"Aasuuka!" A drab voice drawled from behind the closed door. The girl sat poised on her bed, reading a book about sign language. She was going to have to communicate somehow and hopefully one of the boys that had made the proposal to meet them could speak ASL. "Aasuuka!" It came again, closer to the purple door that guarded the entrance to her room. The little blonde closed the book and slid off of her huge bed, stuffing the volume into her backpack and kicking the sack under the bed.
Her care taker, or Manny (male nanny) came in bearing a tray of soup with steam rolling off the surface and into the desolate room's air. Along with it was a ham and cheese sandwich and a donut for dessert paired with a ceramic mug full of hot chocolate. He placed the tray on the table next to her toy box and looked at the mess in her room. "What were you up to Busy Bee?" Manny asked, using the pet name he had given her as a toddler. He had been working for her family for as long as Asuka could remember and was one of the only remaining staff her parents thought to be "essential."
Manny began to clean, picking up clothes and toys before relocating them to their proper place. Asuka was going to miss him, once she left her family would have no use for him. She finished the soup quickly and moved onto the sandwich; the floor was now visible. By the time Asuka was done her room was clean. The busy little girl stood up and hugged him, snatching the key to her window from the loophole on his belt. "Well this is an unexpected surprise," he said and pat her head. Asuka pushed him back, she had a rule about touching and he had just broken it. An unforgivable offense.
Manny rolled his eyes and left, closing the door behind him. Quickly Asuka ran to her closet and pulled on her thickest pair of socks as well as the winter boots she had been given by her Grandmother but never got to wear. The holidays were the only time when Asuka was really allowed out of her room and now the prospect of leaving her house forever amused her. Asuka's parents had always said that others' would be scared of her ability, they would reject and mock her like the children at school. She balled her hands into fists, they had never told her that there was a possibility of others like her.
Stuffing her thin arms into a thick pink winter coat Asuka was nearly ready to leave. She pulled the backpack out from under her bed and placed the purple knit cap on her head. Now she was ready. Asuka fumbled with the key in the padlock on the window, sliding the glass pane up and allowing the cold air to waft into the room and bite into her skin. It was refreshing, feeling something other than the temperature controlled bedroom she inhabited.
For a second Asuka was flying, then her feet touched the ground and she broke into a run, moving as fast as her little legs could carry her. Thankfully everything about Asuka was quiet, she had mastered the art of sneaking around but never thought she would use it to escape. Excitement filled her with every breath of crisp, cold air. How long had it been since she felt this type of weather? Since things were normal and her parents would wheel her around the city to pick out Christmas present for the family and eat lunch at their favorite dive. Asuka shook her head, her parents had stopped loving her the moment she took her first steps.
The girl was nearly there now, out of the community on the Upper West Side and on the streets of NYC. How amazing it felt to be free, no wheelchair to drag her down! Asuka stopped, looking up at the address she had scrawled on the inside of her palm. This was it, the cafe where she was to meet the two called Ezra and Hikaru.