Health Class was always among the least exciting classes that Alec had, yet it was never boring or dull. There was a pleasant mellowness to each lesson as they worked, and today was no exception, especially as they were outside. They were skirting the edge of the forest, near (though Alec made no mention of the fact that he knew this) the invisible border that enclosed the school, around the third-year block on the leftwards side of the institution, plucking medicinal plants named and illustrated on the charts that they had taken from their teacher, Nurse Alloway, a motherly-looking woman with short, spiky grey hair and violet eyes, in the Garden, the immense stretch of land where these stalks were specially cultivated.

"Careful, now, dears, you don't want to go touching some of these plants," Nurse Alloway reminded them in her soft, sweet voice. Unfortunately, one tall, black Poseidon boy ahead of the group heard the message too late: he absently ran his fingers against a thorny vine winding along the trees to his left and jerked them away a second later with a cry of "Ouch!"

Within a few more seconds, large, ugly boils started springing up across his skin.

"Oh, I specifically warned you about the goosevines before we set out, Morris," sighed Nurse Alloway. "Lulu," she said, addressing his partner, a short Asian girl, "kindly take him to the Medical Wing, please. They'll fix him up there." When Lulu and Kevhan had disappeared up the path, she turned and called, "And the rest of you, please stick to the plants that are on your charts. Keep your gloves on if you can't trust your fingers."

All around, people began to draw on thick, rubbery gloves.

"Gloves?" Alec said, bemused. "What gloves?"

"The ones we were told we needed on the list of requirements for certain classes," Javon said, looking at him as though this was obvious. Then his mouth formed a comical "O." ". . . which you didn't get, because you came the day before term started."

"Yeah," Alec said.

"Well, uh . . . can you trust your fingers?"

"Of course not."

"Yeah," Javon said with a chuckle. "All right . . . um . . . how about that stone tablet you showed us the other day? Just mask your hands in it."

"That actually is a good idea, but I stopped walking with that thing days ago."

"Well go find some other rock to touch then, while I try to find the . . . er . . ." He peered more closely at the chart. "Miramirabush?"

"Powerful hallucinogenic," Nurse Alloway said, appearing at their side so suddenly that they both jumped. "But it has its uses. It's also a strong anesthetic. So you'll want to be careful with that one," she added, smiling at Javon.

Javon nodded and quickly scurried away. Nurse Alloway, however, did not follow suit. She remained in place, staring at Alec with her large, purple eyes until, extremely uncomfortable now, he managed to escape her presence by pretending to start looking around for Amphotera, a mushroom-like stalk that helped soothe burns.

He bent down to pick up a large stone and crossed paths with another pair of gloved hands. Both straightened up slowly, looking at each other.

"Haven't you already got this one?" the boy asked. He was tall and strangely large for a first-year, wearing the brilliant gold and white of Zeus, and Alec recognized him as the brutal-faced boy who had been paired with Damon, who was scouring the grass ahead, on the night before term had started. He was wearing an odd, twisted smile that appeared more aggressive than friendly.

"What?"

"Embellin. The flower. You've already got one." He pointed at the clear plastic bag in Alec's hand; sure enough, the same thin-stalked, round-leafed, purple flower that the boy had bent to pluck only seconds before was clearly visible through the transparent container among the other buds.

"Yeah, I, uh . . . I actually wanted the . . . Never mind," Alec said. He did not like the way the boy was looking at him: like a shark that had scented blood.

"You mind moving, then?"

In his peripheral vision, Alec could see a knot of nearby students watching this scene from their right, brows furrowed. But Alec didn't move. A strange lightheadedness struck him as he stood there, rooted to the spot.

"Are you all right?" the boy asked, reaching out towards him, though letting his hand hover a good inch away. Alec still couldn't move. His vision blurred, but he could swear the boy was still smiling at him in that strange, sinister fashion. There was something terribly wrong here.

