In the afternoons, they spent an hour in the boxing gym. Coach Andrew "Fly" Stallone scaled in as a flyweight, a small serious man. Fly believed in perfect form and speed over body weight and power. He was perfect for training girls.

Fly broke the students into groups of the same skill level. One look at Gyaru that first day and Fly sent her to the steam room. Go-Go, Crested, and the other seniors coached the younger girls. Crested at strawweight had the technical skill of a black belt. But her low body weight made her non-competitive.

"Pop train the new girl," Fly said.

"Bark."

"Don't bark me, and no hazing her…until Friday," Fly said.

"On it," Crested said.

"Not till Friday? Thanks Coach. I can plan my day around it," Flat said.

"Ursula has Fridays, won't be my problem," Fly said.

"Ursula?" Flat said.

"That’s Mama Bear. Lets go." Crested said and took Flat to a quiet corner of the gym. To be away from the first years. That group stood around Go-Go and the girl named Hunter, who wasn't at school for the meet and greet. The new students, fumbled with the straps trying to wrap their knuckles.

"Why am I getting singled out?" Flat said as Crested showed her the footwork drill and where to hold her hands.

"You're the only female Baseline in the P.A.H.A., and most of the first years will never raise a hand in violence," Crested said. They continued the back-and-forth steps as they talked.

"I'm the only one?" Flat said.

"I know of three in the U.S. Eight females are registered as baselines worldwide," Crested said.

"Eight? That's all?" Flat said.

"Yep. Your worth bank parted out. And it's safer to abduct you when you don't know how to fight," Crested said.

"Great. Not given a lot of choices here," Flat said.

Crested showed the side step, and they started moving from left to right. "It will get interesting after you graduate. The politicians will try to make a symbol of you. We've got two years to get you good," Crested said.

"Symbol of what?" Flat said.

"Female empowerment. Political ambition, it's all ego bullshit," Crested said.

"What if I don't become a Hero?" Flat said.

"You can make that choice, but the bad guys get a say. I'm not worried. You breathe well," Crested said.

"Breathing is the key to good drumming," Flat said.

"No point in changing. Alright. Now we do the steps in an X pattern," Crested said.

At the end of the first day, Flat returned to the dorm with late afternoon free time. Go-Go handed out the chores list to the girls on the third floor. They had to pick up the slack until the other students started. The older girls like Gyaru and Crested knew better. They jumped on kitchen duty, getting their time out of the way before school started. Flat had Fire Watch the next morning. She was to skip the run to keep an eye on the third floor encase anything in the dorm kitchens went wrong.

During that nights free time Gyaru walked the commons while on her phone. As she talked, her West Virginia accent came out mixed with Japanese and French. Flat couldn't understand anything the girl said. No one else went near her.

Back in room Six, Crested watched television, and Go-Go made dinner. Ten pounds of pot roast rattled in the pressure cooker. A pile of mixed vegetables steamed over a stock pot, sweet potatoes, and corn waited in the oven. Felicity set the table and cleaned the pans as Go-Go finished using them.

Then the smell of baked cornbread rolled over the third floor as the food cart came off the elevator. A second cart followed to drop off a bushel of strawberries and blueberries to Room Six. Crested seeing the fruit crates started to cry.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Flat said, lifting a bushel to the island.

"She's homesick," Gyaru said walking in with the second crate. She tapped the side of the crate of blueberries. It said O'Neil Fruit Farm of Birmingham, Alabama. Gyaru ripped the top slats off the blueberries. She handed a bowl of berries to the dog girl, who ate them by the hand full. Soon Crested smiled with blue-stained lips.

They finished dinner, and Go-Go set aside the fresh fruit for the next day’s pancakes. With the dishes done, Flat called it a night. It didn't even feel like the same day. On the way to her bedroom, she found Crested and Gyaru cuddled asleep by the television.

Dogs, Flat thought, and found a blanket to cover them.

Gyaru led the third floor's morning run. Thirty girls ran in formation, three across and ten deep. The heat of the day came as they finished the first lap. Flat and Go-Go ran in front; Crested took up the back. The formation was like a marching band drill, at a jog. Peer pressure forced everyone to keep up. Gyaru's cruelty showed as she led the run past the kitchen to the smell of baked bread. The first years groaned, and Flat grit her teeth through it all.

Team building, or are we a wolf pack? Flat thought.

