It almost felt like my first day when I came back to school the following Monday. That was after a week of dealing with legal stuff since I'd been missing for like three weeks. I just said I'd run away and since I've done that before they didn't think twice about it. They chalked it up to the "anger issues" I apparently had and I went along with it. Unfortunately, I wasn't being let off the hook that easily.
For starters, I was given a curfew by authorities and if I broke it, I was off to Juvenile Detention or a group home where I could be kept a closer eye on.
And if that wasn't hard enough, Principal Perry was brought into the mess. She was to make sure I didn't ditch school at any point during the day. At first, they wanted to assign someone to be around me at all times but with the reputation Principal Perry had as a strict, no-nonsense Principal, she assured the authorities that she'd be watching me like a hawk.
So life's just peachy right now. I wish I could've said I was kidnapped by Douglas, but then my bionic secret would be exposed. So basically I'm suffering and it's all Douglas's fault.
I'm thinking about all of this as I open my locker to get my books for Chemistry. I try to ignore the whispers of students around me, but thanks to bionic hearing I can hear everything that's being said about me. And it wasn't comments like "oh I'm glad she's ok", more of "you see how awful she looks? " or "she just does this for attention". That last one made my blood boil. Sure, some people do stupid things to get attention, but I'm not like that. I hate it when people judge without knowing all the facts.
Now that I'm about ready to explode, Principal Perry makes an appearance and drops a thick stack of papers in my arms.
"What are these?" I asked.
"All your overdue assignments. You got one week to have them all finished and on my desk." I opened my mouth then closed it while looking at the stack that must have been three inches thick.
"You've got to be kidding me! There's no way I can get this all done by next Monday." I protested but my argument was invalid to Perry.
"Tough. Should have thought of that before you decided to disappear for three weeks."
"You know what-" Perry crossed her arms and the look she gave me made me think twice about what I was going to say. "N-Never mind."
"That's right. It's time you find out your place. I'm going to be watching you like a hawk. Capiche?"
I held my tongue and nodded, and she smirked, satisfied with this before leaving me alone. My hands were starting to shake as inwardly, I was seething. But somewhere through all the anger and frustration a little voice of reason told me I needed to calm down so I don't glitch.
Going back to facing my locker, I take a long deep breath to let the anger subside and calmly set the stack of papers on the shelf. After getting my stuff, I couldn't help myself and proceeded to slam my locker shut. It felt good for about two seconds until the door fell off and loudly hit the floor. My jaw went slack when this happened and then I remembered I had super strength. I felt the anger building up again and needed to release it but there were too many people around to do any of the things I wanted.
Blind with so many emotions bubbling up inside, I ran to the girl's bathroom and locked the door after checking that no one else was there. I wanted to punch, kick, do something but with my bionics I know it would make things worse. I resort to curling up in the corner and biting on my knuckles to stop myself from screaming.
I don't know why I'm acting this way, it was just a broken locker. Why am I getting so worked up about it?
I convince myself I'm being ridiculous and need to get my act together. I can't afford to mess up. I need to be strictly emotionless.
After giving myself a little pep talk I was good to go back out into the hallway just as the bell rang.
I marched into chemistry with as much confidence I could muster, but when I saw Leo sitting where Chase usually did I got confused.
"Welcome back, Miss McCallister." I broke my gaze from Leo to focus on Ms. Unger who walked over from her desk. "Leo will be your new lab partner. Chase was put in the more advanced chemistry class."
"O-Oh." Is all I said. What I wanted to really say was "can't it be anybody else?" but the bell rang and I had to sit down so the class could begin. I avoided eye contact with Leo, remembering when he said he hated me. The less we communicate the easier this will be. To my surprise, chemistry went by without any problems. Leo and I didn't speak one word to each other.
Except for Donald and Adam, no one else wanted anything to do with me. When I came to the lab a couple of days after being released upon Donald's request, Chase, Bree, and Leo made it a point to leave and not come down until I was gone. I told myself it didn't bother me, after all, I never wanted to be close with them anyway right? I only hung out with them because of tutoring and spying for Douglas. But that was all over and I could go back to doing my own thing. I just needed to find a way to tell Adam he shouldn't hang out with me without hurting his feelings and causing more drama.
During math class, I ignored him at all costs. He noticed that I was giving him the cold shoulder and at lunchtime found me at my locker. I guess now is the best time to do it.
"Hey, how's it going?" Funny, he didn't look too mad at me like I expected him to be. He looked nervous which caught my attention.
"What's wrong? You look like you're about to have a panic attack." Adam laughed nervously and he looked down at his hands.
"I need to tell you something but I'm worried what you will think." I jumped to the conclusion he was going to say he couldn't hang out with me anymore and decided to skip the awkward part.
"You don't need to explain yourself, I understand and I'm not mad at you. In fact, I kind of expected it, so there are no hard feelings." I let out a sigh of relief as I turned to get my lunch out of my locker. "Man, this is such a relief. I thought I'd have to tell you to back off and you'd hate me. But, looks like you beat me to it." Turning back around, I tilted my head when Adam didn't share my relief.
"I'm really confused about what's going on. I thought I came to ask you out on a date but I don't think that's what happened here." I blinked and wondered if I heard him right.
"You-You were what?" Adam rubbed the back of his neck and became bashful.
"I wanted to invite you over to watch a movie, didn't I tell you?" I shook my head quickly, suddenly having a hard time breathing.
"No, I thought you were going to tell me that you don't want to be friends with me anymore because it was driving a wedge between you and your family." Adam laughed while I remained frozen and still in shock.
"Wow, you were way off. And I thought I had trouble understanding conversations. But I'll just add it to the things I like about you." I pointed to myself.
