Lance

I air up my balloon. The 85th annual New York hot air balloon race was underway. I had won the last 25 years. I had only about 50 yards left when the German balloon came right up on me! I lean forward to make the balloon go faster. We're neck to neck until…

"Mr. McClain, what is the y-intercept?" Mrs. Hoover so rudely interrupted my daydream, bothering me with math.

"Um," I squint at my books "What question are we on again?"

Mrs. Hoover rolls her eyes, "If you actually payed attention in class you would know, wouldn't you?"

"Probably." I agreed with her.

Mrs. Hoover sighed, "Mr. Kogane, would you please give us the answer?" Keith looks up with a confused look on his face, and turns to face Mrs. Hoover.

"0, 8.46" Keith answers. How does he do that? He was obviously not paying attention either. No one can just look up and know the answer! Stupid perfect Keith and his stupid grizzled-ness and his stupid smartness. I glare across the room at him. We meet eyes for a few seconds. Then he just smirks and looks away. How dare he! First, he pulls the most improbable answer from the top of his head, then he just smirks at me! I scoff and try to pay attention.

It doesn't work and before I know it I'm glancing out the window thinking about hanging with Hunk afterschool. Are we just gonna go to his house or are we going out? Should I try to text him before school ends? Is Pidge coming? Should we invite her? Would Keith go if I asked him? Dang it. There I go, thinking about stupid Keith freaking Kogane again. Why won't that dang mullet-head just get out of my head!

Suddenly the bell rang signaling for us to leave class, thankfully saving me from be yelled at again. Quickly I gathered up my stuff, shoving them into my bag and practically teleported to the door. From there I bolted down to my locker, the meeting place for me and my friends since it's the closest to the Space Explorations class we all have next. Pidge is leaning against the wall on her phone, impatiently waiting for the rest of us. I get to my locker, closely followed by Hunk. We take our time walking through the hallway to our next class. I start retailing my embarrassing misadventure in math, maybe over exaggerating the details, but not by much.

"... And then, Keith looks me right in the eye and tells Mrs. Hoover the answer. Then he smirks at me! Can you believe that?"

"Yeah, sure," Pidge answers sarcastically, obviously not amused by my storytelling skills. I choose to ignore her and give all my attention to my faithful listener, Hunk.

"Maybe he was just genuinely trying to help you out?" Hunk, the little sweetheart, suggested.

"That's impossible Hunk! I could see it in his eyes" I pointed dramatically at my eye, "He knew he was showing me up and he enjoyed it!"

"Maybe you shouldn't make it so easy for him." Pidge said.

Before I can tell off that snarky little sophomore, Hunk stops me by exclaiming, "Oh look here's our class."

Upon entering the classroom I saw Keith sitting in the front corner of the room. How did he even get here before us?! Anyway before I could properly go on a rant about that Hunk had pulled me to our table and had started talking about our project. It was the huge end of the semester project that was worth half our grade. Our project is about the moon landing. We agreed that Hunk would handle the mechanics, Pidge would do the history, and I would work on the visual presentation.

The bell rang and the teacher started talking. Something about the effect of other galaxies on our own. I go off into my mind again. There's a new Y-Women movie coming out this summer that I can't wait to see. Pidge says the main characters are overpowered, but I say that their superpowers makeup for their emotional flaws. I wonder what it'd be like if I had superpowers. What if there are people around me right now that have superpowers? What if they are like Professor Y and could read minds? How would I know? What if I just yelled in my head? Would they be able to hear me? I could try it. I won't look stupid if there ain't no mind readers because no one would know. If I did see someone flinch? Well then I caught meself a mind reader.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

There was a movement of black and red from the front corner. Keith FLinched! Wait, what if he just did that coincidentally? Better try it again.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Sure enough Keith flinched again but this time he turned around as if looking for a culprit. His violet eyes scanned the room landing on me. How'd he know it was me? Oh wait, mind reader, duh. Wait was he reading my mind right now!

Keith

"I can't wait for Friday."

"Jessica's such a bitch."

"God, Mrs. Hoover's a buzzkill."

"The 85th annual balloon race was about to start." Well that caught my attention. As usual, Lance is ignoring the lesson and going off into his fantasy land. I hate to admit it, but his daydreams make my day. No boring classwork. No dramatic thoughts about the party last weekend. Just having fun and escaping reality. I try to listen for Lance's voice over the others in the class. He's about to win the race, but the German balloon catches up. The two are neck and neck until…

"Mr. McClain, what is the y-intercept?" Damn. Kayla was right, Mrs. Hoover is a buzzkill.

"Um," Lance buries his face in his book, "What question are we on again?" Classic Lance. I know where this is going. Mrs. Hoover scolds Lance for not paying attention, then calls on some other sucker to answer the question.

"Mr. Kogane, would you please give us the answer?" I look up from my desk. Maybe I should actually listen in class instead of spy on Lance's thoughts.

Welp, that's what mind reading's for. I look at John. He always has the answers and always wants to say them. It was easy to read the answer from his mind. I look at Mrs. Hoover and deliver it.

"0, 8.46." I dully respond, before glancing at Lance.

"Stupid perfect Keith and his stupid grizzled-ness and his stupid smartness." That made me smirk, before turning away. If I stared any longer Lance's thoughts would follow me for the rest of the day, or more than they already do.

I actually try to pay attention to class after that, unlike Lance who I could still faintly hear. Before I knew it class had ended. The others students rushed to leave but I took my time, putting in my headphones so the noise was easier to manage. My next class is Space Explorations, which Shiro helps out in. No spacing out in there; Shiro would know and he does not take hearing other people's thoughts all the time as a good excuse to fail high school.

I enter the class and take my usual seat up front. As always Shiro is up front getting ready for the lesson. I swear he does more work than the actual teacher. As it gets closer to the start of class more and more kids enter. I notice when Lance comes in, he makes a face. "How does he get here so fast?!" he wonders. Probably because I don't drag through the hallways talking to people. The bell rings and Mr. Lindwig starts mumbling through the lesson.

Everything is going normally, that is until my mind is bombarded by the most unbelievably fake scream from the cheesiest horror movie there is. The suddenness of it makes me flinch in surprise which quickly turns into a cringe because of how awful it is. I was ready to pretend it never happened when it sounded again. The only difference this time being that I recognized it as that horrible fake scream Lance did for the school play, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Quickly I turned coming into direct eye contact with Lance. How'd he know it was me? Oh wait, mind reader, duh. Wait, was he reading my mind just now! Oh god, Lance knows!