Chapter I
I shook my head. "That's not true, and you know it." Josh was always telling stories to get attention."No really," he insisted. "I looked it up at the library on lunch. Dustin's right, they say one out of every 25 kids will turn out to be a freak." I frowned briefly, and he grimaced before continuing. "Those damn freaks... You know that means there has to be at least one in our class, don't you?"
I hated it when he brought up this topic, but lately, it's just about all he thinks about. I nodded. "If it's true, then yeah... I guess someone would have to be. Who do you think it is?" I hoped he didn't notice the waver I'd tried to fight out of my voice.
"It would have to be a small quirk, for them to hide for so long. I hear that they take all the strongest mutants and freaks and ship them away somewhere." He laughed. "So long as it's far away from me and my friends, I don't care!"
I laughed with for a moment, before he side-eyed me. "You... don't know who it is, do you, Cailie?"
"Huh? No, not a clue. I'm just wondering who it could be." I quickly tried to cover up my unease.
"Well, my bet's on Jona River. That guy's always been weird." Josh stuck out his tongue so far he looked like a monkey, and I laughed.
"I guess he is strange. Do you really think he's hiding.. quirks? Aren't they supposed to be hard to hide?"
"I heard some people can hide them until they're adults, but they try to catch them beforehand so they don't have a blowout." Josh shuddered. "Man... If it's Jona, they'd better get him quick. I'd hate to be in class and have him blow out."
I nodded, frowning. "I wonder if it hurts..."
"It had better, for what they do to us! The way they go around and talk about how they're better than humans but they want to be part of who we are. It makes me so mad! I'm glad they get shipped off to that stupid school. They're doing the next sweep this weekend, too. Hopefully Jona won't blow until then."
"He seems to have it under control for now," I offered, trying to placate some of his anger.
"Yeah, and it better stay that way. Maybe I'll go by his place and mock him as they drag him away! Ha, I'd like to see the look on his face when he finally gets caught."
"I wonder if they get to see their families again."
"I sure hope not! Damn freaks should rot in that DREAM place." The clicking of his bike spokes stopped as he turned around to glare at me. "Wait, you're not one of those freak sympathizers, are you?"
"What? No way!" I just outright lied to Josh... "I was just thinking it would be sad to never see your parents again, that's all." I reminded myself that if I told him I wasn't sure they deserved the hatred they culled, he wouldn't talk to me. I didn't know for how long...
"The freaks don't have parents, Cailie," Josh interrupted my thoughts. "Remember, they're not human." His warning chilled me over, just before his watch went off. "Oh crap, I'm gonna to be late." He paused briefly, before hopping back on his bike. "Oh, and Cailie? Don't think so much. You could get mistaken for one of those sympathizers."
"Yeah," I laughed halfheartedly. "I guess so. See you, Josh."
"Later, Cailie."
***
"I'm home!" I called out, shutting the door behind me. There was only silence. I guess no one's here, I thought.
I climbed up the stairs to my bedroom, and tossed my backpack by my desk, then practically melted into the chair. I stared at the ceiling, thinking about what Josh had said.
Cailie!
Oh no.
Welcome home!
"Please, leave me alone! You're not real, okay?" I said it aloud, but I didn't know who I was trying to convince, myself, or...
I looked down, and at my feet was a blue, transparent... well, gumball. The thing was basically featureless, with a round, puffy, cylindrical body, stubby feet, and no nose or ears that I could ever find. This was my imaginary friend.
Cailie, that's not very nice to say. You've been saying that a lot recently. I just-
"Maybel, no one can see you," I shouted, exasperated. "You're just a figment of my imagination. You've got to be. You're not real!" I shouted again. Maybel quibbled his lower lip at me, and I sighed, rubbing my face. "Look, Maybel. I've got a lot of things on my mind, okay? And I've got a ton of homework to do. Can you leave me alone? Please?"
Maybel didn't reply. He made a burring sound at me, before turning to go out the door.
"Maybel, where are you going? You can't even open the door." I suddenly noticed I didn't know if I wanted his company or if I wanted to be alone.
He turned to look at me, with this horrible sadness in his eyes that made my heart stop. He then jumped into nothingness. He'd simply disappeared.
I sat for a while watching where he had been last. I didn't know what to think. After a few minutes, I got up and flopped on my bed, turned over, and went to sleep. That was enough for today.
***
The next few days at school were pretty normal. Josh went on talking about the next sweep, and I didn't see Maybel at all. I mentioned this to mom briefly, and she said "Oh good, you're finally growing out of it."
But I felt lonelier than I had in years. Maybel may be an obnoxious gumball, but he always did his best to cheer me up after a horrendous day at school. I almost missed his fluffy butt.
Then again, it was nice being able to change and not worrying if he was watching me. Though he did tell me his species had no concept of "sexual", he had agreed to turn away when I was changing, for my sake.
