"Leave me alone, Sophia. I ain't felt good all day." Francis was pretty sure the explosion from earlier was what caused her to feel bad. Smart girl. She figured that Sophia, Adam, and Eugene must have been feeling bad as well.

"Did you feel bad at all today?" Francis asked.

"Yeah. I had to see U's stupid face in all my classes and it made me annoyed. I still can't believe he didn't get in trouble!" Sophia replied. She stomped into the bathroom angrily.

"Not like that. Did you feel sick or tired?" Francis followed Sophia into the bathroom as she spoke.

"You know what I do feel sick and tired, sick and tired of you talkin' to me! Let's just clean." Sophia replied. She threw the trash bag down to the ground and put on a pair of rubber gloves.

Francis didn't have a comeback. She wished she did. Sophia always left her wishing that. Instead of saying anything, Francis picked up a bottle of blue cleaner and started wiping down the mirror.

"You're doing it wrong." Sophia says after about ten minutes.

"What?" Francis asked with an exasperated sigh.

"You're scrubbin' in circles. That's goin' to leave marks on the mirror. You have to scrub with long strokes that end where the mirror ends. Nevermind, just move. I'll do it." Sophia pushed Francis out of the way and began to clean the mirror herself.

Backing away from Sophia, Francis caught a glimpse of the stall Sophia had been cleaning earlier. It was so clean it sparkled. Francis had never seen a toilet so clean. The right set of words could convince her to eat off of a toilet like that.

With her mirror job taken, Francis decided to take out the trash instead. The trash bag was heavier than it looked. Francis could barely lift it. She managed to lift it above her knees and shuffled toward the door. She was almost out when she stepped on something that was too soft to be part of the floor. She recoiled away from it, stumbling in the process and dropping the trash bag. The soft thing was the hand of Sophia who had knelt down to tie her shoe. The trash bag slammed down on Sophia's head before slumping to the floor.

Sophia didn't budge from her spot. She looked up at Francis after the bag fell to the ground.

"What are you droppin' trash bags on the floor for? Take it outside!" Sophia yelled. Francis wanted to reply that she hadn't dropped the bag on the floor, she had dropped it on Sophia's head. She wanted to ask Sophia if her head hurt from the heavy bag falling on it. But she was to freaked out to say anything. So instead she picked up the trash bag and carried it outside.

Adam was also carrying a trash bag out of the boy's bathroom. Running up to him, wild eyed, Francis whispered in his ear.

"You won't believe what just happened." Francis said.

"I'm not sure I care...but go ahead." Adam answered.

"I just dropped this trash bag on Sophia's head and she didn't even notice." Francis continued to whisper.

"So?" Adam asked, unimpressed.

"Feel how heavy it is." Francis replied, offering the bag for Adam to inspect. He lifted it like it was a bag full of feathers and batted it around like a beach ball.

"I don't see the problem." He handed the bag back to Francis and she fell to the ground under its weight.

"That's not normal. You're not normal. I'm not normal. Sophia isn't normal. Something crazy is going on!" Francis said as Adam lifted the bag off of her.

"I have been strong today, but I thought it went away."

"Went away?"

"Yeah, after English class I didn't break any more pencils. I felt a little down in the dumps but I wasn't strong again till now."

"Are you still down in the dumps?"

"Naw. I felt better since I started cleanin' the bathrooms." Just then, Sophia came out of the bathroom.

"It's all clean. I'm goin' home." Sophia said to the other two.

"Wait! There's some weird stuff goin' on! We need to talk about it!" Francis yelled to Sophia who was half way down the hall by this point.

"Ain't nothin' weird happenin' except my mama comin' to pick me up!" Sophia yelled back.

"You haven't noticed any weird feelins or powers?" Francis asked.

"No!" Sophia yelled, she stormed out of the school doors without looking back.

"She doesn't believe us." Adam sad with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"I should have known. Sophia ain't believed nothin' I've said to her in thirteen years of livin'." Francis replied. She walked into the bathroom to see if it was really clean. It was. The girl's bathroom was clean, fresh from the package clean. Francis was afraid to walk on the floors they shined so much.

"It's sparkly clean in there." Francis said with shocked appreciation as she exited the bathroom.

"I wish the boy's room was that clean. It's hard doing' it by myself." Adam replied with I sigh.

"I can help you."

"You can't go into the boy's room!"

"Why? You gonna tell on me?" Francis backed toward boy's bathroom, practically daring Adam to stop her. He didn't. She knew he wouldn't. She could feel how relieved he was when she offered to help. Francis kept backing up until she made it into the bathroom. She gaged if she was going in the right direction by sensing how Adam was feeling. If he got worried or scared, she would adjust her direction until he calmed down. I was proud that Francis was embracing her gift.

The smell of the boy's bathroom wasn't pleasant and Francis was off-put by the urinals on the wall. She had never seen them in real life before. Not wanting to touch the urinals, Francis grabbed a scrub brush and headed into one of the two stalls.

"Sorry I blamed you for all this." Adam said through the wall of the stall.

"It's OK. It was my necklace that blew up."

"But you didn't blow it up. You were surprised like the rest of us. Plus you didn't pull me into the fight. Eugene did."

"Eugene!" Francis yelled, shocking Adam who was scrubbing the last urinal.

"What?" Adam asked.

"Eugene should be changed too!" Francis stated, excitedly.

