On this chapter is Jade!

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I sat criss-cross in the middle of the pile of bean bags that occupied the center portion of my room. Dressed in a loose t-shirt and a pair of baggy, black pants, I absentmindedly flipped through the seemingly endless stack of mail Len had brought in, tossing the envelopes that weren't worth a second look onto the top of an already large pile of junk mail under my desk.

Request, coupon, request, perfume sample, request.

Just when I was ready to toss the entire stack of mail into the garbage, I heard a knock on the door. For the first time in a long while, I felt genuinely puzzled. We weren't expecting anyone, and most of my random fans didn't have the guts to walk straight to my door.

Sighing softly to myself, I rather unwillingly rose from my homemade bean bag haven, exiting my room and gazing over the sturdy railing. Seeing Mom in the kitchen and Dad watching TV, I figured that they both hadn't heard the knock. The idea of manipulating my brother into opening the door for me to avoid a possible flood of annoying fans crossed her minds, but when I glanced around the upstairs hallway in an attempt to ascertain his location, I only heard faint machine gun noises coming from his room.

Under whatever circumstances, disturbing my brother while he was playing a video game usually did more harm than good.

Realizing that there truly was no other option, I reluctantly lugged my lethargic body downstairs and turned the doorknob.

Standing in the doorway were two kids who looked about my age. From the fact that they weren't squealing with delight and asking me to turn their fish into bunnies, I could tell they weren't my typical dumb fans.

"I'm Jade, and this is Calvin," greeted one of the kids, a fierce looking blonde. She wore a brown vest over a white tank top and tall, black combat boots. Her hands were shoved carelessly into her pockets. "We're the WGO people Amanda said she'd send in her letter."

"Um...what?" I raised an eyebrow. The crazed aficionado was normal for me, but this...

"You know, we're Glitches. Like you. We're here to take you to Glitch HQ."

"Wait...three questions. Who's Amanda, what's WGO, and do you have the wrong address?" I looked them up and down. They certainly weren't fans and they certainly weren't door to door vendors. Who were they?

Suddenly, it struck me.

"You two go to Justin's school, don't you?" I gritted my teeth. "If this is part of some big, stupid joke, I swear I'll bury that guy alive."

"No, we don't even know your brother. Didn't you get the letter yesterday?" Calvin asked, looking confused.

Suspicions still lingered in the back of my mind, but I decided to play along. I shook my head, confused. "I got my mail, but it was all just the usual stuff. There wasn't anything from anyone named, 'Amanda'."

"Oh," Jade said. "Strange. I could have sworn I'd seen her mail it." She then bit the bottom of her lip, and I assumed she was thinking.

"If you didn't even get the letter, that means you don't even know what a Glitch is!" Calvin clapped his hands together.

"Okay, so since you somehow didn't get the letter, I'll give you a basic summary. Amanda will explain it in more detail at HQ. Basically, Glitches are people who can see and manipulate the Code, which are people like us. We call our ability, "The Power of Manipulation". There's a total of twenty-six Glitches in the world, and Amanda's our leader. Until now, our main purpose is to locate all the Glitches and take them to WGO's hidden headquarters in Northern California, but since you're the twenty-sixth Glitch, that mission is about to be accomplished. That's pretty exciting for us!" Jade explained.

The Code.

Something about the term seemed oddly familiar, as if I had heard it somewhere, in another lifetime...

Just moments later, completely out of the blue, it all began to make sense.

The Floaty Computer had a name. A real name. I hadn't told anyone about the true nature of my powers since I was seven years old, when I had realized that no one was going to believe me. If these people knew about the numbers and had even given them an official name, they were the real deal.

I spent a long few seconds trying to let that information soak in. I couldn't believe it! There were other people like me, and I was going to get to meet them! I recalled the utter and total loneliness of my childhood with a bittersweet smile. Gone were the days when I would try to explain how my powers worked and receive only confusion as a response. Standing right before me was my childhood dream. Standing right before me were other people with my abilities.

Of course, I didn't blame those who could not fathom the magnificence of the numbers. The Floaty Computer- the Code- was so complex and so beautifully made that you had to see it in green letters in front of you to comprehend it, and even if you did, there were parts you just couldn't understand. Finally, I knew for sure that I wasn't the only one who could see it, finally there were people I could talk about it with, people who'd really get it.

Jade smiled at me, and I returned her excited look. At that moment, in my eyes, she looked like an angel.

Everything was going to be alright, now. No more noisy theaters, no more hordes of fans, just the twenty six of us and our powers...

"Get out of my house, you WGO trash!" I was shaken abruptly out of my blissful thoughts by my father's booming voice.