Mom more-or-less disappeared into her office once we got home; she kept the door closed so I couldn’t hear what she was discussing with Cass’ dad. It took some convincing for Cass to give me her dad’s number—including several assurances that she wasn’t in trouble for using the girl’s locker room—but eventually she caved and allowed me to pass her number on to Mom. Kayden, Jules and I chatted away about a variety of topics in the kitchen while Parker stuck to his phone on the couch, pausing only to occasionally cast a wayward glance my way. Since the previous night, Mom had begrudgingly allowed Kayden to hang around the house in case “Gavin” needed to make an appearance unexpectedly. 

Silently, I felt grateful to have them around. Despite the warm reception I’d received from Jules and Mom, it still felt like there was a sense of icy newness to everything. Kayden was a warm embrace where I needed it most. I nuzzled my leg up to theirs while we sat at the kitchen table.

A ring of the doorbell alerted us to the presence of someone at the front door. The tone of our banter shifted, the air turning cold as a hush overtook us. I looked around at Kayen, Jules and Parker and found something strange. Whereas before I got my powers we would just have answered the door, now we were tense. Anxious. Nervous. Less so for Parker and Jules, but it was still written on their expressions.Until then, I hadn’t really realized how much things had changed for my family in the wake of my altercation, but the fallout of my coming-out all too abruptly became apparent.

Kayden laid a protective hand over my knee while they stared at the door intently. Mom emerged from her office and answered the door, revealing a thirty-year-old-ish looking pizza driver, a man with dark hair held back under his hat. Our usual pizza delivery guy from Planetarium Pizza, Marco Stavros.

“Hey Marco,” Mom said warmly.

“Heyo Ms. M,” Marco replied in a cheery voice. In his arms, he struggled to carry three pizza boxes and breadsticks perched precariously on top. “Big order, eh? Got a party tonight or somethin’?

“Oh, no, just a bunch of kids, you know how it is. How’s your dad doing?” she asked, referring to Mr. Stavros.

“Ah, you know him. Stubborn as ever, not taking his meds like he should. Can’t get him out of the damn kitchen at all these days. Old man is running circles around me, too.” Marco laughed. “Sometimes feels like I’m the one with the cancer, y’know?”

Mom rubbed his arm reassuringly before taking the pizza from him. “Give him my best, okay?”

“Sure thing, Ms. M.” Marco glanced over Mom’s shoulder at Parker, Jules, and me. “Hey, didn’t you have two boys and a girl?”

Mom let out a small chuckle. “Two girls now. It’s a whole thing. Get ready to see my orders get bigger, she’s something of a black hole for pizza.” I looked away, utterly embarrassed to have Mom call out my appetite like that.

“Mom!” I whined. She held back a giggle and turned to face Marco.

“Huh.” Marco nodded, laughing. “Who am I to argue with better tips, right? Have a nice one!” Mom nodded and closed the door before passing the boxes to Kayden and me.  “Make sure the twins get some too, you two.” After taking a slice, she retreated back into her office and closed the door.

Parker pretty much ignored me throughout dinner, instead retreating to his room, closing the door behind him. Jules buzzed energetically from topic to topic over dinner; ranging from cheerleading tryouts to crushes to asking me questions about what fashions I liked and how I wanted to start doing my hair.

“Oh!” She stopped, lost in thought. “You know what, this makes sense. Now I know where my yoga pants kept disappearing to.” 

“Wh-what?” I inhaled, causing my mouth full of pizza to rush down my windpipe. I erupted to a coughing fit, my face instantaneously turning crimson while Kayden erupted into a poorly stifled fit of giggles in the seat next to me.

A knowing look crossed her face. “Yeah, you were taking them, right? My room might be messy, but that mess is a system, Gabby.” She smiled mischievously as she took another bite of pizza. “I told Mom about it but she got all upset and made me promise not to say anything about it. Super annoying, honestly. I thought you were doing some stupid boy stuff with them.”

“Er… well… I uh,” I stammered before I lowered my head, opting instead to stuff my mouth with another slice of pizza. Kayden and Jules shared in a round of snickers at my futile attempts to explain myself.

“It’s okay. Sisters borrow clothes all the time, but I would’ve thought it’d be the other way ‘round.” She tapped me on the shoulder. “But ask from now on, dude.”

The three of us hung out for a while downstairs; Kayden watched contentedly while Jules played with my hair and tried some of her makeup on me. I didn’t have the courage to correct the crooked eyeliner job she’d done, knowing full well that would inspire follow-up questions about how I knew how to apply eyeliner, something that would circle back to the ‘sharing without asking’ topic. Even so, I couldn’t help but blush when presented with my reflection. She’d applied some product to my hair, making it look like I had a side shave with the hair at the top of my head brushed to the opposite side of my scalp.

“Woah…” I mumbled, running my eyes over my face. “I’m… hot. Like, super hot!” 

“Agreed,” Kayden added smugly. I snapped up in my seat and wrapped Jules in a hug. 

“Thanks, lil sis!”

“No prob, big sis,” she giggled. My heart might as well have exploded then and there. Despite everything else that had been blowing up around me, hearing my little sister call me “sis” felt like everything I’d worked, suffered, and struggled through had all been worth it. “I don’t know why Parker is being so pissy about having a sister now,” she continued; “I think it’s awesome.” 

I turned my head, newfound concern piercing the veil of euphoria. “I’ve known he was having issues with everything, but Parker’s always been slow to change. He’ll get used to it, right?” I asked. “I mean, he had a hard time getting used to that new Kevin back when Red’s Tips changed hosts when we were kids, or when we moved and he holed up in his room for weeks and weeks.”

“I don’t know,” she conceded. “This time feels kind of different. I think it’s more personal to him. Like, he thinks -- I don’t know, it’s weird. He thinks he’s all alone, now.”

“Alone? But I’m still his sibling. I’m still here.”

