August 2016

13-year-old Ánh finally arrives in her new home after a long flight. All the excitement kept her from sleeping on the way there. She's the only child from Vietnam, and one of eight from Eurasia, to be part of the first group of international students. The photos of the Institute that she saw made her fall in love with it. Everything is modern and beautiful. Unlike the institute in her home country in which she had been studying since she was seven.

This is her opportunity to be happy. Ever since she was a child that Ánh wondered if having the gene truly made her special. Her parents are both deviants and struggle to make ends meet with precarious jobs. They rarely even use their abilities. The cartoons that she watches never portray a deviant superhero. They are always the villains, and everything ends well when they are either dead or arrested.

She has her own room, which is far from ideal, because she wanted a roommate. Nothing to be concerned about, she'll have plenty opportunities to make friends. It's a setback, but everything will be fixed in due time, and then she'll be happy. For the time being, she occupies her time with modifying her computer.

On the news from Vietnam, she sees that the organization of Eurasia has determined that all members are to implement the possibility of deviants to go to university until 2025. Ánh doesn't understand the 9-year deadline. Surely the countries could make it happen faster than that if they wanted to.

She arrived right on time on the Institute, she enters it and gasps at how grand it all is.

"Morning. What's your transference number?" The employee in the reception asks. "Ok, you are associated with Miss Abigail Parker. She isn't around yet. Here's your schedule, the map of the Institute is on this tablet, and your card to enter and leave. Miss Parker will come to find you when she gets here. Please be around this lobby. Next."

Ánh enters the bathroom and records an audio to send to her parents.

"What's that language?" an older girl asks.

"I'm Ánh Nguyễn! I come from Vietnam, Eurasia."

"Can't understand a word. Speak English?" another girl asks slowly and loudly.

They all look the same. One couldn't tell them apart. They go near Ánh and spray paint her shoes. The paint they used to write welcome, friends! Other girls enter the bathroom and leave immediately.

"Sorry!" one screams in Ánh 's ears.

Ánh starts to weep, which makes the girls make even more fun of her. They pick on everything they can: her clothes because they are too symmetrical; her accent because it sounds fake; her ability, even if they don't know it.

They are too busy to realize that, behind them, a girl, younger than them, blonde with blue eyes, with a long, tent dress, has a broom and hits one of them on the head.

Ánh takes several steps back. Who are you? She wonders in Vietnamese.

"What the-?!" The girl grabs her head.

She hits another, this time on a leg.

"I'll kill you-" the girl doesn't end her thought when she sees who it is. How one phone call could make her lose her spot on the Institute.

"Go to hell, Abigail!"

The girls leave and Ánh takes a deep breath finally.

"Are you okay?" Abigail tries to go near her and Ánh flinches. Abigail drops the broom and takes a few steps back. "You are not Ánh Thi Nguyễn, are you?"

How... how... did you pronounce it correctly?

"Are you?" Abigail asks again.

Ánh nods while looking away, still in tears.

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"Did I mispronounce your name?" Abigail blushes. Stupid. I practiced it so hard, how did I mess it up?

"No..." she whispers.

"Sorry, I can't hear you," Abigail comes closer.

"I don't want to," she says a little louder, "speak English badly."

"I'm sure that I'll have to cheat off you in English!" Abigail smiles and takes a few short breaths. "Chào mừng!" Vietnamese for welcome.

Ánh lost all words right there, silence feels the room once again.

Idiot. I mispronounced it again probably. She must think I'm making fun of her. "I'm Abigail Parker! Sorry that I couldn't make it on time... I'll do better next time."

Ánh wipes her tears and tries to smile and look at the girl.

"Can you show me where the classes are?" She raises her voice a bit.

"Nope, that won't be necessary, we're on the same grade. We'll just meet here every day and I'll take you there. Follow me!" Abigail grabs her hand and Ánh immediately flinches and takes her hand back.

"Where are we going?" She looks away.

"You are new here, right? What do you think? I'll show you the city. You'll love it!"

Ánn begins to cry again, she takes a few short breaths, noticing that Abigail is staring at her, frozen. She wipes her tears on her blouse. "Will I be happy here?"

