The street was rather quiet today.

Every few minutes, a car would make its way down the road, or another pedestrian would pedestrian his merry little way along the sidewalk. Normal people, living normal lives, off on normal errands. Such normal individuals would never be able to comprehend what was happening just outside of the Sanctuary's golden doors.

Occasionally one of them would turn his head to glance at the little girl, sitting cross-legged by the doors, staring intently at the carrot in her hand. She must have been sitting there for half an hour, maybe longer, doing absolutely nothing but stare at her carrot. What could she possibly be doing?

Kaitlyn intended to blow up this carrot with her mind.

When she walked into the Sanctuary's kitchen to retrieve this carrot, many of the staff had stopped what they were doing immediately, to watch her. They feared this little girl, and she knew it. At any moment she could lose control, and everyone in the room would start to have a very bad day. All of them knew it.

This was why she had decided get the carrot in the first place. The child thought back to her meeting with Calley. Since her power wasn't going to go away, she needed to learn how to control it. If she could trigger it on purpose, it would probably help her learn how to get more control over it. Why the carrot? If she was holding something, that something would blow up, and the explosion would be much smaller than if she wasn't holding anything.

So here she was. Sitting. Staring at the carrot. Concentrating on it. Visualizing the carrot blowing up.

What does an exploding carrot look like, anyway? Hopefully, she would soon find out.

Amber had only been at Sanctuary for two days now. Two days that had been the most wonderful and surprising days of her life. Two days in which she had gotten a guardian and a sister. Two days of being told that being a mutant was something to not be ashamed of but rather something to be proud of. Two days of being told that she would probably discover her powers eventually, she just had to be patient. Yes, she had been at Sanctuary for two days now and those past two days were seeming rather surreal in her mind.

Most of those two days Amber had spending trailing her big sister (she, Amber, had a big sister! Just imagine it) but right now Aura was nowhere to be found. Not wanting to be a bother, she didn't go looking for the girl with the pink aura, instead taking the opportunity to look around Sanctuary on her own a little more.

Most of the residents of the place were older than Amber and most just ignored the strange girl with the black eyes who was constantly covered with a red veil and cloak. If they said nothing to Amber than Amber said nothing to them. She was happy that way, silence was something she was used to. At the orphanage she rarely talked to people because even before her eyes changed she was the outsider. It was funny how having to cover up put you at such a distance from everyone else.

Amber didn't have any particular destination in mind and eventually she was drawn to the outside world. She woudln't go far, of course, even with her protective clothing she wasn't very comfortable in the sun, but sometimes she just liked to get a little bit of fresh air. An odd sight greeted her upon opening the large, heavy golden doors, however, as she saw a little red haired girl staring at a carrot.

Amber watched the girl for a minute and then, realizing that the girl was not about to notice her, decided to speak. Little girls weren't as intimidating as big scary mutants. "Um...hello?" Her voice came out quiet and meek.

Kaitlyn looked up from her carrot to see who was talking to her. The person was entirely clad in red, and her eyes were entirely black. What little she could see of her skin was more pale than the child thought that human skin could ever be. It wasn't a particularly shocking sight; she had seen stranger things in the Sanctuary before.

"Hi," the kid replied with a smile. This person was pretty weird-looking, even for a mutant. And weirdos usually seem to like it when someone gives them a smile. It was easy to make friends with weirdos. Being a weirdo also meant that she would be a very memorable sight around the Sanctuary, and Kaitlyn didn't remember seeing her before. Maybe she didn't know about her Dining Hall-destroying reputation, yet. That would be great.

"I'm Kaitlyn," she added.

"What's with the... mask?" Mask may or may not have been the right word for it, but it would make for something to talk about. The child was getting sick of staring at that carrot, anyway. It was hopeless.

The little girl didn't seem unhappy that Amber had interrupted whatever it was she had been doing with the carrot. That was good; so far only Abyss and Aura had talked to her and the scary amazon woman who had yelled at her during her first day when she had accidentally peeked into her room. How was she supposed to know that it was considered rude to look into a room when the door was wide open?

"I-I'm Amber." She extended a gloved hand to shake the little girl's hand and then proceeded to give the carrot a rather appraising and confused look. "W-what are you d-d-doing with the c-carrot?" She didn't want to be rude but she couldn't help but be curios.

"I'm an a-albino," Amber answered the question about her veil. She smiled although the smile couldn't be seen from beneath the fabric. "M-my skin burns in the sunlight r-really e-easilly so I w-wear the veil to p-protect it. If y-you w-want we can go inside and I can t-take it off."

