cassandra

[point_b]

The Swan girls have their evaluation appointment. It is largely uneventful. Alli splits and merges under various inoffensive conditions; Bella teleports to various other evaluation stations around the country and to one in a military base on the other side of the world (the evaluators call ahead about this) without incident. They have already - well, Bella has already - determined all the interesting wrinkles of the Swan girls' powers, but it's nice to have them on paper. They sign up for the Junebugs - the evaluator sniffs and says that it's the Gemini Guard, have some respect if you're going to join them! - with Bella as a solo bonus, junior grade, stratum 3 (she gets a badge and dog tags and a lollipop) and Alli as her optional/emergency support, junior grade, stratum 4 (she gets dog tags and a lollipop but no badge).

The evaluative office is crowded. A bunch of twins got their bonuses over the weekend and piled up on the Monday appointment slots. There's a pair where one can apparently conjure objects and the other wield telekinesis over them, juggling. There's a cryokinetic and someone who seems to cling to arbitrary surfaces, the one making a little ice sculpture and the other sitting on the wall (Bella supposes he can probably cling to his brother's ice). There's a set of triplets who don't seem to be doing anything, so she can hazard no guess as to what their powers are. There's a girl weeping into her hands while her brother tries to soothe her; she's crying about fire, ash, devastation, the menace lurking under the ground, and Bella hopes that's an overreaction to some TV show. But considering where she is -

"Er, what's her bonus?" Bella asks the brother.

"Not sure," he says. "Besides really upsetting. I just got a luck tweak, far as we can tell, dice and stuff..."

"So she doesn't pyro or -?"

"No, no, she's not dangerous," he assures Bella. "Not so much as a wisp of smoke, I don't know what the problem is, bonuses are supposed to help."

"I hope the evaluators can figure it out," Bella says, disconcerted, and she and Alli go back to school.

Spanish class is the next one they can catch.

Comments

[blink_and]

"Spanish!"

And then, there is Spanish.

[point_b]

Bella and Alli are both in their pretty dresses and at the dance when it opens. The portal taxi is not required, since Bella got the best bonus. They stopped to pick up Alli's boy on the way.

[you_miss_it]

Savannah and Adana are in their pretty dresses and arrive similarly. They go by portals, Savannah would like to keep her hair relatively untangled.

"Hey!" says the sister who is also Bella's date, zipping up to the Bella in question.

[point_b]

"Hi! Shall we?"

[you_miss_it]

"Yes! We shall!"

[point_b]

In they go!

"I'm excited about finally getting to dance but I don't actually know how."

[you_miss_it]

Savannah giggles. "It's pretty easy, but I can show you! Just follow my lead."

And then, she starts dancing.

[point_b]

Bella does her best to imitate Savannah without outright mirroring!

[you_miss_it]

That works out reasonably well, and now Bella is dancing! Hurray, dancing.

[point_b]

Whee!

Dancing is fun, but Savannah - as Bella had honestly begun to suspect as soon as five minutes after making her acquaintance - is not really the girl for her. There will not be a second date or a goodnight kiss.

There will be dancing, though! Lots of that.

[you_miss_it]

Yeah, that's fine with Savannah. There are other fish in the sea, and other girls at this school. Loooots of other girls. But it's really kind of rude to go hit on them while at a dance with the girl she asked out, so she'll show some self control.

Dancing's fun, anyway. Wheee, dancing!

[alli_oop]

Alli, meanwhile, dances with her boy, duplicates so someone will dance with her boy's brother, drinks a lot of punch, and has a marvelous time.

[point_b]

And when the time at which Renée expects her daughters home rolls around, Bella bids Savannah a polite but non-kissing goodbye and collects her sister(s) and teleports home, though not before waving at Adana where she's holding up the wall.

[blink_and]

Adana is kind of wishing she brought a book, because public dances with people she doesn't know really isn't her thing. The wall gets a lot of support, from her, but she does dance a bit.

She waves back, amused.

Soon enough, she and her sister leave the dance, too, and all is well.

[point_b]

When school has been in session for six weeks, it is canceled.

Indefinitely.

There are other things on everyone's mind.

The scientists' reports are less dramatic than the way the news gets passed around by word of mouth -

"YELLOWSTONE'S GOING TO BLOW," is the word on the street.

"THE WHOLE FUCKING MIDWEST IS GONNA BE POMPEII," is the elaboration.

The Junebugs call the Swan household.

Everyone with transport powers is supposed to relocate their essential possessions and family members - especially including nonperishable food and bottled water - to a safe zone, outside the borders of approximately the entire Lava Creek Tuff. So that they won't be distracted by worrying about their families. And then they are to report for evacuation assignments.

Bella goes and talks to Charlie.

And then she puts Renée and Alli and all of the canned goods and things in jars in the entire house, and half the contents of an already-looted supermarket, in Charlie's house, and then she calls the Sanderses.

[blink_and]

Adana is the one to answer. Savannah and her dad are rather busy packing things at super speed and trying to find a place for them to relocate to, respectively.

"Hello?" she asks, edge in her voice.

[point_b]

"You and Savannah and your dad can crash with my dad. He's in Washington - state - outside the projected uninhabitable zone. There'll be ashfall but it'll be livable. It's a small house but we can squish."

[blink_and]

"That - would be fantastic, thank you so much. Dad! Dad, Bella's offering us a place to stay - yeah. Hey, uh - Bella, can you teleport over here to bring me there so I can put a portal down there?"

[point_b]

"Yeah, be right over." Bella puts down the phone and flickers over to the Sanders house and knocks.

[you_miss_it]

Savannah is the one to open the door.

"Uh, hey?"

[point_b]

"My dad says you and Adana and your dad can crash at his place like me and Alli and Renée. I'm going to pop Adana up there so she can make a portal."

[you_miss_it]

"Oh! Thank you, that's - that's really nice of you and your dad. Adana's -"

[blink_and]

"- Here," says Adana, stepping through a portal.

[point_b]

And then Bella and Adana are standing in the living room of Charlie's house.

"Dad, I brought Adana, she's going to make a portal so they can bring the essentials over," Bella calls. "Mom and Alli are still packing."

[sundayfish]

Charlie pokes his head in from the kitchen. "Good to meet you, Adana, wish the circumstances were better. Food stockpile's in the basement, I set up a tarp in the backyard to put other stuff under if there's no good spot for it in the house."