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let the sun dry his skin. Far from the town and its crowds, he would let this perfect day drive away all thoughts of summer school. That is, if Mollie would let him.
    “Why aren’t you flying?” he asked. “Thought you’d be dying for a bit of exercise after being cooped up all week with Smiley.”
    She sat down beside him. “Michael keeps showing off. Now that he’s gotten his powers back, he’s super-annoying.”
    “You mean
you
keep baiting Michael into racing you, and he keeps winning,” said Daniel.
    “Every time,” said Mollie. “Like I said, super-annoying.”
    Mollie was wearing a pair of cutoff blue jeans over her swimsuit. The frayed edges had been stained green from the creek water, and she absently pulled at the loose strings as she spoke.
    “Where’s Michael now?” Daniel asked.
    “Up there somewhere,” said Mollie. “As usual.”
    Michael rarely came down. Thanks to the shroud, Michael had spent the last two years on the ground—his powers and memories stolen. Now that he could finally fly again, he seemed to be making up for lost time. Someone recently joked that if he could fall asleep on a cloud, he would, and when Michael had heard that, he paused for a moment, as if seriously considering whether he could pull it off.
    “Have you talked to Louisa?” Mollie asked, still pulling at strings.
    A butterfly in Daniel’s stomach did a little flutter at the mention of Louisa’s name. The two of them had shared a kiss last year, Daniel’s first. Literally moments after that kiss, they’d been thrust into a new crisis, and there’d never really been a good moment to talk about what had happened. Saving the town had taken precedence over their young love lives.
    But the crisis was all over now and they’d still not gotten around to talking about that kiss. Daniel had been given a slight reprieve when Louisa’s family left for a summer vacation, but they wouldn’t be gone forever. Louisa was a Super and a friend, but if she was going to be something more, then he would have to make up his mind about her, and soon.
    “I haven’t talked to her really,” said Daniel. “She said she’d send me a postcard.”
    “I chatted with her the other day,” said Mollie.
    “Oh?” he said, trying to sound casual. “What’d she say?”
    “Oh, you know Louisa,” said Mollie. “Lots of cute boys on cruise ships apparently. She says that her mom wants her to sign up for the academy when they get back. Her and Rose.”
    “Wow,” said Daniel. “Do you think they’ll do it?”
    Mollie shrugged. “Louisa’s never been into the whole powers thing, so I can’t imagine she’ll want to. But if her mom pushes it, who knows?”
    So Louisa might not be in school with them next yearafter all. The thought of going to school without her made Daniel sad, but was that because he wouldn’t get to see Louisa the friend, or Louisa the something else? Which one would he miss?
    “So, Louisa and Rose are maybes,” said Daniel. “Anyone else we know going?”
    “Eric said that Sasha Knowles and Martin Baylor were already enrolled. And there’s Simon—no one’s heard from him in a long time.”
    Simon was the Super whom Daniel had failed to save from the Shroud his first year here in Noble’s Green. Although Simon had his powers back now, he hadn’t reconnected with his old friends the way Michael had. Granted, Simon was always kind of a jerk to everyone, but it still felt like a loss somehow. A failure that they hadn’t been able to keep the Supers together—that their friendships had survived the Shroud, but might not survive growing up.
    “Georgie’s been asking about you,” Daniel said, deciding that it was time to steer the subject away from would-be love interests and lost friends. “You should come by and see him.”
    “Aww,” she said. “How is the little guy? He punch down any more doors?”
    “No. Still nothing since the blackout.”
    “And your parents still don’t know?”
    “I