Thanks to Guest for some 'constructive criticism, CancelleAccount and AncientStorm for the support. LY!
As Emmy neared the dining hall for breakfast, she noticed Alexa ahead of her. "Alexa! Hey!" she shouted.
Alexa turned around and smiled at Emmy. "Hey, ready for this big Geography test?"
Emmy stopped abruptly and stared at Alexa with wide eyes. "What! What test?" she yelled.
"The test that we were told about last week. Remember?"
Emmy shook her head. "I completely forgot about it."
Alexa grimaced slightly. "Then you've got a problem."
"I know," Emmy agreed. She tended not to pay much attention in classes these days, especially in mind-numbingly tedious lessons such as Geography. She was too busy trying out her new 'ability', as she termed it. How she was able to read people's thoughts, she didn't know. But since discovering it, she had practised and had made significant progress. She no longer needed to actually touch a person for it to work, just focus on them. Though it wasn't as clear and her range was pitiful.
Emmy and Alexa fell into the queue for food. "What's this test even about?"
"Rivers," Alexa said. "What we've spent the last month doing."
"Oh right," Emmy said. She looked at her watch. "We have Geography first thing, don't we?"
"Yeah."
"Then we have an hour for you to tell me everything you know."
"I don't think that's going to help you much," Alexa frowned.
Emmy groaned, "But Mrs Scott is such a harsh marker. I can barely pass any of her tests when I do revise. And if I fail, my mum is going to phone and go crazy at me. After that, she'll call Caine and ask him if I'm okay, or if a bad grade is a cry for help or I'm in with bad influences. Which means Caine is going to go crazy at me for Mum bothering him. Ugh!" Emmy ruefully shook her head. "Is there any way I could copy off you?"
"How do you plan to do that? We sit at opposite ends of the classroom."
"I know," Emmy sighed. "Why does Burke have to be so far from Soren in the alphabet?"
She paused from her self-pitying when she noticed Diana saunter pass the line. Apparently queuing was not something Diana Ladris did. "Diana!" Emmy shouted at her.
Diana looked at her and stepped beside her. "Hey, what's up?"
"I have a serious problem." Emmy explained her situation to Diana.
When she finished, Diana said, "You could always fake being sick and get sent to the nurse's office."
"No, Mrs Scott never buys that. Not when there's a test."
Diana placed a finger on her lip and tapped it as she thought. "Well then you're screwed."
"Thanks for that," Emmy said dryly.
"Any time Emmy. Are The Paine in here yet?"
Emmy scanned the room. "Caine's at your table, but I don't see Piper anywhere."
"Good," Diana said, before continuing to cut in front of everyone, none of who dared to protest.
The Paine were Piper and Caine. After Emmy had told Caine to stay away from any of her friends, he went and asked out a girl that he couldn't stand, just to spite Emmy. The worst bit was that Emmy couldn't get revenge as all of Caine's friends were beneath her. The only good-looking one was Drake, though the thought of being near that psychopath made her physically sick. Caine was even sticking to enforcing his draconian no guys rule. After Emmy had made out with a tenth grader, who was then immediately beaten up by Caine's goons, most boys decide to keep their distance from her.
When Emmy and Alexa got to the select their breakfast, Alexa's eyes focused on the choice. "Bagel or Scone?" Alexa thought.
Emmy hated the way Alexa took forever and a day to make every mundane decision, and decided to chime in. "The scones look great today, I'm definitely getting one."
Alexa nodded. "I think I'll get one too."
Alexa followed Emmy to an empty table and they sat down. Alexa looked behind Emmy's head and prompted Emmy to turn and look in the same direction. "See that girl with ginger pigtails in line?" Alexa asked. "I heard a rumour about her."
"What?" Emmy asked, turning forward again after she caught a quick glance at the girl. "Is she pregnant?"
Alexa raised both eyebrows. "She's in the sixth grade!"
"Oh," Emmy said, and looked back around. "I didn't get a proper look at her. It's just most of the rumours you hear involve pregnancy. I took a punt. So what is it?"
"I heard that she can run ridiculously fast."
Emmy stopped herself from rolling her eyes. "We must inform America's Olympic team then," she said sarcastically.
"No," Alexa said. "I mean she can run so fast it's not normal. Like, as fast as a car. And not just a hundred metres, but really long distances."
