The Young Ones

Chapter 1 Train Ride

On a train from a tiny town in Colorado to one of the biggest cities in California sit two young women filled with anticipation for a life-changing week in Los Angeles.

One excitedly watches the passing scenery, her blue eyes, glinted with joy, darting excitedly, and absentmindedly plays with a blonde curl between her fingers, hair alight with golden sparkles. The other sits, green eyes focused on a drawing, with brown messy waves tied back in a haphazard bun to keep from bothering her.

The blonde is petite and skinny, to an extent most women find annoying, while her friend is slightly taller than average with lovely curves. Both girls are very beautiful, not that having good looks ever made them very happy. These two prefer going unnoticed because any attention they do get is unwelcome and disgusting.

"I still can't believe you managed to win that writing contest," Gabie muses as she sketches on her new notebook. Her hand is shaking ever so slightly as the train moves along.

"You doubt my writing skills?" Allie exclaims in faux hurt.

"No, just your scientific mind. Allie, the essay contest was made by Alaric Sharpe, one of the smartest men in this world, so I can't really believe you managed to write about astrophysics or engineering or something. You got C's in all your science and math classes in high school," Gabie points out and Allie pouts.

"You have a point there. The contest was about renewable energy and science stuff. I didn't even think my submission would be accepted," the blonde grumbles and crosses her arms. Allie herself is self-conscious about what she wrote and feels guilty she won the contest over the other participants.

"What did you write?"

"I wrote a short story personifying the bionic heart in Alaric Sharpe’s chest and may have included something about his time trapped by his mad scientist father. I guess my story struck a chord in him," Allie answers thoughtfully, a few of the sparkles in her hair turning blue. The very thought of Alaric Sharpe reading something she wrote is electrifying in itself, but him liking it is insane. She is still in a state of shock from reading the congratulations letter.

Alaric Sharpe is a world-famous billionaire, engineer, scientist, and works closely with Aegis, a worldwide superhero team. Hey may or may not be the hero, Sentry, or Sentry is someone working with him, it’s unsure. Obelus is possibly Aegis’ new base of operations but none of the heroes will say, probably because that would make the city a target.

"Your words do have a way to make people feel," Gabie agrees.

"Yours too. Hey, why didn't you enter?" Allie asks and peers over her friend’s shoulder to see what she's drawing, a stray sparkle landing on the paper. It's an abstract drawing of a girl without a heart, coincidentally.

"I was too busy making my submissions for the week-long art school I'll be attending while we're in Los Angeles," she responds and sits up. She wears a wide smile on her face that Allie is not used to seeing. "I'm so excited to be going."

"Excited to leave the house too I bet?" she concludes and Gabie nods. The pair rented a small apartment for the week here.

"I'm finally going to be living with someone who actually appreciates my presence," Gabie says. Her family isn't exactly the greatest so it's good for her to get away.

"Right! We will be bunking together for a week! You get to go to art school, I get to stay in the apartment and write all day! And most of all we both get to go to the super-private party to celebrate the opening of Obelus!" Allie cheers excitedly and waves her hands, frenzied, as she does golden sparkles fly off her hair. She couldn't be more ecstatic about this. It is such an honor to be invited to the opening of Alaric Sharpe’s new building, one he so dramatically named Obelus. "I never thought I could be this happy!"

