Supersmellpower

 I was four. My arms were hard as a log, my hair was clumpy and falling down. The doctors told my parents I was a sickly child, they had not seen anything remotely like that and I had no chance. They suggested I be surrendered to an orphanage, that I was a burden to my already poor parents, to my tired and forever weak mother. They disregarded the advice completely and treated me as if nothing was different. The only persons treating me strangely were those doctors.

I was seven. I could smell things nobody else could, see further than anybody I knew. Some boys were tall, some boys were strong, some boys were really good at eating sweets. I thought it was one of my special abilities, to see afar and smell well, like everybody had something going for themselves. They teased me about it, called me a dog, I took it as a compliment. I could solve most problems by smelling my way through things.

I was twelve, in a new town with new friends. The neighborhood kids didn't believe me when I told them about the things I could do, not until I told them every single food item they had eaten over the last week from their breaths. Some things they didn't even know, their parents had tricked them into drinking pureed green vegetables. These children they didn't know me when younger, they started treating with reverence and respect. I didn't get teased as much, bullying was out of the question, because they knew I wasn't lying and I could smell my way through their bad deeds.

I was seventeen. They took me to my first scientific research. Put me through a bunch of equipments, medication and tests. There was nothing wrong with me they decided I was just a regular human being with an extraordinary sense of smell and ability to see. I freaked them out, those were the hormonal years, by telling them who was sleeping with who, who had shared sex partners in the past etcetera. I didn't realize the full implications of my actions, wouldn't have cared even I'd known. I was having fun, and turning the tables against the nerds.

I was twenty-two and freshly out of college. I got a full ride in the school of my choice, and extra money to go, in exchange for helping with the experimentation. I didn't mind, I was no freak of nature just somebody who was gifted with something good. My summers were spent doing complicated tests, distinguishing between scents they had diluted to trillionths and quadrillionths. They were encouraged, they were frustrated, they went through the whole gamut of emotions. I didn't care, I got the money I had fun, it was fine.

I was twenty-four and it was becoming a problem. I was teaching myself not to tell people about their past. Women were creeped out when I told them they were about to have their periods, old people concerned when I predicted their cancer diagnosis. It wasn't my nose that was causing me troubles now, it was my unstoppable mouth, I couldn't stop talking, bragging and letting people know that I was special, so much better than they were.