School let out at two forty five.

At two forty five Mob packed her things up and went to the gates to wait for mom and Sho. She's school let out at two o'clock. They used to go to the same school but now they didn't. She missed it, going to school with her brother. Getting out of school at the same time. They played together after school and also during recess. Now they couldn't even play together after school because he played in the park with his own friends and they had to rush home so they could do homework and mom could make dinner.

Mob missed kindergarten sometimes.

But first grade was ok, too. She liked the uniform and the real school satchel and how they had real desks now and stuff like that. Even if they didn't nap anymore or have snack time. Even if they only got one recess. First grade was still nice. The people who were in her class were nice too, most of the time. Some of them were nice all of the time.

"Are you going straight home again?"

It took Mob a minute to find words. She tried to talk but her throat was all dry and sticky and stuff and her tongue forgot how to work and also she forgot most of the Japanese she knew…which was a real problem because she only knew how to speak Japanese. If she forgot Japanese then she would forget language all together and then she'd never be able to talk to anyone ever again. Not that she really talked to people outside of her family that much. That might have been why she was so nervous, because she mostly only talked to family members…

She knew that wasn't why she was so nervous.

"I-I am. My mom and my brother are coming. Are-are you going home, too?" asked Mob. There. That was how you made words. Polite words. Words that fit the situation that you were in. Not 'Happy Christmas'….why had she told him 'Happy Christmas' before?! She was amazed that he even still wanted to talk to her. That he hadn't told everyone about how she had said something so dumb…how she had forgotten what holiday it even was!

She was so clueless sometimes.

"Yeah, but now right now. I can wait with you if you want. You know, so you don't get lonely." Said Taro. Mob nodded. That was all that she could do. Nobody had ever waited with her so she didn't get lonely. Well Sho and her waited for things together all the time but they were brother and sister and lived in the same house. This was different. Taro was not her brother. It was different when the boy was not your brother. Well not ever boy made her feel like this. Just Taro…and she knew that she was not supposed to feel this way about a boy who was not an esper. Dad would have been mad at her, disappointed in her, even though he loved mom and mom was not an esper. At least she thought that dad loved mom. Sho said that he had seen dad kiss mom, once, but Mob couldn't imagine it…and she didn't much want to. People kissing was ok but parents kissing was just….not the sort of thing that a person was supposed to think about.

Even though she knew that they must have kissed at some point.

And now she's thinking about kissing stuff and Taro is right there and it's quiet, too quiet, and she knows that she's supposed to say something but she has no idea what. Maybe she just shouldn't say anything. Maybe if she says something she'll just make a fool of herself like she had before. Maybe she'd say Happy Christmas or something instead of…what was the next holiday coming up?

White Day.

"Did you see that dog that got into the yard today? While we were having math?" asked Taro suddenly. Mob nodded. She remembered. Everyone had run to the windows when Ito spotted the dog in the yard. The teacher said that they were being ridiculous. It wasn't like they had never seen a dog before, she had said, but then Hiroshi, who was friends with Ito, said that they had never seen that particular dog before and then everyone laughed and the teacher closed the blinds.

Mob wondered how that dog was doing.

Hopefully it made it to the shelter mom took them to sometimes. If she had been there she would have told the dog about the shelter. She couldn't talk to animals, well she could but they didn't understand, but Sho said that animals understood more than people thought and mom agreed with him so he must have been right.

"I remember." Said Mob. There was more silence.

"Do you remember the park where it scratched it's ear with it's foot? It's cool how dogs do that. People can't do stuff like that." Said Taro

"My little brother can. When he was really little he used to pretend that he was a dog and he would do that but he doesn't anymore because my dad said that he was being stupid." Said Mob. She and Sho used to play animal shelter where she was the shelter volunteer and Sho was the dog…but then dad said that the whole game was stupid and that they had to play something else. Sometimes it felt like dad thought that everything was stupid.

"Your dad said that?" asked Taro. Mob nodded.

"Yes. He said that it was stupid and that we should play something else because we were becoming tiresome." Said Mob

"Your dad said that for real?" asked Taro

"Yes. That's how dads are." Said Mob. Dads were mean and moms were nice and that was how families worked.

