Evil Maybe

Chapter 12- Ree

The day after I got back from my visit to E.V.I.L. headquarters, I felt like I had been dropped on concrete and then pulled through a blender. The corner of The Complete Works of Shakespeare was digging into my side, and I pushed it off the bed as I stood up and staggered to my dresser. I dressed without thinking, pulling on the first thing I could see. In the end I ended up wearing leggings almost a size too small and a cowl neck sweater that hung near my knees.

Stifling a yawn, I turned and observed myself in the mirror. There were bags under my eyes, a result of staying awake until one o’clock reading, and my hair was sticking up towards the sky. It does that often, usually when I feel a particularly strong emotion and accidentally channel energy the wrong way, but it never got as bad as it did the day I got my powers. Today, though, it looked worse.

Probably because my ring makes my powers stronger, and I just got it back, I thought groggily. Oh well. I ran my fingers through my hair, but it just floated upward again and again. After a few more attempts, I gave up and trudged out of the room, heading for the stairs. I’ll get mom to fix it, I told myself as I descended. She was good at making my hair stay down.

And then I froze, because that is when my sleep deprived mind caught up to the present. My mom was gone. She wouldn’t ever fix my hair again. Tears welled up in my eyes and spilled down my cheeks, but I hurriedly wipe them away. I had cried myself out already. I had made a promise to myself to be strong. Besides, I mused, Max’s mother is gone too, and he’s not a mess. Be like him.

Once again, I stopped in my tracks. Had I just wished to be more like a villain? Suddenly yesterday’s memories come crashing over me like a wave. All the details came rushing back, and as I stepped off the last stair, I allowed myself to smile.

The first thing I saw when I walk into our kitchen was Zeke, juggling at least five eggs at once with a wide grin on his face. Genevieve was sitting at the table, surrounded by work, and Jack was next to her, correcting one of her papers. He kept trying to get her attention, but she couldn’t stop laughing at Zeke. My dad was by the stove, hovering over a pan of bacon, but he kept glancing around the room and smiling.

A warm glow flared in my chest as I stood in the shadows, watching. Dad was the only one in the room related to me by blood, but Zeke and Jack and Genevieve are family all the same.

When Zeke caught sight of me, his grin, if possible, got even wider. The eggs dropped from his hands, and I flinched, but before they could hit the ground, my dad pointed a finger at them and they stopped, floating in mid-air. He pointed his finger to the table, and they slowly float over, landing gently on the wooden surface.

“Good catch, Mr. Makkay!” Zeke said happily before bounding toward me. He threw his arms around me and twirled me around. “Morning little storm cloud!” He sang when he put me back on my feet. I wrinkled my nose at him. I had tried to tell him multiple times that I don’t like the nickname he has given me, but my words seemed to fly out his ears every time.

He first called me that when we were eight years old. I had been sitting in the school cafeteria, glaring at everyone and practicing conducting electricity through my fingers, when Zeke sat down next to me. He was the first one to ever do that. Every other person in school had been afraid of me. I expected that soon he would realize who I was and scurry away. He didn’t. Instead, he took one look at my face and told me that I looked like a storm cloud, full of darkness and ready to ruin someone’s day. The fact that he said it while smiling made his statement slightly less serious, but I was too stunned to say anything. Jack, who had been sitting at a nearby table, overheard everything, and he turned around and told Zeke that he looked like the sun, shining so brightly that he would blind everyone around him. I’m not sure why, or how, but that won me over. And we’ve been best friends ever since.

“-no idea where you were, you could have at least told us. We were so worried that you had been captured or something. We couldn’t find you anywhere!”

I blinked. Was someone talking to me? “Sorry,” I look at Jack, who had appeared in front of me while I daydreamed. “I was at the library.”

Now it was Jack’s turn to blink. “The library?” He questioned in astonishment.

I made a face. “Yes. I’m allowed to read, you know.”

Genevieve looked like she was about to comment, but before she could say anything, my dad turned around. “Bacon’s ready, but we’re out of milk.” He held up the empty carton. Zeke looked horrified. “Does that mean... no coffee?” He whispered.

