Dealing with crowds was draining. I stayed away from Dad while multiple news people crowded around us to ask us questions. People mainly stayed clear of me specifically since my hair was stark white with choppy black tips. Explaining things to Damian had been a struggle, to say the least.

"So... We fight crime?" Damian asked for the tenth time as the three of us stood in our own little corner.

"Exactly." Braylen said happily.

"And... Blue here is your girlfriend?"

"Yes." Braylen hesitated, giving me a wary look.

Damian held out a hand to Braylen for a high five. "Respect, Dude. Like, I haven't seen her with her mask off, but she's a cutie. Makes me wonder how your dorky book loving ass got her as a girlfriend."

"You know, just because I'm a blonde, that doesn't mean that I don't read." I said, crossing my arms.

Damian's eyes widened. "You're a reader too?"

"Yeah. I am."

"I'd be careful around her, if I was you." Braylen warned. "If you piss Blue off, she will not hesitate to shock you."

"That's another thing... What exactly are your powers?"

"Pure energy?" I guessed.

"She can essentially summon different types of energy and manipulate them to her will." Braylen explained hesitantly. "We think. We actually need to come up with an actual term for it since going into a form where nobody can physically touch her is a... New development."

"And the premonition thing?"

I shrugged. "I think that because I can become pure energy or seek out other forms of energy, I'm seeking out forms of energy that exist in the future and I'm seeing what takes place. Still trying to figure that out."

Damian nodded, looking behind me, his eyes filled with interest. "What's up with that Rosethorn chick?"

I felt anger bubble up in my chest. Braylen put his hand on my shoulder, as if trying to calm me down. I took a deep breath. "She is my best friend."

"Not the one you were dating." Braylen said quickly.

"Then which of the members was I dating?"

"Cosmic Comet."

"And that is..."

"The red haired guy."

Damian's eyes widened once he realized we were talking about Callum. "I was dating him?"

"Yeah." I said quickly. "And if you hurt him or Rosethorn in any way, I will end you."

Damian's eyes widened as Braylen shrugged. "Rosethorn is her best friend and Cosmic Comet is her future cousin in law. Don't ask."

"I'm just... Surprised, is all. Based on his overall facial structure, he looks like he should be able to do much better than me."

"There's the Damian I know. Despite his ladies man persona, he doesn't think that he's good enough for anyone."

"By the way, you're going to Homecoming with us tonight. Cosmic Comet is your date." I said quickly, holding my fist up to Damian. "Hurt him, I hurt you."

"Yeesh. Your girlfriend is kinda scary." Damian said uneasily, stepping closer to Braylen.

"I'm actually with her on this. Hurt him, we will both hurt you." Braylen said quickly. "That boy has literally been disowned by his mother and father for dating you. He has literally been beaten for being gay. If you hurt him in any way, shape, or form, you multiply that hurt by two and you have the hurt Blue and I will do to you, capiche?"

Damian put up his hands in defense. "Okay, I get it. No hurting Comet."

"Good. Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I am going to the ambulance to talk to somebody." I said, turning around and walking towards the ambulance Dad told me Jill was in.

I was glad to have the attention off of me since I managed to make it to the ambulance since they, miraculously, hadn’t left with Jill yet. The other EMT’s said that they were waiting to see if there were any other emergencies since she wasn’t taking up too much space, but I figured that was making more harm to Jill than good.

"Can I go in?" I asked, looking at the EMT standing outside.

"I don't know, Ms. Bolt, she's pretty injured."

"It'll only take a minute, I promise."

The EMT sighed. "Fine."

I climbed inside, Jill giving me a confused look as I sat down on a bench by her. I turned towards the EMT. "Can you give us a minute alone, please? I'd like to talk to her in private."

"Of course." He said, starting to close the door. "I’ll be outside in case she needs anything."

"Thank you." I said, smiling at the man as he left. Once the door was closed, I looked over at Jill. "Did they say what’s wrong with you?"

"Nerve damage, by the feel of it. Can't really feel anything below my knees." Jill said uncomfortably. She looked like she was in intense pain, grimacing every time she moved. "Not how I was planning on spending Homecoming."

"You and me both." I agreed. We both laughed for a second before I looked over at her. "Do you want me to check in on your brother and sister for you? Maybe bring them by the hospital tomorrow?"

"You’d do that?"

"Of course." I said, smiling at Jill cautiously. "Your family isn’t the only one Zelena’s threatened today."

"Is that why you look singed?"

