“Heeeeeey, can I borrow you for a few hours?”

After our conversation with my sister yesterday, I wasn’t expecting to hear from Sam today. I had decided to stay home and catch up on some tasks I’d been neglecting. The lawns wouldn’t cut themselves and it wasn’t like mom was capable of reaching the higher areas of the house.

I was mostly done with the housework when Sam called. She sounded anxious, which had me on edge because the Sam I knew was steadfast and practically oozed confidence.

“Are you okay?” I looked around to make sure Mom wasn’t listening in from the other room. “Has something happened?”

“What? No,” Sam laughed, which slowly turned into slow, awkward chuckles. “This is a social call.”

“Oh.”

I felt myself frown as I thought over what she would drag me into. Our relationship had been pretty professional – as professional as two sixteen-year-olds could be – and never really went beyond our superpower-related activities. Sure we had the occasional lunch, but it was almost always occupied by discussing plans for the future or what I was working on.

“Yeeeah. Look, feel free to say no but—”

“No thanks.”

“—hey! You didn’t even hear me out!”

“I’m kinda busy right now,” I said, pulling down the oven door to give the inside a proper clean. “Since I spent all my time on developing stuff to take down the Cains, I’ve kinda neglected the normal stuff. I’m doing house work right now.”

“...Okay. How long is that going to take?”

“I don’t know, I’m mostly done but I’m not exactly rushing either.”

“I could come over and help,” she suggested. “Four hands are better than two. Plus, Pink can get it done in the blink of an eye.”

While I had nothing against the idea, the thought of Sam meeting my mother made me a little uncomfortable. Mom would probably get the wrong idea and I really didn’t like my super and civilian lives intersecting like this. Alex was one thing, this was another.

“What happened to keeping our relationship ‘strictly professional’?” She had seemed pretty content yesterday with how we were going so far and all this felt like a giant leap in the opposite direction. “I think I’m fine cleaning my house on my own.”

“You know what I meant about keeping things strictly professional. I can help without things turning weird,” Sam replied with an annoyed hitch to her tone. “Look, a couple of my ‘friends’ from school invited me out a while ago and I’ve been dodging them. Last night they got pushy and pretty much demanded I meet up with them today.”

None of that sounded even remotely appealing. I didn’t know her friends and I knew very little about her personal life. Honestly, I thought the life she lived as Alice was her personal life and the persona she put on at school was the fake one.

However, it brought up an interesting point I hadn’t considered. Her life at school might be a fake one, but that didn’t mean she didn’t value it.

“What’s this got to do with me?”

“All my friends have boyfriends and I don’t want to be the only one showing up single,” Sam groaned. “Do you have any idea how mortifying that is?”

“I don’t know, are you sure Gold can’t figure something out?”

“Oh, fuck you,” Sam groaned. “Are you going to help me out or not?”

I drew in a breath and exhaled slowly.

Was she really going to ask me to be her pretend boyfriend just so that she could protect her ego?

I’d be finished with the house in about an hour and after that, I was probably going to go upstairs and get started on some homework that I had missed over the last week. My teachers had all emailed me some things to finish up before Monday and I needed to get the week’s groceries at some point. It left me with little time to myself. That said, I hadn’t used my power today, I could probably use the charges to make some software to finish my homework for me. Given how busy I was going to be in the future, it would be something I’d have to do soon, or else I’d risk failing school entirely.

If I went out with Sam, I would be able to guilt trip her into helping me get groceries on the way home. Then, later tonight, I’d mess around with my powers and create something that did my homework for me.

“When and where is this little outing?”

“Two o’clock. So an hour and a half from now. We’re going to New Market to do some shopping. Hang out, eat… I don’t know. We might watch a movie or something.”

Screw it. It’s not like she’s boring to hang out with.

“Fine, but I need to get groceries when we’re done. Our cupboards are running low and Mom doesn’t want to pay to get the stuff delivered.”

“Sweet! That’s fine. I should probably do the same. Having everyone over has been murder on my pantry. Honestly, Liams the worst, he just helps himself. Mia caught him sneaking some of my aloe the other day.”

That didn’t surprise me, though he seemed to respect my boundaries when it came to my workshop. I knew he was excited about some of the projects I was working on but he was always careful about what he touched. Well, to my knowledge at least.

Hmm… maybe I should set up a camera there?

“Am I coming to you or are you going to pick me up?”

“I can swing by in the car,” I could hear the grin in her voice. “You can even drive us if you want.”

My car looked like it was worth a fortune so she probably just wanted to show off.

