"Wait!"
"No!"
"Stop!"
"That hurts!"
"That's not fair!"
"Run!"
"Get away!"
"No!"
June Whitefeather woke in a start. She was drenched in sweat, matting her dark curls to her neck and forehead. She heard the sound of voices in the kitchen below her of the ranch house she shared with her Nana, but something in her gut told her that those weren't the same voices that were talking with her earlier. She couldn't think of who it was downstairs- the closet thing to a town in this part of New Mexico was over ten miles away, and people hardly disturbed their daily routines just for a daily routine. June recognized one of the voices as her Nana's, and could tell that the people downstairs were strangers, they evidently did not realize that Nana only spoke Spanish.
June groaned realizing she would have to get up and address the people downstairs. As she hopped out of her saggy mattress, she reminded herself that she needed to slip some jeans on before heading down. The attic, where her "room" was, was the hottest part of the old house, and with poor ventilation, June often slept on a bare mattress with nothing but a cami and underwear.
She ran her hand through her long dark curls upon her entrance to the kitchen. Her Nana was on her feet talking rapidly in Spanish to two women dressed predominately in black. One woman had caramel colored skin with bright white hair. While this woman's appearance was eye catching, the other woman's appearance was equally surprising. While she appeared no older than 25, she had a thick strip of white hair at her brow.
"Nana?" June asked, interrupting her grandmother's tirade. "Quiénes son ellas?" She asked who the people standing in her kitchen were.
"No sé."
"Who are you?" June asked, directing her question to their visitors now.
"I'm Ororo, and this is Marie." The first woman said in a soft voice, taking a small step forward. "We need to discuss something with you, but we must hurry."
"From the government?" June asked impatiently. It was too early in the morning for her to argue with the feds for the sake of her grandmother. They always wanted to know where Nana's green card was, or whether or not the ranching that they were doing was legal.
Marie giggled. "No!" June caught a bit of a southern accent in her response.
"Nana," June said to her grandmother, "Ellas no son del gobierno. Sientate, tus huesos son viejos." Her grandmother nodded and took a seat to relax her legs. "Listen," she said redirecting herself once again to the strange women in her house, "We don't want to buy anything, register for anything, subscribe to anything, test anyth-,"
"We're not." Ororo interrupted.
"Listen, we're here because we want to help you. We know… about you." Marie explained.
June's neck grew stiff. "I'm sorry, I'm lost… and hungry, so if you could cut the hidden text stuff, it would be appreciated."
"June, we know what your capable of, you know, creating energy balls, jumping."
June froze, and her grandmother noticed the stiffness.
"Qué quieren ellas?" her grandmother asked quickly.
June shook her head. "Un momento, Nana. What do you mean you know? I didn't tell anyone, 'cept for Nana, but she doesn't leave the house! Damn, you are the feds! I knew it!" June started to back up.
Marie shook her head. "No, sweetie, we're not the feds… wouldn't that be funny, Storm? We're just like you, June. We can do… stuff."
June didn't believe them at first. Why should she? But then again, why shouldn't she? Why was it so hard to believe that someone else could be like her.
"To put it simply, June, you're a mutant."