The boy took a step forward, and Alec felt a sudden jerk on the arm. Maddison was at his side. Without saying a word she tugged him away, glaring at the boy, who, strangely, scowled quite fiercely in response.

"You can't go a day without causing some sort of excitement, can you?" she hissed, when she had successfully pulled him away from the other gawping students. She looked at him for a moment, suspicious. Then she said, "What's wrong with you?"

"I don't know," Alec said, his voice a croaky whisper. "I can't — I can't breathe —"

"You're not wearing gloves," Maddison said, her eyes flicking to his hands. He swayed, nearly tumbling off balance, but she caught him. "I think you may have touched something. Nurse!" she called, as he started to retch, clutching at his throat. "Nurse — he needs —"

"Yes, yes, go," said Nurse Alloway, who had once again materialized at their side as though she had stepped out of thin air.

Maddison laced her arms underneath his shoulder and, with the aid of a Poseidon boy who had stepped forward to help, started steering him out of the Garden.

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Alec had been to the Medical Wing only once before, when he had needed something for a bad headache. It was a long, rectangular room, spacious and softly lit, with many comfortable beds lined up in series around all sorts of advanced-looking machines. As Maddison, aided by the Poseidon student who had accompanied them, hefted him onto one of the free beds, a male nurse came to examine him and after a few seconds' observation concluded that he must have come into contact with something called Brittleby. It was not lethal, but had the unpleasant effect of temporarily constricting the airways, which could result in difficulty breathing.

"You'll be fine," the nurse assured, as he injected Alec with a syringe of greyish-blue liquid. "But you'll need to spend the next few hours, so we can be sure no other complications will arise. Some plants can affect certain people differently."

As he strode off Alec muttered bitterly, "Oh, goody."

"Cheer up, at least you have an excuse to get out of Computer Science today," Maddison said innocently, shrugging.

Alec stared at her, an eyebrow arched. "Was that a joke?" he said, grinning. "I didn't know you were capable of making those."

"Don't get used to it," she said, though the corners of her mouth twitched.

There was a few seconds' silence. Alec was pondering what next to say. At last he spoke, rather tentatively. "Can I ask you something?"

"Fire away," she said indifferently.

"Are you upset that you weren't placed in Zeus?"

He regretted the question almost at once. Her nostrils flared and she closed her eyes. He thought she might yell at him or simply storm out, but she breathed deeply through her nose as though trying valiantly to calm herself down, then said in a clipped voice, "Yes."

He had not really expected her to answer, and not at all this bluntly. Feeling as though he was pressing his luck, he said, "Why?"

"Are you kidding?" she said impatiently. "I know you know how it works here, we all heard it in the first couple days we were here before term started, or soon after. Some of us even knew it long before we arrived."

"Like you."

"Do you know who my father is?"

The question took Alec aback. "No, how would I —?"

"I thought you read comic books?" At his look of curiosity, she added, "I heard you talking about them with the other boys."

"Well, yes, but with masked heroes and unpublished names," he said patiently.

She paused, contemplating. "Fair enough," she said a moment later. "My father's alias is Stardust."

"Your dad is —" Alec began avidly, recognizing the name and experiencing a sudden surge of excitement, but Maddison clamped a hand over his mouth and hissed, "Shhhh!"

He nodded, and she released him. "Yes, Stardust. A very high-ranking member of the Hero League, where two of my older brothers are now interning. All three of them came to Helix, all three of them excelled here . . . and all three were in Zeus."

"Oh." Realization had just dawned on him. She had wanted to live up to her family's legacy, and been denied the chance. "I don't understand, I mean everyone says you had a great test trial — definitely sounds better than mine, anyway," he said, remembering the air of disappointment that had been emanating from Professors Wyatt and Vera, and Duncan's callous amusement, as he had stood before them in that vast, tiled room. "Wildfire himself said you were one of the best he's seen so far, and even the other Zeus students were surprised you weren't placed. So why weren't you?"

