The rest of Lauren’s school day was mostly uneventful. Her and Reuben met Adam, Thalia, Lucy, and Mary at their lunch table. Lauren got a fish sandwich, tater tots, and an apple. She learned a bit about Reuben, that he was from Philadelphia and enjoyed woodworking.

  Halfway through lunch, Adam had to get up to answer a call. He came back a few minutes later looking a bit puzzled.

  “What’s up?” Thalia asked as he sat back down.

  “Uh, I don’t know,” he said. “My dad’s in town. He wants to meet me at the foundation tomorrow.”

  “Oh, wow. Everything alright?”

  Adam shrugged. “I guess so. He just wants to talk about something.”

  “Huh. Must be important,” Thalia said.

  “I think Lauren and I were planning to go into the city tomorrow. The weather’s supposed to be nice. Maybe we could all go together, make a day of it?” Lucy suggested while she peeled an orange.

  “That’s a great idea,” Thalia said. “We should hit up the riverfront. I heard there’s awesome shopping there.”

  Lauren turned and gave a pointed look to Lucy. What happened to secret roommate mission? She wasn’t trying to plan a group shopping trip. They had work to do.

  Lucy widened her eyes, looking lost.

  Whatever. She’d break off and work on her own if she had to.

  Near the end of lunch, another student walked up to their table. It was Abigail, the girl from the tour group. She was dressed similarly to yesterday, in a brown turtleneck and dark skirt. Her short hair was stiffened into slick feathers by product. Earlier, in gym, she had said something about controlling technology. Her explanation was clipped and technical sounding. She pulled gun-like devices from seemingly nowhere and used their beams to shatter the force fields that her opponent Marcellus was creating. She struck Lauren as a stern, possibly domineering person. But now, as she approached them, she looked diplomatic, maybe even friendly. Her smile was definitely out of practice.

  “Adam. Hi,” she said as she walked up to him. Adam turned and looked up. He hastily finished the food in his mouth.

  “Oh. Hi,” he said. He swallowed. “Abigail, right?”

  “That’s right!” she said a bit too quickly. “I had no idea you were an Atlas.”

  “Oh. Well, yeah.” He didn’t really seem to know what to say. “Here I am.”

  “I don’t mean to interrupt your lunch, I just wanted to say thank you. The Atlas Foundation recognized my potential when I was younger. Through their programs I was able to access many… opportunities I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. So, thank you.”

  “Oh— Well, I can’t really take credit for that. But I’m glad my family was able to provide help. My grandfather always said you can’t have a fair race if the ground is uneven.”

  Abigail smiled and laced her hands together. “Do you happen to have English next? If so, perhaps we could walk together a bit early. I have many ideas I would love to get your thoughts on.”

  Adam looked back at the lunch group, as all eyes were on them.

  “I think a few of us have English today, but I guess we could walk ahead? I’ll meet you guys there?” he checked with the group.

  No one objected. He stood, grabbed his bag, and walked off with Abigail.

  “Adam’s getting pretty popular,” Lucy said, popping another orange slice into her cheek. “Did you see him talking with that stretchy girl, Annabelle last night? I think she even morphed into you, Thalia.”

  Thalia made a displeased look. “What? That’s weird.”

  That’s all she had to say on the topic. Lunch ended soon after. Lauren headed with Lucy and Mary to English class. When they arrived in the cozy classroom filled with bookshelves and literary posters, Adam was still politely listening to Abigail sitting next to him. She had out some kind of diagram on her desk. Adam glanced up as they entered.

  Class began. Their English teacher was a wispy woman in a loose cardigan named Doctor Bailey. Everything was droopy about her, from her posture to her eyelids. She wore her hair in a loose bun, and strands of it fell over her face that she would often tuck away as she introduced herself and talked about the class. Her voice was low and crackly.

  They did introductions again. The three other students in class were Megumi, Ernest, and Ingrid.

  Megumi looked every bit an urban punk. Wild black bangs swooped out from a beanie on her head. She had on heavy makeup, including black lipstick. She wore a denim jacket with cotton sleeves that was covered in pins and patches. She didn’t waste time saying much besides her name.

  Ernest was a big guy, at least six feet, but he looked a bit nervous and happy to be there. He had short blonde hair and a small patch of facial hair on his chin. He had on a flannel shirt and jeans. He shared that he was from Colorado, and that English was a favorite subject.

  Ingrid was a short, timid girl who had been sitting alone at lunch. She wore a purple dress and had big, round glasses that sat on her slightly upturned nose. Her shoulder-length straight hair swooped upwards at the shoulder and had a purple streak in the front. When she spoke, it was with a faint lisp. She was from Michigan, and an avid reader of fantasy novels.

