Lauren notices them for the first time a week after the car almost hit the family on the way home from the event at church. There are only a few, they are iridescent, and look a little like freckles, or moles. The largest ones are a spattering right over her tailbone that are almost the size of her pinky fingernail, the smallest ones almost look like glitter, wrapping around her hips. They look like tiny little versions of her shields, spattering her skin.
Lauren puts all of her crop tops off to the side of her closet and wears layers. When the pretty little spots creep up her spine, and down her legs, Lauren covers up more and more, showing less and less skin.
In three months, she has the pretty spots down her feet, and she hasn’t worn flip flops all spring. There is a family beach trip next week, and Lauren has no idea what to do. Does she tell her parents?
Over dinner that night, Lauren hears her brother talking about “muties”, her dad talking about his cases, and as she looks down at her plate? She notices the glittery signs of her mutation spreading to her wrists.
After dinner Lauren packs a bag. She stops at the bank and pulls her daily withdrawal limit, and then she just -- runs.
A month later, a man steps out from behind a dumpster, followed by another man, and a woman.
He says his name is John, and this is Marcos and Lorna. They’re with a group called the mutant underground, and if she wants, there's a safe place where she can be herself, and nobody will judge her for her mutation.
Lauren is still with the Mutant Underground almost three years later, when her brother tears the school down.