Emma stopped by Viva Market on her way back to campus to get herself dinner, embarrassed by Ollie’s cover story for her. Of course, it made sense that she couldn’t get in the pool after stomach issues, but, man, Ollie was mean. Emma ate her tube of cookie dough and sandwich on the band room steps, looking out over the small quad.

Her whole body ached from flying farther than she had before. Someone put their hands over her eyes and she jumped a foot shrieking. Her jaw ached a moment. That full feeling of being ready to gleek-sneeze was back.

“Hey!” Connor backed away, laughing.

Her tube of cookie dough rolled off the concrete and onto the grass. He picked it up and tossed the dirty end in the trash before stealing a couple bites for himself.

“How’s it going?” Connor asked.

“Meh. Ollie’s mad at me.” Emma grabbed the cookie dough back out of his hand as he climbed up beside her on the picnic table.

“What for?”

“I know someone else’s secret and I can’t tell her.” Emma scooped another bite of dough into her mouth. “It’s not even my fault. I just figured it out and asked the person and I was right.”

“If it’s the kind of secret you can figure out, that person must not be very good at keeping secrets,” Connor said.

“I guess. It’s nothing to do with her, but it's not my secret.” Emma shook her head, trying to forget the whole thing. “What about you? Anything new going on?”

“I started a new project with Ms. Range.” Connor sat next to her on the bricks beside the steps.

“For geography?” Emma asked, looking up at him.

He shrugged, then reached over and squeezed more cookie dough out of the tube. “You still grounded?”

“Don’t know.” Nan had Emma on probation. Though if Nan found out Emma had missed swim practice, she would be grounded again real quick.

“I hear you’re not failing anymore… so, maybe you’ll be able to make it to the masquerade.”

Emma took a bite of her cookie dough. She didn’t know how to answer that. Even after Aunt Beth pushed for her to be ungrounded, with everything else going on, Emma wasn’t sure she wanted to go. She had to admit, being grounded had been a nice excuse.

What was that over by the social sciences classrooms? A shadow swooped over them.

“Don’t look now, but here comes Ollie.” Connor gestured behind Emma.

Ollie emerged from the corridor between all the science classrooms on the other end of the small quad. Her short hair was damp, and she glared at Connor and Emma.

“Hey,” Connor said, scooting away from Emma. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.” Ollie sounded pissed though. Emma imagined Ollie’d wanted to talk about Emma running off to the ice cream shop, but with Connor there, they couldn’t—not and keep her superhero identity a secret.

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“Woke up on the wrong side of the bed?” Connor asked.

“More like got out of the wrong side of the pool.” Ollie stopped between them. “Practice sucked, but someone missed it. But I dropped off my note—”

“Ditching practice? What a trouble maker.” Connor grinned at Emma.

“Yeah. I had a stomach ache.” Emma hated the lie, but she needed to get better at this if she wanted to avoid being hunted down by the Super Commission.

“And now you’re eating this?” Connor plucked the tube of cookie dough out of Emma’s hand. “This isn’t good for your stomach at all.”

“I feel better now,” Emma reached for her cookie dough, but Connor jumped off the bricks and held it out of her reach.

Emma sighed.

“Look, Ollie, I’m sorry, okay? You wouldn’t tell someone else’s secret, would you?” She glanced in what she hoped was a meaningful way at Connor. “Everyone’s got secrets and they wouldn’t share them with everyone, right?”

“Wow! I’m out of your secret circle.” Connor laughed. “At least some people trust me with their secrets.”

“Who trusts you?” Emma asked with a snarky grin. “I wouldn’t.”

“Not my secret to tell.” Connor winked at Emma. Connor was a huge gossip and a bigger flirt. “All kinds of crazy stuff happened today. I hear Dragon Girl made another appearance after Ice Queen called her out.”

“I don’t like Ice Queen,” Emma said. She tried to keep her voice flat and even, she didn’t need it going all loud like it sometimes did. “Or Strongman.”

“You wouldn’t,” Ollie snapped.

Was she trying to give away Emma’s secret? Seriously.

“Why not?” Connor asked, around another bite of her cookie dough.

Emma stammered a bit before she got ahold of herself. “I don’t like what they did to Blake, okay?”

“He got away with almost killing your cousin.” Connor shook his head. “Then, he goes around picking on people like Alex.”

“The guy had it coming, but…” Emma’s voice trailed off. How could she explain why she didn’t like it without giving herself away? The words got all tangled in her head. She wouldn’t use her powers against someone after the fact like that. That wasn’t stopping a crime or saving someone’s life.

“But?” Connor asked.

“That wasn’t the way to deal with him.” Chest tight, Emma held out her hand. If only she could smother her emotions with cookie dough. “Give it back.”

“And what was the way to deal with him?” Connor slammed the dough back into her hand so hard it smooshed out. “He didn’t get justifiable punishment that fit his crime.”

“Don’t they have to prove who got the alcohol and who got who drunk?” Ollie asked.

“That’s what the cops and the courts are for.” The words came easy enough to Emma. Nan always put her faith in the cops. But Emma had played cop that morning and it wasn’t the same. She’d stepped in when the cops hadn’t been able to get a clear shot of the bad guy. She’d saved Momma Cooper’s life.

And burned a man. A guilty man, but she’d burned him. Had that been justifiable?

After she took a bite, Connor grabbed the cookie dough and waved it around as he spoke. “The cops let Blake go. The courts let them both go all because their parents are rich. And Blake’s dad’s a cop. He wouldn’t have been punished, if they didn’t—”

Ollie snatched the dough and took a bite.

“I don’t like the way they did it,” Emma said. “It just…”

“What?” Ollie asked pointedly. “What did it do? Yeah, Ice Queen humiliated him, but he needed to be called out.”

“Guess Dragon Girl did, too,” Connor said. “Otherwise, she probably wouldn’t have stopped that robbery.”

She had, but had it been the right choice? That guy had gotten burned and the cops were there by the time he ran out. “Guys, I think it’s time to get to speech practice.” Emma hopped up off the table, snatched her cookie dough back out of Ollie’s hand and headed for Ms. Range’s classroom.

“Breaking news there.” Ollie’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

Emma kept her mouth shut. She didn’t want to get tied up with the superhero conversation in too many people’s heads.

“Yeah.” Connor refused to let it go, though. “Story says she burned up that boar’s head. You know the one over the register.” He swiped at Emma’s cookie dough, but she jerked her hand away just in time.

“Man, I hated that thing,” Ollie said as Emma said, “This is my dinner, get your own.”

“Way to go, Geek Fire.” Ollie winked at Emma, the hard edge softening around her lips.

Wait. Had burning the boar’s head gotten her out of the doghouse with her friend?

“Geek Fire?” Connor asked. “You mean Dragon Girl.”

“Not what it calls her on Wikipedia,” Ollie said. “Don’t you want to share your dinner with me? I’m starving.”

“Wikipedia’s wrong,” Connor walked ahead of the two girls.

“Told you,” Ollie said under her breath behind Connor’s back. She grabbed the last of the cookie dough from Emma. “No one will call her that.”