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The light humming sound of an approaching KAPOW pod turns my attention away from Aloki’s gorgeous smile and to the left where the pod comes to a stop. My brother steps out still wearing his Hero suit. His eyes sweep across the beach and stop on me.

It’s right about now that I remember one fatally important fact: I am not a Hero.

Crimson complains that it’s about time Max showed up and what kind of big brother is late to his sister’s party that took weeks to plan in secret and blah, blah, blah. Max ignores her rambling.

“I need to talk to my sister for a minute,” he says. Without waiting for an answer, he grabs my arm and hauls me to the other side of the beach. We don’t say a word as we trudge through the sand.

“Why are you here?” he asks, stopping when we’re out of earshot. His eyes focus more on my hair than on me. Guess he’s really pissed off.

“Did you know about this party?” I ask.

“I helped plan it.” He doesn’t hide the disappointment in his voice. “Of course that was before you
failed
?” His eyes look to the sky but we both know he won’t find an answer up there. “You shouldn’t be here, Mace. They think you’re a Hero and you’re not. What happened today?”

Max definitely needs to know what happened during my exam. But summoning up the courage to tell him what I did and what the examiners said—well, it’s easier to throw a thousand-pound boulder. I know. I’ve done that.

Hero manual, page 336:
Heroes are brave enough to say what needs to be said
. I swallow and tell him exactly what happened.

Max puts his arms on my shoulders and gives me a warm,
I’m on your side,
smile. Of course, at six foot four, he always seems to be looking down on me. “So … seven days,” he says. “You got this.”

“You think so?” I ask.

He nods. “You’re Maci freaking Might. Sure, Lucy-fer is a total bitch but she’ll come around. They would put the entire human population at risk if they didn’t make their most talented Super a Hero.”

“Aww, Max.” I lean against his chest. After a lifetime of picking on me in typical big brother fashion, he’s about to make me cry in a good way for once. “Thank you.”

He nods to the party. “Let’s just enjoy the night and keep quiet about the whole failing thing. You’ll be a Hero by next week and no one will need to know.”

Talking with Max almost makes me forget that my crush is within walking distance from me. As we return to the party—all smiles of course, because there’s nothing anyone should be concerned about—my group of friends parts and lets Max and me take a place near the now roaring bonfire.

Conversations float through the air, momentarily broken by laughter. Just like at Central, my peers are nice to me but don’t exactly seek me out for conversation. I think I know deep down that my friends are only my friends because Crimson has this unspoken threat lording over them. It’s been that way my whole life so it doesn’t bother me. Much.

Plus my thoughts stay occupied with finding Aloki in the crowd. When my eyes finally land on him, my heart crawls into my stomach again and my brain, which was full of information just minutes ago, now only knows how to breathe. I’m not even doing a good job of that. Aloki runs his fingers along Crimson’s arm, his perfect smile stretching across his lips as he tilts his head toward her.

No, no, no, no, no. This cannot happen. Crimson wouldn’t do that to me. I struggle to overhear their conversation, but between the crackling of the fire and the twenty other people all talking at once, I can’t make out a single word. So much for having genetically superior auditory skills.

Someone touches my arm. I flinch at the unexpected contact, then quickly pull on a smile and drag my eyes away from my secret crush. A guy with windblown shoulder-length hair brushes sand off his pants. “Hey,” he says, like we’re old friends.

There’s a black hair tie on each of his wrists. I know I know him but it takes me a moment to remember. Just about every Super has the same blonde hair and impossibly blue eyes, but not everyone has a smile that sends weird sensations coursing through my stomach. I glance back toward Aloki and the stomach sensations triple in intensity.

“Er … Evan?” I say the first name that comes to mind.

“Yes ma’am.” His twangy, southern-hospitality voice isn’t quite as lame as it seems. “Happy Birthday, Maci.”

