Amora and Chase followed Akilah to the greenhouse, where Vida and Bloom were inside looking closely at a meadow mushroom that stood in a pot of dirt.
"Very nice, Vida!" Bloom smiled at Vida.
"Aw, did I miss it?" Amora sighed.
"I can just do it again, girl. Don't worry." Vida chuckled.
"But first, let's see what it can do!" Bloom pointed at the mushroom.
Vida looked around the greenhouse, seeing if there was any ventilation. She couldn't find any.
"Um, I don't think it's a good idea to test it here." Vida kept looking around for any window.
She was fine with getting caught in the spores herself, but she didn't want her friends to get caught in it without knowing what they were getting themselves into.
Bloom chuckled and put her hand on her forehead.
"Oh my god, you're so right. Haha. I forgot that you said it spreads spores. Let me just open up some windows." Bloom looked around to see the same lack of ventilation that Vida saw. "Oh. So there are no windows."
Bloom chuckled again as she grabbed the pot holding the mushroom and started walking out of the greenhouse.
"Let's go back to the gymnasium. There's plenty of windows there." Bloom walked out of the greenhouse.
The group followed. Chase felt like he had seen these hallways five times in the last hour. He wondered if he was going to have to see them again once he got to the gym.
The group got to the gymnasium, where Bloom set down the plant in the middle of the basketball court and promptly opened all the windows.
Amora, Chase, and Akilah sat on the bleachers like they were ready to watch a movie.
"Alright, are you ready, Vida?" Bloom looked to Vida for an answer.
Vida took a deep breath and put her arms up to the mushroom.
"Everyone, try not to breathe in the spores." Vida looked at her friends to see if they got their message. They nodded.
This time, it only took a couple seconds before the cap of the mushroom spilled out a yellowish-grey cloud of spores.
The three other kids ooh'd and awe'd, before quickly covering their mouths with their arms.
"Amazing! What do the spores do if you breathe them in?" Bloom looked at the cloud of spores floating through one of the open windows. The kids removed their arms from their mouths.
"It messes with your senses, mostly. I can change what it does specifically, but I haven't gotten past the point where I can just make blurry colors and sounds." Vida twirled one of her dreads as she awaited Bloom's response.
"That's great! You're really showing how hard of a worker you are, Vida. You guys too." Bloom smiled at the group of kids.
Bloom's compliment was void to Chase. Amora had made him feel better, like she always does, but he wouldn't accept anyone's compliments until he was the hero he's always wanted to be.
"One day, Chase. One day you'll be there." Chase thought to himself as he tried to take his mind off of it.
"Akilah, have you been working on your Mode?" Bloom turned to Akilah. Akilah grinned as she excitedly pushed her glasses up.
Akilah focused, channeling as much Spirit into her brain as she could. In just a few seconds, her purple Spirit began to glow from behind her eyes.
Vida started to clap in excitement.
"Chase, test me." Akilah smirked, ready to impress her friends. She turned around, facing the wall.
Chase got up, remembering the range where Akilah couldn't sense him anymore.
"Bet you don't see this." Chase smirked, putting four fingers up to repeat the experiment from last time.
"Four." Akilah's one word response shocked Chase.
Chase began to back away from Akilah, changing the number of fingers he was holding up.
"Five. Two. Three. Five again…" Akilah kept getting the numbers right.
Akilah's answers slowed down for a second. She took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes. She managed to keep the amount of pain from the sensory overload at the same level while expanding the area she could sense, but the pain was still unbearable after a few dozen seconds.
"Uh… Four…" Akilah went back to saying the numbers Chase threw up with his fingers.
Eventually, Chase bumped into the wall on the other side of the gymnasium while still holding numbers up with his fingers. Akilah had gotten all of them right.
"Dude! What the hell!" Chase was stunned at the result, just as everyone else was.
Akilah smiled. She was just as amazed at her own powers. She stopped channeling Spirit to her brain, alleviating the pain she had been trying to push through.
