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anything,” he said. The woman scratched her head until a thought struck her.
    “Oh, so she freezes herself in place,” and she began to write on the form. Kevin shook his head.
    “No, it’s like this. She doesn’t have a special power.” Straining to make sense of what she heard, another thought struck her mind. She erased what she had written and started to write again.
    “Ok, I got it. She neutralizes special gifts.”
    “No, no, no. Let me ask you this. What can you do?” The woman responded that she could change the temperature of water. “Ok, now imagine that you couldn’t do that and nothing substituted for it. That’s how she is. No power, ability, gift, whatever you want to call it. There is nothing unique about her.”
    In his frustration, the volume of his voice increased, catching the attention of the other people at their desks. It pained Mira to hear herself spoken of this way, and she looked down at the floor. The woman’s jaw dropped a little bit and she stared blankly at Kevin.
    “One moment please,” she said in a polite tone, which contrasted with her deeply disturbed look. She got up and joined a circle of the workers that had already formed. Heavy whispering, at times with emphatic gestures, punctuated their discussion. Kevin and Mira looked on, unable to hear any of what they said.
    “Is it going to be ok, Dad?” she asked, slouching.
    “I’ll make it ok,” he said, putting his arm around her and pulling her a little closer.
    A moment later, the woman returned to her desk. Struggling to suppress her emotions, she sat down and reviewed the document. Again erasing what she had written on the bottom part of the form until the surface became rough and thin, she pressed her implement to the paper hard and scrawled a single word, “powerless.”
    “We are prepared,” she said, taking a sudden deep breath, “to offer you preliminary approval. No one has ever been turned away before, but then again those who aren’t cut out for it know better than to apply. Let me ask you, are you sure this is what you want to do?”
    Mira, suddenly feeling herself under the spotlight, experienced a flush of defiance sweep through her mind. It insulted her that someone thought she couldn’t do something.
    “There is nothing else I want more. You’ll see. I’ll be great at it,” she said firmly.
    “Ok,” the woman replied, “but you’ll need to get final approval from Corey. You are an unusual case. The senior class instructor is Ogden Fortst. Class starts this coming Monday morning at eight am. Do you know where his schoolhouse is?”
    Kevin nodded his head and took the document. She added that he needed to return it once it had Corey’s seal.
    “Thank you for your help,” Mira said to the room, already knowing that everyone would be watching her leave.
    Descending the stone staircase back to the courtyard, both Kevin and Mira enjoyed the satisfaction of their accomplishment.
    “Look at that, a senior already. Cut the foreplay and get right down to business, right?” Kevin joked, and Mira smiled.
    “Do you want to see your new schoolhouse?” Kevin asked. Mira nodded her head.
    “Ok, I’m going to set up a meeting with Corey. I’ll tell you how to get there. Head outside of the gate and—”
    “You mean alone?” she asked. Kevin walked down another step so he could stand eye to eye with his daughter.
    “We’re not always going to be around to protect you, and if you’re going to be walking to and from school everyday then you might as well get used to it. Remember, no one knows who you are, so they won’t know you’re any different unless you tell them.”
    Mira nodded her head, swallowing the necessity of it.
    “Good, now from the corner of the outpost closest to the forest, you’ll see a small path marked with a large white stone. Just follow that path and you’ll get there, ok?”
    Mira nodded her head, gave her father a hug, and watched him slip underground.
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