Hazel

I quickly, almost desperately, scurried into my room, and shut the door. What Leo told me kind of caught me off guard. I didn't even know why. I mean, he's just being protective like a good friend is supposed to be, right? Well, he has been acting a little strange since we arrived at the colony. Sometimes, I seriously don't know what that boy's thinking. Good thing I have a secret weapon now.

Anyways, I flipped on the light switch and observed my surroundings. It was a pretty decent-sized bedroom. It'll do for now. As I walked around, I saw there were things sprawled around the floor. Please don't tell me I have to live with someone else, I groaned to myself. Through learning I have telepathy powers, I noticed I started talking to myself more often. No wonder Leo thinks I'm weird.

There were even two beds in here; one freshly made and the other an unmade tangle of blankets. Whoever else lived here wasn't here, so where the heck would they be when it was nearly midnight? I rolled my eyes and sighed, too exhausted to handle the million questions in my head right now. I felt awkward just lying down and going to sleep right then, when I knew another person I didn't know had the key to come in here. What if it was a creepy guy? No scratch that, I see girly underwear on the floor. But you never know if this girl could come and kill me in my sleep.

I decided to just go sleep on the floor in Leo's room. I'm sure he won't mind. Maybe he's as freaked out about this new place as I am. I started walking to the door when it flew open, knocking me to the floor. A girl that was short in height and had startled brown eyes looked down at me, concerned. I guess this was my new roommate.

"Oh my goodness, are you alright?" she asked me, helping me up gently. Maybe she was nice after all. "Sorry about that. I didn't even know you were supposed to show up tonight. You're Hazel, right?"

I blinked at her, probably still stunned from the door slamming into me. Hesitating to regain my awareness, I replied, "Yeah, that's me. How do you know me...what's your name?"

The girl chuckled and smiled, which made me smile too because she seemed so friendly. "My name's Maxine. And everyone here knows you and Leo! It's crazy that I'm roommates with such an amazing mutant!"

It was hard not to smile at her enthusiasm. Maybe Maxine will be a good person to cheer up my sometimes negative spirit. "Really? Me and Leo are well-known?"

The sarcasm in my voice caused Maxine to giggle. I read her mind and discovered that she was actually 12 years old. You wouldn't think that because, for one, she was quite short, and she really reminded me of an excited little girl.

Maxine giggled again. "Are you reading my mind? Gosh, telepaths are so nosy."

I was shocked at her joke, and asked her, "Maxine, how did you know I was reading your mind?" I figured she was a mutant. She might even be a telepath too.

She walked over to her bed, pulling off her sneakers. "It's part of my ability, Hazel. I know everything that anyone could possibly know. Dr. Baker says I'm the smartest human being in the world."

Great, she's a nerd. Still, I was amazed. All of this I've experienced has been so extraordinary and overwhelming. "Wow, that's so cool....I guess I'm gonna have to get used to the fact that everyone I meet is going to have super powers."

Maxine laughed again. "Yeah, you'll get used to that. I know me and my brother had to get used to that when we first moved here." There was a brief paused before she added, "Hey, what's it like? Out there....on the outside of the colony? How bad has it gotten?"

I was surprised that she changed the mood so quickly. I really didn't want to talk to Maxine about out there. I had to deal with enough of that today. And I still couldn't believe all of this happened in just one day. It felt like an eternity of overwhelming horror. I didn't feel like going into detail to answer Maxine's question, so I replied with, "You don't want to know."

The thoughts about today made me cringe, and I struggled to hold back tears. I decided that I really needed to get some sleep before I went crazy. My feet shuffled to the bed, causing my body to literally fall onto the soft comforter. I let a sigh escape my mouth, and I was close to crying because I was finally relaxed. My eyelids drooped closed and my mind finally shut out everything around me.

"Night, Hazel," was the last thing I heard, coming from Maxine, before I was out faster than the lights even turned off.

~ ~ ~

Slam

My eyes popped open to the sound of the door slamming shut. I lifted my head up and stared at the door, then around the room. My vision was still blurry from waking up, but I read the clock as best as I could. It read 12:58 pm. Wow, I slept past noon. I didn't really care because that was some of the best sleep I'd ever had.