He reaches out an arm and I flinch, my hand instinctively slapping my hip for a pair of hooks but finding only a handful of denim instead. Whether he notices it or not, he doesn’t say anything. He just swings his arm around my shoulder in a half-hug. “It’s been a long time.”

“Yeah,” I say. He isn’t a Hero, so I’m not sure how I know him. I can’t stop sneaking glances toward Crimson and Aloki long enough to think about where I would have met him before. Evan cracks his knuckles as he talks about something I’m not exactly paying attention to.

From the other side of the fire, Crimson’s eyes go wide at something Aloki says. Okay. I’m done spectating here. I gulp down my drink and smile at Evan, who just finished saying something about Africa.

“That’s awesome,” I say, hoping what he said was indeed awesome. “I’m sorry to interrupt you, but I need to get another drink and uh, talk to Crimson. It’s kind of important.”

Evan’s hands shove in his pockets. “Okay, I’ll catch up with you later.”

His crooked smile gives me a flashback to my childhood where I swear I’ve seen him smile before. Maybe he was in Hero training but became a Retriever. Whatever the case, it doesn’t matter. I’m on a fact-seeking mission. I wander through the people in a semi-circle until I’m right behind Aloki and Crimson.

And damn if the stereo isn’t directly between us blasting classic rock so loud I still can’t hear them. Aloki’s hands reach up and squeeze the sides of his head as if he’s super frustrated with her, but the smile on his face kind of negates that. She shakes her head. Her high arched eyebrows flatten.

Enough of this. The music dies the instant my fist slams into the stereo, chopping it in half like a block of wood in a karate dojo. For a moment I’m so stunned at what I did to the stereo that Crimson’s now very loud statement to Aloki doesn’t make any sense.

“… never date you. Maci has the biggest crush on you, there’s just no way I’d do—what happened to the music?”

Several sets of eyes turn toward the stereo. Now the only sound is the waves crashing to shore and the firewood crackling in flames. And me, when I make this weird half-laughing noise in an effort to excuse my fist accidently plummeting through ten pounds of plastic.

“There was a … bug,” I say. At least I think that’s what I say because the only thing running through my mind is that Crimson just told everyone that I
have a crush on Aloki
and it’s all my fault that everyone heard it.

Dear Mother Nature, please feel free to split open the earth and swallow me whole. Love, Maci.

Aloki smiles somewhat pathetically and runs a hand through his hair. “Um, sorry you had to hear that.” He’s attempting to apologize, I guess, but it just comes out sounding like a question.

“No one cares,” Max shouts from across the bonfire. “The speakers aren’t broken so someone Bluetooth music, stat.” I’m grateful for his help, I am. Max’s best friend Nyx gets the music going again, but I know the situation is far from diffused. Everyone just heard Crimson’s public declaration of my private secret. Everyone either saw me break the stereo, or knows I did it. Everyone is still sneaking glimpses of me even though they’re pretending not to.

My fight-or-flight instincts are on overdrive. But this isn’t a human-saving situation; it’s a dignity-saving situation. I’m going to flight. I’m going to flight so hard.

I’m three glorious strides away from the party when an ear-splitting siren pierces through the air, the sound coming out of my own back pocket. I’ve only heard it twice in my life, though three times if you count the night my mother and sister died, but of course I don’t remember that. It’s an SOS siren and it’s high pitched for a reason. Only government officials can use them in dire situations. I pull out my MOD and drop it to the sand. I know what’s going to happen next and unfortunately, everyone else does too.

A thick invisible wave pulses from my MOD, spreading high and wide as it creates a vortex of soundless air at least thirty feet wide. Every sound flattens, from the waves crashing to shore to my own breathing. No Super in this vortex can hear a thing.

Then the message begins, a computerized voice informing me that the president is about to make an announcement. I hear it all, not through my ears, but through my powers. The voice permeates through my chest where power rests beneath my skin, flowing through the silvery veins and becoming a part of my subconscious.

