Saturday afternoon, the LOSERS club took to one of the fields outside the school, effectively banned from the gym until reconstruction on the floor was completed. Mai had managed to smooth over that little whoopsie, though she’d been politely asked to allow another parents to chaperone the meeting. No one was particularly happy about that, not August’s dad who had to take over supervision duties, not Mai, and not the teenagers who were used to being delivered a feast by Pip’s mother every Saturday.

  Pip jogged her way out to the center of the field. Khione kicked around a soccer ball, using blocks of ice to direct the ball back at her before once again kicking it in another direction. Pip recognized her leather jacket as the one Pip had bought after their adventures in the dressing room and smiled.

  “Glad you like the jacket,” Pip said.

  Khione grunted, not looking up from the soccer ball. “Can’t let it go to waste.”

  “Well—”

  “I’ll pay you back for it, too,” Khione said, cutting in abruptly before Pip could think of what to say. “It’ll take a little bit, but I’ll pay you back for it.”

  Frowning, Pip began to protest. That wasn’t what she wanted, and Khione should know that. “No, you don’t need to.”

  “Then you can take it.” She grabbed the front of the jacket, getting it halfway off her shoulders before Pip jumped forward with a cry of protest.

  “Stop! What are you doing? It looks good on you!” The moment the words left her mouth, she wished she could stuff them right back inside. There had to be someone out there with that power, right?

  “Okay, I’m sorry!” Pip blurted as Khione spun away from her, face contorted. “I have no idea what I did, but I’m sure it’s my fault, and I’m sorry.” Khione stopped moving, and Pip kept talking, terrified to stop. “I know I went and fucked up our hang out by dragging you into that changing room and making you kiss me—”

  “Hold on,” Khione cut her off as she spun back around. She pointed an accusing finger at Pip’s chest. “You didn’t make me do anything. You couldn’t if you wanted to. I kissed you.”

  “Right.” Pip stared at her, the wind entirely stricken out of the sails of her apology. What was she apologizing for? “Now I’m confused. What am I apologizing for?”

  The breath Khione let out could have frozen the desert. “For bringing your little sister along.”

  “Oh. Right. Sorry she interrupted us. But like, she’s eight. Obviously she knows what sex is.”

  “You realize that doesn’t make it better, right? And also, she’s eight. Why would she know what sex is?”

  Pip nodded, trying to get where Khione clearly wanted her to go. “No, you’re right. I can… make it up to you?”

  That seemed to be the answer Khione was looking for, and she struck a devious smile. “Yes, you can,” she declared. “You’re going to take me out on a date.”

  “A date,” Pip repeated. How they’d landed on date, she wasn’t certain. But if that’s what Khione wanted, she could definitely manage it? She could take her out to dinner, or something. Whatever teenagers did for dates. She’d never been on one, always too busy with training, but her moms would probably have a few ideas.

  “Okay. Great.”

  “Yup.” Pip nodded, uncertain where to go from here. She was apparently dating Khione now, or at least taking her out on a date. That wasn’t really what she’d planned. She was supposed to focus on training the losers, and training herself to prepare for entering the program. Now she would have to find time to take Khione out at least once. “Well. We should get started now.”

  Khione called out for the group to gather up, suddenly enthusiastic. Another joined after the last time, one of August’s friends. He introduced himself as Jason, a super with a geokinetic power. Like most of the group, he didn’t have much control over it, but luckily, Pip was very familiar with that subset of powers. She’d spent most of the week brainstorming exercises for the group, and she didn’t have to waste any time coming up in ones for him.

  August she set to hovering in place. His power was flight, but he couldn’t fly, jerking around like someone on a shitty jetpack. So she instructed him to lift himself just enough his feet could no longer touch the ground, and stay there for as long as he could. His body trembled, his hold on his power barely lasting for more than a few moments before his feet thumped into the soft grass again. She grabbed his shoulder as he lifted off the ground again, reminding him to focus on the exercise she’d taught them last session for the power core. Using a power was like using any other muscle. You didn’t start out doing pull ups, or minute long planks. You worked your way up that point.

  Dropping his arm, she moved over to his friend. Jason hadn’t been there when she’d taught the group about power cores, but it was okay. She gave him a quick rundown and placed a rock in his hand. Manipulate it, and focus on the feeling in his core as he did. In the early days of her power awakening, Pip had spent a lot of time doing the same. Not everyone could study what their power controlled so intimately, but for physical matter manipulators or summoners, it was a good tool. At six years old, Athena had placed a glass marble in her hand and told her to study it. She’d carried it with her everywhere, in class, on the playground, at home, even to bed.

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  Lilian was a similar type. She was an animator, specifically of paper, but the exercise would work for her as well. Pip gave her an origami book, full of paper and design diagrams. She’s experimented some with crafting and animating paper, but rarely did anything complicated.

  Frog was a tricky one. They could stretch their body like rubber, at least in theory. As of now, they could only stretch one arm, which still caught Pip off guard every time she saw them stretch their arm over the heads of the rest of the group to grab something. Like the others, she started them small, instructing them to focus on stretching one finger on their non-stretchy hand. Of course, they chose their middle finger. Typical.

  Then there was Khione. She stood off to the side, hands in the pockets of her new leather jacket, watching Pip go between the L.O.S.E.R.S and help them get started. She lifted her head and met Pip’s eyes, smirking as heat began to spread across Pip’s cheeks.

  She cleared her throat. She had to be serious, professional. She was supposed to be teaching Khione, not… anything else.

