Port City, USA

Pardie Park, uptown

A warm afternoon

"Stop staring at us, weirdo."

Priya starts. She hasn't been staring, she hasn't been looking at all. Lost in a daydream, she was writing a story to herself.

The couple at the park, though, don't t seem to care. The man berates her after sitting down directly in her line of sight, not that she's looking.

"Bad enough we have to let your kind into the country," the woman—college-aged, Priya guesses, like her partner—snarls.

"I was born here," Priya replies, more than a little offended. Unless you mean Canadians, but I'm pretty sure you don't.

"Yeah, well you shouldn't have been," the man snaps. "So quit staring at us."

Port City's newest superpower, Water Bearer (name a work in progress), just keeps staring, though. Now with intent. Gathering her sari around herself, she flips to a new page in her notebook, fixing the two in her sight.

The couple on the bench in Pardie Park turned to face one another, she writes, watching as each of her targets turn towards one another, and ignores the presence of the stranger sitting under the large tree.

When Priya had opened her eyes in a world with superheroes, she hadn't really expected to be one herself, but finding out that her writing can change the world—in small ways, at least—was a welcome surprise.

From a place deep within himself, the man confesses a terrible secret.

"I have a confession, Becky" the young man says in a dramatic voice. "I'm only dating you for your family status."

"What?" the woman replies, not looking away, seemingly shocked.

And she reveals an equally devastating truth, Water Bearer wrote in her notebook.

"Well," Becky says, "I've been sleeping with your cousin!"

"Reginald?" he gasps.

She flushes, but keeps silent.

"Not..."

Becky swallows.

"Not Angelica."

Finally she turns her face away, unable to hide her shame. "Can you forgive me, Preston?"

Priya giggles, continuing to write. The two of them make continually more dramatic announcements...

"No, Becky," he says, "because I've been sleeping with Angelica too!"

Becky turns back to face him. "You have? But then you must know that—"

"She's pregnant? Yes, of course I do."

"Are you the father?"

Preston shakes his head. "No... You are."

Priya stares, then looks down at her page. "Well," she mutters to herself, "I didn't say that the announcements had to be true."

"But that's impossible!" Becky exclaims, hands on her cheeks. "Because I'm pregnant with her baby!"

A crowd is starting to gather at the noise the two are making. Priya slips to her feet and carefully fades into the back of handful of people watching, notebook and pen in hand.

"Oh Becky! Then you must be having—"

"Yes, Preston, I'm pregnant with fraternal twins from both your cousins!" Becky grabs Preston's hands. "Oh, if only my mother were alive to help us sort this out!"

"Becky, I... have some dramatic news for you."

Priya holds the pen poised over the notebook. "Oh shit," she breathes. She wants to stop them, but she also wants to see where they're going to go next.

"I found your mother on my trip to Santa Cruz last month."

"But my mother is—"

Preston squeezes her hands. "Not who you thought she was. You see, your real mother, who sold you to the Halptons at your birth, is an ophthalmologist working with the poor in rural California..."

"Oh Lord," Priya mutters.

"With amnesia!"

"And that's enough of that." Priya puts pen to paper, being sure to keep the pair in her line of sight.

... and then the two of them forgot all about their encounter with the strange woman in the park, stood and took a bow to their adoring crowd, and went on their way.

And she departs with the sound of cheers and applause behind her. Might not have been suitable revenge, but at least it was fun.