All day, Color's words played in Kenny's head as if they were on repeat.The second the bell pinged at the end of seventh period, the young girl walked briskly to the library. She picked up the few medical books where she had found a handful sentences on cases similar to her own. However, rather than search for the Darkness in more medical books, she looked in the Gifted section of the library.

The Gifted section was a bookcase of non-fiction books written about Gifts and Gifted people. Titles such as I'm Gifted, But My Parents Aren't! What to do When You're the Only Gifted Person in the Family and Making Friends With People Who Aren't Gifted sat beside each other on the shelves. Kenny had never thought to search for Black Outs here, for she had thought the Darkness was a rare ailment of the senses. She had never guessed that there was something going on in her brain, much less her Z-area.

Kenny picked several books on side effects off of the shelves. Miss Gavin was absent from the room, so she wasn't able to ask the librarian to search for titles in the catalog. Once she had gathered all of the books she could find, the young girl sat at the table in the far corner and began her reading. She knew she would have to break curfew if she wanted to complete a thorough search of the Darkness, but Kenny was getting used to the idea of being out of her dorm past nine o'clock.

The curfew patrol hadn't caught her yet.

By the time Kenny had finally finished looking through the books, it was almost eleven at night and she still hadn't found much more than a few passages on the Darkness. However, she refused to give up hope and promised herself she would return tomorrow. Wearily, she placed the books back onto their shelves and started on her way.

The hallways were silent except for Kenny's own steps. Her eyes adjusted to the soft light of the uplight chandeliers, for they were much dimmer than the fluorescents in the library. The young girl checked her pocket for her ID card and started on her way. She had barely made it ten steps and was wondering how she was going to complete her homework when she heard shuffling noises coming from behind her.

Kenny turned to find someone was coming around the bend of the hallway. She froze in fear, for the young girl was standing in the middle of the corridor. She wouldn't make it to the end of the hallway if she ran, and the lighting in the school building was bright enough that she could be recognized even if she did. She was about to turn and try to escape anyway when a voice called, "Hawking? Is that you?"

Kenny frowned as Einstein squinted at her. What was he doing in the school building at eleven o'clock? Then she gasped in realization. Had he been in the Nursery? Was the Nursery in the school building?

"It has to be you. If it were anyone else, I would've gotten a reply already."

Einstein began to stumble toward the young girl, and he seemed as though he was having difficulty walking. She pulled an index card from her pocket asking why he was here and attempted to show it to him. He glanced at it for a moment before looking back up at Kenny.

"I'm not going to read your stupid index card, mute," he told her blatantly.

Kenny blinked. She took another card from her pocket. This one read, That was rude of you.

After several long moments, Einstein glanced up from her index card and scoffed. "It was supposed to be rude, mute. Gosh, could you be any denser?" He then picked the card from her hand and ripped it in two.

Shocked, Kenny stared at the boy. She looked from him to her ripped index card, rage boiling inside of her like the water inside of a geyser. She recalled what Color had told her about Einstein's migraine postdrome symptoms, but she did not care. That was her index card, and he had ripped it in two just because he felt like it. She reached for the two halves of her card, but Einstein held it above his head.

"It's been a week, and yet here we are again," he sneered. "I'm surprised, Hawking. You seem to be so full of questions, even as a mute, and you still haven't learned anything. Even though you're an A grouper, you're still an outcast." He laughed cruelly. "If Blaze were here now, I'd tell him to burn every last one of your index cards, only after I'd ripped them like I did this one."

Kenny leaped into the air and snatched her card from Einstein. Tears came to her eyes, but they were tears of anger and not embarrassment. In a fit of rage, she kicked Einstein in the tibia as hard as she could and then proceeded to stomp on his other foot. She hurriedly stuffed the ripped card into her pocket and turned to view what damage she had inflicted on her tormentor.

Einstein hissed in pain, bending over. For a moment, Kenny wondered if she had truly injured the boy and should find the nurse. However, he soon came rose from his semi-fetal position and shoved the young girl as hard as he could.

"Why in God's name would you do that?" he demanded of her.

