Kaleidoscope

Description

Young Alyssa knew that she was due to be kicked out of the home eventually, she just wished that it wasn't so soon. To make matters worse, the obnoxious and telekinetic person by the name of Jay isn't the greatest roommate.

Chapter 1
Alyssa

I sat in the passenger seat, watching buildings go by as the car sped down the road. It wasn't long before I could no longer recognize the scenery outside.

As we neared the end of the trip, my mother broke the silence. "Get. Out."

Without glancing back, I opened the door, and started off towards the giant sprawling black-and-grey mansion in front of me. I carried a purple backpack on my back, and heard the sound of screeching tires as I headed towards the place where I would be trapped for the next six years.

The light grey pavement of the sidewalk, and the old bricks of the building were a dramatic contrast to the red and orange trees surrounding it. As I walked up to the simple double doors that marked the entrance, I could hear the crunching of something walking through the leaves next to me. I looked over to see a fat black-and-orange cat stalking something.

As I stared at it, the world in front of me shifted. I could still see the cat, but it was in a different time. The cat looked older. The space shifted again, and the cat was in snow. This happened once more with the cat soaking wet. Then I could hear a loud "meow" and the cat was there again at the right time, and it stared up at me before running off into the distance, in a flurry of colorful dead leaves.

I turned back to the building, took a deep breath, and pushed open the doors. I pulled out a slip of paper from my back pocket. I was told that I was assigned a roommate by the name of Kaitlen. She was going to show me around. I knew nothing about her, except that she didn't have a roommate and that the whole thing was done last minute. That had nothing to do with her really, but I didn't think that she'd be too excited about having to look after some 12-year-old kid that she'd never met.

I paid little attention to the small lobby area I had entered, and instead focused on finding the correct room number. After passing through a series of hallways full of doors, I eventually stopped in front of a shiny black one covered in various emoji stickers. Centered on the door, just above my head was a set of metal numbers which matched the for that I'd written down on the paper.

"Are you just gonna stand there, or are you gonna walk in?" I jumped at the loud voice, startled and surprised. Before I could respond, the door in front of me swung open. It clipped my shoulder causing me to jump again. I was staring at the door that seemed to have moved on its own, when the voice came again, "I'm going to assume that you're Alyssa?"

"Yeah." I confirmed, my voice soft. My gaze was drawn to the floor where who I expected to be Kaitlen was laying on her back. The problem was that she didn't look much like a girl. "Are you Kaitlen?"

"No. I'm Jay. You're here because Kaitlen made some threats to Butters and I don't want to chance her following through with it." Jay was wearing a green beanie, a grey tank-top, no shoes, and red skinny jeans. He held up his hand - which was holding a phone - and gestured over to the right side of the room. It was mostly empty save for a bed and a small table. "You can stay over there. I don't care what you do. Just don't touch any of my shit. Alright?"

I walked over to the bed, tossed my bag onto it, and sat down. "Who's Butters?"

"Cat." A few seconds after the flat statement, I could hear loud, fast-paced music which I assumed came from some speaker.

Taking this as a cue that the conversation was over, I looked around at his side of the room. The bed was larger than the one I sat on, and it was covered with a wide array of plush throws and body pillows mixed with synthetic blankets. It looked like a cozy plush rainbow, and I was mildly jealous over the setup.

The floor was lined with mismatched carpeting, which in turn was covered in a scattering of miscellaneous items - pencils, empty soda cans, books, wrappers, old phone chargers, a rubix cube- I think I even saw a fidget spinner. In the corner, there was a 5-foot-tall plush giraffe. Save for the bed, there wasn't much in the way of furniture. There was a beanbag chair, a basket chair, and a desk hidden under stacks of what looked like blank loose leaf paper.

"Can you turn down the music?" I asked, quickly finding the high-pitched singing annoying.

"I can." Jay answered.

I watched him for a moment, waiting for him to pick up the phone, and turn it back down.

