Emily’s heart sank. “Oh. Okay. Um.”

“You okay, sis?” the girl asked.

“I’m fine,” Emily said faintly. It was her favorite lie, one that came easily to her lips.

“All right, well, whatever.” The girl stepped up and Emily flinched, but she wasn’t attacked or hurt. The girl just climbed up onto the bed, shuffled around, and flopped onto her side in the middle of the bed.

“W-what are you doing?” Emily asked.

“Did you want me to scoot over?” the girl asked. She tapped the free space left on the bed. “There’s room. You’re not fat.”

“N-no, I mean. That’s my bed.”

“Got another bed?”

“No?” Emily said.

The girl shrugged one shoulder, pulled the pillow down lower, and smushed her face into it. “Wake me up when stuff’s happening.”

Emily’s hands danced uncertain gestures through the air. “O-okay?” she tried.

In the end, she did succeed in calming down. The girl on the bed next to her didn’t feel like a threat or like someone dangerous. She was just a normal teenager who had appeared out of thin air and slid onto Emily’s bed.

She was pretty sure there weren’t guides for this kind of situation online, at least, none that wouldn’t get her added to a watch list.

“Okay,” she whispered to herself.

She needed a list. A nice checklist, with things to do and tasks that she could tackle in a reasonable and logical order.

Rushing over to her desk, Emily found a notebook in one of the drawers and placed it on the surface. Then she dug around for a pen that worked and got to making her list. It wasn’t a terribly long one, but she didn’t need a long list, she needed a functional one.

1. Learn about power

2. Turn off sign above head

3. Learn about bear girl. Name her?

4. Find a place to hide bear girl

5. Go to classes on time

6. Call Mom

Emily set her pen down, reread her list, then chewed on her lower lip a bit. It . . . was a list. She could do those things. Turning, she found the bear girl snoring on her bed, low rumbles that faded into the background as soon as Emily didn’t pay attention. She could’ve almost pretended there wasn’t a person in her room if it weren’t for the words floating above her bed.

Step one was first. “Status?”

That seemed normal. No, not normal. None of it was normal. But it hadn’t changed from the last time she’d looked. “Um. Sister . . . page?” she tried. “Ah, maybe . . . bear . . . sister page?”