Kenny stumbled backward, almost tripping over her feet and landing on the tile floor. She returned Einstein's shove with a push of her own, causing the boy to step backward also. Kenny could tell that she was starting a physical altercation with him now, and if she and Einstein were found fighting in the school hallway past curfew, the consequences would be severe.

It was only after she realized this that Kendall noticed the black pinpricks surrounding Einstein's contorted face. She watched as they grew into small dots, and as the dots grew into splotches that obscured her vision. She tried to turn away from the boy, as she refused to fight with him while she was Blacked Out. However, the Darkness came too quickly for her to do anything but watch as Einstein lunged for her.

Though Kenny wasn't aware of what was happening, the young girl could tell she and Einstein were fighting. The Darkness felt less like a suffocating gas and more like a black ocean in the middle of a hurricane. She couldn't tell up from down or sideways, and her body (or perhaps a mental configuration of her body) was being pulled in all directions. When her vision finally started to clear, her head was spinning so badly, she couldn't see, simply opening her eyes made her nauseous.

"Hawking," a woman whose voice Kenny couldn't recognize asked, "are you alright?"

Instead of replying, the young girl turned her head and threw up.

Once she had finished, Kenny put her forehead in her hands and waited for the dizziness to pass. A cold hand pulled her head up for a moment and rested it on the girl's face.

"You don't have a fever," the woman murmured. "It's probably just nerves then. Pass me the mop, Einstein. I'll have to clean this up before I call the principal down here."

"Why are you calling Dr. Zhang down here?" Einstein's voice was loud in Kenny's ears.

"Well, let's see. Hawking was out after curfew doing who knows what. Then you went into the school building after I sent you to your dorm and told you not to go anywhere else." There was a brief pause, and Kenny could tell the woman was glaring at the boy. "And then, after you told me you felt better enough to leave the Clinic, you went off and started a fight. You're lucky I'm the one who found you two and not someone else. Most teachers would have called Dr. Zhang already, and they wouldn't have thought you needed to be taken to the Clinic first. If it weren't for me, Hawking would have vomited on the floor in his office."

"I apologize, Nurse Clara."

By this time, Kenny could look up from her hands without being sick again. The familiar faded stickers and brightly colored wall confirmed what Nurse Clara had previously stated: they were in the Clinic. Einstein was sitting in the chair next to the medical examination tale which, the young girl soon realized, she was sitting on. She wanted to go sit in the chair on the other side of the room to move farther away from Einstein, but she was too small to successfully make the jump off of the table and onto the floor.

"Apologies mean nothing. You still did what you did." Nurse Clara looked up at Kenny. "Are you going to vomit on my floor again?"

The young girl shook her head.

The woman nodded. "Good. Because I've already taken pictures of the bruises to use as evidence, I can now heal you both."

"Use as evidence for what?" Einstein demanded. "What's going to happen?"

"For proving that you two were fighting in the hallway, of course! You might get suspended. Or maybe you'll get a day of detention."

Nurse Clara washed her hand as she spoke. Once she was finished, she turned to Kenny and tapped her arms, legs, and stomach. She did the same to Einstein, who was still arguing against calling Dr. Zhang. Kenny watched as bruises on her arm became smaller until they disappeared, and the skin grew back on a bite mark. She looked to Einstein incredulously.

Kenny pulled a card from her pocket. You bit me.

The boy frowned. "Yes, I did. You bit me twice."

Kenny flushed in embarrassment. She had always thought biting to be something children with no willpower did.

Nurse Clara picked up the receiver of the phone sitting on the doctor's desk and began to ring for Dr. Zhang. Kenny was suddenly glad she was sitting on the examination table, for she could lay down before she was condemned to a day in detention (or at least, that seemed like the best of the two options). Einstein looked the young girl in the eyes for a moment. He then turned to the woman and took a heavy breath. Kenny frowned, wondering what he was planning on saying now.

"Nurse Clara, stop," he commanded in an odd tone. "Put the receiver back down and turn to me."

Nurse Clara paused for a moment before proceeding to follow his instructions. Kenny's eyes widened as she looked from the woman to Einstein. What was he doing?

"Do not call Dr. Zhang," the boy continued. "Forget that Einstein ever left the Clinic and got into a fight with Hawking. You will walk out of this room and check for something in the back room for five minutes before coming back out again. Are we clear?"

