Madlaina stared at one of the books in front of her. The words had stopped making sense about thirty minutes ago, but she still had at least an hour of work to do. The math was not looking good, and the silence of the library was grating when she was used to chaos while she studied. School was back in session and most days were the same as the ones before: get up, go to class most of the day, work on her homework, workout, practice her powers, and go to bed.

Flopping her head onto her hands, bare of gloves because she had just washed them after a bathroom break and putting damp hands into gloves ended with her hands feeling icky and her gloves getting musty, she grumbled in Romanian. Scratching her ear, she sighed and flipped to the English/Romanian translation book, the memories whispering at her fingers. She was getting better at ignoring random memories, thanks to her practice, but she couldn’t block them out yet and strong memories still triggered her powers unless she was focused on blocking them.

Her most recent headache though, that was due to the English homework she was hunched over. Her speech was getting better and her writing was catching up if she was given time to work through things, but…. Though her teachers gave her a slight break, she kept getting marked down on the same things over and over, in both her speech and her writing. Like her use of the word ‘is.’ “I am. You are. He is.”

Writing it in her notebook didn’t help. “I is, you is, we is! What is difference!?” Growling she started writing down all the ways she used ‘is’ and stared at it. She had intended to try and correct the ‘is’ into whatever it was supposed to be, but none of it looked wrong to her.

And Maddy couldn’t figure out why people kept telling her to say ‘the.’ ‘Going to store’ wasn’t good enough, it had to be ‘Going to the store.’ But when she asked why, or what part of speech it was, no one seemed to know. Parts of speech, Madlaina got. Noun, verb, adverb, adjective, ect… The basic parts of speech that she usually used to make a sentence… ‘I go to store.’ Done. It wasn’t pretty or fancy sounding, but it got the message across. “Why they make it hard?”

Micah was happy. This place is amazing! There are so many books!

He raced up and down the aisles, his brightly colored Kingdom Hearts shirt vanishing and reappearing among the many aisles of the Mansion’s library. I’d better read a lot. I mean, if I really can remember everything, there’s no time to waste! I need to become a storehouse of information if my power is going to be of any use. Now let’s see… Non-Linear Algebra, that could be useful. Computer programming, most definitely, German, French History since 1789, knitting, no not knitting cause knitting sucks, Bio-Engineering…,

> “I is, you is, we is! What is difference!?”

The quiet of the library was broken by a frustrated shout. Micah looked around. Years of working as a librarian had exposed him to a myriad of frustrated students, from teenagers scrambling to pull together a report the night before to crying toddlers who couldn’t figure out the puzzles in the play area. And like any good librarian, he sought out the source of the disturbance. Sounds like someone could use some help.

It wasn’t hard to figure out who had done the yelling. Micah found her in a corner, staring at a notebook like she was either going to eat it or kill it or both. Oh wow, she looks frustrated. And angry. Maybe I should just leave her alone.

Micah shook his head. No Micah. With great power comes great responsibility. If you’re going to have a super-memory, you are obligated to share that knowledge with others who could use it. And this girl could obviously use your help.

“Actually, um”… Micah placed the stack of books he had collected on the desk the girl was using, creating a loud and awkward *thump*

“The different forms of the verb “to be”, or “is”, exist as leftovers from when the English language didn’t always use subjects. In the distant past, “I am” could be expressed with a single word. The same was true with “you are” and “she is”, and they were all conjugations of the same word, “is”. So each form of “is” was different so that the subject could be understood through implication based on how the verb was conjugated. Over time the language evolved to use subjects more obviously as separate words, but the tendency to conjugate verbs according to the subject still remained within the language.”

Micah grimaced. Holy crap Micah, really? She didn’t want a history lesson. She probably just wants to get through her assignment and move on with her life. Not everyone loves English as much as you do.

“I’m sorry, that was just me rambling. I’m Micah, by the way. Do you, um, need any help? I’d be glad to lend you a hand with your English. I know a bit more about the English language than is probably normal, and, a-”

ACHOO! Great Micah, great. First you force her into a history lesson, and now you sneeze in her face. Are there pets in the mansion or something?

