My best friend's a freakin' superhero!, thought Ryan. It had been a few weeks since they'd found out. And Ryan still couldn't get over it. In truth, he felt like shouting to the rooftops, "I'm friends with a superhero! Suck it, Steve Tyler!"

But Steven had sworn him to secrecy, so that wasn't going to happen.

Ryan still wondered though, how much of a coincidence it was that Steven just happened to stumble onto the chamber under the Hong Kong Museum, how the whole class had just happened to be there right at the Convergence. It all seemed really weird.

Harani still acted weird around Steven, like he was something she didn't exactly know what to do with. They still talked, but it was awkward.

"Hey Steven."

"Oh hey, Harani."

"What's up?"

"Oh, nothing."

And that was where the conversation usually ended.

So Ryan felt like the middle ground.

But man, did it feel awesome to know that his best friend was a member of Zodiac.

Ryan watched the back of Steven's head. It was the middle of Civics class. It wasn't watching Steel Mongoose Movies, that's for sure. But it was fun for Ryan to think that there were lasers coming out of his eyes, melting Steven's head into oblivion. Ryan wondered if Steven had lasers. Then, Ryan decided never to get Steven mad ever again.

His Civics teacher, Mr. Raymer was talking about the Revolutionary War. At least, Ryan thought he was talking about the Revolutionary War. He wasn't listening. Ryan never listened. Watching Steven made his head hurt. Because Ryan knew that Harani was watching him. And Ryan was watching Steven. And Steven was watching Robyn doing something with her pencils. Ryan remembered the day that Robyn and Steven met. They both acted kind of weird around each other, Ryan realized.

39 minutes had passed.

And Steven was still staring intently at Robyn. Melting Steven's head into oblivion had gotten boring. And just when Ryan's head was 2 inches away from smashing into the desk, Robyn quickly glanced at the clock and rose her hand.

That woke Ryan right up.

"Yes?", Mr. Raymer said, like he was already bored himself.

"Uh, can I go to the bathroom?"

Mr. Raymer nodded his head and Robyn left the classroom and took all her stuff with her.

3 minutes passed.

5 minutes passed.

10 minutes passed.

Robyn still hadn't come back. Mr. Raymer didn't seem to notice. After another 5 minutes, the bell finally rung and the classroom emptied out rather quickly. Steven didn't get up from his seat until everyone was gone, even the teacher who had gone to the bathroom himself. Harani and Ryan walked up to Steven. "Dude, are you okay?"

Steven replied, "Yeah, why?"

"Ummm...", Ryan took a pencil from Steven's hand. It was snapped right in half. "I don't know...there's just something weird about Robyn", Steven started to walk over to Robyn's seat. Harani finally spoke, "What?", Ryan and Harani were both following Steven now.

"I don't know. I just feel like I know her. She feels fami-", Steven stopped, he was looking at something on the floor. "What are you staring at?", Harani pushed Steven aside and said," Oh,that's weird." "What? What?", Ryan walked up next to Harani. An impossible idea was forming in Ryan's mind, and he brushed it away. No, it's not possible. Then, he thought about it some more. No, but it isn't impossible. It was like an annoying notification on a phone that just refused to be ignored. Ryan guessed Harani and Steven were thinking the same thing. "Wow, that is weird."

On the floor in front of them, directly underneath Tamara's desk, were at least 15 brand-new pencils, all of which were split in two in jagged splintered edges.

Tamara had snapped all of them in half, like they were toothpicks.