New Friends, New Problems

Savannah walked briskly through the crowded hallway to her locker, elbowing aside several people in the process. They turned to say something to her, probably something along the lines of "Watch it" or "Excuse me" or some other sarcastic, mean response, but before they could they saw her face. They saw who she was. They saw exactly who had just moved them aside. And they shut their mouths and moved out of the way. She opened her locker, but before taking out her books for the morning, she glanced over at the next six or seven lockers. They were all open, and the people were too busy to notice her, gossiping in the annoying, self-possessed way that the students of this particular school were so very fond of. Savannah watched them, almost calmly. This school had something about it; the water or the air; that made it virtually impossible to achieve the level of calm and indifference she needed. The level of calm and indifference that she needed to stop herself from blowing up and going off. The level of calm and indifference that made her so cold served the same purpose to keep her from doing- The lockers slammed shut, locks wrenching themselves off their lockers and splattering people surging down the hall like small bullets of hate and pain. People scattered. To keep her from doing exactly that. Savannah knew the group would have complained, but they were smart enough not to. Only an idiot would say something bad about Savannah. Well, to her face, that is. The six or seven people started bickering about something like a 'rincipal-pay'. Savannah looked at them in confusion, then rolled her eyes. There were some very very strange people that attended this school. But they didn't matter. Well, maybe Massie mattered. But not in the best of ways. Savannah tried to remind herself to stop antagonizing herself, but it was impossible. She never meant to do anything that ended up happening (and she'd done some pretty not-fun or not-nice things) but they happened anyway. Computer wouldn't load. Dropped her bike lock. Best friend ditched her without warning for someone in the 'Inner Circle'. The point was punctuated when her twelfth lock-twelfth in one, solitary month- snapped. Great. Not. Massie had disappeared from the group, which Savannah had neglected to notice before. Now she returned. "The principal wants to see you," Massie muttered before racing through the deserted hallways. There was barely a minute left in passing period. Savannah totally could have made it, but she had to go to the stupid principal instead. There's the eighth thing on my list, Savannah thought. Every day she assembled a list in her mind of things she currently, mostly because of things like the locker story. Every day the list decreased, but it was still going strong; her last tally at almost forty mishaps. The bike rides were the biggest problem, the reason why it was so high so early in the morning. Now there's the kind of life to lead. She went quicker down the hall. She despised school, not because of its school-ness, but because of its increased opportunity for disaster. She loathed the disasters—her freakin' disasters—even more than anything. The only thing she really liked was emailing Lynn Ultimatihah, a girl she used to know. What changed Lynn from being an annoying girl who barely paid attention to Savannah to someone who was always online talking, Savannah didn't know, but it was nice to have some kind of a friend. Savannah saw the empty halls and made use of her mind powers to go much faster. She liked using her mind powers. That is, when they weren't turning her school into a freaking disaster area. “Savannah," the principal started.. “You can’t keep doing this. It's unfair to your classmates. They’ve complained numerously…" There was more, but Savannah couldn’t care less. This must have been, like, the fifteenth time he had said that exact same thing. Down to the last sigh. He was always threatening to kick her out of school, a threat which Savannah knew would never manifest. “Savannah, I can tell you’re not listening." “I’m listening." “Then what did I just say?" “ 'That I can’t take out my apparent anger on people who had nothing to do with it.' " Savannah had also been watching the clock and knew exactly which phrase the principal had just said. Word for word. “Yes, actually. How did you know? “I’m listening." “You’re making objects on my desk levitate. That takes a lot of concentration and attention. You would have had to screen out my voice and never would have been able to pay enough attention to what I was saying." Snap. How did he know all this? Guessing? Books? Internet? "Let's just say I listened the first time. You say the exact same time every morning." "Why do you do this locker practice of yours? Is there anything wrong?" "Like the fact my supposed best friend ditched me to hang with a popular girl, and preen her hair, and talk about the jocks, and read their romance novels, and exchange their-" Savannah had been gathering steam the whole time and was close to shouting. Even though she didn't really care anymore, there were instances in which it was hard to tell. "That would be a perfect example." The principal smiled. It made Savannah want to throw something. "So what happened?" "My supposed best friend ditched me to hang with a popular girl, and preen her hair, and talk about the jocks, and read their romance novels, and exchange their stupid books, and generally totally blow me off." Totally deadpan. Only an idiot would not be able to figure out what she was going to say from earlier. "Well maybe it you tell her how you feel, you would stop, um, destroying their lockers. But why are you still doing this?" "Because I'm special like that!" Savannah snapped. It was Lynn's favorite expression. "Well, your, er, 'special-ness' is really annoying everyone here. You can't take out your anger on all of us. You can't just-" Back into lecture mode. Savannah's barely captured attention drifted again as the principal continued talking about things that Savannah had heard a bazillion times before. She was so going to miss first period, just like every other day. Savannah hadn't gone to P.E. since about the first week of school. "I think you should write a book." "A- what? " Savannah hadn't really been paying attention and the new idea shocked her out of re-arranging the principal's files from inside the drawer. "A book. I'm not a therapist, but since a lot of kids find writing a journal to be helpful, even though you don't, I think you should try." Savannah almost laughed as she remembered when she had tried to write a journal. All she had thought of to say, beyond the obvious, was print "Mind powers, mind powers/whom do I see?/Must be someone lucky/Lucky because they aren't me" over and over again, until it filled about ten pages. The teacher was both puzzled and annoyed by this and discontinued the practice. "About what? How much I hate my life? How much I hate Massie?" "Or perhaps your telekinesis?" "How about all three? Then I can lock it into my attic so it will never see the light of day again!" Savannah would have stood up and marched out of the office, but that might have resulted in her having to go to P.E. And because she hadn't even the dimmest idea of what they were doing, she kept sitting down, even though it totally ruined her rush of anger and timing. "Savannah. Look. You need to calm down. Destroying the school won't make your friends like you." "Maybe not." Savannah watched the momentary relief in the principal's eyes. "But it will make me feel better." "Why Savannah? Why? Why?" "Because I'm special like that!" "Go to first period." Usually the lectures lasted considerably longer than that and Savannah was surprised by the abrupt dismissal. " What? First period? I haven't been there in, like, a month! I don't even know what they're doing in there!" "Figure it out." "Plus, I'll be late. The principal produced a pass and Savannah set off towards the stupid gym, hatred burning inside her. Of everything. Her life. Massie. School. P.E. The principal. Even Lynn. In short, basically the entire population. When Savannah got to P.E., luckily, she hadn't missed much. Just getting P.E. clothes, a locker, and the entire routine. So, you know, not that much. Not. Sarcastic, redundant thoughts, manyof them quotes taken directly from Lynn, filled her head as she marched over to the instructor she'd become acquainted with a while back. "I have absolutely no idea what's going on," Savannah stated flatly. "Who are you?" "Savannah. Savannah Cusa." She was surprised that the teacher didn't already know, Savannah looked unique and was probably a very talked-about subject "Oh right. Come in at lunch and we'll get you all straightened out." Meanwhile, Savannah, being the lucky soul she was, got to sit and have the entire room- which was one heck of a lot of people- stare at her the entire period. Savannah's thoughts mostly consisted of a) whatever activity she was doing with her mind powers, b) how much she hated this school, c) her intense dislike of Massie, and finally d) how much she wished she were at home, in her room, listening to some kind of music-preferably the new CD that had just come in with several good songs- rather than here. All in all, a pretty lethal combination. Savannah did have a pretty awesome memory, though, and she replayed some of the songs in her head. They all had these weird names- like DUYD-SV or CrSu-AV or SavSon-EV. DUYD-SV and SavSon-EV were her favorites. "I have my dreams...I am so filled..." she hummed to herself. She decided to opposite of think about P.E. Which wasn't hard, considering the small mind powers she utilized, such as making the floor vibrate or the walls jump slightly. Savannah walked toward her next class, which was Speech. It had sounded totally 100%-to borrow one of Lynn's phrases- on paper, but in reality it was a total bore. Basically, every other week they had to write, memorize, and perform a speech. The teacher had said that most of the speeches were pretty short, but two or three they would do would have to be much longer. Which Savannah was sure wouldn't be much of a problem. Today, she and the thirty other unlucky adolescents were going to have to perform their speeches. The assignment was to write a speech informing the class about something they were very beneficial- God. Those phrases of Lynn's were so annoying- and yet so hard not to use. Savannah found herself saying beneficial and 100% all the time now. Which was on the higher spectrum of the annoyance scale. Savannah sat in class, waiting for the bell to ring. She pulled out her new favorite book: Peeps by Scott Westerfeld. Scott Westerfeld was one of her favorite authors and she'd read every book of his at least three or four times. Finally, the bell rang and Savannah put her book away. The teacher had decided to go in alphabetical order by first names, so Savannah wouldn't have to go any time soon. Not like it really mattered anyway- she had the whole thing memorized to perfection anyway. Twenty minutes later, Savannah was staring at the clock, a) wishing she could perform her speech, b) wishing she could leave, and c) wishing that she had a BlackBerry like Lynn so she could email her during class. This was just so boring. "Savannah Cusa!" "What?" "This is the third time I'm asking you-" "Yeah, yeah, I got it!" Savannah had chosen waterskiing as her topic. "Hello, peeps." That there alone was an insult. In Peeps, a peep was a parasite-positive. Obviously these kids didn't have the same kind of parasites, but it was an insult and a joke nonetheless. Of course, none of the kids actually had read the book Peeps, so the joke was wasted. "Something tells me that all of you took really wild guesses and unanimously decided I was going to do mind powers, but I didn't. Well, I most sincerely apologize, in the most insincere and sarcastic way possible. Anyway, I chose waterrskiing, because waterskiing is awesome and so am I. Waterskiing, in addition to being awesome, is also expensive, unless you have friends who will drive you out to the lake, so you can waterski, go without a shower, have no properly functioning toilet, and eat sand instead of food. Isn't life the greatest? "Anyway, waterskiing, in addition to being awesome and expensive, is also really hard. It took me like twelve runs in order to get it, as well as a half gallon of lake water and the innumerable parasites to boot. Which is just totally on the higher side of the beneficial spectrum. There are three things that are essential for waterskiing: Touch, Strength, and a really, really still lake. And the last is really hard to come by, especially on a busy lake like Don Pedro. "Waterskiing, in addition to being awesome, expensive, hard, and hard to come by, also takes some technique. The basic technique is to sit in the water with your knees to your chest and wait for the boat to move. Then you stand up in the water in a span of about three seconds. Which takes the exact right speed: too slow and you fall backward, to fast and you fall on your face. Both of which are the total opposites of 100%. I speak from experience. And I trust that, even if due solely to your overall incompetence, will be able to say so soon. "Waterskiing, as well as being awesome, expensive, hard, hard to come by, technique-taking, and un-beneficial if not speed-perfect, is finally very hydrating. As in I can guarantee if you try you will end up with a face full of water. Inevitably." Basically the entire class was staring at her. For at least a full minute, everyone in the entire room just stared at her blindly. Even the teacher. "What?" Savannah asked the room, finally. She had to stay up in the spotlight because one of the infuriating rules of the teacher was that you had to stay up there for a few minutes for critique. "100%?" one person suggested tentatively. "Un-beneficial?" Another tentative suggestion. "You apology?" Someone actually laughed at that one, remembering it. "Beneficial spectrum?" Oh. They were confused by Lynn's expressions. Which Savannah couldn't exactly blame them for. Savannah had also been confused by Lynn's expressions and sarcasm when she had first emailed Savannah. "It's just my friend. She makes up weird expressions and borrows some from other people." "You have a friend?" Some evil person asked incredously. Savannah made a face. "Um, like, yeah? Is that not what I just said?" "Yeah, but..." "Despite popular belief, I am not a witch. And this is not the medieval ages, despite the feudality. Quit the Inquisition." "Is feudality even a word?' "I'm not completely sure." "You lose points for sarcasm, cruelty, and incoherent phrases. You earn points for memorization, having a clear thread, time, and picking a good topic." The teacher was totally ignoring the fight, not wanting to bother Savannah and figuring that the girl was stupid enough to deserve what she got. "Incoherent phrases?" "I have never, ever heard a professional speaker say a beneficial spectrum, use that much sarcasm, or-" "How can it be funny while devoid of sarcasm?" Savannah said sarcastically. Several people laughed. "And how was I being cruel?" "Face it, Savannah," a girl in the back said. She had skin the color of porcelain and jet-black hair and eyes. Her eyebrows were high and arched, giving her an eternally angry look. "You're always cruel." "That was a mistake," someone muttered darkly, just loud enough for everyone to hear. "Here we go again," another sighed. "Stop, drop, and roll," came another. All of which made Savannah pretty angry. And by now you should realize that making Savannah angry is a very un-beneficial thing. Duh. "See? You're all just proving my point!" The mysterious girl stood up as if to prove her point. "Savannah is someone who will never be challenged." "Okay then, Miss Smart-" "It's Tara, actually." She pronounced the name wrong, with an 'are' sound rather than 'air', which Savannah found pretty strange, considering it was the girl's own name and all. "Whatever. That's not the point. The point is-" Savannah's sentence was stopped by the bell. "Catch ya later!" Tara called before sashaying out the door. Third period was math, and fourth was history. In both classes, everyone was terrified of her. They kept their mouths shut. No one ever talked ever really to Savannah. Savannah hated to be bothered by people, and people hated to bother her. Duh. One wrong word and you're blasting through the window. Just to give a totally random, unrelated example. Savannah sat in a raging boil throughout the whole thing, and everyone in both classes kept their distances. Smart people. There is no such thing as "comforting" Savannah. There was no such thing as making her feel better. There was just not getting thrown into the door. Or so people were so sure of. At lunch, Savannah stomped over to the gym, leaving destruction in her wake. All of her anger- the book, P.E., and especially Tara, boiled up and lashed out in destruction: skidding tables, cracking pavement, bending window panes. She didn't want to hurt anyone, but her anger and rage made it impossible not to use her mind powers. Most of the school realized this pretty fast, and they all moved out of the way as she passed through. It didn't take a mind reader to figure out what was going through her mind. They had dealt with her enough. Savannah burst through the P.E. offices doors. Most of her regular teachers- that is the ones whose classes she hadn't missed- already had a 'Savannah radar' to figure out when she was angry- that is when to step away- but the P.E. person had no idea. Which was so not advantageous. To borrow another one of Lynn's favorite words. The entire room shuddered slightly when Savannah entered it, as if it couldn't take that much power. It wasn't anger that encompassed Savannah. Her sheer power is what made her that dangerous. I'd kill to be as powerful as she. "Savannah?" The teacher said, only slightly cautious. Most others would have asked her to leave. While crouching behind a desk or something similar. "That is so me, it is unbelievable." She hadn't really intended to say that, but it just came out. It was by far Lynn's favorite expression, and she used it all the time. It was one of those contagious expressions that you don’t particularly like but use all the time anyway. The teacher handed her some 'P.E. clothes', and explained some of the rules and everything. It wasn't exactly rocket science, and Savannah slowly calmed down. Afterwards, Savannah spent most of her lunch sitting at a table reading intently, steadfastly ignoring the rest of the universe. Fifth period Savannah had Language Arts. The teacher there was always practically desperate to get Savannah to stop feeling angry. All of her attempts never worked, mostly because Savannah sincerely disliked the teacher and refused to go along with most of her attempts. Today, she revealed that it was her that had suggested to the principal write a book. It was also her that had asked for the journal. "I really want you to write this book, Savannah." "I suck at writing." "Well-" "I've actually asked my friend to evaluate my writing, and I must say that she agrees that my writing sucks the Kasbah." There was another one of Lynn's expressions. Lynn was the one who had edited it and those had been her exact, heartfelt words. "Write it anyway." The bell rang and the teacher started working on the lesson. Sixth period was science, and again the kids were scared stiff of her. Savannah let them be that way. When Savannah finally got home, she went immediately to her computer. She didn't have much homework, and what she did have she could finish in fifteen minutes, anyway. Savannah signed into her gmail account, Savvy54321@gmail.com, and lo and behold, there was a green dot next to Lynn's name. There was always a green dot next to Lynn's name. Savannah once signed in at one in the morning and there was a green dot next to Lynn's name. Lynn: Hey Savvy! Savannah: Pardon my language, but what the HELL do I have to do to get you to stop calling me Savvy?????? Lynn: Touchy. Anyway, anything new with your mind powers? Savannah: No, just that some people have a death wish. Lynn: What? Savannah: There was this one girl who was openly challenging me in front of my class. Savannah: Obnoxious girl. Lynn: What was her name? Savannah: Tara. Lynn: Did she look kind of freaky? Savannah: Haven't you guys, like, met? Lynn: If we have, I don't remember. Savannah: Tara definitely doesn't look mainstream. But, I mean, neither do I. I mean, hello, I look like I'm dead or something half the time. Savannah was very, very pale in normal circumstances. And when she was freaked out or scared, which usually happens when one of her disasters occurred, she did look like the walking dead or something similar. Lynn: Whatever. Anyway, guess what. Savannah: What? Lynn: I don’t know. Lynn: I have to go. There's some retarded assembly and they are making us turn in all our electronics. Savannah: Aloha. Lynn: Double Aloha. Savannah: Triple Lynn: quad Lynn's dot went gray. Savannah pushed her chair back from her desk. She then pulled out her homework and finished it. Then she pulled back up to her computer. On her computer, TRACK 5 covered the screen. It was, of course, really SavSon-EV, but her computer couldn't find the names on the internet so had just named them like that. On the small pamphlet, of course, all the names were listed but Savannah was too lazy to input them. Savannah opened a new word document. She was going to start on her book, which, knowing her, would probably be one of the worst books in human history. SAVANNAH'S BOOK- THE PINNACLE OF CRAPPY BOOKS Hello. My name is Kylie. I have this thing called 'mind powers'- Hm. Maybe you haven't heard of those exactly. Let me explain, then. Mind powers give me the ability to move objects with my mind. Which is like really weird and also excessively freaks me out. And pretty much the entire school. I'm not completely sure how I got them. It wasn't something that happened slowly, it was like I went to bed one night, finally resigned to my stupid, obnoxious fate, woke up in the morning (still resigned, mind you) and launched my dresser into my wall. Without getting out of bed. Then I screamed. Still screaming, I tripped down my stairs, where my mom and brother just kind of stared at me blankly. I probably looked pretty psycho. Wait- there's no probably about it. My mom kind of went "Would you like some coffee?" and my brother just stared. Yeah. So not a pretty picture. I suppose that's not a very exact explanation. Barely took me a few minutes. So let's back up: way, way back. Past Lynn, past that morning, past the dream (I will explain), past the resignation To the beginning. Once upon a time, there was a girl named Kylie (that would be me). She had a friend named Madison. At school Madison and Kylie were never apart. And after school, they would email or talk on the phone for a very long time. But one odd thing about the whole situation was that they both liked different things. Kylie's life definitely revolved more around books, school, and to a lesser extent, music. But Madison preferred focusing on friends and popularity; her reading selections were those really annoying candy lit that some people really like. Anyway, one day Madison decided that Kylie was too boring, or uninterested in Madison's admiration of the Rich and Snobby, or something along those lines. So Madison ditched Kylie to hang out with someone better. Popular, rich, and snobby-wise, that is. And, of course, Kylie was just thrilled with that turn of events. Let's see how big of a 'NOT' we can stick on there. Anyway, so I was still kind of upset about that. But let me just orient you in space and time. Because that always helps matters: 1st day of school: Kylie and Madison are best friends and spend three hours emailing each other. Seriously. I counted. It was like five hundred lines. 2nd day of school: Kylie goes over to Madison's locker and tries to talk to Madison, and a big snobby blonde is in her way. Kylie tries for five minutes until Madison says "Look, I don't really want to hang out with you anymore. Ashley here is cooler". Madison gives Kylie the cold shoulder the rest of the day. 3rd day of school: Kylie decides to stop acting psychotic about it. After all, if Madison decides to ditch her, then there's really no reason for Kylie to want to be friends with her. Tries to make other friends. That's an epic fail in a bottle. 4th day of school: Kylie wakes up by lobbing a dresser into her wall. Then falls down the stairs, getting a huge bruise on her cheekbone that does not go away. It's been weeks and the thing is still there. So, you can see why I'm upset, pretty much. I try not to be mad about it- it's been almost six weeks and I'm so over it by now. Unfortunately, no one told the objects in the world that, and so they're still responding. Seriously. I walk into a room and they all go psychotic, banging into each other. I don't know why it just happens to occur when I drop my pencil and end up crushing it. Or get my hair entangled in my backpack zipper (hello, it's like two and a half feet long- it's hard not to). Or when a book I want isn't in the library. Or when my lock on my locker isn't cooperating. Or when I try to get my bike out of the garage and have it conveniently bang into everything, thereby inevitably breaking them. Anyway, let's go back to how I actually came to be psychoticizing (that is so not a word) the objects in a room. I suppose there is more to it than just me being angry... In fact, there's actually a whole story. Another one. Actually, there's more like five other stories, all part of the really annoying fantasy-science-horror-teen-fiction mess that is also known as my life. Glad that you find delight in it. So, you know the night after the day when I went around trying to make friends (man were those objects on fire that day)? Well, I also had a really weird dream. Like, psychotically weird. And yeah, I know all of us have really weird dreams all the time, regardless of whether we are also turning insanely, accidentally violent at the same time. Like me. Anyway, let's move on. Savannah flung her chair back from the computer desk and lay on her bed, listening to the music. It was different from any other music she'd ever heard- different sounds and twelve thousand layers of sound. But soon that got tiresome so she grabbed a book and read that, having already finished Peeps. As always, Savannah woke up at six in the morning to get ready. That much time wasn’t really necessary, but Lynn was usually online so she could chat with her for a while. Plus, today she also had her book. She got ready by six twenty, and found her inbox full of messages from Lynn. She only had to click on the first one (sent at three in the morning) to figure out exactly what her mistake had been. Apparently she had left her computer on and her internet browser open, so it had looked like she had been online all night. And ignoring Lynn. Whoops. Savannah: Hey Lynn. Lynn: How come you were ignoring me? Savannah: Sorry. I left my computer on all night. I had a file unsaved, so I forgot to hit power again after saving it. Lynn: Oh yeah. I've had that happen before. It's so annoying. Savannah: So, anything new with your boarding school? Lynn: No. But everyone here is pretty hilarious. Savannah: Why? There was a long pause there for a paradoxically short answer. Lynn: Well, they all treat me like a time bomb. Savannah: Why? Lynn: Not sure. I just know that whenever I walk into a room, no matter how loud it was before, it's silent. In fact, if it weren't for the Lynn Lang, the teachers would all probably love me. Savannah: ha ha. Everyone treats me like a time bomb too. Lynn: Duh. Lynn: Do you like electronica? Savannah: Um, my favorite CD shows up as electronica/dance, so I suppose so. Question for the narrator: Why does the music register as electronica-slash- dance? Simple. It's registering itself after The Savvy People, whose music is defined as Electronica/Dance or Electronic Dance. No idea what the difference is. Lynn: Awesomnisity. That's my favorite genre. What artist? Savannah: None. Lynn: Um, it has to have some kind of artist. Savannah: Except that it doesn’t. The cover is plain black, silver writing. 'lectronica. That's it. The CD is plain black. And the inside of the cover just has the names of the songs. No credits, no artists, no recording studio. Lynn: Tried looking it up on the internet? Savannah: Yeah. But it's like it doesn't exist. I've tried the song names, I've tried 'lectronica, I've even tried lyrics. Except for this one blog, nothing. I mean, they all have like seven trillion matches, but none of them are what I'm looking for. Lynn: Whose blog? Savannah: Some random Alena person. Doesn't even have a last name. Lynn: Alena... I know her. I always thought she had a password on her blog. We used to be friends. Now we're enemies. I would always be able to tell it was her...she had her name pronounced oddly- a-lih-nah or something. Savannah: Yeah, she has two. One of them has a password and one does not. And if since there's no last name, how do you know it's your friend? Lynn: It's not exactly a common name, now is it? I mean, if I put up a blog with just 'Lynn' on it, talking about boarding school, you would have to be pretty sure it was me, right? Savannah: Good point. And if it was in the Lynn Lang it would be a done deal. And do you know anything about the CD? Lynn: Not much. Besides the fact that it's annoying, it will turn itself on at random times, and it doesn't exist. According to most people. Savannah: It turns itself on at random times? Lynn: Yeah. According to my friend, she once left it in her CD tray. And at midnight she woke up to the really annoying one. Track Seven, I think. FaPa-CV. Savannah: Yeah, that's the only one I simply cannot stand. Lynn: Yeah. She sent me the mp3's, like, over the email, and they're all okay. Except for that one. And DUYD-SV. Savannah: Seriously? That's like my favorite! Lynn: Really. What about the CS one? Track four. Or NoEx-LV? Track three. Savannah: They're okay. NoEx-LV especially. Savannah: But I've never had them turn on randomly. I just kind of feel schizophrenic. Lynn: How does that relate to this conversation? Savannah: No! I mean that sometimes I can almost hear them. Mostly track five. SavSon-EV. That one's the best. Lynn: Are you sure you aren't actually hearing it? Savannah: Duh. I don’t have an mp3 player. I've heard of people's mp3 players doing that sometimes. You know, randomly turning on. Lynn: I hate it when people do that. Savannah: I know! Once we were taking this one test, so it was deathly quiet. And then someone's mp3 player started totally blasting some Brittany Spears song. I think it had built-in speakers. Lynn: Ha ha. I would have loved to be there. But I think you spelled the artist's name wrong. Lynn: Guess what? Savannah: What? Lynn: You live near California, right? Savannah: Not really. But I'm closer than most of Oregon. Lynn: I'm moving there soon. Savannah: Really? Why? Lynn: My family got relocated. . Savannah: That sucks. Lynn: How come you are always on at five in the morning? Do you ever sleep? Savannah: It's actually six. And I go to bed at like eight. Lynn: EIGHT? Savannah: I'm special like that. Lynn: Are you trying to do that thing where you annoy me with my own expressions? Savannah: No, it just kinda popped out. Lynn: Oh. Whatever. Savannah: Isn't the time difference like three hours? So wouldn't it be three in the morning for you? Lynn: No, I'm three hours ahead. So I'm about to enter my lovely Life Science class. The teacher there never pays attention to see if I am texting or not. I love it. Savannah: Texting? Lynn: chatting, texting, whatever. Oh, wait she's looking over here. G2g! Savannah watched her screen as Lynn's green dot faded to gray. Then she sighed and opened her story. There was really no reason not to be working on it. She supposed. Dreams are always psychotic, right? This is the part where you all give a big chorus of "RIGHT!" RIGHT! Good job! Okay, anyway, I suppose I really should tell you my dream. Even though it is kind of embarrassing. Also, if you had even the smallest doubt of my being psychotic, then it will be run over. Quickly. Completely. Thoroughly. Here we go! (reluctantly, I most importantly add) I stood at the foot of one heck of a tall building. I thought to myself, what kind of building is this? And, like magic, a sign appeared! Duh. This is a dream. Anyway, the sign said 'Free Psychiatry'. And I was all like, "Hmmmm. I am acting kinda psycho. Maybe this could help." Yeah. Psychiatry. I was really reaching a low point in my life there. Anyway, I walked in. And let me tell you, it was huge. HUGE! The biggest expanse I have ever, or will ever, see. Probably. See, this is why I'm kind of a crappy writer. I always get like super off-track. Ok, focus. Anyway, the whole space was dark. And cold. And empty. The emptiness was what struck me most. The top of the walls was just a six-inch-wide, rather dirty and dim window, and through it's (minimal) light I could tell it was completely immaculate and bare. No dust. No desks. And absolutely zero people. Nothing. Except for one tall column in the exact middle of the room, reaching from the floor to the ceiling and almost three feet wide. I walked toward the pillar, my footsteps echoing off the walls, echoing back to my ears eerily, my heart rate almost double normal. I was scared of this place. Terrified. And yet something in me kept me walking forward. Kept me walking towards the pillar in that empty room, all alone, completely silent. Now the cold registered in me, a draft against my skin, freezing and shocking. It scared me even more. Alone. Silent. Bare. Cold. Dark. The pillar was a nondescript gray, just like the rest of the room. And yet parts of it were smeared with a thick red fluid. Blood. The pillar was not smooth. There were names carved on it, thousands of names. Matt. Lynn. Brian. Mirabella. Carmen. Brandon. Rachel. Jordan. Taylor. Names in other languages I couldn't even begin to pronounce. Names in good handwriting, names in bad handwriting. Names in unique handwriting, names in commonplace handwriting. Dozens, hundreds, thousands of names. Names. Names. The blood was smeared randomly on most of the pillar, but in one spot on the bottom it was a circle. A mark. And inside the circle, marker, smudge, ring, was a name. Mine. Kylie Dresca was written in my perfectionist handwriting. My name. I was on this list. I remembered how this had been a skyscraper. There must be other floors. I could leave. I searched around the room, finding no door. No door leading out from where I came from. I was locked in. Locked in with the blood-stained pillar, the cold winds, the only sound my echoing footsteps. The light was fading, so now I could barely see. I was going to be here forever. I would die here. Rot here. My remains to be the only thing besides the pillar. Sitting on the floor, however, allowed me to notice something- a trapdoor. I couldn't go up, or out, but I could go down. Whether that would leave me in a better or worse situation was lost on me. I pulled it aside. It was heavy, so heavy. But I was determined, nearly hysterical. I had to get out of here, away from the pillar. I had to. Fear and hysteria made me stronger, and soon I had heaved the door out. The hinges were bad, and I threw the door at the wall. I would not be trapped under. There were stairs down. Bloodstained stairs. I could smell the blood, rusty from the hemoglobin that carried oxygen. There must have been so much. I was scared to go down. But one look at the pillar again, at my name, at all those other names terrified me again. I took one hesitant step downward. Instantly the temperature dropped twenty degrees, freezing me in my mere shorts and short-sleeved shirt. I shivered. The light was less, too, darkening at a much faster rate than normal. Savannah saved, then pushed her chair back, breathing heavily. Remembering that night, that dream always terrified her, spiking her heart rate and sending fear throughout her entire body. The pillar had always been scary, the only thing in that dark room. The blood circled around her name had sent hysteria through her. The blood. Thinking she was next in some kind of sacrifice, something unnatural. That dream had marked the beginning; none too subtly. It had marked her, marked her mind and subconscious. She'd really been hoping to forget it, push it into the deepest recesses of her mind, never to be thought about again. Unfortunately, her brain didn't like that plan very much. It rebelled almost instantly, bringing up the incident every five seconds for the first week or so, then the first five minutes. She was down to every five hours, but the fact that she was thinking about it at all was depressing enough. Somehow, though, she didn't want to forget the dream. It was so important and detailed- she didn't want it to completely vanish. She had to remember. Maybe if she wrote it down, got rid of that subconscious need to remember, she could forget it in her mind. Her C:/ drive could remember it for her. I didn't want to continue downward. But I had to. It was the only way with even the smallest possibility of exit. I took each step carefully and slowly, trying to avoid the blood. But as I continued in my downward spiral, it became more and more impossible. Huge pools of it splashed over each step, dripping down each stair, leaving only a few inches to walk. Soon it was completely impossible not to step in the blood, and cold, wet liquid covered my sneakers. They were semi-waterproof, and the blood was dry enough for it not to soak through to my feet. With each step I chanted to myself, "There is an exit. There is an exit. There is an exit," so I would not forget the exit. I couldn't. I might never leave otherwise. Every once in a while I would look back at the start of the stairs to see the rectangle of sincerely dim light. That light was not the only in the stairway, though. Every six or seven steps, a small tea-light candle gave off a little light, just barely enough to see the stair in front of me. I tried to pick one up at first, so I could always see, but it was glued down to the stairs. One thing I did notice was that it gave off no heat. None. Zero. It seemed like I walked down for hours, but I knew I had not. Eventually I reached the bottom. The second I did, all of the tea-lights went out. All of them. The room was completely dark. The only light was the barely-there dimness of the room above. It was getting dimmer, too, until eventually it disappeared. I was in pitch-black darkness. Red dots swam around my vision, there one second, gone the next. I tried to catch them but they vanished. I couldn't imagine what they were. Bugs? Flying blood? Christmas lights? I think I was pretty much at the pinnacle of how confused you can get. And scared. I was completely scared now, even more terrified than up in the room with the column. Anything could be in this room, anything, and I could see nothing. Nothing. Finally, however, a light switched on I front of me. I jumped back, slipping on a slick wetness on the floor I hadn't noticed before, having been too distracted by the red lights and total darkness. I landed in a thick, wet puddle. It was big, and splashed all over my clothes. Blood. It wasn't a light, I realized. It was someone's hair, a phosphorescent glow, silvery-blue, more like the light on a jellyfish than anything. The person with the glowing hair was a girl. I could barely see her face, discern only that she was really pale and had huge black eyes. Wait. Not black. There was a rim of purple. Her eyes were almost entirely pupil. She looked very self-satisfied, sneering down at me. I had stood up and was covered in blood. I have always been tall, much taller than anyone else, taller than people three times my age (some of them at least) but I was incredibly short compared to her. "Shalt we begin?" she asked mockingly. Her nearly-black eyes shimmered. "Begin what? Who are you? Where am I? Where are the top floors? Why am I here?" I asked, all my confusions shooting out in a few desperate sentences, nearly hysterical. I knew instinctively this was the only person who could help me. The only one who knew the answers. "I am I. We are here. The top floors are at the top. We are about to begin something. You are here because you are dreaming and cannot wake up. Satisfied?" Her cool, easy voice seemed much too calm for the dismal surroundings. She grinned at me- though somehow that fit. She knew that she was the only one able to answer my questions, that I was desperate for the answers. She knew that there was no reason to answer them. "No." "How about this. I will answer one of your questions with six distinctive sentences. And then we shall begin." I thought carefully. I would find out what we were going to begin soon, so there was no reason to ask that. I didn't really care what was the deal with the top floors- there was probably nothing up there that I needed. I didn't frantically need to know where we were; from what I could tell of her she would give me GPS coordinates or something. That left one question. "Who are you? And answer what your connection is to this place, too," I added as an afterthought. "So demanding," she said sarcastically. I wondered briefly if this was what it was like to be around me all the time. I pushed the thought out of my mind, though. Almost instinctively, however, I threw something at her. Not with my hands. With my mind. Savannah then looked at the clock. 8:05 A.M.! Her school started in six minutes. And it was five miles away. Oh, lovely. Savannah rapidly saved and shut down her computer. She grabbed her backpack, tied a piece of cloth in front of her face and pushed her distinctive hair in a tight, improvisational bun, and jumped into the front yard. Time to do something she'd never tried before. And for, like, a really good reason, too. Focusing, she furrowed her brow. Within seconds, she was three hundred feet off the ground. She pointed herself in the direction of her school and went fast, faster than ever before. She overshot each turn for the first few minutes, but soon she had gotten the hang of it and was taking each turn like a pro. As was to be expected, every car on the way practically stopped and stared. Duh. You would do so too if on your way to school you saw an eleven year old cruising the skies. Without, like, a hang-glider or anything. Hopefully, though, with the aid of the cloth no one would actually recognize her. Savannah was really mad at herself about it, too. Usually she biked to school- it only took her fifteen minutes with the aid of her mind powers- but there was no way she could go fifty miles an hour (five miles, six minutes. Do the math) on a bike and not burn out her tires or bike or something. Her aunt, who was taking care of her for the next year and a half and cared way more about her up-and-coming business than Savannah, was out at six in the morning and home at twelve. She insisted that Savannah was perfectly capable of ferrying herself to school. Savannah didn't care. It allowed her to sit in her room for six hours without her mother going psycho about her "health" and whatnot. Her mother could complain when she was not taking a two and a half year "business trip" in Australia. She didn't even know where her dad was. Savannah reached school in five minutes. She half-ran, half-walked over to the locker room. She reached the door just as the bell rang. Yes! She thought to herself. I rock! Savannah walked over to her new locker and pulled out the unflattering P.E. clothes. She dressed in two minutes, and then walked over to the attendance area, where each teacher took attendance. All of the students dissipated to different teachers, in groups. Each learned and played a different sport- volleyball, basketball, soccer, etc. The only game Savannah had totally understood was soccer, so she was forced into that group, because all the groups had finished instruction already. Even though she hated soccer more than anything in the world. Savannah was assigned to a team and field. She took her boring defender position with grace (translation: knee-bowing gratitude) and sent a silent prayer to "god" that the ball would never, EVER come over to her side of the field. Apparently god was out of the office, because not even an entire minute had passed before the ball was hurtling over to her, followed by most of the players. Savannah ran towards the ball as if magnetized and kicked it towards the other side of the field as hard as she possibly could. She hadn't been even using her mind powers, but due to Savannah's superior leg strength and the really tiny field (mainly the second) she scored a goal. Some random people she didn't know came over and gave her a high-five, apparently some of her alleged teammates. Savannah hadn't really been paying attention to the teams; her plan was just to smash the ball to the other side of the field whenever it came over. Which was, as Lynn would say, so easy it was unbelievable. She played for another forty-five minutes. The other team was much better than hers, so the ball came over several times, but they couldn't get it past Savannah. The final score was 1-0. Savannah walked over to second period feeling happier and more confident. What did it matter if the entire school hated her? She was actually good at something! Besides destroying things and killing people! Because no matter how great you might be at that, the thing is that you rarely feel very confident about it. I mean, saying that you are good at soccer sounds much better than saying you are adept at annihilating people and property. Her happy mood evaporated as she remembered what was today in Speech. Today they got the assignment for their next speech. She slid into her seat expertly "Tell a story- one we can really lose ourselves in. Something emotional and full of description. This is a longer one- 2-3 mins. Get started." "Why don't they call this Oral Report Class?" the person next to Savannah muttered. Her name Kylie: she was the only person who even halfway liked Savannah. Hence the reason that her name was part of Savannah's story. Savannah snickered. "How about 181 Middle School Class Periods?" Savannah whispered back. Kylie looked confused. "You know, like 1001 Arabian Nights?" "Oh, yeah. Have you read it?" "It's on my waiting list at the library." "What story are you going to do?" Savannah shrugged. "A scary one, maybe. I had this interesting dream a while ago." "Before or after you got... talented?" "Before. Why?" "I heard different stuff in your life can affect your dreams." Kylie smiled. "I had kind of hoped that I could see something from after." "Oh. Whatever. What are you going to do?" "If it's going to be one of my dreams, it would probably be 'My Hard Drive Crashed before a Big Assignment Is Due #4567'." Kylie laughed. So did Savannah. "Can I ask you a question?" Kylie. "Yeah." There was a pause. "Don’t be to intent on me answering, however." "Okay. Why do you…you know, do the whole smashing-things…thing?" Savannah almost answered with an appropriate Lynn Lang response, but stopped. Maybe someone would understand. Maybe someone wouldn't think she was lying. Maybe. "I think it's just the way it is. I don’t mean to do half the stuff I do." "Really." Kylie sounded disapproving- just like her principal, her stupid english teacher, and the few kids Savannah had bothered trying to explain her situation to. Kylie didn't believe her. No one did. "Well, have you ever thought to yourself, after something annoying or angering occurs, that you want to throw something?" "Yes. Often." "Now imagine being really mad." "That won't be hard. I'll just think of when my brother went after my plant with scissors. A school assignment plant. I was really thirsting for his blood after that." Savannah laughed again. "Yeah. Now imagine all of them coming true." Kylie was silent for a moment. She thought about it, remembering the D+ that had sat her grade for weeks, resulting in a C. She remembered how every time she saw the grade, thought about the class, well, anything really, the sharp spike of anger and frustration that stabbed through her. She imagined the anger resulting in something like what Savannah had going on. It was not a pretty picture. Savannah claimed that the disasters were accidental. That it was minor frustration bringing everything on. Flashing back, she remembered the day before, with Tara, her best friend. Tara could probably be counted as a 'minor annoyance', or more. This did not spell good things. Tara the Saushale walked into second period late, feeling confident. Sure, Sabrina had given her strict instructions not to fight Sav, claiming she had a 'high Telkin'. She'd even forbidden her to get her really mad, but whatever. At least her part was almost over. Tara swung her backpack onto her desk. She turned to talk to Kylie, but she was already chatting away with Savannah. What? Wait. No. This could not be happening. Tara had done everything to set Savannah up. She'd made Massie randomly ditch her. She'd ordered mind control on half the school to make them terrified of Savannah. She'd even thrown a few people out some windows! How could she be making friends? That wasn't supposed to happen! Tara glared down at the top of the desk, as if it was suddenly the cause of her problems. There were a few solutions she could think of. She should probably just run it by Sab. But Sab would be really mad. She'd get all psychotic, suspecting her of not giving Kylie mind control simply because she was Kylie's friend or something. She'd probably start yelling or being really sarcastic every time Tara talked to her. She'd see if it would go away. Then she'd talk to Sabrina. Kylie smiled. Savannah was actually really funny. Savannah had shared her dream with Kylie, something about a pillar ravaged with blood and going down into some weird chamber and dying there. It sounded creepy reiterating and summarizing it to herself now, but at the time it just seemed funny. But there was Tara. She was tapping on Kylie's desk and smiling in the small, barely-curved way Tara usually smiled, but Kylie could tell she was upset and frustrated. "What's up, Taraster?" Tara and Kylie had made up nicknames for each other. They had been best friends even before middle school. Despite that, over the summer, Tara had not talked to her at all. Not one single message. "Hey, Kyliemeter." Tara was utterly deadpan. "What's up?" "Nothing much." Tara was still deadpan. "Glad I asked." "Cuz you suck." There was a long pause. "Regretting yesterday?" Sav asked, mostly sarcastically, one eyebrow raised playfully. She started to break into a smile and laugh, but Tara interrupted that. "Am I a piece of paper?" Tara crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows. "What?" Savannah had never, ever heard someone refer to themselves as a piece of paper. "Just say no," Kylie muttered. Tara had copied the style from some pre-teen book and it was currently driving her insane. "I suppose I would have to respond in the positive in order to incorrectly formulate a response for your request at said question of your related-ness of a piece of paper." Savannah smiled. Okay, so there were times when the Lynn Lang came in handy. "I'm lost," Kylie declared. "Not me. You just said no." "When have you heard the Lynn Lang?" Savannah asked, shocked. "You know Lynn?" Tara's mouth dropped open a bit. "I'd imagine there are a lot of Lynns," Savannah replied coolly. Tara snorted and rolled her eyes. "I am so sure. And I'm a bald eagle." "I would see how you would get confused when you look in a mirror." "You know Lynnette Ultimatihah?" "Lynn Ultimatihah. Not Lynnette." "Hm. I always wondered why she always told everyone her name was Lynnette. Guess she took my advice." "So you went to boarding school, too?" "No, we just met each other this year." "How? She's been there since August." Oh. Snap. Lynn had been telling everyone she was at boarding school. Probably doesn't want to get caught, sneaky thing. Tara thought enviously. But it was kind of weird that Lynn hadn't told her everything and begged for help. She had to be on the run from Sabrina and she would do it much better with Savannah. Tara had thought that Lynn had told Savannah that she was on the run, so that when Tara agreed to have met her at boarding school she would have looked like she was lying. "Because I rock the cazbah and I do what I want." Good. Wouldn't make her seem less weird, but would pretty much prove that she had met Lynn. It was yet another one of Lynn's expressions (these books, you may have noticed, are practically Lynn Lang encyclopedias) that she never used, so she couldn't have gotten it from Savannah. "How did you know that?" Savannah's eyes were starting to get wider. "And who is Lynn?" Kylie. She was starting to get frustrated by this conversation, that much was clear. "She's just a person," they said together. "Girls," the teacher called, walking over to Savannah, Tara, and Kylie. She was the teacher with the least fear of Savannah. "This is not social hour. This is class. I expect you to know this already. Because of this, one of you must go up and perform a story. Three minutes at least. If none of you do so, you all lose sixty points. This is now part of your grade. Whoever goes up will be graded." Tara, Savannah, and Kylie were dumbfounded for a few seconds. "You have three minutes to decide and prepare." The teacher turned around and walked away. "Kylie, you shouldn't have to do it." Savannah nodded in agreement. "Savannah seemed to have hers all outlined. Since three quarters is content, how about she goes up?" "I'd love to," Savannah expressed, hands to her heart in mocking. "Savannah, we all know when you are being sarcastic." "Actually, I'm not really. I kind of like speaking in front of people." "Fine. Go up. But if you fail, you are so dead." Tara glared at Savannah. "I'm dead?" Savannah cocked an eyebrow in amusement. Two minutes and twenty three seconds later, Savannah stood in front of her classmates, prepared to tell a story. "Lynn stood in front of a building. "The building was tall and grandiose, and there were no windows. Just one door. "Lynn walked over to the door and opened it. "There was no way to know what exactly she was getting herself into. "The inside was bare. And stony. The ceiling was stone. The floor was stone. The walls were stone. "The pillar in the middle of room was stone. "The place scared Lynn, somehow. Maybe it was the stillness of the room- not a respectful or peaceful stillness. "More like the stillness of death. "Lynn wanted to see it, though. She was curious. "Deadly curious. "Lynn started walking slowly towards the pillar. It seemed to be the kind of place you walked slowly in. You didn't hurry. You didn't run. "Perhaps that was her mistake. For as she continued walking, her steps echoed. "And echoed. "And echoed. "They didn't stop echoing. And with each step, each echo, her pulse was driven higher, her palms were more clammy, and she was scared even more. Her fear inching higher, ever higher. "Upon reaching the pillar, she noticed something impossible to notice otherwise. "It was covered in blood. "Mostly the top. There were smears of the blood, tons of them. "Lynn could smell it. "It was the only color in the room, as even Lynn herself had white skin, black hair, black eyes, and black clothes. "When she got even closer, that was when she noticed the markings. "The pillar was ravaged with them. "At first it seemed random, like it was just a ton of scratches. "But getting even closer, she realized what it really was. "Names. "Dozens, hundreds, thousands of names. Thousands. "Just as the blood was in smears near the top, there was another pattern. "A circle. "Lynn looked at the circle, dread growing slowly within her. "Because inside the circle, there was but one name. "Lynnette. Her real name. "She had no idea what it meant- whether it meant for her to die, or to be spared. Or to simply be locked away underground. "If it was possible to be even more scared than she already was, then that was how she felt. "Pure terror. Pure fear. Pure hysteria. "As she grew even more scared, a solution rose within her: startlingly simple. Dreadfully easy. "To leave. "She had come in through a door, but it was gone now. The room was circular, but there was not one interruption in the stone. "The gray stone, which seemed to be sucking the life out of her. "It wanted more. "It wanted color. "It wanted blood. "Soon, Lynn could not stand. She collapsed, landing almost spread-eagled on the cold, hard stone floor. 'She lasted only minutes past it. The gray walls wanted blood, and they got it. They wanted her life, and it was theirs. "Lynn died, energy sucked out of her slowly. "When her black eyes became dull and her body lifeless, then a trapdoor opened. "It had all been a trap. "Someone pulled out a knife, cut her hand. "They used the welling blood to smear Lynn's name on the pillar. "Lynn fell down the trapdoor, down, down, down. "No one ever remembered her. She had been erased. Forever. "But why, no one could even begin to guess." The entire room stared back at her. Even the teacher. "Whoa," someone said. "That was freaking morbid!" exclaimed another. "Um, Savannah?" "Yeah?" "I had been planning to tell you afterward that it was all a joke. But you definitely get some extra credit." "Really?" "That was very dramatic, good speaking style, you get the picture. But, um, where did you get the inspiration?" "I adapted one of my dreams." "Oh. Well. It was pretty good though." "Merci." Savannah maneuvered back to her seat, and sat down just as the bell rang. "Au revoir," Tara muttered, shouldering her bag.. "Hey, Savannah?" Kylie called. She turned. "Sit with Tara and me at lunch, okay? We sit at the green tables near the back door." Savannah just nodded. Math and history passed without incident, as always. Except that now, Savannah turned over Kylie's offer. Several times. Savannah knew exactly where she had been referring. The school had two "designated lunch areas", though most kids brought lunch and ate wherever. The two areas were the cafeteria, which was where all the eighth graders competed for popularity (there was a little food-stand near it that sold the same food where seventh graders bought lunch). The second was a bazillion picnic tables spread near the back stairs. These were very popular with the seventh graders, who, rather than having a defined hierarchy of students, had a lot of cliques of anywhere from four to ten. These were all spread out with the tables. Girls and boys walked throughout the area and sat down, talking and talking. It took Savannah only seconds to locate Kylie's table. She took a deep breath and smoothed her hair. Then she walked calmly over to the table. The two were talking. They were the smallest group of seventh graders. Kylie caught Savannah's eye and smiled. "You can't sit here," Tara said immediately. Her eyes blazed. Savannah started to step back, but then ignored the urge. "Don't be mean, Tara. I invited her." "You invited her?" "Is that not what I just said?" Tara broke off and looked at Savannah. "Did Lynn email you, or you her?" "She emailed me, obviously. I had completely forgotten about her." "What?" Tara, expecting that Lynn had simply spelled out Sab's plot, was surprised. She hadn't known that Sav actually knew Lynn. "We knew each other in like second grade, before her dad got relocated to Connecticut. Then she got re-relocated back here over the summer. Then she got re-re-relocated before school started. And now she's getting re-re-re-relocated." "Wow," Kylie said. Tara laughed. "I'm sorry I was being such a jerk yesterday." That was abrupt. One joke and a quick explanation and Tara decided to be friends? So Savannah took the best approach, Lynn-style. "I'm sorry you were too." Sarcasm. Tara glared. "Sarcasm, sorry. It's kind of a habit." "Gotcha. Oh. Has Lynn taught you all of the Lynn Lang yet?" "She hasn't sent me an encyclopedia yet, but I think I'm getting there." Kylie smiled as Tara and Savannah chatted. After a few seconds, Sav moved the subject, and the three acted just like the dozen or so other cliques. Tara saw it slightly differently. She sat with Kylie, talking, laughing, etcetera. She was finally beginning to forget about Savannah- hello, just because it was her assignment didn't mean she needed to be analyzing her every move every second. Mostly she was just supposed to get the gist, then report it to Sabrina or Saushale. Every once in a while Sabrina would ask for proof on her assumptions, but that was pretty easy And she was walking toward them now, walking calmly, walking serenely, walking as if she wasn’t walking toward Tara, who hated her, and Kylie, who should. Tara turned to see if there was a table behind her. No, none those were empty. She walking over here, for god only knows what purpose. Maybe it was easier to throw things at people when you were closer to them. Well, look at the bright side, her miund started. At least I can analyze the effects of a full-frontal crash? Cynic. She probably won't sit down. I mean, look at her. No smile, no excitement, no nothing. The likelihood of her actually talking is almost none. She always looks like that. Then Savannah started to sit down. No way. Tara was not going to sit here and talk to Savannah for forty-five minutes. It was like talking to Lynn- that freaking Lynn Lang was so annoying. There was a reason why Tara deleted all of Lynn's messages, though she couldn't automatically send them to spam or anything, because of the stupid restrictions against refusing communication with other Saushale, but the point remains. She really, really hated the Lynn Lang (like all sane beings). "You can't sit here," Tara blurted automatically. She could have said something smarter, but without any time to think up a smart phrase that was about as likely to happen as having an entire conversation with Lynn without wanting to throw something at any point in time. Her words came out in a rush, and it was almost totally devoid of any stress on any particular word. "Don't be mean, Tara." The slight huff at the end of the sentence was like annoyance personified (soundified? Stressified?). "I invited her." The explanatory tone, again, made Tara want to throw something. Kylie was in drama or something, and everything she said was full of emotion and inflection. Which was super-annoying. "You. Invited. HER." Tara had learned how to subtlify (grrr. Even after a year and a half Tara was still thinking in that annoying Lynn Lang) her voice and to a normal person they wouldn't have been able to detect the finality in each word or the extra inflection. "Is that not what I just said?" Again, the over-inflection and sarcasm infuriated Tara. To a normal person it wouldn't seem out of the ordinary, but Tara had been designed to analyze every line by a person, and it drove her crazy. Wait. Maybe she could make use of this. Hating Savannah and making her angry might display her powers in the short run. But there was more to gain by breaking her again. Just like Massie. Just like Angelica. Just like Emily. Just like every other friend Savannah had ever had. Tara decided to apologize. Make it more real. " I'm sorry I was being such a jerk yesterday." Tara had found that by using just slightly more inflection, whatever she said sounded more believable. Her voice was usually very monotone, so that her inflection would sound normal to her. But a monotone, or more likely, bored-sounding apology would not do. "I'm sorry you were too." It sounded kind of like Savannah was mocking her, but Tara dispelled that though quickly. She didn't have such good hearing. Tara was just catching her inflection- just as with Kylie. Savannah was in Speech, after all, and they did promote a lot inflection there, too. Tara glared at Savannah, finally cluing into what she had actually said. She had to accept her apology. Tara's whole plan hinged on it. " Sarcasm, sorry. It's become kind of a habit." Remind me to kill Lynn someday for doing this to her, she thought sourly. She had known Sav last year a bit, and she had been much less…Lynnish. " Gotcha. Oh. Has Lynn taught you all of the Lynn Lang yet? The conversation went on, and Tara struggled to make her voice sound normal. As she walked across the campus, her own knowledge of body language and voice inflection took over. Savannah hadn't totally believed Tara's apology, she could tell. Oh well. Maybe if Tara just kept acting nice, Savannah would believe her. Tara made a mental note to start IMming Lynn again. Probably good to keep her stories more up to date. Hopefully Lynn would still be using the Saushale web, so Tara could actually reach her. Though Sabrina would be able to read every word of it- even if it was for an assignment, Sabrina hated people associating with fugitives. It was actually pretty darn annoying. Tara sighed half-sarcastic, half-resigned, and let the monotonous conversations from the multitude slip by as she passed by them. Kylie uninterestedly twirled her hair around her finger in History, fifth period. Mrs. Mathews was talking about some random topic, probably something about Rome. Kylie usually found history fascinating and would eagerly listen, read, and take notes out of the textbook. Today, however, her mind was in Elsewhere Land. She was the only one in the room staring blankly at the wall, everyone else was smarter than she was. Kylie knew Tara. She had been friends with her for years, since first or second grade. They were at each other's houses all the time, and when they weren't they were almost always on the phone. Or, at least, it had been like that last year. This year, Kylie felt like she barely even knew who she was anymore. Tara would rarely pick up her phone, spending way more time on her computer. In sixth grade they had emailed, of course, but it was rare. And while Kylie knew she shouldn't have been making such a deal out of it, it still seemed important somehow. This year, it would take Tara five minutes to write out a "yeah" or "nothing" or some other one-word response. And the "Tara is typing" message was never there. Tara was doing something else. But why? And if she was working on something else, why did she always have her browser up? And why was she always online? Kylie would race home (she walked from school) and Tara would be online (even though she lived twenty miles away). She would get up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water and Tara would be on. She would get working on her homework at five in the morning (occasionally, Kylie procrastinated a bit too much) and Tara would be on. There were other weird things, too. Tara rarely ever put inflection in her voice, whereas last year she would use tons, claiming she wanted to 'get in tune' for her speeches. Last year Tara had had light brown hair, and brown eyes. This year, her eyes were jet-black, along with her hair. Plus, it had grown at least a foot. And even though she had supposedly gone to some summer camp or whatever, not Mount Everest her skin was paler than any living body Kylie had glimpsed. Plus, she used weird words, like beneficial, and 100%, like that somehow meant good. There were other things, but Kylie just couldn't remember them. Finally, her name. Last year, Tara insisted her name was pronounced Tara, with the ar sounding like air. This time, she claimed it sounded like the ar in are. That wasn't even how the stupid name was supposed to be pronounced. Why the difference? Kylie tried to focus on the lesson, but it was impossible. Things kept welling up in her mind, things she hadn't even consciously noticed. How Tara always brought tons of food, but never ate it. How she only called Kylie 'Kylameter' if Kylie called her Taraster first. How she would go into unbreakable trances whenever she heard the words 'I have my dreams' or 'crappy situation'. And tons of other things. "Kylie! Are you planning on joining the lesson or not?" "Sounds like a 'not' to me," someone whispered. "Like, yaw." Sometimes Kylie would say the 'ah' in 'yah' kind of weird. "Great. Now who invented the arch?" "Wasn't that, like, the Romans or something?" "Does anyone know who invented the arch? Emily." "The Romans borrowed a lot of customs from other cultures, including the arch. The Etruscans were the first to invent it." "Very good. How about this one, Kylie- What is concrete, and what was the Roman's role in it?" "Concrete is, like, stone, cement, sand, and water, right? And didn't the Romans, like, make it seem, uh, really cool?" Great job listening to the lesson she chastised herself. Idiotic. This stupid school was so freaking hard (and the teachers ready to ridicule those not paying attention) you really couldn't drift off like that. "You mean, they popularized it?" "Yaw." "Correct. The bell is about to ring, so make sure you finish the note organizer for Chapter seven as homework tonight." Right on cue, the bell rang, and Kylie raced off to P.E, hoping that serving the volleyball really, really hard would somehow erase all the revelations she had made in History. Tara calmly walked to her own fifth period class, PE. She played volleyball, partly because it was the easiest sport offered (you stand around and hit a ball sometimes. That's not exactly strenuous) and partly because Kylie had chosen it and it would offer another topic of conversation. Her team was made up of five other girls, Katie, Massie, Amy, Jessica and Jamie. The volleyball section was almost entirely girls, the boys sticking mainly to basketball and baseball. Her team, Them (they had been allowed to name each team and none of the others had been listening, so Tara just said the first non-Saushale-related thing she had thought of) was really bad, since Massie and Jamie never paid attention, Katie and Jessica tried and were really bad, and Tara couldn't care less. Amy was the only one who was any good, and a team of one, against six, never works. Actually, Tara really wondered why on earth Massie was on volleyball, since she was obsessed with her after-school soccer league. Probably just following Jamie. The serve went right to Amy, which was lucky. She hit it back and scored a point. Tara served and, just for fun, she Telkinized it right on the back line, scoring another point. The next person to serve was Massie, and of course she missed. The game continued similarly. Amy rushed back and forth, hitting a lot of balls. Tara tried not to get in her way and hit back as many as she could focus on. Massie and Jamie talked, and Katie and Jessica tried not to get in their way, setting the ball to Tara and Amy when neither of them could reach it. Tara wasn't paying too much attention to the game, and she just happened to hear Jamie and Massie's conversation. "What happened to Sav?" Jamie whisper-asked. "Eh. She's just not cool." "I know, but we totally could have made it so! We could have been a trio!" "Oh. Yeah. Well, what's done is done." "Sav seems kind of upset, though." "Yeah, well, Sav is always overreacting." Sav? Tara thought, amused. They call her Sav? Lynn says she hates nicknames! "Oh. Too bad. Anyway, I just met this really cool guy. Mike. Do you know him?" "Yeah. We were best friends for a while." "What can you tell me?" "He cheats at Clue™." The two laughed at the semi-joke and Tara stopped listening. This was what Savannah was getting so upset about? The girl was insane! She doesn't seem so upset anymore, a little voice in her mind says. Maybe she doesn't care about her friends. Shut up, little voice. You and what army? Tara hated these arguments with herself and focused on the game, hitting over a couple of balls and passing some to Amy. Finally, the game was almost over. The other team's best server hit the ball, right on the back line, super fast. Tara spiked it over the net, and hit the ground. Just before the teacher shouted "Okay, it's over!" Tara started to walk to the locker room when suddenly something barreled into her side, causing her to trip over a crack in the sidewalk. Luckily, her Saushale-ness allowed her to not actually fall. "We won! Tara, I can't believe it! We actually won!" "We what?" Tara was too confused to make her voice even sound un-monotone, but Amy didn't even notice. "We were tied, and you spiked that ball! The other team wasn't even expecting it! We finally won!" "Oh. Great" "I know! It is great! Katie and Jessica are so freaking excited!" "As am I." Tara forced a smile and some annoying inflection. Amy finally went away. Tara changed in the locker room ultra-fast, as always, and walked out, swinging her stark black backpack on one shoulder. She charged across the campus as fast as she could. She was about to walk into math class when someone stopped her. "You're Tara, right?" He pronounced it T-air-a, like it had been from before the transformation. "Tara," she corrected it as how she demanded the pronunciation upon late. "And what would be the reason you are asking this?" She raised one eyebrow and tried to walk into the room. "I'm Mike-" "Duh." "Yeah. I don't really get the new lesson, and since you seem really good at math, I was wondering if you could-" "Mike?" "Yeah?" "Do I look fat to you?" "Um...No?" He, like most of the world, seemed extremely confused by the randomness of the question. "Then why do you think I let my time go to waist?" Mike just looked kind of confused. Tara smiled, Saushale-style, and pushed through the door. The bell rang. "Don't be late for class," she called, sitting down right before the teacher marked 'Mike' tardy. Tara smiled to herself. Win seven hundred fifty for Tara. Savannah walked into fifth period, greeted by her annoying language arts teacher. "Hello, Savannah. How far are you on your book?" "I'm past the whole freaking-out-because-I-am-accidentally-throwing-things-into-the-wall stage, finished with the creepy-pillar-with-dead-peoples-names-on-it stage, and am about to finish the fighting-for-my-life stage. Then I just have to finish the realizing-what-I-can-do stage and the accidentally-hurting-people-and-having-to-act-like-a-robot stage. Then I'm done!" The teacher looked horrified. Sav struggled not to smile, laugh, or anything else that would diminish her acting. Savannah walked into language arts then, and the bell rang. The teacher walked to the front of the room and passed out quizzes, before sitting at her computer, probably inputting grades or something. Savannah aced the quizzes first, then slowly pulled out her cell phone and placed it in her pocket. She used her mind powers to turn it on. The vibrate buzzed, and the morse code vibrates she had put on it quickly spelled out: Lynn: hey Savvy. Savannah typed back, using her mind powers, Savannah: dont call me that Lynn: u and what army Savannah: Im not even going 2 answer that Lynn: whats w/ the chatspeak Sav had protested vehemently any form of chatspeak. I think she even had some statistics memorized. Savannah: texting in class not reccomended Lynn: how r u reading my messages then Savannah: set on vibrate morse code Lynn: funny. could just look at screen, u kno. Like a normal prsn. Savannah: not going 2 risk it Lynn: ur funeral Savannah: watev. what class r u in rite now Lynn: 3 hrs ahead member? working on hw Savannah: lots of it? Lynn: naw just really long classes only have 2 do makeup work Savannah: quiz time ovr text u l8r Lynn: u 2 Savannah turned off her phone again and the teacher collected the quizzes. Savannah's aunt was making a lot of money in her business, and she gave Savannah pretty much everything she wanted, as long as it didn't cost a ridiculous amount of money. The unspoken agreement was that her aunt would let Savannah do whatever she wanted, and give her what she wanted, and Savannah wouldn't tell her parents that the aunt wasn't actually taking care of her. Savannah's parents had financed the business under the agreement that the aunt would take care of Savannah, and her aunt wasn't about to let them know she hadn't really kept to it. So her aunt got her business, Savannah got a cell phone, and her parents went to Australia. Everybody wins. Next they all worked on the theme essay for their first book, The Giver, silently. Savannah had already finished it and, making sure the teachers back was to the class, pulled out her cell phone again. Lynn: that was fast Savannah: ya just some dumb essay alredy finished Lynn: good 4 u Savannah: kno thats probably sarcastic and I don't care Lynn: ur psychic Savannah: thank u Lynn: ha ha. hey whats the name 4 cell growing and division Savannah: mitosis Lynn: good. and the first phase Savannah: interphase, or prophase dependin on book Lynn: ok. 2? Savannah: ur smart. u figure it out. Lynn: yah but I want 2 c if u kno. I already finished. Savannah: interphase, prophase, anaphase, metaphase, telophase, cytokinesis Lynn: ur good Savannah: the science book looked lonely, stting by itself. I hve 2 mch spare time. Lynn: ha ha. u like 2 read Savannah: yah Lynn: I hate it. tho maybe its becuz there r no good books here "Savannah! Is that a cell phone I see?" "No, it's an elephant," Savannah said sarcastically. Talking to Lynn always made her feel sarcastic. "You know the rule." Her language arts teacher decided not to mention the sarcasm. No one purposefully made Savannah mad, after all. "Enlighten me." "No cell phones." "Okay. It's off." "One more time and that thing is heading for the office. And you are too." That wasn't actually the rule. The first time was as good as any to dispose a cell phone. The school required it. But there were precious few people who were going to go stand up to Savannah over a cell. "'Kay." "Have you finished your essay?" "Why else would I be texting? Because I have something to do?" "Well, then work on homework." "Finished already." "For other classes." "Just have to memorize this one story." "Read." "Forgot a book." "Do something. Stare at the wall. Just no electronic devices." "'Kay." So Savannah banged a bunch of empty chairs together, on the other end of the room. Then she banged some empty desks together. Then she picked up a marker for the whiteboard and wrote out a bunch of lyrics she had deciphered for all the songs. She was in the process of levitating the binders on all the kids' desks when her teacher gave up. She flung her book to the floor. "Yes, Savannah, I can hear you. Texas can probably hear you. You want to text in class, am I correct? You're bored. And you're so much better than all of us, right? So you can just break all the rules and do whatever you want?" Savannah stared at her. Actually, the whole class stared at her. Their sane, calm, fun teacher was throwing books and screaming at a student? A student that was Savannah, of all people. "No way, Sav, the Sav that's oh-so-Savvy. You won't win this one. I don't know why you're still at this school, why you're still free, but it doesn't matter. You won't win." "You're surprisingly worked up over a cell phone," Savannah reminded her. "It's not about a cell phone, Savannah. You can get anything, Savannah, because you have no morals. Banging chairs? Smashing tables? What's next?" The class still sat shell-shocked. Someone's mp3 player, an iPod touch with built-in speakers started rocketing out SavSon-EV extremely loud. The teacher sat down, quiet for a few seconds before standing up again and continuing reading her book as if nothing had happened. Don't worry, I'll explain this mystery. Be patient and keep buying into the series and all shalt be revealed. Kylie jumped up, and the volleyball smacked against her hands in just the right way, scoring a point. Her teammates cheered as they rotated and Kylie served, overhand as always. The ball zoomed over the net and almost hit one player in the face. It scored a second point. Kylie loved volleyball. She was good at most sports, but volleyball was her favorite. After serving a couple times, the other team finally managed to hit it and Kylie hit it back again. A rally continued. The game went on, and, as always, Kylie didn't focus on anything but the game. Her troubles and worries dissolved. She forgot all about Tara and her strange behavior, and Savannah and Tara's hatred of each other. It all just floated away. Kylie spiked over the ball again and again, and served over and over again. The other team didn't have a chance. Kylie was disappointed when the bell rang. She always was. She threw the ball over to the boy collecting all the balls and walked over to the locker room, stopping to talk to a couple of her teammates once she left. "Yeah...so how come you were sitting with Savannah today?" Megan, a very bossy, nosy, and gossipy girl asked. She also started almost everything she said with a 'Yeah'. It was kind of annoying. Even when she was saying 'no' she managed to work a 'yeah' in there. "Because we have Speech together and she seemed okay