“Are you sure it's a good idea to be using the car for something like this? We’ve been using it for Super stuff. Maybe we should get another car to do normal stuff in, or take a bus or something,” I suggested. The silence I received from her told me she wasn’t the biggest fan.

“Your power can change how it looks, right?”

“You want me to waste charges switching the model back and forth for something like this? Tell me the truth, how much shit is Gold giving you right now?”

“That’s not important,” Sam deflected. “Look, you can just make it look a little different. I doubt it would be more than a couple of your charges and it’s not like you're using them on anything important today.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Well, are you?”

“That’s not important,” I replied, throwing her words right back in her face. “I’m just asking whether or not this is a good idea. Until my suit has long distance movement modules, I’ll be using that car to get around in costume and there are more ways to connect me and Upgrade than just its looks.”

“Ugh, Max, nobody’s going to know. If it bothers you so much, just use your power to make it harder to track, then once you change the body no one will be able to connect it to you.”

“Okay, fine. I can solve that problem easily enough but what about your friends? Won’t they have questions if we roll up in a car that looks more expensive than most people's houses?” I asked, skeptical. “How are we going to explain that away?”

“Oh, come on. This isn’t rocket science, dude. Just say you’re rich. I’ve already told my friends that I’m pretty well off and it's not like their parents aren’t making decent cash either. I doubt they’ll make a scene of it.”

I bit my lip and considered it further.

“You’re being weirdly insistent about this.”

“Who else am I going to ask? Liam?” Sam snorted. “I barely know him and I don’t trust him to not embarrass me in front of everyone. You…” she paused for a moment. “I trust you. I don’t have anyone else to ask.”

She sounded strangely vulnerable, it was almost cute if it wasn’t so unsettling. Plus, if I knew her as well as I believed I did, then there was the real possibility that she was…

“You’re already on your way over here, aren’t you?”

“...Yeah.”

“Seriously?” I muttered, shaking my head.

“Sorry. I didn’t think it would take this much convincing. I really thought you wouldn’t mind helping me out here,” Sam replied, sounding mildly bitter. “Seriously, this isn’t a big issue. It’ll be fun! The regular kind of fun, not our usual kind.”

“I’m concerned that you think what we do is ‘fun’.”

“Oh, please. You love it.”

I couldn’t really deny that. There was definitely an adrenaline rush that came with suiting up and actually using my tech, knowing that I had built the tools that let us succeed. However, fun was not something I’d describe our last outing. “Not as much as you think,” I replied vaguely. “How far away are you?”

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“Not long. I should be there soon if this traffic clears up.”

“Alright, I’m going to finish up. I’ll see you soon.”

I ended the call, grumbling as I pocketed my phone and finished up with the oven. Despite having grown used to impromptu visits, Mom didn’t know Sam, though, so I thought it would be best to warn her.

Moving out of the kitchen and into the living room, I found her sitting on the sofa watching a midday news broadcast.

“Hey, hope you don’t mind but—”

Mom shushed me and pointed to the TV. When I saw what had captured her attention so thoroughly, I felt cold dread crawl up my spine.

The news was showing aerial footage of a giant sinkhole that went so deep that the bottom couldn’t be seen. It took me a moment to realize the scale of the hole, and another moment for it to register that on the fringes of the hole were roads and buildings. There were no people around, nor were there news crews surveying the hole. I read the tagline for more information and found that this had happened to a town five hundred kilometers south of Bayside.

“It’s like I said,” Mom shook her head. “This world is getting scarier by the day.”

“How many people got caught in that?”

“Over ten thousand people are missing. The sinkhole is so deep that normal search and rescue forces won’t be able to get down there to save anyone in time. The ECU have been called in to investigate,” she pointed at the TV again. “They’re sending a flier from Zachery Port to check for any survivors.”

I felt my lips thin as I stared at the footage. I wasn’t a geologist but I was pretty confident that holes that size don’t just appear randomly.

“Sinkholes like that don’t just happen out of the blue. There weren’t any signs?”

“The earthquakes,” Mom replied swiftly, not seeing my confusion. “There’s been earthquakes for the last few weeks. People were blaming The Mountain for this and he’s yet to make any sort of public statement.”

People always wanted something or someone to blame.

“No surprises there,” I grumbled. “By the way, I have a friend coming over shortly. She’ll be here soon, it was sort of a last minute thing.”

Mom turned to me, surprised. “She? Another girl?”

“Her name is Sam, you haven’t met her yet.”

Mom’s stony visage cracked, an amused smile stretching across her lips. “Where did you two meet? Was it school? I don’t think I’ve heard Lucy mention a ‘Sam’ before.”

