Psychic Schoolkids Pt3

After a terrible biology lesson, I met Chloe by the tree. Behind all of the classrooms is this oddly empty area of the school, on too much of a slope for portable classrooms and walked over too much for any grass to grow. So there are just a couple of giant pine trees, and a couple of big wooden picnic tables. During breaks the area swarms with kids on their way to the nearby ovals, but during class time, the place is pretty empty. For this reason it was our hangout during spares.

“Is Kara joining us today?” I asked Chloe as she arrived, more out of habit since I already knew the answer.

“Does she ever anymore? Her and Lisa are too cool for us these days.”

“Kara’s not too cool. Lisa just doesn’t approve, and Kara is doing the best thing and following her.”

“I miss Kara.” Chloe said glumly as she plopped down on the seat.

“You just miss the two of you ganging up on people. Like me.”

“You were an easy target. Plus up until six months ago I didn’t realise you were cool. Did I mention you were an easy target?”

“Yes but I feel pain when others are in it, it’s an unfair advantage.”

“You call it an unfair advantage. We called it kicking butt.” Kara smirked. But for once she wasn’t trying to hide her emotions. She missed her friendship with Kara.

When I met Chloe, there was the trio of Chloe, Kara and Lisa. By ‘met’ I of course mean when we started hanging out. Being at school together Chloe and I had been aware of each other’s existence, but always been in different social circles. The six months since we first started talking had been hectic – Dane had come into the picture and Kara and Lisa had made their need to distance themselves from us clear, but Chloe and I had remained a constant.

“Who knows? Maybe Emily will kick some butt with you now?” I tried to cheer her up.

“That girl? I’ve seen her around. Shy as anything and skinny too, couldn’t pick a fight with a butterfly.”

“Skinny? Did you ever look at Kara? She makes some models look plus-sized.” I raised as eyebrow.

“Yes but she carried herself differently, didn’t look like she was going to snap if you poked her too hard.”

I nodded in agreement. There was a moment of silence as we both stood staring at a group of birds picking at various bits of rubbish on the ground. Even though I wasn’t looking at her, I was trying really hard to tell what Chloe was feeling. That’s the problem we both have with our powers, it makes us curious about people, especially each other, where we push ourselves to the limits of what we can do just to get one up on each other.

“Would you just hurry up and ask me out already.” Chloe said.

I put my head in my hands. I had definitely lost this round.

“I wasn’t going to ask you out!” I tried to defend myself.

“Jacob, asking a girl to go see a movie with you is called a date. That’s not a bad thing. You are allowed to do that.”

“You know you have a habit of being intimidating with guys. Has anyone ever told you that?”

“It’s not intimidating. It’s impatient. So are you going to ask me?”

“You’re still going to make me ask you?” I laughed until I realised that Chloe was in fact being serious. “Chloe, did you wanna catch a movie on the weekend?”

Chloe burst out laughing. “Ahh you’re whipped already and we haven’t even gone on a date yet. But yes Jacob, we should do a movie. Like you didn’t know how I was going to answer anyway.”

“It doesn’t make it any easier! Especially when you predict I’m going to ask you!” I objected.

“You’re just not quick enough for me Jacob. Crap power, like I’ve always said.”

Chloe jumped off the table arrogantly, and I sat there thinking for a moment before jumping up directly in front of her and moving in to kiss her. But she beat me to it, putting a hand in front of her mouth blocking my lips.

“Too slow Jakey.” Chloe giggled. “Gotta save something for our date.”

Unfortunately Chloe’s gloating was interrupted by the sound of the world ripping apart. Okay, so maybe that’s a bit melodramatic, but as we looked in the direction of the loud bang, we could see smoke coming from one of the science labs. My reaction was faster than Chloe’s, and I left her shocked where she was standing on the hill and bolted to the classroom, driven by the fear I could feel coming from the entire building as they heard the noise.

As I got closer, I recognised the room. Chemistry lab. The class that Dane had been in. My own fear mixed in with the fear of everyone around me as I worried for his life. Unfortunately, the human body has limits for fear and adrenaline, and the fear of a few thousand people is a very strong thing to feel. By the time I was close enough to see what was happening in the room I had to stop and lean against the walls of the room next door to catch my breath.

Everyone knows what fear feels like, that gripping feeling in your chest, halting your every movement but urging you to run away with every fibre of your being. I was torn between running in the opposite direction and just collapsing in a puddle of tears as emotion begun to overcome me, despite knowing I had to get to that room and find out what was happening. In hindsight, staying away from the room might have been a wise idea, as the fear and panic only got stronger the closer I got to the source. This was also one of those times where I needed Dane, if his face wasn’t burnt off or he wasn’t dead or both.

People began to filter out of the room, no one appeared hurt except for a few cuts, and everyone seemed to be coughing from the smoke pouring out of the room. By this point Chloe had caught up to me, and put her hand on my shoulder with concern.

“Jacob. Get a grip.” Chloe said, worried about me more than anyone else at that moment.

“I’m....trying” I said, trying to get my breath.

