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“You idiot,” she muttered as she took a step back. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“Phones off!” he cried. “Everyone turn your phones off right this second! You kids these days with your texts and snaps and tweets! I will not be interrupted again.”

“That was your phone this time,” Jazz told him.

Nick blinked. “No, it wasn’t.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “Oh. Would you look at that. It was. Ha ha ha. How weird.”

Jazz’s phone beeped.

And then Gibby’s.

He thought about grabbing them and chucking them into the river, but figured he would get kicked in the testicles, so he decided against it.

He looked at his own phone again. An alert:

EXTRAORDINARY ACTIVITY. SHADOW STAR AND PYRO STORM ARE NEAR BURKE TOWER.

“Why?” he moaned. “Why does this have to be happening now?”

“I wonder why they’re fighting again?” Jazz asked. “They seem to be at each other’s throats more and more lately.”

Gibby looked troubled. “I don’t know. But someone’s going to get hurt.”

Nick made the hardest decision of his life. Instead of trying to find a livestream of what was going on with Shadow Star, he silenced his phone and put it back in his pocket. “It doesn’t matter. At least not right this second. If Phase Three works like I think it will, then I’ll be in a position to help Shadow Star take down Pyro Storm. And then we’ll become friends, which will tentatively lead toward something more. There will be shy hesitation, but then one day, after saving Nova City from a madman who wants to turn the entire city to ice, there will be kissing and butt stuff and we’ll live happily ever after.”

Jazz and Gibby stared at him.

Nick shifted his weight from foot to foot.

“That was… detailed,” Jazz finally said.

Gibby cocked her head. “Are you okay, Nicky?”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re twitchier than normal.”

Oh yeah. That certainly seemed to be the case. His body was thrumming, and his thoughts were jumping more than usual. He told himself he was just filled with nervous energy, that today was exciting, and that it had nothing to do with being borderline desperate. This was going to work, and he knew it, which explained why he kept tapping his fingers against his thigh. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he was three days past the last dose of Concentra. His head was pounding, but it wasfine.

“I’m good,” Nick told them quickly, wanting to get back on track. “You don’t need to worry about me. Phase Three. Prepare to be amazed!”

“What is it?” Jazz asked. “And can it happen within the next five minutes? Because I have a fencing lesson this afternoon, and I want a scone beforehand.”

“You and your pre-fencing scones,” Gibby said fondly. “It’s adorable.”

It really was adorable, but Nick didn’t want to get distracted again. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the thing that was going to ensure that today was the last day he’d be normal and boring. After this moment, he was going to be an Extraordinary, and everything would be awesome.

“Ta da!” he said rather frantically, opening his hand and showing Jazz and Gibby his secret weapon.

“Ooh,” Jazz said. “Pretty.”

Gibby squinted at the object that lay in his hand. “Why do you have drag queen jewelry? Are you going to be a drag queen? I mean, I’m all for however you want to express yourself, but Nick, I gotta say, I don’t know if you’ve got the legs for it.”

Nick didn’t know whether to be offended or not. His legs weren’tthatbad. “It’s not drag queen jewelry!”

“Are you sure? Because it’s either from a drag queen, or you found a prop for a historically inaccurate big-budget movie about ancient Egyptians where all the characters are played by white people.”

“What are you even—it’s adecoderring.” He looked down atit. “I mean, yes, it’s big and has a gaudy ruby set in what looks like an oversized sun that covers, like, three of my knuckles, but look at thesesymbolson the side!” He showed them the hieroglyphs carved into the band of the ring.