I hadn’t slept in over two days, and it was starting to show. I looked like death, as my friend Emma stated when I walked into first period. She grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of the class room. We had another ten minutes until the morning bell.
"Where are we going?" I asked, lettinger pull her pull me down the hallway. I didn’t have the energy to resist.
"The bathroom. You have a brush?"
No, I told her. We were inside the bathroom now, leaning against the back wall, eyes closed. It smelled like the lotion store in the mall, due to the continuously revolving five or so girl that hogged up the mirrors, caking on makeup and spritzing on their perfume.
"What happened to you?" She asked, pulling out her own bag of beauty, picking through its contents until she found what she wanted.
"Thanks for doing this." I said, closing my eyes again. I hadn’t been planning onlooking good today, but it was a pleasant surprise.
"Psshh, don’t try to change the subject. What happened to you anyways? I didn’t see you yesterday. Are you sick or something?"
"No, I just couldn’t sleep. And I skipped school yesterday to do that insane amount of homework we got in functions/trig."
Liar. I was very glad that at that moment, Emma was so focused on her art project, me, to notice my lie. I had always sucked at lying.
"Spray this." She said, handing me a small opaque bottle. It smelled of oranges and alcohol.
She declared she was finished. I glanced in the mirror, not really caring what I looked like. I looked better at least, less dead.
"Like, were you hopped up on caffeine? What was up?"
"I just couldn’t sleep." This was half true anyways.
"That’s weird." Thank you captain obvious.
"yep."
She was going to say something, but she fell silent. The whole bathroom fell silent. Mio had walked in.
She looked like everyone else in the bathroom, except for one bright yellow stripe around her wrist. My brother wore one too, and so would I if I told Emma the truth. The yellow stripe was the mark of a genetic mutant; a genoe.
If you were a genoe, it was pretty much understood you were unpopular the second that yellow band came into view, so it made sense that the bathroom would immediately freeze up. My body however went rigid, literally paralyzed by fear.
I hated her for a totally different set of reasons.
No one really knew much about Mio. Sure there was gossip what she could do. Genoes generally didn’t go around yelling what had made them a freak. I barely knew what most of the fourteen genoes could do at our school, but only because of my brother. I had figured Mio out by myself.
She could read minds, and the only reason I knew was because I could feel her in my head when she did it. No one else could feel a thing. And she knew I knew too. My brother and she were best friends after all. And there was the fact that she could hear me freaking out when she did it.
And I desperately wished that I could be anywhere but here, because all it would take was gentle probe from her to hear the blaring secret in my head.
"Where are we going?" I asked, lettinger pull her pull me down the hallway. I didn’t have the energy to resist.
"The bathroom. You have a brush?"
No, I told her. We were inside the bathroom now, leaning against the back wall, eyes closed. It smelled like the lotion store in the mall, due to the continuously revolving five or so girl that hogged up the mirrors, caking on makeup and spritzing on their perfume.
"What happened to you?" She asked, pulling out her own bag of beauty, picking through its contents until she found what she wanted.
"Thanks for doing this." I said, closing my eyes again. I hadn’t been planning onlooking good today, but it was a pleasant surprise.
"Psshh, don’t try to change the subject. What happened to you anyways? I didn’t see you yesterday. Are you sick or something?"
"No, I just couldn’t sleep. And I skipped school yesterday to do that insane amount of homework we got in functions/trig."
Liar. I was very glad that at that moment, Emma was so focused on her art project, me, to notice my lie. I had always sucked at lying.
"Spray this." She said, handing me a small opaque bottle. It smelled of oranges and alcohol.
She declared she was finished. I glanced in the mirror, not really caring what I looked like. I looked better at least, less dead.
"Like, were you hopped up on caffeine? What was up?"
"I just couldn’t sleep." This was half true anyways.
"That’s weird." Thank you captain obvious.
"yep."
She was going to say something, but she fell silent. The whole bathroom fell silent. Mio had walked in.
She looked like everyone else in the bathroom, except for one bright yellow stripe around her wrist. My brother wore one too, and so would I if I told Emma the truth. The yellow stripe was the mark of a genetic mutant; a genoe.
If you were a genoe, it was pretty much understood you were unpopular the second that yellow band came into view, so it made sense that the bathroom would immediately freeze up. My body however went rigid, literally paralyzed by fear.
I hated her for a totally different set of reasons.
No one really knew much about Mio. Sure there was gossip what she could do. Genoes generally didn’t go around yelling what had made them a freak. I barely knew what most of the fourteen genoes could do at our school, but only because of my brother. I had figured Mio out by myself.
She could read minds, and the only reason I knew was because I could feel her in my head when she did it. No one else could feel a thing. And she knew I knew too. My brother and she were best friends after all. And there was the fact that she could hear me freaking out when she did it.
And I desperately wished that I could be anywhere but here, because all it would take was gentle probe from her to hear the blaring secret in my head.
