The Power of the Mind (Cassidy Hall 1)

Chapter 2

*1 week before Cassie's birthday - 2023*

"Hey! Stop running in the house. I just mopped there."

"Are you blind? You smacked me with the mop."

A distant sound of crying is heard through the house.

"Can someone go and check on Jasper?"

Another set of cries is heard following the first.

"And Rozy too?"

"Who took my duster?"

"Oh my gosh, will you move your big head?"

"Hey, who are you calling big head, Bigfoot?"

The foster home was loud and bustling with all the kids cleaning. Or at least, trying to clean. Cassie moved around all of them, weaving her way to the babies, crying their lungs out in their cribs. The house was crowded, 5 bedrooms for this many children made for a small house. But she preferred it. It was home for her.

"Come on now, no more tears now." She bounced the 18-month-old Jasper around before picking up the other, louder, 2-year-old Rozy. "There there. Let's go have lunch yeah?"

She weaved her way out of the room through the corridor and into the kitchen with one crying baby and another quiet baby. "Jasper, you need to teach your sister how to stop crying." She placed Jasper in the baby chair and continued with Rozy around the kitchen as she warmed their food. Jasper had been picked up off their porch. Somebody dropped him in the middle of the night, crying his eyes out. Rozy was found wandering the streets alone, crying as she went along. If Dee hadn't bought groceries that day, who knows where she would have ended up. She wasn't yet sure either were a Mutant or an Ordinary. But she never minded either, but she was usually right to assume they were Mutants.

"Okay. Here you go Jasper. One bowl of hot... whatever this is," she plopped his plate down and sat down with Rozy in her lap and for you, another bowl of what he's having," she begins feeding her and she stops crying almost immediately. 'I guess you were hungry then'. Josh walks into the room, sopping wet with a mop and an empty bucket.

Before she could open her mouth to comment, he spoke. "Don't ask. Your sisters are mad and decided to practice using their powers while cleaning. I am the result." He looks down at himself and gestures to the puddle under his feet. She smiled and proceeds to feeding Rozy.

"You know, the only reason we're even doing any of this is for you."
She avoided looking at him. She knew what he was going to say. She was not comfortable with the thought. "What? We always clean the house."
"This thoroughly? Please," He goes over to the sink and wrings out the mop there. "Your birthday... You're leaving us. It's a pretty difficult pill for anyone to swallow."
She watched his back as he washed the mop in the sink. She knew he was right. All the hullabaloo was because of her birthday, and her leaving. She didn't want to. But being here was becoming more and more dangerous. Not just for her but the house too.

"If I had a choice, you know I would stay. If those guys come back here and hurt you guys because of me, I'd never be able to live with myself. And let's be honest, they'll look for any reason to arrest me, other than the stealing. I'm not sticking around waiting for that to happen."

"Then I guess I'm going along."
"Josh, you aren't coming with me."
"You can't be out there alone."
"I can fight for myself Josh. Someone needs to stay here and help Dee out."
"Wendy and Kendall are more than capable of helping out."
"No Josh. I won't let you do that,"
"How are you going to stop me?"
"Dammit Josh! Don't you get it? They need you here! To protect them! I can't do what you can! Or what any of you can! I'm useless here!"