"You think I know? I don't. I fully expected to be there — it sounds arrogant, I know, but that's the truth. You weren't here, you wouldn't know. Some of the people in the other two Dorms shouldn't be there at all with those pitiful stats. And then people like Billy Armand and Leon Dumein —"

"Who?" Alec said blankly.

"In Hades!" she said, impatient again. "They had great trials, both of them. If it were up to me they'd be in Poseidon at the very least. And don't get me started on Alessandra Jones in Zeus, or Lily Cormine. How they ever got there is beyond me."

Alec was silent. He was pondering this new information. Students in the less acclaimed Dorms who should have been higher up was one thing, but now Maddison was claiming that some students should have been lower than they were? "How about Ethan and Javon?"

"Them?" she said, momentarily distracted. "Javon was actually quite good in the physical tests — not amazing, but decent. The problem was he caught the ball too late, and it was obvious that he didn't want to use his powers. Ethan — well, you know what he's like. Sauntered around the room, didn't seem to have a care in the world. Though he did perform really well with the pressurizer," she added thoughtfully. "I wondered how he did it, but now I think I know: telekinesis."

"He seems pretty indifferent to the idea of schoolwork," Alec observed.

"He was like that since we got here," she said slowly. "It's always the same thing — he doesn't care as long as he doesn't have to go home," she and Alec said in unison.

They looked at each other.

"Did he ever tell you why he's so desperate to stay away from his home?"

"No, why would he? It's not like we were close."

"Yeah. . . . Probably thought you might stab him if he approached you."

"Shut up," she said, crossing her arms, though Alec could tell that she had softened a bit.

"Er . . . also, were you upset about the Tournament?"

She was silent again, her eyes fixed on the opposite end of the ward. For a moment, Alec though she wasn't going to answer. Then she said, "The Tournament was supposed to be the solution."

"To what?"

"I wanted to win, so that I could prove to my parents, to this stupid school, that what happened was clearly a mistake. That they gave me less credit than I deserved. But that's out of the question now. So yes, I'm upset . . ." She heaved a deep breath and turned to him. "But not at you."

He was even more surprised at that.

"It's just . . . one thing after the other has been a colossal disappointment since I arrived here. Ending up in this Dorm . . . Wildfire not wanting to recommend us . . . the Tournament being canceled when he decided that he would. . . . It's like the universe is punishing me for something, and I don't know what. . . ."

Alec didn't know what to say to that. Every statement of solace or encouragement that occurred to him felt out of place, mechanical, spurious. He glanced up and noticed a small glimmer of tears in her eyes. She realized this too; with a shocked expression, she swiped quickly at her eyes and then quickly rearranged her features into the perpetually angry look he knew so well. Alec knew enough to pretend he had not noticed this.

"About the Dorms," he said instead, partly to relieve the tension. "Did you ever think to — you know —"

"Ask?"

"Yeah."

"Of course I did."

"And did you?"

"No," she said flatly. "It's bad enough I was placed here, I didn't want to make it worse by having them detail to me everything I obviously did wrong at the trials. And besides, doing that would force them to have to admit out loud the way they operate, streaming the students by how hopeless they appear. It's an unspoken understanding."

"I don't get the big deal, though," Alec said after a slight pause.

"About what?"

"About the streaming. I mean, we have the same classes, we have the same teachers, faculties, and everything. The only real differences are where we sleep and eat, and the colours we wear. Even if most of them are better than us physically, what do they really get out of being in Zeus?"

"Higher status. More recognition," she said. "Think about it — the people who're coming in from the League or wherever to see who to recruit aren't going to be looking at us, the worst of the bunch. They want the stars. And grouping us accordingly makes it easier for them to find their targets."

"And is that the only reason?"

"It's the only one I'm sure about."

Silence again.

"Well, I should get back to class," Maddison said at last.

"Oh, really?" Alec groaned. "Come on, we were really vibing here. Stay. Maybe we can talk about less depressing subjects," he suggested.

