“Thanks for talking me into going to this stupid class.” Emma stood at the top of the ramp to the special ed classroom.

Ollie had woven her lanky arms through the railing, her feet on the dirt track.

“No problem. Annie will mark me here and someone can bring my clarinet out here since we’re supposed to practice marching anyway.” Ollie shrugged. “Besides, I know what it’s like to get a diagnosis for something you just thought of as part of you.”

“I just…” Emma shook her head. From what Ollie was saying, she supposed it was starting to make sense that she had autism. Stupid toddler diagnosis and all. “Why can’t I just be normal?”

“Normal is boring.” Ollie laughed. "Pretending to be normal is even—”

“Look it’s Elsa and Olaf!” Summer shouted.

Emma winced.

“Don’t say anything,” Ollie whispered, leaning in closer to the railing on the ramp.

“What’s your cousin doing going in the special ed room?” Hannah’s boyfriend, Kyle, asked in a loud voice.

Emma turned, feeling like a deer in the headlights. Half of her wanted to rush into the classroom, but she couldn’t leave Ollie behind to face the upperclassmen’s wrath. What was she supposed to do? Just dart in and pretend she hadn’t heard? Talk to Hannah who she hadn’t seen since the so-called debate that morning?

“She gets an extra chance to work on her freshman project.” Hannah and her friends crowded close to Ollie, who did her best to disappear into the railing. “You’re an orphan, so that makes you special, right cuz?”

Emma stammered a response. No whole words came out. When she was talking about something that interested her, she could be so eloquent, but right then, she didn’t know what to say.

No way was she going to lie. So, she couldn’t say she wasn’t special. She had a diagnosis and well… she did do some of the things autistics did. She for sure stimmed and had special interests and dealing with people sucked ass. She couldn’t lie about what she was doing here.

Hannah, Kyle, Summer, and Hunter all laughed at her stammering incoherence. Somehow, Summer and Hannah had already reconciled their fight this morning.

How could Hannah be so horrible the day after Emma had saved her life? Hannah could have died and, yeah, she didn’t know Emma was the one who saved her, but you’d think Hannah’d be nice nice because she should be feeling grateful to be alive.

“She can’t even talk! Maybe being an orphan does make you special,” Summer said. She flashed her teeth, but her top lip stayed so tight it was more like a growl than a smile.

“She’s way too smart to get an extra chance.” Hannah said, narrowing her eyes. “She doesn’t even work at it. You’re just a spoiled brat.”

“Nerds like you don’t need extra chances,” Hunter said.

How could he be so glib after he’d almost killed Hannah? Even with the black eye, Hannah was acting like he was her friend.

The door opened under Emma’s hand. Startled, Emma stumbled back. Her feet floated off the ground, but everyone stared at Ms. Ngo.

Her dark hair streamed behind her in the breeze. “Enough!” Ms. Ngo shouted. “Leave them alone. Bullying isn’t tolerated at this school—”

“They weren’t bullying me,” Emma said. Her shoulders were drawing up towards her ears making the knot her neck pulse, and her stomach feel a little queasy. “Hannah’s my cousin. We tease each other.”

“You four deserve detention.” Ms. Ngo shook her head. “Hannah Lee, the day after you almost die, and you’re already picking on your poor freshman cousin?”

“Don’t give them detention,” Emma said.

Hannah would end her if she got detention. That had happened when they were kids. Also, Nan and Aunt Beth had gotten involved, making it that much worse. She had no clue what would happen if three of Hannah’s friends got detention. too.

“I swear Hannah and I tease each other all the time. It’s what we do.” Emma chewed her lip.

Ms. Ngo frowned. Her mouth, normally fixed in a wide smile, turned down at the sides and it made her whole face drawn and pinched. “You four are lucky. Get to class before I change my mind.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Hannah and her friends hurried back toward the classrooms.

“How dare those silver spoons call you a spoiled brat!” Ms. Ngo turned to Emma. “They all need someone to put their heads on right for them. Even Hunter. Almost hitting her with a car didn’t stop him from trying to impress that Summer.”

Emma chewed her lip. If Ollie’d just gone to band like she should have, then she wouldn’t have been part of that.

“I’m gonna go to band now,” Ollie said, her voice soft and whispery.

“I’m sorry about…” Em’s voice trailed off and she waved her hand in the direction her cousin had gone.

“Those four calling you a spoiled brat…” Ms. Ngo sighed. She was clearly struggling for the words without insulting the rich kids. “They’ve got all the money in the world, all the advantage, and they can’t even be civil. I should still write them up.”

