by Sam Maggs
Priya opened her eyes and smiled. Nadia stared in shock. No wonder Priya had been away from the lab so much lately. She’d clearly been busy.
As much as she didn’t want Priya to feel like this was something she had to navigate on her own, Nadia knew how easy it was to get into your own head about these things.
Nadia hastily threw her jeans and button-down on over her Wasp suit—ugh, she was going to be so sweaty later—and emerged from the corner. She slid down behind the counter next to Priya.
“When did you learn how to do that?” Nadia asked.
“I told you, I’ve been busy,” Priya said, raising one of her eyebrows with a slight smile.
“And you didn’t feel like you could learn this in the lab?”
Priya looked down at her plant before looking back at Nadia. “Maybe. I think so. I just needed some time. You know?”
Nadia gave Priya a smile. She knew. Maybe a little too well.
Priya’s brows knit. “Hey,” she started, “are you feeling all r—”
Movement caught Nadia’s eye; she leapt back up. Priya might have handled the action here, but they still needed to figure out what was causing all the fuss. Nadia ran over to the nearest tourist, a middle-aged man in a baggy T-shirt and oversize sneakers. He was as tied up as everyone else on the block, the greenery holding strong against his struggles.
“Excuse me,” Nadia said, approaching him. “But is this a prank being filmed for YouTube, or—”
She stopped. The man stared right at Nadia.
And his pupils were blown wide open.
Nadia stared at him for a moment before regaining her senses. She had to figure out what was going on here—and it never hurt to start by asking. Right?
“Why are you doing this?” she said, approaching the man more carefully, now. He was restrained, but she didn’t know how long Priya’s vines would hold. And his eyes…they just weren’t right. “Can you tell me what’s going on here? Are you working for someone?” The man just stared. “Are you on drugs?”
That got a laugh out of the man—a startling, maniacal laugh that made the man sound almost completely divorced from reality. “No. I just…” He laughed again. “I just wanted to.”
Nadia shook her head. That didn’t make sense. Every single person in the Square just…wanted to cause massive property damage? At the exact same time?
Cool. Very cool. Not at all creepy or terrifying. Taking a step backward, Nadia unlocked her phone and hit the S.H.I.E.L.D. button. She’d made the app herself. It called S.H.I.E.L.D. And it did it fast.
“Janet’s coming,” Nadia said, rushing back to Priya. “Tell her it’s like Crédit France. I have to get Margaret out of here and I have to get back to work.”
“Right; her,” Priya said, sitting down on the sidewalk, her plant safely tucked between her crossed knees. She paused.
“What?” asked Nadia, a little impatient. Margaret could walk out here at any moment!
Priya looked down at her lap. “Don’t you think you should maybe…stay? We can work on Like Minds after. I’ve been thinking about Tai’s bee thing.…”
“Margaret and I have a thing to get to.” Nadia frowned. “And unless you want her asking about your magic plant…”
Priya considered. “Good point.”
Nadia smiled. “You’re very cool, did you know that?”
“I try,” Priya laughed. “Now go. I’ve got this till S.H.I.E.L.D. gets here.”
With a nod, Nadia rushed back into the store. Margaret had pulled a pint of ice cream out of the freezer and was holding it against her head. She looked at Nadia and blinked.
“Everything okay out there? Your shirt—”
Nadia looked down and noticed her button-down was all askew—and her black-and-red Wasp suit was showing through around the waist and neck. She tucked herself in hastily.
“Thanks. We have to go,” Nadia said, leaning down to take Margaret’s ice cream.
“I told my team to send Priya a VERA to hopefully make up for some of the damage—”
“It’s all good.” Nadia helped Margaret to her feet. “Still…we should probably go out the back.”
* Aka pierogi, an Eastern European dumpling.
† Stuffed cabbage, way more delicious than it sounds.
* Napkin
* English is a terrible language, as an aside. With its “read”s and “read”s and “lead”s and “lead”s, it’s a wonder anyone ever learns it or understands what anyone is talking about. Nadia found it far inferior to Russian. But what could you do.
“VERA, how many of you are currently online?” Nadia asked. She leaned back in her desk chair and spun a pencil between her fingers—left, then right, then left, then right.
