I am angry. Why are emotions so hard to feel? I still can't feel anything but anger, even after a week. This is harder than I thought it would be. But I try again anyway.

"Maria, I think it's safe to assume that baby pictures aren't working for her."

"Do you have a better idea, Spaceboy?"

Foreplay. Why do they try to hide it when their emotions are easy to see, and even easier to feel? I walk away. They keep arguing. They don't even notice that I left. But that's just the way they are.

I have been watching them. It confuses me. They fight when they are not even mad. They stop talking when they are. It is the only time that they are quiet. They can never agree on anything. But they are in love with each other. That is what I think of when I think of them. That is the only way to think of them.

"Alice." I still feel weird answering to that name. Even after all the false identities I have had over the years. I suppose that it just seems more final this time. I turn to Michael.

"Can you feel them?"

I try to feel his friends. It is hard to locate them. I have no real connections to them. They are in the city. But I don't know where. I look at Michael. He already knows. It is the same as every night.

"I'm gonna go look for them."

Michael gets up to leave. Maria and I follow. It is not safe to wander San Diego alone. We leave the cramped hotel room. We walk and walk, hoping to run into Maxwell Evans and the others. I suppose it is my fault that they were separated in the first place.

**The train station in Arizona. Michael and Maria climbed passenger car. The others are already hiding on board. I followed. They knew that I was there. They started to run away. Away from the others. I didn't bother to run. I walked. When they reached the front of the train, they stopped. They knew I was still following them. So they got of. The train started to move.**

I think about the past now. I do that more and more. I hope it makes me more like them. Maria says it does.

I hear music. I look around. I see a bar. 'Live Nudes' one sign says. 'Amateur Night' says another. I stop them.

"Let's go in here."

Maria looks at me like I'm crazy. "Why?"

I don't answer. I'm already crossing the street. _________________________________________________________

I step out onto the stage. The spotlights hurt my eyes. The music starts. I begin to strip. These human men disgust me. Does disgust count as an emotion? I'll ask Maria later. It's easier than asking Michael. She says that he is incapable of giving a straight answer. I agree.

I watch these humans as they watch me strip. They whistle and drool. They shout at me as if I think that they are the least bit attractive. I almost want to kill them. But now I hide my anger.

I know that Michael and Maria are watching me. I can feel it. They are shocked. I smile. I like to know that I can surprise people.

The music ends, and I walk off stage. I change my clothes back to the way they were in the dressing room. I walk out. Somebody pinches me in the butt. I turn around, ready to break his arm. It is Maria.

"What was that about?"

I look at her. I pull the wad of money out of my pocket and give it to her. She shakes her head.

"What's wrong?"

She gives me a small smile. Now she is frustrated. But she tries to hide it. "You just don't understand, do you?" I guess I don't. I touch her arm.

**She sits at the bar. She watches as I come out and dance. The men hollering at me disgust her as much as they disgust me. She turns away. She thinks that it is disgusting that I would let them watch me like that.**

She pulls away. "Look, you can't keep doing that."

I look at her. "Why?"

She rolls her eyes. "Because it's like, INVADING my privacy!"

I don't understand. I let her see what I'm thinking all the time. Does that mean she's invading my privacy? But I nod anyway. She smiles at me. Her eyes laugh at me. I think she thinks I'm funny. Why? Because I don't understand?

"Let's go get Michael." _____________________________________________

We find Michael standing outside of the bar. He won't look at me. He stares at the ground. He starts walking back to the hotel without a word. I try not to feel what he feels, but it is hard. He's uncomfortable. Because of me. I don't like that he's mad at me. I never like when he's mad at me.

I feel something. Something familiar. I recognize this. It's her. I run. I can hear Michael and Maria yelling after me, but I don't stop. I don't want to loose her. I run down another street. Than another and another. I turn into an alley. I see her in a window. I open it and walk into the kitchen.

"Tess Harding."

She turns around. She knows who I am. She yells for the others. They come running into the kitchen. They are all here. Maxwell Evans, Isabel Evans, Alexander Whitman, Liz Parker, and Kyle Valenti. They are all here. I feel for Michael. He doesn't know where I am. I send him directions.

Something hits me.