during it." "Yeah...but...isn't she kind of psychotic, though?" "Kind of. But Tara is too, and as long as they don't antagonize each other both of them act normal." "Yeah...Tara...She's kind of changed, hasn't she?" "Not really. I mean, she just dyed her hair and asked her name be pronounced a different way." "Yeah. But she used to act differently last year. You know." "I suppose so." "Yeah. Do you know why?" "No." Actually, she did have a pretty good guess, but there was no way she was telling Megan. It wasn't so much that she didn't like Megan as it was that Megan was inclined to tell the entire school that Kylie hated Tara now because she had changed. She would start out telling the truth, but eventually she would totally make something up. "Yeah, I didn't think you'd know. Anyway, Do you like Savannah? Is she mean?" "No. She's actually pretty funny. And interesting." "Yeah. Maybe. Wouldn't want to tick her off! Anyway, see you tomorrow?" "Sure, whatever." The bell rang, and Kylie relinquished the opportunity to run from Megan. "Bye, Megan." "Yeah. You too." God forbid she just say 'bye'. Kylie took a deep breath and sifted through her backpack, looking for her iPod. The five to ten minute walk was too thinking-prone. A nice loud interference of her music would be excellent. She was supposed to take the iPod to the office in the morning, but she never bothered. She never really listened to it anyway, so she just shoved it in her backpack. She slipped the headphones in her ears and focused on the music on the way home, trying not to think about much else. Tara sat in math, staring blankly at the screen. She always zoned in math, not because she didn't get it, but because she so got it. She'd learned freakin' trig at the Saushale school. Algebra 1 wasn't exactly a new concept. She hummed along to Savvy People's new single, 'Whatcha Talkin' 'Bout, Huh?' Sabrina claimed that it was based on someone's electronica, but if it was then the composer must have really messed with it. It was an excellent song. Her zoning brought her back, so far back. It felt like years, but it had really only been a few months. "Okay, all of you." Tara was standing at the front of a large summer camp entrance-type area. "If you have any cell phones, mp3 players, computer, heck, even flash drives, or any other electronic device, take it over to the office in your cabin. If we catch you using them, there will be consequences." A bunch of random people, ranging from early twenties to late thirties nodded their heads. Tara laughed inwardly. She was so sure. Alanna laughed with her, linking arms with her and Jamie. Alanna was the 'girl in charge', who everyone was inevitably drawn to. She was in dislike of her third friend, Alyssa, and had chosen Tara to be the stand-in. Without Kylie for the summer, Tara found no reason to deny. It'd probably only be a week before she moved onto someone more poppy. "Now, these are the counselors that will stay in each cabin. They will show you were to go. There are also big signs on the cabin doors, but you can never really be sure enough that people know where to go. Disperse, please. They're cabin girl rolled her eyes, pointed in some random direction, and walked off with one of her friends. They walked into the cabin assignment, 'Ferma', the F cabin. There was also a D cabin, 'Da Capo' and an S cabin, 'staccato', among others. This was not the most normal summer camp one could attend. The cabin was small, the rooms standard. Alanna flung her bag into the tallest closet, flopped down on the biggest bed, and started listening to her iPod. An attentive girl that one was. Jamie carefully dropped her own bag in another closet before rummaging through it for a phone and texting with her friends. Another two girls walked in, chattering away, dropping their bags into the closet before taking out digital cameras and snapping pics of each other and the room. Unbelievable. Tara walked down the hallway until she got outside. It was a crappy day- too sunny. Tara was a cold-weather kind of person. The woods looked inviting, dark and cold. She looked back. No one would notice if she left for ten minutes to explore. They had thirty to 'get acquainted'. Tara was plenty acquainted. They said not to go out in the woods unless they were out on a hike. But, really, that was probably just nonsense. After all, what could possibly be in the woods? Probably nothing really dangerous. She'd pick the most worn path she could, and go for just a few minutes, anyway. The counselor people were just being paranoid. She walked off into the trail, and almost immediately silence reined. Tara walked along for a while, enjoying the silence, dim light, and dampness, just like walking through the misty pre-storm (she liked the mist of a pre-storm, but hated the random drops once the storm was over. It was depressing), when she tripped over a small bump on the trail. Tara was pretty graceful and managed not to fall, but when she looked over she saw that she was now on a bridge. Should I go back? she thought to herself. If I'm at a bridge, it probably means I've gone pretty far. I don't want to get lost or have them come looking for me. Oh, come on. Don't be a moron, Tar. Getting lost? On a huge trail that goes straight through the forest? You'd have a better chance getting lost in your math class. And you really think that counselor will care enough to look for you? The way she walked off with her friend like that? And, I mean, Alanna will care that you've gone, but she isn't going to raise an alarm o something. She wouldn't want you to get in trouble. And she isn't going to come wandering out in the woods, either. Coem back by dinner and I guarantee there will be no repercussions. Tara took that advice and investigated the trail further, until she started to hear voices. Voices can be good things. New friends, someone to laugh with, or even a conversation in which to learn about how others think of you. But voices can mean bad things, too. Like Saushale chemicals. "Tara?" She was bashed through her reminisce by her teacher calling her name. "Can you please explain this? I know you get it." He turned to the class. "Maybe it will help if you see someone else explain the concept." "Like, okay. Basically you just multiply this together, and this, and this," she semi-explained, writing out what she was multiplying. "Then you add these two and make it equal that, then you add these and subtract that and divide by that and there you go." There was a pause. "I don't get it." "Me neither," someone whined, a note of desperation in their voice. "Come on. This isn't rocket science. Just write out the equations, make them equal each other, solve it, and find the variable." "At least someone gets it," The teacher half-muttered, staring the ceiling. "Like, yaw." Tara. "Shut it, Tara." They pronounced it T-air-a. "Tara. My name is Tara!" "Used to be T-air-a." "I'm getting riculosmosis from this freaking classroom," Tara half-muttered. "Riculos-what?" "Riculosmosis." "That being what?" "Ridiculous via osmosis!" The bell rang and math was over. Finally. The day was over. Savannah, however, still had sixth period to go. She walked into science, which she had with Massie. "Hey, it's Sav!" Jamie called out. "Sav-ann-ah. It's annoying, I know, having to pronounce all of those syllables but I have faith you can do it." Savannah rolled her eyes. The bell rang, announcing the start of science. The teacher walked to the front of the class. "Good afternoon, class." "Like, good afternoon," Savannah called out, louder and more distinct than everyone else. The teacher let it go. "Today we're going to be working on photosynthesis." The teacher passed out a handout about the topic, then walked over to her computer and input grades. Savannah finished the handout very fast, already knowing a lot about cell energy and such. "Hey Sav, what's the answer to number three?" Jamie asked. The room was full of talking, as usual, and the teacher didn't hear at all. "Like, guess." Savannah looked back down at her paper and read the last question. "Come on. Please?" Jamie whined. She read the question again. "Fine. Mitochondria." "Number four?" "Vacuole." "Five?" "Mitochondria helps make the food and breaks it down." "Six?" And so it went on. There were fourteen questions, and Jamie received the wrong answers for each one. She smiled and said, "Thanks Sav," and turned in her sheet. Sav felt kind of guilty about it, but the thought of never having to listen to Jamie whine for answers was well worth it. Savannah pulled out her cell phone. Lynn: u on again? Savannah: like yaw Lynn: huh? Savannah: just the way Kylie pronounces her yahs. thought u could add 2 Lynn Lang Lynn: sounds pretty lame Savannah: so, any more freaky people? Lynn: No. What about u? Savannah: I'm friends with Tara now. Lynn: seriously? WHY? Savannah: Kylie. have 2 b friends w/ Tara 2 b friends w/ kylie Lynn: oh. I hate chatspeak don't you? Savannah: you just don't like it bcuz it ruins the Lynn effect. Lynn: ehmagawd ur psychic Savannah: thought you didnt like chatspeak Lynn: have 2 think bout ur morse code vibrate Savannah: don't have 2 do that here, teacher doesn't look. Scared of me anyway. Lynn: Oh. Cool. Savannah: Isoty. Lynn: Coolisoty! Lynn: so what is Tara like? Savannah: kinda weird. Her voice always has way too much expression or none. She can't find a happy medium. Lynn: ha ha. I know. Some people at my school are like that. Savannah: class is ovr in 3 mins, g2g Lynn: me 2 teacher spotted me wont b online 2day bye Savannah turned off her cell phone and slid it back in her pocket. She dropped off her own handout in the box and packed up her stuff, ready for the day to be over. Finally. Completely. The final bell of the day rang, and Savannah walked out, brooding. She walked downstairs, where she was met with Kylie. "Hey Savannah!" "Hey, Kylie." "Just got back from volleyball. When do you have PE?" "First. And I have soccer." "Are you good?" "I'm okay at defender." She gave a short laugh. "But put me anywhere else and you will regret it." Kylie laughed, too. "Where's Tara?" "Oh, she has math. The teacher always keeps her in hecka late. And my mom comes pretty quickly, so I usually walk out without her." "Oh. Makes sense." "Yeah. You think you'll still be able to do that dream thing for Speech?" "No, not now that I've already done it." "Oh. What are you going to do, then?" "Eh. Maybe I'll use another one of my dreams. Maybe I'll just make something up." "Yes. Making things up is fun. Maybe I'll do one of those random stories I always tell to freak everyone out." "Huh?" "Oh, back in elementary school I would go over to Tara's house and we would stay up way later than we should have. I would tell these really weird stories at like three in the morning just to freak out Tara and this other girl, Megan. Sometimes we'd videotape them, with like a theme song and everything. Mind you, this was at three in the morning." "Ha. Funny." Not so funny in words, but maybe that's because you haven't seen three eleven-year-old girls trying to freak each other out at three in the morning. Trust me. It is amusing. "Yeah. There's my turnoff. Bye!" "Bye." Savannah continued walking. There was a library a couple blocks from her school that she would sometimes walk to and read in for a while. It was pretty quiet and she usually reserved a computer, so she could do her homework and chat with Lynn. One computer was open, and Savannah slid into the seat, after dropping off a couple of her items and examining to see if any of her requests were in, though they were not. Luckily, she had her story saved to flash drive. True to her word, Lynn's dot was gray so Savannah immediately got working on her story. I basically just stared. Shocked. Uncomprehending. Whoever it was had deflected the object and was in no way hurt, but she looked almost as shocked as I was. Only she masked it with a sneering, smirking look. "Well," she said. "I cannot begin to imagine how you got past that. But let's leave questioning in the past, shall we?" "Uh, no, we shall most definitely not. You haven't answered my question yet." I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes at her, sounding more defiant than I felt. "My name is S- Alena." "Salena?" "You can call me whatever. My name is not important." She dismissed it with a small wave of the hand. "Okay, Whatever. Why are you here? What are you?" She showed a lot of irritation at the nickname, but didn't say anything about it. "I'm here because I created this place." She shrugged. "It was an old, forgotten piece of crap, shoved in a corner of dreamworld no one cared about anymore, and I fixed it up. There was power here, so much power..." She looked towards the ceiling, made her hands into fists, bent at the elbow but facing the sky, and took a deep breath. "So much power I became better. Much better. So much better than all those around me. "I announced the time to fight. "My people descended on one another, making it easier to pick them off." She gave a fond, distant smile. I stared, half-horrified. "Eventually, however, they worked together. It was harder. I began recruiting people, normal humans, to help me. I brought them to dreamworld the only time they could access it. They, however, had nothing. Were nothing. Most of them. "Only two were any good, and I kept them for a long, long time, until eventually their power began to wane. I had thought them immortal, but they became weak and pointless, so I killed them." "However, soon, I had to face the facts. I would have to make these nothings into something. "Back in the real world, my people calmed down. Those above us continued to fight, fight for control. Power. But those fighting me were quiet. Calm. Unthreatening. "And, obviously, not very smart. "I worked hard, studying normal humans, until, eventually, I understood well enough what was going on in them to experiment. Some died immediately. Some held on longer. None were any better than normal. "It took a long time, but eventually I had created just the right way to make these people special. Extraordinary. "To do this, however, most could not access this world, this dreamworld, this place of power. Some had no power, those I either ignored or killed. Most had enough power to be amazing collectively, but individually were useless. However, some carried enough power to make me incredible. Us incredible. "I went back to the fight. "My people immediately turned to the fight. They had been dabbling in magic, but had no clue about science. What was real. Magic was hard. Unrewarding. Something achieved mostly by creation. Science you could work with. "I fought them quickly. Destroyed all of them. "But soon I realized that it was not enough. I know I can do more. There is another, a victor of this world, but she carries too much power for no reason. She does not want it. I know there are others, and I want their power. I want the power." I still kind of stared. "So what are you?" Whatever rolled her eyes. "A Sorceress." I blinked a couple times. "What?" Whatever just looked mad. "I'm a Sorceress." "Oh. Okay. And where do I play in all this?" "Some people don't need to be changed. Some are already good. Talented." "Me?" "More have been lately. The goddess is starting to realize my intentions and is determined to beat me. I've been perfecting my creations and getting the last of all the Sorceress power for a while and am now done. "Who will win is the question now." "Okay. Great." Whatever was still freaking me out and the words were half sarcastic, half don't-call-me-on-this. "So, what exactly am I talented in?" "Mind powers." I still stared. Blank. Freaked out. And the familiar tongue of anger and regret was still there. Always present. "Which would be..." "Telekinesis. Moving things with your mind. Fast. Hard. All at once. No one can stop you. "Or, at least, no one human." Whatever smiled and laughed, a high, confident, amused sound. At that, Savannah's time on the computer ran out, and she logged out. She walked back to the school, where her bike was somehow situated, and gave a faint smile at the hectic morning. Then she unlocked her bike lock, yanked out her bike, and started 'pedaling' home. Which actually included more mind powers than pedaling. When she finally got home, she didn't go on the computer immediately. There was no reason to go online and she was kind of bored with her story. A couple of pages were enough to do each day. She turned on her computer, but just to play her CD. Savannah barely listened to anything other than 'lectronica now. Which meant that she had to have listened to SavSon-EV at least one hundred, maybe even two hundred times, figuring that she listened to it every day. She sighed, sitting at her desk. There was a small hand mirror on it. Savannah held it up to her face critically. She hated her face. The skin was pale, way, way paler than was normal, though it was free of blemishes. In December or so sometimes her skin was closer to that of the dead than that of the living. Her nose was too big, not broad, just long and thin. Her eyebrows had too much arch in them, her cheekbones sticking out visibly. Her lips were too pale, though full. She had taken to wearing a lot more gloss than was actually necessary. Her hair was okay. It was an excessively light blonde, more silver than gold. Platinum blonde. And beyond. A trend at her dumb school was the whole silver thing going around the county, and even Savannah was sucked into it. Her hair now had a silvery tint that made it go from light blonde to metallic. And it wouldn't wash out, either- even though she'd put in a month ago, it was still there. Savannah's eyes were her favorite, though. They were big and half-moon shaped- kind of flat on the bottom but curved on top. They were sharp, and with her arched eyebrows it made her look angry and sarcastic half the time. Especially when she didn't mean it. The eyes were a clear green, defined, no blue or yellow cluttering them up. Each feature was pretty by itself- thin nose, green eyes, light blonde hair, clear skin, but altogether she looked really, really strange. People stared at her when she walked into malls or restaurants, and her first day at school her teachers had squinted at her, like they weren't quite sure she was real. Savannah sighed, and put the mirror down. In a burst of hatred for her entire being, she lobbed it at the wall, where it shattered. Seven years of bad luck, she thought. Too bad I can't pin it on "Whatever". She slid her computer chair back across the floor to the computer. She checked her mail. Nothing from Lynn, but Kylie had sent her an email. Hey savannah! what r u doing? I'm working on hw. Anyway, do you have Ms Stalworth for language arts? Savannah wrote back: Hey Kylie! How did you get my email? I was about to work on my hw, too. Yeah, I have Stalworth for English. Turns out Kylie was on, because she wrote right back. Great! What was the hw for tonight? Her address was a gmail, (Kylienuts@gmail.com), so Savannah instead opened a google chat and typed that way. Savannah: finish that dumb essay. Kylie: Great. I really don't feel like working on that. Savannah: Yeah, I already finished mine. Kylie: Luck-y! What did you think the theme was? Savannah: That individual experiences and personality was more important than ending diversity in the pursuit of a utopian community. And if you steal that, you are so going down. Savannah: not literally, though. Kylie: Oh. I thought it was about color. Savannah: Yeah. But I've found that in books where they talk about color I think they are usually talking about the color of life rather than the precise hue that an object reflects and absorbs when light hits it. Like in The Book Thief. Kylie: I've never read it. Savannah: oh. Well, in the beginning the narrarator, Death, talks about color, like the color in a rainbow and stuff but him or her or whatever also laments about human life and souls so I kinda got it then. Kylie: Whatever. I'm not as smart as you, obviously. Savannah: Whatever. Yeah. Hey, does Tara still hate me? Kylie: Don't know. I'm not a mind reader, you know. Though I don't think she's exactly comfortable with you because when she is she usually speaks in monotone and stuff. It's not necessarily a bad thing. She could be trying to, like, impress you or something. Savannah: thanks, Kylie. Good advice. Kylie: you're welcome. Savannah: how did you get my email address, though???? Kylie: I asked Megan, who asked Leslie, who asked Jordan, who asked Rachel, who asked Jamie, who asked Massie, who told me. Savannah: And this took you how long? Kylie: Like five minutes. Luckily, they all had their cell phones handy. Savannah: Yeah. You know, you could have just asked me at school. Kylie: Like I said, I'm not as smart as you are. Savannah: how come you asked all of them just to ask me what the hw was? Kylie: Because none of them have Stalworth! Savannah: Massie and Jamie do. Kylie: Massie and Jamie are weird. Savannah: Agreed. Kylie: Sorry, my mom is kicking me off the comp. Bye! Savannah: like, bye Kylie: double like-bye Savannah closed the chat window as soon as Kylie's dot faded to gray. She checked the toolbar one last time, but Lynn was still offline. Funny. She ever rarely was. She had finished her homework- not much, just some math and a review page for history. Science never assigned any homework, and all that was due in language arts was the theme essay she had already written and perfected. She started to read, but all she had left was this one dumb book about a bunch of high-schoolers that pranced around being morons over popularity and such. She had returned everything else at the library, and nothing new had been in. So, she went back to her story. At least it was better than whatever the heck she had been reading. "You're referring to yourself, right?" "No, it's the dancing elephant over there." I stared. What on earth was she talking about? She gave a rather exasperated sigh. "It's just some dumb joke this one girl told me." I still stared. "Okay, look. You want mind powers or not?" I probably acted irrationally. The smart thing would have been to keep something like that out of my hands (sarcastic girl + homicidal powers = not a happy picture.) "No duh." And so began my career in mind powers. Whatever gave another wide, disturbing smile. "Excellent. You are still new, so you need to gather experiences in natural elements." "Huh?" Whatever gave another annoyed sigh. "You experience stuff. Environments. Like water and fire and stuff." "Fire? What? HOW?" "A special chemical I devised." A small glass- about the size of a shot glass -appeared in her hand. It floated over to me. "What happens?" She sighed again. "It will give you memories of the environments, which I will teach you to use shortly." The glass floated in front of my face again. Quotes flashed through my mind "I don't want to be friends with you anymore" "I am evil" "Stop talking to me" "Some died immediately" "Hey, look, it's Ms Homicide on the Horizon" "I became better" "What the freak is wrong with you?" "Turn these Nothings into something" "Why are you still here?" "Make them special. Extraordinary" "Extraordinary." "Special." "Amazing" "Extraordinary" "Special, so special..." "Nothing can stop you." I grabbed the glass and drank, too preoccupied to see Whatever giving another scary grin. Savannah leaned back on her chair again. She remembered everything from the night- down to the very last word. Except for the name. Savannah had called her 'Whatever', but she had referred to herself as the dream guide, not Salena. She had gotten the name by trying to type Alena, the girl with the mysterious 'lectronica blog, but typed an S instead and liked the sound so just kept it. Whatever's story about how she had gotten the place still confused her. Who were those people? And why on earth was no one noticing? They had to be acting like homicidal freaks, and yet no one had noticed- Let's see, her brain slowly informed her. Who else could be classified as a homicidal freak, and yet not had it show up on the news? However, Lynn's dot then turned to green at that moment, providing a timely distraction. Lynn: Hey Sav Savannah: DON'T CALL ME SAV Lynn: Suh-orry Savannah: how come you weren't on? Lynn: I got in trouble for texting in my after-class class. They made me work after it was over. Savannah: When does your school end? Lynn: We start at six and end at three Savannah: Six???? Lynn: Boarding school. They wake us up at five thirty. But it is the best school in the country, so I keep my mouth shut. Savannah: How did you get caught texting in class, anyway? The period before you said you were out of class! Lynn: I had to go to a study-hall type thing. Savannah: Ah. Hey, is the we-wake-up-at-five-thirty-in-the-morning-thing why you are always online at two in the morning? Lynn: Duh. I wake up earlier than everyone else, because when I wake up at five thirty and don't go back to sleep, I wake up at five-twenty the next, etc. stops at five, though. So two for you is five for me. I usually type. Savannah: Type what? Lynn: Oh, a whole load of crap. Sometimes I sneak downstairs and go online there, too. Savannah: Why downstairs? Lynn: Because I'm special like that! Savannah: * Annoyed * Lynn: Ha ha. Actually, it's because I hate my roommate and she wakes up at five, too, and she doesn't shut up. So I have to get away from her. Savannah: Ah. Savannah: What do you type? Lynn: Essays, poetry, short stories, etc. Except I suck at writing, so it sucks in addition. Savannah: Nice. Lynn: It's actually kind of funny. When I IM you, I'm barely sarcastic at all. But when I IM Carmen, we're both sarcastic. Sometimes my stupid roommate sneaks onto my computer and she says it's hilarious. Savannah: Google chat, not IM. And who is Carmen? Lynn: She's the one that has the 'lectronica CD, remember? Maybe I didn't tell you her name. Savannah: You did not. Lynn: Ok. Whatever. Do you write? Savannah: I've been writing this short story- though it's not too short- abut how I got mind powers. Lynn: Beneficialness. Can I read it? Savannah: Sure! Lynn: Great! Savannah: Sarcasm, Lynn. Lynn: Oh. Sorry, you're just not as sarcastic as some of my other friends. I don't expect it. Savannah: Whatever. Lynn: My stupid teacher is making me write this ultra-long essay on effects of texting on learning on the brain and stuff, in exchange to not have to do two weeks worth of detention, which at our school means you don't go to your dorm room- you stay in this little cell. I'll IM you in like twenty or thirty minutes. Savannah: Google Chat. Lynn: Picky. Don't you have any sympathy? Lynn is now offline Savannah: No. Lynn did not receive your chat Savannah closed the chat window, really glad that she did not go to Lynn's school. While she waited for Lynn to go back online, she worked on her story again. She stopped a minute to remember the experience. This part was less scary, though she had gained more respect for the dream guide and called her 'Salena' in her thoughts and words, not 'Whatever'. Memories swirled through my mind, memories I knew I'd never had before. They settled into place like flies on sugar. A few resettled, but there were too many for my brain to give up a fight for long. The liquid tasted like nothing at all I'd tasted before. Not like water, more like air. Liquid air. There was very little, only about a tablespoon and a half. It flew down my throat. When the memories had settled, I looked up at Salena. "How do you feel?" Salena asked half-mocking, quarter concerned, quarter just pure sarcasm. "Just fine." I coughed a bit. "Never been better." "It's an ... interesting experience." She smiled. Her nails were resting on something. My eyes had just started to adjust and I could see a stone slab, about two feet wide and three inches thick, on the perimeter of the walls, all around. No stairs. No exit. Just as in the room with the pillar, I was trapped. By Salena's description of herself, I bet-no, I knew- there were no upper floors. The building was not designed for a way to get away. From her. "Interesting being the understatement of the century." I coughed a few more times. My throat was not used to anything like the liquid and was trying to expel it, weakly. Unsuccessfully. "Okay. You said you would teach me, so-what?" "I suppose you're right." Salena tapped her nails a couple times on the stone slab, then glided to the middle of the room. Her hair grew brighter and the room had more light. I could almost see. "Now is the time to begin." Savannah was interrupted by sounds of the door. She paused her music. Someone was trying to unlock the door. It was already unlocked, Savannah not caring much about security (freak with supernatural powers versus a gun. Which do you believe in?). Someone had just locked the door, thinking they were unlocking it, and was now pounding on the door in frustration. Savannah shrugged and put her music back on, though quieter than before. The unknown person then unlocked the door, opened it, and slammed it back, the vibrations reverberating throughout all of the house. "Turn down that junk-pop, Sav." It was her aunt. Only she ever called Savannah's music 'junk-pop'. "Don't call me Sav." Savannah turned down the music. "Sorry." "Why are you home so early?" Savannah's aunt was usually out, like, all day. It was only four or so. She should have been out another five hours. "Client bailed. Could have stayed at office. Heater leaves lot to be desired. Came home instead. Going to change, then go to Starbucks. You get the house back." One of the most annoying things about Savannah's aunt was that she used short, simple, grammatically incorrect sentences that really, really annoyed Savannah. "You know, you could stay, because I wouldn't mind at all." "Nah. Friends at Starbucks. Need a coffee. You can turn up the junk-pop." "Yes, but make sure you know that I don't mind if you stay." Her aunt paused beside the door. "What is this?" "Track three." "Which is called what?" "Um, No-Ex-hyphen-LV" "What kind of name is that?" "They all have kind of weird names." "Oh. It sounds a lot like this really annoying song I keep hearing on the radio." "What is it called?" "I don't remember." Oh. Okay. "What was the band?" "Why do you care? I gotta go. Oh, how do you like the cell phone?" "It's great." Doors really hated her aunt for some reason, and she had problems opening and shutting it on the way out. Savannah laughed quietly before going back to her story. "'Kay." Salena smiled again. With the extra light her teeth glimmered, and I could tell she had fangs- not teeth. Fangs. Lovely. Salena snapped her fingers and a large object rose up. There were several of them, as far as I could see. I had no idea what they were- they just looked like large groupings of something. She snapped her fingers again and it gracefully fell. "Of course, you don't really need the snapping. It's much better to have a stealth attack, so not only do they have no idea what you're about to do, they also have no idea when it's going to happen. Fun." Yes. Fun. That was apparently what almost killing people was now classified as. Fun. Ah, what a happy, delicate, mannerly, and kind teacher I had here. Not. Salena obviously couldn't read my mind, because she plowed on with her little speech. "At first, you will need to use the memory implants, probably for a while. Like training wheels on your bike. But eventually you can supply your own hatred and anger and you won't need them. Then you can delete them." "What?" Delete them? Huh? What was I now, a computer? "Delete them. They can ruin your focus upon occasion, so most Sau- special people, what I call them, delete them." "So I won't remember that I ever had them?" Salena rolled her eyes. "No duh not. Mind control is so not that powerful. As in take a really wild guess." I swear, there were more grammatical errors in that sentence than I can count. She sounded like a freaking preteen. Maybe she had some kind of mental problem. And mind control? What the heck was that? Slowly, slowly, I started to work it out. This was so not a normal person-Sorceress-whatever. I mean, she was trying to take over the universe, and she made people into 'special people'. But, she was also psycho. Most people had at least a drop of sense, unlike me, and did not drink whatever the heck she had given me. Mind control. She made them want to be special. Or whatever. But, from what it sounded like, the whole special thing was also the whole weird Sorceress chemical thing. So how did those chemicals get there? Let's not think about this, a little voice in my head said. I agree. "Ok. So how do I do this now?" Do not provoke the insane. Do not provoke the insane, homiciadal, and probably short-tempered. Besides, mind powers did seem really, really cool. "You focus on the experiences and direct your attn to what you want to happen." She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Thank you so much for clarifying that and being very, very clear on exactly what I am supposed to do. It's really appreciated. Yes, and she said the attn part like ay-te-te-ehn. "What the freak is attn?" "Like, attention. Duh." Again with the likes and the duhs. This girl had way too much time on her hands. "And what am I supposed to do again? In non-special, normal-human language." She gave another wide smile. Either I was part of some diabolical evil plot or Salena was really into showing off the whitening strips. "You are special." And she didn't say it in a supportive-kindergarten-teacher-slash-disney-movie way. More like she viewed me as a tool. I almost expected to hear her evil little chuckle after the statement. Perfection. Not. "Yeah, well that doesn't mean I know what you're talking about!" "Find out the meaning of the words and do what they say. It's like math. Or chemistry." She rolled her eyes. "It's not that hard." So, I did. The thingy I was trying to move looked kind of like a rock, and I rifled through the experiences trying to find something. Eventually I got tired of that and just winged it. The rock smashed into the wall right behind Salena. Salena smiled- again - and hissed something. "Beneficialness." Lynn went back online, and Savannah saved the document and closed it. Lynn: Like hi, Savvy Savannah: I'm seriously going to block you if you don't stop calling me that. Lynn: Picky. Savannah: oh, I'm picky. Lynnette. Lynn: HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT??? Savannah: Psycho much? Tara told me. Lynn: How much did she tell you about me? Savannah: why are you getting all mad about this? Lynn: Tell me. What. Did. She. Say. Savannah: Seriously, chill. She just said that your name was Lynnette and that it was beneficial you had stopped telling everyone your actual name. Lynn: That's all? Savannah: Well, there was more. But I'm not going to tell you unless you stop acting all psycho or tell me why. Savannah felt like a liar, but she had to know. Lynn: Tara knows a lot of things about me. I mean, you wouldn't want all your future friends to know you destroyed half your school, now would you? Savannah: Oh. Okay. She didn't say anything, I was just trying to get you to tell me why you were so psycho. Savannah: And I did not destroy half my school. I chipped a bench. Dented the bike rack. Broke one tiny section of a window. Lynn: Greatalicious. Savannah: I don't think I'll ever be ahead of your vocabulary. Lynn Lang wise, obviously. Lynn: Sad fact. Savannah: More like annoying. Lynn: it's not all me, though. Actually, mostly it's Carmen. Savannah: WHAT? Lynn: Well, the words are me. But the phrases are Carmen. She made them all up. She told Adriana, Adriana told me, Adriana gave Carmen my email, and I'm the first to rate her phrases. Savannah: who on earth is Adriana? Lynn: Carmen's friend. Sorry, I forget you don't know all these people. Adriana is Carmen's friend. I went to summer camp with her Savannah: yeah. Whatever. How's your essay? Lynn: Pretty good. Luckily, I already know a lot about social effects of texting and computers so I didn't need to look up much. Savannah: Coolisoty. Lynn: You really like those expression, don't you? Savannah: No. I hate them. It's accidental. Lynn: I see. Savannah: I have to go to bed. Chat you in the morning. Lynn: text you in class. Savannah: Sure that's wise? Lynn: totally. I just won't text in that one teachers class. Savannah: Good call. Savannah is offline Lynn: You have no idea. Savannah did not receive your message Lynn threw her head back on her pillow. Her room looked weird to her. She was in the most successful school in the country, exclusive, that received thousands of applicant's each year and almost none got in. She couldn't think of anything she hated more. Academics were fine. Athletics were fine. Being a social outcast was fine. Working into oblivion every freaking day she could do. Monitored freaking lockdown she could not. Because the most successful boarding school in the country was also strict. And the most powerful (not to mention EVIL) sorceress in the world's favorite hangout. Yeah. Fun. She had a blast. Not. Lynn had had everything, back in Oregon. Where she belonged. A letter, pineapple shake, and rock smashed into her wall later, she was carted off to boarding school rather than entering seventh grade with all her friends. Zara. Tanya. Most of the school. Now she was forbidden to talk to them except through email. Each message was reviewed by top Saushale before it could go to the recipient. Hence she kept her chats short and to the point, like most of the Saushale. Saushale. She even hated the word. It meant a cage to her. A wall between her and her friends. Her dreams. Her own freaking mind. Lynn rolled onto her stomach to think. She'd never been a typical Saushale robot. Well, maybe robot wasn't the word- Saushale thought. Analyzed. Just only the way Sabrina allowed. Anyway, she'd never been completely on track. She was unique. She'd still liked her friends for who they were, never looking down on them as inferior like most. Most Saushale only kept friendships going for appearances. So nothing would seem out of place. Some just randomly ditched their friends, but others forced their friends to ditch them. Not Lynn. Sure, she might have acted a little more psycho, especially at first, changing her mind, acting defense, blowing up at the slightest slip- someone calling her Lynnette, not referring to her music as 'electronica', referring to the Lynn Lang as strange or idiotic, even sarcastically. Luckily, her friends knew she was weird and didn't say anything about it. Adriana had just started to get a little mad, wondering where the cool, fun Lynn had gone (and why it was taking her forever to respond to a chat) when Lynn broke through. The Saushale boarding school she was at gave small field trips. Some people, though usually only those completely duped up with mind control and tested in the environment, even got to leave for really long times. Anyway, one of these such field trips sent her to a nearby rich school with some chosens attending. Her mission was simple: find, analyze, destroy. Sabrina had ramped up security within the Saushale area, duping up Lynn with so much mind control it was a wonder she didn't explode. She still broke through. When she arrived at the school, it was easy enough to find the chosens; the most privileged, sarcastic, mean kids in the bunch. Lynn began to watch. And fabricate. Sabrina demanded long reports on whatever was happening, especially during training. So Lynn analyzed what they were doing, and gave away only the most trivial on information, making up the rest. To someone with a lot of time on their hands, they could have probably found the flaws and fabrications- small tests of logic for those paying attention. But none did. While at the school, Lynn would have trouble keeping on track and not attacking anybody. She tried numerous ways of breaking through. Few worked. Of those that did, such as listening to "Cruel Summer" (Sabrina and Saushale's least favorite song) were impractical, and impossible under all the surveillance. Lynn plotted how to keep the chosens without Sabrina knowing. While she did so, she began to discover some of the effects of fighting the mind control. By disintegrating the mind control, she disintegrated all that was keeping the Saushale chemicals in order. Every day she looked and acted more human. By the end of about a week, her lightly tanned skin, medium brown hair, and hazel eyes returned. People watched her, wondering what on earth was going on (what would people think if you went from having solid, midnight-black eyes to hazel with actual whites and distinctive pupils? What if you mysteriously grew a tan without ever leaving the building? In a week?) So the opposite of fun. The upside was that she seemed to melt into the crowd. Lynn's Saushale face had virtually no resemblance to her normal one. Sabrina might have been keeping tabs, but it seemed to her that Lynn had simply disappeared, something Lynn encouraged by slipping in her reports she had ran. She made people call her Lynnette. It was taxing, but Sabrina was sure enough that the Lynnette simply could not be her. No one could pronounce her last name anyway; it seemed as if a new student with the same first name had moved in. Replaced her. Simple. Well, okay, not simple, really. Mostly because people were so confused. Mostly because she looked so different. They knew she was still Lynn, but she had just changed. Also her name. At first, she fought for people to call her Lynn, angrily exploding at all who did otherwise. But randomly she demanded people call her Lynnette, descending on those who called her Lynn with even more fury than before. Confusing. Most people just avoided her. With good reason. Anyway, she finally found a solution to help the chosens. She told them what was going on. What they had to do. Why she was here. They laughed in her face and told her to get lost. So encouraging. Lynn thought about it for much longer, about how to regain her Saushale-ness as well as get the chosens to believe her. Without Sabrina's help on either. So the opposite of easy. Eventually, she did the most obvious thing on both and it worked. She decided to be Saushale while she was explaining the whole thing to the chosens. So she went with that first. She listened to DUYD-SV (all Saushale had the CD downloaded on their computers) and it all came back. In like five seconds. Simple. The chosens thing was harder. Lynn distinctively remembered the whole thing. Every word of the conversation. "Hey, look, it's the Saw-shale." The leader pronounced the word exaggerated, and the girls laughed. Lynn stayed calm. Most people seem to become much less frightening after you've had a go at the most powerful being in, like, all of history. Even if you were mostly just helping. The fact remained that these chosens were nothing compared to Sabrina. "Hey, look, it's Obnoxious and Gang." Calm. Deadpan. Same way Sabrina would probably do it. "What do you want now? Annoy us?" "Nothing. I just love to walk around you, be insulted by the most obnoxious people on the campus, and pretend like I don't have a giant load of other crap to do." Sincere sounding, but obviously sarcastic. Totally Carmenistic. "Seriously, what do you want? We don't have all day." "Judging by the fact it's like six, I believe it would be more like all night." Informative. Kind of sarcastic. Avoiding the question. More Tara than anything else. "That tells us nothing." "Whatever. So, you still don't believe me?" "Of course not. We're not stupid. We don't believe in goddesses and whatever else you were talking about-" "Sorceresses." Correcting someone. A habit she'd adopted from Carmen and Savannah, Carmen who insisted her music was electronica and Savannah who insisted Lynn call their conversations Google Chat, as opposed to IM. Either way, it was annoying. "The point is that we don't believe you." "How do you think I changed my face? Again? From a dancing elephant?" Again, very Carmenistic (mostly from the particular style of sarcasm). Plus, the whole dancing elephant thing was totally her. Lynn had no idea how much she'd copied from Carmen. Or why- she had to be, like, the most annoying person on the planet. Except for Lynn. And maybe Bella. "The way normal people do. Hair dye. Contacts." "And grew three inches?" That was another part of the rapid untransformation and then retransformation. She'd grown three inches with it transformation, then had to go buy a bunch of clothes to fit into being three inches shorter once it had gone away, then had to throw those away once she re-transformed. "I don't know. High heels? Platform sandals? Optical illusion? Growth spurt?" "Or just being special like that," someone in the back muttered. They were not acknowledged. "I can show you proof." "Yeah. Right." "This song," Lynn held up a small flash drive (one with NoEx-LV, the least annoying of all the 'lectronica songs encoded on it). "Does not exist. You can look up the album, song, or lyrics-" "What about the artist?" "No artist." "All songs have top be created by someone. Something." "Not all songs have the artist recorded. Anyway, you can look it up to your hearts content, but it does not exist. At all." "Right." "Well, except for maybe one or two people's blogs. People who know Sabrina exists." "Sabrina does not exist." "Suit yourself." Lynn threw the flash drive at her. "You've got three days to live before the mind decontrol wears off and I go back to being Saushale. With a mission." Lynn smiled. Evilly. "And you can meet the Sabrina who 'does not exist'." "You're insane." "Actually, I'm not. But if you really feel the need, you are welcome to test that." Lynn smiled again. "To your hearts desire." The chosens in the back looked stricken, but the leader just rolled her eyes and said "I am so beyond this." She walked away, and the others followed. One looked back at her. The expression on her face was very clearly "Help." Lynn smiled. Turned away. And waited. The mind decontrol didn't have a time limit (she hoped) but Lynn knew that people made much more irrational decisions when under pressure. It wasn't an irrational decision to someone who actually knew what was going on, obviously, like Carmen, but to someone who had been enforced into believing since birth that there was no such things as Telkin, goddesses, Sorceress, or Saushale (or anything else weird and freaky like that), it was simply stupid to cave in. But once they looked up the song, found that it did not, in fact, exist, they might be freaked out enough to immediately believe her and go for it. Without trying to rationalize and make up things to justify it normally. Lynn had been right. Savannah watched her screen for a couple seconds. It was only about seven-thirty, so she had an hour. She showered and then came back in her room, turned her monitor back on (it turned off after fifteen minutes of disuse; she had kept on her electronica the whole time) and then opened back up internet explorer and google chat and set her message to "Busy". Then she reconfigured the power settings to "Always On". She disabled the speakers (The electronica from the CD had started to play in the middle of the night, and it annoyed her aunt, so Savannah had taken to disabling most of the sound system every night) and read her new science fiction book, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld until about eight-forty-five. Then she went to sleep. Tara, however, did not. Saushale did not need to sleep, as a general rule. Sometimes they did, because there was nothing else to do or they were expected to be asleep (such as in summer camps or sleepovers. Eventually, people were expected to sleep). But on their own they did not. The Saushale boarding school, for example, did not recommend it. So Tara did not. Besides, dreams were when Sabrina was most powerful. Most able to access you. Most able to make your mind control even more controlling than it already was. Tara focused, or tried to, at least. Ever rarely did she get moments like these, where she could think normally. It was hard for someone to overtake someone with hypnosis, even slightly, with mind control. But not impossible. And Sabrina was thousands of times better at mind control than Tara was at hypnosis. Tara struggled, focused, but eventually she was pulled under. A cruel smile uplifted her features, her black eyes and hair deepened in color from their momentary dark brown, and her skin regained the pale complexion of the Saushale from the lightly tanned, slightly pinkish it had started to become. She walked over to her computer. She shared the small duplex-house thing with a couple of other Saushale doing other things. One was monitoring Carmen, another going after someone with possible mind reading, to diagnose it and try to get a copy of her genes to add in to the Saushale operation. One of them was "twenty" and owned the house, from Sabrina's always full bank account. She booted up her computer quickly enough and opened up the Saushale Messenger. Saushale Messenger wasn't regulated nearly as much as regular, google chat or IM, and used only between Saushale and other Saushale or Sabrina. Lina: hey tara. New assignment again? Tara: ya Lina: How come? Tara: * sigh * more mind control. testing. Lina: Why don't you just give up? You're not helping anything by making a huge deal out of it. Tara: duh. I can't believe how stupid I've been being. Still in training? Lina: ya. Went on a cool field trip and have a mountain of make-up work. Mostly science. All I have for the magic classes and the ology is some tests. Tara: Science is cool. Lina: be a lot cooler if they didn't do so much work. What are you going to do????? Tara: getting emailed from science and ology and the other concrete ones. have test this friday on alena, bleh. the others I have to do the tests on video camera. Installed one in room. double use because of mind control. Lina: ya. Do you have any friends? Tara: Kylie. From human times Lina: and me, from now. Tara: duh. Any word on Lynn? Lina: Why? Tara: the person is like best buds with her. Lina: She's best friends with SAUSHALE??????? Tara: how many question marks do you need? god. anyway, she used to know Lynn so when she got ditched by her friend- my doing, of course -and Lynn was there they became friends. besides Sav has no idea what Saushale are or that Lynn is one. Lina: I see. gotta go. mountains of make-up work bye! Tara shut down the program and stared out the window. She had the same science/biology/transformation class as Lina, and she did have a full night as far as classes. There wasn't really a lot of time to waste. With a sigh, she sat back down at her computer and opened her inbox, ready for the endless work. Savannah woke up the next morning early, five instead of six. And as was to be expected, Lynn's dot was green. Savannah didn't go on chat immediately, though; there was a few messages from Kylie, Tara, and Massie, of all people. Savannah clicked on the one from Kylie first. To: Savvy54321@gmail.com From: Kylienuts@gmail.com Date: 10/10/08 6:41 pm Hey, savannah! Have you gotten the message from Tara yet? Email me when you do. Mystified, Savannah opened the next message, from Tara. To: Savvy54321@gmail.com From: Tarataircoolshale@mail-servicenorm.ssw Date: 10/10/08 8:22 pm Hello, Savannah. Kylie is being idiotic and wants you to come with us on Friday to the ice cream shop around the corner. The small one, I think its called Emily's Ice cream or something. It's after school, but Kylie likes to draw these things out so it will take at least an hour and a half. Savannah almost deleted the message from Massie and responded immediately to kylie and Tara, but she was too curious. Hate mail? An apology? A forward, just with a message rather than a forward? To: Savvy54321@gmail.com From: readlikehell@gmail.com Date: 10/10/08 10:34 pm hiya sav! I changed my email address and apparently it was swallowed up IMMEDIATELY! I was so not blocking you. anyway, this is my new address. you're right, gmail IS better than yahoo. Savannah rolled her eyes. Typical Massie. To: kylienuts@gmail.com From: Savvy54321@gmail.com Date: 10/11/08 5:10 am I got the email from Tara. Yes, I would love to come along. It's no problem. Tara seemed kind of mad, though- why? To: tarataircoolshale@mail-servicenorm.ssw From: Savvy54321 Date: 10/11/08 5:14 am I already emailed kylie. If you were planning to make your annoyance not known, you fail. Why are you so mad at me, anyway? I never did anything to you! To: Savvy54321@gmail.com From: tarataircoolshale@mail-servicenorm.ssw Date: 10/11/08 5:19 am You have the weirdest email ever. I thought you hated it when people called you Savvy or Sav. Luckily for you, I'm nicer than that. Anyway, I'm not really mad at you. It just seems to me that a girl that demolishes half her school and scares most of its inhabitants to death is not exactly good friend material. Just a slight suspicion. Of course, then again, maybe I shouldn't be saying this. After all, god forbid that I insult you. I could be running for my life. I wasn't trying to be exuberantly hostile. Kylie can guess my passwords with almost psychic accuracy and she gets very mad whenever I try to insult you. I can't for the life of me figure out why she cares, or why she's even trying to be nice to you. We both know that if she shows even the slightest desire to be friends with someone else she'll be next on the hit list. She'll never know about this convo, though, since I'll just delete it all. Simplicity. To: tarataircoolshale@mail-servicenorm.ssw From: Savvy54321 Date: 10/11/08 5:25 am At least MY email comes from a legitimate service provider. What on earth is ssw, anyway? Or mail service norm? And what kind of email is tara tair cool shale? Were you trying to spell shell or something? Anyway, I'm not always totally mean and evil. Kylie actually understands. I don't mean to hurt people. I just get even the slightest bit mad, frustrated, or annoyed- at ANYTHING, whether it's that my friend ditched me or the computer isn't loading fast enough -and something is flying out the window. I'm trying. Working on it. I'm not going to kill Kylie. Or you. Though the latter might be just a little too much compassion. And I did NOT DEMOLISH HALF OF THE SCHOOL! That's way over exaggeration! I chipped a table! Anyway, you and Kylie are best friends. Since, like, forever. If you're so pissed off at me why don't you just tell her how bad and mean I am? She'll totally believe you over me. But no, you just have to be all sneaky and obnoxious instead. What's the plan? And, yes, that is a rhetorical question. And why on earth are you online at five in the morning? To: Savvy54321@gmail.com From: tarataircoolshale@mail-servicenorm.ssw Date: 10/11/08 5:32 am Why are you on at five in the morning? Insomnia? Impending insanity? I'm online because I wake up early. I don't need as much sleep as most people. Anyway, it seems to me that your little mind powers thingy showed up right about the time Massie ditched you. You must have some serious homicidal urges to trigger something like that. Unless it's like genetic or something. You're trying to make it look like the whole psycho thing is over. What if something else pushes you over the edge? No one wants to be friends with someone who acts like you do. If Kylie shows even the slightest drop in wanting to be friends, SHE'LL be flying out the window, not your stupid computer, correct? I haven't tried to tell Kylie about how mean and evil you are. She already thinks I'm weird and our friendship is falling apart. If I ask her to choose, me or you, she'll probably choose you. If I ask her. She hates choosing. And, about my email, doesn't Lynn have the same thing: something, and then 3shale@mail-servicenorm.ssw? To: tarataircoolshale@mail-servicenorm.ssw From: Savvy54321@gmail.com Date: 10/11/08 5:35 am First of all, Lynn's email is with gmail, not some weird ssw thing. Normal, safe gmail. Like mine, only she didn't create hers in the fifth grade when she thought having people call her Savvy was the coolest thing ever, and then not care enough to change it. Your friendship with Kylie is not falling apart. She follows you everywhere. Besides, why don't you, rather than try to intentionally annoy me to get me to go away (because trust me, it so does not work; people I dislike asking me to do something they want always makes me more intent on doing the opposite) why don't you dare to get to know me, now that I'm not psycho? I don't hate you. Seriously. AND I'M NOT GOING TO BE THROWING ANYONE OUT WINDOWS. Or anything. I'm not like that anymore!! To: Savvy54321@gmail.com From: tarataircoolshale@mail-servicenorm.ssw Date: 10/11/08 5:39 You want to be some happy, skipping little trio. So not going to happen. I'm not your friend. You're not mine. To: tarataircoolshale@mail-servicenorm.ssw From: Savvy54321@gmail.com Date: 5:40 am The fact that you have spent the last twenty minutes talking to me without any type-yelling suggests the contrary. Actually, know that I think about it, Lynn acts the same way. Sometimes. Insisting that I am not her friend and never could be. Randomly. To: Savvy54321 From: Lynnette-ultimatihah@gmail.com Date: 5:40 am Hello? Are you avoiding me? You've been online for the past forty minutes! Are you mad about that message? I unsent it! I don't know what's up with me lately. .................................................................................hello?..................................................... Savannah, in respsonse to the message, hit the 'Reply by Chat' button. Savannah: I was so not avoiding you. Tara was online and emailing me. Lynn: About what? Lynn: At five in the morning? Savannah: She was basically telling me why she hates me. And she says she just doesn't need as much sleep as other people and wakes up early. Like me. Lynn: Or like you would be, if you didn't go to bed at eight. Savannah: Eight thirty. Lynn: Whatever. So, I've been meaning to ask you, how did you get the 'lectronica CD? Savannah: I'm special like that. Lynn: TELL ME!!! Savannah: * cackles *. I was just trying to annoy with your own expressions. It's kinda fun. Lynn: No, it's the opposite of fun. Now tell me already. Savannah: okay, okay. It came in the mail. Lynn: From who? Savannah: Don't know. There wasn't a note on it. And the return address just leads to some weird factory that was closed down years ago. Lynn: What factory? Savannah: You've been acting kind of paranoid lately, you know that? Lynn: I'm special like that. Savannah: It was like a communications necessities thing. Maybe computers. I don't remember. Lynn: Oh. Whatever. So, what do you think of it overall? Savannah: I like pretty much all of them, actually. Even track seven. Lynn: Which one is that one? Savannah: FaPa-CV. Lynn: Carmen's. Ha. She got an annoying song to go with her annoying attitude. Perfect. Savannah: Huh? Lynn: Never mind. So what do you listen to besides 'lectronica? Savannah: I used to listen to Linkin Park, System of a Down, you know, stuff like that, but since I got it I don't listen to anything else. At all. Lynn: Funny. Savannah: Why is it funny? Lynn: I don't know. I've been in a weird mood lately. Savannah: I can tell. Lynn: Oh yeah. And why does Tara hate you again? Savannah: Because she thinks I'm violent. Lynn: Somehow, amazingly, I can see her point. Savannah: I'm not going to dignify a statement that obvious with a real answer. Savannah: So, who is Carmen, anyway? You keep mentioning her. Lynn: She's just this really sarcastic girl. She has mind powers and three friends. Adriana is sarcastic, Heidi is very, very sweet (and kind of weird thereof) and Hailey is the most annoying girl in the history of the universe. Savannah: She has mind powers????????????????? Lynn: How else would she have gotten the CD? I think that's what the factory is. Savannah: So, what is the deal with the electronica? Lynn: People with really powerful mind powers have side effects because of it, basically. Each song on the CD was recorded from someone with the side effects. Savannah: I see. Well, it's getting kind of late, and I really don't want a repeat of yesterday. Lynn: When you flew over your city? Savannah: yes. That. How did you know? Lynn: it was on the news. And Youtube. And pretty much everywhere else you could possibly think of. Savannah: lovely. Lynn: Yeah. But you won't see it anymore. Everyone's forgotten Savannah: Why? Lynn: they're special like that. Lynn knew, of course. It was Sabrina. Sabrina had this obsession with keeping the Telkin a secret, no one could know about it. When Savannah basically told the entire universe about it, Saushale had come out in hordes with mind control chemicals. The only way you could remember the incident was to be fasting, not eating or drinking anything. The videos on YouTube vanished. The recordings of the news shows disappeared. The story was never remembered by anyone except the Saushale and Savannah. And Sabrina, obviously. Savannah closed the chat window and opened up her story document. It was only six-ish. Totally too early to start biking to school. The evil joy disappeared from Salena's eyes as soon as she hissed the last s. She straightened up. "Of course, that was in dreamworld capacity." Duh. "We need to practice something harder, yes?" Sabrina smiled after saying it. No. "Duh." "Excellent." No, it is NOT excellent. "Just do the same thing." So I did. Anger involuntarily welled up inside me. The rock shattered. "Good job." Shut up. "Thank you." "Let's make it harder, shall we?" No thanks. "Of course." She snapped her fingers again. It was just the tiniest bit harder, but not hard enough to deter me. The rock shattered again. "You're gifted." No, I'm not. "It would seem so." "Are you using the experiences?" No. "Somewhat." "Soon you probably won't." If soon means now. "That would be amazing." "You'd just use anger." That sounds lovely. Not. "Anger? How?" "As fuel." Perfect. Fuel. Isn't there some adage saying don't put fuel on the fire? "Amazing." She snapped her fingers again and, again, the rock shattered. Instantly. "That was fast." Duh. "I tried using anger." "What are you angry about?" Jumping tigers. "I just feel angry." "Naturally?" No. "Kind of." "You're very gifted." How does feeling mad make me 'gifted'? "Thank you." "Let's try it again." I'd rather not. "Excellent." She kept snapping her fingers. The rocks kept shattering. Finally, she spoke again. "This is real-world capacity." Like I care. "What does that mean?" "It means you're dreaming, but you're using your powers as if you weren't." That makes a lot of sense. "You really think I can do it?" "Yes." Well, if an evil Sorceress has faith in you, you are sure not to fail. Not. The rock shattered. Easily. No effort whatsoever. Maybe I was kind of 'gifted'. But probably not in the best of ways. "Excellent." Salena's smile was so wide it looked as if her mouth was going to fall off. So not a good thing. "You'll wake up. Right. About. Now." My consciousness ebbed away. I woke up. In my bed. Savannah checked her clock right about then. She had twenty minutes to get to school. She grabbed her backpack, leapt across the hallway, and crashed into the garage. She grabbed her bike and opened the garage door, pedaling and using her mind powers to glide to school. Tara watched, smiling, as Savannah biked into school. The e-mail exchange that morning had gone perfectly. Perfectly. Tara was even more of a mastermind at human manipulation than most other Saushale, despite the super-long course at the training. Usually sessions like that were conducted face to face, or at least on the phone, but Tara didn't need to. It looked as if she had accomplished exactly what she had planned. Savannah felt marginal pity over how Tara and Kylie's friendship was 'falling apart'. At the same time she felt ostracized over Tara's obvious disapproval over her. She was reminded of how much of a social outcast she was. Determined to make it up. Excellent backgrounds for Friday. Friday. Tara couldn't wait. Feeling only slightly klazomaniacal (Tara couldn't tell whether that was Lynn Lang or not, but she still liked it anyway) she walked up to Savannah. Savannah was only slightly too busy to notice Tara standing perfectly still right next to the bike entrance. She'd brought her phone with her again, sitting right in the pocket of her dark jeans. Savannah locked up her bike and right up to Tara. "Good morning, Savannah." She said it smoothly and officially, her focus slightly to the side, sliding up and down. Savannah crossed her arms and glared slightly, in a don't-mess-with-me kind of way. The expression came naturally to her. "Like, hi." Sav. Tara smiled, half evil, half in recognition. Typical Lynn greeting. "What do you have first period?" Savannah adjusted her backpack. It was black, with small colorful stars patterned. She had it hanging on one shoulder. "PE. You?" "Language Arts. I have PE fifth period. What activity do you have?" "Soccer." "Volleyball." They were perfectly normal words, a perfectly normal conversation, but only in transcript. The words were delivered coldly and practiced, like cut ice. By both girls. Savannah took a deep breath. Tara had issues. That was a fact. Never argue with an idiot. Folks might not be able to tell the difference. It was a joke 'bit of wisdom' she'd found in some random book. She calmed herself. "Volleyball is fun. Too bad I came in late." The words were less like cut ice, more feeling, more emotion. Savannah mentally patted herself on the back and adjusted her stupid backpack again. "And we all know why." Tara was still cold. Hm. Probably not a stellar idea to bring up her stupid antics in the beginning of the year. "You didn't answer my last email this morning." She tried to make it sound more like a question than an accusation. She was only halfway successful. "I'm special like that." "You don't have to hate me, just because of what I did. People change. As of evidence in your aspect." "Didn't get that last sentence, sorry." Tara smirked. Stupid, stupid Lynn way of talking. Stupid sentences. Why couldn't she have said it the normal way? Tara did remind her of Lynn, though. They were so similar. In ways of talking and weird freakish episodes. Maybe Lynn was this cruel to other people. Savannah took another deep, calming breath. Freaking out, which would inevitably result in Tara slamming into the side of a building, was so the opposite of what she needed. Especially now. Few days ago, and Tara would have already done so. "You changed. Not necessarily for the better. Or worse," she tacked on as an afterthought. "Being forced to dye my stupid hair does not make me weird, freakish, or different. Especially as compared to you." "You're different in other ways. Even I can see that. I'm sure Kylie can tell many, many more." Savannah said it unaccusingly, which was only mildly remarkable. She had a slight smile on her face. "What would make you think that?" Tara's voice was especially cold and unforgiving. "You know what." The bell rang, and Tara and Savannah went different directions. Savannah dressed speedily, as always, and walked over to the soccer field. She was assigned defender, as was to be expected, and her anger was evident. She hadn't been able to act out right in front of Tara, but here was her chance. She didn't use her mind powers, but it looked like it. She ran toward the ball faster than anyone else, kicked it further than even the best players in the school. She was mad, and it felt much better to act out like this. The other team didn't stand a chance. By herself, she scored three goals. The rest of the team was stationed next to the goal, and they scored two goals that way. By the end of practice, Savannah was hot and exhausted, but congratulated several times. Slowly, people were starting to like her just the smallest bit more. Savannah rarely focused on Massie the way she used to, especially now that she had new friends. It was time to stop agonizing on the past and looking to the future. Or, at least, stop acting like a psycho maniac because of it. Tara walked to Language Arts almost as mad as Savannah. But, as all Saushale, she was pretty good at keeping her anger inside her, ready for the next use of the Telkin. It was really no wonder why she was getting the best scores out of all her classmates, here or otherwise. She had Ms Kaltalsky (Kow-tow-skeeee, she pronounced it) as a teacher, who was almost as eccentric as her name (only almost because it takes being a freaking giraffe as a teacher to surpass that kind of eccentricity). She rarely graded papers. She would ask that a huge amount of work be done, and only collected a quarter of it. She would spend entire class periods talking about random things, whether it was her dream the night before or the McDonalds commercial she had heard on the radio on the way to work. There were virtually no tests, and if there were they would be on the weirdest, most random things. They were usually either really long and hard, with weird questions not answerable in the slightest, or short and simple, with weird questions. On one, the question 'Draw your birthday' had been asked, and she had actually marked a couple people wrong for it. That's Ms Kaltalsky for you. Today, according to the report the day before (which was only correct about, oh, seven percent of the time) they were going to be working on grammar. More likely she would start to tell them what a noun was, give them a long worksheet on all the parts of speech and threaten a test. The sheet would never be collected and the test would never materialize. Tara sat down. Something about language arts always made her anger evaporate and humor set in. I'm sure that with proper motivation and enough time to think about it, you can figure out why. Anyway, Ms Kaltalsky was outside chatting with the teacher next door. It was Kylie's Language arts teacher; Stalworth. She was supposedly one of the best teachers there, actually teaching her kids and making them write a lot of essays. They also read a lot of books and stuff. Kaltalsky smiled at her as soon as the bell rang and she went inside. She clapped her hands. "The state requires that you learn about grammar, for what ever reason. Today we will discuss the parts of speech. Of course, all that fun material can be found right in that grammar handbook of yours. We have a test Friday, so make sure you study." As was to be expected, everyone in the class looked at each other and smirked. Kaltalsky went to her desk, where she went on her computer and searched the Net. She was fact-checking their last research report, on a country of their choice. Kaltalsky might not collect any day-to-day work, but she did assign a lot of annoying projects. Most kids in the class just talked with their neighbors, already knowing the parts of speech. A couple kids texted on their phones. A few more read books. Only about two kids were actually looking in the grammar book. Probably the paranoid ones, who were actually stupid enough to think there was a test on Friday. Tara pulled out her phone. Kylie, of course, would never even dare even have her phone on, but Tara was bored. No one would talk to her and she didn't have a book to read. So she texted Lynn. Tara: Hey Lynn. Lynn: why are you texting me? Tara: because I'm special like that. Lynn: Whatever. What class does Sav have this period? Tara: PE. Lynn: Oh. That's why she's not answering. Tara: I would imagine. What are you doing? Lynn: Sitting in science. Tara: Where? Lynn: Like I'd tell you, spy. Tara: I'm not a spy. Lynn: Yeah. Right. Tara: Moving on, what do you think of Sav? Lynn: She's nice. Tara: NICE? She's freaking psychotic! Lynn: Well duh she's going to be to you if you keep insulting her. Tara: That doesn't change the fact that she's psychotic. Lynn: That's pretty hypocritical, considering that you're under mind control of Sabrina's. Tara: I don't go around destroying things and hurting people, just because I feel like it and I can. Lynn: Yeah, but wouldn't you if Sabrina made you? Tara: No one's making her. Lynn: How do you think she got her mind powers without Sabrina? Tara: Alena. Lynn: Alena has vanished. Completely. Even Carmen can't find her. The mark's stopped working. Tara: I'm sure Sabrina would love to know that. Lynn: She does. Tara: Back to Sav. If she was being influenced by Sabrina, wouldn't she be Saushale now, sitting in boarding school learning just how to be a good little Saushale? Lynn: Sabrina probably gave her the mind powers, but she's not necessarily with mind control. Maybe it was a dream or something that just made a big impression on her. I don't know. Tara: Why are you defending her? Lynn: Because she's my friend. And I really don't like you anymore. Tara: Why? Lynn: Because you're back under Sabrina's power. And I really don't like Sabrina. Tara: well, duh. Lynn: Don't you have something better to do? Tara: I'm in language arts, with the worst teacher. Ever. Lynn: Talk to Sav. Tara: I only have 2nd period with her. Lynn: Shouldn't Sabrina have gotten you too in the same classes? Tara: Apparently she didn't. Bella's about to ring bye. Lynn: Bella? Where? No. You're lying. There's no Bella. Tara: Not Bella, BELL. Typed wrong letter. Hate cell phone keyboards. Lynn: Oh. Good. Tara: Or did I? Lynn didn't answer, so Tara assumed she had been annoyed by the small nonjoke. The bell rang. Tara swung her backpack onto one shoulder and walked to second period. Speech. Kylie walked from her own first period class to speech. Her backpack wasn't really a backpack at all; it was a modified shoulder-bag-esque. One of those oversize deals. You've seen them. She swung the bag. Tara hadn't been exactly psyched to be including Savannah in their weekly trip, but at least she wasn't being psycho about it. And Savannah had been okay. At least. She was used to checking her email in the morning because that was when Tara was usually on, and she had gotten Savannah's email. I wonder why she doesn't like being called Sav, she thought unfocusedly. Tara had the same thing going- she would get all explosionary whenever someone called her the wrong thing. Kylie finally arrived in Speech. Savannah was already there; she got around the building much faster than anyone else. Tara really liked being late for whatever reason, and probably wouldn't be there for another three or four minutes. "Hey, Savannah!" "Hey Kylie." Kylie sat down in her seat, dropping her bag beside her seat and turning to face Savannah. "What's wrong?" "Oh, just Tara. She hates me. She, like, refuses to accept that I've changed and I'm not, like, totally evil." Savannah struggled not to make her voice completely sad and pitiful. She hated unloading all her problems on other people. She kept her head up, twirling a piece of her silvery hair around one long, thin finger. Her nails were painted black. "Tara's pretty cold. Just don't get all touchy-feely on her and she'll come around. Eventually. Megan was the same way." "Megan never hangs out with you guys. And that was in fifth grade. Before she got all...weird." "Megan decided we were uncool before Tara did. And Tara was much, much colder back in fifth grade than she is now." "Whatever. When is the speech due again?" Savannah dropped her hair and pulled her planner out of her backpack. "The story one? We have to have a rough draft this Friday, I think, practice next Monday, and we start presentations Thursday." Savannah wrote all the dates down, flipping through the pages. "Got it." "Is the essay for Stalworth due today?" "Yeah. Did you finish?" "My printer went bye-bye." Savannah giggled. "Do you have it on flash drive?" "Like, yaw. What kind of idiot do you think I am?" "A very resourceful one. Just go down to the library at lunch and print it there." "I have Language arts next period." "Oh. She has a computer. Give it to her. Proof you did it, at least. Go to her before class and give it to her then, see if you can print it." "That'll go over well," Kylie muttered. "Where's Tara?" "She's always late. She thinks it's cool or something." "Oh. Have you decided what you're going to do your speech on?" Kylie nodded. "I read this cool book and I'm going to make an epilouge." "Sure it's allowed?" "She'll never know." "Good point." "What about you?" "I think I'm going to do something sarcastic about the origins of the Lynn Lang." "You? Sarcastic?" Savannah shrugged. "Lynn'll help me." "I have no idea who she is, but okay." "She's like the most sarcastic person, like, ever. Besides, she owes me." "For what?" "She understands nothing about cells. Like they're hard or something." Kylie began to answer, but Tara swept in. "Hey, Kylometer." "Like, hi, Taraster." "Hi, freak," Tara smirked at Savannah. "What-freaking-ever." Savannah rolled her eyes at Tara. "Great comeback." "You're acting like this is a freaking VSS." "What?" "Vital Support System. Duh." "Whatever." "Great comeback." Kylie laughed. "What's the deal with you and Sab lately?" "Who on earth is Sab?" Kylie and Savannah asked in unison. Sah-awb, for your information. "A ma-a-a-agical person from where the fairies roam and the unicorns graze." Tara rolled her eyes. "You don't know who Sab is?" she addressed Savannah. "What am I, psychic now?" "Sabrina." She pronounced Sabrina strangely, her tongue twisting around dozens of vowels crammed up next to each other, making it hard to hear and probably impossible to pronounce. "Never heard of her?" "Like, no." "How'd you get mind powers?" "Magic." "It was a dream," Kylie explained. "What about Lynn?" "Lynn never told me about Sab." Savannah said the last word super sarcastic and exaggerated. "What are you guys talking about?" Kylie asked, bewildered. "I'm not completely sure," Savannah answered, before Tara could. "Girls. I know you are simply so wrapped up in your little conversation as to pay attention to small, trivial things, like the bell, but class has started so I must most humbly break up the tea party," the teacher intervened. She managed to insert several well-placed sighs and exaggerations, just to make it as un-teacher-like as she possibly could. "That was a really long sentence to just say stop talking," Savannah observed. "You're already in enough trouble, and I would recommend you not push it further." "You and what army?" Tara threatened. Kylie rolled her eyes and Savannah gave a nearly inaudible sigh. "The army of detention. Both you and Savannah have it. If Kylie says one sarcastic thing like you two we can make it a class of three." "Lovely," Kylie remarked. "Perfect. Three's a lucky number. Now let us begin actual class." "Come on," Tara whined, staring intently at the teacher. "Fine. I'll forgive it this time. But, really, let's start class." "Now. I know all of you are just dying to work on those speeches, due day after tomorrow, I remind you, those one's you've been letting sit in the back of your mind. So I'm going to be really nice and let you have all of class time to work on it. If you've finished, and I see your rough draft, then you can do whatever. I'll even allow electronics- but only if you've finished. People who've finished may talk quietly, but until you've done it is not allowed." The Speech teacher retreated to the back of the room, sidewise to the class so she could still see what was going on. Savannah, Tara, Kylie, and most of the rest of the class put their heads to the paper, working. Savannah was a fast writer, able to get out ideas quickly. Rather than do the Lynn Lang, as she had told Kylie, she decided to explain instead the morning when she woke up with mind powers. Totally fake, of course. So I woke up, and pretty much the only thing registering in my mind was a silent "It was only a dream Only a dream Dream It was only a dream Only a dream Dream" I rolled over. "Weird dream though," I commented in my mind. Then I got up. And my dresser launched into the wall. This didn't shock me at all, because of course a dresser smashing into the wall itself is a totally normal and commonplace. I think I was still in dream mode or something because the only comment in my mind was a simple "Hm. That's a big mess." Because hello, my clothes had erupted all over my floor. I don't like messes and I made a mental note to clean it up later. I wonder if it was the dream or simply an overdose of Liz being annoying that, like, killed my brain or something. Both are credible theories. I walked over to my computer, as I do every morning, to check my state of affairs. And, the same as every morning, it was taking several thousand years for it to boot up. In a burst of anger, it rocketed itself across the room. It was as if that move had woken up my mind, because suddenly I was reminded that, hello, dressers and computers moving themselves with no apparent outside influence are like so the opposite of natural. I basically just stared at it for a very, very long time, until slowly the ending of my dream came back to me. Lynn, that is, me, hadn't died. She'd found the trapdoor. She'd gone down it and