Young Writers Society

Wren always started her school days off the same way - she got ready for school up in the apartment, and then she went down into the cafe down below it. Her parents didn't expect her to help out, even on the days where business suddenly picked up. Instead, she would find a table and work on whatever she was most interested in at the time. It had been a theater kick last year, but this year she was all about comics. Meeting Jewel the day before hadn't helped the renew obsession.

She had found a table tucked away near the entrance and was currently in the middle of drawing a cute little doodle she had been fascinated by the night before. She a steaming cup of hot chocolate next to her, too; she needed it to help her wake up after staying up most of the night.

Her drawing skills weren't the best, but they were good enough to let her make a sketch of Flash, Nightwing, The Actor and Jewel are standing near each other. It was easy figuring out what poses to put Nightwing and Flash in. Dick definitely took after his adoptive father a bit; he was more like the stable base. Wally was a speedster, and the way Wren knew she needed to draw him conveyed that. Everything was fair game for him - including Nightwing's shoulder, which she had just drawn his arm wrapped around.

The Actor was easier to draw than Jewel, of course. Wren knew what she was like. She drew herself meeting Nightwing's eyes behind their masks; both were giving warm smiles.

(Hers was more shy, of course.)

She wasn't sure what to do with Jewel, though. She had the basics of his body down on the paper, but she wasn't really sure how the two of them were supposed to interact. Would he mirror Wally's posture? Would he be more reserved? It was hard drawing people she barely knew.

As she mused over what pose to draw Jewel in, the bell above the cafe's door rung. She popped her head up at the noise - she needed the distraction.

And she definitely found one.

"Jeff?" she managed to get out.

Ah, that was Wren.

Jeff tried to wave at her, but he felt like it might have been a very awkward gesture, which came mostly from the fact that he hadn't said all of two words to a human being in quite a few hours now.

"Oh, uh, hey, Wren." He coughed out, scratching at his neck. At this rate, he was gonna have a bunch of micro cuts there.

"I was uh -" what should he say, it wasn't like he had been here as Jeff before - "walking to school and then saw this place."

"What are you doing here?"

There, that seemed like what a normal human being would say to someone they had only really talked once with.

Wren gave a tiny smile.

"I live here," she said. Then she realized that Jeff meant the cafe - not the apartment upstairs. "Um, upstairs. In the apartment above the cafe. My parents own this cafe..."

Flustered and embarrassed, her gaze dropped back down to the drawing she had been working on. She was too distracted by Jeff's arrival to think of how to finish it.

Oh, well, that made quite a bit of sense.

"Wow, that's actually really cool!" Jeff wished he lived at an awesome cafe place like this.

He stood there for a second, unsure of what to do.

"Do you, er, mind if I sit with you?"

Jeff looked back at what she was doing. Wow, was she drawing something?

Before he knew it, he asked his thought out loud.

"I don't mind-" she started to say, scooting her chair over so he had room to sit down if he wanted to sit down on the same side of the table.

Then the second question registered.

She glanced down at the offending piece of artwork in front of her. She had no idea how she was supposed to explain that. Anyone could have overheard the conversation yesterday, but Jewel hadn't even done anything as a hero yet. And what if Jeff thought it was weird that she liked heroes? It wasn't exactly a conversation topic that usually came up - other than when Wren's classmates were talking about the latest spotting of The Actor on someone's Instagram story.

"Fanart?" she whispered.

"Fanart? Do you draw fanart?"

There were some great fan artists that he followed, especially after seeing some really neat stuff of The Actor while he scrolled through Tumblr. Although was it embarrassing that he had an account on there, but he never posted stuff, cause he didn't have the talent to draw or anything, nothing like what he just saw from Wren.

"Wow, that's so cool. I'm sure you're Tumblr famous or something." Boy, was he a bit jealous. Also, a bit shocked because he didn't know too many other fans of comics and superheroes in real life - most of his friends spotted online and lived all across the globe. "Who's your favorite superhero? If you've got one specifically."

Jeff wasn't weirded out by what she was drawing?

"I'm not sure I can pick a favorite," she shyly said, slowly moving her hands away from the drawing so she wasn't hiding it as much. She hadn't really been to begin with, but she had instinctively shielded it from him when he drew attention to it. "Nightwing is really cool, but he doesn't have superpowers. And I, um, really like Ms. Marvel. But Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel, not Carol Danvers. I've only read the newer runs."

