Every morning, I watch Jessie put two spoonfuls of surrepo into a glass of milk. She stirs it until the white milk turns a hideous pale green. I hate the irony taste and the way surrepo smells like dirt and sour milk. I drink it every morning with a big, fat, fake smile on my face because it makes her happy.

This morning, looks like any other morning. Jessie is making surrepo, there's toast and bacon on the table, Toby the one-eyed cat is waiting for me to chuck him a piece of bacon under the table.

As I stare at the clock, watching the minutes pass by faster than I anticipated I can't ignore that isn't like other mornings. Come noon, I will walk out of this house, never to return.

It's all Charlie Smith's fault. I was pulling up the weeds that were killing the dark yellow flowers in the field not far from Jessie's house. Charlie snorted with glee as he threw stones at me. I tried to ignore him, I really did. I counted to ten, I took deep breaths, clutched onto my shirt so tightly that my hands hurt. But it didn't work. All those beautiful flowers I had tried to save became nothing but ash.

I will never forget the look of horror on his face or how fast he ran away from me. I knew then and there that by dinner time everyone in Lo would know what happened. All the way home my heart hammered away in anger and fear. Anger at what Charlie do and fear at how it was. I had, had a few small outburst before, but never publicly nor I had ever taken that much life force before.

The moment I stepped through the front door and saw Jessie sitting on the stairs, her wrinkled face etched with worry, I knew that the Elders had been there. If, Jessie had a choice she would keep me with her but she's a Non, a choice isn't something that they have had for a long time.

Ever since then I have thought about running away the same way my mother did, but Jessie is too old to come with me. The Elders would kill her if I left her here. They showed her mercy when she let my mother flee to the forest to find the Brinks, but they wouldn't show her mercy this time. I'm not selfish like my mother, I could never let someone else pay for my mistakes.

So, I'm stuck watching the minutes pass by, knowing that I'm going to lose the woman who loved and raised me when everyone else turned their backs on me.

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