Chapter 5: Broadcasting

ALL of this chapter just got erased! No getting it back! Sorry I took like two days off, but on Friday I had girl scouts, ate dinner, then went to the eighth grade performance of Bye Bye, Birdie (I have the "We love you Conrad" song stuck in my head now) then I went to sleep. This morning, I went to the Girl Scout Silver Career Award thing. It was held in a church. Two of the sessions I went to were in the chapel. I'm a Buddhist. It was kind of… intimidating. It's gonna be Sunday by the time I post this. It's Saturday now, though. Oh, and Lili's dad is NOT evil. Super-heckuv-bummer about the file, though, because I had, like, tons of stuff.

You'll learn about broadcasting, too. If I didn't mention it in the last chapter, broadcasting is when you take your thought and send it to someone else's head, like when Sasha repeated the phrase "Sometimes, isolation is a good thing. It can lead to… (I forget what kind of) possibilities." In Raz's head.

He was thinking about random stuff when he heard a very soft voice in his head. It was the voice of Lili.

Hey, Raz, you up yet? If you are, then look outside your door and send Zig back. And, by the way, if you don't learn broadcasting soon, you won't be my boyfriend anymore.

He opened his door. Sure enough, there was Zig. He felt her entering the part of his mind that controlled sight. It was okay, though, because that was how she saw.

"I hate how you think of me like that. I just like black, okay? I think it looks good on me! I'm not some emo goth! Jeez! Can't a person be quiet and like black without being depressed!"

"I… uh… Is that better?"

"Yeah. Just remember, dorkface, Lili isn't into depressed people."

"O…kay."

"Bye, then."

"'bye, Zig!"

A couple minutes later, he heard Lili's voice, but much stronger, in his head. Sorry about that. Zig just doesn't expect people she knows to think of her like that. At least, she thought you knew her. Apparently, you don't. Anyway, don't act bummed about my being grounded. I can get out of the building with a kitchen magnet, I can use Zig's account on the computer, and my dad knows it. All I have to worry about is the punishment for using my teleportation skills. And don't think they make exceptions for age! When I was seven, I had to stay in a GPC for a week for using mental blocks that hurt someone! Not like I knew any better! Oh, well. And Professor Meier teaches telepathy. Second door on your left down the stairs in the entrance area. Later, dorkface!

That was getting annoying. All these girls were reading his mind.

He went to the entrance area, walked down the stairs, and went until he saw a door on his left that said "Telepathy A."

Go away. Come back tomorrow, or the next day. I don't have time for extra-curricular activities now. I'm grading finals.

He opened the door. "Hey! Don't read my mind! I'm getting really mad because all of these… females are reading my mind!"

"It's my job to read minds. Now, go away." She sounded amazingly like Betty in Gloria's mind. The exasperation, everything.

"I want to learn broadcasting."

"I'm not teaching you so you can talk to your little girlfriend. Plus, I'm grading the summer Finals."

"I'll help you. They look like multiple-choice."

"Yeah. I guess… Oh, whatever. Make yourself a hole-punch graph and maybe I'll finish tomorrow."

"Okay!"

He took the hole punch on her desk and punched out little circles of paper exactly the same as hers.

"Okay. Mark them wrong if the circle isn't marked. On the ones with 2 circles, either are right. And if you don't give me Lili's, you're dead."

They finished before dinner.

"Okay, run along. I want dinner. It's gonna be past your bedtime by the time we're done with that."

"When should I come by tomorrow?"

"Darn it! You remembered. I'm not teaching you so you can talk to your little girlfriend while she's grounded."

He thought about that.

"Are you a Psychonaut?" He knew that not all of the teachers were. Some of them were in the last year of their training and needed to make money.

"Yeah, that's why I have such a sucky job. Of course I'm not a Psychonaut!"

"Well, then I outrank you. You have to teach me broadcasting."

"Okay. There is no way that you are a psychonaut."

"Actually, I am." He dug around in his backpack, producing his new, laminated card. "See?"

