My One and Only Friend

"She's gone! Dang, that little snitch must've went to the Headmaster..."

"Who cares? If we're not brought in by those doctor people, she didn't say anything. Not like she would after the pounding we gave her."

"I don't care what she does, just long as she stays away from me. She's so weird..."

The voices eventually drew further down the hall before they were soon far away, the door of the broom closet slowly opening as a small girl with curly brown hair poked her head out to look around. After making sure the coast was clear she started to make her way back to where her room was, still looking back and not noticing the orderly walking her way as she accidentally ran into them. "Ow! I-I'm sorry I didn't-"

Before she could finish she was abruptly shoved hard against the wall, the orderly sending her a disgusted stare before walking away. She swallowed back her tears the best she could before running the opposite direction, shakily attempting to catch her breath as she quickly closed the door and got up on her bed; burying her face in her knees as she was unable to stop herself from sobbing. Everything was taking so long for her to process due to how sudden everything was.

One minute she was celebrating her birthday with her mom and 7 brothers, and the next she was getting dragged away by men in black suits as her mother was screaming for her to be brought back.

Next she was being stared at by a bunch of people in white... That of course scared her to the point of accidentally starting a fire; it leading to her being taken to the Essex House where she could supposedly be 'fixed'. Andy had been there for the past few months and so far, they haven't been able to fix her. And the Headmaster... He'd been making her deliberately hurt the other children there as a way of 'helping them behave'. Of course that led to the other children despising her, and being constantly bullied whenever there were no staff members around.

Taking in a small breath she lifted her head up, using an arm to wipe the tears from her reddened and slightly bruised face while taking another look at the door. When making sure she heard no one she went over to a chair at a desk, grunting quietly as she dragged it over to the window before reaching for the string to the shades; tugging them down before getting back on her bed.

Picking up her pillow she then reached a hand inside, pulling out what looked to be a small teddy bear that she managed to steal out of the room with all of the other children's confiscated things. Of course, the bear was hers given she had written her name on the inside of the shirt; giving it a tight hug while she was still crying a bit while looking down at the bear.

"Mango... I don't know what to do. I tried to play with the other kids, but they just threw rocks at me. I guess they're still mad about me scaring them... But it wasn't even my fault! I didn't want to do it! The man said if I didn't they'd use needles on me again!" She started, now frowning lightly while leaning back against the wall as she hugged the bear close to her chest while glancing towards the covered window. "I...."

She let her head lean back against the wall, a sad look coming over her features as she stared up at the dim flickering light above her. "I wish I knew why I was different Mango... Mamma said my powers were a gift but.. Everyone likes gifts, right? So why does my gift scare everyone..?" Looking down at the bear she stared at it for a moment, almost as though it was talking to her as a small hum left her after a short pause of silence. "I guess... But I just wish they would tell me when I could go back home to mamma and my brothers. I don't feel like there's something wrong with me, but they keep saying a human isn't supposed tah do what I can do... Mm.."

A frustrated sigh left her as she set the bear to her side, leaning against her knees while staring down at the bed. "I wanna talk about something else Mango! Give me another question; at least a riddle or something..!"

The next pause of silence that followed had Andy making a bit of a more surprised look, now looking at the bear once again. "What I wanna do when I leave..?"

She laid down on the bed, hugging the bear close to her chest while continuing to look up at the ceiling. "... Yknow, I heard about these guys called the 'Nova Corps'. Mamma used tah work for them; I saw her medals and uniform and everything! She told me about how she was able to explore space with her job... Stopping bad guys and helping people... And no one thought she was weird. They all liked her because... She helped them. And because she's the coolest mamma ever." Andy went to turn on her side, her spending nearly an hour running away from the three children along with having tests ran on her earlier finally catching up to her body and making her tired as she smiled tiredly and let her eyes close. "Yeah.. When I get outta here Mango, I'm gonna become a big hero that everyone will like; I'll do big hero stuff like saving people from burning buildings and getting cats outta trees.. Then no one will care that I'm not normal... And then everyone will wanna be my friend and I won't be seen as a monster ever again. How does that sound?"

The small pause of silence made Andy smile a bit more and close her eyes, yawning softly as she hugged the bear close to her chest. "Knew you'd like it." She murmured out, eventually drifting off into an early but much needed sleep.

She couldn't wait for them to tell her when she was better...