"You like me?" I asked. He nodded. I suddenly wondered if he was insane. "Why?" That was all I could say. I couldn't wrap my mind around this.
"Why what?"
"Why would you like me? I- there are tons of prettier and funnier girls. Unless you're trying to play a cruel joke, there's no good reason why you should be asking me out." A surge of anger ran through me at this. "Is it? A joke? Because if it is, then you're dumber than people give you credit for because I'm not one to be easily fooled. So, if you'll kindly leave me alone I need to calm down before I knock the living daylights out of your head, though I doubt anyone's home up there." After finishing I stood there my hands in fists and shaking. Raising my right one, I saw my peanut butter sandwich was destroyed. I was about to go off again until I looked up and saw the crushed expression he wore. Oh-Oh no. He wasn't messing with me. Regret instantly filled me and I reached out to him.
"A-Adam." I stuttered but he was quick to leave me there, walking straight out the front doors. I was left there, feeling like a monster.
That night I groaned and dropped my head on my desk, hating Perry for the amount of homework I had. It was just too much and my head was hurting.
If only Chase wasn't mad at me or an egomaniac I'd seriously ask him to help me.
My head popped up when the solution came. Super Intelligence! If I can just install it, I'll breeze through this work in no time. I'll just have to sneak into the lab… suddenly all the excitement is gone. Did I really just automatically think to go behind Donny's back and upgrade my chip?
Chase's voice echoed in my mind. Liar. Manipulator. Self-centered. That last one wasn't said directly, but he heavily implied it.
Deep down I knew that it was the truth. I don't know why I'm like this though. It's just who I am as a person I guess. And I think it's too late to change.
Resolved to go through with the idea, I wondered how I'd do this. Laura wasn't home, which was stupid on her part. But if I leave there's a chance that she could be back before I am and there will be hell to pay.
Another light bulb appeared in my brain. Laura has a computer stashed underneath her bed that she doesn't use but hides it from me anyway. I use it every so often but give her the benefit of the doubt that I'm oblivious to its location.
With the computer, I could hack into his servers and download the upgrade via my USB finger. I found out I had thanks to Donald when he did a full scan of my bionic infrastructure.
My mind filled with doubt again when I was about to get up to run down the hall to get the laptop.
People like you never change.
I thought back to earlier when I went off on Adam. After how nice he's been to me, I called him dumb. If I can't be nice to someone who's been that way to me… it's true then. I can't change. This is who I am.
This is what I have to do to get through each day. No one would understand unless they're in my position.
Accepting this, I go get the computer and start hacking away. It was child's play, getting into Donald's system. He needs to put up a better firewall, though I probably think that because I'm supposed to be the greatest hacker in the world.
Once I'm in, it's pretty straight forward and I plug in my USB finger, groaning when I realize it'll take about an hour to download. Still shorter than Adam's list of foods. Ironic.
There were only fifteen minutes left and I thought I was going to get this done with zero complications. Until I heard a car door shut and my stomach dropped. Laura's home and I'm on her computer! I can't disconnect now or I'll have to start all over again.
Doing some quick thinking I bolt out of my room and into the bathroom, locking the door and turning on the shower just as the front door opened, all the while balancing the computer and doing everything I can to not disconnect my USB.
I heard Laura shout my name.
"I'm in the shower!" I yelled loud enough for her to hear.
She must have followed my voice because she started pounding on the door. "What!"
"Get out! I need to talk to you!"
"Can't you wait until I'm done in fifteen minutes!" I held my breath and what felt like hours went by was only seconds.
"Fine! Hurry up!" I waited until her footsteps went back into the living room before sighing and sliding down the shower door to sit on the ground.
The fifteen minutes were up and I dropped my head back to take a deep breath. This better be worth the trouble.
After stashing the computer in my room, for the time being, I went to see what Laura wanted.
"Finally." She said with a huff, taking a sip of her beer and I noticed an empty bottle already on the coffee table.
"What do you want?" I asked with a slight attitude, which proved to be a mistake.
"Watch your mouth!" She said and I held up my hands in surrender.
"Ok OK, I'm sorry." I apologized, hoping I didn't upset her too much.
"As you should be. Anyway, I'm going to be heading out of town for a week. Since I obviously can't trust you to be alone, you're going to be staying with your friend… the weird girl you told me about, Ree."
"Bree." My eyebrows drew together. "But wait, how did you-"
"Her father is Donald Davenport, it wasn't that hard to find his number and ask him. And he seemed happy to have you stay. Why I'll never know." I ignored the insult and focused on the fact that Laura would be out of my hair for a few days.
"When do you leave?"
"Tomorrow. You'll head over there straight after school. Got it?" I nodded, showing I understand. Then her expression became serious. "And if you even think about doing anything stupid… well I don't think I need to remind you of the consequences." I kept a poker face, even if deep down I was afraid. She hasn't been very harsh with me since I got back and I thought it was because she was trying to be extra careful that the authorities don't find out about her treatment of me. But the gleam in her eyes told me that she wasn't afraid of hurting me.
"Yes ma'am." I said and smirking she shooed me away and I didn't think twice about going back into my room. A part of me was glad id be free of the woman for however long she's gone but the downside was how the rest of Mr. Davenport's family was going to react when I show up. Do they even know?
Something told me Mr. Davenport was going to keep quiet and just wait until I show up with a suitcase then tell his family. Maybe that was the best way to do it…
Finishing the thought, I suddenly realized that my Super Intelligence should be ready to activate!
Sitting down at the desk again, I picked up a sheet filled with math problems.
Looking at the first one, I knew the answer instantly. 60
Another problem. 23
Looking at another paper, I read a question that asked what the capital of Lithuania was. Vilnius.
I laughed quietly, wanting to jump up and down in joy. It worked! I, Harper McCallister, am now the second smartest person in the world.