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It was impressive how contained he was in light of the fact that he was essentially trapped in a jar with a different species. He didn’t know, but subconsciously it had to unnerve him. I knew it was eerie to be in such close quarters with this many people who looked so much alike and pretended you didn’t exist.

I tried to avoid eye contact, which was difficult. I found myself continuously looking sidelong at him, wanting to know what he was thinking. Maddeningly, whatever that had been—reading his mind—was gone. It was like I’d imagined it.

He knew exactly what had really happened: I had predicted an emergency from hundreds of feet away, and he’d seen Angus bend steel. He must have known I’d stayed underwater a little too long. And he may have been the only other person besides Angus and myself to see what happened to the cop when Angus touched him.

No one would believe him, I told myself. Or if they did, they couldn’t do anything about it. Everything that had occurred sounded right out of a ridiculous urban myth, no matter what any bystanders or even police claimed they saw. We could cover our tracks somehow. We always did. I wasn’t sure we had ever had an incident on this scale, though. And the police had taken our fingerprints.

Everyone I knew had instantaneously iced me out while we were at Barton Springs. I began to realize that among our people, this was on me. It seemed lost on them that Liv could have died while they watched. I was being blamed for doing the one thing we weren’t allowed to do.

I turned my gaze to the dirty floor, shocked at my friends’ coldness. It was terrifying, like being completely separated from a lifeline.

The walls were so glaringly white, they hurt my eyes. I stared at the fluorescent tube lights that lined the ceiling and decided to put three of them out with a glance. When the room dimmed, I expected some sort of acknowledgment—a half smile—something to let me know we were going to be okay. I felt the Lost Kids refuse to even look over, though they obviously knew it had been me.

And so I sat by myself at the end of my bench, isolated just like him. Angus and Liv now sat together. Liv whispered in his ear.

John caught me watching the exchange. This time I didn’t turn away from him. He looked back at me, openly questioning. Even though he appeared calm at first glance, I could see in his eyes that he was exhausted and stressed. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to figure out the ramifications of being arrested or if he was mentally ticking through all the unbelievable things he’d witnessed today, wanting to grasp a plausible explanation.

I stared deep into his eyes, silently asking him to never talk about what happened. I experienced a glimmer of the feeling I’d had at Barton Springs when we looked at each other for the first time. He looked straight back at me, and I realized he wouldn’t say a word. He was smart enough to know no one would believe him anyway. Still, he wanted answers. I couldn’t give him what he wanted, so I dropped my eyes from his and cordoned myself off. He didn’t exist. Again.

The young cop entered. “Julia and Olivia Jaynes,” he called out. I felt John recognize my last name from the Jaynes Pavilion sports arena. I wondered if he now realized me and Liv were sisters.



Things had changed at the police station since the last time I’d been out of the room. Now it was dominated by suits—a combination of our parents and their lawyers. They were here to fix this thing. In a matter of hours, wheels had been set in motion. You would have thought a celebrity or political figure had been caught breaking the law, not that a group of kids had been merely detained.

“Wait here.” The police officer gestured to some chairs. I could wait all day. I wasn’t ready to face what was coming next.

Liv stared straight ahead. I rested the back of my head against the wall behind me, settling in for another wait, my eyes burning, covered in a film of grime from both sunscreen and sitting for hours in that warm, airless room.

“He’s not even supposed to be here. He was supposed to be safely on scholarship at that goddamn academy.” The woman’s voice sounded angry and teary at the same time.

“We’ll figure it out. There’s no way he would vandalize some runoff grate. They just want to hold someone accountable for shutting down the pool and costing the city money.”

I realized I could faintly hear what was going on directly behind me through the wall. It was obviously John’s parents talking.

“No matter what, we’re going to have to pay for a lawyer.” The way his mother said this made it clear this was going to be a financial hardship. “What the hell kind of charge is ‘criminal mischief’?”

“Let’s talk to him first, before he feels this enormous disappointment coming from you. It’s been hard enough on him this summer.”

“That’s not fair. I’m sorry, but how did we get here? He was on this great track, and now it feels like everything has gone completely off the rails.”

“He got injured. He came home.”

“But he was going to get a great scholarship to a top university. Have this tennis career if he wanted it. And now? He seems like he doesn’t give a shit about anything since he came back.”

“Stop, Kathleen. Okay? Let’s just get him home.”

“How are you not worried about this?” Her voice sounded incredulous.

“I’m very worried.” When the calm voice said that, it was worse than Kathleen’s outburst.