Considering that Milly had to use a strange bed in a strange room that she shared with a strange girl, she’d actually slept pretty well. Maybe all that backbreaking labor of lugging the ‘shipping containers’ up here had helped with that, or maybe it was her foresight to bring her favorite pillow from home.

Either way, the first day of class had been going about as smoothly as she could hope for.

Her uniform fit nicely. The schedule was mostly introductory, so they didn’t even get homework yet. The teachers seemed nice enough. The classrooms and hallways were surprisingly mundane and modern for a castle, but they gave her an odd feeling she couldn’t put her finger on.

The one thing that drew her eye more than anything else, though, was the Powered students.

Back home, Milly had only known of old man Welder who ran the auto mechanics shop. He had the ability to produce a flame and could light his pipe with a snap of his fingers. He’d happily regaled anyone who would listen with his previous adventures as the superhero ‘The Welder’. Which had been kind of on the nose as it was also roughly the extent of his ability, a human welding torch.

Technically about a tenth of the population had a ‘power’, but almost all of those were practically useless. Like the ability to bend a spoon and be only slightly more winded than if you’d done it by hand. Or the ability to breathe in space, which would be great if it also came with the rest of the abilities required to survive there. Mister Welder was a rare breed. As he told it, only one in a thousand could boast of an ability as powerful as him. After that, you supposedly would have had better luck getting struck by lightning than to get a higher caliber power.

Meanwhile, she’d counted at least two students just roaming around casually using powers of similar strength as Mister Welder. One had manipulated the stream of a water fountain to redirect into a bottle. Another had vanished at the end of the hall in front of her very eyes. Yet a few others had displayed some of the less impressive powers, like turning a page in a book with a look of great concentration.

How were there so many in one place?

If only she’d thought to take a photo, but the whole thing had been so overwhelming. She’d just have to settle for doodling some sketches of the powers she’d seen in between classes. Her stomach was still doing summersaults just thinking about what she’d seen and how much else there might be just around the corner. She doubted she’d ever eat again.

That was until her lunch date made good on her promise.

Niki had led her away from the cafeteria and school grounds all the way past the park and into the city proper. Their destination turned out to be a nice little Italian place that had nabbed a nice spot for itself right on the corner of the street. Once their order arrived it was time for the real test.

“You were not kidding!” Milly managed to force out in between bites.

“I told you.” Niki gloated as she helped herself to a slice of pepperoni pizza. “We moved here a year ago, I know all the best spots! Well, as long as it includes a wifi hotspot, anyway.”

For the next little while, there was no room for words, just eager chewing and soft sounds of delight over the delicious cheesy treat. Though, more than the admittedly good pizza, Milly found her attention drawn toward Niki herself in a way she couldn’t quite explain. It was nice just watching Niki enjoy herself with that big smile on her face.

Even though they were wearing the same uniform, Niki somehow found a way to wear it better, as if it was tailor-made for her.

The longer Milly looked the more little details she noticed about her. The soft almond shape of her eyes was obvious, but it was only now that she got to really see the deep shade of amber they had. Thinking of colors had her notice the thin streaks of red in Niki’s hair like she was trying to sneak in a hint of individuality. What Milly liked most of all though, was the way the daylight caught her copper skin. At the ranch, she'd see plenty of different hues come and go after a day's work under the sun, but nothing quite like that. Would it feel any different?

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Realizing she was staring again, Milly glanced over at Niki’s laptop. She’d had it during the classes as well. “So, what’s going on with that? Are you fixin’ to play some games?”

“Hah, I suppose you could refer to it as a game of sorts. I’m learning to program. I’ve already got some of the easier ones down.” She turned the screen toward Milly. It showed what looked to be a document with a random assortment of letters and symbols.

“Can you make sense of that? That’s sorta impressive, I reckon. If I saw that I’d figure the thing was broken.” She leaned back on the booth and had a look around. She liked the kinda old-timey aesthetic of the place, a lot of wood paneling that reminded her of back home. “Thrilling, but I’m not exactly sure how that’s a game, though.”

“Don’t be a jerk.” Niki playfully whacked her on the shoulder. “The game will be when I’m breaking past firewalls and all that! My dad’s always testing the security of all kinds of networks in this city and says it’s the best puzzle game ever.”

“Wait, you want to be a hacker? Isn’t that a crime?”

“Ethical hacker!” Niki corrected with a surprising intensity. “It’s just to find out where the weaknesses are. You get paid by people who wanna know if you could break in. It’s awesome and I want to do it too!”

Apparently, she’d somehow touched a nerve.

