Chapter 15: Side Story 1: Magnolia Gray

"Lia, are you done honey?"

"Yes mom, I'll be downstairs in a minute ok?" I placed the brush down in the dresser and looked at my reflection one last time. I took a deep breath and pumped my fist in the air.

I'm going to make friends this year for sure!

Today is first day of class in Esper Psychic Academy. It's a school for psychics, specifically for those who have trouble controlling their abilities, but it's also a place for those troubled psychics who have trouble in fitting in...Like me.

People back in my old school call me a freak. They don't like how I can read their minds like an open book. Frankly, I don't either; all they care about is their make-up, their new car and the next girl they are going to get laid with. I was bullied a lot by others and so my parents withdrew me from that place and we transferred to New York and enrolled me in EPA. You see, my aunt is a psychic as well, and she brought me to be tested if I'm psychic as well. When I was diagnosed as psychic, they enrolled me in EPA knowing it's a good school who offers top notch security, very low media profile and me being comfortable in an environment with people who are like me.

"Honey, we can drop you off to school if you want too?" my mom pleaded but her green eyes tell me that she wants to drop me to school. I smiled and nodded my head. Well, ever since the bullying, my parents doubled their protective instincts. Heck, my dad even sued the school for not: he quotes "taking care of the students well being..." where 'like my daughter 'is implied somewhere between those lines. But I'm really happy that they chose to move with me in another city and use business as an excuse to watch over me. My dad parked at the entrance of the school building and looked at me warily.

"Sweetheart, you know that you can tell me is you don't feel comfortable...okay, scratch that, promise me you'll tell me if someone/something is bothering you okay...and I'll make sure to make their lives a living hell" obviously the latter part is barely audible, but I giggled and kissed my dad and my mom good bye.

"I'll be fine dad. Thank you for dropping me to school, and I heard that by the way...I love you" Once they were out of sight the nervousness slowly comes back. I took a deep breath and head inside the building. The moment I reached the cafeteria, I was amazed at the place. I saw a guy sitting in the air acting as if nothing's wrong with the world. There were also a couple of people making things float in the air and some students can teleport from one place to another. I was stunned, I knew that this campus is specifically for psychics and that I am psychic as well but I never thought that it would feel this surreal. I sat on one of the vacant tables and trying to not look obvious at looking in awe of my new schoolmates. So far, I noticed that there's a bit of stereotyping in this school, but not in a negative way. I read some of the minds of some of the students and figured that they only hang out in a group because they feel mutual in some way or another but they also hangout with the other guys of course. The first table to my right were crowded my those rich little girls with makeup and designer bags, clothes, heels etc. And they were talking about the famous pageant that's going to be held in two months. The second table across from them are kinda gives an aura like: "Were 'cool' guys!" they look like models of different brands of clothes and, they are, very good looking. The rest are a mix of either of any races. But one table caught my eye. The table includes four people, two boys and two girls. The girl with ash brown hair seems to be happily giggling at something that the guy with green hair. The other guy with silver hair is quietly smiling at both of them however, the girl next to him is staring at them indifferently and just now, glared hard at the guy attempting to take a picture of the beautiful ash-brown haired girl.

"Oh. My. GOD! It's Eisen!" I heard one of the sassy girls scream with class, fanning herself like the whole room had gone 43 degrees Celsius. At the same time, It looked like the whole cafeteria froze as the man with ebony hair and beautiful amethyst eyes passed by along with a tall man with dark hair and slate blue eyes.

"Hey Eisen, you done with the meeting?" the guy with dark green hair waved.

"Yes" was his curt reply. And just then the bell rang. I scurried to gather my things but instead of gathering them, I accidentally dropped all of my notebooks on the floor. Wow, way to go Magnolia Gray, you are the world's clumsiest girl in the face of the planet. As I gathered my notebooks, I saw the green-haired boy from the 'popular table' helping me out.

"Here you go, Ms. Transfer Student" he gave me a friendly smile.

"O-oh, t-thanks." I shyly dipped my head wanting the ground to swallow me for no reason.

"My name is Cloi Alexanderz, pleased to meet you Ms-?" he extended a hand

"Magnolia Gray..." I shook his hand as he gave me a warm friendly smile.

"Can I call you Lia, for short..."

"Y-yes, I don't mind" I blushed.

"O-kay, so Lia, what's your first subject?"

"Uhh, Mental-Psychical Exercises..." I asked unsure of it.

"Ahhh, that makes us classmates then" he chirped and grabbed my hand.

"Lets go!"

~lunchbreak~

"So Lia, how do you find EPA?" he asks.

"Uhh, I'm still amazed at this place." He chuckles.

