5th period was extremely quiet—on the outside. What was I thinking when I signed up for Enrichment Reading? It's pure torture for a mind reader! Mrs. Lyons lets us listen to our iPods and mp3s, but that just makes it worse. Everyone reading inside their heads made it practically impossible for me to concentrate on my own book.
So 6th period was a relief—to an extent.
I walked through the door, my right arm carrying my binder, and my left hand rubbing my temples.
"Hello," a male voice said when I walked in. "You must be Rosalinda."
"Rose," I corrected him. The only people allowed to use my full name was my family, and that was only when I was in serious trouble.
"Well, Rose," he said, "I'm your biology teacher, Mr. Block." He handed me a book titled, Life Science Biology: For High School Students. "Here's your book, and the only spot we have available is next to Erik Masen in the back."
That froze me. Erik Masen? My one exception to the Power that nearly drove me suicidal last period?
I started looking frantically for him, for the empty seat next to him. It was slightly difficult; most people hadn't taken their seats yet. So I started looking for him with my mind, which caused more pain due to the headache, looking for the peace I found at lunch when I tried to read his mind.
"Erik." Mr. Block said. Then I found him with my mind—and eyes.
"Yes, Mr. Block?" Erik asked in his velvet voice.
Mr. Block directed me down the aisle to the seat. "Erik, this your new lab partner, Rose Montoya. You don't mind sharing, do you?"
"Of course not." Erik said. I sat down on the stool.
"Good." Mr. Block said, and then he spoke to me. "Today we'll be doing a lab on the six steps of mitosis. Are you alright with that, or do we need to postpone that?"
"I'm fine." I replied.
"Alright." Then he walked to the cart full of slides and started passing them out among the tables.
"Hi, again," Erik said to me.
I groaned, not out of rudeness, out of the pain of my headache.
Erik was quiet a moment, registering the greeting I gave to him. Then he said, "Did you just come from Enrichment Reading?"
"Yeah," I groaned. "How'd you know?"
"I originally enrolled there, thinking it was safe." He paused.
"It isn't," we said together.
"That's what I found out. I went to 6th period with the hugest headache I'd ever faced. I couldn't pay attention to anything, and if someone asked me a question, or even talked to me for that matter, I would just groan."
"Oh good," I said. "You feel my pain."
"Yeah, I do. Look, go to the office after school and say you originally enrolled for Creative Writing, but they screwed up and put you in the wrong class. And they'll switch you out."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that."
Mr. Block put six slides on our table, and then returned to the front of the classroom.
"Isn't Creative Writing just as bad?"
"No. Actually, it's helpful. If you've got writers' block, then you can take others' ideas and revise them enough to make them your own."
"Wouldn't that be cheating, in a way?"
"Nope."
The bell rang, and students rushed to get into their seats before being marked tardy.
"Alright. Good morning, class." Mr. Block said. "Today, I have placed six slides on your table. You are to analyze them into the six stages of mitosis. You have twenty minutes."
And with that, kids started grabbing their books and turning to the right pages. I closed my eyes, put my head on the edge of the table, and started rubbing my temples again.
"If your head hurts too much to do it, I can do it for you." Erik offered.
I sighed and sat up. "I'm fine." I lied. I grabbed a slide and slid it into place on the microscope stage. "Metaphase." I said.
He slid the slide out, placed it on the counter, and put another one in. "You know, my family's name was said at least once today during lunch, but your family's never was." He looked into the microscope, and then said, "Telephase."
"If you're curious, all you have to do is ask." I took the slide out and placed it a few inches from Metaphase, then slid the next one in. "Cytokinesis."
"Well, I am quite curious, but since you know that, I don't think I'll need to ask." He took the slide out and placed it next to Telephase. Then slid the next in. "Interphase."
"Alright," I took Interphase out and put it at the front, and then slid the next one in. We were almost done, and five minutes hadn't even passed yet. "What do you want to know? Anaphase."
"I thought you knew that." He chuckled. "This last slide has to be Prophase; we've already done the rest."
"And only five minutes have passed." In a way, I was amazed. I raised my hand.
"Yes, Ms. Montoya?" Mr. Block came towards us.
"We finished." Erik answered.
I pointed to the slides as I said their name, "Interphase, Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, Telephase, and Cytokinesis."
"The only one that doesn't end in 'phase'," Erik pointed out. I rolled my eyes.
"All in order, just like we had to do."
"In just five minutes?" Mr. Block was more than amazed—he was astonished, a lot like how Mrs. Gregory was in 4th period. After all, it was only my first day here.
"Yeah, we worked pretty fast," Erik explained.
Mr. Block was silent for a moment. They had to have cheated somehow, he thought, there's just no possible way they could've done it that fast, and without their books, as well. Surprise, surprise, Mr. Block! We go fast.
"Alright, then," he said, still shocked. "I guess you can spend the rest out of the time talking or reading." And with that, he walked away, back to his desk.
"The girl on your left, at the very end," I started telling Erik about my family. "You know, the one that looked almost exactly like me, at lunch? That's Ashlie. She's telepathic."
"Telepathic?" it was his turn to be shocked. "Is it even possible to get a Power like that?"
"Obviously, since she has it. But it breaks down into two Powers: telepathy and telekinesis. Do you know what those are?"
"Telepathy is the way of talking through the mind, and telekinesis is the way to move inanimate objects with your mind. Did I get it right?"