"...but I won't." Jay continued as if realizing that I'd been waiting.

I nodded, not wanting to get into an argument. A few songs later, I pulled my phone from out of my back pocket, then asked, "What's the WiFi?"

"DeathToTheDouches." Jay stated helpfully.

"Thanks." I scrolled down, and quickly found it. The connection was password protected, so I asked, "what's the password?"

"Capital 'T' then lowercase 'r-a-p-p-e-d-i-n-a' then capital 'P' a zero capital 'R-N' and another zero." Jay answered.

"Lovely," was all I could say as I logged onto the wifi. I checked my messages. There was nothing from my mom, but I was expecting that. I didn't have anything from anyone else, so instead I simply scrolled aimlessly through Instagram.

Chapter 2
Jay

I laid on my back on the floor staring up at the ceiling. A few feet away from me, balanced atop a pile of what most people would call "clutter" sat my popcorn bucket-shaped Bluetooth speaker loudly playing songs out of my YouTube nightcore playlist.

Though I was trying to relax, at the same time I was mentally kicking myself for giving in to Kaitlen and her stupid fire. I could beat her in a fight anytime, and couldn't believe I'd agreed to watching this new kid so quickly.

I was trying to focus on the noise that was coming through the speaker when I saw someone coming down the hallway. I sighed, and hit the volume down button on my phone. The girl eventually stopped in front of my door, and after hesitating for a few seconds too long for my short patience, I called out "Are you gonna just stand there, or are you gonna walk in?" The kid jumped, and I sighed, sending the door swinging open. The door clipped her shoulder on its way to hit the other wall. "I'm going to assume that you're Alyssa?"

"Yeah." Alyssa cleared her throat, nervously entering the room. "Yes I am."

"Ok." I reached up to gestured towards the right side of the room. "You can stay over there. I don't care what you do; just don't touch my shit, alright?" I dropped my arm back to the floor.

"Ok...." She sat down on the bed I'd stolen from Len, who was currently out of town. Hopefully he wouldn't figure out it was me. "So, you're Kaitlen?"

I stifled a laugh, then explained. "No. I'm Jay. Kaitlen dumped you on me. The only reason I agreed to this is because she threatened Butters, and I'm pretty sure she'd follow through with it." I tilted my head slightly so that I was looking up at her. Remembering that the door was still open, I closed it. She jumped slightly at the noise.

"Who's Butters?" she asked.

"Cat." Not wanting to continue talking to her, I hit the button on the phone so that the music was audible.

"Can you turn down the music?"

"I can." She seemed to be waiting for something to happen, so I continued with, "but I won't."

She glared at me, and pulled out her phone. "What's the wifi?"

"DeathToTheDouches," I let her know. I waited as she scrolled through the long list of Wifis from the other rooms in the building for the inevitable question of what the password was.

"...thanks. What's the password?" she asked predictably.

"TrappedinaP0RN0 - the 'T' is capitalized, 'P0RN0' is in all caps but the 'O's are zeros. No spaces." I responded, my voice a steady monotone.

"Lovely." She logged onto the wifi, and proceeded to do whatever she was doing on her phone.

I continued to stare at the ceiling, and listen to my music as I tried to figure out if the insanity was finally settling in. I couldn't take care of a kid. I could barely take care of myself. "Are you going to unpack?"

"Later." She hastily responded.

"Cool." I nodded, and quietly sang along to the lyrics the speaker churned out. I started to think more about the circumstances that left to this timid girl to end up here in the first place. All I knew was that her mother was in a hurry to get rid of her. It made no sense. Alyssa was at least eleven or twelve. She's obviously had whatever ability she has for years. Why did she have to come here now?

Many songs passed before I reached out with my mind to tap the button on the side of my phone to turn down the music so that it was simply just a soundtrack in the background. "So. What can you do?"