  The class overall seemed a fairly nice and relaxed one to end Thursday with. They were mostly going to be reading novels, then discussing them and doing some writing. Doctor Bailey handed out copies of The Left Hand of Darkness. Lauren’s copy looked old and used enough to actually be from the 60s.

  “Please read the first two chapters by… Tuesday,” Doctor Bailey said with a scrunched nose. She grabbed a tissue from the box on her desk and blew her nose, only her fingers emerging from her cardigan’s sleeves.

  The bell rung. It was now 2 PM, the end of Lauren’s first day of school. The only thing scheduled on Fridays was art class in the morning, then the rest of the day was either for “special sessions” or free period, aka early release. That meant plenty of time to get out and explore the city tomorrow.

  “Whatd’ya think?” Lucy asked as they left class back to their dorm.

  Lauren shrugged. “It didn’t feel much like superhero school. Except for the part where I got kicked in the face.” She rubbed her cheek where she got kicked, but the swelling seemed almost completely gone. Her face wasn’t even really sore. She hadn’t thought about it for hours.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “I guess they just want us to be well-rounded. I think besides power performance, our main “superhero” class is Crime Fighting and Law. We have that every other day with gym.”

  That was the first class on Monday on Lauren’s schedule, taking up two hours.

  They headed outside and across the lawn.

  “Are you upset I invited more people out tomorrow?” Lucy asked. “I’m sorry if you wanted it to be a just you and me thing.”

  “I’m not upset,” Lauren said. “But I do need to focus on finding my sister.”

  “I get that,” Lucy said, empathy in her voice. “But, realistically, we aren’t going to find her tomorrow. Pacific City is a big place. We need to touch ground before we can start rooting around. One day out with friends isn’t going to make or break this. And who knows, maybe having more eyes and ears out there will turn up some leads you might not find by yourself.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Lauren conceded. “I’m sorry, I just— Rachel is my only family. Every day is a day they could be doing something worse to her. Punishing her for me escaping, or something else. They had us for two years, and they never ran out of things to try.”

  “That’s horrible. I can’t even imagine what that’s like.” Lucy sounded more pained about it than Lauren’s own voice could muster. “I can’t wait to help you rescue her, and meet her. I bet she’s amazing.”

  Lauren’s mouth twisted into something like a smile. Bitterly happy emotions welled in her when she remembered Rachel.

  “Rachel was… amazing. We’re twins, but she’s really my big sister. She’s my rudder. She got me through everything. I wouldn’t have made it without her.”

  Lucy gave her a side hug.

  “We’ll get her. We’ve got a freakin’ army here. Pacific City won’t know what hit it.”

  “I hope so.”

  They made it home. Lauren plopped down one of the recliners and resolved to try to relax. Lucy sat on the couch and grabbed the remote. She turned on a show called Killer High.

  “It’s basically about a high school full of rich kids where one student gets murdered every season. Also every character has problems, like drugs or an affair with a teacher, or binge eating, or falling in love with their sibling.”

  Lauren got whiplash just hearing that description. “This is a show for teens?” she checked.

  Lucy shrugged. “Young adults. But every teen across the country is watching this show. It’s all anyone talks about on Uptik. Don’t get me wrong, it’s complete garbage. Just absolute trash. But that’s the kind of stuff people love. Brain junk food.”

  Lauren couldn’t argue with that.

  They spent a while watching the show. Grace walked in during the second sex scene.

  “Are you watching Killer High?” She stuck fingers in her ears as she breezed past. “La la la! Don’t spoil it! I’m watching it with Cleo later! I don’t know whose butt that is!”

  After the show ended, they drifted between a few channels and streaming shows. The school had it all, apparently.

  Neither was really feeling like going out to the cafeteria that night, so Lucy offered to cook them stir fry. Lucy had put together a grocery list last night, which must have been fulfilled while they were out. The fragrant aroma coming from the kitchen while she cooked made Lauren’s stomach hurt with hunger. It smelled even better than the cafeteria food.

  Lucy brought her out a bowl and she dug in. The stir fry was crisp and bursting with flavor. It tasted more fresh than anything she had ever experienced before. Not a very high bar after scavenging for leftovers and microwave meals for years, but it was still incredible.

  “This is amazing!” Lauren said. A bit of pea flew out of her mouth.

  “Thanks,” Lucy said. She beamed with pride as she grabbed some veggies with her chopsticks. “My dad is the cook in the family. He taught me everything I know.”

  Grace stuck her head out of her room, her nose leading the way.

  “Is Killer High over? And what smells so good?”

  “Yeah, it’s over,” Lucy called. “It’s stir fry. Help yourself.”

