Psychic Schoolkids Pt13

Before I could even get back on my feet I was lifted off the ground and sent slamming across the locker bay again. My ears rang from the impact, but this time I was facing the entrance. Chris stood there, his eyes wide with excitement, and next to him stood Nathan and Matt. Nathan was filled with the same hyperactive emotions as Chris, a mix of excitment and fear and anger. Matt seemed just...afraid. Of getting caught, of something going wrong. None of the excitement that the others felt but equally as strong.

"You look a bit beat up Jacob." Chris said, stepping towards me.

I raised my hands as fists in a vague attempt at self defence. Behind Chris, Nathan waved a hand and my wrists were pinned to the locker behind me. Chris wasn't the only one who had gotten a power in the last few months.

"But I suppose you always had to poke around, and you always had to get hurt because of it. And here you are, wandering onto a crime scene and sticking your nose out were it doesn't belong. Do that too much and your nose will get broken." Chris pressed his hand against my chest.

I screamed. I'm man enough to admit that I screamed. Because when Chris touched me, my nose broke. It's not a pleasant experience, and definitely not one I would reccommend to anyon else, and however Chris was doing it, I'm sure he was making it as painfully as he could.

"So you see you guys thought you were cool. With Chloe seeing the future and Dane messing with people's heads, and even Lisa being able to heal people. That was helpful, since she tried to put my head back together all nice and pretty like. But...and here's the bit that works for me...and not so much for you. She missed a spot. Somewhere along the way I got a power too. And like all good laws of opposites...Lisa can heal any wound." Pain shot through my body...I looked at my wrists and saw cuts beginning to appear along them. "And I can make any wound."

"They're coming." Nathan shouted from across the room.

"I'm busy here Nate." Chris said, taking his hands off me for a moment. "Making a perfect murder/suicide scene requires a bit of finesse. Get Matt to hold them off for bit so I can have some peace."

"Why...did you?" I tried to make out through the pain.

"Why what? Did I kill Neil? Am I killing you?" Chris said, pacing in front of me. "Well it's a long story...but you were there for all the bits that involved you. And Neil here...he was a bit too special to hang around. I mean didn't you hear? The shaman wants blood."

"That's so lame." Came a voice from across the locker room. Chris and I turned to see Chloe and Emily standing there.

"Oh god." Chris said. "Matt! Can't you do anything right!!"

"I'm a bit busy here." Matt shouted from the edge of the locker bay.

"Yes well we have company and it would be rude to leave them here with nothing to do." Chris shouted back.

"I'll play with our guests." Nathan walked over so that he was facing Chloe. I felt the pressure on my wrists relax. "Chloe...long time no see. I like the new look."

Chloe was terrified, and not very good at hiding it either. I think because she saw what was coming. Nathan waved an arm and she was flung out of my line of sight.

"Now forgive me if I don't know you name yet." Chris said, as he advanced towards Emily. "It's just that this is a very tense time and introductions take so long."

He reached out to touch Emily, and she reacted by grabbing his arm. The air around it wavered a bit and then froze. Emily withdrew her hand as Chris' arm sagged until the weight of the ice.

"I'm Emily. Nice to meet you though." She smiled and pushed Chris to the side. As he fell he smacked his head against a locker, which disoriented him for long enough for Emily to get to me. I was able to move again, but for some reason I was finding it hard to do so. In fact, even looking around made me kinda woozy. I took a step forward and almost fell.

"Okay Jacob. No walking for you without some help. Which is a pity, because I think we need to be running before we get our collective asses kicked." Emily started to walk me away.

"They're through!" Matt yelled as he ran through the locker bay to the exit that Chloe and Emily had come through. Who 'they' were I never got to find out, as Emily and I stumbled outside and quickly moved to behind a building. I never saw what happened to Nathan and Matt, but Chris was left slumped on the ground with a very wet arm near Neil's body.

"Oh god! Jacob!" Chloe said, utterly panicked at my state. Which wasn't suprising as I looked down at my arms which were now covered by bloody. That explained the woozy.

"Okay we need to get Jacob somewhere safe. Like your house Chloe. And we need to call Lisa." Emily was oddly taking charge. The confidence she had when she had yelled at Lisa was back.