"What?" she asked, wide-eyed and surprised at my sudden words.

"You must be able to do something if you ended up here." I sat up, and scooted around on the floor so that I could sit with my back against my bed. My legs were splayed out in front of me, and I leaned my elbows against the mattress behind me.

"Right back at you." Alyssa retorted shakily in a weak effort to deflect the attention back on me.

I shrugged. Feeling around the room, I moved the giraffe. It walked over to sit down next to me. It looked back and forth between the two of us before returning to where it had been previously resting.

"Telekinesis?" she asked, staring at it.

"Obviously. What about you?"

She didn't answer.

"You're a quiet one." I stated, sighing. I wondered if I could get Kaitlen to watch her. Doubtful though.

She shrugged and looked away.

What was I going to do tomorrow? What do little kids like? Wait. According to my classmates, I'm basically a young child. So, she'd probably like doing things I like to do, right? Ok, probably not video games, but maybe, yeah. "Do you like rides?"

"What?" she asked again, this time actually confused.

"Every year, I go to the amusement park the weekend before school starts, do you wanna come with me?" I clarified.v"School started a week ago." She said, giving me a weird look.

"True. That won't stop me from going. Who would I be if I let something like homework prevent me from having fun?" I asked rhetorically

I didn't get an answer to that, which was actually to be expected.

However, it was annoying that they didn't give a response to the first question. "Do you want to go to the amusement park tomorrow or not? I have a season pass, and still have the friend pass they give you when you buy it." I felt around the room, grabbing my wallet out of the air once I found it. I opened it up, and looked through it. Though I found my glossy yellow season pass, I couldn't find the friend pass. It took about a minute of searching the room to find it buried under a pile of DVDs.

"Sure." She answered distractedly. "Why not?" She was looking around, her expression one of a person in deep thought. "Where do I put my stuff?"

"What do you mean?"

"There isn't a dresser in here." Alyssa said, stating the obvious. "Or a closet."

"True." I thought about it for a moment. I'd never really had the need for one. I could just find whatever it was that I wanted to wear, mentally remove any dirt from it, and I'd be fine. "I guess you'll have to find one yourself."

"What?" This girl was big on the 'whats' wasn't she.

"At a yard sale or something." I suggested, picking up my phone to check the time. I realized that I hadn't been charging it, so I sent it across the room to the outlet to charge. I reached around and grabbed my bed to pull myself up into a standing position.

I looked over to Alyssa, then turned around, turning off the lights as I did so. Smiling slightly at Alyssa's startled cry, I caught an oversized t-shirt out of the air, and peeled off my skinny jeans and binder. Falling into bed, I could see a dim light coming from Alyssa's phone.

I rolled over slightly, only my face visible from underneath a pile of blankets and watched as she quickly changed into a pair of pajamas, found the outlet so that she could charge her phone, then climbed into the bare bed on her side to go to sleep.

We were both drifting off to sleep when I felt a furry presence outside the window. I sleepily reached out to remove all the dirt and burrs that had gotten caught up in Butters's fur, then opened the window for the cat to come inside.

"What was that?" Alyssa jumped at the sound of the window slamming shut.

There was a loud "MEOW" from the cat, and she seemed to understand what had happened and settled back down. The cat jumped onto my bed and curled itself around my feet to sleep.

Chapter 3
Alyssa pov

I woke up from a dream filled with giraffes to find a tail in my face. The black and orange appendage swished back and forth across my face. I tried to push the cat away, but that unfortunately resulted in my hand getting clawed.

"OW!" I yelled at the furry demon, who had shifted its position from being curled up asleep to being stretched out across my chest. Almost immediately after I screamed, I heard a loud thump from across the room. I moved my head to the side to see Jay on the floor wrapped up in various blankets.