"I know what you mean, so, how come you ended up here? Well, I mean, you said during class you have telepathy and you can actually blend in with the normal people?" he asks

"Uhh, they kinda freaked out since I can read their minds, and i-was...b-bullied. So my parents moved to New York and enrolled me here"

"Ohhh, I see. Well, my parents wanted me to study here thinking I could control my mental projection better and try not to freak as many people as possible in the future." He smirked.

"Want to have lunch with my friends, I could introduce you to them?"

Come on Lia, this is your chance to make some friends! Go for it!

"Y-yes please" he smiled and took my arm, and lead me to a table. Minutes later the girl with ash brown hair settled in one of the chairs.

"Why hello! It's finally nice to meet you! I'm Angelica Midgard, but I prefer you call me Angelie" She gave a very sweet smile that made me smile fondly as well. I feel very comfortable around her.

"Oh here comes Cyril and Anise" Cloi said.

"Oh, it's the transfer student! Hi!" he gave me an outstretched hand and I gladly shook it.

"Cyril Cloi Sinclair, and meet my cousin, Anise Sinclair"

"Cyril, I am talking to, I told I need a mod-" suddenly she looks at me from head to toe, then back at the paper she's holding, and then back at me vice-versa, then smiled..sickly sweet.

"Hello, nice to meet you" I froze when I accidentally heard her inner thoughts..: "I found my model...mwahahhaha" I gulped. I didn't notice at first but I felt someone sit beside me, when I turned I saw the amethyst eyed guy from earlier.

"Oh, guys, meet Magnolia Gray. Lia, these are Eisen Klein and Alexis Schyler." Cloi introduced them to me. Alexis nodded in my direction as if acknowledging my presence, while Eisen gave me a barely visible smile.

"So, what's your ability?" Angelie asked.

"I-I'd rather show you than tell you. You can guess though." I said.

"Okay, so Angelie you are a healer, Cyril you have cyrokinesis, Anise you have pyrokinesis, Cloi you have the ability to differentiate between the living and the dead, Alexis you are an onmyouji in training and Eisen..."

"I would prefer you kept my abilities to yourself. I would guess you had..." Eisen interrupted me before being interrupted himself.

"I don't get it. How does she know this stuff?" Anise asked. 'It's like she's telepathic or something.' She complained in her head.

"That's exactly what I am Anise." I answered to her unspoken thought.

"Wait, what are you talking about? Anise didn't even speak." Cyril said. Anise's eyes were wide though. Alexis started smirking as he had also guessed what I am.

"Ohh, you mean to say you're..." Angelie started as I nodded. Only Cyril still seemed to have not guessed yet as he still sat with a confused look on his face. The others were displaying a range of different expressions though, from Anise's scowl to Cloi's wide grin. 'Argh, this is so frustrating, what exactly is it I'm supposed to be guessing?' Cyril thought. 'Well, I guess whatever she can do it's enough to freak Anise out.' He then smirked at the thought. I cracked a smile too. 'Wow, she kinda looks pretty when she smiles and doesn't look worried.'

"Thank you for the compliment Cyril." I announced hoping to encourage his guess of my powers.

"What compliment? I didn't say anything."

"True, but you thought I looked pretty when I smiled."No-one's ever said that to me. Well, except...

"Enough of this. She's telepathic Cyril." Anise huffed. Cloi laughed at Cyril's expression.

"So you can read thoughts?" Cyril asked. I nodded shyly.

"I sometimes can't tell the difference between someone speaking and thinking though so I respond to someone's thoughts and it usually freaks people out. It even makes people wary of being around me as I can hear even their innermost secrets, things that someone doesn't want people to know. You probably won't want to be friends with me now that you know what I can do." I explained.

"No, that's not true ." Angelie said.

"Of course we want to be your friend." Cloi voiced.

"You are most welcome in our group." Eisen added.

"I'm not sure." Anise interjected. "She could learn something she shouldn't."

"Anise, stop being so mean." Cyril chided his cousin. "It must have taken a lot for her to tell us that. She needs friends."

"Fine, but don't blame me when it all goes wrong." Anise huffed. I looked warily at Anise and her frown deepened at me.

Guess I should've known. Oh well, at least I'm not the only freak here.

"I...um...this probably isn't a good idea." I said sadly and made to get up and leave. A hand on my arm stopped me. I looked up to see it belonged to Alexis, the only one who hadn't commented or said much this whole time.

"Ignore her." He said quietly. "She just doesn't trust easily." I nodded and sat back down.

"So, ever had a boyfriend?" Angelie asked more enthusiastically than necessary. I blushed a little and shyly nodded.

"Ooh, tell me, tell me." She insisted.

"I-I...um...he was about the only...um...person to not be freaked out by what I could do." I admitted.

"Details woman, we need details." Cyril said trying to make up for his cousin's lack of manners and be friendly.

