Chapter II. Some special orphans.

Elizabet.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada, present day.

"I can't believe she still thinks she can match us. She didn't even go to college, and she hasn't studied design or economic management. Who does she think she is?" I heard that strange ability in my head again.

I had been at work for less than an hour, and already, I could hear many of my colleagues talking about what they thought of me. If it had been someone else, I would have felt bad—even mortified—but, unlike them, I had to fend for myself almost from birth. My parents abandoned me in an orphanage, so I never had the advantages they surely had.

"What are those witches thinking?" Faith asked me.

I couldn't help but smile at her. Like me, Faith also grew up in the orphanage. We were like sisters. She was a year older than me—or so we believed—because no one told us our ages when they abandoned us. I was abandoned as a newborn, and Faith was a year old or younger.

The nuns at the orphanage told us that my sister's parents hadn't left anything behind—not even a first or last name—so the nuns named her Faith. At least I had a piece of paper with my name on it: Elizabeth. My friend used to tell me that my parents must have loved me because they gave me a name before abandoning me, unlike her parents.

As for our last names, the nuns were practical. Depending on the day they abandoned us, they gave us a last name based on the saint's day, so Faith's last name is Valentine because she was handed over on Valentine's Day. As she says, this shows how little her parents loved her. It's not a good day to abandon someone you love. I tend to look on the bright side, though. I tell her it's possible they loved her so much they didn't want her to suffer. Ultimately, we don't know why our parents abandoned us.

My name is Elizabeth Patrick because I was abandoned on St. Patrick's Day. Apparently, my parents aren't Irish because they didn't consider that fact, especially given the name they gave me—the name of a British queen. I can't imagine an Irish person naming their daughter after the queen of the invading country.

"The usual. They think that just because they finished their studies, they're better than us," I replied.

"If they had lived our lives, they surely wouldn't have finished studying at a university either. Besides, we're young. Who's to say we won't finish a degree?" said the optimistic Faith.

The truth is that her name suited her perfectly. She was the most optimistic person I knew. She always saw the good in situations, in people, and in everything. She was also a woman of character. I still remember how she defended me from the abuse of other children who laughed at my appearance. It wasn't normal to see a girl with such platinum blonde hair. My hair is almost white, and my eyes are a strange color—light gray or very pale blue. I've tried dyeing my hair and wearing colored contact lenses, but my hair rejects any dye, and the contacts irritate my eyes within minutes of putting them in. So, I'll be stuck with white hair and these strange eyes for the rest of my life. Lately, though, my hair color has become fashionable.

At first, the children at the orphanage called me names like "witch" or "ghost," until Faith jumped on them and hit them. It was quite embarrassing for the taller children since my friend was not exactly proud of her height. She's about five feet tall, unlike me, who's five feet nine inches. My sister's attitude meant she always ended up being punished. I always stood by her side during the punishment. Her phrase at those times was always the same:

"You have to learn to defend yourself, Eli. You can't let anyone walk all over you. We're orphans. No one will protect us if we don't do it ourselves." She repeated this to me during our early years. So, when I was six, one of the older kids pulled my hair, trying to rip it out to make shoelaces for his sneakers. I hit him for the first time. I discovered then that, apart from reading the minds of those around me, I had incredible strength for my age. With one punch, a boy four years older than me fell to the ground, semi-conscious. That afternoon, I was the one who was punished, and Faith kept me company. No one ever bothered me again.

"It doesn't matter if we go to college or not, Faith. The important thing is to earn money to fulfill our dream," I told my sister. She was the only person who knew that I was not normal; I had powers.

"We're already working, and thanks to the aid we receive from the state after leaving the orphanage, we have a home and food. It's true that the house isn't the best, and the jobs aren't the best paid. As assistants at this graphic design company, we earn a pittance. But for now, we have this one-year contract. Then, we'll look for something else so we can finally fulfill our dream," said optimistic Faith.

We had always lived in Toronto, a big city we both hated, but it was one of the few places in Ontario where you could quickly find work to help you fulfill your dreams. When we were twelve, we went on a field trip with the orphanage to the Great Lakes area. We both fell in love with the area: its large forests and wooden houses with large windows revealing the magnificent landscape facing those immense expanses of crystal-clear water.

Right away, we wanted to live there, but the houses in that area were for people of a higher economic status—almost millionaires or millionaires outright. Since we were twelve, we've worked part-time jobs and saved every paycheck, every penny, to move to that area.

Faith and I discovered that we could combine our skills because we were both excellent designers. Our ultimate dream was to start our own online company. In our partnership, Faith was creative and had innovative design ideas, and I was a good artist who was self-taught in engineering. I read every book, article, and new engineering project I could find.

Additionally, my ability to read people's minds always helped me know what the client wanted. Faith came up with the designs, and I brought them to life using engineering techniques.

Faith loved working with me because she didn't have to explain anything. I could draw what she created in her mind exactly as it was just by reading it. That's how we were hired by this company as assistants without a college degree, and later given minor design work.

In doing so, we earned the hatred of some postgraduate interns who came to the company for their internships. They saw their future jobs threatened by two twenty-one and twenty-two-year-old orphans who were more creative and skilled than they were, despite having attended university for several years.

"Of course, Eli, the important thing is our home and our company. Once we create it, it won't matter if we have a degree. We'll be our own bosses and be able to hire these envious university students to work for us." My friend smiled while I listened to the other assistants criticizing us. "They're still criticizing us, aren't they?" I didn't know how my best friend knew when I was using my powers, but she always did. She was always the first to ask me about it.

Sometimes she used me to find out things about other people, especially the guy she dated in high school who cheated on her with a rich girl.

Our sisterly connection worked perfectly that day. After reading his mind for a while and discovering some of his darkest and worst secrets, we exposed everything on the high school bulletin board in front of everyone. Faith broke up with him for being a “lying pig”—the exact words of that short redhead with dark green eyes like deep forests and immense courage. She was a true Canadian highlander.

"On another note, this weekend, we have to help Sister Emilian with the orphanage charity event to promote adoption and raise money for the orphanage," my restless friend told me.

"I've already ordered all the food, and we'll be there all weekend," I told her as I put the finishing touches on the design my boss had asked me to do.

"Great! I'm going to deliver these contracts. Shall we have lunch together, Queen Eli?" Faith said mentally. She did that when she wanted only the two of us to know what we were talking about. It was a technique we had used since I discovered my power.

I raised my finger to show that I agreed while continuing to focus on tweaking the design. I didn't look at her, but she smiled as usual. She loved that we could communicate like that. She said we were like superheroes and that no one knew about our superpower.

The truth is that I discovered this ability for the first time when I was about six years old. I was very scared. There were thousands of voices in my head that I couldn't identify. The more people around me, the louder the voices in my head. It was terrifying. It drove me crazy.

One day, I told Faith about it. At first, she didn't believe me. I spent an entire afternoon reading her mind. Instead of scaring her, it made her ecstatic. She devoted herself to reading every comic she could find to help me. In the end, she found the solution in the X-Men comics, according to her. To her, Charles Xavier was a god.

According to my comic book expert, all I had to do was concentrate on a certain sound and select it. If I didn't want to hear anything, I just had to turn everything off. Surprisingly, it worked. It took me years to perfect the technique, but now I can hear or not hear at will. I can focus on a specific person or listen to a whole crowd without going crazy.

That's why I became Queen Eli to Faith. I call her Faith the Phoenix because she rises from the ashes and always sees the bright side of things.

Soon, we will fulfill our dreams and live happily and peacefully for the rest of our lives. Or so I thought. No one could have prepared us for what happened that weekend, an event that changed both of our lives forever.