"Wa...?" I heard from the tangled mess. After about a minute, Jay was untangled and standing, looking around the room. After a moment, his head was facing towards me, and I noticed that he still wore the glasses. "Oh right. The amusement park. Come on." Jay turned around to face the opposite wall from me, and dropped the last blanket, exposing his shaved head. I looked away as he got changed. "Dunkin' Donuts?"

After his last statement, I looked back up at him to see that he was wearing a pink hoodie, pink sneakers, black skinny jeans, and the same beanie from yesterday. "What?"

He walked over to me, and picked up the cat. Jay began cuddling the cat, seeming to forget that I had said anything. "Who's a good little Butters? You are. Yes you are. You're a good, good little kitty aren't you, Butt-"

The cat hissed, and Jay through it through the now open window. The cat flailed unnaturally through the air, and barely a minute passed before the cat jumped back onto the windowsill to glare at Jay in annoyance. A can of cat food slid out from somewhere, and opened itself in front of the cat. As the cat, apparently named Butters ate, Jay said, "You'd better get dressed if you wanna go to the park."

"What about breakfast?" I asked.

He looked over at the cat with a look of disbelief. "Butters, did I not mention Dunkin' Donuts a minute ago?" The cat said nothing, but Jay continued, looking up at me, "Yes Butters, that's right. I did." To me, he asked in a tone that made it hard to tell if he was joking, "Do you have short-term memory loss, my child?"

I looked between him and the cat, unsure as how to respond. I wasn't against the free food, and joke aside this guy wasn't half bad. "Sure I'll have a donut."

"K. Get dressed. You have until the cat is done eating." Jay turned around, and bent down to stare at the cat intently, as if anticipating the moment when it would be done.

I quickly opened my backpack, not wanting to take any chances, and pulled out a pair of jeans and a red hoodie to change into. After a minute, a tube of Neosporin and a pack of bandaids made their way into my hand.

I smiled up at Jay, though he wasn't even looking at me, and set to work covering up the cuts on my hand once I was dressed.

"You ride a motorcycle?" I exclaimed starting at the two-wheeled menace that sat parked in the dorm building's parking lot.

"Why do you think I have this helmet?" Jay asked, holding up the shiny red motorcycle helmet he'd carried outside.

I didn't answer him and instead asked, "Why do you only have one?"

"You only have one head." He stated.

"What about you?" I pointed out.

"Look, Al, I can protect myself in the very unlikely scenario that we crash. You, cannot." He paused, and looked over at me suggestively saying, "Unless what you're not telling me is pretty special." He held out the helmet to me. "Put it on."

I looked at the helmet for a second, then took it, securing it on my head. Jay climbed onto the bike, then gestured for me to climb on as well. I managed to lift my leg up and over the vehicle so that it was straddling the seat.

Jay pulled out a pair of thick gloves from his pocket, and slid the glasses down from his forehead so that they covered his eyes. "Hold on tight," he called back.

I put my arms around him, as he revved the motorcycle. It pulled out of the parking lot, and picked up speed as it roared down the street. A few minutes later, we were outside of a Dunkin' Donuts.

Jay parked the bike, and I slid off of it. I took off the helmet. "What do I do with this?" I asked.

"Just leave it on the seat. Don't worry. No one's going to take it." He said, walking towards the pink-and-orange fast food establishment.

I left the helmet on the seat like he said, and followed him into the building. The interior was strangely void of people. It was a Sunday morning, so that was probably why. We went up to the counter.

The girl behind the counter noticed our approach, and turned around to face. "Hello how may I help you-" her smile dropped when she saw Jay, "What do you want?"

"Well, that all depends on what Al here wants." He turned, and crouched down slightly so that he was at my eye level, "What is it that you would like to ingest?"

"Uhhhh." I looked over at the donuts. "A glazed donut. And water?"

Jay repeated my order, adding his own coffee and donut request.

The person behind the counter held out her hand. "Money first."

"Is that really necessary?" Jay asked.

"Yes."

"Fine." Jay dug out a wallet, from which he pulled out the cash needed for the unhealthy breakfast.

