(A note from the author: Ok, I refuse to make the stupidarrow things, so, I'm typing telepathy in bold and in italics, so that it will be bold-italics from now on.)
Melissa, you're smart. You skim through the journal, then summarise it, Mike suggested.
"Okay! Sure!"
Melissa eagerly reached out for the journal, but Holly held onto it, out of Melissa's reach.
"Oh, no. That's ok. I'm smart too; I'll read it first," Holly said, but half opening the book, Melissa snatched it back.
"No way. I'll read it. Didn't you have that scrap of fabric?"
"Dangit…I dropped it somewhere."
What're they doing, Mike asked Michelle.
They wanna read the journal to see if Matt mentions them, I bet, Michelle answered, laughing silently.
"That's a good reason to check and see what dastardly plan Scott and Matt are up to," Gordon said sarcastically.
"Dastardly?" Geordie stared at Gordon incredulously, "Since when do you say word like 'dastardly'? That's more like something I would say."
"I've probably been hanging around you guys for too long," Gordon said thoughtfully.
"Whatever. Let's take a vote. Whoever's in favour of a boy reading the journal out loud so that all of us can know what's in it at the same time, raise a hand or paw," Phil announced, raising his paw. Er, hand.
Everyone raised a hand, excluding Michelle and Mike, considering they raised paws, and Melissa, who just didn't want to agree. Even the puppy raised a paw, mimicking Michelle's gesture.
"Aw…no fair," Melissa grumbled, "Holly and Michelle get guys that openly like them already. All I've got is my invisible, non-existent boyfriend the Ant-god Therbu."
Therbu! Mike tried raising an eyebrow, then remembered he was a dog, and cocked his head to one side instead.
Didn't I tell you? Melissa got really bored one recess in grade seven, and made up the Ant-god Therbu, Michelle smiled a dog's smile (Author's note: Dogs can smile!) Ever since then, he's been popping up everywhere.
"Moving right along, I self-elect myself to read the journal," Adam said, lifting up the journal towards him telekinetically and opening the book before anyone could stop him.
As Adam opened the journal to find something that might be of relevance or interest, Michelle demorphed and held the puppy as it fell asleep. Mike returned to human for as well and let Michelle lean on his shoulder. Gordon and Phil played Rock, Paper, Scissors for lack of anything better to do, while Geordie and Holly tried talking Melissa into healing Geordie's eyes.
"What're you gonna name her?" asked Mike to Michelle, gesturing towards the puppy.
"I'm kind of afraid to name her…" Michelle's voice trailed off.
"Your parents…?" Mike let the question hang in the air, and Michelle sighed.
"If it's not one, it's the other. I know they both like dogs, but dad may not want to spend all his time training it, and my mom won't want to clean up after it."
"Nat could help. He may pull pranks on you, but he listens to you. And Ivy. She's getting married next month, but that should be enough time to housebreak this puppy. And I'll help," Mike looked closely at Michelle, then said, "You've already named her, haven't you?"
"…yes…and that's kind of a bad thing. I'm becoming too attached to her."
Yeah, you only fed her with your milk, Mike thought, but instead he said, "What's the name?"
"Sagitar; Sadge for short. I got it from a book, I think, and I just like the sound of it."
Michelle sat up straight, and carefully put the puppy down on the ground. I kicked a little, rolled over, then continued on sleeping. Stretching, Michelle yawned, then let herself slouch a little.
"She's real cute, isn't she?" Mike murmured, putting his arms around Michelle.
"Wait until she tears up the house; then we'll see-"
"I was talking about you," Mike interrupted.
"Shut up."
Michelle pasted on a grin and elbowed Mike in the ribs, but quickly glanced at the boy flipping through the journal. Adam was watching her, but he quickly looked at the little, brown book again, and forced himself to read. Mike continued flirting.
"Well, you ar-"
"Didn't I say 'shut up'?"
"I didn't hear anything."
Michelle pushed away from a smiling Mike and glared at him. But after a moment she made herself smile at him again.
"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"
Michelle and Mike, startled, turned to see that Geordie and Holly were still arguing with Melissa.
"Why can't you heal his eyes?" Holly asked for the umpteenth time.
"I look so screwed up!" Geordie added (again).
"That's your own problem for being so sensitive about your name," Melissa shrugged, then suggested, "And stop using the same arguments over and over again. If it didn't work once, it won't work again. Can't you freeze ice to perfectly mold to your eye? Melt some water over it, then freeze it before it drips away."
"I haven't gotten so good as to be able to control fire and ice without being able to see it properly with both eyes," Geordie said, half annoyed that his fact was true, but also half proudly, considering that he'd bested the unbeatable, smart and intelligent Melissa.
"But you have to admit these eyes will draw attention to Geordie," Holly pointed out.
"I refuse to stoop to saying that I walked into a wall," he frowned, then added, "People might start to question what I've mixed myself up with on Thursday nights."
"Well…it's true…we don't need attention drawn to any of us…" Melissa nodded thoughtfully, then concentrated on Geordie's black eyes.
Slowly, as Holly watched, the black sircles faded to purple-blue, to dark red, to pink, and then to his normal colour of skin.
