Mind Reader

After finding out her power and getting kicked out of multiple schools, Ali thinks of a plan for her newest school.

    When I was born I could hear them. Most of them were soft, gentle sounds in my head, but some were harsher and more passionate. I did not understand them, for I was merely an infant. The older I grew, the more I came to know them. The people I thought were close to me. Humans in general are contradictory, but I had no idea how bad it was. An example would be when I was a simple five year old. I held my stuffed lion tightly in my grip as I walked along my elementary school halls. A few girls giggled quietly near the restrooms. One of these girls looked at me and then at my lion. I did not see her lips move as I heard her voice ring clear in my head.
    ‘Why does she have to bring that ratty, old lion to school? It is disgusting.’
    I gave her a funny look, and she turned away with a huff. I wondered why she would say something like that. I did not think at the time of how she could speak without moving her lips. I simply went on my merry way believing she said it with her clear and concise voice. Later, as I used the restroom for myself, I came back to my classroom to find out my lion was missing. I had left it with my teacher so I would not get it dirty while I used the restroom. I looked around for it, high and low. Then I heard the voice of the girl again.
    ‘What a stupid girl. She has no idea that I stole that nasty lion of hers. I even put it in my backpack so she could never find it. I’ll throw it in the dumpster when I get home. That way she can never bring it again. Disgusting, germ-infested toy.’
    I turned to her and held out my hand as I said, “Please give back my toy.”
    The girl gave me a confused and angry look. ‘What? How can she know that I took it?!’
    “Please?” I asked nicely.
    “I don’t have your toy,” the girl said with innocence, yet the other voice she used was laced with so much malice. It was hard to believe.
    “I heard you say that it was in your backpack.” I continued, “Please don’t throw it away. My dad got that for me.”
    The girl huffed and screamed for the teacher. The teacher came running and asked what was wrong. I was about to tell her, but then I heard the teacher say something.
    ‘I hate children. Why did I ever take this job? I should have just stayed at home and lived off of the government like my dad told me I should do.’
    I was surprised that a teacher would say such mean words. I was about to confront her about it, but she put on an incredibly sweet smile and repeated her question.
    The other girl cried, “Ali is accusing me of taking her lion!”
    “Ali, that’s not very nice of you.” the teacher scolded me gently, “Perhaps you left it elsewhere. Would you like me to help you look for it?”
    I shook my head and grabbed the girl’s backpack. She screamed and tried to take it from me, but I shoved her to the ground and opened her pack. There my lion was, sitting amongst the bottom of the pink backpack.
    “Oh…” the teacher said, “Are you sure that it’s yours?”
    I showed her my name, which was embroidered onto the foot on the lion. The girl was sent home for stealing and I was left with the rest of the class. The teacher approached me during another break and asked me how I knew the lion was in the other girl’s bag.
    “She said it aloud.” I explained, “I heard her say that she was going to throw it away when she got home.”
    “Really?” the teacher asked with a skeptical look, “Are you sure you weren’t just lucky with guessing?”
    Her voice suggested that it was a joke, but something wasn’t right. That’s when I said something that made the teacher very afraid of me.
    “Are you sure you want this job? I mean, don’t you want to live off the government like your father told you to?”
    The teacher stumbled up from where she was crouched to give me a look of fear. “H-how did you know about that?!” she asked.
    “You said so.” I replied, “I heard you say it back when I got my lion from Kimmy.”
    “I never said it aloud.” her voice was very soft and quiet as she spoke, “I thought it, but I never said it aloud.”
    “Thought?” I asked.
    The teacher ran off quickly, leaving me there to think about what she had just said. She said she thought that but never said it aloud. It was all too strange for me. Not an hour later, my mom came and got me. She said that the teacher called her to come pick me up because of my attitude. I never went back to that school.
    When I got home, my mom gave me a stern lecture. I listened intently and didn’t even bat an eye when she said that I couldn’t have my lion for a week. After the speech she told me to go to bed, but I had asked her to think of something for me. I asked to say her favorite color, but not to say it aloud. She did so and I heard it ring clearly in my ears.
    ‘Blue.’
    I froze in absolute fright. I tried to tell her that I could hear the thoughts of people, but she sent me to bed without hearing a word from me. I didn’t sleep much that night.
    After that incident I had became more reserved- for obvious reasons. The more interaction I had with people, the more I came to realize the hard truth that I was facing. Every single person I had met had a secret. Some even had multiple. I tried to ignore them, but some were too great to ignore.
    Once, in middle school, I had told the principal about one stupid kid who was thinking of actual murder of a teacher they didn’t like. In the office, the kid was called up and denied what I had said. I then repeated all that I had heard down to the last detail and the kid gave me a look of death.
    ‘I will kill you. You won’t get away with this.’
    The kid, who was given the benefit of the doubt, was off scot-free. He ran into me in the hall and gave me a carefree smile, but his thoughts once again repeated what I had heard previously. A nerve snapped in my head as I then said:
    “If you are thinking of killing me, you won’t be able to.”
    The boy took a step back and asked, “How do you know these things?! Freak!”
    I simply smirked as I said, “I know everything. I know what you do when you get out of school, I know what you eat, I even know what you think about before you go to bed. I can hear your thoughts loud and clear, so be careful what you think because I will be listening.”
