Naia knew Sienna cheated the moment she blinked twice.
"You moved that card," Naia said.
Sienna didn't even look guilty. "No, I did not."
"Yes, you did! You blinked twice."
Sienna leaned back like she was innocent and bored at the same time. "That doesn't prove anything."
Elara snapped her head toward her. "You're kidding. You always blink twice when you cheat. Can't believe you don't know your own tell."
Renzo almost spit his drink out laughing. "I don't think she's kidding. I think she's proud."
Kaelis watched all of them like this was a study, not a game. "If you think about it, cheating is just ignoring rules someone else made."
Sienna pointed at him. "Exactly. Thank you."
Naia shook her head, but she was smiling.
Sleeping bags were already spread across her big living room. The coffee table had been pushed aside to make space for cards, drinks, and whatever game pieces Sienna had probably hidden under the rug.
It was their usual thing. Once a month, last Saturday, at Naia's place. They had been doing it since first grade. Same people, same routine, new story every time.
Sienna dealt the next hand like she was running a casino. Elara watched her hands like a hawk.
Renzo leaned back, relaxed, like nothing important existed outside this room.
Kaelis picked up a card, stared at it for a second too long, then put it down as if he'd just decided life was meaningless.
Naia reached for her drink when her phone vibrated on the table. She glanced at it but chose to ignore it.
Sienna noticed immediately. "Don't."
Naia lifted an eyebrow. "Don't what?"
"Don't answer," Sienna said. "It's Saturday. We're in the middle of an important legal case."
Elara rolled her eyes. "A legal case. That's rich coming from you."
The phone vibrated again. It was the same number.
Naia was still smiling, but her smile was slowly fading.
Renzo sat up a little. "You good?"
"Yeah," Naia said, already reaching for for her phone. "It's probably nothing."
Sienna made a face. "Famous last words."
Naia answered the call: "Naia speaking."
The voice on the other end spoke quickly. It was her coworker and he sounded urgent.
Naia's eyes moved to the window. The city outside looked normal, quiet, safe.
She listened without interrupting. Her tone had already changed when she finally spoke.
"I'm on my way," she said.
She ended the call and put the phone down slowly.
Elara knew immediately. "Work?"
Naia nodded. "Minor emergency. I'll be back in two hours."
Renzo gave her the look. "You always say two hours."
Naia grabbed her coat from the chair. "Maybe this time..."
Sienna pointed at her cards. "We're not finishing this without you."
"You'll cheat anyway," Elara said.
"I will," Sienna agreed, completely unbothered.
Naia opened the door and almost bumped into a pizza delivery guy.
He noticed the sleeping bags on the floor behind her and the group of people staring at him like he'd just walked into a crime scene.
Naia paid him, took the pizza, and handed it straight to Sienna.
"Save me a slice," Naia said.
Sienna looked down at the box, then back up. She was already drooling over that pepperoni slice. "No promises."
Naia was already stepping into the hallway. "I'm serious."
"So am I," Sienna said, and grinned.
Naia left and closed the door behind her. She didn't want to leave her friends, but yet again she had another crisis to fix.
* * *
The GSCA (Global Systems Coordination Authority) building was still lit when she got there.
Inside, the crisis room was quiet, full of glass walls and screens everywhere with real-time maps and numbers shifting like the world was breathing through data. Her full team was already there with their eyes on dashboards.
A few people looked up when Naia walked in, one of them moved slightly to let her see the screens. Junior analyst pointed to the main display.
"Southern region. Power demand is rising fast."
"Because of the extreme heat," another added. "Cooling systems are running everywhere."
A third voice cut in. "If demand keeps rising, parts of the region will start losing power."
Naia stepped closer to the screen. Her eyes moved fast, but her facial expression stayed the same.
"Show me what we can shut down with the least damage," she said.
Her team was already on it, lists appeared, zones became highlighted.
"Factories," someone said.
"Non-essential industrial areas," another added.
Naia nodded. "Do it."
The room followed her, it always does.
A man on her right looked at the screen. "Well, the north is about to have a very quiet evening."
Naia kept her eyes on the main display.
"Yeah," she said. "But they can take the hit." She took a brief pause. "The south can't."
She pointed at the screen. "Look, hospitals, elderly care centers, residential areas. People need power more than machines do."
Everyone was on the same page so the plan rolled out fast. A shift, a sacrifice that kept things from getting worse. Minor blackouts still happened, but only for a short time.
Collapse avoided.
Slowly, the red warnings faded, yellow turned to green and the room finally exhaled as one.
Someone leaned back. "We did it. Good work everyone!"
On the main graph, one of the lines rose. Then, for a fraction of a second, it jumped forward. As if the system skipped ahead, but it corrected itself right after.
Everything stayed green. The system summary flashed: STABLE.
People started packing up, talking again, even laughing a bit. That Saturday evening at GSCA, everyone shared the same sense of relief. Or perhaps everyone but her.
Naia stayed where she was, her eyes fixed on the main screen.
A coworker noticed she wasn't leaving and looked at her. "Naia?"
"It's fine," she said. "You can all go home and enjoy the weekend"
The room got quiet when everyone left, but Naia stayed. She wasn't ready to leave just yet. She pulled out her tablet and replayed the graph. She zoomed in to confirm if the jump was still there, and it was. Something about it was bugging her. It's true that it corrected itself... but it shouldn't have jumped at all.
Naia brought her index finger to her mouth and gently bit it, thinking. Outside the glass walls, the world was quiet and it looked stable, for now... But Naia couldn't shake the feeling that something had moved when it wasn't supposed to.
Something small.
Something almost invisible.
Something that would matter later.
Naia just didn't realize it yet.