Psychic Schoolkids - Part 18

Previously on Psychic Schoolkids

Jacob is an Empath. He reads people's emotions. He has many psychic friends such as Chloe (his premonitive girlfriend), Dane (his best friend who messes with the walls in people's heads), Emily (a girl he met in detention who freezes/melts things). He also spends lots of quality time with former friends Lisa and Kara (Lisa can heal people)...as well as his brand new frenemies Chris (Kara's ex...he unheals people), Nathan (Chloe's telekinetic ex) and Matt (the wimpy guy who makes forcefields). They also have a principal whose name mysteriously appeared in Chloe's visions, and a Maths teacher who is out to get them. Also...there may be something to do with ghosts.

And now for our next installment...

The bus ride to dinner was...exhilarating. The three of us left the school in a whirl of excitement, taking off as much of our school clothing as was appropriate and getting changed as we walked.

For the first time we had had a fight with Chris, Nathan and Matt and won; and this time it wasn’t a win by the skin of our teeth like the science lab, or where we had ran away battered and bruised. We had walked out of the room with one of them injured, and most importantly I hadn’t suffered any blows to the head after being thrown against solid objects by Nathan.

I don’t think it hit any of us that every time we got into a fight with the Trio (authors note: who need a much catchier name than that), our lives were at stake. Poor Neil could attest to that, but there was something...powerful about being able to kick ass with our powers in the way we were. Okay, so *I* wasn’t personally kicking ass, but Emily was, and more importantly, Dane was. And I was vicariously living through that. The joys of being an empath.

It was when we sat down on the bus that it first sank in. The three of us in our typical youth style sat up the back of the bus, where we could look down on the other passengers and were as far away from the driver as possible.

“We did just win didn’t we?” Emily said. “Like...they ambushed us and everything and we came out on top?”

“Did you see what I did there. I just went ‘POW’ and Nathan’s power started to go crazy. That was awesome!” Dane said.

“Will it last forever?” I said. “Cuz...that would be cool if he was stuck moving things around with his mind for a while. Would solve our problem.”

“I don’t know to be honest. Depends on how quickly he can rebuild all those little walls in his mind that stop him from randomly moving objects. Could be a few hours, could be a few weeks.”

The three of us sat back on the bus and exhaled. I leaned back and wrapped my arms around the backs of Emily and Dane’s seats. I think I felt closer to my friends at that moment than I had before. They were both so...different since I had first met them, and I couldn’t help but feel responsible for some of the change.

But as I sat there, with Emily and Dane going over all their cool moves frame-by-frame. I realised how much I wanted Chloe to be there with me talking it all over. And then I felt that terrible guilt for not even thinking about her before then. I guess things just felt more...comfortable with Dane and Emily. They didn’t have anywhere near as much personal baggage invested in this. Every time I was with Chloe and we talked about Nathan I felt that little flutter in her heart, and the remorse because she knew exactly where our confrontations with them were escalating.

I don’t know what’s worse...feeling how much your girlfriend has it in for her ex or knowing how much it’s going to hurt her when...

“Jacob, are you even paying attention dude?” Dane said, waving a hand in front of my face.

“...does it make me look bad if I say no?” I replied.

“We were just saying how we hope Chris isn’t getting up from under that pile of desks any time soon. But if he can heal...can he heal himself? Can Lisa heal herself?” Emily asked.

“I don’t think she’s ever needed to...but, if Chris is dead or something...that means we’re responsible. Can we handle that we killed a guy?”

“Well...he tried to kill us. It’s only fair really.” Dane said.

“And he killed Neil.” Emily added.

“But, they’re kids. Just like us. And they have these powers and they don’t know what to do with them. They just have someone pushing their buttons and turning them against us...But they’re probably just as confused and scared about what they can do...just like us.” I said.

“I’m not confused or scared anymore.” Emily said with a scary level of confidence. “I mean, you’ve seen what I can do. I fought off that ghost girl with total control, and I can freeze anything I can touch now. I know exactly what I can do...”

“And I know my limits...exactly what I can do to a person without driving them crazy...” Dane said.

“But what if you get it wrong? And you scar someone’s brain for life? Or Emily...what if you freeze a person solid? These powers...especially yours...they can hurt people. If we kill the Trio, that’s got consequences outside of anything else. Sure, the cops can’t exactly arrest us for freezing someone to death with our bare hands, but we have to live with killing people...”

“I think I already mentioned this....but...they started it.” Emily said.

“Lighten up Jacob. You’re starting to sound like Lisa.” Dane said.

“Oooh...we’re here.” Emily said, her and Dane bounded up and headed for the door.

“Maybe she is right...” I said, following them out the door.

“Hip hip”

“Hooray!”

Kara managed to blow out all the candles in a single breath. The entire restaurant clapped with applause. Some out of politeness, some to join in, and some because they actually had a bit of pride for the girl they didn’t even know who was turning 17.

