The bell rings just as your stomach growls. You didn't expect to be so hungry at only eleven. You also didn't expect Spanish class to be so awful. That Duncan kid and his ginger friend, Scott, are in that class. What's worse is that Duncan sits next to you. You grabbed your backpack and got out of there as soon as possible.

Next was lunch; thank god. You walk to the cafeteria and suddenly, all your fears come rushing back to you. What if you sit alone? What if Duncan and Scott told everyone about your "incident" from this morning? You spot Cameron walking in with a facial expression similar to yours, so you decide to help him out. "Hey, Cam!" You said, relieved.

He looked up and said "Mike!" with enthusiasm and made his way toward you.

"I'm glad there's someone I know here," You said to him.

"Me, too."

"Now where can we sit?"

You both look around to see people quickly claiming tables. You make your way toward an empty one near a vending machine in the corner. You put your backpack on the table to claim it, but you're quickly stopped.

"No way, freaks," You look to the source of the voice to see it was Duncan who called out, "That table is going to be for our girls. Not for some bubble-boy and his method-actor buddy."

Scott, Alejandro and this other kid were laughing at Duncan's idea of a joke. The other kid said in-between laughter, "Bubble-Boy and Method Actor? Sha-comedy!"

He offered a hi-five to Duncan and Duncan said "Thank you, Lightning."

You hear high heels walking toward you and a voice behind you asks, "Are these the guys you told me about, Alejandro?"

"Yes, Heather," Alejandro respond with his suave, cool collected voice, "We tried saving this table for you girls but they're trying to sit here."

A shorter girl with an obvious fake tan and ridiculously big hair spoke up with a heavy Jersey accent, "What's so bad about these shrimps?"

"Anne Maria," Lightning explained, "These are those freaks I texted you about."

"Oh god," She exclaimed in her thick accent, "Why don't you two sit with that other freak, Gypsy Girl?"

"That is actually a great idea," Duncan agreed, "Lightning, your girl ain't so sha-dumb after all."

"I know. I caught myself quite a sha-catch."

Heather pointed to the other side of the cafeteria and said "The Freak Table is over there. Why don't you just go over there and learn your place?"

You pick up your backpack, sling it over your shoulder and look at Cameron, who is frozen in shock. "Come on, Cam," You whisper to him, "It'd be better if we just did what they said."

He snaps out of it and you two take the walk of shame to the Freak Table. "How could they be so mean?" Cameron asks you.

"I don't know man," You answer truthfully, "People can really suck sometimes."

When you get to the table, you see a tiny, pale girl with long blonde hair sitting in lotus position on the table, her lunch in front of her. "Hello," She says with a soft voice, her eyes still closed, "I've never felt these presences before. Are these new students in front of me?"

You and Cameron give each other a confused and concerned look. Cameron decides to speak first. "Yes… My name is Cameron and this is Mike."

She finally opens her eyes and smiles at you both. "Hello," She says very cheerfully, "My name is Dawn."

"Dawn," Cameron continued, "How did you know Mike and I were in front of you without opening your eyes?"

"Oh," She said with concern in her voice, "I'm sorry, did I startle you two?"

"You could say that," You replied

"I'm so sorry. Sometimes my gifts just happen and I forget to act normal," She started hiding her face in her hands, "I'm sorry."

You started to feel extremely bad for her, so you sat in the chair in front of her and tried to comfort her, "Hey, don't get upset. It's totally okay to be yourself."

"Yea!" Cameron piped in, "We were just shunned for being freaks ourselves!"

"Cameron," You said with a combination of disappointment and annoyance, "That's not exactly something you declare to someone you just met."

"No, it's okay," Dawn said, removing her face from her hands, "I'm the freaky-gypsy-girl to everyone else. I've been shunned for years. You two are new and you're already being shunned?"
"I guess so," You said.

"So you don't mind if we eat lunch with you?" Cameron asked

"I don't mind at all," Dawn said with a smile, "As long as you don't mind me."

"We don't mind," You and Cameron said.

Cameron sat down next to you and took out a jelly sandwich. "No peanut butter?" You ask.

"Allergies," He responds, "You can eat it around me. I just can't eat it or touch it myself."

You nodded showing your understanding. You took a turkey sandwich out of your insulated bag and wanted to talk to Dawn some more about these "gifts" of hers. "Dawn," You begin, "What did you mean when you said you have gifts?"

"You won't think I'm too strange and leave if I explain, will you?"

"I promise that we won't," You said with a reassuring smile

"I'm a psychic of sorts."

"A psychic?" You and Cameron ask. You ask with confusion, he asks with fascination.

"I can read auras and predict futures," She said with caution, "And I can talk to animals and I'm very good at diagnosing people psychologically."

Diagnosing people psychologically? That made you nervous. Luckily, Cameron decided to speak up

"What are auras?" Cameron asks

"A person's personality and emotions. It surrounds them and is represented by a color, and I can see that."

"That's actually really cool," You tell her, happy to move away from psychosis.

"You don't need to lie to me," Dawn says, hiding her face from you

"I'm not lying," You tell her sincerely, "That's really cool of you. Could you tell me what my aura is right now?"

She stares at you for a few moments before saying "Lots of orange and purple because you are engaged in what I am saying."

"I don't know why people avoid you, Dawn," You said to her, "You're really nice and basically have superpowers."

She laughed and said "No one ever put it like that before. I think I've come on too strong with my abilities in the past. I don't know how to act like a normal kid."

"Well clearly, we don't, either," You said

"I don't want to seem sudden and abrupt," Dawn said with her soft little voice, "But may I consider you two my friends? I don't have many friends, and I'd like to have some."

You smiled at her and said as a kind-of-joke, "Only if we can eat lunch with you every day."

She laughed again and said, "It's a deal."