Everything went smoothly until Thursday. They always designate this weekend as a 3-day weekend to help the families who were losing their children cope and pack, so we get out early on Thursday. On the way out, I went to our usual meeting spot, and Josh wasn't there. That was odd, because Josh's locker was closer than mine. Until I heard him yelling.
I followed the sound of Josh, angry as usual, and found him face to face with Jona.
That's not good.
"You take that back, Jona, or I'll beat your face in!" Josh yelled. Dustin was practically between the two, and had his hand on Josh's arm, as if he'd already tried to swing at Jona once.
"You're the one who accused me first, Josh," Jona snapped back. "Or, maybe you're the one with a hidden quirk?"
"Josh!" I yelled before he could react. "What's going on...?"
Josh's face twisted into some semblance of shame, frustration, and disappointment. I jogged over, and gave a brief nod of thanks to Dustin. Jona was also looking away. No one answered me.
"Josh, what's going on?" I repeated.
"I was just saying bye to the FREAK!" He spat the last word at Jona.
"I was just saying bye to the FREAK!" He spat the last word at Jona.
"Well, we'll see who comes back after this weekend, won't we, Joshy-boy?" Jona chimed in. Dustin briefly struggled with Josh.
"Quit it, Josh! We will see who comes back after this weekend!" I grabbed Josh's hand, and tugged at him. "Let's go."
Once we were around the corner, I thanked Dustin, before turning to scold Josh. "What were you thinking, you idiot? You could have gotten yourself suspended!"
"He called you a freak!" Josh was shaking, his fists balled so tight I could see the color drain out of them.
"He what?"
"He suggested that you were the one that Josh should be saying goodbye to, not him." Dustin offered.
"Why would he say that?" I was dumbfounded.
"Said something about you going to the psychiatrist a lot when you were a kid," Dustin said. "Then Josh here just about lost his damn mind."
Josh stayed silent.
"Thanks for the clarification, Dustin." I tugged at Josh. "Let's get out of here, okay?" I waved to Dustin, and he nodded, then jogged to catch his bus. Josh followed me quietly to the bike rack.
"You shouldn't have gone to stir trouble, Josh." I struggled for more words when I was met with silence. "What you did wasn't any sort of brave."
Josh gave me an oddly familiar look, then pulled his bike from the rack, got a running start, then left me behind.
I watched him pedal away for a moment.
He looked just like Maybel did...
***
The weekend passed relatively uneventfully, even if Maybel was still missing. Maybe Maybel had really just been my imagination acting up. I just had to decide to stop, just like the therapist had told my mom.
Occasionally, over the weekend, I saw one of the black, marked sedans drive by outside. We lived on a main thoroughfare in our city, so we saw a lot of traffic. I knew that each of those cars contained a crying child or teenager who was just told they were never to see their parents again. I had to remind myself not to think about it too much. I had to remind myself several times.
Occasionally, over the weekend, I saw one of the black, marked sedans drive by outside. We lived on a main thoroughfare in our city, so we saw a lot of traffic. I knew that each of those cars contained a crying child or teenager who was just told they were never to see their parents again. I had to remind myself not to think about it too much. I had to remind myself several times.
Monday eventually rolled around. When I got back to the meeting spot Monday morning, Josh was waiting for me. He gave me the biggest grin. I smiled and waved, and we talked about the weekend before we went to our homeroom class together.
Josh was eager to see who was missing. When class started, neither Jona or another girl, Mindy, were there.
After the morning announcements, we were told to take the extra time to do any of the homework we hadn't completed over the weekend. Josh was more eager to chit chat.
"I told you he was a freak!" Josh grinned ear to ear.
"I guess so." I smiled back. At least he wasn't angry today.
Dustin joined us, chiming in, "Man, I didn't think Mindy would get taken. She's so meek, I don't think she'd hurt a fly."
"Doesn't matter, if she has a meltdown, she won't be here. That's the most important thing, saving the lives of innocents. They're ticking time-bombs, you know."
"They are," Dustin replied, "but she didn't look it, you know? I guess that goes to show you that you can't judge a book by it's cover."
"Or a bomb by it's casing." They both started laughing, but Josh quickly stopped.
"What's wrong, Cailie?" he asked.
I blinked. "What?" I shook my head. "I'm sorry, I wasn't listening." I felt lightheaded.
"That's not like you," Dustin said.
"You feeling okay?" Josh asked.
"Yeah." I rubbed my face. "I guess I didn't get enough sleep last night," I offered, smiling slightly. I felt kind of weak too, now that I think about it. The walk from home was a bit hard this morning, but I had the same amount of books as when I went home Thursday.
"I'll tell the teach," Josh said. He stood up and raised his hand. "Mr. Delaney? Cailie's not feeling well. I think she needs to go to the nurse's office."
Mr. Delaney looked over and frowned. "You do look a bit pale. I don't want that bug getting around. You can go, Cailie."