Amber. Amber has a stutter. That was mildly off-putting, but Kaitlyn wasn't about to let it show. The kid took her hand and shook it.

Kaitlyn glanced at her carrot. "Oh, this?"

She paused. What would she say about it? If she said that she was trying to blow it up with her mind, she'd sound crazy. Or she would sound like a mutant. A solid majority of the other Sanctuary residents already knew about her power, anyway. "I'm trying to blow it up with my mind," she said matter-of-factly.

Albino. That didn't sound like it was very fun. Amber must have been burning her face up just by coming outside.

"Sure," she said, pocketing her carrot and standing up to hold open one of the golden doors for the albino. "Do all albinos have eyes like yours?" She remembered hearing that albinos usually had weird eyes, but she didn't remember exactly what was supposed to be weird about them.

Amber tried not to give Kaitlyn too strange a look when she mentioned exploding the carrot with her mind. There were really two possibilities there. The first was that the girl had an overactive imagination, which was fine and something many children had. The second was that the girl was a mutant and actually could explode things with her mind and, given where she currently was, she was guessing it was the second option.

"I-is it working?" Amber asked. Just a hint of envy entered her voice with the question. Oh, how she wished she could have a power of her own and blowing things up with her mind sounded like a pretty good one, all things considered. But no, instead she was cursed with light sensitive albino skin and black demon eyes.

Amber followed Kaitlyn inside, closing the door behind her. She then careful unwound her veil, allowing her pale face and white hair to be fully seen. "I-I d-don't think so. M-my eyes didn't ch-change until r-recently after I-I went to a museum. I j-just w-woke up and they w-w-were like this." She had went to bed a sickly human and woke up a sickly mutant freak without any powers. Oh, how lovely life was sometimes.

>>"I-is it working?"

"Nope. Not yet." Kaitlyn sighed. Another glance at the vegetable.

Once they had made it through the golden doors, she took a quick glance at Lisa's desk. Nobody was sitting behind it at the moment. But Amber was talking again. Remember eye contact. It was hard to look into those eyes. A bit unnerving. She tried to pay attention to her hair, instead. Just as pale as her skin.

>>"I-I d-don't think so. M-my eyes didn't ch-change until r-recently after I-I went to a museum. I j-just w-woke up and they w-w-were like this."

"Wait. Did you fall asleep at th-the museum?"

Darn it. Now she was doing it, too.

Amber's eyes followed Kaitlyn's to look at the carrot. The carrot which was most definately not exploded. Maybe that would be her power too? The eyes had to mean something, had to correspond with something. They wouldnt' just change and then she'd learn she was super fast or something right? Did it work that way? No way to know, at least not yet. Probably no way to know ever because she probably wouldn't have any powers. Because, you know, the whole fate hating her and all that.

"I d-didn't fall asleep in the museam," Amber answered. She let out a very quiet and very shy laugh which disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared. Apparently she hadn't been exactly clear on that point.

"I-I fell asleep a-afterwards. I w-went h-home and fell assleep. Then my e-eyes changed." Hopefully she made a little more sense that time. She wondered if maybe there was something in the museum itself that had triggered her eyes changing and if that was the case maybe her power had something to do with museams? Maybe she should try animating a coprse or a skeleton or something. All she could remember doing was looking at old bones.

"Ah."

Kaitlyn looked into her eyes for a moment. Each one was entirely pitch black. Either Amber had come down with some sort of incredibly exotic disease, or her mutation was making her eyes black. The latter made much more sense. They were in the Sanctuary, after all.

"So, do you have super vision or something?"

The younger girl started to walk deeper into the Sanctuary, and gestured for Amber to do the same. Maybe they could find some place to sit down and talk, instead of just standing around in the Foyer.

Noticing that the little girl was scrutinizing her eyes, Amber quickly turned her eyes back down to the ground. She was still profoundly uncomfortable with people looking at them, certain that they must think them some kind of monstrous trait. Even if Aura had told her they were beautiful and Abyss seemed to like them too, most people simply didn't. They were creepy and disturbing and the last thing she wanted to do was frighten sweet little Kaitlyn.

Following the red head deeper into Sanctuary, the question of powers came up and Amber's heart plummeted. "I-I d-don't have any p-powers." And that was the thought she was most ashamed of, even beyond her eyes and her skin. The fact that she didn't have any powers and was a failure as both a human and a mutant.

"A-aura says that I m-might not have found them y-yet though." Wishful thinking there, of course, but better than plummeting into depression and self pity.

Amber seemed unhappy with the color of her eyes. And the fact that she didn't have a power, though Aura had tried to cheer her up about that. That was a nice thing for Aura to say, the younger girl thought. Kaitlyn liked Aura. But it seemed like Aura's words could do very little to make Amber feel better about herself.