She cracked a smile at that, a very small one, but the gesture was good enough. "Nice try." She walked around the side of the bed.

"If you're worried about what the teachers would think about you sculling class," he called as she strode towards the door, "then there's the easiest solution to that. I'm sure there's enough Brittleby in the Garden for you as well."

She shut the door and was gone. But Alec was smiling.

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The hours snailed by as he lay there in the Medical Wing. He was unable to even drift off while he was there — the excitement of the morning seemed to act as a stimulant, keeping him firmly awake, so that he was able to witness the arrival of three more patients in addition to himself and Kevhan. A Hades second-year girl who could bring inanimate objects to life for a short time had gotten a nasty wound from a pair of rogue scissors; and the other two boys, both from Poseidon, had gotten into a serious fight that had evidently been the cause of the sudden excitement he had heard shortly before that.

Alec had not been surprised. If anything, he was more impressed that it had taken this long for a fight to break out in a school of edgy, superpowered teens when they used to occur all the time at his old school.

Javon, Zachariah, and Jonah had all checked in earlier, bringing news of the world outside the doors of the Medical Wing. Predictably, Ethan hadn't shown; perhaps he didn't know Alec was there, or he simply wasn't interested. Alec found he did not care very much. Alec's greatest surprise for the day, however, came when it was nearly one o'clock. It was the same Poseidon girl they had met during the undeground challenge not too long ago. Her long silver hair flowed in tight curls over her shoulders, gleaming in the sunlight pouring in through the high windows as she came striding over to him, and as though she had come to visit a longtime friend Serena — he thought her name was Serena — pulled up a chair beside his bed, sat down, and gave him a breezy smile.

"Hi."

"Hi," Alec said, with a trace of skepticism that bordered on suspicion.

"I heard what happened. Well, actually, the whole school did," she said apologetically. "It's strange, isn't it? How you always seem to end up the center of attention?"

Her tone was not patronizing, but sincere.

"It is," he said irritably. "You have no idea how bad it is. At my old school, it was just me and my friend Dusty. We had other friends and all, but at the end of the day it was just the two of us. We would just hang out, read comics, all that, and it was . . . peaceful. Now there's this place, and almost every day there's some new scandal with my name in the middle," he said bitterly. "I mean, I know it's a school for superhumans, but is it too much to ask for some normalcy?"

He let out a deep breath as he concluded his rant. He felt as if a tight knot in his chest had unloosened with with his words.

"Feel better?" Serena asked after a moment's silence.

"A bit, actually. Much more so when I can get out of this place, though," he said, looking around at the vast, unnaturally clean space, strangely oppressive despite its airiness.

"Well, until you're ready to leave, you can have this to spruce this place up," she said. She opened her hand, and a flower bloomed in her palm. It had a thin stalk, but the leaves were large and bright silver, like her hair, glistening in the sunlight. "Moonlace," she said, handing him the flower.

He examined it curiously. It was beautiful, shimmering as if it were made of molten silver, but the fragrance was the most appealing of all its features. It smelled of . . . home. There was no other way to describe it. The scent of his house, a mixture of his mother's patent cleaning utensils, home-baked pastries, his own signature cologne, mingled with the smell of freshly dug earth, all wafted from the single stalk.

"Thank you," he said, quite touched. She rose, ready to go, and Alec felt suddenly, strangely, that he didn't want her to leave just yet.

"Feel better," she said, and she left the room, but it was a considerably more pleasant silence that she left in her wake. His air of serenity persisted even after he had at last been discharged from the Medical Wing, pursuing him into the night, as he readied himself to drift off.

He placed the flower in a soda can he had collected earlier, filled with dirt, and stationed it at the edge of the lone window above his bed, and the last thing he saw before he fell asleep was the flower glowing at its perch in front of the glass, casting its light around the room, as the moonlight struck the shimmering leaves.