Friendship… It felt strange to think about it. For so long, I had yearned for friends but now that I had someone I might be able to call a friend, I was afraid. And in a strange twist, that fear made me angry. Afraid, because if I wanted to call Sophia a friend, I would have to trust her. Well, trust her, or murder her and I was not sure I could follow through with cold-blooded murder.

And that was the reason for my anger. For the first time, I realised just how damaged I truly was. It was not normal to ask for surveillance on a new friend. Intellectually, I was aware that my life was screwed up but for the first time, it was driven home just how screwed up my life truly was. My father had made me into a cynical, sociopath with trust-issues. I remembered Sophia’s reaction after I had operated on her and felt a sense of kinship. Not for the first time I thanked the stars for Galatea and her advice. I wanted to trust Sophia but I would trust and verify.

But knowing if she betrayed me was no protection, I would prepare what I jokingly called the Pyre-Option in my mind. It would literally burn all bridges behind me, killing Alexandria King by making sure that enough evidence was left behind if my room burned in a tragic accident. Doing so required preparation, some I had already done, some I would do soon, just in case Sophia was not worthy of my trust.

Back at home, my exhaustion caught up with me and I fell into a deep sleep until morning. Normally, I did not need all that much sleep but that night, I slept like a rock until the annoying sound of my alarm ripped me from hypnos’ garden.

School. For once, I did not feel the familiar mix of annoyance and dread, I felt an almost giddy anticipation. Would I truly have friend now? But how would I approach her? Would she approach me? Would it look strange if we suddenly became friends after all that time spent as loners? I did not want to risk anyone getting interested in my affairs, least of all Clark.

There was some trepidation in me as I approached the school but Sophia proved that she was more experienced than me when it came to social matters. Before class, she approached me and asked for help in her calculus-class, using the fact that I had the highest math-score out of everyone in our grade-level as pretext. I simply kept my polite mask plastered over my face and promised her my help, showing nothing out of the ordinary, but inside I was a little giddy as I went to my first class.

During lunch-hour, Sophia joined me, using her math-textbook as a shield and we just talked. Not about anything earth-shattering, just talk about unimportant things. It was a peculiar feeling, talking to someone not because of a need to convey information or because it was socially expected but talking to someone just for the pleasure of having a conversation. But good things never last, so we had to go to class far too soon for my taste, we did however, make plans to meet up after school.

For the rest of the school-day, I felt as if I had already built my hover-boots and was floating through the day. Not even the stupidity of my English-teacher was jarring enough to bring me out of my happy state.

As soon as the last class ended, I made my way to the meeting place and saw something that annoyed me greatly. Sophia was already there but she was not alone. Clark was in attendance as well and he did not look happy. He had an angry look on his face, speaking in low and threatening tones.

“... and remember what I told you, gang-whore, you will leave her alone. Alexandria is far too good for a little whore like you.” I just heard the end of his speech, but what I heard and the look on Sophia’s face told me enough.

“Enough!” I cut in, anger and steel in my voice. “You will not talk to my friends like that.”

Surprise was evident on his face, it might be the first time I had not used my polite, gentle mask with him but let him get a glimpse at the real me.

“Alexandria. You should not mingle with scum like her. She will use you in any way she can.” There was a trace of something strange in his voice. Something other than arrogance and possessiveness, but I was not sure what.

“You will not call my friends scum. Not to my face, not behind my back. And using, oh, yes, she does abuse me terribly with her request for some remedial math-lessons. How can anyone think that they deserve to get good grades.”

“You don’t know her. Stupid trash like her should just go back where she came from, back into the gutter so she can hump her gangbangers. She does not belong into our world.” he tried again to pull me onto his side. I shrugged him off and took Sophia’s hand.

“Let’s go, we have places to be, equations to solve.” I said and pulled her along with me, leaving Clark behind. There might be hell to pay with my father, but it had felt good to tell him off. I had never dared to do so before, but I would not stand by and let him abuse someone I wanted to call friend.

“Can we get out of here?” Sophia asked, her voice tight with tension.

“Sure, want to go somewhere truly private?” I asked, concerned why she was so tense.

“Maybe we should. I believe you have questions after that.”

