A/N: In which I regurgitate every phrase I have ever heard about physics in one incomprehensible paragraph. Star trek writers would be proud of my command of Technobabble. Also, it has been 8 years since I was at Disneyland. This is all from memory and internet research. I contradicted myself in the last chapter when I said Jenny had never been kissed. I went back to chapter five and deleted the lines where I said she had had some experience. Now the time/space continuum has been corrected and a black hole will not swallow this fic and everyone in it to the 11th dimension where Disney characters are all real. Aren't you relieved?

The Blue Bayou Restaurant was attached to the recently remodeled Pirates of the Caribbean Ride. They were seated overlooking a veranda that looked out at a simulated outdoor swamp, which was actually the beginning of the Pirates of the Caribbean Ride. Since they had enjoyed this ride earlier today and seen people dinning at the restaurant then, it was interesting to be on the other side.

Jenny and Matilda ordered dinner. Matilda had never tasted Cajun style food, but she looked forward to it with relish. As they waited for their food to come, they chatted about different things, their favorite rides, for instance. Matilda's was Space Mountain. Jenny liked the Haunted House. They debated the merits of ambiance vs. sheer thrills back and forth, before finally agreeing that both had their merits.

"But remember how the room started stretching? Wasn't that incredible?"

Eventually the conversation died down, and both of them had looked petulantly down at the empty space in front of them. The food was taking a very long time to arrive. It had better be worth it when it finally did.

"Do you mind explaining to me exactly how your power works?" Jennifer finally asked.

Matilda frowned and considered the question carefully before answering. "Actually, I don't know. I've got theories, but I'm going to need to learn a lot more about Quantum Physics, stuff that hasn't even been discovered yet, in order to really get a clear picture of what's happening. What I do must involve both quantum mechanics and general relativity and the scientific community hasn't reconciled those two theories completely yet. String Theory has some interesting things to say on that front, but it hasn't really been proven in any conclusive way. Schrödinger's Paradox of the cat in the box who is both dead and alive at the same time has been itching at me for some time now. It's got something to do with the spin factor of quarks, it must have. I really think the answer is there somewhere, but I just can't seem to get to it. I'm going to need to learn a whole lot more, that's obvious."

Jenny was not dumb in anyway, and though she taught first graders, that was out of love, and not because she wasn't qualified to teach at a higher level. But she also wasn't a genius at science in the way Matilda was either, and while she tried to keep abreast of what the scientific community was up to, she was strictly a lay person in that regard. So she smiled weakly, and said, "That's all very interesting, with the cat and all, but I was really asking about what you've figured out from experience about your power."

"Oh. Sorry."

"No worries. What I want to know is, what exactly triggers it? What do you feel when you use it? What exactly can you do with it? How much control over it do you have? How is it different now from when you were a child? The more we know, the more likely we it is that we will figure out a way for you get it better under your control."

Matilda smirked. "Where do you want me to start? I'd answer them all at once, but I've only got one mouth."

Jenny smiled, but thought about the question seriously. "What exactly triggers it? And what triggered it when you were a child?"

"Attraction." Matilda said promptly, then looked at Miss Honey meaningfully. She raised the spoon on the napkin next to Jenny telekinetically and drew it softly across her hand.

Jenny started at the cold metal touch, then grabbed the spoon and placed it firmly back on the napkin. She shot a warning glance at Matilda.

"And arousal," Matilda continued, as if nothing had occurred. "When I get 'turned on,' to use a crass phrase, it gets a lot more powerful. The more 'turned on' I am, the more powerful. Also, it grows in power if I don't use it."

Jenny nodded. She'd guessed at this, although she and Matilda had never had a conversation this frank about it before.

"What about when you were a child?"

"Anger- that most of all. And, boredom, I suppose, as well. I wanted to know so much, and nobody would help me get that knowledge. My mind was always hungry for distraction back then."

Jenny suddenly had a thought. "Matilda, can you remember any time when you did NOT levitate something when you were angry?"

"No…?" Matilda said, slowly.

"And did you ever do things on accident when you were mad?"

"Constantly. I'd even say most of the time, actually."

"I think we've been looking at this from the wrong point of view entirely."

"Really?" Matilda asked.

"You keep wondering why you can't control it now, when you could when you were a child. I'd venture to say, you've never had control over when you needed to use your powers. You don't think of it that way now, since when you were a kid, it was fun. Now it's a bother."

Matilda nodded, slowly, considering. "You may be right. But it's a lot more uncontrollable now. Can you explain that?"

"Actually I can. It's the difference between boredom and attraction, and the difference between arousal and anger."

"Boredom is alleviated when you become interested in something. Attraction doesn't disappear like that. You are either attracted to somebody or you are not."

"That's the truth." Matilda said, somewhat bitterly.

"Anger is an emotion that comes up quick and can leave even quicker. For instance, you might get mad, then you slap someone, then suddenly you're not angry anymore. Getting even soothes it. You could and did use your powers to get even, when you were a child, quite frequently. Arousal is different, right?"