She shook her head. “He’s been really quiet about it. You’ll have to talk to him.”

“Yeah… I guess I will,” I sighed. Eventually, after more fussing over my appearance, Jules retired to her room, leaving Kayden and me to clean up dinner. At Kayden’s urging, however, I was soon trudging up the stairs towards Parker’s bedroom. I needed to figure out what was going on with him. A few quick taps on his door proved to be enough to get his attention. The door cracked ajar ever so slightly, revealing half of his face to the hallway light.

“What?” His voice was low and tone curt.

“I wanted to check in on you. Feels like you’ve been -- I don’t know -- I guess avoiding me? I want to know what’s up,” I replied, leaning on his door frame.

He rolled his eyes. “Nothing’s wrong. Just don’t feel like talking to you.”

“Why?”

“Because.”

“Because what?” I pressed.

He began to shut the door. “You don’t get it.” I pressed my palm against the door, easily overpowering him and pushing it open. Parker took a few steps back in surprise. I guess he wasn’t used to experiencing my new strength first-hand.

“Try me, Parker,” I stated. His room was dark save for the faint blue glow from his TV, the image displaying the newest iteration of a game we used to play together.

“God, can’t you just go away?” He grabbed at the door again, pushing it against me. “I want to think in peace.”

“I’ll let you get back to your solitude in a minute, dude, I just want to talk to you about --”

“Well, I don’t want to talk to you!” he spat back at me. His eyes narrowed, and I could make out the hint of wetness at the corner of his eyes. I was left blinking as I considered his outburst.

“What does that mean?” I whispered.

“Like, I get it. I’m not an idiot. I know you’re still Gavin or whatever, but you aren’t him. You’re not my brother.”

“I mean, no, but I don’t think I ever was, Parker. This is the me that was always inside, just beneath the surface.”

He began to push against the door with more force. “God, just get out of my face! You took the brother that I grew up with, the brother who was my best friend, the brother who was my... only friend. And you --” He pointed an accusatory finger at me. “You killed him.”

I released against the door, shocked by his words. “What? Parker, I didn’t kill anyone. I’m still me. I’m still the person you grew up with. I’m just…” I gestured at my body. “Packaged a little differently, I guess. But I’m still your older sibling.”

He began to close the door more rapidly again. “Then the new package sucks. You must’ve been why he became such a flake and stopped hanging out with me.” 

“We can still do that stuff, Parker, things haven’t changed as much as you think they have.”

“No, everything is different! Now not only do I not have any friends, I don’t even have my brother anymore. Now I just have two dumb sisters who’ll ignore me, too.”

“I won’t ignore you, we can --”

“No. Until you can give me my brother back, just -- just leave me the fuck alone!”

“Parker --” I began, but my plea was cut off by the door slamming in my face. 

I stood in front of his door in the darkened hallway for a while, bewildered by his outburst. He didn’t think I was me? He thought I killed myself? Or rather, the brother he had? But I was still right here, alive and kicking. Why didn’t he want me?

Mom popped her head out of her office as I made my way down the stairs.

“What was that all about?” she asked curiously. After relaying the exchange to her, she looked just as puzzled as I had. “He thinks you killed his brother?”

“I guess…” I shrugged. Mom held her hand up to her mouth as she considered the interaction.

“Maybe he’s in something similar to mourning, then,” she replied thoughtfully. “Like, he’s mourning the experiences he’ll never be able to replicate with the brother he thought he had.”

I gave her a pointed look. “That’s an oddly specific explanation to just pull out of nowhere. You’re not some super-genius, too, are you?”

She laughed. “God, I wish. Certainly would make work easier.” She took a seat at the stairs. “No, honey. I went through something similar when I began to piece things together about you.”

“You did?” I asked, apprehension creeping into my voice.

“Yeah, originally I had imagined you growing up and getting married to a nice young girl or guy and having a happy life being a better parent then I was. You know, the normal parental daydreams. Then we found out you were an alter, and I had to change my plans a bit. You were still happy, but your job was probably more dangerous. I promised myself I’d try to get you into as safe a profession as I could. After I spoke with your aunt, the topic of what you’d actually become came up, and suddenly all of these little signs came to the forefront.”

She continued, “You were always so feminine, so kind and cute. You really, really wanted to be a pirate-princess when you were five, do you remember that?”

It was my turn to giggle. “Yeah. I think I told you it was a joke when you reacted skeptically.”

“Right. In case it wasn’t clear, you weren’t a very good liar, even then. Also, you really, really hated having your hair cut. Like, screaming until you were hoarse, hated. That, plus all of the laundry incidents which, yes, I noticed; coupled with Jules’ complaints that someone was stealing her clothes, they suddenly started to piece together a different picture in my mind. A picture that maybe, just maybe, my plans for you were a smidge off again.”

“Where are you going with this?” I asked.

She shook her head and rose to her feet. “I’m saying I’ve been through this whole process before. Parker hasn’t, so the stress of this particular change is showing more clearly. He’ll come around, but forcing it isn’t going to get us anywhere. Give him space, and he’ll come around.”

“You sure?”

The corners of her mouth slowly curved into a smile. She opened up her office door again, hesitating for but a moment before stepping inside. “Totally.” Once she was back in her office, I rejoined Kayden in the kitchen. They’d done a number on the kitchen; the previously dirty counters were wiped down and the sink full of dishes now lay empty. They tossed me a rag as they caught sight of me.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Cleaning. Your mom is letting me stay here for a bit and, well, I want to make myself indispensable while I can.” They winked, holding a bottle of cleaner in one hand and a rag in the other. “Harder to get rid of someone when you rely on them.”

“I mean, yeah -- I guess that’s true,” I shook my head. “I’d just smuggle you back in, though,” I snatched the rag and began to wipe down the dining room table.

“I know. You’re a huuuuuge softy, Gabby.”

“No, I’m not,” I countered. “Depending on who you ask, I’m a huge pain in the ass.”