"I'll take her," Josh chimed in.
"You, sir, haven't finished your homework."
Josh gawked, then argued, "No, I've got it done!"
"Show it to me," Mr. Delaney countered.
Josh grimaced and a few of our classmates snickered.
"That's what I thought," Mr. Delaney said. "Dustin, can you take her? Your homework is done, isn't it?"
Dustin nodded and helped me up. I was glad for Dustin's steady hand, because I kept feeling worse and worse. If I had to be honest, I wasn't 100 percent sure I could get down there by myself.
Josh sat down, fuming. I told him I'd be back soon and he didn't have to worry. "Get your homework done, okay? I don't want you failing and being held back a year."
Josh nodded and pulled out his notebook, a sour look crawling across his face, as Dustin helped me out of the classroom.
***
"I'm pretty sure she has viral pharyngitis and walking pneumonia. I'm sending a sample off to the lab to test. She's going to have to stay home at least a few days."
My mother frowned, and the doctor continued. "Keep her in bed at least until Thursday, Mrs. Orchard. We've caught it pretty early, so the medicine should ease it. Shouldn't be contagious come Friday. I'll give you something to keep her temperature down, too."
I was listening to everything through a haze. My face felt like there was a heat lamp placed just overhead, and I was so stuffed up I couldn't breathe through my nose. I just want to go home.
"Lets get you home, sweetie," mom said, as if she read my mind. "I'll get you tucked, and then I'll get the medicine, alright?"
It was another ten minutes before we left, prescriptions in hand. I slept for most of the rest of the day, only waking up when mom forced me to wake to take medicine or eat something. Dad also came in to check on me at least once a night, and would rub a salve on my chest that helped me cool down. All I could smell was mint until the next morning. The next few days went by as such.
Wednesday afternoon, I felt good enough to walk around. I still felt insanely hot, and made my mom turn on the AC, even though it was getting towards winter. Mid-afternoon, mom called me down, saying I had a visitor. I put on a sick mask, and went to answer the door.
Josh was in the living room, and my mom had given him a muffin.
"Wow, what are you doing here? School's not supposed to be out yet..." I looked at the clock. It was 1:30, and school didn't let out until 3:15.
"Yeah, they let us out early, said something about an emergency sweep. Maybe they missed someone?" Mom said she'd go get some juice for us and went to the kitchen.
"I thought they had a way of keeping track of them," I asked.
"Me, too. What's wrong with you anyway? What, with the mask and all. Dustin said you'd come down with something."
I vaguely remembered that mom had said one of my friends from school had come to check on me yesterday afternoon. I'd thought it was Josh.
"Yeah, I've got walking pneumonia and something else."
"At the same time? That sounds bad."
"Well, it's not fun."
Josh laughed. "Getting to sleep all day and skip class? Sounds fantastic to me! Where do I sign up?" He stared at me a little too long, and I giggled.
Mom reappeared with two cups of juice, then mentioned something quick before disappearing upstairs.
"Your mom's weird," Josh whispered.
"A little bit," I laughed. "Cooking's great though, can't complain."
That got him to laugh again, and then there was a bit of a pause.
"So... When are you coming back?"
"So... When are you coming back?"
"Doctor said tomorrow. Dad is overprotective, so it'll probably be Monday."
"That sucks. Well, if you're well enough on Saturday, do you want to go on a date?"
I blinked. I wasn't certain I'd heard the right thing. "What?" I couldn't tell if the heat in my face was from the illness now, or if I was bright red.
"Well, ever since Dustin got to take you to the nurse's, I've been pretty mad at myself for never telling you I want you to be mine. So, I figure I ought to jump on that before Dustin goes for you." Oh. Any semblance of embarassment was sapped away almost instantaneously.
"So... I'm just a piece of meat, for you two bears to fight over." I folded my arms, wondering if that's the only reason he'd come over: because Dustin did, and I was some sort of prize to be fought over.
"No, I... Cailie, I'm trying to say I like you and I want to take you out for a treat after you feel better."
I paused. "You said it poorly."
"I guess I did. I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way." I stayed as silent as he did Thursday afternoon. "Well... I can tell you're pretty annoyed right now. How about this: you think it over tonight, and I'll stop by tomorrow after school, okay? I heard they have this great action-comedy movie hitting the theaters tomorrow night, but that'll be packed. We can catch a Saturday one, okay? Just the two of us?"
He sounded so sincere.
"I'll think about it. Come back tomorrow, okay?"
"If your mom is gonna feed me more of these muffins, I'll definitely be back." He grinned and I rolled my eyes.
I stood at the door and waved, as he hopped on his bike and took off.
EDIT: Aug 19, 2014 - Change of names.
This is a draft and can and will be changed if I feel the need for it.
EDIT: Aug 19, 2014 - Change of names.
This is a draft and can and will be changed if I feel the need for it.
