By the time Francis's mother had come home, Francis had finished crying. They ate dinner together as usual then Francis went to bed.

As she lay in bed Francis wondered if the others were sleeping over at Eugene's house again tonight. They couldn't create an effective shield without her but if they stayed together tonight they wouldn't be feeling sickly in the morning. Francis would.

The sound of tapping on jolted Francis out of her half-sleep state. The wind was blowing roughly outside which led Francis to believe the tapping was just twigs being blown into the window. She rolled over and tried to go back to sleep but the tapping returned. It was too rhythmic to be the wind.

Cautiously, Francis crawled out of bed. She headed toward the window, stabbing her toe on the foot of her bed in the process. It took all the strength she had to not crumple on the ground as her toe throbbed with pain. She managed to walk through the pain and make it to the windowsill.

Francis took a deep breath and threw open her curtains. What greeted Francis from the other side of the window were three figures shrouded in darkness. The closest figure was leaning against the window with their face only an inch from the glass. It was Sophia.

After letting out a sigh that was half relief and half aggravation, Francis opened the window. As soon as she did, the wind rushed in and brought a ton of leaves with it.

"Let us in. It's like a tornado out here." Sophia whispered.

"You and Adam can come in but not Eugene." Francis said loud enough for Eugene to hear.

"Why not?" Sophia asked, pulling her hood up over her head to keep the wind out.

"He needs to apologize first." Francis replied.

"He won't do that." Said Sophia.

"Why?" Francis asked, gripping the windowsill in anger.

"For the same reason you won't apologize for calling his dad a murderer. You're both idiots!" Sophia yelled. Francis held her breath as she listened to see if the yelling had woken up her mother. Jennifer didn't stir and Francis let out a sigh of relief.

"Look I'm not the one who usually says stuff like this but today I have to cuz the rest of y'all are actin' crazy. We need each other. If we don't see each other at night then we feel bad in the mornin'. Plus we can't make the shield if we ain't all together." Sophia said. Someone else might have waited for Francis's response but not Sophia. She forced her way through the window almost knocking Francis over in the process. Once she was in she sat on Francis's bed like she owned the place.

"Is it ok if I come in?" Adam asked, being much more polite than Sophia.

"Yes but leave your shoes outside." Francis said with a smirk. Adam immediately bent down and began untying his gym shoes.

"No, no! I'm totally jokin'. Bring your shoes it's fine." Francis said, backing up to give him room to climb in.

As Adam was clearing the windowsill Eugene inched closer and closer to the window.

"I won't block out drug users." Francis said as Eugene approached.

"I can't make you." Eugene replied. That was all he said before climbing into Francis's room.

Sophia held out her hands for the others to hold on to. Francis grabbed one and Adam grabbed the other. Eugene took hold of Adam's other hand.

"Ok everyone, this is gonna be the nicest thing I ever say to any of you so listen up." Sophia began. "We don't like each other and we don't have to but we've been given a gift. We've got the power to protect people and that's pretty cool. Yeah it kinda sucks that the powers only work when we're together but y'all ain't the worst people in the world to be around. So let's just do this thing that we're good at and be happy about it."

Francis heard what Sophia had to say. She didn't think it was all that nice but she knew Sophia was right. So, she closed her eyes and protected her neighborhood.

After that night our heroes got together every day without consequence. Even if they had things that they were upset about, they didn't bring it up to each other. That wasn't what they were together for. Watching this worried me slightly. Our heroes had a great obstacle coming up. To overcome it they would need to be at their strongest and be able to work well together. In their current state I wasn't sure if they'd succeed.

School started after a week of weather delay even though the weather didn't get that much better. It rained every other day. On the days it didn't rain, there were strong winds. Some days there was rain in the morning and whipping winds in the afternoon.  Other days were filled with just thunder and lighting for the entire day. It was lightning so bright that people were blinded for a few minutes and the thunder was loud enough that it caused people to duck and take cover.

The world seemed to be going to hell in a hand basket. The residents of Grandvale, however, did have a reprieve. At night everything calmed down. The crime that once ravaged their neighborhood was now nonexistent and the weather calmed once the sun went down. No one except our heroes really knew what was going on.

Stories of life in Grandvale began to surface in the news. The rest of the world was being ravaged by unpredictable weather patterns. Scientists showed up first. They arrived in the neighborhood with large vans full of computers and test tubes. They walked around in orange hazmat suits and collected samples of dirt and water. The samples yielded no answers of course. There was nothing special about the land or the water. And, none of the scientists thought twice about the people who inhabited the area. They were just the inhabitants of government sponsored project homes as far as the scientist were considered.

