A Second Chance

Part 67 - My First Origin

"My early years, I used to live in an apartment with my mom and dad. My dad was a Horticulturist and my mom worked at a power plant. When I was three, we got into a car crash and I was the only one who survived. I lived in a foster system, and didn't really like it there. Nobody really wanted to adopt me, so I just got by."

"It was just normal days back there, but the big chapter started when I was six,"

"You see, I was going to school, and it was not a good time. These two boys, and a bunch of others, they had it out for me from basically day one. They'd pull my hair, call me names, laugh at me because I didn't have parents like the rest of them. And I want to be clear, I was six, not exactly equipped with the emotional tools to roast them, so yeah, I got into a lot of fights. Like, a ton."

"One day, I got tired of the bullying and ran. I genuinely don't even remember making the decision, I think my feet just started going and the rest of my body followed. I felt bad about leaving Lily behind, because she was my one friend there and she was really sweet, but I figured she'd be okay."

"Here's the thing though, I forgot my jacket and mittens. I left both of them in the cubby, and it was winter."

"So now I was outside, and it was getting dark, cold, and I had no idea where the hell I was. And the coldness started to take its effect on me. My fingers went red first and then they went numb and that was honestly scarier than the darkness itself. I felt like taking naps, but some sort of instinct made me keep moving. I'm glad that instinct came in!"

"But then I tripped into this staircase, and I couldn't even feel the pain because of the cold, which scared the sh*t out of me, but you know what, that was a good thing. If it's a staircase, that meant it was built, and people build things like these. And people meant warmth from the cold. So, I climbed the stairs as fast as I could, and FSM, there were so many!"

"Once I got to the top, there was an open door and light coming out of it, and warmth as well. And that's where I met Ice, your version of Sensei Wu to me, but even more."

"I told him everything, and he let me in. That guy said literally nothing that night, but he did bring me something warm to drink and blankets, which felt like heaven. And I think I talked way too much after that. I guess how much we talk just run down the genes, doesn't it? Charlotte, me, and now you... my husband gets so exhausted of me and Charlotte sometimes!"

"And yeah, he literally introduced himself of Ice, which was funny. And it makes sense, you wouldn't wanna know his real name. But yeah, I found it weird, and argued for a bit, but I really didn't mind. I kind of thought he was like me, because I go by Libber and my full name is Liberty - don't call me that, I'll ground you if you call me that - and he was doing the same."

"He told me he hadn't used his real name in a really long time and I remember thinking that was actually kind of like me but backwards, because everybody calls me Libber and I call me Libber but my actual name is Liberty, and he was doing the same thing in reverse. I thought that was pretty cool. We had something in common already and I'd known him for like twenty minutes."

"I spilled the tea, and he got me this pink shirt. It wasn't his... it was his sister's. The way he said it made it pretty obvious. My parents died when I was young, so it made perfect sense for me the way he talked about it. I thought of her as nice, and he somehow looked a little happier,"

"We talked more, and I told him about my experience with the foster system. It was so bad back then, I was too loud and energetic for people. Lol, they thought fostering was this easy and calm experience. It's probably still bad right now, but Ice did agree with me. I liked how blunt he was with what he said, because it was just such a straight-up agreement. And one other thing, the tea was wintergreen, which was interesting, because it sounded like a warm and cold oxymoron, but I fell asleep soon."