Title: I Hear The Secrets That You Keep
Author: Debi
Email: IanFan9@aol.com
Feedback: Please! It's incredibly helpful and inspiring.
Rating: PG-13/R? I'm not sure, but there's lots of kissing.
Category: Jake and Hamilton (Like I could write about anyone else...)
Disclaimer: The song lyrics are from "Talking In Your Sleep" by the Romantics. I don't own any of the characters, either. I just borrow them for personal enjoyment. If I owned Hamilton, I'd be enjoying him alone on a tropical island, not here in the Windy City writing about enjoying him.
Summary: An answer to LizAngel's What Women Want Challenge from RR. Hamilton can hear what the girls around him are thinking, but he can also hear Jake's thoughts.
Spoilers: If I have to put this somewhere, it's after Our Town, but before Kiss and Tell. Hamilton doesn't know Jake is a girl yet and it's before Lena or Ryder are introduced.
Thank You: To Ev, without her my stories might never get finished. To Donnie, for not locking me out of our bedroom when I stay up really late feeding my YA obsession. And to Courtney, for keeping up with such an awesome site.
LizAngel's "What Women Want" Challenge - Submitted 1/13/01 by LizAngel
Requirements:
* It's a borrowed idea from the movie What Women Want starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt.
* Set before Hamilton knows Jake is a girl
* One day Hamilton wakes up to realize that he can read girls minds and know what they think
* He can only read the minds of girls not boys
* He starts to read Jake's thoughts and gets all confused cause he's supposed to think Jake is a boy
* Eventually he finds out about Jake---should be in unique fashion
* Jake and Hamilton live happily ever after
Author's Note: Since FFN does not support italics, all the female character's thoughts are in {brackets}.
"Oh come on!" Hamilton grumbled in frustration. "I know it's here somewhere."
Hamilton was standing on tiptoes atop an old wooden stepladder, groping around the top shelf of his closet. The shelf was at least an inch or two above his eye level, leaving him to search blindly with his hands. He was looking for his old photography portfolio. It had been ages since he had even thought about it. For Christmas last year, his mother had given him a new portfolio that was larger and held twice as many prints as the old one. He had put the old folio in his closet when he began filling the new one. Since he rarely had anyone other than his mother to show his pictures to, the old leather binder had basically been forgotten, until today.
This morning at crew practice Jake had commented on the incredible array of colors in the sunrise. They shared a laugh that watching the sun rise above the lake was the only nice thing about getting up that early on a Saturday. Hamilton mentioned that he had taken pictures of some of the more spectacular sunrises over New Rawley Lake over the past few years. To his great surprise, Jake asked to see those pictures. The other guys usually showed only polite interest in his hobby and he had never actually shown his work to another student before. But somehow, it felt right to share his work with Jake and he agreed to dig out the old photos.
Standing on the rickety ladder, with dust tickling his nose, he began to question the wisdom of his decision. Not only was he having trouble finding them, he was beginning to second guess his decision to share them in the first place. His pictures were like a part of him. By showing them, he would be opening up in a way he had never done before. Jake was his best friend and he trusted him, so that wasn't a problem. The problem was the uneasy feeling in his stomach. Bat-sized butterflies would flit around in his stomach whenever he thought about Jake.
Hamilton's hand finally came across the item it was searching for, but what he couldn't see was a box sitting on top of the portfolio. As Hamilton pulled the portfolio from the shelf - the box fell towards his face. Startled by the falling object, Hamilton lost his balance and fell backwards off the ladder. It wasn't a long way down, but he managed to whack his head on the footboard of the bed before hitting the floor. Hamilton lay dazed for a moment before getting up.
"Oh, this is gonna hurt..." he moaned.
Rubbing the goose egg on the back of his head, he went down to the kitchen for some ice. Gathering the ice and a towel to wrap it in, he went back to his room. As he settled in on the bed, with the ice pack in place, he thought to himself that Jake had better like these pictures as he was going to have one hell of a headache tomorrow to show for them. He dozed off thinking about how Jake was going to react to the pictures.
He awoke to a dark room and realized he had been asleep for several hours. Wondering why his mother hadn't woken him up, Hamilton went downstairs. He found his mother in the living room watching a movie while his father dozed on the couch beside her.
