Gripping the Lets Get Meta gym competition flier in one hand and her iced coffee in the other, Pip made her way into the gym. A quick look at Mai confirmed she was still watching over the group, tracking Pip as she moved inside. Hopefully her mother wouldn’t be angry about this, but it was very likely the group would.

  Khione split off as they approached the basketball court.

  Pip darted after her, grabbing her arm. “Where are you doing?” she hissed. “We have to tell the team!”

  “You’re alone on this one,” Khione said. She pulled her arm free and escaped, joining the others who were already doing the exercises Pip had taught them.

  Great, Pip thought. She had to tell the team she’d accidentally signed them up for a competition against other supers that they weren’t ready for and they may never be ready for. She would have to get them ready for it, however, because Pip wasn’t a loser and neither were they. Well, they were, but not actually. It was just an unfortunate club name.

  Placing her cup of melting ice coffee on the table, Pip walked to the center of the court and clapped her hands together. Heads turned, most confused, except for Khione’s bemused smirk. Damn Khione, getting pleasure from her pain.

  “Hey team,” Pip said, and cringed. Why did that sound so terrible? “I’ve got an announcement to make.”

  “An announcement?” Khione asked, raising an eyebrow. Pip shot her a dirty look and turned her attention to the rest of the group. Khione could keep firing shots at her about this, but it was for their own good. A super gym could get them the help and coaching they needed, and if they won this competition, no one would even have to pay for it.

  “Yes,” Pip said. She swallowed. Six sets of eyes was a lot of eyes if you thought about it for too long. “Lets Get Meta is hosting a super powered competition, with the prize being a free spot for a year in the gym. I've signed us up for it.”

  Mouths opened. Protests began. Pip barreled forward, trying to get the rest out before they could panic, or stone her. “I know it sounds like a lot, but I know we can win. I have a plan!”

  “A plan,” Khione repeated.

  This would be so much easier if Khione was on her side about this. The group listened to her. Trusted her in a way they didn't trust Pip, and she had no idea why. Khione didn't even try to lead them, they just listened.

  “Yes, a plan,” Pip repeated. “We have a few months to get everyone in shape, and I'm going to get some of my siblings involved—”

  “Oh joy, more nepo babies.”

  “To be fair,” Khione said, speaking up finally, “the Carters do know what they're talking about when it comes to powers.”

  “I suppose,” Lillian grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “Why do we have to participate in this?” August asked.

  “So you have a chance at a better place to learn,” Pip said, the fire growing inside as she spoke. “Look around. This is a basketball gym they occasionally let us use, and sometimes they kick us out to the soccer field inside.”

  Mai coughed loudly to the side, but Pip ignored her. It didn't matter that they'd accidentally broken the gym floor, her point stood.

  “You need a place where you can learn and grow and train and be coached! So you can be the best supers you can possibly be.”

  “But we're second rate.”

  “You're not,” Pip said. “There's no such thing as a second rate power. All that matters is how you learn to use it.”

  “I just don’t understand how we’re supposed to compete against a bunch of other supers,” Frog said. “I mean, what does a gym competition even mean?”

  “Well, it’s a showcasing of powers and skills,” Pip said, racking her brain for everything she knew about gym competitions. “Some physical fights. Some are just displaying a mastery over your power, ahead of your competitor.”

  “They’re competitors our age, right?” Frog asked, twisting to look up at Khione, moving their head unnaturally far. It was eerie and inhuman, and made Pip a bit queasy to look at, even though it wasn’t the strangest thing Pip had seen. There was just something unnatural, watching someone twist around like skin and bone didn’t matter, and no matter how much Pip understood, it didn’t change the fact that it weirded her out.

  “Uh, no,” Pip said. “It’s an all ages competition.”

  “Oh, perfect,” August said. “We’re going to die.”

  “We won’t die,” Khione said, looking down at him. “We’ll just get our asses kicked.”

  “You won’t, because I’ll whip your asses into shape,” Pip said. “I know we can do this, guys.”

  “I think this is a terrible idea,” Lillian said.

  “Don’t worry,” Pip said again. “I have a plan.”