“You could always have it without milk,” I suggested innocently.

“Get away from me, you heartless beast!” Zeke leaped backwards, landing with catlike grace on a chair. I put my hands on my hips. “You are an i***t. You do not need milk for your coffee!”

“Do too!”

“Do not!”

“Do-”

My dad cut off Zeke’s next words. “Ree, could you just run up to the Shopping Sector and get some more milk?” He asked with a pleading look. I sighed. “Fine. Why not.”

“Thank you.” He seemed relieved, and I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw his eyes dart inconspicuously toward Zeke, who had leaped to his feet. If Zeke didn’t have his coffee, the day would be dark indeed.

“I’ll go with you,” he said to me, a smile once again on his face. Jack stood up as well. “Me too.” Genevieve scurried to my side. “Hey, I want to go!” she scowled indignantly.

“I’ll be back soon,” I laughed, taking Genevieve’s hand. “Girls only trip,” I told the boys. Before they could protest, I slipped on my worn red flats and dragged Genevieve out the door. When I turned to close it, I caught a glimpse of Jack and Zeke, who had launched themselves at each other and were now wrestling on the ground.

“Hey, you cheated!” I heard Jack yell as I walked away. Genevieve looked at me, and I looked at her. We stared for a few seconds, then broke into hysterical grins. She clutched my arm as we trudged through the grass, weaving through the rows of square houses.

The sounds of shouting soon reached my ears, getting louder the closer we got to the Central Sector. It was the birthday of Marco Arsonette, the founder of T.H.I.N.K., and so everyone had off school. Normally everything would be quiet at this time, but now everyone was out, playing and talking and celebrating.

A few games of Descoro had broken out, and for a few moments I stopped, watching. Descoro is a game that everyone knows how to play. We play it for training, we play it to settle arguments, we play it just because we feel like playing it. It’s a simple game; four wooden boxes in a square formation, filled with beanbags. There’s four teams, one for each box, and all you have to do is guard your box while stealing beanbags from others. Whichever team has the most beanbags at the end of the time wins. It can go on for any length of time, but usually we play ten minutes.

I am currently reigning champion, and as I stood there, Jonah Radeck spotted me. “Hey Makkay!” he shouted. He was floating a few inches off the ground, the wheels of his wheelchair never touching the grass. I waved as he soared past, holding three beanbags.

“How’s it going, Jonah?” I called back from the sidelines. He dropped his beanbags into his team’s box then twirled around to face me. “We’re winning! But we’d do better if you joined us!”

I could hear the smile in his voice from the opposite side of the field. I was itching to join him, to blast some people out of my way and steal all those beanbags, but I knew I couldn’t. “Sorry, I’ve got to go to the store.”

He looked disappointed, but he noded in understanding. “Then come back later and watch us kick some butt!”

“Will do. Go beat em’ for me!”

Quite a few people had been alerted by our shouting, and as I walked away I could hear the whispers following me. I ignored them, as I always do, but Genevieve kept looking back nervously. She’s gotten used to attention these last two years, but I could tell it still unnerved her.

“Ree, can you carry me?” Genevieve asked, and I looked down, surprised. “Why?” I furrowed my brow, wondering if the whispers had gotten to her more than I realized.

“I don’t want to walk,” she told me with a glint in her eyes. I threw back my head and laughed. “Well then why did you come with me?”

She stuck out her lower lip and gave me puppy dog eyes.

“Fine,” I sighed, grabbing her around the middle and swinging her onto my shoulders. She grinned and held out her slender arms for balance. Genevieve weighed practically nothing, and although I could tell she would one day be taller than me, I could carry her easily.

When a patrol had first found her, shivering and terrified, she had looked half starved. Her white skin had been even paler, and she was drenched from head to foot and covered in scratches. Genevieve and her parents had been out on their little boat, trying out their new sail, when a storm had kicked in out of nowhere and rammed them right into a patch of rocks. The boat had sank, and her parents, unprepared for a disaster, drowned. But Genevieve had powers, although she didn’t know it then. She could walk on and breathe under the water. She survived, just long enough for a patrol to find her washed up on shore.

