It was terrible. "He broke my trust and from that I may never recover." A partial truth. Seeing Rowan interact with Cafas had melted almost every barrier. Almost.

"How can you not be good at friendship? You have already," Maya held up some semi-transparent fingers to help tick off the list. "been a good listener, shown empathy, and been an excellent excuse to make a bedtime snack." Maya put the second sandwich on Amber's currently plate. She wasn't acting ravenous, but Ghost wasn't' convinced that the girl wasn't just being polite. "Those are all excellent friendship qualities."

Ah. No. Not girl. Young woman.

"How old are you now Amber? Did you end up finishing high school?" There were so many tumultuous years of riots and bombings and murders that the Mansion had kids of varying ages in lower level classes than they would have normally been in had their lives progressed normally.

"If you're at all interested in getting a GED or moving on to college courses, we can help you prep for that. Well, not me. I'm not a teacher or anything. I just mean the Mansion has the staff."

The words 'never recover' sure didn't say much about her own situation.  What if she never recovered from her losses?  What would she do?  Would the crushing loneliness be with her forever, no matter where she went or who she talked to?  The next statements about friendship and how she might actually have some of those qualities softened the blow.  

"Do you really think so?"  There was hesitant hope in her voice.

The second sandwich was placed in front of her.  She wasn't really hungry anymore but continued nibbling anyway, out of politeness.  

"How old am I?"  Well, that was an interesting question and one she didn't have an immediate answer to.  She spent a moment thinking, not only about her most recent self-imposed retreat into the woods but her previously forced one as well.  "I...I think I'm 22."  Probably.  "No, I never finished high school."  Books and math equations had fallen from her mind in the chaos of recent years.

"I don't know if I'm interested in my GED.  Should I be interested in that?"  It was all so confusing and a little overwhelming.

"Yes. I really think so." There was no mincing of words and no point in being shy about it. "Amber, as far as I understand, being in a pack is like having a group of best friends. If you can be a good member of a pack, you already know how to be a good friend." Weren't people always joking that high school girls moved in packs?

It was as Maya suspected. No education finished.

"Well, I think getting a GED is important if you expect to interact with the human world and society. If you are just visiting it wouldn't be that important, but if you want to stay there are certain things that people kind of take for granted that we'll do. I never did finish college, and that surprises a lot of people, I think. They don't seem to understand that things work a little bit differently for people with powers."

Hell, it was only 10 or 11 years ago when they were all in internment camps and it was technically illegal to be a mutant.

"You don't have to decide today if you want your GED. But that's the baseline for education. It proves that you can finish something."

Amber hadn't thought of a pack as a group of friends before.  Somehwere along the line, a hard line had been formed in her head that divided friendship from family, but what if that wasn't quite accurate?  What if friends could be family?  It was a lot to consider, all at once. She nodded her acknowledgement, a pondering expression upon her face.

"How can I live a normal life when I'm not sure I'm even alive anymore?"  She wanted to stay,s he really did.  If she had learned nothing else during her time away, she had learned that her human self was just as important as her other self and one couldn't exist in harmony without the other.  But even if she could re-learn what it was to be human, how could she expect to be accepted outside the eccentric walls of places like the Mansion?  She was something half dead, a monster by the definition of most.  What kind of life could she really expect to have?

"I think I need some time to think.  Can you show me my room now?"  She finished the last of her food and stood up, feeling a confusing mix of home, despair and uncertainty and not quite sure if that was better or worst than when she had first walked through the Mansion doors.

"You've grown. How can dead things grow?" Surely she hadn't twisted herself all around mentally?

Ahh, but she was tired.

"Alright. It's late anyhow. Let's get you upstairs. Just leave the plate, I'll come back for it." Maya offered the key to Amber again and made sure that she took it this time before she bounded up the stairs 2 at a time.

In the adult hall, Maya ran her fingers along the wall and across the numbers that indicated which room was which. Eventually she circled her fingers around and around the right one.

"Here we are. The smooth part of the key goes down, I think. Into this part here." She put her fingers over the keyhole, jut in case Amber hadn't seen one recently. "Adult rooms have their own restroom, towels should be in there, and sheets on the single bed. If you need something else, pillows or a heavier blanket or whatever, just get yourself down to the administrative hall. They'll know where it's all hiding."

She smiled at the girl. "I'm glad you're here even if it's only for a while. Know that you're safe here. You can get some good rest, okay?" And, you know, if she wanted a hug that'd be okay too...

Amber wasn't sure that she'd grown but she'd take the other woman's word for it.  Grown monstrous, certainly, if one defined monstrous as 'walking corpse'.  "I'm only half dead.  Maybe that makes a difference?"  At least, that was her working theory.

Leaving the plate where it was, she took the key and followed Ghost up the stairs and into her new room.  She nodded, listening attentively to the instructions given to her.  "Thank you again for letting me stay here.  I don't...I don't really know what I'm doing yet, but I appreciate being welcomed here."  A safe place would help.  Here, she might be able to actually find a new direction.

"Goodnight.  You sleep well also."  A hug was something that would have been accepted but never offered or asked for.  She turned to enter her new room and start the newest chapter in her life.