Chapter Text
“Hey, you, Macklin girl,” Mika jumped, head shooting up from her laptop screen, surprised to see her history teacher standing over her. “There you are. Just the honours student I was looking for.”
“Hello, Miss Shapen,” Mika blinked, glancing behind the woman and making brief eye contact with a brunette boy, about her age. “How can I help you?
“This is Bose O’Brian,” Miss Shapen said plainly, waving a hand in the general direction of the boy behind her.
Mika waited for her to go on. She didn’t. “Oh, um. Okay. Nice to meet you?” She asked the other teen confusedly, who just shrugged at her.
“You’re going to be showing Bose around today,” Miss Shapen picked something out of her ear, making both teens cringe.
“Wait, hold on,” Mika shook her head, taking a moment to process. “I’m actually really busy working on-”
“Don’t care,” her teacher rudely cut her off. “I don’t have time to find anyone else, I need to give my cat a bath. Goodbye.”
Mika blinked, standing up as the teacher started to leave, “wait, but I really can’t-” it was useless, the older woman was already halfway out of the room, leaving the two teens standing awkwardly.
“Uh,” the boy, Bose, she mentally corrected, spoke up for the first time. “Sorry about that. I can find someone else if you’re too busy.”
Mika was already shaking her head with a sigh. “It’s fine,” she closed her laptop, not bothering to save the still-blank page, and began to pack her bag. “I can finish in my study period later. I’m Mika Macklin, by the way,” she held her hand out to shake.
“What were you working on? Seemed like you were pretty annoyed before we came up.”
“Oh,” Mika’s face warmed. He probably saw her glaring at her computer, willing words to appear. How embarrassing. “I’m in the Language Information and Math Program, and we’ve got a big free essay coming up, and I can’t think of any ideas.”
“Oh wow, so you’re like smart smart, then.”
Mika laughed, surprised. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. I mean I wouldn’t, but I won’t stop you,” she smirked, tossing some loose curls over her shoulder.
Bose grinned lopsidedly, “I’ll make sure to tell you how smart you are every half hour if you help me with my homework.”
“Ha, nice try,” Mika liked him already.
“Worth a shot,” he snapped his fingers, making the girl giggle.
“So, Bose,” she tested out his name, “what brings you to Swellview High in the middle of the school year?”
He winced, “yeah, um, my old school kind of had an infestation problem and had to shut down.”
Mika paused, trying to process that. “What, like bees?”
“Hornets,” he shook his head. “And a bear at one point.”
“A bear?!” Mika cried, stopping mid-step to face the boy. “How did a bear get into your school?”
“Let’s just say it was a weird school,” he chuckled humourlessly. “That’s not even in my top ten list of weird stuff that happened there, it’s just the one that finally got us shut down.
“Oh,” Mika resumed walking, “well, I’m sorry your school closed. Did you all have to move?”
Bose nodded, eyes darting away from her. “Yepp, me and a friend of mine are the only ones who moved to Swellview High though. She doesn’t start until tomorrow.”
Mika hummed, trying to come up with a way to continue the conversation, only to be interrupted by her phone.
“Sorry, one sec,” she apologised to Bose as she fetched the device. She glanced at the name on the screen and groaned. “I better take this, I’m so sorry.”
Bose gave her the go-ahead, so she took a few steps away and answered the phone.
“What is it now, Miles?” He’d already called her twice that morning, first when she left early to come to the library before the first bell, and then again to ask where she’d left the remote.
“I love you too, my dearest twin sister,” he mocked on the other line. “How have you been on this resplendent morning?”
“Miles, I will hang up on you.”
Bose chuckled as Mika made eye contact with him and mouthed another apology.
“Wait, no, please don’t hang up!” Miles spoke quickly. “Mum asked me to go to Uno Does Cakes after school to pick up a jelly-cake for some book-club thing, but I’ve got soccer practice, so I told her you’d do it.”
“What? That’s so not fair,” she bemoaned. Great, another distraction, when she really needed to be working on her paper. She’d have to be extra productive in her study period, she supposed. “Whatever, you’re doing the dishes tonight, then.”
“Hey, wait! That’s not-” she hung up before he could protest. “Sorry about that, Bose. Let’s get back to the tour, shall we?”
“Yeah, sure,” Bose put his phone away and joined her. “Was that your brother? How much younger is he?”
Mika laughed, making a mental note to rub in the fact that even a complete stranger assumed Miles was younger than her. “We’re actually twins.”
She paused, giving him time for the obligatory ‘Wait, really? You have a twin? Can you read each other’s minds?’
“Wait, really? You have a twin? Can you read each other’s minds?”
