Bethy was still in the middle school, and Tom would drop her off a block up the road at the next building. She didn’t seem to care what people thought of her or the company car or the superfamily in West Plaza. At least not yet. She got straight A’s and shrugged off the attention, while Anna felt like she was constantly walking through minefields.
Anna had to talk to Teddy before class started, and he wasn’t where he should have been, on the front steps or in the fountain courtyard with the rest of their friends—Teia, Lew, Sam. The certainty of her power confirmed their presence. She imagined it as a compass in the back of her mind, exerting pressure as it pointed the way. She could find people. She wanted to find Teddy, and she knew exactly where he was: in the nurse’s office, which couldn’t be good. The news websites had a story on him today—someone had leaked a still image from the security footage at the jewelry store. Anna had hoped this would pass under the radar of anyone who cared. Fat chance, it turned out. Seriously, what was the point of having a secret identity if you got your picture in the paper on your first outing?
She put her head down and marched, hoping to get inside quickly, but didn’t make it past the front steps.
“Oh my God, Anna, what’s up with Teddy?”
Reluctantly, she stopped to answer. Izzy, the girl who’d called her, was tall and loud and way too nosy. One of the girls with a sports car who wanted to be noticed. Anna decided to play dumb. “Why? What’s the matter?”
“He looked like he got hit by a truck. Is that why he wasn’t in school yesterday?”
“I can’t say anything until I’ve talked to him.”
“But—”
Anna walked off and through the front doors.
Elmwood prided itself on not looking like a school but more like some hundred-year-old English manor, with carpeted halls, polished wood doors, manicured courtyards, and so on. Like they weren’t students at a school but guests in someone’s mansion. But who made guests take midterms? It was all vaguely ridiculous.
She would have reached the end of the corridor without interruption, but Teia and Lew had moved inside from the courtyard and were waiting to ambush her. They’d probably been watching for her. She’d have avoided them if there was another way out of the corridor and to the nurse’s office. They were twins; Lew’s brown skin was a shade or two darker than Teia’s, but they had the same round dark eyes and sharp features. Teia wore her curly hair back with a headband, making a halo around her face. Lew kept his cropped short. They both blocked her path and studied her like they were about to dissect her.
“What happened to Teddy?” Teia whispered as Lew took her arm and pulled her into a corner. Unlike Izzy, they were in on the whole thing and wouldn’t let her just walk away.
“He did it, didn’t he?” Lew said. “He went out on patrol. He really did it.” His eyes gleamed with excitement. Maybe even with envy.
“And then got the shit beat out of him,” Teia said.
Anna sighed. “And he got his freaking picture in the paper.”
“I know!” Teia exclaimed. “It’s great!”
“Be quiet!” Anna hissed. They were supposed to be keeping this secret. “I have to go talk to him before class starts.”
Lew pointed a thumb over his shoulder and said, “He got called to the nurse’s office—”
“I know that. Can I go now?” She pulled her arm out of his grip and marched on.
“Anna—” they called after her, but she ignored them.
Yesterday, Teddy had called her before s
chool and begged her to come help. He’d had a run-in the night before. She thought he was crazy for going out at all, for thinking he could battle crime, right wrongs, whatever, all by himself. That was why they were practicing as a team, but he just couldn’t wait, could he? Over the phone he kept insisting that the expedition had been successful. He’d stopped a real-live, honest-to-God robbery. He’d just gotten a little banged up was all, and he didn’t want his folks to know. She’d taken the bus to his town house, where he’d been hiding in the garden shed out back.
He’d been more than a little banged up. Anna wanted him to go to the hospital. But no, he’d made it through the night, he’d be fine. He’d turned invisible to get ice packs and aspirin without his parents knowing, staying in his bedroom long enough to convince them he was sick and couldn’t go to school. Somehow, they’d bought it. They went to work, so it was just Teddy at home.
He wanted her to help him wash the blood out of his outfit.
She just about killed him for that. She didn’t wash his outfit, but they ended up spending a couple of hours talking about what had happened, what he’d done right, and how it could have gone better. Her opinion: He should wait for the team to go with him next time. One against three were terrible odds, and sometimes even an invisible kid who could walk through walls needed someone to watch his back. He had to learn to phase out when someone hit him, the way he phased through walls. She told him that, and he defended himself, saying he couldn’t focus on so many things at once. Well then, he shouldn’t be trying to fight crime yet, should he?
That should have been the end of it, but then she had that talk with her mother. Her apparently omniscient mother.
She reached the nurse’s office just as he was walking out, closing the door behind him.
“Teddy!” she called.
He flinched, eyes bugged out, looking like he was about to run.
“We have to talk.” Before he could flee, she grabbed the sleeve of his uniform jacket and pulled him to a padded bench around the corner.