They had taken her back, given her food and water and shelter. She normally would have been sent to Community Living, where the orphans, too young to live on their own, and the elderly, too old to fight anymore, stayed. However, Commander Lea had decided that, because of her powers, she should be sent to live with Flynn Markson, who could help her understand what she could do. But my mother wouldn’t have it. Flynn was a sour man, with a bad temper and a constant frown. And so my mom told The Council that we would adopt her.

At first I had detested the idea, not wanting my perfect life disturbed, but no one could hate Genevieve for long. Soon she was my sister in every way, and I would do anything for her. So would my mom, I knew, and my dad. And even though that had been three years ago, sometimes I still worried. I couldn’t help it. Sometimes, in my eyes, she still seemed too thin, too small, too fragile.

“I’m okay,” Genevieve whispered solemnly, almost as if she can read my thoughts. “And it’s not like they were really looking at me. It’s you everyone watches.”

“Thanks for that!” I laughed. It was true, though. When she first came to headquarters, she was the subject of every conversation. It is not often that we take in outsiders. But it wasn’t long until people got used to her, and no one gave her a second glance.

That lasted about three years. Three glorious, normal years. Then it all went downhill again. My- our- mom was highly regarded in the community. She was the wife of the third council member, the head of the attack force, and the creator of the Cybertrans, one of the best inventions in T.H.I.N.K. history. When she died, and I destroyed all the Cybertranses, we once again became the talk of the town. Genevieve was no longer known as “that orphan girl” but as the daughter of Rosalin and Michael Makkay and the sister of Ree Makkay. And as much as they talked about Genevieve, they talked about me more. I didn’t mind it, though. It’s not like their whispering will change anything, anyway.

“What?” Genevieve asked in confusion. I realized I had spoken the last part aloud. “Nothing, my Gem. Just thinking.”

“Well, if you’re just thinking, can you go faster?” she pleaded from her perch. “I can see the Shopping Sector!” she said, pointing wildly ahead. I squinted, and, sure enough, I could see the faint outline of the low, sloped buildings. “Sure, I can go faster. The question is, can you handle it?” I simpered.

“Definitely!” she shouted.

“Okay. You asked for it!” I shook my head, feigning weariness, then broke into a dead sprint. Genevieve shrieked and lurched forward. I had made sure to grip her calves before running, so she didn’t go flying off my shoulders, but she wobbled unsteadily and had to wrap her arms around my neck to regain her balance.

I dashed up the sloped ground, gradually getting closer and closer to the Shopping Sector until we passed the invisible barrier. I didn’t calculate the distance correctly, though, and the first building was closer than I thought.

“Emergency landing procedure!” I hollered, and I wasn’t sure if Genevieve heard me until she launched herself backwards into a back flip, just as I taught her, and landed, crouched, a few feet away. Once she was safely away from the wall I relaxed and attempted to slow myself down. I would have crashed headfirst into the wall if I hadn’t put my hand out and blasted electricity into the concrete. The force of my power hitting the surface pushed me backwards, and I went flying through the air. I landed a few feet away from were Genevieve was still splayed on the ground. She crawled over and leaned over me, and I grinned up at her.

“Why do you always try to go too fast?” she asked me, her head tilted. I pushed a lock of orange hair behind her ear and said, “Because it will get us there faster.” She raised an eyebrow, looking skeptical. It only took one glance at her face to make me burst into hysterical laughter. Soon she joined me, and together we laid in the thick grass under the still-warm December sun.

Laughing like this, with another person at my side, made me think about Max again. I had been trying to avoid that all morning, but my brain wouldn’t let me anymore. I thought about how when he smiled he smiled with all his heart, and the way his green eyes caught the light and shone like emeralds in the dark, and the fact that he was still kind even though his mother and sister were dead and he lived in the headquarters of E.V.I.L. He was nothing like me. I was nothing like him. And yet, he still managed to befriend me, a task that many people had failed at and that he had done without even trying.

