1. Flames

~Fourteen Years Later~

Brandon huffed as he sat on one of the porch steps. He glanced back at the house before hearing a car pull up onto the driveway. A person stepped out of the vehicle and made their way over to Brandon. "Let's go, kid," he huffed, "at least you tried. That's all that matters." He grabbed Brandon's bag.

Brandon sighed, "I'm sorry..." he mumbled as he followed the social worker to the car.

"We'll talk about it on the way back. Get in the car." The worker stated as he put his bag in the back. Brandon got in the car and buckled up. Soon the worker took their seat and started up the car before heading down the quiet road. Brandon looked out the window, getting one last glance at the house before some trees blocked his view.

"So, what did you do this time?" The worker looked in the review mirror at Brandon, who sat quietly, guilt visible on his face.

"The man called me a freak and disrespectful." Brandon explained lightly, "All because I wouldn't eat their vegetarian food."

"It was your powers, wasn't it?" the worker replied, looking at the road. Brandon wasn't just your normal teenage boy. Yeah, he loved his video games, to eat, and to play pranks on others, but he also had something very unique. 'Fire Manipulation' is what they call it; the ability to control, create, and shape fire any way he pleased. His emotions impacted his powers the most. Angier, distress, sadness, any strong feeling could take a turn for the worse. He could go from completely in control, to having to use a fire extinguisher on himself. No matter how hard he tried, he could never seem to hide them either. They always found a way to show themselves, and when they did, it usually caused his new family to kick him to the curb. It's not like he intended to hurt anybody. In fact, his record was clean of mishaps caused by his powers.

"I hate them..." Brandon snarled in frustration, looking down at his lap. "They're so stupid. They always ruin my life somehow! This family was weird, but they were really nice and pretty wealthy from what I saw. But my powers ruined my chance of experiencing more of that..." He sniffed.

The work just shook his head, "they're not. You just haven't found the right family yet. You'll find them, eventually." He continued to drive. He glanced back at Brandon through the review again before focusing back on the road.  Brandon slouched in his seat as he looked out the window, not replying. The rest of the ride back to the orphanage was silent, the only sound being the accessional click from the turn signal. Eventually, they had arrived. Brandon got out and went to grab his bag from the bag.

"Thank you, Mr. Nielsen." He looked at the worker.

Nielsen nodded, "of course, kiddo. Now go see Addilyn, she'll get you settled." Brandon headed inside, looking at the front desk.

Addilyn lets out a heavy sigh as she saw the young man. "Mr. Aless. Back so soon?" She questioned as she pulled up his file.

Brandon nodded, "they called me a freak." He shrugged, "They weren't the friendliest anyways. My room was just a renovated closet. It smelled like a dead animal," he muttered.

Addilyn chuckled a little, "are you sure it's not just you? I know you're going through that phase."

"What phase? I shower every other day." He commented, "I don't smell that bad." Brandon laughed.

"Honey, you need to shower every day." Addilyn grinned, shaking her head as she finished writing something into his files. "You have the same room baby doll. I think Malia missed you." She handed Brandon a sucker. "Don't worry, baby; we'll find you a family soon."

Brandon took the sucker, "I hope so." He took the wrapper off of the candy before popping it into his mouth and walking off. He headed to his room. He opened the door quietly, looking around for any signs of his roommate. He sat his bag down on his bed with a heavy sigh.

"Hey! Brandon?!" Malia walked into the room with a few smuggled snacks in her arms. "No way! You just left, they already threw you out?" She laughed, going to her bed, hiding the snacks under there.

Brandon rolled his eyes, "they called me a freak." He watched her, "what did you get this time?" He questioned, "want me to go get something?

"When do they not," Malia stood back up with two bags of cookies in her hands, "leftovers from lunch. You shouldn't go; it would look suspicious. You're not supposed to be in there until dinner. They have this new schedule. As soon as lunchtime is over, they throw you out," she explained to him as she handed him a bag of cookies.

"I'll wait till dinner then, it'll give me something to do." He took the bag of cookies before sitting back down on his bed. He opened the bag up and started to eat, watching his friend. Malia was two months older than Brandon. The two have been together ever since Brandon entered the system at three years of age. They both struggled with finding families. People always went for the younger toddlers or babies, rarely did they ever want a tween or teenager. They both have a long record of fail adoptions, Brandon just added to that streak. That didn't help with finding forever families either. People claimed them to be ill-behaved, uncaring, and just plain crazy. Brandon's powers did not help with that in any way. He could only hide them for so long from his new family, and once the secret got out, he got sent right back. Instead of powers, Malia had a poor attitude toward people she didn't trust or barely knew. Even Brandon got a piece of it here-and-there. She blamed it on her age, 11, but always failed to correct herself the right way. It always bit her in the butt, causing many families to send her back. Brandon tried to help her once but gave up after her hateful response.