"Hi, Munchie. Did you have a good nap?"
"Mom, drop the Munchie already. What's going on? Why didn't you wake me up?"
"When we came home you were sound asleep. I tried to wake you, but you didn't budge, so I let you sleep. I put your dinner in the fridge. Do you feel okay, honey?" {We didn't wake you up because we wanted to mess around a little. And it's not any fun when you're worried about your son walking in on you.}
"What?" Hamilton's head whipped around to stare at his mother. He wasn't sure he had heard her right.
Kate gave him a worried look. {What's wrong with him?}
Hamilton stared at his mother, dazed and uncertain. He knew he was hearing her voice, but her lips hadn't moved. What was going on here?
"No, Mom, I'm fine." Hamilton said, opting to play it safe. If he told her about the fall, she'd get all mushy and maternal on him. He just wanted to be alone and figure out why he was hearing things.
"Are you hungry? I can go heat up your dinner." {Something's wrong here, he looks pale. Is he getting sick?}
"No thanks, Mom. I'm fine, really. I've just got a headache that's all...I think I'm going to take some Tylenol and go back to bed. Goodnight." Hamilton turned to walk away.
Kate looked at him, not sure whether to believe him and let him go or check his temperature. {Now, I know something isn't right. He never goes to bed this early. Heck, he's usually not even home this early.}
Confused, Hamilton looked back at his mother. Again, he was hearing her voice but her lips weren't moving. Lost in a swirl of confusing thoughts, he trudged back up the stairs.
"What the hell happened down there? That was totally weird, I swear I was hearing things. Maybe I hit my head harder than I thought." Hamilton said aloud as he grabbed the hem of his shirt and yanked it over his head. He tossed it to the floor and added his shorts to the pile. Crawling under the covers he closed his eyes and tried not to think about anyone or anything.
Against his will, Jake came to mind. Again he tried to imagine what it was going to be like showing his pictures to Jake. He finally had to admit how nervous he was. Sharing his passion with another guy was a whole lot different that sharing with his mother. No matter what his pictures looked like, his mother was always loving and supportive. What if Jake didn't like the pictures? What if Jake teased him about his choice of hobbies? What if Jake told the other guys and they teased him?
"Stop it!" He scolded himself. "Stop thinking about Jake and go to sleep."
Determined to sleep, he rolled to his side and curled around his pillow.
Sunlight poked at his eyelids, urging him to wake up.
"Oh man, that hurts," he cried as one blue eye peeked open.
Hamilton flinched as the bright light stabbed at him and made him painfully aware of his headache from last night's fall. He contemplated staying in bed for the day, but realized his mother would be worried and probably insist on a visit to the doctor. The pediatrician, no less, as his mother felt he should still see the same doctor at 15 that he did at 5. Images of the waiting room decorated with brightly colored clowns and miniature tables and chairs were enough to force him out of bed.
He took his time in the shower, using extra hot water to help ease his sore muscles. Wincing occasionally as he moved, he washed his hair and soaped himself up. As he stood under the steady spray of water to rinse off, he replayed last night's events in his mind. He understood why his body was sore, that fall was a good one he was going to hurt for a few days. But he couldn't figure out what happened with his mother last night, why could he hear her when her lips weren't moving? Was he imagining things? Hearing things? Or had he just plain gone crazy?
The hot water faded to cold pulling Hamilton from his thoughts. He turned off the water and reached for a towel. Wrapping the towel around his waist, he stepped out from the bathroom to go to his room, but ran into his mother instead. She was carrying a pile of neatly folded sheets in her hands.
"Oh, hi...Mom."
"Good morning, Munchie." Kate smiled warmly at him. {My little boy is growing up and turning into such a handsome young man.}
"Mom!" Hamilton exclaimed and his checks flushed red with embarrassment.
"What, honey?" She looked at him innocently. {He's acting funny again.}
"Ah...nothing. I'm...just going to get dressed and head over to the dorms." He stuttered in response.
"You don't want something for breakfast?"
"No thanks, Mom." He was eager to get out of the house, too many weird things were happening there.
