"I'm sorry, I didn't realize we were gonna have a sleepover, and I kind of just forgot to call..."

"Forgot to call?" her father asked, trying to control his anger. If this was a cartoon, his face would've been swelling like a red balloon, Louise thought to herself.

"Louise, what were you thinking about?" her mother asked. "We were about this close to calling the police. We were worried sick!" Even though Louise had suffered a lot worse than a simple sleepover and almost got pricked with a syringe, she felt that her parents -her real parents- didn't deserve to feel anymore horrid.

"Ponies and rainbows?" she suggested. Her shoulders slouched. "I'm sorry, it just completely slipped my mind."

"Well, I hope you learned your lesson because if you didn't, you will now. Give me your phone, you're grounded for a month!" her father scolded, outraged.

"But-"

"No but's! You're smarter than that! I'm very disappointed in you." Louise's mouth mimicked a fish's - opening and closing silently. Seriously?! It seemed that though she saved four people from being mind-controlled for their entire lives -or maybe even the world- she still got grounded and was forbidden from using her phone. For a month. Louise pulled out her Samsung phone from her back pocket of her jeans, and handed it gingerly into her father's hand. His hands creeped around the edges and stuffed it into his pocket. Poor, phone, she thought. You belong in my comfortable back pocket, not in my dad's sweater pocket.

***

Louise thought that having her phone taken away and getting grounded for a month was horrible. What she didn't realize, was that Lizzy knew better than to accept a going-to-a-friend's-house-excuse. Well, it worked, but Lizzy was fuming that Louise "refused" to text her back because she was too busy wrecking her life with junky teens. At least, that's how she described it.

"Lizzy! I'm sorry I didn't text back! Please forgive me?" she pleaded, sitting next to her on the bus. However, Lizzy apparently had no intention to talk because she resumed gazing out the window. "Lizzy, please!" Nothing. If only she could explain the truth to her - no! Anything but the truth. At least she could live blissfully ignorant of the true evil lurking within the shadows of lies. Lies that could kill. "Lizzy, you are my best friend and-" maybe it was best to fend lies with lies, "I was really just mad at my parents and kind of tried to get away for a while. I didn't bring my phone." At that Lizzy's whirled around.

"Then why didn't you just say that in the first place?! I'm your freaking friend!" she asked angrily. That did not go the way she expected.

"I-"

"Don't trust me?" For the first time in Louise's life, she couldn't come up with an excuse. She couldn't come up with a sort of valid alibi. She couldn't handle the situation. And it was frightening.

"I do trust you! I just - I just..." A burning ached in her throat. She hadn't cried when Frenchmen captured her friends. She didn't cry when she unearthed the secret that had been hiding for so long - that she was Jane's daughter. She didn't even cry when her and her fellow companions found out that her dad's - Arthur's - mind had been so screwed with that he was now paralyzed with the concussion she had given him. It just seemed that Louise did not know him well enough to care... and though it seemed cruel to her, the tears wouldn't come. But now with everything she stood for beginning to dwindle, she wasn't sure if anything from her life before Frenchmen would ever return. It also seemed that her only best friend treated her like she was her worst enemy because of a lie she had thought would be sufficient enough to cover up the horrid truth. That life isn't made of unicorns and rainbows. Life is full of decisions, lies, secrets, happiness, jealousy, and everything in between. Finally, salty tears began to blur her vision - everything that happened those two days ago and the toll it caused now. Immediately, Lizzy noticed this and seemed severely out of place as if she wished with all her heart to dash out of the seat, but of course, the school was still a little more than five miles away. Louise tried to cover up her reddened face with her hand, though it had already attracted attention. People peered slightly over toward her direction, wondering where the annoying hiccuping was coming from, yet no one moved or said anything. 'What are you all looking at? Never saw a teenager cry before?' she wished to scream at them.

"Louise, please tell me what's going on? You've never cried before - only in first grade when that boy Max didn't give you that pink crayon you wanted," Louise heard a voice through her pathetic hiccuping.

"Nothing you need to know!" Louise called out back to Lizzy.

"Fine. Then forget calling me your best friend because now I'm just an acquaintance. Adiós, chica," she said, beginning to pick up her backpack.

"No, wait." Lizzy halted.

"I'm waiting."

"I'll tell you later in school in the bathroom," she heard herself say.

"Why not now?"

"Because you wouldn't believe me, and you'd probably call a psychiatric hospital before I could get my first sentence out," Louise said, her eyes beginning to clear up.

***

"Can I have your cell phone?" Louise asked as soon as they entered the lavatory that had a pungent odor, which made her want to cover her nose with chlorine to rid of the scent. Lizzy looked incredulous.

"What? Why?"

"I was actually serious about your calling the psychiatric hospital," Louise said, her face turning impassive. Grudgingly, Lizzy handed her her phone, Louise pocketing it for good measure.

"Okay. Now tell me, though I have no idea what the phoning business was about." Louise took a deep breath, and dived into her story, beginning with the fortune cookie. Every so often, she would realize that she missed a small detail that happened to be a whole lot more crucial towards the end. When she finished her inconceivable tale that even sounded like things that would only transpire within the depths of one's imagination, she couldn't help but feel relieved. Though Lizzy could be in terrible peril, at least she was still her friend. "Okay, I'm leaving. If you won't tell me the truth, I suppose I'll just go," she said, starting toward the door. Or not.