Abigail nods and asks her to come with her. They run off the Institute. Abigail suggests them to get on a touristic bus that will show all the mandatory stops. Whenever they stop somewhere, she runs to a stand of street food and asks for everything there, more than the girls can eat.

"Stop asking for things... you are spending so much money..." Ánh uses her ability to realize how much Abigail is actually spending there.

"Ánh, trust me, it's okay! Let me pay. Let me show you the best this town can offer you."

It took seeing all the credit cards that Abigail owns, properly noticing the clothes she wears, for Ánh to realize that money isn't an issue. Something she had never experienced before. In her house, only on special occasions could they spend it on something so futile.

The final confirmation came when they reached the Parkers' mansion.

Ánh's jaw drops when she passes the gate. They have a swimming pool, a tennis court, shooting range, a room just to watch movies. Their main living room is bigger than her house back home.

Abigail asks Ánh to show her the best music from Vietnam. She puts her favorite V-Pop artists and their conversation evolves to K-Pop. They realize how much they have in common already.

"I'm home!" Zachary runs to meet the girls.

"Zach, meet my new friend, Ánh!"

She blushes right away when she sees Zach's dazzling smile and long red hair.

"Really, Abigail? Why wouldn't you tell me that you were welcoming someone from Vietnam?" Zach's eyes glow. "I'm going there next summer with some friends from college. Would love some tips! We are doing a full month, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam."

"College...?" Ánh asks.

"No, no, no, Zach. Ánh doesn't need to hear a five hour lecture on your life... save the slides for someone else! So, please gather for a summary of the interesting life of Zachary Lewis Parker." She makes some noises pretending to be a presenter and they laugh. "Zach here is a genius and graduated high school when he was only 14. Which is why, today, at 17 years of age, this brilliant child is finishing up pre-med. And Ánh, you might say, wow, that's so impressive!"

Ánh laughs while nodding her head in agreement.

"But it doesn't stop here. Oh no, he has a perfect boyfriend, great friends, and rides magnificently. You might ask folks, is there anything that he can't do? Well, he has terrible aim." Abigail claps and bows.

"Never forget that I was the one who taught you how to shoot, Abs. Are you done?" He smiles and she tells him she is, "I'll see you girls in a bit, need to change clothes, I'm meeting Nathan after dinner." Zach leaves.

"Is it just you and him?"

"No, Vero... Veronica's in the middle. She's two years older than me."

"Is she around?"

"No, she's on a boarding school. Even on a private school, fitting in wasn't easy, because she has autism. Vero was very lonely, and my parents decided to put her on a specialized school. She's doing much better there, whenever we talk, there's something different in her voice. They sent her to this school three years ago, I wasn't here. I was living in France."

"Why were you there?"

"To study, my parents put me since I was seven in institutes. When the American finally opened, I came back."

"Do you like it better here?"

"Some things. Like I have my friends and family he-"

Rebecca knocks on the door, introduces herself and insists that Ánh stays for dinner. She orders Vietnamese food and makes sure Ánh doesn't feel overwhelmed with Zach's questions. After dinner, Mark drives her home and lets her know that anything she needs, they'll help.

As agreed, every day the girls would meet in the lobby. Ánh didn't make any other friend besides Abigail, but that was enough for her. Some days, Abigail wouldn't show up. Whenever she came back, she always had a spectacular reasoning behind where she had been and took Ánh away for another of their adventures.

Looking back, those were the only happy moments that they both had at the Institute.

Ánh had never seen Abigail cry, the girl was always in the happiest of moods, and in that aspect, their friendship was unbalanced. She would cry constantly, because of the bullying she suffered at the hands of the older girls, from being homesick, from feeling like a burden all the time. Abigail would cheer her and take some of the weight from her shoulders, but the opposite never happened, even when Ánh thought that Abigail would have countless reasons to be upset.

The girl would just be a light on her life and then disappear for a few days. She kept promising Ánh that she'd always come back.

When the girls were sixteen, Abigail was nowhere to be found for over three months.