Page 3 of The Not So Super Hero

“Terrific, we have quite a lot here with us,” Professor Lou exclaimed, clapping her hands happily.

“I may ask for demonstrations later on, but again, feel free to decline. This class will not force you to do anything you are not comfortable with. Except for tests. You’re going to have to put up with those, sorry. ”

A few laughs broke across the room before Professor Lou went on explaining the course, much like Bailey’s first professor did. She focused on her plans, attendance, the grading system, and so on. Before Bailey knew it, the class had ended.

“Level 2 or not, that’s still pretty cool,” Amery stated at the end of class.

She and Bailey headed to lunch in the Student Center in the middle of campus.

“It’s simple, but totally cool. I mean, since people with powers like Professor Lou popped up, the amount of deforestation has dropped drastically.

Imagine in another 50 years what it will be like. Our air is going to be pure as fuck.”

He snorted.

“Sometimes I think the appearance of mutants was the universe’s way of telling us to stop fucking everything up and use your abilities for good.’”

“You’re forgetting that not everyone does, though,” he countered. Amery puffed out her cheeks cutely, then released the air in an annoyed whistle.

“Villains are just ungrateful bastards. They should be more outstanding like Scorch and Frostbite!”

Bailey was pretty sure he heard a hint of a girly sigh at the mention of the famous heroes. He gave Amery a look that translated to ‘I totally heard that loving tone in your voice.’ Amery giggled, then waved dismissively.

“Oh, come on,” she said. “You know they’re both hot. They’re twins, a hot guy and a hot girl. I gotta say we Northeasterners have the best of luck with superheroes!”

He rolled his eyes, shaking at Amery’s giggles and flushed face.

She pressed a hand to her cheek, pretending to be bashful and batting her eyelashes while staring at Bailey for a response.

He looked about, wondering why she wanted a response and, in the end, completely agreed. “I guess they’re both pretty hot.”

“Besides, both of them should fascinate us. They’re Level 9’s. They’re so rare, aren’t they?” Amery said.

“Yeah, Level 8 to 10 is the rarest.”

A good thing too, seeing as most of them possessed such immense power, they could demolish an entire city if they wanted.

It was why the Mutant Officer Registry, or MOR, was formed.

It hired and registered mutants as part of the military, allowing them to fight against other mutants who went rogue or partake in heroic actions that would have required far more work and suffering if not for them.

It basically made them superheroes, which was what everyone called them though the technical term was Mutant Officers, but how lame was that? Superheroes sounded way cooler.

“Do you have classes later?” Amery asked when the two of them reached the Student Center. Amery headed towards the pizza shop. Bailey followed.

“No, just two on Mondays but I got work in,” Bailey pulled out his phone to check the time. “About two hours.”

“Oh yeah? Where do you work?”

“Cassi’s Café here on campus.” It was actually going to be his first day.

Amery was saying something like ‘that’s awesome.

’ but he kind of tuned her out when he spotted a flash of silver out of the corner of his eye.

Shaking his head, Bailey turned his head around to examine the freakishly tall guy that had passed him.

He recognized that blue uniform, even if they wrapped the top of it around their waist to show the white undershirt instead. It was that jerk custodian!

The custodian headed for the steps leading to the exit.

His head was down, headphones on, and focused on the phone in his hand.

There was a mere moment where Bailey felt the urge to give the custodian a piece of his mind for being an ass before then decided against it.

It wasn’t like he would see much of him, anyway.

Or so Bailey wished, but he forgot his curse of luck because it was quite the opposite. He basically saw the evil Zane every day!

Yes, he was evil. No human could ignore someone’s troubles that much and not be evil. He had to feel pity at some point, but nope! He defied logic and human decency. And so Bailey had dubbed their encounters The Levitt Incidents. There were many, but to just name a few…

A few days after classes began, Bailey walked through the halls, minding his own business, when loud shouting erupted from a nearby room.

Hesitating, Bailey cautiously stepped towards where he suspected the sounds to be originating from.

Without warning, a door opened, nearly clipping Bailey.

He jumped back, smiling triumphantly at successfully avoiding getting his face bashed in.

