Help! [Kaytee]

[Caroline Mason]

Hammel was stranger than Caroline had anticipated. She thought it would be like being at Boys Town, but it was completely different. Everyone had some power they were struggling with, and so many of the students were touchy about being there while she thought it was a great adventure.

Her roommates were all older than she was, but that was okay, she could learn so much from them! And they could help her with her homework, and help her understand things. But... so far she hadn't been able to really talk to any of them. They were busy with their own lives and doing their own thing. So when Kaytee was there, Caroline seized the chance for help.

"Um... Kaytee?" The pajamaed Caroline held the book she'd been assigned in English and her notebook close. "Can... do you have a minute to help me?" Shifting her weight from foot to foot, Caroline held her breath as she waited for an answer. While she'd found The Giver to be an interesting read, she really didn't understand what she was supposed to have gotten from it. Or why it didn't really end. And yet she was supposed to write a one page report on the themes and elements within.

[Kaytee Palladino]

Kaytee was pretty preoccupied lately. She knew she had come off a little colder than she wanted to, but sometimes she really couldn't help it. She was so stressed trying to figure out a job situation and dealing with homework and making sure she was up to date on everything with her Dad. There was a big problem with the house too, and Kaytee didn't want her Dad to know. Kaytee had convinced her dad to make her his power of attourney and she took that seriously. She was taking some extra classes to make sure she was understanding things. Being that as it is, she was able to conceal some of the financial information from her Dad so as not to stress him out. And that was why she was the only one who knew about the house situation. It added a whole lot of more stress to her live, but Kaytee really wanted to do this for her Dad.

Kaytee sat at her computer, crunching numbers of their now joint bank account. She had to make things work. She wasn't about to lose the only house she had ever known. She rubbed her forehead and sipped at the coffee next to her computer. It was quiet in the dorm, and Kaytee was outrageously thankful for that. Her eyes were getting tired, and she knew that she really should get some sleep, but this needed to be figured out before she would let herself rest. But despite how much she wanted to make it work, the numbers weren't adding up.

Her almost tears were snapped away when she heard a voice. She turned around and saw her new roommate standing in the door. She shut her laptop to conceal what she was working on and grabbed her cup of coffee. She stood up and straightened her teal and brown moose pj pants. She motioned to the chair she was sitting on and sat on the bed.

"What could you use help with?"

It was time to turn the tables on her attitude. Caroline was a lot younger and didn't deserve any lash out on Kaytee's part. She tilted her head and waited for the young girl to ask her question. Besides, she really wanted Caroline to feel like she could talk to her roommates about anything. Homework included.

[Caroline Mason]

Relief flooded through Caroline as Kaytee gestured towards the chair. With a few quick strides, she'd plopped into it and set The Giver on top of her notebook which lay open in her lap, a pink mechanical pencil hooked onto the page.

"I don't understand the book. I mean, I get that it's supposed to be some kind of life lesson, but I've read it all the way through once, and kinda skimmed through it a second time, but I don't understand. Everything is planned for them. Every inch of their life set out ahead of time. And I guess that's how it was for a while, but the kid chooses not to obey. And I don't really understand. If that's all they've known then why would he deviate? And how come it doesn't end?" She thumped the cover with two fingers frustrated.

"It just kinda stops. I mean, what happens next? Why would the author just stop without a real ending?" She knew she was kind of whining, and wished they were reading something else instead, but the teacher seemed to have a real liking for the book and had talked about the elements of choice, memory, feelings, and rules, and about how they all applied to the students lives at Hammel and in the world.

"It doesn't seem right. Or real." It was, after all, fiction. Pulling one of her plaits over her shoulder, Caroline put the end in her mouth and began to chew. Kaytee would know, she was older, and wiser, and so much MORE worldly.

[Kaytee Palladino]

Kaytee had to think about that for a moment. It had been a very long time since she had read that book. She had to remember what she could about that topic. She twisted her lips and stared up at the ceiling trying to think of the answer to Caroline's very vague questions. She could really only give her best guess as she didn't have any of her notes or her paper from back then at college. It was back at the house. She closed her eyes and pushed that thought out of her mind. That wasn't something she needed to be thinking about right now.

"Well, Caroline, it's been quite a while, but I'll do my best. I believe one thing you have is wrong. Them having everything planned out wasn't always the way it was. This book is about the future. I suppose that Jonas got a little bit of an itching for something more. Haven't you ever felt like there was something more? That's what Jonas found out when he became the Receiver. He was given all these memories that opened him up to a whole new world of color and excitement. Sure there were downsides, but he found that life was so boring. And when he got to nurture Gabriel, he started feeling something that he had never felt before. And he wanted everyone else to feel it."