found... um... I couldn't remember anything past that. So I shrugged and started cleaning up, trying to remember. I put all my clothes back in my dresser and set it back up pushed off to the side, as it had been before. My computer had fallen on my mattress, and wasn't too in bad of shape. Except for that part where the entire backing was coming off. I re-attached the backing and set it up on my desk. The remainder of my dream came back to me. I'd seen someone down there. She'd looked weird, and claimed to be a Sorceress or something, fighting all these weird people with more weird people. Because, as you can see, I always have totally normal dreams where nothing out of the ordinary happens. Not. She'd forced something down my throat that had given me these...these powers. I'd thrown things at her. I couldn't remember why. She'd made me tell her these things, the total opposites of what I'd wanted to say. I only had blurred, dim memories of the place, I couldn't remember at all what the heck the person had looked like, just a vague assumption that she was female. I swallowed and walked out of my room carefully, having finished my cleaning. My stupid brother was sitting at the table, drinking orange juice. I remember this scene much, much more clearly than the dream. "Hey, give me some of that," I asked, sitting down. The carton was on the table, right next to his plate. He smirked. "I finished all of it. None left." "There was half a carton left." "You can never have too much orange juice." The point was disproved when the glass shoved itself and spilled all over him, a sticky, orange mess that stained his white and gray school uniform, the only one that wasn't soaking wet and covered in soap suds in the wash. He stared at me in horror. "The glass jumped out of my hand," he said slowly. "It literally jumped out of my hand. I couldn't hold it." It was then that I realized I had a real problem on my hands. Savannah dropped the pen she was holding dramatically. It smacked to her desk loudly. No one else had finished, and they glared at her enviously as she walked up to the teacher. She received a stamp on her copy, and an instruction to go to the back of the classroom. There were several empty seats there. She did so, and pulled out her phone as well. Savannah: like, hi. Lynn: hi. Savannah: What class are you in? Lynn: We're learning about all these gods and goddesses. It's a subsection, like mythology or something, but we all call it ology. Savannah: Cool. Lynn: Yeah, we learn about all the gods and stuff in one unit as part of the standards. Savannah: I'm in speech. I finished my speech super-quick so I got free time. Electronics allowed. Lynn: Lucky. What was your speech about? Savannah: day after I got mind powers. Sarcastic and psychotic, all in one package! Lynn: Lovely. Savannah: it is so lovely... Lynn: it's freaking unbelievable. Savannah: Totally Lynn: What's up with Tar lately? She texted me earlier. She's firmly cemented in her belief you are psychotic. Savannah: Tar? Lynn: Tara. I used to call her Tar, just to annoy her. Savannah: I see. Savannah: Anyway, she's insisting that I'm like the worst person ever. I keep trying to tell her I've changed, but she doesn't believe it. Lynn: Tara's pretty one-minded. She used to believe I was the meanest person in the history of the universe. I basically just proved I was cool, and she was my friend. Savannah: Was. Lynn: We had a falling-out. But it wasn't because of her. Savannah: How'd you prove you were cool? Lynn Lang? Lynn: obviously not. Mostly just every time she tried to insult me I made a joke of it. She's not the kind that quietly hates a person. Savannah: I know. Lynn: And I spent a lot of time with her. And if she tried to exclude me, I just stayed right in. Savannah: You know, these aren't exactly typical ways of making a friend. Lynn: Yeah. But Tara isn't really a typical person, either. Savannah: good. point. "Whatcha doin'?" Savannah jumped three feet at the sudden sound. The room had been deathly quiet and even Kylie's whispered voice was loud. "Texting." Savannah typed a quick g2g, not seeing whatever Lynn had sent her, and closed the phone. She would look at it later. She zipped open the small pocket of her backpack and dropped the phone in. "Can I see your speech? I want to see what you decided the origins of the Lynn Lang were." Savannah handed it to her. "I did something different instead. Like, if the speech I did for punishment was a dream, this is after she wakes up." "Lynn?" "Yeah." "Based on what happened to you?" "Some of it. like how out of control it was. And how I woke up that morning." Kylie started to read it, her blue eyes zipping across the page incredibly fast. Savannah let her read for a couple minutes, then ask-whispered, "Can I read yours?" Kylie rolled her eyes. "It's probably, like, the dumbest one ever, but yeah, you can read it." Savannah rolled her own eyes. "Is it about that magical place with the fairies and unicorns Tara is obsessed about?" Kylie laughed, quietly (obviously). "No. It's just this dumb monologue I adapted from the internet." "See, if I was as smart as you then I wouldn't have had to do all that work!" "More like adept at cheating." "Yeah. So what's it about?" "It's my version of this monologue called 'French Toast'." "About what, a baker?" "No, it's this girl who's friend wants to go to the dance but doesn't have a date, and her other friend wants a date with her friend... just read it." Tara came over then. "Hey, Sav." "You finished, Tar?" Savannah pronounced it tair. "Have you been talking to Lynn?" "No, I consulted my magical books that tell me exactly what to call people to annoy the crap out of them." "What else did she tell you?" "Who?" "Lynn, you baka!" "What the freak is a baka?" "It's Japanese. Just tell me." "Where did you learn Japanese?" "Yahoo translation. Now tell me." "Your acting almost as freaky as Lynn was when I called her Lynnette. What did you guys do, perpetually antagonize each other?" Tara snorted. "Close. We were friends." "That being a way to antagonize each other?" "Yes. What else did she tell you about me?" "That you were mean. And you didn't end your friendship with Lynn. Who did, though?" "Sabrina." She pronounced it in the tongue-twisting way that made no sense and was impossible to duplicate. "Who is Sabrina?" "A magical-" "Keep it down, please, or I'm going to ask you to separate," The teacher called to them. They were still the only ones done. "Who?" "A magical person from where the fairies roam-" "And the unicorns graze," Savannah and Kylie intoned together, cutting Tara off. She scowled. "You might have noticed that's not really much of a description," Savannah said after a momentary pause. Tara snorted and rolled her eyes. "Right, because it was really invented to make sure you knew all about a person." "That was more of a cue for you to tell us about her than to be sarcastic," Kylie answered. "Sabrina's just a person. With power. End of freaking story already." "Okay. Whatever. I'm going to go print this stupid thing," Kylie whispered after a couple seconds of silence. She pulled out her flash drive and brandished it. "Do either of you want to come with me?" Savannah stood up, but Tara mumbled something about not being able to miss passing period and stayed down. Savannah and Kylie walked up to the teacher. "I need to print this for my next class, and since I'm finished can I go to the library or something and do so?" "Yeah. Sure. Library." The teacher handed them a pass and the two walked out. They walked in silence for a while, until Kylie broke it about halfway through. "I wish Tara would go back to the person she used to be. She's so mean, and she never tells me why she changed, or even acknowledges that she did so." "I know." "It's annoying, but also more than that. It's obnoxious. And mean. I'm her best friend. She can't tell me who freaking Sabrina or Lynn or any of these people are?" "I don't know what the deal is with Sabrina, but Lynn-" Kylie waved her hand in the air. "I get it now. She's some random preteen that Tara used to be friends with and you are currently friends with, right? She's really annoying, and made up all these obnoxious expressions, right?" "Right." "Yeah. But, I mean, I asked her seven times who Lynn was, and she just kept saying she was a 'person'. Wow. Descriptive. And I feel like I can't even explain it all to everyone, because since Megan ditched us Tara is my only friend. And if I ask, like, my mom or my cousins or something, then they'll just tell me to ditch her and find another friend. Like she's a computer or something that can be just thrown away and replaced." They were at the door of the library, so Kylie stopped talking. They both walked in, and Kylie briefly explained the librarian what she wanted. Kylie walked over to an empty computer, printed the document, and walked out. Savannah followed her. "Are you, though?" "Am I what?" "Going to ditch her eventually?" "Maybe. I don't know." The bell rang halfway through their trek to their classroom, so the two ran back to Speech at a full sprint. They grabbed their backpacks, said goodbye, and headed off to their respective classrooms. Tara walked to History, her mind working several thousand miles a minute. As usual, she walked to her locker first, the completely opposite direction of the class. Inside her locker was a small bulb-like object that allowed instant access to Sabrina. Tara grabbed her binder for the class, and focused in. "What's up with Sav currently?" A brisk, metallic voice demanded. No one but Tara could hear it. "She and Kylie are becoming very good friends. This will definitely break her. But are you sure you can't let the hold strengthen for another week or so? Why must it be done this Friday?" "I don't want Kylie to have anything to hold onto, stupid. More and more Saushale have been breaking away lately, and I think it's because of friendships. I'm not risking anything." "Okay, whatever. But why don't you just let the hold strengthen, break Sav, let Sav see Kylie for a few weeks, when she's not good enough to go against you, and then bring her to the boarding school?" "Maybe. I'll confirm later, once I've had more time to think about it." "Do I get to go back after this?" "Duh. Where else would I put you, a cow farm?" "I wouldn't put it past you," Tara muttered. "Report after lunch. She's going to be there, right?" "Duh." She slammed the locker door shut and locked it. Sabrina demanded Tara talk to her after she spent time with Savannah, or at least any time that she knew. Tara noticed the empty hallways and ran, at full sprint, to science. Tara hated normal classes. They were boring and pointless, but she had to sit through them anyway. It would be too abnormal for someone to not spend any time in any school. Abnormal. She slid into her seat for Science barely a few seconds before the bell. The teacher whirled around at the bell, to begin instructing the class. "Time for a pop cell review," she said chirpily. Tara stifled a groan. She hated these stupid forum pop review things. Basically the teacher asked a question, and then called on a random person to answer it. Tara usually wasn't focusing on the lesson and missed something. Plus, she'd already covered cells like eight hundred times back at Saushale summer camp. Sabrina included a lot of complex science in her crash course type thingies. She stared at the blank wall, and focused hard. Her boredom and desperation came through and her Sabrina mind control disappeared, it's vise-like grip on her brain vanishing. For now. The teacher continued asking questions, picking the kids at random. Tara inched out her cell and typed in Sav's number. Tara: hello Savannah: Like, hi. Why are you texting me? Tara: What are you talking about? Whenever she overthrew her mind control, the details of whatever she had done were always fuzzy and unclear. She never remembered them without effort, and her brain, in it's confusion, had made something up. That was how Sabrina's mind control always worked, implanting an idea and letting the brain take care of the rest. Savannah: I thought you hated me again. Tara: ????????? She usually preferred to banish her escapades for 'later'. Savannah: You don't remember any of this morning? Tara: Oh. Savannah: Insightful. Tara: Sorry, I get kind of cranky Savannah: That seems more psychotically and randomly forgetting things by choice, as opposed to being 'cranky'. Tara: Um. Yeah. Psychotically cranky? Savannah: Yeah. Right. Totally believable. Tara: I'll say things I don't mean, and I'll act ways I don't intend. You, of all people, should get that. Savannah: This seems more multiple personality disorder than, say, changing ways. Savannah: though maybe I should get it. Lynn gets the same way. Tara: You said that in the email. Sometimes I'll, like, be influenced by my environment. Heavily. It's kind of a disorder. Kylie understands it. Savannah: What's it called? Tara: I haven't been diagnosed yet, genius. Savannah: Don't you think you would be, after your parents realize you're going through psycho personality changes at the flip of a hat? Tara: isn't it supposed to be 'at the drop of a hat'? Savannah: Yeah. But don't change the subject! Tara: My parents don't really care. There was a long pause after that. Actually, her parents didn't even remember they had ever had a daughter. Sabrina had implanted the idea as soon as she turned Saushale, and they had followed this whole ideal. Savannah: I kind of get what you mean. My parents are in Australia, and my aunt is only home for about six hours- sleeping -when she's not working. Tara: Why are they in Australia? Savannah: business trip. Tara: Or a break from you? Savannah: They left halfway through sixth grade. I wasn't that psychotic then. Tara: I see. Tara: changing the subject, what exactly does Lynn do? Savannah: she'll send me weird messages in the middle of the night about how much she hates me and then completely forget about it in the morning. Usually. Tara: Um. Yeah. Savannah: So how do you know her? Tara: we were friends in summer camp. Savannah: You went to summer camp? Why? Tara: because I'm special like that. Savannah: how did I know you were going to say that? Tara: you're special like that. Savannah: Right you are!!!! Tara: We all have our talents. Savannah: we're all special. Tara: it just takes a particular branch of people to acknowledge it. Savannah: A very annoying branch of people. Tara: That too. Savannah: So, you just get psycho in the morning? Tara: Yeah. It goes away if I focus, but it's harder to do so in the morning and night. Savannah: So, are you just cranky or saying what you really feel? Tara: I'm letting out how I really feel at the time. Cranky. Savannah: I see. How come you don’t call me Sav or Savvy? Tara: I know what it's like when people call you things you really don’t like. Tara: Plus, Lynn just tore out my aorta when I called her Lynnette. Savannah: Graphic. Tara: undeniably so. Savannah: So, do you hate me or not? Tara: Let's put it this way: I'm okay with you as long as you don't throw anything out the window. Savannah: I can live with that. Savannah: how come you didn't tell Kylie about Lynn or Sabrina? Tara: Lynn and Sabrina...they have issues. Savannah: So? Tara: it's complex. Savannah: Whatever. "Tara! Is that a cell phone I see!" her teacher called. Snap. Yes. She absolutely loved these pop quiz thingies. "No. It's an emperor penguin," Tara answered sarcastically. "Put it away and ANSWER THE QUESTION." Tara unzipped her backpack and dropped in her cell. "What might thy question be upon this fair day?" Tara asked mockingly, batting her eyes. Most of the kids struggled not to laugh. The teacher pulled her mouth into a stern frown. "What are mitochondria, and what do they share in common with the nucleus?" "Mitochondria are little thingies from the land of wonder that make energy for the cell." "And that's called...?" "It is so ATP, it's freaking unbelievable." Normally Tara didn't like to push her luck and non-getting-into-trouble-abilities, but after getting her mind control off she usually felt very, very sarcastic. "What does it share in common with the nucleus?" "It has its own DNA." "Why?" "Because it's special like that!" The teacher's mouth pulled down into a deep frown. "Does anyone know why?" The room was silent and still. "My magical psychic powers descended from the land of magic and wonder are telling me that we haven't actually covered that upon yet," Tara commented, breaking the silence and make the teacher look like she was about to spontaneously combust and throw her remains out the window. Maybe Sav could do it for her. The bell rang, and Tara was out of there in a flash. Almost literally. Hello, she is Saushale. Kylie walked into language arts feeling relieved. And scared. She'd just unloaded everything about her situation- Tara and her cousins and everything onto Sav. Who she not only barely knew but also had a distinct hobby of annihilation. Yeah. She was so comforted. She did like Ms Stalworth, though. She was nice. There was a basket on the small desk that Kylie dropped her essay into. It was three pages long, and Kylie had taken approximately forever to write it. She sat down at her desk and pulled out a blank sheet of paper. To doodle on. She drew random stars, circles, and triangles, trying to get them as perfect as possible. She'd only done one or two of each when Megan walked up. "Hi, Megan." "Yeah, hi." Kylie internally ground her teeth together. It was so annoying how Megan was always like that. Could she not begin at least one sentence with something other than 'yeah'? Kylie wondered if she used the word so much in her essay in addition. She internally giggled. "Did you finish the essay?" "Yeah. What did you pick for the theme?" "Diversity and neccesity of life. You?" "Yeah, same here. Did you mention the color?" "Duh." "Yeah. So, how has Tara been lately? You still hanging out with Sav?" "Tara's been acting bipolar, as usual. And yes, I have been hanging out with Savannah. She's nice.' "Yeah. She, like, killed her lock. Like fourteen times." "Like I care. She's changed. A lot. She's not psycho anymore." "Yeah, whatever. Is she still mad at Tara?" "No, Tara is mad at her." "Yeah, I'd imagine so. Why?" "It's part of the bipolar thing. Sometimes Tara likes her, sometimes it is the opposite." "Yeah, I thought I'd noticed that. It's too bad. My friends have been real bitches lately." "If you're thinking of hanging with us, then I think that you will not get far." "Yeah. Maybe. Why?" "Because Tara hates you now. Besides, why would you want to? Savannah's not going anywhere, and Tara just seems to get weirder and weirder as time goes on." "Yeah. I guess." She sounded all sad and downtrodden, and despite how pissed she had been and still was at Megan, she felt sorry for her. Kind of. "I'd be your friend. But Tara would probably make your life miserable." Megan snorted. "Yeah, I can easily see that." The bell rang and Megan went back to her seat. The teacher loudly clapped her hands. "As some of you noticed, you were not supposed to put your essays in the basket, it was for the period before. So come and get yours if you did, and we will proceed to the next activity." Kylie ran up with at least a quarter of the class and grabbed her essay. "I want all of you to share your ideas with a group, and discuss them, and then each group will decide on one theme and present it to the class. Note that this is not a chance to act like an animal, talk to your friends, or get loud. I'll pick the groups." Kylie was shoved into a group with Megan, Ashley, and Madison (Ashley and Madison were supposed to be the most popular girls in school. Making them the least interested in school.). This was totally going to be the most cooperative and hardworking group she possibly could have been shoved into. Ashley and Madison (who had the exact. Same. Schedule.) immediately turned away from Megan and Kylie and started talking about some Brian person. Megan kept trying to join in. Kylie gave a loud, large sigh, and decided to attempt to control the group. Like that was ever going to happen. "Okay. All of you. Cooperate. Now." They ignored her. "Focus, people!" No change. "I think that the story is about how Jonas needs a motorcycle, and Gabe wants to ride it." No change. "Or maybe it's about how a Utopian community is the most awesome thing ever, and Receivers are totally needed, and releasing is the best option. And Jonas ruined it." No change. Kylie gave an exaggerated sigh. "I think Brian is the ugliest person ever." They immediately turned to her. "Seriously? No way. You are mentally deficient if you think that!" Madison exclaimed. "Yeah Kylie, no way!" Megan, obviously. "You're just jealous," Ashley sneered with a conceited smile and tossed her golden blonde hair over her shoulder. "Good. That got your attention. Now, what do you think the theme is?" "How important it is to have all aspects of the environment. Duh," Ashley answered. "Color shows life," Megan suggested, frowning slightly. "But I like Ashley's better.” "A perfect society can never be put above life and memories," Madison offered. "I like Madison's best," Kylie admitted. "It's pretty much mine." "Mine is the best," Ashley argued. "That was what the whole Receiver thing was about, right?" "Yeah, but it was also about the releasing part, because that was why Jonas left. A perfect community is never going to be the best, because we are not all perfect, and the only way to be so is to kill people and squash out all differences. Including those in the environment. The color thing was probably a way to make everyone, and everything, look more similar," Kylie argued back. "I don't get it," Ashley replied, rolling her eyes in a bored way. "And I don't really care. Let's just go with mine. Megan agrees with me." "I get Kylie's version," Madison countered slowly, hoping not to annoy Ashley. "It encompasses all of ours. We could talk about all of our versions of the theme." "Okay. So what do we say?" Kylie asked encouragingly. "Make sure you say lots about my part. But beyond that, I don't really care," Ashley responded haughtily. "Me neither," Megan added, relieved. "I don't really like it either," Madison voiced quietly, her eyes on her desk. "But I'll help you if you want." Kylie shook her head. "I like to work things out myself." So Megan, Ashley, and Madison all discussed Brian enthusiastically and Kylie worked out the theme in her mind. When it came time to present, she basically just told the theme she had come up with herself (with, admittedly, some help from Sav. Sav was too smart.) They were the last group to present, and the bell rang about three seconds after she had finished. Kylie grabbed her backpack and ran to fourth period. Science. Lovely. Savannah's third period class was math, in which everyone (teacher, students, TA) were terrified of her. Even though it was kind of evil, Savannah preferred it that way. She could be excessively sarcastic and the teacher would never dare to call her on it. Everyone who knows the Lynn Lang's dream. Duh. Savannah had taken a summer class regarding the context, so she rarely paid attention. On this particular day, she pulled out her phone and texted. Savannah: hey Lynn Lynn: strict teacher talk 2 u l8r kay Savannah: kay She started to put it away when it vibrated. She opened it up and Tara's name was there. Why on earth was Tara texting her? Tara: Hey Savannah Savannah: why are you texting me? From there, the same conversation as above. Savannah: I can live with that. Clearly it was time for as new subject. What? Her mind fell on Kylie's conversation about Tara. Savannah: Why didn't you tell Kylie about Lynn or Sabrina? Maybe now that Tara was being nice, she would, like, tell her. Tara: Lynn and Sabrina...they have issues. Apparently not. Savannah: So? Tara: it's complex. Sigh. No point in continuing. She typed in a quick 'whatever' and shut off her phone. She paid semi-attention to the lesson (the operative word being semi), mostly staring at the wall wondering what on earth the deal was with Tara. She was very, very glad when the stupid bell rang, announcing the end of third period (she hated third period). Savannah shot out of her chair, her backpack slung on one shoulder. Passing period was, as always, a huge mess. The hallways were always crowded with about eight thousand middle school kids (not really, but it seemed so at times). But Savannah never had any trouble getting through. She walked over to her locker and pulled it open, shoving in her math stuff and pulling out her science binder. She slammed her locker door shut and continued on towards history. Her history teacher was, as always, terrified of her, as well as the kids. It passed quickly, being just a quiet session of working on these notes about Rome. Tara also had history fourth period, and the teacher there was as to Ms Kaltalsky as hot is to cold. In other words she was strict, regimented, demanding, and stuck to the standards like nanoglue. Tara, as you might have guessed, got her application in a little late. She stopped by her locker again, dumping her science crap and grabbing the history binder. It was only October and already she had the entire binder almost filled up. Her teacher was mean. Sabrina must have been busy (or else did not consider the stop top-priority), and because the history classroom was right next to her locker, she was actually early, a rare occurrence. There was another Saushale in the classroom, new, which started to stare suspiciously at Tara, but then lowered her head to the piece of paper on her desk. She looked normal at first (Saushale normal), but under closer look, Tara gasped internally. For one thing, she had the start of whites around the edge of her eyes (Saushale eyes were all black, no whites or distinguishable iris to other Saushale. To regular people that changes.). Her skin was slightly tanned. And her nose was almost straight or at least that was what it seemed like, from the viewpoint (crappy viewpoint) Tara had. Tara dropped her backpack beside her desk and the armload of history junk on top of it. The Saushale girl had her nose practically touching the piece of paper she was scribbling on, her desk next to Tara's. Tara craned her neck and saw that it was the worksheet that had been homework the night before. But that wasn't the point. "Hello," Tara "greeted". In typical Tara fashion, the word was cold and accusing. Even un-Saushale, Tara acted like one. Partly for cover. Partly because she was just special like that. The girl looked up at her (Tara was still standing, and she was very, very tall so the girl had to look up high). Now that Tara could see her face clearly, she noticed even more small differences. Her eyebrows had almost no arch (or, at least, it was nowhere nearly as defined as Saushale). She had a freckle near her right temple. Her ears stuck out more than normal (Saushale normal). "Tara?" The word was a question. Tara narrowed her eyes slightly. "Your name?" Tara prompted, raising her head slightly, in a haughty way. "Lena," she answered, seeming more like a reflex than anything. "But, uh, now that I'm Saushale it's Lana," she added uncertainly, bending her head back to the paper. Tara, looking again, saw that she was finished. Probably trying to hide her face, by the looks of it. "You're new at the transformation?' She purposefully made her voice sound understanding and semi-compassionate. "Um…yeah." Tara smiled to herself. She'd caught the girl. "It's kind of unnerving," Lana added as explanation. "Then what's with your face?" Tara raised one eyebrow and tilted her head up, looking even more startling and angry than normal. "Uhhh…" the girl began, but the bell rang, a sharp, unsatisfactory note, and the teacher appeared out of nowhere. "Tara, you're tardy. You must be sitting in your seat to not be counted so." Tara narrowed her eyes. "But I'll let it go this time. Now, we have lots to work on today. Remember your presentations?" The class gave a collected groan. Tara did not join in. She actually liked the powerpoint she had done. Her partner had strep throat, so she got to do it all by herself. Tara was glad Lizzie was absent for more than one reason; for some otherwordly rationale, she actually liked Savannah. Strangely. "Tara, because Lizzie is still absent, you will work with the new girl, Lena." "Lana," she corrected. Whether she was correcting the teacher because of the actual transformation or trying to prove the effects to Tara, Tara couldn't tell. Probably the latter. "Complete the finishing touches with your groups," she instructed. "Don't be loud." She proceeded to stand in front of the classroom, watching steadily and suspiciously for any rambunctious behavior. "I just came to this sch- assignment, so I don't really get what's going on," Lana admitted, far from the rest of the class way in a corner. "Just read off the slides and try not to look idiotic," Tara instructed carelessly, rolling her eyes. Her flashdrive, with the presentation on it, was on a keychain that Tara spun around her finger relentlessly. "Um. Okay." "So, what is the deal with your face?" "I don't know," she replied miserably. Tara remembered her conversation with Sabrina, and gained a flash of insight. "Who was your best friend when you were human?" Lana answered surprisingly readily, almost eagerly. Almost. "This girl named Morgan. She went to a different school. I'm actually from this area." "Surprising Sab would send you somewhere so close to your friend if you're deviating so much you don’t look completely Saushale anymore." Tara raised both her eyebrows and shook her head slightly, looking both mockingly pitiful and haughty at the same time. "Surprising she would send you," Lana shot back desperately and miserably. It was clear she was feeling bad about whatever situation she was in. Even cold Tara, colder even more because of her Saushaleness, felt bad. Kinda. "Why are you so upset?" Tara asked, trying not to act like she was taking pity and more angry/not really curious. Her tone of voice ended up accusing, and haughtily confused as to why anyone wouldn’t want to be Saushale. "Well, I do have an insane Sorceress mad at me because her stupid mind control isn't keeping me a robot!" she almost screamed. "That's kind of the thing that would keep you up at night, I'm correct?" "Correct." "And I don't know how to reverse it. I can't just not have the mind control off." "That sounds more like you have hypnosis, at least to some degree, as opposed to having a best friend." "Not good enough to fix anyone else?" She sounded semi-hopeful. "I don't know. I'm not exactly psychic, you know. Look it up." "It's not like I can access the files." "You can't?" Tara was surprised. The whole network was supposed to be open to Saushale. All of it. "Sab doesn't trust me. She's seen me. I've gotten a couple treatments, and still it's not working. It gets unraveled. Every time. It'll be on for a while, but vanishes after a couple days. The longest it's been on is, like, a week." The words came out in a frantic, desperate rush. "That's pretty talented," Tara complimented, semi-awed. She was considered talented, and it was still only off half the time. Lynn was supposed to be the best, and it took her a month (and a lot of Carmen) to get her re-treatment off. "You think?" "You definitely have something." "I want Tara and Lena-" the teacher started. "Lana," Lana interrupted. The teacher frowned. "They will go first." The teacher gave a smile of triumph. Or something. Tara, with a superhuman effort, managed not to roll her eyes. Lana just looked nervous. She was so un-Saushale. Tara handed the flash drive to the teacher, who promptly set it up on the projector. Lana just stood in front of the class, looking anxious. "This is Rome," Tara announced, half with grandeur, half with sarcasm, as the presentation started. The first slide had a map of Rome just before it fell, hence the line. "Um, yeah," Lana seconded. "Okay. Rome was, like, downgraded in two stages." Tara walked up and down between two rows of desks, a controller in hand. "The first was where they were weakened. Then a bunch of barbarians came in and conquered it, as the second stage," Lana began, reading off the explanation jerkily, unsteadily, and without inflection, pausing between each word. You know, the worst readers, the ones you pray don't get reading assignments in your classes. Tara hit the button for the next slide. "Because there was two halves of the gargantuan empire, the eastern half lived on as one advanced empire and the other half became a bunch of tiny, crappy little kingdoms. But that's the next unit," Tara explained for the next slide. Tara and Lana continued on with their presentation, which was, as you might have previously guessed, was on the downfall of Rome. Once they were done, four other groups continued. The other groups were made up of three people, and by the end only one group needed to continue. "See you tomorrow," Tara called out to Lana, perfectly enunciated of course, as she was walking out. "Yeah. You too," Lana answered back, unenthusiastically. Kylie's fourth period science class was probably her least favorite. She had the same teacher as Tara, who was simply in love with assigning a bunch of homework and then asking random people questions about it for the whole period the next day. Which was fun for smart people that remember everything (like Savannah). But Kylie was not one of those people. She dropped in her seat, her bag making a loud clunking sound on the hard linoleum floors. At least it's almost lunch, she consoled herself. Savannah and Tara seemed to have completely forgotten the truce they had made the day before. Or maybe Tara was just getting weirder and separating herself from everyone. Including her best friend. Kylie gave a frustrated sigh. Her frustration wasn't only from friends, obviously. Kylie was always worried about things like her grades and her stupid cousins. But Tara and Savannah's behavior was so weird it was almost surreal. It stood out in her mind, not even seeming to be part of the normal world. Or maybe I'm just going insane and I'm unconsciously surprised they haven't noticed, she thought sourly. There did seem to be something weird going on with Tara, more than her just growing away from Kylie. Like she was hypnotized. Yeah. And there is also a goddess controlling it, looking down on our universe and screwing it up. She snorted to herself. The bell finally rang, giving an end to her stupid musing. She hated torturing herself that way. "Guess what?" the teacher announced as soon as the bell rang and class started. She clapped her hands in mock excitement. "Oral quiz," Kylie called out. She shook her dark blonde hair back. "Please no calling out, Kylie. But yes, that is correct. And we get it on all of the reading we did last night! Excited?" It was really no wonder Tara was always texting through this class. "We'll start with our lovely friend Kylie. What organelle makes proteins, and why is it in all cells?" "The organelle is ribosome." Pretty much the entire homework the night before was writing down the different organelles and their jobs in a cell, over and over and over again, hence the reason she remembered it. But the next one was trickier. "And, uh, all cells need protein." "Why?" "Why what?" "Why do all cells need proteins?" There was a long pause as Kylie tried to remember. "Because they're special like that," she finally answered, having no clue. "One more comment, and you are sentenced to detention." "Okay. Don't they need protein because they are, like, the fundamentals of stuff? What makes it?" She still had no idea, so she was trying to make educated, semi-reasonable guesses. Semi. "I don't believe we covered it, I'm sorry. We'll move on." That was another annoying thing about that teacher. She was always forgetting what they had and hadn't covered. Kylie knew she wouldn't be called on for a while, so she started to daydream again. Savannah. Something was obviously up with her. The whole throwing-things-out-windows-without-touching-them was proof enough. But what was wrong? What was different? What was so special about her? She had been different before. Smarter, prettier, wittier, and less caring than anyone else. Not caring less about people, less about appearances. Status. Having tons of friends, no matter what. Though, apparently, she cared more than anyone else thought. But what about what she had said? Savannah had said she hadn't been that angry at Massie, if it was only about as equal as being mad that a computer wouldn't load fast enough. Maybe Savannah had just been a little upset, and whatever was up with her had made her like that. Kylie was just plain confused, pretty much. Tara. Kylie knew, somehow, that if she could figure out who Sabrina was that she would know why Tara had suddenly turned psycho over the summer. Tara wouldn't tell her, obviously. Who would? Savannah knew nothing. Megan knew nothing. The internet? Maybe. But she didn't have a last name. There would be thousands of entries with nothing useful. The summer camp. What had it been called? She'd ask Tara about it. Almost twenty minutes had passed and the teacher called on her again. "And now we shall ask our beautific acquaintance Kylie to explain to us the job of mitochondria." "It creates energy for the cell." Kylie was deadpan. "Correct. What is the energy called?" "ATP." She still carried no expression. "Correct. Now, do plant cells have mitochondria?" "Yes." Deadpan. "Correct. What other organelle do they have related to energy?" "Ummm…chloroplasts?" She hadn’t known the answer outright and because of it lost her deadpan-ness. "Correct. Why do plant cells have both?" "Chloroplasts create glucose. Mitochondria break it down." She went back to deadpan. "Correct." They continued for another few minutes. Kylie actually listened, deciding to try and keep up with the program this quarter. "The bell is about to ring, so make sure you read the next lesson. We're going to do an activity on it." "What do you want to bet that activity is going to be an oral quiz?" someone asked her sarcastically. Brian, the boy that those stupid girls had been discussing the period before "My inheritance." Kylie was sarcastic right back. "Which is how much?" Kylie grabbed her backpack from under her desk, simultaneously rolling her eyes. This is an acquired talent, as you should know. Finally. Lunch. Savannah's backpack was on one shoulder as she slowly walked across the campus to the tables. She had no idea how Tara was going to act- cold, cruel, and unforgiving, or warm, semi-friendly, and only slightly guarded. She was really hoping for the second. "Mind control it slips off of me though I don’t know how I'm gonna be," she hummed. The lyrics were hard to catch on almost all of the songs, and she only knew a few lines to each. The ones she had collected were probably wrong, but she still hummed them anyway. She finally reached Kylie and Tara's table, and dropped her bag on the bench beside her. Tara wasn't smiling, but she didn't seem too unfriendly, either. Kylie gave her a quick grin, then dropped it and opened up a small Tupperware of mac 'n' cheese. Tara had an apple, a large sandwich, a huge bottle of lemonade, a package of cookies, and a small bag of popcorn. None of it was eaten or even opened. Typical. Savannah had an apple, but nothing else. She didn't eat much. "I hate third period," Kylie said as an opener after a couple minutes of silence, the only sounds Savannah crunching into her apple and Kylie accidentally dropping mac’n’cheese on the ground a couple times. "Why?" Savannah asked. Tara stared at her apple. "There is this group of moronic girls that never do any work," Kylie complained. "I had to work with Ashley and Madison, and they just talked about Brian the entire period." "Who was the fourth?" Savannah asked. "How did you know?" Savannah shrugged. "Stalworth always makes groups of four." "Oh. It was…Megan." Kylie looked over at Tara, who had flinched at the name, but still said nothing. She was still staring at the apple. "Who's Megan?" "Tara and I used to be a group of three. Megan was the third. But she decided to not be friends with us anymore. She regrets it now, according to what she told me, but she knows Tara would freak if she started hanging with us again." She waited for Tara to lift her head, look excessively haughty, and agree, but she was silent and still. The apple Tara was staring at rolled off the table, onto the ground, and away from them, over to another table. Fast. "Uneven table," she said, shrugging. One of the girls at the table that the apple had rolled to turned to give Savannah a dirty look. She had frizzy brown hair and almond-shaped light blue-green eyes. Prominent cheekbones. Massie. Massie picked up the apple and threw it in the trash, then resumed conversation with Jamie. Savannah could tell it was Jamie because of her honey blonde hair and freakishly thin figure. And the ultra short shorts, which no sane person would be wearing in Oregon in October. Savannah took a deep, calming, distracting breath, and turned back to Kylie. Tara looked as if she had done the same. "You have history fourth period, right?" Savannah asked Tara. "Yeah. Duh. But we have different teachers." "Oh. What did you do?" "Presentations." The memory rolled through Tara: giving her a headache and her stomach full of butterflies (It hadn't been full of much else lately. Chemicals could be hidden in anything. Luckily, Saushale could get nutrition from air or others). She'd been trying to forget the bizarre session. Especially the girl. The girl… The feeling returned. Deep breaths, she told herself. Deep breath. Calm. Very, very calm. Her mind control had been wacky ever since she'd gotten out of there, and unfortunately that meant that the rest of her had been off-kilter in addition. Savannah and Kylie were staring at her strangely, and Tara fought to get her mind on the present. "Um, are you okay?" Savannah asked, sounding like Lynn only slightly. Thank god. Lynn Lang was so the opposite of what she needed. "Yeah. Fine. Totally," Tara answered, slightly panting as she fought for control. "Are you being sarcastic?" Kylie asked warily. "No. Um, I have to go to my locker." "'Okay," Kylie answered, still watching her. Tara didn't go to her locker. Instead, she walked over to where Lana was sitting on a bench. Alone. "Hey Lana," Tara called out. Her headache, nausea, and everything else vanished. "Tara? What?" "What's your email?" "Le ana hypno. Then the regular email. You?" "Tara tair cool. Then the regular." "Um, I think you should probably use my alternative email, actually. It's amberelix. Gmail. What's yours?" "I don’t have an alternative." "Oh. Get one." "Okay. How about click the switch? Gmail, obviously." "Great." Lana smiled. "I'll try it." Tara walked back to Kylie's table and sat back down, feeling slightly better. "What do you have third period?" Tara asked Savannah. "Math." "Easy?" "So easy I could text right through it!" Tara giggled. Kylie looked confused. "So, did you win in volleyball yesterday?" Tara asked Kylie. "Without even trying. You?" "We actually won. I think Amy fainted." Kylie laughed quietly. "Amy is the best. She's really mad about being put on such a crap team," Tara rushed to explain for Savannah. Savannah also laughed. "I hate soccer, but I'm actually better at it than I thought." "What position are you best at?" "Defender." "Do you use the Tel- I mean, your mind powers?" Tara asked. "No. But the field is really small." "So?" "Well, that makes it much easier to score goals." Savannah really regretted mentioning that now. She had assumed someone had told Tara about her natural ability. Savannah really hated mentioning accomplishments. "As defender," Tara responded incredously. "It's a really small field," Savannah repeated. "You're lying." "Ask some kids on my team." And finish the conversation already, she added silently. "Who?" "I think there's a girl named Jessica Albot." "Moving on," Kylie said. "I liked your speech a lot," Kylie told Savannah. "But did you really throw your computer across the room?" "Yes." Sav spoke the word through her teeth, as it was clearly not her favorite subject. "Just because it wouldn't load?" Savannah shrugged. "I was on short circuit, I suppose. The slightest things would set things off. Like I keep saying, I'm wasn't exactly intentionally trying to kill people here." She waited for Tara to say 'though the evidence suggests to the contrary', or something along the lines of that. She was silent. "Oh. What did you think of mine?" "I didn't get much of a chance to look at it, sorry. What was it about?" "Just this sarcastic girl who has this spell on her so she trips over and over again, and like her remarks to her teachers and stuff." "Cool," Savannah replied, and she sounded like she actually cared, which Kylie appreciated. "Yeah." Kylie remembered her mental note earlier. "Tara, what was that camp you went to over the summer?" "It was called Flowers. Flowers summer camp for girls. Why?" There was a pause as Kylie tried to think of a reason that didn't have to do with the fact that she thought Tara was a freak, in which (naturally) the bell rang. All three grabbed their backpacks and headed off in separate directions. Silently. Savannah's fifth period class passed smoothly, but sixth period was a little rougher. Namely because of Massie and Jamie, obviously. Savannah walked in the door, early as usual, because the place where she sat was right next to the room. She dropped her backpack beside her desk and walked over to the wall, where her teacher displayed everyone's scores every week (with ID numbers, obviously). She was walking back when Massie showed up. "Hey, Sav. What was with the apple?" Savannah searched her mind to figure out what the heck she was talking about. "Oh, at lunch you mean?" "No, that one you threw at us last year. Of course at lunch!" Massie recrossed her arms and narrowed her eyes into slits. "Why are you getting mad about that? It was just that the table was uneven. And anyway, it's just a stupid apple." Jamie walked in and stood next to Massie. "Why'd you throw it at us?" Jamie asked. "I didn't exactly throw it at you. It rolled off the freaking table." "Why us?" "Did you ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe you're overreacting a little?" Massie took a step forward. "Not at all." "Okay then. How about that I might overreact a lot?" Massie looked slightly startled. "You wouldn't dare." "Now isn’t exactly the best time to get hypothetical, now is it?" Savannah walked back over to her desk and sat down. She smirked at Massie and Jamie, seconds before the bell rang. "Massie, Jamie, this is the fourth time in a row that you have been out of your seat when the bell rang," the teacher said as she walked over to her desk across the room. "I'm afraid that this time you will be marked tardy." "What-" "That's not-" "Just sit down already.” The teacher marked something on the attendance and hung t on the door. Massie and Jamie looked mad. “So. Today I want you to go to page 72 in your study assistance workbook and complete the entire chapter. This is homework if you do not finish it, I warn you, so make sure that it is done. Yu must be quiet for the first twenty minutes but if you are so then you can talk for the remainder of the period.” Savannah pulled out the pages before working on them. The room was silent as a tomb, excellent environment for working and focusing. Focusing… She’d started to kind of miss her mind powers. She’d stopped using them for obvious reasons,, but now she wished violently that she could use them again. Her backpack started to unzip quietly as Savannah continued to work feverishly on her workbook. A pencil lifted itself out and landed on her chair before clattering to the floor loudly. Savannah mentally reprimanded herself and reached down to pick it up. The pencil flew up about an inch into her hand, at which point Savannah slipped it back in her backpack. After another few minutes, the teacher announced that talking was officially allowed. Jamie immediately leaned over (she and Massie sat next to each other, right next to Savannah). “What’s the answer to number four?” “Endoplasmic reticulum.” Savannah did the same thing she had yesterday, i.e. giving her all the wrong answers. Savannah smiled as soon as Jamie turned in her sheet. Having a reputation for being exceedingly smart could be very, very fun. Of course, that was when they got their sheets back and Savannah had gotten all of them right and Jamie none. “Hey,” she said accusingly. “How come I missed all of them and you didn’t?” “Because you’re not very smart.” Savannah clipped the paper in her binder and put it away. “You lied to me.” Jamie looked at Savannah, who shrugged nonchalantly and continued working on the worksheet. “Why?” Jamie asked. “Because I’m special like that!” Savannah snapped. She stapled the worksheets and wrote her name at the top, then turned it in and pulled out a book. She’d finished Uglies and was now reading Fantastic Voyage 2: Destination: Brain. "Unfair," Jamie muttered. She whispered something to Massie, who was also finished. They both glared at Savannah. Savannah rolled her eyes and continued reading. After about fifteen minutes of that, the bell finally rang. Savannah grabbed her backpack and hightailed it out of there, then home. Kylie walked home slowly. The afternoon had been typical and quiet, Kylie saying little, drawn into the same routines she had kept since the beginning of the year. She made a mental list of what to do. She would probably finish most of her homework and email Tara and Savannah a bit, then practice volleyball for twenty or thirty minutes. She had practices on Wednesdays and Fridays and games on Sundays in her league, and she liked to practice often. She got home quickly enough and let herself in. Her baby sister was at a nanny's house for most of the afternoon, until her mom came home at four or five-ish. Kylie walked down the hall to her room, perfectly clean as always, and dropped her backpack onto her bed. She walked into the adjacent room, which had her mom's computer, the computers her dad was currently fixing, and an old, chunky laptop set up for herself. The room was all divided up with those cheapo dividers you can buy at Target or Ikea. The computer took about half a century to boot up (of course), but when it did she immediately clicked on her email. There were five messages. She clicked on the first. It was the one from Savannah about going with her and Tara to the ice cream shop. Kylie looked at the date-time stamp. Apparently the message had been sent at five twenty in the morning. What the heck was Savannah doing online at five in the morning? She thought to herself. To: Savvy54321@gmail.com From: kylienuts@gmail.com Date: 10/16/08 Subject: Ted's Ice Cream Great! I was really hoping you could come. I really hope Tara isn't being a total bitch about it. She's been cold since Megan. By the way. Did Lynn go to that summer camp? What's her email? Kylie then searched for 'Flower's Summer Camp For Girls'. Seven hundred, thirty six thusand entries. Only one actually called the name. She clicked on it. Password? It asked. Kylie stared at it, bewildered, and typed in her google password. Incorrect! Under the password request, however, was a link. 'Regular site', it stated. Kylie clicked on it. There was a note from her computer, however. Explanation: The IP address for the website you requested could not be found. Error Code 11001: Host not found (.ssw) Background: This error indicates that the gateway could not find the IP address of the website you are trying to access. This is usually due to a DNS-related error. Server: [last name].computer_room Source: DNS error Ssw. That was the ending thingy of Tara's email address. What the inferno? There was an email from Sav, though, that interrupted her musing before it could go too far. Savannah: Hey kylie. Why are you online so fast? She did have gmail, so Kylie clicked 'reply by chat'. Kylie: I live really close to the school. Savannah: Oh. Kylie: Do you know anything about Flowers? Savannah: Ummm...no comment.... Kylie: ??? Kylie: Oh! I mean the summer camp that Tara went to. Savannah: Oh. That was really the wrong name for a summer camp. Kylie: totally. But what do you know? Savannah: I think Lynn mentioned it once. She went there with her friends. Kylie: Can you ask her about it? Savannah: Totally. But why do you want to know? Kylie: I want to know what the deal is with Tara. I know Sabrina and the summer camp are important. Savannah: Okay, I'll ask Lynn about both. Kylie: You think Lynn knows something about Sabrina? Savannah: If she doesn't, "Carmen" probably will. Kylie: who's Carmen? Savannah: did you see the quotes? Savannah had just skidded home on her bike, going way faster than any other eleven year old could. She wondered about Kylie's weird request. Why did she want to know about this dumb summer camp so badly? There didn't seem to be that much up with Tara, to her- she'd always been cold and cruel. Sounded more like someone evil had impressed upon her than 'Sabrina'. Regardless, however, she hit 'Chat' as soon as Lynn's green dot showed up. Savannah: Hi Lynn Lynn: Like, hi Savvy! Lynn: I mean Savannah. Savannah: * rolls eyes * Lynn: if all you're going to do is roll your eyes, can I call you Savvy? Savannah: NO!!!!! Lynn: Psycho much? Savannah: it's a pastime. Awesome hobby. Savannah: seriously though, what do you know about flowers? Lynn: Flowers? You seriously want me to talk about flowers? Is this a report or something? Savannah: Sorry, that was supposed to be capitalized. Lynn: okay... So? Savannah: The summer camp you went to. Lynn: Oh. Why do you want to know about it? Savannah: because Big Bird ordered me to and he's my leader. Just tell me. Lynn: ooh! That's cool! I'm going to tell Carmen about that one! Savannah: if you won't tell me about the summer camp, tell me about Sabrina. Lynn: How do you know about Sabrina? How????????? Savannah: I'm psychic. Who is she? Lynn: Trust me. You DON'T want to know about Sabrina. Savannah: Why? Savannah: AND DON'T ANSWER 'BECAUSE I'M SPECIAL LIKE THAT!!!' Lynn: she's special like that. Savannah: You are the most infuriating person ever. Lynn: Thanks ! Savannah: Who. Is. Sabrina. Lynn: Sabrina is smart. Savannah: And...? Lynn: I can't tell you anymore without you getting sucked in. She's already after you. If she finds this message, you will be dead. Or changed. Savannah: Changed into what? Lynn: Something different. Savannah: Duh. That's what 'changed' means. Lynn: Everything changes. Virtually no one can escape. Savannah: So is she like one of those mental freaks trying to take over the world? Lynn: Kind of... Savannah: She runs the summer camp, right? Tara changed there. That was where she got cold and bipolar. And her eyes changed. The cult. The cult is who she changes, right? And they are assembled at the summer camp. What's the website? Lynn: No! You've got it all wrong. Backwards. Lynn: And why do you want to know? Tara? Savannah: Kylie. Lynn: Kylie changed? No! No way! Savannah: Kylie asked me to ask you. Lynn: Now I really wish I hadn't asked. Lynn: okay. I'm going to delete this message. You delete it too, okay? And DON'T TELL KYLIE!!!! Get her to delete the message asking you to ask me about Sabrina and the summer camp, if there is one, and delete it yourself. Delete all the messages from me, okay? Permanently. Don't save them on your computer or anywhere else. Savannah: Why? Lynn: Just do it. Savannah: You're kind of paranoid, you know? This was why you were freaking out when I called you Lynnette, right? Lynn: Yeah. But I escaped the mind control, so I act totally normal. Now delete it NOW, okay? NOW!!!! Mind control? What the…? Lynn's dot went to 'Busy' and Savannah deleted the message with her, Kylie, and all of the other ones from Lynn, as she had requested. That name was still annoying. Sabrina. Itr sounded like it should be spelled Saabriinah, but her computer wouldn't let her, automatically changing it. Kylie: What did she say? Savannah: She freaked out. She said to delete the message you sent me before and this one. Kylie: Why? Savannah: I don't know, she wouldn't tell me. But Lynn's pretty smart. You should probably do it. Kylie: Eh. Maybe. Savannah: Oh. And she said that she's different, too. Kylie: So they both changed. They both went to the summer camp. They both know about Sabrina. And they both refuse to talk about it. Apparently that had been the wrong lie to tell. Savannah: I don't think Lynn actually knows Sabrina. Deep breath, Savvy. You have to lie. Lie. She can't put the two together. Kylie: Why did she freak out, then? Uhhhhhhhhhhh... Savannah: Carmen, remember? Carmen told her a lot. She actually had no idea where Carmen placed in this. Who was she, anyway? Kylie: oh. Did Carmen change? Had she? Savannah didn't even know. Savannah: Yes. But she didn't go to the summer camp. I think it's just a summer camp, Kylie. She was starting to get to the point where she was just making stuff up. She had keep to the truth somewhat or she'd never remember what she said. Kylie: then how come the address is part of the same section of the web- ssw –as Tara's email? Snap. What was she supposed to say now? All she could think of was a bunch of sarcasm, and she knew that wouldn't help matters much. Savannah: (Mental Ummmm) The person there set up their website on their computer, which has that code. Not. Kylie: How are you supposed to register? Magic. Just dust off those ole psychic powers. Savannah: The old fashioned way. It's out in the middle of no where and they don’t allow electronics. I don’t think they have any for general use. She remembered Lynn saying something about that too. She hoped. Kylie: If they don’t have any electronics, what's the point of the password protected site? Decoration. It was really annoying how she could think of a billion sarcastic answers, but no lies. Too much Lynn, probably. Savannah: she didn't tell me that much. Kylie: Oh. Whatever. Savannah: Does Tara really have some kind of mental disease that makes her act and think really differently? Kylie: not that I know of. But I wouldn't be surprised. She's been acting so weird lately. Savannah: Why are you still friends with her? Tara stepped out of school, fighting her newest major headache. She inwardly groaned. Sabrina's mind control so didn't like competition in ruling Tara's brain. Because that was what Lana was doing. She was a hypnotist and was trying to get rid of Tara's mind control. But Tara's mind control didn't like that, and it was giving her stomachaches, a foggy brain, and, most of all, headaches. I'd almost rather be a robot, she thought hazily. She went into the bathroom, pulled out the small technology Sabrina had given her, and "magically" appeared on the top floor of the Saushale building. She put it back in her pocket. After booting up her computer, she didn't really feel like doing anything, but she ignored that impulse. She searched on the ssw about hypnosis and headache information. She was granted with many answers, as is often the case with the ssw. Tara then set up her gmail account and sent an email to 'amberelix@gmail.com'. She still thought that was a weird email, but whatever. To: amberelix@gmail.com ` From: clicktheswitch@gmail.com Date: 10/16/08 2:34 pm Subject: I got the email As you can see, I got the alternative email. On a different note, I've been having headaches ever since fourth period. Do you know what's up? An invitation to chat showed up, at which Tara clicked 'Accept'. A chat showed up from Lana. Lena: hi. Did you get the chat thing? Tara: Yeah. Why does your thing say Lena? Lena: That's my name. Tara: ? Lena: well, that and I set up this account like two years ago. I never deleted it. So it still calls me Lena Kailweit. Tara: I thought your last name was Kallweit. Lena: I hit the wrong key. And now it will never, ever go away, I'm sure. Tara: there are ways to change it. Savannah did, hers used to be Savvy, I'm sure. I don’t know how, though. Lena: oh. I don’t care enough to change it to Lana or Kallweit. Tara: Okay. I beg indifference. Do you know what the deal is with the headaches? Lena: Let me guess: you think it's the hypnosis. Tara: I looked it up. If you don’t know what you're doing, it said there are 'serious side effects'. Hem hem. Lena: Yeah, whatever. It's just that there aren’t exactly a lot of resources telling you how to do it right, now are there? Tara: it's on the ssw. Lena: I'm sorry, but I'm not going to go searching on Sabrina's web section thingy. She only has so much patience. If she figures out what is up with me, I'm so dead. Literally. Tara: She wants full hypnosis. She's not going to kill you. Lena: she will if I'm more trouble than I'm worth. God. Why is she called the Merciful Sorceress? There's nothing even remotely merciful about her! Tara: Did you even go to the school? She's partly good, but evil always overtakes good, so since she's mostly evil she acts totally evil. She's called that because of the Sorceresses she took over, not her actions. Lena: Evil does not always win over good. Tara: not win. Overtake. Like the Telkin. It's not found by happiness and good. It's hatred and anger. Lena: So the Telkin is evil, regardless of how you use it? Tara: I'm not exactly the best to ask about moral issues. Even human, I was still supposedly totally evil. Lena: Really? Tara: Why is that so hard to believe? I was acting totally mean in 4th period, was I not? Lena: I thought that was just your Saushale-ness. Tara: Yeah. But I used to act like that all the time. Lena: Whatever. I beg indifference. What was the homework for history? Tara: We didn't have any. Lena: Oh. Good. Tara: Did you go to the boarding school? Lena: Yeah. For, like, a week. Tara: Are you still taking the classes? Lena: Yeah. I'm on an assignment, not on the run or anything. Tara: What assignment? Lena: Same as you. Tara: Why? I'm handling it fine! Lena: Yeah, they mostly just want me to make sure you don’t screw up horribly. Because of the whole hypnosis thing, you know? They figure if you fail, then I'll just fix it. But it's better if the event actually happens, so I'm just backup. Tara: Why isn’t she Saushale already? Lena: I don’t know. I think it has to do with her not being able manifest her talent completely as Saushale. That or she'd refusing to become Sauishale. Tara: Yeah, that makes sense. Lena: I gotta get off, there's only so much time I can spend online separate from the ssw. Tara: bye A chat showed up from kylie. Kylie: Who is Sabrina? Tara: A magical person from where the fairies roam and the unicorns graze. Kylie: Why is the website for your summer camp password protected? Tara: They didn't want anyone except for the people who went to the camp on the website. I don’t know why, they're just weird like that. They gave us the code when we went there. Kylie: and a computer to access the ssw site, right? I am so sure. Your explanation would be so much more believable if it matched up with Sav's. Tara: Savannah didn’t go to the camp. Kylie: Lynn did. Tara: If Lynn told Savannah anything, it was probably a lie. Kylie: What would make you say that? Kylie: And why won't you tell me anything? Tara: Why do you care so much? Kylie: What is your problem??? Tara: Sabrina would be an excellent example. Tara shut down her computer. Right now, she just wanted to get away. Be someone else, anyone else. Even Savannah. Ironic, is it not? A week ago, that would have been a real sacrifice. But now Savannah's taking over my best friend, she doesn't have headaches, she doesn’t have to teach someone hypnosis, she doesn't have mind control, she's not Saushale. She lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling. In short, I really hate my life. Savannah waited a couple minutes, with no response. Then, finally, Kylie answered. Kylie: I really have no idea. Savannah: She's your best friend! Kylie: Yeah. I guess. Savannah: Oh. Okay. I suppose I really shouldn’t be being really critical right now, judging by the fact I've known Tara for about three days. Or is it two? Yeah, I think two. Kylie: Good move. Sigh. I know I've been ultra-complainy lately. Sorry. Savannah: Eh. I'm not exactly one to criticize. I did totally freak out when my friend started acting weird. Kylie: Sigh. Savannah: Sorry. Seriously. Kylie: Yeah. Why don’t you talk to her? Savannah: Uhhh...Is that meant to be sarcastic or serious? Kylie: I really need to talk on the phone more. Okay, serious. Savannah: I'll try. I guess. Kylie: snap. She's not online anymore. Savannah: I though she was always online. Kylie: Eh. Not entirely. Savannah stared for a second as Kylie's button disappeared, back to gray. As if she had willed it, a message appeared from Tara. Gmail. Clicktheswitch@gmail.com. Where on earth did she come up with that? Tara inwardly groaned, still staring at the ceiling. She really, really didn’t feel like getting up and turning her computer. Signing into taratair. She wasn't Tara- with that horrid are sound. But she couldn’t go back to Taira. Life is just seriously unfair sometimes. But oftentimes, things must be done anyway. Things must be done, even if rather than do them you want to go throw something at the person who is making you do them. But, as you should know, this is really not advisable when that person is a psycho goddess who really doesn’t like you anyway. So she got up and turned onto her computer. She signed into taratair, but then into her clicky (as I will now refer to clicktheswitch) account. She typed in a message to Savannah, of all people, and hit send. Savannah knew Lynn. She had to know something. Something. Even if it was just how to be really sarcastic and make whoever was talking to you really regret the action, as Lynn was oh so apt to do. Savannah opened the message. To: savvy54321@gmail.com From: Clicktheswitch@gmail.com Date: 10/16/08 3:15 pm Subject: (no subject). They're so impersonal. Hello, Sav. Savvy. I wish to know why exactly you are so upset about being called such, and so therefore I shall call you such until given real reason to not do so. You can tell me- it shall be no stranger than anything I have heard before. On more important note, I wish to ask you what you know of Sabrina. Lynn must have told you something. You asked her. Knowing her, she probably had no inhibitions in telling you everything. Finally, what is her email again? I automatically delete all my stuff to save space, so I lost the message you sent me earlier. Please. I need to know all of this. It's essentialitiness. To: Clicktheswitch@gmail.com From: Savvy54321@gmail.com Date: 10/16/08 3:16 pm Subject: Re: (no subject). They're so impersonal. No. She received an invitation to chat from 'Tara'. She accepted. Tara: Why? Savannah: Why should I tell you any of it? What's my incentive to help you? Tara: What's your incentive not to do so? Do you need a reason to help someone if they ask for help? Savannah: Eh. I'm just special like that. Tara: God. You get more like Lynn every day. Savannah: you've known me for two days. Tara: Eh. You're not exactly hard to notice. Savannah: What are you, a stalker or something? Tara: Sigh. If Lynn didn’t even tell you that, then I suppose it's not really my job either. Savannah: She said she couldn’t tell me because I would get sucked in. What does that mean???????????????????????????????????? Tara: I'll tell you if you tell me why you don’t like to be called Sav or Savvy. Savannah: It was a dumb nickname. That Massie kinda made up. Tara: You were friends with Massie in fifth grade? Savannah: Yeah. Savannah: Now tell me why I can't know!! Tara: Did she explain Sabrina? Savannah: Apparently she's "kind of" trying to take over the world. Lynn went psycho over there being any connection from me to her, because of this alleged "Sabrina". Tara: Sigh. I suppose she's kind of right. I am so going to have to get that hypnosis on permanently soon before I go spill. I'm going to be offline for a while. Tara is now offline. Savannah: you said you would tell! Tara did not receive your message. Savannah: You SUCK! Tara did not receive your message. Tara immediately sent a message to Lana. Tara: Hey. Are you in one of the Saushale houses? Lena: Duh. I'm on an assignment, remember? Tara: Okay. Where? Lena: Next one over. To the right, I believe. Tara: Martin Luther King Jr street? Lena: Yeah. Tara: Kay. Meet you in the park right in front of it. Sav just spilled everything to me and I can't let it get to Sab. We need the hypnosis on right. Lena: I don’t know if I can... Tara: You can. Hypnosis works differently than the Telkin, rather than anger and fury you need self-assurance and calm. Lena: How do you know? Tara: ssw. General code. Lena: You really shouldn’t be doing that, but do you know how to do it right? Tara: Duh. Tara, out of habit, pulled out her small button, but then changed her mind. The park was only a block away. She'd "run". Which was really using the Telkin, but no observer would know that, now would they? Lana was already there when Tara showed up. "One quick point first." Tara held up a finger. "Should I call you Lana or Lena?" ` "My name is Lena. But due to not being able to tell if there are Saushale around or not, I think you'd better call me Lana." "Okay." "So, what exactly do I do?" "You have to focus. A calm, assured focus. You cannot get angry, or it gets messed up. I think." "You think?" Lana crossed her eyes and raised one eyebrow. She was much more confident since fourth period, Tara could see. "These are observations from hundreds of years ago. Unless, of course, you've noticed Ciel floatin around ready to instruct you exactly how to use her talent." "Um. No." "That's what I thought." "So is it like in movies, where I just have to stare at you and say what I want to happen?" "Normally, yes, or at least along the lines of that. But not when up against mind control. Otherwise the mind control is there and is activated to make me want to make it go away." "Oh." "Yeah." "So what do I have to do?" "Delete the mind control." "How? I mean, hello, obviously what I've been trying isn’t doing much, or am I mistaken?" "It's working. You just didn’t delete the mind control, you overrided it." "Hypnosis overrides mind control?" "Eh. Yeah. Mind control is just a bunch of chemicals. Science. Hypnosis is power. Magic. Something you are born with." "I didn’t have hypnosis before I became Saushale." "Yeah, you did. You just didn’t notice it." "So if I'm not Saushale anymore, I still have hypnosis?" "The Saushale transformation can only be undone by becoming a draggal. Unless you are really good with chemicals and want to go make one up yourself." "I could make Sabrina make one up." "No, hypnosis doesn’t work against goddesses, sorry." "Sabrina's a Sorceress." "Maybe. Some people, like Bella and Laura, who Sabrina would be contacting, say she's a goddess now." "Unless they're just screwing with you and totally making stuff up. Which I would so not put past them." "Yeah. Whatever. Let's begin." "God. That sounds so formal." "Totally. Too much Lynn, definetly." "Lynn? Do you know where she is?" "Er- no." "Oh. Do you think she's at the boarding school?" "She says she's in science during the period I text her, which could mean either the boarding school or a regular school." "What about after school?" "She's three hours ahead. By the time I get home its five thirty in the afternoon for her." "Oh. Okay." Lana suddenly stared. Her expression changed from curious to calm, resigned almost. She said nothing however. Randomly, however, Tara was thrown into a nearby bench, sitting position. She automatically looked up. Only two people used the Telkin like that. Two people who were always right next to each other. Two people who knew everything. Two people who were so powerful it was literally unbelievable sometimes. Two people who Tara so did not like. She groaned- Tipped her head back- Eyes closed- And said, in a normal volume- "Hello, Bella, and Laura." Lynn sat at her desk, staring at her screen. No. This was not possible. How could Savannah have possibly figured this out? Why did she want to? What made humans-people- whatever (were Saushale human? Could they still be considered one? Was Lynn human?) so freaking desperate to know? Desperate to know things that would only harm, not help them? Lynn had explained it. Lynn had made it very, very clear that Savannah could not know about Sabrina. But did Savannah pay attention? No. Of course not. Why on earth would Savannah ever take her advice, when Lynn obviously knew more about the situation? And Kylie. Great. Now Kylie, Savannah's friend, was going to go get herself killed, too. This was just a lovely picture. Savannah was to be found and turned, helping Sabrina, Kylie would probably be killed- her hold on Savannah was too strong. Tara or Lynn would be turned into a draggal for telling. The whole problem would be eliminated. The story would be shoved into a corner of the Saushale web, and no one would ever care. Saushale didn’t care when their friends were killed. Sabrina had made them so. Friendship was weakness, especially if you had to go kill your friend. Hence the tests. She had to fix this. Somehow. Sabrina was watching her like... well, a psycho Sorceress intent on watching someone to make sure they don’t hurt her precious system. Which was exactly what she was. The email was only a start; there were probably videos of the message. And god only knew what else Sabrina had installed. God only knew. How fitting. It brought Lynn's mind to the exact topic she really, really didn’t want to think about. Goddesses. There were rumors that Sabrina was a goddess now, no longer confined by only being able to command so much power or so much mind control. No limitations. Sorceresses might be able to run, and therefore hard to get rid of, but at least they were limited. Sabrina could only go so far as Sorceress. Not anymore. Very, very cheery. Ah, the easy life. Don’t we all just wish violently that we could be in these oh-so-fun situations? And the really sad thing was that people used to, in fact, wish they had Lynn's luck. She was smart and pretty and had tons of friends, clothes, and electronics. Then she got to be locked in an eternal struggle between her and an evil Sorceress-goddess, whatever. Fun. She sternly told herself to stop wallowing, and promised herself she would stop thinking about it, a promise she broke right on time about three seconds later. She took a deep breath. There was only one solution to this (if there even was one). Stop thinking like that, she instructed herself. You'll never get anywhere thinking like that. Mind control. Hypnosis. Take Sav off Sab's radar before she even realized she knew. Starting, like, now. Savannah watched her computer screen as well, waiting for Tara to come back online and tell her what the freak she was talking about. She waited about two minutes doing that before that got boring. So she switched back over to her story. To wait. Which would probably end up being about all night, but that's Tara for you. As with every morning, when I woke up I didn’t actually open my eyes for a few minutes. I kept them closed in the hopes of more sleep. This wouldn’t make much sense for people who don’t wake up like I do, aka five in the morning, but it is really not fun to wake up at five in the morning unless you actually have something to do. Which I, especially since it is in the beginning of school and there is approximately no homework, don't. Mostly what I do during this time is think about my dream. But I really didn’t want to do that this morning, so I got up instead and pulled on my clothes. I slid over to the section of my room with the computer in it (I have this really slippery hardwood floor so I like to slide around in my socks in the morning). The computer was taking forever to load. I was mad about this. I sat in my desk, getting madder and madder. And my dresser decided "Hey! You know what? I'm bored with my life today. I think I'm going to go launch myself into the wall! Just for fun!" I didn’t actually see it, obviously, it was on the opposite corner of the room, behind me. I just heard the crashing sound. The first thing I thought to myself was "Salena! She's after me!" Because I am an exuberantly calm and collected person, as you have probably figured out by now. That was when I started screaming. But I figured out there was no Salena pretty fast because, while I might not be the most observant person ever, I am not that dumb. So I took a deep breath. The computer still hadn’t loaded. The second wave of anger/frustration washed through me. That was when my computer decided to follow suit with the dresser, deciding that it, too, needed some adventure. Maybe the dresser was a trend-setter. I don’t know about you, but having my furniture start slamming itself across my room is not my idea of a stellar morning. I might be a little strange, but I'm not that unnatural. Luckily for my computer (and my account of this), my computer hit my bed. My mattress has not been the same since, I've noticed. I wasn’t too freaked though. I thought that maybe I was, like, dreaming. Yeah. That made sense. I took another deep breath. "Okay. I control this dream. Nothing else is going to move unless it is physically moved, not, like, telekinetically. Kay? Kay." My sister called "Hey? Is this your homework, this page of weird graphs and equations that I just spilled syrup all over?" The dresser is totally a trend-setter. "Guess!" I called angrily. The desk started vibrating. Hard. "Um...yes?" "You're psychic!" I screamed. The burst of anger exploded and my desk made a beeline towards my head. I screamed and ducked, and my wooden desk (white, wooden cheapo from Ikea, so not super heavy but heavy enough to seriously freak me out) smashed into the wall behind me. "Are you moving furniture or something? What is that noise?" My mom shouted, her work heels clopping on the hardwood towards my door. Okay. Picture this. My computer has been ripped out of the wall, my dresser is in pieces with my clothes all over the floor, and my desk, with almost all of the rest of my homework on it is facedown on the wrong side of the room, papers, potpourri and god only knows what else scattered about around it. Totally normal compared to the usual immaculate room I usually keep together. She obviously wasn’t going to notice anything! Not. My mom rapped on the door. I jumped to it (I didn’t even notice I'd just jumped about five feet, I was too distracted by keeping the state of my room secret). Maybe I could reverse the whole jumping furniture thing and make them put themselves back into order. That would be very effective and efficient. And also totally and completely insurmountable. Like I could actually control this. Maybe they were possessed. Focus. I needed to get my mom not to notice this. I jumped in front of the door just as she walked in. "Good morning, Kylie," she greeted, slightly distracted-sounding. I gave my best fake-o smile. I'm pretty good at them. "Like, yaw. I just dropped something." "Sounded like you dropped something pretty heavy." "I'm not exactly the most coordinationally exponential persona in the universe, you might have noticed." "You've been using too much sarcasm lately, I've noticed. Please cut it out." Yeah, whatever. "I know." "What did you drop?" My thirty-pound desk. Well, more like I threw it. But I didn’t do it on purpose. It threw itself. "A stack of textbooks. We have to renew them with the librarian today." It's really lucky I'm not, like, Pinocchio or something. Maybe I should have told her I dropped a stack of lies. More appropriate to what I'd probably be spending a lot of time doing in the future. "Be more careful. We don’t want to scratch up the floor." Don’t worry. I'll make sure I don’t accidentally throw any dressers into the wall in the future. Totally attainable. "I'll be careful." Simple and non-sarcastic. Perfect. "You have to leave in fifteen minutes if you're going to bike. Are you?" Duh. Otherwise she might notice I didn’t actually have my textbooks with me. "Yeah. I just have to pick up my homework, then I'll go." She left (finally) and I picked up my homework and shoved it in my bag, then walked into to kitchen to confront my sister and my homework. "Where. Is. My. Math. Homework." She handed me a clean piece of paper, my meticulous handwriting covering the page. "There's no syrup on this." "I was just messing with your mind." The orange juice started vibrating, as well as the table. Lovely. Picture perfect. "Hey, what's with the table?" I shrugged, shoved the page into my backpack, and made a "scary" face at my sister. She rolled her eyes. I shoved out the door. The morning kept going on repeat, along with my dream in my mind. I tried to shut it off; thinking about my dream was so the opposite of things I wanted to think about right now. So instead