"She tried to kill my father." I said uneasily. "I jumped in front of the bolt of electricity she tried to kill my father with before it hit him, long story short."

"I’m so sorry."

"It’s not your fault." I said, leaning over and grabbing her hand.

My vision brightened and I saw Jill with two little kids with dark brown hair playing in what looked like my backyard. Jill was in a wheelchair, but she didn’t seem like she was in any pain. She looked happy and content sitting there. It seemed like it was a much better place than what she described to me before she handed me the doll.

The vision cleared and Jill was laying on the stretcher once again. "You get one of your premonition things?"

"I did."

"Do I still have a future?"

"Yes, but you’re in a wheelchair. You'll live." I said, smiling a bit. "And I think that premonition told me what to do."

"What?"

"I’d have to talk to the parental figure about it, but how about you and your siblings live with me and my dad after you get out of the hospital? It’ll get you out of your current living situation..."

Jill looked at me cautiously. She seemed unused to someone being kind to her. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

"Everyone deserves to have a second chance." I said, smiling at her. She seemed taken aback, but appreciative. "What makes you any different?"

"Uh… Ms. Bolt?" The EMT said, opening the door. "It’s time we take her to the hospital."

"Okay. Thank you for letting me talk to her." I said, grabbing a post-it note and writing my number on it. The EMT closed the door as I stuffed the post-it into the pocket of her jacket. "Call me when you can."

I started moving out of the van. Jill sighed heavily. "Anneliese?"

I turned around. I smiled at her warmly. "Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"No problem." I climbed out of the ambulance. "You just focus on getting better, okay?"

Jill nodded her head. "Okay."

It seemed that the reporters and everyone else were all gone, so I started walking back to the building as I waved goodbye to the ambulance as it started driving away. Dad walked over and put an arm around my shoulders. "Hey kiddo!"

"Hey Dad." I said, smiling up at him happily, trying to stop myself from crying out of happiness because he was safe. He was still alive, and to me, that's all that really mattered.

"Is she doing okay?"

"She’s gonna be paralyzed from the waist down, but she’s currently living in a horrible foster home that hurts her and her younger siblings." I said nervously. "I may have gotten a premonition off of her."

Dad froze at a minute, opening the door to the slightly demolished building. "This is your way of convincing me to convince Beth to let me take them in, isn’t it?"

"Quite possibly."

Dad laughed. "I’ll see what I can do."

"Thanks."

"Might want to sneak upstairs and get changed. Becky was kinda throwing a hissy fit because of your hair and how long it’s going to take to fix." Dad said, leading me to the secret passage we took to get up there.

"Well, she is the daughter of a hairdresser." I said, shrugging as I climbed up the stairs. When I got inside, everyone turned towards me, clapping happily as I grabbed my briefcase.

"There’s the bitch of the hour!" Trayvon said, putting an arm around me as he led me towards the door. "How ya doing, honey?"

"I’m fine."

"You need to hurry up." Becky said quickly. "It is going to take at least an hour to figure out your hair situation."

"It doesn’t look that bad." I said, rolling my eyes.

"You have a little bit of a Cruella de Vil thing going on right now and we’re gonna fix it." Becky said, handing me my leggings and sweatshirt.

"Hey, I think the Cruella de Vil thing is cute!" Braylen argued as Callum pushed him out the door. Damian and Trayvon nervously followed.

"I was planning on getting changed anyway." I said, rolling my eyes as Erika handed me back one of my ponytail holders. "What's this for?"

"To disguise your hair so people don’t think it’s you." Erika said sheepishly.

"Right. Thanks." I said, putting my hair back in a messy bun. I quickly got changed and followed everyone out to Becky’s car. I jumped in the car, looking out the window at the speeding cars.

"Where’d you go during the media stuff?" Keisha asked from the front seat, turning back to look at me.

"To explain everything to Damian and to go check on Jill."

"What are we gonna do about that?" Becky asked. "Are we gonna turn her into the heroes?"

"Absolutely not." I said quickly. "I promised her that we wouldn’t turn her in if she gave me the doll, which she did."

"But Anna-"

"Zelena threatened to kill her younger brother and sister." I said, sighed, leaning back further in my seat. "I can’t punish a person like that when I’d probably do the same thing to protect my family."

"You do raise a point..." Erika said, elbowing me gently. "I don’t think I could punish someone like that either."

"But she knows our identities." Becky reiterated.

"And because she lives in an abusive household currently, Dad is gonna try and convince Beth to pull some strings so that the three of them can live with us. It’ll take a little rearranging, but we’ll figure it out."

