“Who is your teacher, and what school do you attend with Janesha?”

Aiden was caught off guard. What was a good last name? “Um. Miss Sparrow.”

Through the awareness of the rest of the group, he could sense the small laugh from the sidelines.

“School?”

He felt even more panicked, now that he’d already messed up once. “New Brockton Bay Primary School?”

Again, the laugh, and a hand touched face, muffling the laugh. Aiden felt defensive.

“Stay there,” the man from security said. He went to the nurse’s station, a short distance away, said something, and then headed down the hallway. The nurse he’d talked to moved to the edge of the counter, watching the hallway entrance. Her stare was penetrating as she looked at Aiden.

Aiden fidgeted.

Darlene was biting her thumbnail again. Aiden could feel the pain as she got to the quick, flinched, and felt her flinch in response.

He looked off to the side, to where Roman was leaning against a wall. Twelve-year-old Roman with hair on his legs already, who’d been laughing at him. Aiden stuck out his tongue. Roman, with his arms folded, moved one finger, giving Aiden the bird.

Was there any point to staying? He’d almost failed to connect because he’d been more focused on Roman laughing and on the nurse at the counter, but if the guy was going back there and asked, wouldn’t he find out the school was wrong?

Flustered, Aiden turned around, looking for the others. He started to retreat, heading back toward them. Darlene and Candy converged on him, Candy towing Amias behind her.

“Where are you going?” Candy asked. “Chickening out?”

Aiden gave her an annoyed look. “He quizzed me. He’s going to check the info I gave and find out I lied.”

“We came this far,” Candy said. “We’ll find another way. We could go through a window.”

“None of us can do anything like that,” Aiden said.

“Your eagle is on the roof, isn’t it?”

“Nobody’s willing to let me try flying with it,” Aiden said. “Besides, breaking a window would cause problems. I’m sorry I bungled this.”

“I like spending time together, even if we don’t do anything big,” Darlene said, thumb just outside her mouth, thumbnail ragged. She averted her eyes and moved her hand when Aiden looked at her.

Romeo—Roman was approaching now. He’d changed his name recently and it still felt weird.

“You could try messaging her,” Roman said. He either hadn’t heard the discussion and had figured things out, or he was much, much better at understanding speech when his half-sister was using her power.

“I tried twice this afternoon and she didn’t respond. But she’s invited me before, for a face-to-face hang-out. It should be okay.”

“Heads up,” Candy said.