It was with a pounding heart (yet again) and my phone in hand that I sat down in the living room, taking a deep breath.

Just a few more minutes.

I glanced nervously at my phone clock. 11:58. Two minutes left before destiny really kicked in.

The living room wasn't grand, but it was big enough to seem spacious. The curtains were drawn against the snowy outside, but the lights burned brightly. Two couches and a few armchairs formed a vague square shape, all shades of blue-grey. A coffee table sat in the middle, covered in newspapers and magazines. One of which had Tony Stark on the front, his brown eyes smoldering. I looked away. The walls were a soft shade of grey, the carpet the same. Family photos decorated the walls and the mantle of the small fireplace in the middle of one of the walls. This room was meant to soothe, with calming colors and a cozy vibe, but at the moment it did anything but.

"What's wrong?" Dad asked, poking his head through the doorway that stood on the opposite wall as the fireplace.

I gave him a strained smile. "Nothing. I'm fine."

The look on his face told him he'd believe me more if I told him pigs could fly. "Mhhm."

"Seriously Dad, nothing's wrong."

He narrowed his eyes - my eyes, they were the same rich brown - but only asked, "Is grilled cheese okay for lunch?"

"Sure." That's not going to happen. "Sounds great."

It was at that exact moment that the doorbell rang.

I jumped, my phone skyrocketing into the air before I hastily made it plummet back into my palm. Oh sh-

Thankfully, Dad had turned at the noise. Thank god.

"Huh," was all he said before disappearing through the doorway, his already wrinkled forehead creased in contemplation. Jeez, I'm on edge.

Usually, I had much better control over my powers...

I blew out a shuddering breath, getting to my feet. This is really happening. This is really happening.

After I deemed it appropriate to follow Dad to the door (re: when my minuscule amount of patience evaporated), I left the living room, trying to leave my worries and fears and building headache with it. It didn't work.

"You must be Delilah!"

I blinked at the person in the grey pantsuit standing in the doorway, a fancy briefcase in her arms.

"Lailah, this is Dr. Cassandra Cheng," Dad said, looking very confused.

"Nice to meet you," I said politely, taken aback by Dr. Cheng's severe bun and square glasses. This was not what I had expected. I held out my hand, and she shook it. Her skin was like ice.

"May I come in?" Dr. Cheng asked. She was a late-middle-aged woman with greying midnight hair and sharp, almond-shaped eyes that slanted in the corners. Despite her low cheekbones and round cheeks, she looked sharp, like she was still in her prime. Like a knife that had been sheathed. A blade ready to stab.

"Of course!" Dad said hurriedly, stepping to the side. Dr. Cheng stepped in, her dress shoes making a clicking sound as they met the wood floor.

She looked around, taking in the staircase to her right that led upstairs, the living room off to the left, barely visible because of the way the doorway was positioned, and the hallway that led to the kitchen and dining room straight ahead.

Dad motioned to the living room as Mom appeared at the top of the stairs.

"Owen? What's going on?"

"Dr. Cheng is here to talk to us about Lailah." The two exchanged an unreadable look.

"Can I get you anything to drink?" Mom asked as she descended, tucking a loose strand of her hickory-colored hair behind her ear.

"No, thank you," Dr. Cheng said with a gracious smile, "I'm just here to talk."

Within a minute, the four of us were seated, Dr. Cheng in one of the armchairs with her briefcase on the glass table in front of her, Mom and Dad on one couch, and me curled up on the one across from them.

"I haven't introduced myself to you yet," Dr. Cheng said to Mom, extending her hand. "I'm Dr. Cassandra Cheng. I'm one of the directors of administration at the Academy of the Education of Gifted Individuals and Solivagants."

"I'm Amelia Simons. This is my husband, Owen, and our daughter, Lailah."

Dr. Cheng nodded. "I'm here about Delilah."

"Lailah," I corrected.

Mom shot me a look. "Lailah."

"It's okay," Dr. Cheng said with a chuckle. "She's on record as Delilah, but the records don't keep track of nicknames."

Mom nodded, a forced smile on her lips. It's uncanny, the number of features we share. We have the same wavy dark hair and high cheekbones. I have her thin lips, natural highlights, and tawny skin. Even I can see how similar we look. But despite the fact that I look like a younger version of her, the similarities pretty much stop there. She's analytical and wisened, I'm a teenager and, according to her everything I hear goes in one ear and straight out of the other. I'm smiling and she's stern. Her face is starting to wrinkle, her brow constantly creased and her mouth almost always pursed. She's growing old, and you can see it in everything she does.

At least my eyes are Dad's, soft and dark. One small thing I have of him.

