I drop my backpack by the door and step inside like I'm crossing the threshold into a new, worse reality. Which, technically, I am. The reality where I'm grounded, suspended, and under house arrest because I choked out a security guard in the middle of the cafeteria.

I mean. Technically, I prevented a murder. But sure, let's focus on the part where I put a grown man to sleep in front of half the school.

Mom doesn't say anything when I walk in. Just points toward the stairs like she's casting a curse, silent and efficient. I sigh dramatically--because if I'm getting sent to my room, I'm at least making it clear I'm suffering--and trudge upstairs, taking my time.

The second I shut my door, I exhale.

The room still feels like my room, but there's little reminders that I'm not the only one living here. Kate's fold-out desk in the corner, stacked with schoolwork. A small array of nail polishes lined up on the inflatable bed, sorted by shade like she spent actual time considering them. A faint smell of nail polish remover lingers in the air, mixing weirdly with the remnants of whatever deodorant I threw on this morning.

She's not here right now, which isn't weird. Kate is frequently not here - but I'm also frequently not here, and it occurs to me that I don't actually know how often she's gone.

I sit on my bed, pressing my hands into the mattress, feeling the weird, unsettling weight of having nowhere to be. My body is restless, still keyed up from everything that happened today, still running hot like there's another fight coming.

Instead, I get to sit here and stare at my ceiling and think about the fact that Jordan is probably thrilled right now, because my suspension means I'm going to have more time to work with them. They definitely think this is a win. Except it isn't, because my parents are enforcing a hard curfew. I've made them mad, sure. I've disappointed them. But this is different. I saw it in my mom's face, the set of her jaw, the way her hands kept flexing like she wanted to hold onto something.

And I don't know what to do with that.

I kick off my shoes, pull out my phone, and start scrolling mindlessly, letting the familiar, comfortable flow of useless information carry me for a while. I don't even think about schoolwork. Schoolwork is a Future Sam Problem.

I don't even hear Kate come home.

The door creaks open just slightly, enough that I catch movement from the corner of my eye. I glance up, and there she is--standing in the doorway like she's just as surprised to see me as I am to see her, smelling faintly like laundry.

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"Oh," she says.

"You're here for once," I say, tossing my phone onto my pillow.

Kate steps inside, kicking the door closed behind her, shrugging off her bag. "You haven't moved out yet?" she shoots back, perfectly deadpan.

I huff. "Turns out my parents like me too much to let me be homeless."

Kate snorts, but it's the kind of snort that means she's actually amused, not just being polite. She drops onto her inflatable bed, and it groans under her weight like a dying whale. She ignores it, pulling off her hoodie and tossing it onto the floor.

I look at the little rows of nail polish lined up on her desk. "You getting into nails, or just stealing colors from other people?"

Kate stretches out, cracking her knuckles. "Nah, just bored. And I figured, if I'm stuck living here, I should at least have something to do besides exist in your space."

I watch her for a second. She looks tired. Like actually tired, not just bored.

"Still planning on moving out?" I ask.

Kate exhales through her nose. "Trying. But..." She makes a vague gesture, like she's drawing an invisible question mark in the air. "Turns out the money my dad got wasn't enough. Even though it was a lot."

Something unsettles in my chest. "I thought it was supposed to cover everything."

"So did we." Kate pulls one of her nails between her teeth, frowning. "We don't know if we're gonna get any more of those... anonymous benefactors."

I do not like the way she says that.

"You don't know who paid you?"

"Nope. Neither does my dad."

"That's... sketchy."

"Yeah, no shit."

I glance at her. She's not looking at me.

Kate has always been hard to read, but this is something else. She's thinking about something. Holding something back.

But before I can start poking at that, I remember the other, infinitely more insane thing that happened today.

"I got suspended from school," I announce.

Kate turns her head slightly, giving me the kind of look that says she's debating whether or not to care.

"You wanna hear about it?"

There's a beat of silence.

Then, Kate sighs and shifts, sitting up, crossing her legs. "Fine," she says. "Go ahead. Give me the highlight reel."

I lean back against the wall, stretching my arms overhead. "So. You know Jordan, right?"

Kate rolls her eyes. "Yeah, I know Jordan."

"Yeah, so Jordan decided they needed to single-handedly flush out any Rogue Wave sleeper agents in our school. And their plan was to fake being a supervillain in front of the entire cafeteria."

Kate actually looks interested now. "They what."

"Oh, yeah. Got up on a lunch table, started yelling about working for the Kingdom of Keys, did some flashy-ass power demonstration, then just stood there waiting to get murked."

Kate stares at me. "Are they, like. Okay?"

"No."

Kate snorts again. "And you got suspended because...?"

I wave a hand vaguely. "Oh, you know, just putting a security guard in a chokehold until he passed out."

Kate doesn't react right away. Just blinks once. Slowly.

Then she laughs.

Not like a polite, that's funny kind of laugh. A real laugh.

I narrow my eyes. "What?"

"You--" Kate shakes her head, still laughing. "You just can't stop getting in fights, huh?"