  Before anyone else could ask what the plan was, or force her to come up with one on the spot, she put the group to work on a new exercise. An endurance exercise, meant to build up the muscle of your power core. Endurance was important to power use. Starting out, using your power for more than a few seconds or minutes at a time was hard, and like anything else, you had to build up your endurance.

  As everyone sat down to work, Mai cleared her throat, staring pointedly in Pip’s direction. Without an excuse to continue ignoring her, Pip had no choice but to walk over to her and see what she wanted.

  “Yes, Mum?”

  “Gym competition?” Mai asked, tilting her head to the side. “I thought you wanted to leave the losers?”

  Pip glanced over her shoulder at the group. Most of them were freshmen. They hadn’t been picked up by a gym yet, and they might never, like Khione and the few sophomores and juniors they had in the group. Just because they weren’t good enough to be picked up by a gym, or didn’t have desirable powers, or whatever they were told didn’t mean they didn’t deserve to succeed.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “Getting them into this gym would be helping them,” Pip said.

  “And why not just ask us to pay for a gym spot for them?” Mai asked.

  “Was… that an option?” Pip asked, eyes going wide. Their family had money, even before heroes were a thing, the Carter family had money. They donated to charity, they helped people, but they didn’t throw money around to solve their own problems. Not when you could work for it instead.

  The corner’s of Mai’s lips curled in amusement. “No, but you could have asked. And you’re planning on getting your siblings involved?”

  “It’s a great idea, isn’t it?” Pip asked, desperately hoping her mother would be on her side. Mai was more invested in this little group than anyone, not that Pip understood why. Mai, who winced every time one of her children mentioned they wanted to be a hero and always brought up other career options. It wasn’t that she wasn’t supportive, but she didn’t want to see her children in constant danger, just like she didn’t want to see Athena in constant danger. Maybe that’s why she cared so much about this little club. These were supers who just wanted to get a little bit better, not go on to fight and put themselves at harm’s risk every single day.

  “You’ll have to get them on board,” Mai said. “But I do like the idea.”

  “It would be good for them,” Pip argued. “Especially Amalia. Most of them are freshmen like her.”

  “We can talk about it over dinner,” Mai suggested. “And why don’t you invite Khione over as well?”

  Pip opened her mouth, stumbling over her words as she attempted to protest. She didn’t want to bring Khione over, especially not for family dinner, not when all her siblings would be around. Khione would be meeting her siblings eventually, if Pip was able to get them involved with the club, but ideally they wouldn’t even have time to speak with her.

  “I think Khione has plans?”

  “Oh, does she?” Warning bells went off in Pip’s mind too late as Mai twisted out of their conversation and raised her voice. “Khione, would you come over here?”

  Khione looked up, midway through crafting something with her ice. It wasn’t formed enough that Pip could make out what it was from the distance, though it was different from her original summon. Perhaps Pip should do the same, try out something aside from her original design? Fredrick was lovely, but he didn’t work very well. If Khione was coming over, and Pip had little doubt her mother would get her way, maybe they’d have a chance to try it out.

  Pushing to her feet, Khione left the ice to melt on the gym floor and walked over to Pip and Mai, brushing off her pants as she moved. “Yes, ma’am?”

  Pip whipped her head around. She’d never heard Khione be so respectful or proper, not a drop of sarcasm in her voice. Was Khione secretly good with parents?

  “How would you like to come to dinner tonight?” Mai asked, smiling pleasantly like she wasn’t plotting revenge against Pip for not sharing all the details of her date with Khione. It was the most dastardly motherly move Pip had ever seen her mother make.

  “Oh,” Khione blinked, shooting Pip a quick look. “Well…”

  “You don’t have plans tonight, do you?” Mai asked, pressing forward with the subtlety Athena normally had. “If you do, we could do it another night, but I’m making mapo tofu and dumplings for dinner and they’ll be better than anything you get at a restaurant.”

  “I believe you, Mrs. Carter,” Khione said. “I’ll… have to make sure it’s okay with my parents.”

  “Sounds good,” Mai said, her smile widening. “Just let me know by the end of the meeting, if you can.”

