Kenny once again found herself in the library after school on Wednesday. She spent about two hours finishing the pile of papers Mrs. Lin had given her and completing her homework before continuing her search for the Darkness. The library was silent, excluding the soft shuffle of Miss Gavin's shoes as she shelved books (which, considering how often she was in the library, was a rare occurrence). The quiet was uninterrupted the entire time Kenny was there. However, at about six forty five, someone other than Miss Gavin entered the room.

Kenny continued reading as the door to the library slammed closed. She assumed one of the other regulars at the library had come in to return a book. It wasn't until she heard the boy's voice that the young girl realized the person who had entered was not trying to return a book-- he had come solely with the intent of bothering her.

"Greetings, mute. Is this how you spend your spare time? Reading? In all honesty, I don't find it very surprising."

Kenny jumped at Einstein's voice, losing her page in her book. She turned to glare at the boy. He was standing close behind her, which clued the girl that he had startled her on purpose. Her cards were out in two heartbeats. Why are you here?

Einstein pretended to look hurt. "I can't find my way into the library on a Wednesday afternoon?"

Kenny shook her head and then showed him another one of her cards. No, you cannot. She expected the boy to scowl, but he smiled smugly instead.

"Watch yourself, Hawking. If you say something that offends someone in the slightest, certain students will want to start fights. The young ones may even bite you. It's practically impossible to manipulate teachers out of taking you to the principal's office once they find you fighting."

Kenny frowned Einstein. The boy was chuckling, despite his troublesome words. She remembered her dream last night and hoped she would never find herself in a fight such as that one. However, she doubted Einstein would start a brawl with her over snide comments, so she pulled out a card that asked him to leave her alone.

Einstein opened his mouth to say something, but he paused. His amused expression faded and was replaced by a stony look. The boy pointed at the book Kenny had been reading and asked, "What were you looking for side effects for?"

None of your concern, Kenny replied, placing a medical book about causes for syncopes on top of the book. At this, Einstein's face seemed to darken.

"Are you having fainting spells? Are you having Black Outs?" he demanded of the young girl.

The young girl shook the card in her hand to emphasize that this was her matter and he shouldn't worry about it. Instead, the boy shook his head. He picked up the book on syncopes and thumbed through it. Kenny pursed her lips in irritation.

"You're not going to find any information on Black Outs here or in the book on side effects," he murmured. "However, I do know of a place where you can learn about them. Remember those files you stole from Miss Kaylee's room?"

Kenny gasped and went cold. How did Einstein know about the files? She hadn't told him about them, had she? Had he found them in her closet? But that was impossible!

Einstein looked up at the shocked girl and smirked. "Did you think I put your index cards inside of the backpack by accident? I wanted you to take the backpack, Hawking. The files were in the backpack, and you need to decipher them."

Why? Kenny asked, appalled. She was so flustered, she almost showed Einstein the wrong card.

"There's a multitude of information about Black Outs in those files, along with some other things. If you decipher them, you'll have access to it."

You can do it.

"No, I'm afraid I can't." Einstein grimaced. "As much as I hate to admit it, you're a lot smarter than me. I saw what you did in Training class last Tuesday with 196-algorithm. Mr. Roberto hasn't said anything about it yet, as he's still checking your work, but I'm sure you solved the question correctly. Did Dr. Anderson show you you're GEIM results?"

Kenny shook her head.

"Well you only got two or three questions incorrect. That's an astonishing score. There have been teenagers much older than you who haven't done that well. It's...prodigious."

Prodigious, Kenny repeated to herself. The young girl frowned at the word before she realized it was a compliment. She was used to scowling at everything that came from EInstein's mouth. Now she didn't know how to respond to his words.

Kenny had always wanted to know how she had done on the Gifted Enhanced Intelligence Measure. However, this was not how she would have imagined it. She would have preferred if she were hearing it from one of her teachers rather than another student--and one who seemed to despise her at that. Remembering this fact, Kenny's frown returned. Why was Einstein being so polite to her, anyway? Didn't he hate her along with the rest of the A groupers? Or was that all an act so he wouldn't anger Gene?

He didn't seem like he was acting, Kenny thought as she recalled all of the moments where Einstein had been rude to her. This was the first time he had ever said anything remotely kind about her, and he had his own odd reasons for doing so.

The boy must have realized what Kenny was thinking, for he spoke again. "I'm not being sarcastic, Hawking. I wouldn't have said anything were it not the truth. You need those files, and you have the mental ability to decipher them. I can help you, as I...well, I have an interest in the information you'll find as well."