“Twenty-five thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven, currently,” VERA responded. “Our soft launch is going very well.”
“Good, that’s good,” Nadia said absently. “And how many active users?”
“Twenty-five thousand six hundred and four,” the holo responded evenly.
“Okay,” Nadia said. “Let’s run a sim. Show me—”
Nadia was interrupted by something falling over in the lab outside. She launched herself up from her chair and bolted into the lab—she thought there wasn’t anyone in here except for her. A.I.M. spies? The creepy-eyed flash mob? It could be—
But it wasn’t. Instead, Nadia found Shay and Ying giggling next to a lab table, a broken set of beakers shattered around their feet. It reminded Nadia of Priya’s shop door, if Priya’s shop door had been broken by two girls awkwardly making out on top of it.
“Oh!” Ying giggled harder on seeing Nadia. She giggled. Had Ying ever giggled?! “We thought we were the only ones here.”
“Oh my gosh, Nadia.” Shay couldn’t even look at her. “I’m so sorry!”
Nadia shook her head. She was getting pretty tired of this whole lovesick-teenagers thing, but what was she supposed to do? She wasn’t their mom. They could do what they wanted. Even if it was awkwardly making out on a lab table instead of using that time and energy for something actually useful. But, you know, Nadia thought. At least they’re in the lab, for once.
“We’ll clean it up,” Shay offered quickly, gingerly stepping over the mess to find the nearest gloves and broom.
“Sorry,” Ying repeated. She was bright red. Nadia tried to stay mad—she really did—but she was so happy to see Shay and Ying in the lab again, regardless of the circumstances, that she couldn’t help but laugh. She might not have understood the appeal of make-outs and she might have missed having her friends around, but Ying and Shay seemed happy—happier than she’d seen them in ages. And that was what really mattered.
“Just give me some sort of make-out heads-up next time if you’re going to break anything,” Nadia said, grabbing a second broom and dustpan. “I thought you were A.I.M.”
“Did you hear about the riot at Times Square?” Shay asked while sweeping.
“I was there,” Nadia confirmed. She had to stop herself from adding Which you would have known if you’d been around more, lately. “And that’s not even the strangest thing I’ve seen this week.”
“I wish we led lives where that would be considered surprising,” Ying said dryly.
“Priya’s really making progress with her…you know…” Nadia waved her dustpan in the air, searching for the right English word. She couldn’t find it. “Rasteniye koldovstvo?”
“Plantcraft,” Ying supplied. “Good! Maybe she can choke us all with vines and release us from the sweet torture that is this mortal existence.”
Nadia and Shay stared at her.
“Kidding!” Ying burst out laughing. “You should have seen your faces.”
“I love you but I am definitely afraid of your sense of humor,” said Shay, shaking her head and carrying glass to the nearest safe disposal.
“Listen, Nadia,” Ying said a little awkwardly. Nadia recognized Ying’s non-apology apology face. “We were going to watch Independence
Day tonight. You will love this one. There’s a floppy-haired nerd and a cool pilot and they kill aliens using a DOS computer virus. It’s nonsense. Watch it with us?”
Nadia hesitated. She missed her friends, but…
“I can’t,” Nadia said. “I’m sorry, I’m working on Like Minds.”
Ying’s eyebrows shot up. “Did you finally come up with a project?”
“I mean, it hasn’t been that long—”
“Oh, no, it definitely has,” said Ying. Shay nodded alongside her girlfriend. Traitor!
Nadia swept extra furiously for a moment, buying herself a second to think. She wanted to tell Shay and Ying about her plans for VERA. She really did. It was exciting. And the potential…the potential was almost too big to consider.
Which is why Nadia also didn’t want to tell them. She didn’t have all the answers yet. She wasn’t entirely clear on what or how she was going to make her new VERA system work. Or how she was going to make it fit the project guidelines more closely. Plus, Ying and Shay hadn’t been around much—they didn’t know about Maria’s list, or Margaret…They’d been very caught up in kissing in front of ’90s movies. Not that Nadia begrudged them that—she didn’t, at all.