When the donuts were gone, Jay stood up, and headed outside. I followed. The lid of the tiny trunk of the vehicle was floating in the air as Jay placed his drink in the compartment. "Give me your water." He held his hand out, and the bottle flew from my hand and into his. He placed it next to his own drink. The top fell back onto the bike, and latched itself into place.

I watched as Jay climbed onto the bike. He held out the helmet, and I silently took it.

I climbed back onto the motorcycle. The engine rumbled to a start, and the bike quickly pulled out of the Dunkin' Donuts parking lot, and into traffic.

When we finally stopped, I realized that we were parked outside of a diner. Jay climbed off the bike, and I followed. He took my helmet, this time placing it in the compartment, after removing our beverages.

"Why are we here?" I asked looking around.

"I am not paying for parking," was all he said before heading down the street.

I caught the water bottle that was gently tossed to me, and downed what liquid was left in the bottle. Jay sipped at his iced coffee, not looking back to see if I was following. I was, and I followed for the few minutes it took to reach the amusement park. It was then that I realized that he had never told me the name of the place. I was about to say something when I looked up at the big neon name over the entrance.

THE AMUSEMENT PARK

Ok then. I nodded, and picked up my pace so that I was directly behind Jay as we headed closer to the entrance. The water bottle I was holding flew out of my hands, and I watched as it rolled across the sidewalk before jumping into a large recycling bin I was almost annoyed, but I was done with it, and at least it didn't end up in the trash.

After Jay showed the guy his pass and my guest pass, and we passed through the metal detectors and were in the park, I realized that Jay was missing his drink. I was about to ask, when it suddenly fell from the sky after about a minute of walking.

He caught it, and sipped at it as if nothing happened. Noticing my confusion, he simply said, "'No outside food or drinks are allowed in the park.'"

I nodded, then asked him what he wanted to go on first. I mean, I wanted to choose, but he had gone to the trouble to let me come too and I didn't want to get him mad.

"Flashback of course," was his answer, "You can't go to any amusement park without riding the flashback first."

"Ok." I followed him across the park until we arrived at the monstrous rollercoaster before us.

"Com'on!" he yelled as he ran down the path that led to the coaster I followed him to find that he was eagerly standing at the end of the short line of people who had already arrived. The line moved twice before it was our turn.

Jay climbed over the train, dropped off his coffee in one of the little cubbyholes intended for riders' belongings, then climbed back over to the seat where he sat down and pulled the harness down over his shoulders.

"Are you sure you want to keep those on?" asked one of the ride attendants, referring to Jay's sunglasses. "This ride does go upside down."

"I know, and I'll be fine," Jay assured her.

"Ok." She said skeptically before going over to the control panel. She didn't need to confirm that any others were secured, as we sat in the back row.

After a brief "thank you for riding" announcement, there was a slow, loud clicking noise as the the train ascended backwards up the lift hill. I could hear those waiting on line chanting a countdown. I remembered Jay doing it when we were still down there. Its fun to do when you're on line - but not to hear when you're up in the air.

There was a final loud click, and the train lurched forward. I screamed, my long red hair whipping around my face as we barreled down the track. I could hear Jay laughing hysterically to my right. I glanced over to see that his glasses were indeed still on his face despite the loops in the ride.

The ride finally slowed down. Unfortunately, this was only because we were going up the second chain lift. Though we had slowed down, we were going up lift faster than the first one. Once we reached the peak, there was a loud crashing click as the coaster train fell back down along the track even faster than before.

I screamed along with other riders as the train quickly progressed backwards along the track back to the station. It went up a bit, then settled back down where it had started.

Chapter 4
Jay pov

The shoulder harnesses rose up, and I glanced over to see Alyssa. She sat there, facing straight ahead for several seconds before yelling, "That was awesome!"

