Throughout the tour of the Cave, Dariela marveled at all the sights. Lydia forgot sometimes how amazing their abilities were to a normal person and felt like a guide leading her through a theme park or a strange country. All of her friends warmed up well to Dariela. Lydia failed to stem Wren’s exhausting nature until it was too late. The girl had fired off about every question one could ever ask of Dariela while displaying her ice ability, creating snowballs in the palm of her hand, and covering nearby windows in frost.
Her other friends, Ryan and Donny, equally thrilled Dariela, the former showing off his flinging mode of travel through the Center by slapping his superlong tongue to the ceiling and walls, zipping from one location to the next or launching to dangerous heights, only to swing like Tarzan through the jungle. Donny worked up a few intermittent sneezes, blasting apart ice targets Wren created with different-colored lasers—some red hot, others bluish white— shooting from his nostrils. By the end of it all, the two girls relaxed in the game room while Jando took over entertaining the group. His siblings were eager to see other abilities, and Debra and his mother were fast becoming friends.
“I’m pretty jealous,” Dariela said, punching Lydia in the arm. “You got it good. Superpowers, secret spy stuff—”
“BEPs and agent training,” she corrected.
Dariela smirked. “This place has gotten to you.” Lydia was a little surprised at herself, considering where she’d started, less than a year ago. “Anyway, semantics. Point is, I wish I was here.” She cast a glance around at the groups of people in the game room, competing and yelling over video games or watching shows on the various televisions. Bobbing her head to the speakers playing old rock music in the distance, she then watched several people engaged in a board game on the coffee table next to their chairs. “Got to get me a superpower. I’ll even take the one Sylvia has. Hearing sound vibrations in the wall through your fingers? Man.”
“All you have to do is get into a freak accident,” Lydia said.
“Speaking of which, do I have to talk into Sylvia’s fingers?” Dariela lowered her head and held her own fingertips close to her mouth. “I know in your letters you told me she was deaf, so I wasn’t sure. I was kind of going back and forth, leaning in and pulling out. Looked like one of those ducks on a bowl of water that go up and down, up and down.”
“No, she can hear fine through her fingers,” Lydia said. “She might turn her hand toward you while you’re speaking. She reads lips, too, so you’re fine either way.”
“Good to know.”
Off to one end, Lydia spotted Aidan, lining up a shot on the game room’s new pool table. He was quite skilled and proved himself better than most there, sinking nearly every ball he hit. Lydia wondered if she should broach the subject of what happened yesterday. Then again, pretending nothing had changed between them might help. But she sensed things wouldn’t be that easy.
She realized Dariela had asked a question. “What was that?”
“Too busy batting your eyelashes at someone?” Dariela turned toward Aidan. “Oh, that the flying guy? Hmm, he’s not bad in a shy, reserved kind of way,” she said teasingly.
“It’s not like that. Not every guy in here is a boyfriend, current or otherwise.”
A wicked smile crept up Dariela’s cheeks. “I would hope not. Else I’d have to punish you for hiding that news from me.”
Lydia checked a clock on the wall. “Do you mind staying here for a bit? I have training. Unless you want to come watch and see more abilities.”
“Nah, I’d like to, but I’ll stay here.” She stretched out in her chair and wormed deeper into it. “Didn’t get much sleep last night.”
Lydia booked it down to the standard training area for all BEPs. On the way, she passed by Cooper and Nina’s swimming pool room to say hello and to ask if it would be alright to bring Dariela by to visit. However, Cooper was being led down the hall. It was odd seeing him out of the water, away from the cafeteria or without Nina beside him. He was on all fours, like a boy crawling along, except that where forearms, hands, lower legs, and feet should be, there were pale, skin-colored flippers. He flopped along on his flippers like a seal in swim trunks beside a security guard, leaving a trail of water. They disappeared around a corner before she could call to them.
His twin sister, Nina, a girl with human limbs instead of flippers, watched from the pool’s windowed wall that faced the hall, her face pressed against the glass. The fish gills on her neck opened and closed rapidly as if she was short of breath. She watched the group disappear and once they did, she swam away and hid.
Puzzled, Lydia entered and climbed the short steps. It was quiet, save for the splashing, salty water. She peered closer into the pool. At the bottom, a faint, human-shaped blotch stirred. “Nina!” The shape drifted to the deeper end and vanished completely. Lydia wanted to stay, but training had started, so she left Nina for now and jogged down the hall.