Mika pursed her lips to avoid laughing. Wow, almost word for word.
“No, and thank god for that,” she shook her head. “That would be a pretty shitty superpower to have,” she laughed.
The rest of the day passed by quickly, Bose and Mika being basically attached to the hip, seeing as he shared all the same classes as her. She introduced him to Miles during their third period, and to no surprise to her they got along swimmingly.
She had to admit, she quite liked the teen. Sure, he could be a little spacey sometimes, and she had to spell a few things out for him, but that didn’t matter. He was really sweet.
When the day ended and the trio went their separate ways, Mika was exhausted. She wanted nothing more than to smash out her paper (which she hadn’t worked on even a little in her study period, too busy laughing as Bose told him all about his boss at work, some guy named Ray, who was somehow even more of a mess than Miss Shapen), and then collapse into bed.
Instead, she found herself having to wait almost thirty minutes in a long line at Uno Dos Cakes (seriously, how many people could possibly have birthdays in May? And besides, who would even want to celebrate being a Taurus?), with some sweaty man standing way too close behind her.
“God, this line is so long, right?” Mika stumbled forward as this grown man elbowed her in the middle of the back. “Oops, my bad.”
Mika took a deep breath and counted down from five. She was third in line now and could practically taste her freedom.
“Come on, what is taking them so long,” the man behind her complained again. “I just want my cake!” He was yelling now, causing Mika to flinch.
She fought so hard to not turn around, not wanting to give him the attention he so obviously craved. Until a heavy hand landed on her shoulder and she was thrown to the side.
Mika gasped as she went down, fumbling to catch herself, only to twist her ankle the wrong way. She landed on her side with a painful hiss, blinking spots out of her eyes.
She looked up, seeing the man who had thrown her also shove aside the two people in front of her, before getting up in the cashier’s face.
Oh, shit. She knew him. Jeff, the stupidest criminal in Swellview. Just her luck.
“Someone call Captain Man!” A voice cried from behind the counter, as Jeff continued to invade the server’s personal space.
Mika spared a quick glance around the room, hoping to see someone already making the call. To her dismay, every phone in the room was currently being held up, recording the scene as it happened.
“Shit,” she cursed, shifting to a sitting position and wincing, before grabbing out her phone. She dialled the hotline number, which, like most citizens of Swellview, she knew by heart.
The phone rang three times before someone picked up.
“Captain Man emergency hotline. What’s up?” Mika knew that voice from the few news appearances featuring Captain Man’s sidekick duo, Danger Force.
“Yes, hi, um,” Mika glanced up, making sure Jeff wasn’t paying attention to her before she continued. “I’m in Uno Dos Cakes and Jeff is here-”
“Ughhhhh,” Volt groaned loudly, making Mika pull the receiver from her ear in order to not be deafened. “What is that idiot doing now?”
Mika pursed her lips, “well you see, he kind of threw me to the ground, and is now threatening the staff.”
“Wait, he threw you?” A new voice, who Mika figured must have been Brainstorm, joined the conversation. “Are you okay?”
Mika attempted to move her ankle. “I think I might have hurt my ankle. I’m sure I’ll be fine, but Jeff keeps getting more aggressive. I’m worried he might hurt a staff member, or someone else.”
“We’ll be there in about five minutes, just stay put,” Volt assured her before the line went dead.
Mika shuffled away from the window, holding in a gasp every time she accidentally jostled her ankle. She knew from her experience in an escape room with Captain Man a few years prior, that he loved to make a dramatic entrance, and would like to avoid being as far away from any potential shattering glass, as possible.
Seven minutes of Jeff arguing with, who Mika assumed was the manager, later, the window exploded.
“Hold it right there, Jeff!”
“It’s Captain Man!” Someone shouted before all phones turned to point at the hero.
“Awwe, nuts!” Jeff cried, before trying to climb over the counter, only to get stuck.
Mika watched the scene in horror, as the hero tried to yank Jeff off the counter, while Volt and Brainstorm steered people out of the bakery.
“Hey, are you okay?” She looked up, meeting a pair of deep brown eyes, rimmed by a blue mask.
The hero’s eyes widened, shining with something that looked like recognition before he blinked it off.
“Are you the one who called us, with the ankle injury? Can you walk?”
Mika shook her head, struggling for words. “I don’t think so.”
Brainstorm hesitated, before cautiously asking her, “is it okay if I pick you up?”
Mika blinked. “O-Okay,” she stuttered, feeling her face heat up. “Sure.”
“I’ll try not to jostle your ankle, let me know if it hurts.”
“Okay.”
To her surprise, the hero stood up and took a few steps back, holding out his arm.
A feeling of weightlessness flooded through her, and she felt herself slowly rise off the ground.
