The fact that the community center was actually in the center of this neighborhood meant that the foot traffic was heavy. A lot of it was moving around the crowd that had formed. A lot of people with signs, but a lot of young and eager eyes. Kids aged ten to seventeen, all fresh from their first day of school, genuinely interested in their fledgling hero team.

No police parked outside, at a glance. No barricades, either.

Inside, it was standing room only. Cheap plastic chairs were arranged in rows and columns, and there were many places where parent and young child shared chairs.

I saw some people up at the front perk up at our appearance, and the crowd parted to let us through.

I identified a woman with gray and black hair and a gray suit-dress that the other people up at the front seemed to be standing around. I approached her.

“You’re in charge?” I asked.

“I’m the closest thing to someone in charge. District representative,” she said. “We don’t have a group like yours here. You’re all so young.”

I kept still, not letting my emotions show. I felt the sinking feeling again, without the relief, and without the steadiness that I got from seeing myself in the mirror.

Not a big thing. It was like treading water and a hand on my forehead pushing me down, before pulling away. Surfacing again, finding my equilibrium, realizing how tired I was as I resumed treading water.

I was very aware of the eyes on us.

“Do you have more outside?” the representative asked.

“More… of us?” I asked, finding my composure again.

“Yes.”

“No. No we don’t have more outside.”

She looked spooked. More spooked after my ‘no’.

“I can’t help but notice that you have no police presence at all,” I said.

“We have some, but not many. It’s the way it is in Norfair span.”

“Norfair,” I said, noting the coined name. “It’s not really a presence, is it?”

“No,” she said. “We didn’t expect this many naysayers. With this many, they had to have come from outside the community.”

The crowd in the room with us looked eager and happy enough. A few frowns, but rare. Had it been just this, overlapping conversations, anticipation, bright eyes and parents with kids, maybe a few people ready to raise some pointed questions if given the opportunity, then all would have been well.

It wasn’t just them. The protesters outside were audible, even with stone walls between us and them. Two angry voices outside, for every one quiet, polite person inside.

I didn’t like how much this was stacking up against us. The police not having much presence, the controversy, the number of protesters.

Paranoia again, that I couldn’t help but wonder about the recruits I’d been given. Forced to take, as it had turned out.

Too many things together.