Kill Switch by Penelope Douglas

“Must have been lonely,” Rika offers.
Someone brushed my shoulder as they rushed by, and I
took a moment to steady myself. This was the part of school I
wasn’t going to like. The crowded halls, the shouts, laughter,
and chatter, and all the eyes. I lifted my chin, hoping I looked
relaxed.
“Uh, well…” I joked. “I didn’t really say I wanted to be
around people. I just need to learn to be.”
She let out a little laugh and veered right. “Turning,” she
whispered, alerting me.
“Actually, I had lots of friends,” I continued, following her.
“It wasn’t lonely. It was comfortable. Too comfortable, I
guess. I annoy my sister, so since she graduates at the end of
the year, I thought it would be my last chance to be around for
that.”
She chuckled again. “How fun. I’m an only child.”
I wonder if my parents might’ve kept me around if I had
been the only one instead of tucking me away at some distant
school for others to deal with.
My face started to warm as we walked, and I wasn’t sure if
it was my nerves or what.
“Are people staring at me?” I asked her.
“They’re staring at us.”
“Why?”
I heard her inhale. “I think… they’re confused. We kind of
look alike.”
“Do we?” I replied. “Are you hot?”
If she was hot, then I was hot.
But she just laughed.
“When I think about how I must look,” I told her, “I still
see the kid I last looked at in the mirror when I was eight.”
“So you can think in…pictures?”
I blinked. Pictures?