"How's that possible?" Emmy asked. "And how does anyone know about that? Did they see her?"
"Apparently someone was walking in the corridor and saw her running about the school through the window one night last week. All they saw was a blur, and then the girl suddenly appeared, took a breath, and disappeared."
"Why was she running? Were Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster after her?"
"Fine," Alexa sighed, "it is probably rubbish. Especially the part where there was an audience watching her."
"There was an audience?"
"Yeah, the person who saw all this says there were people watching her, but they couldn't see who. And then a bin started to float in the air."
"Okay that is too crazy," Emmy laughed. "First super human speed, now a flying bin. Why was this person up? Were they coming back from a late-night drinking session? Because that would explain a lot."
"You could be right," Alexa said. "I guess it's just cool to think that some people can do crazy and amazing things."
Emmy didn't respond to that. She did know someone who could do a crazy and amazing thing: herself.
"Morning guys," Shelley smiled, sitting down beside Emmy. Emmy never noticed her or Piper walk over to them. Piper sat down also, and waved in the direction of Caine's table. Emmy didn't look around, but she knew that he must have waved back as Piper's smile broadened.
…
"Waving over to your little girlfriend?" Diana teased Caine.
Caine stopped and glared at Diana. "Shut up."
"You're not angry at me, you're angry at yourself," Diana pointed out.
"And why would I be angry, let alone at myself?" Caine asked.
"Because you're an idiot whose plan to get one over on your sister is to date a person you hate. That must cause some serious self-loathing."
Caine leaned back in his chair. "My main objective was to piss Emmy off, which I did. So really, I'm a genius."
"I don't think you know the definition of genius," Diana smirked. "But on the plus side, you have been trying to show your love for me a lot less recently."
Caine narrowed his eyes at her, and at Drake as he started to chuckle. "You're not funny."
"Our pet seems to disagree," Diana laughed.
"I'm not your pet!" Drake spat at her.
"Also dating Piper lets me know what Emmy thinks about me and is doing," Caine said.
"How?" Diana asked.
"Emmy tells one of those other girls she hangs about with. Then they tell Piper, who tells me. That's how I found out about what she did behind the science block last week. As well as that, I've got you to keep an eye on Emmy."
Diana raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
"Aren't you friends with her?"
"Yeah, but I'm not going to be a spy for you."
Caine heaved his shoulders as he let out a long sigh. "What's the point of putting up with you when you never do me a favour?"
…
The last minute revision session over breakfast proved to be futile, as Emmy had no better understanding of rivers.
"Don't worry," Alexa tried to smile.
"Easier said than done," Emmy moaned. They entered the classroom and parted towards their seats.
"Separate the desks!" Mrs Scott yelled as she handed out tests. "Don't turn over the test until I say so." Once everyone was given a test, she marched up to the front of the classroom. "You have half an hour," she said. "Begin."
Emmy flipped over the test and wanted to die as she saw the jargon on it. She looked with horror as everyone around her starting writing frantically. They had all studied and knew what the test asked them. But, if they could, then so could Emmy.
Emmy took a deep breath and searched for the closest nerd to her. Two seats in front of her was Lucy, a walking-talking brain. Emmy focused on the back of Lucy's head and tried to tap into that reservoir of intelligence. She couldn't single out only Lucy, she wasn't that good, and had to by-pass what other's were thinking. Lucy was on the third question, but that was good enough.
"Abrasion is a form of erosion…" Most of what Lucy was thinking was more or less a foreign language to Emmy, though some jogged her memory. Emmy tried to make slight variations in her answers. She even threw in some stuff that even she knew herself was rubbish. Amazingly, Lucy went back to check over the answers that Emmy missed. Emmy placed her hand over her mouth to hide the smile that her brilliant plan was evoking.
"Pens down," Mrs Scott said. There were pleas for more time, causing Mrs Scott to scowl. "You have all had ample time," she said as she snatched the papers off those who were trying to continue on.
The bell rang and Emmy made a beeline for her friends. "That was awful," Shelley cried.
"I know," Emmy nodded. "But I think lots of stuff actually came back to me. I may have done enough for a C."
"I think it was okay," Piper boasted. "If I get anything less than an A, there's something wrong."
"Good for you," Emmy said with a forced smile.