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His ascot was slightly askew. Nick didn’t know how to handle that.
Jazz sighed.
Seth blushed.
Gibby coughed pointedly.
Nick shook his head. He couldn’t get distracted. “What were we talking about?”
“How you threw away pie from an old lady,” Gibby said.
“That’s right. Seth, when you decided you wanted to wear ties to school for reasons that no one quite understands, who was the one who helped you look up how to tie a Windsor knot on the internet and then let you practice on him for an entire month until you got it right?”
“You were,” Seth said, looking down at the table.
“With minimal complaint!”
“For the first twenty minutes.”
“Which was twenty minutes more than it should have been!” Nick exclaimed. “You know I can’t sit still for that long without going out of my mind. Why on earth did you need to learn how todo a full Windsor? The only thing that made it bearable was when you found the one called the Nicky knot and insisted on wearing that one more than all the others.”
Gibby and Jazz turned slowly to look at Seth.
Seth didn’t acknowledge them, finding something extremely interesting to pick at on the table. It looked like dried ketchup.
“The Nicky knot,” Gibby said. “Seriously.”
“Yeah,” Jazz said. “Seriously.”
“I liked the way it looked,” Seth muttered.
Gibby snorted. “I bet you did.”
Nick didn’t have time for their vagueness. “And now that I’ve given you all examples of specific times I’ve been a good friend and supported you with something, I’m asking that you do the same for me and respect my decision to become an Extraordinary.”
Jazz opened up her Tupperware. She pulled out what looked like quinoa tabbouleh with sliced avocados. Nick couldn’t be sure how he knew what quinoa tabbouleh even was. “How are you going to do that?” she asked. “Not everyone can be an Extraordinary. If they could, there’d be millions of them. I’d be one.”
“What would your superpower be?” Gibby asked.
Jazz shrugged. “Flying. Or maybe growing orange trees. You know I like the way orange trees look.”
Nick frowned. “That’s not a—”
Gibby shook her head in warning. “You do that, babe. I bet they’d be the best orange trees.”
“Of course they would,” Jazz said. “And then I’d harvest the oranges and make orange juice with so much pulp, it would be like chewing rather than drinking. And then I’d donate it to people who can’t afford orange juice.”
Nick wanted to protest—becausewhat?—but he had to stay on their good side so he could have their complete support in his new endeavor. “That sounds… so great. Good for you.”
“Thanks,” Jazz said, beaming at him.
“I’d want to be able to make my hands turn into swords,” Gibby said, stealing an avocado slice from Jazz. “And then I’d stab everyone who pissed me off.”
“Very effective,” Nick said. “Bloody and violent, but I can dig it.Sword Hands, they’d call you. Look out, bad guys! Here comes Sword Hands, and she’s gonna stab your throat.”
They turned to Seth, who didn’t seem like he wanted to take part in the conversation, if the look on his face meant anything. He just needed a little motivation, and in another life where Extraordinaries didn’t exist, Nick could have been a motivational speaker.
“Your turn,” Nick said, bumping Seth’s shoulder. “You got this, man.”