"That's better," Geordie mumbled, feeling carefully around his eyes, as if he might feel what colour they were.
"What he means is 'thank you'," Holly said to Melissa.
"Haven't you found anything useful yet?" Phil asked Adam.
"…not really," Adam answered, then smiled, "e writes a lot of crummy poetry in here, though. Oh! Melissa, you're in here."
"What does he say about me?" Melissa asked eagerly.
"It says, and I quote:
'Dear journal,
Melissa, this girl I met today, helped me out with my algebra homework during lunch today. I think I get what a monomial is now. It has something to do with algebra, and math. She was really…'"
At this point, Adam turned to Phil, pointing to the next word. Phil chuckled as he read,
"…'paytient' with me, since it took all of lunch for me to get it. Ill ask Scott what grade you don't need to take math in. Then I can put it into that calender Hannah gave to me last week. Hannah gave me a calender so that Id remember when our dates are. She thinks I ferget, but I don't. Its just that some of the times our dates are on are also when Scotts friends come over. Id tell Hannah about it but Scot said never to tell anyone about anything that has to do with our mutations. And Scotts friends are mutants like Scott and me…'"
"Stop. Stop."
Gordon waved his arms, drawing the others' attentions to him, and asked, "Does Matt mention 'Scott's friends' anywhere before this? If so, you should read that first."
"Finding out who they are and what they want would be really helpful right about now," said Geordie:I mean, for all we know, Scott's a pimp and his friends could be his-"
"Shut up!" Michelle exclaimed, "Not in front of the innocent puppy!"
"It doesn't say a thing…wait…" Adam quickly flipped a few pages back, then said, "Sorry. Two pages were stuck together with what looks like pizza sauce. Anyway, listen:
'…The friends Scott were telling me about came over today, to see if wed be any help. There were 4 guys. Well, 3 were guys, but 1 was a chick. 1 was this really old man. Another was this tall guy even compared to me and Im pretty tall. Plus, he had black eyes. And the last guy was this short dude in a big trench coat with bad posture. But I know why he wore the big trench coat. He was green! He had green skin and green hair! He didnt even dye it. It was always green! And the tall guy had long hair. He looked kind of like a lion. I thought the lady was hot, until I hound out that isn't what she really looks like. Shes blue! And has red hair, which looks really weird. And she said I was real shallow, and I dont know what she meant, but it didn't sound nice. But her voice is kind of cool. Her names Ms. Tik or something like that. The old guys named Magneto but I need to cal him Mr. Lensher in public. The green guys name is toad, and the tall guys Sabertoth. They've got cool names. Magneto says that since theyre mutants they had mutant names. He also said Scott and I should get mutant names too. I wonder what my name should be. Im strong and fast. Scott says im not smart and its true but thats got nothing to do with my mutation. Scotts jelus I think since he just has those elephent tusk things. I told him that maybe his name could be 'Elephent Man' but he got all mad. I dont see whats so bad about it. I think it sounds cool. Scott said I should be called 'Insipid' of 'Vapid'. I like the sound of 'Vapid'. I think it means fast. So that will be my name. And Scott is 'Ivwar'. He said that means 'ivory' in french. I guess its ok. But were not even french.'
And that's the end of the entry," Adam said, closing the book, then added, "I've got this strange urge to use spell check, suddenly."
"Is it just me, or does Matt seem a bit…simple?" asked Gordon, trying to put the question lightly.
Michelle and Holly nodded slowly, but Melissa shook her head.
"Just because he can't spell 'elephant'-"
"And 'patient' and 'calendar' and 'forget' and 'jealous'…" Adam trailed off after getting a glare from Melissa before she continued.
"Like I was saying, just because he can't spell 'elephant', doesn't mean that he's an idiot. Look at Adam," Melissa argued, "He spells 'glacier' like 'clacien'."
"Only once," defended Adam, "And I was under pressure. I mean, can you concentrate when Michelle's squinting her eyes at you because she actually knows the answer to the geography question, and three other people are depending on me to get the question right so that our team can actually get a point, and everyone else is jumping out of their chairs, screaming for their team-mates to write the answer down…I can't write under that kind of pressure!"
"Are you actually admitting that Adam's not an idiot?" Phil asked.
Melissa opened her mouth to argue again, then sighed instead.
"Come on, you guys. Matt's all I have."
"You don't even have him," Geordie pointed out.
Melissa slouched.
"Exactly."
Mike thought for a moment, then asked, "Why'd Scott get all huffy about being called 'Elephant Man'?"
"There was this really old, black and white movie about an elephant man, who was a man, but with a really deformed head, making him look like he had an elephant's forehead," Geordie answered.
"Yeah, I saw that movie," Phil said, "He didn't need to sleep, and he was supposed to be really smart, probably due to the huge brain in his head."
Mike nodded, while Michelle rolled her eyes and said, "Yeah, that's relevant. Anyway, what do these so-called friends want?"
"I haven't found that yet," answered Adam, as he paged through Matt's journal again, "Give me more time."
"Oh s(bleep)!" Geordie suddenly yelled, "What time is it!"
