“That’s a goddamn lie. My mom wouldn’t, could not do that. Shut up.” Dani said. “Why the hell would you even say that to me?” Rachel was visibly upset. She started to put her hands into tight fitsts, she could see her hands turning red.

  “I- I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said anything I thought you would’ve heard that.” Rachel said, trying to calm Dani down.

  “Don’t you think I would’ve said something already?” Dani understood why Rachel said something, but her rational mind wasn’t really taking precedent right now. Thoughts were racing and she just could not focus on one thing. Her voice raised, “I don’t wanna hear that shit again.” Tears welled up in her eyes, but Dani tried to swallow them down. She got up and began to walk out until some resource officer hailed her down, “Hey Dani. You can’t just walk out. You know that.”

  He grabbed her by the arm, and she pushed back… with what she thought was a slight shove.

  But it was more than that.

  She pushed his arm down viciously and she heard a light snap. When she looked back, she saw his arm was hanging limp. For a second, he stood there, confused. “Oh my god.” Dani said. She put her hand over her mouth. The resource officer started to process what just happened, and as he did he began to scream out loud. It came from his stomach all the way through his mouth. He was some young kid. Flunked out of the police academy.

  “I didn’t mean to...” Dani didn’t know his name. She tried to go over to him it he flinched and covered his face for a moment. Dani looked around the cafeteria and saw everyone’s faces. Jaws hung open. Eyes wide. Whispers rising to a murmur as everyone tried to talk loud enough over each other to hear one another. People from the other lunch room also started to poke their heads in. Their eyes began to wander towards her. She did this.

  Teachers rushed to the officer, until another one came up and began lecturing Dani. It was something about her being grown enough to know how strong she was. She saw his fingers point back and forth at the other officer and Dani. The crushing reality of Dani not being normal crept up over her. This was not a reality Dani wished for. It’s the one thing she desperately fought against. And you know, Dani knew being a Signalite was a gift anyone would drop dead for. But she just wanted to live a normal life and honor her father's name in the way she lived. But she has not done that in the act of destroying an innocent man's arm. His arm hung limp, like a puppet that lost its ventriloquist.

  She felt that itching in the side of her brain.

  “Dani, how could you?” she heard one of her teachers ask. It was Ms. James. “What the fuck…” She heard a student say. All the silent jeers. All the eyes. The eyes. They were transfixed on her. Like some eldritch god with eyes across its entire being, she was being watched by every one of them.

  The itching grew louder. It grew meaner.

  Dani was terrified. Not just of herself. But everyone and everything in that room. She felt everything. Every little piece of matter move around her.

  She really did feel it. It was bliss. In this moment of terror, she felt bliss. All that enveloped her skin, down to the bone she felt it. The world seemed to slow down around her. The fear around the resource officer. The lecturing from the teachers and faculty. In one of those slow moments, she felt Mr. Keener grab her arm tightly, all the wrinkles on his hand tightening around her skin. She looked to him.

  He wasn’t angry like everyone else. He was talking but whatever he was saying was drowned out by the itching.

  The feeling of someone grabbing her in this moment was like the world breathing warmth onto her skin.

  Bliss.

  But the world was not blissful around her. She remembered what she had done. She still heard the screams, or maybe the echoes of the screams. She didn’t hear much. She just had the feeling of hearing, but no sensory included.

  Then she saw herself she felt like. In a moment like this, you’d expect your face to be some form of anguish, and even she expected that. But it was apathetic. Maybe even not even there anymore.

  Dani wasn’t quite sure where her awareness was at this moment in time. She wasn’t inside of herself, but she wasn’t outside either.

  Dani thought about the rumor.

  The idea her mom might have killed her father. It wouldn’t be the first time cops covered up a spousal killing. But why her mom, she thought. Why her?

  Dani thought about all the times she’d seen them arguing in the time before her dad disappeared. There were some extreme ones. Some harsh ones. Curse words thrown, one or the other storming out. One of them not coming home some nights.

  Then she thought about another rumor her neighborhood acquaintance told her. About the… parties, the adults would throw in the neighborhood. The ones my mom, dad, all the adults, including some teachers who lived there as well, like Mr. Keener and Ms. James. They’d all go. And the kids would be corralled into one or two houses and take care of themselves for a night. They’d have parents come around every hour or so just to make sure the kids were okay.

  Her neighborhood acquaintance Luke told her they were parties all the adults and couples would get together and have sex with one another. Swinger parties. And when her parents started partaking, is when they started having issues.

  Things made sense. But Dani wasn’t sure it was true or if she was looking too much into it all in her head.

  In a snap, the world came back to her eyes. And she heard Mr. Keener. Finishing off whatever sentence he was saying.

  “What did you all do at the parties?” Dani asked.

  “What parties?” Mr. Keener asked.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “Don’t fuck with me, Keener. The parties you sent us away for.” She said.

  “I don’t know, it was a long time ago.” He responded.

  “The last one was three months ago. January 2nd, 2057. Don’t fucking lie to me.” She said.

  “It was adults wanting to get away, Dani. This isn’t the time for that. You just broke Josh’s arm, kid. You gotta understand-” He was trying to lead her away, but she began to halt her steps.

  “This isn’t about me understanding shit.” She ripped her arm away from him. “What did you do?” She asked.

  “If you’re asking me, you already know.” He said, facing away from her.

  “Fucking weirdos.” She said. She was ending this conversation.

  “And what are you gonna do with that information, Dani?” He asked out to her.

