When math let out on Friday, Emma hurried towards her locker to ditch her math book and Sebastian.

He caught up to her anyway, and leaned on the locker next to hers. “It’s like you’ve been avoiding me since I did your phone last week.”

“Been busy and grounded.” Emma shrugged her locker sweater on.

“Did you get my messages about investigating potential Dragon Girls?”

Heat rose in Emma’s face. She’d been avoiding him ever since she’d seen her name on that list. “You mean the list of every female in the school. Including me?”

“Can’t rule anyone out yet.” Sebastian winked.

Why did he wink? Did he know something? If he did, he’d talk to her before publishing his speculations, wouldn’t he?

“That’s why I need you to help me rule out people.” He gave her a grin that was hard to turn down.

“So far, it looked like you didn’t rule out anyone.” Emma shoved the autism book into her backpack, hoping he didn’t see it. “I’m taking my name off the list.”

Sebastian shrugged. “I started with a list of all the female students and staff. Then, I took off everyone who was there. And everyone who doesn’t match her description.”

“Her description?” Emma zipped her backpack shut, careful not to look at him in case her face gave her away.

“Light skin. Brown hair, but that could have been a wig. Slim and ripped. And that dress—”

The second bell rang.

“I’m late.” Emma hurried towards Ms. Ngo’s room, not looking back to see if Sebastian were still trying to talk to her. She had to get him to drop the Dragon Girl idea for his article and go in a different direction on this whole super thing. A direction that didn’t involve revealing her powers to the world.

Ms. Ngo’s class would be good. She’d finally read the passage about black and white thinking and autism, and had recognized a little bit too much of herself in it. Either she’d written the best paper ever or it belonged in the garbage. Either she was the best swimmer on the team or she just wanted to play in the water. In between’s didn’t exist in her mind.

Under her sweater for Ms. Ngo's class, Emma’s pits started to get damp under the spring sun. She smiled to herself. She’d be back to her normal schedule and be a normal kid before the new school year.

But, after the autism talk part of class, she needed to brainstorm ideas for her own investigative report. She didn’t know what to write about, but she wouldn’t out any supers to do it.

At the edge of the field, Emma crashed into someone. Somehow, she’d been so wrapped up in thinking about her project that she hadn’t heard the shouting.

Dozens of students filled the edge of the track near Ms. Ngo’s classroom. The crowd almost looked like when people circled up around a fight, but no one was shouting fight.

Some people held their cell phones overhead, filming whatever was happening. Beyond the crowd, someone moaned. Then, a giant metal bench from the bleachers swung up and crashed down.

Emma jumped hoping to see over the crowd, but she was too short. She didn’t dare try flying for real in case someone saw her and turned her in to that Agent Johnson guy. Instead, when she jumped again, she let herself float a tad higher, but even then, she was too short.

“I’m sick of you getting away with hurting people!” a guy shouted. Was that the super? The voice almost sounded familiar.

The bleacher thudded into the ground. When it rose again, clumps of grass and mud stuck to it.

“You and your buddy almost killed another student and got off scot-free because your dad’s chief of police.” The super had to be yelling at Hunter or Blake. The half-empty Jack Daniels bottle on the dash, meant they’d both been drunk when Hunter had almost hit Hannah. He hadn’t gotten charged, just a warning. Blake hadn’t even received that since he was a passenger. Worse, neither of them got expelled or even suspended. The perks of having dads in the DA’s office and on the police force.

Still, she shouldn't let another super hurt either of them.

“Then you go around teasing and bullying everyone else?” The long bench slammed down again.

Emma needed to find some sort of disguise so she could save the bully. Was that right?

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“That poor Alex, what did he ever do to you?”

Did the other super mean Alex from speech? He had to be attacking Blake then.

“Please,” Blake shouted. “It's not what you think!”

Emma glanced around for something anything that she could use to hide her identity, when a princess flew over them from somewhere in the school. The princess wore a pale blue, long-sleeved dress, a tiara, and a Halloween mask. A bright, pink wig covered her hair.

She shot blasts of ice from her gloved hands towards the attacking super.

“Strongman, that's enough!” the princess shouted.

Emma tried to elbow her way to the front of the crowd but couldn’t squeeze through all the upperclassman.

“He needs to be punished!” Strongman said. His voice sounded almost sulky now.

“We will deliver justice, but he didn’t kill anyone and doesn't deserve to be smashed.” The princess floated over the crowd. “Strongman, it’s time for you to go.”

The crowd parted, and a thin guy wearing a skeleton hoodie that zipped shut over his face ran towards the school. Emma started after him.

“Where do you think you're going?” demanded the princess.

Emma spun back towards the field. The princess was blasting ice out of her hands, herding Blake towards the goal post.

