m sorry I thought you were mean and stuff.”
“I don’t try to be mean,” Jesse replied. “I just don’t really like talking much.”
“You’re shy,” Andrew said, beaming. “I’ve always wanted a shy friend.”
“Um,” Jesse said. Andrew hugged him. “Um. Help? Emma?”
“Andrew,” Emma said reprovingly.
“Er, hello?” another student interrupted. It was, Andrew noted, the same cute kid with the large eyes from before.
“Hi!” he replied brightly.
“You guys just like, saved the school, right?” the kid asked.
“Yup,” Andrew said proudly. He still couldn’t really believe it.
“Cool,” he said, swaying a bit. “And, uh, I couldn’t help but overhear earlier, but, uh, Jesse?”
Jesse, who was, interestingly, turning red, looked up and mumbled, “Yeah?”
“Are you not dating Emma?”
“Um. No, I’m really not,” he said quickly.
“Cool,” the kid smiled. “Wanna dance?”
“Uh, sure,” Jesse said faintly, before being dragged away.
“Is that the kid from his class?” Karen asked.
“Aww, I think it is,” Emma said.
“I hope he still wants to be my friend,” Andrew said anxiously.
Karen and Emma smacked him.
____
So the first month of Sky High didn’t exactly run smooth.
Andrew’s Most Hated Enemy became his (Very Totally Soon To Be) Best Friend,
His Best Friend became his Best Friend (But With Bonus Kissing!),
And This Girl Who Hit On Him And Also Kissed Him Once became his Most Hated Enemy.
It was very poetic.
Sort of.
(Not really.)
…He hoped he got some sort of extra credit for saving the world, at least.