“What are you smiling at?” Genevieve’s head appeared in my field of vision.

I stood up and brushed off the grass that clung to my legs, deliberately avoiding her eyes. “Nothing,” I told her. “Just thinking.”

“About what?”

“How we need to get the store.” I started walking.

“That’s not something to smile about,” she complained.

“Too bad. It’s the truth.” I was almost past the first store now. Genevieve stuck out her tongue, but she didn’t say anything else as she scurried after me. We walked on in comfortable silence, occasionally making a comment about something new in the store windows or dragging each other away from our favorite shop. From where we entered, the supermarket was as far left and back as possible, and it took as at least five minutes to walk all the way over. By the time we reached it, I was sure Zeke was already having a panic attack.

We stepped over the threshold and got a face full of high power air conditioning. Genevieve, who was wearing only a thin t-shirt, shivered and pressed herself into my side. I put an arm around her and guided her farther into the store, muttering to myself as we walked. I was not normally the one to do the shopping. That had been my mom’s job, and then once she died it had gone to my dad, who more or less (usually less) got the job done.

“Milk is d-down the third isle,” Genevieve piped up, trying to cover up her chattering teeth.

“Blasted air conditioning,” I growled under my breath, and then, much more cheerfully, said, “Sounds good. This should be a quick trip. Anything else you want?”

“Really? You mean we can get other things?” she asked in wonder. I chuckled. “We still have some credits left over. Now that dad’s back at the council we get extra, remember?”

“Awesome.” Genevieve ran off, probably to the bakery section. I smiled to myself and turned to look at the milk. “Whole, five percent, two percent... why are there so many percents?” I suddenly regretted my decision to let Genevieve got off. She was the one who usually drank milk, not me. I’m more of a water person, which is weird, considering she’s the one who can breathe under water. But anyway. Percents. I do not get why there has to be that many. I mean, who really drinks that anyway?

“Contact Michael Makkay,” I told my Cybertrans. It beeped for a few seconds, and then the words Unable to contact Michael Makkay. Device off flashed on the tiny screen. Shoot. My dad must have put his on the “do not receive calls” option. I had forgotten other Cybertranses could do that. Mine was the only one left of the original batch, the ones my mother had made. All the other ones had been destroyed. By me, actually. But not this one. It was my mom’s, so I had saved it. A few days after I blew everything up, I began to make new ones, using the blueprints my mother had left behind. It began as a kind of therapeutic exercise, fixing what I had broken, but I was also making them better. They ended up with quite a few new advancements. I could have taken one myself, or even added my features onto my mom’s, but I wanted it exactly how it had been. And so I had kept it, scratched and worn and unable to turn off. Sometimes I would forget what I had done to the Cybertranses 2.0, and I assumed I would be able to contact anyone whenever I wanted. Unfortunately, it didn’t work like that, and at the moment my dad was not receiving calls.

“Contact Jack Sommers,” I told it again. Jack almost always had his on, unlike Zeke, who even forgot to wear it some days. This time, the wordsContacting Jack Sommers appeared, and I let out a relieved breath.

“Ree?” Jack’s holographic figure popped up in the middle of the screen. I waved. “Hey. Is my dad there?” He nodded and shouted something I couldn’t comprehend.

“You needed me?” My father’s picture appeared next to Jack. I bent down to read the labels on the cartons. “Yeah. What type of milk do we normally get?” My father stared at me for a few seconds. “You have drank whole milk your entire life.”

“I have? How fascinating,” I said with disinterest as I grabbed the whole milk and swung it out of the fridge. I didn’t hear his reply. “Well, thanks. I’ll be home soon. End call.” The pictures of Jack and my dad disappeared, and my wrist fell back to my side. Now that I had the milk, I had to find Genevieve. Fortunately, my prediction about her being in the bakery section was correct. Unfortunately, I was not the first one to find her there. There was another man there, talking to Genevieve while she stood there, frozen. I observed from a distance, trying to figure out who it was. Salt and pepper hair, with the beginnings of a gray beard, and narrowed blue eyes so dark they were almost black. Flynn Markson.

