MOST KIDS MY AGE would be sleeping right now, tucked away in their corner and snoring the night away. Most kids would be inside a house. But then again, I've never been most kids. You see, at three in the morning, I'm neither asleep, nor inside a house.

Old, weathered shingles under my feet, the clear night sky above me, I'm jumping from roof to roof with my bag of...unofficially borrowed merchandise. But, then again, I suppose borrowing means that the original owner will get it back eventually. It's all in how you think about it, really.

Slowing from a run to a fast walk, I grab ahold of a tree branch and swing myself onto it, climbing towards the trunk of the tree and sliding to the hard-packed ground. Dusting myself off, I then stride down the dark alley towards the south of the Outage.

The Outage is a little power humor, power being District Five's main resource. It's the end of town where the people are a little meaner, the buildings a little more run down, and the food a bit lower quality. But, I guess it could be worse. I'm not sure exactly how; but it could.

"You shouldn't be out this late."

I slow and come to a stop as a dark shape emerges from the shadows to my right. The boy steps in front of me and looks me up and down. "Only trouble out this time of night."

Jay.

I cross my arms. "Oh really, does that include yourself, Jael?"

He steps into the fading moonlight, a small smile on his lips. "It might."

I bounce on my toes and glance past him, eager to get back to bed before Mae finds me missing. "You going to let me pass?"

He crosses his arms. "I will. But it'll cost you."

Sighing, I turn my gaze back to his freckled face. "How much?"

"The usual."

I roll my eyes and stare at the sky. "Fine, take your fee, thief."

He leans foward and plants a kiss on my lips. After a few moments I shove him back.

"I've got to go, Jay," I insist. "Mae checks on me at three-forty-five to make sure I'm sleeping like an angel."

He brushes my hair back and leans an arm against the wall behind me. "Then we've got thirty minutes."

I duck under his arm. "Yeah. I don't think so."

Jael grins as I turn and head towards Mae's house.

"Love you too," he calls.

I roll my eyes and scale the oak tree up to my window. Climbing inside, I shut the window and stuff my bag under my bed before pulling the covers up to my neck. Within ten minutes, the door opens to a crack and Mae pokes her head in. I relax my limbs and take slow, deep breaths until the door closes. Then I sit up, fish my bag out, and dump my booty on my blanket. A hunk of bread, bead string, a couple of spoons, and random bits of broken glass are added to my inventory. I dump the glass in my mozaic-making box, hide the bread under my clothes, and stuff the beads and spoons under a loose board. Then, like a good girl, I actually go to sleep.

I'm awoken by sunlight shining on my face. Throwing the covers aside, I get out off bed and pull on my shoes. Then I head downstairs, where I scrounge up a meager breakfast of half a teserae loaf.

Mae and her husband receive a monthly stipend for keeping me, but most of that-and the rest of their money-goes to liquor for her husband. Though I have seen Old Mae herself with a bottle from time to time. The old man doesn't harass me though. He used to beat the living daylights out of me, but one day, when I was thirteen, I decided I had enough. When he came after me I hit him over the head with a chair. Knocked him out cold. He hasn't bothered me since.

Grabbing my satchel, I head to school, which is long and uneventful. At lunch, we're all allowed to go out into the courtyard to eat whatever we brought-which is typically nothing for the Outage kids.

We spill into the yard just as the eleventh grade is finishing. Glancing around, I spot Jael talking to one of the older girls, Ashley, his arm braced against the wall behind her. His gaze drifts to me as I sit down. I look away, turning my attention to the chunk of bread from last night's salvage run. My stomach growls as pull off a small piece and hold it to my lips.

"Hey, Akira." Jael sits on the edge of my table, flashing a charming smile.

I take a bite of bread and chew slowly. "What do you want, Jay?"

He gives me a lopsided grin, one red eyebrow raised. "So defensive. What if I just wanted to say hello?"

I glance back at Ashley, who's scowling in our direction, and can't help but smile a little.

"Then I think your girlfriend might object to that."

He scoffs. "Girlfriend? She wishes."

Finishing the bread, I give him an annoyed look. "You just think every girl wants a piece of you, don't you?"

The bell rings, anouncing the end of his lunch shift.

Good. Maybe now I can get rid of him.

Jael leans closer, raising an eyebrow in mock surprise. "Are you saying they don't?"

I glance towards the door. "Well I, for one, do not. So you can take your flirtations elsewhere."

He stares at me, golden-green eyes unblinking. "Is that so?"

I stare back. "Jay, the bell."

Finally, he looks away with a smile and hops off the table with the ease typical of a tracer.

"Come run with us tonight," he says, looking back. "We could teach you some new tricks."

I bite my lip. He wants me at the Tracers' meeting tonight?

As he walks away, he calls over his shoulder, "See you at the Cache."

I shake my head, inwardly amused with his flirting. It doesn't mean anything, really. He's like that with every female between the ages of 12 and 20. We've known each other since we were little kids in the group home. I used think he and his friends were amazing, the way they could jump from building to building almost effortlessly, moving gracefully through the air. Watching them sparked my interest in parkour-made me think that I could do something that seemed impossible.

And I did. Not only did I fly over rooftops and scale entire buildings; I escaped the group home-the underfunded, overcrowded, filthy place where they put kids whose parents are dead, incompetent, or just don't want them. Watching the Tracer's taught me that the impossible could be possible.

But to run with them? To put my meager, even amateur skills up against their superhuman abilities?

To be one of them.

I look up, watching Jay disappear through the side entrance.

Could I be one of them? Would they want me?

The thought fills me with nervous energy.

One thing is for sure; I may blow off Jay's philandering, but I won't blow off his invitation.