“I um…” Grace hesitated slightly and sighed softy, her breath coming out in a small puff of fog before she spoke. “My town is very small, very religious. They’re all close, everyone knows everyone, nothing is a secret for very long and everyone competes. Constantly. Everyone competes to see who has the best job, earns the most money, has the most expensive car, the nicest garden, cleanest home, the smartest kids, the most athletic kids, the most artistic kids. Anything you can think of, the town competed over. When my powers were first revealed you can imagine how proud my parents were about how [i]special[/i] their daughter was.”

She said the words with much venom and hatred, indicating it had anything but pleasant for her. “There was so much pressure. All of the time. After the incident with my sister… well you can imagine how the town jumped on that. My parents were suddenly not so proud of me. The locking myself in my room wasn’t entirely my idea, though I hardly fought it. They managed to convince the town they’d sent me away to a boarding school for people like me. A school like this one. Honestly I’m not sure why they waited so long.”

She then shrugged slightly and gave him a slight smile. “But hey, I can’t complain. I mean, despite everything you’ve had a much tougher life than me.” She felt guilty just even thinking about it, about how she was sitting there complaining and he had grown up on the streets, never knowing for certain when he was going to eat next or where he was going to sleep that night. “But hey, this is a new start isn’t it? The chance for a new life. New beginnings.” However looking at him she could see he was starting to shiver, Grace sometimes forgot the cold affected people, since she couldn’t remember the last time she had been cold herself.

She giggled softly and skated over to the edge of the room. “Your lips are starting to turn blue.” She said softly, shrinking shyly towards the door. It was easy to tell by looking at him that he had grown up in a warm climate. “We should probably get back to bed. Hopefully all this will be melted by morning.” Looking down at her feet she kicked it against the wall and the blade shattered after a few good kicks. “I um… I’ll see you tomorrow okay?” She smiled softly and quickly turned, walking back down the hallway.