by T H Paul
Her target for the first exam was once more Abbey––Penny had been able to control her once, so felt it was safe to focus on her again. Besides, Abbey was one of the best in the class at English, as much as Penny now loathed to admit. Still, she’d given Abbey something special, so it was only fair that she now gave something back, even if she had no idea what she might be about to do for Penny.
Penny needed to be nervous as they entered the school hall, as she had connected experiencing strong emotional feelings with her ability to control whatever she needed to start inside. She needed not have worried, however, as just setting out to try it in real life was enough to make the butterflies feel more like baby dragons racing around her stomach. Penny felt a little sick, in fact, and this had nothing to do with the exam papers being placed face down on each table. The tables were set out in rows as she’d seen done many times before, the setting meant to give the impression of what to expect further down the line when they were taking proper exams. Now it was just a trial, they said. Penny had learnt that much. Very little weight would fall on the results of these tests.
Over the holiday, Penny had learnt that emotions played a role in her ability to dive into her hidden gift. Originally, it had been fear that first time with Abbey––they’d been running for their lives––mixed with adrenaline. It had been something similar also during that dream she’d had the second time her gift had manifested when she’d woken and seen her lamp still floating. As the month had gone by, Penny came to understand the connection her body had to the emotions flooding through her veins.
While the reaction she was after in her stomach could be generated through a wide range of emotions––she’d tried happiness, joy, sadness––fear and nerves were by far the most reliable. She lacked the opportunity to test out the warmer options such as love and romance. That would come, in time, and would prove especially potent.
Penny stood on the edge of the school canteen––the cafeteria was located at the entrance to the hall so that from here, she could see the students as they entered the exam area. She followed close behind Abbey when the star athlete appeared from the corridor. While in the past they would have been talking with each other, entering the hall together, now there was only distance. They spoke very rarely. It was as if both girls knew their friendship was over––Abbey moved in new circles now, she had new friends and new abilities to boot. Penny just didn’t fit in this new life, this better life.
However, Penny didn’t want to sit too far away from Abbey as they took the exam with her theory so untested. She, therefore, managed to sit directly behind her. With the exam papers resting on each table, the three or four sheets of printed material lying face down, and final preparations made. On the stage in front of the students, where three teachers sat––already looking bored––was a giant clock. They would have one hour to complete this first exam.
At nine that morning, one of the three teachers on the stage said it was time to start, and a collective rustling of paper was heard around the hall as each of the over two hundred students turned their exam papers. Most were already writing their names on the top of the first page, as indicated, pens seen working frantically as the students processed what they had to do next. Penny, however, sat there looking down at her papers but had yet to pick up her pen. She was doing a test of her own.
Deep down inside, she was churning over those nerves that were building, trying to force the reaction she was longing for once more. It helped enormously given that there was also an excitement about doing such a test––something no one knew about, something that would certainly get her into trouble if anyone was to find out. That added an electricity of its own, the sensation very stimulating, the fear equally present. After just one minute, the feeling she longed for, however, was there again––she knew she had produced the required condition.
When she’d been planning this test, Penny had thought many times how she should apply it––she’d done a few tests on people when Penny had woken with the sensation raging, but each was nothing huge––but this was the first time she needed results. She applied her mind. Her first few efforts brought no results; allow me to see through Abbey’s eyes, allow me to read Abbey’s thoughts. No change. For a moment a sickening feeling was rising in Penny. What if she couldn’t get anything to work? Then what? She would almost certainly fail the exam, especially as she couldn’t do two things at once. If nothing was going to work, she would have to start the exam before she lost any more time. Five minutes had already passed.
Allow me to copy Abbey’s answers. Give me Abbey’s knowledge, show me what’s in her brain!
Still nothing. Panic was beginning to take over, though that seemed only to intensify the feeling inside. It can’t be about me, she sensed, the first time she’d ever had anything come back like that. She had to stop herself asking out loud what was meant by it. She remained silent. I can’t use this ability on me. I can’t make myself more than I am. I can only use this on other things––people or objects, anything with a power source running through them.
She picked up her pen. She’d never had any insight like that before, no guidelines on what it was she had going on inside her, yet the more her anxiety grew, the clearer her understanding became. It was helping her.
Allow Abbey to have telepathic abilities Penny started. Immediately Abbey’s voice could be heard in her mind, but that wasn’t the only issue. Every head in the room seemed to react, some looking over to Abbey as she carried on writing, oblivious to what was happening around her. Penny tried to remain calm, as the words of the girl sitting just in front of her continued to run through her mind as if being spoken aloud for all the hall to hear.
Allow Abbey Lawrence to only communicate with me via telepathy and the room suddenly returned to normal, while the internal monologue that was going on inside Penny’s head continued. Those heads that had been glancing Abbey’s way once more focused on their papers. Abbey was talking through her answer to question two.
