to think of them as almost fictional. It wasn’t until Pyro Storm and Shadow Star had revealed themselves that people started to give a shit again about Extraordinaries.
When Nick became an Extraordinary and teamed up on and off the field with Shadow Star, maybe someone would write a comic book about him, filled with colorful panels of POW and BLAM and heroic deeds against the forces of evil.
He made a mental note to put together a pitch for Marvel and DC and Vertigo after he’d gotten his powers. He did have to expand his brand, after all. Comic books, TV shows, movies. He hoped they would hire someone with nice abs to play him. That seemed like it’d be the right thing to do, even if it would be embellishing a little.
Seth was lying in bed, propped up by two pillows. His comforter was pulled up to his chin, and he was staring at Nick with wide eyes. A trickle of sweat ran down his forehead.
“Hi!” he squeaked. He coughed. Then, in a much lower voice, said, “Hi.”
“Hi,” Nick said, closing the door behind him. “Are you dying?”
“Um. No?”
“That’s good.” Nick let his backpack fall to the floor. “Because Martha told me about the ghosts here, and it would totally suck if you died and became trapped like they did. I don’t know how I’d feel about having to salt and burn your bones.”
Seth squinted at him. “The … ghosts?”
“Yes, the ghosts.” Nick frowned. “And speaking of, I can’t believe you didn’t tell me your house used to be a tuberculosis insane asylum and is haunted now. That seems like information one tells his best friend.”
“Tuberculosis … insane … asylum?”
Seth’s cold must have infected his brain. He sounded like he didn’t know what Nick was talking about. “Right,” Nick said slowly. “The tuberculosis insane asylum. Your aunt just told me all about it. Didn’t you hear those footsteps running up the stairs and the door slamming?” Nick’s eyes widened as he looked around. “Oh my god, are they here right now?”
“Oh,” Seth said. “Right. The ghosts! Sorry. I thought you were talking about something else. This flu. Man, it is really making me woozy.”
“I thought you had a cold.”
Seth nodded furiously. “Right. A cold. That’s exactly what I meant.” He coughed roughly. “Oh man, such a bad cold. So sick. From the flooding. You should leave since I’m contagious, and I don’t want you to catch it.”
“I ate oranges,” Nick told him, sitting on the edge of the bed. Seth pulled his feet away to make room.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you eat an orange.”
“Why is everyone saying that to me today?” Nick wondered aloud. “I do eat fruit, you know. Like, maybe not all the time, but I do.”
“When was the last time you ate an orange?”
Nick didn’t think he’d eaten an orange in at least three years. “This morning. So I’m chock full of vitamin C and therefore, immune to your affliction.”
“Well, better to be safe than sorry,” Seth said, pulling his covers up to his mouth. “You should probably go home, and then we can talk on the phone.”
Nick shrugged. “I’m already here. If I’m going to be infected, it’s happened by now.”
Seth sighed.
“Are you okay? You’re acting kinda weird.”
“I’m fine,” Seth said. “Just, you know. Medicine head, and all that.” He coughed again.
Seth needed to take better care of himself. “Do you need me to bring you something? I was going to get you soup, but then I didn’t have any money, so I didn’t.”
“Thought that counts, I suppose.”
“Right? You’re welcome.”
“You’re all heart, Nicky.”
Nick opened his mouth to say something about how boring today had been, or about how he’d fought with his dad, or maybe even about how Shadow Star and Pyro Storm had brawled all-out the night before. He could have said any number of things. But then his mouth was hijacked by a rebel part of his brain, and he said, “You kissed me on the cheek yesterday.”
Seth’s eyes widened above his blanket. “I … did?”
“Wow,” Nick breathed. “I did not mean to bring that up. Honestly, I was going to try and work my way up to it in like five or six weeks.”
“And yet there it is.”
“Right? I’m braver than I give myself credit for.” He grinned. “I’m going to make a good Extraordinary.”
“It’s weird how not weird it is that I can totally follow your line of thinking.”
“You’re fluent in Nick, I guess.”
“Years of practice.”
Nick felt like he was