George proposed a three-on-three badminton game: George, Nicky Wilholm, and Helen Simms versus Luke Ellis, Kalisha Benson, and Iris Stanhope, with Avery Dixon offered as a “bonus.” The group settled on teams, and the score was tied when the lounge door banged open and a dazed, angry new boy appeared, sunburned and muscular with red hair. Speaking slowly and profanely, he demanded to know what the place was.

Avery approached to greet him, but the new boy shoved Avery onto the trampoline padding, then pushed Kalisha when she tried to help. Nicky confronted him, insisting he help Avery and Kalisha up and apologize. The boy refused and threatened violence. Sensing the imbalance, George used his ability to gust the biting midges into the boy’s face, Helen knelt behind him, and Nicky shoved him over. When the boy tried to rise, Nicky kicked him hard in the thigh, dropping him again.

Iris urged them to stop, while Luke, hardened by recent experiences, approved the rough handling as necessary. Nicky knelt and told the boy that the real problem was the Institute, not the other kids. Luke saw caretakers Joe, Hadad, and Gladys monitoring from the lounge door with black devices, ready to intervene, which underscored the children’s status as test subjects. To prevent escalation, Nicky and Luke hauled the new boy to his feet and reassured Joe that the fight was over.

The boy announced he was going to vomit, and Nicky and Luke moved him to the fence where he threw up. They brought him to a picnic table, and Kalisha told him to lower his head. He identified himself as Harry Cross from Selma, Alabama, confused about how he had arrived. Luke told him to cut the aggression because the place was bad enough without in-fighting, and George insisted he apologize to Avery as a start to making things right.

Harry apologized to Avery and, at Luke’s prompting, to Kalisha. Kalisha introduced herself and set terms for familiarity. With the confrontation defused, Nicky suggested resuming the badminton game, but Iris drew everyone’s attention to two little blond girls who had appeared at the lounge door, holding hands and looking terrified. Kalisha invited them over, and Luke silently noted that the “trouble” was far from over.