Emma was the first one to the gym. She hurried past row after row of small, red lockers to the athletes’ lockers in the back. Nan called her phone, but she rejected it, texting back, Going to swim practice. Don’t want to talk.

Her hammer worked just fine.

Emma changed into her two-piece racing suit whose top doubled as a good sports bra, workout shorts, and an oversized gym shirt. She twisted her brown hair up into an ugly bun and threw a couple extra hair holders in for good measure to keep it up while she ran.

When the final bell rang, Emma was already bouncing up and down at the gate to the pool, full of nervous energy. Her shorts brushed her legs with each bounce. She clung to the wrought-iron fence, staring in at the pool and ignoring the students waiting for their bus. That long run today sounded good. She needed to move, burn off the energy, and get past all of this craziness.

“Dude, your appointment’s over fast,” Ollie said. “Everything okay?”

Emma jumped. She had been so wrapped up in her own world she hadn’t even seen her friend coming from the gym.

“You were hella nervous in band and now you’re at practice early. I kind of thought a doctor’s appointment would last—”

“It wasn’t a doctor’s appointment, okay?” Emma released the gate.

“That’s all you’re going to say? You’re here early and doing calf raises before we run. You hate calf raises.” Ollie smiled. “Wish I hadn’t left my phone in my locker. There’s no way anyone would believe me without video evidence.”

“Yeah, well…” Emma let her voice trail off.

She and Ollie stared at each other. Ollie waited for her to finish, but Emma didn’t know what to say. Even in her workout clothes, or especially in them, Ollie looked almost like a boy. Wiry thin. When they ran she wore baggy shorts and double sports bras under a loose t-shirt.

“You’ve been on edge since last week. You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”

“I know, but this is…” Emma shrugged. What? Ollie had talked to her about how she hated being a girl and how she wasn’t even sure she liked boys. Yet, Emma hadn’t trusted her with this? Now Emma felt like a dick, but she sucked at talking about her feelings. She didn’t have the words.

“This is what? Different?” Ollie leaned against the fence. “Because it’s your problem not mine?”

Emma shrugged. “I just… I don’t have the words. Don’t have the words.” Stupid. Why did she echo herself like that? Nan always told her saying it once was enough.

“Let’s talk on the run?” Ollie shifted, turning away.

Emma followed her gaze to where Sebastian had already rounded the corner. “That would be good.” She didn’t want to talk. She wanted to move. She wanted to bury this inside.

“What would be good?” Sebastian pulled his towel from his shoulders and tossed it onto the fence.

Emma froze. She had to keep the testing a secret from him since he’d never ask a weirdo like her to the formal. Besides, she didn’t want even Ollie knowing her business, but Ollie had trusted her with so much, maybe talking it over with her would help somehow.

“If Ms. Range is right and all this superhero stuff is promo for some new movie.” Ollie winked at Emma. “We were talking about what superheroes would be cool to see. Like the Dredgetown Speedster or the Washington Wailer.”

“Right…” Sebastian didn’t seem convinced.

Emma didn’t like lying, but how else could she avoid telling him about the testing and her supposed diagnosis?

The rest of the team trickled in and coach unlocked the pool area. The others chatted as they stretched on the concrete pool deck, but Emma didn’t feel like much for conversation, which, to be honest, wasn’t much of a change from normal.

When they started the run, instead of pulling ahead like she usually did, Emma kept pace with Ollie and waited to talk until they were alone. In silence, they ran through the new suburbs on their way to Honda Hills. The town was growing up around them, changing, and Emma didn’t like it.

Ollie set a good, steady pace that Emma handled no problem. To her credit, Ollie didn’t push for more details. She waited until Emma was ready to talk or until the others cleared out, Emma wasn’t sure which. They turned out of the suburbs at the edge of town and into the dry, rolling hills.

The sticker plants were still green with bright yellow flowers. Their thorns threatened to snag them, but weren’t as dangerous as they would be when they dried out in summer.

“So…” Emma said after a while. Her feet thudded on the packed dirt in a steady rhythm that helped her focus, helped her understand her thoughts, her feelings a little better. Helped her control them a bit.

“So, what was your appointment?” Ollie asked.

“Not a doctor’s appointment.” Emma squeezed in closer to Ollie as they passed some thorns that hung into the path. Their hands brushed.

Ollie drew in a sharp breath. “Got that. Was it about your freshman project?”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Kind of.” Emma ran, gathering the courage as her legs pumped at Ollie’s steady rhythm. Left, right, left, right. Her feet hitting the ground felt good. “Last Tuesday, my grade dropped to forty-eight percent in English and I cried in Ms. Range’s class.”

“Are you okay?” Ollie stopped, turning towards her.

Emma kept running. She knew she needed to tell her friend and this was the only way that was happening.

Ollie sprinted to catch up.

“It was over a week ago. Same day as the AstroTech launch.” Left. Right. Left. Right. Emma wanted to race into the gap between two hills and up the last steep hill to the old, craggy oak, but she couldn’t talk if she ditched Ollie. “Ms. Range said I should get tested for a learning disability. So, they tested me.”

Ollie didn’t say anything.

Emma glanced at her, but Ollie’s cheeks burned red and she seemed to be having trouble maintaining her pace.

“Am I going too fast?” Emma asked, wishing she’d bothered to carry a bottle of water. Today they would run three miles before they’d start swimming, and Ollie looked like she was toast.

“I’m fine.” Ollie’s words came out short and clipped.

Emma slowed her pace a hair. “I’m not stupid.”