My dad’s voice is as clear as if he were standing right next to me. “Maci, to pose as a Hero when you are not is a great dishonor. Max, I am disappointed in you as well.”

The silence disappears as quickly as it began and normal sounds return. My mouth falls open and I can’t seem to make my brain shut it. Max, standing a little to my left, drops his forehead into his hand. He won’t forgive himself for disappointing Dad. This is all my fault.

“Why?” Crimson says, her face a porcelain picture of hurt. I take a step toward her but Max grabs my arm and holds me back. I want to explain—tell her what happened and let her know this party wasn’t a total waste. She folds her arms in front of her chest and looks out at the ocean.

“Did you fail your exam?” I don’t know who says it, but their voice is all mock and no concern. From the back of the crowd, behind the protective anonymous fire, yells another voice, “She’s a fraud!”

An unbelievable hurt worse than my initial embarrassment falls overs me. These people were never my friends.

“It’s none of your business—” I snap, stepping forward with clenched fists as a dozen ruthless things to say flood into my mouth all at once. I’ll teach them to talk to me like that again.

“Mace. I got this.” Max presses his hand to my shoulder and I close my mouth, figuring he can explain this better than I ever could. “She did not fail. She scored a ninety-six. The examiners decided to wait seven days to grant her Hero status.”

“So you were just gonna lie to us?” That voice I know. It’s Nyx, Max’s best friend. And I thought he was my friend, too. “That’s screwed up, man.”

Max shakes his head. “She didn’t know about the party. They will make her Hero in a week anyway, so guys, it’s not a big deal. Let’s just enjoy the party while we’re all lucky enough to be at CIK.”

Max’s power is super strength but I’ve always said he has another power as well. The mental power to make everyone agree with him, to put children’s fear at ease, and to convince his friends to go along with his crazy plans. Max’s words do this now.

Everyone finally stops looking at me with disgust and they go back to their food, conversations, and everything they were doing before I made an ass of myself. Everyone except for one person.

“You know it all makes sense now,” Aloki says, looking at me but taking a place near Crimson. “It makes perfect sense. I knew no one could pass a Hero test after that display of pure evil.”

“Man, you have no idea what you’re talking about,” Max says, coming to my defense yet again.

“What makes sense?” Crimson’s voice is hard, her jaw still set in anger. “Lying to your best friend?”

I give her a helpless look which she notices but ignores. Oh well, I can explain things to her later. If Aloki says what I think he’s about to say then I am totally and completely screwed. His eyes dart from Crimson to me.

“Aloki.” I remove all shame and embarrassment from my face, leaving only pure desperation. “Please—don’t.”

He turns to Crimson. “They brought me a broken droid at work today, asking if I could fix it.”

“No,” I whisper, reaching to grab his arm but he pulls away. “Please stop talking.”

“I want to hear it,” Crimson says, crossing her arms over her chest and giving me one cold-as-hell glare.

“I think people deserve to know,” he says, noticing everyone has taken an interest in him. So, of course, he raises his voice. “I work in robotics, in case some of you didn’t know. They brought me a damaged droid at work today. The kind they use for training, and more specifically, for Hero exams.”

“Shut the hell up, Aloki, I’m not joking.” My icy stare goes unnoticed. Power rolls under my skin in anger.

“The motherboard was completely shredded and all the synthetic flesh around the chest was ripped open. This wasn’t an accident. The droid was murdered.”

“You are breaking a dozen confidentiality laws right now,” I stammer. Okay, it’s more like
one
law of confidentiality—but it’s still a law. “Are you trying to get fired?”

“They won’t fire me for this,” he says, but he doesn’t look entirely convinced of his own words. “Besides, you guys won’t say anything, right? We’re all Supers here and we all deserve to know that Maci Might is a potential villain.”

A palpable panic unleashes in the crowd at Aloki’s blatant use of the V-word. Only the three Heroes among us—Nyx, Crimson and my brother—stand cool and unwavering.