The words began to get a bit woozy, but I felt another person arrive who was just as scared and panicked as Chloe was. Dane. I took a second to wonder where he had been during the fight, and whether Lisa would actually stop me from dying...and nefore I was able to finish the thought...I embraced what was becoming a habit and passed out...

Psychic Schoolkids - pt12

Three Months Earlier

"I don't care what kind of intentions you have, you do not mess with my head." I said, outraged.

"How else am I supposed to get your friends to like me? You're all so closed off! The only reason you even want me around is because it makes you feel like less of a freak." Dane spat back, and reached out to touch me again. I took a step back.

"Don't touch me! I know what that means. You have poked around inside my friends heads enough...I can tell when you're doing it to me! I spend my entire life separating what I'm feeling from how other people are feeling, I can do it with you as well."

"So what? You just want me to go back to being a loner? You show me I can do things and then you tell me not to use them when I can help myself?" Dane sat down.

We were in Chloe's kitchen. She had gone upstairs to spare Dane her involvement in the argument that was taking place. I would have tried to sit down myself, but I was too involved in my own indignant rage to care about trying to relax.

"These people can be your friends, but the best way to make friends is not to try and bend them to your will. That is not going to help you, and that is definitely not going to make us respect you for it."

"I can make you respect me for it..." Dane grumbled.

"No you can not!" I could feel my own anger building up and mixing with all the emotion Dane was feeling. It was giving me a terrible high but also a feeling that I could lash out at Dane. I tried to calm myself. "We are not your toys, and if you want to people to respect it you can do it by being helpful, not by just messing with us."

Dane just hung his head. I think by now I had communicated how angry I was.

"Now you will fix everything you have done to people like Kara and Lisa, you will make an effort to be nice to them and win their friendship the old fashioned way, and if you even so much as try something like this again....well I will think of something suitably threatening at the time."

I stormed out of the room. I wasn't sure how much notice Dane would take of my rant. I did actually like him on some level, even if he was weird, but at the same time I knew that was how I felt, not just how he was making me feel. The idea of him stopping people hating him or encouraging them to like him was....disturbing in a way. Not something I was comfortable with.

I walked into Chloe's room to find her on the bed with Nathan. Normally, this would lead to be awkwardly walking back out of the room, but they were both just as angry as I was feeling. Anger is not the most pleasant emotion at the best of times, so being in a house full of anger is not my idea of a picnic.

"It's done Chloe." Nathan said. "I think it's best we both just...move on and deal with trying to have some sort of friendship."

"You can't break up with me!" Chloe shouted. Jumping to her feet to face Nathan.

"Why? Because you didn't see it coming? Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to date you? You yell at me before I do things, or have entire arguments with me where I don't even get to say anything! I can't deal with it! Mel is nice...and normal..."

"You want normal! I'll give you a girl who reacts to her boyfriend cheating normally!" Chloe grabbed her pillow and threw it at him. Nathan braced himself. "I will throw a girly tantrum" She grabbed a soft toy Nathan had bought her and threw it out her window. "I will break things" She threw a photo of them on the ground. "And in general, I will be a bitch. Now get the fuck of out my house and I never want to see you again...."

Nathan turned to leave and saw me, and the look on my face.

"She's all yours to have now dude." He said to me as he walked out. I almost chased him down and punched him in the face. Instead I went to Chloe.

"Why?" Was all she said to me. I didn't even bother with responses, I just hugged her. "It's all falling apart. Nathan has left me, Dane is messing with our heads, Chris is going to try to kill us... I don't know if I can deal with this anymore Jacob...I keep seeing things coming but all these other things sneak up on me and I'm not ready for them."

"It's okay...we can get through it all. One thing at a time." I tried to sound reassuring. I wasn't confident in what I was saying though.

Despite the fact that Chloe and I could do some cool things, at the end of the day, we were normal people if it comes down to a fight. I couldn't follow my threat through with Dane, because frankly, I had no way of stopping him. What was I going to do? Read his emotions to death?

