Chapter Three

Hey, everyone. Mia here.
Sorry to disappoint. I realize at this point you don't think too highly of me, do you? Yeah…I didn't think so.
Well, maybe I can change your mind.
I grew up with my dad and brother in the Slums. They both taught me how to defend myself, but I didn't like fighting. I found it pointless. I mean, why couldn't we all just get along? Wouldn't the world be so much simpler?
When I was eleven, my brother Changed during the night, while we were all sleeping. Neither me or my dad knew he hadn't had any Life Source, so it was a bit of a shock when I woke up to see him covered in black tattoos, wrapping his hand around my dad's neck.
I killed him.
The men who kidnapped me killed my dad when they took me. So yeah, I think I have an excuse for being a bit of a wimp, okay?
But anyways. Enough about me.
'Cause you probably don't even care.
The car drove down countless roads, passing several people on the street who seemed happy. I couldn't remember the last time I'd felt happy. After everything that had happened to me, some emotions were just so foreign.
Finally we arrived at another large house (they were all too big). There wasn't anything special about it - the walls were white, vinyl siding, the roof had light brown shingles, the windows plain glass. The driveway seemed large enough for two cars, and the lawn swooped on either side, coated in natural flowers and a couple trees.
We turned into the driveway, and we came to a large panel in the outside that seemed different than the rest of the building, almost like a really big door. The man, Mr. Perkins, reached up and tapped a small black button on the roof of his car, and immediately the door thing let out a rumbling noise and lifted up into the wall above, revealing a sort of cavern, which we drove into a parked.
"What the…" I couldn't help but exclaim, staring behind us as the door lowered down and cut out the light.
"It's a garage," Faith sighed, like I was a moron.
I shot her a small glare. Honestly, what had I done?
"Get out," Mrs. Perkins barked, her whole kind demeanor gone, replaced with a fierce scowl. I quickly remembered how to open the door and I slid out of the car, quietly closing the door behind me. Mr. Perkins was already over by a white door that I assumed led into the house. He pushed it open and motioned for us to follow him inside.
The lobby was huge, with white tiled floor and gray walls. Picture frames of flowers and people coated the walls. We were dragged up a flight of wooden stairs, until Faith was suddenly jerked away from me and taken into a room to the right, while Mr. Perkins took me left. I didn't really care.
Mr. Perkins pushed me into the room, which turned out to be a bedroom. A large white bed dominated the space, surrounded by three dressers and one bookshelf, a desk with some kind of mirror on top of it, and a closet. The walls had posters all over them of teenage boys that I had never seen before; they all looked very spoiled and posh, anyway.
"Take off your clothes," Mr. Perkins said, clicking his tongue and giving me a disapproving look. "And change into some of the ones in the dressers."
I raised an eyebrow, but I shrugged, and immediately began taking my shirt off. "Wait," he barked, and I froze mid-action. "You just failed your first test. Girls in Elysium won't change in front of boys or men."
I didn't say anything, but I waited for him to turn around before I stripped off my shirt, and then I moved to the dresser closest to me. So many clothes lay inside; it really did baffle me how different Elysium was. I ended up grabbing a plain white t-shirt and jeans, because we had those kinds of things in the Slums as well, and I knew them.
"Okay," I said quietly and Mr. Perkins turned back around, his face still conveying displeasure.
"Alright," he said. "Let me get straight to business, okay?"
I nodded, though he really didn't care if it was okay or not.
"We did not buy you to be a maid. We did not buy you for any back-breaking work at all, which you probably expected. No; we bought you to be our daughter."
I blinked once in surprise, but I didn't dare say a word.
Mr. Perkins bit his lip and shook his head. "Let me rephrase that. We bought you to pretend to be our daughters. Our adopted daughters, to be exact. You were born in Elysium, and your parents died in a freak car accident, alright?" he said. I nodded again, taking in the information. It wasn't like I could disobey him. I had nowhere else to go, so escaping wasn't an option, either.
"You are going to go to high school. You are going to live here, and call us mom and dad. You are going to pretend that this life is normal, and if something confuses you, or if you don't know how to operate a piece of technology, then you simply say "at home, we still have an older model. My parents like antiques."
I didn't know what "antiques" meant, but I nodded.
"Me and my wife are involved in things that we shouldn't be," he finished. "And we need to pose as a normal family to avoid suspicion. Got it?"
"Yes," I said meekly.
"Good," he said. "This is your bedroom. We've given you a phone, tablet, and school programs. Do whatever you like until dinner."
"John!" Mrs. Perkins yelled from across the hall. "Come help me with dinner."
"I'll be right there!" Mr. Perkins, or John, yelled back. He walked towards the door, and just when he was about to close it, he turned to me and said, "And your name is now Perkins. What's your first name? Do you have one?"
"Mia," I told him.
"Well, hello, Mia Perkins," he said. "Have a happy life."
And then he shut the door, and he was gone.

