I absolutely despise my sister.
Her dark red haired ringlets bounced around her face as her dazzling smile put me into a foul mood in almost an instant.
"I heard you're going to America. You must be excited" she grinned, bouncing onto my bed as she continued to smile at me.
"Oh, you have no idea" I gave her a fake smile, which seemed to appease her.
"Maybe dad will let me go with you," she suggested, looking excited about the idea.
"I doubt that" I told her, trying not to be harsh. After all, she is my sister, even though I hate her. Completely and utterly hate her, I mean.
My sister is, to put it lightly, the family favourite. Comparing my sister and I is like comparing the sun with a puddle: we just don't work well together and people will always prefer the sun to the puddle.
"Elizabeth, why are you here?" I sighed when asked her, just wanting her to leave so I could think in peace. I made sure not to make eye contact so I wasn't tackled by mindless thinking. I've never seen the girl have one interesting thought in my whole life; she was just insufferable.
"Lizzie" Alan called from the doorway, offering her a smile.
"Dad, can I go with Miranda to America?" she asked, eyes gleaming with innocence.
"Hmm…I don't know," he said as she gave him the most gagging pair of puppy dog eyes I've ever seen.
"Well, maybe we'll take a holiday there, okay?" he grinned, making her jump for joy and wrap her arms around his neck as they gave each other a sweet embrace.
I turned away, almost tearing up at the fact that, even when I'm being sent to another country, Lizzie still gets all the attention and love I've always been deprived of. I guess I should expect that, since I'm grumpy 16 year old and she's a cute, bubbly 8 year old.
"You okay, Mentis?" I heard him ask behind me.
"Yeah, Alan, I'm fine" I said, not turning around.
"You don't have to call me-"
"I'm not calling you dad" I turned to him finally as Elizabeth looked at me confused.
"Why not? He is our dad," she told me as I tried not to glare at her.
"Yours, not mine" I told her, turning back to Alan. I looked into his eyes to see thoughts of sadness fill his mind.
Technically, Elizabeth is my half sister. My father, James, died when I was 5 and mom soon remarried with Alan, and together they had Elizabeth, making me an outcast even in my own family. For example, Alan, mom and Elizabeth both use Alan's surname, Taylor, while I refused to give up the surname Evrett, my father's. Mom was the only one who made it barely bearable.
"Do you mind going? I need to pack" I motioned for them to leave.
"Don't forget to say bye to your friends" Elizabeth told me as they both left my room.
"What friends?" I mumbled before bending over to grab my bag under my bed.
It was hard to make friends: knowing what people were thinking, what they really thought of me: it made it hard for me to trust anyone.
I usually sat by myself, daydreaming the time away. As a joke, I'm taking Psychology as a GCSE, figuring I might as well take a qualification in it and 'enhance' my abilities, which made making friends even worse since I made sure my posture and expressions told everyone to leave me alone. It doesn't mean I like being alone, it just better this way. Everyone's boring, repetitive secrets are safe from me.
I dropped the bag on top of my bed as I suddenly had a thought. I left my room, heading into the office opposite my room as I started up the computer.
'I wonder…' I thought as I brought up Internet Explorer and then Google on the computer.
When the search bar appeared, I curiously typed in 'mental abilities', just wondering what else I could possibly do. Surprisingly, I've never done this before: mom rarely allowed me to search about my ability, saying it was rare for me to mind read and it was even more rare to have any other abilities. She said it was only superhero rubbish.
I didn't care though as I clicked on the first website that popped up. Ironically, it was called SuperpowerWiki.
I ignored the writing and instead looked down the list of possible powers.
'Let's see…telepathy, telekinesis…mind control' I thought to myself, suddenly becoming more and more anxious to see if I have any of these abilities. I was just slightly overwhelmed, especially since I had no idea where to begin.
'Well, I guess I should start at the basics' I decided as I clicked 'Telepathy' since I already had the ability.
I browsed through the page, noticing it was separated into offensive and defensive techniques.
'Hmm…let's try out Illusion Manipulation' I thought and I gave a sly grin, knowing exactly who to try this out on.
"Okay, how do I do it?" I said aloud, clicking on the link.
"…It doesn't tell me," I groaned, resting my head on the keyboard. I should've realized it wouldn't: things like this aren't real.
Feeling deflated, I decided to be happy with mind reading and leave it at that.
'Although…' I had another idea as I shut down the computer and left the office.
"Elizabeth?" I called as her bright face appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
"Yes, Miranda?" she asked curiously.
"Can you come up here for a minute?" I asked her as she bounced up the stairs and landed next to me.
"Yes?"
"Can you help me? I want to test something," I told her as I lead her into my room and sat her down on my bed.
"Okay…" she agreed cautiously as I sat down opposite her.
