Splinters In Time

"Nikki. Nikki." Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, Lydia lobbed a raspberry at her friend. "Nikki!"

They were in Home Economics class, attempting to make miniature glazed fruit tarts for an upcoming school fundraiser. Attempting being the operative word- whilst the tarts were supposed to be light and elegant, Lydia's fruit was already chopped to oblivion and Nikki was diligently kneading pastry that was crumbling to pieces in her hands.

"Hey! What?" Nikki yelped as the raspberry hit her shirt collar. Nikki had recently trimmed her hair short, which, given her natural curls, had resulted in a head of gorgeous, chocolate-brown ringlets. She had tied back her hair, partly for kitchen-safety and partly fashion, with a red bandana decorated with skulls.

"Tina's having a Halloween party." Lydia grinned.

"Who the heck is Tina?"

"From Hawkins High. Wanna gatecrash with me?"

"So this is not a party we're actually invited to?"

"Nah. I overheard Steve Harrington talking about it. You know, the one from swim-meets Dan fancies?

"Oh, shut up." Dan grouched from the cooker just across from them. "I was complimenting his athleticism, that's all." Dan was currently in the midst of growing his hair out- it was sort of a scraggly collar-length and the same shade of black as his eyeliner and painted nails.

Lydia scoffed. "Oh yeah. Sorry, it was the wolf whistle that threw us off."

"I did not-"

"-Why don't we offer to play the party?" Nikki interrupted. "Get in that way, as the band?"

"Enemy turf." Lydia said. "We don't play enemy turf. Except to kick their asses. ...Besides, they've got it covered already."

"And what band would this be?" A cruel voice snarked.

Lydia rolled her eyes. "Go away, Megan."

Megan was the mean girl of- well, not quite the school, but at least their year. With her gang of cronies, she terrorised most of the class, and had recently decided to hone in on Lydia and co.

"I didn't think you had a band anymore." Megan smirked, flicking her caramel brown hair. "Unless you mean school orchestra." That one proved to be too funny for the two girls standing beside Megan and they dissolved into laughter.

Lydia's scowl deepened.

"Bit hard to have a band without a lead singer, isn't it?"

That hurt. Over with the rest of Megan's friends, Lydia could see a girl named Jess. Jess had been her best friend since childhood and the lead singer of their band, until she had turned traitor all of a sudden and they'd had a major falling out.

Megan snorted. "I mean, we all heard what she called you."

"Shut. Up." Lydia gritted.

"Come on, Lyds. We gotta finish this." Nikki tried to steer attention back to their baking, although not before giving Megan a dirty look.

Megan scoffed. "No wonder you guys aren't invited to the party. Who'd want you around?"

"Ugh, is the teacher not back yet?" Dan craned his neck to look around the room.

"Megan, go away." Lydia stepped towards her.

Dan and Nikki leapt to stop her. "Lydia, don't do anything rash!"

Megan smirked. "What's the name of this band, anyway? The Losers?"

"Megan, watch out!" One of Megan's friends shouted.

The flame on Megan's burner sputtered strangely and then shot up into the air, catching Megan's sleeve alight and setting her pan of tart-glaze on fire as it did.

Megan jerked her arm away, just as Lydia threw a tea towel over it, patting out the flames.

The fire alarm went off.

"Alright, alright!" The teacher said, rushing back into the room. "Everybody out!"

Fifteen minutes later, with the whole school assembled on the field, Lydia and friends were listening to the Home Economics teacher berate the principal about the quality of the school's ancient cookers. "-Something's wrong with the burner, it has to be. The whole things melted inside. I'm telling you, we need new equipment-!"

Megan was being checked over by the school nurse. Other than some singed clothes and the fright of her life, she was fine.

Peeling from the group, Lydia walked over as the moment the nurse stepped away. "Hey, Megan? We may not have much of a band anymore, but at least I didn't burn down the school."

A/N: Umm... Lyds? Yeah, you did. XD Or school property, anyway.

Not sure it's my best work, I couldn't quite figure out how to first introduce Lydia's powers, came up with a funny title and worked out the rest on the fly. Admittedly, the writing doesn't feel natural to me- don't know what it is, might be it's just not what I usually write. Hopefully it's funny, at least?