Sarah finally looked up at Alexa, her eyes narrow and her mouth clenched. Alexa held both her hands up, palms facing out as she said, "I'm not a babysitter, obviously. You're fine, she just left you home with a friend. We're just hanging out, ok?"

Sarah pressed her fists down against the mattress where she was sitting. She started to put her tongue between her molars to keep them from grinding, but the last time she'd done that the sores took a week to heal.

Alexa said, "We don't even have to look at your homework, even though I got a bunch of packets from all your teachers yesterday. Mr. Clarke didn't give me anything, he said you could just finish what you could, he just grades on participation or something. The papers are all downstairs..."

Alexa trailed off as Sarah still wasn't moving or responding.

"Um, so the doctors are kinda going nuts about Finn, did you know?" said Alexa. "It's kinda funny, really, whenever he's awake they're questioning him about drugs, which just gets him mad, and then he passes out again. Somehow every time he gets upset he hits a wall and passes out, like he'd exercised too hard. They just pump him with sugar and he wakes back up."

Alexa was grinning about this, but the thought of being stuck in the hospital like that seemed horrifying to Sarah. The doctors would just ask and ask, poke, prod, cut, and make everything so much worse than it was before. Imagining herself in Finn's spot made her forget to be angry, and Sarah asked, "How do you know?"

"Oh, I was there most of yesterday after school. I guess you didn't want visitors, so I was mostly hanging out with him. The nurses and doctors were only talking about him, when I left they were arguing about what sorts of specialists to call in." Alexa burst out in giggles.

"That's terrible! Who knows how long he'll be stuck there," said Sarah. "And why are you laughing?"

"You would too if you were there! Everyone was so confused, Finn knew exactly what the problem was but couldn't control himself and of course didn’t want to actually say, layers of red Qi coating the room, the nurses and doctors walking around with red faces and clothes, it was great. I'd swear Finn was doing it just to get out of answering questions."

Sarah pushed herself back against the wall, bringing her knees up in front of herself to cover her body. She could feel the blanket under her bed do the same, pushing itself as far into the corner as possible.

"Oh, shit," said Alexa. The girl stopped laughing quickly and sat on the floor opposite Sarah's bed. "I didn't mean to scare you, of course, I'll keep the secret. I'm just..."

The two sat in silence. Sarah's mind felt frozen. It was worse, so much worse than some accident at school. Alexa had so many friends, always talking to people, everyone would know about Sarah seeing things, that Sarah was weird, that she was worse than some loner, that she couldn't breathe, that she couldn't move, that her chest was frozen, that...

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"Sarah!" snapped Alexa, but even at a near shout, it didn't pierce the panic filling the younger girl. Alexa got up and left the room, Sarah could hear the steps going down the stairs and hoped that Alexa was leaving. Instead, the steps came right back, and Sarah could hear Alexa breathing hard from exertion as she took the stairs two at a time. Alexa came back in holding a bag of something that she pressed into Sarah's hands.

It was cold, freezing. It shocked her, clutching the bag in her hands. She gasped involuntarily and focused on the cold. Her eyes came into focus and she saw it was a bag of chocolate chips that her mom kept in the freezer.

"Sorry," said Alexa. "Jill uses cold packs, but I didn't see any, so I grabbed this. I figured we could eat them even if they get a little smushed."

Alexa fell silent for a moment, watching Sarah.

"Really, please, don't worry. It's not like I've ever told anyone about myself either," said Alexa. "They've got enough to deal with already, and it never really caused a problem until last year."

Sarah just shook her head, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Come on girl, I can see your room, and I saw Mr. Clarke's room before. I'd show you how I make it purple instead of your yellow, or Finn's teal, but I'd rather not spend the next ten minutes blind and deaf."

Sarah just kept shaking her head, flexing the frozen bag in her hands. Her fingers were starting to feel a bit numb, but that was better than letting her mind go again. She opened her mouth, then shut it again. Instead, she just looked over at Alexa.

Alexa was sitting on the ground again, her legs out straight in front of her. She was wearing capri jeans cuffed at the calf and a red long-sleeved shirt. Just a T-shirt, even if it was a lot tighter than anything Sarah wore out. She was still wearing the same leaf earrings, the dabs of green color popping brightly against Alexa's dark curly hair.

"I know you just got back from the hospital, and I'm probably being selfish," said Alexa.

"Its just just... I just need to know. You figured something out, I know you did. You touched the light just this morning, judging from your room, but you're ok. You aren't unconscious or anything. But me? I can't always control it, but it happens anyways."

Sarah kept breathing, through her mouth now. "I don't know if I can teach anyone, I'm not, I'm only, I'm," she stuttered. Her tongue felt thick like it didn't fit her mouth.

"Ok, fine," said Alexa. She sighed, noisily. "Fine, please don't, um, do anything. Just, here." And with that, Sarah could suddenly see the fading yellow mists shift. Sarah could see a ball of mist thickening in front of Alexa, turning a pale green as it gathered. The rest of the fog in the room was turning pink.

"Huh," said Alexa. "I didn't expect pink. It's usually purple, but I guess if I started with yellow it makes sense."

Alexa grimaced, "And there it goes. I'm blind, and if you're saying anything I have no idea. I'm probably shouting too, because can't hear a thing either. And don't draw on my face or do anything nasty, I can still feel stuff. It's super creepy to have someone touch me when I'm like this." She waved her hand in front of her, making a karate chop motion.

"This happens every time I touch the Qi, the light. I gather them up, they look pretty, I go blind," Alexa said softly. She was whispering instead of shouting, but Sarah could hear her just fine. "Last night I tried doing what Finn did, shoving the light at things, but It doesn't really work. I can make shapes in the air, but I can't move them, and even if I swing something against it nothing happens. Just passed through. And of course, I only get a moment to experiment before I have to take a break."

Alexa frowned. She reached out and felt the door, it was still shut. "Ok, you didn't leave, I guess that's good. No idea if you're listening though, I really hate this. So much. I'm just going to keep talking, nothing else to do. At least not until I can see and hear again."

Sarah could only nod, watching the ball of green dissipate back into her room.