    The boy ran off screaming and I walked off nonchalantly. The boy later went to the principal and accused me of bullying him. I never went to that school again.
    By the time I turned fourteen, I had switched several different schools. The more schools I switched, the more people I met. The more people I met, the more things I discovered. The more things I discovered, the more things I started to hate in the world. And the more things I started to hate, the more I realized that I could only trust myself and that I would be alone in the world forever. It was a sad thought, but it was what I had felt for years. The day I left my sixth school, the newest being a high school, I sat on my roof outside my window with my stuffed lion, and I thought. There was a new high school that my mom found that I had to go to, and I began to think about what kind of people would be there.
    And then I had gotten an idea. It was brilliant in my mind but a bit cruel at the same time. I devised a way to make everyone scared of me but scared in a way where I was untouchable. A plan where no one could get me kicked out of school, no one could talk to the authorities about me, and no one could beat me up outside of school. I ran to my mom and begged her to give me money for school supplies.
    “What?” she asked, “Why are you so suddenly interested in school? You never asked for supplies before.”
    “I am turning over a new leaf, mom.” I lied through my teeth, “I am going to be an honor student and get straight A’s. In order to do that, I will need the proper supplies. Please, mom?”
    A smile graced her lips as she nodded and went to get her wallet. Along the way I heard her think, ‘That brat has something up her sleeve. She better not be lying to me about this.’ She gave me the money, and with it I went to the store and stocked up on extremely thick notebooks. They had pretty patterns on them and whatnot to make my mom feel better. She always liked it when I shown interest in the color pink. I also bought other things like sticky notes, dividers, a label maker, highlighters, etc. Some of it was to make sure my mom didn’t find out what my plan was, but most of it went to said plan.
    The first day of my new high school, I executed my plan. Since I was a freshman, I was seen as a target for bullying. I didn’t mind, but hearing their repulsive thoughts made me want to spit at them. The first part of my plan was to find the Yearbook Club. I roamed around until I found the classroom that held it.
    I opened the door and called, “Hello? Is this the Yearbook room?”
    A boy with shaggy brown locks gave me a smile and said, “Why, yes it is! Are you here to join?”
    I nodded, and the boy ran up to me, shaking my hand with ferocity.
    “I’m so glad! We needed more members!” the boy piped, “My name is Gregory, but you may call me Greg. We only have three members, including me. I am the president of the club. Let me show you around.”
    He guided me to the other side of the room where the computers were held. On said computers were two boys. One with rich, dark hair and the other with fiery, red hair.
    “The red-head is Mark and the other is Trevor.” Greg explained, “Guys! This is our new member… uh…”
    “My name is Ali.” I said, “It’s short for Alejandra.”
    “Nice to meet you.” Trevor stood up and shook my hand.
    Mark squealed with excitement, “Finally! We get a girl member! You know how long I’ve waited for this day, you guys?! Forever! I know we are only sophomores, but still!”
    ‘She won’t be able to resist me.’
    I glared at Mark for his thoughts. I turned back to Greg, who was busy explaining what they did in the club.
    “Trevor and I do the editing, while Mark takes the pictures. However, last year, the football team threw around Mark’s camera, and they almost broke it.”
    Trevor smirked and added, “They threw him in the trashcan, head down, several times already.”
    “Don’t tell our new member that!” Mark hissed. ‘Stupid Trevor! Ruining my chances!’
    I rolled my eyes. “I could probably work the camera instead. I doubt they would do something so extreme to a girl.”
    Greg thought it over. ‘True. They wouldn’t do those things, but they might get a little… touchy-feely…’
    “I can do it!” I shouted encouragingly, “I won’t let them do anything to me. You can trust me.”
    Greg gave me another smile. “Alright. If you think you can. We only have one camera, so you wouldn’t mind being the only photographer?”
    “I can do it.” I repeated, “Just leave it all to me.”
    Greg nodded. “Alright then. We should focus on getting another camera, then we can have two photographers. For now, Mark, you can be our extra editor.”
    Mark sighed. “Can’t I just go with Ali to make sure she doesn’t get hurt?”
    ‘Greg will definitely let me since our new member is a girl. And girls are usually girly and weak.’
    Before Greg could even think about it, I said, “I won’t be able to protect Mark if he gets dumped into a trashcan again.” I then looked at Mark. “I’m girly and weak, remember?”
    Mark blushed. “I-I never said that.”
    “I just assumed you thought it.” I said. I had to be careful. If they ever found out about my power, they would be more careful with what they thought about around me. I couldn’t let that happen.
    “Sorry, Ali.” Greg said, “But Mark is right. I wouldn’t want any of those football thugs to hurt our new member.”
    I simply nodded. “I understand.”
    Greg gave me the camera. “First order of business is the faculty. They should be in the faculty room right about now. If you tell them that you are only there to take pictures, they should let you in.”
    “We’re off then.” I said as Mark and I left the room.
    The staff room was not too far from the clubroom, but Mark decided to open up his mouth and talk anyways.
    “I like your hair.” he said, “The way you style it up into a faux hawk like that is cool.”
    “Thanks.”
    There was blissful silence between us, until Mark once again broke it.
    “Why are you wearing that ugly sweater?” he asked.
    I glanced at my black sweater with a cat face on it. I growled, “What makes it ugly?”
    Mark gulped and thought, ‘Crap! Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.’
    “You’re right.” I said thoughtlessly, “You shouldn’t have.”
    “Huh?”
    It was very idiotic of me to answer his thoughts.
    “You are good at guessing people’s thoughts.” Mark said.
    “Guess so.” I replied.
