[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/hc3KtDl.png[/img]
[sub][i][color=c3bbc9]Interacting: Angelica![/color][/i][/sub][/center]
A pair of oversized, chrome-and-white headphones reflected brightly in the dim ambient light of the auditorium. Many of the older heroes shot glares in the headphone-wearer's direction; she shrunk down in her seat and did the best she could to just ignore them.

In Eliza’s defense, it was [i]loud[/i] in here. She studiously focused on the hem of her skirt, picking loose threads out of the fabric and doing her best to ignore the neck-prickling looks the people around her gave her. She could hear actual talking [i]just fine[/i] through the headphones, thank you very much – it just helped to not have the loud breathing and noisy shuffling and ambient tapping of feet and indistinct murmuring all trying to catch her attention at once, too.

She checked her phone, mentally counting minutes and planning the bus ride back to school. It was going to be close… this thing was probably going to go for twenty or thirty minutes, and she had to be back at the school by 12:45, assuming she didn’t grab one of the supervisors for a doctors’ note. The “doctor’s appointment” she’d claimed she had wasn’t [i]technically[/i] a lie; there were plenty of doctors present in the HERO facilities, probably even at this assembly, so surely by a way of thinking she was at an appointment with doctors, and therefore, at a doctor’s appointment. Besides, all of the medical orderlies here were well used to her asking for notes – they wrote plenty for the other part-time heroes with actual desk jobs, and for the few other high schoolers, too.

The organization’s director stepped up behind the podium, looking uncomfortably formal, and Eliza braced herself for the most-definitely-too-loud speech, fumbling for her phone automatically and starting music with a custom-programmed gesture. Angie, seated behind her, poked her firmly between the shoulder blades, doubtlessly saying something about respect and so on. Eliza firmly ignored her. Soft synth orchestra music slowly faded in to fill her ears (though the volume was as low as it could be) and took the edge off of the man’s sharp, over-amplified speech. 

He spoke at length about a recent mission, one that filled Eliza’s mouth with bitterness – of [i]course[/i] everyone else had gotten to go on a fun mission, while she’d been stuck at school. She couldn’t really pay attention to any of the information, not until Powers spoke of damage. Seven [i]billion[/i] dollars? She shivered involuntarily, fidgeting with her headphone cable rather than continuing to look at the pictures that flashed across the fancy display screen. She was unable to avoid the images completely, however, catching reflections of them in the corners of her eyes. A vague panic built up in her throat and she looked around helplessly for a moment, eyes glazing over slightly as she realized there was no easy way out. 

She tapped her music up a few clicks to drown out the speech. 

As abruptly as the presentation had started, it was over. She only realized this because the people around her started scrambling to their feet, the room rapidly clearing. With a shaking breath, she stood, too, stifling the revulsion and flighty panic that came from being boxed in by other people. She focused on breathing through her mouth, eyes on the floor, until the crowd funneled out into the corridor. As soon as she had a bit of space, with most people forming a ragged line for the elevators, she ducked into the stairwell. The air was welcomingly cool, and she leaned against the wall for a second, her whole body trembling as she grounded herself, breathing deeply.

After what felt like a few seconds, but was probably closer to several minutes, she glanced down at her phone again to check the time, and cursed. She was more than likely going to be late. And she [i]decidedly[/i] did not have the energy to go pester one of the doctors, not now.

A frantic descent of the stairs and arrival at the bus station across the street later, and another string of expletives flew from her mouth. 

At some point in the last hour, her bus pass had fallen out of her pocket. She figured she maybe had time to run back upstairs and look for it… but no, no. The bus was already arriving. And she couldn’t afford to be any later. 

Mumbling to herself, she closed her eyes, feeling the wave of tingles pass from toes-to-head that meant she was becoming invisible. When the last of them had subsided, and the static from her headphones, she glanced around.

Good. No one had seen her, she thought. Though a few people were gathered, they weren’t staring, as people often tended to do if she forgot and turned in front of them.

As they boarded the bus, she shuffled along after them, careful to make sure that she didn’t inadvertently bump anyone. Nothing would give her away faster than that.

She perched on the edge of an unoccupied seat, praying no one particularly exuberant tried to sit beside her. And also that the bus-driver didn’t happen to have x-ray vision. That would be a good one to avoid, too.

Someone would turn in her bus pass to the desk, surely, and she could pick it up after school. That was how this usually happened, the twenty-odd other times she’d managed to lose it. And she’d just catch a ride home tonight with her dad, if it didn’t.
It was going to be a long rest of the school day, that was for certain.
[hr][hr]
[center][img] https://i.imgur.com/d5Arvgc.png[/img]
[sub][i][color=9ed7db]Observing: Brie [@Danvers], William [@Infinite Cosmos], Thomas [@KaijuBaragon][/color][/i][/sub][/center]
The meeting was uneventful, as they always were, though Angelica found herself eyeing the suit-and-tie folks warily. She had grown used to being the best-dressed one in the room at any time and found this change…mildly disconcerting.

Powers [i]had[/i] to be daft, thinking that publicly calling someone out for a meeting wasn’t going to raise questions. Angelica was never one to nose in something that wasn’t her business, of course.

Well, no. That one was bullshit. Nosing around in stuff that she wasn’t supposed to be was literally her entire [i]job[/i] here. 
It had to be not-that-high-of-security of a matter if he was going to be that [i]careless[/i], though. As everyone filed out of the auditorium, Angelica trailed near the back of the crowd. Upon re-entering the hallway, she caught a brief glimpse of her baby sister diving for the stairwell. No matter; Eliza would do what Eliza would do. Angelica found herself a perch in the hallway, one of the few benches that dotted the open spaces. She pulled her phone and a day planner from her pocket – though she’d had it silenced during the meeting, of course, no fewer than seven reminders and invitations had gone off. She set about filling in the planner, meticulously adding detail bubbles to the events of the coming days and setting about constructing her spread for the following week. Angelica was nothing if not organized.

Several others hovered in the hallway, though far less discreetly. Out of habit, she switched on her powers, heat blooming through her scalp and then down her face and chest, across every bit of exposed skin. Anyone who looked at her now would see precisely what they wanted, be it a beautiful woman to flirt with, a near-faceless bystander to be observed by, or the kindly old grandmotherly type that they happened to be missing terribly.

Someday, Angelica was going to learn how to pinpoint emotions and desires and capitalize on them, though she wasn’t entirely certain how that would work. Her abilities were slippery, even for the HERO scientists, and further work and training on them had proved rather difficult at best.

She continued to thumb through her journal, in no hurry to move on – though it appeared her focus was intently on her books, she watched the antics that Spacewalker – that was his code name, right? – and the one known as Will were getting up to. As if they thought they were [i]hiding[/i]. When Brianna emerged from the auditorium, appearing shaken and clutching a manila folder, Will immediately cornered her.
[i]Typical.[/i] She lightly shook her head, turning a page in her journal and filling in an event for the next week, listening intently to what was being said at the door.