“No, she goes to Eastworth Girls. We—” I cut myself off before I said anything that might’ve been contradictory. I realized that it was a bad place to stop but I had to consider my next words carefully. Try as I might though, nothing exceptionally smart came to mind. “—met online…?”

It wasn’t a lie. She had been the first to contact me and meeting online wasn’t uncommon. My mother was a bit of a traditionalist and I wouldn’t fault her for not understanding but she did work in software development, so It wasn’t like she was technologically illiterate.

“Oh… but you’ve met her in person, right?”

“Yeah, plenty of times.”

“Well, I don’t have issues,” Mom shrugged. “It’s not like we never have guests around. Are you two planning on going out anywhere?”

“Yeah, we’re going to New Market. Don’t worry, I’ll get groceries on the way home,” I saw her open her mouth to speak but I was quick to cut her off. “And I’ll be home in time for dinner tonight. It’s a school night. I know the drill.”

Mom gave me a suspicious glare. “Good. You’ve been in and out of the house a lot lately and I haven’t seen you that much. I know I’ve been rather lax but, I raised you with your head on straight, you know what’s important.”

The doorbell rang, which startled me because I didn’t think soon meant five minutes.

“Yep,” I started toward the door. “You know me. Model student and all that.”

I opened the door to find Sam – or someone who looked a lot like Sam, standing in my doorway. I had to blink a few times just to see if I was seeing things right. The Sam I was used to seeing either walked around in tank tops, sweatpants, her costume, or her school uniform. What she wore now was showy and absolutely designed to impress.

Just about everything looked completely transformed. Her hair was straightened and she actually wore makeup, just subtle enough to not look overdone. She wore a loose-fitting white button-up, a skirt with some nice-looking patterns I didn’t care enough to know the name of, and high-top vans.

“Jeez, pick your jaw up off the floor, why don’t you?” Sam laughed. “Are you going to invite me in?”

“You look so different.”

Sam just laughed again. “Uh, yeah. I actually put some effort if I’m going out in public with a group of friends. Anything less and I’d be mocked for it.”

I stepped aside and allowed her inside, recoiling at the assault of perfume on my senses as she moved past me. It was so sweet I could almost taste it. I had to turn my face away as I closed the door to avoid choking.

“Aw, damn. Too much?” I turned to find Sam giving me a curious look. “It’s been a while since I’ve bothered to doll myself up a bit. I might’ve gone overboard… buuuuuut, Pink was really insistent and you know how she is.”

Sometimes it slipped my mind that I didn’t need to explain things to her.

“It’s fine,” I said, my voice sounding a little weak. “I just wasn’t prepared for it.”

I heard the squeaking of Mom’s wheelchair sound from the room over.

“Alright, what’ve we got here?” She wheeled over toward the entrance. Sam popped her head into the living room door frame and waved. Mom looked surprised, a smile screeching across her face. “Hello, Sam was it?”

“Yes, hi!” She replied eagerly, extending a hand in greeting. It was interesting to see how different she was compared to her meeting with Alex. Right now, it seemed she was half a step away from switching to Pink with how bubbly and happy she sounded. “It’s great to meet you. I’m so sorry for dropping in like this. It was a last minute thing and I was in the area.”

“It’s no problem,” Mom shook her hand. “I’m used to his friends popping over, unannounced visits are common in this house. Though, I’ve never seen you before,” Mom gave me a suspicious side-eye. “He said you met online?”

“Yep!” Sam replied without missing a beat. “We’ve been talking for weeks now. We started meeting up recently.”

“Well, I’m happy you're meeting new people,” Mom said, turning to address me with an earnest smile. “You’ve stuck with the same group of friends you’ve had since Intermediate school.”

“What’s—” I started, only to have Mom cut me off.

“There’s nothing wrong with that, but meeting new people builds character,” Mom lectured, giving me a knowing look. “Anyway. I suppose offering a drink and some food would be a waste of time? I’m told you two are heading to New Market soon.”

“Yeah, we’re eating out,” Sam confirmed. “Would you like us to bring you anything while we’re out?”

“Aren’t you kind,” Mom mused aloud. “Groceries would be nice.”

“That’s already on the list,” I commented. “Anything else?”

A thoughtful look crossed Mom’s face. Holding up a hand, she gestured for us to give her a moment before wheeling herself into the kitchen. A few moments later, she came back with a small piece of paper in her hand. Handing it to me, I unfolded it to see a small list of prescription medicines.

“I just remembered I’m running low on my prescription. If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, would you be able to pick up my refills?”

“Nah, no trouble at all,” Sam said, clearly eager to make a positive impression, and from the looks of it, she seemed to be doing a good job. “It’s not like we’re sticking to a tight schedule. We’ll have plenty of time.”

