exchange of ideas and questioning certain choices that were made.”
“Maybe certain choices were made by people other than me,” Gibby snapped. “Choices that I didn’t agree with but had to respect anyway.”
Nick scoffed. “Oh, I’m sure you fought so hard against those choices.”
“I did! I told them you should know!”
“You could have told me!”
“It wasn’t my secret to tell!”
“Maybe if you’d grown some balls, you could have—”
“Oh, you want to talk about balls, Nick? How about actually having some when it comes to Seth and—”
“Are you guys talking about how Seth and Owen are Pyro Storm and Shadow Star?” Jazz asked.
“Yes,” Nick and Gibby snapped at the same time. It took a moment for it to sink in what she’d said. They both turned to gape at her.
Jazz nodded. “It makes sense now. Carry on.”
Nick and Gibby breathed as one as Jazz smoothed out her cheerleader uniform like she hadn’t just stunned them completely.
Nick recovered first. “How the hell did you know?”
Jazz rolled her eyes. “I figured it out a long time ago. I thought it was something we didn’t talk about. I mean, come on. It was obvious.”
Nick was incredulous. “It was?”
Jazz shrugged. “Every time there was a big fight between Shadow Star and Pyro Storm, Owen and Seth would be absent or late the next day. Or they’d show up with weird bruises. And then you dated Owen, who was most likely doing it to get a rise out of Seth, and not just because Seth already had feelings for you. It probably didn’t help that Seth started being Pyro Storm shortly after your mom passed away, and then Owen tried to make it all about him by turning into Shadow Star. I mean, I get it. I would be upset too if I tried to do something to keep my friends and the city safe, and then this other Extraordinary comes out of nowhere and takes all the credit and then manages to infiltrate our friend group.” Jazz’s brow furrowed. “And then Rebecca Firestone gets involved and gives all the press to Owen and makes him look like the hero, even though it was really Seth doing most of the work.”
Nick’s mind was blown. “Holy crap.”
“I want to make out with you so hard right now,” Gibby said rather aggressively.
Jazz looked pleased with herself. “Did I really figure it out before either of you? Wow. I’m wonderful.”
“This is literally the stupidest day of my life,” Nick lamented to no one in particular.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Jazz said. “Remember when you jumped into the river wearing—”
“Yes, Jazz. I remember that because it only happened a few days ago! Can we please get back to the fact that everyone knew Owen and Seth were Extraordinaries before I did? I’m the one who stalked them! And how is it that I—oh my god, would you stop sticking your tongue down her throat! I’m young and queer and in a fragile place right now. I don’t need to see that!”
Gibby pulled off of Jazz’s lips with a wet smack that would most likely haunt Nick’s dreams for the rest of his days. “She’s amazing.”
Nick rolled his eyes. “Yes, fine, Jazz, you’re beautiful and smart, and I’m so annoyed that you figured it out before me.”
“It’s okay, Nicky,” Jazz said, pulling out a compact from her backpack. She puckered her lips in her reflection, fixing her smudged lipstick. “Not all of us are capable of seeing what’s clearly right in front of us.”
“I feel like you’re insulting me.”
She pursed her lips as she folded the compact and stowed it away. “I wouldn’t dream of it. But now that we’re all in the know, what are we going to do about it?”
Gibby nodded. “We should—”
“Do nothing,” Nick said.
Jazz blinked. “What’s that now?”
“We should do nothing,” Nick repeated. “It has nothing to do with us.”
“Seth’s our friend,” Gibby said. “And he’s more than that to you, whether you realize it or not. He needs us, Nick.”
“Oh, does he? Funny. Because if he needed us, he would have told us the truth a long time ago.”
“That’s not fair—”
Nick groaned into his hands. “Fair? You want to talk about fair? My dad—the only parent I have left—was put in the hospital because of what they did. He somehow got in the middle of a fight he wouldn’t have been involved in had they not been trying to kill each other. He got hurt because of them. He could’ve died.”
“That wasn’t Seth’s fault,” Gibby said weakly. “He