Brandon moved to lie down on his bed as he ate the small, snack size cookies. Nearly finishing the bag in less than a minute. "Man, did they not feed you?" Malia grabbed another snack for him.

"I didn't feel like eating anything they made. They were vegetarian. Plus, the whole situation had me all messed up." Brandon explained, taking the bag from her and eating its contents as well.

Malia frowned, "Brandon, vegetarian or not, you need to eat. You know you could get sick by doing that, right?" she questioned the young boy.

Brandon just shrugged it off, "so? If I get sick, I get sick. There's nothing I need to fight for." He finished the snack.

Malia rolled her eyes, "There is, you idiot. There's plenty of things to fight for. We are all getting an amazing education. Thanks to this place, we all have a chance to make things better for ourselves. You 're just too blind to see that," she snapped.

Brandon sat up, throwing a glare at her. He rolled his eyes as he sat up, "whatever you say." He walked out of the room, going to see if anything had changed while he was gone. Malia rolled her eyes, letting him walk out. Brandon threw the empty snack bag away as he walked down a few hallways, seeing familiar face after familiar face. There was no significant change. Many kids waved at Brandon, welcoming him back or flat out laughing in his face. There was one face that he did not recognize; he looked over at her. A new girl. From what he saw, she was older than most kids that came in. He decided to go check her out and walked over to her. "New?" He questioned.

The girl jumped a little, clearly a little nervous. He didn't blame her. "Uhh, yeah. I'm Star," she quickly introduced herself as she offered a hand out to him to shake.

"I'm Brandon." He shook her hand, "Star?" he questioned, it was a bit of an odd name.

"Yeah, my parents were a little weird. They were into stars and all of that weird horoscope stuff." She shrugged, "you know, a few kids already told me about you. I couldn't imagine losing a family member like that... I'm sorry for your loss."

Brandon froze up a little. His mother was a very sensitive topic to him. No matter how hard he tried to push away from those type of conversations, he couldn't help but break down a little. "I..." He mumbled, paling a little. "I need to pee." He quickly walked off, letting out a heavy sigh as he rushed towards one of the bathrooms. He shut and locked the door immediately. He made it just in time as tears started to run down his face. He felt his skin started to heat up as it began to glow a light, orange color. Sparks began to come off of his body as he sobbed into his hands. A few sparks found their way over to one of the hand towels, but he failed to notice. Soon, his session of pity was ended by a crazy loud fire alarm. He gasped as he looked up to see the hand towels on fire. He screamed and quickly opened the bathroom door. Outside of the bathroom, complete panic and chaos ensued as kids and caretakers all ran around. Workers tried to get the kids in line, but everybody knew that wasn't going to happen. Brandon quickly snuck away from the bathroom, but one worker caught him in the act.

"You're in trouble, young man," she hissed in frustration before dragging him off. They entered the room occupied by the boss, technically she was. Brandon didn't know what to call her besides a cold-hearted jerk. Brandon was thrown into a chair after the worker slammed the door shut as they left the room. Brandon looked at the woman in front of him.

"I didn't mean to! I promise!" He plead for forgiveness, "please! I'm sorry!"

He teared up as he waited for a response.

The woman shook her head, "Aless..." she sighs, "this wasn't the first item you caught something on fire... No matter what we do, or you try to do, you always put everyone in danger. What if this happened at night when all the children were asleep? What if you did more then set a few towels, flowers, blankets, or even trees on fire?" she spat at him, "You're a danger to everybody here, and you're a danger to any family that takes you in. I know what happened with the last family Aless."

"I'm so sorry..." He looked down, "it won't happen again, I promise yo-"

The woman simply cut him off, "that's what you said the last time Aless. You lied to me. I believed you could do it, but you failed. She shook her head, "we need to follow through with the proper discipline." She got up and walked over to him.

Brandon looked at her with teary eyes, "Please... I'm so sorry." He begs.

She shook her head, "You turn 18 in two weeks." She started up. "You will be forced out of the foster care facility and system, with or without a family. Until then, you will be isolated in your room. We will bring you every meal up until you turn 18. Hear me? This needs to be done to protect everybody from you; you're a danger. Do you hear me?"

Brandon sat there quietly, taking it all in as tears ran down his cheeks. He really messed up this time. The woman grew tired of waiting for an answer; she smacked him in the face. "I said something to you! It's only right for you to reply."

