The BHN Files- 2.

2.

Jenae knew that she’d had a brother who had been taken and grew up in the system, but that was all she had known. She’d lived a relatively easy life in the suburbs with her aunt and uncle, who were already very proper older folks at the time. Uncle Reggie had tried to raise her on British TV, though Aunt Agnes made fun of him for it and would walk around the house doing the accents. Reggie and Agnes were actually distant cousins of her biological parents, but Jenae knew little else about them. In the dim corners of memory, Jenae would recall scenes at home. Her brother was there, too, yet they were both tiny. Things seemed normal, like the home life with two parents and siblings that most of the people at school had talked about later. Little trouble at home, no abnormal fighting, though sometimes it seemed like her mother would disappear. Other times her father would. One day Jenae remembered a big blackout, she and her brother crying, the police arriving, and then not much else. She was always thankful that Reggie and Agnes had taken her in.

When Jenae was in sixth grade, the Ruizs moved onto their street. Jenae and Liliana, the daughter, hit it off immediately, racing bikes, trying to shoot hoops like the “cool” boys in school. Days got longer and crank calls were the norm. Notes thrown at windows landing in the garden and giggles through the evening pervaded.

“What did you put in your time capsule, Lily? What did you say you wanted to be when you grew up?”

“A horse trainer!”

Jenae laughed. The neighborhood was comfortable, but they didn’t know anyone with enough money to own a horse or even rent one.

“For reals?”

“What about you?”Liliana immediately felt self-conscious.

“A scientist.” Jenae was already very happy with her grades in chemistry class, even though most of her classmates found it grueling.

“Nerd! NERD! I betcha like comics, too!”

“Lily, you see me reading Galaxy Wardens all the time. And yeah…maybe if I’m not a scientist I’ll draw comics when I’m a grownup!”

“Comics are for boys.“

“So the boys in class like to talk to me about them. You’re friends with those guys, too! They even gave me GW trading cards and taught me how to play. Of couse they wanted me to be Shada but I made them let me be Macena X Lario. Or Swipes.” Jenae smiled. She loved animal characters in the comics the best. A boy or a girl could play one, and the guys usually shut up about telling her that she couldn’t be that character.

“Why do you like that boy stuff, Jenae?”

“It’s not boy stuff. I mean sometimes it is. But I think it’s for everyone. It’s so fun, Lily! Wouldn’t you want superpowers? Don’t you wanna help people really fast? I KNOW you wanna fly!”

Liliana didn’t understand Jenae’s exuberance. 

Another year or two passed. Middle school turned into high school, and Liliana and Jenae drifted apart in friendship. Jenae took to wearing a platinum blonde wig, especially encouraged by mockery received. She enjoyed the rage that her seemingly insignificant choices incited. Popular girls occasionally threatened her, and known local sympathizers of a group of teens two states over who had shot up a school kept trying to get her to join them. She carried around a Munsters lunch box and wore comic book-inspired cut off tees. Mostly Jenae ended up a loner but was occasionally taken pity on by two best friends from Korea who barely spoke English and dressed like rock stars, a raver with multicolored dreads who was always out of her mind, and the school’s one black goth kid, Tony. She smoked menthols while the kids who loved cloves laughed at her. Her grades were decent and most of the time she applied herself to study. By the time she was in high school, her aunt and uncle were rather strict and concerned about her extracurriculars. Sadly there was no reason to because she’d never gotten a date.

Jenae gently dusted the photo frame holding the picture of her and Lily. What a strange dip into the past, she thought. It could’ve been lifetimes ago. Childhood seemed so innocent and far away. She drifted into sleep.