Avery undid her seatbelt and opened the car door, taking time to look up at the Hanson house.
"Thanks Bill," she said to the driver, sliding out of her seat and reaching back into the car for her bag.
She slung her bag over her shoulder, still looking up at the house. She felt strange being back, but never the less, she was glad to be home.
Things at the station had gotten just that little bit too stressful, what with classes with Tanya, then regular classes on top of that. She wanted a break, she wanted freedom, and she also wanted to be alone. Away from voices in her head. Her family wasn't a problem. She'd become accustomed to tuning them out ages ago, and with most of them not even at home anymore, it would be even easier to get some peace and quiet. Maybe regain her sanity... her inner balance and all that junk. Because right now, she was pretty sure that if she didn't get a time out, she was going to go into crazy- Avie mode, and someone would get hurt.
With a deep breath, she trotted up the stairs to the front door and stood on the step for a few moments, digging around her bag for her old key. She eventually produced it and started to slide it into the lock, then paused and pulled her hand back, dropping the key back into her bag.
Maybe she wasn't quite ready to face her family yet. Maybe she still needed more time to be alone. After all, it was here that she killed someone. Just across the road. Sure, he was evil, he'd kidnapped Taylor and herself, he'd made her unlock that stupid collar, he'd been on the YIRAAS Wanted List for... basically forever, but she still took a life. She did what Tanya had always told her not to do, had never taught her how to use the dangerous side of telepathy...
Avery grabbed her bag again and went round the side of the house. She bent down and grabbed her wallet out of her bag, then zipped it up and launched the backpack over the fence. Satisfied, she turned and half ran-half skipped down the stairs and away from the Hanson house.
She wanted to cry, laugh, dance to do all of these things at once and express herself in some other way than the label she'd been given. She wanted to stand in the middle of the road and scream, let out everything she'd been feeling for the last couple of months. Let her shields slide, scream out loud and scream telepathically, it didn't matter how many headaches she caused, just as long as she wasn't bottled up anymore.
But she wouldn't do it. She'd never do it. And maybe that was her problem. She didn't take risks. She always weighed up if people would get caught. She was always being the good little girl that her parents had raised. And now, after 15 years, she wanted to stop being that girl. She wanted to shake it up, be someone different... or maybe become the person she always knew she was. Whatever it was, she just knew she'd never have the guts to go through with it.
Because she was Avery Laurel Hanson, the third youngest, the potential GrandMaster, the girl who rid the world of the Eye singlehandedly... well singlemindedly, Hanson's little sister, the little blonde ball of energy. She wasn't mean, she didn't kick puppies, she was sweet, she was nice, even if she didn't want to be, she was friendly, and she gave a damn good impression of being sincere. Sometimes she even fooled herself.
As she wandered down the road, aimlessly kicking at pebbles beneath her feet, her eyes welled with tears. Tears that would remain unshed. She'd hide behind the mask she'd always used. She'd use her telepathy to draw attention away from it, just as she'd always done.
Because she was Avery Hanson. And that's all she'd ever known.