"Are you sure that’s a good idea?" Keisha asked gently.

"No," I said uneasily. "But I saw them living at my house in a premonition. I have to follow my gut on this."

"Oh God..." Becky muttered to herself as we pulled up to her apartment. "We have two hours until we’re supposed to meet up with the boys, so let’s go get ready."

When we all walked inside, Becky’s mother grabbed me and ushered me into a chair, removing the ponytail holder and muttering some distasteful stuff in Spanish as Becky covered the mirror with a white cloth. I gave Becky a confused look as she just shrugged. "It’s fine. You’re in good hands."

"But why can I not-"

"Surprise, duh." Becky said as the others walked upstairs. "I’ll lay out your stuff upstairs so that you can change after you’re done."

I must’ve sat in that chair for an hour while Becky’s mom cut, dyed, and styled my hair. Eventually, she took off the apron, smiling at me happily. "You’re good to go, Anna."

"Thank you."

"No problem." She said as I walked up the staircase to the upstairs apartment where Becky’s younger siblings were all watching TV in the small living room.

Becky came walking down the hall wearing a pair of black heels and a floofy yellow dress, her light brown hair stick straight down her back. She looked at me and smiled. "Oh, Braylen’s gonna love that."

One of Becky’s younger brothers gave me a confused look. "When did you get a cute friend?"

Becky walked over and ruffled his hair. "She’s taken, buddy. Your dress is in my bedroom, Anna."

"Thanks." I said, walking down the hall to Becky’s bedroom. Laying on her brown bedspread was my mother’s Homecoming dress from when she met Dad. On top of it was a pastel blue flower crown and a pair of silvery heels that Becky basically mandated that I was going to wear instead of the silver flats I was originally thinking. She said something about me being a little taller for Braylen, but I didn't quite understand it. I put on the dress and heels, but grabbed the flower crown as I walked out of Becky’s bedroom. "Hey Becky, I didn’t pack this flower crown."

"I know. I’m letting you borrow one of mine from when I was younger. It fits with what the vibe of the dress is." Becky said. I looked over on the couch and saw Keisha in a purple dress with sheer lace covering it and Erika in a knee length green dress with flowers decorating it. They were talking about something, clipping their hair back as they did so. Becky grabbed the flower crown, putting it on my head, then grabbed my hand. "Come on. Makeup."

"Do we have to?" I groaned.

"You have no choice in the matter." Becky said, dragging me to the bathroom and opened up an eyeshadow pallet. "It’s not that painful, I promise."

"I just don’t like doing it that much."

"I got that, but this is a special occasion. Who knows, you and Braylen might kiss tonight."

"You really think that’s a good idea?"

"Oh, trust me. Once he sees you, he is going to be fighting every hormonal urge to make out with you."

"You know that we aren’t really like that, Becky. Even if we're teenagers, I like to think that the two of us can control ourselves in a public setting."

"I know, but a girl can pretend." Becky said teasingly. "Eyes closed."

"Is Callum doing okay with the whole Damian thing?" I asked, biting my lip.

"For the most part. He’s dealing with it, but Damian has started flirting with Callum a little bit, so maybe they can still happen." Becky said, her voice echoing around the small bathroom. "Whatever you and Braylen told him seemed to have some kind of effect."

"Hopefully if did. I feel really bad for Callum."

"Not your fault."

"I know, but-"

"You don’t need to overcompensate."

I sighed heavily, knowing that I wasn’t going to get anywhere with this. I let Becky do whatever she wanted to with my face until she said that I was done. I opened my eyes and looked over in the mirror, noticing that my hair now fell around my chin when it was waved like it currently was and that it was back to its natural color, like it was before the lightning. I lightly grabbed a piece of my hair. "Hasn’t been like this in a while."

"Why do you think I told my mother to dye it like that?" Becky asked teasingly. She smiled, leading me out of the bathroom. She looked over at Keisha. "Time check?"

"We have twenty minutes before we’re supposed to meet the guys at that pizza place by school."

"Let’s go!" Becky said, grabbing a small bag and her car keys.

"Hold on." I said, grabbing my cell phone from one of the pockets in my dress and handing it to Erika. "Take a picture of me for Dad?"

Erika unlocked my phone, taking the picture before her eyes narrowed. "You have an incoming call from an unknown number."

"Hand it." I said as Erika handed me my phone. We all excitedly followed Becky out to her car, waving goodbye to her mother as we climbed in. "Hello?"