I stalked forward, anger bubbling to the surface. My expression was one of carefully controlled calm, but I couldn’t hide the hatred in my eyes.

“Miss Makkay. How lovely to see you again. I was just talking to your friend here.” He looked at me with a small smirk. My hands curled into fists, and I pulled Genevieve behind me. Flynn was the only one who wouldn’t call Genevieve my sister. He was still bitter about the fact that he hadn’t gotten to adopt her, even though Commander Lea had long since apologized for telling him he could. She had originally thought it was a good idea for multiple reasons, not just the fact that his powers were similar to Genevieve.

My mom had told me that he had fallen in love with a powerless human, and brought her to T.H.I.N.K. They were happy for a while, even got married, and eventually they had two children, Lydia and Sawyer. But his wife got fed up with all the fighting, the violence, in our lifestyle. She took Lydia and left. Flynn was left to raise his son on his own, and then when Sawyer turned eighteen, he fell in love with a girl from E.V.I.L. and joined them. Word was Flynn had a granddaughter now, but of course he never saw her. His never heard from his ex-wife, either, and he hardly ever talked to Lydia. I was told she still worked for us, like a lot of the powerless do, on the outside. They supplied us with everything we needed. There’s more than two hundred of them, and it’s an important job. That didn’t stop Flynn from being sullen about it, though.

I think Commander Lea hoped to make him smile a little, adopting Genevieve, but my mom said there was no fixing a man who had already lost too much.

“Are you listening to a word I’m saying, Rihanna?” Flynn asked me with a frown. “I was just wondering if Miss Demereth here would like to come over sometime for a training session.”

I tried to keep my rage at bay. “Her last name is not Demereth anymore, sir. It’s Makkay. Genevieve Demereth Makkay.” I said stiffly. “And she already has training, thank you.” Genevieve poked out from behind me, nodding. Flynn regarded her coldly. “Well then. Maybe some other time then. Have a good afternoon.” He strolled away, and I stared after him, wishing I could put his insides on the outside.

“Can we go now?” Genevieve asked, pulling my hand. I shook myself and allowed her to lead me. I noticed she was holding a box of sugar cookies, and I knew they would be quite a few points, but as we walked out of the aisle, I couldn’t help but grab the last apple strudel.

I’m sure we looked odd, me and Genevieve, walking through the supermarket side by side. Genevieve, with her skin paler than my father’s and bouncy red hair, and me, tan skin the color of caramel and hair darker than the night sky. We looked nothing alike, and yet no one stopped to question us, wonder why two people so clearly not related and so different in age were walking as if they knew each other for years. It only took one look at my eyes for them to figure out who we were. The Makkays. One of the most well known families in our society. One look, and everyone knew. I used to like the attention. I thrived in it, actually. Then my mom died, and it stopped being fun. But people still knew.

When we got to the checkout, it was the same with the cashier. His eyes flicked over to me and almost immediately his cheeks turned red. It was my mom the people loved- me, they usually just feared me.

“Hello ma’am. Please scan your bracelet here.” The boy pointed to a small machine. I held out my wrist and swiped it over the machine like it was a credit card. My bracelet beeped, and in the screen of the checkout device the words Makkay family: 250 points appeared. Then another ding, and this time it read 23 points have been deducted from your account.

Every month, each family got two hundred more points, and they could spend it on whatever they wanted. My family got a little extra, as my dad was on the council and my mom was the one who developed the software in the first place, but that didn’t mean we could go buying whatever. We still had to be careful. Twenty three points wasn’t too much, but my dad would probably scold me for getting cookies and apple strudel when we already had ice cream back at home.