Kayden raised an eyebrow. “I heard what went on upstairs and a bit of your conversation with your mom. For what it’s worth, I think you’re a good person.”

“How’s that?”

“You know,” they began, holding the pizza boxes and trash bags in their arms and loitering in the doorway to the garage. “Like it was really very sweet of you to let your sister do your makeup. Even if you wanted to correct it for her. You have a definite look, almost a pout, when you want to speak up. I’m surprised she didn’t notice.”

“I didn’t want to correct it -- shut up.” I smirked, rolling my eyes as I wiped the table with the wet rag, streaks of water following it across the glossy wood.

“Never!” they shouted, stepping into the garage proper. Their voice echoed off the garage walls almost hauntingly. “Not when I speak of the truth! ” Shaking off the little butterflies circling my stomach, a mainstay since Kayden had begun appearing in my life so often, I got back to cleaning and lifted a half-emptied glass of water to wipe the table beneath it. I stepped back to admire my work, proud to see the kitchen clean and spotless. Mom would definitely be happy and, hopefully, that would help her forgive me for today.

A rash of goosebumps abruptly ran up my arms as a sour atmosphere permeated the air. The glass of water began to move, rolling gently from side to side on its bottom in a circular motion. Its contents began to rise, globules of water levitating from inside the glass. My mind flashed back to the night I’d gotten my powers; the droplets of rain had frozen in mid-air out in the woods the exact same way. I inched closer as the water rose higher and the glass began to bob more vigorously.

“What the hell?” I mumbled aloud, reaching a hand out to stop the glass. Its movements turned violent, spinning rapidly on its axis. I could feel the energy in my chest undulating, reacting in some way to the display in front of me. It felt like… a chill ran down my spine. It felt like my powers when they raged at their mightiest. Like my dream. Like the blight.

All of a sudden, the glass froze in place for a fraction of a second. A shock rippled through the glass, causing it to burst violently outwards, exploding the remaining water and shards of glass in all directions. I didn’t have to reach for it, the energy was already flowing and allowed my perception to speed up. Glass and water shards crawled through the air, moving as if through jello. I tentatively moved a few pieces out of my way, careful to avoid the edges to keep my energy-pulsing fingers from being cut by the glass. I was able to push them aside, changing their momentum in the same way I’d done to the dodgeballs the day before. Once there were no more pieces flying at me, I relaxed and let myself slow down.

A loud pop rang out through the kitchen, followed by the sound of glass smattering against the counter-top and ground.

“Shit!” Kayden hissed. I spun around, finding Kayden holding their arms in front of them, blocking their face. Shards of glass were stuck into their forearms, dotting their skin like they’d just fallen into gravel. Blood trickled down from their cuts, trailing over their flesh and onto the floor.

“Kayden!” I choked. I scrambled over to them, careful to avoid any shards myself. “Your arms!”

They looked over my shoulder and back at me. “I’m fine, what about you? Are you okay? What the hell was that?”

“I don’t know, I got this really weird feeling and -- and it felt like when I got hit by the lightning and -- I just --” I tried to explain, but my throat was raspy and my breathing hurried.

Kayden grabbed my shoulders. “Gabby, Gabby, you’re hyperventilating, slow down,” they cautioned.

“How can I not hyperventilate! You’re bleeding!” I cried.

“Look, look, I’m fine!” They held up their arms in front of me. The blood flow had lessened considerably and only dried remnants remained. “Watch this,” they added, drawing my attention to little pieces of glass which were wiggling from their skin. After a moment the glass shards pulled free, falling impotently onto the floor. The holes left in Kayden’s skin began to close up before my eyes, the gashes sealing shut far faster then my healing factor could.

“Kayden -- what the hell?” I gasped. “You heal faster than me!”

They smiled. “Yeah. Perk of shapeshifting. I’d slice my arm open to show you but, since I’m not a weirdo in a cheesy action movie, I’ll let you fill that scene in for yourself.” They looked around at the glass and partially blood covered floor. “We should probably clean this up before your mom sees it.”

After taking care of the glass and blood in the kitchen, Kayden and I made our way upstairs and into my room discussing the incident. What had caused it? As far as we could tell, there weren’t any storms nearby that could’ve replicated the same effect. Maybe it was related to that dream I’d had the night prior? We didn’t reach a consensus before entering my room, where they approached the window, their form starting to shift as they prepared to shrink down.

“Hey, uh, Kayden?” I muttered, grabbing at their arm. “Where are you going?”

They turned to me with a look of surprise. “Oh, I was going to let Mel know about this, she might be able to run a satellite survey on the area or something.”

No, I couldn’t be alone right now. Not with Hexecute and this thing with my powers.

I intertwined my fingers with theirs. “Can -- can you stay? Just for tonight?”

They glanced between the window and me for a moment. “Er, you sure? I don’t think your mom wants me here overnight.”

I pulled at the hand, bringing them closer. “Well I want you here tonight. Please? I just --“ I paused, looking about the room nervously. “I need someone to be here.” I gradually pulled Kayden into a tight hug, to which they offered no resistance. Hesitantly, they slowly ran a hand through my hair and returned the embrace.

“Are you sure?” they asked, their voice quiet. I leaned against their chest.

“Yes,” I whispered. A warm smile slowly spread across their features.

“Okay. I’ll stay with you tonight, Gabby.” 

It took me no time at all to change into my pajamas; Kayden couldn’t keep up even if they wanted to, though they asked me to turn around while they changed into an old pair of my pajamas, contouring their shape slightly to fit within the confines of an old T-shirt and pair of shorts. We settled into my twin-sized bed methodically, neither of us quite sure how read the situation and choosing instead to default to overt caution as a result. 

I cleared my throat. “Honestly? Never thought that when it finally came time to have a girl in my bed, it’d be me.”

Kayden waggled their eyebrows. “Gender-fluid here, so I mean, depending on my mood you could have two girls in your bed. Wouldn’t a younger you just be so jealous?”