An aqua marble shot out of Micah’s ear, and landed with a gentle click on the table before rolling towards the girl. Its glow reflected softly off the polished wood.

Micah sighed. “Sorry, that’s just part of my brain. That’s been happening a lot lately.”

Someone next to the desk she had chosen cleared their throat and started to say something. Madlaina fully expected them to ask her to be quiet, she would nod, and each would be on about their way. Until the stack of books hit the table, the sound making her jump in her chair and lean back quickly to look at who ever had done it.

A young man, older than her self, stood behind the books talking about something that seemed to boil down to the fact that Madlaina could say ‘is’ and it would be correct. Sort-of. But her grasp of what he said wasn’t the best so she might have gotten that wrong. Peering at him curiously and apprehensively, she ventured a question, her accent making it easy to see why she would be having trouble with something that would seem a simple concept. “So, I say ‘is’ and be okay?...”

Part way through the next little monologue, he sneezed, making her flinch back despite nothing detectable landing on her. Looking up at him from her seated position she watched something bounce out of his head and onto the table where it rolled toward her, and she was briefly worried that it had come out of his nose. Seeing it was a marble, and hearing his explanation, Maddy couldn’t help staring at him as if he were some sort of bomb, marbles suddenly shooting out.

She had seen and heard of many mutations in the past few years, but this one was one of the weirdest… Marbles for a brain- and they fell out? Was this a mutant version of the Wizard of Oz and next there would be a hairy man with a cotton-candy heart? As if the knowledge was settling in and she realized that she couldn’t just keep staring at him, people tended to think that was uncomfortable, she reached for the little blueish-green sphere while speaking, trying to be normal and conversational.

“You know English good?”

As her fingers settled over the little glass ball Madlaina was focused on him, not on what her powers might do with a marble that acted like a brain. Within a moment of contact she knew her powers had activated. In a split second her eyes fogged over before clearing to show a darker sharper purple as her mind submerged itself in whatever memory had triggered her powers.

~Looking around in her mind, it took her a moment to orient herself. She was at a park, and judging by the looks of the buildings visible over the trees, it was that big one in New York City. There was a feeling of sun on her skin, a breeze stirring warm air around, and the sound of others nearby… and she was shorter than usual. A woman spoke, and her body turned and looked up behind her. The feeling of being a passenger in a body was still foreign to her, and she found herself feeling disoriented again when she looked up at a woman.

The woman stood her arms partially around her, holding something in front of both of them, and when the body turned around, Maddy realized why. There was a spool of heavy string in both their hands, connected to a large kite in the air that was being lifted by stronger winds than were on the ground. The scene was peaceful… nice. A frizbee zoomed across her line of vision and broke the trance.~

What had felt like a few minutes in the vision, if that was what Maddy was going to call them, had only been moments in the real world. Her eyes faded to their normal violet color and she stared at the marble in her fingers held a scant inch over the surface of the desk where her body had frozen. Inhaling slowly, she glanced up at him then back at the marble.

After a moment of confusion, whether or not to attempt to hand it back or just roll it across the desk to him, she settled on holding it out to him. “You play kites lot?” Though she knew the word kite, it came out sounding awkward as if she had trouble wrapping her mouth around the word.

“Ha, well, I have taken a few classes, so yeah, I speak English pretty good. Well. Good. No, definitely well. Eh, regardless, I mean, technically speaking you can use ‘is’ instead of bothering with those pesky conjugations and still be understood by most English speakers, but it’s not consider ‘proper’, so to speak. But you know what? Who gives a crap about proper? You should just speak as you please.”

The woman didn't seem to be following everything he was saying, but she reached for his marble. Apparently she understood enough to know the marble was important. Am I talking too much? I mean, of course I am, it’s me, of course I’m talking too much. But am I “talking too much” more so than usual? This woman doesn’t seem to speak English very well, and here I am talking so fast even a native speaker wouldn’t understand me.

As her fingers wrapped around the orb, Micah noticed a change come over the girl. She became graceful, almost serene, and her eyes deepened to an extraordinarily deep purple. Huh? What’s going on?

