The Fall of Mangiatorvi

4: Welcome to Passamont

"Me, powers?" Naomi shook her head.

"That's what he said," Gemma shrugged.

"He said a lot of things, this man you met."

"He had the M," Gemma repeated.

Gemma wore that baseball cap until it could not physically fit on her head, and even after that she held it tight to bed each night like a beloved stuffed animal growing up. She spent hours as a child tracing that cursive M embroidery on the cap, wondering if her given name started with an M, wondering about her biological parents.

"So, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know, what do you think I should do?"

"It's your decision, baby girl, but I think you should go." Naomi took a long sip of her tea. "Even if Jamal doesn't come for you, he's going to tell someone eventually and it's best for you not to be home when that happens."

"What about you?"

"What about me?" Naomi raised her eyebrows.

"Are you sure you'll be okay without me?" Gemma asked.

"Ha!" Naomi scoffed. "You worry about your own skinny butt. More like will you be okay without me!"

Gemma rolled her eyes.

"You don't have to make a decision right now. We can sleep on it," Naomi said. She placed her mug into the sink before turning back to Gemma. "So, what else did he say about these 'powers' I have."

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The next few days passed in a blur. Naomi was reluctant when first meeting James, but she became increasingly supportive as the week passed. Which was good, considering orientation day was that very weekend. In a flash of paperwork, packing, and preparation, Gemma's departure settled over the duo like a hurricane.

Gemma held her childhood red baseball cap in her hands, lightly tracing over the faded, cursive M logo. She took a deep breath before adding it to her large black trash bag of clothes and tying off the top. She carried the last of three trash bags out to the living room, where Naomi sat on the couch with her newspaper, her lips pulled into a tight line. Her eyes flashed to James' pamphlets resting on the kitchen counters.

She had read them four times, yet still struggled to understand the classification system. Each Mangiatorvi student chose an academic major and was automatically sorted into a gifted major. There were only five gifted majors: elemental, mental, physical, reality, and other. The students were then sorted into tiers based off of their potential score and grade before placed into their prospective classes.

Gemma took another calming breath as the cuckoo clock on the wall chirped seven am. This tiny, mold infested room held everything she cared about in this realm, yet she didn't want to leave. She looked to Naomi and didn't dare to imagine how her life would have turned out without the old woman. Her heartbeat quickened and her fists clenched as the homesickness tickled her stomach even before she left.

Under her circumstances, both financial and personal, Gemma never attended summer camps, slumber parties, or overnight field trips growing up. This would be the first night in almost fourteen years she would fall asleep without Naomi dozing just a room over. Furthermore, Naomi was getting older. She was still a spitfire, but the greying curls on her head and the growing wrinkles when she smiled disclosed her secrets. Gemma hated the thought of leaving, but she knew thousands of high school graduates were facing the same dilemma. This was one thing she had in common with the general public.