I powered away, which got me to school way too fast, considering it was only about a mile and a half away. Now I had twenty minutes to sit and think. I had forgotten a book to bring (stupid, stupid me) so I got to do nothing for twenty minutes but think, which would inevitably mean I would think about my dream and Salena. This morning just kept getting better and better. I locked up my bike. Naturally I had to drop my lock first, thereby dropping my bike and smashing my foot into the chain, then by picking it up I knocked someone elses bike over, so I tried to pick that up and it hit me too, then I dropped my lock again and my bike fell off its kickstand right on my head, since I'd crouched down. The bike started vibrating, before slamming itself forcibly into the rack, and the rack smashed itself into the wall, dragging the bikes along with it. Today was so my favorite day ever. Oh yeah, and I forgot that there were at least ten people watching the whole thing. I was so grateful to that fact, of course. "The rack...you…what happened?" Someone asked. They'd been there earliest. Could this day get any worse? "Like I know." The rack was still hovering against the wall. I felt irritated at the girl who'd talked... The rack smashed through the air towards her. She screamed and dove for the floor, but not without at least three bikes whacking her in the skull. Okay. Maybe I shouldn’t test fate by challenging that the day couldn’t get any worse. "You...something...you control it?" She sounded almost more curious than shocked. Maybe she was in shock or something. It's not everyday you get large and heavy objects chasing you. "Right. Yeah. And I'm also the queen of Canada." "There is no queen of Canada," she replied, frowning. I rolled my eyes. Was it the rack smashing into her skull or was she normally this dumb? "Exactly," I hissed. I prayed to god that my bike would just lock itself up and I could get out of here... The rack set itself down. My frustration skyrocketed (of course now it dropped down) and my bike locked itself to the rack. Everyone was still staring at me. I sighed, shrugged, and swung my backpack onto one shoulder. Class was going to start in, like, two minutes. And it was probably going to be a thousand times worse than the morning. As usual, I was very, very right. Savannah's computer pinged! signaling she had a chat. She smiled to herself. She could still remember that awful, awful morning very clearly. It had been a little different from the book version- obviously she hadn’t had a brother (it was her aunt, and she really had spilled syrup all over it), and there had only been the one onlooker. She remembered that feeling of having no control more clearly than anything else. Things just happened; people got hurt, property got destroyed, and much other unexplained destruction from being only a little angry. There was nothing to stop it. Things came at teachers, students, and, more often than not, her. It wasn’t until that afternoon she had learned more abut it. Lynn. She broke free of her musing and checked out her inbox. Lynn was back online. Lynn: Hi. I'm back. Did you delete everything? Savannah: Yeah. I don’t know if Kylie did, though. I told her. Lynn: Hopefully they won't connect it. Savannah: You know I'm just going to go look for more info. Just tell me, and maybe I can think of something. Lynn: No. Savannah: Okay, fine. How come when you talk about this you don’t get all Lynnish? Lynn: Define Lynnish. Savannah: Lynn Lang. Lynn: the Lynn Lang really isn’t appropriate when you're trying to prevent the death of four people. Savannah: Four? Lynn: Me, you, Kylie, and Tara. If Tara has any Saushale friends, probably them too. Maybe Massie and Jamie. Maybe even your entire school, because they've all seen you with your mind powers. Savannah: Lovely. I have a lot to look forward to! Lynn: You really don’t know how to use sarcasm appropriately, do you? Savannah: Hypocrite. Lynn: Unfortunately, you do know how to use that. Savannah: * laughs * Lynn: Why do you always space out your asterisk like that? It's kind of annoying. Savannah: Google makes them turn bold like this if I space them too close together. Lynn: Oh. So, anything new with your mind powers? Savannah: Not really. Just that my walls are getting thinner and thinner. Lynn: ? Savannah: From crashing stuff. It's getting harder to control. I'll get wildly angry for no real reason. I can stop it at school and mostly at home, but in the night things will fly to pieces. Lynn: Oh. Yeah. Sounds annoying. Savannah: I don’t really feel angry in the day, just night. I'll have these weird dreams, and in the morning my room's a mess. Lynn: I have to go, they're doing a dorm check. Bye! Savannah: bye Lynn felt dread rise up within her. Sav was turning Saushale, inside out. Weird dreams...did she remember the dreams, or just that they were weird? Maybe Sabrina was giving her more chemicals at night. They wouldn’t change her physically, but they would change her mind. Sabrina didn’t want to kill Sav. That would be a waste. But she would dull her power to keep her under control. She would turn her Saushale prematurely to make sure she didn’t help Alena. Lynn had to do something. Fast. Savannah was powerful, more powerful than anyone else Lynn knew. If Sabrina had Sav, then there would be no contest. Sab would win. The careful balance of the world, good and evil would collapse. My, life just kept improving! Alena. She had to find Alena. Alena was centralistic to the story. But where the freak was she? Was Lynn going to have to do this alone? Not alone. I can't do it alone. At the very least, I need someone with hypnosis. She took a deep breath. She could take care of Sav, if it was early enough. Sab had created a way to get rid of transforming Saushale back when she was a Sorceress, so that if one was bad or pointless she could get rid of them easily. Back then she could only control fifty or so Saushale, so quite a few people she had to un-Saushale before she lost her power. She grabbed the small vial-she'd only taken one, or else they would be missed- and headed out. "Tara! Long time no see!" Laura glided in front of Bella, her mouth turned down. She was the most powerful Saushale ever. Not quite. Hypnosis... Lana thought. She needed to know this. ` Calm and controlled. Calm and controlled. Focus. Control control control... Bella and Laura crossed their arms in unison. Tara stood up. "Now, what is your purpose in coming here?" "We're investigating a meteor for evidence Alena might have caused it," Bella replied calmly. "Really? Cool!" Lana loved meteors. Tara sighed and Bella and Laura laughed hysterically. "I was being sarcastic, dumbo. We're not on an assignment." Lana's face burned. Even Tara was now struggling not to laugh. "So why'd you pick here? Can't you go torment someone else?" Lana asked, crossing her arms. Bella rolled her eyes. Laura stayed silent. "All the action is here, for some reason. It's boring everywhere else." "Here in this park?" Tara was curious. What was she talking about? "No. here in this area. This city." "Oh. Whatever. Can you go explore some other part of the city for action?" "No thanks." Bella smiled after saying it. Her ultra-white teeth, sharp, glittered in the dim October sun. Lana shivered, almost visible. At least the park was empty. No one would notice that our girls, not related, were all standing here, and they looked the same. Tara stepped back. Bella closed the distance. Lana and Laura stayed put. "So. What were you talking about? I distinctly heard something about hypnosis. Do we have a DNA doner in our midst?" DNA doner. Saushale with exceptional qualities- like high Telkin or mind reading had their DNA copied to improve the transformation "Maybe, maybe not. I was interested in hypnosis. That does not necessarily mean I have it." "Only people with hypnosis can resist the mind control; the more they have the more they can resist. If you're interested in it you must be resisting. So we must." "Lynn isn’t a DNAD," Tara challenged. (pronounced deenadee, it was DNA Doner). "Just because they can't find her. She's on the run. We know she's in this area though. She can't run for long." Bella smiled again. A predator's smile, cruel and triumphant. "That's nice," Tara replied sarcastically. "Very nice." "I wonder why everything is centered here, actually," Lana mused. "It's a pattern," Bella answered. "Huh?" Tara "asked". She wanted to know more; it was an intellectual huh as opposed to a clueless one. "Twenty years ago, there was a chosen that was remarkably powerful. That would be me," Bella sighed. This seemed to be the only memory she had of remorse in any capacity. "I fought Sabrina. And lost. I became Saushale. A month later, Laura rose as a secondary, pushed on by her own friends ditching her. She got the dream, she got the power, she got the Saushale chemicals. "Neither of us was very powerful. It was been long known the Saushale operation damages the mind. That's why she held off on Carmen, and is holding off on Savc. That and because ." "A pattern, you said?" "Every twenty years or so, another pair emerges. Every other group has a small group, one each talented in hypnosis and mind reading. Sometimes even S-Telkin "But none will ever, ever be able to defeat Sabrina. That's for sure." "Not necessarily," piped up Lana. "Eh. Whatever." "Have they all been in this location?" Tara asked slowly. Bella thought for a moment. "No. With us it was in Conneticut, the year before northern California, then Massachusetts, then Southern California, then New Hampshire, then Arizona, then Maine. No record of it happening before that, but that might be because they had such minimal power. Each cycle the people get more powerful." "Why are you telling us this?" Tara asked cautiously. "While the cycle is occurring the mind control is weaker," Bella replied, looking Tara straight in the eye. "You have to get it off." Kylie shut down her computer. Her nanny would be home soon anyway; then maybe she could weasel out a couple minutes of volleyball. Stop thinking about this, she told herself sternly. It's not helping. You're not accomplishing anything. She wanted Tara back though. This whole situation was so infuriating! Tara Savannah Lynn "Sabrina" everyone. No one would help her. No one would even explain. The door flew open and her cousin, Michele walked in. She was wearing a short skirt, platform sandals, and a tight shirt. "Hi, Kylie," she called. She walked in and sat on her bed. Kylie swiveled her chair to face her. "You have to be kidding me." "What?" Michele replied innocently. She was eating a donut. She never gained weight. "It's sixty degrees out. What on earth are you wearing?" Michele rolled her eyes. "First of all, it's actually sixty five. Secondly, they keep it like seventy five in the building. So I can wear whatever." Michele went to high school. It was closer to Kylie's house than hers, so she went over to Kylie's house often after school. "Are you still having problems with Taira?" She could never get Tara's name right. "Tara. And yes." "God. Why don’t you just find some new friendsalready?" "I've known her since second grade, that's why. Five years. I'm not going to just ditch her!" Michele finished her donut. "Why not? Sounds like it's getting unbearable already. You're not exactly helping." Kylie really wanted to show her the emails she had gotten, but resisted. Michele would never get it. Michele never got anything. Life went perfectly for her; she had tons of friends, always looked perfect, and still got a 4.0 each quarter. Was always happy, no matter what. She wondered dimly what was up with Michele. Normally, she was one of the nicest people ever, always willing to help someone or be nice to someone when no one else was. "Maybe," Kylie responded. Maybe she wasn’t helping. Maybe whatever Sabrina had done was permanent. Who was Sabrina? That was what she was trying to find out. Sabrina. "So, how was your day?" "Pretty good. Jason asked me out." She started studying her nails. Kylie resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Best day of your life, right?' Kylie replied sarcastically. She turned and opened a Microsoft excel worksheet. "Whatcha doing?" Michele asked. She peered over her shoulder. "Nothing. Just screwing around with spreadsheets." "Kay. Whatever. I think I'm gonna go, kay?" "I don’t need a baby-sitter." "Obviously. Where's Megan?" Megan was another cousin. Kylie's mom had two siblings and her dad one, who all had daughters in high-school, two sophomores and Michele, who was a junior. "She's at her friend's house. The really annoying one." "Bella?" "Yup." "God, I hate her. How can she stand it?' "She looks freaky, too. I would never be friends with her." Michele shuddered. "God forbid she not have a good make-up routine." "Seriously. She needs some blush, bronzer, and serious highlights." Kylie mentally snorted at how Michele hadn't gotten the sarcasm there. Michele never got the sarcasm. "How about a mask?' "No, she's pretty, just freaky." "Whatever. Where are you going?" "Emma and Liz are picking me up. We're going to Sephora and then probably Emma's house. We all have dates tonight." "Have fun." A car horn honked and Michele rocketed up. "Bye! See you tomorrow! Hopefully Megan will be here. I haven’t seen her, like, at all." That was another thing. Megan, Michele, and Miranda (her third cousin) were all best friends. Michele almost always came over, and Miranda about twice a week. She hadn’t seen Megan since summer, though. Kind of weird, actually. She was usually here, just because Michele and Miranda were. "Me neither. Bye!" "Bye!" She turned her chair back to the computer desk. There was one message in her inbox. From: Lynn-ultimatihah@gmail.com (Note: she changed it so Sav wouldn’t know her real name) To: Kileynuts@gmail.com Date: 10/16/08 3:45 pm Subject: Are you trying to commit suicide? You've been inquiring about Sabrina. I don’t know what Sav told you, but it really doesn’t matter. The point is that you can't know. Sabrina ruined my life. Don’t let her ruin yours. Tara and Lana looked at each other for a second. When they looked back forward, Bella and Laura had simply disappeared. Sabrina's technology just kept getting more and more complicated. Lana collapsed on the bench. "I can't stand her! Bella, I mean. At least Laura is halfway decent and keeps her freaking mouth shut!" Tara looked at the ground. She had sat down as well. "Laura has almost no mind control. She wants to be Saushale. She likes it. She knows what she's doing, who she's hurting, and she still likes it. That's my definition of evil. Bella has more mind control than you, me, even Lynn put together, to keep her here. She's not evil. She doesn't like what she does, what being Saushale makes her do. She's not evil, just rude. And mean." Lana gave a dry laugh. "Only in our situation would there be a difference between the two." But then she, too, looked down at the ground and added, noticeably softer, "But I get what you're saying." Tara stayed silent, thinking about all the dumb, evil, and life-ruining things she'd done since becoming Saushale. "Kind of like you, right? How you were totally mean, but not evil..." Lana trailed off. Tara sighed. "I hate what Sabrina is making me do to Savannah, pushing her through all this just to get her little Saushale. God forbid she not obtain the perfect Saushale!" "Huh?" Tara sighed. She'd been holding this information for a month, waiting for the time to set it free. "I made Massie ditch Sav, so Sabrina could immediately get her to learn the Telkin. Now...well...Savannah wasn't supposed to have any friends, just make her, like, hate her life for a while until Sabrina offered her a 'way out'. To reduce or eliminate the necessary mind control, you know?" "Wait, that was you? Not Massie?" Tara looked back down at the ground. "Without me, they would still be friends." Lana attempted to make a joke. "And the N-40 would still be intact." Their school was in four sections, arranged like this +, each corresponding with North, East, South, or West, and abbreviated as such. They had one section for sixth grade (because they didn’t switch classes) and three sections for seventh and eight. Tara smiled weakly. "So, what else?" Tara sighed. "Kylie made friends with her, and it totally ruined the whole mindset. Now it all depends of Friday." She paused. Lana bit. "What happens Friday?" "We go to Ted's Ice Cream, you know the one down the street? It's my job to slip Kylie the Saushale chemicals. They email all weekend, maybe even have Kylie invite Sav over. She already has black hair and black-ish eyes, and she's pretty pale, so it won't be completely unbelievable. Then, on Monday, Kylie ditches her. Just like Massie did." "That sounds...harsh." Tara groaned. "I don't want to do it!" Lana rolled her eyes. "Obviously. Only someone totally evil would enjoy something like that." She sighed. "You have to give Sab some credit, though- she knows where it will hurt." "Totally. Massie only ditched her, like, two weeks ago-" "Not that. She's learned her lesson, and is probably a lot more resilient. But I bet Sav prides herself on being smart." "So?" "She made a mistake. She should have learned her lesson, and she'll be crushed. Totally and completely crushed." "Oh. I see what you mean. It doesn't even stop there. Sab's going to kill her parents and her aunt" "So this is what evil genius-Sorceress people do in their free time- brainstorm ways to crush little girls." Lana rolled her eyes at her statement. Tara laughed. "And the S-21." Lana laughed, too. Tara took a deep breath Sav-style. "Okay. We can't let this happen. Sav is incredibly powerful. With her, Sabrina will be invincible." "Lovely." "We have to stop the plan. Do you have any idea how?" "Yeah. Hypnosis." Lana's pupils dilated and a shock ran through Tara's head. After, however, her nausea vanished, as well as her headache. The mind control was gone. Savannah watched her computer screen. As it faded, she reopened her story. I staggered my way out of language arts towards lunch. I honestly don’t think the morning could have gone too much worse. Someone’s desk in science had almost crashed into my head when I realized I had forgotten my science homework. In math, someone had made fun of my always knowing the answer and they flew through the window (we were on the second floor) and then magically flew back into the classroom, two inches from a sure and instant death. In PE I had ended up flying on the running track when I got tired of running. Oh, and then I crashed into a tree, which made me mad, so the tree flew into a teachers head, then calmly rerooted itself. Finally, in language arts my teacher had “tripped” on the stage in our classroom and ended up flying into the castle on it when she asked me about how I was feeling toward Madison and Ashley lately. All in all, a lovely morning. Now it was lunch, and my stomach started sinking as I realized what was probably going to happen. Three people had the same morning classes as I. Two shared my same fifth period class- history. But neither of them had my same Art teacher. In other words, they were so going to figure out it was me. I banished that to the back of my mind. Maybe I could just skip Art or something. Or maybe…I don’t know, try really, really hard not to get mad about anything. Take lots and lots of deep breaths. Those were supposed to be calming, right? I don’t think they had psychotic people throwing classmates into windows in mind when they tested that, though. God! Why was this happening to me! I hadn’t even been that mad, just a little irritated, and then he was flying through the window. My luck was so bad lately. First Madison, now this. I really shouldn’t have drunk that whatever-it-was. Hm. Actually, shouldn’t I have been needing to use the "experiences" to do all this crap? Maybe...maybe this was a dream! Maybe the dude I'd thrown through the window hadn’t actually gone through the window! I used to be really in this whole lucid-dream-reality-check thing, so I know a lot of ways to check to see if you are dreaming. My favorite is usually throwing things into trees (or throwing trees at things, remembering PE. That was really insane. That thing was like a hundred years old and HUGE) but I didn’t thing that would really be very good here, mostly because I had already thrown enough things and I didn’t really feel like adding another item to my list of Things I Destroyed in Six Hours. So I tried to breathe with my nose plugged, push my finger through my hand and a whole list of other things. I figured out it hadn’t worked pretty fast and then, well... The table closest to me smashed through the air towards me. I screamed (how many screams had I heard today? Three? Four? Sixteen? If you guessed the last one, you are correct. Yes, I am counting. Yes, I am a nutcase. I believe we've covered that already. Non-nutcases do not throw people into windows.) and ducked (how many times have I ducked today? Answer: Too many to count) and the people who were lunching on it looked at me like I was a nutcase. Which I, being the infuriating person I am, was irritated at. So the table decided to pay them a trip, too (it just skirted them. Luckily, no one today had gotten hurt, except for maybe the PE teacher. Bt she wasn’t dead, just scratched up). Then, when I got mad at myself about that, it smashed towards me. Five minutes into lunch and I've already accidentally threatened my own life twice. Being a little clumsy has nothing on this. Honestly. So I walked over a little bit. Naturally, every single table was taken up. I took a really, really deep breath, ordered myself to STAY CALM and walked over to a couple girls who were always pretty nice to me. "Hi, can I sit here?" "No, we're waiting for eight people to fill up these seats.' There was a pause as I tried to figure out whether she was being sarcastic, mean, or was actually waiting for eight people. "Sarcasm?" "No. Go away." How encouraging, I thought to myself. Note: Sarcasm does NOT help when trying not to throw people into trees (or tables. Just a total random object). Yeah, okay. They were thrown from their seats and the table smashed into them. If people ever like me again (which I was starting to seriously doubt) it was probably because they were afraid not to. This was SO ANNOYING! There wasn’t even time for me to try to calm myself down. One second she was smirking over my plight, and the next the table was smashing into her. So not my fault! Or, at least, so not my intention. I seriously need to learn to stop beating myself up when this happens. Because the table went after me next. Luckily, I had the drop-to-the-ground-and-roll-away-as-fast-as-humanly-possible down pat now, and the table didn’t even touch me. Thank god the girls hadn’t actually sat down at the table again, because that would have seriously injured both of us. The mean one- Lyra –watched me carefully as I got up. The table righted itself, totally normal. "Um...was that you?" The beating myself up did have one advantage- it was hard to believe I would hurt myself. "Um, do you think I like to throw tables at myself? Or people?" "Madison did say you were kind of psycho." BREATHE. BREATHE. Calm. "Madison is often wrong," I replied as calmly and coolly as possible, trying to believe it. I kept direct eye contact. "I'll note that the table flew at us after we made you mad or upset. Correlation?" Do. Not. Get. Mad. "What makes you think that a normal person could magically make a table fly at someone?" I rolled my eyes, like it was the dumbest idea I'd ever heard. I was still calm, or at least my voice and demeanor was. I continued to stare into her eyes. "I saw the table move. Someone must have caused it." Calm. Stay calm. Don’t get mad. "Perhaps it's remote-controlled. Perhaps it was a mini-earthquake-" "And it was an earthquake that threw Karl out the window?" one of the girls suggested. "Or a remote control that made the desk fly at your face?" another added. "I don’t know what happened!" Anger started to leach into my voice and the trash can, ground, and table started vibrating. "What's up with the ground?" The girl who hadn’t spoken asked worriedly. I knew her name- Kaitlynn. "Don’t look at me for answers." My voice went back to calm and knowing, anger gone. I walked away. I looked around until I saw the only table with one person sitting at it. Maybe I could just sit on the end or something. She was reading a book, so maybe she wouldn’t notice me... I sat down, and she looked up from her book. Snap. It was the girl who I had thrown the bike rack into earlier. "Hi, I'm Lynn." Lynn watched her ceiling, lying on her bed, thinking for a moment. Hypnosis. What did she know about it? First of all, hypnosis eliminated mind control. Which meant that anyone with hypnosis probably wouldn’t be going and telling Sabrina about everything. That was the good part. The bad part was that hypnosis was extremely rare. I should ask Tara, she thought. She jumped on her computer. She knew Tara probably didn’t like her very much, but maybe if she didn't make anything super Lynnish like she usually did, then it would be okay. She had her fingers poised above the keyboard when she realized she didn’t know Tara's email address. She did have her phone number, though... Lynn sighed. She really hated phones. I'll call her later. She sat back in her computer chair, contemplating. She was considered a freak by all that knew her. She had almost no mind control, and all that she had on vanished super quickly. No one had ever tested to see what had made her mind control come off. Actually, there was no way to get out of mind control, once it was fully on. The only known way to kill a Saushale was to turn them into a draggal, which had almost more mind control. Draggal. It was such an ugly word. A draggal was basically a killing machine, when there were normal humans to be targeted, without the Telkin, when there was a shortage of Saushale with strong mind control. They had been used mostly when Sabrina was a Sorceress and could only control so many creatures that could actually, like, think (the Saushale) but tons that were just "programmed" (draggals). Now there was only two or three left. Draggals had to feed, but they didn’t feed like Saushale from actual food or airborne. No, they had to actually kill their food. If they hadn’t killed it, they couldn’t digest it. Something about the chemicals in their own saliva digesting it or something weird, designed to make them easier to kill. They hated light, to prevent them from being seen, had red eyes, which had something to do with chemical composition, and could breed. It was the last that made Sabrina eventually kill them off. They bred via DNA combining, in which they gave off certain chemicals into the atmosphere that combined, making new draggals. In the air. The problem was that they could breed with Saushale or humans, making new and weird combinations of powers. The combinations of human, draggal, and Saushale could make them impossible to kill, able to feed like normal humans, and have an extremely high Telkin. And, from the draggals, they were completely psycho and had red eyes, as well as able to absorb powers easier. Making them have not only high levels of hypnosis or mind readiong, but also indestructible mind control. Luckily, the psychoness could never be combined with hypnosis or mind reading because they couldn’t be smart enough to process it and be really smart at the same time. The few Sabrina had left were a combination of Saushale and draggal. The draggal made it really easy to have hypnosis, mind reading, and Telkin all at once, and the Saushale provided it, as well as made them impossible to kill and able to feed like Saushale. Lynn was really hoping it would never come to pass. Focus, she thought to herself. She took another deep breath and grabbed her phone from her desk. Luckily, she was distracted from that when she saw a message pop up in her inbox. To: Lynn-ultimatihah@gmail.com' From: kylienuts@gmail.com Date: 10/9/08 3:47 pm Subject: Re: Are you trying to commit suicide? Who are you are what are you talking about? Besides, from what I've heard so far anything Sabrina will do or has done is so illegal. Kylie watched with satisfaction as her email went through. She was pretty sure that Lynn-ultimatihah was the Lynn that Sav and Tara kept talking about but that didn’t make her qualified to boss Kylie around. Kylie looked back at her screen, and lo and behold there was a message there. To: kylienuts@gmail.com From: Lynn-ultimatihah@gmail.com Date: 10/9/08 Subject: Re: Are you trying to commit suicide? My name is Lynn Ultimatihah. I'm not going to bother with an explanation of what I am like- go ask Sav or Tara. It might be a negative explanation, but I will not be wasting my time. I am talking about your little inquisition about Sabrina. ` And I am telling you that it is a really bad idea. Sabrina is not human. Actually, neither is your best friend. If my calculations are correct, the only human friends you have are your cousins. Then an invitation to chat came in, accompanied by a "My inbox is full" memo. Kylie: How do you know about my cousins? Lynn: I know a lot of things. Kylie: Lynn: Hello? Kylie: Hit enter too fast. How do you know these things? Lynn: Can't tell you. Kylie: Why not???????? Lynn: * Sigh *. I suppose you're going to become Saushale anyway, might as well get you prepared. Kylie: What's Saushale? Lynn: Tara- you know how she's different now? That's because she's Saushale. Her appearance, her voice, her actions, everything that changed is because she's Saushale. Kylie: So why is she Saushale? Lynn: Are you actually believing this or just pretending to? Kylie: I saw Sav smash through walls. I saw her throw a table through midair. I saw her throw someone through a window. I'm pretty much willing to believe any explanation. Kylie: Not to mention Tara. Lynn: Did she really throw someone out a window or was she exaggerating? I've always wondered about that. Kylie: She threw three. Two were on her first day, when some guy mocked her in math and then in science the teacher kept bothering her. Those two I didn’t see. Then a couple days later Jamie mocked her in Science and she also went out the window. I was delivering a memo for the teacher and I saw that one. She rescued them before they hit the ground, though. Lynn: Yeah, she flung a bike rack at my head once. She was pretty out of control. Kylie: Especially that first day. She says she can't always control it. Lynn: Yeah, she would get a little irritated and it would set off a chain reaction, usually because she would get mad at herself and it would try to hit her, and then someone would mock her and it would hit them, and then her again...you get the picture. Kylie: Back on track. Lynn: Right. Sabrina controls the Saushale and changes them. The summer camp is like a training camp for them, but normal people usually go there as well, so it's pretty secret. Usually all who leave are Saushale, because they get slipped the chemicals, but not always. Kylie: Such as when? Lynn: Let's cover the basics first. Kylie: I thought I was in control with this. Lynn: You know, I could just not tell you anything and go knock out Tara. Kylie: I really hope you're being sarcastic, but yeah, whatever. Basics first. Lynn: Kay. Sabrina is either a Sorceress or goddess. Kylie: Um, are you sure Sav isn’t just the product of some science test gone wrong? I mean, the Saushale thing I can get, but Sorceress...no. Lynn: Okay, I guess it doesn't really matter. The point is that Sabrina can do the same thing as Sav, and she's exponentially more powerful. Lynn: And she's smart. Really, really smart. Kylie: So...? Lynn: She's good with chemicals and stuff. Kylie: oh, okay. How did she end your friendship with Tara, how did she ruin your life, and why is she going to end mine? Lynn: Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you something really, really important. Sabrina puts mind control on Saushale, to make them do what she wants- or at least, pretty close. Certain mannerisms. Kylie: Mind control. Lynn: Yes. The only thing stronger is hypnotism, which is a natural gift. Mind control is chemicals, just like the transformation. Kylie: Okay...how did she ruin your life again? Lynn: She turned me Saushale. Kylie: So what's so bad about it? Lynn: It's hard to explain. Besides, according to my calculations, I think you'll figure it out pretty fast. Kylie: Why? Lynn: Sabrina needs Tara to get you to ditch Sav. So she'll get even better at her whole throwing-things-into-walls thing, mostly, but also because she can't put much mind control on her. Kylie: I can't see Sav very happy about that, judging by the fact her being so good at it makes it hard to control. Lynn: Sabrina never takes into account what anyone besides her wants. She's evil. Period. Kylie: Then she turns Saushale. Lynn: Yep, and there's no way it can be undone. She's already half-Saushale, her body completely changed. It'll wait a week and then gets triggered by Sab to change the rest of her. Kylie: So undo it. Lynn: The only person who has even a breath of a chance is Sabrina, and she's not going to make an antidote unless she needs one, so she's not. Kylie: So why is she going to end mine? Lynn: She doesn't like people knowing about her. But you're about to become Saushale anyway, so it doesn’t really matter anyway. Kylie: WHAT? Lynn: uh-huh. Yeah. I don’t know when it'll happen, just that it'll occur on Friday. And it'll be Tara's fault. So maybe you could, like, not go to school or something. Pretend to be sick. Kylie: No way. I hate missing school. I'll avoid Tara. Lynn: That would be an excellent idea, except that then she would know something was up. Kylie: Whatever. I have to get off. Lynn: Bye. Lynn rolled her chair back and took a deep breath. She wasn’t really in boarding school. That had been a total and complete lie. She was going to regular, normal public school, the same public school she had been going to before. But she avoided her friends. Actually, now that she thought about it, she hadn’t seen Tanya in a really long time, only Zara, who hung out with a new group of girls. Maybe she, too, had gotten caught. Caught. Like draggal, it was an ugly word, though, like draggal, one that was mostly ugly by association. Lynn had not become Saushale by chance. She had been caught. It had been at summer camp, obviously. Two or three days before the summer camp ended (it wasn’t really like a summer camp in the sense of the word- just a place with a bunch of cabins, a lake, and a lot of trails; that was pretty much all they ever did there- hikes, swimming, and hanging out in the cabins. Twice they had gone out and tried to waterski or wakeboard, and not very effectively, either.) Lynn had gotten the brilliant idea to sneak out of the cabins at night, hike down to this one tree, and set up this trick. The trick- she'd almost forgotten, it seemed so dumb now- was to attach a bucket of oil on a branch then a trigger across the path, so if anyone stepped on it they would get soaked in oil. She'd suggested it to the other five girls in her room of the cabin- Tanya, Zara, Allia, Jenny, and Adriana at lunch. None of them had heard her, except Tanya, who had enthusiastically agreed.. Ali (Allia, but everyone called her Ali) and Adriana had already been asleep when Lynn suggested the plan. Zara and Jenny, who had the beds (Lynn could remember that part- everyone fighting to get the beds as opposed to the bunks –crystal clear) had been really, really tired. The memory came back. Everyone always remembers everything that influences them to do something really stupid, which they eventually really, really regret. "Why are we doing this?" Jenny, tired and really wanting everyone to shut up so she could sleep, ended up making her voice way more whiny than normal. Her almond-shaped brown eyes narrowed. Lynn huffed. "For fun. Alanna has to take that hike because she hasn’t yet, I checked. If Tanya or I go we can shove her onto the trigger." She rolled her own dark eyes. Alanna. Lynn had been sarcastic to her once, which Alanna did not like. She ended up dunking her in the lake once. A really cold lake, mind you. She had nondescript brown hair and cruelly intelligent eyes, a thin nose and attractive, oval face, a very skinny, flat-chested figure. "That's mean," Zara judged, frowning. She had blue-green eyes to match her hair, a shade somewhere between brown and red. Tanya had navy blue eyes, wide and perfect. They were bright with excitement. She, too, opposite of liked Alanna, who had once, when she was working in the kitchen faculty, accidentally messed up her food, and Tanya still held the irrational grudge, though it had been an obvious mistake. "It's perfect. They'll never figure out it was us who set up the prank, because Lynn and Alanna are always fighting on the trails." "Yeah, until we get caught outside," Jenny pointed out. They all sat silently for a moment. "So what? They're going to send us home in, like, two days anyway. If they send us home early, I would thank them. This place is getting so boring." Lynn smiled after her statement. Foolproof. She had been so, so dumb back then. "The faculty might not figure out it was you, but Alanna will. No one else dislikes her, or holds irrational grudges against her." Zara stared at Tanya while saying the last part, and she rolled her eyes and made a "talk to the hand" gesture. Lynn stifled a laugh. "I really don’t recommend starting a real war against someone who has a lot more friends than you and can think of something smarter than dumping oil on them." Lynn widened her eyes in mock offense, a hand to her heart in mock authenticity. "Are you saying I am not smart?" Jenny and Zara high-fived, laughing. Lynn shook back her hair, which used to hang down halfway to her waist, a unique color a shade somewhere between Zara's hair and black. It was currently put into five braids, to make it kinkier. It, as it was, was almost perfectly straight, which Lynn hated. "Look, I need at least two people to help me, preferably three or four. I mean, come on. Don’t tell me you two don’t hate her. Seriously. Especially you, Jenny. I mean, didn’t she, like start that weird rumor that you kept sneaking out at midnight and hiking so you had to go to Mount Misery for a week?" Mount Misery was a couple rooms that housed the head of the camp and a few counselors not assigned to cabins that directed the hikes or determined whether the lake was safe enough to swim in so it wouldn’t give everyone hypothermia, as well as the sick area. If people were sent there it meant they had gotten in some serious trouble, where they basically sat in a room all day, staring at walls. Jenny ran her fingers through her curly brown hair. "There's no proof. And it was not a week. It was five days." Lynn rolled her eyes and snorted. "Close enough. And she did so start the rumor. I heard her friends conversing on ways to get back at us." "So? I did stay out late once to go get that one book I had left on the courts. They might have just told everyone that and it got magnified. If it had been the truth, which they had probably intended, I would have just gotten a warning and maybe a lecture." "Whatever. It's really not my problem if you want to go into denial. And Zara. I know she got her one friend, the Jamie one-" Jenny shuddered. "Oh, I hate her too." Jenny was one of those people where she would be really nice and friendly to absolutely everyone, and everyone would totally love her. But if you got on her bad side- a wrong look, conversation, action, the friendliness disappeared. And she was smart enough to make you seriously regret the action. The only people Lynn knew of that didn't have to tread on thin ice around her were Lynn and Zara. "Too?" Lynn raised an eyebrow. Jenny sighed, rolling her eyes. "Fine, I'll come." She cocked her head and rolled her eyes again. Lynn and Tanya high-fived. "Anyway, she got Jamie to put the camera with your name on it in our room, remember, so that you also got in huge trouble?" Their camp had two really big rules: No electronics and no going out after designated "cabin time". The lake thing against Lynn hadn’t really gotten her in trouble, just really, really cold. Hello, the lake was about fifty degrees and it was only about twenty degrees warmer outside of. And it had taken a long trek to get back. "I'm tired. I really want to go to sleep, and it is therefore my plan to do just that. Besides, it was just a disposable. I barely even got in trouble." "I wish I could say the same," Jenny muttered. There was anger and revenge in her low voice. "Traitor," Zara shot at her sarcastically. "Denial," Jenny shot back. She was rarely sarcastic, but could be dramatic. "Hater." Jenny clutched her chest. She had stood up. "Oh no, anything but that!" She staggered around, tripping onto the floor accidentally, launching into Lynn. All four of them laughed hysterically, trying really hard not to be really loud about it and wake up Adriana and Allia, the other girls or, worse, the counselor, Cathy. Cathy was really nice, always letting them run back to grab something against the rules or pretending not to see the disposables the girls used to take pictures of the trip. If it was her that had found "Zara's" camera it probably wouldn’t have been a big problem, but the inspection person had found it instead and had gotten really mad about it. Anyway, Cathy had just one big rule to keep her nice: Do not wake her up. Especially at, like, eleven at night. "Are you going to come?" Lynn asked Zara hopefully. Zara's laughing face vanished and turned stern. "No." Jenny yawned. "Let's go now, before I get too tired and screw the whole thing." Lynn sighed. "C'mon, Zara. Do you want to disappoint your best friends?" They all made identical faces, the lower lip pushed out, puppy-dog eyes, hands clasped beneath their chins. Zara's eyes narrowed, her eyebrows looking almost like cartoon characters making the upper part of a triangle above her eyes, only upside down. She had her arms crossed. "No." Lynn wished now, in the present, that she had gotten as tired as Jenny had. She wished she had yawned and called it of, swearing to do it tomorrow, then forgetting all about it, just like she had done for a thousand other anti-Alanna plans. But it didn’t happen. So much would have changed if she had. They walked silently across the camp. It was completely dark and silent, not a light to be seen anywhere as far as they could see. There was no sound but their quiet, even breathing as they strolled across the camp. As son as they reached the edge, where the trails were, Lynn pulled out a small flashlight she had brought. They were far enough away that no one see it if they were up. The trail was the right one. It led to a large, ornate bridge over a tributary. It would have made more sense, Lynn had always thought, to name it River Trail, or Knight's Trail (the tributary's name) or Knight's Stream Trail, but they called it Bridge Trail. Maybe they were really proud of it or something. The trail was hard dirt, littered with debris of pine needles, lichen, bark, and rocks, but mostly pine needles. It was also colder out here, and it seemed to get colder with each step. Lynn was really glad they were all wearing jeans and sneakers, though their arms were bare and almost purple without a jacket. The pine needles were not soft, as they seemed in the day. They were not a welcome carpet as opposed to the hard dirt. They were cruel and painful, poking into their shoes and getting in their socks. The delicious crunching sound of the day was ominous, a whisper of "Turn back. Run away. Do not come here." and a dozen other warning messages. The branches of trees, which usually seemed funny in the day, welcoming, or at least easy to avoid were evil at night, hitting them and repeatedly tripping Jenny, who was tired and, in the back, dragging her feet along the trail. Alanna always dragged along in the back of trails, which was key to their plan. It was best for the counselors not to see the oil. Finally, they came to the bridge. Lynn, in the front, ended up tripping over the raised part of it, only an inch. In the day it was obvious, but her weak, pencil thin flashlight was not doing the job very well. She skidded after hitting it, tearing holes in her jeans and scraping her hands hard enough to bring blood. The blood was not red. It was black, a dark trail spreading over her hand, which seemed white in the light. She looked up. The stars. They were amazing. Huge, bright, closer than ever before. Tanya kicked her in the back to make her stop laying on top of the bridge staring at the sky as if hypnotized. They crossed the bridge briskly and finally found the tree Lynn had designated earlier. Lynn and Jenny set up the trigger. They strung along the rope, putting in the mechanism Lynn had built. Tanya filled the bucket of oil. It took them about five minutes. They admired their handiwork. Lynn almost broke off at the memory there. She'd reviewed the first part a thousand times: convincing Jenny to come and trying to convince Zara, finding the trail, the difference of it in the dark as opposed to day. But she never went past this. Regardless, it was still clear. Clear and sharp, like glass. But, like glass, it could get crushed or worn away. It would hurt, but she wanted to remember. She never wanted to forget this. As they admired it, they heard a sound. Like bees almost, buzzing bees. "Bees?" Lynn whispered. "No," Jenny whispered back. Her tiredness was gone, her eyes clear and alert. "Bees don’t come out at night. Voices." Naturally, Lynn and Tanya did not connect "trouble" with "voices". They connected "interesting with "voices". "Curiosity" with "voices". "Investigating" with "voices". Tanya whispered excitedly "Let's check it out." "I don’t know," Jenny warned. "I really don’t want to go back to Mount Misery." Lynn rolled her eyes, though it was invisible in the darkness. "We'll be fine. They won't see us. It's so dark I can barely see you." She never connected "danger" with "voices". Even if the danger had just been Mount Misery, like Jenny, Lynn still wished that had been what had happened. Jenny hissed softly and followed Lynn. The voices weren’t coming from the trail. Lynn pulled out a piece of string and tied it to the tree, so they could find their way back. "Like Hansel and Gretel," Tanya giggled. Jenny shushed her violently and Tanya shut up. The area off the trail was even more annoying that the trail. A thousand nettles poked into their ankles. Random branches hit them in the face. Even Tanya, the most surefooted girl in most of the camp, fell a few times. Luckily, Jenny's tripping spell had vanished and she was much more alert, only falling one or two times more than Lynn. "Isn't there poison oak out here?" Tanya whispered. "They cleared it out," Jenny whispered back. "I don’t know why, but they have this chemical they spray regularly to kill it, but nothing else. That's why there are so many nettles, they grew way better." Lynn had been puzzled then, but she knew why now. Poison oak is one of the few things that can affect Saushale skin. Nettles do not. The string was long and she still had two or three feet left when they finally reached the clearing. The clearing. The clearing. The clearing. The word kept repeating over and over in Lynn's head, both the stupid sixth grader and the Saushale. The stupid one was mostly wondering why in the inferno there was a clearing in an area that was a) not on the map and b) not accessible by any trails. The Saushale couldn’t get past the word because it had meant her downfall. Death. The voices. They could almost hear them. "I think she has potential," one of them hissed. "She does not. She's in sixth grade. She's annoying." "Her whole language thing could mean potential, you know." "I sincerely doubt it." "And her name. She might be half already! Doesn’t she look it? The shape of her eyes and nose, how she has way less whites than usual?" "She doesn’t like to be called Lynnette because her mother did, you twit! It's totally normal. And so is her face." "It is not." They were talking about her. Lynn. Lynn had potential. What she had potential for, of course, she had no idea about, but she was still interested. "Tanya too. Not half, but she could have something." A third girl had joined in the conversation. "We don’t need any more Saushale. I think Sabrina's reached her limit." The one who kept denying Lynn was anything special. The first time she ever heard the name Sabrina, though of course then she never would have pronounced it like so. It was written in the language of the first gods and goddesses, a letter not in our language and a double-vowel sound hard for a human to utter. One of them cocked her head. "I think they are here. Lynn, Tanya, and one other. Someone too ordinary... No. Not ordinary. I can't get a read for some reason..." It was a fourth girl, who stepped into the shadows after making her announcement. Lynn threw Jenny the string and the flashlight. She and Tanya ran as fast as they could, leaping high over the nettles. They were back on the trail in seconds, racing past it. they managed to jump over the trigger. They jumped onto the bridge, their feet thumping, and were off it in seconds. They continued to run. They were not being pursued. Lynn couldn’t move for some reason. She was slow, her feet dragging over the nettles, trying to run but failing horribly. And, in this case, that failing meant a fate worse than death. The Saushale grabbed her and yanked her into the clearing. Lynn, being the person she was, managed to trip over something despite this minor setback and landed sprawled on her butt. One of the last days she would ever be clumsy like so. There were perhaps twenty faces she saw, looking up. Cruel looking faces, evil faces. Unnatural faces. Identical faces. Well, not really identical, per say. They were like the faces of siblings, similar and yet not the same. Nearly identical if the same age, but not apart. For the ages here ranged from seven to twenty five. Seven. Two girls, two of the three that had been arguing, stepped forward. The rest stepped back. They were about twenty. One had a slightly bored, but very calm expression and the other an angry and defiant. "Lynnette," the slightly shorter one greeted. The angry one. Turns out she was sarcastic as well. "How uplifting to meet you finally. My friends here are quite convinced of your magnificence." For the first, and probably the last, time ever, Lynn was at a loss for words. No Lynn Lang, no sarcasm, nothing came to her to respond. Finally, finally, "My name is Lynn." The taller one shook her hair back impatiently, like this was the most boring thing she'd ever done. "Your name is Lynnette, not Lynn. It will never be Lynn, no matter how hard you try. You are, and always will, be Lynnette." Sarcasm came back. Everyone has ways to cope with stress. Some take deep breaths, some go to a "happy place", some pray for it to be over. Lynn gets really, really sarcastic. "I thank you for pointing out the obvious," she replied sarcastically. She straightened up and ran a hand through her hair. Sarcasm always made her feel better, even with twenty people staring at who looked like the really wanted to throw her in a tree or something. There was just the smallest glimmer of light in the clearing, bright though small. With it she could see only eyes, glinting eyes. Glinting black eyes that seemed to have no color at all, just black. The color of their minds. Soul, if you must. The eyes are the windows to the soul. You put more expression in your eyes than anywhere else, things that we all automatically notice. These were cruel, unfeeling, almost robotic eyes. Actually a very good description of the Saushale in a few words. "You heard what we were talking about. For that you cannot remain the way you are." The taller girl smiled, in a cruel way. Cut to the chase, this one did. "Remain the way I am? So, what, are you going to turn me into a whale or something?" Still being sarcastic. Of course. There is no power, as far as I have seen, that can forcibly make Lynn stop being sarcastic when she wants to be. The shorter one smiled. It was as if she were trying to act evil, but Lynn could hear the broken hatred of what she was doing, the subtle ring of truth that echoed in her voice. "Worse." Another girl smiled. Tara, though Lynn didn’t know it then. The only other girl who knew her struggles. The third one arguing, trying to keep her way from being Saushale. "Welcome to the world of mind control. And trust me, it's definitively not the greatest." (even before Lynn entered the Saushale world, they used different words, such as sincere instead of serious, beneficial instead of good, definitively instead of definitely) It was normal to make jokes about it. The light vanished and Lynn's world went dark, the only break small red dots at the edge of the vision, and the stars. Gone. The stars had vanished, there was no light to be seen. Her feet moved back to the path and she ran along it blindly, tripping and skidding and sliding back to the cabin, cursing and shouting her way throughout most of it. When she finally got to her cabin she jumped in her bed, not caring if the others heard her. All night the bed trembled from her and Tanya. And yet... Across the room, Jenny stood up. Her blanket fell away. She walked across the floor. Lynn and Tanya were too wrapped up in their thoughts to see her. To care. Jenny walked out into the short hallway. Unlatched the cabin door, walked across the cabin into the front of the woods. She waited in front of one of the trails for a few minutes, long enough for Tara to see her. Jenny vanished as if she had never been there. No one ever knew what happened to her, except me, obviously. Whether she is Saushale, draggal, human, or simply dead... Well, I suppose that is something that we simply do not know at the time. But don’t worry, and keep a copy of this story, because it will be very important in later titles. Lynn released the memory. She hadn’t turned Saushale there—that was just where she had gotten on their hit list. The day after she had gotten home from camp, she, Tanya, Zara, and Adriana, who lived in the area, went to a nearby ice cream parlor to talk about the trip. Lynn ordered a pineapple milkshake. That night she began to have strange dreams. The next day she had a strange face. The third, a strange way of acting. The fourth, she received a letter requesting her attendance at a prestigious boarding school on the East Coast. That was what her father had seen. On the back, there was a letter only Saushale could read. That was when she closed down the memory. The fifth day she was on a plane. Before, she was a little mad when people called her Lynnette. They usually stopped. But now she got mad. Infuriated, antagonized. Everyone assumed that was what the Saushale-ness had changed her name to. Lynnette to Lynn. She certainly got just as mad as Mirabella or Lauren did. But really, Laura had been wrong. To herself, her teachers, her friends, her family- she was Lynn, never Lynnette. Her Saushale name should have been Lynnette. She quit her stupid musing and picked up the stupid phone, dialing the stupid number and hearing the stupid rings. It took forever, but eventually Tara answered. "Yeah? Lynn? Why are you calling me?" "I don’t know your email." "Why didn’t you text?' "Look, do you know anyone with hypnosis?" ` There was a pause, then an explosion of hysterical laughter that was definitely not Tara's. Lynn had forgotten that Tara always answered her phone on speaker, because she "couldn’t hear" otherwise. Bastard. "Yeah, I sure do. Here, I'll hand the phone over to her!" "No, you baka, stummerkopf, muto, piece of achter-" Lynn was cut off from calling Tara stupid in a dozen different languages by a light, soprano asking her in an annoyed tone of voice asking her "Hello? What do you want?" Lynn really, really wanted to be sarcastic, but there's a time and place for everything and though Lynn and Carmen do not always know those times and places, Lynn knew enough that being sarcastic was really not going to turn out in her favor. "I think Sav is turning Saushale. Mind control. Sabrina. Not a good idea." "That wasn’t the plan," she answered, sounding confused. What? She knew the plan? How in the freaking inferno had she figured out the plan? "Yeah, well, Sabrina always has a backup plan." "I was supposed to be the backup plan." "Sabrina never, ever wants to fail. She does everything she can to avoid it. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are another few back-up plans." "When does she figure this stuff out?" "She's one of the prevailers, friend of Tara. She's so strong she killed the balance." Prevailers. Balance. The very first thing they learned in ology, besides the obvious things like who Sabrina and Alena were and what the deal was with their eyes. Basically, there were other worlds besides this one. Whether they were in time, or other planets that was vague. Whether they were copies of this one, like a parallel universe, or completely different alien life, that was also unknown. Anyway, on every world there were supposed to be four "prevailers"- a goddess, a god, a Sorceress and a Sorcerer. They all had even amounts of power, the goddess and the god, the Sorceress and the Sorcerer. Equal amounts of evil power and beneficial power. On each world, there was something special given to all of them. On one planet, this had led to it's downfall of it: the gift was foresight. All the malicious powers (the way of thinking of all of them in a group) had jumped to one random Sorceress and goddess, stripping the others. They ended up too powerful, too evil. The goddess became a Sorceress, and the Sorceress basically exploded. She had controlled everything for the brief moment she had existed, everything tied to her, and when she exploded so did the planet. Hence the reason that no powers after that were ever psychic or able to predict things like that. It's unlikely that would happen to Sabrina or Alena- the Sorceress that exploded was never supposed to control that much power. Sabrina and Alena are good enough that they probably can. Anyway, on our planet, where Sabrina and Alena ruled, there was a mistake. All of the powers were supposed to get the Telkin and fight that way as soon as the planet started and they were to fight for control. Actually, there were several mistakes. First of all, one Sorceress had accidentally taken over one of the Sorceresses from the world of foresight, giving her that power. She used it to take over several other Sorceresses, amassing her own power to try to fight Sabrina before the actual fight ever actually started. Her powers you will learn about later, so let us focus on Sabrina and Alena. That was the second mistake. You see, Sabrina was attracted to her power, and fought her first. I don't know where she got the power to do it— probably from her "corner of a dreamworld". Anyway, She learned too much from that experience, more than she ever actually should. She did not receive the foresight- it was a very fickle gift, one that could only show up once in a power struggle –but she did receive the other powers, which, though stored and not used, ended up being a really bad thing. Sabrina kept fighting the other Sorceresses, but she was so much more powerful than them because of that one Sorceress. Anyway, the third mistake was the electronica you keep hearing so much about and yet are entirely clueless as to why it is so annoyingly important. Actually, originally it was not electronica, obviously. It was just really annoying audio that drained other powers and gave them to the owner of the song. That was why it was important that each song have a "repelling song"- a song that would not be affected by that property. Also, as Sabrina and Alena took over other powers than their song changed each time to reflect the new power. Each year that they continue to struggle and plot against each other the song changes again, a passage through time. So how come these songs are like others? Simple. The person that wrote the lyrics and music for a bunch of Savvy People's songs was a chosen. She semi-defeated Sabrina, winning two small skirmishes. She wasn't exceptionally powerful, but Sabrina left to pursue more powerful options and never really fought. The chosen then copied all of the different songs she heard and made them more mainstream, close approximations on the keyboard that she had. How did she manage to get Lynn's song, or Carmen's then? Well, this songwriter is not very original Anyway, the girl got the CD and copied off most of her hits, though she did actually write a few herself. Theory class over. Back to the story. "My name is Lena, not 'friend of Tara', you salak girl!" "Please don’t call me stupid in any language. Tara was nice enough not to give me any information about your name." "You're still a juhmmard." "What was your name before? And I asked you to stop calling me stupid in a thousand different languages." "Lena. Hypnosis people don’t change their names. Just like you. Your name was Lynn before, Tara told me. Should have been Lynnette, at least according to her reasoning." "Hypocrite." "Whatever. What was your purpose again?" "Get the mind control off Sav." "I thought she hated it when people call her Sav. Isn't that why she kept throwing the temper tantrums?" "It's complicated. Will you just do it?" "Yeah, I suppose I could use the practice. Meet me at the park on McKinley street. We're near the side, on that grassy field where they set up the volleyball net." "Kay." Kylie didn’t actually "have" to get off. She needed some time to focus. Recharge. This whole Sabrina Lynn Sav Tara thing was seriously beginning to freak her out. She'd imagined that the solution would be something obvious. The web page was a glitch. Sabrina was Tara's guardian. Tara had changed because she'd been at a summer camp with a bunch of people who acted the way she did. She had no idea that it was really because Sabrina was some psycho Sorceress who turned people into some weird kind of person and had a whole secret web section to keep it all together. Quite honestly, it was also a really hard story to swallow. She never would have believed it if...well... She'd seen some really weird things since school started. Savannah was throwing things without touching them! She was more powerful than anyone else- could crush them just by thinking about it! Tara had gone from a completely fun, maybe a little sarcastic person to someone who talked super calmly, always having her head high- to look down on everyone else. She was cruel, excluding, and all-around different. Plus, her eyes were seriously creepy. It made her open her mouth just a bit wider to swallow the story. Sabrina. Apparently it was not pronounced Sa-bree-nah, but different. Different how? How much creativity could you fling into a name like Sabrina? She got up and stretched, deciding to take a short bike ride, to try to focus. There was a park a couple miles away that she could bike to and read at for a while. She grabbed a small backpack and chucked a random library book in it- she wasn’t usually an avid reader but after getting a book from one of her aunts, Freeze Tag, she liked it and checked out a few other books from that author. She walked down the hall to the door where the garage was, where her bike was currently being stored. Her black ballet flats- simple and understated, but still her favorite kind of shoe, made odd clicking noises on the hardwood floors on the hallway that freaked her out slightly. The house was completely empty. Normally, she would have rejoiced in that fact, but today wasn’t exactly the most ordinary of days. To give the understatement of the century. She hit the button to open the garage, right next to the door to enter it. It was placed absurdly high for some reason, and she'd only been able to reach it for a couple weeks. That thought just reminded her of Tara, and how she'd been strange for only a couple weeks... Kylie took a flying leap off the doorway- the floor of the garage was about two feet lower than the rest of the house –and jumped on her bike. The garage was very neat and it was a straight, clear shot from her bike to the door. She didn’t even bother with a helmet. While she was biking, she tried to sort out what was most likely truth and most likely false. The fact that someone named Sabrina was behind all of it was probably truth, because all three of them- Sav, Lynn, and Tar –had mentioned her in some form of power. The idea that she was a Sorceress was unlikely, but the fact that she was psycho was not. The fact that there was some chemical that made people do what someone made them she could believe. The plan that she was going to become one, a Saushale (she pronounced it wrong, obviously, as saw shail) she really didn’t want to. Then she thought about Sav. Did she know? Did she know anything- the plan, mind control, what Tara was really after? Did she even know everyone called her Sav when she couldn’t hear them? The bike ride was long, but Kylie rode it fast and reached there in ten minutes. She locked up her bike quickly then walked around. She was done thinking about this and was looking for a shady spot to read her book. Then she saw her. Sav saved her document and shut off her computer. There's only so much you can type at a time without getting a little bored of it. Even if your story is the most fascinating in the world( of which hers was not), the preteen mind does not exactly have the highest attention span ever. She had finished her homework as well as how much time she really wanted to spend on the computer, which was mostly what she did in the afternoon. She wanted to use her mind powers in such a way that she wouldn’t a) attract suspicion or b) hurt anything. The first thought that came to her mind was her bike, of course, since that was how she got to school and all. The only other way she usually used her mind powers, that is, throwing books at her fence, seemed childish and pointless. She thought about riding to the school, but it was too far. She mentally scrolled through a few other locations before deciding to just ride around with no real destination. She went fast, faster than she normally went, for obvious reasons. On the way to school she followed a long, rather busy street. However, in her neighborhood there were very few people who walked around, and there were basically none who cared what one random girl was doing biking around very fast. She was circling around the park- about two and a half, maybe three miles from her house –when she noticed Kylie walking in the park. Mystified, Savannah rode in on a little path and dropped her bike, not bothering to lock up. It was such a piece of crap no one would ever even want to steal it. Kylie smiled when she saw Savannah. "Hey, Sav-annah." She pronounced it like she had meant to call her Sav but remembered at the last second not to do so. Sav beamed. "It's okay. You can call me Sav." "Cool. So, what have you been doing this afternoon?" Sav (finally! My fingers hurt from having to type out that annoyingly long name. You need to learn to invent those voice-controlled things, and, like, soon) shrugged. "My language arts teacher wants me to write a story about how I got my mind powers. So I've been working on that. You?" "Emailing people. Oh, and Michele stopped over." 'Who's Michele?" "Long version or short version?" "I like explanation. Long version." Note: If you yourself don’t really like the long version of something, put down this book and go read something else. Now. "Well, I have three cousins, and they are all in high school. Two are sophomores; those are Megan and Mikayla. Then there's Michele, who's a junior. Megan is pretty cool and very studious, and currently she's been hanging out with this girl named Bella, and never comes over. They all go to my house after school, because it's right next to the high school. Mikayla plays four different sports really well, and also gets pretty good grades. Michelle is really smart, and pretty good at sports, but she's more into friends, and she's super-nice. She likes everybody, no matter what. They all play volleyball and have to get at least a three point five GPA, their parents make them. That's why I like volleyball so much." "They're your friends. Close friends," Sav guessed. "Not too close. Megan is probably the closest. But mostly just because she doesn't have a lot of other friends." "Oh. Hey, is that Tara over there?" Kylie and Sav squinted over to where Sav was pointing. There were three girls there, three girls who looked very similar but yet not the same. One of them was, in fact, Tara. They both shrugged simultaneously and started to walk over, wondering who the other two girls were. "Twins," Kylie guessed. "Sisters." "Cousins." "Distance." "Saushale." Sav stopped and looked at her. "Are you going to keep going or what?" "How did you know about that?" Kylie rolled her eyes. "I guessed. Lynn said they are all changed like Tara. Doesn’t necessarily mean they are, though." One of the girls, the tallest spotted them and whispered something to the other unknown girl, who rolled her eyes. Tara laughed. When they were about ten feet away, the tallest one waved. "Hey. Sav, right? So nice to see you again! I feel like it's been forever!" "Who are you?" "Take a really wild guess." She thought for a second. "Lynn?" "Yeah! Has it really been so long that you can't remember? I am insulted!" She held a hand to her heart in mock sincerity, a favorite pose of hers when being sarcastic. "You look different." Lynn rolled her eyes. "Baka," she insulted sarcastically. Though the palpable sarcasm wasn't even really necessary because Sav didn't know what baka meant. Google translate, regrettably, doesn't work very well with Japanese. They desperately need to fix that. Kylie cocked her head and peered suspiciously at the third girl, who remained quiet and unnoticed, her arms crossed over her chest and a look of mostly calm, but a bit of smugness, upon her face. "Who are you?" She cleared her throat. "My name is Lena, but the Saushale know me as Lana." Kylie and Sav blinked blankly for a couple seconds. "When a person has the power of hypnotism it negates any mind control," Lynn explained, as if Sav and Kylie had any way of knowing that and that Lena actually had hypnosis. Lynn, you may have noticed, is a real know-it-all. Tara whispered something to Lana who rolled her eyes and hissed something back. They sat down on the bench, and Lana pulled out a bright pink water bottle and took a drink. "So, Savvy-" "You can call me Sav or Savannah." "Why not Savvy?" "It's lame." Lynn rolled her eyes at what she obviously felt was the dumbest thing ever but, in typical Lynn fashion, she plowed on with what she was saying. "Anyway, I'm rather surprised at how much you and Ki here-" "Kylie." "I know. Anyway, it's really quite amazing how much you two figured out in such a short time." "Why is that so surprising?" Kylie's voice was carefully monitored. Lynn shrugged and sat down. "Sab keeps her world unseen." Just a random note, I really hope you haven't been pronouncing Sab in your head as "SAHB". It's "Sah-awb" or "Saub", just like the beginning of her name but without the double vowel. Kylie snorted. "Regardless, it's hard not to figure out much when you have Taraster here throwing hints at you every five seconds. She couldn’t go five lines without mentioning Sabrina." "Whatever you say, Ki." "My name is Kylie." "I know." "Then why are you calling me Ki?" "Why not?" Kylie sighed. "I understand the sighs and frowns when Lynn came into the conversation now." "Hey!" Sav laughed hysterically, actually doubling over from pain. Lana smiled. Not Lena. Lena did not smile. "You'd think they would know that already!" Tara hissed in her ear after Lena quickly explained the effects of hypnotism vs. mind control. Lena rolled her eyes. These girls were not psychic- no one was, it wasn’t possible for that kind of thing to exist in equilibrium –and there was no way that they were just going to guess something like that. "They're human," Lena hissed back. "They were never told anything until about two hours ago." Tara gave a barely detectable eye roll and sat down, which Lena did as well. Lynn continued making Ki and Sav irritated. Lena preferred to ignore about seventy five percent of whatever Lynn said. Sitting down at the bench reminded Lena of the water bottle she kept stashed under it. Very few people came over to this side of the park and so Lena kept a plastic water bottle underneath the bench for times when she forgot to bring water, as there was only one water fountain for a very large park. She was thirsty- hypnosis always made her feel like so. She figured it had something to do with the Saushaleness being extra negated so she couldn’t get any water from the air like she usually did. Naturally, of course, the bottle was pink. Lena really didn’t like pink. Her last thought as Lena. She took a long drink. The water was very lukewarm and not very satisfying so she drank more than she probably would have otherwise. Tara seemed mildly amused by the pink bottle but said nothing. Lana noticed. Her eyes turned dark, changing from the dark bluish black they had strayed to. She could feel her hair thickening, her skin clearing up, the wart on the inside of her right wrist vanishing. Her teeth sharpened and the pads of her fingers burned momentarily as her fingers started creating venom again. Saushale. That was just the physical aspects. The mental were much stranger. Her mind literally felt as if it was being stretched. She analyzed every move that Sav and Ki were making- though she ignored Lynn. Even being Saushale couldn’t make her pay attention to her. That girl was like venom to the mind, worse than Advanced Algebra. Actions appeared in her mind clearly, actions that, as soon as they appeared, were justified by a thousand different reasons. Impenetrable reasons. Reasons that could never be broken, in her mind. Her frustration towards Lynn strengthened and her friendship with Tara faded, replaced by a sense of a tool. Sav was the subject, Kylie just an annoyance. Like a fly, she seemed like nothing. Lana was Saushale, Lana had hypnotism, Lana had the Telkin. Kylie, nothing. The expression on Lynn's face abruptly changed from teasing –probably her most common—into serious. Lana started paying attention at that point. "Are you..." Lynn did not say the word, but Lana heard it anyway. Saushale. Lynn had noticed. Lynn always noticed. Lynn always knew. How annoying did Lynn really want to get? Honestly. This was drawing the line. Hypnotism! came her instructions. Hypnotism is a very strange thing. I've never tried it myself, but I know exactly how it feels all the same. Lana quickly could feel so many different emotions brimming under the surface of the people around her- controlling, controlled, ecstatic, depressed, accusatory... Like a wide stream of water. Lana's mind was the funnel, focusing it into a single point of calm, powerful energy. She closed her eyes, the point growing from a dot to a needle. She opened them quickly and they flashed red. A brilliant, bright bloodred that was there and gone again in a fraction of a second. The other four girls' expressions turned blank and calm. The lines to say appeared in her mind, exactly as she was to say them, but different from the mind control. These had no reasons and justifications she had never known attached. These lines were her own logic, her own thinking, the product of her own intelligence. Her own. "None of you will think I am Saushale," she began. For that was just the beginning. "Kylie and Sav will know nothing of Sabrina and the Saushale and such. "None of you will remember telling them so. "You will inform them of nothing in the future. "The plan will be carried out as Sabrina intended it. "Lynn will not demand what she wanted. "You will remember none of this hypnosis." She released the dot of energy, her eyes flashing green for a second and turning black again. "As I was saying, are you actually on an assignment?' "Yes. Duh. Why else would I be here?" "I'm not on an assignment, and yet I am here regardless." "Where are you staying?" "I might not be able to hypnotize Saushale, but I can convince humans fairly well, thank you very much." "No need to get all defensive." Just then, a very loud song randomly started playing. "Sorry," Kylie answered everyone's unsaid thoughts. "It's my phone. I recorded one of my favorite songs on it and put it as my ringtone." "Ah," Sav replied for no real reason at all. Kylie turned to her phone. It was a text from her nanny. Wer r u? She had to pay by the letter and always used these really confusing abbreviations. Luckily, this one was regularly clear. Biked to the park. Problem? Wat if u gt in trbl I gt fird. (What if you get in trouble? Then I get fired!) "Who is it?" Kylie rolled her eyes. "My nanny. She's afraid I'm going to get abducted by a homeless person or something." Lynn and Savannah laughed so hard they couldn’t stand up and started to choke. That's Lynn and Sav for you. "I don’t get what's so funny about it." Tara frowned confusedly. Lynn stood up and shrugged. "If you don’t find it funny at first you probably won't get it if we try to explain." Lana remained still, a standoffish statue with arms crossed in the back of the group. I'm with all my friends. That way, if I get abducted, they could call you and lobby on your behalf. Ha 20 Twenty minutes? Y Kylie shut the phone and slipped it in her pocket. "I've got twenty minutes here." Tara nodded. "I should probably go. I have a report to write up and I really don’t need Sab to get suspicious." "Totally," Lana added. "I have to go as well." Lynn looked at her oddly, then shook her head like she was trying to erase the thought. Tara and Lana walked out but she stayed for a few extra seconds. "Hey, Sav?" "Yeah?" "Watch out with those dreams." A bit of her pinky- Lynn had really long fingernails –hit her arm. "They usually prelude to much worse things." Then she vanished. "That was weird," Kylie commented after a couple seconds of silence. "Most definetly," Sav agreed. "Hey, who's that?" Kylie was staring at a group of people in the distance. "A bunch of homeless people trying to abduct you!" They both laughed hysterically. "It looks more like Ashley and Madison and their clique to me." "Are you suggesting that there is a notable difference?" They laughed again. "Hey, Sav. Hey, Kylie. Why are you here?" Seriously, that was how Ashley enunciates her words. "Skinning poor helpless animals, why?" Sav answered sarcastically. "I wouldn’t put it past you," Massie challenged from the back. "You have no appreciation for specialness!" Sav mockingly fumed. Kylie started laughing. "Yes, we all find you very humorous," Ashley stated flatly. "Thank you for the compliment!" "It's one of our talents," Jamie called out. "Hey Jamie- did you go to summer camp?" "Yeah, why?' "Lynn was ranting about summer camp and she mentioned something about Alanna and her clique having some kind of war against Lynn and her friends. She mentioned you planting a camera in her room with Zara's name on it." "Yeah, Alanna had us do all these dumb things trying to get back at them when Lynn insulted her in front of everybody. It was really annoying. I had to pretend I was sick and miss a bunch of cool stuff." Sav snorted. "Knowing Lynn, it was not meant as insulting." "Yeah, Alanna could get kinda weird like that. Like when Jennifer went to get a book past hours we all had to go tell everyone we knew about it. Then she got in huge trouble. Apparently someone had told the counselors that she was hiking at midnight or something." "Why?" "I think someone else really didn’t like her. Jennifer could get seriously mad at someone, and the counselors-" "Counselors?" "There was one or two people in the cabins who made sure that no one killed each other or had electronics or something. We called them counselors. Not sure why. Anyway, they were always just waiting to get someone in trouble." "That does not sound like summer camp to me." "Mostly it was just a really cheap place for you to get away from your parents. We never actually did anything." "Alanna and I were friends in elementary school. She did mention that your friend Lynn and her stupid friends set up a bucket of oil to land on her head." "You mean it worked? Did Alanna get Lynn back?" "Yes, Lynn shoved her onto a rope so she got drenched. And then Alanna set up an mp3 player in their room playing those weird songs, set to play in the middle of the night. So then the counselor came in and threw stuff at them. She hates to be woken up in the middle of the night. Lynn and Jenny both got hit in the face with one of their books. The others actually ducked. Cathy never even knew it was us even though we were laughing to death in