-a year later from our previous chapter-

Red's POV

It's finally the end of my senior year of high school. Next year I'm going to (insert name of scientific based college). On scholarship of course. Life is good for the most part. I'm going to go there and someday become a famous scientist with my inventions. Graduation is in a couple of days and I couldn't be happier. I remember a year ago where I was.

I was standing nearby this house with a garage that looked like it exploded somehow. I remember how I was moving away since my mom kicked me. How I had enough money to take with me to pay for the first couple months rent of an apartment that was pretty fun down (I will not let me change the word "fun") and how I had to get a job to keep affording to live there. Which wasn't easy. Of course I don't have any friends since I'm always studying or working all the time, but I can make friends at college. And I recently turned 18 which means I'm ready to adult.

It's summer now but graduation isn't until two days and I don't have to work right now so I'm heading back to my apartment it's not a very nice place, but hey it's all one can afford when they don't really have a family.

I walk up to the place go through the door and ride up the elevator. When I walk to my apartment door I see a man in a nice suit standing outside. What's a guy dressed like that doing here? This really isn't a fancy place. And why does he appear to be right outside my apartment? I decide to go and investigate. "Um excuse me? Are you looking for someone?" I ask him.

He turns to look at me. "Are you Michael Steves?" He asks me. Oh my goodness am I in trouble with the FBI? Or something? I've always been a good kid. I've never hurt anyone.

"Yes, I am. Who are you?" I ask him trying not to sound nervous.

"I'm someone who works for Doogle a big large company ever heard of it?" He says. My eyes go wide. Doogle is my dream job. Working there would help me accomplish so many things.

"Yes, I've heard of it. I'm a huge fan of the work your company does." I tell him. I hope I'm not fanboying too much right now.

"Well our team at Doogle would love to have someone like you work for us." He says.

Is he serious? Doogle? Wants me to work for them, but I'm so young?

"You do?" I ask him.

"Yes. We've seen your work at your school's science fair and thought you'd be perfect for a job here. It'll be a full time position. Are you interested?" He asks me.

"Interested? Yes. Of course, I mean sure that would be good." I tell him trying not to sound like a desperate fan boy.

He laughs. "I know I have that impression on many." He says.

"What made you pick me?" I asked him.

"Well we've seen other kids around the same age you are, let's just say they aren't very impressive. Your competition would have been between you and some kid who built a Redstone calculator for his school's science fair." He said.

"Oh I see. Anything else." I ask.

"Well we just need to go over a few things." He tells me.

"Certainly." I reply.

The two of us go over a bunch of stuff. Job related things. Work hours, pay, what I'll be doing etc... It's boring stuff that you don't need to hear point is I start next week on my road to being a great scientist and actually changing the world for the better.

After we talk for a few hours and get everything settled the man leaves my apartment.

"And I'll see you on Tuesday." He says.

"Thank you Sir." I reply.

"You've got a bright future with us Red." He says.

"Red?" I ask him.

He looks nervous for a second like he severely messed something up. "I like to give nicknames to all my employees. I hope you don't mind." He says.

"No. I think Red's a great name." I tell him. It's strange, but something about the name Red just feels right.

"Well it was either that or Princess." He tells me.

"Red is definitely better." I tell him.

"Good." He says and with that he leaves.

As soon as he's gone I start to squeal with happiness. I can't believe I've landed a job like that! And soon I start jumping up and down. I want to make flower crowns and smile and watch the sun rise! As a goldish yellow light flashes through my eyes. Which is weird since I normally don't do that when I'm happy, but recently I've been having these weird emotional responses to things. It started happening about a year ago. It's almost like my emotions are trying to come to life or something. It's a little freightning at times. I've thought about going to the doctor and getting it checked up, but I can't.

I'm not exactly normal.

I was well born with a tail. A literal tail. It's all red and scaly. And it resembles something that a dinosaur would have. I can even move it around and stuff. I usually wrap it around my waist so I can hide it and wear normal clothes. The tail's bones are apart of the spinal cord which made removal impossible. So I've got no choice but to live with it. I also have well other weird things about me like claws but I file them down to look like normal finger and toe nails, sharp teeth that resemble fangs which I can hide by covering them up by wearing fake teeth. I also have gills that are underneath my armpit. They actually function which is kinda bizarre allowing me to live or breathe underwater. Of course we tried to have all of these removed but it just wasn't possible, so I'm pretty much stuck like this. It's kinda weird working as a scientist when I'm well certainly something that people would probably want to study, but I'm careful. I've been like this my whole life and no one but my family knew about it so I'm not gonna get locked up and experimented on. Besides maybe someday I can make a cure for my uh mutatation. I hate saying that word.

I can't exactly explain it, but my emotions I guess have been chaotic so to speak. At times I've felt them try to take over me so to speak almost like I have multiple personality disorder, but it's never happened to me as a child. I just really don't need them to start "manifesting" by causing me to randomly switch emotions of something like that. Like I just did a couple minutes ago when I got really happy about the new job. I really need to keep myself in check and not let things get crazy, but I can't right now I'm so excited my tail is swishing back and forth kind of like a dog.

But anyways I'm really excited for my new job tomorrow!