Our heroes were a little uncomfortable seeing white men in white vans invade their neighborhood but they didn't seem to be a threat. At night the shield didn't kick them out so our heroes didn't worry about them.

Next came those seeking refuge. They were people from other parts of the world who wanted to escape the crazy weather. They were allowed to stay as well but only if their intentions were pure. There were a few people who came into the neighborhood to steal and threaten. Those criminals were promptly removed once the shield was raised.

Eventually it did get crowded. Grandvale was just one neighborhood and the amount of people entering on a daily basis was overbearing. There wasn't enough food or water. People resorted to committing crimes in the light of day, a time our heroes thought  was safe without their intervention. It wasn't safe anymore. Then the earthquake happened.

It was an abnormal day at school. Normal for this new Grandvale that was full of refugees but abnormal in the grand scheme of things. Francis's desk had been pushed to the far left corner of the room to make space for new refugee students. There were more white kids than Francis had seen in her entire life. These refugees weren't like the ones Francis had learned about in school. They weren't the poor huddled masses who escaped wars. They had money and status. Therefore they had power.

Some of the refugees were politicians. They spoke in well crafted sentences but said nothing. They wormed their way into a power position and pulled strings. The adults threw around words like gentrification. Francis didn't know what that meant. All she knew was that her desk had been moved to the far left corner of the room.

The earthquake started with a rumble. It shook harder with each reverberation until it created a giant crack in the center of the main hallway. There was screaming and panicking. Florida didn't have earthquakes normally and the students hadn't been trained on what to do. Some of the refugees knew what to do. They were from places where earthquakes were more common. They stood under the door frames and stayed away from tall furniture.

Francis also knew exactly what she needed to do. She needed to find the others. They had been in their first period class when the shaking started so Francis and Adam were already together. They held hands as they entered the hallway. Adam used his strength to push other panicking students out of the way while Francis felt for Sophia and Eugene. She had spent enough time with the two of them to be able to single out their emotional profiles.

Sophia and Eugene had the same first period. When Francis located them they were near the boy's bathroom. Adam pushed his way to them. The four of them finally stood face to face, ready to protect against this earthquake. There was still a problem, however.

The part of the hallway near the bathrooms had endured the greatest shake. The crack in the floor was at its widest and deepest here. Adam and Francis were directly in front of the girl's bathroom which meant they were across the hall from Sophia and Eugene. The crevice in the floor was vast and our heroes were on opposite sides of it.

"What do we do now?" Eugene yelled.

"Stretch!" Francis yelled back. She reached over the crack while Adam held on as an anchor behind her.

"Hold on to something!" Eugene yelled as he grabbed hold of a locker handle behind him. He then leaned forward, allowing Sophia to stretch across the gap.

"Don't need to." Adam replied. He stomped his foot and a hole that perfectly matched his foot was created. He used that to anchor himself on his side of the crevice. It took all the flexibility that Francis and Sophia could muster to reach across the crack but they did it. Only their fingertips touched but that was enough.

Inside the link it was calm. The four of them had room to think and breathe.

"Can you block the shakes?" Sophia asked in her mind.

"I felt this earthquake shake just like everyone else so yes I can block 'em. I know how they feel." Francis replied.

"Then it's a go. I'll push the shield as far as I can." Adam added.

Slowly but surely the tremors of the earthquake stopped. As the shield expanded outward from the link, it calmed everything in its path.

For the first time since they obtained their powers, the heroism of the four did not go unnoticed.  There were witnesses to the strength Adam had exerted and witnesses to the faint glow that emitted from our heroes as they created the shield. It wasn't completely understood by the students around them but it was noticed.

Once the shaking stopped the hallway was flooded with students who wanted to go home and teachers who wanted to corral the students. The only thing standing in the way of the stampeding students was our four heroes stretched over a great divide.

"We need to move! Those kids will step all over us!" Francis thought.

"Let go of the locker Eugene. I'll pull you over to this side." Adam thought.

"But Sophia and Francis ain't even holdin' hands! If I let go we'll fall in." Eugene replied.

"If you jump I'll catch you." Francis thought.

"Seriously? That's the best plan you got?" Sophia asked.

"Yeah!" Both Francis and Adam thought in unison.

"On the count of three." Francis thought. "One... two... three!" Eugene pushed off from the lockers and Sophia stretched as far as she could.

The feel of Sophia's palm against her own was the best feeling Francis had ever felt. She grabbed her sister's hand as tightly as she could and held on for dear life. Adam pulled them up like it was nothing.

"What do we do now?" Eugene asked once they were safely on the other side.

"We run!" Francis thought.

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