33 - Her Smile Meant Math

“You want to bring the ‘12x’ to the other side by subtracting 12x from both sides. That’ll make it negative, but it’ll let you get all your ‘x’ values on one side and your actual numbers on the other. Then you can figure out what X is worth,” Su-Bin said. She wrote on her notepad, creating a map I could follow.

Then she sipped on her soda and turned to her own math book. I sighed quietly and got to work. The ‘Xs’ on the right. The numbers on the left. Divide the whole thing out. It took way longer than it should have. We’d been working for a couple of hours, and I still had more to do. And I was starting to hate Su-Bin. She wouldn’t let me just quit. But I thought I had it this time. Maybe.

She checked my fifth problem and nodded.

I’d been right! Su-Bin was the meanest friend I'd ever made. But thanks to her patience, I knew how to balance equations. “Thanks so much, Su-Bin.”

“No problem. I can stick around for a few more problems if you want to make sure you have it,” she said.

“I can’t.” I shut the math book with the paper inside to mark my page and set it on my ‘Tuesday/Thursday pile. “I have a video date with Peter in half an hour. But let me see your phone. I’ll give you my number so we can hang out sometime.”

“Sure.”

We exchanged numbers, finally, and Su-Bin left. As soon as she did, I pulled open my computer and sent a quick email.

To: Fursona.SH@tokyexicouniversity.student.edu.

Subject: G-Rated Honeycomb

Let’s check Tottergarten after classes tomorrow. 4:00 work for you?

Understudy

We’d find Honeycomb tomorrow, and if anyone could lead us to Jumper, it was her. I flicked over to the video call app, opened a chatroom, and hurried off to make sure my hair and make-up looked okay after a full day’s wear and superhero stuff, too.

I hadn’t really put that kind of effort in back in Riverside, but we’d seen each other at school every day. And we’d done weekly actual dates, which I’d actually dolled myself up for a little. But something felt off in our dynamic, and if a little extra effort on my part could fix it, then a little extra effort it was. Not that I wanted to wear the nightie. It qualified as pajamas at this point; I’d worn it to bed every night since I unwrapped it. Instead, I grabbed a black t-shirt with a stylized skull on it. I didn’t want to look like I was putting too much effort in.

“Hey, Annie, you there?” Peter’s voice echoed from my computer speakers. He was early.

I breathed, adjusted the shirt so it sat comfortably, and slid onto my couch. “Hey, Peter. Just figuring out some things. How’s work been?” I tried not to cringe. The question felt so…Mom and Dad. So…adult.

“It’s been pretty good. Yesterday, I saved the company a ton of money, so Dad thinks I earned a day off next month. I’ll have Friday off, the eleventh of October, if you still want me to come up.”

“Yeah, I’d like that. I’ll make sure the place is ready for that weekend.”

Something about my tone must’ve been off, because suddenly Peter backtracked. “If you’ve got plans already, that’s totally fine. I can start something down here instead.”

Oh, right. Peter’d had that Episode against Collidus. “How’s PP holding up?”

“That madman’s taken over half the town,” Peter said, winking at me. He was in his bedroom at his parents’ place. Even though he was making the big bucks, he hadn’t moved out yet and had to be a little subtle about his secret identity. “Today at work, I heard a rumor that he’d successfully drained the rec center’s pool, then pumped it into an underground storage tank. But why would someone do something like that?”

"I don’t know.” The conversation was routine. We’d had it dozens of times in the cafeteria, usually both exhausted from a night of supering. I could walk through it in my sleep. “What do you think, Peter?”

“I think he’s gotta be planning a new weapon. He used that air cannon for so long, but it doesn’t seem as effective against Collidus as it was against Understudy. Maybe he thinks water will slow the Destruction Derbiest down, but—“

“Hold on. He’s calling himself that?” I burst into laughter.

Peter scowled. “Yeah, he is. Anyways, he might think water will slow the kid down or make him slip. That way, Prof P’s bots can actually do something against the New Protector of Riverside.”

I rolled my eyes. Collidus was just being too much. I missed fighting Professor Panic with the kiddo. Even if he’d been kind of stupid, his Power just let him be. In fact, it seemed to reward dumb decisions. One time, during the Season Finale of my junior year, he’d thrown himself off Riverside Elementary’s flagpole to ambush LABRAT. As far as I knew, the crater was still there, but Collidus hadn’t even taken superhero damage.

I wondered if I could get that Power from Collidus. Or what Fursona’s hops would be like with no collision damage. They’d be an absolute wrecking ball because Collidus couldn’t hold his own unless he moved. Fursona was—well, would be—a powerhouse as a speedster/bruiser combo. If they were indestructible too—-

“Annie, are you paying attention?”

“Yes.” I was not.

“Alright. You zoned out there for a second. Anyway, work’s been great. I went through the drill-creation software and removed about five hundred lines of unnecessary code. The number of redundant checks and needed human inputs per step is down by eight percent, and without any difference in safety on the line—I know when businesses talk safety, people get antsy. I quadruple-checked. The new program is more efficient, faster, and just as safe.”