the next room. We all actually got stomachaches." "Nice. I'm surprised Lynn never told me about that." "Hmph. So why are you here?' "We live here. In this neighborhood." "Yeah, and I have to go. Like, now, before she thinks that you guys have abducted me and are secretly homeless people in disguise." Sav laughed and they walked over to their bikes. "Maybe Ashley is a homeless person in disguise, and that's why she acts so weird." "You'd better watch out! I'm a homeless person in disguise!" "Sav, dear, you must be careful. Those homeless people could abduct you when I'm not watching!" They laughed again. "Yes. Please keep talking. I can't stop laughing, so at least it has some purpose," a deadpan voice echoed out of nowhere from behind them. They turned around. "Kylie, it's been thirty minutes." It was a twenty-year old brunette who looked really mad. Kylie checked her watch. "What the heck," she muttered. It had, in fact, been thirty minutes. "I told you twenty, not thirty. Did you miss that?" "But it only seemed like ten, maybe fifteen!" "Yeah, right. Excuses, excuses. And the homeless jokes are not funny." "Except they kind of are." Sav threw her head back and laughed. "And why are you hanging out with fifteen-year olds?" "I'm twelve." "Just go." Sav chuckled to herself as she jumped on her bike and rode super fast back to her house, at least twenty or thirty miles an hour, though not by her power (of course). Lana smiled out her window. The pattern was set. Friday was completely ready. Tara stared worriedly out hers. Something was wrong. Something was missing. Lynn sat on her bed, watching the stars, thinking. Would her action be enough to kill that stupid back-up plan? Was that even a back-up plan? Sav woke up at five in the morning and, after putting on her outfit for the day (pair of very dark jeans, a low cut green top with a darker green tank top that showed beneath the bottom and at the neck, and a black zip sweatshirt- Sav hated to spend too much time putting together clothes) she walked over to her computer and started typing. "Um...I'm Kylie." "That was pretty cool with the bike rack this morning." Thank you so much for reminding me of that. "Very few people would count getting smacked in the skull as 'cool'." "It's not every day you see flying objects." "It may be so now," I muttered. Because, quite honestly, I could easily see that. "What?" "Nothing." "Seriously, what did you say?" I took a deep breath. "Okay, the bike rack was me." "Figured that out." "Yeah, well, I can't control what happens. I get mad about the slightest thing and someone's flying through the window or a bike rack is smashing into a wall." "Lynn" looked at her oddly for a sec but then shook her head. "You must really enjoy it." "Um- no. Not only because usually it's seriously injuring somebody, but also I'll get mad about it so the object comes after me." "Seriously?" "I think I've rolled out of the way of something at least ten times today." "Oh." "Yeah. Your parents must have been really creative with a name like that." "Um...yeah. My aunt was Linette so I was kinda named after her, but not really." "Ah. I see." "Do you remember me?" she blurted out. "Huh?" "From second grade? Remember?" "Oh. Yeah. You and Tanya and Zara. You guys still friends?" "Um, kinda. So, how exactly did you come to be throwing things into walls?' I almost told her about my dream, but then decided to keep my mouth shut. I'd known the girl for, like, what? Five minutes? Plus, it was a really long dream, and I didn't really want to remember. If I really wanted to remember, I'd stick it on my hard drive somewhere. Okay. Focus. "I woke up this morning and my dresser slammed into my wall." "What a great way to get out of bed!" She snorted, then got that look in her eye. I know the look- when people are imagining whatever I describe. It's essential to a lot of my jokes. "Seriously on the wrong foot. So to speak." I despise clichés. "What were you mad about?" "My computer wouldn’t load." "So, you were so mad at your computer-" "It doesn’t take much to set me off. Trust me." "Hey! There she is!" Lynn and I whirled around. Four guys were staring at me, looking really mad. Right in the middle was the one I'd kinda thrown out the window this morning. Oh, lord... "You threw me out the window this morning, right?' "Yes. Of course. I am a magical Sorceress from the land of wonder that can magically make people fly out windows." Lynn smiled. "Is that your way of denying it?" "Do you believe in magical Sorceresses? If so, well then don’t let me get in the way of your beliefs." I held up my hands in mock guardedness. Ah, I adore sarcasm. "I think you're trying to deny it in a very retarded way." "Hey, look over there!" They turned. "It's a blank space of wall." I smiled a huge, fake smile. "Would you rather slam in there or be speared on the flagpole? I just wanted to point out the location so that you know what's going on if you decided to piss me off further. But make sure I don’t get in the way of you annoying people who can obviously do more to you than you to them!" Lynn softly laughed, trying not to but not doing a very good job of it. "So you are admitting to it?' "Sure, whatever. But what's your plan to combat it, eh?" I raised an eyebrow. I'm really good at that. They didn’t get to use a comeback because at that the bell rang. The thing about our school is that if you want to get to class on time, because passing period is so short, you have to run really fast. So I grabbed my backpack-so much for eating –and made towards my fifth period class, Lynn right beside me. "You have history fifth period as well?' "I have your exact class." "How'd you know what teacher?" "I know a lot of things." That wasn't an answer, but I doubted that she would actually elaborate. We skidded in front of the classroom and walked in, about half the class present. The teacher turned around from where she was setting up the overhead. "Hello Lynnette-" "Lynn. Please call my Lynn. L-y-n-n. I haven't been called Lynnette in good humor for years." Your name is Lynnette and that is what I will call you." That teacher despises most nicknames. She calls Nick Nicholas and Gabby Gabriella. It's really annoying. "There are four empty seats available, I assume that Kylie can show you them...?" "Sure. My desk is right here and the seats are in a diamond pattern around me. We got to pick our seats." "I see." She sat down next to me. "School started a while ago," the teacher began, slapping a meterstick against her palm. She does that whenever she's thinking. We could hear the thwack easily. It was almost as loud as the screams of people flying out windows. Ha ha. Kidding. "I had trouble finding a flight from the east coast. I'm not sure as to exactly why." Tara walked in, smooth and cold as ever. She spotted Lynn. "Hey Lynn! I haven't seen you lately! I thought you were still back in Kansas." What did the aliens do to Tara, Princess of Darkness? Lynn rolled her eyes. "Obviously not." Plus, Tara had never left the West Coast. How had she known Lynn? "I thought you went to school in the east coast. How do you know Tara?' Lynn glared at Tara for a split second then turned back to me. "I'm special like that." Thank you for such a comprehensive answer. Lynn rolled her eyes at me. Or was it Tara? She couldn't have been rolling her eyes at me. I hadn't said anything! The bell rang and we sat down right on schedule. "Great. I'm so glad everyone is finally sitting down on time. Now pass up your homework, please, and we will begin class." Naturally, of course, I had forgotten it. The teacher reviewed the stack. "Ah, I see that you seem to have misplaced your homework today, Kylie. I am so disappointed. Perhaps you could get some help with what seems to be very easy material if you would stop throwing people out windows, as I seem to be hearing.' Calm. Be very, very calm. I could actually almost hear it. At first, I thought I was being schizophrenic or something until I looked over and realized that Lynn was hissing the word as if she had read my mind or something. "Though I am disappointed. Out of all of the silly rumors you could have made up, you had to choose something completely and utterly improbable! No one intelligent would ever believe that someone actually went out a window." "Count yourself in the other category," I hissed (barely aloud, mostly just in my head), right before Lynn poked me in the arm. Really hard. I hadn't noticed how long her fingernails were and I ended up totally distracted. "I really don't recommend that. She will get you back." Her voice was barely above a breath. "How?" "I'm not sure exactly. I just know." The teacher smirked at me. Smirked! Ugh. I despised this teacher. Laughing at me in front of the whole class and then smirking about it! Ridiculous! This day was really messing with my head. Why did Lynn know all these things? How did she know all these things? How did she know Tara? The teacher started lecturing on archaeology again, and I pulled out my notebook and took notes on the lecture. Teachers in this school loved tests and quizzes. The only way to stay on top of the curriculum, really, was take a lot of notes. Lynn apparently had not amassed this understanding and just sat at her desk, doodling on her hand with a pen, some kind of swirly design. For a while the only sound in the room was just the scratching of pens on paper and the teacher talking about the guy who inspired Indiana Jones. For a while. Savannah closed the window, satisfied. She had another hour before she had to make her endeavor to school, which she decided to dedicate to her homework. Her bike ride to school was quiet, and school was monotonous. "Hey, Sav." It was one of the girls she had seen last night- Lana? Lena? Lannie? Something like that. "Hi." "I'm Lana."She ha a light, rather high voice but it didn't make her seem young or juvenile. She smiled a bit after introducing herself. "Yeah, I know. You were Tara's friend." "Yeah, it sucks she's out of school, doesn't it?" She sounded like she was trying to be sympathetic. "She's been pretty nice lately, yes." "So, did you know she went to summer camp?" "Yeah. Some 'Flowers' place. Pretty lame name for a summer camp if you ask me." "The owner wasn't very good at trying to be normal. What have you heard about it? Anything abnormal? You can tell me." Sav shrugged. She hadn't heard that much about it. Lynn only talked about it on occasion, preferring to complain about boarding school instead. "Just that they don't allow any electronics or anything, plus they don't do a lot of summer campy things. Oh yeah, and Lynn had some kind of feud with one of the girls there- she dumped oil on her head and stuff." "Oh yes, Lynn told me about that. Do you know anything strange about their website? I was hoping I could register there." "I'm not sure, I wasn't really paying attention. You could probably ask Tara though." "Tara, yes. She's been acting kind of different lately, hasn't she? Not her normal princess of darkness thing?" "People change. Me, for instance." "Yes, I'm aware of that. Did she tell you anything; like that it was some friend of hers or something?" Sav rolled her eyes. What was with this girl? Sav barely knew her, and yet she kept asking all these weird questions. Lana smiled, and suddenly it made sense. She wasn't really sure why, just that it made sense to answer all the questions. "She made up some random story that she had some weird disease, like bipolar or something. I didn't buy it, though." "Did she mention someone called Sab?" "No. Why would she?" "Yeah. How did you get your powers?" Great. Her favorite question ever. "Some kind of weird dream thing." "Did you drink anything in the dream?" "Yes." How in the freaking inferno had she known that? "Some kind of potion thing that was supposed to help me. I never used it." "I see." Sav turned to sit at her old table to eat her lunch. Lana smiled. Everything was falling into place absolutely, completely, perfectly. If only there was some way to keep Lynn from her computer... Lynn: Hey Savvy. Savannah: Sav. Annah. Or just Sav. Lynn: When can I call you Savvy? Savannah: I will let you know.. Lynn: So what did you think of Lana last night? Did she seem kind of off? Savannah: she asked me a bunch of questions at lunch, but other than that, not really. Lynn: Hm. What did Tara think? Kylie? Savannah: they weren't at school today. Lynn: What? Why? Savannah: Oh, they had the black plague. Lynn: WHAT????? Savannah: Um, actually I was being sarcastic. I don't know why they're out. Lynn: Oh. Okay. Savannah: oh, hey, look Tara's online! I'll go ask her. Savannah: Hey Tara. Tara: Hello. Savannah: why weren't you in school today? Tara: I had other obligations. Savannah: Those being what? Tara: You know. Family stuff. I'll be in tomorrow. Savannah: do you know why kylie was out? Tara: oh, she has some kind of 24-hour thing. You can email her; she'll probably be online soon. Meanwhile, I have to go. Bye! Kylie woke up Friday morning ready for school. Her virus was gone, her temperature normal, sore throat and stomachache gone. She hated missing school and there was no way she was missing it today. Michele walked in. "Are you going to school today?" "Yeah. I'll be fine. You don't have to come over this afternoon again." "Kay. I probably won't, then, Emma invited me over for a sleepover." Kylie got dressed and shoved her homework in her backpack. Tara had emailed her the assignments, just as she always did, and so she wasn't missing too much. Tara woke up. She had that weird feeling she always used to get whenever she had the mind control and knew that something was missing. But the mind control wasn't on, right? However, the plan was still in order. Mind control or not, Sav was going to crumble. Plus, she was going to talk to Lena again. Maybe she knew what was up. Sav got to school early as usual. She listened to her new mp3 player, SavSon-EV while she waited for her friends to show up. They had both promised to be here today. Yesterday and Lana still reigned in her mind, especially now that she'd had some time to think about it. Why had she asked all those questions? What could possibly be the reason for it? Why had she answered so readily, as if some kind of unknown force was making her do so? Tara showed up first, walking up and sitting down. "Hey, Sav." "Hey, Tara." "How come you're letting people call you Sav now?" "Oh, I'm over the whole Massie thing. Plus, I knew Lynn wouldn't stop calling me Savvy otherwise." "Why don't you like to be called Savvy though?" Sav shrugged. "It was this band I used to listen to- The Savvy People or something. I told a bunch of kids about it and they started teasing me by calling me Savvy. I didn't get it for a pretty long time. But I was always Sav, just to shorten my name and make it sound cooler." "I used to listen to the Savvy People. They had a couple songs on a soundtrack that I bought. Actually, I think they're still really popular, right? Wasn't there some help song- capitol h, e, l, p or something they released?" She half-sang the all-too familiar song. "Yeah, but they're lamer now." Kylie walked up. "Hey, guys!" "Hey, Kylie. Are you okay?" "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a 24-hour thing. Hey Sav, are you still going this afternoon?" "Yeah, totally. It's not like I have anything else to do." The bell rang and they went to their classes. Kylie was the first to see her, actually. "Hey, Ki." "My name is Kylie." "Yeah, sure. So why were you out yesterday?" "Flu." "I see. So, I'm looking for someone named Sabrina. Has anyone mentioned anything about her to you?" She pronounced it Sah-aw-br(ah)-ih-NAH, the nah part sounding sort of like someone clearing their throat. "No, why would they? I don't even think I can pronounce that. Is it French or something? I suck at my French class." "Just curious. What do you know about that one summer camp?" "It's called Flowers, and it has a very strange website. That's it." "What's so strange about the website?' "I don't remember. Do you want me to check?" "Nah, I'll do that myself." "Kay. Hey, what happened to your eyes?" "What are you talking about?" "Yesterday they were smaller. And you had way more of a tan." "An appearance is only skin deep." She vanished. Then in history, she talked to Tara. "Hello, Tara. How have you been lately?' Tara shrugged, almost dropping the stack of books she was holding for an unknown reason. "Okay. Yesterday was pretty boring; my mom made me go to this wedding of my second cousin's." "Ha, I would imagine that being pretty boring. Are you excited for the weekend?" She almost dropped the stack of books again when a very pretty, busty blonde almost knocked into her and gave a nasty look. "Hello, Taira." "Hello. Are you new?" Tara asked cheerily. It always annoys people being nasty to you when you are either sarcastic or annoying perky. The girl gave her a disparaging look and walked away haughtily. "What are the books for?" Tara shifted them. "Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me. I have to drop them off at some other teachers place. They're textbooks." "Can I come?' "Yeah, sure." Tara dropped three of them in Lana's arms, and Lana almost fell over. They were so much heavier than they looked! How could Tara carry twice as much so calmly? "What are these things? They're huge!" Tara looked at her strangely. "They're history textbooks," she answered slowly and carefully, with an obvious duh! in her voice. "Whatever. So. Have you met Lynn?" "Yeah. She's annoying." Both statements were reeled off quickly, tonelessly, and as complete statements of fact. "What about Sav?" "Savannah? She's okay, less psychotic than I would have thought from afar." "Have you told her anything about," Lana dropped her voice to a whisper, "Sabrina?" God. It is so unfair that she can pronounce Sabrina and I can't, even though she is just Saushale. I can't even pronounce Saushale right. "Obviously not." "Are you still going with the plan?" "Yep." "Why?" "Because." That's one difference between mind control and hypnotism. Mind control gives you reasons to do stuff, whereas hypnosis just makes you do it. Severing mind control cuts the reasons, as if they were balloons lifting you to the sky, the reasons ribbons, and cutting the reasons to bring back to the ground of reality. "Which teacher? I mean, these things are seriously heavy." "Ms. Lee. She had a shortage and we had a surplus. She's in the W-21." Lana trudged along, using the Telkin to levitate them slightly. Normally, she wouldn't, because if Saushale used the Telkin then Sabrina could track them, see what they were doing without having to tap their phone or something. But it didn't matter now. She was doing exactly what she should do. Perfectly. Excellently. Nothing sliding out of her grasp. "Hey Sav." "Hey, Ki." Kylie rolled her eyes. "Should I succumb now?" Tara and Sav slowly nodded. "Hey, Tar. Can I call you Tar?" "Thank you for asking, unlike Miss Lynn. She feels that just because she shortened her name, everyone else needs one, too." Tara rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure, whatever." "So, you know about genetics, Sav? Because I need some serious help. Like, now." "Science is easy. What do you need help with?" While they chattered on and on about genes and DNA, Tara's mind wandered, trying to figure out what she was missing. She knew that she should know something that she wasn't finding. Why the freak did she need to go on with the plan? Every time she asked herself this, she hit what felt like a wall, a big ole sign stating a simple "Because", like her parents always used to do when they were being annoying. She had to, she didn't know why, but she knew she was going to do it, because she had to. Sometimes she really hated her life. She looked over. Kylie and Sav were talking, laughing. Sav was calmer than she had been in a month and a half, and Tara was going to pull that out from under her. "Sorry. You're part of an evil plot, so you don't get to enjoy your life. You have to work for one of the most evil beings in the world, whether you actually want to or not. Just like moi. We have the most fun life ever." But she was going to do it anyway. She could hate it, but it was going to happen. Unless...unless she told Sav everything. Kylie too. No normal person would stay. She'd take a sick day. Go home, now. She didn't even have to pretend to be sick, she could just leave, and no one would care. She hit another wall. She couldn't do it. She wasn't completely sure, but she couldn't do it, open her mouth and tell them that. Impossible. It was like slamming around a closed room, hysterical, banging into walls relentlessly, insanely. No windows. No doors. Trapped... "Hey, um, Sav?" "Yeah?" Sav turned to her. Her brilliant green eyes looked odd, different. Something was off. "Do you feel like something is off? Missing? Like you should know something, but you don't, or you shouldn't do something but must anyway?" Sav chewed her tongue lightly, thinking. She looked off into the distance, calm but focused, just like she always did she was using the Telkin intentionally. "I kind of feel like I should know or remember something. I think it's just my dream though. I usually remember them, and when I don't I feel like I'm missing something. Though I've never felt quite like this before, even when I couldn't remember..." She trailed off, obviously trying to work out the problem in her head. "I feel like I have to do something, but I don't know why. What about you, Ki?" "Nope," Ki answered. "I feel totally and completely normal." Some people like to say that we only use five, ten percent of our brain. "lo and behold!" they say. "What if she could harness the rest?" I'd like give you a very long explanation as to how this myth came into being, but I'm already running low on room here so I will just tell you this: we only use ten-twenty percent at a time. But not Sav. Not Tar. But yes as to Ki. Ki was totally and completely normal. But not Sav. Not Tar. Just wanted to share that with you. Rather far away, in a very remote location in Kansas, someone was watching. She had sparkling purple eyes and shimmering silver hair. She was often described as 'simply amazing', and amazingly beautiful and talented. She was watching everything, watching her plan fall into place. The heavy books were an old trick to spy on Saushale; obviously Lana would try to levitate them. The spell, charm, whatever would wear off as soon as she put them down. Too bad Tara wouldn't fall for it- she was too used to not using the Telkin She knew her plan was working. Everything had been out of place for a little bit- Kylie and Sav knowing, Lynn warning Kylie, Tara not going with the plan, Lana free. She'd known all about it as Sav biked down to the park. At least the tracking aspect of Saushale was kicking in, even if the rest wasn't working for some reason. That was so infuriating, but she could deal with it later. She would always figure it out. She'd known how bad it was, how awful the situation had seemed for a little bit. It was amazing how Lana and Tara never known anything when Bella and Laura showed up, never saw how thier eyes would flick over or one of them would seem distracted while the other talked. Saushale always underestimated her, as if just because they were free from the mind control Sabrina had no power over them. Never saw the water bottle moving around, top coming off, eyedropper lowering in... Humans, even Saushale humans, could be so naïve. Sabrina was a goddess. There was no stopping her. She was so much better than all this other nonsense. Now Lana had straightened everyone out. Thank Ciel for that girl. Kylie and Sav were back to normal, the plan was back on track, everything was excellent, just as she had assumed would happen. Tara and Lynn did show signs of breaking out of the hypnotism- Tara was definitely outliving whatever usefulness she had previously shown, once this was over so was that girl was so done –but they wouldn't break out of it fast enough to halt the plan. Sav, and all of her power, would be Sabrina's. Alena wouldn't stand a chance. No one would. Sabrina smiled. It was so easy to formulate these plans. Humans always assumed that she must spend hours coming up with these ingenious plans, analyzing and hunching over blueprints as she tried to think it through, but it was very simple, really, took her only a few seconds to put it together. Just knowing what would happen, and making sure it did. Her time as a "prisoner" were over. Sabrina was going to come on top. Most. Powerful. Ever. The only prevailer, first time ever. And absolutely nothing could stop her. Sav got out of class first. She felt totally and completely happy. Jamie and Massie completely ignored her, not teasing or asking her for answers. She'd gotten full scores on another few assignments, and A's on her science, math, and history tests. Her skin had finally succumbed and she no longer looked like a vision of death or something. And Tara was finally being, like, nice. The teachers had stopped bugging her, even her language arts teacher, and they were all shocked by her calm demeanor and lack of tornadoes. Life was perfect. Kylie and Tara walked up, annoying each other (or at least, that was what it looked like) and they started walking down the street. "So, Sav, I caught Jamie giving the evil eye today. She mentioned something about Snow White and the apple. Are they really that paranoid?" "When you live that empty of a life, the slightest interesting event makes you want to latch onto it and hold on tight." They all laughed. "Seriously, though, I can't believe I was ever friends with her. Massie, I mean. She's turned into such a creep!" "Everyone changes. It's amazing how much they do." And that is a fact, you know. Everything always changes. People always change. It's happened to me so many times, always placing my trust in one thing or another..... But this book is not about me, it's about Sav. Carmen. Tara. Sabrina. Lynn. Kylie. Tanya. Zara. So many perfectly innocent people, all ensnared in this whole stupid mess. Sav smiled, thinking about how much people changed. Tara, changing from a cold, mean person to much nicer. Lynn, from a completely cruel person a few years back to one of her best friends. Even herself, psychotic to calm. Angry, though more frustrated than anything, to content, even happy. "So, anyway, have you ever been here before?" "A couple times, you know, with Massie and stuff. I don't usually eat ice cream, though." Sav didn't really eat, period. She had a small lunch and something in the evening, but that was it. They walked in and Kylie ordered her usual raspberry milk shake, Tara cookies and cream, and Sav honey-vanilla swirl. They sat down to eat. Tara went to get the ice cream when they were ready. Slowly, she eased out a small eyedropper she had slipped into her pocket that morning. Inside was a clear liquid. She dropped three drops on top of the shake. The shake quivered and then looked as if nothing had happened. The deed was done. Tara tried. Oh, she tried. She tried to "drop" the shake –the Saushale liquid was all gone now –but she could not. She tried to give it back, say they messed up her order and would buy a new one, but it was impossible. She took slow steps back to the table. Slow, robotic steps, like a person walking to their death. She was destroying Sav. Destroying Alena. Destroying the universe in favor of Sabrina. Destroying the existence of everything. Funny how ice cream can have that power. But she could not stop. She had a real conscience; she hated what she was doing, and wanted to take it all back. Not destroy Sav's life this way. Not destroy everything this way. Everything depended on her not doing this. Not just Sav. Not just Alena. The universe. Everything. But hypnosis can not be avoided, undone. She set down the ice creams on the table. She tried to smile, at least a little bit. Maybe it would not be so bad. Maybe Sav would transfer schools. Maybe she would shrug it off, just another friend-turned-creep, and move on with her life. Maybe she would not be angry or upset at all, having only known Kyle and Tara for a week or so. But she knew it would not. She knew that Sav would be hurt, that she would be mad. Even if she did not show it, even if no tornadoes or earthquakes appeared, she would get her full power. With her full power (it would be so much harder for her to stop destroying things) and a few more of Sab's plans Tara had no doubt she would accept being Saushale. She would want to be Saushale, she would want to work for Sabrina. It was not to be avoided. And Sabrina would win. Just like that, she would win. Sav and Sab would be unstoppable and Sabrina would prevail. She had never hated anyone in her life as much as she hated Sabrina then. The hate boiled inside her, but there was nothing she could do. Rage and loathing built under her skin, but there was nothing she could do to stop the plan. It was a hold on her brain; rendering her unmovable. As the rage rose higher, so did determination. I will not let this happen. This will not happen. I will make it not happen. Something snapped inside her brain. The walls fell, and she raced out, finally free. And then Kylie took a sip. It was over. Everything was over. Tara's hypnosis broke, but there was nothing she could do now. The chemicals had entered her, and no matter how slight, they had entered her. There was no fully effective antidote (Sav already had some resistanceto the mind control, but not Kylie). There was no stopping it. Everything was over. All her fighting, everything she had hoped, worked for, wanted was over. Gone. Lynn watched as well. She knew something was up. Today was Friday, and she was doing nothing. NOTHING! She could do nothing, she was powerless. Everything was moving on without her, and she just wanted to scream, throw something, use the Telkin. But she couldn't! And it so pissed her off. She had no idea if Sav was screwed yet or if everything was safe. For some weird reason, she couldn't get out of this room. There was no one on the other side, but she was incapable of opening it. Every time she tried, it didn't work. She just wanted to break down the freaking door. Throw something at it. Scream her head off. But no. Something was stopping her. She was one of the most powerful beings on earth right now AND SHE COULDN'T EVEN OPEN A FREAKING DOOR. She sat on the bed and took a deep breath. Getting mad wouldn't solve anything. It would just force her to use the Telkin, not even letting her open the door, and that would give Sab her immediate location. Bellauren would be here in seconds. Seconds. That thought made her feel much calmer, though more by force than real emotion. She walked over to the corner of the room, where she had set up her laptop. Sav still wasn't online, so she was probably going with Tara and Kylie to.... A sudden surge of anger overcame her. Being one of the most powerful people had its serious drawbacks. Her power flew and the door exploded. Lit. Er. Ally. Ex. Plo. Ded. Great. So excellent. Top of her list. Plus a shard had hit her in the eye, a ton in her hair, and one had scratched up her face, which wasn't painful or annoying at all, of course. Then she remembered that Bellauren was going to be here in two seconds so she, still riding her waves of anger, jetted. Hopefully Laura would be doing something. She could take Bella. She managed to bang into several items (of course) before finally managing to stop. It definitely wasn't her brightest move, but hey, she did feel a lot better. She looked up dizzily, trying to figure out where she was. It seemed like she was somewhere near the school, in that totally lame mini-shopping center thing no one ever went to. Where she had become Saushale. She started walking around, not really sure of what she was doing or where she was going. She knew something was happening here that she needed to stop, but she didn't know what or where. Whatever. She could deal with it tomorrow or something, when she could actually remember what it was. She was just about to turn around and walk home, or maybe take a bus, because she did have some money in her pocket, when someone called her name. "Lynn! What are you doing here?" "Sav?" "No, the boogey monster. Obviously it's me." "Tara? Kylie?" Tara rolled her eyes and Kylie smiled. "Hey, Lynn. Why are you here, though?" "Just walking around. I was kind of bored so I took a walk, but I didn't really have a destination." Lynn was the master of half-lies, just like Carmen is the master of sarcasm and Sav is the master of calm. "Oh yeah. Hey, has Lana come around and started asking you a bunch of questions?" Tara asked it quietly. Sav and Kylie started a debate about music, a topic that Sav could fight about for almost Carmen, though obviously she wasn't fighting for Savvy People. "No, she hasn't." "Look, she's Saushale. She hypnotized us. I'm pretty sure her instructions have to do with the questions she asked me and Sav and Kylie- about whether they knew someone named Sabrina, whether I was going along with the plan, if they knew something strange about the summer camp, if I had told them anything. It makes sense." Lynn tried to make sense of it. She knew something was up with Lena. Lana, she reminded herself. If she was Saushale, like Tara insisted, then she was Lana. But she's not Saushale, she argued to herself. She has hypnosis! She can't have mind control on! But something was up.... "So, if she comes around, I have to tell her that I didn't interfere-" "I seriously wish you had," Tara sighed. "What?" "Yep. I doubt she'll even come around. It's over." "Not necessarily." The hypnosis had been half-lifted before, but now it was fully off. She remembered. And came up with a counter-plan. "Maybe we can get her to not care." "Yeah. Right. I sincerely doubt that." "I mean, obviously you-" "Me? Come on. You used the Telkin to get here, right?" Right. Sabrina knew exactly what was going on right now. Everything. "She'll do something, maybe put on more mind control or send Lana out here. I'll go along with the plan. If you want to help, you have to get out of here now. Out of this city, state, whatever." "Right. It'll be so much harder for them to find me that way," Lynn scoffed sarcastically, thinking Tara was expecting her to use the Telkin "Like, on a plane." "That'll take forever. I have a better way." "That being what?" "Watch and find out." Lynn turned around and walked to the Starbucks on the edge of the mini-shopping-center thing. "In." Lana was watching as well. Not as fully as Sabrina, obviously. She didn't have the technology nor the tenacity, but she knew in general what was happening. Her hypnosis was failing. Falling. Gone. They'd undid it somehow. Undid her work. And she was so powerful. They'd undid it and it made her so mad... Anger like heat, like fire, anger like an object, a sharp object like scissors. Scissors and fire destroying her mind control. Her head snapped up and she remembered exactly what she needed to do. She needed to help, find them and get there, help them- Wait. In order to get there, she would have to use the Telkin, and Sabrina would track her. If Sabrina tracked her, she would know everything happening and pour in reinforcements. She had to help here in headquarters. She needed logical thinking reasoning. She needed to come up with a plan, just like Sabrina. Morgan. Morgan. She sighed. Her best friend had always been the one to tell her what to do. Then Sabrina. Then Tara. Lena wasn't clever enough to come up with something by herself. Focus. Logical thinking, not pointless lamenting. Firstly, she knew Sabrina would be sending someone in the area, probably Bellauren. She had to find them and lessen their power or something. She turned her attention back and located them. They were in the transportation place of headquarters, about to leave. Lena got herself there so fast it scared herself. "Hey, um, Bella. Laura." They turned to look at her. Lena focused her hypnosis like before, her eyes flashing red. Bellauren waited for her instructions. "Okay. You need to go to the area, and, um, not use the Telkin for at least fifteen minutes, just loiter around, then don't hurt them and look like you are putting up a good fight. Try not to do it in broad daylight and act like you would normally, sarcastic and cruel and stuff." Bellauren left. Lena took a deep breath and focused. Next, Sabrina's ability to track Bellauren. Despite whatever they did to make it seem like they were fighting, it so would not work for long. Lena needed to make Sabrina think it was going like it actually happening. Or have her not be able to track it at all... Lena ran over to the technical area, hypnotizing a bunch of people so they would let her in. Okay. She needed to find Sabrina's tracking board. It had to be here somewhere, even though there was a very small chance she would find it on her own. So she turned to one of the Saushale. "Hey, where's the stuff for Sabrina's tracking board?" "All important stuff like that is kept in a locked room." "Who has the key?" "Bella, Laura, Sabrina, Eve, and the Japanese girl in charge of all this stuff. Kuzoku, or something." "Who's in headquarters?" "Eve. And Sabrina.' "Show me Eve." They clattered downstairs, Lena continually telling him to go faster. Finally they stopped in front of a door, simple and a dark indigo-purple, just as the rest of the building. The door was unlocked. "Eve?" Lena focused her power. It was getting easier and quicker each time. "Who are you and what do you want?" She looked up and was hypnotized instantly. "Give me the key to the locked techno room of Sabrina's, with the tracking board." "I can give you mine, but you need two keys. One of them is mine, the other Kuzoku's. Or Laura's" Eve handed Lena the key. "Where is Kuzoku?" "She teaches one of the classes at the boarding school." Lena thought for a moment. "Okay, what room number?" "Building F, floor two, room 5." Lena ran back down to the transportation rooms, right outside. She pulled out a Saushale makeup stick and ran it around her eyes and lips, making her look wildly different. She didn't know if it would be hugely effective, but hopefully Sabrina wouldn't think too much of it. Lena appeared in front of the school. Building F was only a few steps away. Lana ran into it and up the stairs, in front of room five. She took a few deep breaths and put her ear to the door. She heard several voices. Great. She focused her power and walked inside. Everyone looked straight at her, just as she'd hoped, and was blasted with hypnosis power. She thought the instructions in her mind this time. The class would not remember her arrival and the teacher would give her the key. Kuzoku handed her a necklace, silver chain. Lana stuck it in her pocket and ran to the transportation thingies again, back to headquarters. She arrived right next to the techno room, but before racing off to it she took a few deep breaths. She was really tired now from all this racing around, plus the transporter things supposedly sucked energy from you as well. She found a Saushale to walk Lena to the secret techno room. As was to be expected, the key was microchipped so you couldn't' pick it or something. But she opened it easily with the two keys, and was greeted with stacks of wires, things that looked like silvery plates, arcs of energy, and other things she didn't even know how to describe. "Do you know how this works?" The Saushale shook his head no. "Does Eve?" "Yes." "Go get her. Don't tell her why, just that she needs to go to get here, make no fuss, and tell no one. Do you think she'll do that?' He nodded and raced off. Lana pulled out her cell phone to check the time. Bellauren would start attacking in about two, maybe three minutes. Sabrina wouldn't suspect anything yet, assuming that they were trying to lead them out of sight or something, maybe just watch the situation to determine the best attack. But if she waited too long, it would be too un-Bellauren-ish. Eve came hurrying up. "Hello? What do you want?" Lena hypnotized her. "What is the best way to disable this so Sabrina can't have it fixed in less than an hour?" "Steal it." "Well, yes, okay, but which pieces would be the hardest to reproduce?" "Every piece has at least five copies in different locations." "Do you know these locations?" "Some of them yes. But there is one only Sabrina knows about." Great. If she were Tara she could think of something. If she were Lynn she could do something. If she had Morgan's cleverness, she could come up with something. But no. "Is there some way you can program something false into one of the Saushale's tracking things?" "Yes, you can. Each is a direct feed, triggered by the Telkin. You could create a program for it." She couldn't even figure out how to download music off websites. How in the freaking hell was she going to hack into a hi-tech, hi-protected machine and write a program for it? In two minutes? She flipped open her phone and dialed Bellauren. "Are you still hypnotized?" "Yes." Robotic. "Hold off for another five minutes." Lena snapped it shut. Why did this have to be so hard? "Why, oh why nuh-awt?" It was how Bellauren often ended her conversations. "I need you to write a program of Bellauren fighting Sav, Tara, and Kylie. I want the program to end with Sav and her friends getting away and flying to an airport. Bellauren can't find them, and they take a plane to, um, Japan to hide. Put in stuff like levitating books and stuff so it's believable, though maybe only Sav's slot since she doesn't really know. Oh, and see if you can add in Sav saying she isn’t going to use the Telkin anymore at the end." "Simple." Eve sat down at one of the controllers. "Can you make it encompass Bellauren, Sav and Tara's slots?" "Easy." The Starbucks was crowded and noisy. Excellent. Lynn went up and ordered a tea so they wouldn't get all mad about the girls sitting there and not contributing to their extensive wealth. Everyone sat down. "So, Lynn, what's your grand plan here?' "The truth." "What?" Sav. "Okay, look. Um..." Lynn trailed off. It was a bit hard to explain. Sav and Ki stared at her blankly. "Sabrina is after you, Sav. But she needs Kylie to ditch you first. That's basically-" Lynn tried to explain. "Who is Sabrina?" "Why does she need me to ditch her?" "Sabrina is this really evil person. She wants your power, Sav, but she needs Ki to ditch you so you will consent." "Okay, but I'm not exactly going to ditch Sav anytime soon, now am I?" "Yes, but Sabrina can put mind control onto you, easily, and then you have to do what she says. And, unfortunately, you kinda already have some on you." "This is it? This is your big plan? How is this going to help us not get killed?" Tara sat there with her mouth open and her arms crossed across her chest, clearly not believing in this plan at all. Lynn smiled. "Sav can take Laura. I can take Bella. And you can make sure they don't kill any innocent bystanders." "That's not a plan, Lynn. I just want you to know that." "Like your plan was so much better! Run and hide? Come. On. She'd find us in, like, a nanosecond." "Yes, and Bellauren will get us in half of one." While they bickered to each other, Kylie whispered, "I don't believe it. Do you?" Sav shook her head, her silver hair barely affected. "Nope. Not at all. They are so lying. It's a joke." "I can easily see Tara doing that." "And Lynn." Suddenly, Lynn jabbed a long fingernail into Tara's arm. "Ow." Lynn has really long fingernails. She'll jab them into people's arms at random, and if she's really mad she can easily draw blood. "Look. It's Bellauren!" They peered at the enemy. "They don't look like they are about to attack, do they?" "No. Great. We'll get their lovely wit instead." "What's a Bellauren?" Sav asked, her tongue tripping over the rather unimaginative word Lynn had coined. "Bellauren. Mirabella and Lauren, but they call themselves Bella and Laura. They're these two really mean twins that we know from summer camp." "Lovely." "Yeah. Lynn wants you to throw something at the taller one." "I thought they were twins." "Fraternal." "In the middle of all this? I think I'd hit an innocent bystander first, unfortunately." "No, they'll try to drag us away first and then you attack." Sav wasn't quite sure if Tara was being serious or sarcastic. Her face was hard to read. Probably sarcastic, though. This stuff was so fake. "I'm surprised they haven't come over yet," Lynn whispered. "Don't stare at them. They'll notice us and most likely they're trying to track us before they attack." "How are we going to know when they are going to come over here?" Tara complained. "Simple. We'll split up. We're a pretty attention grabbing group, but if we split up we won't look quite as strange. We'll try to remain in a close area so when they attack we can join up." "I'd rather go home," Sav interrupted. "Come on. It'll be fun. Like spies or something." Kylie looked halfway excited, though more like she was trying not to make Lynn hate her. People always did what Lynn wanted. "I'm not a spy. I'm Sav. And this joke is really wearing thin. 'Bellauren' is probably just some totally ordinary pair of girls-" Tara pointed. Sav saw them and gaped. Ah, the first look at a complete Saushale. It never gets old. Bella and Laura had coal black eyes that seem to suck the light out of the earth, long ravens hair that looks to have dug itself out of a black hole. Their faces are cruel and sharp, and their skin is paler than death. Paler. They don't look like they have any blood, or like their skin has ever seen the light of the earth. How can a person like that walk into the middle of a crowded shopping center thing and not be noticed? Easily. They only look like that to Saushale. Or half-draggals. Or someone else enchanted with whatever Sav and Saushale have. Sav turned back to Tara and Lynn. "I'm in." Lena watched as Eve easily flipped switches, typed in things, shut off energy and did a dozen other things Lena couldn't even begin to understand. Lena was pretty sure that Eve was doing everything she could and Lena couldn't help much, so she went off to secure off her hypnosis on some of the Saushale. It was easy, even though she hadn't asked for their names or anything. The hypnosis gave them an aura-type thingy that she had begun to recognize. Once she had tied up all of the loose ends, she decided to secure Kuzoku later. They wouldn't track this for a pretty long time, hopefully. She pulled out her phone again. "Hey. Bella?' "Yes. I am here." "Okay. Are you attacking Tara and Lynn and Sav?" "Laura is." "Okay. I need you two to stop fighting. And then, um, just drive around for a bit and don't go anywhere where someone might recognize you." "Okay." "Bye." "Bye." Lena walked back to the secret techno room. The door had sealed behind her. That was something she would need to remember if she ever used this room again, but luckily this time she had the keys. "Okay. Um, hey Eve. Going great?" "Yep. Even I would not suspect anything, and Sabrina does not have all of my technological skill. She is better with chemicals." "Okay, great. Is it over?" "Almost." "Okay. Shut off Sav's sensing thing when you are done, okay?" You might have noticed this, but Lena is to 'okay' as Megan is to 'yeah'. Ha ha, made you look, Hannah. "Definetly." Eve continued working, and Lena just stopped and breathed. A couple minutes later Eve stood up. "I am done. Sabrina will not suspect anything. She might scream and throw some tantrums, but she will not suspect that Lynn and Sav are in Oregon." "Will she think I am behind it?" "She will not be able to tell anything because of the technology, but otherwise I do not know. She might suspect you for other reasons." Lena handed Eve back her key, then transported to the building and handed Kuzoku hers, hypnotizing her so that she would not remember anything of Lena. Her work was done. "Excellent." Lynn threw away her empty tea thing and they all walked out, Sav and Kylie going one direction, Lynn and Tara the other. They circled around Bellauren, who were walking down the street gossiping to each other. About ten, fifteen minutes later Bella got a call. She had a loud, piercing ringtone, so piercing Lynn couldn't even figure out what it was. She strained to hear, and it sounded as though it might be Sabrina, demanding something about "hypnotism" "five minutes" and a very dramatic way of hanging up. Plus, Bella sounded slightly forced, like she always did around Sabrina. Another five minutes and they whirled around, smiling. Perfect. Laura was the first to attack, slamming Lynn into the side of the building. Lynn managed not to be crushed just at the last second, even thought it was feeble. Why, she did not know. Sav jumped in and got a light post aimed at her head. Sav dropped to the ground and rolled quickly, way quicker than any attack could ever go. The girl was good. She slammed Laura and Bella into each other and then the wall, knocking the breath out of Laura and Bella nearly unconscious. Laura tried to counter again but instead ended up doing some really strange twirl and slammed into the building again. Correction: the girl was really good. Bella didn't really fight after that and Sav stopped slamming Laura into the building just long enough to almost have a garbage can careening into her head, which ended up near Laura's instead. Bella got a phone call again and Lynn strained to hear. Something about driving around? Laura still fighting? Why on earth would Sabrina want Laura to stop fighting? There was no possible reason, especially since she hadn't actually been informed that Laura was losing. There must be something wrong with her board then if she had to ask anything, so why was she telling them to pull out? And what was with the hypnotism? Something was up. Oh, yes, something was up. Bella muttered something, it sounded like a line from a song from the way she said it, so it must be a code. Laura glared at Sav but walked away. "Well. Sav. You...Wow." Sav whirled around. "What?" "Never mind." Sav rolled her eyes and started walking back to the school. "Where are you going?" "So I can get my bike from the school." She raised her eyes and used a very duh voice to convey that this should have been obvious. Kylie walked into her room that night. All of this nonsense had really started with Tara. Then it had really come into focus with Sav. Well, she was sick of it! She looked in the mirror, remembering the whole Sabrina thing they had been talking about in the café. She looked normal- her familiar dark eyes and dark hair, a slight tan and her annoying pink overtones. Her face had the same round look that she'd lived with for twelve years, almost thirteen. She'd be thirteen in November, just two or three weeks from now. Kylie did not put much worth in holidays, and had barely thought about it. She shoved her mind back to the task at hand. If "Bellauren" were real, then was Sabrina? She just wanted Sabrina to go away. She wanted all of this whole Saushale-Bellauren-mind powers-Saushale-mind control-hypnosis mess to exit her world. Her world was supposed to involve school. Computers. Volleyball. Her cousins. NOT a Sorceress-goddess whatever. She did not believe in God and never had. This made no sense to her, that there was something greater than mankind. Even Sav with her powers hadn't been so impossible, for some reason. Maybe because she had only known Sav for a few days, and then barely that before her powers appeared. She'd known Tara since she was five. She sighed and looked down on the floor. Her stereo was playing something, sounded like the radio; the song something by Lady GaGa. She got up and turned it off. She had all weekend to decide, after all. Sav went home and immediately opened up her story. When class ended I found Lynn following me to Art as well. The teacher despised seating charts and let us sit wherever, different placements each day. We had eight different tables, five seats at each one. My table was usually empty, but today Lynn sat across from me. "This school is really weird," she commented. The teacher was probably the most scatterbrained of the school and so we talked for the first five or ten minutes of class while she put everything together. "Why?" "The halls, mostly. No one stops to talk. No one sits at their locker-" "There's barely enough time to get to class as it is." "Yes, that's kind of odd, too. No one sits at their locker and gossips. No one's ever late. No more than two people ever miss their homework. All the teachers have test averages and they're always A's. And it's so clean." "What's so weird about that?" "Well, I mean, at my old school we had way longer passing periods and the halls were always hugely crowded and tons of kids were late and stuff." I shrugged. Different schools were different, after all. The teacher finally appeared. We'd had homework the night before, but I think she'd forgotten. She always forgot. "Kylie! Can you tell me the difference between a shade and a tint?" "Are they not the same thing?" "Madison?" "A shade is a lighter color and a tint a darker color, when you are mixing paint you would mix paint with white to create a shade and black for a tint." "How about this one, Kylie. What is the color opposite red?" "Um...." Most days I could have answered her before she even finished her question. I could remember everything and was known to do so. Today I couldn't think for some reason. Maybe it was the desk that had almost knocked me out in math, it hit me so hard. "Green," Madison answered. "I thought this was art,' Lynn whispered."When did it turn into a Q&A session?" "What is she going to grade on?" "Kylie, I'll give you one last chance. What is..." I didn't even hear the rest of the question. All I could see was Madison and Ashley whispering and laughing. Ashley even pointed at me. And I took out my anger so fast Lynn didn't even have time to poke me again. The teacher rose and slammed into the window. The entire class stood up and ran over to the window. We were on the first floor and the teacher was fine, just a little dusty. She hadn't even hit the ground. "Well, Kylie. Was that your doing?" "No," I answered reflexively. Lynn raised an eyebrow. She's almost as good as me; I use that facial expression quite often. "Whatever," I responded and sat back down. Lynn sat down as well, followed by most of the class. "Well," the teacher began, looking even more scattered than usual. She took a deep breath, then continued on with the lesson as though nothing had happened. But my life, after that day, was never the same. Lena was still in headquarters that night, staring at her computer screen. What did Lynn know? What could Lynn know? She could call or send her an email, but either would be traced easily. She could go to talk, but that would require either a plane or a transporter and those could be traced as well. She got up. Staring at her computer screen wasn't doing anything to help her. She liked the phone idea. Maybe she could use some random person's phone, so it wouldn't be traced. She'd just hypnotize them. They'd never know anything. She'd have to go fast, though. Sabrina locked up headquarters at eight, mostly to try to avoid Saushale doing exactly what she was doing right now. Lena jumped up and ran outside, towards the small town-like area. As soon as she reached the first house she stopped, took a deep breath, and rang the doorbell. By the time it had opened she was ready for a full blast of hypnosis. The ordinary human there never stood a chance. She found the phone easily enough and dialed Lynn's number. She wasn’t really sure why Lynn, and not Tara, but it made sense so she did so anyway. "Hello? I don't know this number." Lynn sounded confused. "Um, yeah. It's me, Lena. I lost the mind control-" "That was fast," Lynn commented, sounding only half as impressed as Tara. "Okay. Look. I just came out of headquarters, and I didn’t want the phone to be tapped, so I just picked some random's phone. Hypnotized 'em. Sab doesn’t have all the phones tapped, does she?" "That would be exhausting. So, what exactly did you do?" "I messed with her tracking board and made Bellauren not actually fight." "Laura did seem a bit subdued today, though as mad as ever. Don't rely on her for any plans- she's very resistant to hypnotism and mind control. It's all the Telkin. That's why you can't hypnotize Sorceresses or goddesses; all the Telkin makes their brain different. It would take someone very smart, smarter than Sab to do that." "Thanks for the theory lesson," Lena informed her sarcastically. "I already knew that. So, I messed up the tracking board-" "Really. You never seemed very technologically competent to me." "I'm not. I hypnotized Eve, and she did it for me. So, basically your story is that you're with Sav in Tokyo. I blocked up Sav and your block, so you can use the Telkin. Try not to attract too much attention or else she'll probably send out Saushale or something. That would be bad." "Wow, Lena. This must have been hard to orchestrate." "Eh. Not really. Just hypnotizing the hell out of headquarters." "I would agree, but let's keep the language down, shall we not?" "I'm rolling my eyes at you, Lynn. I just want you to know that." "Sure, Lena. Whatever you say. Au revoir." Lynn disconnected before Lena had a chance to tell her goodbye. Lena checked her watch. Headquarters was closing in two minutes. There was no way she would get there on time. Oh well. She was Saushale, after all. Sabrina had enough to do already without checking to make sure she was in. Lena did usually have the mind control on for at least four days, so that was what she would be expecting. Lena started walking. Sav woke up Saturday and started getting dressed. It wasn't until she'd sat down and turned on her music before she remembered that it wasn't a school day, mostly from the loud yells of pain a few doors down. Sav's aunt slept late on Saturdays, until around six or six-thirty, depending on the circumstances. Sav turned off the music and signed into her email account. There was one message, sent from twelve o clock that night, from Kylie. To: Savvy54321@gmail.com From: kylienuts@gmail.com Subject: I despise subjects. Date: [input date] Hey, Sav. Savannah. Whatever. Well, anyway, this might be a slightly weird message, but I wanted to finish it before the mind control sets in. I asked Lynn, and she says I have until Monday. I know you're probably going to hate me, but look. I didn't start talking to you that day because I thought you might be a cool person to get to know. Tara was annoying me and I knew something was up. Lynn says that Saushale set something off or something. Well, she was annoying me, and I was over it. I needed a new friend. And, well, it wasn't like you were in high demand. Anyone else I tried to be friends just looked at me weird and continued on like I was just a non sequitur in their all-important conversation. I expected to outlive the weirdness. That it would go away. After all, you were acing like you always had- smart, talkative, with a touch of sarcasm. But it only got worse. Now, apparently I'm about to become Saushale, I'm getting these weird emails, and I've been hypnotized. I was attacked today, and I've never believed it. I hate religion. I hate the idea that there are gods or Sorceresses or whatever else Lynn wants to throw at me. It's nonsensical and it's annoying and it goes against everything that I was raised to believe. I'm over it. Sav, you're a great person. Really. You were willing to help, you listened when I told you things. But my goal was always to make the strangeness go away, and you're not helping. The strangeness is back. Sorry. To: kylienuts@gmail.com From: Savvy54321@gmail.com Subject: I despise subjects, too. Date: [input date] Thanks for the heart-to-heart. By the way, there is an antidote, especially since it only occurred a few days ago. Well, I guess the point was that I wouldn’t turn Saushale, anyway. And I'm not. I probably won't be around school, though. I'm switching over to Lynn's. Au revoir, transient. Sav swung her chair around. She was about to go read or something when her cell phone rang. Lynn. "Hey, Lynn." "Hey, Sav. You got the email, I'm guessing?" "Yaw." "Are you…mad?" Lynn had an uncharacteristic pause between "you" and "mad" "No, not really. I mean, she did have a good reason that had nothing to do with me. More like seriously willing to change schools. I sincerely doubt that I'll ever make friends again." "I got a call from Lena last night. I don't believe it, but she claims that it was her that undid Bellauren and messed up the tracking board. She doesn't have any mind control." "How can you tell?" Lynn smiled. Sav could tell, even though she couldn't actually see it. "Well, you know that band you used to listen to? Savvy People? I did have a long talk with Tara, so don't even ask how I know that. Apparently there's a whole electronica thing mixed in here." "Great." "I know, right? Anyway, did you ever listen to a song called "Cruel Summer"? It was a cover that they did." "I listened to it, but it definitely wasn't my favorite." "Um, yeah. That song got remixed and put on the CD. 'lectronica." "I see." "Yes, well, that's how you tell. You make them listen to that." "You live in a very interesting world, Lynn. Very interesting." "We, Sav. We." EPILOGUE Sav stood in front of her new school, a backpack over her shoulder as she waited for the bell to ring. No one noticed her. There were so many kids here that almost no one even glanced her way. It was amazing. She knew her story hadn't reached there, though. No one would believe kids who told tales, and if they videotaped the tales their camera or cell phone was disposed of. Her old school had very strict rules. She stood around, trying to figure out where her next class was for another half second before something barreled into her. Sav was thrown back and knocked into some random kid behind her. "Sorry," Sav muttered, then looked at what had barreled into her. Lynn. "Hey, Sav! I thought you were being sarcastic when you transferred!" "Yes, well, I was not." "This is Zara and Adriana." Sav peered at the two girls. Zara she could recognize from second grade. She had the same reddish brown hair and complacent expression she always had. Adriana she had never seen before, but she did have some kind of weird metallic black hair, a trend from the next school over. She had probably transferred. "Cool. Now we're four again." Adriana smiled. She looked relatively nice. "Again?" "Yeah, Tanya transferred out. She decided to try boarding school." Sav checked her watch. "It's 8:05. What time does school start?" "In twenty minutes," Adriana answered. "Better than at my old school." "Yeah. So, here's how its organized. Whatever number is in front of the class number is the floor. So if it says 415 then you go to the fourth floor-" "You have a fourth floor?" "Yeah. You had four sections." "Ours had seven classes in each, not fifteen." "Anyway, the classes are numbered 1-15. And there's the gym. So it shouldn't be that hard to find them. Not like at yours. I mean, honestly- could hit have been harder to figure out what all the E's and N's were?" "So, what kind of music do you listen to? Electronica?" Adriana made a face. "I like Alternative. Not the whole dance-pop-whatever-" "Electronica," Sav and Lynn answered in unison. "I can almost hear Carmen saying that along with you. She was obsessive that you called it what it was. And her music sucked, too." "She listened to dance-pop-electronica, too," Lynn informed Sav. Zara still hadn't spoken. Sav looked closer. "Hey, are you listening to an mp3 player?" "Yeah, why not?" "Nothing." "Hey, what did happen if you got caught using your cell phone in class?" "You couldn't even have it on campus; you had to bring it to the office before school. If it fell out of your backpack, then they took it away, and you had to either have a parliamentary debate in front of the whole school with the teachers-" "Debate what?" "The rule, punishments, etc. It was student-voted, so they usually won, but it was so embarrassing. One girl burst into tears in the middle of her speech, another girl meant to say that cameras were educational, but instead that they were obfuscational. One guy was shaking so hard, he actually fell of the stage!" "And they won?" "The girls won; their other team members were better. But the boy who fell of the stage- we couldn't even finish, everyone was laughing so hard." Lynn smiled. "Everyone laughed when someone burst into tears?" "No, only the mean people did. But the one who said obfuscational...Yeah,we were all really laughing at her." "What does that even mean?" "It's not a word, but obfuscation means bewildering. So yeah, it was pretty funny." "No one complained?" Adriana asked incredulously. "Yeah, a lot of parents did, since it was usually the kids with four-hundred-dollar iPhones who got them taken away. But the principal talked about how 'educational' the program was and that they learned to 'debate and handle fear' and such." "So, what music do you listen to?" Zara asked. "The Savvy People." "Seriously? That's the same band Carmen is obsessed with!" The bell rang and they all went to their respective classrooms. Savannah walked briskly through the crowded hallway to her locker, elbowing aside several people in the process. They turned to say something to her, probably something along the lines of "Watch it" or "Excuse me" or some other sarcastic, mean response, but before they could they saw her face. They saw who she was. They saw exactly who had just moved them aside. And they shut their mouths and moved out of the way. She opened her locker, but before taking out her books for the morning, she glanced over at the next six or seven lockers. They were all open, and the people were too busy to notice her, gossiping in the annoying, self-possessed way that the students of this particular school were so very fond of. Savannah watched them, almost calmly. This school had something about it; the water or the air; that made it virtually impossible to achieve the level of calm and indifference she needed. The level of calm and indifference that she needed to stop herself from blowing up and going off. The level of calm and indifference that made her so cold served the same purpose to keep her from doing- The lockers slammed shut, locks wrenching themselves off their lockers and splattering people surging down the hall like small bullets of hate and pain. People scattered. To keep her from doing exactly that. Savannah knew the group would have complained, but they were smart enough not to. Only an idiot would say something bad about Savannah. Well, to her face, that is. The six or seven people started bickering about something like a 'rincipal-pay'. Savannah looked at them in confusion, then rolled her eyes. There were some very very strange people that attended this school. But they didn't matter. Well, maybe Massie mattered. But not in the best of ways. Savannah tried to remind herself to stop antagonizing herself, but it was impossible. She never meant to do anything that ended up happening (and she'd done some pretty not-fun or not-nice things) but they happened anyway. Computer wouldn't load. Dropped her bike lock. Best friend ditched her without warning for someone in the 'Inner Circle'. The point was punctuated when her twelfth lock-twelfth in one, solitary month- snapped. Great. Not. Massie had disappeared from the group, which Savannah had neglected to notice before. Now she returned. "The principal wants to see you," Massie muttered before racing through the deserted hallways. There was barely a minute left in passing period. Savannah totally could have made it, but she had to go to the stupid principal instead. There's the eighth thing on my list, Savannah thought. Every day she assembled a list in her mind of things she currently, mostly because of things like the locker story. Every day the list decreased, but it was still going strong; her last tally at almost forty mishaps. The bike rides were the biggest problem, the reason why it was so high so early in the morning. Now there's the kind of life to lead. She went quicker down the hall. She despised school, not because of its school-ness, but because of its increased opportunity for disaster. She loathed the disasters—her freakin' disasters—even more than anything. The only thing she really liked was emailing Lynn Ultimatihah, a girl she used to know. What changed Lynn from being an annoying girl who barely paid attention to Savannah to someone who was always online talking, Savannah didn't know, but it was nice to have some kind of a friend. Savannah saw the empty halls and made use of her mind powers to go much faster. She liked using her mind powers. That is, when they weren't turning her school into a freaking disaster area. “Savannah," the principal started.. “You can’t keep doing this. It's unfair to your classmates. They’ve complained numerously…" There was more, but Savannah couldn’t care less. This must have been, like, the fifteenth time he had said that exact same thing. Down to the last sigh. He was always threatening to kick her out of school, a threat which Savannah knew would never manifest. “Savannah, I can tell you’re not listening." “I’m listening." “Then what did I just say?" “ 'That I can’t take out my apparent anger on people who had nothing to do with it.' " Savannah had also been watching the clock and knew exactly which phrase the principal had just said. Word for word. “Yes, actually. How did you know? “I’m listening." “You’re making objects on my desk levitate. That takes a lot of concentration and attention. You would have had to screen out my voice and never would have been able to pay enough attention to what I was saying." Snap. How did he know all this? Guessing? Books? Internet? "Let's just say I listened the first time. You say the exact same time every morning." "Why do you do this locker practice of yours? Is there anything wrong?" "Like the fact my supposed best friend ditched me to hang with a popular girl, and preen her hair, and talk about the jocks, and read their romance novels, and exchange their-" Savannah had been gathering steam the whole time and was close to shouting. Even though she didn't really care anymore, there were instances in which it was hard to tell. "That would be a perfect example." The principal smiled. It made Savannah want to throw something. "So what happened?" "My supposed best friend ditched me to hang with a popular girl, and preen her hair, and talk about the jocks, and read their romance novels, and exchange their stupid books, and generally totally blow me off." Totally deadpan. Only an idiot would not be able to figure out what she was going to say from earlier. "Well maybe it you tell her how you feel, you would stop, um, destroying their lockers. But why are you still doing this?" "Because I'm special like that!" Savannah snapped. It was Lynn's favorite expression. "Well, your, er, 'special-ness' is really annoying everyone here. You can't take out your anger on all of us. You can't just-" Back into lecture mode. Savannah's barely captured attention drifted again as the principal continued talking about things that Savannah had heard a bazillion times before. She was so going to miss first period, just like every other day. Savannah hadn't gone to P.E. since about the first week of school. "I think you should write a book." "A- what? " Savannah hadn't really been paying attention and the new idea shocked her out of re-arranging the principal's files from inside the drawer. "A book. I'm not a therapist, but since a lot of kids find writing a journal to be helpful, even though you don't, I think you should try." Savannah almost laughed as she remembered when she had tried to write a journal. All she had thought of to say, beyond the obvious, was print "Mind powers, mind powers/whom do I see?/Must be someone lucky/Lucky because they aren't me" over and over again, until it filled about ten pages. The teacher was both puzzled and annoyed by this and discontinued the practice. "About what? How much I hate my life? How much I hate Massie?" "Or perhaps your telekinesis?" "How about all three? Then I can lock it into my attic so it will never see the light of day again!" Savannah would have stood up and marched out of the office, but that might have resulted in her having to go to P.E. And because she hadn't even the dimmest idea of what they were doing, she kept sitting down, even though it totally ruined her rush of anger and timing. "Savannah. Look. You need to calm down. Destroying the school won't make your friends like you." "Maybe not." Savannah watched the momentary relief in the principal's eyes. "But it will make me feel better." "Why Savannah? Why? Why?" "Because I'm special like that!" "Go to first period." Usually the lectures lasted considerably longer than that and Savannah was surprised by the abrupt dismissal. " What? First period? I haven't been there in, like, a month! I don't even know what they're doing in there!" "Figure it out." "Plus, I'll be late. The principal produced a pass and Savannah set off towards the stupid gym, hatred burning inside her. Of everything. Her life. Massie. School. P.E. The principal. Even Lynn. In short, basically the entire population. When Savannah got to P.E., luckily, she hadn't missed much. Just getting P.E. clothes, a locker, and the entire routine. So, you know, not that much. Not. Sarcastic, redundant thoughts, manyof them quotes taken directly from Lynn, filled her head as she marched over to the instructor she'd become acquainted with a while back. "I have absolutely no idea what's going on," Savannah stated flatly. "Who are you?" "Savannah. Savannah Cusa." She was surprised that the teacher didn't already know, Savannah looked unique and was probably a very talked-about subject "Oh right. Come in at lunch and we'll get you all straightened out." Meanwhile, Savannah, being the lucky soul she was, got to sit and have the entire room- which was one heck of a lot of people- stare at her the entire period. Savannah's thoughts mostly consisted of a) whatever activity she was doing with her mind powers, b) how much she hated this school, c) her intense dislike of Massie, and finally d) how much she wished she were at home, in her room, listening to some kind of music-preferably the new CD that had just come in with several good songs- rather than here. All in all, a pretty lethal combination. Savannah did have a pretty awesome memory, though, and she replayed some of the songs in her head. They all had these weird names- like DUYD-SV or CrSu-AV or SavSon-EV. DUYD-SV and SavSon-EV were her favorites. "I have my dreams...I am so filled..." she hummed to herself. She decided to opposite of think about P.E. Which wasn't hard, considering the small mind powers she utilized, such as making the floor vibrate or the walls jump slightly. Savannah walked toward her next class, which was Speech. It had sounded totally 100%-to borrow one of Lynn's phrases- on paper, but in reality it was a total bore. Basically, every other week they had to write, memorize, and perform a speech. The teacher had said that most of the speeches were pretty short, but two or three they would do would have to be much longer. Which Savannah was sure wouldn't be much of a problem. Today, she and the thirty other unlucky adolescents were going to have to perform their speeches. The assignment was to write a speech informing the class about something they were very beneficial- God. Those phrases of Lynn's were so annoying- and yet so hard not to use. Savannah found herself saying beneficial and 100% all the time now. Which was on the higher spectrum of the annoyance scale. Savannah sat in class, waiting for the bell to ring. She pulled out her new favorite book: Peeps by Scott Westerfeld. Scott Westerfeld was one of her favorite authors and she'd read every book of his at least three or four times. Finally, the bell rang and Savannah put her book away. The teacher had decided to go in alphabetical order by first names, so Savannah wouldn't have to go any time soon. Not like it really mattered anyway- she had the whole thing memorized to perfection anyway. Twenty minutes later, Savannah was staring at the clock, a) wishing she could perform her speech, b) wishing she could leave, and c) wishing that she had a BlackBerry like Lynn so she could email her during class. This was just so boring. "Savannah Cusa!" "What?" "This is the third time I'm asking you-" "Yeah, yeah, I got it!" Savannah had chosen waterskiing as her topic. "Hello, peeps." That there alone was an insult. In Peeps, a peep was a parasite-positive. Obviously these kids didn't have the same kind of parasites, but it was an insult and a joke nonetheless. Of course, none of the kids actually had read the book Peeps, so the joke was wasted. "Something tells me that all of you took really wild guesses and unanimously decided I was going to do mind powers, but I didn't. Well, I most sincerely apologize, in the most insincere and sarcastic way possible. Anyway, I chose waterrskiing, because waterskiing is awesome and so am I. Waterskiing, in addition to being awesome, is also expensive, unless you have friends who will drive you out to the lake, so you can waterski, go without a shower, have no properly functioning toilet, and eat sand instead of food. Isn't life the greatest? "Anyway, waterskiing, in addition to being awesome and expensive, is also really hard. It took me like twelve runs in order to get it, as well as a half gallon of lake water and the innumerable parasites to boot. Which is just totally on the higher side of the beneficial spectrum. There are three things that are essential for waterskiing: Touch, Strength, and a really, really still lake. And the last is really hard to come by, especially on a busy lake like Don Pedro. "Waterskiing, in addition to being awesome, expensive, hard, and hard to come by, also takes some technique. The basic technique is to sit in the water with your knees to your chest and wait for the boat to move. Then you stand up in the water in a span of about three seconds. Which takes the exact right speed: too slow and you fall backward, to fast and you fall on your face. Both of which are the total opposites of 100%. I speak from experience. And I trust that, even if due solely to your overall incompetence, will be able to say so soon. "Waterskiing, as well as being awesome, expensive, hard, hard to come by, technique-taking, and un-beneficial if not speed-perfect, is finally very hydrating. As in I can guarantee if you try you will end up with a face full of water. Inevitably." Basically the entire class was staring at her. For at least a full minute, everyone in the entire room just stared at her blindly. Even the teacher. "What?" Savannah asked the room, finally. She had to stay up in the spotlight because one of the infuriating rules of the teacher was that you had to stay up there for a few minutes for critique. "100%?" one person suggested tentatively. "Un-beneficial?" Another tentative suggestion. "You apology?" Someone actually laughed at that one, remembering it. "Beneficial spectrum?" Oh. They were confused by Lynn's expressions. Which Savannah couldn't exactly blame them for. Savannah had also been confused by Lynn's expressions and sarcasm when she had first emailed Savannah. "It's just my friend. She makes up weird expressions and borrows some from other people." "You have a friend?" Some evil person asked incredously. Savannah made a face. "Um, like, yeah? Is that not what I just said?" "Yeah, but..." "Despite popular belief, I am not a witch. And this is not the medieval ages, despite the feudality. Quit the Inquisition." "Is feudality even a word?' "I'm not completely sure." "You lose points for sarcasm, cruelty, and incoherent phrases. You earn points for memorization, having a clear thread, time, and picking a good topic." The teacher was totally ignoring the fight, not wanting to bother Savannah and figuring that the girl was stupid enough to deserve what she got. "Incoherent phrases?" "I have never, ever heard a professional speaker say a beneficial spectrum, use that much sarcasm, or-" "How can it be funny while devoid of sarcasm?" Savannah said sarcastically. Several people laughed. "And how was I being cruel?" "Face it, Savannah," a girl in the back said. She had skin the color of porcelain and jet-black hair and eyes. Her eyebrows were high and arched, giving her an eternally angry look. "You're always cruel." "That was a mistake," someone muttered darkly, just loud enough for everyone to hear. "Here we go again," another sighed. "Stop, drop, and roll," came another. All of which made Savannah pretty angry. And by now you should realize that making Savannah angry is a very un-beneficial thing. Duh. "See? You're all just proving my point!" The mysterious girl stood up as if to prove her point. "Savannah is someone who will never be challenged." "Okay then, Miss Smart-" "It's Tara, actually." She pronounced the name wrong, with an 'are' sound rather than 'air', which Savannah found pretty strange, considering it was the girl's own name and all. "Whatever. That's not the point. The point is-" Savannah's sentence was stopped by the bell. "Catch ya later!" Tara called before sashaying out the door. Third period was math, and fourth was history. In both classes, everyone was terrified of her. They kept their mouths shut. No one ever talked ever really to Savannah. Savannah hated to be bothered by people, and people hated to bother her. Duh. One wrong word and you're blasting through the window. Just to give a totally random, unrelated example. Savannah sat in a raging boil throughout the whole thing, and everyone in both classes kept their distances. Smart people. There is no such thing as "comforting" Savannah. There was no such thing as making her feel better. There was just not getting thrown into the door. Or so people were so sure of. At lunch, Savannah stomped over to the gym, leaving destruction in her wake. All of her anger- the book, P.E., and especially Tara, boiled up and lashed out in destruction: skidding tables, cracking pavement, bending window panes. She didn't want to hurt anyone, but her anger and rage made it impossible not to use her mind powers. Most of the school realized this pretty fast, and they all moved out of the way as she passed through. It didn't take a mind reader to figure out what was going through her mind. They had dealt with her enough. Savannah burst through the P.E. offices doors. Most of her regular teachers- that is the ones whose classes she hadn't missed- already had a 'Savannah radar' to figure out when she was angry- that is when to step away- but the P.E. person had no idea. Which was so not advantageous. To borrow another one of Lynn's favorite words. The entire room shuddered slightly when Savannah entered it, as if it couldn't take that much power. It wasn't anger that encompassed Savannah. Her sheer power is what made her that dangerous. I'd kill to be as powerful as she. "Savannah?" The teacher said, only slightly cautious. Most others would have asked her to leave. While crouching behind a desk or something similar. "That is so me, it is unbelievable." She hadn't really intended to say that, but it just came out. It was by far Lynn's favorite expression, and she used it all the time. It was one of those contagious expressions that you don’t particularly like but use all the time anyway. The teacher handed her some 'P.E. clothes', and explained some of the rules and everything. It wasn't exactly rocket science, and Savannah slowly calmed down. Afterwards, Savannah spent most of her lunch sitting at a table reading intently, steadfastly ignoring the rest of the universe. Fifth period Savannah had Language Arts. The teacher there was always practically desperate to get Savannah to stop feeling angry. All of her attempts never worked, mostly because Savannah sincerely disliked the teacher and refused to go along with most of her attempts. Today, she revealed that it was her that had suggested to the principal write a book. It was also her that had asked for the journal. "I really want you to write this book, Savannah." "I suck at writing." "Well-" "I've actually asked my friend to evaluate my writing, and I must say that she agrees that my writing sucks the Kasbah." There was another one of Lynn's expressions. Lynn was the one who had edited it and those had been her exact, heartfelt words. "Write it anyway." The bell rang and the teacher started working on the lesson. Sixth period was science, and again the kids were scared stiff of her. Savannah let them be that way. When Savannah finally got home, she went immediately to her computer. She didn't have much homework, and what she did have she could finish in fifteen minutes, anyway. Savannah signed into her gmail account, Savvy54321@gmail.com, and lo and behold, there was a green dot next to Lynn's name. There was always a green dot next to Lynn's name. Savannah once signed in at one in the morning and there was a green dot next to Lynn's name. Lynn: Hey Savvy! Savannah: Pardon my language, but what the HELL do I have to do to get you to stop calling me Savvy?????? Lynn: Touchy. Anyway, anything new with your mind powers? Savannah: No, just that some people have a death wish. Lynn: What? Savannah: There was this one girl who was openly challenging me in front of my class. Savannah: Obnoxious girl. Lynn: What was her name? Savannah: Tara. Lynn: Did she look kind of freaky? Savannah: Haven't you guys, like, met? Lynn: If we have, I don't remember. Savannah: Tara definitely doesn't look mainstream. But, I mean, neither do I. I mean, hello, I look like I'm dead or something half the time. Savannah was very, very pale in normal circumstances. And when she was freaked out or scared, which usually happens when one of her disasters occurred, she did look like the walking dead or something similar. Lynn: Whatever. Anyway, guess what. Savannah: What? Lynn: I don’t know. Lynn: I have to go. There's some retarded assembly and they are making us turn in all our electronics. Savannah: Aloha. Lynn: Double Aloha. Savannah: Triple Lynn: quad Lynn's dot went gray. Savannah pushed her chair back from her desk. She then pulled out her homework and finished it. Then she pulled back up to her computer. On her computer, TRACK 5 covered the screen. It was, of course, really SavSon-EV, but her computer couldn't find the names on the internet so had just named them like that. On the small pamphlet, of course, all the names were listed but Savannah was too lazy to input them. Savannah opened a new word document. She was going to start on her book, which, knowing her, would probably be one of the worst books in human history. SAVANNAH'S BOOK- THE PINNACLE OF CRAPPY BOOKS Hello. My name is Kylie. I have this thing called 'mind powers'- Hm. Maybe you haven't heard of those exactly. Let me explain, then. Mind powers give me the ability to move objects with my mind. Which is like really weird and also excessively freaks me out. And pretty much the entire school. I'm not completely sure how I got them. It wasn't something that happened slowly, it was like I went to bed one night, finally resigned to my stupid, obnoxious fate, woke up in the morning (still resigned, mind you) and launched my dresser into my wall. Without getting out of bed. Then I screamed. Still screaming, I tripped down my stairs, where my mom and brother just kind of stared at me blankly. I probably looked pretty psycho. Wait- there's no probably about it. My mom kind of went "Would you like some coffee?" and my brother just stared. Yeah. So not a pretty picture. I suppose that's not a very exact explanation. Barely took me a few minutes. So let's back up: way, way back. Past Lynn, past that morning, past the dream (I will explain), past the resignation To the beginning. Once upon a time, there was a girl named Kylie (that would be me). She had a friend named Madison. At school Madison and Kylie were never apart. And after school, they would email or talk on the phone for a very long time. But one odd thing about the whole situation was that they both liked different things. Kylie's life definitely revolved more around books, school, and to a lesser extent, music. But Madison preferred focusing on friends and popularity; her reading selections were those really annoying candy lit that some people really like. Anyway, one day Madison decided that Kylie was too boring, or uninterested in Madison's admiration of the Rich and Snobby, or something along those lines. So Madison ditched Kylie to hang out with someone better. Popular, rich, and snobby-wise, that is. And, of course, Kylie was just thrilled with that turn of events. Let's see how big of a 'NOT' we can stick on there. Anyway, so I was still kind of upset about that. But let me just orient you in space and time. Because that always helps matters: 1st day of school: Kylie and Madison are best friends and spend three hours emailing each other. Seriously. I counted. It was like five hundred lines. 