“Do you even deserve to go to the speech tournament?” Nan rocked in her recliner and put down her mystery novel to glare at Emma.

Emma let the garage door slam shut. She’d been leaving. What was she even supposed to say to that? Nan had let her go to speech practice, had ungrounded her, and knew she was working hard on her freshman project. Why was this coming up now?

Nan’s eyes bored into Emma.

A bit of orange fur stuck to the bottom of her shoe. She dragged her foot against the carpet. Why wouldn’t Nan believe she was doing her best?

“Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?” Nan asked.

Nan always had mood swings, but she’d halfway gone back on un-grounding Emma what felt like a dozen times in the last two weeks. Emma couldn’t handle it. She knew the rules and followed them, but Nan kept changing them on her.

Then, after getting permission to meet Andres for her school project, Nan grounded her again after she’d picked Emma up. It sucked because she blamed Emma for ‘crashing her bike’ and because she was mad about driving to Dredgetown like they’d agreed.

Mr. Sniggles jumped onto Nan’s lap and started purring. He batted the book further away.

Nan stared at Emma.

“You said I could go,” Emma said. “If I don’t go, I’d be letting down the team.”

Nan shoved Sniggles off her lap. “Fine. Go. What do I care?”

Emma rushed into the garage before Nan changed her mind again. She hopped on her bike and pedaled like crazy. The dress shoes dug into her feet as she pedaled. Her phone rang almost constantly while she biked to campus. The grease from the chain smeared all over her slacks. Nan would be pissed about that for sure.

When she got off the bike, Emma had almost a dozen messages from her team, wondering where she was. Good thing they were hosting the tournament, or she would have missed the bus.

Emma ran into the auditorium to find her team had already headed to their assigned rooms. A couple students from other schools stood in front of the room postings.

Riley sat on the edge of the stage. Summer stood close, her dark curls fanned out around her.

Riley played with her sunglasses, studiously avoiding Summer’s eyes. “Hey,” Riley shouted from across the room. She pushed past Summer to greet Emma. “What’s going on with you?”

Emma thought about the weird exchange with Nan and shook her head. “I—I’m just late.”

“No worries.” Riley slipped on her sunglasses.

Emma swiped at sweat dripping down her face. The torn spandex under her dress clothes made her extra sweaty. She needed to get herself together fast or things would fall apart on her again.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“You’re in Ms. Erickson’s room with me and Connor. Ollie’s in Ms. Range’s room with Alex. If you’re lucky, we’ll see your friend from Stockton.” Riley waggled her eyebrows.

“Andres isn’t coming." Emma clamped her mouth shut.

No matter what was spinning around her head, but she couldn’t let Andres’ secret slosh out with all the weirdness in her head. Instead, she kept her mouth shut and followed Riley to Ms. Erickson’s room.

Ms. Ngo leaned against the desk at the front of the room. She must be their judge. Awesome. The room was full. Connor yanked his sweatshirt and his backpack off the two chairs next to him. He ran a hand through his blonde hair and winked at them.

“Good, we’re all here,” Ms. Ngo said. “None of you have received your priority cards yet, right?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“Good.” Ms. Ngo walked around the room handing out little stapled packets of three by five cards. They were mixed colors, but were numbered and in color order.

“When you’re ready to speak, you’ll hold up your priority card. If you wish to speak once your priority cards are gone, you will clearly raise your hand.”

Emma nodded her understanding after Ms. Ngo finished explaining the rules. Even after practicing with Ms. Range, Emma wasn’t sure how she would handle the debate. She’d shut down in class when they’d practiced. She hoped she managed to do better now.

“Before I announce the topic, please turn off your cell phones and put them away.”

Emma ignored a new angry text from Ollie and stuck her phone in the side pocket of her backpack.

Ms. Ngo waited until she had everyone’s attention after the phone-stashing and then raised her chin. “What should be the government’s response to the presence of supers?”

What could Emma say that wouldn’t basically announce she was a super? At least she would still get a couple participation points for showing up. At least there was that.

Ms. Ngo wasn’t done. “For further elaboration, should they be forced to register their powers and what they are? Should using their powers in any way other than self-preservation or without governmental authorization be considered akin to using a gun without a permit? You have ten minutes before opening arguments will be drawn.”

Around her, the other students scrabbled on their notepads. Emma doodled on hers. It wasn’t like she’d gone out chosen to get superpowers.

And what implications did it have that Andres hadn’t stepped in to save that little girl when he should have? And more than that, he’d used his powers to stop Emma from helping the girl. Okay, so the man had shot at her—and with the way that she’d dropped out of the sky, no wonder he thought she was hurt.

The debate was heated, but Emma kept her mouth shut, too afraid of outing herself or Andres to say anything. Were any of the other kids there were supers, too? Most of their arguments seemed to have missed the point. Or else they were more concerned with controlling supers and forgetting that supers were people.

Towards the end of the session, Riley held up her priority card. Emma stared down at the pink number one card. Even after practicing, Riley still had that tendency to say the inside out version of whatever she meant and offend everyone. If only Riley had a lukewarm comment to get some points for talking.

“Superpowers should be licensed like guns,” Riley said.

Emma shook her head. Using her powers wasn’t at all like using a gun. A gun had to be purchased and then loaded. Emma just got stuck with powers. Powers had happened to her.

“And supers should wear something to identify their powers so people can know what they can do,” Riley said.

Emma’s stomach churned. The apple she’d had for breakfast hit the back of her mouth. That sounded like the stars the Nazis had made the Jews wear. Emma didn’t want to be singled out by her clothes.

The room fell silent. Ms. Ngo gathered up her long dark hair and pulled the end toward her mouth before dropping it. A dozen hands shot up, but Riley wasn’t done yet.

“Furthermore, so their powers don’t go to waste, supers must be hired out for work that is unique to their powers.”

Branded by her clothes and forced to use her powers. Emma swallowed back the bile and sunk her head to the desk. The debate continued on, but Emma didn’t hear it.