"Anna?"

"Jill, hey! You doing okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Unicorn and the head of security from the Treatorian Collective just visited me. They asked about my home life and what not. Mentioned getting Harvey and Hailey tomorrow and moving them to a 'safe location'."

I laughed a bit. "Looks like my dad came through after all..."

"Huh?"

"My dad's the head of security. Unicorn is Callum's Aunt Beth."

"So I'm assuming that the 'safe location' is your house?"

"Probably." I said, laughing a bit. "Wow, he got really formal with you. I'll insist that I go with them to get your brother and sister tomorrow."

"This is going to sound incredibly dorky, but if you go, can you go in your costume? They'll absolutely flip if they find out that they're being taken to a safer place by an actual super hero."

"Is that what I am now?"

"Basically."

I laughed. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay. Bye."

"Bye." I said, hanging up and quickly sending the picture to Dad.

"Is it going through?" Erika asked.

I nodded. "We're getting her sibilings tomorrow."

"Good. Nobody deserves to be in that kind of situation."

As soon as I was off of the phone, we all talked about how school was going and about the fight that had happened that afternoon.

By the time we got to the pizza place, the guys were all standing there in their fancy suits, looking extremely out of place in the pizza joint parking lot. Braylen wasn't there with them, but Callum was wearing a black suit with a purple tie, Trayvon was wearing a stereotypical black suit and tie, and Damian stood, awkwardly talking with Callum in his bright pink suit.

As Erika and I approached the group, leaving Keisha and Becky behind since they needed to find a parking spot, Callum smiled at us and clapped. "Very nice ladies! I see that Anna has a natural hair color now! No more Cruella de Vil!"

I rolled my eyes. "Ha ha. Very funny, Callum. You gonna make fun of me some more? Rest of the night?"

"No, you look good."

"Yeah she does!" Trayvon said happily. "Wait till Braylen sees her!"

"Where is he, anyway?" Erika asked, crossing her arms.

"He wanted to grab something from the car. You know him." Damian said, shrugging.

"Anna?" Braylen’s voice asked.

I turned around and saw him wearing a navy blue suit with a pastel blue bowtie, awkwardly carrying a corsage and boutonniere in his hands. I turned in a circle, holding out my arms jokingly. "Enjoy this while it's here because you're not going to be getting this often."

Braylen laughed. He fumbled with the corsage. "Was not expecting to get this all the time. Here."

I laughed a bit, smiling at him as I slipped the corsage on. "Braylen, you do know that this is more of a prom thing, right?"

His eyes widened as he looked behind me at the guys. "Callum, you told me that this was a thing that happened all the time!"

"So maybe I wanted to see you two be extremely cute for once! You two don't do PDA often, so can you blame me?"

"I still can’t believe you got an S.O. that I can remember before me. No offense, Callum." Damian said quickly. He looked so uncomfortable here, probably because he barely remembered anyone.

"None taken." Callum said, sounding a bit bitter.

"Anyway, I got that for you." Braylen said, scratching the back of his neck as he smiled at me awkwardly. "Not how I thought that was going to go..."

"Thank you." I said, smiling. "And you're doing pretty good so far, trust me. It's cute."

Once Becky and Keisha joined us, we all went inside and ordered some pizza.

As we awkwardly sat around the table, Callum pulled out a pack of cards. "Who's up for Uno?"

Everyone cheered as Keisha grabbed the cards, passing them out to the table. I looked over at Damian, who was on the other side of Braylen. "You know, Damian, you have a pretty advantageous spot at the table."

"How so?"

Braylen sighed exhaustedly. "You are never going to let me live this down, are you?"

"Oh, hell no." I said, smirking as I turned over to Damian. "Braylen here is really bad at hiding his Uno cards."

Damian started laughing. "You still haven't figured out how to hide your cards, Maid?"

Becky's eyes narrowed. "Maid?"

"That's my nickname for him because I would also know when he had the old maid when we played because he would always angle his cards for me to see them!"

Trayvon bursted out into laughter, tears falling from his eyes. "We need to teach you how to be a normal teenager, don't we?"

"What do you mean? I thought I was plenty normal."

I laughed. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"You don't even know how to cook food! I had to make you my sous chef to even teach you how to make box rice!"

Erika started cackling. "You don't know how to make box rice?"

"No..."

"But the instructions were on the box! How dense do you have to be to not follow the directions on the box!"

"That's not the worst thing." I said, trying to stop myself from laughing.