The cashier handed me a bag with all our things, and I slung it over my shoulder. “Thank you,” I said with as much politeness as I could muster. Genevieve stifled a giggle, and I pretended to glare at her as we walked to the door. We had nearly made it out when two new people appeared in the entrance. I inhaled sharply. Great. This was just what I needed to top off my perfect morning. Aubrey Coopers stood in front of me, holding hands with her girlfriend, Hanna Halysi. When Aubrey saw me, she abruptly dropped Hanna’s hand. “Ree.”

“Aubrey.” I regarded her frostily. Aubrey was unlike anyone in T.H.I.N.K. She had dark skin the color of ebony and multicolored eyes- one dark brown, the other ice blue. When I was young I had always been fascinated with her. She was the one person I didn’t push away, actually attempted to make friends with, but she didn’t want friends. She would listen to Hanna, who could read emotions with a wave a her hand and was the only one to ever understand what Aubrey was feeling.

I was only looking at her for a few seconds when a wave of pain rolled over me. I screamed and staggered back as if I had been punched. Genevieve cried out and ran over to me, but I held her back. Suddenly, an image of Max, enthusiastically babbling about Shakespeare, flashed behind my eyes and then slowly faded. It felt like it was trying to pull out of my skull.

“Give it back!” I yelled. I tried to sound angry, but I sounded more pleading than anything. Aubrey’s face twisted, and then the pain stopped and my image of Max safely itself safely into the back of my mind once again.

“Who is he?” she said quietly. I seethed. “None of your business.”

“I don’t recognize him.”

“Then you shouldn’t care.”

Aubrey considered me for another moment, her blue eye looking me over critically. Then she spun on her heel and marched back to Hanna. Together they walked passed me into the store and didn’t look back.

I didn’t waste any more time. “Come on Gem. Let’s get home.”

We were silent the whole way back. No more stopping to watch the games or talking to crazy people. Our silence could only last so long, though.

The door swung open, and Genevieve and I stepped over the threshold only to see my dad re-arranging pictures on the side table and Zeke banging his head repeatedly against the wall while Jack informed him how many brain cells he must be losing. Zeke did look a little dazed as he stumbled away from the wall, alerted by the sound of the opening door. “I brought milk,” I told Zeke, who’s eyes cleared and zeroed in on the carton. I slid into a chair at the table and handed Zeke the milk. He immediately ran to the coffee machine. Jack sat down next to me. “He’s gone loopy. And now he’s going to have even more energy,” my friend informed me with solemn eyes.

I giggled. “No, it’s okay. I want to go to the Training Sector soon and practice. He’ll be able to help me.” I nodded in Zeke’s direction, but he was too busy to notice. Jack inclined his head. “Good idea.”

Then my dad looked over and cleared his throat. “Are you forgetting something?” I stared at him, casting my brain back to find the answer. I couldn’t find it.

“The council meeting. You’re old enough to go.” He said when I didn’t answer. I resisted the urge to smack myself. Of course! I had been so jealous when Zeke got to go last year and left me behind, and now I was finally allowed to go as well. “Yes! Yes, yes, yes. We’re going. Yes.”

Genevieve sighed dramatically. “I guess I’ll have to go back to The Center.”

My dad smoothed down her hair. “Sorry. There’s no one to leave you home with.” He glanced at me, but I shook my head. No way was I missing this meeting, even if it was for Genevieve.

“Fine then. We’ll drop you off on the way there. Eat quickly, everyone. We don’t want to be late.”

As it turns out, we didn’t have to worry. There was still a good thirty people behind us once we joined the line, and about twenty in front of us. Both Jack and Zeke had left me and my dad to go with their own families, and we kept ourselves entertained by trying to spot one another over the crowd as we jumped up and down. Occasionally Jack would turn invisible and sneak over to where I was standing.

It only took ten minutes, but I was already tired of people when we reached the front. Sitting on either side of the doors were two light brown Newfoundland dogs. My head swung side to side suspiciously from one to the other. Then I looked at each of their eyes. The one on the left had hazel eyes more brown than green, and the one on the right had hazel eyes more green than brown. I turned to Belladonna, the one on the left, and patted her on the head. “Hello Bella.” She barked loudly and thumped her tail on the ground. Then I looked to the other dog. “Commander Lea.”