"Are you sure, honey?" Kate eyed him suspiciously. {Now I know something is wrong with him! He never turns down food. Maybe I should call the doctor?}
"Really Mom, it's ok. I'm gonna go get ready now." He was getting very self conscious standing there wearing only a towel.
He ducked into his room, not giving her time to answer or to hear any more weird stuff. He dressed quickly, throwing on a pair of shorts and a gray tank top. Grabbing his running shoes and the portfolio, he peeked into the hallway before exiting his room. He wanted to leave without having to talk to his mother again.
Once outside and clear of his house, he breathed a deep sigh of relief. His head still hurt from the fall, but these crazy conversations with his mother were wearing him out. He headed for the dorms.
{I can't believe I slept with him! What was I thinking?}
Hamilton's head shot up at the sound. What was that? He stopped and looked around. He didn't see anyone, but he was certain he had heard a girl's voice. He shook his head to clear the voice and started walking again.
{I can't believe I fell for all that "you're so special to me" nonsense.}
Hamilton stopped dead in his tracks. The voice was back, but where was the person that went with this voice? Hamilton looked around more closely, finally noticing a girl sitting against a large oak tree. He recognized her from Rawley girls, Rachel something, he had seen her with one of the seniors just a few days ago. She was sitting with her back against the tree and her knees pulled up to her chest. She looked pretty upset.
{What a jerk. He hasn't even called.}
Hamilton just stood there. What was happening to him? Before he had a chance to analyze this newest development, Becky from his Algebra class walked past him.
"Hi Hamilton!" She smiled brightly at him. {Oh my god! Can you get any more gorgeous than that?}
Now, he was sure he was losing his mind. The short walk to the dorm was turning into a nightmare. He started walking again and tried to block out all the voices, but it was impossible. Every time someone came close to him, he heard their voice inside his head. They didn't even have to talk to him their voices would just "appear" in his mind.
{Wow, it's beautiful out this morning. Maybe I'll ask Nathan if he wants to go for a picnic.}
{I really need to do some work on that paper for History or I'll never get it done on time.}
{I hate it here it's too quiet. Why can't I just go back to the city and go to school with my friends?}
{Hello, beautiful! What a shame his father is the Dean, I could never go out with someone who's parents work at the school.}
Hamilton was trying to avoid actually looking at the people whose voices were in his head...until that last one. He looked up to see Sandra Moore. No surprise there, she was one of the resident "princesses" at Rawley Girls who had never given him so much as the time of day before. He shot her his best 'I'm-not-amused' look and kept walking.
By the he reached the dorm, Hamilton came to the conclusion that these were other people's thoughts he was hearing. Like ESP or something, but the big question still remained - why? Why was this happening to him? Did it have something to do with the fall last night?
As Hamilton walked past the Common Room, both Will and Scout greeted him. He returned the greetings without paying much attention to what he was saying and kept walking. He got about five feet away before he realized he wasn't hearing anything. Silence...beautiful silence. Excited, he hurried back to the Common room just to be sure.
"Uh, hey guys. What are you watching?"
Will looked up and smiled. "The Making of SI's Swimsuit Edition. It starts in five minutes - grab a seat."
"Yep, a whole hour of bikini clad models. It's even better than Baywatch - no David Hasslehoff." Scout was grinning like the Cheshire cat.
Hamilton was thrilled. The voices were gone! He was talking to both Will and Scout and hadn't heard anything other than what was spoken aloud.
"Sounds like fun, maybe we'll join you. I'm headed to..."
{I'm never going to figure out this computer stuff. Oh wow, why can't he be my tutor? He's gorgeous; look at that body! Thank heaven for tank tops.}
Hamilton was cut off mid-sentence by a voice in his head. Damn! He turned to see Harry Johnson with a girl, setting up laptops on the table in the corner. The girl blushed and looked away when he returned her stare.
Hamilton fell into the armchair next to the couch more confused then ever. He hadn't heard a word from Will or Scout and certainly they were thinking about stuff. Mentally he made a list of all the voices he had heard looking for something they all had in common. Smiling to himself, he realized that they were all female. This 'gift' he had developed was a picky one.
