Authors Note: So, do you guys like the new cover? Please tell me if you have any suggestions for the plot and feel free to comment! Remember to vote for my story (or else XD)!

April lay on her bed, staring listlessly at the ceiling, which was painted green. Remembering a time when she was young and innocent, and her Mum danced around the kitchen in a ritual of chores. Remembering when she'd 'helped' her Mum to paint this same roof this same colour of emerald green, which was her favourite colour at the time. She had gotten green paint all over her hands, crept up behind her Mum, then jumped on her back, with the shrieks of shock, anger and eventually laughter more than making up for the punishment she endured later. She remembered other things too, like when her Mum had given her a sketch that she'd done of her sitting on the hill, playing her flute, all done in black and white lead pencil and she had loved it. It had been weeks in the making, with every line of the pencil imbued with love and care, and it had remained in pride of place on her dressing table, framed in silver, for years. And then she moved on from the cute drawing of her as a nine year old, put up posters, dumped worthless but pretty stuff around it, made friends and put up pictures of them too, not to mention the accumulation and placement of various things that she had made at school or at home- then one day she came home from school to find the silver frame shattered, and water spilled all over the object of her Mum's patient labour. At the time, she was disappointed and annoyed at the damage done to her things, but now she realised how unnecessary her emotion for her things was, how she really should have been treasuring what was not her own, but instead came from her Mum. Because now she had nothing more than some old ragtag gifts that had been shoved under her bed and hidden for years, and a collection of memories from times when she took her loving parents for granted and was too, too- 'busy', of all things, even when she wasn't busy at all- to enjoy every moment and opportunity to spend time with her Mum. Now, it was too late. And there was no going back.

April smiled a tiny smile, but it held no real pleasure, and instead was the smile of someone just waiting for death to take them, so they could be free of the cruel prison their life had become. Her smile quickly faded into confusion, as she realised that the mundane sounds of life that had been floating up the stairs until now had also faded, being replaced by the sounds of her Dad shouting. Her Dad, shouting? He was one of the most gentle, loving and friendly people she had known- at least before it happened. Was something wrong? she thought nervously. Had the stress finally gotten to him? What was happening?

Swinging her legs over the edge of her flower-patterned bed, April padded on silent feet to the door, peering out through a tiny crack. What she saw more than alarmed her.

Her father was standing rigidly, fists clenched and jaw tight, staring at someone just out of her view like he wanted to kill them. His face was red and he was yelling at the top of his voice.

"NO YOU CANNOT TAKE HER AWAY!" April wondered who he was talking about, to speak with such passionate vehemence. "SHE IS A-A-ALL I HAVE LEFT, AND YOU WANT TO S-S-SEPARATE US?!" April pushed the door open further, fascinated by the seemingly one-sided exchange. Her Dad was crying! Crying! She couldn't believe it, and it seemed that neither could the mysterious person her Dad was ranting to.

"Now, now, Mr Rivera," A clear, cool female voice sounded from out of site. April imagined this voice sitting behind a large desk, in a leather chair, giving orders that changed lives and made families miserable, without an ounce of sympathy. "You'll disturb your daughter before we've had a chance to talk about this and consider all the most beneficial possibilities. You wouldn't want to disturb your daughter, would you?" April saw her father slump, tears already drying as he acquiesced to her reasonable request. He was, after all, normally quite a logical and considerate man.

"Yes, you're right," He spoke much more moderately this time, and it was difficult for April to make out his words. "Okay, please rephrase your request in a way that allows for the grief that my daughter and I are going through," What does he mean? April wondered. What request?

"Thank you," The woman sounded quite relieved to no longer be faced with conversing with a blubbering wreck, and April leaned further through the gap between her door and the wall as her curiosity became to great to be ignored. "But first, wouldn't it be more convenient to bring your daughter down here? She is currently eavesdropping on us, and this subject actually directly involves her. Her present position is probably not the most comfortable place to communicate from," April sheepishly plodded downstairs, all afire with inquisitiveness but at the same time drastically aware of what she looked like in her unwashed, partially undressed (she was in her pyjamas) and mostly dishevelled state. Trying to discreetly analyse the stranger, April took a seat on the couch whilst the woman took a deep breath and plunged into her explanation.

"I have the pleasure of informing you that your daughter, April Rivera, has been selected for a very special, secretive school which will involve some rather inconvenient adjustments for both of you," The woman had a really long black dress on, and cropped short brown hair that shone and fell neatly. April glanced regrettably at her own limp dark brown hair, which definitely needed a wash. "April has been selected by a very low-profile independent organisation that is certified by the government to be safe, oh and please remember that I have all the necessary papers here if you require confirmation- where was I?" Looking into the soft, friendly brown eyes framed by rectangular glasses, April revised her earlier opinion of this stranger as a coldhearted, unsympathetic woman. "Oh, right. Well, this organisation selects people with special talents and privately trains them using confidential methods at a secret location," Except for her hesitation, it seemed like this woman had delivered this speech to thousands of people on separate occasions, and such hesitation was probably brought on by the stress of her earlier blow-up with April's father. "By law- and this is a very little-known law- April is required to attend this secretive training collage until she is graduated by the collage authorities, which is usually after four or so years, so basically finishing by the end of a regular high school education, depending on when she starts, of course," April's Dad shifted in his chair, plainly about to voice a complaint of some sort, but the lady rushed ahead with one final statement. "In light of your recent tragedy, allowances can be made-" 

April gave a start at that, realising to her utter devastation that in the excitement of the moment, she had completely forgotten her mother. Her mother, who was dead. Dead. Dead! She leaped up from the couch and sprinted to her bedroom, flopping onto her bed in a white haze of doubled grief and pain. In the far reaches of her mind, she heard the woman murmur "Can't you see that a change of scene might be exactly what she needs at the moment? Don't you want what's best for her?" Then she heard her Dad's whispered reply, fraught with suffering, and knew that he was going to comply with the woman and let her do what she wished with a daughter who, after all, he only wanted the best for.

"Of course I do,"