2nd day of school: Kylie goes over to Madison's locker and tries to talk to Madison, and a big snobby blonde is in her way. Kylie tries for five minutes until Madison says "Look, I don't really want to hang out with you anymore. Ashley here is cooler". Madison gives Kylie the cold shoulder the rest of the day. 3rd day of school: Kylie decides to stop acting psychotic about it. After all, if Madison decides to ditch her, then there's really no reason for Kylie to want to be friends with her. Tries to make other friends. That's an epic fail in a bottle. 4th day of school: Kylie wakes up by lobbing a dresser into her wall. Then falls down the stairs, getting a huge bruise on her cheekbone that does not go away. It's been weeks and the thing is still there. So, you can see why I'm upset, pretty much. I try not to be mad about it- it's been almost six weeks and I'm so over it by now. Unfortunately, no one told the objects in the world that, and so they're still responding. Seriously. I walk into a room and they all go psychotic, banging into each other. I don't know why it just happens to occur when I drop my pencil and end up crushing it. Or get my hair entangled in my backpack zipper (hello, it's like two and a half feet long- it's hard not to). Or when a book I want isn't in the library. Or when my lock on my locker isn't cooperating. Or when I try to get my bike out of the garage and have it conveniently bang into everything, thereby inevitably breaking them. Anyway, let's go back to how I actually came to be psychoticizing (that is so not a word) the objects in a room. I suppose there is more to it than just me being angry... In fact, there's actually a whole story. Another one. Actually, there's more like five other stories, all part of the really annoying fantasy-science-horror-teen-fiction mess that is also known as my life. Glad that you find delight in it. So, you know the night after the day when I went around trying to make friends (man were those objects on fire that day)? Well, I also had a really weird dream. Like, psychotically weird. And yeah, I know all of us have really weird dreams all the time, regardless of whether we are also turning insanely, accidentally violent at the same time. Like me. Anyway, let's move on. Savannah flung her chair back from the computer desk and lay on her bed, listening to the music. It was different from any other music she'd ever heard- different sounds and twelve thousand layers of sound. But soon that got tiresome so she grabbed a book and read that, having already finished Peeps. As always, Savannah woke up at six in the morning to get ready. That much time wasn’t really necessary, but Lynn was usually online so she could chat with her for a while. Plus, today she also had her book. She got ready by six twenty, and found her inbox full of messages from Lynn. She only had to click on the first one (sent at three in the morning) to figure out exactly what her mistake had been. Apparently she had left her computer on and her internet browser open, so it had looked like she had been online all night. And ignoring Lynn. Whoops. Savannah: Hey Lynn. Lynn: How come you were ignoring me? Savannah: Sorry. I left my computer on all night. I had a file unsaved, so I forgot to hit power again after saving it. Lynn: Oh yeah. I've had that happen before. It's so annoying. Savannah: So, anything new with your boarding school? Lynn: No. But everyone here is pretty hilarious. Savannah: Why? There was a long pause there for a paradoxically short answer. Lynn: Well, they all treat me like a time bomb. Savannah: Why? Lynn: Not sure. I just know that whenever I walk into a room, no matter how loud it was before, it's silent. In fact, if it weren't for the Lynn Lang, the teachers would all probably love me. Savannah: ha ha. Everyone treats me like a time bomb too. Lynn: Duh. Lynn: Do you like electronica? Savannah: Um, my favorite CD shows up as electronica/dance, so I suppose so. Question for the narrator: Why does the music register as electronica-slash- dance? Simple. It's registering itself after The Savvy People, whose music is defined as Electronica/Dance or Electronic Dance. No idea what the difference is. Lynn: Awesomnisity. That's my favorite genre. What artist? Savannah: None. Lynn: Um, it has to have some kind of artist. Savannah: Except that it doesn’t. The cover is plain black, silver writing. 'lectronica. That's it. The CD is plain black. And the inside of the cover just has the names of the songs. No credits, no artists, no recording studio. Lynn: Tried looking it up on the internet? Savannah: Yeah. But it's like it doesn't exist. I've tried the song names, I've tried 'lectronica, I've even tried lyrics. Except for this one blog, nothing. I mean, they all have like seven trillion matches, but none of them are what I'm looking for. Lynn: Whose blog? Savannah: Some random Alena person. Doesn't even have a last name. Lynn: Alena... I know her. I always thought she had a password on her blog. We used to be friends. Now we're enemies. I would always be able to tell it was her...she had her name pronounced oddly- a-lih-nah or something. Savannah: Yeah, she has two. One of them has a password and one does not. And if since there's no last name, how do you know it's your friend? Lynn: It's not exactly a common name, now is it? I mean, if I put up a blog with just 'Lynn' on it, talking about boarding school, you would have to be pretty sure it was me, right? Savannah: Good point. And if it was in the Lynn Lang it would be a done deal. And do you know anything about the CD? Lynn: Not much. Besides the fact that it's annoying, it will turn itself on at random times, and it doesn't exist. According to most people. Savannah: It turns itself on at random times? Lynn: Yeah. According to my friend, she once left it in her CD tray. And at midnight she woke up to the really annoying one. Track Seven, I think. FaPa-CV. Savannah: Yeah, that's the only one I simply cannot stand. Lynn: Yeah. She sent me the mp3's, like, over the email, and they're all okay. Except for that one. And DUYD-SV. Savannah: Seriously? That's like my favorite! Lynn: Really. What about the CS one? Track four. Or NoEx-LV? Track three. Savannah: They're okay. NoEx-LV especially. Savannah: But I've never had them turn on randomly. I just kind of feel schizophrenic. Lynn: How does that relate to this conversation? Savannah: No! I mean that sometimes I can almost hear them. Mostly track five. SavSon-EV. That one's the best. Lynn: Are you sure you aren't actually hearing it? Savannah: Duh. I don’t have an mp3 player. I've heard of people's mp3 players doing that sometimes. You know, randomly turning on. Lynn: I hate it when people do that. Savannah: I know! Once we were taking this one test, so it was deathly quiet. And then someone's mp3 player started totally blasting some Brittany Spears song. I think it had built-in speakers. Lynn: Ha ha. I would have loved to be there. But I think you spelled the artist's name wrong. Lynn: Guess what? Savannah: What? Lynn: You live near California, right? Savannah: Not really. But I'm closer than most of Oregon. Lynn: I'm moving there soon. Savannah: Really? Why? Lynn: My family got relocated. . Savannah: That sucks. Lynn: How come you are always on at five in the morning? Do you ever sleep? Savannah: It's actually six. And I go to bed at like eight. Lynn: EIGHT? Savannah: I'm special like that. Lynn: Are you trying to do that thing where you annoy me with my own expressions? Savannah: No, it just kinda popped out. Lynn: Oh. Whatever. Savannah: Isn't the time difference like three hours? So wouldn't it be three in the morning for you? Lynn: No, I'm three hours ahead. So I'm about to enter my lovely Life Science class. The teacher there never pays attention to see if I am texting or not. I love it. Savannah: Texting? Lynn: chatting, texting, whatever. Oh, wait she's looking over here. G2g! Savannah watched her screen as Lynn's green dot faded to gray. Then she sighed and opened her story. There was really no reason not to be working on it. She supposed. Dreams are always psychotic, right? This is the part where you all give a big chorus of "RIGHT!" RIGHT! Good job! Okay, anyway, I suppose I really should tell you my dream. Even though it is kind of embarrassing. Also, if you had even the smallest doubt of my being psychotic, then it will be run over. Quickly. Completely. Thoroughly. Here we go! (reluctantly, I most importantly add) I stood at the foot of one heck of a tall building. I thought to myself, what kind of building is this? And, like magic, a sign appeared! Duh. This is a dream. Anyway, the sign said 'Free Psychiatry'. And I was all like, "Hmmmm. I am acting kinda psycho. Maybe this could help." Yeah. Psychiatry. I was really reaching a low point in my life there. Anyway, I walked in. And let me tell you, it was huge. HUGE! The biggest expanse I have ever, or will ever, see. Probably. See, this is why I'm kind of a crappy writer. I always get like super off-track. Ok, focus. Anyway, the whole space was dark. And cold. And empty. The emptiness was what struck me most. The top of the walls was just a six-inch-wide, rather dirty and dim window, and through it's (minimal) light I could tell it was completely immaculate and bare. No dust. No desks. And absolutely zero people. Nothing. Except for one tall column in the exact middle of the room, reaching from the floor to the ceiling and almost three feet wide. I walked toward the pillar, my footsteps echoing off the walls, echoing back to my ears eerily, my heart rate almost double normal. I was scared of this place. Terrified. And yet something in me kept me walking forward. Kept me walking towards the pillar in that empty room, all alone, completely silent. Now the cold registered in me, a draft against my skin, freezing and shocking. It scared me even more. Alone. Silent. Bare. Cold. Dark. The pillar was a nondescript gray, just like the rest of the room. And yet parts of it were smeared with a thick red fluid. Blood. The pillar was not smooth. There were names carved on it, thousands of names. Matt. Lynn. Brian. Mirabella. Carmen. Brandon. Rachel. Jordan. Taylor. Names in other languages I couldn't even begin to pronounce. Names in good handwriting, names in bad handwriting. Names in unique handwriting, names in commonplace handwriting. Dozens, hundreds, thousands of names. Names. Names. The blood was smeared randomly on most of the pillar, but in one spot on the bottom it was a circle. A mark. And inside the circle, marker, smudge, ring, was a name. Mine. Kylie Dresca was written in my perfectionist handwriting. My name. I was on this list. I remembered how this had been a skyscraper. There must be other floors. I could leave. I searched around the room, finding no door. No door leading out from where I came from. I was locked in. Locked in with the blood-stained pillar, the cold winds, the only sound my echoing footsteps. The light was fading, so now I could barely see. I was going to be here forever. I would die here. Rot here. My remains to be the only thing besides the pillar. Sitting on the floor, however, allowed me to notice something- a trapdoor. I couldn't go up, or out, but I could go down. Whether that would leave me in a better or worse situation was lost on me. I pulled it aside. It was heavy, so heavy. But I was determined, nearly hysterical. I had to get out of here, away from the pillar. I had to. Fear and hysteria made me stronger, and soon I had heaved the door out. The hinges were bad, and I threw the door at the wall. I would not be trapped under. There were stairs down. Bloodstained stairs. I could smell the blood, rusty from the hemoglobin that carried oxygen. There must have been so much. I was scared to go down. But one look at the pillar again, at my name, at all those other names terrified me again. I took one hesitant step downward. Instantly the temperature dropped twenty degrees, freezing me in my mere shorts and short-sleeved shirt. I shivered. The light was less, too, darkening at a much faster rate than normal. Savannah saved, then pushed her chair back, breathing heavily. Remembering that night, that dream always terrified her, spiking her heart rate and sending fear throughout her entire body. The pillar had always been scary, the only thing in that dark room. The blood circled around her name had sent hysteria through her. The blood. Thinking she was next in some kind of sacrifice, something unnatural. That dream had marked the beginning; none too subtly. It had marked her, marked her mind and subconscious. She'd really been hoping to forget it, push it into the deepest recesses of her mind, never to be thought about again. Unfortunately, her brain didn't like that plan very much. It rebelled almost instantly, bringing up the incident every five seconds for the first week or so, then the first five minutes. She was down to every five hours, but the fact that she was thinking about it at all was depressing enough. Somehow, though, she didn't want to forget the dream. It was so important and detailed- she didn't want it to completely vanish. She had to remember. Maybe if she wrote it down, got rid of that subconscious need to remember, she could forget it in her mind. Her C:/ drive could remember it for her. I didn't want to continue downward. But I had to. It was the only way with even the smallest possibility of exit. I took each step carefully and slowly, trying to avoid the blood. But as I continued in my downward spiral, it became more and more impossible. Huge pools of it splashed over each step, dripping down each stair, leaving only a few inches to walk. Soon it was completely impossible not to step in the blood, and cold, wet liquid covered my sneakers. They were semi-waterproof, and the blood was dry enough for it not to soak through to my feet. With each step I chanted to myself, "There is an exit. There is an exit. There is an exit," so I would not forget the exit. I couldn't. I might never leave otherwise. Every once in a while I would look back at the start of the stairs to see the rectangle of sincerely dim light. That light was not the only in the stairway, though. Every six or seven steps, a small tea-light candle gave off a little light, just barely enough to see the stair in front of me. I tried to pick one up at first, so I could always see, but it was glued down to the stairs. One thing I did notice was that it gave off no heat. None. Zero. It seemed like I walked down for hours, but I knew I had not. Eventually I reached the bottom. The second I did, all of the tea-lights went out. All of them. The room was completely dark. The only light was the barely-there dimness of the room above. It was getting dimmer, too, until eventually it disappeared. I was in pitch-black darkness. Red dots swam around my vision, there one second, gone the next. I tried to catch them but they vanished. I couldn't imagine what they were. Bugs? Flying blood? Christmas lights? I think I was pretty much at the pinnacle of how confused you can get. And scared. I was completely scared now, even more terrified than up in the room with the column. Anything could be in this room, anything, and I could see nothing. Nothing. Finally, however, a light switched on I front of me. I jumped back, slipping on a slick wetness on the floor I hadn't noticed before, having been too distracted by the red lights and total darkness. I landed in a thick, wet puddle. It was big, and splashed all over my clothes. Blood. It wasn't a light, I realized. It was someone's hair, a phosphorescent glow, silvery-blue, more like the light on a jellyfish than anything. The person with the glowing hair was a girl. I could barely see her face, discern only that she was really pale and had huge black eyes. Wait. Not black. There was a rim of purple. Her eyes were almost entirely pupil. She looked very self-satisfied, sneering down at me. I had stood up and was covered in blood. I have always been tall, much taller than anyone else, taller than people three times my age (some of them at least) but I was incredibly short compared to her. "Shalt we begin?" she asked mockingly. Her nearly-black eyes shimmered. "Begin what? Who are you? Where am I? Where are the top floors? Why am I here?" I asked, all my confusions shooting out in a few desperate sentences, nearly hysterical. I knew instinctively this was the only person who could help me. The only one who knew the answers. "I am I. We are here. The top floors are at the top. We are about to begin something. You are here because you are dreaming and cannot wake up. Satisfied?" Her cool, easy voice seemed much too calm for the dismal surroundings. She grinned at me- though somehow that fit. She knew that she was the only one able to answer my questions, that I was desperate for the answers. She knew that there was no reason to answer them. "No." "How about this. I will answer one of your questions with six distinctive sentences. And then we shall begin." I thought carefully. I would find out what we were going to begin soon, so there was no reason to ask that. I didn't really care what was the deal with the top floors- there was probably nothing up there that I needed. I didn't frantically need to know where we were; from what I could tell of her she would give me GPS coordinates or something. That left one question. "Who are you? And answer what your connection is to this place, too," I added as an afterthought. "So demanding," she said sarcastically. I wondered briefly if this was what it was like to be around me all the time. I pushed the thought out of my mind, though. Almost instinctively, however, I threw something at her. Not with my hands. With my mind. Savannah then looked at the clock. 8:05 A.M.! Her school started in six minutes. And it was five miles away. Oh, lovely. Savannah rapidly saved and shut down her computer. She grabbed her backpack, tied a piece of cloth in front of her face and pushed her distinctive hair in a tight, improvisational bun, and jumped into the front yard. Time to do something she'd never tried before. And for, like, a really good reason, too. Focusing, she furrowed her brow. Within seconds, she was three hundred feet off the ground. She pointed herself in the direction of her school and went fast, faster than ever before. She overshot each turn for the first few minutes, but soon she had gotten the hang of it and was taking each turn like a pro. As was to be expected, every car on the way practically stopped and stared. Duh. You would do so too if on your way to school you saw an eleven year old cruising the skies. Without, like, a hang-glider or anything. Hopefully, though, with the aid of the cloth no one would actually recognize her. Savannah was really mad at herself about it, too. Usually she biked to school- it only took her fifteen minutes with the aid of her mind powers- but there was no way she could go fifty miles an hour (five miles, six minutes. Do the math) on a bike and not burn out her tires or bike or something. Her aunt, who was taking care of her for the next year and a half and cared way more about her up-and-coming business than Savannah, was out at six in the morning and home at twelve. She insisted that Savannah was perfectly capable of ferrying herself to school. Savannah didn't care. It allowed her to sit in her room for six hours without her mother going psycho about her "health" and whatnot. Her mother could complain when she was not taking a two and a half year "business trip" in Australia. She didn't even know where her dad was. Savannah reached school in five minutes. She half-ran, half-walked over to the locker room. She reached the door just as the bell rang. Yes! She thought to herself. I rock! Savannah walked over to her new locker and pulled out the unflattering P.E. clothes. She dressed in two minutes, and then walked over to the attendance area, where each teacher took attendance. All of the students dissipated to different teachers, in groups. Each learned and played a different sport- volleyball, basketball, soccer, etc. The only game Savannah had totally understood was soccer, so she was forced into that group, because all the groups had finished instruction already. Even though she hated soccer more than anything in the world. Savannah was assigned to a team and field. She took her boring defender position with grace (translation: knee-bowing gratitude) and sent a silent prayer to "god" that the ball would never, EVER come over to her side of the field. Apparently god was out of the office, because not even an entire minute had passed before the ball was hurtling over to her, followed by most of the players. Savannah ran towards the ball as if magnetized and kicked it towards the other side of the field as hard as she possibly could. She hadn't been even using her mind powers, but due to Savannah's superior leg strength and the really tiny field (mainly the second) she scored a goal. Some random people she didn't know came over and gave her a high-five, apparently some of her alleged teammates. Savannah hadn't really been paying attention to the teams; her plan was just to smash the ball to the other side of the field whenever it came over. Which was, as Lynn would say, so easy it was unbelievable. She played for another forty-five minutes. The other team was much better than hers, so the ball came over several times, but they couldn't get it past Savannah. The final score was 1-0. Savannah walked over to second period feeling happier and more confident. What did it matter if the entire school hated her? She was actually good at something! Besides destroying things and killing people! Because no matter how great you might be at that, the thing is that you rarely feel very confident about it. I mean, saying that you are good at soccer sounds much better than saying you are adept at annihilating people and property. Her happy mood evaporated as she remembered what was today in Speech. Today they got the assignment for their next speech. She slid into her seat expertly "Tell a story- one we can really lose ourselves in. Something emotional and full of description. This is a longer one- 2-3 mins. Get started." "Why don't they call this Oral Report Class?" the person next to Savannah muttered. Her name Kylie: she was the only person who even halfway liked Savannah. Hence the reason that her name was part of Savannah's story. Savannah snickered. "How about 181 Middle School Class Periods?" Savannah whispered back. Kylie looked confused. "You know, like 1001 Arabian Nights?" "Oh, yeah. Have you read it?" "It's on my waiting list at the library." "What story are you going to do?" Savannah shrugged. "A scary one, maybe. I had this interesting dream a while ago." "Before or after you got... talented?" "Before. Why?" "I heard different stuff in your life can affect your dreams." Kylie smiled. "I had kind of hoped that I could see something from after." "Oh. Whatever. What are you going to do?" "If it's going to be one of my dreams, it would probably be 'My Hard Drive Crashed before a Big Assignment Is Due #4567'." Kylie laughed. So did Savannah. "Can I ask you a question?" Kylie. "Yeah." There was a pause. "Don’t be to intent on me answering, however." "Okay. Why do you…you know, do the whole smashing-things…thing?" Savannah almost answered with an appropriate Lynn Lang response, but stopped. Maybe someone would understand. Maybe someone wouldn't think she was lying. Maybe. "I think it's just the way it is. I don’t mean to do half the stuff I do." "Really." Kylie sounded disapproving- just like her principal, her stupid english teacher, and the few kids Savannah had bothered trying to explain her situation to. Kylie didn't believe her. No one did. "Well, have you ever thought to yourself, after something annoying or angering occurs, that you want to throw something?" "Yes. Often." "Now imagine being really mad." "That won't be hard. I'll just think of when my brother went after my plant with scissors. A school assignment plant. I was really thirsting for his blood after that." Savannah laughed again. "Yeah. Now imagine all of them coming true." Kylie was silent for a moment. She thought about it, remembering the D+ that had sat her grade for weeks, resulting in a C. She remembered how every time she saw the grade, thought about the class, well, anything really, the sharp spike of anger and frustration that stabbed through her. She imagined the anger resulting in something like what Savannah had going on. It was not a pretty picture. Savannah claimed that the disasters were accidental. That it was minor frustration bringing everything on. Flashing back, she remembered the day before, with Tara, her best friend. Tara could probably be counted as a 'minor annoyance', or more. This did not spell good things. Tara the Saushale walked into second period late, feeling confident. Sure, Sabrina had given her strict instructions not to fight Sav, claiming she had a 'high Telkin'. She'd even forbidden her to get her really mad, but whatever. At least her part was almost over. Tara swung her backpack onto her desk. She turned to talk to Kylie, but she was already chatting away with Savannah. What? Wait. No. This could not be happening. Tara had done everything to set Savannah up. She'd made Massie randomly ditch her. She'd ordered mind control on half the school to make them terrified of Savannah. She'd even thrown a few people out some windows! How could she be making friends? That wasn't supposed to happen! Tara glared down at the top of the desk, as if it was suddenly the cause of her problems. There were a few solutions she could think of. She should probably just run it by Sab. But Sab would be really mad. She'd get all psychotic, suspecting her of not giving Kylie mind control simply because she was Kylie's friend or something. She'd probably start yelling or being really sarcastic every time Tara talked to her. She'd see if it would go away. Then she'd talk to Sabrina. Kylie smiled. Savannah was actually really funny. Savannah had shared her dream with Kylie, something about a pillar ravaged with blood and going down into some weird chamber and dying there. It sounded creepy reiterating and summarizing it to herself now, but at the time it just seemed funny. But there was Tara. She was tapping on Kylie's desk and smiling in the small, barely-curved way Tara usually smiled, but Kylie could tell she was upset and frustrated. "What's up, Taraster?" Tara and Kylie had made up nicknames for each other. They had been best friends even before middle school. Despite that, over the summer, Tara had not talked to her at all. Not one single message. "Hey, Kyliemeter." Tara was utterly deadpan. "What's up?" "Nothing much." Tara was still deadpan. "Glad I asked." "Cuz you suck." There was a long pause. "Regretting yesterday?" Sav asked, mostly sarcastically, one eyebrow raised playfully. She started to break into a smile and laugh, but Tara interrupted that. "Am I a piece of paper?" Tara crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows. "What?" Savannah had never, ever heard someone refer to themselves as a piece of paper. "Just say no," Kylie muttered. Tara had copied the style from some pre-teen book and it was currently driving her insane. "I suppose I would have to respond in the positive in order to incorrectly formulate a response for your request at said question of your related-ness of a piece of paper." Savannah smiled. Okay, so there were times when the Lynn Lang came in handy. "I'm lost," Kylie declared. "Not me. You just said no." "When have you heard the Lynn Lang?" Savannah asked, shocked. "You know Lynn?" Tara's mouth dropped open a bit. "I'd imagine there are a lot of Lynns," Savannah replied coolly. Tara snorted and rolled her eyes. "I am so sure. And I'm a bald eagle." "I would see how you would get confused when you look in a mirror." "You know Lynnette Ultimatihah?" "Lynn Ultimatihah. Not Lynnette." "Hm. I always wondered why she always told everyone her name was Lynnette. Guess she took my advice." "So you went to boarding school, too?" "No, we just met each other this year." "How? She's been there since August." Oh. Snap. Lynn had been telling everyone she was at boarding school. Probably doesn't want to get caught, sneaky thing. Tara thought enviously. But it was kind of weird that Lynn hadn't told her everything and begged for help. She had to be on the run from Sabrina and she would do it much better with Savannah. Tara had thought that Lynn had told Savannah that she was on the run, so that when Tara agreed to have met her at boarding school she would have looked like she was lying. "Because I rock the cazbah and I do what I want." Good. Wouldn't make her seem less weird, but would pretty much prove that she had met Lynn. It was yet another one of Lynn's expressions (these books, you may have noticed, are practically Lynn Lang encyclopedias) that she never used, so she couldn't have gotten it from Savannah. "How did you know that?" Savannah's eyes were starting to get wider. "And who is Lynn?" Kylie. She was starting to get frustrated by this conversation, that much was clear. "She's just a person," they said together. "Girls," the teacher called, walking over to Savannah, Tara, and Kylie. She was the teacher with the least fear of Savannah. "This is not social hour. This is class. I expect you to know this already. Because of this, one of you must go up and perform a story. Three minutes at least. If none of you do so, you all lose sixty points. This is now part of your grade. Whoever goes up will be graded." Tara, Savannah, and Kylie were dumbfounded for a few seconds. "You have three minutes to decide and prepare." The teacher turned around and walked away. "Kylie, you shouldn't have to do it." Savannah nodded in agreement. "Savannah seemed to have hers all outlined. Since three quarters is content, how about she goes up?" "I'd love to," Savannah expressed, hands to her heart in mocking. "Savannah, we all know when you are being sarcastic." "Actually, I'm not really. I kind of like speaking in front of people." "Fine. Go up. But if you fail, you are so dead." Tara glared at Savannah. "I'm dead?" Savannah cocked an eyebrow in amusement. Two minutes and twenty three seconds later, Savannah stood in front of her classmates, prepared to tell a story. "Lynn stood in front of a building. "The building was tall and grandiose, and there were no windows. Just one door. "Lynn walked over to the door and opened it. "There was no way to know what exactly she was getting herself into. "The inside was bare. And stony. The ceiling was stone. The floor was stone. The walls were stone. "The pillar in the middle of room was stone. "The place scared Lynn, somehow. Maybe it was the stillness of the room- not a respectful or peaceful stillness. "More like the stillness of death. "Lynn wanted to see it, though. She was curious. "Deadly curious. "Lynn started walking slowly towards the pillar. It seemed to be the kind of place you walked slowly in. You didn't hurry. You didn't run. "Perhaps that was her mistake. For as she continued walking, her steps echoed. "And echoed. "And echoed. "They didn't stop echoing. And with each step, each echo, her pulse was driven higher, her palms were more clammy, and she was scared even more. Her fear inching higher, ever higher. "Upon reaching the pillar, she noticed something impossible to notice otherwise. "It was covered in blood. "Mostly the top. There were smears of the blood, tons of them. "Lynn could smell it. "It was the only color in the room, as even Lynn herself had white skin, black hair, black eyes, and black clothes. "When she got even closer, that was when she noticed the markings. "The pillar was ravaged with them. "At first it seemed random, like it was just a ton of scratches. "But getting even closer, she realized what it really was. "Names. "Dozens, hundreds, thousands of names. Thousands. "Just as the blood was in smears near the top, there was another pattern. "A circle. "Lynn looked at the circle, dread growing slowly within her. "Because inside the circle, there was but one name. "Lynnette. Her real name. "She had no idea what it meant- whether it meant for her to die, or to be spared. Or to simply be locked away underground. "If it was possible to be even more scared than she already was, then that was how she felt. "Pure terror. Pure fear. Pure hysteria. "As she grew even more scared, a solution rose within her: startlingly simple. Dreadfully easy. "To leave. "She had come in through a door, but it was gone now. The room was circular, but there was not one interruption in the stone. "The gray stone, which seemed to be sucking the life out of her. "It wanted more. "It wanted color. "It wanted blood. "Soon, Lynn could not stand. She collapsed, landing almost spread-eagled on the cold, hard stone floor. 'She lasted only minutes past it. The gray walls wanted blood, and they got it. They wanted her life, and it was theirs. "Lynn died, energy sucked out of her slowly. "When her black eyes became dull and her body lifeless, then a trapdoor opened. "It had all been a trap. "Someone pulled out a knife, cut her hand. "They used the welling blood to smear Lynn's name on the pillar. "Lynn fell down the trapdoor, down, down, down. "No one ever remembered her. She had been erased. Forever. "But why, no one could even begin to guess." The entire room stared back at her. Even the teacher. "Whoa," someone said. "That was freaking morbid!" exclaimed another. "Um, Savannah?" "Yeah?" "I had been planning to tell you afterward that it was all a joke. But you definitely get some extra credit." "Really?" "That was very dramatic, good speaking style, you get the picture. But, um, where did you get the inspiration?" "I adapted one of my dreams." "Oh. Well. It was pretty good though." "Merci." Savannah maneuvered back to her seat, and sat down just as the bell rang. "Au revoir," Tara muttered, shouldering her bag.. "Hey, Savannah?" Kylie called. She turned. "Sit with Tara and me at lunch, okay? We sit at the green tables near the back door." Savannah just nodded. Math and history passed without incident, as always. Except that now, Savannah turned over Kylie's offer. Several times. Savannah knew exactly where she had been referring. The school had two "designated lunch areas", though most kids brought lunch and ate wherever. The two areas were the cafeteria, which was where all the eighth graders competed for popularity (there was a little food-stand near it that sold the same food where seventh graders bought lunch). The second was a bazillion picnic tables spread near the back stairs. These were very popular with the seventh graders, who, rather than having a defined hierarchy of students, had a lot of cliques of anywhere from four to ten. These were all spread out with the tables. Girls and boys walked throughout the area and sat down, talking and talking. It took Savannah only seconds to locate Kylie's table. She took a deep breath and smoothed her hair. Then she walked calmly over to the table. The two were talking. They were the smallest group of seventh graders. Kylie caught Savannah's eye and smiled. "You can't sit here," Tara said immediately. Her eyes blazed. Savannah started to step back, but then ignored the urge. "Don't be mean, Tara. I invited her." "You invited her?" "Is that not what I just said?" Tara broke off and looked at Savannah. "Did Lynn email you, or you her?" "She emailed me, obviously. I had completely forgotten about her." "What?" Tara, expecting that Lynn had simply spelled out Sab's plot, was surprised. She hadn't known that Sav actually knew Lynn. "We knew each other in like second grade, before her dad got relocated to Connecticut. Then she got re-relocated back here over the summer. Then she got re-re-relocated before school started. And now she's getting re-re-re-relocated." "Wow," Kylie said. Tara laughed. "I'm sorry I was being such a jerk yesterday." That was abrupt. One joke and a quick explanation and Tara decided to be friends? So Savannah took the best approach, Lynn-style. "I'm sorry you were too." Sarcasm. Tara glared. "Sarcasm, sorry. It's kind of a habit." "Gotcha. Oh. Has Lynn taught you all of the Lynn Lang yet?" "She hasn't sent me an encyclopedia yet, but I think I'm getting there." Kylie smiled as Tara and Savannah chatted. After a few seconds, Sav moved the subject, and the three acted just like the dozen or so other cliques. Tara saw it slightly differently. She sat with Kylie, talking, laughing, etcetera. She was finally beginning to forget about Savannah- hello, just because it was her assignment didn't mean she needed to be analyzing her every move every second. Mostly she was just supposed to get the gist, then report it to Sabrina or Saushale. Every once in a while Sabrina would ask for proof on her assumptions, but that was pretty easy And she was walking toward them now, walking calmly, walking serenely, walking as if she wasn’t walking toward Tara, who hated her, and Kylie, who should. Tara turned to see if there was a table behind her. No, none those were empty. She walking over here, for god only knows what purpose. Maybe it was easier to throw things at people when you were closer to them. Well, look at the bright side, her miund started. At least I can analyze the effects of a full-frontal crash? Cynic. She probably won't sit down. I mean, look at her. No smile, no excitement, no nothing. The likelihood of her actually talking is almost none. She always looks like that. Then Savannah started to sit down. No way. Tara was not going to sit here and talk to Savannah for forty-five minutes. It was like talking to Lynn- that freaking Lynn Lang was so annoying. There was a reason why Tara deleted all of Lynn's messages, though she couldn't automatically send them to spam or anything, because of the stupid restrictions against refusing communication with other Saushale, but the point remains. She really, really hated the Lynn Lang (like all sane beings). "You can't sit here," Tara blurted automatically. She could have said something smarter, but without any time to think up a smart phrase that was about as likely to happen as having an entire conversation with Lynn without wanting to throw something at any point in time. Her words came out in a rush, and it was almost totally devoid of any stress on any particular word. "Don't be mean, Tara." The slight huff at the end of the sentence was like annoyance personified (soundified? Stressified?). "I invited her." The explanatory tone, again, made Tara want to throw something. Kylie was in drama or something, and everything she said was full of emotion and inflection. Which was super-annoying. "You. Invited. HER." Tara had learned how to subtlify (grrr. Even after a year and a half Tara was still thinking in that annoying Lynn Lang) her voice and to a normal person they wouldn't have been able to detect the finality in each word or the extra inflection. "Is that not what I just said?" Again, the over-inflection and sarcasm infuriated Tara. To a normal person it wouldn't seem out of the ordinary, but Tara had been designed to analyze every line by a person, and it drove her crazy. Wait. Maybe she could make use of this. Hating Savannah and making her angry might display her powers in the short run. But there was more to gain by breaking her again. Just like Massie. Just like Angelica. Just like Emily. Just like every other friend Savannah had ever had. Tara decided to apologize. Make it more real. " I'm sorry I was being such a jerk yesterday." Tara had found that by using just slightly more inflection, whatever she said sounded more believable. Her voice was usually very monotone, so that her inflection would sound normal to her. But a monotone, or more likely, bored-sounding apology would not do. "I'm sorry you were too." It sounded kind of like Savannah was mocking her, but Tara dispelled that though quickly. She didn't have such good hearing. Tara was just catching her inflection- just as with Kylie. Savannah was in Speech, after all, and they did promote a lot inflection there, too. Tara glared at Savannah, finally cluing into what she had actually said. She had to accept her apology. Tara's whole plan hinged on it. " Sarcasm, sorry. It's become kind of a habit." Remind me to kill Lynn someday for doing this to her, she thought sourly. She had known Sav last year a bit, and she had been much less…Lynnish. " Gotcha. Oh. Has Lynn taught you all of the Lynn Lang yet? The conversation went on, and Tara struggled to make her voice sound normal. As she walked across the campus, her own knowledge of body language and voice inflection took over. Savannah hadn't totally believed Tara's apology, she could tell. Oh well. Maybe if Tara just kept acting nice, Savannah would believe her. Tara made a mental note to start IMming Lynn again. Probably good to keep her stories more up to date. Hopefully Lynn would still be using the Saushale web, so Tara could actually reach her. Though Sabrina would be able to read every word of it- even if it was for an assignment, Sabrina hated people associating with fugitives. It was actually pretty darn annoying. Tara sighed half-sarcastic, half-resigned, and let the monotonous conversations from the multitude slip by as she passed by them. Kylie uninterestedly twirled her hair around her finger in History, fifth period. Mrs. Mathews was talking about some random topic, probably something about Rome. Kylie usually found history fascinating and would eagerly listen, read, and take notes out of the textbook. Today, however, her mind was in Elsewhere Land. She was the only one in the room staring blankly at the wall, everyone else was smarter than she was. Kylie knew Tara. She had been friends with her for years, since first or second grade. They were at each other's houses all the time, and when they weren't they were almost always on the phone. Or, at least, it had been like that last year. This year, Kylie felt like she barely even knew who she was anymore. Tara would rarely pick up her phone, spending way more time on her computer. In sixth grade they had emailed, of course, but it was rare. And while Kylie knew she shouldn't have been making such a deal out of it, it still seemed important somehow. This year, it would take Tara five minutes to write out a "yeah" or "nothing" or some other one-word response. And the "Tara is typing" message was never there. Tara was doing something else. But why? And if she was working on something else, why did she always have her browser up? And why was she always online? Kylie would race home (she walked from school) and Tara would be online (even though she lived twenty miles away). She would get up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water and Tara would be on. She would get working on her homework at five in the morning (occasionally, Kylie procrastinated a bit too much) and Tara would be on. There were other weird things, too. Tara rarely ever put inflection in her voice, whereas last year she would use tons, claiming she wanted to 'get in tune' for her speeches. Last year Tara had had light brown hair, and brown eyes. This year, her eyes were jet-black, along with her hair. Plus, it had grown at least a foot. And even though she had supposedly gone to some summer camp or whatever, not Mount Everest her skin was paler than any living body Kylie had glimpsed. Plus, she used weird words, like beneficial, and 100%, like that somehow meant good. There were other things, but Kylie just couldn't remember them. Finally, her name. Last year, Tara insisted her name was pronounced Tara, with the ar sounding like air. This time, she claimed it sounded like the ar in are. That wasn't even how the stupid name was supposed to be pronounced. Why the difference? Kylie tried to focus on the lesson, but it was impossible. Things kept welling up in her mind, things she hadn't even consciously noticed. How Tara always brought tons of food, but never ate it. How she only called Kylie 'Kylameter' if Kylie called her Taraster first. How she would go into unbreakable trances whenever she heard the words 'I have my dreams' or 'crappy situation'. And tons of other things. "Kylie! Are you planning on joining the lesson or not?" "Sounds like a 'not' to me," someone whispered. "Like, yaw." Sometimes Kylie would say the 'ah' in 'yah' kind of weird. "Great. Now who invented the arch?" "Wasn't that, like, the Romans or something?" "Does anyone know who invented the arch? Emily." "The Romans borrowed a lot of customs from other cultures, including the arch. The Etruscans were the first to invent it." "Very good. How about this one, Kylie- What is concrete, and what was the Roman's role in it?" "Concrete is, like, stone, cement, sand, and water, right? And didn't the Romans, like, make it seem, uh, really cool?" Great job listening to the lesson she chastised herself. Idiotic. This stupid school was so freaking hard (and the teachers ready to ridicule those not paying attention) you really couldn't drift off like that. "You mean, they popularized it?" "Yaw." "Correct. The bell is about to ring, so make sure you finish the note organizer for Chapter seven as homework tonight." Right on cue, the bell rang, and Kylie raced off to P.E, hoping that serving the volleyball really, really hard would somehow erase all the revelations she had made in History. Tara calmly walked to her own fifth period class, PE. She played volleyball, partly because it was the easiest sport offered (you stand around and hit a ball sometimes. That's not exactly strenuous) and partly because Kylie had chosen it and it would offer another topic of conversation. Her team was made up of five other girls, Katie, Massie, Amy, Jessica and Jamie. The volleyball section was almost entirely girls, the boys sticking mainly to basketball and baseball. Her team, Them (they had been allowed to name each team and none of the others had been listening, so Tara just said the first non-Saushale-related thing she had thought of) was really bad, since Massie and Jamie never paid attention, Katie and Jessica tried and were really bad, and Tara couldn't care less. Amy was the only one who was any good, and a team of one, against six, never works. Actually, Tara really wondered why on earth Massie was on volleyball, since she was obsessed with her after-school soccer league. Probably just following Jamie. The serve went right to Amy, which was lucky. She hit it back and scored a point. Tara served and, just for fun, she Telkinized it right on the back line, scoring another point. The next person to serve was Massie, and of course she missed. The game continued similarly. Amy rushed back and forth, hitting a lot of balls. Tara tried not to get in her way and hit back as many as she could focus on. Massie and Jamie talked, and Katie and Jessica tried not to get in their way, setting the ball to Tara and Amy when neither of them could reach it. Tara wasn't paying too much attention to the game, and she just happened to hear Jamie and Massie's conversation. "What happened to Sav?" Jamie whisper-asked. "Eh. She's just not cool." "I know, but we totally could have made it so! We could have been a trio!" "Oh. Yeah. Well, what's done is done." "Sav seems kind of upset, though." "Yeah, well, Sav is always overreacting." Sav? Tara thought, amused. They call her Sav? Lynn says she hates nicknames! "Oh. Too bad. Anyway, I just met this really cool guy. Mike. Do you know him?" "Yeah. We were best friends for a while." "What can you tell me?" "He cheats at Clue™." The two laughed at the semi-joke and Tara stopped listening. This was what Savannah was getting so upset about? The girl was insane! She doesn't seem so upset anymore, a little voice in her mind says. Maybe she doesn't care about her friends. Shut up, little voice. You and what army? Tara hated these arguments with herself and focused on the game, hitting over a couple of balls and passing some to Amy. Finally, the game was almost over. The other team's best server hit the ball, right on the back line, super fast. Tara spiked it over the net, and hit the ground. Just before the teacher shouted "Okay, it's over!" Tara started to walk to the locker room when suddenly something barreled into her side, causing her to trip over a crack in the sidewalk. Luckily, her Saushale-ness allowed her to not actually fall. "We won! Tara, I can't believe it! We actually won!" "We what?" Tara was too confused to make her voice even sound un-monotone, but Amy didn't even notice. "We were tied, and you spiked that ball! The other team wasn't even expecting it! We finally won!" "Oh. Great" "I know! It is great! Katie and Jessica are so freaking excited!" "As am I." Tara forced a smile and some annoying inflection. Amy finally went away. Tara changed in the locker room ultra-fast, as always, and walked out, swinging her stark black backpack on one shoulder. She charged across the campus as fast as she could. She was about to walk into math class when someone stopped her. "You're Tara, right?" He pronounced it T-air-a, like it had been from before the transformation. "Tara," she corrected it as how she demanded the pronunciation upon late. "And what would be the reason you are asking this?" She raised one eyebrow and tried to walk into the room. "I'm Mike-" "Duh." "Yeah. I don't really get the new lesson, and since you seem really good at math, I was wondering if you could-" "Mike?" "Yeah?" "Do I look fat to you?" "Um...No?" He, like most of the world, seemed extremely confused by the randomness of the question. "Then why do you think I let my time go to waist?" Mike just looked kind of confused. Tara smiled, Saushale-style, and pushed through the door. The bell rang. "Don't be late for class," she called, sitting down right before the teacher marked 'Mike' tardy. Tara smiled to herself. Win seven hundred fifty for Tara. Savannah walked into fifth period, greeted by her annoying language arts teacher. "Hello, Savannah. How far are you on your book?" "I'm past the whole freaking-out-because-I-am-accidentally-throwing-things-into-the-wall stage, finished with the creepy-pillar-with-dead-peoples-names-on-it stage, and am about to finish the fighting-for-my-life stage. Then I just have to finish the realizing-what-I-can-do stage and the accidentally-hurting-people-and-having-to-act-like-a-robot stage. Then I'm done!" The teacher looked horrified. Sav struggled not to smile, laugh, or anything else that would diminish her acting. Savannah walked into language arts then, and the bell rang. The teacher walked to the front of the room and passed out quizzes, before sitting at her computer, probably inputting grades or something. Savannah aced the quizzes first, then slowly pulled out her cell phone and placed it in her pocket. She used her mind powers to turn it on. The vibrate buzzed, and the morse code vibrates she had put on it quickly spelled out: Lynn: hey Savvy. Savannah typed back, using her mind powers, Savannah: dont call me that Lynn: u and what army Savannah: Im not even going 2 answer that Lynn: whats w/ the chatspeak Sav had protested vehemently any form of chatspeak. I think she even had some statistics memorized. Savannah: texting in class not reccomended Lynn: how r u reading my messages then Savannah: set on vibrate morse code Lynn: funny. could just look at screen, u kno. Like a normal prsn. Savannah: not going 2 risk it Lynn: ur funeral Savannah: watev. what class r u in rite now Lynn: 3 hrs ahead member? working on hw Savannah: lots of it? Lynn: naw just really long classes only have 2 do makeup work Savannah: quiz time ovr text u l8r Lynn: u 2 Savannah turned off her phone again and the teacher collected the quizzes. Savannah's aunt was making a lot of money in her business, and she gave Savannah pretty much everything she wanted, as long as it didn't cost a ridiculous amount of money. The unspoken agreement was that her aunt would let Savannah do whatever she wanted, and give her what she wanted, and Savannah wouldn't tell her parents that the aunt wasn't actually taking care of her. Savannah's parents had financed the business under the agreement that the aunt would take care of Savannah, and her aunt wasn't about to let them know she hadn't really kept to it. So her aunt got her business, Savannah got a cell phone, and her parents went to Australia. Everybody wins. Next they all worked on the theme essay for their first book, The Giver, silently. Savannah had already finished it and, making sure the teachers back was to the class, pulled out her cell phone again. Lynn: that was fast Savannah: ya just some dumb essay alredy finished Lynn: good 4 u Savannah: kno thats probably sarcastic and I don't care Lynn: ur psychic Savannah: thank u Lynn: ha ha. hey whats the name 4 cell growing and division Savannah: mitosis Lynn: good. and the first phase Savannah: interphase, or prophase dependin on book Lynn: ok. 2? Savannah: ur smart. u figure it out. Lynn: yah but I want 2 c if u kno. I already finished. Savannah: interphase, prophase, anaphase, metaphase, telophase, cytokinesis Lynn: ur good Savannah: the science book looked lonely, stting by itself. I hve 2 mch spare time. Lynn: ha ha. u like 2 read Savannah: yah Lynn: I hate it. tho maybe its becuz there r no good books here "Savannah! Is that a cell phone I see?" "No, it's an elephant," Savannah said sarcastically. Talking to Lynn always made her feel sarcastic. "You know the rule." Her language arts teacher decided not to mention the sarcasm. No one purposefully made Savannah mad, after all. "Enlighten me." "No cell phones." "Okay. It's off." "One more time and that thing is heading for the office. And you are too." That wasn't actually the rule. The first time was as good as any to dispose a cell phone. The school required it. But there were precious few people who were going to go stand up to Savannah over a cell. "'Kay." "Have you finished your essay?" "Why else would I be texting? Because I have something to do?" "Well, then work on homework." "Finished already." "For other classes." "Just have to memorize this one story." "Read." "Forgot a book." "Do something. Stare at the wall. Just no electronic devices." "'Kay." So Savannah banged a bunch of empty chairs together, on the other end of the room. Then she banged some empty desks together. Then she picked up a marker for the whiteboard and wrote out a bunch of lyrics she had deciphered for all the songs. She was in the process of levitating the binders on all the kids' desks when her teacher gave up. She flung her book to the floor. "Yes, Savannah, I can hear you. Texas can probably hear you. You want to text in class, am I correct? You're bored. And you're so much better than all of us, right? So you can just break all the rules and do whatever you want?" Savannah stared at her. Actually, the whole class stared at her. Their sane, calm, fun teacher was throwing books and screaming at a student? A student that was Savannah, of all people. "No way, Sav, the Sav that's oh-so-Savvy. You won't win this one. I don't know why you're still at this school, why you're still free, but it doesn't matter. You won't win." "You're surprisingly worked up over a cell phone," Savannah reminded her. "It's not about a cell phone, Savannah. You can get anything, Savannah, because you have no morals. Banging chairs? Smashing tables? What's next?" The class still sat shell-shocked. Someone's mp3 player, an iPod touch with built-in speakers started rocketing out SavSon-EV extremely loud. The teacher sat down, quiet for a few seconds before standing up again and continuing reading her book as if nothing had happened. Don't worry, I'll explain this mystery. Be patient and keep buying into the series and all shalt be revealed. Kylie jumped up, and the volleyball smacked against her hands in just the right way, scoring a point. Her teammates cheered as they rotated and Kylie served, overhand as always. The ball zoomed over the net and almost hit one player in the face. It scored a second point. Kylie loved volleyball. She was good at most sports, but volleyball was her favorite. After serving a couple times, the other team finally managed to hit it and Kylie hit it back again. A rally continued. The game went on, and, as always, Kylie didn't focus on anything but the game. Her troubles and worries dissolved. She forgot all about Tara and her strange behavior, and Savannah and Tara's hatred of each other. It all just floated away. Kylie spiked over the ball again and again, and served over and over again. The other team didn't have a chance. Kylie was disappointed when the bell rang. She always was. She threw the ball over to the boy collecting all the balls and walked over to the locker room, stopping to talk to a couple of her teammates once she left. "Yeah...so how come you were sitting with Savannah today?" Megan, a very bossy, nosy, and gossipy girl asked. She also started almost everything she said with a 'Yeah'. It was kind of annoying. Even when she was saying 'no' she managed to work a 'yeah' in there. "Because we have Speech together and she seemed okay during it." "Yeah...but...isn't she kind of psychotic, though?" "Kind of. But Tara is too, and as long as they don't antagonize each other both of them act normal." "Yeah...Tara...She's kind of changed, hasn't she?" "Not really. I mean, she just dyed her hair and asked her name be pronounced a different way." "Yeah. But she used to act differently last year. You know." "I suppose so." "Yeah. Do you know why?" "No." Actually, she did have a pretty good guess, but there was no way she was telling Megan. It wasn't so much that she didn't like Megan as it was that Megan was inclined to tell the entire school that Kylie hated Tara now because she had changed. She would start out telling the truth, but eventually she would totally make something up. "Yeah, I didn't think you'd know. Anyway, Do you like Savannah? Is she mean?" "No. She's actually pretty funny. And interesting." "Yeah. Maybe. Wouldn't want to tick her off! Anyway, see you tomorrow?" "Sure, whatever." The bell rang, and Kylie relinquished the opportunity to run from Megan. "Bye, Megan." "Yeah. You too." God forbid she just say 'bye'. Kylie took a deep breath and sifted through her backpack, looking for her iPod. The five to ten minute walk was too thinking-prone. A nice loud interference of her music would be excellent. She was supposed to take the iPod to the office in the morning, but she never bothered. She never really listened to it anyway, so she just shoved it in her backpack. She slipped the headphones in her ears and focused on the music on the way home, trying not to think about much else. Tara sat in math, staring blankly at the screen. She always zoned in math, not because she didn't get it, but because she so got it. She'd learned freakin' trig at the Saushale school. Algebra 1 wasn't exactly a new concept. She hummed along to Savvy People's new single, 'Whatcha Talkin' 'Bout, Huh?' Sabrina claimed that it was based on someone's electronica, but if it was then the composer must have really messed with it. It was an excellent song. Her zoning brought her back, so far back. It felt like years, but it had really only been a few months. "Okay, all of you." Tara was standing at the front of a large summer camp entrance-type area. "If you have any cell phones, mp3 players, computer, heck, even flash drives, or any other electronic device, take it over to the office in your cabin. If we catch you using them, there will be consequences." A bunch of random people, ranging from early twenties to late thirties nodded their heads. Tara laughed inwardly. She was so sure. Alanna laughed with her, linking arms with her and Jamie. Alanna was the 'girl in charge', who everyone was inevitably drawn to. She was in dislike of her third friend, Alyssa, and had chosen Tara to be the stand-in. Without Kylie for the summer, Tara found no reason to deny. It'd probably only be a week before she moved onto someone more poppy. "Now, these are the counselors that will stay in each cabin. They will show you were to go. There are also big signs on the cabin doors, but you can never really be sure enough that people know where to go. Disperse, please. They're cabin girl rolled her eyes, pointed in some random direction, and walked off with one of her friends. They walked into the cabin assignment, 'Ferma', the F cabin. There was also a D cabin, 'Da Capo' and an S cabin, 'staccato', among others. This was not the most normal summer camp one could attend. The cabin was small, the rooms standard. Alanna flung her bag into the tallest closet, flopped down on the biggest bed, and started listening to her iPod. An attentive girl that one was. Jamie carefully dropped her own bag in another closet before rummaging through it for a phone and texting with her friends. Another two girls walked in, chattering away, dropping their bags into the closet before taking out digital cameras and snapping pics of each other and the room. Unbelievable. Tara walked down the hallway until she got outside. It was a crappy day- too sunny. Tara was a cold-weather kind of person. The woods looked inviting, dark and cold. She looked back. No one would notice if she left for ten minutes to explore. They had thirty to 'get acquainted'. Tara was plenty acquainted. They said not to go out in the woods unless they were out on a hike. But, really, that was probably just nonsense. After all, what could possibly be in the woods? Probably nothing really dangerous. She'd pick the most worn path she could, and go for just a few minutes, anyway. The counselor people were just being paranoid. She walked off into the trail, and almost immediately silence reined. Tara walked along for a while, enjoying the silence, dim light, and dampness, just like walking through the misty pre-storm (she liked the mist of a pre-storm, but hated the random drops once the storm was over. It was depressing), when she tripped over a small bump on the trail. Tara was pretty graceful and managed not to fall, but when she looked over she saw that she was now on a bridge. Should I go back? she thought to herself. If I'm at a bridge, it probably means I've gone pretty far. I don't want to get lost or have them come looking for me. Oh, come on. Don't be a moron, Tar. Getting lost? On a huge trail that goes straight through the forest? You'd have a better chance getting lost in your math class. And you really think that counselor will care enough to look for you? The way she walked off with her friend like that? And, I mean, Alanna will care that you've gone, but she isn't going to raise an alarm o something. She wouldn't want you to get in trouble. And she isn't going to come wandering out in the woods, either. Coem back by dinner and I guarantee there will be no repercussions. Tara took that advice and investigated the trail further, until she started to hear voices. Voices can be good things. New friends, someone to laugh with, or even a conversation in which to learn about how others think of you. But voices can mean bad things, too. Like Saushale chemicals. "Tara?" She was bashed through her reminisce by her teacher calling her name. "Can you please explain this? I know you get it." He turned to the class. "Maybe it will help if you see someone else explain the concept." "Like, okay. Basically you just multiply this together, and this, and this," she semi-explained, writing out what she was multiplying. "Then you add these two and make it equal that, then you add these and subtract that and divide by that and there you go." There was a pause. "I don't get it." "Me neither," someone whined, a note of desperation in their voice. "Come on. This isn't rocket science. Just write out the equations, make them equal each other, solve it, and find the variable." "At least someone gets it," The teacher half-muttered, staring the ceiling. "Like, yaw." Tara. "Shut it, Tara." They pronounced it T-air-a. "Tara. My name is Tara!" "Used to be T-air-a." "I'm getting riculosmosis from this freaking classroom," Tara half-muttered. "Riculos-what?" "Riculosmosis." "That being what?" "Ridiculous via osmosis!" The bell rang and math was over. Finally. The day was over. Savannah, however, still had sixth period to go. She walked into science, which she had with Massie. "Hey, it's Sav!" Jamie called out. "Sav-ann-ah. It's annoying, I know, having to pronounce all of those syllables but I have faith you can do it." Savannah rolled her eyes. The bell rang, announcing the start of science. The teacher walked to the front of the class. "Good afternoon, class." "Like, good afternoon," Savannah called out, louder and more distinct than everyone else. The teacher let it go. "Today we're going to be working on photosynthesis." The teacher passed out a handout about the topic, then walked over to her computer and input grades. Savannah finished the handout very fast, already knowing a lot about cell energy and such. "Hey Sav, what's the answer to number three?" Jamie asked. The room was full of talking, as usual, and the teacher didn't hear at all. "Like, guess." Savannah looked back down at her paper and read the last question. "Come on. Please?" Jamie whined. She read the question again. "Fine. Mitochondria." "Number four?" "Vacuole." "Five?" "Mitochondria helps make the food and breaks it down." "Six?" And so it went on. There were fourteen questions, and Jamie received the wrong answers for each one. She smiled and said, "Thanks Sav," and turned in her sheet. Sav felt kind of guilty about it, but the thought of never having to listen to Jamie whine for answers was well worth it. Savannah pulled out her cell phone. Lynn: u on again? Savannah: like yaw Lynn: huh? Savannah: just the way Kylie pronounces her yahs. thought u could add 2 Lynn Lang Lynn: sounds pretty lame Savannah: so, any more freaky people? Lynn: No. What about u? Savannah: I'm friends with Tara now. Lynn: seriously? WHY? Savannah: Kylie. have 2 b friends w/ Tara 2 b friends w/ kylie Lynn: oh. I hate chatspeak don't you? Savannah: you just don't like it bcuz it ruins the Lynn effect. Lynn: ehmagawd ur psychic Savannah: thought you didnt like chatspeak Lynn: have 2 think bout ur morse code vibrate Savannah: don't have 2 do that here, teacher doesn't look. Scared of me anyway. Lynn: Oh. Cool. Savannah: Isoty. Lynn: Coolisoty! Lynn: so what is Tara like? Savannah: kinda weird. Her voice always has way too much expression or none. She can't find a happy medium. Lynn: ha ha. I know. Some people at my school are like that. Savannah: class is ovr in 3 mins, g2g Lynn: me 2 teacher spotted me wont b online 2day bye Savannah turned off her cell phone and slid it back in her pocket. She dropped off her own handout in the box and packed up her stuff, ready for the day to be over. Finally. Completely. The final bell of the day rang, and Savannah walked out, brooding. She walked downstairs, where she was met with Kylie. "Hey Savannah!" "Hey, Kylie." "Just got back from volleyball. When do you have PE?" "First. And I have soccer." "Are you good?" "I'm okay at defender." She gave a short laugh. "But put me anywhere else and you will regret it." Kylie laughed, too. "Where's Tara?" "Oh, she has math. The teacher always keeps her in hecka late. And my mom comes pretty quickly, so I usually walk out without her." "Oh. Makes sense." "Yeah. You think you'll still be able to do that dream thing for Speech?" "No, not now that I've already done it." "Oh. What are you going to do, then?" "Eh. Maybe I'll use another one of my dreams. Maybe I'll just make something up." "Yes. Making things up is fun. Maybe I'll do one of those random stories I always tell to freak everyone out." "Huh?" "Oh, back in elementary school I would go over to Tara's house and we would stay up way later than we should have. I would tell these really weird stories at like three in the morning just to freak out Tara and this other girl, Megan. Sometimes we'd videotape them, with like a theme song and everything. Mind you, this was at three in the morning." "Ha. Funny." Not so funny in words, but maybe that's because you haven't seen three eleven-year-old girls trying to freak each other out at three in the morning. Trust me. It is amusing. "Yeah. There's my turnoff. Bye!" "Bye." Savannah continued walking. There was a library a couple blocks from her school that she would sometimes walk to and read in for a while. It was pretty quiet and she usually reserved a computer, so she could do her homework and chat with Lynn. One computer was open, and Savannah slid into the seat, after dropping off a couple of her items and examining to see if any of her requests were in, though they were not. Luckily, she had her story saved to flash drive. True to her word, Lynn's dot was gray so Savannah immediately got working on her story. I basically just stared. Shocked. Uncomprehending. Whoever it was had deflected the object and was in no way hurt, but she looked almost as shocked as I was. Only she masked it with a sneering, smirking look. "Well," she said. "I cannot begin to imagine how you got past that. But let's leave questioning in the past, shall we?" "Uh, no, we shall most definitely not. You haven't answered my question yet." I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes at her, sounding more defiant than I felt. "My name is S- Alena." "Salena?" "You can call me whatever. My name is not important." She dismissed it with a small wave of the hand. "Okay, Whatever. Why are you here? What are you?" She showed a lot of irritation at the nickname, but didn't say anything about it. "I'm here because I created this place." She shrugged. "It was an old, forgotten piece of crap, shoved in a corner of dreamworld no one cared about anymore, and I fixed it up. There was power here, so much power..." She looked towards the ceiling, made her hands into fists, bent at the elbow but facing the sky, and took a deep breath. "So much power I became better. Much better. So much better than all those around me. "I announced the time to fight. "My people descended on one another, making it easier to pick them off." She gave a fond, distant smile. I stared, half-horrified. "Eventually, however, they worked together. It was harder. I began recruiting people, normal humans, to help me. I brought them to dreamworld the only time they could access it. They, however, had nothing. Were nothing. Most of them. "Only two were any good, and I kept them for a long, long time, until eventually their power began to wane. I had thought them immortal, but they became weak and pointless, so I killed them." "However, soon, I had to face the facts. I would have to make these nothings into something. "Back in the real world, my people calmed down. Those above us continued to fight, fight for control. Power. But those fighting me were quiet. Calm. Unthreatening. "And, obviously, not very smart. "I worked hard, studying normal humans, until, eventually, I understood well enough what was going on in them to experiment. Some died immediately. Some held on longer. None were any better than normal. "It took a long time, but eventually I had created just the right way to make these people special. Extraordinary. "To do this, however, most could not access this world, this dreamworld, this place of power. Some had no power, those I either ignored or killed. Most had enough power to be amazing collectively, but individually were useless. However, some carried enough power to make me incredible. Us incredible. "I went back to the fight. "My people immediately turned to the fight. They had been dabbling in magic, but had no clue about science. What was real. Magic was hard. Unrewarding. Something achieved mostly by creation. Science you could work with. "I fought them quickly. Destroyed all of them. "But soon I realized that it was not enough. I know I can do more. There is another, a victor of this world, but she carries too much power for no reason. She does not want it. I know there are others, and I want their power. I want the power." I still kind of stared. "So what are you?" Whatever rolled her eyes. "A Sorceress." I blinked a couple times. "What?" Whatever just looked mad. "I'm a Sorceress." "Oh. Okay. And where do I play in all this?" "Some people don't need to be changed. Some are already good. Talented." "Me?" "More have been lately. The goddess is starting to realize my intentions and is determined to beat me. I've been perfecting my creations and getting the last of all the Sorceress power for a while and am now done. "Who will win is the question now." "Okay. Great." Whatever was still freaking me out and the words were half sarcastic, half don't-call-me-on-this. "So, what exactly am I talented in?" "Mind powers." I still stared. Blank. Freaked out. And the familiar tongue of anger and regret was still there. Always present. "Which would be..." "Telekinesis. Moving things with