Before he had a chance to ask her about that, the moment had passed, and she distracted Micah by posing a question he didn’t understand. ‘You play kites lots?’ Huh? What is a kite? It could just be her thick accent, but I feel like I should know what that word means… kite. It’s like a… a what? Micah tried to picture it in his mind, but all that came to him were broken flashes of… a sky thing maybe? Made of, something thin, like paper? But that doesn’t make sense, how could paper fly? And why would I suddenly not know what it was when I feel like this is something I definitely knew? Unless…

Micah glanced down at the marble in her outstretched hand. No freakin’ way…

He took the marble and returned it to his head and tried again. Kite. And there it was, the flying paper, and the memories of the summers spent with Cheryl in Central Park trying to control one of the dastardly things. I never really did get a grasp on kiting, even though mom spent countless hours trying to get me involved in something that vaguely resembled a sport.

Huh, so apparently I can’t access information on marbles that aren’t in my brain. I mean, I guess that makes sense. I suppose most humans can’t access the information on brain cells that aren’t in their brain, but still… that seems like it’s an important thing to know.

“Sorry, thanks for the marble. But, if you don’t mind me asking,” Micah pulled up a chair and smiled excitedly, “how did you do that? How did access one of the memories stored on the marble? See, I was talking to an empath today, and she said my brain didn't even register. So what kind of power do you have that let's you access my mind?”

Despite the fact that this man, Micah, was speaking far too quickly for Maddy to understand any details of what he said, the fast almost- nervous rhythm of his speech was familiar and the few words she did catch told her enough to fill in the blanks. He thought she could say ‘is’ if she wanted to, and she agreed, which made her like whatever he knew more than what her teachers knew.

When she asked about the kite, Madlaina tilted her head at the expression on his face. It was one she knew she often wore, thinking she knew what something was but racking her brain to double check, and it was interesting to see it on another person. He seemed... hesitant wasn't the word but it was the closest she could come up with... to take the marble back, but when he did and put it in his ear, something Maddy had to avert her eyes from because it didn’t look right, a look of understanding came over his face. Now that the marble was out of her hands, she slipped on her gloves. As memories went that one had been pretty good, but it still made her uncomfortable to have someone else’s memories floating around in her head.

Nodding at his sorry and thanks, not really thinking she or he had done anything to need a sorry or a thanks, she flicked a page with her finger, glancing up at his next question. Her mouth twitched, wondering how much she should tell him, but then she mentally shrugged. He was in the mansion, so he wasn’t a bad guy, so it wouldn’t hurt to tell him.

Pulling out the name and definition of her power that she was given when she moved in, she recited a modified version of it. “I have Psychometry. Mean I touch thing and get memories.” Psychometry and memories came out more accented than the rest of the sentence, but over all, Maddy thought she had done a decent job saying it.

Glancing at the chair a few feet away, and coming to the realization that talking to this guy wasn’t as much a chore as talking to some other people, she reached over and dragged it closer. It wouldn’t do to be rude to the people she could like. “You want sit?”

“Sure! Thanks!” Micah sat down and settled in, pushing his small mountain off books off to the side so they weren’t in her way. “So Psychometry, huh? And that somehow gives you access to my memories. Well, I guess that makes sense, I mean… those glowing orbs are somehow both glass marbles and my mind at the same time, so maybe they function on an almost psychometrical level by storing information using some sort of psychic energy. Do you think that’s why they glow?” But how come she only saw that one memory? I mean, I don’t exactly how many marbles are in there, but unless the inside of my skull is some sort of warped dimensional space that is larger on the inside than it is on the outside, there definitely isn’t one marble for each memory. How would they all fit?

Micah shook his head. He could figure all that out later, it wouldn’t be a good thing if he got a reputation around the mansion for being that “kid who says hi to you and then is just really quiet so everything is really awkward.”

“Sorry if I seem so interested. My X-gene just activated a few days ago, I haven’t really gotten used to being a mutant or interacting with other mutants yet, so this is a whole new world for me. My power seems to be some sort of advanced memory, so I had the idea to try and memorize as much stuff as possible. So I’m grabbing books about mathematics, history, science, languages…” Micah had an idea. “Hey! Your accent is what, Russian or something? What if we help each other out? I’ll trade you some tutoring in English and in return you’ll tutor me in your language. Does that sound like a deal?”