Braylen's eyes narrowed. "You're playing a very dangerous game here, Anna. You sure you wanna do this?"

"When I found out that he'd never seen Frozen-"

"Time out. You've never seen Frozen?" Callum asked, holding up a T sign. "But Frozen is a classic!"

"He also hasn't seen the severely underwhelming Frozen 2."

"But it has Into The Unknown!"

"I know."

"Are you going to continue the story about how I almost burned down the house because I didn't know how to make popcorn?"

Erika did her best to keep in her laughter. "On the oven, or in the microwave?"

"Choose the one that sounds the most stupid." I said quickly.

Damian sighed exhaustedly, giving me a confused look. "Why would you let him use a microwave?"

Keisha laughed. "You've been in America since last May and you still don't know how to use a microwave properly? Braylen-"

"It's a learning process!"

"You had the entire summer to learn!"

"Well, excuse me for being absolutely rubbish!"

"Just because you're bad at this doesn't mean that you can't be taught." I said jokingly. "We still got a while!"

"Are you going to stop teasing me about that?"

"God no."

"Not to interrupt the hazing of Braylen, but can we just play Uno?" Trayvon asked.

Braylen gave me serious side eye. "You better not look at my fucking cards."

"Braylen!" Damian hissed. "You don't cuss at girls! Or anybody, really! If Frederick were here, he would murder you!"

"Tough biscuits." Braylen said, shrugging. "I'm becoming a native the land of the free."

"Oh no... A native? What will America do now?" Callum said, rolling his eyes.

Our pizza came a while later, and as soon as we were done, we all piled into the cars and drove up to the school.

We all entered the school building and danced as a group for an hour until, ultimately, a slow song started playing. As everyone started sitting down, Braylen grabbed my wrist. "Can I have this dance?"

"Smooth Braylen, smooth." Damian said sarcastically.

I hesitated. "I don’t know how to-"

"Fortunately for you, slow dancing is most of what I know. I have been taught how to do that since I could walk." Braylen said, pulling me away from the rest of the group and forcing me to put my hands around his neck as we started swaying. It wasn’t exactly the ballroom dancing he was bound to be used to, but it was close enough. We were silent for a couple seconds before he finally said, "You look really pretty. Not that you don’t ever look pretty, but your hair frames your face really nicely and the new color makes you not seem as pale. I’m messing this up, aren’t I?"

"You’re doing a pretty good job." I said teasingly. "And thank you."

"You’re welcome." Braylen said awkwardly. "I'm kinda nervous about this, is that bad?"

"You're nervous about dancing? But you've been taught this since you could walk. You said so yourself."

"Yes, but this is the first time I've actually did this with a girl I like. I'm nervous that I'm somehow gonna say the wrong thing."

I laughed. "I have you nervous?"

"Yes."

"Wow. First time that's happened. First time that someone has been intimidated by someone in the Andrews family not once, but twice. And in the same day no less."

"Yeah, okay. I get it. I'm chickenshit."

I laughed. "I do have a question for you though."

"Shoot."

"What does peng mean?"

Braylen laughed. "I thought you would’ve looked that up by now."

"I wanted to hear it from you since you used it to describe me."

"It basically means that I find you extremely attractive."

"I see..." I said, nodding a bit. "I am going to have to learn so much British slang, aren’t I?"

"Probably." Braylen said, smiling at me nervously. "I tend to use to use my own slang a lot."

We both laughed, then returned to silence before we continued talking. I took a deep breath, looking up at him uneasily. "So… You actually called me your girlfriend today."

"I… I was kinda swept up in the moment, and when I saw him choking you, I freaked out. Is your neck-"

"My neck is fine." I said, hoping that no bruises were starting to form. "A little sore, but nothing too bad. I'm fine."

"Okay. We just… We all need to be careful." Braylen said uneasily. He didn't need to say what he was thinking. Zelena and the others were still out there. Herbstreit was still out there. We were in as much danger on school grounds as we were in the masks.

I didn't want to think about that right now. Instead, I just looked up at Braylen and smiled. "I’m glad to have you watching my back though."

"And I’m glad you have mine."

As soon as he said that, Braylen bent down and kissed my lips, and I kissed him back even harder. For what was happening in our lives, I was glad to have one piece of high school normalcy. Things might be messy, but that’s life. Only thing we can really do is live through it to the best of our ability. So far, I think we were doing a pretty good job at that. High school might be the messiest and most complicated part of our lives, but who ever said that high school was easy?