“If only he knew,” I laughed. A faint frown touched Kayden’s lips before fading.

“You think of your younger self as a boy?” Their eyes widened before they quickly added, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course. Just thought it was curious. I’m not really sure how things work on the binary side of the trans spectrum.”

I released a long exhale as I thought about it. “Yeah, I guess I do? I mean, I didn’t even know being trans was an option for me just a month ago. I thought I just really liked my sister’s clothes. Is it wrong to think of my past self that way?”

“What if you think of it almost like a frog sort of situation?” they asked. I made a face, prompting them to continue. “I mean -- with the lifecycle of a frog. A baby frog is called a tadpole, but it’s still technically a frog, right? It has no idea if it's going to grow up to be a frog though, it just knows it’s like a... cool as shit water animal, I guess.”

I giggled. “Where the hell are you going with this?” They leaned in.

“Maybe being a boy was a part of your growth cycle. Having been one doesn’t mean that you weren’t a girl the entire time, it just meant that you were in your ‘boy’ stage of being a girl. Does that make sense?”

“Not even a little bit.” They snuggled in closer, pulling the blankets up around us.

“Don’t worry. My Kaydenisms have a way of sticking around in folks heads. I think you’ll get used to it.” With a heavy roll of my eyes, I joined them in snuggling in closer as the air in my room grew somewhat chilled by the night wind outside.

“Kayden?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask you a question?” I asked, stroking a hand gently through their hair, mimicking their earlier action towards me.

“Of course,” they hummed. 

“Yesterday, when you were talking about the D.M.O...”

They started to tense up. “Gabby, I’m not very comfortable talking about them. Can’t we just go to sleep?”

“Why? What’s wrong with them?”

Kayden turned over. “They’re -- they’re heavy-handed. They over-blow things. People who are just trying to do the right thing like me get fucked over by the D.M.O a lot. Some friends I used to know, they weren’t upstanding citizens but, well, they tried to be decent. They were trying to be better people, but --” They paused. “That wasn’t enough. It’s never enough.”

I ran my hand along their arm. “What happened?”

Kayden exhaled deeply, their shoulders visibly sinking down as they attempted to relax themselves. “They made one mistake in front of the wrong people. They had one moment of weakness and got arrested.”

“For what?”

“Shop-lifting a gallon of milk with their powers from a gas station. The D.M.O kept them detained for over a week, made one of them lose her job. The other one barely kept his, but it didn’t matter. Our identities are a secret within our community until they aren’t. One of theirs leaked, and now they can only rent in the shitty parts of town like the meatpacking district or the docks. I guess it shows up on background checks now. Nothing visible like a tattoo that screams ‘I’m a hazard!’ or anything, but that’s because it doesn’t need to be visible. They’ve got the names of those they detain or arrest on their lists, and that comes with consequences. Even when you’re applying for a job that specifically caters to alters, that shit shows up background checks landlords or employers run. They’ll know if you came in contact with the D.M.O. And what normie wants to hire a risk like that?”

“Fuck,” I said breathlessly.

Kayden cuddled in closer. “Fuck is right.” They laid their arms over my torso and pulled me in, close enough so that our noses were only a few inches apart. “G’night, Gabby…” they sighed, seemingly falling asleep. I continued to watch them for a bit, the faint light of passing cars outside occasionally lighting up their features. Even as the minutes stretched on, they didn’t seem to change back into their default form, something even I had issues maintaining during sleep. Butterflies danced in my stomach as I listened to their breaths come and go, as if I was listening to ocean waves crashing against the shore.

Eventually, I fell asleep as well; lulled by their soothing respirations directly into dreams where, despite being haunted by a growing dread of calamitous events brewing beyond my perception, Kayden’s warm and comforting presence was never far behind me and never, ever far from reach.

 

* * *

 

Getting ready for school the next morning was… weird, to say the least. Kayden ended up shrinking down into my bedsheets when Mom had walked in after only a few quick knocks on my door to announce herself. Informing me that a neighbor had seen to Parker and Jules arriving at school today, she proclaimed that she was going to personally walk me into school that morning and as such we had to leave earlier than usual. Through eyes still caked with sleep and a fast-beating heart, I could only nod in reply.

Please for the love of god, don’t notice Kayden.

Her eyes lit up. “Oh! Something I got for you!” She hurried out of the room, returning a moment later with a shiny red bag, the kind you’d get from the mall.

“What is it?” I asked, momentarily forgetting Kayden as they curled tightly into the blankets behind me; my mind instead focusing on the new gift in my hands.

“Take a look, silly!” She motioned for me to scoot over and make some room on my bed.

“Oh, okay. I’ll move over, Mom,” I announced. I felt a shuffle near my butt as Kayden shifted their position with me. Mom took a seat next to me and watched with gleeful anticipation as I pulled out the waxy paper within, revealing a white dress adorned with a pattern of red flower petals, seemingly frozen in motion. The sleeves capped, the bodice adorned with lace. It was the dress Mom had been fussing over at the mall over a week ago. I looked up at her, tears already spilling over onto my cheeks and onto my lap.

“I saw that at the mall, I think you know when.” She cradled my cheek in her hands. “Believe it or not, I passed by it and…” she sighed. “I was struck. Immediately, I saw you in it, you and your wonderful, beautiful, shining smile. I knew it had to be your dress. I knew it had to be the first dress I bought you, from mother to daughter. Want to wear it on your first official day as you, Gabrielle McArthur?”

Words felt as if they were a chasm away, completely out of my grasp. I hugged her tightly, letting out a small sob as I buried my head in her shoulder.

She rubbed the back of my head. “I figured that’d be a yes. I didn’t get you any underwear since it looked like you had that covered, considering what you were wearing yesterday.” I could feel her smirking as she continued to stroke my head. “Go on, get dressed. We’ve got to get to school. I’ll help you with your hair afterward.” Before lifting herself from the bed, she patted the lump behind me. “You too, Kayden. Don’t think I didn’t see you there.”