“No! Please. Hannah and I tease each other all the time. Just… It’s a little hard when her friends get in on the ribbing.”

The lie felt like dirt on her tongue. She hated it, and poor Ollie was already halfway across the track, going the long way to band. She’d be late for sure, but hopefully Ms. Burbach would be cool with it.

Ms. Ngo chewed her lip, as if considering saying more. Finally, she just shook her head. “I understand a lot’s going on with you. If you can’t handle working on your project now we can just talk about what happened to your cousin last night.”

“No!” Emma’s voice came out louder than she intended.

Ms. Ngo smiled, her cheeks rising into little round hills that almost blocked out her eyes. “It’s okay. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. I know a lot of autistics have trouble talking about or identifying emotions. That’s something we can work on later, if you want.”

“Can we… can we just work on my project?” Emma pushed past Ms. Ngo and into the classroom. Dressed for the cold, for once, she didn’t shiver.

“Did you want to talk about what you read?” Ms. Ngo asked. “I’d like to talk to you a bit about what it means to you to have autism.”

“I didn’t read last night because… well…” Emma let her voice trail off, avoiding the lies. Before answering, she took her place at the empty table in the middle of the room. “I just… I went to sleep.”

“That’s normal. Our emotions can be overwhelming and sometimes we might have a physical reaction. Exhaustion is common.” Ms. Ngo smiled again, but it seemed forced. This time, her cheeks didn’t blot out her eyes.

Emma stared down at the orange desk.

“I have two lists of possible professions for you based on the two personality tests you took yesterday. Did you have time to make your own list of careers that sounded interesting to you?”

Emma shrugged. “I started… then…”

“Sometimes starting is half the battle. Let’s take a look at the lists that the quizzes generated for you and at the list you started for yourself.”

After comparing the lists and looking at what professions were common for her interests and personality type and her own half-started list, Emma was hit with a realization. She needed a job that would allow her to run off and save people at a moment’s notice without drawing the attention of anyone looking for supers.

The realization was that this was important to her. If she figured out the superhero thing—and a part of her did want to—then she needed a job that would let her just run off at a moment’s notice and not get fired. She didn’t think she could do that if she was a college professor, and definitely not a high school teacher. In fact, she didn’t think many of the jobs on her list would let her do it. She doubted there were a lot of jobs where you could just hare off and disappear for hours at a time.

“I know this isn’t really very high up on any of the lists, but…” Emma swallowed hard. Nan wouldn’t approve of any of the jobs that were a good fit for her. Emma liked writing and drawing, but Nan told her there was no money in that stuff. And the superheroes in the movies and comics were usually photographers and journalists. “I think I’d like to look into being a journalist.”

“I know you like writing, but you scored really high for introversion. I don’t know that would be a good fit.” Ms. Ngo said, shaking her head. “What about something like being a technical writer, a blogger, or a translator? With those professions and the internet, you can often work from home or go into an office and work independently.”

Emma could practically hear Nan in her head. “I don’t speak any other languages and bloggers don’t make any money.”

“You’re young. You’re in Spanish Two, aren’t you? You’ve got a lot of time that you can learn skills related to this path.”

Emma shrugged. They debated the benefits of researching journalism or not since it wasn’t a good fit.

“In the end, Emma, it’s your project. Besides, this process is to help you learn to evaluate professions so that later you can choose one.” Ms. Ngo rose to go to her desk. “Income and personality fit are only two pieces of the puzzle.”

“And the rest?”

Ms. Ngo shrugged. “Just remember you’ll need to interview journalists and do your own investigative article.”

Emma nodded. That might be, but reporters had all kinds of leeway in where they got to go and what they did.

“Why don’t you take journalism next year and work on the paper?”

Sebastian was in journalism and he liked it a lot. Even if Bash was nerdy like her, he was good with people where she never knew what to say or even when it was her turn to talk. “I don’t know if I’ll have the electives, with having to…” Take this class, but Emma didn’t want to say that.

“If it’s something you’re interested in, you should prioritize it. Get a feel for it and some experience.”

Emma pursed her lips together. Did Ms. Ngo think Emma wanted to do journalism because Emma liked Sebastian and because her best friend Ollie wanted to be a photographer? Best not fight Ms. Ngo on the why, but Emma was going to do a job that was good for superheroes. Though… a job that she could do from home might be even better.

Still, Nan said working from home was code for being unemployed or semi-employed. Emma needed a stable job, with benefits because of her asthma. Journalism was her ticket.

And, honestly, would her Nan love her any more or less once she discovered who the real Emma was?