  “Gonna start me off with the basics too?” Khione asked.

  “No,” Pip said. Khione was too far along for that to be useful, at least right now. “I figured I’d start teaching you how to fight. What sort of weapon do you want to use?”

  Khione snorted in derision. “Fight? I don’t want to fight.”

  “But… you want to get stronger?”

  “I want to get better control over my power, yeah,” Khione said. “What does sword fighting have to do with that?”

  “I didn’t say sword. You could make any kind of weapon you want.”

  “But I don’t want a weapon,” Khione said. “Just because all you think about is fighting doesn’t mean that’s what the rest of us want. I want to get stronger. I don’t want to use that strength to go around punching people. Not everyone wants to be a hero, Carter.”

  “I’m not trying to make you into a hero,” Pip said with a scowl.

  “Aren’t you?”

  Pip looked back at the group, watching them as they worked on their powers. She didn’t want to make them into heroes. But… what else did supers do with their powers?

  There were some, of course, who had skills useful for every day. Strongmen could move things others couldn’t. So could telekinetics. Even Pip herself had a power that could be used elsewhere, she supposed, but to do what? Make windows? Craft marbles? What was the point in that? How could anyone be happy with something so mundane? Why not give these people the skills they needed to do more than anyone else could?

  “I’m not making them into heroes,” Pip said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m just… helping them out so they have options one day.”

  “Sure,” Khione said, eyes narrow. She didn’t believe her. That was fine. She didn’t like heroes anyway, and that was fine too. She didn’t have to.

  “If you don’t want to learn how to fight, what do you want to learn?” Pip asked, forcing herself to move on. “You could work on area control. Turn the whole field to ice. Stuff like that.”

  Nose wrinkled, Khione looked around. “Why? Why is that practical?”

  Pip bit off the response on her tongue. Area control was an important part of a fight. The more you could control the battlefield, the more the fight leaned in her favor. But Khione definitely wouldn’t like that answer.

  “I don’t know. What would you rather do? You could work on your summons, maybe.”

  “My summons? Like, how much ice I can summon at once?”

  “No. Well, you could work on that,” Pip said. “But that’s not what I mean. Summons are a specific type of skill that summoners and animators often use. And other supers too, though not as commonly. Even I can do it!” She stretched out her hands and began working, glass building up together in the air like a 3D printer. A creature no taller than Pip’s knee landed on the grass, shaped like one of those Christmas nutcrackers. “It’s just a little guy! And you use it to do things.”

  “Like what?”

  “Well, fight,” Pip said, making Khione scowl once more. “Or make them do things for you. Like little minions, or helpers. They’re basically animated creatures, but they don’t really function separately for you. Well, that’s not true. It really depends on the super. Some can set their summons to do tasks and not have to focus on the completion of those tasks, but that normally falls more into the line of animators. Like Lilian.”

  “I see,” Khione said. She squatted in the grass, picking up Pip’s creation. “What do you do with these things?”

  “I fight with them,” Pip said, shifting from foot to foot. As Khione’s eyes landed on her, she had to spill. “That’s actually why I got grounded. I snuck out to battle other summoner’s with my summon.”

  “That tracks,” Khione said. “How did you do?”

  “I won.”

  Khione immediately drove a blade through the pride in Pip’s voice. “Really?”

  “Yes. Why?”

  “Because this looks like shit. How is it supposed to move?” She drove a finger into one of the arm joints, pushing on it. “These joints are terrible.”

  “What do you know about joints?” Pip demanded. She was supposed to be teaching, not getting criticized for her construction skills. It wasn’t as if she’d even taken much time to craft this one. And it was about the same as Fredrick was.

  “I’m taking anatomy this year,” Khione said. “And I don’t think there’s enough range of movement here.”

  “It was able to fight perfectly fine before,” Pip said. “And I haven’t even tried to work on this. It’s just a hobby.”

  “Right,” Khione said. “Well, I guess I can try this out.” She sat down, crossing her legs and focusing on Pip’s creation. Before Pip walked away, cold began to bloom around her.

  She didn’t manage to finish a summon by the time the girl’s soccer team rolled up and kicked them off the field, but she’d made some progress. Pip instructed the group to continue to work on their powers over the following week, then hung back to talk to Khione.

  “So. When do you want to go on that date?” she asked, watching for the family minivan to pull up. At least she wasn’t grounded anymore, so she was allowed to spend a few minutes talking to the white-haired super.

  “I don’t know.” Khione flipping her thick braids back over her shoulder. “Whenever you think of something worthwhile.”

  “Sure.”

  A car came racing into the parking lot as Pip wracked her brain to come up with a response. The black and purple sports car slammed on the brakes in front of the entrance, an all too familiar face peeking out of the roofless car.

  “Grandma?”

  Khione followed Pip’s gaze, only squinting in confusion as her eyes landed on the woman in the sports car. “What do you mean, grandma?”

  “That’s my grandma,” Pip said, shaking her head. Why was Grandma Thalia coming to pick her up? “I have to go, sorry.”

  She grabbed her bag and took off, racing across the grass and up to the car. She threw her stuff in the back seat and hopped over the closed door, landing in the passenger seat. Grandma Thalia reached up, ruffling Pip’s undone hair.

  “What are you doing here?” Pip demanded.

  “I’ve got a match for you,” Thalia said. She reached into the cupholder and pulled out a packet of bubblegum. “Start chewing, because it’s time for you to kick some ass.”