Chapter Text
It was a welcome change in pace. Here in the auditorium, with teachers set out to watch over the whole gym on both sides, and the way the students were aimed directly at the bleachers and made to sit down quickly, none of the trio were able to sit anywhere near me, and moving towards me would make a disturbance even Winslow's top-notch staff wouldn't be able to ignore.
It was looking like it'd be at least an hour free of harassment. An hour sitting in a small plastic chair surrounded on all sides by my fellow teenagers, so not especially pleasant, but still better than the alternative.
As the principal came up, I listened to the first few lines of the speech, then decided to tune it out.
Something something, respecting the differences among your fellow students, something something, don't judge based on appearance, something something, flagrant hypocrisy, especially coming out of principal Blackwell's mouth.
I wondered what had caused it. I mean, I'm a skinny white girl, I admit I'm not the first who would know if the Empire had started harassing people at the school more than usual. Or maybe there was some kind of recruitment effort that this gathering was supposed to magically counteract with the power of school spirit. Either way, it's not important to me in particular.
My mind wandered, drifting from what to have for dinner tonight, to schoolwork, to just looking at my own hands.
That is until the first few students around me gasped. My eyes shot up towards the center of the gym again, and went wide as something huge walked in. Er, someone, I corrected myself. Wouldn't have wanted Blackwell's speech to go to waste.
She's seven feet tall, or nearly that, easily standing taller than any of the teachers, or really anyone I've ever seen before. I've heard of some Case 53's- because she couldn't be anything else -having inhuman proportions, but she wasn't so bad. Two arms, two legs. Even normal proportions, and a nicer figure than mine... if you ignored her head. She had long, messy brown hair that trailed past her shoulders, almost all the way down her back. And considering how tall she was, that was a lot of hair. It was more of a mane, really. And it almost hid her head. I wonder if that was the point?
The point being, that she had a dinosaur head. A long, slightly narrow snout, covered in bright purple scaly skin.
Blackwell forced a smile, and gestured towards her, "Everyone give a warm Winslow welcome to Susie." Blackwell said into the mic, and stared expectantly at her audience.
There was a smattering of clapping, Taylor even put forth the minimum effort, but not many people did. Blackwell looked divided whether to try and order people to clap, or to just take what she had. With a look at Susie, she apparently decided to accept the meager applause as good enough, "Susie will be starting school here at Winslow in two weeks time, now, is there anything you'd like to add, Susie?"
She seemed to simply look at the offered mic for a few seconds, and Blackwell is about to turn away again, when she holds out her hand. Blackwell hands it over, and Susie opens her mouth, eliciting at least two or three more gasps as we all see her teeth for the first time.
"I'm not a Cape." she says, in an annoyed tone, "I'm not a hero, and I'm not interested in being one. It's why I'm here instead of going somewhere else or joining some stupid superhero program or something else. I don't have any powers besides being big and scary, so don't ask." she moves to hand the mic back, but hesitates, before bringing it close to her mouth again, "And don't bother me."
She hands it back for real, then, and Blackwell seems to hesitate a few moments, "Well, uh, thank you for those... informative words, Susie. I'm sure all of us will be sure to respect your opinions on the subject, and not bug you about them. Susie isn't a Ward, isn't a villain, she's just an ordinary girl here for a proper education, so she can succeed later in life, same as anyone else. Susie will be seeing you all again in two weeks."
After that, the rest of the day went more-or-less normally, normal classes, normal lunch, normal ride back home. By the time I got home, it had mostly slipped my mind. After all, Brockton Bay already had plenty of Capes running around. I could catch glimpses of the Protectorate or Wards if I went to the richer places in town, all the gangs had a handful. They were on the news all the time.
Now, there was one in her school. Hell, there probably were before, they just were able to keep it secret because they weren't a bright purple dinosaur.
Life went on.