Kenny narrowed her eyes. What kind of interest did Einstein have in Miss Kaylee's private items? He had said there was intelligence on Black Outs and the Darkness in the files. Why did Einstein want to know about Black Outs? Was he having them too? Or was this all just a joke to get Kenny to decode secret information that could get her in trouble?

The young girl wished Einstein didn't look so much like Gabriel. It made it a lot easier to trust him, and she wasn't sure that was something she wanted to do.

The boy glanced at the clock on the wall. "I'd love to continue this one-way conversation, Hawking, but I've got to arrive to the Dining Hall for Kitchen Duty. Meet me at the library at three o'clock sharp tomorrow, and bring the files."

Einstein then turned on his heel and parted from the young girl without a farewell. Kenny frowned at his back as he left. She sat alone in the library, so deep in her thoughts that she barely noticed when the bell pinged. After a moment of vague realization, she quickly packed away her things and exited the once again quiet room, still thinking about everything Einstein had said all the while.

****

Kenny was running out of index cards. During her Wednesday night ritual, she found herself rejecting more than half of the cards in her stack. Many of them no longer had a purpose now that she was becoming familiar with AGC's campus and students. Cards that asked questions such as Where is the bathroom? and What teacher is that? were no longer of any use to the young girl, so she tossed them back into her box of index cards. It wasn't long before she needed a fresh stack of cards to make up for the ones she had lost.

Because Einstein had come to speak with Kenny, she had forgotten about her plans to return to the library after dinner to do her ritual. Instead, she went to her dorm and waited before all of her roommates were asleep before she retreated to the slightly cramped space of her closet. Using a penlight, Kenny spent the night constructing possible scenarios in her mind and writing cards for them. Sleeping was futile; she would end up having a dream that would deplete her of the little energy she had left, so the young girl simply refused to rest.

By the time morning came around, Kenny owned a completely new stack of index cards. She put away her old cards and opened the closet door, trying to get a glimpse at the clock on Metal's desk. Once she realized the dial read 6:01, she stepped out of her closet to start preparing for the day ahead. Kenny picked her toiletries off of the shelf in her closet and shuffled out of her dorm room.

Tellie and Jump were awakening when Kendall came back from her shower. The young girl changed into her uniform as her roommates sorted out their things and headed down to the bathroom themselves. By the time Metal woke up, she was already wearing her backpack.

"What time is it?" Metal asked. "How did you get ready so quickly?"

Kenny shrugged in response, not wanting to tell Metal she had been up all night.

Kendall flipped through her index cards several times while her roommates got ready for school. As she did this, she realized that she was missing a few essential cards that she had accidentally thrown back into her box. Particularly, the one that said My name is Hawking. had disappeared. She decided to carry a few blank cards with her in case she was missing any more of her index cards. Shrugging off her backpack, Kenny headed back to her closet and pulled her suitcase out.

The girl hadn't gotten to unpacking most of her things; with her studies, the mysteries on AGC's campus, and Einstein's constant teasing of her, she was barely able to find time to shower. Emptying her suitcase of her belongings was the least of Kenny's worries. She glanced at the clock for a moment before opening her bag and searching for one of the many unopened packs of index cards in her case. She dug to the bottom of the bag, as she suspected they had been pushed down by her rummaging.

Kenny didn't find her index cards. Instead, she found the piece of pink chalk from Miss Kaylee's classroom, almost two weeks old.

The young girl's heart nearly stopped in her chest. She scrambled up from her place on the floor, trying to get as far away from the chalk as she could. Just looking at the small item reminded Kenny of Kindergarten at CCC--a memory she had tried to repress now that she was at the Academy for Gifted Children. How did the pink chalk get from Snowcoast to Lexington?

No, the real question was how it had gotten in her suitcase.

Once the initial shock subsided, Kenny scolded herself for getting scared by a piece of pink chalk. She held her lack of sleep accountable. She stepped forward and picked the chalk out of her suitcase, hoping it hadn't left any marks on her clothing. Fortunately, she didn't have to worry about pink streaks at the moment.

Unfortunately, the second Kenny touched the pink chalk, the Darkness clouded her vision. She braced herself for the harsh blackness, and when it came, she didn't feel as awful as she usually did. She hoped that this one time, she would escape the Darkness before she could become too dizzy or nauseous and could begin her school day without trouble. This seemed to be a possibility, too, for the Darkness was fading within the blink of an eye. When her vision cleared, Kenny was shocked to find that the Black Out was already over.

That was, until she looked around.

Kenny was no longer in her dorm room at AGC. She was standing in the K1 classroom at Cute Cuddly Care, and she was solving a linear equation on the chalkboard. Kenny could hear Miss Kaylee's voice, but it sounded as if she was speaking underwater. Similar to her dreams, she couldn't control the movements of the body she was in, even though it was her own.