"Precisely." He smiled, probably out of triumph. I continued. "The red-headed girl kind of behind her, that's Jamie. She's a different kind of Psychic."
"Different how? We thought all Psychics were the same."
"Well, you're wrong on that. Jamie doesn't see the future; she just hears and feels it, and is very specific. And if by 'we' you mean you and your Pixie-like sister, then you're both wrong."
"Pixie-like sister?"
"The little black-haired girl that was standing next to you…um, I think you called her Aliss."
Understanding washed over his face. "Oh. Her full name is Alisson."
"Then why don't you call her Ali?"
"She prefers Aliss." He paused for a second. "Indecision doesn't bother her, then?
"Not really; it just makes her Power a little more irritable." I thought of how I was going to explain Drew to him. "The only boy that was there, in the back, his name is Drew."
"What's his Power?"
"It's…complicated." He waited, so I just gave my best shot at it. "Drew's Power is small, but especially unique. We don't think there's another trick out there like his. Drew can sort of see relationships. He can feel them, and he can influence or break them. It's really weird."
"Yeah, I think that is one of a kind."
"Yeah. And then there's Taylor, and she can make all our Powers combined look like parlor tricks." I stopped, wondering if he was ready to hear this, and checking if anyone else was in hearing range.
"Go on," he urged.
"I'm not entirely sure you should hear this part."
"I can handle it," he pressed.
I took a deep breath. "'Kay, but don't freak out." I lowered my voice till it was just barley over a whisper, and leaned in close. "All Taylor has to do is think. She thinks of whatever she wants and snaps her fingers. And whatever she was thinking of is right there, right in front of her. It just comes out of thin air—almost nowhere. And vice versa.
"And then she has this other Power: she can Sense what other MFs' Powers are. And that's exactly what we call it, Sense." I backed up a few inches to look at Erik's face. There was a mix of emotions: shock, confusion, maybe a little jealousy, flashing back and forth on his face, until he finally settled on being confused.
"How? How does she do that?" he muttered, mostly to himself.
"We don't know. She just does." Then he brought up another topic.
"MFs?"
"Mutated Freaks," I explained." Like us, right?"
"Wow." Erik was quiet for a moment. "Is it just the five of you?"
"Yeah, just us. What about you?"
"No. We have Carl and Emily. They stopped growing at unusual ages."
"How unusual?"
"He's 23 and she's 26."
"Whoa. I thought we all stopped growing in our teens."
"Apparently not." He brought up a new topic. "Ok, so now I know your family, but you don't know all of mine."
"I know enough."
"Really? Like what?"
"The big one, Ethan, is physically strong; the curly blond, um, Jayson, he can feel emotions and calm everyone down or excite them; Aliss is Psychic; and you're a mind reader."
"What about Rosalynn?"
"You won't mind?"
"I won't mind what?"
"Your sister, Rosalynn…Wow. Now that is a dumb blond." Erik didn't look insulted. "God, did you hear her thoughts during lunch?"
He laughed. "I did, actually. I wasn't very surprised they were on your sister instead of the table. What did surprise me was the fact that she thought Ashlie was human."
"Your brother was considering it. 'Amazing. They aren't backing away from us, or worrying. They're completely calm. Could they be part of our kind? It's possible they're just overconfident…'" I quoted Jayson's thoughts perfectly.
"Was Jayson thinking that?"
"Yeah. He was right about one part, though."
"And which part would that be?"
"We are overconfident. And most of the time it gets us in trouble." We laughed together now.
"And look at that," he said, "You've completely forgotten your headache."
"Well, not completely. I'm still fairly conscious of it."
"Maybe it's your subconscious that remembers it. But your head does feel better, doesn't it?"
"Definitely." I remembered what happened during lunch. I still wasn't sure what had happened; maybe he knew. "Why do you think it happens?" I asked, whispering.
"Why do I think what happens?" he whispered back, obviously confused. Wow. It was pretty easy to confuse him.
"The mind reading thing with you and me," I tried to explain, but he just got more confused. I tried a different way. "Why I can't read your mind and why you can't read mine."
Understanding washed over his face, and then the confusion returned. "I honestly don't know. It's weird, yet, at the same time, it's…nice. You know?"
"Yeah. It's like right where your thoughts should be, there's…nothing, which feels really uncomfortable, but I enjoy it."
"Yeah, and then the more I focus on trying to hear your thoughts, the less I hear from everyone else."
"I know."
"Alright, class. Your time is up." Mr. Block interrupted our conversation, and everyone's confusion. Except, everyone else was confused on which slide was which, not why they can't hear each others' thoughts.
From there, Mr. Block continued the lesson. I wasn't paying very much attention, being more focused on finding a logical explanation for the problem Erik and I both share.
When the bell rang, students jumped out of their seats and rushed out the door, thrilled that the school day was almost over. I was gathering my things together when Erik asked, "What class do you have next?"
I looked at my schedule. "Gym." I groaned.
"You know, gym isn't actually that bad. Coach K and B let us listen to our iPods and mp3s when we run the mile."
"And how is that good?" I highly doubted that my iPod would help me.
"Because Gym is my next class, and today," he smiled, "we run the mile." Erik said. And being in another class with Erik was all I needed. Plus, I love running.
"Alright, let's go." I mumbled, mostly to myself. "Lead the way." Erik looked shocked for a moment, and then smiled crookedly.
"'Kay, let's go."