your mind. Fast. Hard. All at once. No one can stop you. "Or, at least, no one human." Whatever smiled and laughed, a high, confident, amused sound. At that, Savannah's time on the computer ran out, and she logged out. She walked back to the school, where her bike was somehow situated, and gave a faint smile at the hectic morning. Then she unlocked her bike lock, yanked out her bike, and started 'pedaling' home. Which actually included more mind powers than pedaling. When she finally got home, she didn't go on the computer immediately. There was no reason to go online and she was kind of bored with her story. A couple of pages were enough to do each day. She turned on her computer, but just to play her CD. Savannah barely listened to anything other than 'lectronica now. Which meant that she had to have listened to SavSon-EV at least one hundred, maybe even two hundred times, figuring that she listened to it every day. She sighed, sitting at her desk. There was a small hand mirror on it. Savannah held it up to her face critically. She hated her face. The skin was pale, way, way paler than was normal, though it was free of blemishes. In December or so sometimes her skin was closer to that of the dead than that of the living. Her nose was too big, not broad, just long and thin. Her eyebrows had too much arch in them, her cheekbones sticking out visibly. Her lips were too pale, though full. She had taken to wearing a lot more gloss than was actually necessary. Her hair was okay. It was an excessively light blonde, more silver than gold. Platinum blonde. And beyond. A trend at her dumb school was the whole silver thing going around the county, and even Savannah was sucked into it. Her hair now had a silvery tint that made it go from light blonde to metallic. And it wouldn't wash out, either- even though she'd put in a month ago, it was still there. Savannah's eyes were her favorite, though. They were big and half-moon shaped- kind of flat on the bottom but curved on top. They were sharp, and with her arched eyebrows it made her look angry and sarcastic half the time. Especially when she didn't mean it. The eyes were a clear green, defined, no blue or yellow cluttering them up. Each feature was pretty by itself- thin nose, green eyes, light blonde hair, clear skin, but altogether she looked really, really strange. People stared at her when she walked into malls or restaurants, and her first day at school her teachers had squinted at her, like they weren't quite sure she was real. Savannah sighed, and put the mirror down. In a burst of hatred for her entire being, she lobbed it at the wall, where it shattered. Seven years of bad luck, she thought. Too bad I can't pin it on "Whatever". She slid her computer chair back across the floor to the computer. She checked her mail. Nothing from Lynn, but Kylie had sent her an email. Hey savannah! what r u doing? I'm working on hw. Anyway, do you have Ms Stalworth for language arts? Savannah wrote back: Hey Kylie! How did you get my email? I was about to work on my hw, too. Yeah, I have Stalworth for English. Turns out Kylie was on, because she wrote right back. Great! What was the hw for tonight? Her address was a gmail, (Kylienuts@gmail.com), so Savannah instead opened a google chat and typed that way. Savannah: finish that dumb essay. Kylie: Great. I really don't feel like working on that. Savannah: Yeah, I already finished mine. Kylie: Luck-y! What did you think the theme was? Savannah: That individual experiences and personality was more important than ending diversity in the pursuit of a utopian community. And if you steal that, you are so going down. Savannah: not literally, though. Kylie: Oh. I thought it was about color. Savannah: Yeah. But I've found that in books where they talk about color I think they are usually talking about the color of life rather than the precise hue that an object reflects and absorbs when light hits it. Like in The Book Thief. Kylie: I've never read it. Savannah: oh. Well, in the beginning the narrarator, Death, talks about color, like the color in a rainbow and stuff but him or her or whatever also laments about human life and souls so I kinda got it then. Kylie: Whatever. I'm not as smart as you, obviously. Savannah: Whatever. Yeah. Hey, does Tara still hate me? Kylie: Don't know. I'm not a mind reader, you know. Though I don't think she's exactly comfortable with you because when she is she usually speaks in monotone and stuff. It's not necessarily a bad thing. She could be trying to, like, impress you or something. Savannah: thanks, Kylie. Good advice. Kylie: you're welcome. Savannah: how did you get my email address, though???? Kylie: I asked Megan, who asked Leslie, who asked Jordan, who asked Rachel, who asked Jamie, who asked Massie, who told me. Savannah: And this took you how long? Kylie: Like five minutes. Luckily, they all had their cell phones handy. Savannah: Yeah. You know, you could have just asked me at school. Kylie: Like I said, I'm not as smart as you are. Savannah: how come you asked all of them just to ask me what the hw was? Kylie: Because none of them have Stalworth! Savannah: Massie and Jamie do. Kylie: Massie and Jamie are weird. Savannah: Agreed. Kylie: Sorry, my mom is kicking me off the comp. Bye! Savannah: like, bye Kylie: double like-bye Savannah closed the chat window as soon as Kylie's dot faded to gray. She checked the toolbar one last time, but Lynn was still offline. Funny. She ever rarely was. She had finished her homework- not much, just some math and a review page for history. Science never assigned any homework, and all that was due in language arts was the theme essay she had already written and perfected. She started to read, but all she had left was this one dumb book about a bunch of high-schoolers that pranced around being morons over popularity and such. She had returned everything else at the library, and nothing new had been in. So, she went back to her story. At least it was better than whatever the heck she had been reading. "You're referring to yourself, right?" "No, it's the dancing elephant over there." I stared. What on earth was she talking about? She gave a rather exasperated sigh. "It's just some dumb joke this one girl told me." I still stared. "Okay, look. You want mind powers or not?" I probably acted irrationally. The smart thing would have been to keep something like that out of my hands (sarcastic girl + homicidal powers = not a happy picture.) "No duh." And so began my career in mind powers. Whatever gave another wide, disturbing smile. "Excellent. You are still new, so you need to gather experiences in natural elements." "Huh?" Whatever gave another annoyed sigh. "You experience stuff. Environments. Like water and fire and stuff." "Fire? What? HOW?" "A special chemical I devised." A small glass- about the size of a shot glass -appeared in her hand. It floated over to me. "What happens?" She sighed again. "It will give you memories of the environments, which I will teach you to use shortly." The glass floated in front of my face again. Quotes flashed through my mind "I don't want to be friends with you anymore" "I am evil" "Stop talking to me" "Some died immediately" "Hey, look, it's Ms Homicide on the Horizon" "I became better" "What the freak is wrong with you?" "Turn these Nothings into something" "Why are you still here?" "Make them special. Extraordinary" "Extraordinary." "Special." "Amazing" "Extraordinary" "Special, so special..." "Nothing can stop you." I grabbed the glass and drank, too preoccupied to see Whatever giving another scary grin. Savannah leaned back on her chair again. She remembered everything from the night- down to the very last word. Except for the name. Savannah had called her 'Whatever', but she had referred to herself as the dream guide, not Salena. She had gotten the name by trying to type Alena, the girl with the mysterious 'lectronica blog, but typed an S instead and liked the sound so just kept it. Whatever's story about how she had gotten the place still confused her. Who were those people? And why on earth was no one noticing? They had to be acting like homicidal freaks, and yet no one had noticed- Let's see, her brain slowly informed her. Who else could be classified as a homicidal freak, and yet not had it show up on the news? However, Lynn's dot then turned to green at that moment, providing a timely distraction. Lynn: Hey Sav Savannah: DON'T CALL ME SAV Lynn: Suh-orry Savannah: how come you weren't on? Lynn: I got in trouble for texting in my after-class class. They made me work after it was over. Savannah: When does your school end? Lynn: We start at six and end at three Savannah: Six???? Lynn: Boarding school. They wake us up at five thirty. But it is the best school in the country, so I keep my mouth shut. Savannah: How did you get caught texting in class, anyway? The period before you said you were out of class! Lynn: I had to go to a study-hall type thing. Savannah: Ah. Hey, is the we-wake-up-at-five-thirty-in-the-morning-thing why you are always online at two in the morning? Lynn: Duh. I wake up earlier than everyone else, because when I wake up at five thirty and don't go back to sleep, I wake up at five-twenty the next, etc. stops at five, though. So two for you is five for me. I usually type. Savannah: Type what? Lynn: Oh, a whole load of crap. Sometimes I sneak downstairs and go online there, too. Savannah: Why downstairs? Lynn: Because I'm special like that! Savannah: * Annoyed * Lynn: Ha ha. Actually, it's because I hate my roommate and she wakes up at five, too, and she doesn't shut up. So I have to get away from her. Savannah: Ah. Savannah: What do you type? Lynn: Essays, poetry, short stories, etc. Except I suck at writing, so it sucks in addition. Savannah: Nice. Lynn: It's actually kind of funny. When I IM you, I'm barely sarcastic at all. But when I IM Carmen, we're both sarcastic. Sometimes my stupid roommate sneaks onto my computer and she says it's hilarious. Savannah: Google chat, not IM. And who is Carmen? Lynn: She's the one that has the 'lectronica CD, remember? Maybe I didn't tell you her name. Savannah: You did not. Lynn: Ok. Whatever. Do you write? Savannah: I've been writing this short story- though it's not too short- abut how I got mind powers. Lynn: Beneficialness. Can I read it? Savannah: Sure! Lynn: Great! Savannah: Sarcasm, Lynn. Lynn: Oh. Sorry, you're just not as sarcastic as some of my other friends. I don't expect it. Savannah: Whatever. Lynn: My stupid teacher is making me write this ultra-long essay on effects of texting on learning on the brain and stuff, in exchange to not have to do two weeks worth of detention, which at our school means you don't go to your dorm room- you stay in this little cell. I'll IM you in like twenty or thirty minutes. Savannah: Google Chat. Lynn: Picky. Don't you have any sympathy? Lynn is now offline Savannah: No. Lynn did not receive your chat Savannah closed the chat window, really glad that she did not go to Lynn's school. While she waited for Lynn to go back online, she worked on her story again. She stopped a minute to remember the experience. This part was less scary, though she had gained more respect for the dream guide and called her 'Salena' in her thoughts and words, not 'Whatever'. Memories swirled through my mind, memories I knew I'd never had before. They settled into place like flies on sugar. A few resettled, but there were too many for my brain to give up a fight for long. The liquid tasted like nothing at all I'd tasted before. Not like water, more like air. Liquid air. There was very little, only about a tablespoon and a half. It flew down my throat. When the memories had settled, I looked up at Salena. "How do you feel?" Salena asked half-mocking, quarter concerned, quarter just pure sarcasm. "Just fine." I coughed a bit. "Never been better." "It's an ... interesting experience." She smiled. Her nails were resting on something. My eyes had just started to adjust and I could see a stone slab, about two feet wide and three inches thick, on the perimeter of the walls, all around. No stairs. No exit. Just as in the room with the pillar, I was trapped. By Salena's description of herself, I bet-no, I knew- there were no upper floors. The building was not designed for a way to get away. From her. "Interesting being the understatement of the century." I coughed a few more times. My throat was not used to anything like the liquid and was trying to expel it, weakly. Unsuccessfully. "Okay. You said you would teach me, so-what?" "I suppose you're right." Salena tapped her nails a couple times on the stone slab, then glided to the middle of the room. Her hair grew brighter and the room had more light. I could almost see. "Now is the time to begin." Savannah was interrupted by sounds of the door. She paused her music. Someone was trying to unlock the door. It was already unlocked, Savannah not caring much about security (freak with supernatural powers versus a gun. Which do you believe in?). Someone had just locked the door, thinking they were unlocking it, and was now pounding on the door in frustration. Savannah shrugged and put her music back on, though quieter than before. The unknown person then unlocked the door, opened it, and slammed it back, the vibrations reverberating throughout all of the house. "Turn down that junk-pop, Sav." It was her aunt. Only she ever called Savannah's music 'junk-pop'. "Don't call me Sav." Savannah turned down the music. "Sorry." "Why are you home so early?" Savannah's aunt was usually out, like, all day. It was only four or so. She should have been out another five hours. "Client bailed. Could have stayed at office. Heater leaves lot to be desired. Came home instead. Going to change, then go to Starbucks. You get the house back." One of the most annoying things about Savannah's aunt was that she used short, simple, grammatically incorrect sentences that really, really annoyed Savannah. "You know, you could stay, because I wouldn't mind at all." "Nah. Friends at Starbucks. Need a coffee. You can turn up the junk-pop." "Yes, but make sure you know that I don't mind if you stay." Her aunt paused beside the door. "What is this?" "Track three." "Which is called what?" "Um, No-Ex-hyphen-LV" "What kind of name is that?" "They all have kind of weird names." "Oh. It sounds a lot like this really annoying song I keep hearing on the radio." "What is it called?" "I don't remember." Oh. Okay. "What was the band?" "Why do you care? I gotta go. Oh, how do you like the cell phone?" "It's great." Doors really hated her aunt for some reason, and she had problems opening and shutting it on the way out. Savannah laughed quietly before going back to her story. "'Kay." Salena smiled again. With the extra light her teeth glimmered, and I could tell she had fangs- not teeth. Fangs. Lovely. Salena snapped her fingers and a large object rose up. There were several of them, as far as I could see. I had no idea what they were- they just looked like large groupings of something. She snapped her fingers again and it gracefully fell. "Of course, you don't really need the snapping. It's much better to have a stealth attack, so not only do they have no idea what you're about to do, they also have no idea when it's going to happen. Fun." Yes. Fun. That was apparently what almost killing people was now classified as. Fun. Ah, what a happy, delicate, mannerly, and kind teacher I had here. Not. Salena obviously couldn't read my mind, because she plowed on with her little speech. "At first, you will need to use the memory implants, probably for a while. Like training wheels on your bike. But eventually you can supply your own hatred and anger and you won't need them. Then you can delete them." "What?" Delete them? Huh? What was I now, a computer? "Delete them. They can ruin your focus upon occasion, so most Sau- special people, what I call them, delete them." "So I won't remember that I ever had them?" Salena rolled her eyes. "No duh not. Mind control is so not that powerful. As in take a really wild guess." I swear, there were more grammatical errors in that sentence than I can count. She sounded like a freaking preteen. Maybe she had some kind of mental problem. And mind control? What the heck was that? Slowly, slowly, I started to work it out. This was so not a normal person-Sorceress-whatever. I mean, she was trying to take over the universe, and she made people into 'special people'. But, she was also psycho. Most people had at least a drop of sense, unlike me, and did not drink whatever the heck she had given me. Mind control. She made them want to be special. Or whatever. But, from what it sounded like, the whole special thing was also the whole weird Sorceress chemical thing. So how did those chemicals get there? Let's not think about this, a little voice in my head said. I agree. "Ok. So how do I do this now?" Do not provoke the insane. Do not provoke the insane, homiciadal, and probably short-tempered. Besides, mind powers did seem really, really cool. "You focus on the experiences and direct your attn to what you want to happen." She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Thank you so much for clarifying that and being very, very clear on exactly what I am supposed to do. It's really appreciated. Yes, and she said the attn part like ay-te-te-ehn. "What the freak is attn?" "Like, attention. Duh." Again with the likes and the duhs. This girl had way too much time on her hands. "And what am I supposed to do again? In non-special, normal-human language." She gave another wide smile. Either I was part of some diabolical evil plot or Salena was really into showing off the whitening strips. "You are special." And she didn't say it in a supportive-kindergarten-teacher-slash-disney-movie way. More like she viewed me as a tool. I almost expected to hear her evil little chuckle after the statement. Perfection. Not. "Yeah, well that doesn't mean I know what you're talking about!" "Find out the meaning of the words and do what they say. It's like math. Or chemistry." She rolled her eyes. "It's not that hard." So, I did. The thingy I was trying to move looked kind of like a rock, and I rifled through the experiences trying to find something. Eventually I got tired of that and just winged it. The rock smashed into the wall right behind Salena. Salena smiled- again - and hissed something. "Beneficialness." Lynn went back online, and Savannah saved the document and closed it. Lynn: Like hi, Savvy Savannah: I'm seriously going to block you if you don't stop calling me that. Lynn: Picky. Savannah: oh, I'm picky. Lynnette. Lynn: HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT??? Savannah: Psycho much? Tara told me. Lynn: How much did she tell you about me? Savannah: why are you getting all mad about this? Lynn: Tell me. What. Did. She. Say. Savannah: Seriously, chill. She just said that your name was Lynnette and that it was beneficial you had stopped telling everyone your actual name. Lynn: That's all? Savannah: Well, there was more. But I'm not going to tell you unless you stop acting all psycho or tell me why. Savannah felt like a liar, but she had to know. Lynn: Tara knows a lot of things about me. I mean, you wouldn't want all your future friends to know you destroyed half your school, now would you? Savannah: Oh. Okay. She didn't say anything, I was just trying to get you to tell me why you were so psycho. Savannah: And I did not destroy half my school. I chipped a bench. Dented the bike rack. Broke one tiny section of a window. Lynn: Greatalicious. Savannah: I don't think I'll ever be ahead of your vocabulary. Lynn Lang wise, obviously. Lynn: Sad fact. Savannah: More like annoying. Lynn: it's not all me, though. Actually, mostly it's Carmen. Savannah: WHAT? Lynn: Well, the words are me. But the phrases are Carmen. She made them all up. She told Adriana, Adriana told me, Adriana gave Carmen my email, and I'm the first to rate her phrases. Savannah: who on earth is Adriana? Lynn: Carmen's friend. Sorry, I forget you don't know all these people. Adriana is Carmen's friend. I went to summer camp with her Savannah: yeah. Whatever. How's your essay? Lynn: Pretty good. Luckily, I already know a lot about social effects of texting and computers so I didn't need to look up much. Savannah: Coolisoty. Lynn: You really like those expression, don't you? Savannah: No. I hate them. It's accidental. Lynn: I see. Savannah: I have to go to bed. Chat you in the morning. Lynn: text you in class. Savannah: Sure that's wise? Lynn: totally. I just won't text in that one teachers class. Savannah: Good call. Savannah is offline Lynn: You have no idea. Savannah did not receive your message Lynn threw her head back on her pillow. Her room looked weird to her. She was in the most successful school in the country, exclusive, that received thousands of applicant's each year and almost none got in. She couldn't think of anything she hated more. Academics were fine. Athletics were fine. Being a social outcast was fine. Working into oblivion every freaking day she could do. Monitored freaking lockdown she could not. Because the most successful boarding school in the country was also strict. And the most powerful (not to mention EVIL) sorceress in the world's favorite hangout. Yeah. Fun. She had a blast. Not. Lynn had had everything, back in Oregon. Where she belonged. A letter, pineapple shake, and rock smashed into her wall later, she was carted off to boarding school rather than entering seventh grade with all her friends. Zara. Tanya. Most of the school. Now she was forbidden to talk to them except through email. Each message was reviewed by top Saushale before it could go to the recipient. Hence she kept her chats short and to the point, like most of the Saushale. Saushale. She even hated the word. It meant a cage to her. A wall between her and her friends. Her dreams. Her own freaking mind. Lynn rolled onto her stomach to think. She'd never been a typical Saushale robot. Well, maybe robot wasn't the word- Saushale thought. Analyzed. Just only the way Sabrina allowed. Anyway, she'd never been completely on track. She was unique. She'd still liked her friends for who they were, never looking down on them as inferior like most. Most Saushale only kept friendships going for appearances. So nothing would seem out of place. Some just randomly ditched their friends, but others forced their friends to ditch them. Not Lynn. Sure, she might have acted a little more psycho, especially at first, changing her mind, acting defense, blowing up at the slightest slip- someone calling her Lynnette, not referring to her music as 'electronica', referring to the Lynn Lang as strange or idiotic, even sarcastically. Luckily, her friends knew she was weird and didn't say anything about it. Adriana had just started to get a little mad, wondering where the cool, fun Lynn had gone (and why it was taking her forever to respond to a chat) when Lynn broke through. The Saushale boarding school she was at gave small field trips. Some people, though usually only those completely duped up with mind control and tested in the environment, even got to leave for really long times. Anyway, one of these such field trips sent her to a nearby rich school with some chosens attending. Her mission was simple: find, analyze, destroy. Sabrina had ramped up security within the Saushale area, duping up Lynn with so much mind control it was a wonder she didn't explode. She still broke through. When she arrived at the school, it was easy enough to find the chosens; the most privileged, sarcastic, mean kids in the bunch. Lynn began to watch. And fabricate. Sabrina demanded long reports on whatever was happening, especially during training. So Lynn analyzed what they were doing, and gave away only the most trivial on information, making up the rest. To someone with a lot of time on their hands, they could have probably found the flaws and fabrications- small tests of logic for those paying attention. But none did. While at the school, Lynn would have trouble keeping on track and not attacking anybody. She tried numerous ways of breaking through. Few worked. Of those that did, such as listening to "Cruel Summer" (Sabrina and Saushale's least favorite song) were impractical, and impossible under all the surveillance. Lynn plotted how to keep the chosens without Sabrina knowing. While she did so, she began to discover some of the effects of fighting the mind control. By disintegrating the mind control, she disintegrated all that was keeping the Saushale chemicals in order. Every day she looked and acted more human. By the end of about a week, her lightly tanned skin, medium brown hair, and hazel eyes returned. People watched her, wondering what on earth was going on (what would people think if you went from having solid, midnight-black eyes to hazel with actual whites and distinctive pupils? What if you mysteriously grew a tan without ever leaving the building? In a week?) So the opposite of fun. The upside was that she seemed to melt into the crowd. Lynn's Saushale face had virtually no resemblance to her normal one. Sabrina might have been keeping tabs, but it seemed to her that Lynn had simply disappeared, something Lynn encouraged by slipping in her reports she had ran. She made people call her Lynnette. It was taxing, but Sabrina was sure enough that the Lynnette simply could not be her. No one could pronounce her last name anyway; it seemed as if a new student with the same first name had moved in. Replaced her. Simple. Well, okay, not simple, really. Mostly because people were so confused. Mostly because she looked so different. They knew she was still Lynn, but she had just changed. Also her name. At first, she fought for people to call her Lynn, angrily exploding at all who did otherwise. But randomly she demanded people call her Lynnette, descending on those who called her Lynn with even more fury than before. Confusing. Most people just avoided her. With good reason. Anyway, she finally found a solution to help the chosens. She told them what was going on. What they had to do. Why she was here. They laughed in her face and told her to get lost. So encouraging. Lynn thought about it for much longer, about how to regain her Saushale-ness as well as get the chosens to believe her. Without Sabrina's help on either. So the opposite of easy. Eventually, she did the most obvious thing on both and it worked. She decided to be Saushale while she was explaining the whole thing to the chosens. So she went with that first. She listened to DUYD-SV (all Saushale had the CD downloaded on their computers) and it all came back. In like five seconds. Simple. The chosens thing was harder. Lynn distinctively remembered the whole thing. Every word of the conversation. "Hey, look, it's the Saw-shale." The leader pronounced the word exaggerated, and the girls laughed. Lynn stayed calm. Most people seem to become much less frightening after you've had a go at the most powerful being in, like, all of history. Even if you were mostly just helping. The fact remained that these chosens were nothing compared to Sabrina. "Hey, look, it's Obnoxious and Gang." Calm. Deadpan. Same way Sabrina would probably do it. "What do you want now? Annoy us?" "Nothing. I just love to walk around you, be insulted by the most obnoxious people on the campus, and pretend like I don't have a giant load of other crap to do." Sincere sounding, but obviously sarcastic. Totally Carmenistic. "Seriously, what do you want? We don't have all day." "Judging by the fact it's like six, I believe it would be more like all night." Informative. Kind of sarcastic. Avoiding the question. More Tara than anything else. "That tells us nothing." "Whatever. So, you still don't believe me?" "Of course not. We're not stupid. We don't believe in goddesses and whatever else you were talking about-" "Sorceresses." Correcting someone. A habit she'd adopted from Carmen and Savannah, Carmen who insisted her music was electronica and Savannah who insisted Lynn call their conversations Google Chat, as opposed to IM. Either way, it was annoying. "The point is that we don't believe you." "How do you think I changed my face? Again? From a dancing elephant?" Again, very Carmenistic (mostly from the particular style of sarcasm). Plus, the whole dancing elephant thing was totally her. Lynn had no idea how much she'd copied from Carmen. Or why- she had to be, like, the most annoying person on the planet. Except for Lynn. And maybe Bella. "The way normal people do. Hair dye. Contacts." "And grew three inches?" That was another part of the rapid untransformation and then retransformation. She'd grown three inches with it transformation, then had to go buy a bunch of clothes to fit into being three inches shorter once it had gone away, then had to throw those away once she re-transformed. "I don't know. High heels? Platform sandals? Optical illusion? Growth spurt?" "Or just being special like that," someone in the back muttered. They were not acknowledged. "I can show you proof." "Yeah. Right." "This song," Lynn held up a small flash drive (one with NoEx-LV, the least annoying of all the 'lectronica songs encoded on it). "Does not exist. You can look up the album, song, or lyrics-" "What about the artist?" "No artist." "All songs have top be created by someone. Something." "Not all songs have the artist recorded. Anyway, you can look it up to your hearts content, but it does not exist. At all." "Right." "Well, except for maybe one or two people's blogs. People who know Sabrina exists." "Sabrina does not exist." "Suit yourself." Lynn threw the flash drive at her. "You've got three days to live before the mind decontrol wears off and I go back to being Saushale. With a mission." Lynn smiled. Evilly. "And you can meet the Sabrina who 'does not exist'." "You're insane." "Actually, I'm not. But if you really feel the need, you are welcome to test that." Lynn smiled again. "To your hearts desire." The chosens in the back looked stricken, but the leader just rolled her eyes and said "I am so beyond this." She walked away, and the others followed. One looked back at her. The expression on her face was very clearly "Help." Lynn smiled. Turned away. And waited. The mind decontrol didn't have a time limit (she hoped) but Lynn knew that people made much more irrational decisions when under pressure. It wasn't an irrational decision to someone who actually knew what was going on, obviously, like Carmen, but to someone who had been enforced into believing since birth that there was no such things as Telkin, goddesses, Sorceress, or Saushale (or anything else weird and freaky like that), it was simply stupid to cave in. But once they looked up the song, found that it did not, in fact, exist, they might be freaked out enough to immediately believe her and go for it. Without trying to rationalize and make up things to justify it normally. Lynn had been right. Savannah watched her screen for a couple seconds. It was only about seven-thirty, so she had an hour. She showered and then came back in her room, turned her monitor back on (it turned off after fifteen minutes of disuse; she had kept on her electronica the whole time) and then opened back up internet explorer and google chat and set her message to "Busy". Then she reconfigured the power settings to "Always On". She disabled the speakers (The electronica from the CD had started to play in the middle of the night, and it annoyed her aunt, so Savannah had taken to disabling most of the sound system every night) and read her new science fiction book, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld until about eight-forty-five. Then she went to sleep. Tara, however, did not. Saushale did not need to sleep, as a general rule. Sometimes they did, because there was nothing else to do or they were expected to be asleep (such as in summer camps or sleepovers. Eventually, people were expected to sleep). But on their own they did not. The Saushale boarding school, for example, did not recommend it. So Tara did not. Besides, dreams were when Sabrina was most powerful. Most able to access you. Most able to make your mind control even more controlling than it already was. Tara focused, or tried to, at least. Ever rarely did she get moments like these, where she could think normally. It was hard for someone to overtake someone with hypnosis, even slightly, with mind control. But not impossible. And Sabrina was thousands of times better at mind control than Tara was at hypnosis. Tara struggled, focused, but eventually she was pulled under. A cruel smile uplifted her features, her black eyes and hair deepened in color from their momentary dark brown, and her skin regained the pale complexion of the Saushale from the lightly tanned, slightly pinkish it had started to become. She walked over to her computer. She shared the small duplex-house thing with a couple of other Saushale doing other things. One was monitoring Carmen, another going after someone with possible mind reading, to diagnose it and try to get a copy of her genes to add in to the Saushale operation. One of them was "twenty" and owned the house, from Sabrina's always full bank account. She booted up her computer quickly enough and opened up the Saushale Messenger. Saushale Messenger wasn't regulated nearly as much as regular, google chat or IM, and used only between Saushale and other Saushale or Sabrina. Lina: hey tara. New assignment again? Tara: ya Lina: How come? Tara: * sigh * more mind control. testing. Lina: Why don't you just give up? You're not helping anything by making a huge deal out of it. Tara: duh. I can't believe how stupid I've been being. Still in training? Lina: ya. Went on a cool field trip and have a mountain of make-up work. Mostly science. All I have for the magic classes and the ology is some tests. Tara: Science is cool. Lina: be a lot cooler if they didn't do so much work. What are you going to do????? Tara: getting emailed from science and ology and the other concrete ones. have test this friday on alena, bleh. the others I have to do the tests on video camera. Installed one in room. double use because of mind control. Lina: ya. Do you have any friends? Tara: Kylie. From human times Lina: and me, from now. Tara: duh. Any word on Lynn? Lina: Why? Tara: the person is like best buds with her. Lina: She's best friends with SAUSHALE??????? Tara: how many question marks do you need? god. anyway, she used to know Lynn so when she got ditched by her friend- my doing, of course -and Lynn was there they became friends. besides Sav has no idea what Saushale are or that Lynn is one. Lina: I see. gotta go. mountains of make-up work bye! Tara shut down the program and stared out the window. She had the same science/biology/transformation class as Lina, and she did have a full night as far as classes. There wasn't really a lot of time to waste. With a sigh, she sat back down at her computer and opened her inbox, ready for the endless work. Savannah woke up the next morning early, five instead of six. And as was to be expected, Lynn's dot was green. Savannah didn't go on chat immediately, though; there was a few messages from Kylie, Tara, and Massie, of all people. Savannah clicked on the one from Kylie first. To: Savvy54321@gmail.com From: Kylienuts@gmail.com Date: 10/10/08 6:41 pm Hey, savannah! Have you gotten the message from Tara yet? Email me when you do. Mystified, Savannah opened the next message, from Tara. To: Savvy54321@gmail.com From: Tarataircoolshale@mail-servicenorm.ssw Date: 10/10/08 8:22 pm Hello, Savannah. Kylie is being idiotic and wants you to come with us on Friday to the ice cream shop around the corner. The small one, I think its called Emily's Ice cream or something. It's after school, but Kylie likes to draw these things out so it will take at least an hour and a half. Savannah almost deleted the message from Massie and responded immediately to kylie and Tara, but she was too curious. Hate mail? An apology? A forward, just with a message rather than a forward? To: Savvy54321@gmail.com From: readlikehell@gmail.com Date: 10/10/08 10:34 pm hiya sav! I changed my email address and apparently it was swallowed up IMMEDIATELY! I was so not blocking you. anyway, this is my new address. you're right, gmail IS better than yahoo. Savannah rolled her eyes. Typical Massie. To: kylienuts@gmail.com From: Savvy54321@gmail.com Date: 10/11/08 5:10 am I got the email from Tara. Yes, I would love to come along. It's no problem. Tara seemed kind of mad, though- why? To: tarataircoolshale@mail-servicenorm.ssw From: Savvy54321 Date: 10/11/08 5:14 am I already emailed kylie. If you were planning to make your annoyance not known, you fail. Why are you so mad at me, anyway? I never did anything to you! To: Savvy54321@gmail.com From: tarataircoolshale@mail-servicenorm.ssw Date: 10/11/08 5:19 am You have the weirdest email ever. I thought you hated it when people called you Savvy or Sav. Luckily for you, I'm nicer than that. Anyway, I'm not really mad at you. It just seems to me that a girl that demolishes half her school and scares most of its inhabitants to death is not exactly good friend material. Just a slight suspicion. Of course, then again, maybe I shouldn't be saying this. After all, god forbid that I insult you. I could be running for my life. I wasn't trying to be exuberantly hostile. Kylie can guess my passwords with almost psychic accuracy and she gets very mad whenever I try to insult you. I can't for the life of me figure out why she cares, or why she's even trying to be nice to you. We both know that if she shows even the slightest desire to be friends with someone else she'll be next on the hit list. She'll never know about this convo, though, since I'll just delete it all. Simplicity. To: tarataircoolshale@mail-servicenorm.ssw From: Savvy54321 Date: 10/11/08 5:25 am At least MY email comes from a legitimate service provider. What on earth is ssw, anyway? Or mail service norm? And what kind of email is tara tair cool shale? Were you trying to spell shell or something? Anyway, I'm not always totally mean and evil. Kylie actually understands. I don't mean to hurt people. I just get even the slightest bit mad, frustrated, or annoyed- at ANYTHING, whether it's that my friend ditched me or the computer isn't loading fast enough -and something is flying out the window. I'm trying. Working on it. I'm not going to kill Kylie. Or you. Though the latter might be just a little too much compassion. And I did NOT DEMOLISH HALF OF THE SCHOOL! That's way over exaggeration! I chipped a table! Anyway, you and Kylie are best friends. Since, like, forever. If you're so pissed off at me why don't you just tell her how bad and mean I am? She'll totally believe you over me. But no, you just have to be all sneaky and obnoxious instead. What's the plan? And, yes, that is a rhetorical question. And why on earth are you online at five in the morning? To: Savvy54321@gmail.com From: tarataircoolshale@mail-servicenorm.ssw Date: 10/11/08 5:32 am Why are you on at five in the morning? Insomnia? Impending insanity? I'm online because I wake up early. I don't need as much sleep as most people. Anyway, it seems to me that your little mind powers thingy showed up right about the time Massie ditched you. You must have some serious homicidal urges to trigger something like that. Unless it's like genetic or something. You're trying to make it look like the whole psycho thing is over. What if something else pushes you over the edge? No one wants to be friends with someone who acts like you do. If Kylie shows even the slightest drop in wanting to be friends, SHE'LL be flying out the window, not your stupid computer, correct? I haven't tried to tell Kylie about how mean and evil you are. She already thinks I'm weird and our friendship is falling apart. If I ask her to choose, me or you, she'll probably choose you. If I ask her. She hates choosing. And, about my email, doesn't Lynn have the same thing: something, and then 3shale@mail-servicenorm.ssw? To: tarataircoolshale@mail-servicenorm.ssw From: Savvy54321@gmail.com Date: 10/11/08 5:35 am First of all, Lynn's email is with gmail, not some weird ssw thing. Normal, safe gmail. Like mine, only she didn't create hers in the fifth grade when she thought having people call her Savvy was the coolest thing ever, and then not care enough to change it. Your friendship with Kylie is not falling apart. She follows you everywhere. Besides, why don't you, rather than try to intentionally annoy me to get me to go away (because trust me, it so does not work; people I dislike asking me to do something they want always makes me more intent on doing the opposite) why don't you dare to get to know me, now that I'm not psycho? I don't hate you. Seriously. AND I'M NOT GOING TO BE THROWING ANYONE OUT WINDOWS. Or anything. I'm not like that anymore!! To: Savvy54321@gmail.com From: tarataircoolshale@mail-servicenorm.ssw Date: 10/11/08 5:39 You want to be some happy, skipping little trio. So not going to happen. I'm not your friend. You're not mine. To: tarataircoolshale@mail-servicenorm.ssw From: Savvy54321@gmail.com Date: 5:40 am The fact that you have spent the last twenty minutes talking to me without any type-yelling suggests the contrary. Actually, know that I think about it, Lynn acts the same way. Sometimes. Insisting that I am not her friend and never could be. Randomly. To: Savvy54321 From: Lynnette-ultimatihah@gmail.com Date: 5:40 am Hello? Are you avoiding me? You've been online for the past forty minutes! Are you mad about that message? I unsent it! I don't know what's up with me lately. .................................................................................hello?..................................................... Savannah, in respsonse to the message, hit the 'Reply by Chat' button. Savannah: I was so not avoiding you. Tara was online and emailing me. Lynn: About what? Lynn: At five in the morning? Savannah: She was basically telling me why she hates me. And she says she just doesn't need as much sleep as other people and wakes up early. Like me. Lynn: Or like you would be, if you didn't go to bed at eight. Savannah: Eight thirty. Lynn: Whatever. So, I've been meaning to ask you, how did you get the 'lectronica CD? Savannah: I'm special like that. Lynn: TELL ME!!! Savannah: * cackles *. I was just trying to annoy with your own expressions. It's kinda fun. Lynn: No, it's the opposite of fun. Now tell me already. Savannah: okay, okay. It came in the mail. Lynn: From who? Savannah: Don't know. There wasn't a note on it. And the return address just leads to some weird factory that was closed down years ago. Lynn: What factory? Savannah: You've been acting kind of paranoid lately, you know that? Lynn: I'm special like that. Savannah: It was like a communications necessities thing. Maybe computers. I don't remember. Lynn: Oh. Whatever. So, what do you think of it overall? Savannah: I like pretty much all of them, actually. Even track seven. Lynn: Which one is that one? Savannah: FaPa-CV. Lynn: Carmen's. Ha. She got an annoying song to go with her annoying attitude. Perfect. Savannah: Huh? Lynn: Never mind. So what do you listen to besides 'lectronica? Savannah: I used to listen to Linkin Park, System of a Down, you know, stuff like that, but since I got it I don't listen to anything else. At all. Lynn: Funny. Savannah: Why is it funny? Lynn: I don't know. I've been in a weird mood lately. Savannah: I can tell. Lynn: Oh yeah. And why does Tara hate you again? Savannah: Because she thinks I'm violent. Lynn: Somehow, amazingly, I can see her point. Savannah: I'm not going to dignify a statement that obvious with a real answer. Savannah: So, who is Carmen, anyway? You keep mentioning her. Lynn: She's just this really sarcastic girl. She has mind powers and three friends. Adriana is sarcastic, Heidi is very, very sweet (and kind of weird thereof) and Hailey is the most annoying girl in the history of the universe. Savannah: She has mind powers????????????????? Lynn: How else would she have gotten the CD? I think that's what the factory is. Savannah: So, what is the deal with the electronica? Lynn: People with really powerful mind powers have side effects because of it, basically. Each song on the CD was recorded from someone with the side effects. Savannah: I see. Well, it's getting kind of late, and I really don't want a repeat of yesterday. Lynn: When you flew over your city? Savannah: yes. That. How did you know? Lynn: it was on the news. And Youtube. And pretty much everywhere else you could possibly think of. Savannah: lovely. Lynn: Yeah. But you won't see it anymore. Everyone's forgotten Savannah: Why? Lynn: they're special like that. Lynn knew, of course. It was Sabrina. Sabrina had this obsession with keeping the Telkin a secret, no one could know about it. When Savannah basically told the entire universe about it, Saushale had come out in hordes with mind control chemicals. The only way you could remember the incident was to be fasting, not eating or drinking anything. The videos on YouTube vanished. The recordings of the news shows disappeared. The story was never remembered by anyone except the Saushale and Savannah. And Sabrina, obviously. Savannah closed the chat window and opened up her story document. It was only six-ish. Totally too early to start biking to school. The evil joy disappeared from Salena's eyes as soon as she hissed the last s. She straightened up. "Of course, that was in dreamworld capacity." Duh. "We need to practice something harder, yes?" Sabrina smiled after saying it. No. "Duh." "Excellent." No, it is NOT excellent. "Just do the same thing." So I did. Anger involuntarily welled up inside me. The rock shattered. "Good job." Shut up. "Thank you." "Let's make it harder, shall we?" No thanks. "Of course." She snapped her fingers again. It was just the tiniest bit harder, but not hard enough to deter me. The rock shattered again. "You're gifted." No, I'm not. "It would seem so." "Are you using the experiences?" No. "Somewhat." "Soon you probably won't." If soon means now. "That would be amazing." "You'd just use anger." That sounds lovely. Not. "Anger? How?" "As fuel." Perfect. Fuel. Isn't there some adage saying don't put fuel on the fire? "Amazing." She snapped her fingers again and, again, the rock shattered. Instantly. "That was fast." Duh. "I tried using anger." "What are you angry about?" Jumping tigers. "I just feel angry." "Naturally?" No. "Kind of." "You're very gifted." How does feeling mad make me 'gifted'? "Thank you." "Let's try it again." I'd rather not. "Excellent." She kept snapping her fingers. The rocks kept shattering. Finally, she spoke again. "This is real-world capacity." Like I care. "What does that mean?" "It means you're dreaming, but you're using your powers as if you weren't." That makes a lot of sense. "You really think I can do it?" "Yes." Well, if an evil Sorceress has faith in you, you are sure not to fail. Not. The rock shattered. Easily. No effort whatsoever. Maybe I was kind of 'gifted'. But probably not in the best of ways. "Excellent." Salena's smile was so wide it looked as if her mouth was going to fall off. So not a good thing. "You'll wake up. Right. About. Now." My consciousness ebbed away. I woke up. In my bed. Savannah checked her clock right about then. She had twenty minutes to get to school. She grabbed her backpack, leapt across the hallway, and crashed into the garage. She grabbed her bike and opened the garage door, pedaling and using her mind powers to glide to school. Tara watched, smiling, as Savannah biked into school. The e-mail exchange that morning had gone perfectly. Perfectly. Tara was even more of a mastermind at human manipulation than most other Saushale, despite the super-long course at the training. Usually sessions like that were conducted face to face, or at least on the phone, but Tara didn't need to. It looked as if she had accomplished exactly what she had planned. Savannah felt marginal pity over how Tara and Kylie's friendship was 'falling apart'. At the same time she felt ostracized over Tara's obvious disapproval over her. She was reminded of how much of a social outcast she was. Determined to make it up. Excellent backgrounds for Friday. Friday. Tara couldn't wait. Feeling only slightly klazomaniacal (Tara couldn't tell whether that was Lynn Lang or not, but she still liked it anyway) she walked up to Savannah. Savannah was only slightly too busy to notice Tara standing perfectly still right next to the bike entrance. She'd brought her phone with her again, sitting right in the pocket of her dark jeans. Savannah locked up her bike and right up to Tara. "Good morning, Savannah." She said it smoothly and officially, her focus slightly to the side, sliding up and down. Savannah crossed her arms and glared slightly, in a don't-mess-with-me kind of way. The expression came naturally to her. "Like, hi." Sav. Tara smiled, half evil, half in recognition. Typical Lynn greeting. "What do you have first period?" Savannah adjusted her backpack. It was black, with small colorful stars patterned. She had it hanging on one shoulder. "PE. You?" "Language Arts. I have PE fifth period. What activity do you have?" "Soccer." "Volleyball." They were perfectly normal words, a perfectly normal conversation, but only in transcript. The words were delivered coldly and practiced, like cut ice. By both girls. Savannah took a deep breath. Tara had issues. That was a fact. Never argue with an idiot. Folks might not be able to tell the difference. It was a joke 'bit of wisdom' she'd found in some random book. She calmed herself. "Volleyball is fun. Too bad I came in late." The words were less like cut ice, more feeling, more emotion. Savannah mentally patted herself on the back and adjusted her stupid backpack again. "And we all know why." Tara was still cold. Hm. Probably not a stellar idea to bring up her stupid antics in the beginning of the year. "You didn't answer my last email this morning." She tried to make it sound more like a question than an accusation. She was only halfway successful. "I'm special like that." "You don't have to hate me, just because of what I did. People change. As of evidence in your aspect." "Didn't get that last sentence, sorry." Tara smirked. Stupid, stupid Lynn way of talking. Stupid sentences. Why couldn't she have said it the normal way? Tara did remind her of Lynn, though. They were so similar. In ways of talking and weird freakish episodes. Maybe Lynn was this cruel to other people. Savannah took another deep, calming breath. Freaking out, which would inevitably result in Tara slamming into the side of a building, was so the opposite of what she needed. Especially now. Few days ago, and Tara would have already done so. "You changed. Not necessarily for the better. Or worse," she tacked on as an afterthought. "Being forced to dye my stupid hair does not make me weird, freakish, or different. Especially as compared to you." "You're different in other ways. Even I can see that. I'm sure Kylie can tell many, many more." Savannah said it unaccusingly, which was only mildly remarkable. She had a slight smile on her face. "What would make you think that?" Tara's voice was especially cold and unforgiving. "You know what." The bell rang, and Tara and Savannah went different directions. Savannah dressed speedily, as always, and walked over to the soccer field. She was assigned defender, as was to be expected, and her anger was evident. She hadn't been able to act out right in front of Tara, but here was her chance. She didn't use her mind powers, but it looked like it. She ran toward the ball faster than anyone else, kicked it further than even the best players in the school. She was mad, and it felt much better to act out like this. The other team didn't stand a chance. By herself, she scored three goals. The rest of the team was stationed next to the goal, and they scored two goals that way. By the end of practice, Savannah was hot and exhausted, but congratulated several times. Slowly, people were starting to like her just the smallest bit more. Savannah rarely focused on Massie the way she used to, especially now that she had new friends. It was time to stop agonizing on the past and looking to the future. Or, at least, stop acting like a psycho maniac because of it. Tara walked to Language Arts almost as mad as Savannah. But, as all Saushale, she was pretty good at keeping her anger inside her, ready for the next use of the Telkin. It was really no wonder why she was getting the best scores out of all her classmates, here or otherwise. She had Ms Kaltalsky (Kow-tow-skeeee, she pronounced it) as a teacher, who was almost as eccentric as her name (only almost because it takes being a freaking giraffe as a teacher to surpass that kind of eccentricity). She rarely graded papers. She would ask that a huge amount of work be done, and only collected a quarter of it. She would spend entire class periods talking about random things, whether it was her dream the night before or the McDonalds commercial she had heard on the radio on the way to work. There were virtually no tests, and if there were they would be on the weirdest, most random things. They were usually either really long and hard, with weird questions not answerable in the slightest, or short and simple, with weird questions. On one, the question 'Draw your birthday' had been asked, and she had actually marked a couple people wrong for it. That's Ms Kaltalsky for you. Today, according to the report the day before (which was only correct about, oh, seven percent of the time) they were going to be working on grammar. More likely she would start to tell them what a noun was, give them a long worksheet on all the parts of speech and threaten a test. The sheet would never be collected and the test would never materialize. Tara sat down. Something about language arts always made her anger evaporate and humor set in. I'm sure that with proper motivation and enough time to think about it, you can figure out why. Anyway, Ms Kaltalsky was outside chatting with the teacher next door. It was Kylie's Language arts teacher; Stalworth. She was supposedly one of the best teachers there, actually teaching her kids and making them write a lot of essays. They also read a lot of books and stuff. Kaltalsky smiled at her as soon as the bell rang and she went inside. She clapped her hands. "The state requires that you learn about grammar, for what ever reason. Today we will discuss the parts of speech. Of course, all that fun material can be found right in that grammar handbook of yours. We have a test Friday, so make sure you study." As was to be expected, everyone in the class looked at each other and smirked. Kaltalsky went to her desk, where she went on her computer and searched the Net. She was fact-checking their last research report, on a country of their choice. Kaltalsky might not collect any day-to-day work, but she did assign a lot of annoying projects. Most kids in the class just talked with their neighbors, already knowing the parts of speech. A couple kids texted on their phones. A few more read books. Only about two kids were actually looking in the grammar book. Probably the paranoid ones, who were actually stupid enough to think there was a test on Friday. Tara pulled out her phone. Kylie, of course, would never even dare even have her phone on, but Tara was bored. No one would talk to her and she didn't have a book to read. So she texted Lynn. Tara: Hey Lynn. Lynn: why are you texting me? Tara: because I'm special like that. Lynn: Whatever. What class does Sav have this period? Tara: PE. Lynn: Oh. That's why she's not answering. Tara: I would imagine. What are you doing? Lynn: Sitting in science. Tara: Where? Lynn: Like I'd tell you, spy. Tara: I'm not a spy. Lynn: Yeah. Right. Tara: Moving on, what do you think of Sav? Lynn: She's nice. Tara: NICE? She's freaking psychotic! Lynn: Well duh she's going to be to you if you keep insulting her. Tara: That doesn't change the fact that she's psychotic. Lynn: That's pretty hypocritical, considering that you're under mind control of Sabrina's. Tara: I don't go around destroying things and hurting people, just because I feel like it and I can. Lynn: Yeah, but wouldn't you if Sabrina made you? Tara: No one's making her. Lynn: How do you think she got her mind powers without Sabrina? Tara: Alena. Lynn: Alena has vanished. Completely. Even Carmen can't find her. The mark's stopped working. Tara: I'm sure Sabrina would love to know that. Lynn: She does. Tara: Back to Sav. If she was being influenced by Sabrina, wouldn't she be Saushale now, sitting in boarding school learning just how to be a good little Saushale? Lynn: Sabrina probably gave her the mind powers, but she's not necessarily with mind control. Maybe it was a dream or something that just made a big impression on her. I don't know. Tara: Why are you defending her? Lynn: Because she's my friend. And I really don't like you anymore. Tara: Why? Lynn: Because you're back under Sabrina's power. And I really don't like Sabrina. Tara: well, duh. Lynn: Don't you have something better to do? Tara: I'm in language arts, with the worst teacher. Ever. Lynn: Talk to Sav. Tara: I only have 2nd period with her. Lynn: Shouldn't Sabrina have gotten you too in the same classes? Tara: Apparently she didn't. Bella's about to ring bye. Lynn: Bella? Where? No. You're lying. There's no Bella. Tara: Not Bella, BELL. Typed wrong letter. Hate cell phone keyboards. Lynn: Oh. Good. Tara: Or did I? Lynn didn't answer, so Tara assumed she had been annoyed by the small nonjoke. The bell rang. Tara swung her backpack onto one shoulder and walked to second period. Speech. Kylie walked from her own first period class to speech. Her backpack wasn't really a backpack at all; it was a modified shoulder-bag-esque. One of those oversize deals. You've seen them. She swung the bag. Tara hadn't been exactly psyched to be including Savannah in their weekly trip, but at least she wasn't being psycho about it. And Savannah had been okay. At least. She was used to checking her email in the morning because that was when Tara was usually on, and she had gotten Savannah's email. I wonder why she doesn't like being called Sav, she thought unfocusedly. Tara had the same thing going- she would get all explosionary whenever someone called her the wrong thing. Kylie finally arrived in Speech. Savannah was already there; she got around the building much faster than anyone else. Tara really liked being late for whatever reason, and probably wouldn't be there for another three or four minutes. "Hey, Savannah!" "Hey Kylie." Kylie sat down in her seat, dropping her bag beside her seat and turning to face Savannah. "What's wrong?" "Oh, just Tara. She hates me. She, like, refuses to accept that I've changed and I'm not, like, totally evil." Savannah struggled not to make her voice completely sad and pitiful. She hated unloading all her problems on other people. She kept her head up, twirling a piece of her silvery hair around one long, thin finger. Her nails were painted black. "Tara's pretty cold. Just don't get all touchy-feely on her and she'll come around. Eventually. Megan was the same way." "Megan never hangs out with you guys. And that was in fifth grade. Before she got all...weird." "Megan decided we were uncool before Tara did. And Tara was much, much colder back in fifth grade than she is now." "Whatever. When is the speech due again?" Savannah dropped her hair and pulled her planner out of her backpack. "The story one? We have to have a rough draft this Friday, I think, practice next Monday, and we start presentations Thursday." Savannah wrote all the dates down, flipping through the pages. "Got it." "Is the essay for Stalworth due today?" "Yeah. Did you finish?" "My printer went bye-bye." Savannah giggled. "Do you have it on flash drive?" "Like, yaw. What kind of idiot do you think I am?" "A very resourceful one. Just go down to the library at lunch and print it there." "I have Language arts next period." "Oh. She has a computer. Give it to her. Proof you did it, at least. Go to her before class and give it to her then, see if you can print it." "That'll go over well," Kylie muttered. "Where's Tara?" "She's always late. She thinks it's cool or something." "Oh. Have you decided what you're going to do your speech on?" Kylie nodded. "I read this cool book and I'm going to make an epilouge." "Sure it's allowed?" "She'll never know." "Good point." "What about you?" "I think I'm going to do something sarcastic about the origins of the Lynn Lang." "You? Sarcastic?" Savannah shrugged. "Lynn'll help me." "I have no idea who she is, but okay." "She's like the most sarcastic person, like, ever. Besides, she owes me." "For what?" "She understands nothing about cells. Like they're hard or something." Kylie began to answer, but Tara swept in. "Hey, Kylometer." "Like, hi, Taraster." "Hi, freak," Tara smirked at Savannah. "What-freaking-ever." Savannah rolled her eyes at Tara. "Great comeback." "You're acting like this is a freaking VSS." "What?" "Vital Support System. Duh." "Whatever." "Great comeback." Kylie laughed. "What's the deal with you and Sab lately?" "Who on earth is Sab?" Kylie and Savannah asked in unison. Sah-awb, for your information. "A ma-a-a-agical person from where the fairies roam and the unicorns graze." Tara rolled her eyes. "You don't know who Sab is?" she addressed Savannah. "What am I, psychic now?" "Sabrina." She pronounced Sabrina strangely, her tongue twisting around dozens of vowels crammed up next to each other, making it hard to hear and probably impossible to pronounce. "Never heard of her?" "Like, no." "How'd you get mind powers?" "Magic." "It was a dream," Kylie explained. "What about Lynn?" "Lynn never told me about Sab." Savannah said the last word super sarcastic and exaggerated. "What are you guys talking about?" Kylie asked, bewildered. "I'm not completely sure," Savannah answered, before Tara could. "Girls. I know you are simply so wrapped up in your little conversation as to pay attention to small, trivial things, like the bell, but class has started so I must most humbly break up the tea party," the teacher intervened. She managed to insert several well-placed sighs and exaggerations, just to make it as un-teacher-like as she possibly could. "That was a really long sentence to just say stop talking," Savannah observed. "You're already in enough trouble, and I would recommend you not push it further." "You and what army?" Tara threatened. Kylie rolled her eyes and Savannah gave a nearly inaudible sigh. "The army of detention. Both you and Savannah have it. If Kylie says one sarcastic thing like you two we can make it a class of three." "Lovely," Kylie remarked. "Perfect. Three's a lucky number. Now let us begin actual class." "Come on," Tara whined, staring intently at the teacher. "Fine. I'll forgive it this time. But, really, let's start class." "Now. I know all of you are just dying to work on those speeches, due day after tomorrow, I remind you, those one's you've been letting sit in the back of your mind. So I'm going to be really nice and let you have all of class time to work on it. If you've finished, and I see your rough draft, then you can do whatever. I'll even allow electronics- but only if you've finished. People who've finished may talk quietly, but until you've done it is not allowed." The Speech teacher retreated to the back of the room, sidewise to the class so she could still see what was going on. Savannah, Tara, Kylie, and most of the rest of the class put their heads to the paper, working. Savannah was a fast writer, able to get out ideas quickly. Rather than do the Lynn Lang, as she had told Kylie, she decided to explain instead the morning when she woke up with mind powers. Totally fake, of course. So I woke up, and pretty much the only thing registering in my mind was a silent "It was only a dream Only a dream Dream It was only a dream Only a dream Dream" I rolled over. "Weird dream though," I commented in my mind. Then I got up. And my dresser launched into the wall. This didn't shock me at all, because of course a dresser smashing into the wall itself is a totally normal and commonplace. I think I was still in dream mode or something because the only comment in my mind was a simple "Hm. That's a big mess." Because hello, my clothes had erupted all over my floor. I don't like messes and I made a mental note to clean it up later. I wonder if it was the dream or simply an overdose of Liz being annoying that, like, killed my brain or something. Both are credible theories. I walked over to my computer, as I do every morning, to check my state of affairs. And, the same as every morning, it was taking several thousand years for it to boot up. In a burst of anger, it rocketed itself across the room. It was as if that move had woken up my mind, because suddenly I was reminded that, hello, dressers and computers moving themselves with no apparent outside influence are like so the opposite of natural. I basically just stared at it for a very, very long time, until slowly the ending of my dream came back to me. Lynn, that is, me, hadn't died. She'd found the trapdoor. She'd gone down it and found... um... I couldn't remember anything past that. So I shrugged and started cleaning up, trying to remember. I put all my clothes back in my dresser and set it back up pushed off to the side, as it had been before. My computer had fallen on my mattress, and wasn't too in bad of shape. Except for that part where the entire backing was coming off. I re-attached the backing and set it up on my desk. The remainder of my dream came back to me. I'd seen someone down there. She'd looked weird, and claimed to be a Sorceress or something, fighting all these weird people with more weird people. Because, as you can see, I always have totally normal dreams where nothing out of the ordinary happens. Not. She'd forced something down my throat that had given me these...these powers. I'd thrown things at her. I couldn't remember why. She'd made me tell her these things, the total opposites of what I'd wanted to say. I only had blurred, dim memories of the place, I couldn't remember at all what the heck the person had looked like, just a vague assumption that she was female. I swallowed and walked out of my room carefully, having finished my cleaning. My stupid brother was sitting at the table, drinking orange juice. I remember this scene much, much more clearly than the dream. "Hey, give me some of that," I asked, sitting down. The carton was on the table, right next to his plate. He smirked. "I finished all of it. None left." "There was half a carton left." "You can never have too much orange juice." The point was disproved when the glass shoved itself and spilled all over him, a sticky, orange mess that stained his white and gray school uniform, the only one that wasn't soaking wet and covered in soap suds in the wash. He stared at me in horror. "The glass jumped out of my hand," he said slowly. "It literally jumped out of my hand. I couldn't hold it." It was then that I realized I had a real problem on my hands. Savannah dropped the pen she was holding dramatically. It smacked to her desk loudly. No one else had finished, and they glared at her enviously as she walked up to the teacher. She received a stamp on her copy, and an instruction to go to the back of the classroom. There were several empty seats there. She did so, and pulled out her phone as well. Savannah: like, hi. Lynn: hi. Savannah: What class are you in? Lynn: We're learning about all these gods and goddesses. It's a subsection, like mythology or something, but we all call it ology. Savannah: Cool. Lynn: Yeah, we learn about all the gods and stuff in one unit as part of the standards. Savannah: I'm in speech. I finished my speech super-quick so I got free time. Electronics allowed. Lynn: Lucky. What was your speech about? Savannah: day after I got mind powers. Sarcastic and psychotic, all in one package! Lynn: Lovely. Savannah: it is so lovely... Lynn: it's freaking unbelievable. Savannah: Totally Lynn: What's up with Tar lately? She texted me earlier. She's firmly cemented in her belief you are psychotic. Savannah: Tar? Lynn: Tara. I used to call her Tar, just to annoy her. Savannah: I see. Savannah: Anyway, she's insisting that I'm like the worst person ever. I keep trying to tell her I've changed, but she doesn't believe it. Lynn: Tara's pretty one-minded. She used to believe I was the meanest person in the history of the universe. I basically just proved I was cool, and she was my friend. Savannah: Was. Lynn: We had a falling-out. But it wasn't because of her. Savannah: How'd you prove you were cool? Lynn Lang? Lynn: obviously not. Mostly just every time she tried to insult me I made a joke of it. She's not the kind that quietly hates a person. Savannah: I know. Lynn: And I spent a lot of time with her. And if she tried to exclude me, I just stayed right in. Savannah: You know, these aren't exactly typical ways of making a friend. Lynn: Yeah. But Tara isn't really a typical person, either. Savannah: good. point. "Whatcha doin'?" Savannah jumped three feet at the sudden sound. The room had been deathly quiet and even Kylie's whispered voice was loud. "Texting." Savannah typed a quick g2g, not seeing whatever Lynn had sent her, and closed the phone. She would look at it later. She zipped open the small pocket of her backpack and dropped the phone in. "Can I see your speech? I want to see what you decided the origins of the Lynn Lang were." Savannah handed it to her. "I did something different instead. Like, if the speech I did for punishment was a dream, this is after she wakes up." "Lynn?" "Yeah." "Based on what happened to you?" "Some of it. like how out of control it was. And how I woke up that morning." Kylie started to read it, her blue eyes zipping across the page incredibly fast. Savannah let her read for a couple minutes, then ask-whispered, "Can I read yours?" Kylie rolled her eyes. "It's probably, like, the dumbest one ever, but yeah, you can read it." Savannah rolled her own eyes. "Is it about that magical place with the fairies and unicorns Tara is obsessed about?" Kylie laughed, quietly (obviously). "No. It's just this dumb monologue I adapted from the internet." "See, if I was as smart as you then I wouldn't have had to do all that work!" "More like adept at cheating." "Yeah. So what's it about?" "It's my version of this monologue called 'French Toast'." "About what, a baker?" "No, it's this girl who's friend wants to go to the dance but doesn't have a date, and her other friend wants a date with her friend... just read it." Tara came over then. "Hey, Sav." "You finished, Tar?" Savannah pronounced it tair. "Have you been talking to Lynn?" "No, I consulted my magical books that tell me exactly what to call people to annoy the crap out of them." "What else did she tell you?" "Who?" "Lynn, you baka!" "What the freak is a baka?" "It's Japanese. Just tell me." "Where did you learn Japanese?" "Yahoo translation. Now tell me." "Your acting almost as freaky as Lynn was when I called her Lynnette. What did you guys do, perpetually antagonize each other?" Tara snorted. "Close. We were friends." "That being a way to antagonize each other?" "Yes. What else did she tell you about me?" "That you were mean. And you didn't end your friendship with Lynn. Who did, though?" "Sabrina." She pronounced it in the tongue-twisting way that made no sense and was impossible to duplicate. "Who is Sabrina?" "A magical-" "Keep it down, please, or I'm going to ask you to separate," The teacher called to them. They were still the only ones done. "Who?" "A magical person from where the fairies roam-" "And the unicorns graze," Savannah and Kylie intoned together, cutting Tara off. She scowled. "You might have noticed that's not really much of a description," Savannah said after a momentary pause. Tara snorted and rolled her eyes. "Right, because it was really invented to make sure you knew all about a person." "That was more of a cue for you to tell us about her than to be sarcastic," Kylie answered. "Sabrina's just a person. With power. End of freaking story already." "Okay. Whatever. I'm going to go print this stupid thing," Kylie whispered after a couple seconds of silence. She pulled out her flash drive and brandished it. "Do either of you want to come with me?" Savannah stood up, but Tara mumbled something about not being able to miss passing period and stayed down. Savannah and Kylie walked up to the teacher. "I need to print this for my next class, and since I'm finished can I go to the library or something and do so?" "Yeah. Sure. Library." The teacher handed them a pass and the two walked out. They walked in silence for a while, until Kylie broke it about halfway through. "I wish Tara would go back to the person she used to be. She's so mean, and she never tells me why she changed, or even acknowledges that she did so." "I know." "It's annoying, but also more than that. It's obnoxious. And mean. I'm her best friend. She can't tell me who freaking Sabrina or Lynn or any of these people are?" "I don't know what the deal is with Sabrina, but Lynn-" Kylie waved her hand in the air. "I get it now. She's some random preteen that Tara used to be friends with and you are currently friends with, right? She's really annoying, and made up all these obnoxious expressions, right?" "Right." "Yeah. But, I mean, I asked her seven times who Lynn was, and she just kept saying she was a 'person'. Wow. Descriptive. And I feel like I can't even explain it all to everyone, because since Megan ditched us Tara is my only friend. And if I ask, like, my mom or my cousins or something, then they'll just tell me to ditch her and find another friend. Like she's a computer or something that can be just thrown away and replaced." They were at the door of the library, so Kylie stopped talking. They both walked in, and Kylie briefly explained the librarian what she wanted. Kylie walked over to an empty computer, printed the document, and walked out. Savannah followed her. "Are you, though?" "Am I what?" "Going to ditch her eventually?" "Maybe. I don't know." The bell rang halfway through their trek to their classroom, so the two ran back to Speech at a full sprint. They grabbed their backpacks, said goodbye, and headed off to their respective classrooms. Tara walked to History, her mind working several thousand miles a minute. As usual, she walked to her locker first, the completely opposite direction of the class. Inside her locker was a small bulb-like object that allowed instant access to Sabrina. Tara grabbed her binder for the class, and focused in. "What's up with Sav currently?" A brisk, metallic voice demanded. No one but Tara could hear it. "She and Kylie are becoming very good friends. This will definitely break her. But are you sure you can't let the hold strengthen for another week or so? Why must it be done this Friday?" "I don't want Kylie to have anything to hold onto, stupid. More and more Saushale have been breaking away lately, and I think it's because of friendships. I'm not risking anything." "Okay, whatever. But why don't you just let the hold strengthen, break Sav, let Sav see Kylie for a few weeks, when she's not good enough to go against you, and then bring her to the boarding school?" "Maybe. I'll confirm later, once I've had more time to think about it." "Do I get to go back after this?" "Duh. Where else would I put you, a cow farm?" "I wouldn't put it past you," Tara muttered. "Report after lunch. She's going to be there, right?" "Duh." She slammed the locker door shut and locked it. Sabrina demanded Tara talk to her after she spent time with Savannah, or at least any time that she knew. Tara noticed the empty hallways and ran, at full sprint, to science. Tara hated normal classes. They were boring and pointless, but she had to sit through them anyway. It would be too abnormal for someone to not spend any time in any school. Abnormal. She slid into her seat for Science barely a few seconds before the bell. The teacher whirled around at the bell, to begin instructing the class. "Time for a pop cell review," she said chirpily. Tara stifled a groan. She hated these stupid forum pop review things. Basically the teacher asked a question, and then called on a random person to answer it. Tara usually wasn't focusing on the lesson and missed something. Plus, she'd already covered cells like eight hundred times back at Saushale summer camp. Sabrina included a lot of complex science in her crash course type thingies. She stared at the blank wall, and focused hard. Her boredom and desperation came through and her Sabrina mind control disappeared, it's vise-like grip on her brain vanishing. For now. The teacher continued asking questions, picking the kids at random. Tara inched out her cell and typed in Sav's number. Tara: hello Savannah: Like, hi. Why are you texting me? Tara: What are you talking about? Whenever she overthrew her mind control, the details of whatever she had done were always fuzzy and unclear. She never remembered them without effort, and her brain, in it's confusion, had made something up. That was how Sabrina's mind control always worked, implanting an idea and letting the brain take care of the rest. Savannah: I thought you hated me again. Tara: ????????? She usually preferred to banish her escapades for 'later'. Savannah: You don't remember any of this morning? Tara: Oh. Savannah: Insightful. Tara: Sorry, I get kind of cranky Savannah: That seems more psychotically and randomly forgetting things by choice, as opposed to being 'cranky'. Tara: Um. Yeah. Psychotically cranky? Savannah: Yeah. Right. Totally believable. Tara: I'll say things I don't mean, and I'll act ways I don't intend. You, of all people, should get that. Savannah: This seems more multiple personality disorder than, say, changing ways. Savannah: though maybe I should get it. Lynn gets the same way. Tara: You said that in the email. Sometimes I'll, like, be influenced by my environment. Heavily. It's kind of a disorder. Kylie understands it. Savannah: What's it called? Tara: I haven't been diagnosed yet, genius. Savannah: Don't you think you would be, after your parents realize you're going through psycho personality changes at the flip of a hat? Tara: isn't it supposed to be 'at the drop of a hat'? Savannah: Yeah. But don't change the subject! Tara: My parents don't really care. There was a long pause after that. Actually, her parents didn't even remember they had ever had a daughter. Sabrina had implanted the idea as soon as she turned Saushale, and they had followed this whole ideal. Savannah: I kind of get what you mean. My parents are in Australia, and my aunt is only home for about six hours- sleeping -when she's not working. Tara: Why are they in Australia? Savannah: business trip. Tara: Or a break from you? Savannah: They left halfway through sixth grade. I wasn't that psychotic then. Tara: I see. Tara: changing the subject, what exactly does Lynn do? Savannah: she'll send me weird messages in the middle of the night about how much she hates me and then completely forget about it in the morning. Usually. Tara: Um. Yeah. Savannah: So how do you know her? Tara: we were friends in summer camp. Savannah: You went to summer camp? Why? Tara: because I'm special like that. Savannah: how did I know you were going to say that? Tara: you're special like that. Savannah: Right you are!!!! Tara: We all have our talents. Savannah: we're all special. Tara: it just takes a particular branch of people to acknowledge it. Savannah: A very annoying branch of people. Tara: That too. Savannah: So, you just get psycho in the morning? Tara: Yeah. It goes away if I focus, but it's harder to do so in the morning and night. Savannah: So, are you just cranky or saying what you really feel? Tara: I'm letting out how I really feel at the time. Cranky. Savannah: I see. How come you don’t call me Sav or Savvy? Tara: I know what it's like when people call you things you really don’t like. Tara: Plus, Lynn just tore out my aorta when I called her Lynnette. Savannah: Graphic. Tara: undeniably so. Savannah: So, do you hate me or not? Tara: Let's put it this way: I'm okay with you as long as you don't throw anything out the window. Savannah: I can live with that. Savannah: how come you didn't tell Kylie about Lynn or Sabrina? Tara: Lynn and Sabrina...they have issues. Savannah: So? Tara: it's complex. Savannah: Whatever. "Tara! Is that a cell phone I see!" her teacher called. Snap. Yes. She absolutely loved these pop quiz thingies. "No. It's an emperor penguin," Tara answered sarcastically. "Put it away and ANSWER THE QUESTION." Tara unzipped her backpack and dropped in her cell. "What might thy question be upon this fair day?" Tara asked mockingly, batting her eyes. Most of the kids struggled not to laugh. The teacher pulled her mouth into a stern frown. "What are mitochondria, and what do they share in common with