Whoever it was that visited me in my dreams last night did not return.

In fact, I couldn't remember my dream at all, but that was pretty normal. So I didn't think about it too much.

Saturdays were usually pretty slow, being the first day off of school meant that it was full of sleeping in and cozy clothes. Sadly, I couldn't sleep long, Emma made sure of that.

My phone rang on my nightstand, buzzing and vibrating, just being a general nuisance. I blearily smashed the end call button and faceplanted back down into my pillow. Only for the phone to ring once again. I groaned and pried myself from the safety of my comforter to get a better look at my phone.

It was Emma. Of course she was up. I answered the phone, "Hello?"

"Finally!" Emma shouted through the phone, "This is like the fourth time I've called you. Anyway, I'm on my way to pick you up, be there in ten." The call dropped.

Emma was one of the older people in our grade, and she'd gotten her driver's license over the summer. I still had a few months before I turned sixteen and could drive. So for the time being, Emma had to drive me around anywhere we wanted to go.

I ran down to the kitchen to eat a quick breakfast before getting ready for the day. My parents were reluctant to let me go to Emma's house at first. Something about them being worried about "shenanigans" (wink wink) but once Emma came out as a lesbian they stopped worrying about that. Which is hilarious, because we're both girls, the issue was that my parents don't know.

Even so, I didn't feel that way about Emma, and I'm pretty sure she didn't either.

Once Emma arrived, I hopped in her car and we headed for her house.

Emma was an only child, and she lived alone with her mom. They lived in a little house in the woods. It seemed so out of place with the city border less than a mile away. But there was this cute little patch of forest that her family owned. Emma and I had spent a lot of our childhood exploring those woods, we made little forts out of trees, had sword fights with sticks, and a bunch of other imaginary adventures.

It was the setting of most of our friendship. It was even where we both came out to each other. Considering the sentimental value of those woods, we decided that it was the perfect place to hatch out the details of my gift.

We pulled up in front of Emma's house and she hopped out of the car and ran off into the house. I started to follow her, but she ran back out before I made much progress.

Emma was holding her hands behind her back, clearly shielding something from my view. I opened my mouth to ask about it but she cut me off before I could start.

"So... I was thinking. You got gifted, but you didn't exactly get the kind of gift that you wanted. So I figured I should get you one of my own" She pulled a plastic shopping bag out from behind her and held it out for me.

I took the bag and looked inside.

Have I mentioned how great of a friend Emma was? Cause she is.

In the bag was a wad of dark blue fabric. Upon closer inspection, it was a skirt. It wasn't anything fancy, just a plain navy skirt. But that wasn't all, there was something else. Underneath the skirt was another piece of fabric, but this one was chocolate brown. I wouldn't normally consider brown a pretty color, but this proved me wrong. It was a shirt, a simple brown shirt that looked nice against the blue of the skirt.

It was perfect.

I scooped Emma up into a hug. I wish I could be as good of a friend as her. She was so damn thoughtful and caring all the time. It made me sick, in the way that eating too much candy makes you feel kind of gross on the inside but you don't regret it whatsoever.

Eventually, I released her from my crushing grip. Luckily, it seemed that super-strength was not a part of my gift, and Emma was mostly okay.

She stared at me, expectantly, "Well?"

"Well, what?"

"Are you going to put it on or what?"

"I- I can't, not now, not like..." I vaguely gestured towards myself. I can't dress up like that in front of her. I'd look horrible. At least when I'm alone in my room nobody can see how awkward I look in girl's clothes but in front of somebody else? That wasn't going to happen anytime soon, if ever.

Emma sighed, "Alright, I won't push you. If you don't want to wear it right now then you don't have to"

I gave her a thankful smile and put the bag on the passenger seat of the car.

We ventured into the forest until we found an adequate place to test stuff out. A section of the woods where the trees weren't as dense so there was lots of space to do whatever.

We started experimenting. It turned out that my power was not limited to dodgeballs and cups. I could stop anything that Emma threw at me dead in its tracks, sometimes accidentally launching them in some random direction afterward.

That was the part of my gift that we couldn't figure out.

Emma had collected a pile of small rocks for us to practice with. She would throw them at me and I would stop them and stop them. Every so often one would slip through my defenses and whack me. It was a pretty good incentive to get better at catching them. Eventually, we got to the point where Emma could throw them as hard as she could and I could pretty reliably defend myself.