It just seemed like a lot to cover in a short time. And, if she was being really, truly honest with herself, Nadia didn’t want to encounter the same kind of resistance she’d gotten from Taina. Shay and Ying weren’t Taina, of course; they reacted to things in their own way. Shay had invented a teleporter in her apartment, for goodness’ sake! And Ying was as much of a rule-breaker as Nadia. It was highly probable that they would rally behind her new idea.
But…maybe later. Nadia wanted to get back to work right now. She’d been faced with so many distractions, between A.I.M. and Janet and Maria’s list.…She could feel the pull of VERA calling her back to her lab at this very moment. She had so much work to get done and so little time if she wanted to get to bed at a reasonable hour (which VERA always reminded her to do). And she really felt like the only person she could trust with this project right now was Margaret.
“It’s a surprise,” said Nadia. It wasn’t not true. Right?
“Ooh.” Shay waggled her eyebrows. “Does it involve either Carly Rae Jepsen and/or a sword?”
“No,” said Nadia. “Who?”
“Oh my god.” Shay pulled out her phone, looking horrified. “I’m updating my Teach Nadia Pop Culture playlist right this second. I don’t even care about the surprise anymore. This is more important. You really haven’t lived until you’ve heard Emotion.”
While Shay was distracted by her music app, Ying took a step closer to Nadia. She grasped Nadia’s shoulder and looked her dead in the eye.
“‘Surprise’ as in ‘something fun I’m working on’?” she asked seriously. “Or ‘surprise’ as in ‘I haven’t slept in a week and I don’t want to tell anyone in case they get mad or because I haven’t realized it yet’?”
“It’s not that,” Nadia said. “I promise. I’m going to Dr. Sinclair every week, I’m regular with my pills, I’m working very hard on myself. Even if it is not always easy. Which it isn’t.” She frowned. Why was everyone so sure she wasn’t taking care of herself? “It’s really just something I haven’t figured out yet. It’s in my head, but behind a kosynka, like the old ladies in Novosibirsk wore. Obscured. You know?”
“Oh, I know,” Ying said. She released Nadia’s hand. She would never say it, but Nadia could tell that she was relieved. “In that case, I’m relieved.”
What?
“What?” Nadia stared at Ying in disbelief.
“I’m relieved,” Ying repeated. “I care about you. We all do.”
“I’m teaching her how to say feelings,” Shay interjected, head still buried in her phone a few feet away. “We’re getting there.”
“Okay, I’m going back to work.” Nadia shook her head. Ying, talking about her feelings? This was too much. “You two have fun with your alien invasions.”
“Up yours!” Ying said enthusiastically. Nadia blinked. “It’s a quote,” Ying added. “From the movie. Which you would know if you’d watch it with us.…”
“Go already!” Nadia waved a hand behind her as she walked back to her lab. VERA’s blinking red light greeted her, and she felt relief.
She loved her friends. But she loved to work, too.
“VERA,” Nadia asked, digging through yet another box, “are you sure you don’t know where—”
“I am so sorry, Nadia,” VERA replied. “But I was not yet active when your quantum oscillator was packed. Have you checked the second cupboard—”
“Yes!” She had. Twice. She had checked every room in the house, every box she could think of, but her oscillator was nowhere to be found. Which usually wouldn’t be a problem; it wasn’t exactly something she used every day. Very tricky physics-related issues only for the quantum oscillator.
It just so happened that the oscillator might actually solve Nadia’s most recent tricky physics-related issue. VERA, in fact, had suggested it as a way of increasing her connectivity speed to other VERA units over traditional internet, bypassing through the quantum realm to increase data-transfer rates. It was, really, quite genius.
So, of course, it was at that particular moment that Nadia had no hope at all of finding it.
“Nothing!” Nadia crossed her feet and dropped to the floor. She slid onto her back, the wood hard against her spine. There was almost no furniture in the house now, just boxes on boxes—half here, half at the lab, her life and a life that was never really hers at all spread between the past and her future. She felt everywhere and nowhere at once. Nadia was just grateful she had VERA to keep her grounded.
That morning, Dr. Sinclair had listened with interest as Nadia updated her on recent exploits with Margaret, VERA, and the Like Minds project. Maria’s list had dropped to the back of the queue of things demanding Nadia’s attention, and while Dr. Sinclair was happy that Nadia had removed something from her plate, even temporarily, she was concerned that the “something” in question was, at least on the face of it, one of the more self-care-focused items on her list.
