Chapter 1 - The Storm

When Amber was six, she spent a majority of her time daydreaming about what she wanted to do when she grew up. You know, as kids do. She went through a right list of jobs… a vet, an astronaut, a chef and all that bullshit. She imagined herself with a gorgeous, slick car parked outside of her huge, fuck off mansion. Never in a million years did she think that at the age of nineteen she would be living in shitty flat in Wertham, enduring the hours working on the tills at the local Sainsbury's with her sleazy manager Peter giving her the eye.
Oh, and just to put a juicy glacé cherry on top of the shit pile; she now had two hundred hours of community service ahead of her.

According to her family, it was only a matter of time. She wasn't exactly the best behaved person you could meet. Apparently, waking people up at three in the morning by blasting out dubstep music while driving a car - that may or may not be entirely your own - doesn't get you much respect. Neither does tearing up your mum's favourite vile green dress and then blaming it on the cat. What Amber called 'saving her mother from looking like a monster from Scooby-Doo' was what her mum called 'I'm sick of your antics- get the fuck out of my house!'
After that, things pretty much fell to shit and she landed herself here.

Here being Wertham Community Centre, dressed in a fluorescent orange jumpsuit with 'Community Payback' printed across the back. As if being on Community Service wasn't bad enough, herself and the other six degenerates being dressed up and in a line against the railings made them look like competitors on some new, crappy game-show. While Mr Probation Worker Tony recited his obviously rehearsed speech, Amber took in the offenders.

Contestant Number One went by the name of Curtis Donovan. Dark-skinned, muscular and with what the papers said, a bloody good athlete. Well, that was until he fucked up his career by doing steroids… or crack… and landed himself on community service.

On Curtis' left was Contestant Number Two, who had swaggered up to the probation worker doing his pathetic attempt at a gangster limp and introduced himself as Gary. There's not much to be said about a guy like that, the picture is already painted.

Beside Gary was a lanky, curly-haired, Irish lad who wore the worlds cockiest grin to date. Without the grin, you'd think he was harmless enough, but his mouth seemed to be something that wasn't shut for very long, even if you put a clamp on it. Either way, he'd made so many snide comments since they'd been outside that Amber had tried to ignore him, so she didn't know his name.

Beside the Irish kid were the only other girls in the group who went by the names of Alisha and Kelly. Kelly appeared as what was commonly referred to in the urban dictionary as a chav. Hair scraped back, cheap make-up plastered and the good, old Reebok trainers.

Alisha, however, was her opposite. Tanned, petite, beautiful. But oh god, didn't she know it. She'd done a thorough 'Pimp-My-Community-Jumpsuit' by accessorizing it with a belt, and the zip was so low that she was showing a dangerous amount of cleavage. Alisha was what was commonly referred to as a tart.

The last boy of the bunch was Simon. Amber recognized him from the daily trips he made to Sainsbury's to buy his usual can of Pepsi and Tutti Frutti chewing gum. He seemed a nice enough kid, although it couldn't be denied, he was a complete oddball. He was pale and everything about him was neat. His clothes were well ironed with no creases, his hair was flat and precise... it made him all the more creepy, especially since he sported the deer-in-the-headlights look permanently.

Finally, it was her. Amber Baxter. Medium height, dark blonde hair and narrow body. She was donning the assigned bright orange horror of a uniform and her tatty black Doc Martens. Nothing about her appearance suggested much to her personality, and she was grateful, because it had suddenly dawned on her as she took in the delinquents - who were laughing at Curly and Gary, who had decided to put on their own pitiful display of a fight - that she would be spending the next few weeks in their company. Amber let out a long sigh and shook her head. There was a simple word to describe these kind of situations.

Shit.

Eventually, they were given the task of painting benches. Amber quickly snatched up a paint tin and brush and made a beeline for the bench the furthest away from the community centre. Simon followed closely and took his place opposite her, along with Gary. It occurred to Amber that Simon probably felt the most comfortable with her since she was the most familiar to him, as he was to her. So, you could sort of call him an ally. A companion. Simon wasn't the worst person to have as company really, having someone you knew actually put some relief on the whole situation. It was better when Gangster Gary got a paddy on, kicked his paint can in the river and stomped off because he got paint on his cap, which obviously to him was worth more than the Crown Jewels.

Amber snorted and continued painting the bench. It was a true skill, painting. Getting in all the nooks and crannies, making the subject look smooth and flawless by small brush strokes. Although, Amber had the attention span of goldfish and all that went out the window and she ended up painting patterns and obscene words instead. When that lost its entertainment, she allowed herself to eavesdrop into the conversation between Kelly and the Irish kid on the neighbouring bench.

"So I'm guessing shoplifting?" The Irish guy said. "No?"