"This could come in handy or drive me insane," he chuckled quietly.
"Ham?" Hamilton looked up at the sound of his name. Will was looking at him expectantly.
"Uh, sorry. What were you saying?"
"I said 'where are you headed'. You started to say something and then you just stopped. So, where are you headed?"
"Oh, sorry, Will, I've got a lot on my mind today. I'm supposed to meet Jake. I was headed up to his room. I should get up there."
Hamilton got up to leave.
{Damn, he's leaving. Oh well, I guess that's a good thing. I won't learn anything if I spend the whole session staring at him instead of listening to Harry.}
Hamilton stopped, shook his head in frustration and then walked away. Hearing what girls thought was going to take some getting used to.
When he got to Jake's room he remembered the portfolio he had been holding all along. He had forgotten about the pictures. He really wasn't in the mood for this anymore. Maybe watching bikini clad models was the way to go after all. Hopefully, Jake would understand and they could look at the pictures some other time. He knocked on the door and waited for Jake to answer.
Jake opened the door and smiled brightly. "Hey, Hamilton." {My day just got so much better.}
Hamilton stood in the doorway dumbfounded. Had he heard that right? Did he just hear what Jake was thinking?
"Dude, are you going to come in or stand in the doorway all day?" {What's up with him?}
No doubt about it now, he was hearing Jake's thoughts. Just when he thought he was beginning to understand this thing, it threw a curve ball at him. He could hear girls and at least one guy.
"Oh, sorry." He stepped inside and Jake closed the door. {Something's not right.}
"So, are those the pictures?" Jake pointed at the portfolio in his hand. {I can't wait to see them.}
Hamilton blushed and fidgeted nervously. "Yeah, but you know, could we do this another time? Will and Scout are watching TV in the Common Room maybe we could just go join them instead? You know, veg out in front of the tube for a while?'
"Ok, I guess." Jake was hesitant, something weird was going on here. {You carried them all the way over here, but now you don't want to show me the pictures. What's going on?}
"Nothing's going on." Hamilton smiled and opened the door, not catching his error.
"What?" Jake stopped dead in her tracks. {What did you just say?}
A lightening bolt of realization hit Hamilton. He had answered one of Jake's thoughts! He scrambled to think of a way out of his mistake.
"Uh...I said 'nothing's going on'...today...so maybe we could watch TV...for a while...and then...look at the pictures later on?" He prayed he covered well enough.
Jake stared at him for a moment. {He's acting way too weird.} But rather than push him for information, Jake shook her head and walked out the door.
{Maybe I can get him to talk later.}
They walked back to the Common Room in silence, but Hamilton could hear Jake wondering what was wrong with him and why he was acting so funny. He contemplated telling Jake what was happening to him, but he didn't understand it himself. 'Besides, Jake might freak out if he knew that I could hear what he's thinking,' Hamilton told himself.
"Hey guys." Hamilton sat back down in the armchair by the couch.
"Hey Ham, Jake." Will and Scout said in unison.
{Will's wearing a red shirt! What a surprise.} "Hi guys." Jake said and sat down between them on the couch.
Hamilton looked up at Jake with a small smirk on his face. He had noticed Will's abundance of red shirts as well. Then again, half his closet was blue so he didn't have much room to talk.
The commercial ended and the four turned their attention to the TV screen.
{What the hell is this?} "Guys, what are we watching?" Jake asked cautiously.
"The Making of SI's Swimsuit Edition." Scout announced happily.
{Great, just great. Instead of an afternoon of photography, we have an afternoon of made-for-TV pornography. Just great. Scout's gonna need a bucket he's drooling already and it's still the opening credits.} "That's cool, lot's of babes in bikinis."
Hamilton stared at Jake in disbelief. What was that about? Jake turned to look at Hamilton and felt the heat rise when her eyes met his.
{He's got the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen. And those long, sexy eyelashes ought to be illegal.}
Hamilton choked.
Will, Scout and Jake looked at him, not sure why he acting so strangely.
"Are you ok, Ham?" Will asked.
"Yeah...ah...no. You know what? I've got a headache. I think I'm going to go home and go back to bed. Sorry guys. I'll catch you later." Hamilton rushed out of the room and ran back home.