"How? Even if Dane listens to you, and Nathan realises he's a tool for getting with Mel, how will that help us? You haven't seen what Chris becomes....he's...a monster. He will be able to do things that we can't and you know that we can't stop him."

"We will find a way. We're far too cool for the world to let us die. Okay?"

"Anybody home?" Came a call from downstairs. It was Lisa's voice.

The downside to Chloe's house being empty most of the time, was that it was a place for everyone to go when they had nothing better to do. Lisa had decided she had nothing better to do, and it was a safe bet to guess that Chris and Kara were with her.

"Should we just make ourselves at home on the couch and wait for you guys to get dressed?" Chris called from downstairs.

"Nathan isn't here." I yelled out in reply.

"And your point is?" Kara replied. She clearly knew all to well my feelings for Chloe.

I stood up to go downstairs to greet them and saw Dane, standing in the doorway. People really need to check the door before they have arguments. I also saw the look in Dane's eyes - he had heard everything, and was all of a sudden very determined.

"Oh god...he's headed for Chris." Chloe said from the floor. She had noticed him too.

"Shit..." I said, and ran from the room.

Dane might have been little, but he could run, before I even got to the door, I heard screams from downstairs. I wasn't even sure whose they were. It might have been everyone's. My head exploded as I made it down the stairs to the lounge room.

Dane sat on the floor at one end of the room, looking exhausted. Chris sat at the other...his eyes closed. Kara and Lisa just watched in horror. Then Kara jumped forward with a kick to Chris' stomach.

"What did you do?!"

"I...stopped him.." Dane said.

"Stopped him from doing what? Relaxing on the couch?" Lisa had stood up and focused her attention on Dane too.

"Chloe said...he was going to turn into a monster...be able to do bad things...I stopped him."

"I don't care what Chloe said you undo whatever you did. You're the only monster right now. Chloe told us what you did...messing with our heads."

"Dane...what did you do?" I said, walked over to the scene.

"I...found all the doors in his head. Everything that had something locked away behind it. I opened them all."

"You did what?!" Kara screamed.

"Oh god.." Lisa sat down in horror.

"Okay. Dane...not cool. Fix it. Now." I said.

"I can't. I don't think I can even move right now." Dane panted.

"Good." Kara kicked him in his stomach.

From across the room, Chris groaned. I didn't even need to look at him to tell that his head was an absolute mess. Even standing near him hurt in all kinds of new ways, I wasn't going to be able to do anything to help him.

"Okay Lisa...can you try to heal him?" I said, thinking as fast as I could.

"Umm...his problem is mental, not physical. I have never even tried mental healing before." Lisa protested.

"Jacob, this could go bad.." Kara joined in the disagreement.

"We don't have any other option. I can feel what's happening to me. We need to do something and we need to do it now or there isn't going to be a Chris left to help. So stop arguing and we can make this not be the end of the world..."

"I don't like this..." Lisa said.

"He's right." Kara said. "Lisa...I'm sorry. But I need you to do what you can. I love him. I can't have him be broken..."

"Okay..." Lisa took a deep breath and moved towards Chris.

Psychic Schoolkids - Part 11

The four of us had taken to staying after school. Teachers didn't mind, we were old enough to be left in a study room unsupervised, and I am yet to meet a teacher that is discouraging people to study in their own free time. The fact that we didn't actually do any studying was irrelevant.

Emily sat on the table, a candle sitting in front of her.

"I can't do it." She said. "I can make it warm, I can even start to melt the wax." She gestured to the dribbles of wax running down the candle. "But can I make the thing catch on fire? Nope!"

"Maybe you should touch it? That helps with everyone else's power." Dane suggested from his position by the window. He was watching the sun fade into the distance.

"I don't think touching will help when the point is to make something catch on fire." I added, from the other side of the room where I was looking down at the teacher's offices. All the teachers were gone except for Mr Harding, and unsuprisingly, Ms Ellis, who was almost always at school later than us, and would usher us out on her way home if we hadn't already left.

Ms Ellis had always supported us hanging around at school, and so despite Mr Harding's protests, we were allowed to spend some time in one of the free study rooms provided we didn't burn it down. That would have been okay except for what we were trying with Emily...

