Chapter 1
Ten years later
“Lisa, do we have to?”
“Of course! You mother would wring my neck if I didn’t put you in school!”
“Well, you don’t have to worry about my mother’s wrath. Unless you think a ghost could kill you.”
“Your mother would find a way.”
My little sister stepped into the conversation then. “AW! Come on, Lisa! Who needs a high school education?”
“You! Now get dressed and be in that car in ten minutes or you’re grounded.”
“Fine!”
This was how every school year started. Lisa kept us moving around the country every year, which she could do easily with her knowledge. It never took her very long to get a new job, because everyone with half a brain knew that she was the best candidate for any job. Currently, she was working as a receptionist at some fancy law firm on the other side of town.
I felt secretly bad, knowing that Fate and I were the reasons she couldn’t settle down in one place. She’s trying to keep us safe, off the radar. Ever since she got the phone call a few days after my mother was taken away. They had to give my mother one phone call, so she called to tell Lisa that they were going to kill her. We didn’t get to talk to her, though. She was afraid that if anyone found out she had daughters, then we would be killed as well.
I didn’t know why they hurt my mother until I was twelve, and I had the dream. It was one dream that changed, not just my life, but Clarice Shaw’s as well. Clarice was a high schooler, about seventeen I think, who had helped Lisa run errands a few times. In my dream, I saw her getting drunk and trying to drive. Two days later, I saw her in the news because of a car accident, due to drunk driving.
That was the first of many visions. I told Lisa, and she explained that that was why my mother had been taken away. She told me all about it. My mother was a psychic, and she discovered one day that there was a top-secret CIA organization called MRP; Mutant Riddance program. Mutants ranged from babies born with two heads, to people with inhuman abilities. They “arrest” mutants and take them to a base to be killed. They think they’re doing the world a favor by ridding the world of freaks.
She told me I had to keep it all a secret, and try to blend in.
I tried to at first, but then I remembered the last words my mother had said to me. “You are original. Don’t ever let anyone take that away from you.”
I stopped trying to be like everyone else at the next school I went to. I dyed my hair blue and never put on makeup. I don’t wear trendy clothes or converse or anything like anyone else. I buy t-shirts, usually black, and paint sayings on them in fabric paint and marker. I wear plain jeans with them, though.
I walked back into my room and put on a black t-shirt that says, “Basically, I hate conformity. I hate people telling me what to do. It makes me want to smash things. So-called normal behavior patterns make me so bored, I could throw up!” –Wendy O. Williams. The words were written in blue paint that matched the electric blueness of my hair.
I put on some light wash jeans and my black sneakers. I ran a brush through my long wavy blue hair and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth.
Fate was already there, blow drying her cherry red hair, so I shouted, “hey! You excited? You’re finally not a freshman anymore!”
“Yeah. I’m practically at the top of the food chain now!”
We laughed together. Fate was now fifteen, and going into sophomore year. She had her first psychic dream when she was thirteen, but she was prepared. She knew it was coming.
“So, are you excited to almost be eighteen? You get to vote, and move out if you want, and all that awesome crap.”
“Oh please! I wouldn’t leave you and Lisa if our lives depended on it! But the voting part could be kind of cool!”
My sister was a little more normal looking than me. Her hair was dyed red like that girl in Victorious. She wore plain clothes, too. Black tennis shoes and brightly colored tank tops and t-shirts. She was like a pack of highlighters and I was that gothic girl in the back of the room.
Fate and I were different. She liked to make friends wherever we went, but I was sort of scared of people. But we would always be each other’s best friends.
We finished in the bathroom and grabbed pop tarts on our way out the door, getting in the car.
“I said ten minutes.”
“Well, we took eleven, so let’s go.”
I opened my mouth as soon as she pulled out and started driving. “So, what are our names this time?”
She got our new IDs and birth certificates from the glove compartment. “Destiny, you’re Elizabeth Mortinsen, and Fate, you’re Mikayla.”
We took our legal documents and smiled. I did sort of look like a Lizzy. I flipped through my papers and was relieved I had a driver’s license, and didn’t have to go take a stupid test after school one day.
“Nice name, Mikayla.”
“Back at you, Elizabeth.”
“Can I call you Mickey, or what about Kayla?”
“I like Kay. I’ll call you Lizzy, obviously.”
“Like usual with the middle names then, Lisa?”
“Yeah.”