Life is work, though. Isn’t it? And friends and good boba and being a Cool American Teen. But Nadia did work with her friends while drinking boba which made her a Cool American Teen.
Right?
Nadia heard a key in the front door a second before it swung open.
“Helllooooo?”
It was Janet. Nadia didn’t move. “In here, Machekha!”
Three pairs of feet came into view: red-soled nude heels; gold-striped blue-and-red runners; and no-nonsense brown oxfords. Janet, Bobbi, and Jarvis.
“Hey there,” said Bobbi, crouching down. “Whatcha doin’ on the floor?”
Nadia placed a hand dramatically across her own forehead, like a fainting lady in a Victorian painting. “I can’t find my quantum oscillator and it has driven me to hysteric exhaustion.” She closed her eyes and turned her head away. “There is no chance for me. You must go on. Live a good life. Think of me often.”
“Okay, there, Dazzler.” Janet reached out a hand. Nadia struck another dramatic pose on the floor before Bobbi just hoisted her up on her own. Her feet solidly on the ground again, Nadia launched herself forward and engulfed Bobbi in a hug.
“It is already at the lab,” Jarvis piped up. “I recall transporting it earlier this week, along with the—”
Nadia slapped her forehead in sudden recollection. “The universal remotes. Of course. I can’t believe I forgot about that.”
“Well, you have been working very hard,” said VERA. The three adults looked around for the source of the voice.
“That’s just VERA,” Nadia said congenially, pointing to the gold brick on the floor next to her feet. “She’s helping me with Like Minds.”
“How’s it coming?” Bobbi said, trying to keep her tone cool and unaffected. Nadia saw her tell, though. Behind the nonchalance was suspicion. Caution.
“Good
,” Nadia said, shutting her down right away. It was increasingly clear that Bobbi didn’t understand Nadia’s relationship with Margaret. Nadia suspected that Bobbi might even be jealous of Nadia and Margaret’s friendship. Bobbi was a loving and supportive older-sister figure to Nadia, sure, but she was also human. It was natural for her to feel uncomfortable with Nadia’s success under Margaret’s mentorship.
But Nadia didn’t have time to deal with personal strife until after Thanksgiving. So she was determined to move on from this line of questioning as quickly as possible. “I actually need my quantum oscillator. So, back to the lab—”
“Wait!” interrupted Jarvis. “We have something for you.”
“It’s tickets,” Bobbi blurted out in excitement. “To a hockey game. New York Rangers.”
“We know Maria said ‘football game,’” said Janet. “But soccer season ended in August and hockey season was on and none of us really know anything about sports anyway, so we figured, close enough—”
Janet stopped. Nadia did not look as happy as she had anticipated.
Because Nadia was deeply, deeply upset. So upset she didn’t quite have the ability to process her own emotions in that moment. She just felt hot, everywhere, all at once, and she needed to know if what she was hearing was true.
“You told her?” Nadia asked Bobbi quietly. Nadia waited for Bobbi to say no, she didn’t tell Janet the one thing Nadia told her not to. Because of course she wouldn’t do that. Family wouldn’t do that. They wouldn’t.
“I know, I know…” Bobbi ran a hand through her hair sheepishly. “But I didn’t want you to have to worry about Janet not being cool with it, because I knew she would be cool with it, and I wanted to get that stress off your mind—”
So she did.
“But I asked you not to,” Nadia said, still quietly. She tried not to feel sorry for herself, ever. She had a really good life, now, and she knew so many people had it much worse than her. But in that moment, facing down Bobbi, Nadia felt like an overused string snapping across the neck of a violin.
Were two dead parents not enough? Was packing up your dead father’s house not enough? What about trying to get to know your dead mother through her journal—which, it turned out, was mostly an impossibility? What about being an immigrant to a new country you were still trying to fully understand? What about having bipolar disorder and having to work hard to manage it? What about being a Super Hero and a Cool American Teen and what about G.I.R.L. and what about A.I.M. and what about her absentee friends and her unknown future being shot at by a death ray and trying to learn how to drive a car like a normal girl—