After school the next week on Tuesday, Callum dragged me with him back up to the third floor.

"Callum, where are we going?" I asked exhaustedly, using my free hand to take my hair down from the ponytail I put it into for practice.

"You know the announcements this morning?"

"Uh, yeah. What about it?"

"We're going to Y.A.K.S."

I snorted. "Yaks? You mean that weird club that was mentioned on the announcements this morning? The one for yak lovers?"

"That's the cover for it." Callum said simply, throwing open the door to one of the science classrooms. A tall man with some scruff on his chin and mustache area, dark brown skin, slightly curly black hair, gold eyes, and thick framed black glasses stood by his desk, writing something on a Post-It note with a nice looking blue pen in his left hand, wearing a simple blue T-shirt and purple sweater with jeans. "Afternoon Mr. Herbstreit."

The man turned towards us, smiling happily. "Afternoon Callum. And who is your lovely friend?"

"This is Anneliese. She just started here. Anneliese, meet Y.A.K.S sponsor, Mr. Alexander Herbstreit."

"Nice to meet you, Anneliese." Mr. Herbstreit said, awkwardly waving at me.

The door flung open and in walked a girl muttering to herself in rapid fire Spanish. She had tan skin, glowing a bit like honey, dark, wavy brown hair where the front was held up in two buns, thick eyelashes, dark brown eyes, and silver hoop earrings that swayed as she plopped down in a beanbag in the corner of the room. Mr. Herbstreit gave the girl an exhausted look. "Language, Ms. Sanchez."

The girl rolled her eyes. "Sorry, Mr. Herbstreit."

"Anneliese, this is Rebecca Sanchez, vice president and one of the original founders." Callum said as he started moving the desks towards the walls, Mr. Herbstreit grabbing more beanbags from the back of the room and placing them in a pile by his desk.

"How you doin?" Rebecca said, giving me a once over. "Most people call me Becky, just for the record."

The door swung open again to reveal a dark skinned girl with gold circular glasses running into the room. Her frizzy black hair was pulled into two braided puffs at the nape of her neck. Her uniform was rumpled up and she practically threw everything she was carrying on one of the desks by the door. A couple books slid off, but the girl didn't seem to notice. "I'm not late, am I? I had to go convince my coach for Science Olympiad to let me skip the meeting today."

"No, Ms. Clark, you're early." Mr. Herbstreit said exhaustedly.

"Oh, thank heavens." She said exhaustedly, turning in my direction. "You're the new kid Callum was talking about, right? I'm Keisha. Keisha Clark."

Keisha held out her hand as I nervously took it. What is this club that Callum dragged me into? "Anneliese Andrews."

"Nice to meet you Anneliese. Callum, you better keep her!"

"Keisha, we all know I don't swing like that..." Callum said exhaustedly. This must've been a conversation they've had multiple times. Even I knew that Callum wasn't straight. That was the very first thing he told me after he introduced himself at band camp.

"Is Keisha teasing you again?" A voice asked. I turned and saw a boy with short dreds, dark skin, and light blue eyes that seemed to glow walked into the room. He was easily a foot taller than Keisha, which didn't say much since I barely towered over her, and I'm 5'2. He gave me a once over and looked over at Callum. "What is it this time? Water immunity? Talking to fish? Ability to convince people to do whatever she wants?"

I glanced towards Callum nervously. "You told them about-"

"This is a safe space." Becky said, suddenly appearing next to me.

I jumped a bit, then saw Becky still over on her beanbag, texting someone. "Wha-"

"I can make clones of myself to operate by themselves." She shrugged, walking back over to her beanbag counterpart and touching her shoulder, both figures melting into one. The Becky on the beanbag stood up and walked back over. "Did Callum not tell you that everyone here has superpowers?"

I raised an eyebrow at Callum. "Everyone?"

"I have super speed." Callum said, standing across the room and in an instant appearing right in front of me. I jumped, falling down on the ground from my excitement, electricity sparking from my hands again.

"Ooh, electricity." The new boy said, smiling happily. "Could work well with my metal."

"Huh?" I asked cautiously.

The new boy held out his hand and the metal pencil sharpener from the wall flew into his outstretched hand. Mr. Herbstreit gave the boy a dirty look as he produced a screwdriver from his desk. "Now, Mr. Trevors, that's the tenth time this past year that's happened!"