  “I gotta talk to my mom.”

  She heard the faculty try to stop her, but in reality there was no real stopping a student who was leaving school. You couldn’t stop them. They’d do what they normally do and call the cops. But Dani’s mom was a cop. She planned on her mom pulling up. She usually did for school ditchers.

  Dani walked out of the school, into the heat.

  She walked down the street. Something in her told her to go back. But she knew she couldn’t. She had already heard the sirens. More than one. Probably three.

  She was walking up Old Shelbyville Road when the cruiser pulled in front of her. Her mom hopped out and grabbed Dani by the shoulders. “What are you doing Dani? You could get arrested for this. Plus you broke some guys arm? What’s that about?” Dani shrugged.

  “He put his hands on me first. Look at the cameras.” Dani said.

  “Don’t get like this, girl.” Her mother said. “This ain’t like you, honey.”

  “What’s not like me? Cause you know what’s really not like me? What’s not like me is hearing rumors that my mother killed my dad! And you know what, mom? It makes sense, honestly, it does. You catch feelings for someone at those parties? Did you kill Dad?” Dani wasn’t sure if this rant made much sense, but her mom pulled away for a moment.

  The questions silenced the world around them.

  “Sweetheart. Those are rumors. They make rumors about cops all the time to discredit them. This is expected in my line of work. I’m sorry you got caught up in all this… Dad’s missing. He has been. I had no part in his disappearance.” She said.

  “How am I supposed to believe you, mom?” Dani said, her lips trembling. “Why didn’t you answer any other questions?”

  “Because I don’t need to. If you are asking those questions what point is it for me to deny them? Yes, your father and I were meeting up with other couples. We had sex with other couples. We both caught feelings for other people because we didn’t put enough love into each other.”

  Dani trembled.

  “But we have to deal with what you did, Dani. You hurt someone. Honestly, someone who it shouldn’t have been physically possible for you to do what you did. What you did was a physical feat only seen by Signalites. You shouldn’t have been able to destroy that man's arm, honestly.” Her mom shifted to her cop tone.

  “You’re gonna play cop with me?” Dani asked. “Now?”

  “I have to, Dani.” She responded.

  “Fine. Ask your questions.” Dani said.

  “Do you think you’re a Signalite? Do you feel otherworldly powers?” Her mom, the cop asked.

  “No. No.” Dani lied.

  “Are you sure?” She asked again. Almost begging her to tell the truth. “You will be in a lot less trouble if you tell the truth.”

  Dani felt betrayed. She was going to be in trouble either way.

  “If I tell you what is happening, we have to keep it secret,” Dani whispered.

  “I’ll try my best.” Her cop mother said.

  “I feel it. I feel it itching in my brain. I didn’t mean to break his arm. I didn’t know I did. I’m terrified of myself, Mom.” Her mom nodded and typed down the response.

  “The itching. It wouldn’t be psychological?” Her mom asked.

  Dani shook her head. “Please don’t arrest me, mom.”

  “You’re not under arrest.” Her mom said.

  Her mom looked at her two other cops who pulled up in the two other cruisers. And out came Vale from the passenger seat of one. He went to Dani, calmly. “Hey, Dani.” He said.

  “You again? What’s this supposed to be?” Dani asked.

  “Whatever you need it to be, kiddo. Itching at your brain for a power is unheard of. Even I don’t get that and I process every sense higher than any Signalite. Except eyesight of course.” He smiled a little.

  “I don’t trust you.” Dani said.

  “You don’t have to. But talking to me right now, right here is the best way to get you back to school when you’re safe enough to be reintroduced back into school. Tell me everything that feels… otherworldly to you.” He requested, kindly.

  Dani broke her mask down. She told him everything. She believed he had her best interests at heart. She told him about the visions in the restroom. The shaking of the room with Mr. Keener. The fact that she knows she couldn’t have done that to the officer. And even the dissociation when she felt her body move between matter. Maybe he was the only person in the world who’d understand right now.

  And she thinks he did. He was shocked. Which is not an emotion ever seen on Vale. What little emotion he does show on accident, shock is not one of them. His emotions are usually deliberate.

  “Tell you what, kid. I’ll talk to your mom about what you told me and what there is to do. You’ll have options. One of them will be to join the local SIgnalite precinct. But you will have to sign yourself to the local database and get all that figured out. Not a fun part of the process. But it’s not right away.” Vale said, as he walked away.

  “Baby, this whole thing is done. Josh won’t bother you anymore. He had no right to put his hands on you.”

  Dani was confused when her mother said that.

  “No consequences?” She asked.

  “Nope. Don’t ask.” Her mother nodded.

  “You’re gonna fight this battle for me, mom? Why?” She prodded further.

  “Get home. You’re going back to school tomorrow.” Her mother said. The cruisers took off.

  Dani stood there for a moment. She activated her Linkup next and just texted Rachel:

  I’m sorry.

  It was a moment before Rachel also apologized. Then the group chat started lighting up. They had clearly been holding back their questions for a while. Dani decided to keep most of the information down and out of the conversation, and just told them that she talked to her mom and Vale about the concerns of her being a Signalite. Dani lied and told them that she denied being a Signalite. But maybe Dani really was one. That was something she had to come to terms with. Being a Signalite didn’t mean she had to go be some epic crimefighter or anything. Maybe she could avoid the limelight. Maybe the world would not notice her, nor would it really care for her powers. Maybe her powers were lame, like controlling bugs or something. Who knows?