The Weirdos

39

At lunch, the two took a break to eat and get something to drink. Jasper looked over his notes while letting the soup cool a bit.

Books
Age 15
Likes the color green
Invents in free time
Smart but doesn't enjoy work much
Rather lazy
Never had the chance to launch anything
The training room is his only invention that has been thoroughly explored and used

Jasper didn't feel like he'd really learned much about Books since he started asking questions. The questions in the packet were kind of deep and personal. He had to hit at least some of them eventually... How else would he figure out who Books was? After lunch, Books headed upstairs, expecting Jasper to follow, in which he did. Books led him to the left hallway and down to his room. He opened the door and Jasper was flooded with the smell of metal and that one book scent that was hard to describe. The room was covered in books on shelves and left in stacks on the floor. There was an entire corner dedicated to stacks of paper and pieces of metal, wiring and cables and all kinds of tools. It looked like a mechanic's shop. The bed was up against the wall in the corner, built into a bookshelf. Jasper almost laughed. Books lived up to his name.
"You can sit wherever... I'm gonna work while you do your interview."
Jasper sat on the bed and looked down at the questions again.
"Uh... How did you discover your... mutation?"
Books smirked.
"I was in class one day and while the teacher was showing us the correct way to do a math problem, I got bored. I looked down at the textbook and suddenly started flipping through all the pages and retaining every inch of the knowledge. When I slammed the book closed, everyone looked at me and I stood up. 'I need to use the bathroom' is what I told the teacher before running out of the classroom with my backpack."
"Where did you go?"
Jasper asked, fully engaged in the story. This was so much more interesting than simple small talk questions like 'what's your favorite color?'.
"I went to a library. I found all these advanced college textbooks and just read them all in a matter of hours. I couldn't get enough. My head was full of numbers and ideas and I shook so hard with need. I had to build something. I had to do a surgery. I had to write a book. I had to teach a college class. Something. And then I thought... What about my parents? They have to know what's happened to me."
Jasper stared at him, waiting for what happened next. Books didn't continue, though. He clipped wires and connected them to others, creating sparks. It made Jasper wonder if he ever started fires in this room.
"Did you go home?"
Jasper asked.
"Yeah..."
Books said, voice quiet and almost sad. Jasper shifted and said,
"What happened when you got there?"
Books slammed a tool down on the table.
"They were dead."
Jasper immediately regretted his questions.
"Oh..."
"It's fine. I mean... It happened to all of us, right? The monster stole our parents' lives. Skins found me and brought me here. She said she felt my pulse, my energy. She just happened to be in the area. She was taking Freak here and picked me up along the way."
Books sniffled and went back to making sparks.
"Are we done yet?"
"No... But we can continue another day."
"Yeah. Let's do that..."
Jasper nodded and left the room.