The Last of Them All (editing)

We walked into the building and the blue shimmery bubble around it solidified, leaving a sort of force field behind us.

"It's completely invisible to the outsider's eye. Only we can see it." Jarvin stated casually.

"Cool!" Andrew exclaimed. He was bouncing on his toes the way that he did whenever he got excited about something. Justin, however had one arm crossed over his body, and I could tell he was a little nervous as he fiddled with the straps on his duffel bag.

The inside of the building was just as amazing and odd as the outside appeared. As soon as we got inside the large glass doors there were symbols everywhere. The biggest and least common was a sort of arrow pointing upwards with a spiral at the bottom side of it. There were four more arrows inside of the spiral pointing at compass directions. Wherever it was, it was always painted in a deep royal purple. One of the other symbols was a blue square with a triangle and a circle inside of the square. There was a green leaf, with an intricate scene of mountains and rivers inside of it. Lastly, there was what appeared to be a red eyeball. The eye was split into four parts, each one with a different image. There was a heart, an ear, a hand, and a brain. These four symbols were everywhere, on the floors, the walls, and each person had one attached to their clothing.

Andrew, Justin and I carried our luggage through a hall, up a long set of shiny stairs, and into separate dormitories.

"Your room is 412. Your roommate is named Clara. This is the girls dormitories, so we can't follow. There is a hang out area through that door where boys and girl can mingle, but for now we must part our ways. Dinner's at six. You can eat with whoever you choose. We will see you then." Jarvin left me at the beginning of the long hallway and I stood there, just staring at it for a moment.

I finally decided to walk down the hallway that would become my home for the next three months. I ran through the room numbers in my head until I came to 412. I raised my fist to knock, but a voice called from inside before I could.

"Just come in." The voice didn't sound very welcoming but I came in anyways.

Laying on one of the beds in the room was an asian girl of fairly large stature. She had fair skin and dark hair that was cut short around her head, obstructing her vivid eyes from view. She was dressed in a bright tye-dye t-shirt and khaki capri pants, as if she didn't care about what she looked like. In her hands was a very large book that was at least a foot thick. She stared at it intently and flipped the pages as if she was bored with it. Upon my entrance she sat up and put the book down.

"You must be my new roomie. Alright here are the rules. This is my half, as you can probably tell. Don't go on my half or touch my stuff and I'll do the same for you. I can be chill as long as we go to bed early cause I appreciate my sleep and don't make a mess. I don't want to get in trouble for your untidiness."

I stood there dumbfounded and just blinked.

"I'm Clara by the way!" For the first time a smile came across her face, and she was rather pretty.

"I'm Alanis. Ali though." I noticed that pinned to her chest was the red symbol of the eye. The section with the brain was highlighted, as if to brand her with her abilities.

"Unpack! Let me tell you the ropes!" I assumed she actually had a cheerful demeanor, but I wasn't sure.

I unpacked, and then sat down on the bed that was across from hers. Each bed had it's own nightstand at the side and chest at the feet, with shelves lining the walls. There was a sink and a mirror at one side, that we were meant to share, and then two desks with small bookshelves.

I placed my clothes in the chest at the foot of the bed and my other belongings went into the nightstand by my bed. A picture of Justin, Andrew, and I went right behind a picture of my mom. The picture of the three of us was an old one from when we were in seventh grade. Andrew had braces, Justin had a terrible haircut, and I don't know what I was wearing, but it was the first time we went to the mall together, just as friends. It was a really old cheesy one from a photo booth, but I still kept it.

I paused and picked up the picture of my mom, holding it carefully in my hands. She was laughing, and looked really happy. That was before she got sick. She would smile, all of the time. In the picture her hair, the same color as mine, was draping over her shoulders in a wave-like fashion. The navy hat that I always wore was on her head, but it covered a bit of her eyes because it was too large. I always kept that picture, it was nice to have a permanent memory of her, instead of the vague ones that always fluctuated.

"Who's that?" I jumped at the sound of Clara's voice behind me. "She looks like you."

"She's my mom." I quickly stated, before placing the picture back on the wooden nightstand.

"She's really pretty. She looks really young..."

"Yeah, it was like fifteen years ago." I stated, keeping my voice quiet.

Clara's voice got really quiet. "What happened?"

"How did you, what?" I asked. How would she know something happened?

"Well obviously if you don't have a more recent picture of her then it probably means that she's not around anymore, so obviously something happened." Realizing she could have offended me she quickly apologized. "Sorry."

"No, it's, it's fine. She got terminal cancer when I was two, so I don't really remember her all that much." Okay, that part was a lie. I don't know how, but I remembered her well. The way she would pick me up and swing me around, and carry me under her arm up to bed. The way she would run her fingers through my hair, the way she held onto my shaking, little fingers as her life was being slowly drained from her body...

"Who are they?" Clara was motioning to the picture of me, Justin and Andrew on the nightstand.

"Oh, that's Justin and Andrew." I stated, pointing to each one individually. "They're perfectly fine I just like the picture." I figured it best to explain because I didn't want her jumping to conclusions again.

"They're your friends aren't they?" She asked. I nodded. "Are they, are they here too?"

"Yeah. Justin's a naturbender, and Andrew's a shapeshifter." I probably shouldn't have told her their personal information, but I felt like I could trust her. "What, what are you?"

She didn't answer at first. I noticed her eyes were fixated on a certain part of the picture. The left side, where Andrew was. "Sorry, oh, I'm a superhuman." I was confused and she obviously noticed cause she explained. "Not all superhumans are advanced physically. My powers are more mental. Super smarts. I can crack codes, solve puzzles, plan strategies and absorb information quickly. I can also read people, which explains how I knew about your mom and how you don't know what you are yet. It's sort of like the mind readers, but very different cause they don't exist anymore."

"How, how did you? Oh. The, the Superhuman thing." Clara had this way of talking, where she would just keep going until she literally ran out of breath. It was interesting to listen to, but it made it difficult to comprehend. Her eyes would light up everytime she started talking and there was this force within them and this feeling that made me think nobody listened to her very often.

"Yeah. It's just me and my dad now. What's, what's your family like?" It was an honest question, and I wanted to get to know this girl if I was going to be living with her for the next three months.

She got really quiet. "I, I don't know. I've lived in this school for as long as I can remember." The spark in her eyes quickly disappeared as she spoke.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought this was just a summer school, camp thing."

"For most people, it is. For me, and a few others, we call it home. It's all we have. But it's okay, cause I'm not alone." She looked up at me and smiled, and I really felt sorry for her. I couldn't imagine life without my dad, but to not have anyone must be absolutely unbearable. Part of me thought she was lying about not being alone. She definitely seemed lonely.

"Well, I'm glad I met you," I smiled, "I've never had a friend who was a girl before." Okay, that sounded more awkward than I meant it to, but I didn't say anything.

She smiled, and jumped off from where she was perched on my bed. "Hey!" She enthusiastically shouted. "Why don't I give you a tour! A small one, cause we can't go everywhere, but at least of the free space and main building! Orientation is in about an hour, so we should have plenty of time!"

I smiled and sighed. "I'd like that. Maybe you can even meet my friends!"

The smile on her dimpled, pale, face got even wider. "I'd really like that."