"Maybe I don't need to heat things." Emily said. She reached over and picked up a cup of water and took a drink. "I can freeze things okay." The cup and the water inside turned to ice.

"That is pretty cool." Chloe said. "Maybe..."

Chloe kept talking, but I had stopped paying attention. There was something else across the school. The room opposite us was dark, but there was a shadow of a person clearly outlined in the window. I wasn't sure if I was imagining it, whether I was just seeing an odd shadow being cast. Then I felt the panic and the pain.

It was more intense than anything I had ever felt from another person, it was stronger and more overwhelming and before I knew it, I was running.

"Jacob!" Chloe shouted a second before I started to move, but it was pointless, my feet were moving whether I wanted to or not.

The time between noticing the shadow and being at the door to the room I saw it in passed like a blur. Our school isn't small, so it must have taken a few minutes to make it over there, but time was behaving oddly. I flicked the light switch, but there was no response. The lights stayed dark and the shadow stood by the window.

I tried to speak, to say something comforting, since helping the thing would hopefully quieten the screaming in my head, but I couldn't think of anything to say. All there was was pain, and confusion, and I could barely think, let alone come up with something insightful.

"It's different." Came a voice, from what I assumed was the shadow. But it felt like it was more in my head than an actual sound. "Everything is different from the other side..."

"The other side?"

"I know you...you're Jacob." The shadow continued, like it had something it needed to say and wasn't going to waste time answering questions. "You're not supposed to be involved. But you were supposed to find me."

The confusion was gone, the panic was gone. I felt calm, an eerie kind of calm you don't expect.

"I could do things. Strange, wonderful things and I didn't even know how. I was supposed to find Dane, and Emily, and then there would be three. That's how she said it was going to happen. That's why I was here tonight. But they found me first...and now...I think things are different."

"Who found you? What could you do?" The questions came out before I realised that I wasn't actually communicating so much as listening to something, like it was pre-recorded.

"Something is playing a game with people's lives Jacob. They didn't count on you though - you and Chloe weren't a part of their plan. I just hope you can stop them..."

"Okay I'm sick of this cryptic nonsense. Who are you." I walked forward and put a hand on the shoulder of the person. It was straight through, something which I know shouldn't have suprised me but did anyway.

I stopped running again. I don't even remember starting to run, but I was now at the locker bays. I didn't even know you could get to the locker bays at night. Slumped in front of me was a body. Covered in cuts that were thin but looked deep...almost like his body had been slowly ripped apart. His name had been Neil...I think that was all I knew about him except that he was quiet, and I wish now I'd seen enough to know what had happened.

Chloe had been right though...a body in the locker room.

"Well..well...well. If it isn't Jacob coming to snoop about." Came a voice from behind me. Not the kind of voice I wanted to hear either.

"Bit late for you to be at school isn't it?" I replied.

"Things to do, teachers to see. I don't think we'd ever stayed back late like you and your wondergang do."

"Things change." I shrugged, still not wanting to turn around.

"They certainly do." Came a second voice.

I felt myself fly off my feet and slam into a locker. The pain rang through my head. But now I felt the need to turn around before my nose started to bleed and I couldn't manage some kind of heroic face.

"Learned some new tricks have we Chris?"

Psychic Schoolkids - Double Dating

It is an age-old ritual among people that when the process of pairing off begins...a double date must occur. It had happened with Chloe, Nathan, Kara and Chris - which was an awkward enough experience for me when I wasn't involved. Going on a double date is a different experience in itself.

Especially when it means you have to spend time with someone like Sarah. Chloe didn't like her, I wanted to be able to exchange my power for Emily's so I could set her on fire, and for some inexplicable reason Dane actually liked her. I didn't even pretend to understand his reasoning for that, so I stood by my theory that the only reason that he was dating her was because not a single other girl had asked him out in his 12 years of schooling.

"I really think our school needs to teach more religious acceptance." Sarah was telling us over dinner, standing on her soapbox for what felt like the fourth time of the evening.

"I agree." Dane agreed. Again.

"I mean I know we're a religious school, but teaching religious education from a solely Chrisitian viewpoint closes off so many avenues of religious discussion."

