Destia Jayden February 22nd,20XX

Tillo’s dark eyes bore into my back as I balanced the three trays of food and brought them back to the table, but I tried not to let it bother me. From the little information I’d gleaned from Joyce, it made sense that they would be cautious around me.

“Here, let me help you.”

Kaja bounced up and grabbed two of the three trays of fries from me, then ran back to the table.

Joyce had booked another private room for us to eat, so we could take off our masks and I could see everyone’s faces for the first time. They’d already been wearing them by the time Joyce and I had arrived, so it was good to see the faces of the kids I’d heard so much about.

My very surface knowledge about twins told me that there was no way that they were biologically identical twins since they were different genders, but they looked so similar that it made me doubt my knowledge.

Then again, they were shapeshifters. It made sense that they looked so similar since they could change how they looked. Although I couldn’t imagine why they would want to look so similar to each other.

I didn’t have any siblings, but those I knew who did rarely got along with their siblings so well.

“Could you shift to the left a little, my little sister wants to sit with us.”

I directed my attention to the third and fourth members of the group, Archer and Eva. The first thing that I noticed about them was how unrealistically pretty they both were. Like a set of paintings, every eyelash was so defined that they looked brushed on, and aside from the fading bruises on Archer’s face, their skin was flawless.

Eva looked like a little doll, and with a bit of styling, and the right set, Archer would look the same, or even better.

My hands twitched with inspiration and I almost reached for my notebook to create a background for them, but I restrained myself.

As I lost myself in my thoughts, Archer suddenly avoided my eyes, and I realized my mistake.

Ah, he was the mind reader, wasn’t he?

I coughed and put on as friendly of a smile as I could.

“So you all met yesterday?”

The table was quiet as I’d chosen to speak at the exact moment the others had stuffed their mouths with food. Tillo cleared his mouth first and was therefore the first to respond.

“Yeah. Aaron found us a few days back and Joyce brought Archer and Eva to meet us.”

They all seemed too close to each other for kids who had met a day ago, but I couldn’t think of any reason for them to lie to me.

“Are you all doing okay?”

Aaron, who I’d finally gotten to meet, brushed past the table with a tray full of food and looked around with a complex expression.

I pinched myself in the thigh and tried my best to be cool, but my mouth took on a weird shape as I nodded in response and my right eyelid suddenly twitched. I suddenly remembered my messy hair and the unflattering clothes that we’d bought from the amusement park.

Joyce was wearing the same thing as me, so I shouldn’t have been embarrassed, but the similarity in our clothing only highlighted the difference in our stature. She looked like a model while I looked like someone’s embarrassing aunt.

While I wasn’t a dedicated fan, I knew him enough to be aware of how unfortunate it was that I was meeting him for the first time like this.

It was as I wallowed in embarrassment that my brain reminded me we’d met earlier that morning when I was in a pair of worn-down sneakers and a bloody hoodie.

Yeah, it looked like first impressions were really, REALLY, not my thing.

I suddenly became worried. I was already on a sort of probation with Joyce, but what if she shared her concerns with the others? These kids were the only people like me even if they had different powers, I couldn’t afford to be disliked by them. As well, what if they were all uncomfortable around me and told Joyce about it? Would she kick me out? Or move me to somewhere else?

A flurry of negative thoughts overwhelmed my mind and made me lose my appetite, but I forced myself to keep eating, so I wouldn’t seem weird.

Even without the negative thoughts, I wasn’t all that hungry, but the way the others tore into the food like a pack of wolves made it hard to not eat.

If only I could go out and run a lap, that way I’d burn enough energy to be able to sweep the table clean and still have room for seconds.

Archer suddenly turned to me and gave an awkward smile.

“You don’t have to be so nervous around us.”

At first, I worried that I’d looked awkward enough to be comforted by a fifteen-year-old, but then I remembered that he was a mind reader.

But was that any better?

Did he go around reading everyone’s mind? Could he control it? Just how much of my mind could he read?

Before I could ask him how he’d known I was feeling nervous, or thank him for trying to calm me down, Joyce got out of her chair from the head of the table and clapped to get our attention.

“Okay! I hope you’ve all gotten the chance to get familiar with each other! We’re going to head back to the city now and into the building that you’ll all be staying in! I’ll brief you guys on everything there, but we need to get out of this amusement park first.”

All the anxiety I’d been feeling exploded as I realized I’d be going on another six-hour trip. I said nothing since none of the other kids complained, but I wondered why they were all so calm about it. Had they all grown so close that they didn’t need actual explanations on where they were being transported to?

Or was there something I was missing?

I’d grown somewhat comfortable with Joyce as we’d driven down here, but was this how things were going to be? Just the two of them giving orders and us following them with no questions?

I didn’t think that either Joyce or Aaron were bad people, but I also didn’t believe that they were only gathering people with superpowers out of the goodness of their hearts.

All my cards were on the table and I’d burned the bridge of travelling out of town with my mother, so I would go along with them for now. But I was still worried and cautious and anxious.

This... would be okay, right?