"What was this guy's name?"

"His...um...his name was Kitai." I informed.

"Ooh, that's Japanese for hope. Interesting name." Cloi added.

"You know Japanese?" I asked. He nodded.

"I am Japanese." He said.

"Wow, really?" Again Cloi nodded. 'Whatever! Maybe I was wrong about wanting her as my model. She should stop pandering to everyone, it's not like she doesn't know this stuff as she can read minds.' Anise thought. I frowned at that, but ignored it.

"So was this Kitai guy Japanese?" Angelie questioned. I let out a small giggle.

"No, his parents were just inspired by a visit there."

"Oh, I see." She commented.

"You have any siblings?" I asked everyone as I thought I should also ask them stuff about themselves. 'Again with the stupid questions. She can read minds, why bother asking?!' Anise's thought screamed. My patience with her finally snapped.

"Do you have a problem with me? If you do then say so instead of thinking such nasty things because although the others can't hear you I can." I demanded.

"Yeah, I have a problem. Why keep asking questions you already know the answer to?"

"Contrary to your belief, I don't know everything about everyone. Sure I can read thoughts, but that doesn't automatically mean I know everything about someone. Besides it's rather rude to not ask the person directly about themselves. I much prefer to ask even if I do already know the answer as that is how a conversation works." Cyril started clapping which made Cloi laugh.

"You got told." Cyril said to his cousin. A smile started to faintly appear on Anise's lips.

"I believe I have just gained a new respect for you." She admitted.

"Well, now that's settled I believe the bell for next lesson is about to ring. " Eisen informed. We all got up so we could go collect our things for our next lesson.

"So, what lesson do you have now?" Cloi asked as he sidled up to me. I looked on my lesson plan.

"U-um...oh, something normal, English." I said with slight surprise. Cloi chuckled.

"I guess you're with Eisen and Alexis then as that's what they have now. See you later." He jogged off to find his own class. I looked at the two quietest members of the group.

"Right this way, Lia is it?" Eisen declared placing a gentle guiding hand on my back. I nodded to tell him he had my name right. He directed me to a desk between him and Alexis for me to sit at. The lesson started and some of us were called up to write stuff on the board. When it was my turn and I had finished writing my answering sentence on the board some of the class murmured that I apparently had a spelling problem as words were spelt wrong. I double-checked what I had written and saw nothing wrong with it, everything was just fine. I started to feel worried and ashamed.

What is the problem? I don't understand. It's happening again, everyone thinks I'm a freak.

Eisen then stood up and cleared his throat making the entire class look at him.

"In actuality everything on the board is written correctly for where Lia is from." He said.

"Lia is from England so there are certain spelling differences between there and here. Also there are certain word differences too." He informed. The rest of the class shrugged at this and I blushed in gratitude for Eisen's words before going and sitting back in my seat. I gave Eisen a peak and whispered a shy 'thank you' but he just gave me a small smile. Speaking of Eisen, he's very weird. I mean, I can't read his mind! And it never happened to me before. Well, he was about to cut me off earlier but I actually have nothing to say about his ability...he's so...so...shady...uhh...mysterious.

"Is there something wrong with my face?" he asks and I want to slap my face when I realized that I was staring at him! Great, now he thinks I'm some creepy fangirl...

"Ughhh great! Don't tell me you're also one of them?!" Anise did a facepalm whilst pointing to a group of girls snickering, giggling and passing around pictures.

"GOD! He is so perfect! And ooohh, his skin is looks so smooth I want to run my hands all over him!"

"No shit, Sherlock! I want to jump him too!"

"I wonder how beautiful his face would look while in the throes of pleasure"

"Yeah! I want to watch him cu-"

Okay! I cut off the connection and focused on the board where our professor was scribbling things about paranormal activity and its effect on various psychics. I am, no doubt, blushing madly.

"Well?" Anise crossed her arms, trying to clarify the situation.

"Oh my god no!" I said too loud for my own good. All heads turned towards me and instantly, I shrink back at my seat.

"Ms. Gray? Is something wrong?" the professor asked, unsure of my sudden outburst.

"No, sorry, I-uhhh"

"She was talking to me sir" Anise said. The professor raised an eyebrow and turned back to the blackboard.

"Okay, I think I respect you now" Anise grinned at me.

"Welcome to EPA Magnolia Gray, and I must say. Want to go shopping with me on Saturday? We could have a pretty girls day." She gave me an evil smirk and I gulped. Her inner thoughts were: YOU'RE GOING TO BE MY LIVING BARBIE FROM NOW ON!

A/N: YEY! I finished it! THANK YOU TREELOW955. A lot of credit goes to her for helping me complete this chapter! Wohoo~ cheers

COMING UP NEXT: THE LITTLE GIRL'S LULLABY