Usually, when we got new names, we would use our real names as our middle names, just to keep the authenticity of it all. Besides, I figure my mother probably named us to have names relating to our future-seeing selves, and I wouldn’t want to make her turn over in her grave by not using those names.
“Elizabeth Destiny Mortinsen,” I said, testing the name on my lips. I had to admit, it sort of worked.
“Mikayla Fate Mortinsen,” Fate said, doing the same.
You might think having different names your whole life can get really confusing, but it’s really not. We’re used to it, and we understand that we have to think before we speak, to avoid using the wrong name for each other.
We pulled up to the gigantic high school and took deep breaths. We were relieved when Lisa said, “okay, I’ll come in and get you two signed up for the right classes.”
We walked in the doors and saw people walking to their first classes. Some people slowed their walk to stare at us. We must have been quite the sight, with our colorful hair and our bright clothing.
We found the office quickly and went up to the lady behind the counter. “Hello, what do you need?”
“Um, I’m Elizabeth Mortinsen, and this is Mikayla.”
“Oh, right, the new students. I have your schedules right here.” She pulled out two half slips of paper from under her desk and smiled. “Which one is Elizabeth again?” I raised my hand slightly and she smiled. “Right. So here’s your schedule. You are a senior, right?”
“Yeah.” I almost laughed. I got that every year. I looked a lot younger than I really was, with my shortness and childish face. I honestly loved it. I always thought I was pretty, even if no one agreed.
“So that means you’re Mikayala, the sophomore.” Fate had always looked older than she was. She got that from our mom, I think. She was taller than me and looked very mature, except of course her hair and clothing choices, which made her seem like a little girl.
“Yes, Ma’am.”
She handed us our schedules and Lisa looked over them before handing them back to us and saying, “They look perfectly fine. Have a good day, girls.”
She have us a small hug and kissed our heads before leaving.
I decided to walk Fate to her first class before going off to find my own.
I dropped her off at English way before the bell rang and then went off to find my AP biology class.
I went in just before the bell rang and handed the old man my class schedule. “Ah, yes. You can go find any seat you want, but I trust you will not disrupt the class.” He eyed me with my anti-conformity t-shirt and blue hair, probably assuming I was some sort of delinquent.
“Yes, sir.”
I went to the back right corner and sat down in the last desk, surrounded by empty seats, avoiding everyone else’s glares. I started getting my notebook and pencil out of my bag when I heard someone’s voice right next to my seat.
“Hey,” I looked up to see a guy with glasses over dark brown eyes and black hair falling over his face.
“Hi,” I said cautiously.
“I’m Derek.”
“Hi, Derek.”
“What’s your name?”
“Elizabeth.”
“Okay, Elizabeth, is it okay if I sit here,” he asked pointing to the seat next to me.
“Yeah, I guess. It’s not my property, so who am I to say no?”
He laughed as he sat down and started getting out his materials. “I like your shirt.”
“Thanks.”
“You make it?”
“Yeah.”
“Nice. So, you are being really quiet.”
“Yeah, that’s how I am.”
Just then the bell rang and the teacher stood up and began going over the rules for the year. “Hello, and happy first day of school.”
Everyone groaned at that and he smiled. “Come on, it’s your senior year! Surely you can find adventure in your daily school life.”
He continued on for about ten minutes, telling us about the course, and how we’ll be expected to read a lot every night, and do all our homework. And then he finally got on with the lesson, the first lecture of the year, I thought.
After class, I pulled out my schedule and as I looked at my next class, I heard Derek right behind me. “Hey, we have next class together and seventh period. I’ll walk with you, if you want.”
“Sure. It’s a free country.”
I honestly, didn’t care if he left me alone. I just hoped he wouldn’t get to thinking I was his new best friend. “So, you’re new here?”
“Yeah.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Me, my sister, and my aunt moved in over the summer.” That was sort of a lie. Lisa wasn’t my aunt, she was my mom’s best friend. But the cover was that she was her sister.
“Oh, you live with your Aunt?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“My mom’s dead.”
“Oh. I’m sorry. Where’s your dad?”
I laughed without humor. “Let me know if you ever find out.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“So, you close with your sister?”
“Yeah. She’s my best friend.”
“That’s nice.”
“Yeah.”
That was when we got to our English class and the teacher assigned us seats on opposite sides of the room.
I sat down and waited for the teacher to begin the lesson.
[A/N: So how am I doing? This is dedicated to Maniacal_girl for the cover!]