• "So, what class were you in?" Cammy asked me as we leaned against a wall.

    "Class 31." I replied. "You?"

    "27" She said. "I've never seen you around town before, though."

    "Oh! Yeah. I... I don't leave my property often. I've never really had anywhere to go with anybody but my little brother."

    "Hmm... are you saying you don't have friends?"

    I started. "Oh, I... I guess I am...."

    "Oh, that's too bad. I don't have many friends, either. I suppose Luce is my only very good friend."

    "Wow, that must be annoying."

    "Yeah, it can be!" She laughed. She stared into the crowd. "People have just always thought I was weird. Nobody wanted to be around me. It was like they thought they would catch some kind of disease."

    "Why? Do you know?"

    She looked at the floor.

    "Sort of." She said quietly. "I... I know what's different about me, but I don't know why they keep such a distance."

    I studied her face, and then I noticed something.

    "Oh! Your eyes..." I began.

    "Are incredibly red?" She finished my sentence for me. "Yeah. That's the weird part of me. I can feel any kind of heat, even from a large distance away. I can see heat, too. I can't see your face right now, you just look like a bunch of different colors moving around in a human shape. The air is light red, too."

    "So -- you technically can't see?" I asked in astonishment.

    "Well, yes. I guess so. Even though colors are visible to me, I might as well be blind. But, glass and plastic can block it out just a bit, I usually like to wear sunglasses or goggles." She smiled. "But I pretty much go on what I can feel around me. It's almost like having 360 degree vision!"

    "Wow! That's amazing! I wish I had that ability!" I said excitedly. How useful would it be to have 360 vision?

    "Trust me," She said. "it's not all it's cracked up to be. I can only see so clearly with eye cover. It's like taking your vision and putting a layer of red paint over it."

    "Oh, I see." She sounds like someone that wouldn't talk to me on normal circumstances. But she seems to have almost the same problem as me. Suddenly, she frowned.

    "What the hell is he doing?" She asked, to herself, apparently.

    "What?" I asked.

    "Luce." She said. "His body temperature is changing rapidly. Back and forth between hot and cold.... What's going on?" She started to walk away. I followed her. I hadn't realized before, but now I saw that she looked straight ahead when she walked; like she couldn't see at all. As she walked across a the floor, she talked.

    "This is odd.... There are two people with him and -- oh, not again!" She started to jog.

    "Again?" I asked as we grew closer to a crowd. "What happened? It's happened before?"

    "Yeah," She said in an angry tone. "and I know exactly what they're doing and who's doing it!" She pushed through the crowd, showing no mercy to anyone in her way. I walked behind her in the path she made. I caught up with her just as we got to the middle of the crowd. A space was cleared out for three boys. the one in the middle was Luce, the other two were unknown to me. The two boys I hadn't met were tugging on Luce's scarf. Luce was trying desperately to keep it in place. His hands were occupied, so he couldn't seem to fight back. There must really be something he doesn't want people to see. I thought. One of the boys, his hair bright blue, grabbed Luce's arm.

    Suddenly, Luce was covered in frost. Then, the other boy, his hair as red as Cammy's eyes, touched his arm and the frost melted.

    "Hey! Hey! HEY!" Cammy yelled. She yanked someone's water bottle out of their hands and threw it. For a mostly blind girl, she had some kick-a** aim. The hard, plastic bottle hit the redhead square in the forehead. He let go of Luce and fell backwards. Seeing an opening, Luce messily wrapped the scarf back around his face. He looked at the remaining boy with menace in his eyes. Grabbing the shocked boy's hand hard, he picked him up, flung him over his head, and onto the redhead. He glared at him and then turned back to the crowd and opened his arms wide.

    "Anybody else?" He called triumphantly. Cammy and I rolled our eyes. Now that his guard was up and he had a winning chance, he was as cocky as ever.

    "Huh? Nobody?" He said. "Come on! I can take yah!" Cammy cleared her throat. Luce glanced at her and waited a moment.

    "Fine," He said quietly, eerily. "but I'm not letting my guard down again. That was a one-time thing!" He walked between us and through the crowd. Everyone cleared a path for him and Cammy, who followed him. I glanced at the two boys moaning on the ground once more and then quickly followed them.

    "So... I take it you usually get into fights?" I asked Luce when I caught up with them.

    "Now what would give you that idea?" Luce asked sarcastically.

    "Tch..." I rolled my eyes. "Don't be sarcastic with me!"

    "Why not?" He challenged as turned to face me.

    "Well, why should be the question." I spat. "You don't have to be such a jerk all the time!"

    "You don't have to be so nosy all the time!" His face was turning red in anger. "Why don't you go crawl back into that friendless hole you call your life!"

    I was speechless. That hurt, badly. When he saw the look on my face, his eyes softened.

    "I--I didn't mean that...." He said ruefully. I bowed my head. I'd heard that going around at the academy. I had better hearing than people thought. Kids had made jokes out of my loneliness and laughed like it was the funniest thing. I swallowed hard. I had hoped before I came here that it wouldn't always be like that. But I guessed I just didn't have any luck whatsoever....

    "I -- but -- I --!" Luce stuttered. Cammy's fist flew out of the blue and hit his cheek, hard. He flew to the side and Cammy put her arm around my shoulder.

    "Don't listen to Luce!" She said. "You know he just let anger talk! He didn't mean it!" I shook my head to clear it and looked up.

    "I--I know!" I smiled, hopefully it was convincing. "It just caught me off-guard! I'm okay, really!" I walked to Luce and held out my hand. He looked at it incredulously.

    "You--you're not mad?"He asked.

    "Ah, no! I forgive quickly, don't worry. I know you didn't mean it, of course."

    "Oh! I--uh..." He took my hand and stood up. "You--" He didn't get to finish, because then the audience was called to their seats.