The whiplash from going from making out with Khione in a dressing room to sitting at dinner with her grandparents was so intense she couldn’t handle it. In the denim and ribbon dress, sitting in a high-end restaurant with her moms and both sets of grandparents, Pip squirmed. The ghost of Khione’s fingertips trailed across her skin, the memory too fresh to focus on the conversation in front of her.

  After Dyiona had interrupted, they’d checked out and driven home in silence, dropped Khione off back at the strip mall they’d picked her up from despite offering to drive her home. She’d sent her a text, trying to check in on her, and she itched to grab her phone and check for a response.

  She only became aware of the conversation when Mai gave her a light tap on the hand. “Pip?”

  “Sorry,” Pip said, shaking her head and putting on a smile. “What were we talking about?”

  Across the table, Grandma Thalia hid snickers behind her hand. Despite being well into her seventies, she hardly looked older than Athena. As far as Pip could tell, she was just as athletic and spry as she was as a young adult, and certainly hadn’t lost any sense of personality. The virility of super powers was a powerful thing.

  “Your schooling,” Grandma Fen said, the patience in her voice clearly running thin. She smoothed a hand across her hairline, though her hair was perfectly contained to the bun at the back of her head. “We’d like to know what your plans are.”

  “Well, I’m definitely gonna graduate now,” Pip said with a laugh. To her left, Mai let out a long sigh through her nose, muttering something in Chinese underneath her breath. It was entirely unfair. Pip was actually prepared for this conversation! She’d become a hero. That was that. Who wouldn’t be proud?

  “You weren’t before?” Grandpa Qian asked. Unlike Thalia, both of Mai’s parents actually looked their age, and it weirded Pip out in a way. She wasn’t used to the way normal humans aged. Would Mai look like that one day, while Athena remained young and strong?

  She glanced at her mum, black hair in loose curls falling with an artist’s grace around her face. She wasn’t old, but she was human, so she would be someday.

  “I mean…” Pip shrugged. “Who knows? But I’ll definitely graduate now. I’ve even managed to get my calculus grade up.”

  “And what do you plan to do after?”

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  “Hero training.” Pip let the words lie and reached for her chopsticks. Mai’s parents wouldn’t accept the answer anyway, might as well just lay it out there. There would be no making them happy. They didn’t even like that Athena was a hero, or that Mai had married her. They wouldn’t like this either. She didn’t care what they thought. At least Grandma Thalia and Grandpa Grant would support her.

  “College first, right?”

  “No,” Pip said, shaking her head. “It’s not a requirement anymore.” She tacked a smile onto the end of her sentence, doing her best to look both grandparents directly in the eye.

  “Wish it was like that back in my day,” Grandma Thalia said, shaking her head. “Could have jumped straight to it instead of wasting four years.”

  “To be fair, there were hardly requirements back in our day,” Grandpa Grant said. “And I don’t ever remember you going to class.”

  “You need to go to college,” Grandma Fen said, ignoring the other set of grandparents. “What if you don’t make it?”

  “I’m going to make it.”

  “You’ll have no back up.”

  “She can always go to college later, if she wants,” Mai said, stepping in, her tone soothing. “But she won’t need to, Ma. She’ll become a hero.”

  “You’re encouraging your children to go this path?” Grandma Fen demanded.

  “Yes. And why shouldn’t I? My wife is a terrific hero. Our children will be too. Phillipa is smart and strong and she will make an excellent hero.” Mai slammed her palm down onto the table, glaring at her parents. Pip beamed at her mother. Mai was proud of her. She thought she could do this.

  I will do this.

  “Damn straight,” Grandma Thalia laughed. “The Carter family legacy doesn’t break easy. Have you applied yet?”

  “Not yet,” Pip said, though she’d imagined it a billion times. It was something she needed to do soon, but it was still early in the year, and she needed to fix up her grades first. Besides, she was pretty much guaranteed a spot.

  “Do you know where you want to go?” Thalia asked. “Are you going to stick around here, or apply to another program?”

  “I don’t know,” Pip said with a shrug. She’d never thought that far ahead. “Applying for the one here is easiest.”

  “Could be,” Thalia said. “But this is your chance to get out into the world. How would you feel if I showed you around a couple different towers?”

  Head on a swivel, Pip looked frantically between Mai and Athena at the idea. “Could I?” She may have thought she’d end up going to the program here in her home city, but it would be incredible to be able to train somewhere else across the states. “Can I go on a road trip with Grandma Thalia?”

  Athena shrugged, looking at Mai for her opinion. Pip followed her move, watching Mai in anticipation and begging with her eyes. She had to be allowed to do this. Even if she ended up attending the program here, she wanted to see what the other programs could be like. She’d never lived anywhere but New Denver and it would be incredible to live somewhere else, where she wouldn’t run into one of her siblings while out on the town.

  “I don’t see why not,” Mai said with a smile, only to add on before Pip could explode with excitement. “But not until winter break.”

  Mai’s interruption didn’t stop Pip from letting out a whoop of joy, ignoring the glares from the tables around them. She was going on a superhero road trip!