Chloe and I sat there silently, glad that our food gave us a chance to fill our mouths rather than have to reply. We had already tried arguing, discussing, and even agreeing, only to be told we were wrong every time. I was almost ready to become a born-again Christian and go to church with Lisa every Sunday just because that would put me as against Sarah as was humanly possible.

As the discussion of religion made its way back to with burnings and persecution, I took my leave and fled to the toilets. I took as long as I could, and then walked out to head back to the table, only to find Chloe.

"Can we kill her?" she said. The scary thing was she was almost serious. "Like I know I said we should do this to be supportive because Dane has a girl who finds him attractive and stuff. But dude...any boy who ends up with her needs his head examined."

"Is now the part of the conversation where I say that I told you so? Or do I have to wait a bit longer for that."

"Okay gloating will not help. It will make me feel bad, you'll then have to feel my badness and then we'll both be even more miserable. We need an escape plan."

"Ooh...we can do that thing...where we get someone to call us and pretend they're having an emergency and we have to leave."

"I think you need to organise that beforehand. Plus, I don't think that has ever worked, even on bad tv shows."

"We could just run away? Or see a movie...they're quiet and so we won't have to listen to her talking for a good hour or so."

"I think she would talk through the movie." Chloe looked nervously back to our table, where Sarah was looking at us while she talked...and Dane was watching her and nodding. It was a scary sight. I felt like Sarah was going to shoot laser beams at us. "Okay. We are two very clever, highly psychic individuals here. We can figure out how to bluff our way out of a double date that can only end in mass murder."

"I agree, but I think in the mean time we need to like...go back over. Before Sarah sends her winged monkeys after us or something."

We walked back over to the table, Chloe whistling the Wicked Witch of the West tune from Wizard of Oz until we were within earshot of Sarah...

About ten minutes later, we left the restraunt, with the intention of fleeing to a movie, where Chloe and I could at least try to block out the whinging of Sarah by distracting ourselves with cinema. As we walked from one place to another, we spotted Emily walking along in the other direction. Chloe and I quickly bounded over to her, leaving a confused couple behind us.

"Emily!" Chloe said excitedly.

"Save us!" I said in the same tone of voice.

"..huh?" came Emily's confused reply.

"Long story short, we are on a double date with Dane and Sarah..." I started.
"...who we both now want to murder in a slow painful fashion..." Chloe added
"...and we need to escape in a way that is at least vaguely subtle..."
"...so if you could help us we would love you forever..."
"...and Chloe will buy you a pony.."
"...I will?" Chloe looked at me.
"Well it's an added incentive...and I certainly can't afford a pony." I shrugged.
"Good point...so can you help Emily?"

Emily was still confused. Possibly because Chloe and I had said quite a lot very quickly, and without making much sense.

"We'll take that as a yes...I'll be back." Chloe said, and bounded off.

"Did someone give you guys red cordial again?" Emily asked me. "Cuz I've heard stories about what that can do to you..."

"No. Chloe had rasberry soft drink but I think it's less of a sugar high and more of a 'oh-god-we-might-get-to-escape-Sarah' high."

"Ahh. Important difference. What's so bad about her anyway? She seems to like Dane, and she is nice..." Emily asked.

"She is nice. In the way that she is never wrong about anything. And I still don't understand why she even wants Dane....he is so out of her league."

"Or you're just less happy you and Chloe are no longer the flavour of the month couple?" Emily tried a level of insight that was quite good for someone without psychic powers.

"...maybe." I said quietly.

"Okay. We are able to escape this date." Chloe squealed with joy as she came back. "Sarah is going away. We are hanging with Emily if she doesn't mind...okay good we are hanging with Emily. I think somewhere nice and quiet like a park is a good idea."

Psychic Schoolkids pt9 - Dreams

4 months earlier

Things had changed.

They hadn't entirely changed for the bad, but our little group of four nerdy guys had transformed into this big group. There were girls, and there were couples, and there was Dane.

