My first three classes fly by, and they are all stupid. First is Garden, which Gracie obviously gets straight A's in, then there is Science, where we're studying the weather, and the twins obviously get straight A's in that, and then Math, where Rebecca obviously got straight A's in because she reads the professor's minds for the answers, which she confirms is not cheating.

I beg to differ.

Lunch comes before I know it. The moment I sit down, I spot a lonely boy sitting in the corner sighing at his food and eating about one mouthful every five minutes.

"Who's he?" I ask.

"That's Johnny," Cole answers. "He's the youngest kid here - only seven years old - and he can create the cutest rainbows. Sounds pathetic, but he's the kindest and most innocent kid here. I feel really bad for him."

"Why?"

"He's going to get deprived of his life before he barely starts it," he replies, and as soon as he finishes the statement, and he goes over to him and takes his grilled cheese and throws it away, leaving the kid utterly speechless.

"What the heck, Cole? Let him eat."

"I'm saving his life. The sooner you understand that, the better you'll be."

"Well, I'm going to go sit with that poor boy," I say, and take my food over to him. I eat a bite out of my grilled cheese in front of Cole, just to annoy him, and then turn back to Johnny. "Hey there."Johnny looks up to me. He has golden blond hair and the sweetest blue eyes I've ever seen. 

"Who are you? Are you new?"

"Yes, I am. I'm Cassidy, and you're Johnny, right?'

"Yeah."

"Would you like some of my food?" I offer, and tear off half of it.

"Thanks," Johnny says, and happily takes a bite out of it. I eat into mine as well, and we both grin. Mine is just a normal twelve-year-old grin - not that I'm normal, so don't think that I am - but Johnny's is just about the sweetest thing I've ever seen. His smile is the kind of smile on the kind of face you'd pay a hundred bucks to just see. Hopeful eyes, freckles, teeth covered in cheese, and to top it off, the cutest loving smile ever.

Johnny looks down at his food and sets it down as his smile fades. "What's wrong?" I ask.

"Why were you sitting with him?"

"You mean Cole?" 

"Yeah, him."

"Well, he's in my class so I'm kinda stuck."

"He's mean to me," Johnny tells me with a pout. "He takes my food."

"I'm sorry," is all I managed to say. 

"She's testing me later today," he continues. "Ms. Meyer. To see if I have new abilities."

"That's good," I reply, and any doubt about her washes away. There's no way she will hurt a little boy like him, and testing for new abilities is good. She should do it to Gracie so that she won't keep defying the purpose of the video cameras, which I believe are for safety. 

 See, Rebecca? She's helping him, I think, hoping that she'll read it.

We'll see about that.

She can read my mind and import messages into it?

Yes, I can.

I hate her.

I think that'll change.

Whatever. I stop mentally talking to her and focus back on Johnny.

 "Do you have any siblings?"

"What are those?"

It takes a minute for me to comprehend that Johnny doesn't know what siblings are. Partly because I expect him to break out laughing and say "just kidding," but he doesn't, and I know that he really doesn't know what siblings are.

"They're brothers and sisters," I explain. Maybe he just hasn't learned about them yet. After all, he's only seven. I can't expect him to know about the whole world.

"Bro-thers, sis-ters," he repeats, breaking the words into syllables.

Maybe they are new words, or maybe he's just an only child.

You're wrong.

Be quiet, Rebecca.

Thankfully, she does.

 "How long have you been here?"

"My whole life," he replies. 

It's probably not true, but it does mean that Johnny has been here so long that he can't remember anything before MAD. Maybe that's why he doesn't know about his siblings, because they don't have powers. I hope that's true.

"Have you ever met your parents?" I ask. He has to remember them, and then his siblings will come back, and everything will be perfect and I'll know that whatever Cole and everyone else talks about Ms. Meyer hurting us won't be true, and happily ever after comes.

But instead, there's a pause between us. He looks at me in a weird way, with his sparkling eyes sparkling with confusion, and asks something so simple - only three words - that I'd expect to be the last things out of his mouth. No kid should have to ask it, especially Johnny. But the next three words I hear make my heart break and two, and I mentally start crying, because I can't bring myself to do it in front of poor, confused Johnny.

"What are parents?"