Once I’d finished talking to the doctor, Olivia and I swiftly moved towards the exit. Although Olivia seemed to struggle at first, she gained strength with every step. By the time we were halfway to the exit, she was no longer leaning on me or relying on my strength to move forward, and by the time we arrived at the exit, she was actually pulling me forward. Despite recovering her strength, she didn’t release my arm until we finally left the building.

  “You okay?” I asked as we stepped up to the bike racks.

  “I still feel a little ill, but the feeling is far weaker out here than it was inside,” Olivia replied, with a small smile. Even though she still had a light sheen of sweat, she wasn’t doubled over in pain, and the color had come back to her face.

  “Do you think you’re well enough to ride? We could walk from here, our houses aren’t that far, and if you wiped out on the bike, you could suffer a serious injury,” I said.

  Olivia shook her head. “I don’t know if the latest Rupture formed near the maximum range of my powers, and by moving away, it’s affecting me less, or if my body is slowly growing more accustomed to my powers, so they don’t affect me as much, but I don’t feel that bad right now. Even though I still feel a little off, I can handle a bike.”

  “Okay, if you say so,” I muttered. “We should still take it slow. I don’t want you to wipe out.”

  “You won’t get any argument from me,” she replied, leaning down and unlocking her bike. After she fished her helmet out of the secure compartment, she glanced over at me. “Go get your bike! I want to get away from here as quickly as possible.”

  “Right,” I chirped, before running over to my own bike. Now that I had a little practice, I was able to unlock my bike and retrieve my helmet much more quickly than before. Even though I rushed through my preparations, Olivia was still waiting for me. I carefully maneuvered my bike up next to her, gave her a nod, and then we were off.

  Olivia took the lead, just like she had this morning, slowly navigating through the maze of pathways around the campus and back towards the residential district. Even though it took us a couple of minutes to get there, we made it without incident.

  When Olivia finally came to a stop on the sidewalk between our two houses, I rode up next to her. “I noticed you sat up and started riding with a little more confidence about halfway back. Are you feeling better?”

  “Much!” Olivia declared. “Although it took far longer for the feeling of general discomfort to fade than I thought. I expected the pain to fade a couple of seconds after leaving the building, once we put some distance between the Rupture and us, but it didn’t completely fade until we were halfway home.”

  I looked over at her, through narrowed eyes. “So you were still in pain then? Not just mild discomfort as you told me back at the bike racks?”

  “It was only mild pain,” Olivia exclaimed, in an attempt to defend herself. “And I figured it was a better idea to try and make some distance between us and the Rupture than it was to sit around and wait. It worked, didn’t it?”

  “Did it? You said the feeling followed you for several minutes, maybe the pain faded because the Rupture opened, and not because we made enough distance. Perhaps you’re able to detect Ruptures at a much longer distance than you expected.”

  “Maybe, but I hope not,” Olivia replied, giving me a crooked smile. ”I’d hate to be constantly crippled up by the myriad of Ruptures opening around us.”

  She cocked her head to the side. “Although… We do know that my powers must have some sort of limit. I couldn’t feel the Rupture that opened across the campus before our self-defense class.”

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  “We should be writing this all down so that you can share it with the doctor later. With enough data, we could probably determine the exact max range of your powers and how much the distance affects the side effects,” I said.

  “You’re right, we should!” Olivia declared, turning to pull off her backpack. As soon as her hands left the handlebars, the wheel turned slightly, and the heavy electric bike started to tilt. Olivia panicked and tried to turn back, but her arms were tangled in the straps of her backpack, so I reached out and steadied the bike for her.

  “Thank you,” she muttered sheepishly.

  “No problem. How about we put our bikes away, then we record what happened today. It’s not like we’ll forget what happened if we don’t get it down right away.”

  “Good idea,” Oliva replied, taking hold of her handlebars and turning her bike towards the backyard. “You want to come over? There are still a couple of hours before dinner, and after I finish taking notes, we could work on our homework. I’ll need a copy of your notes if I don’t want to spend a coupleof hours on the internet doing research, and trying to figure out what I missed.”

  “Sure, just give me a couple of minutes to check in with my mom before I come over,” I said.

  “Great! See you soon!” Olivia called before disappearing around the side of her house.

  I shook my head. I had no idea how she could be that positive after the day we just had. She’d spent the entire time either doubled over in pain or being tortured by our teachers. I was exhausted, and I only had to deal with half of what she did.

  I carefully maneuvered my bike down the narrow alley between our two houses and back into the garage. As soon as I returned the helmet to the storage bin, it beeped and went back to locked mode. As I stepped back, I briefly wondered if I was supposed to charge the thing. There didn’t seem to be a charger on the wall where I’d first found the bike, or even any power plugs out in the modest garage. I didn’t want to get halfway to school or home and have the thing run out of charge. It was so heavy that it would take me forever to push it to my final destination. It couldn’t run forever without charging, could it? I’d have to check the guide or talk to Olivia about it.

  As I opened the flimsy door and stepped back outside, I nearly ran straight into Angelica. The Jellyfish waved a bunch of its feelers in the air. “I’m so glad the two of you made it home safe! I was so worried that Olivia would have an accident.”

  “Thankfully, nothing like that happened,” I replied, as I shut the door. “What happened to you anyway? It was like you were with us one minute, and gone the next.”

  “Oh, I was still there. I kept an eye on you all the way home!” Angelica exclaimed.

  “From where? I didn’t see you at all,” I asked, frustrated.

  “I did what I do naturally, floated up, and caught one of the currents. I can travel much faster that way,” Angelica said.

  I looked at her strangely. “I never knew you could do that. I’ve never seen you float more than a couple of feet off the ground.”

  “Well, it’s not like I need to travel quickly when I’m keeping you company,” she giggled. “I thought you’d seen me descending from the air when I came out to meet you somewhere.”

  I tilted my head to the side and thought about it. “I remember seeing you floating higher once or twice when I left school, but I thought you were just hovering higher, not coming down from flying.”

  “Well, now you do!” the jellyfish said, patting me on the head.

  “Since you feel like revealing some of your secrets today… have you three wandered off and closed Ruptures around me before?” I asked. “I know you guys are protective of me, but Tyberius and Hairy ran off so quickly after hearing about the Rupture, while you stayed behind without exchanging a word. Almost like you had it all planned out.”

  “Oh, honey, we can’t close Ruptures. You know that,” Angelica replied.

  “But you can deal with the creatures that crawl out of them… which opens up a whole other can of worms, but I’ll leave those until the boys return,” I muttered. “Please answer the question, have you done this before?”

  Angelica slowly went still, and the light pulsing within her softened. “No, I’d never engaged the invaders before Coopers. But… Hairy insisted that we have a procedure in place in case something happened. To make sure you were protected. The way he described it, I think he might have encountered one before.”

  “Hairy did? And he insisted on making plans? The same Hairy that sometimes has trouble finding his hooves, despite them being attached to his feet?” I asked in disbelief.

  “You know that he can be surprisingly smart and insightful at times. Perhaps that was just one of those times,” Angelica said. “You’ll have to ask him about it the next time we see him.”

  “I think I will,” I muttered as I slowly started wandering back towards the front of the house. “I think I will.”

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