Dinner was uneventful.
They made this kind of Life Source tablet called "Steak." It looked the same as the Life Source that I was used to, but it tasted strange, and apparently you actually had to put the Life Source on an "oven" and "cook" it.
I would never understand Elysium.
In the evening, we were taken to be registered in the high school. On the car ride over, it was explained to me that you went there and learned things about history and geography and math. I told them I was 16 when they asked, and they said that would be Level Ten, but I was so far behind they'd put me in the Special Needs Level.
They asked me if I could read. I couldn't, and neither could Faith, so they made up a story that we were both "dyslexic" and just slow learners in general.
They didn't have to make it up, 'cause it was probably true.
The high school staff were nice enough. We were registered, no problem, and told to start school tomorrow by going to room Thirteen, with the other Special Needs kids.
I was not thrilled, and Faith was quite obviously not happy that we were going to spend all day together.
I wasn't, either.

The start of the school day came all too quickly for me.
Faith purposefully shoved me into the wall just to get ahead of me so she wouldn't be seen with me. I could've pushed back, or fought back, but there wasn't any point.
So without a choice, I walked into room Thirteen, and saw only a couple other people in there - Faith being one of them, and another boy was sitting a couple rows behind her. He smiled slightly at me, so I slid into a seat next to him.
"The name's Josiah," he said, offering me a hand just as a piercing bell rang, apparently signaling the beginning of a school day. "Nice to meet you."
"You too," I said quietly, because I knew if Faith heard me socializing, she'd just hate me more, and I really wanted her to like me, but I didn't know why. "I'm Mia." I didn't get a chance to say more, though, because just then a man walked in, wearing a suit, tie, and his hair was neatly combed back.
"Welcome, Faith and Mia Perkins," the man said. "I'm Mr. Smith, and I'm your teacher."
He went on explaining how he was here to help us, and if we had any questions to ask him, and not to be afraid to get help if we didn't know the answer. It was obvious Faith wasn't listening to a word he was saying, and that infuriated me - we were in a new environment with completely different rules, the worst she could do was not pay attention!
Of course, her mind was probably focused on escaping and returning to the Slums. Maybe she left somebody behind there.
But nobody leaves Elysium once they get there.
Just like how it was a miracle that I got out of the Slums in the first place.
Mr. Smith called Faith to his desk first, and it sounded like he was trying to get her to read, but she wouldn't even talk to him. I knew Mr. and Mrs. Perkins would not be pleased.
But, Josiah and I got some time to talk, at least. I learned he possessed a Time Ability, which are extremely rare. About one in a thousand people have one. Really, he was able to travel short distances in time, even stop time if he had enough Life Source, but he said that he didn't very often because it was extremely dangerous.
I told him I had a Mental Ability (I could move things with my mind and read mind, but the latter was more taxing and overwhelming, so I preferred not to do it), and, remembering the story Mr. Perkins had told me, said that I was just adopted and my parents had died in a freak car crash. He nodded and asked if I was dyslexic, and when I said yes, his lips pursed and he whispered quietly, "Read my mind."
'Are you from the Slums?' he thought, and my eyes widened and I gave a sharp nod.
"Right," he said. 'Have you thought of…escaping? Going back?'
I shook my head and whispered, "No way through the Factory."
'They brought us here somehow, didn't they?' he replied, and nothing else could be said, because then Faith plopped back down into her seat and I was called over.
I tried to read, I really did, but I had absolutely no idea how to, so let's just say the lesson was a disaster.
As were the rest of them.
Faith laughed out loud when Mr. Smith asked me to count as high as I could and I made it to thirty before going, "Thirty-one…thirty-something…"
"Thirty-two," Faith said like it was obvious. I glared at her.
"Well, then, Faith," Mr. Smith said, staring at her. "Why don't you continue on?"
Faith blinked at him, surprised, and that made me laugh slightly, so I suppose it all worked out.

