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“What are you doing here?” Cameron’s harsh voice rocketed through the air, aimed directly at Charlotte. She still didn’t seem to understand the acidity in her tone.

“Andrew heard Maggie’s confusion. He only assumed it meant something power-related had happened. Since he is forbidden from the girls’ bathroom, he sent me.” I nodded, reaching out for Cameron.

“I’m right here, Maggs.” She said. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and moved my hand to squeeze it sympathetically.

“What do we do? We have to get to class.”

“Indeed.” Charlotte walked toward me, and reached for where I was holding Cam’s hand.

“Cameron, could you come with me? Your brother and I have a place where we could coach you to come back to the realm of the visible.”

“I guess.” Cameron’s voice was sour, but, really, what choice did she have?

“Maggie, it would be best if you could go to class, and say that Cameron was feeling ill. Andrew and I will be able to forge her a note.”

“Ok.” I reached for Cam’s shoulder, but she gave me her other hand. “Be…careful.” I said, for lack of a better word. There was a pause, and she said,

“I will. Thanks.”

“Were you going to say something else?” I asked. I could practically feel her blush.

“Well, um, I tried to nod before I realized that you couldn’t see me…”

“Can you see yourself?” I asked. There was another pause, followed by,

“I mean yes. Yes, I can see myself. I mean, not in the reflection,” I turned to look at the mirror, and of course she wasn’t there, “but I can look down and see my hands and legs and feet. I just feel…different.”

“The bell is going to ring soon.” Charlotte said, her usually calm voice a little tense. “Maggie, you must go.” I nodded, picked up my backpack, and headed to Mrs. Eacker’s classroom. Andrew met me on the way.

“You’re going to need this.” He said, handing me a note. It was written in curvy, almost illegible handwriting, saying that I had taken Cameron to the nurse and that was why I was late. The bell rang, then, and I nearly sprinted the rest of the way to class.

The teacher took the note without reading it, smiling at me. I noticed the stack of graded essays on her table, just waiting to be passed out. Waiting to tell the students in the class how poorly they did, which would just spiral into another lesson, which would mean another essay, and so on and so forth.

Sometimes I really loathed English.

Cameron came back about halfway through the lecture, with a note that appeared to be the same handwriting. Once again, Mrs. Eacker accepted it without question, and Cameron took her seat next to me.

“What happened?” I hissed at her as she got her notes out.

“Andrew read my mind to try to figure out how to control my powers. We sort of had to work together. And every time either of us got stressed, Charlotte would relax us.” She shrugged.

“Maybe this isn’t as bad as I thought. If they keep helping us, imagine what we could do! They said my powers are like some sort of shield, so I should be able to make these shields other places to, right? Instead of just on me. Wouldn’t that be cool?”

“Yeah.” I said softly.

“And after school, they’ll teach you. You’ll see, it’s really…freeing. Like there was always something I could have done, but never got to…You know?” I just shrugged.