"Yes! That's the correct answer! Good job!" Miss Kaylee said from somewhere behind Kenny. "Now let me erase these problems and give you some harder ones--oh, you don't have to do that one. That's an equation for another child I'm helping named...."

Kenny's body had moved. She was now standing in front of a calculus problem. She knew she should wait for Miss Kaylee to write more linear equations on the chalkboard and answer those, but her hand jerked upward. She began to solve the calculus problem against her will. Miss Kaylee fell silent as she watched the young girl, and she didn't speak until Kenny was finished.

Once the girl had completed the equation, it felt as someone had removed pieces of cotton from her ears. Miss Kaylee's voice was easy to hear now, but it wouldn't have mattered if Kenny was deaf or if she had the hearing of a moth. She had the woman's next words memorized: "You're quite gifted, aren't you, Kendall?"

And then, just as quickly as the Darkness had faded, it enveloped Kenny again. She hadn't expected it this time, which meant she was a lot more disoriented than she had been the previous time the Darkness had come. When the Black Out finally ended (and Kenny was in her dorm room instead of in Snowcoast), it took the girl a few minutes before she was able to stand without falling over. She had collapsed during this Black Out, which was something that had never happened before. This worried her, as it conformed one of her growing fears: her Black Outs were getting worse, not better.

After this worrying realization, Kenny couldn't focus on anything other than how to rid herself of the Darkness. She almost forgot the files for her meeting with Einstein in the closet, and she left her violin in her dorm room. Mr. Old as Time was not pleased with this outcome, but the violinists who sat next to Kenny certainly were. The only thing Kenny had brought with her was the piece of pink chalk, which she quickly placed in her backpack. Thankfully, she hadn't forgotten her physics textbook and was able to get through a lesson about Snell's law and refraction with Mr. Gupta.

In pre-calc, Kendall couldn't solve any of the equations assigned to her. They reminded her of the calculus problem she had seen in her Black Out, which, in turn, reminded her of the Black Out itself. It wasn't until Training class that Kenny was finally able to think properly, and that was only because of what Mr. Roberto informed her and Einstein of.

At the very beginning of class, Mr. Roberto placed a copy of Kenny's work for the 196-algorithm on her desk. His smile was almost infectious.

"'Out of the numbers 295, 394, 493, and 196 which (if any) are lychrel numbers?'" His smile widened as he read the question. "Hawking, I'm impressed. Your first day in my class, you did this. You weren't supposed to get this answer; you were supposed to answer 'all of them' instead of 'none'. I had to check this with several other mathematicians before I could pronounce that you did, in fact, answer this question correctly. So good job! Ask your guardian if you can publish this, and we'll write a proof for it."

By this time, Einstein had entered the classroom and was peering over at Kenny's desk to see what was the matter. Once he realized what the two were talking about, he gave the girl a very pointed look. She knew he was referring to what he said the previous day and ignored it to the best of her ability.

When Training was over, Kenny headed to the Dining Hall. She found Color and Fins waiting for her at the table, the two practically bouncing in their chairs with excitement. The young girl looked between them and wondered what was going on.

"You tell her," Fins murmured, smiling.

"What? No, you should tell her!"

"It's your arm!"

"Okay, okay." Color turned to Kenny eagerly. "I tried changing the rest of my body a different color like you guys said, and it didn't work. But now, I can control the color of my upper arm and shoulder along with my forearm and hand. It's only on the left arm, though, and my forearm's default color is still green. However, if I want my whole arm green or blue or purple, I can do it!"

To emphasize her statement, Color pulled her sweater off. Her arm and eyes became a bright red.

That's great, Kenny replied. She had to leave for the kitchen soon, but she wanted to say hello to Clay before she went. Thankfully, Clay arrived soon.

"Hey, Hawking, Fins, and--Color! Your whole arm is red!"

Color laughed. "You don't miss anything with those keen eyes of yours.

"You should show Dr. Anderson!" Fins told Color. "Then maybe next semester, you'll get moved up to Group F, and we'll be in the same group."

Color beamed. "Yeah! And Clay, you should try to push the limits of your Gifts, too! You can create clay, right? Well, have you tried making other rocks before? You could come to Group F with us if you managed it!"

"But then we wouldn't be G groupers anymore!" Clay complained. "G for Gifted, remember? What's F stand for?"

"A lot of things," was all Fins responded with.

Kenny wanted to ask her friends a few more questions about how the groups worked, but she could hear one of the A groupers calling for her to get to her station. After biding her friends farewell, the girl started towards the kitchen.