“... Can I see the dress, too?” Kayden asked in a small voice.

 

* * *

 

Like the previous day playing in reverse, Mom stormed past the school doors with me at her side a half hour before classes began for the day, halting her advance at the front desk. Ben bolted upright, suddenly alert and rigid in his chair. Mom wasted no time in pleasantries, instead cooly demanding Mr. Garrison join her for a long conversation about the way the school had been treating its LGBTQ students. Despite initial pushback from Ben, Mom remained firm and insistent. Mr. Garrison eventually poked his head out of his office, looking to us in bewilderment.

“What in the hell is all that racket?” he asked before catching sight of us and frowning. Mom took hold of my hand and pulled me along towards him.

“Perfect! Just the man I wanted to see,” she exclaimed, her voice dripping with venom.

Mr. Garrison bristled as we stopped in front of him, staring down at me with a frustrated expression. “M-Ms. McArthur, I thought I made it clear yesterday that our students are not--”

“Right, I know the rules,” Mom interrupted him. “The rules also state that when a student is suffering from impairment, either physically or mentally, special circumstances are to be considered which allow continuous transformation for the well-being of the student in question.”

“That rule is only for children with actual disabilities, ma’am.” Mr. Garrison brushed his tweed jacket back with an annoyed grunt.

Mom took a step forward. “This exact same rule was allowed to be set in place for a student over at the academy in New Yorke who, like my daughter, was an inverse. Are you telling me that you are allowed to pick and choose which situations this same rule is applicable to? As far as I am aware, the mission statement of Alter Academy is to help guide students towards becoming productive, good members of society. Should we discuss with your superiors this apparent policy discrepancy, one which would seem to fly directly in the face of that goal?”

Mr. Garrison ‘s brow deeply furrowed. “You don’t have their contact information, Ms. McArthur. You’re bluffing.”

Mom pulled a slip of paper from her jacket and waved it in front of him. “Don’t I?” Upon reading it, Mr. Garrison turned pale.

“Fine.” He relented with the grace of a cornered animal. “Please step into my office so we can discuss this further.” At that moment, the door to the main office opened. Cass cautiously entered the office followed by her dad, her wearing a cute black dress and her father sporting a neatly shaved goatee and his hair combed back. He was wearing a light cotton jacket over a button up.

“Ah,” he said as he looked us over. “Delilah, I presume?”

Mom’s cool demeanor cracked as a warm smile spread across her face. “Jonathan! I’m glad you’re here.” They shook hands and appraised Cass and me.

“So this is Cassandra?” Mom asked.

“Yep, my pride and joy,” Cass’ dad replied, pulling her close into a half hug. For her part, she looked as nervous as I’d ever seen her. Her father smiled at me. “Nice to see you again, Gabrielle.”

“Excuse me,” Mr. Garrison cut in, gesturing to Cass and her dad. “But why are you two here?”

Mom crossed her arms. “I asked him to come, Mr. Garrison. I’d like this to be a conversation about both of our girls and the spaces in which they are included in this school.”

“Thank you again for the invitation, Delilah,” Cass’ dad nodded. “I had no idea my Cassandra had been hiding the way she’s been getting treated.”

Mr. Garrison groaned. “Oh, should we include Samantha Sawyer in this while we’re at it, then?” Cass and I shared a confused glance.

What did he mean by that?

Mom and Cass’ dad looked back at us to gauge our response and, seeing our confusion, shook their heads. “No, this should be fine.”

 

* * *

 

The meeting that followed started out as anything but fine. Mr. Garrison roundly refused to budge on accommodations being made for Cass and I, using ‘logic’ such as our default chromosomes and history of troublemaking over the last few weeks as defence for his position. 

Mom and Cass’ dad countered his arguments succinctly, with Mom taking the lead for the most part as she hammered away on his earlier capitulation over the school rules regarding accommodations for alters like myself. She linked Cass and me together, stating that if I was to be allowed to use the women’s facilities then Cass should be able to as well.

Cass’ dad agreed and emphasized that he raised his daughter to respect others no matter what, and he held her to the highest possible standard in that regard. I noticed Cass shrink a bit in her chair, refusing to make eye contact with anyone but the carpet beneath our feet. 

The conversation continued for well over an hour; though in the end Mr. Garrison finally relented under the combined insistence of Mom and Cass’ dad. He would allow Cass and me to use the women’s facilities around the school if, and only if, we stayed out of trouble. Mom slapped her hands down onto her thighs, interrupting him.

“Hold on just a fucking moment. You’re not going to deny them the ability to go to the bathroom just because they got detention. Human rights aren’t a privilege that can be revoked.”

Cass’ dad chimed in as well. “Do you know how many times I got into trouble in highschool for smoking we--” He paused abruptly, seeming to remember Cass and I were in the room. “For smoking? If I’d have lost my ability to use the men's restroom because of that I’d have been pissing in bottles for most of my highschool career.”

A groan escaped Cass’ lips and she blanched. “Gross, dad.”

Through tightly pursed lips, Mr. Garrison replied. “Fine. But there must be some accountability for these two. Surely you understand my predicament.”

“No, I don’t sir,” Cass’ dad argued. “IF they cause any trouble, just treat them like any other student.”

Mom nodded. “I concur, that would be a reasonable thing for a school as prestigious as Alter Academy. Or should I let your bosses know that you're not proving an adequate substitute for Mrs. Bekker and she should return to her post here?”

Mr. Garrison clenched his fist but exhaled. “I should’ve known she was behind this. Fine. Same treatment as other students.” He locked eyes with me, staring me down his mustache before adding that my accommodations came with additional stipulations.

In essence, I was not allowed to use my powers whatsoever if I was to be transformed while outside of the gymnasium. That included my speed, my strength, and anything else that came with this form.

“Sound fair to you?” Mom asked me.

