10 Born Different

Over the years, Ivy had gotten used to dealing with the problem of her telepathy on her own. She didn't think it was possible to still be annoyed that she couldn't tell anyone about it. Until today.

Trying to research something that technically wasn't supposed to exist was driving her crazy. She read dozens of Y-Men comics without finding any truly helpful information.

Unlike most superheroes, all of the Y-Men had been born with their powers. It wasn't only Doctor Y. With them it was a strange genetic mutation that caused their abilities rather than falling into a vat of toxic waste or whatever else caused people to become superheroes.

What had caused her to be born different? Ivy had never heard of anyone else having powers in real life before. Surely not everyone could be as careful as she was. If there were other people out there like her, wouldn't there have been at least a whisper about it?

She barely managed to get her homework done for the day because she was too engrossed in trying to learn everything she could about the origins of the Y-Men, both through comics and the internet. If there was someone else—anyone else—she could talk to about this…

But what would she even say? Ivy had learned to live with her weirdness until recently. Someone whose thoughts she couldn't hear showed up around the same time she developed a new facet of her ability. She couldn't help but wonder if those things were somehow connected.

Did Adrian have some sort of strange power too? Was that why this was happening? Was it simply a reaction to being around another person with an impossible ability?

Ivy didn't dare ask him straight out; it was a pretty farfetched theory. If he thought she was nuts he wouldn't want her around him and then she would never get to figure this all out. No, she couldn't rock the boat.

Closing the comic she was reading, she tried to think of what she was going to say to him the next day when they met up for hot chocolate. She wanted to conduct some field tests but it might be a better idea to try and become friends with him first.

Making a good impression was crucial but those weren't exactly her strong suit. The main reason she managed to get by in society was by using her telepathy to cheat. She told people what they wanted to hear.

Over the years Ivy had unwittingly become an expert in analyzing human behavior. Sometimes people were more self-conscious than they appeared like Carson. Other times they were straightforward like Lydia.

But overall people's thoughts were a lot nastier than their words. It was why she didn't bother spending time with people unless she had to.

She could tell what kind of person someone was fairly easily because their thoughts always gave them away. There really weren't all that many original thoughts in the world. At their core people were all the same.

That was why she was intrigued by Adrian. For the first time she had absolutely no way of telling what kind of person he truly was. A real mystery! There were so few of those in her life.

===

Ivy had done her best to think of things to talk about with Adrian without having the benefit of reading his mind and had a few ideas. So she was back to her comic research.

AP Lit was more boring than usual this morning since all they were doing was reviewing the prompt for their Great Gatsby essays that were due soon. She had already written hers so she surreptitiously read a Y-Men comic under her desk, skipping any parts that didn't include Doctor Y.

The teacher didn't end up catching her so she continued doing the same thing in AP Bio. This time she did get caught but not by the person she was expecting. None of the students sitting around her cared that she wasn't paying attention.

'Is Ivy reading a comic book? I can't tell what kind from this angle…' Carson mentally mused.

Ever since she smiled at him to sort of thank him for helping her cheat all the time she had shown up in Carson's thoughts more than she had during the rest of the time they had known each other combined.

Back when they were assigned to work together on that group project in 8th grade he hadn't thought anything beyond wondering if she was going to pull her own weight or not. He had seemed relieved that she did later on but that was literally it. Ivy hadn't made a single ripple in his thoughts since then until last week.

His thoughts continued to rage. 'Is she into comic books? I wouldn't have pegged her as the type. Then again, I have no idea what she actually likes. She's smart and does well in class but I didn't even know she spoke any other languages until a few days ago.

'Maybe I could talk to her about the comic she was reading? No, that's stupid; she'll know I was looking at her! I don't want to bring up the language thing either because she seemed pretty embarrassed…but I want to talk to her.

'What could I talk to her about that wouldn't make me seem like an idiot? We've already discussed costumes for the dance so I've got nothing. Why is it so hard to talk to people?'

Ivy felt for him. Talking to people was hard when you didn't know what they were thinking. Maybe she should help him out a little. She decided to approach him first after class with a friendly, nonthreatening expression on her face.

"Hey, Carson! Have you written your essay yet?"

She already knew that he had. It was the reason he had spaced out during class enough to think about her in the first place. Normally, he was a lot more attentive. But he jumped on the lame icebreaker gratefully.

"Yeah, I have. What about you?"

"Mmhmm," she said with a nod. "It was hard though because the characters' motivations were pretty lame. I'm not sure why that book is as popular as it is."

He had thought as much last week when she spent the whole day eavesdropping on him trying to find an opening to ask him to the dance. Ivy found herself agreeing with his analysis once she got started on the essay. All of those people were terrible.

'Wow, she didn't like the book either! Everyone else I've talked to did…what other kinds of books does she like? Aside from comics, anyway. That could be a good thing to talk about!' he thought happily.

Carson's expression remained as nonchalant as ever, belying his excitement, and Ivy couldn't help but smile. He was kind of funny.

"I feel the same way," he replied. "What kind of books do you normally like?"

"Mysteries are my favorite," Ivy hedged.

She figured she should say something about the comic books because he had already caught her but wasn't sure how to explain herself. She normally didn't like comics much. It wasn't like she could tell him she had been trying to do research on telepathy to help her with a problem she was having.

However… "I've been reading a lot of comics lately though. My brother loves the Y-Men and let me borrow a few. Isn't the concept of someone being born with strange powers interesting?"

There. That didn't give her away too much. What person hadn't thought about having superpowers at some point? A lot of the people around her wished they could teleport or fly or read minds idly from time to time.

Trust her; nobody truly wanted to be able to read minds. It ruined all chances at having a peaceful life.