No one moved to listen to Pip’s order until Khione spoke up.

  “Come on, losers,” Khione shouted. At once, the group came to attention. Everyone who had been ignoring Pip flocked to the demanding super, and Pip found herself staring at the girl in fascination. She had a commanding presence, but more than that, these people seemed eager to listen.

  Even so, they looked upon Pip with a range from distrust to disinterest, then glanced over at Khione. “Why are you helping this nepo?” a boy demanded.

  “Nepo? What’s that mean?” Pip shook her head, brushing the comment aside. “And either way, I’m trying to help you.”

  “We don’t need help.”

  “Oh yeah?” Pip planted her hands on her hips. “Then show me what you can do with your powers.”

  When no one stepped forward, Khione rolled her eyes and moved away from the group. Rolling up her sleeves, Khione placed herself in a ready stance that made Pip winced, and wound up a punch so telegraphed even a grandma would have been able to avoid it.

  Khione sucked in a breath and punched forward, sending a blast of ice and cold air through the gym. A chunk the size of a basketball slammed onto the hardwood and slid, gouging the carefully maintained floor.

  Fuck, Pip thought, whipping around to glance at her mother, now eyeing the group critically. Mai wouldn’t be happy that they’d damaged the gym floor, and the school would be even less happy.

  But let bygones be bygones.

  At this point, what else could they do but keep going?

  “All right,” Pip said, clapping her hands together. “As you can see, this group isn’t exactly doing the best to train you in using your powers. Do you even have a teacher?”

  “Hey!” Khione threw up her arms. “That wasn’t bad.”

  Before she opened her mouth to retort, she chose to lower her expectations. “No, it wasn’t,” Pip said. “But what’s the technique there? Has anyone ever taught you how to connect with your core? You’re my age, you should be able to access your power faster than that. Anyone else want to have a go?”

  Rather than volunteer to show off their powers, several turned to walk off.

  “Wait!” Pip shouted, panic rising in her chest. She wanted to help these people, considering that was likely what Mai had brought her here for, and because it pained her that these supers were so bad with their powers. But evidently she was going about this all wrong.

  The teens stopped moving, giving Pip another moment of attention. This was her chance to get across to them what she wanted. How could she convince them she was trying to help?

  “I know I have access to training you’ve never had,” Pip said, choosing to begin with the premise for the group. She couldn’t keep telling them they sucked; she had to convince them that she could help. “You’re here because you want to train, but there’s no one here to teach you. And that’s not fair. But I can.”

  “You’re our age,” said the kid with the long arm, as if Pip wasn’t aware of it.

  “But I’ve been training with my powers since I was six,” she said. “I’ve had access to tutors, studies, and a large family of supers as well. I’m going to be a hero one day.” Chuckles drifted from the group, and that only set Pip’s resolve. She would make them useful, whether they liked it or not. “And I’m going to train you.”

  Khione, to her credit, made up for her lack of power control by controlling the group. “I know it sounds annoying, but I think Pip does know a lot more than the rest of us. Maybe she can teach us a thing or two?”

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  Pip flashed the girl a smile, winning herself yet another pair of rolled eyes. She needed to keep track of how many of those she got.

  “Okay,” Pip said. How did her teachers start lessons? She hadn’t had any basic lessons in years, but she did her best to remember. “How about we start by going around and introducing ourselves and our powers?” She repeated her own name and power, though Mai had made her do the same less than fifteen minutes ago, and looked around expectantly. This time, she would actually pay attention.

  Gradually, they made their way around the group, most giving their names and powers. A few drifted off, flipping Pip off or straight up ignoring her, returning to their games and their food. That was fine. They’d realize Pip could help them, or they’d continue sucking. It still left her with a solid half dozen students, including the stretchy arm guy and Khione.

  The stretchy arm one was called Frog, which was a name she hadn’t seen before, but who was she to judge? There was also August, who could fly, technically, but couldn’t actually. Then Lilian, who could manipulate origami creations. That was a fun power. Josie, who could sprout specifically strawberry seeds and make them grow. Ross, who could craft illusions out of light. And Khione, an ice summoner and manipulator.

  Rather than dive into specialized exercises for each of them, Pip sat down cross legged on the floor and began to lead them in meditation. She always sucked at meditation, it required too much sitting and clearing of the mind and she could either sit still or keep her mind clear, but not both. Leading it, however, was better because she just had to repeat what her teachers had drilled into her, rather than meditating herself.

  “Now,” she said after they’d been going for a little while, “I want you to reach inside and connect with your core.”

  Frog raised their arm, disproportionately long compared to the rest of their body. Could they not unstretch their arm? “What is your core? I mean, I know everyone says “power core” but what does that mean?”

  It took Pip a few moments to compose an answer. It wasn’t that she didn’t know, but there was so much information and theories out there about cores, and she didn’t need to go on a lecture about them. “Cores are where our powers come from, as far as anyone knows. Every super has one, and you have to have one to be a super. Think of them like a new organ.”

  “So it’s a physical thing?”

  “Well, not exactly. Think of it as a metaphysical organ, I guess.” That was a strange concept to think about, especially if you weren’t familiar with it. “It exists inside you, but it’s not a physical thing like a heart or a liver where you can go in an operate on it or take it out. We interact with it, and it can be hurt or damaged, but not torn out of you. So…” There was no way to really get into this without getting into the theories, now was there? “Some people think it’s like your soul, a piece of you that can’t actually be quantified. That’s probably the most popular theory? There’s a bunch of them though.”

  “So no one really knows what it is?” said August, a boy with a flight ability.

  “I mean, sort of. We all know it exists, right?” Pip nodded as the group agreed. “But powers haven’t really been around that long, all things considered. And people didn’t want to do the research in the beginning.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “We were new. Scary. Dangerous. Humans were threatened, and whatever research was done often was kept secret or didn’t have proper funding.” A lot of research into supers continued to be kept secret, though over the years, Pip knew the Carter family had funneled a lot of money into different related research projects.

  Lilian scoffed from somewhere deep in the hood of her hoodie. “That’s stupid.”

  “Is it?” Pip said. “I mean, we were new. Most people are scared of things that are new, or at least cautious. Once humans got used to us though, it became less of an issue.”

  “There are still plenty of humans who think of supers like that,” Khione muttered, staring down at her hands.

  Pip gave the girl a look of concern. Had she experienced some of that super hate? It wasn’t so common these days, especially not in the States, or at least in the bigger cities.

  Khione’s head snapped up, eyes locking on Pip. “Are you going to share the core exercise or what?”

  “Right,” Pip said, though her curiosity about Khione continued to linger. She needed to talk to the girl properly. Maybe next time they were in class together.

  Before she knew it, Mai was calling out the time and letting them know the gym was needed for the next club. Pip stood and brushed off her leggings, smiling at her students. “Try practicing over the next few days until the next club meet,” Pip said. “It should sharpen your attunement with your core. I’ll have more exercises next time.”

  Khione raised an eyebrow as she looked down at Pip, reminding Pip that sometimes it was nice to be short. “You’re gonna come again?”

  “Well, it is part of my deal,” Pip said. “Plus, I kind of like it here.”

  Khione rolled her eyes again. What was that, eye roll number three? She needed to start keeping track. “You just like being the best one in the room.”

  A smile snuck its way onto Pip’s face. She couldn’t ignore that. “And I want to help you,” she said. “I can’t stand seeing a super’s potential being ignored, especially when they want to learn.”

  “Careful, Carter. You almost sound like you want to be here.”