The trip back was off to a terrible start.

Not only were they still cold and wet from the fire sprinklers, but people were giving them funny looks as they walked. Neither of them felt like talking, which only made the journey feel even longer.

They were barely even out of the street it had all happened in and it felt awkward. Milly kept a little bit of distance from Niki while she worked out what to even say.

“Hi!” Stella teleported in between the two of them.

“Gah!” Milly recoiled away. She could see Niki react the same way on the other side. After the initial shock of someone sneaking up on them like that had passed, they each shared a look.

Stella held up a blanket. “You two forgot this. As long as I’m here, though, maybe you’d like a lift home? You’re from Arkwright, right?”

“We are, but…” Niki seemed hesitant at first and took a shifty look around. Whatever she found let some confidence creep back in her demeanor as she straightened up. “Just the three of us? Doesn’t the rest of ACE need a ride back to the school too?”

“Oh no. They’ll be dealing with the aftermath for a little bit. You know, talk to the cops, pose for selfies, the important stuff!” Stella beamed a bright smile as she brought her arms around their shoulders then gave them a gentle shake. “That includes you two. As important stuff, I mean, not as something they’ll be dealing with, ‘cause I’m here. Ahh, you know what I mean. Whatever. Terra’s always harping on about how we should be doing more aftercare.”

Milly noticed that the longer Stella enthusiastically rambled on the better Niki looked. By the end, she was even smiling a little again.

“I do not think that means what you think it means,” Niki chuckled.

“Hey, her words not mine!” Stella defended, barely stifling a laugh of her own. She turned toward Milly and pulled her a little closer as if to bring her into the conversation. “I think she’s trying to be less abrasive. Eh? Eh? Get it? Cause her skin is basically sandpaper.”

Milly and Niki both groaned.

For all of Stella’s tomfoolery, Milly was keenly aware it had only taken her a few moments to lift up Niki from glum to glee. She couldn’t help but feel a little bit in awe of the hero. If not to say a little bit jealous.

There was also the paltry detail that Stella had snatched both of them from the literal jaws of death.

“Hey, uhm.” Milly found herself tongue-tied once again. Wishing she’d given herself more time to think about what to say. “T-thanks. For all. Uh. The things. You know.”

“Yes.” Niki chimed in. “What she said.”

“Oh,” Stella blushed and looked down while she scuffed the heel of her shoe along the sidewalk. “Don’t mention it. It’s the whole point of this gig, right? Hey, what time is it?”

Seeing Stella try to fumble for a change of topic, Milly was happy to provide her an out. She checked her phone. “Twelve past twelve.”

“That should be enough,” Stella said. “We can head off!”

A cryptic statement at the best of times but twice for someone with a power.

Milly had seen her effortlessly teleport short distances already. “Does your long-range teleportation have a cooldown or something?”

“Or something. Are you two ready to go?” Stella asked, then as soon as she saw them both nod she teleported.

----------------------------------------

Instantly, they were inside a little kitchen.

Next to a tan elderly woman with thick glasses, in the middle of making a cup of tea. All she had on was a purple bathrobe with the school’s little wheel logo on it. A towel hung loosely draped over her damp, gray hair.

“Bit early, aren’t you, Miss Porter?” The woman didn’t even look up from the teapot even as three people materialized all around her. As though it was the most common thing in the world. “Lucky for you, I was done. At my age it’d be a great deal more embarrassing for you than for me, you know.”

“Sorry, Principal Arkwright.” Stella quickly backed up a step.

“You took us to the person that owns the school?!” Milly looked out the window and recognized the campus grounds outside. They were a couple of floors up. “I thought we would go to the front door or something! Uh, pardon us, ma'am.”

Niki stayed quiet while she looked from Stella to Principal Arkwright then to the large clock over the sink. She was clearly busy trying to piece something together and it took priority over any semblance of civility.

“That’s alright I—Oh, that’s a new voice.” Principal Arkwright finally took notice that something was off then turned her attention to Milly and Niki. She squinted at them. “Mhm. If it isn’t Miss Second and Miss Krishna. So glad to see you accepted my little invitation, though I must confess I only meant to open my school to you, not my home. Tea? You two must be freezing.”

Without waiting for a response, Principal Arkwright poured some extra cups for the three of them. Afterward, they were herded into the living room where everyone could find seats.

Milly wasn’t much of a tea person, but she also wasn’t about to turn down a warm beverage of any kind right now. It certainly helped fight the chills she got from some stranger knowing her by face and last name.