    Mark smiled and put his arms behind his head. “I bet it’s women’s intuition, right?”
    “Is that what you have, Mark?” I joked.
    The two of us laughed until I realized what I had done.
    ‘What a cute laugh.’
    I grimaced, not caring if he saw. I was not here to joke around with them. They weren’t even my friends. If they were, this plan of mine would just become that much harder. We finally reached the staffroom and took our pictures. After, we returned to Greg with the pictures.
    “Great!” Greg piped, “This is good progress for us. Usually it takes Mark a week to get the pictures of all the staff.”
    Mark pouted and tried to defend himself, “They would rather get their pictures by a cute girl like Ali than--”
    “Than a red-headed weirdo like Mark.” I finished his sentence with a smirk.
    Mark’s pout grew while Greg and Trevor let out laughs.
    “I think you’ll do great here.” Greg said.
    Trevor agreed, “Definitely. Her first day here and she can already tell Mark off. It took Greg months to do that.”
    Greg ignored him and spoke again, “Well, the bell to first period will ring soon. We meet here before and after school. We’ll see you after school then, okay, Ali?”
    “Okay.” I gave a small smile. “I’ll be here.”
    The bell rang, and I said goodbye to my new friends. It was dangerous to call them friends, considering what I was planning on doing. At the end of all this, I won’t ever have friends here again.
    Since I got kicked out of my old high school the first week, I missed the first week here. Apparently, the teachers here hand out homework every single day. I already missed so many homework assignments. If I want to get straight A’s, I have to work extra hard.
    Even though I was originally lying to my mom about the straight A’s, I figured my mom would be proud of me for at least trying to do good in this school. I listened to all the teachers blabber on about their lessons and took notes whenever I needed to. By the end of the day, I was tired of school. My first day here and I was already thinking of leaving. Then I remembered Greg and the others and sighed. I had to do this.
    When the ending bell rang, I reported to the yearbook clubroom as a good member.
    “Good. You’re here.” Greg smiled. “I was hoping you would show up.”
    “I said I’d be here.” I told him.
    “True,” he began, “Mark and Trevor have PE last period, and the teacher lets them out late. They’ll be here in a few minutes.”
    I nodded and sat in a chair next to the computers. Greg seemed to be busy on said computer, and I looked over to see what he was doing.
    He noticed me and asked, “Curious to know what I am doing?”
    “Yeah.” I answered.
    “I’m starting the front page design of the new yearbook. I know it has only been two weeks since the school year started, but the early bird gets the worm, as they say. If we finish the front cover and then the front page by next month, we will be ahead by a few weeks. Next month is the start of football season, so you and Mark will be over at the field after school for a few weeks.”
    I tried my hardest not to fall asleep, but I failed. Soon enough, I felt my eyelids droop down. I saw Greg fix his glasses through the slits of my eyes.
    “Boring, isn’t it?” he laughed. “Sorry for boring you, but you were the curious one.”
    “That’s what I get for being curious.” I said, “Curiosity bored the cat to death.”
    Greg let out another laugh. Greg’s laughs were so hearty that I could not help but smile at him. The voices of Mark and Trevor came from behind the door and soon said door opened, and the two boys came in.
    Mark gave a look and thought, ‘Why is she smiling at Greg? She doesn’t like him, does she?’
    I sighed and got up from my chair.
    “What were the two of you doing?” Trevor asked with curiosity lacing his voice.
    “Talking about the schedule.” I answered before Greg, “He said that if we finish the cover and front page by this month, we will be ahead by a few weeks.”
    Trevor gave a small smile, and in his monotone-like voice he said, “That’s amazing.”
    “And…” I continued, “Mark and I have to take pictures of the football team next month.”
    Mark shivered. “Oh great. Just what I wanted.”
    “It’ll be okay.” I reassured him. “I’ll protect you.”
    The other two boys laughed while Mark did his signature pout. After the laughter, we got to work. Greg and Trevor worked on the cover and front page respectively while Mark and I tried our hand at the staff page. It had been only an hour, and we had our pictures all uploaded. All it needed was editing.
    Greg stood up and stretched. “Alright, folks. We’ll continue this tomorrow. I’d like to say good job on your first day, Ali.”
    “Thank you.” I replied.
    Trevor had not risen, and I raised an eyebrow at him. Greg was the one to answer it.
    “Oh, he always stays a little longer. He just wants to finish whatever he started.”
    “I see.” I said, “I’ll stay here with him. You know, to keep him company.”
    That seemed to surprise them, including Trevor himself.
    “Well… okay then.” Greg said, “Have fun, you two.”
    “But not too much fun.” Mark warned.
    The two of them strolled out, and I took a seat next to Trevor. I could see Trevor glancing at me every-so often through his peripheral vision. I could hear his monotonous thoughts in my ears.
    ‘Why did she want to keep me company? That’s mighty suspicious.’
    I kept quiet this time. I knew somehow that Trevor was smarter than Mark by a long-shot. I glanced at Trevor and noticed the deep bags under his bloodshot eyes. For a moment, I felt bad for him. He must work very hard at this job.
    I got back up and walked about the room. I looked in the cabinets at the back of the room and found an abundance of old yearbooks.
    “Trevor?” I asked, “What are these?”
    “Hm?” he turned around to face me. “Those are the yearbooks we didn’t sell. We have some from last year as well. The yearbook members get theirs for free, so take whatever ones you like.”
    I smirked widely, but hid it before Trevor could see it.
    “Thanks.” I replaced it with a smile.
    Trevor nodded and went back to his work. It only took a few more minutes until he got up from his seat. I stopped turning through the yearbook pages and copied his motion.
    “Thanks for staying with me.” he said, “I’ll be going now.”
    “I better get going as well.” I replied and followed him out the door with the book in my hands.