She arrived a few minutes late to the large, blue-matted training room, changed into her training shorts and shirt in the locker room, and quickly organized her group for practice. During the past few months, she had come to offer training for those seeking advanced combat techniques. It had begun with Lydia’s demonstrating a few moves for Wren from her agent training. But others gathered to watch her, and she eventually became an unofficial section for anyone to join. She didn’t mind it, and helped anyone who asked. Soon many had come to practice the same moves that she had learned, and Lydia was regarded as a trainer of sorts
Sometimes Arthur helped, and they would teach a variety of holds, blocks, punches, and kicks to the other BEPs. Other times, he left her to teach everyone by herself. It was odd at first, but she grew accustomed to it.
The teaching was light today and she mostly corrected stances. Other than that, Wren and Lydia practiced sparring with each other. Ryan joined in, dodging her punches and Wren’s ice balls as he swung by his long, elastic tongue on the white-washed ceiling and walls. When they finished, Ryan landed and rolled into Lydia’s shins. Even when he hopped up to his feet, he only reached her waist, but his great big frog-like eyes sparkled like a frog itself surrounded by fireflies. “Yeah! I beat both of you! Maybe I’ll be an agent someday!”
“Maybe so,” Lydia said, as Wren snuck a brittle ice ball down Ryan’s shirt and smacked his back, flattening the ice. The scrawny boy leapt in the air, flailing his arms. The residue ice fell out, and he snatched a second ice ball from Wren, flinging it at her with his tongue. Wren ducked and sucked some water from the straws wrapped around her ears and connected to her water bottles, along with an extra pair of bottles for training, and then spat on the ground, forming a sheet of ice in front of Ryan. He snapped his tongue to the roof and swung over it, chasing her into the hall.
Lydia changed out of her training clothes and swung by the game room to pick up Dariela for dinner, where she found her playing a game of pool with Aidan.
“If you don’t mind gliding, why not do it all the time?” Dariela asked him. “I’d be doing that nonstop.”
“Because I can only fly or glide as fast as I can sprint and it takes more effort,” Ryan said. “Not much point when I can walk.”
“The best abilities are wasted on those who don’t appreciate them.”
Aidan leaned on the table, carefully aiming his cue before shooting. He struck the last solid ball, then the eight ball, sinking both one after the other, and winning the game. He smiled triumphantly, leaning on the cue.
Dariela used her own cue to sweep all her striped balls into the pockets. “I hate this game anyway.” The ribbing that Lydia planned died on her tongue as Dariela said, “Fine. You win,” and pecked his lips. “Not the worst loss I’ve ever had.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” he said, “for another match.”
“We could just skip—oh, there’s Lydia.” Dariela turned and set aside her cue. The pair headed toward her. “So, can we get something to eat? I’m starving.”
Lydia was trying to
wrap her head around what had just happened. She mumbled incoherently and led the way to the cafeteria. Once there, they quickly grabbed their food and joined Jando, family, and friends. They half listened to him recount a story from his childhood in Brazil.
Poking her food with a fork and chewing absentmindedly, Lydia jerked to attention when Dariela tapped her plate with a spoon. “Hey, what’s bugging you?”
“Hmm, I’m fine,” she said, a little food dribbling down her chin. She dabbed it with a napkin. “Just, you know, didn’t expect that. The pool thing.”
“Oh, that. I made a bet with him,” Dariela said. “If I won, he flew me one lap around the Cave. If he won, his pick.”
“And he picked a kiss?” Lydia had greater trouble believing that.
“I listed off some suggestions and that was one. I think he thought I was intimidated and would back down. But I really wanted to fly, so I agreed.” She paused and swallowed her food, horrified for a moment. “Wait, is there something between you two?”
“No. No, there wasn’t. Isn’t,” Lydia said, dismissing Dariela’s fear. “No, it seemed unusual. Like I said, I didn’t expect that.” Because I can’t picture it. She honestly attempted to pair Dariela and Aidan together in her mind, and although she had witnessed the kiss herself, it still failed to compute for her. “Doesn’t seem to be your type is all.”
“I don’t know. I could warm up to him.” She looked down the table at Aidan, caught his eye, and smirked. A tinge of red raced up to his ears and he stared at his food. “You don’t mind, do you?”
“Not at all. Go ahead,” she said, hoping she was acting encouraging enough. The notion to tell Dariela that Aidan had asked her out passed in a thought. But she decided to wait and see what happened. It could turn out that nothing comes of it. No use making a big deal of it.
* * *