Em dropped Cassie and Brie off with a woman everyone called the project's Specialties Advisor. Em had fervently promised that the advisor would help to sort out school schedules and explain anything that they had questions about. Before she left them outside of the room, Em recommended stoically that they ask their advisor about something called the Normal Initiative. Cassie furrowed her brow but nodded and agreed to ask.

Neither of the kids knew remotely what that meant, but Em ran off to rejoin her friends without any explanation. Cassie supposed that their advisor would tell them about it when they asked. A woman in a knit sweater greeted the girls warmly at the door to the classroom, smiling and inviting them in.

"I'm Miss Susan, your Specialties Advisor!" Miss Susan spoke like her voice was caught high in her throat and unable to climb back down. "So you both already know about your specialties?"

Cassie replied first with a tilt of her head, then a cautious answer. "Yeah. Miss Benn talked to us about them."

"And you have your cards, then?"

Cassie scrambled for her card, which had replaced her school ID in her back pocket. Kimberly had collected their school bags and old IDs when they arrived in the hub of the building. Brie presented her card before Cassie had the chance, and Miss Susan typed a string of numbers from it into her computer. A moment later, a paper began printing on the other side of the room.

"Could you go and grab that, dear? It's your schedule for classes here." Brie rushed to grab the paper, and Cassie leaned over her shoulder to read as well. Both were very curious of what might be part of their studies. It certainly would not all be math, science, history, and English.

"And I'll print yours off as well, Cassandra." Miss Susan held out a hand for Cassie's card. Cassie had forgotten about her own schedule in her poring over Brie's.

Both girls read their schedules thoroughly as soon as Cassie had raced across the classroom and grabbed hers. They compared and found that they had the same classes for the core subjects, but each had a block titled 'Specialties Training' as well.

"So, there's gonna be other kids with psychic stuff in there?" Cassie asked. She pointed to the box labeled 'Psychic Training'. Miss Susan nodded.

"We only have one other psychic in the country currently, but you will be training with her. Her name is Jasmine. She will also be your bunkmate. I'm sure she will help to show you around and get accustomed to us here." Miss Susan smiled to Cassie before turning to face Brie.

"We actually have quite a collection of students studying visual manipulation, so you will have six others in your class. There are two beside you in your bunkroom. Their names are Kayla and Clarissa."

The names meant nothing to either Brie or Cassie, though Cassie guessed that Jasmine was the same girl that Em had called Jazz. Cassie had hoped that she could bunk with some of the girls about her age, maybe even Em or Brie if she was lucky. She knew that Em had said before she would be with the psychic girls, but she had been holding out for one of them anyway. She didn't know how old this Jasmine girl was or even if she was nice.

"So, ladies. Apart from your schooling beginning tomorrow, do you have any questions?" Cassie looked over to Brie in distress. Miss Susan waited patiently for their responses, but Cassie wasn't sure what she ought to ask.

She was desperate to ask why her brother had not been brought to the Specialties Project, but she was also desperate to keep him a secret. If telling about him would only get him torn from his counterpart and forced here, she didn't want to.

And what about Rachel? She was even tempted to ask if she could leave; go back to her foster mother, her brother, and her friend. But this place, this project, was unlike any other she had seen before. Children flying? Learning to communicate telepathically? She couldn't leave this place without trying first.

After a pause, Cassie asked the question that Em made her promise to. "What's the Normal Initiative?"

Miss Susan's demeanor changed instantly, and she abandoned her stiff posture. The woman slunk back into her chair with a disappointed look. It was not disappointment with the two children in front of her as much as disappointment with the world. Old memories trudged to the surface once again.

"So, you've talked to the other Specialties already, have you?" Miss Susan frowned and closer her eyes for a brief moment. "You may have hopes of returning home and I promise you—I promise you—that you aren't going to want to after this. Do you really want to know?"

Brie hugged her arms to her chest nervously, but nodded slightly. She appeared hesitant to receive the information. Cassie was the polar opposite. If something was going to stop her from going back to her friends and family then she wanted to know about it, and she wanted to know about it this instant.

"We want to know everything that you can tell us," Cassie said, furrowing her brow in frustration. She didn't know what secret the advisor was hiding, but it was about time they were informed.

"As you know, the Specialties Project trains the members of society which meet two standards. The first is that they have powerful abilities. The second is that they are without somewhere where they permanently live." Cassie raised her hand before the Miss Susan could get as far as the Initiative. "Yes, Cassandra?"

"What happens to the kids that have powers, but they have their families to stay with?" she asked.

Miss Susan waved off her question quickly. "They are informed of their powers, of course. They simply can't use them unless they come to be safely trained. We can't have them running around damaging things or hurting people. If they use their specialties to attack others, then some of the Specialties trained here are sent out to stop them."