Author: Debi
Email: IanFan9@aol.com
Feedback: Please! It's incredibly helpful and inspiring.
Rating: PG-13/R? I'm not sure, but there's lots of kissing.
Category: Jake and Hamilton (Like I could write about anyone else...)
Disclaimer: The song lyrics are from "Talking In Your Sleep" by the Romantics. I don't own any of the characters, either. I just borrow them for personal enjoyment. If I owned Hamilton, I'd be enjoying him alone on a tropical island, not here in the Windy City writing about enjoying him.
Summary: An answer to LizAngel's What Women Want Challenge from RR. Hamilton can hear what the girls around him are thinking, but he can also hear Jake's thoughts.
Spoilers: If I have to put this somewhere, it's after Our Town, but before Kiss and Tell. Hamilton doesn't know Jake is a girl yet and it's before Lena or Ryder are introduced.
Thank You: To Ev, without her my stories might never get finished. To Donnie, for not locking me out of our bedroom when I stay up really late feeding my YA obsession. And to Courtney, for keeping up with such an awesome site.
LizAngel's "What Women Want" Challenge - Submitted 1/13/01 by LizAngel
Requirements:
* It's a borrowed idea from the movie What Women Want starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt.
* Set before Hamilton knows Jake is a girl
* One day Hamilton wakes up to realize that he can read girls minds and know what they think
* He can only read the minds of girls not boys
* He starts to read Jake's thoughts and gets all confused cause he's supposed to think Jake is a boy
* Eventually he finds out about Jake---should be in unique fashion
* Jake and Hamilton live happily ever after
Author's Note: Since FFN does not support italics, all the female character's thoughts are in {brackets}.
"Oh come on!" Hamilton grumbled in frustration. "I know it's here somewhere."
Hamilton was standing on tiptoes atop an old wooden stepladder, groping around the top shelf of his closet. The shelf was at least an inch or two above his eye level, leaving him to search blindly with his hands. He was looking for his old photography portfolio. It had been ages since he had even thought about it. For Christmas last year, his mother had given him a new portfolio that was larger and held twice as many prints as the old one. He had put the old folio in his closet when he began filling the new one. Since he rarely had anyone other than his mother to show his pictures to, the old leather binder had basically been forgotten, until today.
This morning at crew practice Jake had commented on the incredible array of colors in the sunrise. They shared a laugh that watching the sun rise above the lake was the only nice thing about getting up that early on a Saturday. Hamilton mentioned that he had taken pictures of some of the more spectacular sunrises over New Rawley Lake over the past few years. To his great surprise, Jake asked to see those pictures. The other guys usually showed only polite interest in his hobby and he had never actually shown his work to another student before. But somehow, it felt right to share his work with Jake and he agreed to dig out the old photos.
Standing on the rickety ladder, with dust tickling his nose, he began to question the wisdom of his decision. Not only was he having trouble finding them, he was beginning to second guess his decision to share them in the first place. His pictures were like a part of him. By showing them, he would be opening up in a way he had never done before. Jake was his best friend and he trusted him, so that wasn't a problem. The problem was the uneasy feeling in his stomach. Bat-sized butterflies would flit around in his stomach whenever he thought about Jake.
Hamilton's hand finally came across the item it was searching for, but what he couldn't see was a box sitting on top of the portfolio. As Hamilton pulled the portfolio from the shelf - the box fell towards his face. Startled by the falling object, Hamilton lost his balance and fell backwards off the ladder. It wasn't a long way down, but he managed to whack his head on the footboard of the bed before hitting the floor. Hamilton lay dazed for a moment before getting up.
"Oh, this is gonna hurt..." he moaned.
Rubbing the goose egg on the back of his head, he went down to the kitchen for some ice. Gathering the ice and a towel to wrap it in, he went back to his room. As he settled in on the bed, with the ice pack in place, he thought to himself that Jake had better like these pictures as he was going to have one hell of a headache tomorrow to show for them. He dozed off thinking about how Jake was going to react to the pictures.
He awoke to a dark room and realized he had been asleep for several hours. Wondering why his mother hadn't woken him up, Hamilton went downstairs. He found his mother in the living room watching a movie while his father dozed on the couch beside her.
