Books are a Universal Constant

Day one, new place, new people, foreign territory. This was supposed to be a school, right? So, where would be a good place to start? A cafeteria or a student lounge might actually have more than one person that he'd be forced to interact with, Anatolii wasn't quite sure whether or not he was up for that yet. His primary concern was having to keep track of more than one conversational thread, he struggled enough just to follow the one thread. He had to think, he wanted to try and be social but not in an area where he might actually be forced to talk to more than one person. Schools have libraries, right? He wasn't entirely sure whether or not schools usually had libraries but he was intent to find out if this one did.

After some searching, he did manage to find his way to what he assumed was the library. There were enough stacks of books for it to be a library. Now what? He had found the right place, but was stuck with a new conundrum, was he to approach someone and strike up a conversation or hope that maybe he'd strike someone's curiosity and they would speak to him? The latter sounded safer. All he had to do was browse for books, eventually someone might notice a new face and get curious. Maybe he might get lucky and find a conversational partner and his favorite book.

The he thought of his favorite book only proceeded to raise more questions. What was his favorite book? He had a rough idea of what it was about. It was appolcalyptic, something about a disease outbreak, he was pretty sure there was a Captain Tripps in it. That didn't sound like a real book though. Maybe he didn't have an actual favorite book.

Anatolii, distracted by trying to sort out his book nonsense, stopped perusing stacks and stared at the one in front of him.

Anatolii was pretty sure he had made up his favorite book. The longer he thought on Captain Tripps, the more he was pretty sure that no self respecting author would dare give a character such a silly name. Captain Tripps sounded like it came out of a children's book. His favorite book wasn't a children's book, was it? He was pretty sure he was a better reader than that, maybe it just had a sentimental value to him. He had resolved to go and try and find a children's section, completely forgetting his initial goal, in hopes of finding this elusive Captain Tripps. However, someone saying his name pulled him back out of his own mind.

Anatolii looked at the source of the voice, it was a girl in a wheelchair. His body immediately dumped adrenaline into his system at the thought of having to actually speak to someone else. There were very few things that mad him more anxious than having to talk to people, he always worried that he would get lost on a train of thought and not respond. The only thing worse, in his mind, was forgetting where the conversation was at whilst in the middle of the conversation.

"Hi." He let the word casually slide out and gave a short wave to accompany it. He was pretty sure he hadn't met this girl yet but he wasn't going to take the risk, she knew who he was. If she knew him, then he should know her. "How have you been?"

He had absolutely no idea who she was, but he was hellbent not letting her know that.

The Rodriguez family? Who were they? Maybe they were one of those families that babysat him until he became too 'problematic.' Which would probably make this new girl another kid that had been with them. They did know each other. Anatolii still had zero clue who she was, that wasn't going to stop his charade though.

"Are we not all her for the same reason?" He asked, confused. He was pretty sure that they were there because they were gifted or whatever. Right? Had he imagined that? Maybe she had a memory problem! Or was it supposed to be a secret? Was he responsible for keeping that secret? How was he supposed to do that?

"It is good to see you again though!" Anatolii gave a small smile as he said it, hoping that he could pivot conversation away from this dire secret that he was evidently the sole bearer of.

Oh no, she was asking questions about his past. "Oh, I've been here and there and everywhere in between." He may not have exactly remembered the sequence of events but he was acutely aware of how much time he had spent moving around. "I've only been here for a little while, less than a week." Anatolii was pretty sure that hadn't been a lie. He hadn't left Anaheim that long ago, it felt like it had been a long time though. He mentally reminded himself that he needed to go back to Anaheim sometime soon.

"What about you? What have you been up to?" Maybe he could fill in some blanks as to who this person was if he just kept asking little questions. The option to just admit he had no clue who she was did occur to him, but that would mean he would also have to admit that he couldn't remember a single thing about her even though she evidently remembered quite a bit about him.

Now that was a story, she had evidently been doing a lot with her life. Anatolii was pretty sure he had been doing a lot with his life as well, but he couldn't remember the details for sure. He had been moving around pretty quickly, places and faces just hadn't stuck. Her power sounded pretty nifty, changing emotions through touch would be pretty nifty. He wouldn't care to have it though, he'd probably forget that he could do it and end up changing someone's mood rather drastically.

Anatolii's train of thought crashed when she asked him if he remembered him. Anna sounded familiar, maybe they had met. "In all honesty, no. I have no clue who you are. You see, my head is a little broken and I have a hard time remembering everything sometimes. My apologies."

Hopefully she wouldn't be too cross with him, he hadn't technically lied but there had been some slight obfuscation involved.