"My dad isn't like that." Said Taro

"…but then what is he like?" asked Mob. She had never been to anyone else's house before in her life. She didn't have any cousins, either. She just knew how other families were from TV…and they were nicer on TV but TV was not real life. In real life dads were gone all the time and moms slept all day and little brother's threw crayons at you until you left them alone and then you were kind of cold and alone and your house was so big and you were so small and-

"He's really nice! Well sometimes he can be mean, like when he just comes back from work or when me and my little brother do bad stuff but he's never mean for very long. We play stuff together, he taught me how to play Go and Chinese checkers and chess and stuff and we play together after he has a beer and watches a little TV when he gets home from work. Sometimes we go places, too. Last weekend he took me and my brother to this museum of pizza that they had, my mom didn't come because she had work, and then we went to the arcade afterwards and dad showed us this game from when he was our age and it was really fun." Said Taro. Mob nodded.

"Oh." Said Mob

"You don't do stuff like that with your dad?" asked Taro. Mob shook her head.

"No. He mostly just works. He's away a lot of the time for work and when he comes back he just goes to his office and works some more. Sometimes I play in his office while he works." Said Mob. She had never, well not never, but not usually seen any other dads. The moms were the ones who picked the kids up from school and stuff. She didn't know that dads did stuff like that…outside of TV…but maybe Taro's family was just weird. Yeah, maybe that was it. His mom had a job. Moms didn't work. Dad said that the moms didn't work because they had to take care of their families and that it was the dad's job to provide for his family. Dad said so…

How did other families do things?

Mob had never really given it much thought. She had just thought that her family was normal…but what if it wasn't? What if every other family was normal and hers was weird? Taro's family sounded nice, anyway, normal or weird it sounded nice. Dad never did stuff like that with her and Sho. Dad was always too busy. Yeah, maybe that was it. Dad was just the most busy person in the whole city. He certainly acted like it….

"Oh…um…yeah, Ito's dad is like that too…I'm sorry…Mob. Suzuki." Said Taro

"it's ok. I don't even know what there is to apologize for." Said Mob. Things were the way they were, that was why they were the way they were.

"That your dad never hangs out with you. That just seems sad to me, I guess…" said Taro. Mob didn't say anything. Was that sad? Did she even want dad to spend more time with them? Whenever he spent time with her and Sho then Sho got upset…but when it was just her and dad then he was happy. Maybe the thing was to spend more time with just dad. Then he wouldn't be so upset with Sho. Maybe that was what she was supposed to do, put herself between dad and Sho, for Sho's own good. She did only get one parent after all. They both did. Sho got mom and she got dad. That must have just been the way that it was supposed to be.

"I mean….I don't know. I'm sorry." Said Taro

"What are you sorry about? You didn't do anything." Said Mob

"For making you sad. I mean you look like you're sad so I'm sorry for making you sad. That's all, Mob…Suzuki." Said Taro

"I'm not sad, that's just the way I look all the time. That's why people call me Mob, because I always look like this. Well they call me Suzuki, too, because that's my name…but they also call me Mob." Said Mob. People always said that about her. That she looked bored or sad all the time. She wished that everyone in the world could see colors, could see auras, because then if they could then they could be able to see how she was feeling. Like with Dad. Dad always looked like he was bored too but if you could see his colors then you could see how he was feeling. He didn't have a lot of big feelings but he did have feelings. So did Mob, she was his daughter after all…and maybe she wished, sometimes, that she was more like Mom…but no…

Because then Sho wouldn't have anyone at all.

And she always had to think of Sho.

"Um-" said Taro

"Yes?" asked Mob at the same time.

"You can talk first." Said Taro

"No, that's ok. I just said that because you were talking to me. I just talked too fast, that's all." said Mob. There was some silence, then, and Mob wondered once again if she had said the wrong thing. She had a history of saying the wrong thing. She wished that she could just get a clue already. What good were psychic powers if she couldn't just get a clue?

"Oh." Said Taro. There was some silence again. He was looking at his shoes. Mob looked down at her shoes, too. They were black. Mom called them loafers. Mob missed her old shoes, her gym shoes, but this was not kindergarten and they needed a pair of shiny black shoes for outside of the school and a pair of shiny black shoes for inside of the school. That was ok. Dad said that dressing nice was very important. That was why he wore suits all the time, even to bed. Well Mob didn't know if dad wore suits to bed but she did know that she had never once in her almost seven years of life seen her dad in a pair of pajamas. Mom, though, she wore pajamas all the time unless she was going outside for some reason.