…

    “Why didn’t you tell me that you were staying over?” my mom asked.
    It was ten after five, and my mom was furious. I simply told her that I joined a club and stayed a bit after school.
    “You could have told me first.” she said, “I was worried sick.”
    “Sorry, mom.” I spoke, “I’ll be coming home a little late because of the club. Right now I have to do homework.”
    “Alright.” my mom left me to work.
    ‘That brat better be studying and not playing around.’
    I scoffed as I heard my mother’s thoughts. I would get the grades for her- but first things first. I took out the old yearbook and proceeded to cut the pictures out; a phase of my plan was officially underway.

Author's Note

I finally have the first chapter up! I've been putting it off until I finished it to put it on WC. I had a preview for it originally, but that's been deleted to make room for the actual thing. Please tell me your honest opinions. ^^

Reviews

[Jules]

I was taken in, so taken in that I had to read it a second time to make this a balanced review. Only thing I could see was maybe more detail on the setting. I can imagine just fine what it looks like, but a setting can really set the mood and affect people in the story. Some of my favorite writers with good description are Dean Koontz and Tahereh Mafi.

[Rae]

Thank you so much for the advice! I know I'm not all that good with details. I'll work on it. Thanks again. :D

[Ali]

WOOOOO~~~ i loved it so much ^-^ .das right mark is my biatch. i love these guys!!