Stella immediately laid claim to a large leather recliner then slung her legs over the armrest with a practiced motion. A favorite seat? She must have come here often. Once everyone was seated, Stella explained the situation to Principal Arkwright. From the way Stella spoke, it sounded as though it wasn’t the first time Principal Arkwright had received a report like this.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

By the end, Principal Arkwright had taken out a tablet computer and brought up the news and swiftly muted it. The principal turned her attention to Milly and Niki with a look of concern. “Oh dear, that was some ordeal. I suggest you take the rest of the day off and rest up. I’ll inform the staff. If you need anything else, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“That’s mighty kind of you, miss,” Milly said, putting her cup down on the little coffee table they'd congregated around. Dad had always taught her to be polite to her elders. “Can’t really think of anything, ‘cept that I’m just aching to get into some dry clothes, so if you’ll excuse us.”

“Of course, Miss Porter, see them to their dorm… Ah.” Principal Arkwright paused a moment as though something had just come to mind. “And I trust that they’ve had a ‘chat’ already?”

“Yes, miss.” Stella hopped to her feet just a little too quickly for Milly's liking. She extended her hands to Milly and Niki as if to help them up. “You girls ready?”

Milly quirked a brow at the mention of a chat. The way Stella was acting now felt a lot like when she was trying to change the subject earlier by asking about the time. Still, Milly nodded anyway and took the offered hand.

“I have a question,” Niki raised her hand as though she was in a classroom. Adorably dorky. After receiving a nod from Principal Arkwright, she continued. “Stella, it’s obvious you can only teleport to people. You obviously have arranged times that you can teleport to Principal Arkwright to get back to campus, that’s why we were ‘early’, right?”

“Uh, yeah.” Stella sounded surprised. Her hand was awkwardly outstretched while Niki left her hanging.

“Since we had to wait, there must be a limit to how often you can have that arrangement, or else you could have done so with multiple people here and made sure no times overlap.” Niki carried on, but it wasn't a question this time at all. More like a statement of fact. It made Milly suspect the previous question had been rhetorical in the first place.

“That makes sense,” Milly said. impressed with the deduction. However, she noticed Stella had quickly shifted from surprised to alarmed.

“Uh,” Stella fidgeted, shooting a panicky look towards Principal Arkwright.

“Miss Krishna,” Principal Arkwright said while resting a hand on Stella, putting an end to her nervous squirming. “I trust you understand that it would be ‘poor form’ to reveal information on members of ACE to outside parties. So, I trust you are building up to your question. What is it?”

“Oh!” Niki was startled out of her train of thought. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to, uhm, you're right. I was just trying to figure out why you have this schedule thing instead of calling or texting ahead?”

“Well, I can totally answer that!” Stella seemed more than happy to get away from Niki's dissection of her teleportation power. She preemptively gave Principal Arkwright an apologetic smile. “I thought that might confuse the principal. You know, because she’s, erm…”

Old. Milly did her best not to laugh. They were all thinking it, but it was so wrong to say.

It must've not been a satisfying conclusion to the puzzle, because Niki frowned at the answer. She turned away from Stella to look Principle Arkwright over as if only just now noticing she was ancient. “But... she’s using a tablet?” Niki said while she motioned to the device.

"Quite." Principal Arkwright held it up and wiggled it back and forth as though to emphasize the point. She was completely stone-faced.

Stella’s face blanched. “...Oh.”

“Don’t worry, Miss Porter,” Principal Arkwright said with a growing smirk. “With any luck, I’ll have forgotten about it next time we meet. You know how us old people are.”

Milly cracked up laughing. It was too much.

“Well-it-was-a-great-visit-we’re-leaving!” Stella rattled off in rapid succession while grabbing both of them by the wrist and glancing out the window. “Bye!”

The next moment, they were outside, next to a student who was startled at their appearance.

A few more rapidly chained teleports later, Stella dropped them off at the first-year dorm. Her face was as red as a tomato.

“We will never speak of this again.”

----------------------------------------

Finally, back at the dorm.

Milly was in bed, resting atop the covers with her hands behind her head. She’d hung her damp clothes by the radiator and put on her pajama pants and a shirt instead.

It was still daytime, but a supervillain attack was apparently good cause for the principal to call off any other activities for the day. For the two of them, anyway. For the rest of the city, it was business as usual.

A strange thought to contemplate along with their life choices while staring up at the ceiling.