“You’re giving a sales pitch, Peter.”

Peter stopped like I’d physically put a hand over his mouth. Then he closed his eyes. “Sorry. Look, work’s been a lot the last couple of weeks. Last night was the first time Professor Panic’s really done much of anything since Understudy went to school, and he should have waited a few days. Why don’t you tell me about your day?”

I sighed and fiddled with a loose strand of hair while I stared at the ceiling. What had I done today? “I went to algebra, realized I was horribly out of my depth—again—and spent most of that class fiddling with a project I’m working on with a friend. We’re trying to track down a real superhero.”

“Oh? Which one?” Peter was starting to drift a little. Did his eyes seem less dilated?

“Her name’s Magical Girl Honeycomb. She saved our butts last week, and we needed to talk to her after. Anyways, then I went to Ilneat Relations. The professor’s Doug Quailman—“

“Isn’t that an ilneat name?”

“You’d think that wouldn’t you? No, he’s just a boring old dude. He insists on talking about ilneats like they’re totally alien, as if we couldn’t visit some in the Hot Zone—or…other ways. I’m almost tempted to see if I can find one to come to class one day to watch Doctor Quailman lose it. But anyway, we’re learning about ilneat world systems. There are nursery worlds and studio worlds, like Earth is now. But there’s gotta be a dozen different kinds of ilneat planets, and I do not care about most of them.”

Yep, his eyes had fully undilated. He was deep in Genius mode, nodding along while I talked but not really listening. He’d probably had some idea for a Professor Panic gizmo or weapon, and he was working on it as we—yep. A camera drone hovered nearby, filming as he sketched out his plan on a sheet of notebook paper.

I sighed again. “I’ll talk to you later, Peter.”

He half-nodded. “Later.”

I shut the computer. Peter did that sometimes. Even on our dates, he’d drift into Genius mode. It was so much easier to deal with it when we were in person.

I stopped.

Actually, when we were in person, it was so much easier, full stop. Easier to deal with Peter’s Genius stuff. Easier to manage our super-powered secret lives. And so much easier to feel a connection. This video call hadn’t been a disaster, but…

I just didn’t care about Peter’s work. It wasn’t even that it was boring. It just…didn’t matter to me. And he didn’t seem to care about my classes. So that left…Episodes? And what else?

<Hey, Peter. You’re zoned, but when you get this…things felt weird - Annie 6:43>

<I don’t think we’re doing long-distance right. A lot of this sucks - Annie 6:44>

I struggled with the next message. How was I supposed to word what I felt? My tease last week hadn’t felt good, and Peter wasn’t…no, neither of us was engaged tonight. Not like we needed to be. I flopped onto my bed and groaned at the half-finished Lil Pal on my bedstand.

<I’m going to take a little time to think about how to make this work. I’ll text you tomorrow. Thursday at the latest. I’m still committed here, but we’re messing it up somewhere. You have to feel it too. If you come up with ideas, we’ll text then - Annie 6:51>

<I <3 you, Peter. Just gotta figure this out - Annie 6:54>

I set the phone aside and hopped in the shower. The scalding water ran down my face, mixing with make-up and tears, then into the drain. I wanted to make it work. Peter had been there for me, just like I’d been there for him. We’d figured out the super-powered thing together. We’d even hidden it from our parents together; excuses about where we were on nights we were out, lies about sports injuries and hiking trips, and helping each other recover from the nasty beat-downs we’d inflicted.

If we could figure that out, we could figure this out too.

When I’d finished showering, wrapped my hair in a towel like Mom taught me, and pulled on the nightie, I checked my phone. I had three new messages. And none were from Peter.

<Hey, Annie! Whatcha doin for lunch tomorrow? Wanna grab a bite @SUB? - Bianca 7:16>

<If not, that’s cool. Just thought we could hang out and stuff! - Bianca 7:23>

<If nothing else, we end up talking about Pygmalion or something - Bianca 7:28>

I smiled for the first time since shutting my computer. Did I want to have lunch with Bianca? Sure. Would it devolve into a conversation about the most recent play we were looking at in Intro to Drama? Maybe. Was it a trick to get me to do her homework for her? Almost certainly. But I didn’t care. I needed a friend to talk to for a bit.

<Hi Bee - Annie 7:38>

<I’d love to! - Annie 7:39>

It was early, so I texted back and forth with Bianca for a while about… honestly, whatever. It didn’t really matter what. It was just nice to talk to someone who wasn’t Peter for a bit, and who wasn’t wrapped up in super-powered stuff. Eventually, it got late, and my morning class started getting too close for comfort, so I said goodnight.

Tomorrow would be a good day. I’d meet Bianca for lunch, then go to Intro to Drama with her. Fursona and I could hunt Honeycomb after. It’d be easy; we knew she’d be at Tottergarten.

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