[xgaarax]

Ellie Hayes/ Sydney

It was late afternoon, and Ellie Hayes was at work. She had a part time after school job working in a retro music store. She loved the job really. A lot more than she liked school at least. As she was reorganizing a section of the CD’s during a lull in business, her friend Sam came into the shop. The blonde boy walked over to her grinning. “Soooo Ellie, are ya gonna come to the concert with us tonight? Its gonna be an amazing show!”

“You know I can’t Sam.” Ellie said looking at him with a slightly annoyed expression on her face. “There will be too many people… If something happens, I may react… People could find out…” She looked around to make sure no one was listening to their conversation.

“You should come Ellie. You can’t live the rest of your life being afraid of people finding out what you can do. I think you would be more accepted than you may think…” he trailed off a bit at the end of the sentence as a customer walked into the store.

“Let me know if you need help finding anything.” Ellie called out to the customer. Turning back to the CD’s she said softly to Sam. “You didn’t talk to me for two weeks after you found out. I don’t think everyone is going to be as accepting as you think.”

She moved to a different rack of disks with Sam in her wake. “You go to the concert hun. Have a great time. You can tell me all about it later!” She said in her most cheerful voice as she elbowed him in the arm.

“Alright.” he said looking at her skeptically. “Talk to you later.”

Ellie lost track of time as she continued organizing the racks of CD’s and records in between helping customers. As her shift ended, she grabbed her messenger bag and pulled her walkman and headphones out of it. She slung the bag over her shoulders so it crossed her body and rested on her hip. Turning her walkman on and placing her headphones over her ears she began to walk home.

As she brushed a strand of her bright pink hair out of her face, she thought about what would happen if people ever found out she could heal people just by touching them. Or worse if they found out she could generate fire from her palms.

They would be afraid of the fire. I would be afraid of the fire. The healing is tolerable I guess. But what if someone tries to exploit it… I mean it could be a valuable skill right? I guess I could tell mom and dad, just to see how people would react. But what if they freak. Of course they would freak. Eh I guess its still best that only Sam knows.

She shoved her hands in her pockets and kept walking towards her house, losing herself in the music along the way.