As they ran to the back of the campus, Go-Go zipped ahead at the turn to the warehouses. Flat saw a flag on the side of the track. Crested and the older girls broke into a run at the marked point. Gyaru and Flat kept pace with the first years. At the warehouse, Go-Go zipped out a line of kettlebells. The girls who could run faster claimed the lighter twenty-pound bells. As they got near, the first years got the hint and ran. Flat sprinted to pass the new girls, but she ran up to the end of the line to a sixty-pound bell.

It sucks to set a good example, Flat thought.

Gyaru had a hundred-pound bell to lead the swings. Each girl in time with Gyaru did twenty swings. More unused muscles rebelled in Flat's body. They did five laps. Then at the edge of Campus, with the school building far off, Gyaru let them go.

In the Grand Atrium, Go-Go had zipped ahead to lock the elevator. Flat climbed the stairs, and felt a chill from the building's air. Sore legs took one step at a time to the third floor. She saw Gyaru walking down from the fourth floor.

"Anyone up there?" Flat said.

"No. But I need the wind to walk with the first years to the six floor in September," Gyaru said.

"The whole school is going to run?" Flat said.

"Even the middle school. I'll send some fourth year girls to lead them," Gyaru said.

"Why are we training this hard?" Flat said.

"Ya'll understand after an ass kicking," Gyaru said.

"The whole fighting thing. I don't know about doing this Hero job," Flat said.

"Fly will train you. Aggression takes a while. Give it till the end of the school year. Then decide if its worth doing," Gyaru said.

"What happens if I want out?" Flat said.

"Coy can move you to the fourth floor, finish off your time, and you can have a boring normal life. If the world will let you," Gyaru said.

On Friday afternoons Mama Bear would run a class for takedowns and submission holds. The Mean Girls and Hunter help Mama Bear coach the new girls. Hunter had a stern bearing; with tight-cut, dirty blond hair. She had the most athletic look of all the girls Flat had met. Hunter and Gyaru took the first years to walk them through the takedowns. Crested took Flat off to the side.

Crested placed a hand on Flat's wrist and another on the elbow; she stepped back to pull Flat off balance. The dog girl turned it into a spin. Flat found herself airborne. The floor came up to knock the wind out of her lungs.

Crested was feather light and not close to half of Flat's strength. Yet the dog girl would be on her with a quick punch or kick to a nerve cluster. Flat would find herself on the mat with an arm locked up. Any resistance and Crested could find a soft spot for a pinch.

“There are some arm bars, that if you could get Rudy into, he couldn’t break out of them,” Crested said.

“So strength isn't everything,” Flat said.

“Strength and technique is the key,” Crested said.

When it came to Flat's turn, Crested walked her through each step, adding to the movement as Flat repeated the from.

"Don't worry about hurting me," Crested said.

The throw felt right as it happened. The arm bar, then a back step, turned into a spin. Flat felt the power from her toes and out of her hands as Crested flew across the room. She broke out of the fall in a roll, ending at Hunter's feet across the gym.

Hunter picked up the dog girl from the floor, brushed her off, and pointed to Flat. Fly's words came back to Flat. “No hazing…until Friday.” That day Flat learned invulnerability did not eliminate pain.

After her first week of training, Friday night, Flat dropped into bed to fall asleep. She had never had a fuller week. Sleep came easy. Then sometime in the night. Flat woke to cool air on the back of her neck.

Did I leave the window open? Flat thought. The mattress creaked as a weight settled behind her. Flat opened her eyes as the sheet pulled back. She felt a knee in her back as someone climbed into the bed.

"The vampire is here for the werewolf," said a whisper.

She rolled over, leading with a hook. Her knuckles connected with a thwack, and a body dropped out of the bed.

"Get out of my room!" Flat said.

The person got up in a jumble of hood and cloth. Flat got up on her feet to follow with a sloppy punch to send the caped figure into the wall. It hit the drywall with a thud and stopped moving. I got him, Flat thought. And realized she was in a boxer's stance.

The door opened, and the lights came on. Go-Go in a lace gown zipped over to the caped figure. She pulled back the hood to show a young man with dark hair.

"Oh, Honey. We moved Gyaru's room. I forgot to tell you," Go-Go said.

"This is Gyaru's old room?" Flat said.

"She hits hard," the boy said. His smile could have made Felicity forgive him for less.

Crested walked in wearing red pajamas and a sleep mask on her forehead. Gyaru followed in a yellow bathrobe and an avocado face mask.

"Bark?"

"Who is this?" Flat said. Crested glanced up at Gyaru.

"Tsk, Vincent, my boyfriend," Gyaru said with eyes rolled.

"At two in the morning?" Flat said.

"Booty call," Crested said.

"Gross. I'm on the couch until there's a new mattress," Flat said.

Vincent untangled his cape. He was a young man with dark hair and pale skin.