(Author's note: Why can't I put asterisks? Whenever I do, they disappear when I load the text into Document Manager. WHY?)
Gordon realized that it had steadily been getting darker. Now, the sun was just disappearing behind some houses.
"It's…past 8 o'clock!" he groaned, glancing at his watch.
"Nat will be finishing his homework soon, and my parents and Ivy are coming home in less than 15 minutes…" Michelle thought wildly, "I'll have to morph and carry Sadge in order to get home before they find out I'm not there."
"I told mom and dad I'd be home by eight," Holly thought.
"I have math homework, don't I?" thought Geordie, "...meh. I'll finish it tomorrow morning."
"I'm supposed to feed the cats' dinner today," thought Melissa, "They're not going to be happy with a late meal."
"I told Kael I'd meet him on MSN by eight," Gordon mentally kicked himself.
"I was supposed to play Pac-Man with Nat once he was done his homework, wasn't I?" thought Mike.
"Do I have anything planned?" Phil asked himself, then snapped his fingers, "Oh yeah. I was going to watch 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' for the 98th time this month."
"Why does everyone seem to have plans today?" thought Adam, eavesdropping on everyone else's thoughts, "Except for maybe me. I have nothing to do today."
"Phil, Melissa, why don't you two teleport everyone into their rooms before they get into trouble?" Mike suggested.
"But I haven't been into everyone's room. I need to know what I'm getting myself into," Phil said.
"What if everybody visualised what their room looks like, then Adam showed you?" suggested Holly, "Wouldn't that work?"
"There's only one way to find out," Adam said.
He and Phil latched onto Melissa's arms, and Holly hung onto her shoulder.
"I know that Phil's never been into my room," siad Holly, "Now Adam, this is what it looks like."
"How do you know?" thought Phil to himself.
Holly mentally simulated her room, recalling where her bed was, the desk, her bookshelf, even the 37 pictures and the 'Fellowship of the Ring' poster on the walls, as well as what curtains she had.
"That's great," Adam said, "The more detailed the better. Think you could show me the floor?"
Holly nodded, and visualised the latest state of her dirty laundry pile by her closet, her clean laundry pile by the foot of her bed, the textbooks and homework pile on and around her desk, and her instrument, music, and music binders pile by the music stand she jacked from her school's music room.
"You stole a music stand!" Adam exclaimed.
"Like you never did," Phil reminded Adam.
"Good point. Never mind."
Adam took Holly's mental picture and sent it over to Phil.
"Ok. I'm teleporting now, and if any of you don't want to go anymore, well too bad," Phil announced.
A puff of blue smoke replaced the four teens, then Phil, Melissa, and Adam returned.
"All in one piece," commented Michelle, "That's good. But why do you all look so disgruntled?"
"One of Holly's dogs was on her bed," answered Phil.
"It bit Melissa, growled at Phil, and licked me," Adam complained, still wiping drool off of his chin.
"It must have smelled 'cat' on Phil and Melissa," said Gordon thoughtfully.
"I'm allergic to fur..." Adam grumbled angrily.
"It can't be that bad," Mike said, "You're not dead on account of Sadge here," he added, gesturing towards the still napping puppy.
"Oh, so you've named her now," Adam said, still ticked off and checking his chin for more drool.
Michelle shrugged, then said, "Great. Now that we konw that the whole 'image transfer' thing works, we all need to get home. Phil, Adam and Melissa; all of you get Gordon home. Phil, I'm assuming you've seen Geordie's room before, and you've seen my room, so those shouldn't be a problem. Oh, and Adam? I don't think you need to go with Phil and Melissa once Phil knows what the place looks like."
"Ok, great," Phil interrupted, "So let's go now. First Gordon, then Geordie, then I'll take Mike, Michelle and the dog, then Adam, and finally Melissa. Are we good?"
"Yup," said Adam, already checking Gordon's mental picture of his room.
(about 15 minutes later...)
"Adam, you might as well come with us so that we save time," said Melissa.
"Meh. Ok," Adam said, then asked, "Do we all really need to be in contact with Melissa? I mean, Melissa get the other person's mutation, so why can't the other person get hers? You know what I mean?"
"That might work..." nodded Phil, thoughtfully, "Let's try it."
Phil took Adam's hand, who took Melissa's hand; Melissa latched onto Mike, who held Michelle's hand, and the latter held onto Sagitar.
"Let's hope this works," Michelle muttered to Sagitar.
Phil visualised Michelle's room, then, taking a deep breath, he teleported...
...and in a moment, all five teens and the one dog were in Michelle's room. Sagitar wriggled out of Michelle's arms, landing on her bed, and began sniffing around.
"Well," Melissa started breathing again.
"Oo...my room," Michelle said, sitting on her bed.
"Idiot," Adam teased, grinning.
"Shut up," Michelle and Mike said in unison, with different undertones.
"What do we do about Matt and Scott now?" Melissa asked after a moment.
Michelle, Adam and Mike thought for a moment, then all said,
"Watch them."
"May as well keep an eye on them; see what they're up to," Mike added.
"Maybe we can find out whatever Magneto wants," put in Adam.
"Sounds good," Melissa agreed as Phil nodded.