Except a boy came out of the dorm with a furious girl right behind.

She threw a punch, one that her boyfriend dodged.

Her fist swung past him to collide with Bailey’s cheek.

Shrieking, he fell to the floor, clutching his cheek and staring up at the shocked couple. Rather than helping or apologizing though, they started shouting at one another about how immature the girl was, look you hit someone , and if you hadn’t dodged I wouldn’t have hit him .

They forgot about Bailey. However, he heard a chuckle just a few doors down.

He looked past the boyfriend to find Zane snickering to himself while wrapping up a vacuum chord.

As if he could sense Bailey’s gaze, Zane glanced his way.

He smiled, villainously amused, then walked off.

Bailey didn’t like the word hate since he felt it was too strong, but he certainly disliked Zane with an extreme passion.

Then there was the accident at the café.

Customers were setting up early for club registration and required coffee to overcome their exhaustion.

Bailey got stuck with the early shift, running about when the cafe door opened.

Grasping a tray of orders and wearing his customer service smile, Bailey went to greet the guest. However, he met the light blue eyes that, if someone else had them, would be considered intoxicating.

Zane didn’t bother to hide his annoyance.

The moment he saw Bailey, his face contorted into that of displeasure.

His eyes clenched shut, as did his lips.

Just as Zane opened his eyes, Bailey got caught up with some guys messing around behind him.

One had shoved the other, and so they shoved Bailey, who went flying forward.

The cups of coffee on his tray went flying, sending both glass and coffee everywhere, including Bailey’s own face.

He shouted, the hot coffee tingling his face.

When he looked up, he saw he was laying just before Zane’s feet.

Instead of being a normal nice person, Zane did nothing other than spin on his heel and walk out.

Bailey was thinking hate wasn’t a strong enough word.

Next was the paint fiasco. A couple of buildings on campus were being repainted.

Bailey had to pass those buildings to get to his dorm, so he was being extra careful.

His phone was in his back pocket. He didn’t listen to music.

He watched those painters above on their ladders.

If he didn’t, he would somehow mess something up or get messed up.

He felt he made the right decision when one worker stumbled, kicking a bucket off from the roof.

Bailey jumped back, dodging it successfully, but then he tripped on his own feet, fell back, and hit the scaffolding on the opposite side.

He had enough time to open his eyes to see white splatter across his chest when another paint bucket fell, hit beside him, and rolled across the ground.

He was covered in paint and his head hurt.

And guess who was getting off work when that happened?

Zane! The custodian stood a few feet away beneath the doorway of the dorms, shaking his head in total fascination. Like before, he chuckled, then walked away.

How did he always catch Bailey’s worst moments?

Because those were only a few of what felt like hundreds of times, Zane caught him in embarrassing situations.

Bailey suspected Zane was the bad luck charm.

Though he knew that to be a lie because there were plenty of accidents that Zane never witnessed.

However, Bailey wanted to blame the guy because he was a jerk.

Most of the time he could have offered a helping hand or at least pretended not to see or, y’know, not laugh!

Alas, the man was simply a jackass and found immense joy in watching Bailey’s suffering.

“Write a complaint?” Amery suggested over lunch after listening to another of Bailey’s stories that involved Zane chuckling when Bailey tripped in the dorm hallway.

“I could, but it’s not like he’s doing anything wrong. He caused none of the incidents either, so I feel like I’m being an asshole,” Bailey explained, though Zane had no problem being an asshole, which meant Bailey should be an asshole to teach the asshole a lesson.

“True, I mean, everyone else laughs at you.”

Bailey shot Amery a heated glare. Shrugging nonchalantly, she added, “Come on, you have some great accidents! I mean, yesterday when the AC broke in your room, then the moment you walked out it worked, and you walked back in and it stopped working again, and you walked out–”

“I get it, no need to remind me!” Bailey held up his hand, hoping to get Amery to stop. She stopped speaking, but her laughter continued while she breathed out through her laughs about how Bailey was the definition of bad luck.

“I know. What did I do? I must have been a real jerk in a past life,” he groans.