The door opened, and her dad was there, and as she squinted, pretending that her eyes were closed, he didn’t even look normal. His face was cold and scary as he marched toward her.

He grabbed her by the arm, hard enough it would bruise, and hauled her out of bed, out of the bed that was sleepless but warm and safe, into the hallway, the noise, and madness.

⊙

Kenzie looked between the still scene and Victoria.

“That’s them,” she said. “I might have gotten some details wrong.”

“I’m so sorry you had to deal with that,” Victoria said.

“Isn’t it funny?” Kenzie asked. She smiled. “We’re supposed to get powers when stuff like that happens, but I couldn’t even get that right.”

“You did nothing wrong. You didn’t deserve any of that,” Victoria said.

Kenzie shook her head. “I guess not. Not all of it.”

“Do the others know about this? You’ve told Mrs. Yamada?”

Kenzie drew in a breath, then sighed. “Yes and no.”

“What’s yes and what’s no?”

“They know what my parents were like. They haven’t seen these diary dioramas, you’re the first. But I’ve told them the stories. Ashley started being nice to me, after I did. I did tell them that things are better now, because I have powers and my parents are scared. Which I guess is true.”

“I feel like you’re telling people a lot of things that are only technically true.”

“Real truths are hard if they’re all-the-time truths,” Kenzie said. “Sometimes it’s nice to pretend things are better than they are, you know?”

“Yeah. I know.”

Kenzie hesitated, then she reached up to her hairpin, with the hearts. “I haven’t shown anyone this except Mrs. Yamada, and a few others who had to see because of circumstances.”

She double-tapped the hairpin. There was a faint tingle as things shifted. The projection at her face dropped away.

Victoria approached, bending down. “Kenzie—”

Kenzie shrugged.

“—really truly, I hope you don’t mind my saying it, but the scar is barely visible.”

The projection was down. The hairpins had one job, to cast a projection on one area of Kenzie’s face. Her hand moved up to her cheekbone, and found the groove. It was about an inch long.

“I wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t shown me,” Victoria said.

“I notice,” Kenzie said.

“Okay. You do what you have to do, but I want you to know I don’t think that’s bad at all.”

Kenzie fidgeted, messing with the remote control.

“Before, when the power was cut off to your devices, you told me there wasn’t anything.”

“I looked over my shoulder so you only saw half my face. I didn’t want you to see it and think differently of me.”

“I wouldn’t.”

“I know that now. I didn’t know for sure then.”