  The three girls ate dinner together in the living room. Where Harper was, Lauren had no idea. She hadn’t seen her since gym that morning.

  After dinner, Lucy put on the nightly game shows, and Lauren did her best to follow along. Grace was in her own world on her phone. It turned out Lucy was also ace at answering trivia questions.

  It got to be 9. Lauren decided to head to her room early. She bid goodnight to her roommates.

  “See you for art tomorrow. Then we’ll head into town,” Lucy said.

  Lauren gave a thumbs up.

  She went to her room and showered, then fell into her bed in pajamas. Only her nightstand light was on.

  She reached for her new smartphone that she had thrown onto her bed. She hadn’t used it much yet, except for Thalia, Adam, and Lucy to put in their phone numbers at various points.

  She checked her contacts. There they all were, along with Agent Dodds and Agent Hogan. None of them had contact photos.

  Lauren was glad she could contact Hogan for any potential updates. Maybe she should have told him about her hunch that Rachel was here. Maybe that would throw him off course though, if she was wrong. Or maybe the trail was growing cold because she wasn’t sharing something critical. It was hard to know what was right.

  The rest of her phone was pretty empty, except for the SafeCape? app. She went to the app store. The top app globally was Uptik. Lauren was vaguely familiar with it, even before her stint underground. She downloaded it.

  It appeared on her homescreen, a white box with green and red half-arrows pointing in opposite directions. When she opened it, it prompted her to make an account. She let it make her a random account name and password. She left the account picture blank. Her alias was now SoggyTomato22.

  The app presented her with a bright feed full of videos, text posts, and memes, scrollable both vertically to related posts and horizontally to different topics. It was overwhelming to the technologically-lagged teen. Is this what everyone was staring at all the time? It was already giving Lauren a headache.

  There was a search bar at the top. She tapped it, and everything paused to bring up a keyboard. She typed in Pacific City.

  Her feed changed to show pictures of glittering beaches, palm trees, and streets full of traffic in between tall buildings. People posted about food. People complained about construction. People complained about housing prices. People showed off their bodies. Lots and lots of bodies.

  She typed Pacific City Heroes.

  The first thing that caught her eye were people gossiping about a new school for superheroes built up on the cliffside above Pacific City. There were debates about if it was open yet, how many students it had. People tracked aircraft flying in and out of the area. People filming themselves in the woods reported that they weren’t able to hike up to the site. Apparently nothing had been officially announced yet.

  A verified account called TheRealVigilance had posted a video three days ago with half a million views. Lauren clicked on it.

  A man in a blue bodysuit with padded shoulders and a black wraparound-style eye mask was filming himself walking down a street during the day. He had short brown hair and stubble peppering his strong chin. As he walked, people passing turned to look at him.

  “Hey folks,” he said directly to the camera. “A lot of people recently have been asking me what I think about the rumors of the potential new school for superheroes being built somewhere in the vicinity of Pacific City. People have been asking me if I think it’s the right time, if I’m worried about some kids stealing my thunder, if Pacific City is the right place for this. That kind of stuff. And I just want to say, absolutely, on no uncertain terms, this is the right place and the right time for a new generation of heroes to make themselves known. I hope these kids, whoever they are, if they’re around, I hope they show up to steal my thunder. This city needs them. These people need them. There are things happening on these streets that frankly, I’m just not equipped for. There are people I can’t help, because I’m just one man. I do what I can, I work with BASTION, I coordinate, but I can’t stop it all. We really do need help out here. So I salute the new generation. If they need help I’m around for it. If they need my knowledge, expertise, whatever. I’ve been holding down the streets, keeping boots on the ground, and I’m here for it. Anyways, that’s all I have to say for now. Keep the peace. Vigilance, out.”

  The video ended.

  Lauren set her phone down and thought about it. A Pacific City hero was probably as good of a starting place as any. Maybe he had heard something, or knew of a lead.

  She picked up her phone again and clicked on his account. It led to a bio page that had all of his videos and posts. There wasn’t any specific information about where he could be found. Made sense, if he had a secret identity.

  There was an option that said Message this account. Lauren pressed it. It led to a chat screen. She thought for a moment about what to say.

  Vigilance. I’m part of the new generation you talked about. I could use your help. I’m looking for someone. Can we meet?

  Autocorrect saved her on half the words. She hit send. Her message zipped to the top of the otherwise empty chat.

  She waited for a moment, half expecting to receive a message back in the next minute. But the chat remained still. She exited and turned off the phone screen.

  Lauren rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. In just a day she already felt so much deeper into the rabbit hole. Day 1 of being a professional freak over with. Who knows how many left to go.