“Thank you. Well, I won’t keep you two. Don’t be out too late!” Mom said, moving back to the living room.

I folded the note and slipped it into my pocket when I noticed Sam staring at the open living room door. There was a pensive look etched onto her face, one that hadn’t been there a moment ago. When she noticed me staring, she brightened up a little and bounded over to me.

“Your room’s upstairs?”

“Yeah?”

She pushed past me and skipped up the stairs, two at a time. I followed, puzzled at her bizarre behavior. I had to wonder if she was arguing with Gold or Pink inside her head. Maybe both, hell, maybe even more than just those two.

When we arrived at my room, I found her sitting on my bed with the same pensive expression.

“What’s with you?” I asked. “You seem a bit more spacey than usual.”

She turned, squinting at me for a few seconds and I could have sworn I saw her eyes flash through multiple colors. It happened so quickly that I couldn’t pinpoint which part of her was trying to break through. After a few moments, she settled on Blue and exhaled. Her shoulders slumped and she looked away, rubbing her forehead.

“It’s nothing.”

I resisted the urge to scoff.

“It’s never nothing with you.”

“Because you know me sooooo well,” there was a flash of Red which had her groaning and shaking her head. “Sorry. I just feel like I’m being pulled in multiple directions sometimes. Today’s supposed to be a day where we can just relax, take our mind off things… but I can’t ever do that. It’s impossible to just unplug.”

“Why?” I asked, perplexed. Sam gave me a knowing look and the realization slowly hit me. “Your personalities?”

“They’re always here, you know,” she lifted a hand to her ear and made a mouth with it. “Always talking, never shutting up,” she met my gaze and pushed herself further onto my bed until her back rested against the wall. “Your Mom didn’t seem very keen to talk to me.”

The sudden change in topic had me suspicious but I wasn’t about to push her if she didn’t want to talk.

“In her defense, she had about five minutes notice before you arrived. But she’s always been like that, it took a while for some of my other friends to grow on her. Lucy talks to her a lot but otherwise, she tends to keep her distance,” I explained. “I’ve always thought it was her way of not getting in our way or cramping our style.”

Sam didn’t look very convinced, despite it being the truth.

“I thought she’d be more like your sister, I don’t really see the resemblance,” she murmured. I thought she was upset about it but that confusion quickly faded when that familiar thoughtful expression crossed her face again. I was about to ask but she – again – changed the subject on a dime. “You aren’t seriously thinking of wearing that, right?”

I looked down at my clothes, which consisted of a T-shirt, jeans, and plain socks.

“What’s the issue?”

She rolled her eyes and sprang off the bed with renewed vigor, making a beeline for my wardrobe. She swung open the doors and stared at the contents within. Her head swiveled from right to left, before repeating the motion another three times for good measure.

“What the hell is all this?”

“Clothes.”

“Don’t play coy, you know what I mean,” she began digging through the various shirts that were hung up. She pulled out about a half dozen and flicked through them, her brow creasing further with each find. “This stuff is old, and I don’t mean like an antique. Just plain old. None of this stuff will fit you. Have you ever cleaned out your closet?”

I struggled to think of an answer as the embarrassment hit like a freight train. Lucy had complained in the past about it but Sam’s criticism felt different, the kind that made me want to jump out a window.

“I… haven't.”

Sam placed the shirts in her hand onto my bed before returning to dig through more of my old clothes. I just stood there, watching stupidly as she went deeper and deeper.

“Fuuuuuck me.”

“Okay, it’s not that bad,” I said, trying to defend myself. “They’re just clothes and I can always use my power to adjust the size if I want. Why would I buy more clothes when I can just upgrade and repurpose old stuff?”

“And you were just complaining to me before that switching the model of the car would be a waste,” she replied sardonically. “You can’t stand there and tell me the thought of using your powers to fix up these has ever crossed your mind.”

She pulled out a pair of jeans that definitely didn’t fit me anymore. I had to have been ten or eleven the last time I wore them.

“I—”

“Don’t even try,” she cut me off with a finger. Placing it to the side she continued to dig until she found some somewhat decent clothes. “These will do for now,” she pushed them into my hands. “You should’ve said something while we were out getting the printers. We could’ve gone clothes shopping for you. Seriously, I think your wardrobe just offered a novel insight into the Roman Empire.”

“I didn’t think I needed more clothes.”

“And you were wrong,” Sam shot back with a glare. “Now I’m glad I decided to go through with this. The thought of you living like this is causing me physical pain.”

“Sam—”

“No teammate of mine is going to suffer from such inadequacies,” she playfully jabbed me. “So get dressed, we’re going shopping.”