"I'm sorry…miss?" Vincent said.

"You can call me Flat. Everyone else does. Why do you wear a cape?" Flat said.

"It's an opera cloak. I'm a vampire," Vincent said. He smiled to show his fangs.

Go-Go zipped between the two. Her loose hair fluttered into Vincent's face.

"Get out of here before Mama Bear walks in," Go-Go said.

"The mood's broken," Vincent said as he slipped out the window.

"Vincent. Call you later," Gyaru said.

"My Sweet Babette," Vincent said halfway out the window.

"Baka! The full moon's next week," Gyaru said.

Flat closed the window, then walked past Gyaru and Crested to the kitchen.

"More crazy bullshit in this crazy school," Flat said.

"Honey, nothing we can say," Go-Go said.

"Who wants coffee?" Flat said.

"Bark."

Go-Go readied breakfast. Crested turned on the television and opened a box of dog biscuits. Flat pulled the coffee rig from under the cabinet. After the setup, she watched as hot water brewed into coffee. Gyaru lit a cigarette. She took a long drag. Go-Go zipped over to drop an ashtray on the island.

"Gyaru, why are you dating a vampire?" Flat said.

"Because I'm hot," Gyaru said.

Tuesday, August 11th, 2020.

The school would not be in session this day. The students gathered in the auditorium. Mama Bear and Coach Fly were the only teachers at school. All was silent. At Ten o'clock, Gyaru walked out to the podium. She opened the Notice to Hero log book of August 11th, 2000. The overhead projector showed the pictures as Gyaru read the eleven names. The last five wore Mecklenburg uniforms. With the last name of Elizabeth Roth, Gyaru closed the book and left the podium.

The school would be under quiet hours until three that afternoon.

Flat walked back to the dorms. Gyaru and Go-Go left to deliver a wreath to the Vor War memorial. Crested switched out to her gym clothes and turned on the television. The news was nonstop about the alien invasion twenty years ago. Crested muted the television.

"This is going to be all day?" Flat said. She was getting the coffee ready.

I never paid attention to the news before, Flat thought.

"No, it all stops at Three in the afternoon. The invasion only lasted five hours," Crested said.

"We weren't even born then," Flat said.

"The adults take it serious. And this is the twentieth anniversary. Last year Coy had Vor War veterans talk with us. It's why Puddles volunteers with the homeless at the camp," Crested said.

Mama Bear walked in. She looked at the coffee and smiled.

"Poppy, did they have Ford on yet?" Mama Bear said as she sat down at the table.

"No. I'm recording it for Gyaru," Crested said.

"Ford?" Flat said and gave Mama Bear a mug of coffee.

"Doctor Robert Ford, the leading expert on Advanced Humans," Mama Bear said.

"Mama and Gyaru crush on him," Crested said.

"No. Ford is seventy years old. We respect his work," Mama Bear said.

"I hear Puddles is into older guys, must be something in the water," Flat said.

"It's not like that. Doctor Ford helps me with research," Mama Bear said.

"Is that what they call it?" Flat said.

"You're getting smart in the mouth, your new. I'll let it pass. My brother Jack died during the invasion. Doctor Ford was in the National Incident Command Center for the whole thing. He was the League of Science representative. He helps me look for records about where Jack was and what he was doing," Mama Bear said.

"I'm sorry," Flat said.

"There's more baggage here than an airport," Crested said.

"You're new. It's alright," Mama Bear said.

"How did the Mecklenburg students die?" Flat said, wanting to change the subject.

"The four boys at North fell holding the atrium. They were the only ones at school that day. Elizabeth Roth was a speedster. No one knows what happened to her," Mama Bear said.

"I saw her picture hanging in the commons," Flat said.

"Don't you end up there," Mama Bear said.

"I won't," Flat said.

Mama Bear finished off the coffee. "If your recording, I'll watch it later with Barbra. I'm going to make rounds on the other rooms. Thank you for the coffee," Mama Bear said.

"Anytime," Flat said.

After Mama Bear left, Crested dropped to the floor to cycle through the channels. But, everything was Invasion Day coverage.

"How did this end in five hours? It was an alien invasion. That should be a big thing," Flat said.

"No one knows. By three o'clock, the Vor ran to get off the planet," Crested said.

"It's not talked about in the public schools," Flat said.

"The government response was slow. The Heroes and the League seem to have taken care of things. The politicians are still embarrassed," Crested said.

After lunch, Mama Bear returned for more coffee. Gyaru and Go-Go had texted they were on their way back. Flat poured Mama Bear another mug of coffee.