Chapter 5

"So," Ellen said to Tom, "we can move things with our minds or something?"

"Oh, Ellen, we can do so much more than that. We're learning more and more every day of the things we can do." His face turned grim. "We also learned the dangers of what we can do, too. You have to be careful until you are taught how to control it. We have lost more than a few members who got careless."

Ellen looked deeply into Tom's eyes. "But you will teach me, right?"

Tom shook his head. "I cannot. For some reason it's different for men and women, but any of the girls in this room can teach you. At least enough to get you started."

Jessica nodded vigorously enough to get Ellen's attention and make her turn to look at her. "From what we've seen of you, we think you might even be the strongest one we've ever seen."

She turned back to Breanna, who was still holding the can. "Teach me how to do what you're doing," she said almost breathlessly. "I want to learn everything."

Breanna let the can drop back to the table. It fell over as it landed, and Tom barely caught it before it started to spill. Fortunately, only a few drops landed on the glass surface of the table, and Tom wiped it off with a napkin. He didn't look even mildly upset, nor Breanna apologetic. It seemed to Ellen that this sort of thing was commonplace, which in fact it was. Countless attempts at fumbling their way while learning how to use and control the new energy had created a fair amount of havoc, and on one occasion, a repairman had given Tom some very quizzical looks before beginning a repair job he would never forget.

Breanna looked at Ellen sternly. "Your first lesson is to get rid of that idea. You want to learn everything but you don't even know what 'everything' is yet. None of us do, either. And Tom was not kidding, either, when he said we'd lost members. He didn't mean 'lost' as in they quit. They died. They died because they let way too much energy surge through them, and they basically burned from the inside.

"When you start learning how to access this energy, it's going to feel like some powerful drug. It's going to call you and you're going to have all you can do to keep from wanting to drink it all in. The ones we've lost are the ones who didn't learn how to sip."

Ellen nodded vigorously to show that she did understand and would be careful, but the warnings still did nothing to abate her eagerness. She turned back to Jessica, "what did you mean, 'strongest?'"

"We mean you can handle more than any of us can. That's how we found you. Breanna over there was the first one to spot you, since she lives the closest to you. She could sense it in you the first time she saw you, three months ago."

"Wait, you've been following me?"

"Not really following," Breanna said. "But I did make sure to find out who you were and to know we could trust you. You can understand we're trying to keep this all as secret as possible. If anyone knew we existed, we could be in serious trouble."

"What kind of trouble?"

Kyle was the one to respond. "The military is still calling this whole explosion thing 'Top Secret.' They know that there was something important there, but they still haven't clued out what it all is. If they knew what we all know, we could be brought into one of those rooms, ya know?"

Cody broke the tension by standing up and saying, "I say we put off too much talk of that stuff and get our new member started with some training, yeah?"

Nods rippled across the room as everyone stood up. Ellen was motioned to follow the girls into another room. While there, all six of them started teaching her in turn.

Ellen was surprised at how unbelievably banal the initial instruction was. They spent much of the time telling them about what they knew of the energy itself. Like Tom said, it was different for men and women, though they didn't know why. The nearest anyone could figure was that there were, in fact, two different energy sources and one could only be sensed by women and one could only be sensed by men. That was why Ellen could only see the glow around the girls in the room.

They spent the rest of the time teaching her how simply to sense the energy. There would be no lifting of cans today.

"You have to be really calm," said Madison, a quiet, plump girl of about sixteen who had a rather bad case of acne. Despite her humble and gentle nature, she still managed to exude a very likable quality.

"Yeah, that's probably why you only sensed it when you were falling asleep. That's when you're most calm." Jenn, a tall, skinny girl wearing a tie-dye shirt with a white peace symbol on the front, had chimed in. She hadn't said much thus far, either.

Ellen was then made to sit as relaxed as possible in a soft chair while those around her tried guiding her through various meditation and focusing drills. Count to ten. Focus on this tennis ball. Breathe deep. Hum. None of them seemed to work very well, though, and after about a half hour, she was quite discouraged.

"It's quite all right," Breanna said softly. "Most of us took a while to get through this part. It's the hardest part, for sure. Maybe we just need to try some other night."

Ellen was about to protest, but when she glanced at the clock, she realized it was getting late. She had told her parents that she was out with a friend to the mall and that she'd be back before ten, and it was already 9:49. "Yeah, I suppose I should be going or my dad will kill me."

With that, they all walked back toward the main room where the boys had been practicing and experimenting with various tricks of their own. After a round of good-byes, during which it was clear that Ellen was not the only one leaving, Tom said, "I'm glad you came. So… what did you think?"

Ellen paused while she looked about the roomful of what only four hours ago were total strangers but who she now considered to be among her closest friends. "I think I'll be back," she finally said with a broad smile. Fourteen smiles echoed hers as she slowly, almost reluctantly, turned to head out the door and to her car.

As she sat in her car, she stopped for a moment to think of all that had just happened this evening. She had been on the verge of a panic attack the last time she sat in this car, and now only a few hours plus a lifetime later, she felt an enormous sense of relief. She may not have gotten all the answers, but she got enough.

She drove home with a wide grin on her face, not once noticing the car that followed her.