"Um…hey Mob? Uh…um…do you like…stuff?" asked Taro. Mob wondered how she was supposed to answer that question. I like strawberry milk. I like warm socks right out of the dryer. I like cats with fluffy tails. I like buttery eggs and thick slices of toast with jam and butter. I like to play with my little brother even though he plays rough. I like Frozen more than Tangled but I like Tangled more than The Princess and the Frog and I like The Princess and the Frog more than Cinderella but I like Cinderella more than Enchanted because Enchanted has too much stuff with real people and Mob liked drawn stuff more than with real people and-

And she liked him.

"I…I like stuff…" said Mob. She had no idea how she was supposed to answer that so she just went with the most direct answer. She liked things. A lot of things. People. Some people. Him. But if she said that then she'd end up dropping dead right there and then Sho would be an only child and she can't let Sho be an only child. He'd end up so lonely. He'd have nobody to play with or jump on or shout at.

"I mean…what kind of stuff do you like?" asked Taro

"A lot of stuff." Said Mob quickly. You, I like you. I like you so much. I think about you a lot instead of doing my school work, sometimes, or during recess and I really like you and now I want to run far away because now I'm thinking about how much I like you and-

"Like….um…do you like Hello Kitty or do you just have the bag? Like, I don't even know what show the robot on my bag is from but I have to use it because it was my big cousin's bag and this saves money. So I was just wondering if you…liked Hello Kitty." Said Taro quickly

"I like Hello Kitty. I like Hello Kitty a lot. I like cats a lot. I like all animals but cats are my favorite. My brother likes hamsters and rats and mice the best even though they're vermin, my dad said. I like most animals and stuff like that. Do you like animals too?" asked Mob. Well no she was having the opposite problem as before. Now she was saying way too many words. Now instead of having trouble remembering Japanese she was remembering way too much of it and it was all coming out like word throw up…which was preferable actual throw up which she felt like she was about to do, too, because she was just so nervous and-

"I like dinosaurs, I think they count as animals. I like the really big ones, and the ones that fly. Those are the coolest. I have a fossil of one, but it's a little one, I think it's a fossil anyway. I found it by the pond in the park…and maybe I'll bring it to school and show you if my mom lets me take it out of the house. I mean if you like that kind of thing." Said Taro

"I do." Said Mob even though she had no real opinion on dinosaur or rocks or fossils. Dad had brought them back a pretty rock called a geode, once, but she didn't think that it was the same as fossils. She might end up liking dinosaurs, she didn't know. She hadn't given them much thought…but now she wanted to rush home and watch all the dinosaur documentaries that she could find…

"Cool. That's cool. You're…um…I think that you're cool. I mean the stuff you do. I mean like…like how you know kanji already. Thanks for helping me when we were doing writing, by the way. You're really smart." Said Taro. Mob nodded. Now she was grateful that mom and dad had spent so long teaching her to write. She liked to help people, to be helpful, and she liked it when people said nice stuff to her…when one person said nice stuff to her…even though dad would have been so disappointed in her for feeling this way.

She couldn't help how she felt.

Even though she was supposed to. Even though dad had been telling her for her entire life that she had to have control over her emotions. All of them. Dad said that power was nothing without control…and he had meant everything. Not just powers. Strong emotions made for power flare ups, he said, and those weren't allowed. She could hurt something…or someone….

And she didn't want that.

Or to make dad disappointed in her…even though she didn't know why it was so important that she got married to another esper when she was a grown up. Dad hadn't and he never complained about mom or how she didn't have any powers….

"T-Thank you…" said Mob. She was tucking her head down low, now, because she could feel herself turning red again. She reached behind herself and held her braids down with her hands. Power was nothing without control. Conceal don't feel. Stuff like that.

Be normal.

Even though she was most certainly not normal.

"So um…I have to go home now. Goodbye! See you tomorrow…because we're in the same class…bye!" Mob watched him run down the school steps, past the gate, and then down the road. She would have watched him some more but she could see Mom and Sho coming up the way. Right. Time to go home, too, because that was what you were supposed to do after school.

It took a minute for her legs to listen to her.

It took a minute for her stomach to stop being all flip floppy.

But she had to hold her braids down the whole way home.