Kaytee was on track, things were coming back to her. She gave a soft smile and sipped at her coffee, thinking some more. There was another question to answer and it was one she really couldn't. That she felt bad about, but hopefully she was helping her young roommate out more.

"As for the unusual ending, I can't really say why the author did that. I'm not her. What I can say is that there are more books. This is actually the beginning of a trilogy. So if you want to know more, you can read more. Does that help at all?"

Kaytee moved to the head of her bed and leaned against the head board and sipped at her coffee. She smiled at Caroline. The girl really was sweet and Kaytee wanted to help her out as much as she could.

[Caroline Mason]

The mechanical pencil had been unhooked from the page and was making quick, not-quite-neat notes. Her handwriting wasn't illegibly sloppy, but it wasn't the neatest either, she was trying to get everything down that Kaytee was saying, because it did make a sort of sense.

"So it really is kinda like us isn't it? He's normal normal normal, then one day BAM!" Caroline's hand smacked her notebook, "He's different. He had... oh shoot, what'sitcalledwhatstheword, something audio. Post cog audio? He can see back. And that made him want to share. But because people weren't ready, or the authorities didn't want things to change, they were afraid..." Caroline stopped, eyes focusing on the book cover.

"Do you think people are afraid of us?" It was something she worried about off and on, and having the teacher assign this particular book, and with Kaytee's particular explanation... "I don't want people to be afraid of me. It doesn't seem fair. I can't do anything. And isn't that why we have morality classes here? So we don't accidentally do something bad?"

Caroline fidgeted in the seat, her toes pressed against the floor as she chewed her lower lip. It made sense though, that if people were afraid of them, that Hammel was kept secret. Kind of. She knew Father Boe knew about it. She knew other kid's parents knew about it too. And siblings. And probably cousins. And with as many kids as were at the school, that meant a lot of people knew about the school, which meant that it was only kind of a secret. But even as kind of a secret, that meant that there were people who would be afraid. And maybe try to hurt them.

Thus, secret again.

[Kaytee Palladino]

Kaytee nodded, excited to se the girl pick up on the book and understand it more. It was what Kaytee was trying to get to and Caroline was smartly putting it into her own words. She was quite bright for such a young girl and that was really fun to see in someone. And Kaytee was beginning to hope that they would for a sisterly bond.

And then Caroline dropped a bomb shell of a question. How was Kaytee suppose to answer such a dark question? The answer wasn't a happy one either. Kaytee let out a sigh and sipped at her coffee again. She didn't want to tell Caroline the truth, but she didn't want to lie either. Whatever Kaytee said, was going to be upsetting to either one. So Kaytee decided the truth was in order.

"Well Caroline, I'm afraid that people are scared of us. They think that we are dangerous because we have unnatural powers. That's why places like Hammel exist. Because not everyone believes that. It's not a secret that we exist, but Hammel is a secret for out protection. The goverment wants to understand our bodies and why we can do things other people can't. I wish it wasn't that way, I really do, but I'm afraid that I can't sugar coat the truth when it comes to this. We are feared, and extremely misunderstood."

Kaytee watched the young girl's face, looking at her reaction to what Kaytee had to say. And then she thought of something comforting perhaps, "I think that's why you were assigned the Giver. We are a lot like Jonas and we see things the way that other people are afraid to see it as. It's something I think both of us can take pride in, and all metas really."

She smiled, hoping that helped make Caroline feel better about the situation.

[Caroline Mason]

People were afraid. Caroline's face fell as she stared at the page her notes were scrawled on. They weren't dangerous. Well she wasn't dangerous. Kaytee wasn't dangerous. Her classmates weren't dangerous. And they were taking morality and ethics classes mixed in with everything else. Power and Responsibility and the like.

Chewing on the inside of her cheek, Caroline mulled it over and eventually looked up again. "I think you're right. But maybe we can show people we aren't dangerous? Like... like the civil rights movements and Dr. King? Do you think it could be like that sometime? Only... without the hosing and stuff?" Maybe if they worked at it, and people had come a long way since then, right?

Prejudice wasn't as strong. People weren't as likely to lynch. Everyone had grown and learned, right? There was acceptance now. And help. And people cared enough to stop and think. And they were more compassionate. And Nice. And careful about hurting each others feelings. There was more awareness now.

"I think we'll be okay." Caroline nodded. "No non-ending for us. Because life doesn't have non-endings. Just fiction. Fiction that had three parts apparently.