Well, Niki got the ceiling. Milly only got to look at the top bunk, if she was going to be technical. No tiles to count but the slats under Niki’s mattress were close enough.

Milly wondered what was going through Niki’s mind right now. Just thirty minutes ago they were nearly eaten. They were fourteen; getting eaten by a monster was at least somewhere in the top five fears of anyone their age.

The literal stuff of nightmares, she could recall the event so clearly in her head. She even distinctly remembered that she’d been shaking in fear and crying her eyes out. It was the kind of experience that people went to therapy for the rest of their entire lives for.

By all rights they ought to be gibbering messes on the phone with their parents, so why was she relatively calm about it?

“Do you feel traumatized or anything?” Milly asked aloud.

“No,” Niki called back.

“Me neither…That girl, Ruth, she did something to us, right?” Milly had concluded that much. “I mean beyond having us, uhm, y-you know.”

Though, it definitely scared her still. Especially the idea that the monster had only been driven away into the sewer. For all she knew, it could gurgle up out of the shower drain the next time she was in there.

With a shiver, she resolved to avoid the bathroom tonight.

“Y-yes… Ruth has some kind of mind control power. I don’t know the specifics, but she is powerful enough to be on ACE. Uhm, it’s kind of like an extracurricular activity, but instead of being on a baseball team, it’s super-heroics.” Niki paused for a moment then continued a little softer as if she was afraid of being overheard. “...Though, in her case, it's more like community service. She’s kind of a major bitch.”

Milly blinked. It felt wrong to hear Niki swear like that. “Woah, where’d that come from?”

“You don’t have to go far to hear the stories. She abuses her powers and makes people do things they wouldn’t normally do for a laugh. Remember how she took a picture of us while we were under her spell? That was mild.” Niki sounded strained. “It’s common knowledge you should try to avoid her but if you have to interact, it’s best to play along with her voluntarily, so she won’t go into your head and make you. There’s no telling what she’ll mess with while she’s in there.”

“That’s creepy… But come on, that can’t be true. She’d be arrested or something if she was really using her powers like that.” Still, Milly didn’t like the idea one bit. “Ruth seemed nice enough when she was talking to us!”

Unless that was another thing Ruth changed.

“It’s nearly impossible to prove. The last person who tried supposedly got slapped with harassment charges herself.”

Stella had definitely been nice. Milly couldn’t imagine she would hang out with someone shady.

“Hey, wait a minute!” Milly kicked up at the mattress, eliciting a startled yelp from Niki. “Are you just yanking my chain? How would you even know any of this? You’ve been here as long as I have!”

“First of all, the dorms have been open for a month. I even thought I had the room all to myself until you tumbled in at the last minute.” There was a rumbling up above and a moment later Niki’s upper half dangled from the top bunk. She shook her fist. “Second, if you kick me one more time, I’m coming down there!”

“I’m pretty sure I can take you,” Milly quipped as she raised one foot.

Niki shot her a glare, but she quickly faltered and looked away. “Hey… do you think that thing could come after us? I keep thinking it might follow a scent trail to our door or something.”

“Don’t say that! Now you’ve got me thinking about it!” Milly looked to the door for a tense couple of seconds. She pictured them slamming open with the same terrible force as the kitchen doors. Thankfully, the door remained shut, for now. “Great… Ugh, it was bad enough worrying if it might pop out of the shower drain.”

“The drains?” Niki’s face paled, which was impressive given she was hanging upside down. “I hadn’t thought about that.”

Milly easily found herself sharing that sense of dread on Niki’s face. The whole situation sucked. She could only hope city life wasn’t always like this. “Maybe we should keep the lights on tonight just in case?”

“I’d like that too… but it’s lights out at ten.” Niki took a skittish look around the room. “Maybe we could find a flashlight or something? I, I don’t want to be alone in the dark tonight.”

“Me neither,” Milly admitted. The best she had was a phone flashlight.

At least it was something but it wasn’t much of a comfort. There was something better she could come up with, but it was a whole different kind of spooky to ask for directly... But, maybe she didn't have to.

“Say… remember what you said would happen if I kicked you again?” Milly asked, drawing Niki’s attention back to her.

“Huh?” Niki asked and paused to think. “Oh, that. Don’t worry I wasn’t really angr—“

Niki shut up as Milly gave the bed a soft kick.

Milly shuffled to the wall-side of the bed, opening up a spot. On the verge of losing her nerve, her voice quivered. “Well, whatcha gonna do about it?”