“Alright alright. I gotcha.” Milly looked at the pile of text on the screen again. It still didn’t make much sense to her, but it seemed important to Niki. Maybe she’d been a little too dismissive. Milly looked away as she muttered, “Okay, look. It’s cool that you already know what you wanna do, I guess.”

Niki lit up at the small bit of praise. “You must have some idea too, right?”

“Kinda? I always figured it’d be really cool to be a hero, so—”

Niki interrupted with a loud gasp.

“You’ve got powers?! The good kind?” Niki looked around the restaurant before she leaned into a conspiratory whisper. “Can I see? Or are you saving it for your debut?”

“Well, no,” Milly admitted with a sigh. She felt just as disappointed about that fact as Niki looked after hearing that. Even though people were more likely to manifest a power during their teens, the odds still weren’t great, to say the least. Not that she let that stop her from holding out hope. Milly put on her best self-assured grin. “Not yet, at least, but I’m sure they’ll be coming in any day now.”

“Well, on the off chance that you somehow don’t win the lottery,” Niki started with the world’s most obvious eye-roll. “What else would you be into?”

“I dunno,” Milly shrugged then let her shoulders slump, suddenly feeling a bit less confident after that description. “I mean, I like drawing? Or maybe sports? I reckon I’d still wanna do something super related. Oh, are super reporters a thing? Takin’ pictures of the fights and all that?”

“I think that’s just called a photographer with very little sense of self-preservation.” Niki grinned. “Well, if you’re gonna be up close during super fights anyway, I really do hope you end up awakening powers. At least you’ll be a little more durable that way.”

“You and me both.” Milly raised her glass in a toast. “Seems like I’ve got a better chance of getting a power here than back home, anyway. What’s up with all those powered folks at school? Something in the water ‘round here?”

“You noticed that already? Observant. I guess that makes sense if you have an eye for reporting.” Niki looked oddly impressed then rattled away on her laptop. “Well, it’s no secret that pretty much any kid that awakens ends up with an invitation to an Arkwright school in their mailbox sooner or later. That accounts for a lot of it.”

Milly perked up at the compliment. Well, if Niki liked attentiveness, it was too bad she’d left her sketchbook at the dorm or maybe she could show off a little. Fortunately, she did notice Niki’d left a door open. “But not all?”

Adjusting her glasses with a gleam, Niki spun the laptop to show a number of news articles talking about the school. “Joining Arkwright does seem to have some, uhm, ‘predictive power’ as to the likelihood of awakening. Miss Arkwright claims it is just a statistical anomaly.”

“Do you just know everything?” Milly asked. She wasn’t sure whether to feel impressed with Niki’s smarts or embarrassed by her own ignorance. Had there really been that much information just publically available? Maybe she should’ve thought to look a little deeper. “Is everyone ‘round these parts sharp as a tack or is that all you?”

“W-well,” Niki blushed and busily cut herself another slice, avoiding eye contact. “I guess maybe I’m a little bit into superheroes too, like you. I really wanted powers growing up and I thought maybe there was a trick to it or something. Doesn’t seem to be, so, well, I figured I’d pick a school that had a higher rate of Power Awakenings than anywhere else.”

“That’s a lot of words for ‘I’m so smart I got to pick what school I go to’.” Milly teased with a grin that grew the more red crept into Niki’s cheeks. Getting a reaction out of her was addicting. Milly resolved to find some more buttons to push. “On the ‘off chance’ you ‘somehow’ win the lottery, do you have a folder with hero ideas on your laptop? Super Niki? The Copper Avenger? Oh! Something with ‘hacker’ maybe? Hacktivist, Hack&Slash. The Ethical Hacker? No, wait! Hacktical!”

“No, no. Oh, please stop. You are the worst!” Niki cringed with each new name. After the guess at hacker, she defiantly stuck her fingers in her ears and laughed. “These are so bad!”

“Oh, really? Let’s see if you came up with anything better!” Milly reached for the laptop.

“Never!” Niki intercepted Milly’s hand. However, she had all the raw grip strength one might expect from a computer nerd like her.

Despite being able to easily escape, Milly didn’t feel like she wanted to, but she also didn’t really feel like losing. Milly turned her wrist, effortlessly twisting her hand in Niki’s grip then allowed her fingers to close around Niki’s hand.

The warmth of Niki’s hand almost tingled. She wished to experience it a little longer. For a moment, they shared a look together. Niki’s adorable blush was back and Milly felt like her heart stopped.

Only to immediately go into overdrive when the kitchen exploded and the screaming started.