— Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, General POV —
A teen with dark hair had a tired look on his face as he was carrying a dozen bags, either containing shoes, clothes or bags. None of which were his but all were paid by him.
"Cate… Just because I have Super Strength doesn't mean I like to carry all this stuff." He mumbled towards his girlfriend and her roommate.
"Come on, we just have 8 more stores to go." She said, as her roommate chuckled.
"Maybe I should get myself a bag carrier," She said as her eyes wandered, "That Luke in your Intro to Crime Fighting is kinda cute, do you think he is single?"
"I think so." Adem said, getting a large grin from the girl.
This girl was Jenna, Cate's roommate. Adem had been dating Cate for over a month, however, he had only met Jenna yesterday when she walked in on them. She had a large blush on her face before apologizing and making her way out. She seemed nice enough, so Adem had the great idea to invite her today.
'Why did I arrange this again?' Adem asked as he looked at his girlfriend walking slightly ahead of him with her friend. 'Oh right… that's why…'
Cate didn't have any friends. None that he knows of at least.
Now don't get him wrong, Adem himself doesn't have many people he would call a friend. There were a handful people at most, but for Cate there was no one.
She hadn't really made friends with anyone- besides Adem- since coming to Godolkin, nor was there any mention of friends from her High School.
Adem didn't really want to pry into her past, he was sure there was some trauma involving her powers, and that she would eventually reveal to him whatever it was.
But, he couldn't let Cate shut out the rest of the world except for him, so he invited Cate to go on a shopping spree in Beverly Hills, and went out of his way to make sure her roommate also came.
They spend the entire day going through more shops than Adem bothered to count, spending close to 10 grand of his money.
Regardless, he counts today as a success, as he felt like they were on the path of becoming friends rather than just roommates.
After they were done, the girls got into the car and Adem flew them back to the God U.
But before leaving, something happened.
"Hey Cate, Adem thanks for inviting me today, I had lots of fun." She said with a large grin, "Me and a few friends are going to this Believe Expo, and if you guys are interested you should come."
'Believe Expo… Why the hell is everyone inviting me to that shit show?' Adem asked to himself before noticing the excited look on Cate's face, *sigh* "Sure, we would love to go."
Cate's eyes widened as she turned towards him, "Are you sure?" She whispered. She was aware of his status as a Deist, and the fact that his parents are Muslim, "If you don't want to, we don't have to go."
"No, I want to. It will be fun." He said with a small smile on his face before giving her a kiss. "I'll talk to you tomorrow."
— General POV —
The board members of God U. Met in Dean Shetty's office. They were on a call with Madelyn Stillwell.
"So he is going to the Believe Expo?" Madelyn Stillwell asked through the phone.
"Yes, he is." Dean Shetty said,
"Good. We just need a few pictures of him being taken there. With the public opinion as it is we can't have people believe 'the Next Homelander' is a terrorist." Madelyn said to the school board who all nod in agreement. The individual might be smart, but people as a whole were idiots. All it would take is a few idiots to shout loud enough to paint Adem as a Muslim Terrorist and damage his future marketability.
They wanted to invite Adem, but they couldn't. The personality analysis done on Adem suggests if he was invited by an authority figure, he is likely to ditch the event. However, if a friend were to invite him, he is likely to go. Even if he himself wasn't religious at all.
So they had been working around the clock. Planning, and manipulating events to transpire to have people invite Adam Aslan to the expo for them. They had gone so far as to give extra tickets to anyone close to Adem.
However, the problem was that Adem was only really close to a few people.
One of them was a Hindu, the other a Trans Supe, and the other was gay. And considering the nature of the Expo, those people would never be accepted there, nor would they want to go in the first place.
That only left two potential avenues, Luke Riordan and Cate Dunlop.
Luke was invited through Andre, and both of them invited Adem together, but unfortunately Andre fucked it up.
That meant Cate was the last person who might be able to get Adem to attend, however, Cate herself was not close to anyone besides Dean Shetty and Adem, and since Dean Shetty was Hindu, she couldn't invite her.
That meant they had to be a bit more creative.
Cate's roommate was a Supe who had gone through the Christian Supe route her whole life, so she was one of the few truly religious Supes out there. They gifted tickets to her, through a Christian Supe Organization she has been part of for over a decade, and encouraged her to invite her classmates.
And it all worked as they had planned.
Professor Brink smiled as he said "All according to Cake."
(Author Note: I decided to upload the chapters on here, you can read up to chapter 30 already on Fanfiction. Net. I have the ending of the book planned but before finalizing I want to see the ending of the show)