Man, I hope I’m not coming off too strong. I don’t even know her name yet. But what better way to learn a language than with a native speaker? It’s too good of an opportunity to let it slip by. Besides, it’ll be nice to have a regular study buddy in this weird place.

She attempted to smile back, but she had a feeling Micah’s was much brighter. He eagerly sat down, and Madlaina wasn’t sure how to handle his enthusiasm. She hadn’t met many people like him, and they usually didn’t hang around long enough for her to figure out how to respond. And he talked much more than she was used to, leaving her feeling a bit confused, but oh well.

When he started talking about their powers and the marbles, he asked her a question and she couldn’t help staring at him blankly. Though she had her powers for quite a while, until she came to the Mansion, she hadn’t really had much time to study them or figure out why they worked. When she was working with her powers now, she was slightly more concerned with controlling when it happened and not thinking about how it happened. And she had no idea how anyone else’s powers worked, Maddy was still trying to figure out how to talk to other people so she could talk about normal things.

“Ugh… I not know?” What was supposed to be a statement, came out as a question. After all, how many times had she answered a question that she hadn’t been supposed to…

When he shook his head, Maddy’s eyes widened at the sound that came from inside. Though he had told her his brain was made of marbles, it was quite another thing to hear the evidence of it for herself and she had to take a moment.

Madlaina’s experience with other mutants, in Romania at least, was that they didn’t want to talk about their power. Too much chance of being betrayed or caught. But it seemed that around the Mansion it was rather common to ask and tell without much thought, so she didn’t find his interest that odd. But judging from his description so far, she would happily trade mutations with him.

“No, is Romanian, but I know little Russian…” Maddy hesitated, fiddling with her gloves a bit. She needed the help, it wouldn’t hurt to have him around… and She definitely needed more friends judging by the summer. She hadn’t had many people to spend time with; despite the fact that she was a bit of a loner she liked to have friends. “I would like have someone I talk to better.”

“Great! Sounds like a plan!” So she speaks Romanian? Well, if I’m going to learn as much as possible, Romanian isn’t a bad place to start. Micah started to offer a handshake to seal the deal, but then thought better of it once he recalled the way she buried her hands back into her gloves after the escapade with the marble. It’s way too hot to have cold hands, so it must be some way to bloke her powers. Maybe she can’t control them?

Nah, that’s nothing to worry about right now. Micah glanced over at his embarrasingly large pile of books. “You know what? I must have been a little crazy to grab this huge pile of books when it’s so nice outside. And while we could start studying English now… once again it’s way too nice outside. The weather is sunny but not too sunny, and the humidity is the lowest it’s been all week. Hey, want to go on an adventure in the city? I’m itching to test the limits of my memory powers. We should go out somewhere and explore our abilities. But where?”

Micah closed his eyes. Okay, supermemory, give me a lists of attractions in NYC that would be good for both our powers….

“How about the Metropolitan Museum of Art? I bet you could get some really interesting vibes off of all that old stuff.”

Madlaina did want to set aside the English work… nothing was making sense anymore, but if she left now she could get a clear head and catching up on her homework would go faster with his help. She wasn’t sure what he meant by getting vibes off something, but she didn’t think they let people touch things in a museum, and she wasn’t sure she would want to even if she was allowed. The idea of memories that old was daunting.

Looking at her work, then back at him, Maddy nodded. This would still be here, after all there was always more to be done when she finished something. She would rather do something more fun. “I go, but I not want touch stuff. I put homework away.” With a nod, she began packing up her books in her backpack.

“How we go there?” She didn’t have a car, or a license, and her bike wasn’t going to work. As she zipped the pack closed she stood, making sure the area was the same as when she arrived. Madlaina wanted to drop this by her room and pick up her regular bag, and he probably needed to swing by his room if they were going somewhere. “I need go my room, then we go… good?”

Micah had been ready to head right out, but he thought about what the girl had said. “Hmm, I’ll probably head to my room too. I guess I could put on better shoes for walking. And grab my cell phone. And get my wallet.” Micah smiled. “Crap, I’m guess I’m not very good at having a supermemory if I’m going to be forgetting things like my wallet. Want to meet in the Foyer in like 5 minutes? I figure we can take the subway down to 5th Avenue.”

