Joyce Knightly February 23rd,20XX

Archer shifted in his seat and awkwardly avoided my gaze by looking around the room. While I had done a good job of decorating my office, it was nothing as grand as to capture the attention of a fifteen-year-old boy.

“Archer, what happened?”

I took care to lower my voice and speak slowly, but my mind was a frazzled mess. While I didn’t know exactly what Eva had done to Harvey, I knew she had done something, and that something had directed his actions without him being aware of it.

I knew Harvey. He was a nice man; he wasn’t the brightest, but he was friendly and prone to following orders. It was a mystery how he’d risen to the position of a team leader, but none of the people he directed seemed to mind it, and he always met deadlines and departmental goals.

With that being said, it wasn’t surprising that he had become Eva’s target. What bothered me more was not knowing if he’d noticed anything while Eva had used her powers.

The largest concern, more than being caught, was why Eva had suddenly chosen to manipulate him. Even if she had a specific idea for Archers channel, she could have just spoken to me about it. I didn’t think I was so scary that she would avoid asking me for anything, even if we had only known each other for a few days.

It had all happened too quickly and too smoothly for me to isolate the incident and discern my reaction to it.

It hadn’t been a large consideration before now since I hadn’t thought about it properly, but the thought of an eight-year-old having the capacity to manipulate adults into doing what she wanted, no matter how she’d done it, was terrifying.

Archer shifted around in his seat for a few more seconds before quietly responding. I could see how bothered the fifteen-year-old was, but it was more at the thought of being in trouble and less about his younger sister’s actions.

“Eva… rarely uses her powers like this!”

That was true.

Aside from speaking into my mind and the vague accounts of that one victim in the past, I didn’t really know what she could do. This was in part because I doubted she knew everything she could do, but it was largely because she rarely used them, even in situations where it would have been okay to do so.

The culprit quietly whimpered on the couch and drew our attention in her direction. Archer’s head flung in her direction and his hands gripped at the side of the chair he sat in, but he stayed still and didn’t go to her.

I suddenly remembered where they had come from and most of the anger I felt disappeared. I needed to scold them and make sure they knew that acting like this wasn’t okay, but not at the cost of recurring any trauma.

Aaron’s insistence on extra therapy hours for the children suddenly made a lot more sense.

He looked back at me at the sound of my exhale and his already antagonized expression shivered into one of panic.

“L-look, I’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again! Eva just got overexcited And-“

“Calm down Archer, This was a surprise but thankfully no one got hurt. I will have to punish her but-“

“Punish me instead! It’s my fault for not watching her and-“

“Archer!”

He jolted in his seat as I raised my voice and made me feel worse than I already did, but I needed him to listen to me.

“I told you to calm down, didn’t I? You have to listen to the terms before you negotiate. The punishment isn’t something you can do on her behalf, but she will not get hurt. None of you will. Aaron and I already promised that and we aren’t fond of those that go back on their words.”

He didn’t really calm down, but at least he stopped trying to interrupt me. I could see the cautious panic on his face and his knuckles turned white from the intensity they held onto the side of the chair, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.

“Then… what will you do to her?”

I fought off the temptation to call the police and have them move their uncle into a higher security prison and to lengthen his sentence and tried to lower my voice even more. Right now wasn’t the time to sound angry, even if I wasn’t angry at them.

“We can start by pushing up her therapy sessions to this week, rather than starting after the weekend. I’ll also have to integrate some lessons on morality into your duties as a super. I’ll dock off some of her allowance for the first month and take away her phone. Finally, I’ll have her apologize to Mr. Harvey. Even if he doesn’t know what happened, he still deserves an apology.”

His shoulders, which had tensed up to his ears, finally relaxed and his expression lost its panicked edge.

“...that’s it?”

I raised an eyebrow but kept the smile off my face. Now wasn’t the time to smile at the kids I was scolding. Or, well, I was supposed to be scolding Eva, but it was hard to discipline an unconscious child.

“Is that not enough? Should I include something else?”

He realized how his question sounded like he was asking for a heavier punishment on behalf of his sister and quickly shook his head.

“No- no. I’ll make sure she does it all! I’ll also make sure this doesn’t happen again!”

“That’s great Archer, but remember you aren’t Eva’s parent. Your her sibling, and it’s awesome that you guys are so close, but I will not hold you responsible for anyone’s actions but your own. Okay?”

He nodded and tried to smile at me, but I could tell that something I’d said had rubbed him the wrong way.

I buzzed Annora in and had her carry Eva and lead Archer out of the building and into a car so they could go back home.

I was still shaken, and I realized how ridiculous it was to have a bunch of kids with powers that defied all logic and sense.

Even if I wanted to discipline them? How could I do it?

What would be going too far?

What would be letting them off too easily?

I needed to come up with some sort of standardized discipline, and it needed to happen quickly.

There was also the issue of schooling. I’d planned to get them all into a public school, but until they got a hold on their powers, and understood that it wasn’t okay to use them on normal people, it might be safer to get them homeschooled.

But would that be the right option?

They were still kids; they needed social interaction with other children. As well, I worried that having these powers would make them feel too different from other, normal people. Out of the many issues that would come from that, I couldn’t risk raising these kids to feel like they were any better or worse than those with or without powers.

Ahh.

This would be much more difficult than I’d thought it would be.