"Arousal builds." Matilda said, getting into the conversation. "It doubles on itself. It fades slowly, even if you don't do anything to encourage it. Although, I think it is like anger in that it will go away after you have sated it" Matilda reflected philosophically. "It might disappear after a person has reached orgasm. Before you ask," she put up a hand, "No I haven't. I read books."

"Uh, your dinner?"

Matilda and Jenny looked up to see that their waiter had appeared with a cart of food. He had red hair, he looked about college age, and he was blushing as only a redheaded young man can do. He must have got an earful.

He gave them their plates, and then lingered a bit.

"What?" Matilda asked him point blank.

"You were talking about p-powers?"

"Yes." Matilda said, ignoring the kick Jenny gave her under the table.

"For my RPG. I have a character with a telekinetic ability that gets stronger when she's turned on," she said bluntly.

"Oh cool! That's a great idea," the boy said, "what about her?" He knocked his head toward Miss Honey.

"Her character is a school teacher."

"That's HOT!" the boy said enthusiastically.

"I know, isn't it?" Matilda agreed, winking at Jenny.

Suddenly the boy pulled out his pad of paper and pen and wrote down something on it, handing it to Matilda.

"Sorry I've got to go, working for The Man you know, but here, text me sometime." He hurried away.

Matilda looked down at what was written on the paper, snorted, and then slid it into her pocket. When she was done, she saw that Jenny was looking at her curiously.

"I speak college-studentese. Which is very related to geek-ese by the way."

"Was that his phone number?"

"Nope, his AIM chatname."

At Miss Honey's blank look, she laughed. "The internet. It's a great invention, you know."

"I use the internet." Miss Honey said defensively.

"Let me guess, to look up lesson plans, and keep up with current events through BBC?" When Jenny didn't disagree, Matilda asked, "Do you even have an email account?"

".," Miss Honey intoned promptly.

"Let me rephrase. Do you check it?"

"Never."

"I rest my case."

The two women dug into their dishes. The food was so good they didn't say much more than 'pass the salt' to each other.

"Unnngg" Matilda groaned, loosening her belt. Jennifer, as always with an eye toward decorum, silently agreed. They had both pushed away from the table, and now they blinked at each other sleepily.

"Would you like some dessert?" It was the redheaded boy, also known in some circles as L33TF1R3, and he was smirking. Matilda groaned again in response. He put a dessert menu, complete with mouthwateringly delicious pictures, in front of her. She looked it over, then handed it to Miss Honey.

Miss Honey looked at some of the pictures. No, her stomach said. Yes, her mouth said. "Come back and ask again in 15 minutes."

"Sure thing," The boy said, and with a grace that you would not have guessed he possessed, he topped their water glasses off before he left.

"So, we've made some progress on the question of what triggers it. Now lets talk more about what it is," Jenny said, bringing them back to the conversation they had been having before being interrupted by dinner.

Matilda, having decided that groaning really could convey everything necessary to human interaction, did that again.

"None of that, we are making progress! Now, try to describe what it feels like in your mind before and when you use your power."

"Jenny, can you describe what it feels like to think a thought?"

"Try."

"Well, it might be easier to describe what it's like before I use my power. When my power is building up, my eyes start to get warm, although warm is not quite the right word. And there is a sense of pressure."

"I don't really understand."

"Let me show you. Close your eyes."

Matilda stood up and walked around behind Jennifer's chair. This was a bit awkward to do in a crowded Restaurant, but then it would have been even more awkward if they were alone. As she walked, she was rubbing her hands together as hard and as fast as she could, building up friction. Then, standing behind Jenny's chair, she reached around and placed the palms of her hands against Jenny's closed eyelids.

"See, warmth and pressure."

Yes, Jenny did see. Actually, she didn't see but that was because Matilda's hands were still pressed against her eyes. She reached up and gently pried them away. Matilda was reluctant to leave though. She sort of wrapped her arms around Jenny's shoulders and pressed her head against her hair.

"Matilda."

"Sorry." Matilda went back to chair.

Jenny sighed. Matilda had been surprisingly good all night, even though they were basically discussing her sex life and the reason she couldn't have one.

"So that's what your power feels like inside. What about when it leaves," Jenny asked gently.

"It sort of just shoots out my eyes." Matilda made a vague motion with her hand.

"I have no idea what that means."

"My eyes heat up as it leaves, although never so much that it burns. The pressure decreases though. If the pressure is small, all I need to do look at something small and pick up it up. If the pressure is big I need to pick up something heavier or even better, a lot of things and make them do something complicated. That soaks up a lot of power, for some reason.

"So, picking up say, two pounds of marbles would consume more power than picking up a single two pound rock?" Jenny asked.

"You got it."

"Huh." Jenny contemplated this for a while. Finally, she asked, "Do you want dessert?"

"Not really," Matilda said. She was suddenly feeling very tired. The day had been an extremely long one, as well as emotionally exhausting.

Jenny agreed. She had, to put it mildly, a lot to think about.

Sorry this chapter was so boring! The next one will more than make up for it.