The official version of what Blue Rose revealed as the catalyst to her power activating for the first time was a far cry from the actual event. She told people that she had seen a little girl in the path of an oncoming car and had used her ice power to slide the child to safety. It was short, concise, believable. Just the type of tripe that Robert, her manager, was certain the public would eat right up, and he was right.

In reality, Karina Lyle blamed it on a game of Spin the Bottle that happened at her friend's birthday party. Emily turned thirteen, finally catching up to Karina and their other friend, Jane, and was permitted to have her first mixed-gender party at her home. As a bonus, she was allowed to have it downstairs in the rec room where her parents promised they wouldn't intrude (too often). Emily had an older sister who had some suggestions of some mighty interesting party games that her younger sibling was eager to try out.

Karina was, or course, oblivious to all of this when she arrived at the party, present in hand. Her brown eyes almost fell out of their sockets when she saw several boys from her homeroom class at the house. Among them was Whitley Mahelona, who she'd had a major crush on since the fifth grade. His father was Native Hawaiian and he had retained a great deal of his exotic Polynesian ancestry in his tanned, flawless skin, shaggy black hair, and almond-shaped eyes. There wasn't a girl in the seventh grade who didn't fancy Whitley in one form or another. The fact that Emily had managed to get him to come to her party was an amazing coup. One only surpassed by the appearance of a Hero or maybe a Rock star.

If it hadn't been for Emily's older sister acting as the party hostess, the entire affair might have been a disaster. At the start, the six boys hung out on one side of the room while the girls milled around nervously on the other. Once the sugar rush of pop and cake began making the rounds, tensions eased and the two groups began mingling.

One of the first innocuous suggestions from Emily's sister was the Lifesaver Game and it was an icebreaker if ever there was one. Everyone was given a toothpick and had to keep their hands behind their back or in their pockets. They were carefully arranged boy, girl, boy, girl, down the line (Karina noted with dismay that Whitley and Emily were next to each other while she was pressed between Saul Dover and Michael Larson, two boys she normally would never so much as give the time of day to). The person at the end of the line was given a Lifesaver on their toothpick and had to turn to the next person to try and transfer the Lifesaver to their toothpick without dropping it. It had to be passed on down the line without interruption. Who ever dropped the lifesaver was out of the game. All of the kids were such a bundle of nerves by their close proximity to each other that the floor was full of crushed candies by the time there was actually a victor.

From that adolescent trial of fire came another passing game, this one involving a CD and the participants using just their tongue. The boys were starting to get into the groove of things now, the girls continued to play it coy, even if it was a thinly veiled ruse. Karina accepted the spit-caked CD from the boy on her left (Pete Goldman, who would be considered a good looking boy if his acne ever cleared up) and then turned to the right and saw Whitley waiting to take it. She froze in place, her breath fogging up the CD and he bent forward with exquisite care, gently poking the tip of his tongue against hers, forcing it back so he could slip it through the hole. His eyes drifted to hers for a split second and it looked like he was trying to smile before he turned and continued the game.

From that moment on, Karina was lost in a starry-eyed daze of puppy love and the afternoon sped by much too fast for her liking. There was more food, the pause as Emily unwrapped her gifts, and then came the next game that changed Karina's life forever.

They played a variation of spin the bottle that, really, was far more appropriate for the age group of Emily's older sister than a bunch of thirteen year-olds. First only the boys were permitted to spin and the one it landed on had to wear a blindfold and go into the closet. Then the girls took their turn and the one the bottle selected had to go into the closet with the boy. That part of the game was called Seven Minutes of Heaven (although most participants at the party would sooner have changed the name to Seven Minutes of Misery as each stood as far apart as possible, anxiously waiting for the oven timer to count down and signal when their time was up). There were some chaste kisses and maybe the odd clumsy grope, but nothing much more happened. Not until the bottle landed on Karina. And it was Whitley who was currently in the closet.

Her head in a daze, Karina was pushed inside the small room by her two friends and she stood in front of Whitley who was patiently wearing his blindfold. She took advantage of the moment and checked him out. He was wearing a red T-shirt and faded bluejeans and his arms were tanned and muscled. She might have made a sound, she wasn't sure, because he suddenly smiled, showing brilliant white teeth and asked, "Do you want to kiss me?"

"I, uhm . . ." she stammered, blushed, and stammered some more. "I-I don't know . . ."

He dropped his head and tilted it towards her. "It's okay. I don't mind. Give it a try, Karina."

"How-how do you know it's me?" That was the whole point of the game, for the boy to figure out who he had been partnered with when they both returned to the main room. Karina was stunned to be picked so easily.

"I've been checking you out all day. And your hair smells like strawberries. C'mon, everybody's waiting. Give me a kiss. Right here." He pointed to his lower lip.

She gave him a quick peck on the chin and pulled back, pressing her fingers to her tingling mouth. It suddenly felt like the temperature in the small space had dropped by about ten degrees.

"That was really nice."

"R-really?"

"Yeah. Why don't you do it again?" he prompted, smiling in that sweet way of his that made her knees want to turn to jelly.

She leaned in again and kissed him directly on the lips, the contact lingering before she began pulling self-consciously away. He put his hand on the side of her face and deliberately pressed his mouth against hers. When her lips opened up with a startled gasp, he thrust his tongue quickly inside her mouth and pulled it out again. When he did it again, her own tongue flicked against the teasing muscle, earning her a loud moan from Whitley. He moved closer and reached down and squeezed her left buttock as they kissed deeply, each exploring the other's mouth, no longer hearing the giggles and whispers of the teens pressed against the other side of the door.

Karina's entire system was swimming in an adolescent stew that was raging to a full boil as she got swept up in the moment. It wasn't like she thought her fist kiss would be, not all of it. She couldn't understand why she was feeling so cold when she'd always imagined she'd feel the opposite. She thought it was just her imagination until Whitley pulled away from her and shivered, muttering out from between clattering teeth, "H-holy crap. Did someone just t-turn on an air c-conditioner?"

He was still wearing his blindfold and that was a good thing because Karina realized that she was glowing bright blue. That aura faded as soon as her hand dropped to the doorknob and she burst out of the room, almost bowling over a few of the would-be voyeurs. She fled the party in a mad panic, not even sparing the time to wish Emily a Happy Birthday, and ran all the way back home.

When she collapsed on the sofa, she swept Sofia, the family cat, into her arms and started crying into the animal's fur. Her power activated for the second time that day, triggered by her raging emotions, and she froze the poor thing solid in a matter of seconds. It wasn't like how it was portrayed in the movies and comic books; it wasn't a case of temporary cryogenics where the subject returned to life as soon as it was thawed out. Despite a sink full of hot water and the use of her hairdryer, Sofia remained one dead pussy.

Karina was utterly mortified by the act. Her parents less so. They had just discovered their daughter was a NEXT and the dollar signs flashed in front of their eyes. All that mattered to them was how to best capitalize on this amazing revelation.