The dog regarded me coldly, and for a moment I was afraid I had chosen wrong. There was no need to be alarmed, however, as a second later it shifted, losing fur and growing taller, changing shape until Commander Lea was standing in front of me. Her hair, which Zeke liked to say was the color of the nougat inside a Three Musketeers bar (it’s a good thing she never heard him say that, or he’d be dead), was pulled back into a ponytail, and despite it being December, she was wearing shorts and a t-shirt that displayed her muscular, toffee colored arms.

“Eyes gave it away?” she asked me with furrowed eyebrows.

“Bella’s are more brown.”

“I knew that was a problem.” She patted her dog’s head absently.

“Can we go in, Lea?” My dad’s stepped out from behind me. Our leader looked almost surprised to see him. “Michael! Yes, of course. Sorry.” She moved back and allowed us to pass through the doors. I watched from behind the glass doors as she transformed back into a dog.

I would have waited right there for my friends, but my dad pulled me behind him. There were hundreds of rooms in the building, both offices and meeting rooms, but the one we were going to was the biggest. It could hold almost all of T.H.I.N.K. Standing beside the doorway was Mason Sommers, Jack’s older brother and the secretary of Commander Lea. He squinted at us and pushed his glasses back, then held up his clipboard. “Name?” He asked as we approached.

I rolled my eyes. “Mason, I come to your house every Thursday for dinner. You’ve know me since I was five.”

Mason clucked his tongue. “Name?” He said again.

“Ree Makkay, lightning and electricity,” I told him with a glare. He raised his eyebrows and scanned his list. “Sorry, I don’t seem to have you.” I gritted my teeth. “Rihanna Makkay.” I managed to keep myself from strangling him.

“Ah!” He exclaimed with mock surprise. “There you are. Go right on in.” He opened the door for me, and I flicked him on the forehead as I walked through. He stuck out his tongue, and I made a face right back at him.

A millisecond later he resumed his professional appearance, and I could hear him asking the same question to my dad behind me.

The room was already full of people, and I could barely think over the noise. Then my dad appeared beside me, and the whole room fell silent. Everyone looked at us, and I stared back in confusion. The first thing that popped into my head was that no one expected my dad to be back again, but then an old man stepped forward. “Michael? Rosalin?” he murmured loudly.

My stomach lurched as I realized- I looked a lot like my mother. “It’s Ree, sir.” I cleared my throat.

The old man squinted. “Oh, yes, yes. Forgive me. I thought....” He shifted uncomfortably.

“Now now, let’s all get back on track shall we?” Caroline Pasquesi hurried forward. “Ree, dear, sit down. You can have Rosalin’s old seat.” I followed her gratefully and sat in the chair she pulled back for me. My dad went to sit next to me, but Caroline pushed him to the front. “Don’t be silly Michael, you’re Third Chair.” He looked bewildered, almost as if he had forgotten, but he sat in the third chair to the left in the back of the room. Caroline sat in the fifth one, and the others council members filed in. Slowly the conversations resumed as the rest of the people chose the seat they wanted at the table while Second Chair watched over them.

It wasn’t too long until Commander Lea swept in and took the First Chair, the highest rank in T.H.I.N.K. society. She waited while the talking died down, and when it was quiet, she stood up and slapped a pile of papers onto the table. “E.V.I.L. knows what we stole,” She announced. It was dead silent. “It won’t be long until we are forced to fight head on. This war has been fought for generations, but it has not been at full force. Now it will be. We must be prepared! We must be as ready as we can possibly be! We are heroes- we win. It is what we do. Now we must prepare for it!”

The room roared its approval. “We must fight! We must train! We must defeat the ones who threaten our society, the ones who will plunge our world into chaos!”

Now it was mayhem. People were shouting and cheering at the top of their lungs. I could tell Commander Lea was trying to say something, but it was too loud to hear. I blasted lightning towards the ceiling, but it was barely heard over the screams. It probably would have gone on forever had a tiger not appeared where the commander had been standing and emitted a deafening roar.