Brandon looked up at her in shock, "yes, yes, ma'am. Yes... I'll do that, I will." He nodded.

The woman nodded, "good. Now pack your things. When you have everything you need, come to me, and I'll take you to your new room." She led Brandon to the door, pushing him out to do what she told. Brandon quickly ran off to go collect his things. He slammed the door open, sharing Malia.

"Brandon?" She looked at him in shock as he started to pack his things." Brandon glanced at her, "they're throwing me out when I turn 18," he explained bluntly, "I'm being relocated to a new room."

Malia's heart sank, "Brandon... I'm so sorry... Did I cause this?" She walked over to him.

Brandon shook his head, "it's nobody's fault. Really it's not." He finished packing his bag.

Malia let out a heavy sigh. She moved to hug him, "please don't do anything stupid, Brandon." she quietly snuck something into his bag without him knowing. "I'm so sorry." She backed away.

Brandon looked at her quietly as he thought to himself. He gently took her hand, kissing the top of it. "Till we meet again." He let out a small grin.

Malia shook her head, "I want to go with you." She quickly spoke, "please."

Brandon sighed, "Fine. 12:00 am sharp, bring all of those snacks with you, or I'll leave your butt behind."

Malia nodded, "got it." she grinned, "Don't you dare forget me."

"I won't, maybe." He grinned before stepping out of the room and heading back to the office. He waved goodbye to Malia one more time before turning into a different hallway. He eventually made his way to the officer, walking in as he cleared his throat. "Let's go." He looked at the woman.

The woman nodded, "this way," she demanded and led him out of the room. They traveled quietly to his new room. It was a few long hallways away from his old one. On the way, he spotted Star talking to a few other kids. She glanced at him, frowning.

'Sorry,' She mouthed to him as he glanced back at her. He flipped her off while the woman wasn't looking, creating a flame over his hand. He quickly put out the fire and hid his hand. Soon they arrived at his new room. Brandon entered and looked around for glancing at the woman.

"Lights out in 30 minutes, Aless," she told him, "we will check on you in the morning." she shut and locked the door before walking away. Brandon sat on the bed, putting his bag on the ground. He sighed in frustration as he looked around. It was smaller than him and Malia's room, and the bed showed some age. He noticed a nice sized window right by a very simple wooden desk. It was perfect. Brandon stood up and looked outside of it to see a few trees and a minimal drop between it and the ground. He sat back down on his bed, now to wait. He decided to look through his bag to see if there was anything he could eat. As he slowly zipped it open, a small box fell out. Brandon raised a brow, picking the box up. He didn't remember having this in his possession. He shrugged and opened it up.

Inside looked like some kind of phone, maybe a little smaller. "No way..." He mumbled as he took it out. Underneath it was a pair of earbuds and a piece of paper. He opened the paper and read it quietly.

"Found this under your bed after you left. Look in the case" It was Malia's handwriting. This made Brandon even more curious than ever. He pulled the case off of the phone and found another piece of paper. His hands started to shake as he pulled it open. Brandon froze as soon as his eyes glanced at the first few words. His heart sank, his body began to shake, tears filled his eyes once again. But he wasn't sad; he wasn't scared. He sat there in shock before slipping the earbuds into each of his ears. He turned on the phone and went to the music app, pressing play, and the first song came on in the playlist. He set the phone down as he fell deeply into the spell created by the song, turning it up a bit more as tears ran down his cheeks. He looked at the note one last time, kissing the paper before looking up at the ceiling. He moved his hands together, closing his eyes. For the first time in forever, he started to pray. Not to the one above, no. Brandon began to pray to his mother, wishing her well and thanking her for this fantastic gift. His heart ached as the music continued. He ended his prayer and continued to listen to the beautiful music. She had an amazing taste in music. He started to search around the phone, seeing what else was in there. There's, of course, a calling app, and all the other normal app things you would find in a phone. But next to the music app, he saw a movie app. He pressed on it and allowed it to load up, waiting with curiosity. In the app, he found ever single movie he and his mother ever loved. He gasped as he scrolled through them all. He sat there stunned, that's before an idea sparked in his head. His hands started to shake again as he went back to the home screen, scrolling around until he finally found the picture app. His finger hovered over the button as he took a deep breath. He opened it up and was immediately faced with an extensive collection of photos of him and his mother. His heart started to beat faster as his fingers scrolled through all of the pictures. Tears ran down his cheeks, a few even landing on the phone. "Oh, mom..." He cries, "I miss you so much." He takes a deep breath, "so... so... much..."