“But…” Kane was eager to move past his own mistakes, but he definitely didn’t want to discuss the lava lobster, which, now that he thought about it, did look a little silly. “But why barbarians? And why were the girls all dressed like secretaries?”

Elliot smiled like this observation made him proud. “Every reverie has a premise. An inspiration, right? Well, recently the football team had a party to kick off the season. The theme was ‘Barbarians & Librarians.’ Cooper must have gotten the idea then.”

“But what about the…Cymo-whatever?”

“Cymothoa exigua,” said Adeline. “A parasite that attaches itself to its host’s tongue, replacing it. It’s actually a thing. We covered them in bio while you were gone. And I know Cooper hates shellfish. He freaked out last year when we stayed at Claire’s beach house and her dad made crawfish, and someone hid one in Cooper’s cup. He only saw it after chugging the whole thing.”

“That explains the glowing lobsters in Mrs. Clark’s lab,” said Ursula.

“Isopods.”

“We know, Elliot,” snapped the girls in unison. Then Adeline raised her chin at Kane. “Anyways, Kane, do you have any other questions?”

“Yeah. How come no one, like, knows about all this?”

Elliot answered again. “You know today in the gym, when we were talking and everyone else vanished?”

“Yeah. It was like we were in another dimension for a second. Was that a reverie?”

“No, that was an invisibility trick. They couldn’t see us, and we couldn’t see them. Pretty cool, right?”

Kane thought it was mostly manipulative, but he didn’t say so.

“When the reveries started, each of us got powers,” Elliot said. “All of us are stronger and faster than we used to be, although Urs is considerably stronger and faster.”

Ursula blushed.

“And we each have specific abilities. For instance, I can bend perception. Manipulate what people see and create projections. I’m the master of obfuscation.”

“Illusions, Elliot,” Ursula teased. “Just say you can create illusions. It’s not that hard.”

“Fine. Illusions,” Elliot said, crestfallen. “I create illusions, and I hide the reveries as they’re happening.”

Kane pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay, so you can hide the reveries, but what about the people who just experienced that? Aren’t they going to like, tweet about it?”

Adeline smirked. “Nah, we’re good. Elliot can manipulate the present, but I’ve got the past. I can mess with memories. Erase them, create them. Whatever it takes so that people don’t remember what they’ve been through. And if I don’t purge the memories, people get super confused, and sometimes it causes them to create their own reveries. I guess that’s what happens when you can’t figure out which of your lives is real.”