Dane's addition to our group was met with mixed emotions. The psychics - myself, Chloe and Lisa - were happy to have another one of us in our midst. The rest of the group, particularly Chris and Nathan, were less that happy about Dane hanging out with us.

"I don't know why Jacob, but he gives me the creeps." Chris said to me.

We were sitting on the back lawn of Chloe's house. Her parents had gone away and in high school tradition there was a party. Or as we had called it to our slightly naive parents, a "sleepover". This gave not only the impression that the girls would be pillowfighting in their underwear, but also that there would be no booze or adult content. Our poor parents.

"I know that vibe too. But the guy needs some friends." I tried to stick up for Dane, but found it a little bit hard. Although a guy with powers was fun, Dane and I had very little in common apart from that.

"Why do those friends have to be us? I mean I know Chloe and Lisa think he's the new black, but the guy's a total loser, and he looks at me weird. And people always seem to act weirdly after they've spent some time with him. Like Kara was totally against him at first, and then after a couple of minutes with him she decided she was neutral on the subject."

Great, that had the smell of Dane using his power all over it. I made a mental note to slap him across the back of the head when I got back inside.

"Okay I agree, that's odd. But I mean, Chloe's not exactly normal either, nor am I for that matter."

"Yeah but you guys are just good at reading people. I mean we're all so predictable to Chloe she knows what we're about to say half the time, but you know Kara, she's stubborn as anything. Like remember when her and I went on a double date with Natahn and Chloe? Twenty minutes to pick a movie just cuz Kara wouldn't budge, and I'd imagine she's just as bad when it comes to people."

"I think you're over-reacting." I tried to appear rational and not angry. "I mean you can just avoid the guy if he creeps you out."

"I try but he's always hanging out with us these days. I don't know why you and Chloe even started talking to him anyway. Pity is best reserved for getting people laid on new years."

"We...had our reason. Chloe seemed to think he was cool, and as you said, she's good at telling what people are gonna do."

"Well let's hope she knows what Dane's gonna do. I hope he doesn't go stalker on us all...or worse. Serial killer. I don't think Kara would still want to date me if I was in bite size pieces."

"Boys. You're sitting out here all alone." Kara said as she walked out the door accompanied by Chloe. The pair of them plopped down on the grass next to us.

"And without a drink!" Chloe handed us both beers.

"So how's my boy doing tonight?" Kara rubbed a hand up Chris' arm. "Apart from being cold! You're not gonna get any hugs tonight unless you warm up."

"I thought you would help warm me up..." Chris said, leaning in to start making out with Kara.

Chloe and I briefly gave each other a look. "And on that note I think I see something inside we should look at."

"Yes." I agreed. "Like a blank wall that is in no way sickeningly coupley."

"Don't let us keep you." Chris said as he came up for air.

"Oh trust me you won't." Chloe said. "Just don't go screwing on my lawn."

Chloe and I walked inside.

"Nathan has gone to bed." Chloe said to me as we walked inside. "He's so weak. Reckons he had a bad night's sleep last night. He was home all night!"

"Well you did decide to date the laziest boy on the planet, I don't know what you expected there." I shrugged and smiled.

"Don't push it boyo, or I'll get all depressed and make you have to feel it all."

"Oh I'm threatened." I said in my best impressed/scared voice. "Besides, it's probably better he's gone to bed, with Matt gone and the wonder couple distracted outside, that just leaves us four psychics to have some fun."

"That was the reason for this get together. And yes, I have the book!"

We walked into the lounge room where Lisa and Dane had been chatting.

"I'm still not sure about this." She said to us as we walked in. "It seems very...devil-worshippy. I'm pretty sure God frowns upon it."

"God frowns upon reading minds and seeing the future, so Jacob and I are already screwed there. Might as well push the envelope a bit.."

"Umm..what exactly are we doing?" Dane said.

"Jacob, you explain, you'll actually let them ask the questions. I'll go get some stuff." Chloe bounded upstairs.

"Okay, well Chloe has been reading. Stop and marvel at the concept for a second."

"I head that!" Chloe yelled from behind me as she walked away.

"She's been reading about dreams, and how people can see the future in their dreams."

"Can't Chloe already see the future though? Isn't that the point?" Dane asked.