“No one said that.” Ollie’s breath whistled between her words.

Emma slowed even more, but the change in rhythm didn’t help her control her emotions. She needed faster. If she moved less, she’d go crazy. She wanted to scream.

“I’m not.” Emma focused on her feet. Left. Right. Left.

“Of course not.” Ollie was still struggling.

“I didn’t mean to go too fast. Let’s walk.” It killed her to say it. Emma needed to run. She needed the rhythmic movement, but she stopped at the bottom of the hill and waited for Ollie to catch her breath. The words started tumbling out, along with the tears.

“I’m not dumb.” Emma tried to hold still, talk to Ollie.

“Having. A. Dis. Order. Doesn’t. Make. You dumb," Ollie gasped. She pulled an inhaler out of her basketball shorts and took a puff.

Dang it. Emma had pushed her too hard. She’d wanted to talk, but she’d wound up giving Ollie an asthma attack.

“Stupid asthma.” Ollie choked out a laugh.

“I’m not dumb, right?” Emma asked again. The panic made her voice rise. Nan had always said Emma needed to do her best, needed to push herself. Nan wouldn’t accept a B paper because she didn’t think it was Emma’s best.

“You’re hella smart.” Ollie started walking towards the next oak on their run. “Who thinks you’re dumb?”

Too bad the world didn’t work that way. Nan, Hannah, anyone who found out she was broken would call her dumb. Everyone would call her stupid. Nan wouldn’t accept her if she weren’t really smart. Nan had taught her to stand on her own two feet, but having a disorder meant she was weaker, right?

Emotions started spilling out of her. Words were impossible now.

Ollie was talking, probably trying to calm her down, but Emma may as well have been under water for all the good Ollie’s words did. Emma’s mouth ached. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t listen.

What was wrong with her? She felt so stupid when the words wouldn’t come. Body frozen, disjointed words tumbled around her head. Emotions crashed into one another. She felt so angry. So frustrated. So alone.

Her breath came almost as fast as Ollie’s now. She needed to get a hold of herself. Digging her fingernails into her palms didn’t help. Wild emotions flew through her. Her jaw throbbed. She started pacing, clenching and unclenching her fists, moving her arms. Anything to get the anger out, but it was too late.

“I’m not broken!” Emma shouted.

She screamed in rage, staring straight ahead at the old oak where their path could loop long or turn back short.

The scream turned into a sneeze.

Thick liquid gleeked out from under her tongue and boogers shot out her nose. Then about a foot in front of her the gleek and snot combined, igniting into a jet of fire that blasted the tree.

“Holy crap!” Ollie shouted, scrambling back.

Emma jumped back, but the ground never came. Wind surrounded her. Her feet swung in the air, untethered. She screamed.

Another gleek-sneeze. Heat singed her face, and another jet of flame shot out at the tree. The force of the unexpected sneeze knocked her glasses down her nose. Tears stung her cheeks, and she still couldn’t find the ground.

Ollie stared up at her, her mouth open in a blurry ‘o’ of astonishment.

Six or seven feet over her friend’s head, Emma flailed, trying to get to the ground. She drifted level with the top of the last hill. She tried to will herself to it, but she couldn’t move. Maybe this worked like swimming.

Emma frog kicked like she would in the water, imagining herself moving towards the peak of the next hill. Through some strange miracle, it worked. She found herself with her feet an inch above the dirt. She pulled in her arms and made herself stick straight, the same way she made herself sink in the pool, and exhaled, imagining herself getting heavier and heavier.

Her feet hit the ground, and she swallowed down her fear. Gulping in air, she sat down hard and wrapped her arms around her knees. She never wanted to do that again. Her nose burned and her mouth itched. She clamped a hand over her face, pinning them shut in case another gleek-sneeze happened again.

“Holy crap!” Ollie said again. “You’re a super.”

No, she couldn’t be. She was just Emma. Nerd, swimmer, failing English, Emma.

“Yeah. You’re a super,” Ollie said again. “Ms. Range is wrong. That shit is real and you’re one.”

Other swimmers sprinted towards the tree, looking to see what happened. Sebastian ran back down the far loop, others were catching up to them.

“We’ve got to go see what happened.” Ollie held out her hand to help Emma to her feet.

Emma shook her head, covering her mouth. No way would she get any closer to the fire. She needed to stay where she was, with her legs pulled in tight to her chest and her hand clamped over her mouth so it didn’t happen again.

“If we don’t, they’ll think we did it.”

Emma had done it, but Ollie was right. If they didn’t lookie-loo with everyone else, then they’d want to know what was going on. Cautiously, Emma reached out with the hand that wasn’t clamped over her mouth and let Ollie pull her up.

Ollie laughed as if this was the coolest thing ever. “My best friend is a super.”

Emma dared take her hand away from her mouth. “I’m never doing that again.”

“If you don’t practice, how can you control it?” Ollie asked, hurrying towards the fire to join the others. “And being neurodiverse doesn’t mean you’re dumb any more than having asthma means you’re not athletic. There’s Olympians with asthma.”

“Neurodiverse?” Emma asked, trying to keep her voice low so everyone else didn’t hear them.

“Your brown eyes are showing.” Ollie laughed.

“Hey!” Emma shoved Ollie at the joke. “At least I’m not an airhead, blue-eyes.”

Ollie chuckled and pushed back. “It means not the same as everyone else. Come on, neuro means brain. You should know what diverse means. Unless you really are shit for brains.” Ollie shrugged. “That astrophysicist of yours is autistic.”

Really. Well, that was something.