When I caught anything with my gift it would float in front of my hands surrounded by the same magenta aura from before. That is, until I touched them. The glow would disappear and gravity would resume. But if I released it before touching it one of two things would happen. It would shoot off in a seemingly random direction, or it would just fall to the floor. The difference between the two seemingly depended on how big the rock was.

The smaller rocks would fall to the ground while the bigger ones would fly off.

But what would happen with a really big rock?

So far, Emma had only been throwing pebbles. The biggest rock she had thrown towards me was about the size of a small egg.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"You sure about this? It doesn't seem too..." Emma's face scrunched up from above me, "Safe"

"I'll be fine!" I shouted back, "Just drop it already!"

Emma and I had found a few... chunkier rocks. The smallest one was about as big as my fist, and the biggest one was twice the size of my head. We had heaved them up into our old treehouse so that Emma could drop them instead of throwing them. In retrospect, it was a terrible idea. The treehouse was actually pretty high, with the floor about fifteen feet above the ground, and Emma and I had to work together to get the last few rocks up the ladder.

I think some part of me realized that it wasn't a good idea, but we had already put all the work into getting the rocks up there, and it would be such a waste to not throw them out the window for me to try to catch.

"Alright, if you say so" Emma held the smallest rock out of the window. She dropped it.

I'm not sure what I expected to happen, but surprisingly, it went fine. I stopped the rock. The issue was letting go.

The rock was suspended in front of my hands. The glow was brighter than any other thing that we had tested. I released my hold on the rock. Big mistake

The rock darted directly forward and crashed into the trunk with a loud thump

I should have known that would happen, but the thought totally skipped my mind at the moment.

Emma stuck her head out the window and peered down at me "What was THAT!"

"Nothing!" I lied. That was a little stupid and dangerous. Emma probably wouldn't keep throwing rocks if she realized what just happened, "Just throw the next one! I'll tell you about it when you get back down here."

"Okay" She tossed the next rock down.

This time the glow was even brighter. Not bright bright, but definitely noticeable, like a phone screen on the dimmest setting. I reached out to actually grabbed the rock.

As I touched the rock my fingers began to tingle. It was a flood of the same buzzing sensation from earlier, but more powerful. It felt oddly relaxing, almost like I had just woken up from a pleasant power-nap.

I set the rock down on the ground next to me and told Emma to send the next one down.

As the rocks got bigger, so did the rush of energy that followed. I caught all the rest of the rocks with relative ease. I did strain a bit with the last few, but the waves of bliss that followed were well worth it. I'm not going to lie, it felt borderline addictive.

The final rock plummeted towards me, and I caught it, the glow was now much brighter than anything before, which was a very good sign; The bigger the glow, the better I felt. I tapped the rock.

God, it felt so good. I was so relaxed and energetic at the same time. Like it was a refreshing breezy day and I was swimming in a relaxing hot tub at the same time. I hadn't a care in the world, which was a first.

Emma, now grounded, made her way towards me, before stopping dead in her tracks, "Izzy." She looked worried.

"Uh... Yeah?"

"YOUR HAIR!"

"What about it?"

"It's RED!" she shouted back.

That's not right... My hair is blonde, like all of my siblings. I grabbed a lock of my shoulder-length hair and held it up to my eyes.

Yep. It was red. Unnaturally so. It wasn't the normal orangeish-brown red that most redheads have. My hair was now a deep crimson; when the light hit it right it almost looked dark purple.

I...

What?

How the hell did my hair change color? Clearly, it had something to do with my gift, but why did my hair turn red. Was it the rocks? Was it that warm feeling that I felt?

But what did my hair changing color have to do with my gift? Gifts usually take on a specific theme, but those two things didn't seem to connect at all.

"That's... Weird" I only slightly slurred. My brain was too hopped on rock-juice to properly speak.

"Why are you talking like that?" Emma was getting increasingly concerned as she walked closer.

"Brain... fuzzy... Feels good." I giggled like an Idiot and fell forward into Emma. Luckily, she was able to catch me before I faceplanted and gave myself a concussion.

"Izzy! What happened!" She slung my arm over her shoulder and began half-carrying-half-leading me back towards her house.

That's when my memory gets a bit foggy, but I can remember some bits and pieces.

At one point I was laying on the couch in Emma's room as she paced back and forth in front of me.

Later, Emma's mom was there, and I think I accidentally came out to her? That's still pretty foggy.

For another one, I heard Emma and her mom talking loudly in another room.

Eventually, I came to my senses. I was laying on the couch in the living room. I sat up and scanned the empty room. Emma's mom walked in.

"Hi, Izzy."