"Okay, this may sound strange, but I'm going to try and change your thoughts," I explained, instantly and visibly confusing her.
"My thoughts?" she asked.
"Yes, I'm going to try and make you think something and, when I ask you, I want you to tell me what you're thinking. Okay?" I explained the plan as she nodded slowly.
"Okay then" I said as I positioned myself so I was staring into her eyes.
Thoughts of the seaside floated around her head as I tried to morph the beach into…into….
'What should I change it to?' I thought, completely blank of ideas before I remembered the news I'd watched this morning.
With the idea in mind, I tried morphing the beach into a man at first before slowly adding red and gold armour onto his body.
"What are you thinking about, Elizabeth?" I asked her as the man still remained around her head, which was a good sign.
"I thinking about Iron Man" she replied. Dead silence followed as I stared in amazement and shock at her answer, never in a million years believing it would happen, that it actually worked.
I couldn't contain the grin as pure happiness filled my body to the point where I actually hugged Elizabeth in a fit of joy.
'Thank you Lizzie" I told her before releasing her and heading back into the office.
"There's got to be more information about this; there has to be. I don't care how long it takes, I'm learning everything I can," I told myself, sudden energy willing me to continue to study these abilities.
"Miranda" Alan yelled from downstairs, making me freeze. He only calls me Miranda when he's either angry or serious.
"Come down here" he added as I obediently followed his command and headed down our winding, black, metal staircase.
I followed his voice and entered our living room filled with Victorian furniture and a small chandelier hanging over the dark brown, circular rug, its crystals reflecting multi-colored dots all over the walls and furniture.
I stood a few feet away from Alan, who was lounging on the sofa.
"Yes?" I asked, anxious to what he wants.
"What did you want Lizzie for?" he asked, watching my facial expression.
"I was just asking her a few questions," I said, honestly.
"What did you ask?" he continued pressing me for information.
"What are you thinking?" I replied smoothly. I was technically being honest.
"Couldn't you just use your power?" he continued interrogating me.
"Is there something you want?" I finally snapped, crossing my arms. Patience is definitely not one of my strongest virtues.
"I don't want you using my daughter as a test subject," he stated firmly.
"Test subject?" I asked curiously.
"Don't play dumb with me: I heard you upstairs and I don't want you damaging her mind" he explained, raising his voice.
"It was just a simple test," I mumbled in a weak defense.
"Well I don't care: don't do it again" he nearly yelling at me but sighed in an attempt to stay calm.
"I think it's best if you left" he stated finally as we stared into each other's eyes.
I wordlessly turned away from him and walked back up the stairs. I got halfway up before I heard him behind me.
"You know I love you, don't you? I'm just doing what's best for Lizzie" he called as I turned to face him one more time.
"No, I never knew that" I stated before turning back and walked up the stairs and into my room, slamming the door behind me.
I did a sweep around my room, grabbing all my belongings and chucked them into a bag.
Zipping it up, I carried it on my shoulder before opening the door and leaving the room in moments. I walked past Lizzie's room silently, not wanting her to realize I was going.
I may absolutely and utterly despise her but I just can't stand the thought of seeing her unhappy, which is strange to put it lightly.
I met Alan by the door as he handed me a purse and a plane ticket.
"I have a train ticket for America and a purse. I've already sorted out the money and it's all in dollars. It should last you a good couple of weeks before you need to get a job" he explained as I looked up, slightly hurt.
"You've been planning for this, haven't you?" I mumbled the question.
He just looked away and opened the door.
"C'mon: I'll drive you to the airport" he whispered before turning to the stairs.
"Lizzie, I'm just taking Miranda somewhere, okay?" he yelled up the staircase.
"Can I come?" she yelled back down.
"No just stay there; I'll be back soon" he yelled back as the sound of footsteps echoed down the stairs.
She jumped off the last step and jogged towards us before pulling me into a hug.
"I'll see you later, sis" she released me before hugging Alan.
It took everything in me not to say 'No you won't'
"I'll see you later, dad" she released him before bouncing off into the other room.
Alan and I silently left the house and entered his car, beginning the hour-long car journey to the airport in an awkward silence.
The sun was slowly beginning to set as we reached the airport. I unloaded my bag out of the boot of his car as we looked at each other for the last, and probably final time.
"I hate doing this to you, but…that power of yours will bring nothing but trouble and I don't want anything bad to happen to Lizzie" he tried in a vain attempt to defend his actions.
"So nice to see the love and attention you give to at least one of us" I glared as I pushed past him, not wanting to hear his excuses anymore.
The sad part was knowing he wouldn't even try to stop me, to try and honestly apologize. Sure, I wouldn't forgive him but I'd at least appreciate the effort, but apparently I'm not worth it.
I pushed the doors of the airport open, as I soon got lost in the bustling crowd of Heathrow airport.