Tanner's Story: The Before

Meeting the Family

I started to put my new things away in my -temporary-room. It was a lot bigger than my room back home, but it didn't make me as excited as it should have. My room was my room, it was safe and comfortable. I knew where everything was and my entire family always so close. Here I was surrounded by people I didn't know. I was scared.

Everyone seemed nice, but it is easy to put on a smile and give a laugh every once in a while. I felt myself start to cry.

I angrily swiped all of the tears away telling myself, "It isn't so bad, I'm safe and I'm not hurt. They told me I would see my family soon."

I got the tears to stop, but I was still super upset. I walked to the window intending to get some fresh air, when I noticed they didn't open. I sighed in frustration, and didn't think anything of it. I decided to explore my room a little more looking through all of the drawer on the many dressers. They were empty except for the top drawer of my bedside table. When I pulled it open I found an Elgen Institution Manual. I sat down on "my bed" and started to read. It was pretty boring, just full of random people and statistics. The only interesting part was how the company worked with clean energy.

I put the book down and decided to put away my clothes. I had been putting it off for a while at that point. I looked at the clock and realized with a shock it was 4:17. We had gotten back close to two o'clock so I had been alone for over 2 hours. The thought made me slightly uncomfortable, but I didn't dwell on it.

As I put my new stuff away, my mind was quiet. There were no thoughts or sounds, just nice peaceful silence. After the two days I just had, it was welcomed. At least until I realized it had only been two days. It felt like years.

At about 5:30 there was a knock on my door. "Come in," I called.

"Heeeeey Tanner," Tara said as she walked into the room with Quentin behind her.

"Hi Tan," Q waved. I stiffened at the nickname. It felt weird coming from him. However, I forced a smile and said

"Hey guys, what's up."

"It's dinner time," Tara said excitedly. "Dr. Hatch wanted us to take you down stairs, since well, you've never been there. Also we are taking McKenna to, because she doesn't really know the layout either."

"Oh okay," I said.

"Come on, her room is right down the hall," Quentin told me.

I nodded hesitantly, not sure what to make of the situation. After all I had only meet Quentin and Tara today, and apparently there were two others named Zeus-what name is that- and Bryan. Not to mention the new girl McKenna.

I follow them right down the hall before we turn left and arrive and a door similar to mine. Tara knocks on the door and waits. After a couple seconds I hear a small come in. Tara opens the door and walks in. Unsure of what to do, I wait outside in the hall with Q.

After about a minute Tara walks out with a Chinese girl that looks to be our age. She looks at me and waves shyly.

"Hi I'm McKenna" she says quietly.

"Hi I'm Tanner" I mumbled.

"Great so now that you two have introduced yourselves, LETS GO TO DINNER" Tara near shouted.

"Tar calm down, we are getting there a bit earlier then usual anyways" Q mentions.

"Ugh fine, but we should at least get going. We are still introducing Tan Man over there to the others" I cringed at the new nickname Tara gave me. It really did sound too similar to the names Marcus or my friends jokingly called me. It hurt to think about.

Tara and Quentin didn't seem to notice my reaction, but McKenna gave me a concerned look. I smiled shakily at her and she returned it. However, her attempt was not much better than mine.

As we start to walk Tara and Quentin talk about the other glows.

"McKenna has already meet all of them, most are new came in a year or so ago, myself included" Tara explained. That surprised me, she seemed so confident around here.

"The boys are Zeus, Bryan, and myself," Q lists. "The girls are Tara and McKenna obviously, as well as Grace and Kylee. Nichelle is technically a girl, but she acts more like a demon.

Tara laughs and McKenna nods slightly. Even I find myself agreeing with them. She was horrible and I had only known her a short while.

They go onto describe the other glows, how Bryan is a bit immature and loves video games. How Zeus is nice but can't shower due to shocking himself. How shy Grace is and how Tara and Kylee were practically the same person. Before I knew it were walking into the dinning room.

Inside sat five kids that were exactly how Tara and Q described. There were a couple seats between three of the kids. He must have been Zeus. I spotted Nichelle sitting the the corner away from everyone, I made a note to avoid her. One girl had her hands in her lap and was looking down, Grace. Which made the other girl Kylee and the boy Bryan.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when the boy that I figured out was Bryan ran in front of me declaring that his name was well Bryan.

"Hi I'm Bryan, you must be Tanner" he said energetically holding his hand out. I hesitantly take it nodding.

"Oh settle down idiot, your making him nervous" Tara's best friend chastised. "Hi I'm Kylee, that's Grace and that's Zeus." She pointed at the people she was talking about.

I waved shyly at everyone.

"Hi McKenna" Kylee said with a smile to the other new person.

"Hi" She said back.

Just then Dr. Hatch walked in, in the process of hanging up the phone.

"Ah is see you are all aquatinted" he said. Now let's all take our seats, McKenna, Tanner I would like you both to sit next to me."

I shook off the oddness of the request and said "Yes Sir" along with McKenna.

As dinner was served I found out that it was normal steak with several sides. The servant's poured an odd, purple, bubbly liquid into everyone's glasses(except Dr. Hatch's) his drink was tinted yellow.

He caught me looking at the drinks and said, "your drink is just sparkling grape juice. It is non-alcoholic. Mine is however."

I nodded in understanding and turned back to the food. I wasn't too hungry after the lunch I had, so I only grabbed a little. The other glows however piled their food high. There was a lot of conversation, and I was pulled into talking with Bryan and Zeus about the newest video games when I realized Hatch was just watching us, creepily. Then we made eye contact. For a split second his eyes were cold and dark, then they were warm and he smiled. I smiled shakily back, hoping he wouldn't suspect anything. Hatch just turned away and observed the rest of the room.

I lost my appetite and pretended to pay attention the the video game talk. I just kept thinking "Could I have imagined it. Am I just on high alert. I'm only seven, little kids always think they see things that aren't really there." But there was no imagining the dangerousness in those eyes, no matter how hard I tried to forget it.

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Dinner finished quickly and Bryan and Zeus ended up escorting me back to my room. They were right across from me so it worked out. Despite everything they were pretty cool. I found out that Bryan could focus electricity into a part of his body, so he could cut through things. Zeus powers were actually pretty obvious. He could shoot electricity from his body in the form of lightning bolts like well Zeus.

When I got to my room I felt super tired. I looked at the time and it read 9:17. laughed a little at how ironic it was. Just two nights ago I was begging for a later bed time. I got what I wanted, in the most crazy way possible. After I got changed into my PJs I turned off the lights. I was about to get into bed when I heard a knock. I opened it to find...

"Hi can we talk" McKenna said as if it was the most normal thing ever.