Everything went normal throughout the entire day, and for a moment I thought maybe today things would be fine, but of course, I was wrong.
As soon as we stepped out of room Thirteen, we were surrounded by five tall, strong looking boys. They had to be Level Twelve, or possibly Eleven by the looks of them. Josiah didn't seem stunned like Faith and I were - it was like he knew what was going to happen.
"Well," one of the boys said, "If it isn't the mental class."
"Shane," Josiah sighed, "I know what you're going to do, so can you just get it over with?"
Shane shrugged, exchanging some looks with his friends. "Well, alright. If you want to be so direct."
All my time in the Slums should've prepared me, but, it didn't - instead I jumped a little in surprise when Shane's fist came out swinging and landed a blow right in Josiah's face.
Faith may not have been the nicest person, but I had to admire her reflexes - as soon as Shane drew his hand away and his buddies began to step forward, she grabbed his fist and began to twist his arm, stomping her foot down on his foot as well. Letting out a cry, he motioned for his four friends to take us out.
I knew Faith couldn't take them all, and although I hated fighting, I had to help her.
I really wish I could describe this part in a bit more detail than I am, because now that I think about it, it's actually quite crucial. I suppose I have Shane to thank for a lot of things.
But really, I ran to take on two of the four guys, leaving Faith with the other two, and all I felt was a rush of adrenaline as I quickly knocked out the first guy and the second. They were quite easy targets - having grown up in Elysium, where you don't fight, unless you really, really wanted to.
Students were staring at us, but I didn't care. I turned to Faith to see her staring at me, wonder in her eyes. "You can fight?"
Ignoring Josiah, who kept wanting to say something, I simply said, "You know, we're not as different as you might think."
I turned away, picked up the books I had tossed on the floor, and walked "home."

Later that night, when Mr. and Mrs. Perkins were off in their room and I was frowning over homework, Faith joined me.
She didn't say anything for a while, and I didn't even look at her - I just continued on my math problems. She didn't deserve attention yet.
"Maybe…maybe I was wrong," she finally said, and that got me to turn around.
"Maybe you were," I replied. "About what, though?"
She stared at me like I was an idiot. "You."
I nodded once. "Okay."
"I'm trying to apologize," she said, obviously frustrated with me, and half of me felt guilty for being mean, but the other half couldn't care less.
"I know," I replied. "But I'm sorry if I don't suck up to you right away, after all you've done."
"I thought you were weak," she said simply. "That you didn't deserve to live. I thought the others, like Night, Lore, and Thorn deserved it more."
"I had my reasons," I said, shrugging. "And I'm sure you had yours for being inapproachable."
She blinked, stunned. "What's that supposed to mean?"
A small smile crept upon my lips, although I didn't know why. "When I'm grieving, I need comfort. When you grieve, you need anything but."
She stared at me for a long time, and I held her gaze. We remained like that for a solid five minutes before she stood and said, "Well, I think we understand each other."
"I think we do," I replied. "Doesn't mean we're comfortable, though, does it?"
She shrugged, moving towards the door. "Not yet, I suppose."
I chuckled. "Maybe soon, yeah?"
For the first time, she smiled. She was gorgeous when she smiled. "Maybe soon."
And then she was gone, and I couldn't help but think something had just changed, something important.
But I didn't know what.