Unwanted Gifts

Chapter 12

"Ok, you ready Sandy?" James asked, standing in front of a metal door.
"I guess so." I said. I felt my legs waver as we approached the door. James opened the door, calling into the room.
"Hey girls. I've got a new friend for you," he called, leading me into the room, "Her name is Sandra."
"Please call me Sandy." I said. A girl with red hair walked over to me, looking at me.
"Hey. I'm Cady. What's your power?" she questioned me.
"I'm essentially a human torch."
"I guess that explains the hair." a girl from the other side of the room said. "I'm Skylar. Those are Mandy and Cevina over there, and that's Pearl." She said, gesturing to the girls.
"So, what are everyone's powers?" I asked.
"I have electricity in my veins. I tend to spark when I'm upset but I'm mostly under control." Skylar replied.
"I am super strong. Strong enough to cause earthquakes accidentally." Mandy called from her bunk.
" Cevina dissolves heavy metals and stones with her skin, Pearl absorbs people's life force, and I am a teleporter, but I don't move, it's other people." Cady said.
"Wow, those are pretty cool." I retorted.
"I'll leave you to get settled." James said as he left the room. I walked over to my new bunk, finding the red box that I still hadn't opened. Next to it was the card. I tried my hardest to suppress the urge to cry as I imagined what happened that day.
"So, where you from?" Mandy asked.
"I'm from a small city in the Margion Province." I answered.
"Cool, I'm from Central City." Mandy said.
"Really? What's it like there? I've seen pictures in text books but I've never had a reason to go. Plus you kinda have to be invited to travel there I guess."
"Well, it's pretty great. It's so beautiful and the buildings are so tall they reach up past the clouds! My home was outfitted with the most advanced tech coming from Central Creations and we got a free remodel year!" She said.
"Sounds awesome." I said.
"Anyways, you hungry? It's lunch time down in the mess hall." Skylar asked, jumping off her bed.
"I'm starving!" Mandy called from her bunk.
"Sure, let's go get some food." I said, walking towards the door I came in.
"Oh, that door is locked hon. We use the other one." Cady said, teleporting me to her on the other side of the room.
"Oof." I groaned as I landed on the floor.
"Sorry, I should have warned you." she laughed.
"It's fine, now let's go." I said, brushing off my pants. We walked down a short corridor and walked through a double door into the dining hall. The room had one long table and a huge selection of meal cards by the meal chute. "Wow, this place is nice."
"Well, they're trying to make us comfortable here." Pearl said.
"Cool." I replied. I walked over to the meal chute, picking a sushi card and sliding it into the scanner. I brought my tray to the table, seeing that the girls had sat with a group of boys across from them.
"Fresh meat!" a boy with dark brown hair yelled as he saw me approach.
"Shut up Zach. She's brand new today." Cady said, tossing a chunk of her roll at him. I sat down in the empty seat by Skylar, setting down my tray.
"So, you got a name?" Zach asked.
"Sandy."
"Hey guys! This here is Sandy! That's Paul, Brian, Cameron, and Ethan."
"Hi guys," I said, waving sheepishly. I started to eat my sushi when I was met with a wave of questions.
"Where are you from?"
"What's your power?"
"Do you miss home?" the questions kept coming, each with an answer. Once question hour was over, I went and cleared my tray and came back to the table.
"Sandy! You wanna show us what you can do?" Ethan asked me.
"Well, I'm not really in control," I said, "My powers seem to be linked to my emotions."
"Like, how so?" Paul prodded
"I burn brightest with extreme happiness and anger but everything else seems to fall in different levels of heat." I explained.
"So, if I pissed you off, you'd burn me to a crisp?" Brian joked.
"Yeah, I guess."
"What if you get super happy? Isn't that just hurting the things that make you happy? That pretty counter productive." Cameron said, matter-of-factly.
"Yes." I muttered, wishing they would stop.
"How bout you guys leave her alone?" Cevina said, standing up from the table. "Come on Sandy, let's go back to the room."
"You don't have to leave!" Zach yelled from the table as we walked to the door. I heard the boys scolding Cameron as the doors swung shut behind us.
"Sorry Sandy. Cameron can be a bit hard to handle at first. You ok?" Cevina asked me.
"Yeah I guess."
"You sure?" she asked looking at me. I felt the first tear roll down my cheek, making it halfway before turn in to steam.
"He just hit me in my soft spot is all." I said, the tears turning into a steady stream.
"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked me as we walked into the room.
"It's just, right after I got my power, I received a gift from this boy. It's was really sweet and he was telling me how much he loved me. I burned so bright. He was hurt. It is my fault," I choked through the sobs, " I remember seeing him collapse into my flame and that was the last I ever saw of him. They never let me see him again."
"He didn't die, did he?"
"No, but he was hurt and I cant take it back." I cried, feeling the steam pouring out of my eyes.
"It's ok. If he loved you then, he'll still love you now."
"I'll probably never see him again."
"I've got a plan." Cevina said, flashing a quick smile.