  “I will,” Khione said, nodding her head once, lips pulled into a perfect, polite smile. She grabbed Pip’s arm, acrylic nails digging into her bare skin, gouging mini crescent moons. “Pip, can I get your help with something?”

  Pip let herself be dragged away, mercifully freed her from her mother, only to come face to face with Khione’s fury. For the second time today. At least this time it wasn’t her fault.

  Squatting in front of a half formed summon, beginning to melt and form a puddle on the sensitive gym floor, Khione spoke. “What the hell, Carter?”

  “I didn’t know!” Pip bit her tongue, forcing herself to lower her voice before Mai could realize what they were talking about. “I tried to get you out of it, okay? I promise. She blindsided me with that one.”

  Their eyes met, Khione’s narrowing slightly. Pip flailed, feeling as though she stepped on the stairs, only to find there wasn’t a step where she expected one to be. “What, do you not want me to come over?”

  “Oh, now you’re upset I didn’t want you to come over?” Pip whispered, the words coming out as fast as she should breathe. “I didn’t think you would want to come over, and Mum is just trying to get back at me for not telling her about our date, and I’m sorry, but my siblings are really annoying.”

  “Mine too,” Khione said after a moment’s hesitation.

  Pip blinked. “You have siblings?”

  Khione glanced away, apparently embarrassed about giving away information about herself. She never wanted to speak about herself, her family especially, though Pip knew enough to know they didn’t like supers.

  “Will your family even be okay that you’re coming over?” Pip asked.

  “They won’t care, because they won’t know,” Khione said. “They think I’m at work, so I’ll just tell them I stayed late.”

  “Ah.” Was Khione’s home life really that bad that she had to lie to her parents about attending the losers club? They didn’t like heroes, but did they hate all supers? “Do your parents even know you’re a super?” Pip asked, suddenly curious. If Khione was sharing things about herself, she wanted to know.

  “Of course they do!” Khione snapped, loud enough for everyone else to hear. She sucked in a sharp breath as eyes turned toward them, the losers too inquisitive for their own good. She waved them back to their exercise as Pip smiled politely, waiting for Khione’s anger to return. “Of course they know, Pip. I manifested powers at eight. I didn’t know how to hide them and I didn’t understand what my parents thought. They know, okay?”

  “Okay.” Pip slid onto the floor, crossing her legs and staring at the melting summon. What did you say, to a reveal like that? “Your thing is melting.”

  Khione let out a frustrated noise and pressed a finger to the crafted ice. It resolidified, frost spiraling outward from the piece across the wooden floor. She sighed again, pulling back her hands and walking away.

  With a grunt, Pip pushed herself back to her feet, following after Khione. Her girlfriend. She had a girlfriend now and she needed to figure out how to be a girlfriend and help her girlfriend.

  God, this is a lot of work.

  “Khione…”

  Her girlfriend stopped in front of the food table, picking at a homemade spring roll. She tore pieces of fried rice paper off in her hand, dropping pieces onto a paper plate someone left behind.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Clearly I’m fine,” Khione said, the words as frigid as her power.

  “Yeah, clearly,” Pip said with a roll of her eyes. “You know, my mom will love your power.”

  She cast a glance over her shoulder, and Pip shook her head. “Not that mom. Athena.”

  “Your hero mom.”

  “My hero mom.”

  “Is all you think about powers?”

  “Not all,” Pip said, staring at her girlfriend. “I think about you.”

  “Sure.” Khione eyed her, eyebrows raising. Pip stared back, earnest and smiling. Khione was great, and she needed to know it. Icy blonde hair, black at the roots, done into thick braids at the moment. Dark brown skin that shone under even the most terrible, garish gym lighting. Eyes as frosty as her attitude. She was beautiful, and Pip definitely thought about her.

  “I think about you,” she repeated, warmth dripping into the words as it filled her cheeks.

  Khione turned away sharply, sucking in a sharp breath. “Shut up.”

  “Okay,” Pip said. “So, you’re coming to dinner tonight?”

  “How am I supposed to say no to your mom?”

  “I don’t know,” Pip said. “I’m still trying to figure that one out myself.”