The misfits

28: Emma

"Emma, Will, I'm going now." Faye called as they nodded and she walked out. Emma sighed heavily as she went back to doing her homework.

After about an hour, Emma stood up to open the windows and get a hoodie. As she trudged towards her closet, she winced at the loud "CREEEAAAAKKKKKK"— a loose floorboard. She bent down to pry it open, only to find a thin, light blue notebook, its pages long gone yellow. It must be something Faye dropped. Nothing important to me. Emma mused. The only thing that changed her mind was when she saw "Lily Ann P." scrawled on the front before she sat cross-legged and leaned against the bed frame, slowly opening up to the first page, first entry. Emma had never expected her mother to be a writing kind of person— but anyway, these few weeks revealed a lot more about her mother than she was actually supposed to know.

Dear Diary,

It's Lily.

Today was the first day. We didn't try anything, just gathering research. It seems wrong to do this on children, considering we aren't official scientists. Well, hopefully the information Clint pooled is enough to make it work.

Clint snuck off again. I heard him on the phone, talking to someone called Goo. Probably something about work, even if I'm pretty sure there's more to it although I can't prove it.

Anyway, that's it for today.

Yours,

L. Ann P.

Emma read on to the next entry, her mind racing. It can't be true it can't be true it surely can't—

Dear Diary,

I'm back.

We've been gathering information for weeks, all ready to execute it out. Hopefully this works. Clint would want to try it on the boy. I can't let that happen.

We've been thinking about names too. I wanted to name her Violet, but Clint said no. We agreed on Will for the boy—

Emma felt her throat constrict as she was tempted to throw the book and run out, putting as much space between her and the book. She forced herself to keep reading.

Next thing. We started the process. I was so nervous, but... it worked in the end! That's why I'm still here writing.

Well, every time she made a noise I felt so scared, turns out it was just natural baby sounds.

Welcome to the world, Project 0295.

Yours,

L. Ann P.

Emma was motionless as she continued to the next chapter.

Dear Diary,

Clint is an ass. Everybody knows to stay out of the rebels' way, and he chose to deal with them. Anyway, he's still obsessed with trying to find out how to transfer fire-energy.

I realised his plans as soon as he brought us to the Latin Quarter, insisting that we had to take Emma along. Turns out he had wanted to trade money for the serum, but Goopee decided he wanted Emma instead. No way.

I would've killed Clint if he said yes to Goopee's offer, and he knew it. Hopefully Goopee is dead, even though till now I'm not sure. Creatures like that are unpredictable. Can they die, though? Hard to believe.

If we can't stabilise Emma, I really wish she will grow up to be the sweet, brave girl she was born to be.

Emma, if you're somehow reading this, I'm so sorry we did this to you. We love you.

Yours,

L. Ann P.

That explained a lot.

꧁꧂

Emma snatched up her phone and earbuds before dashing out of the house and pulled on her rollerblades. She needed to do something. This changed everything. She couldn't just sit there in silence and stare at the book, she'd go bonkers.

She felt herself pushing forward, speeding along as her rollerblades scratched against the sidewalk before she lost control. She swerved violently to the right before she fell to her knees, hitting the curb. Her knees felt hot and sticky as she stood up and saw crimson drops dotting her knees. She winced at the pain and shook her head. She deserved the pain. Emma was so tired of this eventful week. She felt her vision blur as she limped towards the benches. "Emma? You okay?"

Austin.

She nodded, as he sat down next to her, his shoulder pressed against hers. "What happened? It's okay if you want me to leave, I just saw you and you looked kind of sad..."

"Stay." Emma replied quietly. Emma stammered and struggled to keep her tears in.

"Emma, Emma, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to..." Austin grasped her wrist as she glanced at him. "It's okay to cry, you know." He added softly.

Emma told him everything in a shaky voice. Even her own parents thought she was useless, just something for them to experiment on and that Will could just be used as backup—

"You're the only one who can choose who you want to be. Anyway, your parents gave you a dope superpower! Your parents still care about you a lot if they went that far to protect you from the slime dude." Austin reassured her as he squeezed her shoulder. Emma gave him a watery smile as she bit back any negative theories she had about that.

After all, hope was everything.

Even in the midst of her own problems, she couldn't help but wonder how Everest was doing. It must be kind of cool to be a werewolf, though. Emma perked up and turned to Austin, "Hey, since you're a werewolf, do you know someone called Everest?" Austin racked his brain for a second before shaking his head, "Nope. Maybe she just joined while I was away or something. I'll ask my dad."

꧁꧂

"Emma, were you talking to a boy?" Carter demanded as he hooked his arm around Emma's waist. Emma, still recovering from this sudden outburst, quickly waved him off and said, "N-no. You are the first person I've talked to since school started, like ten minutes ago." Carter pushed and said in a somewhat hurt voice, "I saw you at the park. Yesterday." Emma sighed and pulled away from him, and put her hands on her waist, and said tiredly, "Carter, he's just a friend. Am I really not supposed to talk to anybody whose male just because I'm... with you?"

"Yeah, you can! Just... just... not boys who are hotter than me!"

Emma snorted, rolling her eyes dramatically as she said, "What a big ego."

Carter mock-scowled and grabbed Emma' wrist, pulling her to him. Emma yelped as he planted a big smacker on her left cheek.

"It's too early for extreme acts of PDA, children!" Bree groaned loudly as she walked towards them. Emma flushed a deep pink as she mumbled, "I gotta go. Professor Wildcat doesn't like late people." and she ran off before Carter could say anything.

"So, you and Carter?" Bree asked innocently at lunch, when Carter was out of earshot, saying he had to go meet his friends. 'Um, yeah. He asked me, I mean, I'm not crushing on him or anything—" Emma said uneasily before Bree held up a hand and interrupted, "Wait, you don't even LIKE him in that way, and you said YES?" Emma ignored her and retorted, "Well, you're asking me this even though you knew he wanted to ask me all along!"

"I just thought it was worth a shot, because... yeah." Emma added. Bree nodded her head understandingly before she said quickly, "You're just afraid of missing out—OUCH!" Emma smacked her arm, saying, "HEY!"

Carter walked back and plopped himself down on a seat, his eyes widening as he pointed at Bree, "Were you manhandling my girlfriend?"

"I'm not a man." Bree replied, and turned her attention back to her food.