Penny sat there listening before she quickly turned to the page in question and started to fill in the answers. It was working. She was using someone else to complete her exam––all she had to do was listen in, and the answers were being spoken right into her head. A burst of excitement raced around her––this only seemed to intensify the connection, thoughts and dreams that Abbey no doubt had also landing along with the words. Penny could read her mind––and there was some fascinating stuff coming across.
An hour later, they were leaving the hall. The papers collected, and Penny had been able to finish it in time, having to go back and complete the first question herself, which luckily she’d been able to do from what she already knew.
All around Penny there was noise, though the constant thread of Abbey’s thoughts and words continued to run through Penny’s mind. It suddenly became distracting, Penny now not sure who was speaking to her, walking past two girls from the class who’d asked her if she wanted to join them for lunch. Penny hadn’t heard either of them, her mind occupied with not only her own thoughts but those of Abbey too.
Undo Abbey’s telepathic ability Penny finally said, and immediately the voice flowing through her mind stopped. Penny was no longer hearing Abbey’s thoughts; her mind was her own once again. So, she could take away an ability just as quickly as she’d given it. That was a startling realisation.
Watching Abbey walking off hand in hand with Jack, Penny already knew one day she would put this latest knowledge about her ability to undo something she’d previous bestowed upon someone firmly to the test. For that, she would have to bide her time. Selecting the perfect moment would take patience.
7
School for me back then was a strange time––is it ever not? Forced to be around people all day––not that you necessarily liked them, they were just the same age and lived in the same area, so you all get lumped together, regardless. However, I think most of them needed me more than I needed them. I’d always been independent, and bef
ore I learned about this curse of mine, I had very few friends that I would have called close. That needed to change, if not for the simple fact that I needed new faces around me who I could experiment on––nothing too horrendous, of course, nor too severe––just fresh meat. Kelly McCain and Jack Ferguson fitted the bill perfectly.
As the Spring term started, the students of 9W were already looking forward to the summer holidays, though it still felt too far away. Exams were behind them. Penny had been one of the top performers in her year, alongside the usual suspects of regular high achievers. Around the corridors of the school, Abbey and Jack could be seen walking hand in hand most breaks, or just standing embraced, more often than not connected at the lips, it seemed. It’d become a familiar, overplayed scene––especially in Penny’s eyes, who’d once had feelings for Jack, but had never made them known to him. However, some of the girls in Penny’s class knew––they’d seen how Penny acted when the star of the school’s football team entered the classroom––but that was as far as it went. Abbey knew, too, and stored that knowledge away like someone does when they come across something they aren’t happy with though there is no other way of otherwise dealing without making it visible. She’d long since stopped hanging out with Penny by that point anyway, and her relationship with Jack was yet another contributing factor.
One girl who Penny had yet to be friends with––friends seemed to come and go for Penn, despite her best efforts––was Kelly McCain. Penny loathed her, nearly as much as the boys teased her. Kelly, for one thing, was by far the last one to develop physically from any of the girls in the class and around a group of fourteen-year-olds, this was a big deal. While Kelly had only just below average height for her age and was not the youngest in the class, she might as well have been––in all other aspects, she was behind. The girls couldn’t help but point this out––flat chested McCain was started by the classmates of 9W, behind Kelly’s back of course, and it had spread like wildfire throughout the whole year. It was stupid, immature stuff, but brought groups together who had otherwise avoided each other. In Kelly, the class and occasionally the entire year had a focal point for their jokes.
Penny had never really thought through why she didn’t like Kelly––they came from similar financial backgrounds, in that there was not a lot of money available at home. Much like half the class, then, given the location of the school in that part of London. However, it was only Kelly who got bullied for not having the latest fashions, for coming to school in what most assumed to be second-hand uniforms and for generally being a year behind the times on nearly everything. Much like Penny, though she would never have admitted that publicly. Penny reasoned that if they hadn’t been so focused on Kelly when the spot was still open for the class loser, the tide might have turned against her instead; so McCain was a welcome distraction. An alternative target.
Kelly was a bright student, however––she was one of the best in History, taking an interest in things most others just ignored. For Penny, that had made Kelly her prime target when it had come to that particular subject’s exam earlier in the year, and it was then––whilst listening to her thoughts as Kelly projected them to Penny––that Penny first experienced the hatred Kelly had for most of the girls. There was a particular dislike for herself, too. That stung a bit. Penny couldn’t tell why––she could only read current thoughts, she did not know the reasons behind such thoughts. It made Penny even more cautious than usual of the girl she now looked at through different eyes. Careful eyes.
As the weeks went by, Penny kept her distance from Kelly, maybe more so than normal, going out of her way to avoid Kelly altogether. If Kelly noticed this, she hadn’t let on, though Penny had stayed out of her head ever since that exam.
Then the message appeared.