"Hi, Munchie. Did you have a good nap?"
"Mom, drop the Munchie already. What's going on? Why didn't you wake me up?"
"When we came home you were sound asleep. I tried to wake you, but you didn't budge, so I let you sleep. I put your dinner in the fridge. Do you feel okay, honey?" {We didn't wake you up because we wanted to mess around a little. And it's not any fun when you're worried about your son walking in on you.}
"What?" Hamilton's head whipped around to stare at his mother. He wasn't sure he had heard her right.
Kate gave him a worried look. {What's wrong with him?}
Hamilton stared at his mother, dazed and uncertain. He knew he was hearing her voice, but her lips hadn't moved. What was going on here?
"No, Mom, I'm fine." Hamilton said, opting to play it safe. If he told her about the fall, she'd get all mushy and maternal on him. He just wanted to be alone and figure out why he was hearing things.
"Are you hungry? I can go heat up your dinner." {Something's wrong here, he looks pale. Is he getting sick?}
"No thanks, Mom. I'm fine, really. I've just got a headache that's all...I think I'm going to take some Tylenol and go back to bed. Goodnight." Hamilton turned to walk away.
Kate looked at him, not sure whether to believe him and let him go or check his temperature. {Now, I know something isn't right. He never goes to bed this early. Heck, he's usually not even home this early.}
Confused, Hamilton looked back at his mother. Again, he was hearing her voice but her lips weren't moving. Lost in a swirl of confusing thoughts, he trudged back up the stairs.
"What the hell happened down there? That was totally weird, I swear I was hearing things. Maybe I hit my head harder than I thought." Hamilton said aloud as he grabbed the hem of his shirt and yanked it over his head. He tossed it to the floor and added his shorts to the pile. Crawling under the covers he closed his eyes and tried not to think about anyone or anything.
Against his will, Jake came to mind. Again he tried to imagine what it was going to be like showing his pictures to Jake. He finally had to admit how nervous he was. Sharing his passion with another guy was a whole lot different that sharing with his mother. No matter what his pictures looked like, his mother was always loving and supportive. What if Jake didn't like the pictures? What if Jake teased him about his choice of hobbies? What if Jake told the other guys and they teased him?
"Stop it!" He scolded himself. "Stop thinking about Jake and go to sleep."
Determined to sleep, he rolled to his side and curled around his pillow.
Sunlight poked at his eyelids, urging him to wake up.
"Oh man, that hurts," he cried as one blue eye peeked open.
Hamilton flinched as the bright light stabbed at him and made him painfully aware of his headache from last night's fall. He contemplated staying in bed for the day, but realized his mother would be worried and probably insist on a visit to the doctor. The pediatrician, no less, as his mother felt he should still see the same doctor at 15 that he did at 5. Images of the waiting room decorated with brightly colored clowns and miniature tables and chairs were enough to force him out of bed.
He took his time in the shower, using extra hot water to help ease his sore muscles. Wincing occasionally as he moved, he washed his hair and soaped himself up. As he stood under the steady spray of water to rinse off, he replayed last night's events in his mind. He understood why his body was sore, that fall was a good one he was going to hurt for a few days. But he couldn't figure out what happened with his mother last night, why could he hear her when her lips weren't moving? Was he imagining things? Hearing things? Or had he just plain gone crazy?
The hot water faded to cold pulling Hamilton from his thoughts. He turned off the water and reached for a towel. Wrapping the towel around his waist, he stepped out from the bathroom to go to his room, but ran into his mother instead. She was carrying a pile of neatly folded sheets in her hands.
"Oh, hi...Mom."
"Good morning, Munchie." Kate smiled warmly at him. {My little boy is growing up and turning into such a handsome young man.}
"Mom!" Hamilton exclaimed and his checks flushed red with embarrassment.
"What, honey?" She looked at him innocently. {He's acting funny again.}
"Ah...nothing. I'm...just going to get dressed and head over to the dorms." He stuttered in response.
"You don't want something for breakfast?"
"No thanks, Mom." He was eager to get out of the house, too many weird things were happening there.
