Rule #10: Don't forget about your other life. Even if you save the whole world the night before, you still have another life to think about. Basically, I mean that you shouldn't forget to study for that test tomorrow. You can't save the world on Wednesday night when you failed a test Wednesday morning.

Ike was waiting for me when I walked into English the next day. And boy did he look pissed.

"What the hell, dude?" he said.

"What are you talking about?"

"I tried to call you all weekend! But did I hear anything? No! You've been avoiding me for weeks now."

"Ike, I really haven't been avoiding you."

"Bullshit!" Before he had been trying to stay quiet enough to avoid the attention of our class but now he yelled this, causing everyone to turn around and look at us.

"Dude, let's go in the hall or something," I said.

"No, I'm not going in the hall! I'm supposed to be your best friend and I have a right to know what's going on!"

"Ooo, trouble in paradise," some idiot near us said.

"You can shut up," I said, pointing at him.
"See? You're already ignoring me."

"Seriously? Because I told someone to shut up I'm already ignoring you?"

"Um, yeah," Ike said.

"Ike, I promise, I'm not avoiding you," I said, lying my ass off.

"Why should I believe you?"

"Like you said, you're my best friend. I have no reason to lie to my best friend." Except for when I'm secretly a superhero. There is that exception.

Ike seemed to relax when I said this, finally sitting down at his desk. I sat down at my desk and prepared myself to lie some more, if needed. Lying to my parents was one thing, as a teenager I was practically born to lie to them, but lying to Ike was a totally different issue. I was a horrible person.

"So you'd tell me if something was going on?" he asked.

"Of course."

"Okay." He fidgeted in his seat. "Then I guess I had no reason to be pissed off."

"Yeah you really didn't." He shot me a look.

"I mean, you really don't have a reason to worry," I said.

He nodded, seeming to agree with me. The knot in my stomach lessened. Hopefully now he could tell me about his weekend, class would start, and then we could just move on like I wasn't lying to him about everything. Of course, what I hoped didn't matter to the universe one bit.

"So what were you doing all weekend?" he asked. "If you weren't avoiding me then it must have been pretty important."

"What was I doing this weekend?" I said.

"Yeah. I mean, I'm just curious. Did Rachel get in trouble and then trash the house again or something?"

"Nope, not this weekend."

"Then what was it?"

"It's sort of hard to explain."

"I doubt that. What happened?" he asked good naturedly, not realizing that he had touched a nerve.

"Well..." I said, completely intending to come up with some bland but complex lie, but I couldn't think of anything.

It wasn't that I couldn't lie, I had made my peace with that for the moment, but that was when Faye walked into the room. I swear, my entire mind went blank. Sadly, she didn't say anything to me. But she did smile as she walked past, which must have meant something. Of course, because he knew me too well, it only took Ike about .5 seconds to realize a) I wasn't going to finish that sentence and b) why I wasn't going to finish it. Once he realized that, it only took him about another .5 seconds to get completely pissed again.

"Seriously dude?' he said.

"Huh?"

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Dude, I don't-"

"Of course, you don't even know why I'm mad. You're just that stupid. You know what? I was starting to forgive you for ignoring me but forget that. You're a horrible friend."

"Ike, I-"

"Don't even try."

"Just let me apologize," I said.

"Don't bother. Just leave me alone."

I tried a few more times to apologize, I'm sure I wasn't very convincing because I was still a little dazed from Faye smiling at me, but Ike just ignored me. Let me tell you, Ike is surprisingly good at ignoring people. You'd think that because he's a sweet guy ninety percent of the time he wouldn't be, but he is. Especially when it comes to me. Once time, maybe sophomore year, I stained his new shirt and laughed about it and he was able to ignore me for a whole week. And that was over a shirt. Imagine what he could do when I had actually done something worth getting pissed over. He might never talk to me again.

Anyway, apologizing didn't work and I stopped trying once I got tired of staring at the back of his head. I'd planned on cornering him after class and making him listen to me, maybe class would be enough time for him to calm down, but then Ike did something unforgivable. He turned to the seat next to him and started talking to Lena Lester. AKA my mortal nemesis. He had actually started becoming friends with a walking nightmare to piss me off. If he was willing to do that then I didn't want to be friends with him either. At least, that's what I told myself.

I tried to keep my cool, watching my best friend betray me, I really did. But we all know how I get when I get mad. It just isn't very pretty. Of course Lena, the bitch that she was, noticed how pissed I was pretty quickly and immediately started doing everything she could to piss me off even more. Let me tell you, Lena is as good at pissing me off as Ike is at ignoring me (in case you're an idiot: that means that she's pretty damn good at it). I did everything I could to just block it out, I was pissed off enough without knowing what they were talking about, but then Lena just got Ike to talk louder and there was nothing I could do to block out that much noise when they were sitting so close to me. Especially when they started talking about the superheroes.

