Free Persona by Amy Lunderman

Daisy, he is cute.” Raven says, as she points to the new guy Liam striding into the cafeteria.
    Moira shifts her attention to him and away from Spencer, and once again is surprised with his lack of interest with anything around him. The activity in the room dims down and everyone is gawking at him again, but he doesn’t even notice. He just walks between the tables, gazing at the people sitting, as if weighing the option if they are worthy of his company. He doesn’t stop at any of them, and he gets closer to her table.
    When he gets a foot away, Moira picks up on a new scent in the air. It smells like warm spicy cinnamon and her mouth waters as if tasting fresh baked cinnamon rolls. The scent gets stronger the closer gets to they’re table, and with it is the feeling of her persona teasing her senses. Looking around at the others to see if they notice anything, but they aren’t acting as if they do. He gets so close to the table now that her skin feels like a million bugs are crawling inside. She thinks he’s going to stop at they’re table to sit down, but he walks past.
    As he does, the scent slowly fades and she can no longer taste anything. Her skin stops tingling and returns to normal. He goes to the other side of the cafeteria and reaches an empty hardly ever used table, and pulls out a chair and slouches into it. Slowly, the activity picks back up in the room, and everyone goes back to what they were doing. Moira doesn’t take her eyes off him though, and he looks right up at her again. Her skin tingles for a split second and her vision sharpens, indicating they changed. His grey eyes go wide, and they flash violet, before he quickly looks away. When he does, her skin and vision go back to normal. She hopes no one saw her, but wonders in anyone saw him.
    Moira has the feeling her friends might be right, that he has hidden secrets. She just doesn’t know what, but she definitely wants to.
    ***
    August 2023
    Moira has been home for eight years now, and has grown accustomed to the day to day activity’s that come with being normal. It’s the end of summer, and her parents wanted some alone time in the house. So she said she’d take her ten year old brother Damon, and seven year old sister Annie outside to play. She got them into playing tag for a while, but Damon grew bored and wanted to play hide and seek. Annie didn’t want to though. She said she was too scared to hide alone.
    Moira sympathized and tried to come up with something else to do, but Damon became upset. He started teasing Annie that she was a baby, and shouldn’t be out playing anyway. This made her cry and run into Moira’s arm. Getting angry, Moira yells at Damon to leave they’re sister alone. This makes him livid, and he tells Moira that she isn’t even they’re real sister. He then runs over to her, and shoves her down onto the ground. This causes not only her to fall, but also Annie, who is crying in earnest now.
    Moira gets so mad and hurt suddenly that her body is filled with a vibrating sensation. Before she can worry what it could be, it intensifies to the point of pain and causes her to hunch over with a cry. Her head, mouth and hands are throbbing now and she feels tears falling out of her eyes. She feels pressure in her fingers and jaw, and then her nails and teeth begin to push up to a point. Next her hair that was up into a loose knot, falls free and cascades auburn around her shoulders. Blinking tears from her eyes, she realizes that she can see as well as a moment ago.
    The pain she felt goes away, and she’s left with light tingling feeling beneath her skin. Annie gasps in surprise when she sees her, but she stops crying. Moira looks back to Damon, to see that his eyes are wide and he’s shaking. Before she can ask if he’s all right, he turns around and runs into the house calling for his mother.
    ***
    October 2028
    The following morning Moira has to brave the bus ride to school alone. Marty was suspiciously absent,