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Three heads (Cameron’s, Jeff’s and mine) whipped towards Charlotte. “You can drive?” We chorused.

“But how?” Cameron stared at her.

“How old are you?” I asked, jealous.

Charlotte smiled serenely. “We are of age, you know.” The rest of us exchanged sheepish glances and muttered affirmation.

“But...you drive yourself to school?” Asked Jeff. Charlotte and Andrew shared a secret smile.

“Come,” Charlotte said, “I shall show you the vehicle that I drive.” Andrew offered her his arm, and she took it. Cameron and Jeff followed after. I sighed and trailed behind. There was a lot of walking involved with today.

We wound through the outdoor corridors of the school, passing a lone custodian making his usual after school rounds, and a few clutches of students who gathered by the library and the tarped cafeteria. We skirted the front parking lot, reserved for staff and visitors, and turned into the strip of dirt that marked the beginning of the student parking lot.

“Um…so where is it?” Cameron scanned the rows of cars.

Charlotte led us past a blue sedan and a large red pickup truck. “Here it is,” she beamed proudly. The car was silver, just a skeleton on wheels, basically. The three seats in the back were metal, covered in a thin layer of cotton sheet, as we discovered when we sat down. The seatbelts, steering wheel, and every other discernable part of the car was also metal.

Jeff blinked at the metal contraption. “Is this safe?”

Charlotte reassured him. “Completely. Please, seat yourself.” He gaped at her for a moment before settling in the seat left of me. After he closed the door and the car locked with a metallic click, Andrew turned around from his place in the passenger seat.

“We can talk freely in this car. I’ve layered multiple shields on it over time, and since Charlotte has complete control over metal, this is pretty much the safest place we can ever find. Away from that monster.” He shuddered.

“Monster?” echoed Jeff.

Charlotte responded by starting the car. It clanked and jingled weakly for a moment, then puttered to life. Andrew eyed Jeff warily. Cameron sighed, “stop being so cryptic and just tell him what you told us. He’s one of us, now.”

I raised my eyebrows. “One of us?”

“Yeah,” Cameron lifted on shoulder. “We have to sort of stick together, right? To be safe from the monster.”

“Monster?” Jeff raised his voice.

“Hold that thought,” said Andrew. “Cameron, remember what I taught you about your powers?” Cameron nodded, “Can you put a small shield on this car? You probably haven’t learned enough about your powers to render the car completely invisible, but at least you could make it less noticeable.” Cameron thought for a while, then closed her eyes. Andrew seemed to take that as an affirmative, and turned his attention back to Jeff, who’s face had gone slightly pale. Andrew repeated, in a condensed version, what he had told us. As he spoke, Jeff’s face slowly returned to its normal shade of pale pink.

“Well,” he commented, blinking slowly, “I don’t know what to say about the monster, but I should tell you, that I didn’t learn to control my powers all by myself. At least, not after the first few weeks. They’re showing up in more people, and there’s a reason for it.”

“And what reason is that?” asked Andrew.

Jeff’s face crumpled a little. “That’s just it. I don’t know. Never got a chance to find out.”