“Super easily. A few hours easy,” Kenzie said. When I didn’t shut her down, she turned to Ashley, “We could have it so smoke comes off of your eyes and trails behind you as you walk. Or blurry light, like when you wave a sparkler in the dark, or particles, like shapes, or blurs like your power makes, or—”

Ashley put a hand on top of Kenzie’s head. Kenzie stopped talking.

“Do you want to? Do you like it?”

“If I went to buy you a gift, to balance it out, so it was equal, what would you want?”

“Went? I don’t want you to go anywhere.”

“I meant some other time.”

“No gift,” Kenzie said. “Hang out. Talk with me. Come on, we can use your whiteboard. We’ll talk and take notes, and figure out what your costume might be. Let me search for things on my phone—”

Kenzie took Ashley’s hand and led her to the whiteboard, tugging her along. Ashley didn’t object too much along the way.

Near Kenzie’s computers, Tristan had his arms folded, his eyebrow raised. Sveta had her head cocked to one side as she studied me. Chris was dumping his bag out on his little table.

“She’s not hard to figure out or anything,” I said, quiet enough that only Sveta would hear me. “At one point she said we were pretty similar people.”

“That leaves me with way more questions than answers,” Sveta said.

Tristan called out, “Don’t get too into it, you two! We’re listening in on the call with Auzure soon!”

Ashley raised a hand, waving him off. Kenzie was just nonstop background chatter now.

“What are you thinking?” Sveta asked. “You’re introspective today.”

“Extraspective, right this moment,” I said. “Thinking about the big picture.”

“Think out loud.”

I shrugged. “The team. How it fits together. How I fit into it.”

“A bit of introspection then.”

“No, not exactly,” I said, the thought clarifying as I said it. “How’s Weld doing?”

“If he could get tired he’d be dog-tired. I need to have a talk with him soon, before things get to a point where I don’t see him ever,” Sveta said. “I hate to add anything to his plate, but I have to be assertive.”

“I’m glad you have him,” I said.

Sveta smiled. “I’m glad I have him too. Even if he’s tired and gone most of the time. Why are you asking about him?”

“When Jessica—When Mrs. Yamada asked me to sit in with the group and help out. She asked Weld first, didn’t she?”

“Ah, you caught that,” Sveta said. The smile disappeared. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t sure if you did, and I didn’t want to risk hurting your feelings.”

“Was I second choice?” I asked.