Just Like That

Chapter 4: Skills

"Cool! I have a skill!" Was all I could think. Then I asked, "What's a skill?"

Aspen continued to smile, as he stepped farther into the room. "Do you remember lit the way last night?" He asked. To emphasize the point he created the same luminous form. "Well, that's part of my skill." He said this as if it would explain everything. Before I had a chance to ask any questions he said, "Change your clothes, and meet me downstairs. We have a long day ahead of us."

He left, and i got to work. It took me a while to even make it to the dresser because of all the plant-life in the way. In the dresser there was something to cover my top and bottom, with some garments that appeared to go underneath. Everything was the same beige color, and everything was way to large. I noticed a pair of shoes by the door, and slipped them on my feet. They had white things that I supposed were meant to bind the shoe to my foot, but they wouldn't have helped if I would have known how to tie them properly.

I went downstairs to find Aspen sitting in a cushioned chair. He smirked at my ill fitting clothes, and then looked embarressed. He had after all, picked them. He stood up and said, "First things first. Let's get breakfast." He took off at brisk pace. It was hard to keep up in my floppy shoes, and the bottom part of my clothes to long. I felt the bottom part of my clothes start to slip. I had to hold them up with my hand as I tried to keep up.

We arrived at a white building with giant doors that were propped open. There were many people inside. They all seemed to be try to sit at tables. The noise was unbelievable to me. I would have covered my ears, but I was holding up my clothes. Aspen lead me over to a table where we sat down. There was a pad of paper and a pen in the center. Then he asked, "What would you like to eat?"
"I don't really know what I like yet..." I replied. Then I remembered, "Can I have that brown thing from yesterday? I liked that." He laughed and said, "One PB&J coming up." as he wrote it down. He wrote down something else, I assumed to be what he wanted. He put down the paper and pencil, and explained, "You can have almost anything you like here. All you have to do is write it down. Benny and his crew take care of the rest. The only thing you can't choose is your drink at breakfast. Everyone must start the day with the same elixir. It helps us focus our skills." I had so many questions, but I settled on asking about skills.
"How do skills work? How do people get them?"

"I'll start with your second question." he relied "Your born with whatever skill you have. Usually you take after one of your parent's skills, or a mix of the two. Normally, whatever skill you have doesn't appear within the first year of birth. No two people have their skill appear at the same time. Not even identical twins. Likewise, people may have similar skills, but no two skills are exactly the same." He took a deep breath "Does that answer your question?" "For now, but what about the first question?" He sighed and said with a defeated look, "To tell you the truth, nobody knows. If you think of anything else, just ask."
There had been one thing about his explanation that I had wondered about more than the reat. "You said that you take after your parents. What are parents? Do I have them?"

He looked like he didn't want to answer. "It's just that this is hard for people to hear sometimes. Are you sure that you want to know now?" I nodded. "Ok then." He replied. "Parents are the people that you are... eh hem. 'created by'. Everybody has them, including you. Most people are born, and then raised from the time they're a baby to the time they're ready to start school here." So this was a school? "There are exceptions to this." he said nervously. "Some parents don't keep their child. This isn't always because they're hateful people." he said this as if to reassure me. "Sometimes they think it's for the safety of everyone. Based on their own skills they might think that their child will be to powerful for their own good. These children won't understand how to control a destructive power." I just kept looking at him, trying to comprehend everything. "These children are put into a sort of limbo. It's an environment that not really part of the rest of the world. We don't know how that works either." he said the last part hurriedly as if to preempt any further questions from me. "All we know is that babies are born, and the parents are given a choice of sorts. From what I've heard a sort of a hole opens, and you either put the baby in or you keep it. Eventually the child appears fully grown. Our trackers alert us of the reappearance of them, then we go get them." He seemed satisfied by his explanation before adding "Yes, you do have parents. They're probably put there somewhere."

I was still confused about something. I contorted my face, and was about to ask, but didn't have time to because just then something flew over our heads. It was quite alarming. I covered my head with my hands, and screamed. Everyone quieted down to look at me. Aspen laughed his hardest yet. I realized it was just our food. I would ask questions about how it had gotten there later. For right now I was to embarrassed to speak.
After a few second everyone went back to what they were doing. Aspen picked up a slender pronged piece of metal, and started to eat some yellow fluffy things. Between bights he said, "It looked like you had another questions before the flying food event." He motioned to the air with the piece of metal. Then I remembered, "How are the babies made?"

Then, Aspen just about choked to death on his breakfast...

AUTHORS NOTE:
Thanks again for reading my story! I am giving you all virtual star stickers! The next chapter will be more about her skill that anything else. Please comment, so I can make my story better! I'm open to suggestions. This includes suggestions on the media. Share this with your friends! They might have suggestions too.

Imploringly,
Izzy