And at the moment, those eyes were the darkest I'd ever seen them. "What about Lailah are you here for?" From anyone else, it would have sounded like a jab, but from him, it sounded pleasant. I need to master that art. Bluntness was more my thing. Another thing I had from Mom that I hated.

Dr. Cheng passed them a pamphlet she had taken from her now-open briefcase. "De- I apologize, Lailah has been selected as one of the possible students for this semester at AEGIS."

I blew out a breath of disbelief. Only now, hearing her say those words aloud, made it seem truly real.

"Why now?" Mom asked, looking up from the glossy paper.

Dr. Cheng swallowed, the motion barely perceptible. "There's been an opening. A student recently graduated."

"Half-way through the year?"

The same thought had been in my mind since the letter had arrived this morning. Why now? I'd had my powers for years. Nothing about me was any different than it had been a day, or a week, or a year ago. So why were they coming for me now?

"AEGIS works to complete the education of gifted students. Unlike regular schools, we do not believe in a timeline for this process. We teach our students until they are ready, not until they're too old."

And of course, we get the 'official' reason. Maybe I can get her to tell me the real reason.

Mom made a noise that could have been one of agreement or could have been a harumph. "And Lailah was deemed gifted? Again, why now?"

"Lailah has been on our list for a while. She exemplifies what a prospective student should be. The only thing that has been holding us back is the limited number of students we can have at a time. AEGIS is meant to provide the best education possible to each individual who attends, and for that to happen we can't have too many people in the program at a time. Because we now have an opening, we are reaching out."

God, this woman was starting to get on my nerves. Did she have to be so formal and pompous? She must get along with Quintin.

I could feel Mom's skepticism. My grades were average, oh, she knew that. The lecture I had gotten over my B- in Science last week was still fresh in my mind.

"Do you want to do this?" Dad asked me, his eyes soft.

I opened my mouth, then closed it. Yes, yes I do, I wanted to say. The words were on the tip of my tongue. Why couldn't I say them?

"Do you mind if I talk to Lailah for a moment? Alone?" Dr. Cheng asked. "Sometimes students are afraid of what their parents might say if they're honest."

That's not happening! I wanted to scream. I know what I want to do! But the leaden words on my tongue kind of proved otherwise.

"Of course," Dad murmured. He stood. "Come on, Amelia."

Mom stood, her lips pursed (as usual) the flier still gripped in her hand.

I watched as they exited the room, my stomach roiling at the thought of being alone with Dr. Cheng.

I'm not scared.

Yeah, you are, my brain said.

Shut up.

"Well, that was interesting," said Dr. Cheng, her voice suddenly much higher. I turned my attention back to her and bit my tongue in surprise as I tried not to scream.

Dr. Cheng was no longer Dr. Cheng. Instead, she was a young woman with frizzy red hair, vivid emerald eyes, and a savage grin. Freckles dotted her cheeks, and her sharp nose and high cheekbones gave her the look of a wild child. A girl set free.

"Who the hell are you," I whispered, one hand gripping the arm of the couch, the other half raised in a defensive position.

"I'm Cassidy," said not-Dr.-Cheng.

"Great. That explains so much."

Cassidy-not-Dr.-Cheng let out a rough laugh. "Oh, you're going to get along great with the rest of the crew."

"You didn't answer my question. Who the hell are you?"

"It didn't really sound like a question the first time."

"Who. The Hell. Are You?"

"No need to get mouthy. I'm Cassidy like I just said. I work for Quintin Lacoss."

"Are you Cassidy or Dr. Cheng?"

"I'm Cassidy, as I've said two times already." Her teeth flashed as she spoke. "I'm a skin-changer, Dr. Cheng is one of my skins."

"Skin-changer?" I asked, letting out a maniacal laugh. "What do you mean, skin-changer?"

Something that looked a lot like impatience flashed across her features. "Skin-changer. As in, I can change my skin. My features. My appearance. I'm a shape-shifter who can't change shape. I'm fully human, but not only one." Her features started shifting, moving like water flooding down a previously blocked drain. Her hair flattened, her eyes shrunk. Her nose became rounder and her eyebrows darker.

Within seconds, I was staring at myself.

"That's creepy," I hissed, pushing myself farther away from her.

Cassidy let out a snort. Except, it wasn't her doing it, it was me. It was my face that moved and my lips that lifted. It was my eyebrow that raised and my teeth that flashed. It was like looking into a mirror that I hadn't moved in front of.

"Can you- can you- can you change back?" I pleaded, squeezing my eyes shut.

"That one always gets people," she said, her voice back to the lilt that had accompanied her red hair.

"Because it's incredibly creepy."