"Wow. I'm impressed. I guess I have to teach you. And I was hoping for a quiet Monday…"

"So… in the afternoon?"

"3:00, sharp. Oh, and would you tell Milla I'm done with her yoga tape? I didn't have to read your mind to know you know her, by the way. Sometimes we chat together."

"Okay!" He ran to the big cafeteria-structure, got dinner, and was looking around for Milla (honestly, who would ever be able to find Sasha in a government building?) when he heard her voice from his head. Look up, darling. He did. She was waving at him.

Now, remember that this is a building made for Psychonauts. They had a level on the ceiling, and various small platforms in the walls for Psicadets who didn't know advanced levitation. Also remember that Lili had taught Raz advanced levitation. He rose straight up, a little forward, and there he was.

"What's up, darling?" She waited for him to sit down. He sat across from her and Sasha.

"Stuff. I'm getting Professor Meier to teach me broadcasting."

Shasha looked startled, or surprised, or something. "Meier isn't a Psychonaut yet."

"She's one of the best at telepathy, darling." Milla turned back to Raz. "She's supposed to be very good, darling. I'm sure you'll learn in no time."

It seemed like she was hiding something.

"Milla? Are you –"

"I'm not telling you, darling. I just can't. Sasha, you tell him."

"You spoke to Lili earlier."

"Yeah?"

"She's grounded. She isn't allowed to talk to or communicate with anyone."

"She said her dad knows and he's fine with it, and it's just formal. She also said she's only afraid of the official punishment. Now that I think of it, she sounded a little scared. Not really scared, though. It wasn't even noticeable."

Apparently, Milla gained courage in that couple of seconds, because she said, "Darling, you should know. You won't be talking to her for at least two weeks. She's in a… Well, she's in a different state than usual."

"What did they do to her!"

"Darling, it's nothing to be alarmed about –"

"What did they do with Lili!"

Milla glared at him, mad at being interrupted when she was trying to tell him what was happening. It was, instead, Sasha who answered his question.

"The punishment for teleportation on its own, unlicensed, is three days in psychoisolation. With someone else, it's a week. With two people, it's ten days and a slight mind scramble. With three people, it's two weeks and a slight mind scramble. That's for under four miles. Psychonaut jets are supposed to land a minimum of five miles away from any place where they might cause harm. That's for the amount of psitanium. Lili Zanotto will be in psychoisolation for two and a half weeks, and during that time, her mind will be scrambled."

"That's horrible!"

"That's protocol."

"Darling, we're to blame. We let her."

"Then why aren't you in psychoisolation or whatever!"

"Do you know how hard it is, darling, to stand up and say that you want to go into psychoisolation and scrambling? Lili's father has taught her how to make it less painful. She can pull herself into her own mind and just stay there for two and a half weeks. Plus, she can reorganize and make everything the way she wants them to be. Did you know that while your mind isn't focusing on your body, you don't need food, water, or anything else? When your body doesn't function, all it needs is a decent climate."

"That's still mean to do to Lili."

"Listen, darling, she won't feel it! She's above their punishment! She doesn't have to care! She has figured out how the system works and is ripping it up from the inside!"

"Oh. Wait… Why didn't you tell me about the trial?"

"You had other matters, darling. We didn't go, either. As far as they were concerned, we were flying the jet while all this was going on."

"Oh. Okay. So, Mr. Zanotto's okay with this, too?"

"Did he send for us during the trial, darling?"

"Oh. Okay. Can I have my chicken/rice sludge?"

"Yes, darling."

Okay. Kinduva sucky chapter, and it was way better the first time, but I think it's kinduv okay. I think Milla's out-of-character at the end, but it's the easiest way to tell Raz the story. It isn't like I can have Sasha saying that stuff. And Milla doesn't say so, but she feels really, really guilty.

I'm working on my programming skills. I copied some cursors, backgrounds, and all that junk onto a document on Word. I still don't know how to compile it, but that's what I'm going to figure out.