Anomaly

Chapter 2

WARNING:

There is a mention of assault in this chapter. Be warned. I am not responsible for people yelling at me for not warning them.

Renata felt the rumbling of the seaplane below her.

Tense and excited at the same time, she peered through the window at the passing Victoria below. Just to fill the awkward silence, she asked, 'Where am I going?'

Nessa, sitting beside her, said 'Camp Vancouver. It's a place where-ah- "anomalies",'Nessa grimaced, clearly expressing her disgust at the word, 'can be with their own kind, in a "safe place".' She rolled her eyes. 'I'm a anomaly myself, so I might be a little biased. ' She gave a quiet chuckle.

Renata felt considerably more comfortable with Nessa. 'What powers do you have?'

Nessa gave a secretive smile. She pulled a bag of peony seeds, dirt, and a small water spritzer from her pocket. 'Watch this.'

She put the dirt in her hand, gently put the seed into the dirt, packed it down, and sprayed the water on it. Nessa closed her eyes.

Slowly, the tip of a small shoot emerged from the dirt. It grew until a small bud appeared on the foot-tall shrub. More buds appeared on the shrub as the first bud bloomed into a violet-pink flower.

Renata sat openmouthed when Nessa was finished. 'That was amazing! How did you do it?

Nessa slowly shook her head. 'Can't have you stealing my secrets.' Renata blushed. 'I-I-didn't mean to pry...' she mumbled.

Nessa burst into a full-fledged fit of laughter, complete with snorts. 'The look on your face...Absolutely...hilarious!' Nessa howled. Her compatriots shot her disapproving glances.

'I'm allowed to have fun once in a while, right?' she shot back. 'Anyways, my power... it's like I can hear the plants whispering to me, and I can persuade them to do things they wouldn't normally do.'

'So cool.' Renata breathed.

'Now, what can you do?' Nessa asked.

Renata curled in on herself. 'I...maybe lightning?' she said uncertainly.

Nessa shrugged. 'We'll help you discover your power when we get there.'

Renata sat in silence, wondering what made Nessa's last sentence sound so weird. 'Wait-why did you say we?'

Nessa turned around. 'Oh, I forgot to mention. I'm the head of Camp Vancouver. Well, one of them, anyways.' Renata realized how young Nessa was.

'How old are you anyways?' Renata blurted out.

Nessa didn't seem to notice the breach of etiquette and said, 'Twenty-two.'

'Isn't that pretty young?'

'Depends.' Nessa said with an air of nonchalance.

'We will be landing in five minutes. Repeat: we will be landing in five minutes. Please fasten your seatbelts.' came the crackle of the voice over the intercom.

Nessa fastened her seat belt extremely tight with one hand still carrying the peony bush and grabbed a airsickness bag. 'Brace yourself for extreme messiness.' she warned Renata, voice thick. The figures in black slowly edged away into other seats.

The plane tilted forward.

'I-hate-air travel...' Nessa groaned into the paper bag.

Nessa vomited as the plane went down.