Blue Beetle didn’t wait for the rest. He shrank to tiny size, went inside Ivy’s machine and reversed its wiring, killing the plants forever. Huntress handcuffed Ivy for the police. Beetle seemed to have left. Huntress went out of sight and changed into her regular clothes and returned to preparing her next lesson.

A small object, about one centimetre tall, jumped out of her hair unnoticed, landed softly on the floor beside her seat, walked under the desk and grew to the height of two inches. Blue Beetle had hidden in her hair as soon as he’d left Ivy’s machine. Now he had just learned that the Huntress was in fact his own teacher! He wondered how he could get her to notice him.

“Helena thinks Jaime’s just a student to her,” thought Jaime, “Huntress isn’t interested in Blue Beetle. Since Helena is Huntress, she might not be interested in Blue Beetle either … unless she assumed that a super hero had taken a shine to her as Helena and not as the Huntress.”

He grew back to full size and spoke to her.

“Miss it might be best if I made sure you left safely when you’ve finished your work,” said the Blue Beetle, “Huntress and I have just had a nasty encounter with Poison Ivy. She might have left minions on school property to continue what she started.”

“Thank you, but I didn’t know you had the power to change your size,” said Helena, thinking that perhaps this relatively unfamiliar super hero had potential after all, “I’m Helena Bertinelli.”

He walked her to her car quite late in the day. Night had already fallen.

“I appreciate the concern,” said Helena.

“I don’t suppose we could go out for tacos,” said Blue Beetle, as he suddenly realised what a poor impression his limited student income would make on an adult teacher.

“How would you eat it it in that costume?” asked Helena.

“I guess I could pull part of the mask away from my lower face,” said Blue Beetle, “I guess I’d need to anyway, if we ever … “

“If we ever do, I’ll look forward to seeing you face to part of face,” said Helena.

“I’m sorry. I just realised I might be putting you in danger by dating you in public.”

Helena didn’t want to tell him that she could look after herself. She offered to order the takeaway tacos herself and meet Blue Beetle in a secluded part of the park. Soon they were eating together.

“Is tonight too soon for the kiss?” he asked, when they had finished eating and drinking.

“I guess it would be alright,” said Helena, who was used to flirting with Batman as the Huntress and getting little in way of a response.

Jaime adjusted his mask and leaned across for the kiss. It was very pleasant. It was more than pleasant. Here he was kissing his teacher, and she didn’t know it. If he never got another kiss like that, it would have been worth it, he felt at the time.

“Not bad at all,” said Helena.

“I hope you’ll still think so now,” said Jaime, and removed his mask.

“I simply wouldn’t have believed it!” said Helena.

“I’ve liked both of you, in each case since I first saw you.”

“Both of me!”

“Sure. As Beetle, I had a crush on Huntress. As Jaime, I had a crush on Miss Bertinelli. I didn’t think I’d get very far unless Beetle approached Helena.”

“I guess I have made that hard for you on both counts,” said Helena, “But how did you know my identity?”

“I was concealed in your hair, when you changed back to Helena this afternoon.”

“It seems that both my civilian identity and your costumed identity prohibit us from being seen together in public. It looks like Huntress will have to date Beetle, while Bertinelli and Jaime maintain an aloof distance at school.”

“That’s better than the potential name ramifications of the alternative,” said Jaime, “You wouldn’t want people calling you Bertinelli Beetle.”

Helena tickled him without mercy.