I nodded, happier than I could express. “Yeah. I can slow down every once in a while.” I returned Mr. Garrison’s icy stare with a glare of my own. “But I want my records changed. My name is Gabrielle McArthur.”

Mr. Garrison rubbed at his temples. “Oh, come now, you’ve already robbed the stagecoach, do you want the horses too?”

Mom crossed her arms and shrugged. “If that’s what she wants, I support her.”

“I mean, it really is standard practice with trans students,” Cass’ dad added.

Mr. Garrison held his hands up in defeat as a few lines of sweat trickled down his shiny forehead. “Fine, fine. We can put in a temporary nickname in the system, but that’s it. You have to change his --”

“Her,” the four of us corrected him.

“Her,” Mr. Garrison repeated through gritted teeth. “Have her name changed legally before we can do anything else.” I leaned back in my chair, satisfied. We could do the name change later, what mattered now was quality of life improvements.

“Okay, now it sounds fair to me.”

 

* * *

 

After the meeting with Mr. Garrison, everything seemed to change for the better around the school over the next week, at least for the most part. Cass and I had permission to use all of the women’s facilities as was afforded to any other girl in the school. Cinney was irritated to see us in the women’s locker room, but Sammy’s new looming presence always caused Cinney to back off with nothing more than a squeak.

For my part, I suddenly had the freedom to roam the school at will in my alter form. Nurse Prim and Mr. Garrison were able to mute the AndrAI’s response to my powers, though Mr. Garrison cautioned if he found me to be causing any trouble with my powers outside of gym, he would make sure to come down on me like a hammer. I would often catch Mr. Garrison lurking around, “keeping an eye out,” he would say. It was as clear as day he was looking for any excuse to throw the book at me, so I kept my nose clean and kept my power usage to a minimum. I always made sure to give him a smile and wave as I passed by, a message I was certain he understood to mean “eat my ass, transphobe.”

Since most of my classmates had already become acquainted with my new self, the only real adjustment needed was on behalf of my teachers. 

I wouldn’t look Ms. Catarelli in the eye, instead deciding to ice her out. I answered any questions posed to me from her as succinctly as I could and paid her as little mind as possible. She tried to pull me aside after class, likely to apologize, but I ignored her attempts to reconcile. She didn’t just get to make everything okay, at least, not right away. The rest of my teachers did appear to receive some sort of memo regarding my name as, for the most part, I was called Gabrielle by all of them except during the occasional slip-up. Mr. Bayes even fist-bumped me, congratulating me on the change. 

Mrs. Bittinboulder, on the contrary, only seemed to toughen up her treatment of me. She pushed me harder in gym and urged me to explore my powers constantly, even going so far as  encouraging me to speak with Markus to glean any additional information from him I could.

 Unfortunately, this proved easier said than done. Though not outright hostile since my last glitching incident, he was still little more than a shell of his former self. Everywhere he went a haze of depressive emptiness seemed to follow. Rumors had begun to spring up that his old crew had been giving him a hard time, too, a story I had no trouble believing after he showed up to class one day with a black eye. Any attempts I made to speak with him about Kip or our powers was met with a stonewall response and ended with the question left in the air as he walked away.

On the topic of my powers glitching out; things were becoming… weird. I hadn’t had any other incidents as bad as earlier in the week, only a few minor flare ups after gym here and there. However, as is probably very clear by this point, my luck had a habit of fizzling out. The closest I came to the Markus-incident benchmark occurred in chemistry. I hadn’t particularly exerted myself that day, I ate a full breakfast, and let mom drive me to school as usual. And yet, in the middle of Mr. Bayes’ lecture, a pang of glitching struck me like a truck, swiftly spreading pain out all over my body like a swarm of bees. It took everything I had to keep the usual visual tics under control like the sparking and shaking. 

Noe, the girl who had stood up for me in homeroom, had recently begun sitting next to me during chemistry. A small little spark escaped from the tip of my index finger, prompting me to slam my other hand over it as cover to block it from sight. I was sure she’d seen it; there was no way she couldn’t have. When Mr. Bayes came over to inquire about the outburst, however, she kindly informed him that a bug had crawled onto my hand and I was simply swatting it off. Mr. Bayes nodded and asked me to be more considerate of the lecture next time. I apologized and he continued the lecture proper. I looked to Noe nervously, but she looked to be absorbed in note-taking. I still don’t know if she saw me, but I made sure to make more of an effort to be friendly towards her afterward.

I had to hand it to Cass, she was completely correct that sitting in class while transformed would be annoying. I wasn’t sure if it was my attention span or general antsiness, but sitting in class for hours on end was a tedious exercise in mind-numbing torture. Each class began with a renewed torment. The minute hand would slowly drag itself across the clock, taking its sweet-ass time to complete a sixty-second interval. Every single thing in every class save gym felt like watching paint dry, and it was driving me towards the edge of insanity.

I seemed to be able to spend a lot more time together with Kayden at home as of late as well. Mom was in her office much more often than was usual; I’d walked in one afternoon to find her desk piled high with notes and paper. She was on the phone with someone heatedly discussing money, but shooed me from the room before I could get a word in edgewise. When I’d attempted to broach the topic over dinner that night, she brushed my worries aside, claiming it was simply work business that I shouldn’t worry about. I had my misgivings, but she promised that everything was fine in that comforting way parents do.

Kayden and I continued to have small “Team Huddles” with Mel, as she insisted they be called, in my bedroom after school to discuss Hexecute. During one of these huddles, Kayden and I laid together on the bed, myself tossing a ball up into the air over and over as Mel went over the briefing.

“We still haven’t received any additional reports of Hexecute sightings since the railyard incident. As I stated before, his drones have been sighted near clellium repositories, but the repository officials haven’t reported any large-scale thefts of the compound itself,” virtual-Mel explained while performing maintenance on C0.NWAY-6. His tail wagged idly while an upgrade bar progressed forward above his head.

