As the green light swept into Alexa's body, she inhaled a sharp gasp. She stood with her back arched, just a little, her mouth hanging open as her eyes rolled back. Sarah could see Alexa's nostrils flare as she breathed hard. Alexa's shoulders shook for a moment as her breath caught, and then she just threw her head back and laughed.

"Wow," said Alexa. "I feel like energy drink commercials were true. Is it like that for you?"

"No, definitely not," said Sarah. She could feel a blush rising. "Um, you're a little green now, by the way."

"Am I? I am! This feels really, really good. Like, I dunno, I need to run or something." Alexa held up a hand to look at it. Alexa didn't feel any different from Sarah, not the way the blanket felt full or the fly (or everything else in her room) felt mostly empty, but she was certainly holding some green light in her body.

Sarah was about to ask if she could get a closer look when Alexa suddenly launched herself in the air, cracking her head hard against the plaster of the ceiling. The girl landed with a thump, her legs flexing to take the landing.

"Ow," said Sarah, wincing as she got up to catch Alexa, even though Alexa didn't appear at all unsteady on her feet.

"That... I'm sorry," said Alexa, looking up. There was a crack in the drywall where she'd hit the ceiling - she must have hit a beam because the crack was long and straight.

"Are you ok?" said Sarah, putting a hand on Alexa's shoulder as she looked up at the ceiling too.

"Um, yeah, that's, I still feel great," she said. "That probably should have hurt, huh?"

"What was that," said Sarah, watching Alexa rub the top of her head.

"I'm not sure, honestly, I was just going to bounce a little. You know, just hop on my toes a bit. I feel like I should be running, or throwing something really hard, or something."

"Ok, I guess," said Sarah. "Maybe no more jumping? And maybe no running or throwing inside?"

"Yeah," laughed Alexa. "Sure, I won't."

Sarah watched Alexa as the girl twitched and fidgeted and smiled to herself. They should probably get out of her little room before something got broken for real. "Do you know if my mom actually made any waffles, or did she leave before she got started?"

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"No idea!" said Alexa. "But good idea! I'm starving, let's go find out!"

Sarah led the way to the kitchen with Alexa skipping along behind. Her mother hadn't cooked anything, but the waffle iron was out and the batter was already mixed. The girls set about making themselves breakfast, not really talking about anything but waffles. Alexa was cheerfully pouring out the batter in the iron, Sarah mostly wiping up after the other girl while telling her where the plates and syrup and so forth were kept. Before too long, and without any broken plates, they had a stack of waffles laid out along with syrup and fruit.

They sat down and both tore into their breakfast. Sarah put down three whole waffles along with plenty of fruit before realizing that she'd just eaten more than she usually did in a day, but she still felt hungry. Not the bored kind, where she'd have a book and would pick at a plate or bowl until she'd eaten herself sick on nuts or chips, but actually hungry, like there was still a pit in her stomach that demanded filling. Alexa was eating just as quickly, but Sarah had no idea if that was normal. Some kids brought absolutely gigantic lunches to school, but she hadn't ever really paid attention to what Alexa ate. Or if she ate. Or who she was at all.

She ate another two before slowing down. Should they be talking about something? That was what people did when they ate together, right? Her mom had complained often enough whenever Sarah tried to read through a meal, even though her mom never had much to say either.

Alexa took the last waffle just as Sarah was about to reach for it. With a smile, Alexa tore it in half and let Sarah take it. A few bites later, they both got up and proceeded to mix and make another batch of waffles, still without really talking.

They ate most of that batch too.

Alexa's little half-smile didn't feel nearly as uncomfortable to Sarah now that she had a little smear of maple syrup on her shirt. For that matter, Sarah was stuffed to the point she felt like it'd be hard to move, and she probably had a similar expression on her face.

"Ok, so I've been thinking," said Alexa as she dragged a strawberry through the puddled syrup on her plate. "You're worried, right? You don't want anyone to know what you, what we, can do, even if they can do it too, yeah?"

Sarah nodded, and Alexa went on, "Which means you can't do anything here. If you only used what's inside the house, you'll hardly have anything. I mean, I know how much I've pulled into the air before, and how much I pulled in just now, and it's like nothing. Less than nothing. I'm trying hard to keep myself under control, but I gotta admit I really, really want to pull in everything I can reach. Don't you want more?"

"Not really, but maybe?" said Sarah. She honestly didn't feel anything driving her beyond a bit of curiosity, but then she thought of her little fly. She knew she'd barely put a few drops into a giant tank - what could she do with more?

"Ok, so it's simple. We can practice, we just need to go somewhere where that's far enough that even if someone sees the different colors, they won't necessarily know it's you."

"Makes sense," said Sarah.

"Great! Today's Thursday. You seem fine, but there's no way anyone will expect you in class tomorrow. We're going camping!" announced Alexa.

"What?"

"Camping! Don't worry, I'll talk to your mom, she'll be fine with it," said Alexa. "It's a date!"