"Wait, wait, Lizzy-"

"Stop! I'm going, and you can't stop me-"

"But wait! LIZZY, WAIT!" Louise screamed on the top of her lungs. Instantaneously, a blindingly white light flashed inches outside the open window in the restroom. A deafening boom that rattled the school to its grounds followed. Faintly from one of the nearby classrooms, Louise heard a kid scream, "Yo, does this mean we can go home?" Out of sheer curiosity, she opened the door and noticed that the hallway was set in pitch black darkness. It seemed that only their bathroom was still lit.

"Wait, wasn't it sunny this morning?" Lizzy asked to no one in particular, looking out the window.

"Yeah, now how does it suddenly transition from a sunny day to a thundering, blackout-making thunderstorm?" she asked.

"What-" Louise opened the door wider, revealing vast dark hallways. "Maybe it's just the crazy weather," Lizzy suggested after a moment, though her meek voice betrayed her words. Louise calmed her nerves, closing her eyes. Clouds. Cotton candy. Rainbows. Family... Hanukkah with the family. It's 2004. She accidently blew out one of the candles because she thought it was her birthday... She opened her eyes, and sunlight leaked into the room, filling every nook and crany. Lizzy's mouth was wide open.

"S-so it's true then?" Lizzy stammered, her eyes darting between the window and Louise.

"No, I just told you this because I'm bored," for a moment Lizzy's expression looked relieved, "Yes, it's true! But please don't tell anyone!" Wow, she was acting as if she just walked right out of a 90's movie.

"Well... if I did try, no one would believe me, anyway, so..." She gave a choked laugh. "You're safe, I guess. And you're still my friend." A wide smile broke on Louise's face, barely able to contain her joy.

"Thank you, thank you!"

"But... your parents aren't really your parents?"

"They are my parents - just not my biological parents. And Arthur is in a hospital at the moment. The doctors are beyond confused. Jane... got killed by a solution Frenchmen created. Apparently, it consisted of her blood and his blood, so that her abilities would repel Frenchmen's blood, clean of any powers. Though he got his mind control power later. Anyway, if electricity was powered into the solution, it could hyperactivate the solution, killing the host..."

"But how did you penetrate it?"

"Well, considering I'm my mom's daughter, I had more concentration of the abilities capable of overpowering the solution. The only setback was that my abilities didn't react instantaneously as they usually do," she replied.

"So..."

"So?"

"Bathroom selfie?"

"Haha, you know it!" Louise removed the cell phone from her pocket, and held it up high over their heads, pressing the button on the side. Just a usual day at Breachwood High. Sort of.

***

Later that day, Louise slammed the door behind her as she walked inside her house. It could've been a normal day if it wasn't for the fact that she wasn't panting, feeling as if she were to faint. She vowed the day before that shouldn't use her abilities unless absolutely necessary. Running laps around the school was absolutely necessary. The teachers bouncing up and down, thoroughly excited for them to stand around as everyone else were suffering, sweat inking their skin. But of course, why waste such a precious opportunity to make it pour cats and dogs? So they ended up playing volley ball. It wasn't exactly Louise's favorite sport, but it sure as heck beat sprinting around the school.

"Honey, is that you?" called a voice from the kitchen. Her mother stepped out from it, her blonde hair in a messy bun. There once was a time where Louise wouldn't have been bothered by her mother's hair color, but that time was gone. Every difference Louise could distinguish from her and her parents was a slap in the face. Well, at least she could pretend as everything was still the same as it was two days ago.

"Yep. Though I'm missing my phone. Thus, ridding myself some of my happiness-"

"Oh, you're so full of it. Hungry?" her mother asked, her eyes shining. Louise feigned thinking.

"Only if it's pizza - with pepperoni," she added as an afterthought. Her mother rolled her eyes, and walked back into the kitchen. Even though her heart was really set on pizza, whatever her mother was cooking smelled real good.

"Oh, do you want to open your fortune cookie?" asked her mother stepping out from the kitchen again. Louise's heart sunk into her stomach. The last time she had a fortune cookie, she had acquired abilities, acquired companions, acquired an enemy, and acquired information she knew she really would've been better off not knowing. And her mother was also clueless that they didn't go to any Chinese restaurants within the past week. But in the end, it wasn't the knowledge that did any harm. It was what you intended to do with that knowledge that could decide the fate of your future. Louise took the fortune cookie that sat nestled in her mother's palm, and left into the kitchen. Louise didn't even bother to inspect it, and tore it open with little effort. She cracked open the cookie, popping a halve into her mouth, and slid out the small piece of paper. However, this time she did not feel a rush of energy, but there was something unusually written there. It read: "Dear Louise, If you're reading this, it means I'm already deceased; I'm sure you've met Frenchmen by now. I'm not sure if you're in his imprisonment or if you're at home, but you must read this. I sincerely apologize for all you've been through. You don't deserve this - none of you do (Shijie, Joshua, and Alexa). I also apologize for never being your mother, nor Arthur being your father. Are you coping well with your new ability? That was a stupid question. I'm sorry because I'm sure that's the first thing I should be asking you, my daughter whom I've had never seen except in photos. You look absolutely beautiful. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Happy birthday to all the birthdays I have missed, and I hope life will be something you look back upon as a gift. Love, the mother you never got a chance to meet, Jane." Louise smiled, her eyes slightly blurred due to tears threatening to be released and pocketed the fortune, while popping in another halve of her cookie. It tasted sweet in her mouth like her mother's words.