"Maybe. I don't have classes with him so I ain't seen him all day." Adam shrugged.

"Sophia has all the same classes as him." Francis replied. The puzzle pieces were finally beginning to click in her head and it made me very excited. She was becoming the beautifully curious super girl I needed her to be.

"So?" Adam asked, pouring a bucket of dirty water into the toilet one stall over.

"You were real strong in English and we both felt good there..."

"Yup. But I didn't break any pencils after that."

"You didn't break any pencils and you felt bad for the rest of the day."

"I felt like I was goin' to fall out at lunch."

"But you feel good now and you lifted that crazy heavy trash bag earlier."

"It wasn't that heavy."

"Exactly! You're super strong and I can feel your feelins but only when we're together. We both felt sick and bad when we weren't together. It's about us being together."

"You and me?"

"All four of us!" Finally! Francis got it! I knew I chose right with her.

"I dunno..."

"It's has to be true!"

"Then how come Sophia keeps sayin' there's nothin' goin' on?"

"Cuz she was with Eugene all day!"

"She doesn't have powers either."

"That heavy trash bag didn't hurt her at all!"

"It wasn't heavy."

"You're too strong to know!" Adam didn't reply to this yell from Francis. He focused instead on finishing the toilet he was cleaning.

The boy's bathroom wasn't nearly as clean as the girl's by the time they finished, but it was acceptable. Principal Damon had come. By to check.

"You both have rides, correct?" Damon double checked.

"Yes." Both kids said in unison.

"Good. I will wait at the front gate with you for your rides." Damon added. He walked briskly toward the front of the school. Francis hung back and pulled Adam's arm to keep him back with her.

"I don't have a ride. Can you help me?" Francis asked with worry in her voice.

"Let me make a phone call." Adam replied. He took a few steps away from Francis, not out of ear shot though.

"Hey Mobi, I need a ride. Val was supposed to do it but I guess she forgot." Adam's voice was sweet and innocent. It wasn't what Francis was used to hearing. Normally, his voice had almost no emotion in it.

"Let's go. My brother will be here soon." Adam said. The two headed out of the school to where Principal Damon was waiting.

After about twenty minutes, a big block of a Cadillac with giant silver rims and too thin tires rolled to a stop in front of the kids.

"Sup Lil man." The driver, who looked to be in his early thirties, said to Adam.

"Our ride is here." Adam said to Francis as he walked to the car. Francis followed him with a smile, waving happily at Principal Damon as she did so. She didn't want the principal to notice that she was getting in the car of a man she didn't know. He tended to frown on that.

Francis and Adam got into the back of the car and the driver took off at a speed that gave Francis whiplash.

"Who's the girl?" The driver asked.

"This is Francis. We gotta work on our school project today. Francis, this is Mobi, my brother." Adam said flatly.

"School project huh?"

"Yeah. Drop us off at her house."

"Does Ma know about this?"

"Yeah but don't bring it up to her."

"Why?"

"Cuz Val was s'posed to drive us but she forgot and you know how mama gets when y'all forget about me. She gets upset and says no to everything we ask." Adam said.

"Yeah you right. I won't tell Ma about this." Mobi agreed. Francis had been quiet this whole time so she was shocked when the driver asked her for directions to her house.

The rain started early in the drive. It came down like a downpour and Francis could barely see enough of the street to give Mobi accurate directions to her house.

"They say a hurricane's comin'." Mobi said as he turned on to Francis's street.

"They always say somethin's comin'." Francis replied.

"Ain't that the truth." Mobi said with a disappointed shake of the head. The car pulled to a stop in front of Francis's house. Both Francis and Adam ran to the covered porch, using their backpacks to shield them from the rain.

"Need me to pick you up later?" Mobi yelled from the car.

"No! Val texted me! She remembered she's supposed to get me!" Adam yelled back.

"Cool!" Mobi yelled before speeding off.

"So, that was your brother?" Francis asked once they were alone.

"Yep." Adam replied.

"How old is he?"

"Thirty-three."

"Whoa! Thats twenty years older than you."

"Both my sisters are older than him."

"No way! Your parents must be old."

"My dad is dead but my mom is old."

"I'm sorry."

"It's OK. You didn't kill him." An awkward silence fell on the porch. It was quiet enough to hear the pitter patter of the raindrops on the tin porch roof.

"We'll, goodbye." Adam said, motioning toward the sidewalk.

"Wait! Don't you need to wait for your ride?"

"No. That was a lie. Everythin' I said to my bro was a lie."

"But why?"

"I like to walk."

"What?"

"I like to walk home from school but my mom doesn't like it."

"My Mama's like that too."

"But I wanna walk so I lie. Mom thinks Mobi picks me up. Mobi and Orla think Val picks me up. Val's got three kids and no time for anyone else. And I walk home everyday.  It's awesome." Adam said. Francis didn't understand what was awesome about it.

"Bye." Adam tried to leave again and Francis stopped him again.

"You can't leave while it's rainin'. You don't have an umbrella." Francis said, scrounging up excuses.

"I'm not scared of gettin' wet." Adam replied. He turned his back to Francis and looked out at the rainy horizon.

"You'll feel bad if you leave. I will too." Francis said with a pout.

"Maybe I can stay till the rain gets better." Adam said as he sat in a plastic lawn chair on the porch.