"Are you sure, honey?" Kate eyed him suspiciously. {Now I know something is wrong with him! He never turns down food. Maybe I should call the doctor?}
"Really Mom, it's ok. I'm gonna go get ready now." He was getting very self conscious standing there wearing only a towel.
He ducked into his room, not giving her time to answer or to hear any more weird stuff. He dressed quickly, throwing on a pair of shorts and a gray tank top. Grabbing his running shoes and the portfolio, he peeked into the hallway before exiting his room. He wanted to leave without having to talk to his mother again.
Once outside and clear of his house, he breathed a deep sigh of relief. His head still hurt from the fall, but these crazy conversations with his mother were wearing him out. He headed for the dorms.
{I can't believe I slept with him! What was I thinking?}
Hamilton's head shot up at the sound. What was that? He stopped and looked around. He didn't see anyone, but he was certain he had heard a girl's voice. He shook his head to clear the voice and started walking again.
{I can't believe I fell for all that "you're so special to me" nonsense.}
Hamilton stopped dead in his tracks. The voice was back, but where was the person that went with this voice? Hamilton looked around more closely, finally noticing a girl sitting against a large oak tree. He recognized her from Rawley girls, Rachel something, he had seen her with one of the seniors just a few days ago. She was sitting with her back against the tree and her knees pulled up to her chest. She looked pretty upset.
{What a jerk. He hasn't even called.}
Hamilton just stood there. What was happening to him? Before he had a chance to analyze this newest development, Becky from his Algebra class walked past him.
"Hi Hamilton!" She smiled brightly at him. {Oh my god! Can you get any more gorgeous than that?}
Now, he was sure he was losing his mind. The short walk to the dorm was turning into a nightmare. He started walking again and tried to block out all the voices, but it was impossible. Every time someone came close to him, he heard their voice inside his head. They didn't even have to talk to him their voices would just "appear" in his mind.
{Wow, it's beautiful out this morning. Maybe I'll ask Nathan if he wants to go for a picnic.}
{I really need to do some work on that paper for History or I'll never get it done on time.}
{I hate it here it's too quiet. Why can't I just go back to the city and go to school with my friends?}
{Hello, beautiful! What a shame his father is the Dean, I could never go out with someone who's parents work at the school.}
Hamilton was trying to avoid actually looking at the people whose voices were in his head...until that last one. He looked up to see Sandra Moore. No surprise there, she was one of the resident "princesses" at Rawley Girls who had never given him so much as the time of day before. He shot her his best 'I'm-not-amused' look and kept walking.
By the he reached the dorm, Hamilton came to the conclusion that these were other people's thoughts he was hearing. Like ESP or something, but the big question still remained - why? Why was this happening to him? Did it have something to do with the fall last night?
As Hamilton walked past the Common Room, both Will and Scout greeted him. He returned the greetings without paying much attention to what he was saying and kept walking. He got about five feet away before he realized he wasn't hearing anything. Silence...beautiful silence. Excited, he hurried back to the Common room just to be sure.
"Uh, hey guys. What are you watching?"
Will looked up and smiled. "The Making of SI's Swimsuit Edition. It starts in five minutes - grab a seat."
"Yep, a whole hour of bikini clad models. It's even better than Baywatch - no David Hasslehoff." Scout was grinning like the Cheshire cat.
Hamilton was thrilled. The voices were gone! He was talking to both Will and Scout and hadn't heard anything other than what was spoken aloud.
"Sounds like fun, maybe we'll join you. I'm headed to..."
{I'm never going to figure out this computer stuff. Oh wow, why can't he be my tutor? He's gorgeous; look at that body! Thank heaven for tank tops.}
Hamilton was cut off mid-sentence by a voice in his head. Damn! He turned to see Harry Johnson with a girl, setting up laptops on the table in the corner. The girl blushed and looked away when he returned her stare.
Hamilton fell into the armchair next to the couch more confused then ever. He hadn't heard a word from Will or Scout and certainly they were thinking about stuff. Mentally he made a list of all the voices he had heard looking for something they all had in common. Smiling to himself, he realized that they were all female. This 'gift' he had developed was a picky one.
"This could come in handy or drive me insane," he chuckled quietly.
