hobbies and interests

This is Jay, the one Thia called her closest friend. My full name is Jaysondell Carpenter but that's way too long and complicated. Personally, I quite enjoy all the action (except for being shot every once in a while). The fear makes it more exiting. A lot of the time I just draw pictures and play video games and wait for something interesting to happen. A while back I glimpsed part of a show called 'The Hobbit'. Really, I just liked the songs and the music but after I actually saw a part of it, I instantly got hooked. Never mind that it might've been meant for older people, I love stuff like that! But it's also super long and impossible to watch all at once, so most of the time we do just play games.

My favourite game is the one we can play together. Mario Kart, where we can race each other, join teams and challenge one another. The next two are Minecraft and Lego, but my favourite thing is drawing. It keeps me calm and occupied. If I start drawing just after lunch, you may find I'm still doing it by sundown.

But there might still be one minor problem. No one has seen Sam since the news about my new niece, expect Noaba who'd been the one to tell him. According to her, he hadn't been as happy as the rest of us about this. Was he jealous? Or perhaps angry that my family might mean more to me than they did? But even if he was, I couldn't imagine why he'd just run of without telling us and not come back. He'd always been so loyal. He trusted me and looked up to me more than anyone. And yet, that was exactly what he seemed to have done.

I wanted to go look for him but after a few days had passed, something happened that might've given us a clue.

The first clue was Mora, Thias friend from school. She was a little older than us and didn't really like to be around others. We shared a table together in class but Thia was pretty much the only person she talked to. Thia seemed to mean everything to Mora, almost as much as she meant to Noaba and me. When she first told her about Sam, she seemed to dismiss it.

"Oh, I know where that boy is. He's helping me is all." Then she looked up, surprised. "Why you looking for him anyway?"

"He's a friend of ours." Thia answered.

"A friend?" Mora said, uncertain. "He didn't seem to have many friends when I found him. That's why he agreed to help me."

That made me feel both guilty and angry. They should've paid more attention! They should've made sure he was still there.

"What's he helping you with?" Thia asked.

First Mora looked afraid, like she didn't want to answer, then she just shrugged. "It's nothing to special. You'll probably find out soon enough anyway. Don't worry, he's perfectly safe."

If he was perfectly safe, he would've come and told us, even if it was just to tell us what he was doing.

***

The second clue was during a battle. After their continued failed attempts to take us down now they were trying harder, with bigger bots. Not just try-bots and tru-heads but bigger ones. Much bigger. Our guys fought them off easily enough but one time, with this big one, they were about to finish it off, when it just disappeared…this massive creature, vanished into mid-air. Afterwards, Zee said she saw a boy standing by it.

Later in the day, after Noaba had gone to bed and it was just me and Thia, I said about how that boy could be Sam.

"No, it couldn't've been. Sam would never turn against us."

"Maybe he doesn't know."

I suggested. "He left before the big one's started coming. He might not know who's side they're on."

Thia thought about this for a minute, then shook her head.

"Mora said he was helping her. Why would she want him to help her fight against us?"

Though I was still suspicious, I let it go for the time being.

But then it happened again and this time Zee went after the boy.

She had always been good with children. She's the only reason we were here after all.

When she came back, she said she'd spoken to him. A boy around our age, running from the truth the way she told it. He had abilities, like me and the girls had. Powers, you could call them.

And this boy is running from it I thought, when I first started listening. But then as it carried on, I realised.

No. Not running away from them. Using them to run away from everyone else.

But the talk about his abilities led us to think about ours. We all had them here, even the older guys. Zee and James and the others. They all thought of it in different ways.

Zee and James had been street kids, with no family or friends. They'd run from the truth, same as this boy, from the fact that everyone hated them. For Sky and Cid, it was different. Sky had been brought up with respect and Cid had rich parents. They just did their best to hide what might make them seem strange. Brain just seemed indifferent about the whole thing. For me and the girls

well theirs is easily over looked. Thia could see things in her sleep—things that hadn't happened yet—but she had no control over it, and it was very rare anyway. Noaba's was more on the surface. She hears what people are thinking, the same way others could hear what they said if they chose to listen. And me…mine is much more physical and I can control more, now. We try to suppress them as best we can. Try to control them, not to use them unless we absolutely have to, keep them hidden.

With this boy, it wasn't clear exactly what he could do but it had something to do with making things disappear. I think there was some sort of doll involved and a young girl. The girl had been talking to him, poisoning him against the rest of the world. What they were planning, that wasn't clear either.

Not at the start but it didn't really matter in the end. With Zee talking to him, getting to him, he learned that not everyone in the world hated him. We saw him once with zee on one side of him and the young girl on the other. It didn't take long for me to realise who it was.

"Sam!" I called out to him. I wanted to run to him, to shake him and scream at him why. At the same time, I wanted to hold him.

I didn't have to.

When he heard me shout, he turned to look, then just broke down in tears and ran to me.

"Where have you been? What were you doing? What were you thinking?"

"I didn't…I didn't mean…I was angry, I was jealous, everyone was running around after you, I thought no one cared about me."

"Of course, we care about you." Thia said with a sweet smile.

"You." Said another voice, the voice of the girl he'd been with. We all turned to look. When Thia saw the girl, her face changed at once to a look of shock.

"Mora!"

"What are you doing here, with them."

"I might ask you the same."

The others were walking up behind her now, behind Mora. One of them was laughing. "You don't know who this girl is. You been talking to the enemy."

She looked back at them. "The enemy." Then looked at Thia. "Thia, what does he. . ." then realisation seemed to strike her. "Thia. Your Cynthia Crugga, aren't you? The commanders' daughter."

She nodded. "I thought you knew that."

"I didn't. your father—we're meant to be fighting against him."

"And yours. The man who looks after you, the one you kept saying wasn't your father, what's he fighting for?"

Mora stared at her, taken aback.

"That man. It's Troom isn't it."

Then she looked guilty. "I didn't know you were fighting him." She said, quietly, before one of the others behind her spoke up.

"She is the enemy!"

"She's my friend!" Mora shouted back at them but when she looked back at her, Thia just shook her head and walked away.

I glared at her for a moment, then took Sam by the arm and we followed Thia.

The next day in class, when we saw Mora, she moved away to a different table. Thia went to follow her but I held her back.

"Let it go, Thia."

"I can't. We're still friends." Then she looked at me, her beautiful green eyes so serious. "I have to end that friendship."

I let her go, faintly over hearing what she said.

"I want you to understand, I don't blame you for any of this. But we're on different sides and while this war goes on, we can't be seen as friend's"

We never spoke of Mora again.