“We should try one more time,” I said, twisting onto my stomach to get off the floor and back onto my duvet. “Three out of three.”

“Right, do you want to project, or shall I?”

“You can.”

“What category shall we pick this time? Colors again?”

“Yeah, but not a too obscure one,” I said, already wishing I hadn’t tempted fate by asking for a third go-around. “Not, like, azure or something.”

Jessica chuckled, shaking the bed. “Azure. What a word.”

We lost ourselves into giddy hysterics for five whole minutes, which kept reigniting whenever we said the word “azure” out loud. My stomach felt as if I’d done a hundred sit-ups. “Oww,” I kept saying, clutching my stomach. “Oww.”

“Azure.”

“Stop it. It hurts.”

“Mine hurts too.”

“Stop making me laugh.”

“You stop making me laugh.”

“...azure...” And we were gone again.

By the time we’d calmed down, Jessica had green eye shadow rivers carved across her high cheekbones, and I was actually having to hold my stomach down to stop laughing.

“OK OK OK. I’m going to stop laughing on the count of three. One, two, three.” Jessica snapped her fingers and regained control again—sat up in a cross-legged position. I clambered to copy her. “Are you ready for me to transmit?”

“One two three, go.” Jessica launched right into it, even though I’d been about to yell, “Wait.” Too late. I met her face, tried to wipe my mind, and blusteringly attempted to tune into her frequency. I couldn’t get the word “azure” out of my head. The laughter threatened to spill once more. No no no, Fern, concentrate. I took another deep breath, listened for her whisper. Pink? No... Blue maybe? An inky blue? No...pink. I think it is pink.

“Pink,” I said hopefully, and Jessica’s eyes fell with genuine disappointment.

“No,” she said, wilting. “Black.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Maybe we don’t have powers after all?”

We didn’t speak for a moment, just bathing in the letdown of ourselves. “I just couldn’t stop thinking of the word ‘azure,’” I told her.

When I looked up, Jessica was beaming. “Me neither! I kept trying to think ‘black,’ but I was really just thinking ‘azure azure azure.’”

“So maybe we did it right after all?”

“We did! Three out of three!”

“Ahhh!” I stepped up onto my bed and started jumping. Jessica screamed and joined in, until Mum yelled up the stairs, asking what the hell was going on. We seat-dropped back down, and lay our heads on my pillow, our hair meshing together.

“Azure,” I said, out loud, reigniting the laughter once more.

“Azure.”

I felt relaxed and happy and myself for the first time in so long, connected to the world rather than lost in my darkness. I was so wondrously grateful Jessica had insisted on this sleepover.

The doorbell rang.

“The pizza’s here,” Mum called up the stairs.