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on a new person almost every week. Her focus is intense but fleeting, and she always wants to talk about them. It’s only lately that Jess has noticed that Bells gets a withdrawn, resigned look whenever Emma talks about a crush, except a crush on celebrities or superheroes. Maybe Bells doesn’t care about Starscream and Copycat because they are older and unattainable, but he’s upset because Chameleon is their age?
    â€œMaybe you guys should just hang out and talk about it,” Jess suggests.
    Emma nods. “That’s a good idea. See you around, Jess.”
    Jess cleans up in the living room and heads upstairs to charge her phone. She runs into Brendan at the top of the stairs.
    â€œMom and Dad are doing hero-stuff with Clauds,” Brendan says. A pair of goggles dangles around his neck, and he smells like burnt rubber. Jess isn’t sure she wants to know about the scuff marks on his face. “Mom said we can order food.”
    â€œCool, you want pizza?”
    â€œOooh, can you pick up a mushroom and cheese from Lenny’s? And also I need a few more parts from the hardware shop.” Brendan hands Jess a list.
    Jess scowls. “I’m not running your errands for you, and we can just order delivery from Pizza Joe’s. Lenny’s doesn’t deliver, and I’m not supposed to leave you here alone.”
    â€œI’m thirteen, not three. Look, I know they left the Smashmobile at home and I won’t tell them you took it out. You know, if you wanted to drive it instead of taking the minivan.”
    Jess narrows her eyes, but the temptation of driving the sports car is too much. Besides, she can park in an alley across the street from Lenny’s. No one would notice her getting in and out of the car.
    And she could get Thai tea from the shop next door.
    â€œFine,” Jess says, and strides to her parents’ office. When she finds the drawer with the Smashmobile keycard, a thrill of exhilaration runs through her. She grabs her backpack.
    The modified sports car drives like a dream. Her mom’s logo is painted on the side, and inside there’s a complicated dashboard with a communication relay to League headquarters. Grinning, Jess runs her fingers over the console. She takes the car for a spin around the block, and then on a whim zips out of the suburbs. She laughs as the wind catches in her hair as she drives down the highway past the gleaming solar fields.
    The desert landscape opens out in front of her; but she doesn’t want to risk running the car out of charge or worse, having someone mistake her for her mother and ask for help with hero stuff.
    Jess zips around the outskirts of Andover, taking twenty minutes to herself. She imagines she’s flying. It’s thrilling, and then it’s too easy to remember she’s just driving a car. There’s nothing special about that, even if she’s controlling the vehicle instead of the computer.
    She turns back into town and drives to the hardware shop to get Brendan his things. At least he knows what he wants, knows what he’s doing in his life, and he’s only thirteen. He doesn’t have any powers and it doesn’t bother him.
    Then again, he’s also a super-genius.
    * * *
    Jess is grateful when Monday rolls around; she’s impatient to hear back from Monroe Industries, and Bells and Emma were both busy on Sunday. Being around both her parents is exhausting. She always feels like a disappointment, even if they don’t say anything about her lack of powers.
    And they’re around a lot more now ever since the Mischiefs went missing.
    The resident villains of Andover, Master and Mistress Mischief, have been her parents’ archenemies as long as Jess can remember. They’ve had countless confrontations over the years, all of them well-documented in the Andover Gazette , the local news holo.
    The Mischiefs haven’t been around the past few weeks—no ridiculous