Gabriel scuffed his foot against the floor, then erased the marks his shoe left, monitoring his progress through oversized glasses as he tried to ignore everything else. It was at times like this that he wanted his mother, even though he could barely remember her anymore. More and more, he thought of Aunt Virginia as his mother, and why not? She was there for him when his mother wasn't.

He bit his lip. He hated this. He didn't want to be here. He didn't like this place. The halls were sterile and plain, the lights above were white and harsh. There were voices coming from the office door nearby, Uncle Martin's and someone else's. He hated those voices. He hated everyone here. He wanted his mother, his real one. He wished he could remember what had happened to her, why she wasn't here.

"Hi."

Gabriel turned, looking at a young blond girl who stared at him with the brightest blue eyes he'd ever seen. She looked like a child model, pale skin and blond hair to her shoulders, curling softly as it went. He had no idea why she was talking to him, but she couldn't be more than five, and she was probably just bored. He sat up straighter. "Hi."

"Why are you wearing that?" She pointed at his sweater vest.

He felt his cheeks warm. "It's a vest."

"But why are you wearing it?"

Gabriel, at fourteen, thought that he was perhaps too young to know what to do in this situation and too old to want to deal with it at all. "Because."

"It looks like a sweater."

"It is a sweater. It's a vest made out of a sweater."

"Oh." She pursed her lips. "Not even Daddy would be caught dead in one of those. I get to visit him this week. I'm from Ohio."

"Good for you." Gabriel frowned, getting angry. He put up with this enough at school, people making fun and always thinking they were better, more interesting than he was, more special. Why did he have to get it here, too? He didn't even know what he was doing here. Uncle Martin had said they were testing him, but Gabriel hadn't been able to figure out what the tests were for.

"I'm Elle." She held out her hand, and Gabriel looked at it for a few moments, trying to see if she'd been sucking her thumb lately. Aunt Virginia said he hadn't stopped sucking his thumb until he was eleven.

At length, he shook her hand. "Gabriel. Gabriel Gray." He grunted as a flash of pain and then numbness swept up his arm.

Elle laughed. "Got you!"

"Elle!" Both children looked down the hall, where a balding man with glasses was striding toward them. Gabriel flexed his fingers and tried to rub feeling back into his arm. What the hell had she done to him? How had she done it?

"Daddy," Elle said quietly. She eyed the man - her father - warily and slowly put her thumb to her lips, but instead of sucking on it, bit it hard. Afraid she might hurt herself, Gabriel pulled her hand out of her mouth. He was disheartened to see that her father did not in fact wear a sweater vest, but was comforted in knowing that Uncle Martin would never be that fat. This man, Gabriel guessed, had been bullied in school, too.

"Elle, what have I told you about using your ability?"

"Not to." Gabriel pushed her hand down a second time as she tried to stick her thumb in her mouth again, and part of him was tempted to laugh. She looked so angry and pouty, like a tiny dog that wanted to go up against a wolf but wasn't sure how.

The man stooped down before her. "That's right. Now come along. We'll see if we can't find someone else to amuse you other than this boy." He took her hand from Gabriel's - Gabriel was surprised to see he hadn't let go - and barely glanced at the boy as he said, "Sorry about that. No hard feelings?" He stood and tugged Elle down the hallway. Gabriel frowned as he saw Elle's spare hand go to her mouth again. "Just the visit here," the man called back.

Gabriel blinked, not realizing what the man was talking about, but then he turned away and saw a black man - no, a boy, a teenager with a bald head and a flat, emotionless expression. "What-"

"It is for the best," the teen said quietly. "This place would only hurt you, Gabriel Gray." The teenager pressed his fingers to Gabriel's face, and Gabriel's first thought was that he could almost see something, could almost see what he was doing, but that was the last thought he had before looking up at a quiet smile and watching the teen go into the office with Uncle Martin.

Elle and her father rounded a corner, and she craned to look behind them. "Who was that boy?"

"No one."

"What was he doing here?"

"Don't worry about it, Elle. Just forget about him."

And after years of experiments and mind-wipes, Elle did.