She jumped out of the seat, and ran past me to get back on line. I watched her run, then smirked to myself as I pulled the shoulder harness down over me. Someone climbed on to sit in the now-empty spot next to me.

The coaster retraced its path up the lift hill, eventually releasing and sending us all into another bout of screams and fun. This repeated about three more times until Alyssa ended up in the seat next to me.

"How come you didn't have to get off?" she complained, strapping herself in.

"If no-one else wants to ride in the seat you're sitting in - you don't have to get off." I explained.

"Why didn't you tell me that?" she demanded.

"You didn't ask." I pointed out.

"I asked now."

The ride attendant reached our row and after making sure that we were secured, the ride started.

"And as you may recall, I have now answered." I called back as we were being slowly pulled upwards and backwards.

I didn't get a response as we fell before she could say anything. Once we got off, she was no longer annoyed and seemed to have forgotten about the whole thing. Alyssa wanted to ride again, but I'd already ridden flashback five times and was ready to ride something else.

I tossed the empty coffee cup into the big green bin. "You ready to eat?" I asked Alyssa.

"No," she responded. "I don't feel like throwing up."

"Good point." I nodded, then pointed towards The Glider, a long and looping rollercoaster that covered half the park. Though it was fast, the coaster was so smooth it simply felt like you were flying.

"I'm not riding that," was Alyssa's response to me heading towards it.

"Come on." I complained. "You rode flashback - and that's the roughest ride at the park."

"I prefer my head hitting the sides of the restraints for fifty seconds over spending over three minutes on a single rollercoaster." She said, following me onto the line anyways.

"It'll be worth it," I assured her as we walked through the long empty lines. There weren't many people here, it being a Sunday in late October. But even if it was a Saturday in the middle of summer, this particular line would still be fairly short as this coaster could have up to a dozen different trains at a time.

Once we reached the front of the line, we climbed into the front two hanging seats of the 4-seat train which awaited us at the station. We clicked in our seatbelts and pulled down the over-the-shoulder restraints. Once the ride attendant had confirmed that both we - and the riders behind us - were safe, the air-powered cars took off down the track, sending us smoothly down the line into endless flying twists and turns.

I laughed at Alyssa's screaming as we soared up loop-de-loops and zipped around the park. Once the ride was over, it was clear that it was time to go. We'd been there for hours, and ridden nearly every ride at the massive park.

As we were walking away from The Glider, Alyssa was begrudgingly agreeing that the coaster was fun when she stopped dead in her tracks.

"Alyssa?" I asked as she stood there, cross-eyed eyes staring at nothing. "You ok?"

After a moment, she seemed to snap out of it, and pointed up at the coaster. "There."

"What?" I said, confused.

"The restraint is going to break, and someone's going to fall." She said, staring up at a corkscrew on The Glider, pointing at the top of the first loop.

"Are you sure?" I looked from her to the coaster.

"Yeah." She dropped her arm, and looked over to me and shrugged.

"Ok..." I thought for a moment, then decided to take her seriously. "Get your phone out."

"What?"

"Turn on the camera, and start a video." I continued without explanation.

"Ok... done."

I grabbed the phone, and sent it up so that the camera was facing the location on the ride that she'd pointed out. I focused on the ride, and it didn't take long for me realize that there was a flaw in the restraints of this seat. I didn't know why, but I knew it was there.

I inhaled, and focused on the kid in the seat. The second he ended up at the top of the loop, he went flying. I made a slight grabbing motion in the air as I caught the back of his shirt, stopping him in mid air.

He dangled in the air briefly before slowly descended down to the ground, where a group of bystanders had gathered. I returned the phone to Alyssa, and started walking away towards another ride.

After a moment of just standing there, Alyssa started to run to catch up to me. "That was amazing."

I shrugged. I wanted to ask her about her abilities, but I didn't want her asking about mine. It didn't really matter either way. "You want a slushie?"

"Sure."