I sat next to Chloe, holding hands under the table as subtlety as we could manage. Our late arrival had given us brief scolds from the girls who had all arrived earlier and significantly more dolled up than we were, but our explanation had earned us redemption from all except Lisa, who simply glared at us.

“For the record. You’re at least partially right.” I said to Lisa, who was on my opposite side.

“I normally am, what about?” Lisa said.

“Our powers. This is going to end badly.” I said. “Chris and Nathan keep on coming, and Emily and Dane are getting strong enough to take one, or all three of them out.”

“Well I would say I told you so....but instead I’m going to ask how you think I can help.” She said, I had a feeling she knew I could feel her smug indignance as she said this.

“I don’t know. I don’t even know what’s going to happen. I just know that one day soon we’re going to give our head of school a very stern question session so we can find out why our little Carrie ghost was screaming her name.”

“Well that part is easy. What if the Trio have other ideas? What if they kill someone? Or worse...you kill someone.”

“I don’t want it to come to that...”

“You’re their leader Jacob. You’ve always been the leader of this little power posse, even if you don’t want to admit it to yourself. It’s up to you to stop this becoming an even worse mess than it already is.”

“Jacob.” Came Chloe’s voice from behind me. I turned around to be greeted by a kiss. “Stop talking shop and spend some time with your girlfriend.”

“If you need me Jacob. You know where I am.” Lisa said, getting up and going to get another round of soft drink from the bar.

I wanted to speak to Kara as well, but I felt her birthday while she sat surrounded by her parents wasn’t exactly the best venue for conversation on her now homicidal ex-boyfriend, so I figured that too would have to wait for another day. The waiting game was beginning to do my head in.

“I’m going outside for some air.” Chloe announced to the table from next to me. “Come for a walk Jacob?” She said to me.

You don’t need to be a psychic to know that when your girlfriend wants to go for a walk outside that you’re in trouble. But it definitely helps.

As we sat on the bench out the front of the restaurant, I could feel that little edge of annoyance in her.

“Jacob, do you know what yesterday was?” She asked.

“Thursday?” I ventured. As soon as I said it I knew it was the wrong answer.

“It was our three month anniversary...”

“I didn’t think we were going to celebrate three months..” I said. We had pre-agreed on several anniversaries that were going to merit celebration, I know because I had marked them in my phone so I wouldn’t forget them.

“We weren’t. But...some kind of acknowledgment of it would have been nice.”

“I was a bit...busy yesterday.” I said.

“I know. You’re always busy lately, running around trying to get yourself killed.”

“Okay...I’m not trying. It’s other people trying to kill me. And I thought you weren’t afraid of them?”

“I wasn’t. But this is getting too big for us Jacob.” She said. “They can hurt people, Emily and Dane can hurt people, and you’re still that same kid who can read people’s emotions...”

“...and you’re still that girl who can see the future. Is that what this is about? What did you see?”

“What didn’t I see. Why do you think it took me so long to come up with anything useful in my dreams? Because the more I focus on Chris and Nathan the more I see every outcome of what could happen to us because of them. I see what might have happened if we never met Dane.” There it was again...that old flame for the ex, but I decided this wasn’t the best time to mention it. “And then I see what happens when you become a killer, or a thousand different ways you get yourself killed.”

I wrapped my arms around Chloe in a big hug, as tears started to stream down her face. I almost started crying out of sympathy.

“I wasn’t afraid of anything, ever. And now all I see in the future is pain to the people I care about.” She stood up, full of anger, tears still running along her cheeks. “I care about you too much Jacob to lose you to this world full of powers and ghosts. You need to stop. We need to stop. I want it to be just us again, the guy who can read what’s going on in people’s heads and the girl who can tell what’s going to happen a few minutes in the future.”

“You know we can’t...” I said.

“I know, and I hate it. You don’t get it. I can now see that little bit further into the future. I’m not a sentence ahead in conversation anymore, I’m minutes or hours or days ahead. Sometimes it’s days where you’re here, or sometimes it’s a day when I’m attending someone’s funeral. I don’t know how much time we have together before something happens to either one of us, and what I hate is that whatever we have left before Nathan throws your off a bridge of Chris rips my heart out is going to be spent with you running around trying to fight them.”

“Someone has to fight them.”

“No. You don’t. Haven’t you been paying attention? It’s not about you. “It’s about the three of them, and Emily and Dane. Let them all sort out their own issues and fight their own battles. You know that you can walk away and yes, people might die but you’ll be okay and I’ll be okay and we can be happy together.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but Chloe just put a finger in front of my mouth to silence me, and then stood up on her toes to kiss me.

“I know what you’re going to say. Just...give me some time. It would be nice if you could remember four months...even if we don’t do anything.” She wiped her eyes. “Why did I have to date the guy who wants to be the hero?”

“Because you needed someone to rescue you..” I said as I ushered her back inside.