Chapter 1: A Colorful Awakening

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The shrill cry of Mia's alarm clock pierced through the peaceful veil of her dream, yanking her unceremoniously from a world where she soared effortlessly through cotton candy clouds. Reality came crashing down like a ton of bricks, or in Mia's case, like a kaleidoscope of unwanted hues.

"Ugh, shut up already," Mia groaned, her voice thick with sleep and annoyance. She reached out blindly, her hand flopping around like a fish out of water until her fingers finally made contact with the offending device. In her groggy state, she forgot the cardinal rule of being Mia Harper: Don't. Touch. Anything.

The moment her skin brushed against the cool plastic, a vibrant purple bloomed beneath her fingertips, spreading across the alarm clock like a grape-flavored plague. Mia's eyes snapped open, instantly alert as she registered what had happened.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," she muttered, sitting up and glaring at the now-violet timekeeper. "Really? Purple? Couldn't you have at least picked a decent color, you traitorous hand?"

Mia flopped back onto her pillow, which was already a cheerful yellow from a previous unintentional transformation. She stared at the ceiling, contemplating the cosmic joke that was her life. Should she bother changing the clock back to its original black? Or just leave it as a purple reminder of her curse... er, gift?

"Some superpower," she snorted, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "I bet Superman never had to deal with this shit. 'Oh no, I accidentally turned the Batmobile fuchsia! Whatever shall we do?'"

As Mia's brain slowly booted up, the reality of what day it was began to sink in. First day at Evergreen Academy for the Extraordinarily Ordinary. More like the Academy for Teenage Freaks and Misfits, if you asked her. She sat up again, this time taking in the full glory of her bedroom.

To call it a rainbow explosion would be an understatement. Every surface bore the marks of Mia's "gift," creating a dizzying array of colors that would make a unicorn vomit. The walls, once a tasteful beige, now sported patches of electric blue, neon green, and what could only be described as radioactive orange. Her bookshelf looked like it had been attacked by a gang of rogue paintball guns, each book spine a different shade of the spectrum.

"Well, at least I'll fit right in at Freak High," Mia mused, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. Her toes sank into the plush carpet, which promptly changed from its current hot pink to a deep maroon. "Oh, come on! I liked the pink!"

As she stood, stretching her arms overhead and feeling her joints pop satisfyingly, Mia's mind wandered to the day ahead. What would the other students be like? Would they all have powers as useless as hers? She imagined a classroom full of teens with the ability to make plants grow slightly faster or change the flavor of water.

"Maybe I'll meet someone who can turn invisible... but only their left pinky toe," she snickered to herself. But beneath the sarcasm and feigned indifference, a knot of anxiety twisted in her stomach.

What if she was the biggest freak of them all? What if even among the "extraordinarily ordinary," she was still too weird? The thought made her want to crawl back into bed and pull her color-shifting covers over her head.

"Get it together, Harper," she muttered, giving her reflection in the mirror a stern look. The girl staring back at her looked equal parts terrified and defiant, her messy brown hair sticking up in all directions like she'd been electrocuted in her sleep. "You've got this. Sort of. Maybe. Oh god, I'm so screwed."

Mia's mind raced with possibilities, each more anxiety-inducing than the last. Would she accidentally change the color of her desk in the middle of class? Turn her lunch tray into a tie-dye disaster in the cafeteria? Maybe she'd get nervous and end up giving the entire school a new paint job with just one panicked touch.

"On the bright side," she mused darkly, "if I completely humiliate myself, at least I can change the color of the floor to match the shade of my burning embarrassment."

As she contemplated the potential disasters awaiting her, Mia couldn't help but feel a tiny spark of excitement buried beneath all the dread. For the first time in her life, she'd be surrounded by people who might understand what it was like to be different. To have a power that was more of a punchline than a superpower.

"Who knows?" she said to her reflection, attempting a smile that looked more like a grimace. "Maybe I'll finally meet someone who thinks turning everything into a walking Lisa Frank nightmare is actually cool."