Kenny lay awake that night, staring at the bottom of Jump's bunk. Hours had passed since she had retired to bed, and sleep still seemed as far away as it had been then. She knew she should try to get some rest, as the escape was to take place the next day. However, her uneasy mind and anxious thoughts made this impossible.

The plan itself was relatively simple: Kenny and Einstein were to sneak out of the Dormitories, sneak into the Nursery, turn off the security system, and leave campus. However, there were dozens of different factors that could ruin the scheme and send the young girl to Detention. Things were proceeding much quicker than she or Einstein had expected now that Kenny was leaving with him. She hoped Einstein knew what the two were getting themselves into, as she certainly didn't.

After a few more moments of thinking about Einstein and his plan, Kenny pushed all of her thoughts away. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep to no avail. However, before she could give up on and retreat to her closet to read, a dream overtook the young girl.

Kenny could tell this dream was about a future event; she wasn't sure where she was, and she could move of her own accord. Someone's hand gripped tightly on her forearm as they walked alongside her, pulling her down a brightly lit hallway. Kenny turned her head to squint at her surroundings. The building was similar to that of a hospital, and they shared the sharp smell of anesthetics.

As Kenny was forcefully led down a set of stairs, the atmosphere began to change. Whitewashed walls and blinding lights made it almost impossible to look up, but the girl continued to stare through it. Once her eyes were accustomed to the brightness, she continued her observation of her surroundings. She spotted evenly spaced white doors with windows placed between each door. Looking through the windows, she found white padded cells, all empty. Where was she?

"Look who I found upstairs," a accented voice called from next to Kenny. She squinted at the bright space in front of her to see who was there.

Miss Kaylee stepped out from one of the padded cells, closing and locking the door behind her. She turned to look at Kenny and gasped. "Hawking! How did you get in here? Why are you out past curfew?" The woman looked shocked. "So it's true. You truly did steal my files."

The woman turned to the man beside Kenny. "Thank your granddaughter telling us the location of my files. I'll have Miss Gavin remove them from the Girls' Dormitories. As for Hawking, ask her what she knows about this building and then send her to the Detention room. I'm dealing with our situation down here."

Kenny was about to look up at the person beside her when she spotted a familiar face behind Miss Kaylee. She learned slightly to her right to look through the window of the room Miss Kaylee had walked out of. Behind the glass pane stood a short figure, screaming at and gesturing toward the young girl. She nearly shouted in response when she realized who it was.

Clay was being held inside one of the padded cells.

Kenny jolted awake, slamming her head against the wall with her sudden movement. She sat up, rubbing her eyes, and checked the time. It was nearly six in the morning. She gently prodded the lump forming on her head before tiredly trudging to the bathroom.

An hour or so later, Kenny was sitting in the Dining Hall with Color, Fins, and Clay. She found herself staring at Clay several times throughout breakfast to the point where the boy asked if he had food on his cheek. Kenny shook her head, embarrassed, and attempted to focus on her food. However, the longer she took her eyes off of Clay, the more uneasy she felt.

The bell soon rang, and Kenny anxiously went through the rest of her day. Einstein had decided that the two wouldn't speak to each other throughout the day, so she was unable to inform him of her dream at the Pavilion. She was worried about both the plan and Clay, which caused the hands of the clock tick by slower to her. During her therapy session with Mrs. Page, she continuously checked the time, hurrying to her seventh period class once the bell had rung.

Kenny waited in the hallway for Clay so they could walk to Mr. Kingsworth's class together. After two minutes, the young girl hurried to class alone. She hoped Clay would arrive late to class, and that her dream was just a horrific scenario created by her mind. But he never did show up to class.

When the final bell of the day rang, Kenny rushed to the library. She placed her backpack at a table near the back of the room and began to pace. She knew the escape plan was only supposed to include Einstein and herself, but she couldn't leave Clay in (what she assumed was) the Nursery. What if they were holding him because they LM didn't affect him? This would be his only chance to escape before they held him under intense surveillance with a death threat over his head at all times.

Kenny rubbed her temples. She wanted to rescue Clay, but according to her dream, she would be caught while doing so. She decided to wait for a chance to speak with Einstein about her friend and his predicament before making any drastic changes to the escape plan. Unfortunately, Kenny had nine hours of time to spend before she could talk to him. She fidgeted restlessly around the bookshelves, touching books' spines and reading the first few pages of several of them.

"Dinner will be starting soon," Miss Gavin called, startling Kenny from Theoretical Gifts and the Science Behind Them. She shut the book and picked up her backpack.

Before leaving, Kenny realized she should return her the English Latin Dictionary, for she would no longer need it. She pulled the library book from her bag and placed it in the book return bin. Miss Gavin picked the book up to look at the cover. She tilted her head and stared at the young girl for a moment before asking, "Are you learning Latin? There are not many places where the language is used these days. It's dead, after all."

Kenny stiffly took a blank index card from her pocket. She didn't want Miss Gavin to think she's found a way to decode Miss Kaylee's stolen files (which she had). She replied, Dead or underrated? Latin is used often in scientific nomenclature, so it helps me memorize certain words for my class.

Miss Gavin nodded. "I see. An English Latin Dictionary would be extremely helpful, then. I'm glad it helped you."

Kenny smiled in relief and quickly left the library. Miss Gavin watched the young girl go, frowning at her back.

Kenny ran to the table she, Fins, Color, and Clay shared and pulled and index card out of her pocket. She shoved the card towards Color and pointed at Clay's chair. Where?

