Insanity

5

                2 months later

                I laughed as Simon failed to catch popcorn in his mouth and had the most frustrated look on his face. “Shut it Wednesday.” He grumbled as I threw a few pieces in the air and caught each of them perfectly. Believe me when I say that I have practiced this since I was little, it’s the only thing to do when I’m bored and don’t feel like reading, listening to music, or watching TV. I teased him as we left the movie theatre and walked through Universal City Walk and stopped at Hot Topic. I bought a few stickers and a pin, along with some bows for my pig tails. Simon bought a Captain America shirt and got me a Batman shirt to go along with the Batman cape that I got from Magic Mountain last week. We walked to his car and talked about random things like what college we were going to and who else was going with us.

                Simon and I had become friends ever since he found in the woods bleeding and while it was a strange way to start a friendship, it was still a pretty cool friendship. Simon and I were like brother and sister and no, I was not the one to say that we were like brother and sister, he was. I actually told Simon my secret a few weeks ago. He freaked out a little at first but he never stopped being my friend and now we were closer than ever. When I told him, he thought I was joking until I shifted and he nearly screamed. Of course when I shifted back, he calmed down a little and let it sink in before he got this really goofy smile on his face and he asked me to do it again. He asked me why I was like that and I told him I didn’t know and then he asked if there were others like me, again I told him I didn’t know. I didn’t ever leave town so I didn’t exactly travel a lot so I never really got a chance to see. He told me that he would look for people like me in his college, which was Yale, and he would tell me when we talked. I told him some signs that might help him, like being short tempered and the obvious, shifting. But also, I noticed that I had enhanced senses and my eyes like to change colors. Simon said he had noticed that once too but he didn’t want to say anything.

                The summer was ending and tomorrow, both Simon and I were leaving for our colleges. I was driving to a temporary apartment in the UCLA area, I was lucky that I didn’t have to pay for much because our house had never belonged to the bank, It had always belonged to the Hamilton family. I was dropping Simon off at the airport for the plane to New York. I was really going to miss him. He was the brother I never had. I walked into my home which was soon going to be dusty and had a few items that were missing from some places like pictures or the books from the book shelves. I had already moved all my belongings that I was taking and things to the apartment. I had a surprisingly good paycheck from working at the bookstore and I had more than I needed to pay the bills so I saved most of it so I could get a good place to stay at. On a stroke of luck, I managed to get my hands on an apartment fairly close to the campus and for a good deal. Life must have some love for me yet.

                I lay down on my bed and wrapped the pink Minnie mouse blanket that I had had since before I was even born, around me and used my jacket as a pillow. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and set an alarm for early that morning before I rifted off to a peaceful sleep, leaving the worries of college ahead of me.

***

                I woke up to the piano riff alarm as I pulled my glasses on by habit before checking the time and turning off the alarm. I got up and quickly tied my hair up in a ponytail before I out the door, my backpack and blanket on my shoulder. I pulled on my jacket, transferring my backpack from shoulder to shoulder as I did. I quickly ran to the small car that I had bought over the summer; it was cheap and had nearly 4,000 miles on it but I ran like a beauty. I was actually going to get a car for my 20th birthday, two years from now but I had this one for now and I loved it none the less. I placed my bag in the back seat as I pulled out of the driveway, saying good bye to my home for the next four years as I was headed off to college.