Cassie frowned, but nodded slightly. Miss Susan continued. "Well, there are some people who want to study your powers. These people, members of the Normal Initiative, have kidnapped children with specialties in the past. It hasn't ended well for our kids. We have to protect the children who are still part of the population."

"Why do they want to get us?" Brie asked quietly, staring at the floor. She hid her golden eyes behind a sheet of hair.

Miss Susan answered, "We aren't sure, entirely. We think they want to be able to place the genes for the enhancements into others, to create more kids with the powers. They've tried other experiments to strip powers from the kids with them. It just, well, it's like I said. It hasn't ended well."

Cassie and Brie both swallowed nervously. Brie fiddled with the corner of her paper, rolling it and unrolling it. Cassie tapped her foot worriedly, thinking about Joshua. If there were dangers to kids who were left out in society, the ones who had powers but weren't part of the Specialties Project... and psychics came in twin pairs... Cassie worried that her brother might be in danger. But what was she supposed to do?

"Well... any more questions?" Miss Susan asked, and both girls just stared at her for a moment. Then Cassie shook her head, biting her lip slightly.

What was there to ask that wouldn't give Joshua away? Finally, Cassie decided that there was nothing she could do for the moment. Besides, there was no way that the Normal Initiative could know about Joshua's powers when even the Specialties Project didn't. For now, she would bide her time.

Brie folded her schedule into a neat little parcel, while Cassie creased hers a couple times before shoving it in her pocket. She would go see if Em shared any classes with her. It was unlikely, seeing as the other child would be in 4th grade, but she seemed like a very bright kid. Maybe she had skipped a couple grades or something.

"Well, your bunk locations are listed at the top of your schedules. You don't need to be in your rooms for the night until 9:00 pm, but you can look," Miss Susan told them, waving goodbye. Cassie smiled and waved back at the advisor as she left the room, following just a few steps behind Brie.

Every bench in the main area was occupied by Specialties, each group a cluster of kids around the same age. Out of the youngest groups, Cassie chose to head to Em's familiar one. The young girl was perched along the highest point of the bench, sitting on the back of the furniture instead of the seat.

"Heya!" Em jumped off of the bench and rushed over to the girls as she saw them approaching. "So you got your schedules?"

Cassie nodded and tossed the paper to her new friend. "And some interesting information about that Initiative you were talking about," Cassie added, frowning slightly. Em responded with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, I figured you ought to know. They don't say anything about it unless you ask," Em said. Brie had already headed off to talk to one of the others from the batch of thirteen year olds. Em noticed where Cassie's gaze following Brie. "They'll send in some more of the new kids, the ones your age, later on. They always bring you in groups."

"Don't you think it's weird that they don't tell you about the Initiative?" Cassie asked as Em looked at Cassie's schedule. Em just shrugged.

"Not really. Some of the kids freak when they find out. Ask Jazz about her sister when you finally meet. She figured she was better off on her own. Thought that the Initiative might storm this place. Come looking for us. I don't think they will."

Cassie nodded, and took a deep breath.

"No classes together. Everyone has the same breaks, though, so that's something," Em said, passing the paper back to Cassie.

Cassie looked around for a moment, taking in the expanse of people in the room. There were hundreds of the Specialties there. "What happens when they get older? Where do we go once we finish training?"

"Anywhere. Everywhere. Most of us work with the police. Almost everyone stays here until they're about twenty-five, from what I can tell. They do what the Specialties Project wants them to do," Em said, pointing to a table that had the oldest people located at it. "Once you're eighteen you can go out with the patrols if you want, to help defend people and all of that. Help kids that the Initiative might have grabbed."

"Okay."

Cassie fell silent, and Em looked at her worriedly. It felt stupid to have a kid two years younger worried about her. Still, Cassie sighed and closed her eyes for a brief moment.

"I think I'm going to head up to room now," Cassie told Em.

The younger girl frowned. She reminded Cassie, "There's still hours until it's time to sleep. And dinner's in under an hour."

Cassie shrugged, tucking a strand of hair behind her one ear. "I need to get some quiet real quick. I'll be back for food."

Em nodded and chewed on her lip as her new friend walked away. Cassie walked up the staircase, hoping no one would notice her going up and try to follow. Brie might. When Cassie got to the top and walked over to the door that was for the female psychics, she stopped. She looked over the balcony at the people below.

The playground was buzzing with kids showing off their powers. One teenager was using the trampoline to bounce higher and higher, pausing himself for as long as he could at the top of the arc. Several times he got what he intended and froze midair, waving down before losing his focus and falling back to the trampoline. The other flight Specialties urged him on.