"Me too!"

~~~

"Ready to see our apartment for the week?" Allison questions and waves the set of keys in front of Gabie. She nods and Allie unlocks the door to reveal a cozy interior. They quickly shove their bags inside and shut the door behind them.

The apartment has a bathroom, one bedroom, a living space, and a kitchen, all of which the girls rush to see. In the bedroom, they find two queen beds and a medium-sized closet. Their living area has a large red couch and a decent-sized tv. Thankfully the kitchen has everything you need and lovely granite countertops.

"It's perfect," Allie gasps and throws herself on the red couch, already getting her hair sparkles all over the apartment. "Oh, I wanna stay forever!"

"Same," Gabie agrees. That's when Allison gets a wicked idea. Sitting straight up she flashes Gabie a face that makes her frown. "Oh no, that's the face."

"Yes, the face! Maybe we could stay here!"

"How? We don't exactly have jobs here Allie, our families wouldn't let us, and we have to go to college," Gabie deadpans but it doesn't dampen the manic blonde’s mood.

"What if we found jobs! How about we spend this week looking for possible jobs that could allow us to afford to stay in this place! We could ditch college and just live here! You can become an artist and I can become a published author! Gabie, come on just give it a chance! And hey if it doesn't work we go back home no harm done," she explains and claps her hands frantically. Gabie just raises an eyebrow at her. "Besides, it's not like we're dying to go back there. I would be much happier as far away from that place as possible."

Home is where it happened

"Fine," she sighs and Allie squeals triumphantly.

"Yay!!!"

"Get out your laptop and start looking for jobs," Gabie snaps and Allie immediately digs through her bag. "While you're doing that let's go over our weekly planner." Ah, Gabie, ever the responsible one. Gabie pulls out her planner and holds it up.

"Today is Sunday and we are free to do whatever we want. Tomorrow through Friday I have school from seven to two. After that we can job search or mess around, Saturday we have to pack, and Sunday we may go home," Gabie informs and then hangs the planner on the wall. "Now the big item is Thursday night, that's the Obelus opening party. Before that, we have to get ready and look amazing. You won this contest so we have to make the best of it."

"I agree."

"One more thing Allie."

"Yes?"

"If you get a job make sure you earned it, no compulsion," Gabie states sternly.

"Gabie you're talking to miss 'I like following the rules and doing what is expected of me' I won't do anything to cheat," Allison replies curtly. "Also right back at you missy. No changing what you do to match what people think they want."

"I can't help it, Allie. Blocking out the thoughts is almost impossible you know that," Gabie answers sourly. "But anyway don't stay up too late looking for work."

"I won't, you just get some rest. Big day of art tomorrow!"

~~~

"Gabie, what's happening?" Allie whimpers pathetically as a burning sensation pulses through her body "Gabie, what's happening?" she murmurs, trying to lessen the pain she curls up tightly. "This is wrong! It's wrong."

"Just hold on," Gabie says and reaches out to take her friend’s hand. She is curled in on herself as well, her blood staining the ground beneath us. Allie clutches her hand tightly and holds her chest with her other hand. Allie’s blood is spilling from the open wound in my chest and covering their joined hands.

It all happened so fast. One second they were haplessly walking home and the next they were knocked into a ditch on the side of the empty road.

"I-I-I don't wanna die," the blonde stammers. "I don't want you to die."

"It'll be okay, just hold onto my hand," Gabie whispers intently. Blood is seeping from the cut on her head. "Just keep breathing."

Awaking with a jolt Allison frantically sits up and checks her body for marks of blood. That same sadness and fear that she felt that fateful day is back; it’s showing in the deep blue and purple twinkles exploding from her hair as well as the tears on her face.

"We weren't supposed to live. We weren't supposed to live. We were-"

"Allie!" Gabie exclaims, ending the broken repetition. "We are okay." She knows about the nightmare, she has them too.

"You saw," Allie concludes and she nods.

"I always see, you know that. And you see when I have them too," Gabie answers. The girls see glimpses of things from each other's heads and have ever since the accident.

"I know," Allie breathes out. "I'll go back to sleep." Laying back down she rolls over and clutches her pillow tightly.

Allison’s eyes linger on the small colored shards of light on her pillow and sheets, a constant reminder of the accident. The sparkles have been in her hair since she woke up in the hospital and change color with her emotions. They are endless; she can’t stop them or get rid of them and they shed everywhere like glitter. She has to pretend they’re intended, hair glitter, which is hard to pass off when they change color so whenever she’s in public she tries to maintain a stable emotional state, a difficult task for her. Allie brushes them away and closes her eyes tight.

Sleep soon overtakes her once again.