We made our way to the better parts of the city, before taking one of the trails into the forest, not talking but simply walking next to each other. I still had her hand in mine and didn’t feel like letting go. It didn’t take long until we got to the spot we had to get off the trail and use a hidden path to get to one of the access-points into my bunker. We could talk down there and nobody could interrupt us. Before we left the path, I asked Galatea if anyone was in the vicinity, making sure that we did not lead anyone to my bunker by accident but the coast was clear.

In the light of day, I could easily see Sophia’s fascination with my bunker, to her it had to be quite the installation.

Down in the bunker, I played gracious host, offering drinks and everything. Sadly, I did not have a nice couch or something like that installed, the amenities were a bit lacking. Something to worry about later.

“I guess I owe you a bit of an explanation.” Sophia started.

“Clark was not quite wrong about me being scum, you know. Most people would not see us as possible friends, you are one of the Kings after all. And I’m, well, just me.” her voice was thick with sadness.

“I am not most people. I told you yesterday what my biggest dream is. Freedom.” I wanted to reassure her. I wanted her to be my friend.

“Yes, I know. But you hardly know me. You fight for your freedom. I just fight for revenge.”

“Who do you want to avenge? And against whom you want to carry out said vengeance?”

She settled down a bit, made herself comfortable for a long story.

“I guess I should start at the beginning. My family-situation is bad. If you hear the term trailer-trash, well, we don’t live in a trailer, we live in social-security housing but in regards to everything else? The term fits. My father can’t keep a job longer than a few weeks, mostly because he wants to hide in a bottle and my mother works as a waitress at a bar. Her pay is mostly “tips” and she earns those on her back. So, yes...” her voice grew thin and trailed off.

“So, what? My father could take on the name Mammon and get a new job. He would fit right in. We are not defined by our parentage. And if I hear you talking, you are not. If I hear you talking, I hear someone who fits into the Guild-Academy.” I tried to reassure her. There was no way I could accept her reasoning or I would have to apply it to myself. And there was no way in hell that I wanted to be my father’s daughter.

She gave me a sad smile before her expression turned grim. “Yes, my language. It’s thanks to my big brother that I talk like this. He raised me, almost by himself. He taught me, made sure that I went to school, made sure that I did my homework, hell, he made sure that I had food on the table. He was my father, my mother, my everything. But it was not enough. I was not enough.” Tears welled up in her eyes. I was sure there was some sort of protocol for situations like this but I had no idea what to do, so I just stayed quit and waited for her to continue.

“I don’t know why. One day, he started to change, he started to hang out with strange guys. Guys he would never have talked to before were now his best friends. He got distant with me, stopped caring about me. Last summer, he vanished. There was a huge incident, gang-members, powered and mundane, Heroes’ League, police, everyone was somehow involved. My brother vanished that day. I wanted to know why. wanted to know what had happened, so I donned a mask, put on a cowl and went out looking... “ her voice broke, tears streaming down her face. I saw her shiver, so I did what I felt best and pulled her into my arms, embracing her. As I held her, I felt her hot tears soaking into my blouse while she clung to me.

After a bit of time, I heard her muffled voice continue. Her face was still pressed against me but she continued to talk.

“I never found him. I learned some things, yes. But I never found him. He had joined that stupid gang. That’s why he left me, to become a stupid gangbanger. That’s why I want to destroy them. They took him. I don’t know how, but they took him. Because of them, he is gone.” Suddenly, she shrugged off my embrace and stood, pacing the room.

“I will destroy them. I don’t care how long it takes or what I have to do for it. But I will destroy them.” her voice was now tinged in anger.

“That asshole Clark, I don’t know where he gets his information, but he knows some of it. When we worked together on the project, he warned me. Warned me to leave you alone or he would make sure everyone would know about me and my family. Told me that you talked to me out of pity but that he would make sure that everyone hated me if I didn’t leave you alone.”

I felt a mixture of anger and dread run down my back. If she wanted to keep those things secret and Clark spread them because I had told him off, it would be on me. My fault.

“I could not care less what Clark says about you. Or that your brother was in a gang. Or that your parents are shitty. You are my friend and that’s enough for me.” I told her.

“Yes, I know that now. And if he goes around, I don’t think I’ll lose any friends. Not that I made any.”

Galatea used that moment to remind us that we had homework to do, her reminder of something so mundane cutting the tension between us and we spent the rest of the afternoon doing our job as students before leaving to head to our respective homes.