Forcing myself to get up, I slowly made my way over to the tiny bathroom. It was cramped to the point where you could only fit about three people in there. I sat on the toilet seat and observed myself in the mirror. My appearance was pretty rough. My hair was in unspeakable condition, and my face looked as pale as the moon. And I even noticed that I was still wearing my dirty hospital clothes. I huffed in frustration, which caused my eyes to turn violet again. I guess this reaction was caused by me getting angry or frustrated in some way.

I decided to levitate a hair brush sitting on the counter for practice. Slowly, my eyes controlled the brush, lifting it in mid-air. I was still amazed that I could do this. To test this even more, I made the brush make it's way over to my hair. I started to brush my hair, using my mind the control each of the brush's strokes. I laughed out loud because you have to admit, this was pretty awesome.

"Impressive. You're even lazier than you were before you got your powers." Leo's voice broke the silence. I jumped and gasped, causing the brush to drop to the floor. I glared at him.

"Don't do that!" I snapped. Obviously, Leo thought it was funny. I rolled my eyes, annoyed by him playing jokes on me. Of course, that was what Leo did to entertain himself.

"Dude, chill! You've been so grumpy ever since we got here!" He told me, walking out of the bathroom and snooping through everything in the bedroom. I followed him out, mainly making sure he didn't destroy anything.

He was right about me being grumpy. Ugh, I hated when he was right. "I'm sorry, I'm just not good at adjusting to change, that's all." Leo nodded, not really paying attention to me. Then he picked up a note that was on the desk behind him. He read it, then handed it to me. I read it out loud to him:

"Be at the City Hall building when you and Leo wake up. You two need to be told some very important information. This is Dr. Baker and Sergeant Hammond's order. Come as soon as possible.

-Maxine."

I looked at Leo, who was still reading the note. Great, what did they need to tell us now? I really didn't want to know, but I guess we had to since it seemed important. Maybe it won't be more bad news. I didn't even want to think about all the possible bad things they could tell us.

Leo handed me the note again, this time with it turned over and with some more writing on the back. I read it silently.

P.s. I laid out some clothes for you to wear, Hazel. Dr. Baker found them for you. Leo also has some clothes back in his room too. Hope you like them!

I was glad I could change out of these dirty hospital clothes. They actually smelled pretty bad. I turned to Leo and said to him, "Okay, let's change out of these smelly clothes and meet at the front of the Z building."

"Don't be a girl and take too long," he joked, patting my shoulder. I slapped his arm, hard, and commanded him to go change in tone of a strict mother. Leo just laughed and playfully strutted out of the room. He just never learns.

The clothes that were laid out for me was a pair of faded jeans that actually looked decent on me, a navy blue Beatles t-shirt, and a gray sweater. I was impressed that Dr. Baker managed to get some black converse for me that were similar to my old ones. Stepping out the door, I felt fresh and clean. It feels pretty great from being in disgusting and smelly clothes to new and fresh clothes.

The weather here was fantastic. It was that type of weather that wasn't too hot or cold, but just right. There was an occasional breeze, and the sun's brightness was just right with a partly cloudy sky. I loved the sky illusion they created. It almost feels like...home. No, I have to forget about home because I'm probably never going back.

Leo-

I was glad to see that Hazel didn't look too terrible this morning. I'd thought she'd be asleep when I barged in her room to check on her. And yes, I used the term "barged" because I almost always forget to knock. Anyways, one thing you need to know about Hazel when she's sleeping: DO NOT wake her up. I forget things quite often.

Instead of seeing Hazel asleep, I saw her in the bathroom brushing her hair without her hands. I secretly envy her powers now. The perfect reason to mess with her more, I thought evilly.

"I heard that." I saw Hazel walking over to me, with a sneaky smirk on her face. I had to admit, she was pretty clever.

"I'll never get used to you doing that!" I said, shaking my head. Hazel score 1; Leo 0.

Hazel and I headed over to the City Hall building. On our way, we earned a bunch of stares from other mutants. It was really awkward. We tried our best to ignore it by looking at everyone else. Some of these people had insane powers.

One girl was over at the flower shop watering flowers with her fingers. Then there was a guy who had multiple arms, a guy made entirely of stone, and even a girl who was flying around with bird wings. Everyone here had different abilities, which was hard to believe. I couldn't wait to meet them all.

We arrived in front of the City Hall building, bracing ourselves for what might be said to us. It seemed important according to the note Maxine wrote us, and that worried me. I looked at Hazel, who was already looking at me.

"Ready for more craziness?" Hazel asked, her voice filled with her familiar sarcasm.

I shrugged. "Do we have a choice?"