"Sorry Mr. Herbstreit..."

"Trayvon tends to get a little out of hand." Callum said awkwardly. "Okay guys, let's start the meeting!"

"This is an actual club." I said anxiously, refusing to get off of the ground.

"Technically, yes, but also no." Becky explained. "Y.A.K.S. stands for Youths Against Killer Supervillains. We're an organization ran by the SNL."

"We're ran by the Superpowered Nonhumans League?" I asked, giving Callum a confused look.

"It was my aunt's idea. After she found out that I had powers, she convinced the higher ups to open up this program at our school for other kids who've already developed powers so that we know how to use them properly when we get to college. We're supposed to debut at the Super Awards as a team. I'm team leader, then chain of command goes to Becky if I'm gone, then Trayvon, Keisha, Edward, and you since it goes by seniority after Trayvon." Callum explained. "Well... The reason I brought you here is too see if you want to become a member."

"You want me to join your weird supers club? And how does he fit into this!" I asked, angrily pointing to Mr. Herbstreit.

"You may know him better for his alter ego: Brain Dump." Trayvon explained, plopping down on a beanbag and pulling out his phone.

"No... Brain Dump?" I asked, squinting at Mr. Herbstreit.

"Yup: that's me." He said, rolling up his right pant leg revealing a metal prosthetic. "Had to stop serving when Sewage cut my leg off."

Something about that didn't feel right. Sure, Brain Dump had been gone for years now. His power was transmitting his knowledge through his hands and essentially overloading his enemies with information to get them into submission. And Sewage had been off the map too, and sure Brain Dump's skin was covered in an entire bodysuit, but something about Mr. Herbstreit's story felt... Off.

I decided to let it go. After all, Brain Dump's career ended years ago. And with his power, it's believable that he ended up as a high school teacher.

"Shouldn't we wait for Edwa-"

"No need. I'm already here." A familiar voice said.

"You!" I asked, turning around and seeing the boy from the football game, except now I could clearly see his features. He was tall, about a head taller than me, but shorter than Trayvon, light skin, lighter than Keisha's but darker than Becky's, shaggy black hair that tended to fall into his amber eyes. His eyes widened a bit, laughing nervously.

"You're the electricity girl." He said, fiddling with the pages of his book. "Had a hard time recognizing you without the band hat on."

"It's called a shako. Callum-"

"Edward, you came to greet our newest member!" Callum said, clapping the boy on the shoulder.

"Time out!" I said, standing up, my legs wobbling as I started gathering up my bag to walk out out of the room. "I never said I would join."

"Don't you want to use your powers for good?" Keisha asked hesitantly.

"I don't want to use my powers period!" I said, looking around the room anxiously. "Look, I promise I won't tell anyone what Y.A.K.S. really is, but I don't even know how to use my own powers."

"We can help you with that." Becky said, slowly walking towards me.

"No, no no. You don't understand. I can't use my powers."

"Why not?" Trayvon asked cautiously.

"That doesn't matter. What does matter, however, is that you, Callum, tricked me into coming here, even though I explained how I feel about superheroes in general!" I said, feeling my body shake, my hands starting to flicker between blue and red. Keep it under control. "I need to go. See you tomorrow, Callum."

"Anneliese, wait!"

I ran all the way downstairs and plopped down on a bench, the sparks in my hands stopping, as I pulled out my phone. "Hey, Mom, can you come pick me up?"

"Sure, but... Why? I thought Callum was taking you to a club."

"It finished early. Mom, please hurry."

"Okay, okay. I'll be there in 20 seconds."

A few seconds later, Mom appeared outside the school building. I ran towards her and gripped her suit jacket tightly as Mom teleported me back home. Once I set my stuff down, Mom gave me a concerned look. "Anneliese, what's wrong? You seem anxious."

"The club was something I wasn't comfortable with. I had to get out of there." I said simply, grabbing my notebook from my bag. "Sorry to pull you away."

"No problem. I have to get back to work, your father and I will see you tonight, okay?" Mom said, walking over and kissing my forehead. "I love you."

"I love you too Mom." I said, turning around and seeing that Mom was gone. And that was exactly why I had to leave the club: because I love them. I'm scared that if I progress my powers... I don't even want to think about it. Point is: I am never joining that club if I have anything to say about it.