After checking out his small mountain of books, Micah headed up to his room to drop them off and collect his things for an outing. Huh, I wonder if I shouldn’t have invited her to a museum. I mean, she doesn’t seem really into exploring her powers. Maybe this mutant thing isn’t fun for everyone? Or maybe she just sees more bad memories than good? I guess this world can be a crappy place sometimes…

Heading back downstairs to the foyer, Micah smiled and waved when he saw the girl. Girl? Wait, why do I refer to her as that? First off, it’s sexist. If she were male, I wouldn’t think of calling her a “boy”. Secondly, why haven’t I asked her for her name yet? God Micah, you’re so spacey.

“Hey, before we got off for a New York power exploring adventure, what’s your name?”

Nodding at his suggestion of five minutes, Maddy went up to her room making sure to grab her subway map. She hadn’t managed a trip on the underground things, but it wouldn’t be so bad if she had someone with her. Moving her school things out of her bag and putting her small wallet inside, along with a few other things, she quickly headed to the foyer, beating Micah by only a moment or two.

She was looking forward to the outing, even if she didn’t plan to exercise her powers the way he seemed eager to. Though both good and bad things came through her powers, it seemed like bad memories left deeper and longer lasting marks than good memories and they had more of an impact on Maddy. If only she could find a way to turn that around on other people...

She gave a mental shrug as they set off, and was surprised by his question. She hadn’t realized that she hadn’t given her own name. Blinking, she tried to quickly fix that. “Madlaina… Name is Madlaina.” She wasn’t sure why she added the second part. Of course she was talking about her own name so it was a bit redundant, but sometimes things just came out without being put in the right order first.

Micah smiled to Madlaina. “So, have you ever been to the subway before?”

…

The entrance to the subway was chaos. By the mix of teenagers, tourists, and businesspeople, at least three separate Middle Schools were on a field trip, at least one tour group was there for a Broadway Show, and everyone else just wanted to get home after a long day of work.

Micah tried to push his way through the crowd. “Um, excuse me. Perdón. Anteeksi. Entschuldigung.” One thing that was nice about being able to remember lots of random things was that you could apologize for pushing through a crowd in enough languages to be certain that you eventually apologized in the right language to the right person.

After finally making it to the ticket booth, Micah dug some change out of his pocket and got his ticket.

Pushing his way back through the throng of people again, “pardon me, me excusa, przepraszam…” Micah finally was able to slide his card through the reader and step through the gate and reach the main area of the subway platform.

Feeling strangely as though he was forgetting something, Micah turned around. “Are you coming Madlaina?”

Shaking her head at his question, Maddy had never ridden the subway, but she had managed to buy a subway card with a few rides on it the last time she had been in the city, with some help from the attendant. She hadn’t known there was a subway point near enough to the Mansion to be useful though.

~~~

Blinking at the mass of people, it took Madlaina a moment to follow him. This was probably the other reason she hadn’t used a subway before this. It was unpleasant for her for several reasons, only one of which being her powers. She was quite a bit less vocal in her apologies to the people she pushed past. They weren’t apologizing to her after all, and she was the one cringing back doing her best to avoid skin contact.

That didn’t stop many things from whispering over her consciousness though. She really had to keep working on her powers. After getting a bit behind thanks to the people in the way, it took her a moment to get the turnstile to work with her card. Then once she was past the line of people, she saw Micah a bit further away than they might like if they wanted to end up in the same place.

Just as he turned back for her, she managed to catch up. “Da, I come. People is hard…” Although she didn’t doubt Micah’s ability to get there, she checked the map anyway. Being out with him was different than being out with the other people that she had been with, mostly because they didn’t know each other well and Maddy was unsure of his qualities as a protector/guide. The few others she had been with she had known fairly well and knew, or at least thought she knew, what they would do if something happened.

“What do it cost for go in Museum?” Maddy assumed it wasn’t much based on his attitude, but she was hoping it wasn’t more than she had brought with her. She didn’t have much money anyway.