I look at my shoulder. Tess has stabbed me with a knife. I hate it when they do that. Brothers and sisters think alike, I suppose. I use my powers to throw her back into Kyle. She sends me images of her attacking to distract me. To distract me from Max trying to touch me. I see through the image. She's not very good at doing them. I catch Max's arm. I hear Liz scream as I pin him to the ground.

"Alice, let him go!"

I look at the window. Michael pulls me off of him. "They started it!" I can't help but be angry. But I try not to be. For Michael. Because that's what he wants.

Maria climbs into the kitchen and runs directly to Liz. They hug each other. But Liz is confused. They all are. The confusion is thick in the air. It makes my ears pop. I pull the knife out of my shoulder and heal myself.

"Oh my God. . . "

I can feel Isabel Evans shaking before I even look at her. I touch her arm. I make her understand what I am.

"OH MY GOD!"

Alex grabs me by the throat and pushes me into the counter. "What did you do to her?" I lift my hands and. . .

"ALICE!" I look at Maria. "Leave him alone!"

Maria pulls him away from me. I don't like these others. They frustrate me. But Michael and Maria are glad that I found them. ____________________________________________

"Look, Maximillian, we can trust her."

"But Michael, how do we know that? How do we know that she won't turn on us? You know what she was before. . . "

I hate being argued about. Especially when I don't even get to be there to argue back. This bathroom is small. I sit in the bathtub and wait.

"I swear, we can trust her, Max! She could have killed us a thousand times!" Maria. Why doesn't she just show him what she feels? Well, I guess that they don't really do that. Not like I do. Not like my others do.

I can't listen to them argue anymore. It makes me angry. Too angry. I walk out of the bathroom. They all stop arguing. I don't say anything. I walk out of the apartment. Someone follows me out the door.

"Hello Isabel."

She isn't surprised that I know it is her without turning around.. "Where are you going?"

"Away." I look at her. She isn't afraid of me, I realize. Because she knows.

"Show them."

I shake my head. "They don't want to see."

"Show me more then."

So I do. I show her how long I have been following them. I show her how I saved Michael and Maria's lives. And how they saved mine. I show her the others. The other five like me. I show her Big and how he controls us. I show her my anger.

And I see things too. I see her coming out of her pod to see Max. I see her drawing symbols in the sand. I see her keeping the truth from her mother and how she wants to tell the truth. I see a dream. Alex's dream, I realize. I watch them dance.

"What are you doing?" I look at her. She is angry now. She doesn't like me seeing into her.

"I'm sorry." I'm not. She knows that too. She knows I can't feel real emotions. She shakes her head.

"You should really stay with us." ________________________________________________________

It's late. Everybody starts to get ready for bed. They are all tired. It exhausts them trying to understand me. But they let me stay. For now.

There is only two bedrooms in this small apartment. One for the males and one for the females. I bring a chair into the room and set it on the floor beside the window. I can feel Tess watching me. I try not to be angry.

I put on my sunglasses and sit in the chair.

"You don't really need to keep watch, you know." I look at Tess. She really makes my angry. She still doesn't trust me. She hates me.

"I'm not."

"Than what are you doing?"

"Going to sleep."

"What's with the chair." She really annoys me. I walk over to her and touch her arm.

I show her how I sleep. In a chair with sunglasses on so my enemy won't know if I am awake. Next to the window. So I can kill anyone who breaks in. She pulls away. Liz, Isabel, and Maria walk in.

"She's a freak, do you know that? A real freak!"

Maria smiles. "You found out the chair thing, didn't you?" _________________________________________________________

I can't sleep. I get up and walk into the kitchen. Max comes in behind me. I turn around.

"Max, you love Liz."

He looks at me. Shocked. Surprised. "Yes."

"You love all of them. But it's not the same as with Liz."

He looks confused. He doesn't know what I am saying.

"You love them all differently. The way you love Isabel is not the way you love Kyle. You have a different way to love them all."

He starts to understand what I am saying. I can tell.

"How do you love them all differently?'

"You just do."

Now I don't understand. "How do you just do?"

He smiles at me. "You just do. It just happens."

I really don't understand. He laughs. "I can't really explain it. . . When you love someone, you love them for the way that they are. I love them all differently because I love them all for different reasons."

"How many ways is there to love someone?"

"How many people are there in the world?"

I still don't understand. But I don't think I'm going to tonight. "Will you help teach me?"

He nods. "Will you help teach me?"