Her gaze dropped down to the drawing.

"And, uh, if we're talking about real superheroes, I think Jewel is pretty cool - even though I just me-heard of him yesterday."

Screaming.

There was screaming inside Jeff's head.

Did, ah, Wren just call Jewel cool? His Jewel? Who was dressed in random clothes and could really only run kind of fast through a city, nothing compared to The Flash or Quicksilver or any of the comic book speed superheroes.

He could pass out right now.

And, that's Flash right there on Wren's page, with Jewel there, and The Actor, and Nightwing, like he was comparable to any of those superheroes. Which, of course, he wasn't, but he couldn't defend that claim without drawing weird attention to him and why he cared so much about some random, small-time superhero.

Jeff hoped he wasn't blushing too much when he finally answered.

"Ah, that's re-really cool. Uhm, I know I've always liked a lot of comic characters, and definitely Flash. I've never heard of Jewel before though."

Wren perked up a little when she realized this was her chance to geek out about superheroes - and not be judged about it. And there was something nice about revealing her knowledge on Jewel, too. She felt like she was proudly showing off a friend, even if she doubted they were at that point yet.

"I think Jewel's new," Wren said. "He came here with the Actor yesterday. I didn't see him because I was upstairs in my room, but my parents say him. And everyone else who was in the cafe has been posting the meeting online, too."

“Oh, wow, you’re really lucky to have seen them!”

Jeff tried not to blush at seeing how excited Wren was. He had to keep his cool around her, especially knowing how much she was interested in different superheroes, and not to mention he didn’t want to weird her out because she was the closest he had to a friend here.

“I don’t know how I’d feel if I met a superhero,” Jeff continued. “You know, since we’re here, we could talk about our, uh, project.”

She tucked a strand of wild hair behind her ear.

"I like that idea," she agreed. She quickly closed her sketchbook - she wasn't going to point out that she hadn't actually seen them, according to her story. She had just watched the videos. But it seemed like a silly distinction to make, especially when Jeff had conveniently changed the topic.

Wren suddenly sat up in her seat.

"I'll go ask my parents for some snacks," she said, eyes alight. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

He ran out of his house so quickly, thinking he would just eat here. Snacks from people who run a cafe sounded like the best idea ever.

Jeff grinned. “Ah, no, I didn’t eat breakfast. Please, tell me that hot chocolate is included?”

Oh wait, he said he hadn’t been here before. Jeff hoped Wren didn’t catch on to him somehow knowing what he wanted at a cafe that he was supposed never to have known about it before.

Agh, he could already feel himself sweat.

“I, er, mean, I’ll pay for hot chocolate. Have to support the family business, right?”

"You don't have to," Wren reassured him. She hadn't checked with her parents yet, but she knew exactly how they thought. If Wren had a friend from school, they were going to give that friend free food. They probably would have given Jewel free food the night before if Wren hadn't been The Actor then.

But Wren didn't even get a chance to leave the table - her parents must have noticed Jeff was sitting there with her. Her mom suddenly came over to the table; her dad was waving from the entrance to the kitchen.

"Hi," Wren's mom said. "You must be Jeff - it's been so long since we last saw you and your family, but the resemblance to your younger self is undeniable. How are you liking the city?"

Jeff Jonsin

"Oh," Jeff grinned. She seemed a bit familiar, actually, and Wren definitely resembled her. "Uhm, hi, I can't believe you remember me."

He wasn't used to seeing super friendly adults, mostly cause he was a quiet kid and all his family members liked to baby him.

"The city's been pretty great, actually. I've only been here for a week or so, and so I haven't seen too much, but it's been nice."

Jeff looked back at Wren's mom. "How have things been for you guys? I never thought I'd meet someone from Sundale again, and not people I knew from before."

"It's certainly a small world," her mom agreed. Wren gave a tiny little nod; the chances of moving away from Sundale and then meeting someone else from it years later were really small. And it was even less likely that she would meet someone she knew - even if she didn't remember him all that well. "Things have been pretty good for us - our cafe was a success even after it first opened, but a certain superhero stopping here all of the time has certainly helped business."

Wren blushed in embarrassment. Wishing her cheeks wouldn't feel so hot and wouldn't be so red, she stared down at the table and desperately wished for a change of topic.