Written crudely in the second-floor girls’ toilets was a love heart, linking Penny to Jack. News spread quickly as it always did––Abbey was later seen coming out of the same toilet as Penny was entering, having herself just heard the rumour and needing to see the reality. Abbey said nothing––she didn’t even make eye contact with Penny as she bumped her shoulder hard as she exited. Now that Penny was inside the cubical in question, there it was, on the back of the door in red ink. Penny froze. Why would someone say this, and why now? It made no sense. Was it to get at Abbey, who was very much together with Jack, in as much as two fourteen-year-olds can be? Or was it to get at Penny?
She had to find out who had done this to her.
With new rage flowing through her still shaking-with-anger body, it was easy for Penny to control her gift as that week’s lessons continued. She would first work through the minds of each girl in her class, before moving wider across the year, if needed. She was sure, though, that the culprit was someone from 9W, and given the location in the girls’ toilets, she could safely rule out any of the boys, for now.
Abbey had not done it herself––that much was obvious, her former friend still being the first classmate Penny tested. Abbey was upset by it, for sure, but had not put it there and hated the fact it was there. Penny listened as Abbey reminded herself how she knew about Penny’s feelings for Jack from before. Various insecurities came to the surface as Penny snooped, Abbey mulling over much, worried that there might, in fact, be some truth to it all––wondering if Penny had put the message there, and if so, what it all meant.
Penny quickly moved on––whilst the gift of telepathy was helpful to use during an exam, she felt weird using it just to listen in. Early teen girls, especially, really did have a lot going on inside, and hearing that twice over––the person she was eavesdropping on as well as her own thoughts––was at the best of times too much to handle for any significant period.
Eventually, Penny landed at Kelly. And while Kelly didn’t think it outright during the class that Penny was there listening––Penny wasn’t able to make people think whatever she wanted them to, just listen––it was evident in Penny’s mind that Kelly had in fact been the girl who wrote the message in the toilet. Penny wasn’t sure who had been the primary target––was it to wind up Abbey? She was now the most popular girl in the class, plucked from obscurity and once more back on the track, winning more prizes than anyone else. Or was it to get to Penny, though even if that were true, Penny couldn’t think of a valid reason why that would be the case, nor the timing of it. She’d never done anything to Kelly, despite avoiding her and despising her from the first week she’d joined their class.
So it had been Kelly who had written that message. All reason, motive and pondering aside––if Penny could find out why one day, it would at least settle her curiosity––Kelly needed teaching a lesson. Penny was ready to experiment again, and she now had the perfect person on whom to test. It had been something she’d been thinking about for a little while, though standing there as she was just outside the classroom, the awareness that someone was standing in front of her suddenly broke her flow of thought.
“I hear you’ve been writing messages about me, Black.” It was Jack, wearing a smug grin on his face. He’d apparently been told, most probably from Abbey herself. Word travelled quickly around the school so that it could have been anyone, but it was evident soon the whole year might know. Penny recalled Jack had an older sister one year up––maybe she’d seen it, and assumed it was talking about her younger brother? He wasn’t the only Jack in the entire school, however. There was at least another boy with the same first name in her year alone.
“Piss off,” Penny said, as Abbey looked over, an annoyance more than anything showing on her face, given the fact Jack was now alone and talking to Penny.
“You should have told me sooner,” he continued as if girls were lining up to date him. Jack apparently thought a lot of himself, a modern-day Romeo in a school of lovesick Juliets. Penny just gave him a look that said one more word, and I’ll punch you in the face though as she was looking up at him, couldn’t help but go a little red. He smiled. Bending nearer to her, so that his designer waxed ha
ir was just inches from her nose, he whispered.
“I’m with Abbey at the moment, but let's see how that works out. Maybe there is a chance for you,” and he winked, mockingly.
“Go to hell!” she said loud enough for a few students nearby to hear, though they soon lost interest, Jack walked back to his seat as the teacher entered the classroom. Abbey couldn’t keep her gaze from Penny for the rest of the lesson, when she wasn’t otherwise looking at Jack, as she tried to work out what had just gone on between the two, unable herself to have heard any of the interaction, only going on what she saw. And Abbey didn’t like what she had seen, her boyfriend whispering something to another girl––and Penny Black, of all people. The girl who’d most likely started Abbey’s nickname behind her back when Penny first called her Abbey Pigtails. Well, now Abbey was different. Now Abbey was the class favourite, her simple hairstyle had gone (the running club had suggested she shorten her hair if pigtails were not to be an option) and she had Jack for a boyfriend.
For Penny, all that this hour’s class had done was to put two obvious targets on both Jack and Kelly for what they’d done to her. Abbey Pigtails would just have to wait her turn.
8
Never before that day had I felt so angry. My insides were like a raging, uncontrollable storm, and now I could strike back. I was angry about a lot of things, in fact. My home life was falling apart––my father was weeks away from finally leaving for good. He never did come back. I still don’t know where he is. Mum was in denial and turned even more to the drinks and drugs that had wrecked her marriage thus far. I had no one to talk to––though I wasn’t in a talking mood. I wanted revenge. And Kelly was target number one!