Kelly glared at him. "Don't act like ya know me, 'coz ya don't."

"I'm just making conversation," The Irish guy replied. "This is a chance to network with other young offenders. We should be swapping tips. Brainstorming. Come on, what did you do?"

"This girl called me a slag so we got into a fight."

"Was this on the Jeremy Kyle Show?" Amber chuckled silently. Curly had certainly made an impression already. Shit talking, starting a fight with Gary and now taking the piss out of chavtastic Kelly. It seemed a little harsh calling Kelly a chav, but her accent didn't help. It wasn't even qualified English, she had actually invented her own accent so in a way she deserved a little pat on the back. Little being the fundamental word, since she looks the type that may mistake it for a slap and cave your skull in.

"What about you, Weird Kid?" Curly had now moved onto his next target, Simon. "Don't take this the wrong way or anything but you look like a panty sniffer." For added effect, Curly felt the need to mime sniffing some abnormally large knickers.

"I'm not a panty sniffer," Simon said in a quavering voice, slowly looking up at Curly. "I'm not a pervert."

This clearly wasn't an acceptable answer for the Irishman, as he then proceeded to wank off his paintbrush, noises thrown into the performance. Amber raised an eyebrow. This guy enjoyed the attention, that was obvious, but the thing that got her the most was his lack of mortification, even in his situation and the fact he looked like a dirty mop with a glow stick handle.

"I tried to burn someone's house down!"

Amber glanced at the pale boy opposite her, who wore a glare that could only be described as deadly. She suddenly had second thoughts on Simon being good company. Curly let out a squeaky laugh and turned away. Kelly took this as a chance to question him.

"What did ya do?"

"Me?" The Irishman said, his face showing very little of the innocence of what his voice projected. "I was done for, uh, eating some pick n' mix."

"Sounds unlikely." Amber spoke up, catching the curly-haired lads attention.

"What's that? You speak? I was getting a little worried you were like Freddy Krueger over there." He said, pointing a skinny finger at Simon.

Amber looked at Simon then back at Curly and smirked. "Insulting a guy who's been done for Arson may not be the best idea, especially with the look he just gave you. Better make sure your windows and doors are shut tonight."

Simon stared at her blankly for a moment, but cracked what Amber guessed was a small smile. Inside that creepy, disturbingly neat and shaky exterior was a normal lad with a sense of humour. Obviously he suffered from a severe personality disorder. It was weird, Amber was usually the type to take the piss out of people, but Simon reminded her of a bush baby. Although the eyes are slightly creepy, it's still strangely adorable.

"Oh, so you're in love with him?" Curly scoffed. "I have to say love, I expected you to have better taste."

Amber snorted and tilted her head to the side. "So because I stick up for the poor kid, I immediately love him? Excuse me for being a nice person."

"Nice people don't get community service."

"Twats don't get community service for eating pick n' mix."

Curly opened his mouth to probably make some wise crack comment, but was abruptly interrupted by a growl of thunder. Amber stood up and glanced at the sky to see ash grey clouds creeping their way over the group at an unnatural speed. The estate on which the community centre was situated was depressing enough without it being emphasised by England's crap weather.

"What is going on with this weather?" Curly said to no-one in particular.

Amber was still watching the sky when Tony came over to the group, moaning about something or other. She wasn't listening, mainly because she wasn't interested in anything authority figures had to say, it didn't mean jack shit to her. They thought that because they had earned all their merit badges for the cunt clan they knew it all. They knew fuck all. Half the time they didn't have a clue what they were on about and go on like they've never done anything wrong. What bullshit.

She was brought out of her thoughts by a loud crash. She whirled round to see a car completely caved in by a great chunk of ice. It suddenly hit her how cold it had got in the matter of seconds, and she stuffed her hands in her pockets.

"That's my car!" Tony said grievously.

"Well, I hope you have insurance, because it's fucked."

"Classic." Nathan grinned.

Another abnormally large chunk of ice crashed down behind them, the impact sending water splashing over the young offenders, soaking them through. Amber's eyes darted around the group, seeing her own freaked out expression mirrored back to her on all of their faces. All except for Simon, who seemed thoroughly interested in what was happening since he had his mobile out and was filming the whole thing. Strange kid.

He let out a yelp as more ice came flying down from the darkening clouds and crashing into a bin next to him, effectively making him leap away from it. Amber felt her heart beat quicken. Whatever this was, it wasn't normal. All of a sudden, ice began to bullet down from the sky and without a second thought, they all sprinted towards the community centre.