"They're just all so ridiculous," Lena said.

"It's amazing that the city hasn't collapsed by this point because of them," Ike replied.

"Seriously! If anything, they're making this city worse. Do they really think that they're helping people?"

"If they do then they're just amazingly stupid."

I know this wasn't the best shit talking, it's kind of lame actually, but something about this completely got under my skin. Especially when they talked about one hero in particular.

"You know who's the worst?" Ike said.

"Who?"

"Daring Dan."

"YES. He's the worst of all of them. I don't think he even has a brain."

"He sure doesn't fight like he has one." The two of them laughed.

I should probably note that this might have actually been an olive branch from Ike. After all, he didn't know that I had anything to do with the heroes and we made fun of them all the time before. And we were usually a lot meaner than just calling them stupid because I like to think that we're more creative than that. And I was definitely the one who loved making fun of Daring Dan (like think about how much I make fun of him now even though we're sort of friends, it was even worse than that) so it wasn't like Ike was doing anything to hurt me. He was just trying to ignore me and maybe thought that bringing in one of our favorite subjects would make me apologize for real. It wasn't the worst idea in the world (it was definitely better than anything I would have come up with), but it still didn't work.

Don't get me wrong, I think that the heroes are idiots. There are a few sort of good ones (like myself) but other than that they're all idiots. But they're also my idiots in a way and I have to acknowledge that. I definitely have a sense of loyalty towards them, even if I don't want to. So when anyone, even my bestfriend, insults them I instantly have the urge to defend them (even if he is completely right). But I also knew that I couldn't say too much because I had no reason (they they knew of) to defend the heroes to them. Not that that stopped me from trying.

"Knock it off guys," I said, sounding like we were in the second grade.

The two of them turned to me, Ike's face seriously annoyed once again.

"What is even with you?" he said.

"What do you mean what's with me? I just don't think that you guys should make fun of the heroes. They have good intentions."

"They have good intentions? Seriously?"

"How is it bad that I said that?" I asked.

"It's just so unlike you. It's like..."

"Like he doesn't even know you anymore," Lena said, smirking.

"Yeah, like I don't even know you anymore."

"Do you have to egg him on?" I said.

"I'm not egging him on. I'm helping."

"Hey, don't get mad at Lena," Ike said. "She's on my side which is more than I can say for you."

"Could you be acting more like a baby right now?" I said.

"Could you be acting more like a jerk right now?"

"You know what? Make fun of whoever you want. I'm done."

"Good. I don't need your permission but at least you won't be interrupting us anymore."

So I just sat there, like the chump that I was, and resigned myself to just listening to them insult all the people I had become loyal to. Granted, their shit talking didn't improve much so it wasn't that painful but man was it annoying. Painful enough that I made sure that I was packed up at the end of class so I could just run out of there as quickly as possible. I was about to run out of the building, it was the end of the day anyway, when I heard someone call my name. To my surprise, it was Faye.

"Hey, wait up," she said, half running over to me in a way that was unfairly cute.

"Hey Faye." My bad mood was instantly lifting.

"I just wanted to say to not worry about Ike and Lena."

"What do you mean?" Who were Ike and Lena again? Was I supposed to be upset?"

"Just how they were being huge jerks. Don't pay any attention to them, it's not worth it."

"Oh. Yeah I'm already just pushing it out of my head. You're right, it's not worth it," I said. Hell, if she kept looking at me like that I wouldn't worry about anything else ever again.

"Good. Hey how are you getting home?"

How was I getting home? It took me much longer than it should have that I usually either got a ride from Ike (which apparently wasn't an option anymore) or a ride from my mom with Rachel (which I tried to avoid as much as possible). I could always fly, if I really wanted to, but there was always the chance I would get caught and if Dan found out (even if I didn't get caught), he would be super pissed.

"Cause I was just wondering," she said. "If you wanted to walk home with me?"

Did I want to walk home with Faye? Was the sun shining? Was the Pope catholic? Was One Direction a shitty band that still had catchy songs? HELL YEAH.

"Um, yeah, sure," I finally said, trying to play it cool.

"Cool," she said smiling a smile that was brighter than a thousand suns. "Let's go then."

I nodded and followed her down the hall, not caring if she was actually leading me toward her doom. I was prepared to follow her anywhere.

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Hey guys! I've mostly stopped writing these things because I'm usually busy when I post a new chapter but I just wanted to check in. Are you guys having a good day? I'm home for winter break so I'm sleeping better and my roommates aren't here so things are going pretty well. Please tell me what you think of the chapter and how your winters are going!