“So if he’s only stealing a couple at a time, what could his goal be?” I asked.

“Unclear. There’s been some reports that the systems within the laboratories have been having irregularities with their processing, but nobody can quite pin it down. I attempted to have a look for myself, but the old adage of a bug disappearing the moment you take a look seems to be holding true here, too. Regardless, clellium seems to only be a part of his larger plan. I believe that his targeting of Markus and Gabrielle indicates he is trying to access something called the ‘Kinetic Realm’.”

I raised my hand. “I’ve heard that name before. That’s where I get my powers from, I think. What is it?”

Mel pulled up a few screens on her end. “Honestly? The only information we have on it is purely through first-hand accounts of other speedsters. The most coherent understanding seems to be it’s a sort of energy force that surrounds and binds our universe. Or, at least, one of them. It doesn’t seem that it can be measured in any scientific manner, or if it can we just don’t have the technology required to do it, yet.”

“What does he want it for?” Kayden asked.

Mel sighed in frustration. “At this point it’s impossible to tell. Limitless energy? A weapon? There just isn’t enough information on the Kinetic Realm or Hexecute himself for me to pin down a specific hypothesis. But his lusting after it does hold merit, as it could explain that cup incident you both reported to me as well as several other anomalies I’ve been keeping track of. But I need more information to be sure. Luckily, I have a hunch which I will be having Verdant and Starburst investigate soon.”

“What is it?” Kayden asked.

Mel sighed. “To keep it brief, I believe Hexecute to have originally mimicked his intelligence from an acquaintance of mine.”

“Holy shit, seriously?” I excitedly exclaimed. “Are you sure?”

“No, I am not sure. That is why I am sending Verdant and Starburst to speak with this acquaintance.”

“But what’s your theory?” Kayden insisted. “I mean, you have to have some reason for thinking this.”

“My hypothesis,” Mel corrected, “is this. Our earliest reports of the supernym ‘Hexecute’ being used date back around two years ago, give or take. Prior to that, there is no mention of him anywhere. About two and a half years ago, a friend of mine who also possessed intelligence comparable to my own disappeared for the duration of a month while on a business trip in San Jose. When he was eventually found in a warehouse, he was laying in a pool of his own experiment, bloodied and beaten, with no memory of who he was or where he had been and no abilities whatsoever. It was assumed this was a one-off situation, a fluke. We theorized that he was simply blocked from using his abilities. However, I noticed something odd about him fairly quickly.”

“Which was?”

Mel didn’t answer for a moment. “My friend suffered... from antisocial personality disorder. This was a condition that he had battled for most of his life after his altercation. This left him dealing with empathy issues, an apparent incapacity for intimate relationships, and a streak towards sadism, among other symptoms. He was surrounded by friends and family, and knew it to be a fact that he was loved and cared for, and yet he still found this condition particularly debilitating. But he was strong, and persevered through many of the symptoms and asked for help with those he couldn’t manage on his own.”

“And this was worse after he lost his powers?”

“No.” Mel shook her head. “I could tell the moment I looked in his eyes. It was gone. I said as much to him in the moment, and after some behavioral testing we confirmed it. While he had lost his intelligence, he had become baseline everywhere else, too.”

I began to connect the dots. “And you think Hexecute might’ve received that quirk when he stole your friends powers.”

“I am near certain. Mimics are an odd class of alters. They can temporarily copy other individual’s powers as well as maintain an alteration unique to them, resulting in access to two different power sets. But they also gain the quirks of the powers they take as well. Additionally, their hold on their unique alteration is loose, and traumatic events can result in these powers slipping away, often permanently. What I believe to have happened is that Hexecute, for whatever reason, targeted my friend and mimicked his intelligence long enough to build that gauntlet. This is when he likely began to be influenced by my friend’s quirk. It was clear upon medical examination that my friend’s injuries were not sustained all at once -- there were signs of healing on some injuries that were not present on others. They seemed to be accrued over the course of his captivity, the abuse worsening slowly but surely as the month progressed, potentially due to the quirk influencing Hexecute’s actions. After this was accomplished, he stole my friend’s powers as he would go on to do with Mr. Curtis and Mr. Argis years later, leaving him helpless with no memory of the ordeal. Honestly, that might be a blessing in disguise.”

Kayden took a drink as we processed Mel’s theory. “But why would he wait so long between stealing powers, then, if he already had the device built?”

“I am unsure. It’s possible he was formulating a plan or dealing with the realities of my friends powers, I can’t say for certain. That’s why I’d like to interview him and --” Her voice trailed off uncharacteristically, a sad frown forming on her face. “Jog his memory, so to speak.”

Kayden and I looked at each other uncomfortably. Clearing their throat, Kayden decided to change the subject. “What about Markus Miller’s powers? Have we gotten any reports of new speedsters in town, or detected any electrical discharge in the city area?”

Mel shook her head for a moment and resumed to type on a holographic keyboard. “Nothing so far. I’ve been monitoring the city grid over the last week 24/7 to see if anything sprung up, but so far I’ve only been able to ping two locations with a large amount of speedster activity.” A virtual map of the city sprung to life in front of us. On it was something akin to a heat map which displayed blue for the most part save for both the school and my home. “These are the only two results I’ve successfully pinged. That said, I believe it’s safe to assume this is Gabrielle’s handiwork.”

I bolted upright. “Hold on, you can track where I use my powers? Can other people see this?” Mel waved the map away with a simple gesture.

“No. I have four highly advanced server cabinets dedicated to alter tracking, and I can only track your specific alteration because you allowed me to examine your abilities up-close. Remember?” Something about the way Mel replied to my questions always had a way of making me feel like an idiot.

“R-right,” I gulped. “But how does that let you track Markus’ abilities?”