“Try harder. Fear isn’t going to help.” She held out her hand for me. “Remember how we did this? Focus on me. I’m not afraid, so you shouldn’t be either.”

I grabbed her hand, and closed my eyes. Everything was moving at a million miles an hour, which is hard when things are time-critical. But Chloe was the closest person to me, I was in contact with her. Every bit of fear from every person came through as a noise, drowning out the voice of confidence that Chloe was somehow maintaining. I tried to block out the other noises and focus only on the emotions coming from Chloe.

It’s never a perfect science. Emotions never are, but I felt the tightness in my chest ease, my ability to move slowly came back, and I staggered to my feet and Chloe and I made it to the door of the classroom.

Only two people were left inside – Dane and Emily. Emily’s mind was shouting at me across the room. She was panicking. Within seconds I could see why. She was trying to move around, but everything she touched began to burn, or melt.

“Dane get back!” Chloe shouted from next to me in the doorway.

Dane looked at us to notice, and in that second wasn’t quick enough to step back as Emily tripped over a fallen lab stool and knocked into him. His tie caught on fire within seconds. Thankfully Dane never ties his tie properly, and he was able to rip it off and throw it away before the fire spread to the rest of his clothes. He looked down at Emily, confused about what was happening and frustrated he couldn’t help her.

I took a second to survey the room before I walked in, just as the sprinklers kicked in. Various bits of lab equipment were melted. Glass fragments were scattered around the ground. Emily had obviously made something explode with the heat she was producing. I was distracted from my observation by pain. Emily had touched herself, and a burn was beginning to form on her leg.

“Dane. You said her power was under control.” Chloe shouted from next to me.

“Not the time Chloe.” I said to her.

“Always the time Jacob.” Chloe said in the exact same tone of voice. Then she paused for a second. “Oh shit.”

I looked at the situation and realised exactly what was going to happen as well. Dane had to get inside Emily’s mind, block the fear and the panic, or remove whatever he’d done to stop the cold. Either way, he was going to need to make physical contact with her, especially if he wanted to do it with any efficiency. Based on how the room was looking, touching Emily was going to hurt.

“Emily! If you can hear me, stay very, very still. Dane, take your shirt off.” I said to him as I got next to him.

Obviously, he looked at me like I was a total nutter. I repeated it and then he definitely knew I was a nutter. Or hitting on him at an inappropriate time.

“Look, we don’t have time for this. You need to touch her. She’s going to burn you. At least the less clothing you’re wearing the less chance you have of catching fire.”

Fear swelled up in Dane. He wasn’t used to having to be this brave. He normally got to come in and clean up the mess after everyone else had subdued the dangerous person. He nodded with an attempt at confidence he didn’t possess and took his shirt off. I put my hand on his shoulders, feeling the muscle and sweat as I did so.

“I’ll try to stop it hurting as much, but we need to hurry. For everyone’s sake.”

“Hurry!” Chloe shouted from the door. “Teachers will be here soon.”

Dane looked up at me, and nodded, and then put his hands on Emily’s temples. Pain rushed up through my hand from Dane’s shoulder. I winced and tried to focus on not letting Dane feel as much of the pain as possible. He was going to have to deal with the scars though. I could feel everything else going through his mind. The confusion at what was happening in Emily’s head, and the frustration that he couldn’t stop it soon. There was even the embarrassment about not wearing a shirt in front of Emily.

I could feel the heat from the floor begin to dissipate, and Emily, who by now seemed to have passed out, seemed to be cooling down to a normal temperature.

“Boys! Get out of here now!” Came an angry voice from the door. Mr Harding had arrived.

Dane hadn’t had enough time to totally stop the heat Emily was producing, but he had cooled her down enough for us to touch. We both grabbed her and lead her out of the classroom.

“What were you doing in there? That was incredibly stupid boys!” Mr Harding lectured at us as we got out of the room. “I know you wanted to rescue your classmate, but you could have been hurt or killed.”

I felt another person arriving behind us, one who seemed to be more proud of our heroics than angry.

“Tobias that will be enough. The boys appear to have been careful and this young girl appears to have needed their help.” Ms Ellis scolded Mr Harding. I felt happy deep inside. She then turned to Chloe. “Chloe, can you help Jacob and Dane take this girl to the sick bay? An ambulance and fire truck are already on their way.”

“Of course Miss.” Chloe said, being possibly the most respectful to authority I had ever seen her.

Chloe took up the weight of Emily from Dane’s side, leaving Dane to stare at his hands. I could guess what they looked like, and I didn’t want to see them. Feel the revulsion Dane felt was bad enough. The four of us walked to the sick bay in silence. Emily was silent since she was barely conscious, and the rest of us because we had no idea what to say. I could feel how Dane and Chloe felt though, like they had failed. Chloe had been too busy predicting that I was going to ask her out and missed seeing this properly, and Dane had been too busy being confident in containing Emily’s power to realise this was going to happen.

As we rounded the corner to the sick bay, things got a little bit worse. Standing out the front was Kara and Lisa...