"She can only see a few seconds in. It's enough to help her out short term...but doesn't give us a lot in the long term."

"Which is exactly how it's supposed to be. Noone should have the power to see that far." Lisa interjected.

"Her theory is we try this...meditation thing. It's supposed to help clear her mind and let her see further, and at the same time it should help clear our minds too and...boost our powers a little." I explained, ignoring Lisa as best I could.

"Umm...I'm pretty sure I can heal anything right now, so why am I here?" Lisa yawned and sat back on the couch.

"Because it's supposed to work better with four people, and I figure for the first time at least, we want to be as efficient as possible." Chloe returned into the room with a CD, a piece and a candle.

"Okay I have meditative music...a point of focus." She lit the candle and put it on the floor. "And a circle." She drew a big circle on the floor with the chalk.

"Do I really have to stay up for this or can I go to bed? I'm tired." Lisa said.

"I'm pretty wiped too. And...staring at a candle doesn't seem like fun." Dane said.

I looked at Chloe, she gave me a look too.

"Fine. Go. Be boring. Just don't interrupt us and keep the wonder couple away." Chloe fumed. "I think we can make this work as a pairs thing. Unless you wanna flake on me too?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world. Plus the more we can find out about...certain people....the better I think."

Chloe looked at the closed door then moved in to whisper. "You mean Dane?"...she then paused for a few seconds, meaning I didn't have to reply. "I agree. Nice, but creepy. Even the power is a bit creepy."

"Plus I think he's using it...on us even."

"Lisa and Kara have been a lot friendlier to him lately...like their annoyance at him is blocked off...it'd make sense."

"Exactly. So let's do this and find out what's in store."

A few minutes later the music was playing, soft waterfall sounds were filling the room, and the only light in the room came from our tiny candle. It was almost romantic. I even felt Chloe feeling the same way, which was re-assuring in a weird kind of way.

"Okay so the theory is...we link hands, focus on the sound and the candle...and..listen to what's going on in our heads. In your case pay attention to feelings...both yours and everyone's around...and for me whatever's about to happen. Then once we've meditated...we sleep, and that's when our powers awaken a bit..."

"Are you sure about this?" I checked one last time.

"Well it's from a Wiccan book. There isn't exactly a lot in any library on psychics like us so I had to adapt it a bit...but the theory is sound. Now shush, hold my hands like a big boy and we'll get started."

We sat down inside the chalk circle and held hands. I could feel Chloe focus on the flame and everything else inside her...and I tried to do the same. The problem was that I as I tried to focus on what Chloe was feeling, I ended up just focusing on other aspects of Chloe. So I changed my focus so try and feel what the other residents of the house were feeling. Unfortunately, there was this strong sexual tension coming from outside which was even more distracting.

So I sat there like a good little boy, totally unable to focus on anything but knowing that Chloe's mind was completely tuned in to what was going on. I also wondered why I had to be there, or whether Chloe had just wanted someone else there for company so she didn't feel awkward sitting in a dark room staring at a candle. Again, definitely not the calm, meditative thoughts I was supposed to be feeling.

About fifteen minutes later, which is an enternity in candle-staring time...the music stopped and Chloe snapped out of her trance.

"Okay bedtime! Just let me clean up the chalk."

Since Nathan had taken Chloe's bed, and Kara and Chris were sharing Chloe's parents' bed on the condition they didn't have sex in it, that left Dane, Lisa, Chloe and myself on the lounge room floor on various mattresses and sleeping bags. I was in between Chloe and Dane, with the slim frame of Chloe on one side contrasting with the warm bulk of Dane. I felt a bit less angry at Dane for messing with our heads, which a part of me almost thought could have been Dane messing with my head too, but I think I was always a bit hesitant to get angry at Dane. After all, he was new to the psychic thing, and was playing with his power in the safest way he could...but still...not so fun.

I slept rather restlessly, I think in part due to sleeping next to Chloe. She was dreaming, and feeling instense emotions as she did. I was feeling everything she was and it was creeping me out a little bit, so I could only imagine how she felt. In the end I had to get up and go for a walk just to have my head be my own for a bit...