She’d forgotten he could do that. It was weird.
“Okay, now I’m going to drop you into my arms, try not to panic,” he positioned himself below where she floated.
Mika felt gravity return to her, closing her eyes in a flinch when she hit the hero’s arms.
“You okay?” Brainstorm asked, looking down at her.
Mika nodded, as her treacherous heart skipped a beat. “Yeah,” she breathed, “I’m fine. Thank you.”
“All in a day’s work,” the hero winked at her, making her face heat up even more.
She smiled at him, not breaking eye contact. To her surprise, neither did he, until someone behind him coughed.
“So sorry to interrupt,” Volt smirked at the pair, “but we should be getting her to the hospital since Jeff’s been handled. Don’t you think, Brainstorm?”
“R-right,” the other hero chuckled embarrassedly. “On it.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Morning, Mika,” Mike jumped, smashing her head against the inside of her locker.
“Ow!” She cried, spinning around to glare at Bose, who wore a guilty expression. “Warn a girl next time!”
Bose at least had the decency to grimace, “I am so sorry, Meeks.”
Mika blinked, surprised by the nickname. She had to admit, she didn’t hate it, even if it didn't seem logical to have a nickname the same number of syllables as her actual name.
“It’s fine, don’t stress,” she turned back, pulling her last book for the day out of her locked before closing it. “How was your night last night?” She made polite conversation.
The other teen shifted uncomfortably, his eyes darting all around. “You know, the usual. Nothing special, nope. Not me. Totally normal dude.”
Mika raised an eyebrow, unsure whether to be amused or concerned or both. “Okay? What did you do?”
“Oh, look! That’s my friend. Gotta go,” Bose pointed in the direction of the front entrance before rushing off.
Mika narrowed her eyes, watching him rush up to a red-haired teen girl and start waving his hands around dramatically.
The other girl looked over at Mika, her mouth dropping open before she grabbed Bose and yanked him away, dragging him down the hall.
Mika prided herself on her intellect. She didn’t get to be the second smartest student in the history of LIMP without having amazing skills in perception.
Bose O’Brian had a secret. So did that other new girl. And she was going to find out what it was.
Mika and Bose continued to grow closer as the weeks passed, and soon he easily became her best friend. He’d introduced her to the red-haired girl, Chapa, and surprisingly the two girls got along quite well also.
Soon enough, Miles started hanging out with the three of them, and they quickly became a squad, forming close bonds between them.
Mika had to say, she really liked both new members of her little social circle.
It was really refreshing to have another girl to talk to, even if Chapa could come off a bit abrasive… well all of the time, she was clearly a ride-or-die friend, and Mika knew she’d have her back if anything went down.
And she and Bose just clicked in a way she hadn’t with anyone else at her school. He was funny, and sweet, in a way most teenage boys weren’t. Sure, he was a little dim sometimes, but even that was endearing.
They started spending time together whenever they could. The squad ate lunch together, hung out at Hip Hop Purée almost daily, whenever Bose and Chapa didn’t have work, and on weekends watched Dog Bachelor at the Macklin household (though Bose and Mika often ended up watching that alone, due to Miles’ soccer practice and Chapa’s basketball).
“I’m just saying, I think teleporting would be the coolest superpower to have!” Miles gestured his hands around wildly, as he tried to convince the other three teens of the merits of teleportation. “Just imagine, anywhere you wanna go, BOOM, you’re there!”
“No way dude,” Chapa was getting just as heated. “You wouldn’t be able to do like anything in an actual fight!”
“Could so! You could just like teleport your enemies to the edge of a cliff and,” he mimed pushing someone over.
The table around him was silent for a long moment.
“You know what, respect, dude,” Chapa held up her hand for a fist bump. “Normally I’m the most violent person in the room. It’s a huge part of my charm.”
“It’s true, she loves hurting people,” Bose tacked on helpfully.
“Thank you, buddy,” she messed up his hair, as he tried to wave her away.
Mika watched the interaction, pretending not to notice the sinking feeling in her gut. Okay, so they were almost definitely dating. No biggy. It wasn’t like she had a crush on either of them. That was totally fine.
A loud beeping distracted her.
Bose and Chapa both sat up straight, pulling out their phones and sharing a glance.
“Oh shoot, sorry guys, I have to go feed my goldfish to my cat,” Bose spoke quickly, standing up and walking backwards.
“And I need to buy my mum some flowers,” Chapa stood too. “She just works so hard,” she wiped a fake tear.
Mika and Miles shared a look as the two other teens rushed out of the room.
“What about school?” Miles cried after them.
Mika narrowed her eyes, officially suspicious.