Amber had always been terrible at running, or at any form of sport or exercise really, that's why she had skipped all PE lessons at school. Now, in a situation such as this, she fucking wished she hadn't. The community centre seemed so far away, and with all of the sounds around the group ringing in her ears; the car alarms, the smashing of windows, concrete being broken- she couldn't deny the fact she was a bit scared. She'd guessed that her heartbeat was now triple it's normal speed, at least that's how it felt.

She was the last to reach the community centre, and she was only in time to hear Alisha's panicked order for Tony to open the door when they were all lifted off their feet, sending them all hurtling backwards. A blinding hot pain struck her body, making every nerve stand on end, every muscle contract until it was rock solid, made her head pound and her eyes roll to the back of her head. The sudden encounter with the ground snatched her breath, but the agonizing pain that previously ran through her body was gone as fast as it had come. She tentatively opened her eyes and moved her limbs.

I've just been hit by lightning. I've just been hit by lightning. I've just been hit by lightning.

No matter how many times you say that sentence, it still sounds like bullshit. Yet, it wasn't. It was true, and with the looks of the twitchy figures beside her, they'd all survived. Well, if miracles didn't exist before, they did now. Amber carefully pushed herself up onto her elbows as Kelly spoke.

"I feel really weird."

"That'll be the lightning."

"Good observation, Mr Olympics." Amber said sarcastically. "Is everyone alive and okay?"

"We should be dead." Simon said tepidly.

"Way to put a positive spin on the situation, Simon." She huffed.

"A little reassurance would be nice, you know." Curly said groggily to Tony. "You're fine! Looking good!"

"W-wanker." Tony mumbled, his face having multiple spasms. Amber raised her eyebrows, but couldn't hide the bark of laughter that escaped her lips.

"Did he just call me a wanker?"

"Brilliant." Amber laughed.

The probation worker started spasming again. There was something very wrong with him. Not that she didn't think there wasn't anything wrong with him in the first place- you must be a little fucked in the head if you want to be a probation worker, where's the joy in watching adolescents pick up litter for hours? Sad bastard.
No, there was something else wrong. He had that tension set in his jaw, the one you get when you have the urge to slap some bitch in the face and a weird glaze over his eyes.

"Is everyone alright?" he asked weakly, gingerly sitting in an upright position.

"We could have died, you dick." Alisha snapped.

"Are you awright?" Kelly asked Tony, her head tipped on one side. Tony groaned, his face contorted. "Ya actin' like a freak."

He looked at them all, shuffling in his place. "Maybe we should call it a day."

If hangover's were bad, they were nothing compared to this blinding headache that Amber now had. It felt like her noggin had been introduced to a brick wall repeatedly. Although, it was worth it to get out of this place faster. She unzipped her jumpsuit and slid out of it, pulling on her jeans and t-shirt before shoving the orange monstrosity into her locker. She slammed the door shut, revealing Curly who had been stood behind it, eyeballing her with a lewd grin.

"You know," Amber started, pulling on her jacket. "Calling Simon a pervert when you've probably just watched me getting changed is what I call more than a bit hypocritical."

"Well, it's only fair after such a traumatic experience that I get some sort of treat," He growled flirtatiously, his grin unwavering. "And I must say love, that is a cracking pair of panties."

"Oh, I didn't know you were into the cross-dressing thing," Amber smirked. "I'm sorry, but these are my favourites, but I'll buy you a pair for Christmas, yeah?"

Curly chuckled and leant against her locker. "What's the name, love?"

"Amber, and yours?"

"Nathan," He waggled his eyebrows. "Why? So you know what to scream later?"

"Oh, there won't be any screaming at all, since what's going through your filthy mind will not be happening." Amber said, patting him on the back and heading for the door.

"Your loss, Princess."

Amber left the community centre and strolled across the path towards her estate, mulling over the events of her first day of community service. It wasn't exactly what she had expected- it's not every day you get struck by lightning and it suddenly rains icebergs. Still, she wasn't dead and she got out of community service for the day.

She clambered up the steps of her block and unlocked the door to her flat. Her flat wasn't so bad, really. Admitted it was cramped and it had damp, but what else did you want when you had little money and this was the cheapest flat to get in a hurry after you've been kicked out?
She collapsed onto her shoddy, second-hand sofa as soon as she entered. Getting drunk would have been first on the list after a day like this, but she had work in a few hours with Pervy Pete, and being completely sloshed wouldn't be a smart plan with him around. She sighed heavily and closed her eyes. If she couldn't get pissed, she could at least get some sleep.

Surely her dreams couldn't be as fucked up as reality.

A/N: Hey! I hope you like this. I've had inspiration from other Nathan/OC's and I thought I'd have a go. I absolutely love Misfits!
I'd love to know whether I should carry on with this, because if you do like it, I'll finish it and in later chapters you'll find out more about Amber, her background and of course- what her power is! So, please review! It's greatly appreciated!
Thanks!