Revolution and Retribution

PROLOUGE

Amanda stared out the school bus window, watching downtown Calgary fly past. Rachel leaned against her friend; head rested on Amanda's shoulder. Amanda was a girl of five foot seven, blue eyes and strawberry blond hair. She was intelligent, a constant Honors student despite not studying. She and the other grade eights were returning to school from a trip to the Science Center, which had been a last minuet adjustment to the field trip planned, seeing as the amusement park had been closed due to a weather warning. Rain began to pound against the window. Amanda huffed impatiently.

" I wish we could have been able to go to the amusement park instead," she commented.

Rachel looked up. " Yeah, me too. The Body Worlds exhibit sounds cool, but…" she shuddered.

" It just irks me that they're real bodies, that's all," Amanda looked back to her small Filipino friend. Rachel nodded her agreement.

" I'll donate my organs, maybe. But not my entire body."

" Really? I'd rather just be buried. I think it's disrespectful. I mean, unless it was a personal choice."

Rachel leaned her head back on Amanda's shoulder. Palms starting to itch, Amanda twiddled her fingers. The itch began to grow, so she scratched at her palms, fully expecting the feeling to disappear. However, her hands began to burn slightly, causing to her look down. The skin on her palms had turned splotchy red and white—nothing unusual.

" Are my hands hot?" she asked, holding them against Rachel's cheeks.

" A little."

Amanda removed her hands as Rachel again sat up. " They itch."

Rachel inspected her skin. " Did you put hand sanitizer on?" she inquired.

Amanda thought back. " Yes," she replied, fully remembering now, " when you guys were in the bathroom and I was outside, just before Toby and Zach came out and told us we were really loud."

Toby and Zach were two of the most popular boys in Mrs. Harrison's class, both of which the girls had had small crushes on earlier that year. Amanda hadn't really been proud of that.

" Huh. Maybe you're having an allergic reaction or something," Rachel concluded.

" I guess." Amanda wasn't thrilled with the idea. She wanted to be able to say she had no allergies.

As the bus arrived at the school, Amanda was relived to find that the burning sensation in her hands had stopped twenty minuets before. Sitting in her second-row desk, Amanda's palms started to burn with more intensity. Surpressing a soft grunt, she pressed them into the top of her desk which she found to be pleasantly cold. Nausea overtook her. Amanda pressed her cheek into the desk as well, focusing her eyes on the terribly ugly tan floor. A hand was placed on her shoulder after a few moments.

" Are you O.K?" Toby asked.

Amanda didn't answer the boy that sat behind her.

" Amanda?"

Still she did not rely. Instead, she closed her eyes.

Toby shook her gently. " Amanda, seriously. Can you at least say something?"

Finally, Amanda opened her mouth to reply. She was shocked to find that only a weak groan came out. Toby let his hand slid back to his desk as her glanced around the room of joking teenagers for Mrs. Harrison. Not finder his teacher, Toby sat back in his chair as the bell rang to dismiss the students.

" Amanda!" Shannon, one of Amanda's closest friends, called from across the room.

Amanda slid herself out of the chair at her call. Feeling the sickness evaporate as she elevated her head, Amanda packed her orange backpack and headed out to her bus with Rachel and Shannon, not noticing the light marks her hands had left on the laminated desk top and completely oblivious to the fact that her powers as a mutant were steadily arising.