Silence, as Kaitlyn tried to come up with something nice to say.

"I think your eyes are pretty cool." It may have been a mild exaggeration, but it sounded like it would have the desired effect of cheering her albino friend up.

"Thank you," Amber answered. She didn't know if the girl was just trying to be nice to her or if she actually meant what she said. Either way, though, she appreciated the gesture. If only she got something for her eyes, some fantastic skill or power, then she might actually be able to accept them. Shouldn't there be a give and take in life rather than just life taking everything?

"what do you like to d-do?" Amber asked, suddenly changing the subject. "I-is there anything to do around h-here?" For that matter, she really should find Abyss again and find out if she should be going to school. He hadn't mentioned school but she was in grade 10 still so maybe she should be finishing that? Amber actually liked school. It was one of those things she excelled at and one of those things she could do inside, both of which were good in her books. Would he let her go to school even if she didn't have to maybe?

"D-do you go to s-school?"

Things to do in the Sanctuary...

"The rec room has a bunch of stuff in it. Like air hockey, pool, board games, video games, stuff like that. You can usually find people in there to play with you, too." People who, for the most part, didn't try to win against Kaitlyn because they didn't want to upset her. This made these games rather dull for the little girl.

Kaitlyn scrutinized Amber for a moment. Maybe the albino would actually play to win against her. That sounded fun...

>>"D-do you go to s-school?"

School. What an odd thing to ask about. Kaitlyn didn't go to an actual school; Ms. Dallas the bird lady met her in the library and taught her. But this wasn't normal. Most kids don't have their own teacher, do they? No, they go to school. They all sit down in a classroom, and the teacher draws things on the dry erase board and shows it to the whole class and teaches them about it. And there are worksheets, textbooks, quizzes, tests, and stuff like that. Especially spelling tests. There are lots and lots of spelling tests.

Why do I know these things? I've never gone to school, have I?

The younger girl had been staring off into the distance. She hadn't answered Amber's question yet. "No, I don't. Ms. Dallas shows up and teaches me in the library, though."

But who cares about school? School was a boring place that was boring to talk about. Boring. They should change the subject to something less boring. Like what they were talking about earlier. "We have a library here too, by the way. Do you want to go see it, or do you want to go do something fun in the rec room? They're right next to each other, so we could do both if you want."

"It sounds m-much more f-fun than the l-last place I lived." Because the last place Amber had lived was the orphanage and the orphanage didn't exactly have a lot of money for things like video games and air hockey tables. Although she did have a DS that she had gotten years ago and was a pretty good player in her opinion. Of course, she hadn't exactly had many people to play with because they all thought she was too weird to play with.

"C-can I get taught by M-Miss Dallas too?" Amber couldn't help the hope that crept into her voice at the question. She liked learning things and liked doing school work. What she didn't' like was people picking on her because of the way she looked and acted and if she could have a private teacher, well, she could have all the best parts of school without having to worry about the worst parts.

"W-why don't we go to the l-library and then the r-rec room?" Amber suggested. Seeing all those books sounded wonderful, but what she really wanted to do was try out the video games.

Could Amber get taught by Ms. Dallas? Kaitlyn considered the idea for a moment.

"I dunno. You can ask her about it next time she shows up if you want. She already left today, though, but you can see her tomorrow. She'll be in the library around five tomorrow." It was Saturday tomorrow, but Ms. Dallas wanted to be sure that the kid understood her math work. Math work which was currently stashed away, unfinished, in some godforsaken corner of her room. It was easier to pretend that she didn't understand it than it was to actually do it.

>>"W-why don't we go to the l-library and then the r-rec room?"

"Sure." That's where the child was already leading them.

As they approached, explosions and gunshots echoed through the hallway. It was coming from the rec room. Kyle and his friends must have been back from their college classes. Friday meant Modern Warfare night for them.

"That's the library," Kaitlyn said, gesturing towards a closed pair of double doors with the word "Library" painted on the wall above them. The girl held one open to reveal its interior. Most of the library was populated by rows of tall bookshelves. Here and there were small circular tables, each surrounded by cushioned chairs. One table was covered in cards, money, and alcoholic beverages which all belonged to an attending group of poker players who had likely been driven from the rec room by the sounds of Modern Warfare night. One corner of the library contained rows of tables covered in computers, several of which were being used. Most of the attending mutants were reading.

"Lots and lots of books," she commented. None of this was nearly as fun or interesting as Xbox. Kaitlyn hoped that Amber was of the same opinion.