Trusting

Vi and Maple met up after school the next day. They walked around the campus for a while and talked, nothing deep, just light chatter, after a while Violet started to get to the more important subjects, pressing a little harder than the day before.

"You know a lot of sensitive things about me and my family...our identities and powers for instance, but you won't say how you got the information. You say you want to be my best friend, someone you can trust, but you won't even tell me where you live."

Maple knew Violet was right, but if her situation was known, it would be disastrous. Maple's dire need of friendship would be fulfilled, perhaps now, but it would never happen if there was no honesty from the start. She fidgeted a little with the discomfort, her eyes darting around as she was thinking. Then she took in a small breath and let it out.

"My backpack isn't for textbooks...I don't go to school any more."

Violet's eyes widened a bit.

"What I carry with me, is everything...it's my life." She hesitated. "It's not that I don't want to show you where I live...

"But, you can't," Vi finished.

Maple nodded slightly, "Yeah, I don't live anywhere."

Violet was somewhat stunned and started feeling sorry for Maple.

Maple saw the change of expression in Vi face. "Look, don't feel bad for me, I prefer to actually be free and I'm more than capable of taking care of my self. In fact sometimes it's kind of cool."

"How could living on the streets be cool?"

"I didn't mean it like that...some times you see cool things."

"Like what?"

"Like your dad doing his workouts at the rail yard – in civilian clothes."

"No way, if you were there, he would have seen you."

"People of the streets blend in...nobody sees the homeless."

"It sounds like you're OK with what you have."

"The only two things I've ever wanted in life was a best friend and a close family," Maple confessed, then thought for a second. "But, I figure once a person is living on their own, a good friend will be the major factor in life, pretty much anyone would need."

"But why did you pick me? You seem to be a nice person, I think you would have a big selection to choose from."

"I don't know really, I tend to stay to myself." Then she thought for a second. "I wouldn't classify myself as antisocial, on the contrary, I like people and I enjoy helping folks out. I have quite a few acquaintances, but no real friends. But your different, our situations are similar. Maybe I think of us as kindred spirits or something."

"How's that?"

"Well, neither of us are social butterflies, we pretty much keep to ourselves, and we like helping folks when we can. But the big thing is we're both looking for the same thing – the elusive best friend."

"Yeah, preferably one that can keep epic secrets."

"Precisely, I've kept your family's secrets for years. You're a super, so I know you would be great at keeping mine, and my secret nothing compared to yours."

"You're an interesting person...very mysterious. I would like to get to know you better. But, I suspect you would have a little trouble with that."

"Actually I do."

"So you don't trust me," Violet stated plainly.

"No! Violet, I trust you more than I trust myself. It's not a matter of trust...I just don't want to put you in a position."

"What kind of position can you possibly put me in?"

"You might say I'm on the wrong side of the law right now, if you knew the details and didn't do anything, you would be an accessory."

"What on earth did you do?"

"I didn't kill anybody or anything like that, but you could still get in trouble."

"Trouble? After what we've been through, I doubt being privy to anything you've done would even be noticed."

"You're referring to the banishment and the events that led up to it – I understand. But you and the others are in the public's good graces, any infraction – no matter how insignificant – may have unforeseen consequences."

"Forget that. Tell me what's going on, I may be able to help."

"There's nothing you can do, but I do trust you, so I'll tell you anyway – I owe you that much."

Violet sat there and waited patently. Maple was thinking of a way to tell her, but couldn't, so she just came out and said it.

"I'm a runaway."

"You're a runaway? That's what you're afraid to tell me? Maple, that's barely a misdemeanor, and bit anticlimactic if you ask me."

"OK, granted it doesn't sound as nefarious as I made it out to be. It's not really so much what I did, but who I did it to."

"Who did you run from?"

"The system."

"Could you narrow it down a bit?"

"Foster care."

"I've heard some war stories about Foster families, but they're not that bad are they?"

"It's not the families, it's me."

"You seem OK to me, how can you be a problem?"

"I'm what one family called a high maintenance academic."

"What is that?"

"I have an IQ of over 160, so I'm not exactly your average student. I needed an education that, quite frankly, I would never get from either my foster parents or the system. Between my 'mental' and physical size, I was intimidating. Maybe I'm paranoid, but it felt like they thought I was some freak of nature, so I would runaway."

"Mom said running away doesn't solve problems."

"She's right, but I felt there was nothing else I could do. My social skills are in the toilet, it was impossible for me to relate to anyone in the family...so, sometimes, I thought I was a freak."

"So what happened when you did?"

"Sooner or later they would find me, and depending on the situation, either take me back to my current family or place me somewhere else. Of course if I was to be placed with another family, I'd hang out in juvy until they found someone I would be 'better suited' with."

"From everything I've heard, they don't spend a lot of time tracking down runaways because it's so labor intensive and they barely have enough people to deal with the bigger cases."

"That's true, I may have the local cops looking for me on and off if I had runaway from my biological family, but I belong to the state, so in my case, running away is a crime against the state. Add that to truancy and I'm guilty on two counts, now everybody gets into the act."

"You don't go to school? But, what about your education?"

"Oh, I took care of that a few years ago, so no truancy; but I'm still a runaway."

"You said something about your physical size being intimidating, I admit you're a hard body on the tall side, but you look like any other eighteen year-old athlete."

"If I was eighteen, I'd be free...I just turned fifteen."

Violet sat there in shock.