𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐈𝐓 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐆

9-"super brain"

Beatrice stared wide eyed at Holly as she gathered almost every piece of information about the new stranger. She knew that her name was Holly Wheeler, she was 5 years old and clearly from a small town in Indiana, she had an older sister and an older brother and had been hit twice by her mother the day before. And all that was just from looking at her.

It's not that Beatrice was ungrateful for her gift, it's just that sometimes it carried more negatives than positives. Everytime she looked at anything at all, her head began to sprout a forest of information about that specific object, even something as simple as a t-shirt.

And now as she sat here observing the new girl named Holly, she knew more about her than someone could learn in ten minutes, and it kept growing.

Bee was curious, like any kid her age. Except when she explored and observed the world, she would find herself deeply analyzing everything in her path. So she kept her nose down most times, except this time she just could not get her eyes off of Holly. There was a glint of something in her eyes, some sort of wisdom that she usually didn't see in normal kids eyes. But that's because Holly wasn't normal. Her mom had hit her multiple times over the past week, her father and sister had fallen off the face of the earth, and the only thing she had to remind her she was safe was her big brother.

Beatrice wanted to say something to Holly, to tell her she was safe and that she would be ok. But to be honest, Beatrice knew that might not be true. Police officers could find and arrest all of them any day. They will probably have to relocate sometime within the next two years, and they will probably have to go somewhere far from Chicago.

All this was common knowledge to Bee. Of course she notified Kali whenever she noticed something was off or that something could expose their location. Bee wasn't the average 4 year old. She wasn't even the average human. But she dreamed of being normal, of being able to look at a tree and not know the exact number of leaves that were on it. To be able to ask somebody for their name and not already knowing it. She had given up on that dream a while ago, but now that Holly was here, she felt that dream may be possible.

Bee wanted a friend. A friend who would love and accept her, no matter what. Someone who wouldn't lie because they knew she already knew what they were lying about. Someone to play games with and dance and sing and run and laugh with.

Bee wanted Holly to be her friend.

She watched as Holly reluctantly picked up the metal fork that was resting on the edge of her plate, scooping up some eggs and shoveling them into her mouth, just barely missing the side of her cup with her elbow.

One false move and she's gonna hit that cup.

Before she had the time to think, Beatrice was lifting Holly's cup and moving it back a few inches on the table, catching Holly off guard. She smiled casually before sinking back into her seat, Holly still trying to process whar just happened.

"Why did you-"

"You were gonna hit it off the table." Beatrice said, cutting Holly off before she even had time to ask the question. Holly nodded, looking down as her eye caught something. Bee's eyes followed Holly's down to where she was looking at the number 015 tattooed onto her skin. Beatrice instinctively slapped her other hand over her numbered wrist, feeling self concious about the permanent marking. She was aware that Holly probably already knew 50% of the people here were gifted, but she still felt nervous when people knew about her power.

"What can you do?" Holly asked, her voice delicate yet full of curiosity. Beatrice sighed, freeing her wrist from the tight grasp she had on it.

"I have a super brain." Bee said, pointing to her skull with her pointer finger. Holly glowed at the words 'super brain' and flashed a wide smile, turning her body more towards Bee. Beatrice smiled back shyly, trying not to get her hopes up at the excitement Holly was showing. However, Holly's next words totally caught her off guard, causing her smile to grow exponentially.

"Can we be friends?" Holly said, bouncing her legs back and forth in her chair. In reply, Bee nodded vigorously at the offer, matching Holly's bouncing motions as they giggled excitedly.

Maybe she would get to have her dream come true.

A friend.