Blake’s forehead glistened with sweat, and grass stained his shirt.

“Strongman is right. You need to think about what your actions might do to others.”

“Please.” Blake’s voice quavered. “I’m sorry.”

“Are you?” the princess asked. She sounded like a woman, not a girl. Her voice sounded way more powerful than Emma’s voice. Besides, the way she’d ordered Strongman around almost felt like a teacher.

“Yes,” Blake sobbed. “I—I’ll do whatever it takes to make it right.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” the woman said. She shot a frozen blast at the bottom of the opposite goal post, encasing it in ice. “Run as fast as you can and lick the goal post—now!”

Blake obeyed. He sprinted, arms pumping up and down so hard his hands moved past his cheeks. At the goalpost, Blake stuck out his tongue, then hesitated inches from the block of ice surrounding the cushion.

“I said now!” the woman snapped.

Blake put his tongue to the frozen goal post then tried to back up, but his tongue stuck to the ice.

That only happened in movies. Definitely not in Pueblo Lindo where even in the dead of winter it barely dipped far enough below freezing for light frost on the grass.

“Who are you?” someone shouted at the super flying over them.

“I’m Ice Queen. Strongman and I will do what Dragon Girl hasn’t.” She floated, hands on hips, blonde wig streaming behind her.

The crowd cheered. Emma backed up. She hadn’t done anything other than save Hannah because she was still figuring out this superhero thing, not because she didn’t want to help people. Besides, nothing dangerous ever happened in Pueblo Lindo.

Thank goodness. Her police scanner app had been quiet over the weekend.

“I will make sure justice is served.” Ice Queen flew out over the freeway, disappearing behind a line of trees.

“Good thing we got some real superheroes now.” Connor appeared, breathless, out of the crowd.

“That Geek Fire girl is a real superhero,” Emma said.

Connor didn’t even blink at her use of the name. “You say that because she saved your cousin. She didn’t stop Blake and Hunter from hurting anyone else though.”

Emma shook her head.

“These supers are stopping the bullies.” Connor dabbed at some sweat on his forehead. “Blake was about to cream Alex even though the poor kid didn’t even say boo to him.”

“Alex from speech?” Emma asked, her mouth dry. Blake did seem to have it out for the guy.

Connor nodded, running a hand through his blonde hair. “We need someone to look out for us little people. People like Blake and Hunter and even your cousin, they all pick on us and it’s not fair. No one does anything to stop them.”

Emma shook her head again, pressing her lips together. Stopping crime, saving lives was one thing, but did people need superheroes to protect them from bullies? And like that? Threatening to smash them and freezing them?

No matter what Connor thought, Strongman and Ice Queen were wrong. Even a jerk like Blake didn’t deserve this.

A bunch of PE teachers and teachers whose classrooms looked out over the field started breaking up the crowd. Where had they all come from? And where was Ms. Ngo? Her classroom was on the edge of the field, too.

One of the PE teachers turned a hose on low and jogged over to Blake. He let the water dribble down onto Blake’s tongue, hopefully Blake’s tongue would melt free without him needing to go to the hospital.

The crowd started to split up, but Agent Johnson shouted for everyone to sit on the bleachers and put their cell phones away. He stood at parade rest, an immovable granite block. He said he needed to interview them about what they’d seen. But hadn’t he seen it for himself? The government couldn’t deny supers existed forever.

As he shouted orders, Agent Johnson locked eyes with Emma. Connor talked at her oblivious, even as Emma froze. Johnson’s eyes bored into her and she felt pinned to the spot.

He knew. He must know. He was staring right at her.

She ground her teeth as the now-familiar ache returned to her jaw.

Connor caught her arm. “We’d better get on the bleachers.”

Emma looked away. If only she could run and hide in Ms. Ngo’s classroom. If she didn’t get back to routine soon, she might make a fireball of her own.

Some of the crowd slipped away, but Emma let Connor lead her onto the bleachers where Riley and Alex were already sitting. Connor started talking. Agent Johnson barked out another order, then her friends started talking again. Other people’s conversations smacked into her, making her head spin. Emma smiled and nodded as if she were following.

Emma stared at the fluffy white clouds, searching out different shapes. A bearded face. A dragon. Tears pricked her eyes.

Maybe the hunt for supers wasn’t as messed up as she’d thought. Yeah, she hadn’t asked for superpowers but neither had the Ice Queen. Still, Blake didn’t deserve to be smashed. At least Ice Queen has stopped Strongman, but she could have hurt him if she’d missed with her ice blasts.

Maybe Nan was right and supers were too dangerous. Still, Emma wasn’t, was she? She hadn't hurt anyone and definitely wasn't trying to.