Color tilted her head at Kenny. "I thought you heard. Dr. Anderson pulled Clay out of gym class earlier today after she saw how he'd improved his Gift. I showed her how I can change my whole body into different colors now, and Clay showed her that he could indeed create more than clay. Or rocks, for that matter!"

Kenny's brows furrowed in confusion, so Color went on.

"I'm not sure how he did it, but Clay taught himself to create rocks other than clay. Once he'd done that, he figured out how to make minerals, like quartz and diamonds. Gosh, I didn't realize diamonds were minerals until now! Clay could probably create diamonds if he tried! He'll be an A grouper the next time we see him."

"You too!" Fins added. "You'll probably become an F grouper now that you can camouflage into walls. Dr. Anderson will probably speak with you after she's done with Clay."

Kenny's appetite disappeared. She wished she could take all of her friends to escape with her and Einstein. And Clay. The girl decided she would definitely take Clay from Miss Kaylee and whatever she had planned for him.

Dinner ended, and Kenny trudged to the Girls' Dormitories. She got herself ready as slowly as possible, wasting time before her curfew was set into place. She would have to spend the next three hours pretending to be asleep to prevent sparking suspicion in her roommates. Once Metal and Tellie were asleep and Kenny was sure Jump wouldn't return for at least ten minutes, she hopped out of her bed and opened her closet. It only took her a moment to pack a few sets of warm clothes, several of her toiletries, and a few books to read. She then quickly scribbled a few sentences on a pack of blank index cards and placed those at the side of her bag.

Sighing, Kenny stood and closed her closet door. She lay back on her bed and played with the hem of her blanket, bored. An hour later, Jump teleported into the room and prepared for bed. Fortunately, the girl's roommate fell asleep quickly, providing more time for her to get ready. She slipped back into her closet and changed her clothes in the cramped space. After checking the clock a final time, Kenny shrugged on her backpack, and the escape plan commenced.

The hallways were quiet except for Kenny's heavy breathing. All student curfews were in place, and to be caught out of bed with a bag full of clothes would certainly earn her a place in Detention. Because of this, Kenny jumped at every noise and hid behind every corner before continuing on her journey. It was a minute past midnight when she finally made her way out of the Girls' Dormitories.

"You took your time," a voice whispered from the bushes near the doorway.

Kenny jumped, nearly falling over in shock. Her heart truly seemed to have skipped a beat.

"Relax, it's just me." Einstein stood, brushing branches and leaves from his trousers. "You look like you've seen Death himself, and we haven't even gotten inside the Nursery building yet."

Kenny's shaking hands reached for the index cards at the side of her bag. She showed the first one to Einstein. I had a dream. Clay is in the Nursery.

"Clay as in your friend Clay? Right now? But the Nursery is closed on Fridays," the boy replied, frowning. "Unless.... Did something happen with his Gift?"

He creates more than just clay now, and Dr. Anderson might be testing that.

Einstein looked from Kenny's card to the Nursery building. "Let's make our way inside. Then we'll talk about Clay."

Kenny and Einstein moved in the shadows towards the one building students were to avoid. The entire campus seemed to be sleeping, but it wasn't a pleasant slumber. AGC was having a nightmare, and the Nursery program was the root of it.

"You seem extremely hesitant," Einstein observed as the two walked past the Dining Hall. "You do realize that you don't have to come with me, right? That's your choice."

Kenny shook her head. The only other option she had was being brainwashed. There wasn't much of a choice to her. Shut up and keep going, she replied.

"Do you want me to hate you? I'm trying to be polite." Einstein scowled.

Kenny handed him her card. Why?

"Fine, I'll stop. However, I'd like to ask you something before I 'shut up and keep going.'"

Kenny nodded for him to continue. She didn't mind a distraction as the two walked toward their potential deaths.

"Have you met Gabriel? Did you know him?"

The girl turned to look at Einstein before nodding. She knew she didn't have enough time to find a response in her pack of cards, so she didn't say anything back to him. She hadn't thought about Gabriel in a while, and now that his doppelganger had brought him up, she was incredibly curious. However, the entrance to the Nursery building was now less than a few strides away. Both Einstein and Kenny fell silent.

"Hawking," Einstein started. Kenny frowned at his tone, for he only used it when he was apologizing for something, usually after he had lied. "It's not a lie this time. It's more of an omission. I didn't tell you that when you step into the building, you'll recall everything that's ever happened to you there."

I know that, Kenny replied. Shut up and keep going.

"I hate that card already." Einstein rolled his eyes and stuck his hand in his pocket. He produced a gleaming square with Gene's picture and information written on it, swiping it on the scanner near the door. After several seconds, the doorknob turned under the boy's hand, and Einstein and Kenny slipped into the building.

Once she set foot inside the hallway, Kenny's memories came flooding back. She could remember being in the library with Einstein when the two were taken from their seats and dragged to the Nursery. She could remember the brightly lit hallway with the padded cells from her dream. She remembered the testing that had taken place.

Kenny felt as though she was going to vomit. She used the wall to keep herself upright as she tried to calm the chaotic mess the sudden recollection had turned her mind into. She'd known they had experimented on her, but she hadn't known it was to such an extent. It made her urge to be sick even worse when she realized that everything she could now remember had only happened in one night. Einstein had suffered hundreds of them, and Clay would suffer hundreds more.

"Are you alright, Hawking?" Einstein whispered. His quiet voice carried through the corridor, and Kenny put a finger to her lips. After a moment, she looked up at him and nodded. She was ready to proceed with the escape plan, and no matter what happened, she was going to take Clay with her.