T's couple's night was perfect. But it wasn't enough. I woke up with that same lump in my throat. T smiled at me.

"Want to skip school?"

"Sonnet, you really are wild."

"I'm serious. I have a bad feeling."

T sighed. "You're brave. Brave enough to go to one day of school."

"T! I have a bad feeling."

T squeezed my hand. "So do I. But skipping school would only make everything worse."

"Can you please tell me what's going on?"

T just shook her head and hurried me out of the house. Rob met us at the door.

Rob smiled. It was infuriating. I squeezed T's hand one last time before we stepped on the train. Tommy looked over at me.

"What's the gloomy look about?"

"Nothing you care about."

He accepted that and moved away to read some book that would prove he was better than all of us.

"Hey."

Chase wrapped me into a huge bear hug.

"Thanks."

He nodded and we boarded the train. We didn't talk, but it felt back to normal almost. The whole day felt normal other than the weight that felt like it could crush me in a moment. There was a huge weight hanging over me. Jamie seemed more wrapped up in herself than normal. She didn't even notice me.

T didn't acknowledge I existed. Rob seemed more relaxed. He had a group of boys around him already. He was doing better than I was and he'd been blasted forward from the past.

I pictured strangling him. That wasn't a valid reason, but it felt like the last straw. He didn't try to talk to me because he was occupied. He fit right in.

That was not what I had pictured when T told me about the prophecy and the chosen one. The prophecy never actually said that he would be a savior. Only that he'd decide the future. How stupid had I been?

My life had never been in my hands. And I was just realizing it for the first time.

Model Citizens 101 was actually the best class of the day. That was how I knew I'd had a doozy. T was surrounded by her soccer team. Both Jamie and Lola seemed more subdued.

It was the end of the day. We were all waiting to get dismissed to the train. I swallowed for the 15th time that minute.

"Tyena?"

I sounded sick. That made the next part easier.

"Yeah?" Jamie snapped.

"I feel sick."

T opened her mouth, but Jamie was the one that spoke.

"So, what's that to us, rich girl?"

"I think I might throw up if I take the train." I spoke to the floor.

Jamie laughed. "So what? Walk home."

"That's what I'm going to do. I just... when I first moved in with the Alams T walked me home. I was wondering..."

"Shouldn't Chase be out to walk you home?"

I shook my head. "He's staying late again."

The lump was back. I coughed.

Jamie flinched. "Don't get your rich people germs on me."

I stared at her. "I covered it. I'm not an animal."

My throat was rasping. I felt the tears coming. T saw.

"Fine. I need to get some air anyway. They canceled practice today, so I didn't get my exercise in."

I nodded. "Thank you."

I walked away. I'd obviously forced enough interaction. Jamie's glare suggested maybe even too much.

"That was risky," T whispered when we were several yards away from school.

"Because you've never taken any risks?"

T kept her distance. I wished she didn't. God, I wish she hadn't. "You were right about Rob. I made a mistake."

I felt a lump in my throat. I moved closer to her. I slipped my hand into hers.

She jerked away. "No."

"T—"

"I made a mistake. This is a mistake. We shouldn't even be here."

"No. You're probably being paranoid. When did you—you know?"

"A couple days ago."

"See? Relax. We can just walk in silence."

T nodded. I slipped my hand into hers again. She didn't push me away. We didn't talk anymore. It was a long walk back to Ifine manor and the air was biting. In a perfect world, I would've pressed into her and we'd have huddled like penguins.

T's breath started shuddering. She tried to push my hand away, but I only held on tighter.

"Let go," she hissed.

She looked over her shoulder. I didn't let go.

I felt like someone was watching us. T started to walk quicker, her whole posture shifting to look more suspicious.

"T, relax."

She slowed, forced herself to look more natural. The air seemed choking. The cold was almost impossible to breathe anymore.

"Tyena Laurenz?" It was a cold inhuman voice from behind us. I swallowed hard.

We stopped. Anything else would've been suicide. I knew that voice from before I lived with the Alams. They were Peace Keepers. They were also, somewhat ironically, the most violent group of people I'd ever met.

"Hands over your head."

I gulped. "Routine stop, officer?"

"No."

T's eyes seemed to shine defiantly. As though she was saying Bring it. Do your worst.

The hands were cold and metal. But it moved smoother than the robotic ones. They'd sent a human. That didn't bode well. I felt them slide over my body. A cold, efficient pat down.

The Peace Keeper pointed me to the side of the road. I pressed my back against a grimy building. No one was around.

My breath rattled in my chest, like someone was shaking an almost empty piggy bank. For the first time in my life, I wasn't happy to be thrown to the side during a check. It was like I was hovering over the scene. Other than my blood pumping in my veins, it barely felt like I was even there.

T didn't look at me. For a moment I wondered if I should get out my old phone and record. But if the Peace Keeper saw it, that would only throw me under the bus for being rebellion too. Whatever 2D video I would've captured would be destroyed immediately. It was rare to find a household that still had the capacity to show something that wasn't a hologram.

I felt like a coward. I hated it.

T was still, almost statuesque. That wasn't how I wanted to see her. She was so full of life, so animated.

I took a deep breath. My hearing aid battery chirped that it was low.

I didn't dare move. I had batteries in my bag, but there were more important things than a battery.

I stared at T. I should've moved. I should've done something. I just felt so small suddenly. The walls felt like they were closing in on me.

Suddenly, I wasn't a high school senior in a rich district of the city. I was a five-year-old kid clinging to my older brother as unknown forces raided an orphanage that was as close to home as I'd ever had at that point. Even though there were more cats than kids on an average day, and even though there was never quite enough food to feel full, it was home. And they were invading it.

Only now, it wasn't a place. But I was just as powerless.

"We need to get home soon. Mr. Alam will be worrying about us—"

"Silence."

Name dropping normally worked. The "hey, I'm the daughter of rich people" normally worked. It hadn't now. Because this wasn't a routine check. Someone had tipped the DSUI on us. I stood extra rigidly. Rob.

That was the only explanation. I clenched my fist. My hearing aid chimed again. One more chime and the volume would start going down. The other side had to be close to dead too.

I stared at the Peace Keeper with a cold, hard look. My nails dug into my palm.

T's hands were still over her head.

"Tyena Laurenz, you've been charged by the Department of Strange and Unusual Individuals with conspiracy, rebellion, rebellious organization, and unlawful associations."

That was the punch in the gut I'd been waiting for. I wanted to throw up. Maybe we should've taken the train.

T just nodded. There was a police station not a half a block from where we stood. I'd walked us right into a trap. They'd somehow known we'd go this way.

"You can make your own way home?"

It was a statement and we all knew it. I clutched my bag. I couldn't force out words. I nodded slowly.

I looked at T's face. I needed to focus there. Anything else and I'd have barfed or sobbed right there in the street. Possibly both.

"Go home, Sonnet." T smiled weakly at me.

I just stood there, frozen. I watched the pair until they slipped around a corner. Then I grabbed the strap of my bag, keeled over, and sat in the street. I couldn't breathe. I wanted to breathe.

I wanted her to tell me to breathe.

My hearing aid chirped with an agitation it reserved for almost dead batteries. I turned it off. My eyes had started to blur. I wouldn't be able to manage changing them.

The other hearing aid battery made it to the mansion. I'd wandered the streets.

"Sonnet, where's T?"

And I sobbed onto Tommy's shoulder. That was the only time I can ever remember Tommy hugging me without a camera around.