In a moment of curiosity, Cassie tried shouting with her mind, concentrating less on the individual words that she was speaking and more on projecting as loud as possible. The reaction she received was a lone teenager with blonde hair turning to look up from the crowd below. Cassie only caught a glimpse of her, however, because a moment later the boy from the trampoline was at the center of attention. As he fell down from a particularly high leap, he found himself missing the protective net entirely. Though he tried desperately to use his specialty to save himself, it was largely ineffective. It did nothing to stop him from slamming into the concrete below and stilling entirely.

"Someone get the med team!"

There was shouting down below as everyone called for what Cassie assumed would be a doctor, nurse, maybe a stretcher. Instead, the crowd pushed Em forward from where she was sitting. Another girl was also pushed from the crowd, a twenty-something with a darker complexion and worry in her face.

Cassie took off in the direction of the stairs she had just climbed, rushing back down towards the scene. Meanwhile, Em was laying out the fallen boy's limbs carefully as he lay still. Em crossed her arms and stared at the teen for a moment before declaring, "Yeah, left arm's broken. Single fracture below his elbow. Broken rib on the right side."

From there, the older girl took over. She grabbed the boy's arm, though he groaned, and closed her eyes. Cassie waited at the edge of the crowd, determined to ask Em what was going on after this was through. A minute later, the older girl released her grip on the boy's arm and whispered something to him. He nodded, then slowly began to pull himself off of the ground.

The group let out a collective sigh as the two Specialties got to their feet once again. Em bounced slightly before disappearing into the crowd once more. Cassie hurried after her.

"So that's your x-ray vision, huh?" Cassie asked as she caught up with her friend. "What was that other girl's specialty?"

"I told you, it's not really x-rays. But yeah. Isabelle's specialty is healing. She can work wonders, but she has to know what the injury is, and it can't be on herself," Em told Cassie. "So you came back down?"

Cassie laughed. "I wouldn't have missed all of the excitement. So, when's food?"

"In just a couple minutes. We have dinner an hour after school gets out, 'cause our classes end so late," Em told her. Cassie frowned. Late classes, yuck. "Hey, don't worry about it though. It only ends late because we don't have to start school until like ten in the morning. I like the schedule."

A whistle screeched through the room and immediately everyone started making their way to the cafeteria doors. Em pushed Cassie along ahead of her as they hurried to one of the lines, trying to get ahead of as many people as possible.

"What's for dinner?" Em asked one of the kids in front.

"Pizza, I think," a boy answered. Cassie grinned. Who would argue with pizza?

The line moved smoothly, and for the few minutes it took to get through, Cassie talked to Em. Brie was in a different line, listening to something that the white-haired girl Eve was talking about. Em mostly talked about her friends and their specialties, all of which was amply fascinating to Cassie. There were some interesting facts to learn.

Apart from Em, there were no other people with x-ray vision in the facility. Rather, there were no others like her in the country. Cassie was aware from what people had said before that most other countries also had their own versions of the Specialties Project. Some, such as Canada, even collaborated with the United States to share information on their student's specialties.

The girls grabbed their pizza and grouped up with the others from Em's group, allowing the cafeteria lines to continue their smooth flow. Eve was already eating, so Cassie headed directly towards her. The white-haired girl smiled as she saw the others heading her way.

"Hey! I don't think we were really introduced. I'm Evelyn Wang, but everyone calls me Eve," Eve said.

Cassie nodded slightly and gestured to the playground. "Actually, we did meet briefly over there. Not long enough to really talk, though. I saw you practicing your specialty."

Eve immediately opened her right hand, a ball of electricity growing in it. "It's pretty cool, right?" The girl juggled the ball back and forth between her palms. "I've been working on it for like three years."

She was fifteen, then. All of the older kids must not be like those teens that showed her around, she supposed. Cassie had found Nikola and Maverick to be annoying at best. Some people just took some getting used to, though. Perhaps they would be more tolerable with time.

"How long does it take to have your specialty start showing up?" Cassie asked. It would be cool to be able to actually use her ability, and not just know that it was somewhere, hidden inside of her.

Em beat Eve to the answer, bouncing on her feet slightly as she spoke. "Some kids can figure it out somewhat by themselves once they know they have it. A lot take a couple hours of training to get any results, and some with more drastic abilities take weeks or months. Of course, that's all just to see a bit of results. Every specialty takes years to learn to control entirely."

"Yeah, I mean, I've been working with electricity since the day I got here. I've improved, definitely, but I still can't do some of the things more advanced people can with the power. I've seen some able to create force fields and make shapes with their jolts," Eve added.

Cassie nodded, then sighed. It would be good to start training, no matter how mastery would take after that. The sooner she started, the sooner she could accomplish something. And then... Cassie thought about Joshua again. Once she had control of her specialty, Cassie could risk going against the flow. Whether that meant running to her brother or something else entirely, she didn't know.

Either way, nothing good could come of taking action before the time was right.