"I need to find a remedy for this pain. It's only going to hold me back when I need to focus the most." Akilah grew frustrated at herself. She felt like she was just on the cusp of finding the solution, but she couldn't crack the case.
"Amazing! That was way better than last time, Akilah. Keep at it! Try expanding the area even more, see if there's a maximum." Bloom noticed Akilah's frustration, but couldn't put her finger on the reason behind it. She decided to stay quiet until Akilah was ready to open up to her about the problem.
"Alright, on to the next. Amora, have you had any luck on your Mode?" Bloom turned to Amora.
Amora smiled. She turned to Chase and smiled even bigger as he gave her a thumbs up.
"Go for it, babe." She could hear her boyfriend saying.
"Give me a second, sorry." Amora was still unsure if she could replicate what she had already done.
She tried channeling her Spirit like everyone else but it didn't give any results.
"Of course that wouldn't work. I've tried that a million times." Amora thought to herself.
She thought about the pattern that occurred when her Mode awakened. It was always when she felt her emotions heighten.
She thought about situations that would make her Modes awaken.
She thought about Vida's bloodied face in the street that day. She thought about Chase's watery eyes just an hour ago. She thought about the last time she got to see Mr. and Mrs. Frewin.
Amora held back tears. Bloom noticed.
Suddenly, the rainbow light shimmered around her, just like before. The rainbow shards of glass appeared, but they were already intact.
"Maybe they're not broken because there's nothing to fix." Amora thought.
Her friends watched in amazement as the rainbow glass shined from Amora.
"You're awesome, Amora!" Vida tried to reach her hand into the light out of curiosity. Her hand went through, but Vida felt an unexplainable feeling when her hand made contact with it.
"It was a good feeling, for sure. But what just happened?" Vida thought.
Vida couldn't think of a single word to describe it. It reminded her of the winter nights in the Frewin's house, when all five of the kids would be huddled around the fireplace seeking warmth while they waited for Mr. Frewin's classic hot cocoa.
Akilah and Bloom felt it too. Even though they hadn't touched Amora's aura directly, they still felt a faint sense of serenity. It's almost like they heard an invisible voice tell them everything was going to be okay.
Amora's light disappeared. She couldn't hold it for long, but she was over the moon that she could even activate it at will.
Amora noticed her hair standing up, like she had just been struck by lightning. It was the longest she had held her Mode for, so she wasn't surprised that it expressed itself physically after a while.
Amora smiled a big grin at Chase. He smiled right back at her. He hoped his words from before repeated in his head.
Chase's smile was interrupted by a thought. He grit his teeth as he predicted what Bloom would ask next.
"Chase, have you been practicing your Mode?" Bloom turned to Chase who scratched the back of his head in nervousness.
"Yeah, about that. I've just been having trouble with… Well… All of that." Chase smirked nervously.
"This is so fucking embarrasing. I hate this." Chase thought. He grit his teeth once again as he thought about how amazing everyone else had done.
"Keep your calm, Chase. Remember, one day you'll be her hero, everyone else's too." Chase tried to calm himself down, only working to subside the panic. The shame stayed.
Bloom smiled and chuckled.
"There's no need to be ashamed, darling. You'll be right beside everyone else in no time." Bloom thought to herself as she finished her sentence.
"Do you three know how to train by yourselves?" Bloom turned to the three that were still sitting on the bleachers.
Amora, Akilah, and Vida looked at each other as they thought for a moment. They nodded towards Bloom.
Bloom smiled.
"Alright then. Me and Chase are going to have some special training to do today!" Bloom waved at Chase to follow her as she walked out of the gymnasium.
Chase pointed at himself in confusion for a moment before running to catch up to Bloom.
The three girls looked at each other with a "What do we do now?" expression on their face.
"Could you guys spot me? I want to see how far I can get my Mode to sense." Akilah pushed her glasses up.
"That's a good idea. If you pass out I'll just use my Mode on you!" Amora chuckled as Akilah and Vida joined her.