Mel resumed updating C0.NWAY-6, tapping a few commands into a virtual interface above him. “Because you two form your own dyad; that is, you form two parts of a speedster whole. Looking for your powers mean his should show up as well. I can’t really distinguish between the two, but I shouldn’t need to. I highly doubt that Hexecute is only using these abilities at your house and the academy --” A loud beep blared through the speakers of the data puck, causing Kayden and I to jump in alarm. Mel groaned and retreated from the hologram, returning moments later with a package.

“What’s that?” Kayden asked.

Mel tore into it, a scowl digging deeper and deeper into the corners of her mouth by the second. “Another parcel from Greg, the buffoon. He’s been sending me packages nearly every day, each with corrections to my work. I swear to god -- if he keeps this up I’m going to murder him.”

“Why don’t you just… not open it?” I suggested. Mel turned and glared intensely, asking why I’d posit such a stupid question.

“If you had people screaming that your work was incorrect, wouldn’t you take great pleasure in proving them wrong?”

“I -- uh...” I looked to Kayden, who quickly turned away, leaving me to fight this fight alone. “Right. Yep. Stupid question on my part.” Mel read the letter included with the schematics inside the box and laughed.

“I see. This man is clearly deficient. Me, please take note to send Greg a letter insulting his dismal intelligence later.”

I blinked. “Did -- did you just ask yourself to take a note for yourself?”

Kayden sighed. “Don’t ask...”

“Yes, I did. Would you like me to take a note for you too, Gabrielle?” Mel agitatedly replied.

“Ah, nope. I’m good.”

She leaned back, clearly satisfied. “Good. How are classes going? Have you noticed anything strange as of late?”

“I guess now that you mention it, things have seemed really slow for me in class lately. It’s like I’m watching --”

“Paint dry,” Mel finished. “You’re not wearing the glasses I made you.”

I looked over at the glasses she’d given me, sitting on my dresser with a layer of dust beginning to accumulate on them. “Wh-- yes, I am.”

The update bar above C0.NWAY-6 finished loading and disappeared. He rose to his feet and let out a loud, digitized bark before jumping off the work bench. Mel shook her head. “No you’re not, because if you were you wouldn’t be experiencing symptoms of ADHD in any situation not sufficiently stimulating for you.”

“I--” I replied, caught off-guard by her remark. “ADHD? I don’t have that.”

“I can say with 99% certainty that you do, Gabrielle. You’re constantly fidgeting. You can’t seem to sit still or pay attention without moving around. By your own admission, sitting in classrooms and offices seem to drive you nuts. It’s not exactly surprising; this is one of the more common quirks of speedsters.”

Kayden rubbed their hand over my back in circles as I ran my hands through my hair. “You’re telling me I have three quirks? ADHD, my metabolism, and the issue with my eyes processing information? Are you serious?”

“So like, three quirks isn’t great, but at least it offsets your dysphoria,” Kayden commented.

“Agreed. Put on the glasses right now,” Mel commanded me.

“Now?” I repeated. She gave me another look, daring me to argue. Sullenly, I rose from the bed and retrieved the glasses, placing them on the bridge of my nose and presenting them to Kayden and Mel. “Happy?”

“You tell me,” Mel replied. Her figure disappeared from the light projection, replaced by a wall of text that was scrolling down. It disappeared pretty quickly, but it wasn’t hard to read all of it by any stretch. “What did you just read about?”

I collapsed back onto the bed next to Kayden. “Some guy whose name I think is Nick, he comes off as very ‘better than thou’. I think he might've been in love with this guy named Gatsby. Basically he seems to love to talk about how many connections he has. Someone tries to epouse the values of some racist manifesto? Then Nick sees his love Gatsby for the first time, I guess.” I looked to Kayden, hoping for a giggle at my recap of the story only for them look regard me with shock, mouth agape.

“Did you seriously --” they began.

Mel interrupted them. “Gabrielle, that was the first chapter of The Great Gatsby condensed into four seconds of scroll on-screen. You’re telling me that you were able to read and comprehend the whole passage?”

I shifted uncomfortably. “Er, yeah, it wasn’t that hard.” Kayden grabbed at my glasses, gently pulling them from my face and putting them on.

“Nice try, let me have a turn with the super glasses.” The scroll repeated, though I had to admit I had a harder time reading the contents of the scroll than I did previously. Kayden shook their head and took the glasses off before the scroll had even finished. “Yeah, no, can’t do it. Here you go, Gabby.”

“So… what? Do these have something to do with my eyes, too?”

Mel resumed work on the holographic display in front of her. “Yes, the lenses are made of extremely similar material as your goggles, though of course they are simpler and will only allow you to focus under normal circumstances. Moving forward, if you wear these glasses, I predict your ability to absorb new information should increase something to the effect of one to two thousand percent.”

“Holy shit!” Kayden and I exclaimed together. “So I’m basically a living, breathing neural net processor, a learning computer?”

“Essentially. A good vocabulary word for you to utilize moving forward would be facile.” She looked up at us with a sly grin. “And don’t get any ideas about being smarter than me, young lady. I’ll whoop your ass in whichever Jeopardy category you’d care to choose.”

Kayden and I exchanged a glance before bursting into laughter.

“Alright, Mel, I’ll stay out of your lane, then,” I conceded. Kayden and I signed off, allowing the blue light to fade into darkness. Almost immediately, my I grabbed my phone and started to tap out a message.

“Who are you texting?” Kayden asked, leaning over my shoulder and rubbing my arm gently.

 

ME:

Meet me at Earhart Park tomorrow. I need to talk to you about my powers and the glitches. 

 

“Someone who needs to give me answers,” I replied. Almost immediately, a reply popped up.

 

MARKUS:

McArthur? How did you get my number? 

 

ME:

What’s important is that I might have a lead on our amethyst-themed mutual ‘friend’. It’s time you gave me some answers about the Kinetic Realm.

 

Kayden and I didn’t have to wait long at all for a reply text.

 

MARKUS:

After school tomorrow, Earhart Park. I’ll meet you there.