“SHUT IT!” Commander Lea was human and sitting again, but she once again had all eyes on her. “We will have order! Now. As I was saying. We must plan. The council has devised a strategy that every single person here will be expected to participate in. You will each be assigned to a member of E.V.I.L. that you will be responsible for eliminating when the battle comes. Files will be sent to every computer containing information on all enemies, as well as papers on your villain. At next month’s meeting we will talk more. For now, come forward and collect your assignment.”

I straightened my back and sat taller. I wasn’t scared- I was excited. Finally something I could do, something I could prepare for while I waited for the battle to come.

Commander Lea got to her feet and started calling out names. “Sheryn Kleine, assigned to Stephaine Voss. Josphine Rucker, assigned to Porter Schell. Zeke Wyler, assigned to Laurel Wilke.”

One by one they came forward, and one by one they sat back down. I was balancing on the edge of my seat now, waiting for her to call me. It was about halfway through that she finally did.

“Ree Makkay, assigned to Max Corriner.”

I did not jump up and smile like I had planned. My happiness had drained away, my eagerness crumpled to dust. I just sat there, shocked, as my world collapsed around me.

My clock beeped, telling me it was twelve o’clock. I ignored it. I was too busy re-reading my information sheet over and over while curled up on the couch. There was a sick feeling in my stomach, and no matter what I did, it wouldn’t go away. Commander Lea had whispered to me that I was given an important assignment- the son of Alexander Corriner, the Vice President of E.V.I.L. She told me that no one was even sure what his power was. She told me it was an honor, to be chosen to defeat such a powerful and mysterious villain.

But she didn’t know. She didn’t know that he didn’t have a power, that even if he did he wouldn’t hurt a fly. She didn’t know that I wouldn’t be able to hurt him. Because I couldn’t deny it anymore. I liked him.

Before I had the chance to mope any more, someone knocked on the door. I bolted up. Who would stop by at this time? I grabbed one of my shurikens off the coffee table (I know it’s a hazard, don’t judge me) and tiptoed to the kitchen. I opened the door slowly at first, suspiciously, but I flung it open when I saw who was standing there. “Genevieve?”

She was dressed in a large white t-shirt and pajama pants, but she didn’t look tired. She looked scared. I ushered her inside and closed the door. “What are you doing here?” I asked worriedly.

After mom died, the council decided my dad wasn’t fit to take care of Genevieve. Apparently I didn’t count. They took her and put her in Community Living, along with the rest of the orphans. That didn’t stop her from coming over every day, but she wasn’t technically allowed to be out at night.

She sat down in the living room, and I perched next to her, setting down my weapon as I went.

“I had a nightmare,” she said once we had settled down.

“Oh.” She had those sometimes, usually about her blood parents, and it got worse after mom died.

“Can I... can I stay here tonight?” Genevieve pleaded. I chewed my lip, not wanting to say no but not sure if I should say yes. “Did you tell The Center you were coming over?” I asked finally. My sister hesitated. “Well, I told Tabitha.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to keep myself from flipping out. “Genevieve, Tabitha does not count. She regularly forgets what her own name is. There is no way she will remember to tell the staff that you’re gone.”

“Then we can can call then in the morning. Please, just once?” she begged. I sighed. “Ok. Fine. You can sleep on the couch.” She squealed and flopped down. I exhaled and fought back a smile as I grabbed a blanket off the back of a chair and threw it over her. Her eyes fluttered closed for a moment and then opened once more. I knelt down at her side. “What is it now?”

“Can you sing something?”

I drew back, surprised. I couldn’t sing. At all. There wasn’t even anything I knew how to sing. But I knew Genevieve wouldn’t be able to sleep unless I did, so I forced myself to think.

My mind was blank for some time, and I was close to getting up and asking my dad what songs he knew, but suddenly I didn’t have to. It popped into my head as clear as day.

“The sun is falling from the sky. Close your eyes and clear your mind. Dream, darling, dream. Dream, darling, dream...”