"We're not here to talk about that," said Cassidy, smoothing out a wrinkle on the grey pantsuit that had stayed the same throughout her... transformations.

"What are we here to talk about then?"

"Do you want to join AEGIS?" she asked matter-of-factly.

Yes.

Yes, I really do.

It's everything I've been working up to ever since I got my powers.

But the word wouldn't come out.

"I- I-"

"It's okay if you aren't certain," Cassidy said soothingly.

"But I am!" The words finally burst free. "I..."

"The words are just stuck in your throat? You can't get them out? It's a dream come true but you can't seem to say yes?"

I nodded dumbly. Is she a mind reader too?

"I'm not a mind reader-"

I squinted at her. "The fact that you said that pretty much proves that you are."

"-But I can tell you that you aren't the only one who feels that way," she finished, giving me a reproving look.

"I just don't want to leave this life behind," I whispered. Because that's what it would mean. It would mean packing my things. It would mean moving out of the house that had once been a cage but now was a sanctuary. It would mean leaving behind Angie and all my other friends. It would mean uprooting and replanting myself in a place that I wasn't sure would be a good fit for me. It'd mean changing everything that was constant for a place where everything changed. It could mean a lot of reward, with a lot of risk. But who was I, if not a risk-taker? I was the cliff-jumper. I was the crazy one who never thought things through. I've been thinking this through for four years. I know what I want.

And it was true. Finally, finally, I was breaking through the final barriers that I had built around the spark of my dream. The shelters I had built, meant to suffocate that little flame. The shelters that had shielded it from everything that had happened in the last four years.

Finally, the walls were tumbling down. Finally, I could follow my dreams.

If only I was crazy enough to do the one thing I'd always dreamed of doing.

So I looked into Cassidy's eyes and told her the answer that I'd been carefully guarding for the past two years. The answer that I'd locked away so deeply, I'd forgotten how powerful it was. "I want to join AEGIS."

Cassidy let out a sigh of relief. "Phew. Quintin would have been pissed if I came back empty-handed."

"You're going to have to convince my Mom, though," I said. Dad would understand. He always did. "She doesn't approve of Tony Stark - or anything that he's involved in."

Cassidy sighed, rubbing her forehead. "I'm too old for this."

"You don't seem that old to me."

A small smile graced her lips. "Thanks. I've found that a couple of years in Soviet Russia takes something out of you, though."

"How old are you?"

Cassidy tisked. "It's not polite to ask a woman for her age."

"But you- you- how was I- you were-" I spluttered.

"How long do you think it'll take me to convince your mom?"

"Twenty minutes to an hour, depending on how convincing you are."

Cassidy sighed again. "Okay. Let's get this over with."

_______________________

"I still don't know about this," Mom fretted, pacing back and forth. "Lailah's never been away from home for this long."

"I went to sleepaway camp for a few summers," I reminded her as patiently as I could. My temper was pawing at its leash. Cassidy - somehow - looked on impassively, back to Dr. Cheng.

"I promise you that she'll be in the best company. She'll be among other students her age, learning from the best. We also have visiting days and holidays where you'll be able to see her."

"I just-" Mom paused, shaking her head. "You're sure Lailah will fit in?"

"I was sure before, but after talking with your daughter, I'm absolutely certain. She's very bright and very competent. I know she'll fit right in."

Mom looked at me, despair in her eyes. "And you're sure you want to do this?"

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. Who knows what would have come out if I opened my mouth.

Mom let out a very, very, very long sigh, sinking onto the couch next to Dad. "And you're okay with this?" she asked him.

"I think we- I think Lailah deserves this chance, after everything that she's been through," he said gently, clasping her hand in his.

Mom leaned against him for a heartbeat before taking a deep breath and turning to me, and then Cassidy-in-Dr.-Cheng form. "Okay. Lailah, if this is what you really want, you can join... AEGIS."

"You're serious?" I whispered, the words catching in my throat. Did I just hear her correctly?

Mom hesitated for a second. Then she gave me a curt nod. "Yeah. I'm sure."

I sank back into the couch as the adults started talking about money and logistics and school supplies and all the things I should have cared about. I tuned it all out. Maybe if I had been paying better attention I would have noticed how shaky Mom's voice had been as she agreed. Or how many glances she exchanged with Dad. Or the way their hands were clasped tightly, knuckles white before they let go. But I was too lost in my own thoughts to hear - or see - a thing.

And as I looked at Dr. Cheng, my eyes falling from her to the AEGIS pamphlet that lay on the table - happy people laughing in front of a building in New York - I couldn't stop the sinking feeling in my stomach.

For all my elation, I couldn't shake the feeling that I had just made the biggest mistake of my life.