"Ham?" Hamilton looked up at the sound of his name. Will was looking at him expectantly.
"Uh, sorry. What were you saying?"
"I said 'where are you headed'. You started to say something and then you just stopped. So, where are you headed?"
"Oh, sorry, Will, I've got a lot on my mind today. I'm supposed to meet Jake. I was headed up to his room. I should get up there."
Hamilton got up to leave.
{Damn, he's leaving. Oh well, I guess that's a good thing. I won't learn anything if I spend the whole session staring at him instead of listening to Harry.}
Hamilton stopped, shook his head in frustration and then walked away. Hearing what girls thought was going to take some getting used to.
When he got to Jake's room he remembered the portfolio he had been holding all along. He had forgotten about the pictures. He really wasn't in the mood for this anymore. Maybe watching bikini clad models was the way to go after all. Hopefully, Jake would understand and they could look at the pictures some other time. He knocked on the door and waited for Jake to answer.
Jake opened the door and smiled brightly. "Hey, Hamilton." {My day just got so much better.}
Hamilton stood in the doorway dumbfounded. Had he heard that right? Did he just hear what Jake was thinking?
"Dude, are you going to come in or stand in the doorway all day?" {What's up with him?}
No doubt about it now, he was hearing Jake's thoughts. Just when he thought he was beginning to understand this thing, it threw a curve ball at him. He could hear girls and at least one guy.
"Oh, sorry." He stepped inside and Jake closed the door. {Something's not right.}
"So, are those the pictures?" Jake pointed at the portfolio in his hand. {I can't wait to see them.}
Hamilton blushed and fidgeted nervously. "Yeah, but you know, could we do this another time? Will and Scout are watching TV in the Common Room maybe we could just go join them instead? You know, veg out in front of the tube for a while?'
"Ok, I guess." Jake was hesitant, something weird was going on here. {You carried them all the way over here, but now you don't want to show me the pictures. What's going on?}
"Nothing's going on." Hamilton smiled and opened the door, not catching his error.
"What?" Jake stopped dead in her tracks. {What did you just say?}
A lightening bolt of realization hit Hamilton. He had answered one of Jake's thoughts! He scrambled to think of a way out of his mistake.
"Uh...I said 'nothing's going on'...today...so maybe we could watch TV...for a while...and then...look at the pictures later on?" He prayed he covered well enough.
Jake stared at him for a moment. {He's acting way too weird.} But rather than push him for information, Jake shook her head and walked out the door.
{Maybe I can get him to talk later.}
They walked back to the Common Room in silence, but Hamilton could hear Jake wondering what was wrong with him and why he was acting so funny. He contemplated telling Jake what was happening to him, but he didn't understand it himself. 'Besides, Jake might freak out if he knew that I could hear what he's thinking,' Hamilton told himself.
"Hey guys." Hamilton sat back down in the armchair by the couch.
"Hey Ham, Jake." Will and Scout said in unison.
{Will's wearing a red shirt! What a surprise.} "Hi guys." Jake said and sat down between them on the couch.
Hamilton looked up at Jake with a small smirk on his face. He had noticed Will's abundance of red shirts as well. Then again, half his closet was blue so he didn't have much room to talk.
The commercial ended and the four turned their attention to the TV screen.
{What the hell is this?} "Guys, what are we watching?" Jake asked cautiously.
"The Making of SI's Swimsuit Edition." Scout announced happily.
{Great, just great. Instead of an afternoon of photography, we have an afternoon of made-for-TV pornography. Just great. Scout's gonna need a bucket he's drooling already and it's still the opening credits.} "That's cool, lot's of babes in bikinis."
Hamilton stared at Jake in disbelief. What was that about? Jake turned to look at Hamilton and felt the heat rise when her eyes met his.
{He's got the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen. And those long, sexy eyelashes ought to be illegal.}
Hamilton choked.
Will, Scout and Jake looked at him, not sure why he acting so strangely.
"Are you ok, Ham?" Will asked.
"Yeah...ah...no. You know what? I've got a headache. I think I'm going to go home and go back to bed. Sorry guys. I'll catch you later." Hamilton rushed out of the room and ran back home.