"Calories Count"

Nobody was allowed on the mountain, especially not children. Nobody wanted to climb the mountain--except for children. What was the point of making it up here where Acadia was just a smudge in the valley below, except to do what they weren't allowed? It was boring. Every peak, everywhere, had become... pointless. All of the gods had come down into the world, and all of the sleeping kings and their knights had long since wakened. The rise of the empowered made the mundane irrelevant.

         But here they were, even so, on this barren cliff. No vegetation would ever grow on this mix of sand and stone; the kids had nothing to shield them from the wind, or the sight of any eyes in the sky. But none of the fliers small as dots overhead shouted, and nobody darted down to meet them. Maybe they didn't want to brave the bluster. It was bad enough that Anise was forced to climb upward alongside the rest of them. Jackson could have sped onward; in fact, he was probably struggling to stay slow. He kept pace with Anise and lifted her, feather-light when she needed to be, over the worst patches of loose dirt and snagging stone. Max and Timon helped each other, and only each other, with the synchronicity that betrayed their state as one mind in two bodies. That sort of unity could--and did--piss off every other person, empowered or not. 

         Jane climbed in the rear. The far rear. Her skeletal fingers dug for purchase in the loose sand, and her feet kicked at rocks that gave her no footholds. She fought the mountain for every inch; it slid her back several feet at a time. One more face-full of sandpapery dirt was one too many. Jane gritted her teeth, squeezed her eyes together, and--it wasn't that she vanished; she was suddenly fifteen feet further up the cliff, and always had been. Her cheeks were flushed, and she was breathing more heavily than before the teleport. But she was up further, close enough for Timon to kick sand into her hair as he clawed his own way.

          She squinted upward. No sign of Jackson or Anise anymore, but maybe they were hidden behind the not-twins. She slipped again, and then she had to focus on not dying and the brief, brief teleports she was willing to make. Each use of power left her redder and more winded. Her vision narrowed to the cliff in front of her, the sense of her limbs clinging to it, and her desperate need to breathe. She reached for another fragile handhold, and found only air. 

          Jane jolted, teleported nearly in place, and finally lifted her head. Jackson and Anise stared at her from thelevel ground they'd reached. The level ground several hundred feet up; another bluff succeeded the one she'd climbed, and they were up there. The tiny figures seemed to talk while they gawped; when Anise threw back her head to laugh, Jane knew what it was about. Jane pulled herself upward to collapse on level ground. Here, she confirmed what she expected: the wind died off entirely once you were off the cliff face and into thebluffs. Nobody here, on this flat peak. Anise had been able to float her way onto the next one, and Jackson--Jackson, who could outrace gravity--had no problem, either. Max and Timon had to make it somehow, too.

        "How the hell did they get up there?" Jane shouted up, when she'd caught her breath. Anise put a hand to her ear.

         "Sorry," she yelled down. "I can't hear you down there."

         "They're up there with you?" Jane said. "How did they get up there?" She tried to lift herself up; by the time she was on her hands and knees, everything ached. "Anise!"

         "Get up here and find out!" They stared at each other. "Teleport. You can do it! This should be nothing for you." Jane stared. "Come on. We're going to eat without you!" Jane groaned. The way up was impossible, but she could get back down. There must be some other path. And if there was another path--given infinite time and infinite attempts, she could find it. Then she'd really need those sandwiches.

          "I believe in you!" Jackson said. From this far, his expression just blended into the rest of his face. Jane forced herself to her feet--too close to the edge. Too much oomph. Her arms pinwheeled, she teetered--

         And Jackson grabbed her arm to pull her forward. His face was as pale as her own; his hand shook with more than his usual tremble.

        "Don't do that," he said. "C'mon. We came up here for you, so you can't spoil this!" He flinched at her glare.

        "You what?" she said.

        "I--don't tell An--" He twisted to keep her in sight each time she teleported behind him.

        "Is this--is this about me?" she said. "Everybody climbing up into nowhere 'cause of me? Was this just--is there even going to be a picnic? Next thing, you'll say we don't have any food." Jackson laughed, but the sound trailed off in the light of Jane's glare.

        "No, we have the food. We're going to eat. I promise, I w-wouldn't... we wouldn't do that." His smile dropped from his face.

      "Look," Jackson said, "Just between me and you--she's just trying to help. She just thinks you can... do more. Maybe she's right, and you can break through. Maybe she's wrong, and she's just confused about all the different kinds of teleporting." He leaned in. "Nobody wants to leave you behind, Jane." Her face went the reddest yet as she began to speak, but he continued: "No, not with this. I mean... when we graduate." Jane looked down at her hands. "She says you haven't talked to her about it. At all."

      "I won't be alone. The twins--" Jane started.

      "They developed leap," Jackson said. "Two bodies, acting on one will, able to communicate across the entire world, able to get across the city in a couple leaps," he recited second-hand--probably from the principal. Jane's shoulders slumped lower with every addition. "They're predicted for S class, Jane. Sorry." She ignored the pity on his face and in his voice. She was staring up at the mountain. There had to be a way up on another side. There must be. They weren't the first kids to come up here.

        "Alright," she said.

         Jane was at the summit before Jackson. Here, the wind was a playful specter of thewhirlwind down below. Here, a dusting of snow never truly melted. Here, Anise threw her arms around Jane.

         "You did it! I knew you could!" she said.

         "Yeah," Jane wheezed. "Yeah, I know." Anise pulled back a little to look at Jane's red, sweaty face. "Can I have a s-sa..." Jane trailed off, and she stared at Anise with blank eyes. "Someone turn off the static," Jane said. Then she passed out.

          At least that spared her the embarrassment when she threw up on Anise's shoes.

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