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It takes her a ht come back into her brown eyes The air leaves her chest in a shuddering, disbelieving laugh "You remember You remember me"
My relief is h or sob bubbles up in my chest at the irony of both of us afraid of the sae effort to separate one half of a coin froer and sharper to separate ood to hear my name and not a number To hear it from her My mom and dad used to tease uess I must have been leashed, because I followed her around like one I would have followed Saled in She made my little eleven-year-old heart actually flutter She turned , before I made the connection, she hadsolidified, took root, blosso her on the other side of the metal bars, only inches away, suddenly feels too far I didn’t appreciate it enough when I was holding her before I didn’t recognize the miracle of it She’s real, she’s here
It’s a mess inside me She has cracked me, left me open and exposed I’m suddenly terrified of how fast it can and will all disappear I can’t stop tre to washsince I’ve let er that I’m not sure I can even remember the names of half of these emotions, only that they eat rateful as I am in thisI understand now, maybe in a way I didn’t before, what the other Reds have lost to the Trainers They will never have this, will they? Theybolt, what it feels like to look at someone’s face and see your heart there
The peace inside my head, the murmurs of happy memories, they’re pale compared to how it feels to live inside a real moment like this I letbetween stations; I can’taround the roo with that same breathless exciteh Greenwood When I’d getthat only I can understand, and I call back, I call back She finds est sap in the universe, Orfeo
We’re not supposed to care about others The Trainers want to leave nothing in our hearts but theain, tired, pale, bruised, and think of sunlight, grass, golden hair, the feel of rough bark on my pale of sparks on the Fourth of July as they rose and showered down around us I don’t speak until the bad feelings clear and ain
"Hey, Sunshine," I whisper My parents’ nickname for her, Sammy Sunshine The word stuck in my throat, left it raw "I’m sorry God, I’m so sorry--I wanted to kill the her forehead against the bars I want to es off the door, pry it open and scoop her out Sam must read it in my face because she adds, quickly, "You can’t"
Her soft breath fans across ent and rainwater
"Are you in pain?" I ask, though I already know the answer
"I’m okay," she says, bravely "I’ve had worse" I shudder, because of course she has
Her hands are sap in the crate’s bars She reaches forthat can pull me clear My other hand hooks on the door and, within an instant, she’s covered h
"You’re ware note in her voice
"Red," I say, trying to hide the flush of shaafreak"
Sam pulls her face back, her eyes hard "Who called you that?"
"No one Everyone" I snation all too well "What are you gonna do about it, Sammy?"
She looks down, her own small smile touched with sadness "Let the air out of their bike tires Set off fireworks under theirHit the home from school"
"My champion," I say "My hero" I’d seen her do all that and uys at school picked on irl Kids can be real dicks, even without the freak abilities
Sa froh the bars, but I won’t let her
"The power is out," I remind her, "the camera isn’t on It’s just you and me"
Her face is so flustered that I know it’s more than that Sam has her pride She doesn’t wantThis may be the one chance I have to talk to her; she has to know that the only thing I care about is that she’s safe and alive and that I hate that I can’t hold her and touch her and