Chapter 5
Alyssa pov

I followed Jay into the room, slurping at what was left of my slushy. Jay closed the door, and I moved to sit on my bed. Sitting down, I pulled my phone out of my pocket. The window opened, and the cat, Butters, climbed into the room.

"You hungry?" Jay inquired, walking over to the cat and rubbing him behind the ears.

I nodded. All I'd eaten today was some donuts. We'd wasted the entire Sunday at the park, not that I was complaining about that, just the lack of food opportunities since the consession stands were all overpriced.

"You like Chinese?" Jay asked me.

I nodded again, wondering where this was going when a slightly crumpled sheet of paper dislodged itself from the mess on Jay's side of the room, and floated over to me. It straightened itself out and hovered in place in front of my face.

"Here. You can look though this and let me know what you want." He collapsed into a bean bag chair, and another sheet of paper slid off the desk along with a pen.

I caught the first paper as it started to fall. I looked through it a while, a bit nervous about ordering anything.

"Don't worry, its fine. It may be cheap, but its still pretty good." Jay said over the soft sound of the pen scribbling across the paper.

I nodded it wasn't the food quality that I was worried about.

Jay grabbed his phone, and called the restaurant, ordering some kind of chicken for himself and a fried rice for me. I played some games on my phone, and he continued writing what he was doing.

I looked up, and soon after Jay did the same. He stood up and walked over to the door. He stood there for about a minute before pulling his wallet out of his pocket, and motionlessly opening the door. I could see the delivery guy walk up, then suddenly my vision shifted like a glitching computer screen, and I could see the same man walk up again. And again. And again. And again. And. Again. Each time he was wearing something different and looked slightly different.

I heard the door close, but it was separate from what I was seeing. I couldn't look away until-

"ALYSSA!"

I jumped, and looked up, wide-eyed at Jay standing in front of me holding a styrofoam container. "What?"

"Food." He let go of it, and it moved to the spot on the bed directly next to where I was sitting. "Yours." Jay shook his head as he walked back over to where he was sitting on the floor. He just kind of sat there, writing away as he caught chunks of food that floated out of the container next to him with his mouth. It kinda looked like the ultimate laziness, but at the same time it probably took a lot of concentration to do that.

When I asked him what he was doing he said, "I have an essay due tomorrow."

"Cool." When I finished eating, I asked, "Where's the bathroom?"

"Down the hallway to the left, you'll probably recognize the bathroom door logo." Jay didn't look up from the paper.

I nodded, and stood up to leave the room. I didn't run into anyone in the hallway or in the bathroom.

It was when I was laying in the bed in the dark trying to sleep when my new reality really hit me. My mother had abandoned me in this place to be taken care of by some guy who wanted nothing to do with me just because I could see what was going to happen.

It was her new boyfriend's fault really. He didn't like the idea of having a freak around so he talked my mom into sending me to this place. But she wouldn't have been talked into something unless she really wanted it.

My own mother would rather send me to a hellhole that only exists as a government-funded pity palace for abandoned kids with abilities. But why did my mom did this? I thought she loved-

"Will you stop? I'm trying to sleep."

I jumped slightly at Jay's voice. It was then I realized I'd been crying. "Sorry."

"Whatever. Just be quiet."

I tried to calm down and go to sleep, but once I started thinking about it I couldn't stop. A cardboard box fell onto face, causing me to let out a small scream in surprise.

I grabbed it, and found it to be a box of tissues. "Th-thanks." I said through tears.

"Eh. Anything to make you shut up. One thing to remember - no-one cares. You're not going to get any sympathy from me, and not from anyone else. No-one here cares about or looks out for anyone but themself." Jay spoke as-a-matter-of-factly, his voice revealing little emotion.

I wasn't sure if he was trying to be mean or give me advice. Or both.

Chapter 6
Jay pov

I woke up with Butters curled around my face. I gently pushed him out of the way, and stood up to see