Nurse Clara nodded and walked away, a blank look in her eyes. Einstein turned to Kenny, and the young girl looked at him in horror. He had just controlled Nurse Clara's mind! She had to inform someone of this; she had to--

"Hawking, forget that Einstein manipulated Nurse Clara. Forget that you and Einstein got into a fight. In fact, forget that you ever saw Einstein tonight. Go to your dorm and go to bed. Are we clear?"

Kenny's thoughts became fuzzy. She had to do something, but she couldn't remember what it was. Perhaps it was to go to bed after her long night at the library. Yes, she was still at the library. But it was already midnight! She decided to head back to her dorm and went to pick up her backpack and her books. Then she realized she was already outside.

How odd, the young girl thought, frowning. I left the library already?

However, she didn't question the fact further. She didn't survey her surroundings, either for if she had, she would have noticed that she was standing outside of the Clinic and not the school building. There was something in her mind telling her to go to her dorm and get to bed, so she hurried on before the curfew patrol found her.

Kenny dreamed about a fight that night between whoever's body she was in and herself. As she lay awake after the dream had ended, she wondered why it brought her such a strong sense of deja vu. She couldn't remember ever being in a physical fight with anyone in her entire life.

****

"You look like you've met Death himself, Hawking," Fins commented as he sat down next to the young girl in the Dining Hall. Kenny barely heard what he said over the din of the students, but she could guess he had mentioned something about her appearance.

Kenny was exhausted. She hadn't been able to sleep after her dream, so she ended up finishing her homework and almost completing the whole of Mrs. Lin's pile. Then, using a laptop she found in her desk drawer, she wrote a few more letters to her siblings to pass time. Once six thirty came around, the young girl was overcome by great fatigue that continued to stay with her throughout the day.

Kenny pulled out an index card that read, I'm tired.

"Midterms are in less than a month," Fins advised her, unwrapping his sandwich. "You should try to get some sleep."

Clay seemed to apparate into the chair next to the teen. "Hi, Hawking and Fins!" He began to say something, but Color sat herself in the seat next to Kenny and interrupted him.

"Dr. Anderson stole my glove again!" she complained, picking up a carrot stick from Fins's tray.

Fins rolled his eyes. "Why do you care about that glove so much anyway? None of us mind your arm, and you shouldn't, either."

"Well I do," Color huffed. "In fact, it's not really the arm that I mind. It's more the fact that I can't do anything with my Gift other than change my skin color, and not even my whole body changes color. Just this stupid arm."

Kenny shook her head and pointed to her eyes.

"What's wrong with my eyes?" Color asked. Fins and Clay also looked questioningly at Kenny.

Kenny took a moment to search through her index cards and surprisingly found one she had not rejected that made sense in this situation: The color changes.

"My eyes change color with my arm?" Color demanded. She then turned her arm blue and looked at everyone around the table. Her blue eyes bore into Kenny. "Is it true?"

"It never used to happen," Fins said, surprised. "Your eyes used to stay brown whenever you changed the color of your arm."

"How did you notice this?" Color asked Kenny. However, the young girl was currently going through her index cards to find other cards that should have been rejected. She didn't realize Color was speaking to her.

"Color," Clay asked, "have you ever tried to turn your whole body a different color instead of just your arm?"

Color laughed. "Turn my body green? I'd rather my arm turned the same color as the rest of my body."

Kenny looked up from her cards and asked, Why don't you?

The smile quickly faded from Color's face. She murmured something close to, "It doesn't go very well when I try to suppress my Gift like that."

Kenny's eyebrows furrowed at this, but she didn't ask any more questions about it. She already had two mysteries on her hands, and she wanted to solve those first before finding a new one.

"I think you should try it," Fins told Color after a moment. "Changing your whole body a different color, I mean. Maybe Dr. Anderson will move you up to Group F if you show her how you improved your Gift. That's really the only difference between the G groupers and the F groupers, anyway."

Color shrugged. "Maybe I will try it. Wait a second...." She stared Fins in the eyes. "Did you just suggest that your Gift is more improved than mine?"

"Oh, not again," Clay muttered as the argument began.

Kenny's lips twitched upward for a moment before staying in that position. She smiled.