the nucleus?" "Mitochondria are little thingies from the land of wonder that make energy for the cell." "And that's called...?" "It is so ATP, it's freaking unbelievable." Normally Tara didn't like to push her luck and non-getting-into-trouble-abilities, but after getting her mind control off she usually felt very, very sarcastic. "What does it share in common with the nucleus?" "It has its own DNA." "Why?" "Because it's special like that!" The teacher's mouth pulled down into a deep frown. "Does anyone know why?" The room was silent and still. "My magical psychic powers descended from the land of magic and wonder are telling me that we haven't actually covered that upon yet," Tara commented, breaking the silence and make the teacher look like she was about to spontaneously combust and throw her remains out the window. Maybe Sav could do it for her. The bell rang, and Tara was out of there in a flash. Almost literally. Hello, she is Saushale. Kylie walked into language arts feeling relieved. And scared. She'd just unloaded everything about her situation- Tara and her cousins and everything onto Sav. Who she not only barely knew but also had a distinct hobby of annihilation. Yeah. She was so comforted. She did like Ms Stalworth, though. She was nice. There was a basket on the small desk that Kylie dropped her essay into. It was three pages long, and Kylie had taken approximately forever to write it. She sat down at her desk and pulled out a blank sheet of paper. To doodle on. She drew random stars, circles, and triangles, trying to get them as perfect as possible. She'd only done one or two of each when Megan walked up. "Hi, Megan." "Yeah, hi." Kylie internally ground her teeth together. It was so annoying how Megan was always like that. Could she not begin at least one sentence with something other than 'yeah'? Kylie wondered if she used the word so much in her essay in addition. She internally giggled. "Did you finish the essay?" "Yeah. What did you pick for the theme?" "Diversity and neccesity of life. You?" "Yeah, same here. Did you mention the color?" "Duh." "Yeah. So, how has Tara been lately? You still hanging out with Sav?" "Tara's been acting bipolar, as usual. And yes, I have been hanging out with Savannah. She's nice.' "Yeah. She, like, killed her lock. Like fourteen times." "Like I care. She's changed. A lot. She's not psycho anymore." "Yeah, whatever. Is she still mad at Tara?" "No, Tara is mad at her." "Yeah, I'd imagine so. Why?" "It's part of the bipolar thing. Sometimes Tara likes her, sometimes it is the opposite." "Yeah, I thought I'd noticed that. It's too bad. My friends have been real bitches lately." "If you're thinking of hanging with us, then I think that you will not get far." "Yeah. Maybe. Why?" "Because Tara hates you now. Besides, why would you want to? Savannah's not going anywhere, and Tara just seems to get weirder and weirder as time goes on." "Yeah. I guess." She sounded all sad and downtrodden, and despite how pissed she had been and still was at Megan, she felt sorry for her. Kind of. "I'd be your friend. But Tara would probably make your life miserable." Megan snorted. "Yeah, I can easily see that." The bell rang and Megan went back to her seat. The teacher loudly clapped her hands. "As some of you noticed, you were not supposed to put your essays in the basket, it was for the period before. So come and get yours if you did, and we will proceed to the next activity." Kylie ran up with at least a quarter of the class and grabbed her essay. "I want all of you to share your ideas with a group, and discuss them, and then each group will decide on one theme and present it to the class. Note that this is not a chance to act like an animal, talk to your friends, or get loud. I'll pick the groups." Kylie was shoved into a group with Megan, Ashley, and Madison (Ashley and Madison were supposed to be the most popular girls in school. Making them the least interested in school.). This was totally going to be the most cooperative and hardworking group she possibly could have been shoved into. Ashley and Madison (who had the exact. Same. Schedule.) immediately turned away from Megan and Kylie and started talking about some Brian person. Megan kept trying to join in. Kylie gave a loud, large sigh, and decided to attempt to control the group. Like that was ever going to happen. "Okay. All of you. Cooperate. Now." They ignored her. "Focus, people!" No change. "I think that the story is about how Jonas needs a motorcycle, and Gabe wants to ride it." No change. "Or maybe it's about how a Utopian community is the most awesome thing ever, and Receivers are totally needed, and releasing is the best option. And Jonas ruined it." No change. Kylie gave an exaggerated sigh. "I think Brian is the ugliest person ever." They immediately turned to her. "Seriously? No way. You are mentally deficient if you think that!" Madison exclaimed. "Yeah Kylie, no way!" Megan, obviously. "You're just jealous," Ashley sneered with a conceited smile and tossed her golden blonde hair over her shoulder. "Good. That got your attention. Now, what do you think the theme is?" "How important it is to have all aspects of the environment. Duh," Ashley answered. "Color shows life," Megan suggested, frowning slightly. "But I like Ashley's better.” "A perfect society can never be put above life and memories," Madison offered. "I like Madison's best," Kylie admitted. "It's pretty much mine." "Mine is the best," Ashley argued. "That was what the whole Receiver thing was about, right?" "Yeah, but it was also about the releasing part, because that was why Jonas left. A perfect community is never going to be the best, because we are not all perfect, and the only way to be so is to kill people and squash out all differences. Including those in the environment. The color thing was probably a way to make everyone, and everything, look more similar," Kylie argued back. "I don't get it," Ashley replied, rolling her eyes in a bored way. "And I don't really care. Let's just go with mine. Megan agrees with me." "I get Kylie's version," Madison countered slowly, hoping not to annoy Ashley. "It encompasses all of ours. We could talk about all of our versions of the theme." "Okay. So what do we say?" Kylie asked encouragingly. "Make sure you say lots about my part. But beyond that, I don't really care," Ashley responded haughtily. "Me neither," Megan added, relieved. "I don't really like it either," Madison voiced quietly, her eyes on her desk. "But I'll help you if you want." Kylie shook her head. "I like to work things out myself." So Megan, Ashley, and Madison all discussed Brian enthusiastically and Kylie worked out the theme in her mind. When it came time to present, she basically just told the theme she had come up with herself (with, admittedly, some help from Sav. Sav was too smart.) They were the last group to present, and the bell rang about three seconds after she had finished. Kylie grabbed her backpack and ran to fourth period. Science. Lovely. Savannah's third period class was math, in which everyone (teacher, students, TA) were terrified of her. Even though it was kind of evil, Savannah preferred it that way. She could be excessively sarcastic and the teacher would never dare to call her on it. Everyone who knows the Lynn Lang's dream. Duh. Savannah had taken a summer class regarding the context, so she rarely paid attention. On this particular day, she pulled out her phone and texted. Savannah: hey Lynn Lynn: strict teacher talk 2 u l8r kay Savannah: kay She started to put it away when it vibrated. She opened it up and Tara's name was there. Why on earth was Tara texting her? Tara: Hey Savannah Savannah: why are you texting me? From there, the same conversation as above. Savannah: I can live with that. Clearly it was time for as new subject. What? Her mind fell on Kylie's conversation about Tara. Savannah: Why didn't you tell Kylie about Lynn or Sabrina? Maybe now that Tara was being nice, she would, like, tell her. Tara: Lynn and Sabrina...they have issues. Apparently not. Savannah: So? Tara: it's complex. Sigh. No point in continuing. She typed in a quick 'whatever' and shut off her phone. She paid semi-attention to the lesson (the operative word being semi), mostly staring at the wall wondering what on earth the deal was with Tara. She was very, very glad when the stupid bell rang, announcing the end of third period (she hated third period). Savannah shot out of her chair, her backpack slung on one shoulder. Passing period was, as always, a huge mess. The hallways were always crowded with about eight thousand middle school kids (not really, but it seemed so at times). But Savannah never had any trouble getting through. She walked over to her locker and pulled it open, shoving in her math stuff and pulling out her science binder. She slammed her locker door shut and continued on towards history. Her history teacher was, as always, terrified of her, as well as the kids. It passed quickly, being just a quiet session of working on these notes about Rome. Tara also had history fourth period, and the teacher there was as to Ms Kaltalsky as hot is to cold. In other words she was strict, regimented, demanding, and stuck to the standards like nanoglue. Tara, as you might have guessed, got her application in a little late. She stopped by her locker again, dumping her science crap and grabbing the history binder. It was only October and already she had the entire binder almost filled up. Her teacher was mean. Sabrina must have been busy (or else did not consider the stop top-priority), and because the history classroom was right next to her locker, she was actually early, a rare occurrence. There was another Saushale in the classroom, new, which started to stare suspiciously at Tara, but then lowered her head to the piece of paper on her desk. She looked normal at first (Saushale normal), but under closer look, Tara gasped internally. For one thing, she had the start of whites around the edge of her eyes (Saushale eyes were all black, no whites or distinguishable iris to other Saushale. To regular people that changes.). Her skin was slightly tanned. And her nose was almost straight or at least that was what it seemed like, from the viewpoint (crappy viewpoint) Tara had. Tara dropped her backpack beside her desk and the armload of history junk on top of it. The Saushale girl had her nose practically touching the piece of paper she was scribbling on, her desk next to Tara's. Tara craned her neck and saw that it was the worksheet that had been homework the night before. But that wasn't the point. "Hello," Tara "greeted". In typical Tara fashion, the word was cold and accusing. Even un-Saushale, Tara acted like one. Partly for cover. Partly because she was just special like that. The girl looked up at her (Tara was still standing, and she was very, very tall so the girl had to look up high). Now that Tara could see her face clearly, she noticed even more small differences. Her eyebrows had almost no arch (or, at least, it was nowhere nearly as defined as Saushale). She had a freckle near her right temple. Her ears stuck out more than normal (Saushale normal). "Tara?" The word was a question. Tara narrowed her eyes slightly. "Your name?" Tara prompted, raising her head slightly, in a haughty way. "Lena," she answered, seeming more like a reflex than anything. "But, uh, now that I'm Saushale it's Lana," she added uncertainly, bending her head back to the paper. Tara, looking again, saw that she was finished. Probably trying to hide her face, by the looks of it. "You're new at the transformation?' She purposefully made her voice sound understanding and semi-compassionate. "Um…yeah." Tara smiled to herself. She'd caught the girl. "It's kind of unnerving," Lana added as explanation. "Then what's with your face?" Tara raised one eyebrow and tilted her head up, looking even more startling and angry than normal. "Uhhh…" the girl began, but the bell rang, a sharp, unsatisfactory note, and the teacher appeared out of nowhere. "Tara, you're tardy. You must be sitting in your seat to not be counted so." Tara narrowed her eyes. "But I'll let it go this time. Now, we have lots to work on today. Remember your presentations?" The class gave a collected groan. Tara did not join in. She actually liked the powerpoint she had done. Her partner had strep throat, so she got to do it all by herself. Tara was glad Lizzie was absent for more than one reason; for some otherwordly rationale, she actually liked Savannah. Strangely. "Tara, because Lizzie is still absent, you will work with the new girl, Lena." "Lana," she corrected. Whether she was correcting the teacher because of the actual transformation or trying to prove the effects to Tara, Tara couldn't tell. Probably the latter. "Complete the finishing touches with your groups," she instructed. "Don't be loud." She proceeded to stand in front of the classroom, watching steadily and suspiciously for any rambunctious behavior. "I just came to this sch- assignment, so I don't really get what's going on," Lana admitted, far from the rest of the class way in a corner. "Just read off the slides and try not to look idiotic," Tara instructed carelessly, rolling her eyes. Her flashdrive, with the presentation on it, was on a keychain that Tara spun around her finger relentlessly. "Um. Okay." "So, what is the deal with your face?" "I don't know," she replied miserably. Tara remembered her conversation with Sabrina, and gained a flash of insight. "Who was your best friend when you were human?" Lana answered surprisingly readily, almost eagerly. Almost. "This girl named Morgan. She went to a different school. I'm actually from this area." "Surprising Sab would send you somewhere so close to your friend if you're deviating so much you don’t look completely Saushale anymore." Tara raised both her eyebrows and shook her head slightly, looking both mockingly pitiful and haughty at the same time. "Surprising she would send you," Lana shot back desperately and miserably. It was clear she was feeling bad about whatever situation she was in. Even cold Tara, colder even more because of her Saushaleness, felt bad. Kinda. "Why are you so upset?" Tara asked, trying not to act like she was taking pity and more angry/not really curious. Her tone of voice ended up accusing, and haughtily confused as to why anyone wouldn’t want to be Saushale. "Well, I do have an insane Sorceress mad at me because her stupid mind control isn't keeping me a robot!" she almost screamed. "That's kind of the thing that would keep you up at night, I'm correct?" "Correct." "And I don't know how to reverse it. I can't just not have the mind control off." "That sounds more like you have hypnosis, at least to some degree, as opposed to having a best friend." "Not good enough to fix anyone else?" She sounded semi-hopeful. "I don't know. I'm not exactly psychic, you know. Look it up." "It's not like I can access the files." "You can't?" Tara was surprised. The whole network was supposed to be open to Saushale. All of it. "Sab doesn't trust me. She's seen me. I've gotten a couple treatments, and still it's not working. It gets unraveled. Every time. It'll be on for a while, but vanishes after a couple days. The longest it's been on is, like, a week." The words came out in a frantic, desperate rush. "That's pretty talented," Tara complimented, semi-awed. She was considered talented, and it was still only off half the time. Lynn was supposed to be the best, and it took her a month (and a lot of Carmen) to get her re-treatment off. "You think?" "You definitely have something." "I want Tara and Lena-" the teacher started. "Lana," Lana interrupted. The teacher frowned. "They will go first." The teacher gave a smile of triumph. Or something. Tara, with a superhuman effort, managed not to roll her eyes. Lana just looked nervous. She was so un-Saushale. Tara handed the flash drive to the teacher, who promptly set it up on the projector. Lana just stood in front of the class, looking anxious. "This is Rome," Tara announced, half with grandeur, half with sarcasm, as the presentation started. The first slide had a map of Rome just before it fell, hence the line. "Um, yeah," Lana seconded. "Okay. Rome was, like, downgraded in two stages." Tara walked up and down between two rows of desks, a controller in hand. "The first was where they were weakened. Then a bunch of barbarians came in and conquered it, as the second stage," Lana began, reading off the explanation jerkily, unsteadily, and without inflection, pausing between each word. You know, the worst readers, the ones you pray don't get reading assignments in your classes. Tara hit the button for the next slide. "Because there was two halves of the gargantuan empire, the eastern half lived on as one advanced empire and the other half became a bunch of tiny, crappy little kingdoms. But that's the next unit," Tara explained for the next slide. Tara and Lana continued on with their presentation, which was, as you might have previously guessed, was on the downfall of Rome. Once they were done, four other groups continued. The other groups were made up of three people, and by the end only one group needed to continue. "See you tomorrow," Tara called out to Lana, perfectly enunciated of course, as she was walking out. "Yeah. You too," Lana answered back, unenthusiastically. Kylie's fourth period science class was probably her least favorite. She had the same teacher as Tara, who was simply in love with assigning a bunch of homework and then asking random people questions about it for the whole period the next day. Which was fun for smart people that remember everything (like Savannah). But Kylie was not one of those people. She dropped in her seat, her bag making a loud clunking sound on the hard linoleum floors. At least it's almost lunch, she consoled herself. Savannah and Tara seemed to have completely forgotten the truce they had made the day before. Or maybe Tara was just getting weirder and separating herself from everyone. Including her best friend. Kylie gave a frustrated sigh. Her frustration wasn't only from friends, obviously. Kylie was always worried about things like her grades and her stupid cousins. But Tara and Savannah's behavior was so weird it was almost surreal. It stood out in her mind, not even seeming to be part of the normal world. Or maybe I'm just going insane and I'm unconsciously surprised they haven't noticed, she thought sourly. There did seem to be something weird going on with Tara, more than her just growing away from Kylie. Like she was hypnotized. Yeah. And there is also a goddess controlling it, looking down on our universe and screwing it up. She snorted to herself. The bell finally rang, giving an end to her stupid musing. She hated torturing herself that way. "Guess what?" the teacher announced as soon as the bell rang and class started. She clapped her hands in mock excitement. "Oral quiz," Kylie called out. She shook her dark blonde hair back. "Please no calling out, Kylie. But yes, that is correct. And we get it on all of the reading we did last night! Excited?" It was really no wonder Tara was always texting through this class. "We'll start with our lovely friend Kylie. What organelle makes proteins, and why is it in all cells?" "The organelle is ribosome." Pretty much the entire homework the night before was writing down the different organelles and their jobs in a cell, over and over and over again, hence the reason she remembered it. But the next one was trickier. "And, uh, all cells need protein." "Why?" "Why what?" "Why do all cells need proteins?" There was a long pause as Kylie tried to remember. "Because they're special like that," she finally answered, having no clue. "One more comment, and you are sentenced to detention." "Okay. Don't they need protein because they are, like, the fundamentals of stuff? What makes it?" She still had no idea, so she was trying to make educated, semi-reasonable guesses. Semi. "I don't believe we covered it, I'm sorry. We'll move on." That was another annoying thing about that teacher. She was always forgetting what they had and hadn't covered. Kylie knew she wouldn't be called on for a while, so she started to daydream again. Savannah. Something was obviously up with her. The whole throwing-things-out-windows-without-touching-them was proof enough. But what was wrong? What was different? What was so special about her? She had been different before. Smarter, prettier, wittier, and less caring than anyone else. Not caring less about people, less about appearances. Status. Having tons of friends, no matter what. Though, apparently, she cared more than anyone else thought. But what about what she had said? Savannah had said she hadn't been that angry at Massie, if it was only about as equal as being mad that a computer wouldn't load fast enough. Maybe Savannah had just been a little upset, and whatever was up with her had made her like that. Kylie was just plain confused, pretty much. Tara. Kylie knew, somehow, that if she could figure out who Sabrina was that she would know why Tara had suddenly turned psycho over the summer. Tara wouldn't tell her, obviously. Who would? Savannah knew nothing. Megan knew nothing. The internet? Maybe. But she didn't have a last name. There would be thousands of entries with nothing useful. The summer camp. What had it been called? She'd ask Tara about it. Almost twenty minutes had passed and the teacher called on her again. "And now we shall ask our beautific acquaintance Kylie to explain to us the job of mitochondria." "It creates energy for the cell." Kylie was deadpan. "Correct. What is the energy called?" "ATP." She still carried no expression. "Correct. Now, do plant cells have mitochondria?" "Yes." Deadpan. "Correct. What other organelle do they have related to energy?" "Ummm…chloroplasts?" She hadn’t known the answer outright and because of it lost her deadpan-ness. "Correct. Why do plant cells have both?" "Chloroplasts create glucose. Mitochondria break it down." She went back to deadpan. "Correct." They continued for another few minutes. Kylie actually listened, deciding to try and keep up with the program this quarter. "The bell is about to ring, so make sure you read the next lesson. We're going to do an activity on it." "What do you want to bet that activity is going to be an oral quiz?" someone asked her sarcastically. Brian, the boy that those stupid girls had been discussing the period before "My inheritance." Kylie was sarcastic right back. "Which is how much?" Kylie grabbed her backpack from under her desk, simultaneously rolling her eyes. This is an acquired talent, as you should know. Finally. Lunch. Savannah's backpack was on one shoulder as she slowly walked across the campus to the tables. She had no idea how Tara was going to act- cold, cruel, and unforgiving, or warm, semi-friendly, and only slightly guarded. She was really hoping for the second. "Mind control it slips off of me though I don’t know how I'm gonna be," she hummed. The lyrics were hard to catch on almost all of the songs, and she only knew a few lines to each. The ones she had collected were probably wrong, but she still hummed them anyway. She finally reached Kylie and Tara's table, and dropped her bag on the bench beside her. Tara wasn't smiling, but she didn't seem too unfriendly, either. Kylie gave her a quick grin, then dropped it and opened up a small Tupperware of mac 'n' cheese. Tara had an apple, a large sandwich, a huge bottle of lemonade, a package of cookies, and a small bag of popcorn. None of it was eaten or even opened. Typical. Savannah had an apple, but nothing else. She didn't eat much. "I hate third period," Kylie said as an opener after a couple minutes of silence, the only sounds Savannah crunching into her apple and Kylie accidentally dropping mac’n’cheese on the ground a couple times. "Why?" Savannah asked. Tara stared at her apple. "There is this group of moronic girls that never do any work," Kylie complained. "I had to work with Ashley and Madison, and they just talked about Brian the entire period." "Who was the fourth?" Savannah asked. "How did you know?" Savannah shrugged. "Stalworth always makes groups of four." "Oh. It was…Megan." Kylie looked over at Tara, who had flinched at the name, but still said nothing. She was still staring at the apple. "Who's Megan?" "Tara and I used to be a group of three. Megan was the third. But she decided to not be friends with us anymore. She regrets it now, according to what she told me, but she knows Tara would freak if she started hanging with us again." She waited for Tara to lift her head, look excessively haughty, and agree, but she was silent and still. The apple Tara was staring at rolled off the table, onto the ground, and away from them, over to another table. Fast. "Uneven table," she said, shrugging. One of the girls at the table that the apple had rolled to turned to give Savannah a dirty look. She had frizzy brown hair and almond-shaped light blue-green eyes. Prominent cheekbones. Massie. Massie picked up the apple and threw it in the trash, then resumed conversation with Jamie. Savannah could tell it was Jamie because of her honey blonde hair and freakishly thin figure. And the ultra short shorts, which no sane person would be wearing in Oregon in October. Savannah took a deep, calming, distracting breath, and turned back to Kylie. Tara looked as if she had done the same. "You have history fourth period, right?" Savannah asked Tara. "Yeah. Duh. But we have different teachers." "Oh. What did you do?" "Presentations." The memory rolled through Tara: giving her a headache and her stomach full of butterflies (It hadn't been full of much else lately. Chemicals could be hidden in anything. Luckily, Saushale could get nutrition from air or others). She'd been trying to forget the bizarre session. Especially the girl. The girl… The feeling returned. Deep breaths, she told herself. Deep breath. Calm. Very, very calm. Her mind control had been wacky ever since she'd gotten out of there, and unfortunately that meant that the rest of her had been off-kilter in addition. Savannah and Kylie were staring at her strangely, and Tara fought to get her mind on the present. "Um, are you okay?" Savannah asked, sounding like Lynn only slightly. Thank god. Lynn Lang was so the opposite of what she needed. "Yeah. Fine. Totally," Tara answered, slightly panting as she fought for control. "Are you being sarcastic?" Kylie asked warily. "No. Um, I have to go to my locker." "'Okay," Kylie answered, still watching her. Tara didn't go to her locker. Instead, she walked over to where Lana was sitting on a bench. Alone. "Hey Lana," Tara called out. Her headache, nausea, and everything else vanished. "Tara? What?" "What's your email?" "Le ana hypno. Then the regular email. You?" "Tara tair cool. Then the regular." "Um, I think you should probably use my alternative email, actually. It's amberelix. Gmail. What's yours?" "I don’t have an alternative." "Oh. Get one." "Okay. How about click the switch? Gmail, obviously." "Great." Lana smiled. "I'll try it." Tara walked back to Kylie's table and sat back down, feeling slightly better. "What do you have third period?" Tara asked Savannah. "Math." "Easy?" "So easy I could text right through it!" Tara giggled. Kylie looked confused. "So, did you win in volleyball yesterday?" Tara asked Kylie. "Without even trying. You?" "We actually won. I think Amy fainted." Kylie laughed quietly. "Amy is the best. She's really mad about being put on such a crap team," Tara rushed to explain for Savannah. Savannah also laughed. "I hate soccer, but I'm actually better at it than I thought." "What position are you best at?" "Defender." "Do you use the Tel- I mean, your mind powers?" Tara asked. "No. But the field is really small." "So?" "Well, that makes it much easier to score goals." Savannah really regretted mentioning that now. She had assumed someone had told Tara about her natural ability. Savannah really hated mentioning accomplishments. "As defender," Tara responded incredously. "It's a really small field," Savannah repeated. "You're lying." "Ask some kids on my team." And finish the conversation already, she added silently. "Who?" "I think there's a girl named Jessica Albot." "Moving on," Kylie said. "I liked your speech a lot," Kylie told Savannah. "But did you really throw your computer across the room?" "Yes." Sav spoke the word through her teeth, as it was clearly not her favorite subject. "Just because it wouldn't load?" Savannah shrugged. "I was on short circuit, I suppose. The slightest things would set things off. Like I keep saying, I'm wasn't exactly intentionally trying to kill people here." She waited for Tara to say 'though the evidence suggests to the contrary', or something along the lines of that. She was silent. "Oh. What did you think of mine?" "I didn't get much of a chance to look at it, sorry. What was it about?" "Just this sarcastic girl who has this spell on her so she trips over and over again, and like her remarks to her teachers and stuff." "Cool," Savannah replied, and she sounded like she actually cared, which Kylie appreciated. "Yeah." Kylie remembered her mental note earlier. "Tara, what was that camp you went to over the summer?" "It was called Flowers. Flowers summer camp for girls. Why?" There was a pause as Kylie tried to think of a reason that didn't have to do with the fact that she thought Tara was a freak, in which (naturally) the bell rang. All three grabbed their backpacks and headed off in separate directions. Silently. Savannah's fifth period class passed smoothly, but sixth period was a little rougher. Namely because of Massie and Jamie, obviously. Savannah walked in the door, early as usual, because the place where she sat was right next to the room. She dropped her backpack beside her desk and walked over to the wall, where her teacher displayed everyone's scores every week (with ID numbers, obviously). She was walking back when Massie showed up. "Hey, Sav. What was with the apple?" Savannah searched her mind to figure out what the heck she was talking about. "Oh, at lunch you mean?" "No, that one you threw at us last year. Of course at lunch!" Massie recrossed her arms and narrowed her eyes into slits. "Why are you getting mad about that? It was just that the table was uneven. And anyway, it's just a stupid apple." Jamie walked in and stood next to Massie. "Why'd you throw it at us?" Jamie asked. "I didn't exactly throw it at you. It rolled off the freaking table." "Why us?" "Did you ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe you're overreacting a little?" Massie took a step forward. "Not at all." "Okay then. How about that I might overreact a lot?" Massie looked slightly startled. "You wouldn't dare." "Now isn’t exactly the best time to get hypothetical, now is it?" Savannah walked back over to her desk and sat down. She smirked at Massie and Jamie, seconds before the bell rang. "Massie, Jamie, this is the fourth time in a row that you have been out of your seat when the bell rang," the teacher said as she walked over to her desk across the room. "I'm afraid that this time you will be marked tardy." "What-" "That's not-" "Just sit down already.” The teacher marked something on the attendance and hung t on the door. Massie and Jamie looked mad. “So. Today I want you to go to page 72 in your study assistance workbook and complete the entire chapter. This is homework if you do not finish it, I warn you, so make sure that it is done. Yu must be quiet for the first twenty minutes but if you are so then you can talk for the remainder of the period.” Savannah pulled out the pages before working on them. The room was silent as a tomb, excellent environment for working and focusing. Focusing… She’d started to kind of miss her mind powers. She’d stopped using them for obvious reasons,, but now she wished violently that she could use them again. Her backpack started to unzip quietly as Savannah continued to work feverishly on her workbook. A pencil lifted itself out and landed on her chair before clattering to the floor loudly. Savannah mentally reprimanded herself and reached down to pick it up. The pencil flew up about an inch into her hand, at which point Savannah slipped it back in her backpack. After another few minutes, the teacher announced that talking was officially allowed. Jamie immediately leaned over (she and Massie sat next to each other, right next to Savannah). “What’s the answer to number four?” “Endoplasmic reticulum.” Savannah did the same thing she had yesterday, i.e. giving her all the wrong answers. Savannah smiled as soon as Jamie turned in her sheet. Having a reputation for being exceedingly smart could be very, very fun. Of course, that was when they got their sheets back and Savannah had gotten all of them right and Jamie none. “Hey,” she said accusingly. “How come I missed all of them and you didn’t?” “Because you’re not very smart.” Savannah clipped the paper in her binder and put it away. “You lied to me.” Jamie looked at Savannah, who shrugged nonchalantly and continued working on the worksheet. “Why?” Jamie asked. “Because I’m special like that!” Savannah snapped. She stapled the worksheets and wrote her name at the top, then turned it in and pulled out a book. She’d finished Uglies and was now reading Fantastic Voyage 2: Destination: Brain. "Unfair," Jamie muttered. She whispered something to Massie, who was also finished. They both glared at Savannah. Savannah rolled her eyes and continued reading. After about fifteen minutes of that, the bell finally rang. Savannah grabbed her backpack and hightailed it out of there, then home. Kylie walked home slowly. The afternoon had been typical and quiet, Kylie saying little, drawn into the same routines she had kept since the beginning of the year. She made a mental list of what to do. She would probably finish most of her homework and email Tara and Savannah a bit, then practice volleyball for twenty or thirty minutes. She had practices on Wednesdays and Fridays and games on Sundays in her league, and she liked to practice often. She got home quickly enough and let herself in. Her baby sister was at a nanny's house for most of the afternoon, until her mom came home at four or five-ish. Kylie walked down the hall to her room, perfectly clean as always, and dropped her backpack onto her bed. She walked into the adjacent room, which had her mom's computer, the computers her dad was currently fixing, and an old, chunky laptop set up for herself. The room was all divided up with those cheapo dividers you can buy at Target or Ikea. The computer took about half a century to boot up (of course), but when it did she immediately clicked on her email. There were five messages. She clicked on the first. It was the one from Savannah about going with her and Tara to the ice cream shop. Kylie looked at the date-time stamp. Apparently the message had been sent at five twenty in the morning. What the heck was Savannah doing online at five in the morning? She thought to herself. To: Savvy54321@gmail.com From: kylienuts@gmail.com Date: 10/16/08 Subject: Ted's Ice Cream Great! I was really hoping you could come. I really hope Tara isn't being a total bitch about it. She's been cold since Megan. By the way. Did Lynn go to that summer camp? What's her email? Kylie then searched for 'Flower's Summer Camp For Girls'. Seven hundred, thirty six thusand entries. Only one actually called the name. She clicked on it. Password? It asked. Kylie stared at it, bewildered, and typed in her google password. Incorrect! Under the password request, however, was a link. 'Regular site', it stated. Kylie clicked on it. There was a note from her computer, however. Explanation: The IP address for the website you requested could not be found. Error Code 11001: Host not found (.ssw) Background: This error indicates that the gateway could not find the IP address of the website you are trying to access. This is usually due to a DNS-related error. Server: [last name].computer_room Source: DNS error Ssw. That was the ending thingy of Tara's email address. What the inferno? There was an email from Sav, though, that interrupted her musing before it could go too far. Savannah: Hey kylie. Why are you online so fast? She did have gmail, so Kylie clicked 'reply by chat'. Kylie: I live really close to the school. Savannah: Oh. Kylie: Do you know anything about Flowers? Savannah: Ummm...no comment.... Kylie: ??? Kylie: Oh! I mean the summer camp that Tara went to. Savannah: Oh. That was really the wrong name for a summer camp. Kylie: totally. But what do you know? Savannah: I think Lynn mentioned it once. She went there with her friends. Kylie: Can you ask her about it? Savannah: Totally. But why do you want to know? Kylie: I want to know what the deal is with Tara. I know Sabrina and the summer camp are important. Savannah: Okay, I'll ask Lynn about both. Kylie: You think Lynn knows something about Sabrina? Savannah: If she doesn't, "Carmen" probably will. Kylie: who's Carmen? Savannah: did you see the quotes? Savannah had just skidded home on her bike, going way faster than any other eleven year old could. She wondered about Kylie's weird request. Why did she want to know about this dumb summer camp so badly? There didn't seem to be that much up with Tara, to her- she'd always been cold and cruel. Sounded more like someone evil had impressed upon her than 'Sabrina'. Regardless, however, she hit 'Chat' as soon as Lynn's green dot showed up. Savannah: Hi Lynn Lynn: Like, hi Savvy! Lynn: I mean Savannah. Savannah: * rolls eyes * Lynn: if all you're going to do is roll your eyes, can I call you Savvy? Savannah: NO!!!!! Lynn: Psycho much? Savannah: it's a pastime. Awesome hobby. Savannah: seriously though, what do you know about flowers? Lynn: Flowers? You seriously want me to talk about flowers? Is this a report or something? Savannah: Sorry, that was supposed to be capitalized. Lynn: okay... So? Savannah: The summer camp you went to. Lynn: Oh. Why do you want to know about it? Savannah: because Big Bird ordered me to and he's my leader. Just tell me. Lynn: ooh! That's cool! I'm going to tell Carmen about that one! Savannah: if you won't tell me about the summer camp, tell me about Sabrina. Lynn: How do you know about Sabrina? How????????? Savannah: I'm psychic. Who is she? Lynn: Trust me. You DON'T want to know about Sabrina. Savannah: Why? Savannah: AND DON'T ANSWER 'BECAUSE I'M SPECIAL LIKE THAT!!!' Lynn: she's special like that. Savannah: You are the most infuriating person ever. Lynn: Thanks ! Savannah: Who. Is. Sabrina. Lynn: Sabrina is smart. Savannah: And...? Lynn: I can't tell you anymore without you getting sucked in. She's already after you. If she finds this message, you will be dead. Or changed. Savannah: Changed into what? Lynn: Something different. Savannah: Duh. That's what 'changed' means. Lynn: Everything changes. Virtually no one can escape. Savannah: So is she like one of those mental freaks trying to take over the world? Lynn: Kind of... Savannah: She runs the summer camp, right? Tara changed there. That was where she got cold and bipolar. And her eyes changed. The cult. The cult is who she changes, right? And they are assembled at the summer camp. What's the website? Lynn: No! You've got it all wrong. Backwards. Lynn: And why do you want to know? Tara? Savannah: Kylie. Lynn: Kylie changed? No! No way! Savannah: Kylie asked me to ask you. Lynn: Now I really wish I hadn't asked. Lynn: okay. I'm going to delete this message. You delete it too, okay? And DON'T TELL KYLIE!!!! Get her to delete the message asking you to ask me about Sabrina and the summer camp, if there is one, and delete it yourself. Delete all the messages from me, okay? Permanently. Don't save them on your computer or anywhere else. Savannah: Why? Lynn: Just do it. Savannah: You're kind of paranoid, you know? This was why you were freaking out when I called you Lynnette, right? Lynn: Yeah. But I escaped the mind control, so I act totally normal. Now delete it NOW, okay? NOW!!!! Mind control? What the…? Lynn's dot went to 'Busy' and Savannah deleted the message with her, Kylie, and all of the other ones from Lynn, as she had requested. That name was still annoying. Sabrina. Itr sounded like it should be spelled Saabriinah, but her computer wouldn't let her, automatically changing it. Kylie: What did she say? Savannah: She freaked out. She said to delete the message you sent me before and this one. Kylie: Why? Savannah: I don't know, she wouldn't tell me. But Lynn's pretty smart. You should probably do it. Kylie: Eh. Maybe. Savannah: Oh. And she said that she's different, too. Kylie: So they both changed. They both went to the summer camp. They both know about Sabrina. And they both refuse to talk about it. Apparently that had been the wrong lie to tell. Savannah: I don't think Lynn actually knows Sabrina. Deep breath, Savvy. You have to lie. Lie. She can't put the two together. Kylie: Why did she freak out, then? Uhhhhhhhhhhh... Savannah: Carmen, remember? Carmen told her a lot. She actually had no idea where Carmen placed in this. Who was she, anyway? Kylie: oh. Did Carmen change? Had she? Savannah didn't even know. Savannah: Yes. But she didn't go to the summer camp. I think it's just a summer camp, Kylie. She was starting to get to the point where she was just making stuff up. She had keep to the truth somewhat or she'd never remember what she said. Kylie: then how come the address is part of the same section of the web- ssw –as Tara's email? Snap. What was she supposed to say now? All she could think of was a bunch of sarcasm, and she knew that wouldn't help matters much. Savannah: (Mental Ummmm) The person there set up their website on their computer, which has that code. Not. Kylie: How are you supposed to register? Magic. Just dust off those ole psychic powers. Savannah: The old fashioned way. It's out in the middle of no where and they don’t allow electronics. I don’t think they have any for general use. She remembered Lynn saying something about that too. She hoped. Kylie: If they don’t have any electronics, what's the point of the password protected site? Decoration. It was really annoying how she could think of a billion sarcastic answers, but no lies. Too much Lynn, probably. Savannah: she didn't tell me that much. Kylie: Oh. Whatever. Savannah: Does Tara really have some kind of mental disease that makes her act and think really differently? Kylie: not that I know of. But I wouldn't be surprised. She's been acting so weird lately. Savannah: Why are you still friends with her? Tara stepped out of school, fighting her newest major headache. She inwardly groaned. Sabrina's mind control so didn't like competition in ruling Tara's brain. Because that was what Lana was doing. She was a hypnotist and was trying to get rid of Tara's mind control. But Tara's mind control didn't like that, and it was giving her stomachaches, a foggy brain, and, most of all, headaches. I'd almost rather be a robot, she thought hazily. She went into the bathroom, pulled out the small technology Sabrina had given her, and "magically" appeared on the top floor of the Saushale building. She put it back in her pocket. After booting up her computer, she didn't really feel like doing anything, but she ignored that impulse. She searched on the ssw about hypnosis and headache information. She was granted with many answers, as is often the case with the ssw. Tara then set up her gmail account and sent an email to 'amberelix@gmail.com'. She still thought that was a weird email, but whatever. To: amberelix@gmail.com ` From: clicktheswitch@gmail.com Date: 10/16/08 2:34 pm Subject: I got the email As you can see, I got the alternative email. On a different note, I've been having headaches ever since fourth period. Do you know what's up? An invitation to chat showed up, at which Tara clicked 'Accept'. A chat showed up from Lana. Lena: hi. Did you get the chat thing? Tara: Yeah. Why does your thing say Lena? Lena: That's my name. Tara: ? Lena: well, that and I set up this account like two years ago. I never deleted it. So it still calls me Lena Kailweit. Tara: I thought your last name was Kallweit. Lena: I hit the wrong key. And now it will never, ever go away, I'm sure. Tara: there are ways to change it. Savannah did, hers used to be Savvy, I'm sure. I don’t know how, though. Lena: oh. I don’t care enough to change it to Lana or Kallweit. Tara: Okay. I beg indifference. Do you know what the deal is with the headaches? Lena: Let me guess: you think it's the hypnosis. Tara: I looked it up. If you don’t know what you're doing, it said there are 'serious side effects'. Hem hem. Lena: Yeah, whatever. It's just that there aren’t exactly a lot of resources telling you how to do it right, now are there? Tara: it's on the ssw. Lena: I'm sorry, but I'm not going to go searching on Sabrina's web section thingy. She only has so much patience. If she figures out what is up with me, I'm so dead. Literally. Tara: She wants full hypnosis. She's not going to kill you. Lena: she will if I'm more trouble than I'm worth. God. Why is she called the Merciful Sorceress? There's nothing even remotely merciful about her! Tara: Did you even go to the school? She's partly good, but evil always overtakes good, so since she's mostly evil she acts totally evil. She's called that because of the Sorceresses she took over, not her actions. Lena: Evil does not always win over good. Tara: not win. Overtake. Like the Telkin. It's not found by happiness and good. It's hatred and anger. Lena: So the Telkin is evil, regardless of how you use it? Tara: I'm not exactly the best to ask about moral issues. Even human, I was still supposedly totally evil. Lena: Really? Tara: Why is that so hard to believe? I was acting totally mean in 4th period, was I not? Lena: I thought that was just your Saushale-ness. Tara: Yeah. But I used to act like that all the time. Lena: Whatever. I beg indifference. What was the homework for history? Tara: We didn't have any. Lena: Oh. Good. Tara: Did you go to the boarding school? Lena: Yeah. For, like, a week. Tara: Are you still taking the classes? Lena: Yeah. I'm on an assignment, not on the run or anything. Tara: What assignment? Lena: Same as you. Tara: Why? I'm handling it fine! Lena: Yeah, they mostly just want me to make sure you don’t screw up horribly. Because of the whole hypnosis thing, you know? They figure if you fail, then I'll just fix it. But it's better if the event actually happens, so I'm just backup. Tara: Why isn’t she Saushale already? Lena: I don’t know. I think it has to do with her not being able manifest her talent completely as Saushale. That or she'd refusing to become Sauishale. Tara: Yeah, that makes sense. Lena: I gotta get off, there's only so much time I can spend online separate from the ssw. Tara: bye A chat showed up from kylie. Kylie: Who is Sabrina? Tara: A magical person from where the fairies roam and the unicorns graze. Kylie: Why is the website for your summer camp password protected? Tara: They didn't want anyone except for the people who went to the camp on the website. I don’t know why, they're just weird like that. They gave us the code when we went there. Kylie: and a computer to access the ssw site, right? I am so sure. Your explanation would be so much more believable if it matched up with Sav's. Tara: Savannah didn’t go to the camp. Kylie: Lynn did. Tara: If Lynn told Savannah anything, it was probably a lie. Kylie: What would make you say that? Kylie: And why won't you tell me anything? Tara: Why do you care so much? Kylie: What is your problem??? Tara: Sabrina would be an excellent example. Tara shut down her computer. Right now, she just wanted to get away. Be someone else, anyone else. Even Savannah. Ironic, is it not? A week ago, that would have been a real sacrifice. But now Savannah's taking over my best friend, she doesn't have headaches, she doesn’t have to teach someone hypnosis, she doesn't have mind control, she's not Saushale. She lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling. In short, I really hate my life. Savannah waited a couple minutes, with no response. Then, finally, Kylie answered. Kylie: I really have no idea. Savannah: She's your best friend! Kylie: Yeah. I guess. Savannah: Oh. Okay. I suppose I really shouldn’t be being really critical right now, judging by the fact I've known Tara for about three days. Or is it two? Yeah, I think two. Kylie: Good move. Sigh. I know I've been ultra-complainy lately. Sorry. Savannah: Eh. I'm not exactly one to criticize. I did totally freak out when my friend started acting weird. Kylie: Sigh. Savannah: Sorry. Seriously. Kylie: Yeah. Why don’t you talk to her? Savannah: Uhhh...Is that meant to be sarcastic or serious? Kylie: I really need to talk on the phone more. Okay, serious. Savannah: I'll try. I guess. Kylie: snap. She's not online anymore. Savannah: I though she was always online. Kylie: Eh. Not entirely. Savannah stared for a second as Kylie's button disappeared, back to gray. As if she had willed it, a message appeared from Tara. Gmail. Clicktheswitch@gmail.com. Where on earth did she come up with that? Tara inwardly groaned, still staring at the ceiling. She really, really didn’t feel like getting up and turning her computer. Signing into taratair. She wasn't Tara- with that horrid are sound. But she couldn’t go back to Taira. Life is just seriously unfair sometimes. But oftentimes, things must be done anyway. Things must be done, even if rather than do them you want to go throw something at the person who is making you do them. But, as you should know, this is really not advisable when that person is a psycho goddess who really doesn’t like you anyway. So she got up and turned onto her computer. She signed into taratair, but then into her clicky (as I will now refer to clicktheswitch) account. She typed in a message to Savannah, of all people, and hit send. Savannah knew Lynn. She had to know something. Something. Even if it was just how to be really sarcastic and make whoever was talking to you really regret the action, as Lynn was oh so apt to do. Savannah opened the message. To: savvy54321@gmail.com From: Clicktheswitch@gmail.com Date: 10/16/08 3:15 pm Subject: (no subject). They're so impersonal. Hello, Sav. Savvy. I wish to know why exactly you are so upset about being called such, and so therefore I shall call you such until given real reason to not do so. You can tell me- it shall be no stranger than anything I have heard before. On more important note, I wish to ask you what you know of Sabrina. Lynn must have told you something. You asked her. Knowing her, she probably had no inhibitions in telling you everything. Finally, what is her email again? I automatically delete all my stuff to save space, so I lost the message you sent me earlier. Please. I need to know all of this. It's essentialitiness. To: Clicktheswitch@gmail.com From: Savvy54321@gmail.com Date: 10/16/08 3:16 pm Subject: Re: (no subject). They're so impersonal. No. She received an invitation to chat from 'Tara'. She accepted. Tara: Why? Savannah: Why should I tell you any of it? What's my incentive to help you? Tara: What's your incentive not to do so? Do you need a reason to help someone if they ask for help? Savannah: Eh. I'm just special like that. Tara: God. You get more like Lynn every day. Savannah: you've known me for two days. Tara: Eh. You're not exactly hard to notice. Savannah: What are you, a stalker or something? Tara: Sigh. If Lynn didn’t even tell you that, then I suppose it's not really my job either. Savannah: She said she couldn’t tell me because I would get sucked in. What does that mean???????????????????????????????????? Tara: I'll tell you if you tell me why you don’t like to be called Sav or Savvy. Savannah: It was a dumb nickname. That Massie kinda made up. Tara: You were friends with Massie in fifth grade? Savannah: Yeah. Savannah: Now tell me why I can't know!! Tara: Did she explain Sabrina? Savannah: Apparently she's "kind of" trying to take over the world. Lynn went psycho over there being any connection from me to her, because of this alleged "Sabrina". Tara: Sigh. I suppose she's kind of right. I am so going to have to get that hypnosis on permanently soon before I go spill. I'm going to be offline for a while. Tara is now offline. Savannah: you said you would tell! Tara did not receive your message. Savannah: You SUCK! Tara did not receive your message. Tara immediately sent a message to Lana. Tara: Hey. Are you in one of the Saushale houses? Lena: Duh. I'm on an assignment, remember? Tara: Okay. Where? Lena: Next one over. To the right, I believe. Tara: Martin Luther King Jr street? Lena: Yeah. Tara: Kay. Meet you in the park right in front of it. Sav just spilled everything to me and I can't let it get to Sab. We need the hypnosis on right. Lena: I don’t know if I can... Tara: You can. Hypnosis works differently than the Telkin, rather than anger and fury you need self-assurance and calm. Lena: How do you know? Tara: ssw. General code. Lena: You really shouldn’t be doing that, but do you know how to do it right? Tara: Duh. Tara, out of habit, pulled out her small button, but then changed her mind. The park was only a block away. She'd "run". Which was really using the Telkin, but no observer would know that, now would they? Lana was already there when Tara showed up. "One quick point first." Tara held up a finger. "Should I call you Lana or Lena?" ` "My name is Lena. But due to not being able to tell if there are Saushale around or not, I think you'd better call me Lana." "Okay." "So, what exactly do I do?" "You have to focus. A calm, assured focus. You cannot get angry, or it gets messed up. I think." "You think?" Lana crossed her eyes and raised one eyebrow. She was much more confident since fourth period, Tara could see. "These are observations from hundreds of years ago. Unless, of course, you've noticed Ciel floatin around ready to instruct you exactly how to use her talent." "Um. No." "That's what I thought." "So is it like in movies, where I just have to stare at you and say what I want to happen?" "Normally, yes, or at least along the lines of that. But not when up against mind control. Otherwise the mind control is there and is activated to make me want to make it go away." "Oh." "Yeah." "So what do I have to do?" "Delete the mind control." "How? I mean, hello, obviously what I've been trying isn’t doing much, or am I mistaken?" "It's working. You just didn’t delete the mind control, you overrided it." "Hypnosis overrides mind control?" "Eh. Yeah. Mind control is just a bunch of chemicals. Science. Hypnosis is power. Magic. Something you are born with." "I didn’t have hypnosis before I became Saushale." "Yeah, you did. You just didn’t notice it." "So if I'm not Saushale anymore, I still have hypnosis?" "The Saushale transformation can only be undone by becoming a draggal. Unless you are really good with chemicals and want to go make one up yourself." "I could make Sabrina make one up." "No, hypnosis doesn’t work against goddesses, sorry." "Sabrina's a Sorceress." "Maybe. Some people, like Bella and Laura, who Sabrina would be contacting, say she's a goddess now." "Unless they're just screwing with you and totally making stuff up. Which I would so not put past them." "Yeah. Whatever. Let's begin." "God. That sounds so formal." "Totally. Too much Lynn, definetly." "Lynn? Do you know where she is?" "Er- no." "Oh. Do you think she's at the boarding school?" "She says she's in science during the period I text her, which could mean either the boarding school or a regular school." "What about after school?" "She's three hours ahead. By the time I get home its five thirty in the afternoon for her." "Oh. Okay." Lana suddenly stared. Her expression changed from curious to calm, resigned almost. She said nothing however. Randomly, however, Tara was thrown into a nearby bench, sitting position. She automatically looked up. Only two people used the Telkin like that. Two people who were always right next to each other. Two people who knew everything. Two people who were so powerful it was literally unbelievable sometimes. Two people who Tara so did not like. She groaned- Tipped her head back- Eyes closed- And said, in a normal volume- "Hello, Bella, and Laura." Lynn sat at her desk, staring at her screen. No. This was not possible. How could Savannah have possibly figured this out? Why did she want to? What made humans-people- whatever (were Saushale human? Could they still be considered one? Was Lynn human?) so freaking desperate to know? Desperate to know things that would only harm, not help them? Lynn had explained it. Lynn had made it very, very clear that Savannah could not know about Sabrina. But did Savannah pay attention? No. Of course not. Why on earth would Savannah ever take her advice, when Lynn obviously knew more about the situation? And Kylie. Great. Now Kylie, Savannah's friend, was going to go get herself killed, too. This was just a lovely picture. Savannah was to be found and turned, helping Sabrina, Kylie would probably be killed- her hold on Savannah was too strong. Tara or Lynn would be turned into a draggal for telling. The whole problem would be eliminated. The story would be shoved into a corner of the Saushale web, and no one would ever care. Saushale didn’t care when their friends were killed. Sabrina had made them so. Friendship was weakness, especially if you had to go kill your friend. Hence the tests. She had to fix this. Somehow. Sabrina was watching her like... well, a psycho Sorceress intent on watching someone to make sure they don’t hurt her precious system. Which was exactly what she was. The email was only a start; there were probably videos of the message. And god only knew what else Sabrina had installed. God only knew. How fitting. It brought Lynn's mind to the exact topic she really, really didn’t want to think about. Goddesses. There were rumors that Sabrina was a goddess now, no longer confined by only being able to command so much power or so much mind control. No limitations. Sorceresses might be able to run, and therefore hard to get rid of, but at least they were limited. Sabrina could only go so far as Sorceress. Not anymore. Very, very cheery. Ah, the easy life. Don’t we all just wish violently that we could be in these oh-so-fun situations? And the really sad thing was that people used to, in fact, wish they had Lynn's luck. She was smart and pretty and had tons of friends, clothes, and electronics. Then she got to be locked in an eternal struggle between her and an evil Sorceress-goddess, whatever. Fun. She sternly told herself to stop wallowing, and promised herself she would stop thinking about it, a promise she broke right on time about three seconds later. She took a deep breath. There was only one solution to this (if there even was one). Stop thinking like that, she instructed herself. You'll never get anywhere thinking like that. Mind control. Hypnosis. Take Sav off Sab's radar before she even realized she knew. Starting, like, now. Savannah watched her computer screen as well, waiting for Tara to come back online and tell her what the freak she was talking about. She waited about two minutes doing that before that got boring. So she switched back over to her story. To wait. Which would probably end up being about all night, but that's Tara for you. As with every morning, when I woke up I didn’t actually open my eyes for a few minutes. I kept them closed in the hopes of more sleep. This wouldn’t make much sense for people who don’t wake up like I do, aka five in the morning, but it is really not fun to wake up at five in the morning unless you actually have something to do. Which I, especially since it is in the beginning of school and there is approximately no homework, don't. Mostly what I do during this time is think about my dream. But I really didn’t want to do that this morning, so I got up instead and pulled on my clothes. I slid over to the section of my room with the computer in it (I have this really slippery hardwood floor so I like to slide around in my socks in the morning). The computer was taking forever to load. I was mad about this. I sat in my desk, getting madder and madder. And my dresser decided "Hey! You know what? I'm bored with my life today. I think I'm going to go launch myself into the wall! Just for fun!" I didn’t actually see it, obviously, it was on the opposite corner of the room, behind me. I just heard the crashing sound. The first thing I thought to myself was "Salena! She's after me!" Because I am an exuberantly calm and collected person, as you have probably figured out by now. That was when I started screaming. But I figured out there was no Salena pretty fast because, while I might not be the most observant person ever, I am not that dumb. So I took a deep breath. The computer still hadn’t loaded. The second wave of anger/frustration washed through me. That was when my computer decided to follow suit with the dresser, deciding that it, too, needed some adventure. Maybe the dresser was a trend-setter. I don’t know about you, but having my furniture start slamming itself across my room is not my idea of a stellar morning. I might be a little strange, but I'm not that unnatural. Luckily for my computer (and my account of this), my computer hit my bed. My mattress has not been the same since, I've noticed. I wasn’t too freaked though. I thought that maybe I was, like, dreaming. Yeah. That made sense. I took another deep breath. "Okay. I control this dream. Nothing else is going to move unless it is physically moved, not, like, telekinetically. Kay? Kay." My sister called "Hey? Is this your homework, this page of weird graphs and equations that I just spilled syrup all over?" The dresser is totally a trend-setter. "Guess!" I called angrily. The desk started vibrating. Hard. "Um...yes?" "You're psychic!" I screamed. The burst of anger exploded and my desk made a beeline towards my head. I screamed and ducked, and my wooden desk (white, wooden cheapo from Ikea, so not super heavy but heavy enough to seriously freak me out) smashed into the wall behind me. "Are you moving furniture or something? What is that noise?" My mom shouted, her work heels clopping on the hardwood towards my door. Okay. Picture this. My computer has been ripped out of the wall, my dresser is in pieces with my clothes all over the floor, and my desk, with almost all of the rest of my homework on it is facedown on the wrong side of the room, papers, potpourri and god only knows what else scattered about around it. Totally normal compared to the usual immaculate room I usually keep together. She obviously wasn’t going to notice anything! Not. My mom rapped on the door. I jumped to it (I didn’t even notice I'd just jumped about five feet, I was too distracted by keeping the state of my room secret). Maybe I could reverse the whole jumping furniture thing and make them put themselves back into order. That would be very effective and efficient. And also totally and completely insurmountable. Like I could actually control this. Maybe they were possessed. Focus. I needed to get my mom not to notice this. I jumped in front of the door just as she walked in. "Good morning, Kylie," she greeted, slightly distracted-sounding. I gave my best fake-o smile. I'm pretty good at them. "Like, yaw. I just dropped something." "Sounded like you dropped something pretty heavy." "I'm not exactly the most coordinationally exponential persona in the universe, you might have noticed." "You've been using too much sarcasm lately, I've noticed. Please cut it out." Yeah, whatever. "I know." "What did you drop?" My thirty-pound desk. Well, more like I threw it. But I didn’t do it on purpose. It threw itself. "A stack of textbooks. We have to renew them with the librarian today." It's really lucky I'm not, like, Pinocchio or something. Maybe I should have told her I dropped a stack of lies. More appropriate to what I'd probably be spending a lot of time doing in the future. "Be more careful. We don’t want to scratch up the floor." Don’t worry. I'll make sure I don’t accidentally throw any dressers into the wall in the future. Totally attainable. "I'll be careful." Simple and non-sarcastic. Perfect. "You have to leave in fifteen minutes if you're going to bike. Are you?" Duh. Otherwise she might notice I didn’t actually have my textbooks with me. "Yeah. I just have to pick up my homework, then I'll go." She left (finally) and I picked up my homework and shoved it in my bag, then walked into to kitchen to confront my sister and my homework. "Where. Is. My. Math. Homework." She handed me a clean piece of paper, my meticulous handwriting covering the page. "There's no syrup on this." "I was just messing with your mind." The orange juice started vibrating, as well as the table. Lovely. Picture perfect. "Hey, what's with the table?" I shrugged, shoved the page into my backpack, and made a "scary" face at my sister. She rolled her eyes. I shoved out the door. The morning kept going on repeat, along with my dream in my mind. I tried to shut it off; thinking about my dream was so the opposite of things I wanted to think about right now. So instead I powered away, which got me to school way too fast, considering it was only about a mile and a half away. Now I had twenty minutes to sit and think. I had forgotten a book to bring (stupid, stupid me) so I got to do nothing for twenty minutes but think, which would inevitably mean I would think about my dream and Salena. This morning just kept getting better and better. I locked up my bike. Naturally I had to drop my lock first, thereby dropping my bike and smashing my foot into the chain, then by picking it up I knocked someone elses bike over, so I tried to pick that up and it hit me too, then I dropped my lock again and my bike fell off its kickstand right on my head, since I'd crouched down. The bike started vibrating, before slamming itself forcibly into the rack, and the rack smashed itself into the wall, dragging the bikes along with it. Today was so my favorite day ever. Oh yeah, and I forgot that there were at least ten people watching the whole thing. I was so grateful to that fact, of course. "The rack...you…what happened?" Someone asked. They'd been there earliest. Could this day get any worse? "Like I know." The rack was still hovering against the wall. I felt irritated at the girl who'd talked... The rack smashed through the air towards her. She screamed and dove for the floor, but not without at least three bikes whacking her in the skull. Okay. Maybe I shouldn’t test fate by challenging that the day couldn’t get any worse. "You...something...you control it?" She sounded almost more curious than shocked. Maybe she was in shock or something. It's not everyday you get large and heavy objects chasing you. "Right. Yeah. And I'm also the queen of Canada." "There is no queen of Canada," she replied, frowning. I rolled my eyes. Was it the rack smashing into her skull or was she normally this dumb? "Exactly," I hissed. I prayed to god that my bike would just lock itself up and I could get out of here... The rack set itself down. My frustration skyrocketed (of course now it dropped down) and my bike locked itself to the rack. Everyone was still staring at me. I sighed, shrugged, and swung my backpack onto one shoulder. Class was going to start in, like, two minutes. And it was probably going to be a thousand times worse than the morning. As usual, I was very, very right. Savannah's computer pinged! signaling she had a chat. She smiled to herself. She could still remember that awful, awful morning very clearly. It had been a little different from the book version- obviously she hadn’t had a brother (it was her aunt, and she really had spilled syrup all over it), and there had only been the one onlooker. She remembered that feeling of having no control more clearly than anything else. Things just happened; people got hurt, property got destroyed, and much other unexplained destruction from being only a little angry. There was nothing to stop it. Things came at teachers, students, and, more often than not, her. It wasn’t until that afternoon she had learned more abut it. Lynn. She broke free of her musing and checked out her inbox. Lynn was back online. Lynn: Hi. I'm back. Did you delete everything? Savannah: Yeah. I don’t know if Kylie did, though. I told her. Lynn: Hopefully they won't connect it. Savannah: You know I'm just going to go look for more info. Just tell me, and maybe I can think of something. Lynn: No. Savannah: Okay, fine. How come when you talk about this you don’t get all Lynnish? Lynn: Define Lynnish. Savannah: Lynn Lang. Lynn: the Lynn Lang really isn’t appropriate when you're trying to prevent the death of four people. Savannah: Four? Lynn: Me, you, Kylie, and Tara. If Tara has any Saushale friends, probably them too. Maybe Massie and Jamie. Maybe even your entire school, because they've all seen you with your mind powers. Savannah: Lovely. I have a lot to look forward to! Lynn: You really don’t know how to use sarcasm appropriately, do you? Savannah: Hypocrite. Lynn: Unfortunately, you do know how to use that. Savannah: * laughs * Lynn: Why do you always space out your asterisk like that? It's kind of annoying. Savannah: Google makes them turn bold like this if I space them too close together. Lynn: Oh. So, anything new with your mind powers? Savannah: Not really. Just that my walls are getting thinner and thinner. Lynn: ? Savannah: From crashing stuff. It's getting harder to control. I'll get wildly angry for no real reason. I can stop it at school and mostly at home, but in the night things will fly to pieces. Lynn: Oh. Yeah. Sounds annoying. Savannah: I don’t really feel angry in the day, just night. I'll have these weird dreams, and in the morning my room's a mess. Lynn: I have to go, they're doing a dorm check. Bye! Savannah: bye Lynn felt dread rise up within her. Sav was turning Saushale, inside out. Weird dreams...did she remember the dreams, or just that they were weird? Maybe Sabrina was giving her more chemicals at night. They wouldn’t change her physically, but they would change her mind. Sabrina didn’t want to kill Sav. That would be a waste. But she would dull her power to keep her under control. She would turn her Saushale prematurely to make sure she didn’t help Alena. Lynn had to do something. Fast. Savannah was powerful, more powerful than anyone else Lynn knew. If Sabrina had Sav, then there would be no contest. Sab would win. The careful balance of the world, good and evil would collapse. My, life just kept improving! Alena. She had to find Alena. Alena was centralistic to the story. But where the freak was she? Was Lynn going to have to do this alone? Not alone. I can't do it alone. At the very least, I need someone with hypnosis. She took a deep breath. She could take care of Sav, if it was early enough. Sab had created a way to get rid of transforming Saushale back when she was a Sorceress, so that if one was bad or pointless she could get rid of them easily. Back then she could only control fifty or so Saushale, so quite a few people she had to un-Saushale before she lost her power. She grabbed the small vial-she'd only taken one, or else they would be missed- and headed out. "Tara! Long time no see!" Laura glided in front of Bella, her mouth turned down. She was the most powerful Saushale ever. Not quite. Hypnosis... Lana thought. She needed to know this. ` Calm and controlled. Calm and controlled. Focus. Control control control... Bella and Laura crossed their arms in unison. Tara stood up. "Now, what is your purpose in coming here?" "We're investigating a meteor for evidence Alena might have caused it," Bella replied calmly. "Really? Cool!" Lana loved meteors. Tara sighed and Bella and Laura laughed hysterically. "I was being sarcastic, dumbo. We're not on an assignment." Lana's face burned. Even Tara was now struggling not to laugh. "So why'd you pick here? Can't you go torment someone else?" Lana asked, crossing her arms. Bella rolled her eyes. Laura stayed silent. "All the action is here, for some reason. It's boring everywhere else." "Here in this park?" Tara was curious. What was she talking about? "No. here in this area. This city." "Oh. Whatever. Can you go explore some other part of the city for action?" "No thanks." Bella smiled after saying it. Her ultra-white teeth, sharp, glittered in the dim October sun. Lana shivered, almost visible. At least the park was empty. No one would notice that our girls, not related, were all standing here, and they looked the same. Tara stepped back. Bella closed the distance. Lana and Laura stayed put. "So. What were you talking about? I distinctly heard something about hypnosis. Do we have a DNA doner in our midst?" DNA doner. Saushale with exceptional qualities- like high Telkin or mind reading had their DNA copied to improve the transformation "Maybe, maybe not. I was interested in hypnosis. That does not necessarily mean I have it." "Only people with hypnosis can resist the mind control; the more they have the more they can resist. If you're interested in it you must be resisting. So we must." "Lynn isn’t a DNAD," Tara challenged. (pronounced deenadee, it was DNA Doner). "Just because they can't find her. She's on the run. We know she's in this area though. She can't run for long." Bella smiled again. A predator's smile, cruel and triumphant. "That's nice," Tara replied sarcastically. "Very nice." "I wonder why everything is centered here, actually," Lana mused. "It's a pattern," Bella answered. "Huh?" Tara "asked". She wanted to know more; it was an intellectual huh as opposed to a clueless one. "Twenty years ago, there was a chosen that was remarkably powerful. That would be me," Bella sighed. This seemed to be the only memory she had of remorse in any capacity. "I fought Sabrina. And lost. I became Saushale. A month later, Laura rose as a secondary, pushed on by her own friends ditching her. She got the dream, she got the power, she got the Saushale chemicals. "Neither of us was very powerful. It was been long known the Saushale operation damages the mind. That's why she held off on Carmen, and is holding off on Savc. That and because ." "A pattern, you said?" "Every twenty years or so, another pair emerges. Every other group has a small group, one each talented in hypnosis and mind reading. Sometimes even S-Telkin "But none will ever, ever be able to defeat Sabrina. That's for sure." "Not necessarily," piped up Lana. "Eh. Whatever." "Have they all been in this location?" Tara asked slowly. Bella thought for a moment. "No. With us it was in Conneticut, the year before northern California, then Massachusetts, then Southern California, then New Hampshire, then Arizona, then Maine. No record of it happening before that, but that might be because they had such minimal power. Each cycle the people get more powerful." "Why are you telling us this?" Tara asked cautiously. "While the cycle is occurring the mind control is weaker," Bella replied, looking Tara straight in the eye. "You have to get it off." Kylie shut down her computer. Her nanny would be home soon anyway; then maybe she could weasel out a couple minutes of volleyball. Stop thinking about this, she told herself sternly. It's not helping. You're not accomplishing anything. She wanted Tara back though. This whole situation was so infuriating! Tara Savannah Lynn "Sabrina" everyone. No one would help her. No one would even explain. The door flew open and her cousin, Michele walked in. She was wearing a short skirt, platform sandals, and a tight shirt. "Hi, Kylie," she called. She walked in and sat on her bed. Kylie swiveled her chair to face her. "You have to be kidding me." "What?" Michele replied innocently. She was eating a donut. She never gained weight. "It's sixty degrees out. What on earth are you wearing?" Michele rolled her eyes. "First of all, it's actually sixty five. Secondly, they keep it like seventy five in the building. So I can wear whatever." Michele went to high school. It was closer to Kylie's house than hers, so she went over to Kylie's house often after school. "Are you still having problems with Taira?" She could never get Tara's name right. "Tara. And yes." "God. Why don’t you just find some new friendsalready?" "I've known her since second grade, that's why. Five years. I'm not going to just ditch her!" Michele finished her donut. "Why not? Sounds like it's getting unbearable already. You're not exactly helping." Kylie really wanted to show her the emails she had gotten, but resisted. Michele would never get it. Michele never got anything. Life went perfectly for her; she had tons of friends, always looked perfect, and still got a 4.0 each quarter. Was always happy, no matter what. She wondered dimly what was up with Michele. Normally, she was one of the nicest people ever, always willing to help someone or be nice to someone when no one else was. "Maybe," Kylie responded. Maybe she wasn’t helping. Maybe whatever Sabrina had done was permanent. Who was Sabrina? That was what she was trying to find out. Sabrina. "So, how was your day?" "Pretty good. Jason asked me out." She started studying her nails. Kylie resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Best day of your life, right?' Kylie replied sarcastically. She turned and opened a Microsoft excel worksheet. "Whatcha doing?" Michele asked. She peered over her shoulder. "Nothing. Just screwing around with spreadsheets." "Kay. Whatever. I think I'm gonna go, kay?" "I don’t need a baby-sitter." "Obviously. Where's Megan?" Megan was another cousin. Kylie's mom had two siblings and her dad one, who all had daughters in high-school, two sophomores and Michele, who was a junior. "She's at her friend's house. The really annoying one." "Bella?" "Yup." "God, I hate her. How can she stand it?' "She looks freaky, too. I would never be friends with her." Michele shuddered. "God forbid she not have a good make-up routine." "Seriously. She needs some blush, bronzer, and serious highlights." Kylie mentally snorted at how Michele hadn't gotten the sarcasm there. Michele never got the sarcasm. "How about a mask?' "No, she's pretty, just freaky." "Whatever. Where are you going?" "Emma and Liz are picking me up. We're going to Sephora and then probably Emma's house. We all have dates tonight." "Have fun." A car horn honked and Michele rocketed up. "Bye! See you tomorrow! Hopefully Megan will be here. I haven’t seen her, like, at all." That was another thing. Megan, Michele, and Miranda (her third cousin) were all best friends. Michele almost always came over, and Miranda about twice a week. She hadn’t seen Megan since summer, though. Kind of weird, actually. She was usually here, just because Michele and Miranda were. "Me neither. Bye!" "Bye!" She turned her chair back to the computer desk. There was one message in her inbox. From: Lynn-ultimatihah@gmail.com (Note: she changed it so Sav wouldn’t know her real name) To: Kileynuts@gmail.com Date: 10/16/08 3:45 pm Subject: Are you trying to commit suicide? You've been inquiring about Sabrina. I don’t know what Sav told you, but it really doesn’t matter. The point is that you can't know. Sabrina ruined my life. Don’t let her ruin yours. Tara and Lana looked at each other for a second. When they looked back forward, Bella and Laura had simply disappeared. Sabrina's technology just kept getting more and more complicated. Lana collapsed on the bench. "I can't stand her! Bella, I mean. At least Laura is halfway decent and keeps her freaking mouth shut!" Tara looked at the ground. She had sat down as well. "Laura has almost no mind control. She wants to be Saushale. She likes it. She knows what she's doing, who she's hurting, and she still likes it. That's my definition of evil. Bella has more mind control than you, me, even Lynn put together, to keep her here. She's not evil. She doesn't like what she does, what being Saushale makes her do. She's not evil, just rude. And mean." Lana gave a dry laugh. "Only in our situation would there be a difference between the two." But then she, too, looked down at the ground and added, noticeably softer, "But I get what you're saying." Tara stayed silent, thinking about all the dumb, evil, and life-ruining things she'd done since becoming Saushale. "Kind of like you, right? How you were totally mean, but not evil..." Lana trailed off. Tara sighed. "I hate what Sabrina is making me do to Savannah, pushing her through all this just to get her little Saushale. God forbid she not obtain the perfect Saushale!" "Huh?" Tara sighed. She'd been holding this information for a month, waiting for the time to set it free. "I made Massie ditch Sav, so Sabrina could immediately get her to learn the Telkin. Now...well...Savannah wasn't supposed to have any friends, just make her, like, hate her life for a while until Sabrina offered her a 'way out'. To reduce or eliminate the necessary mind control, you know?" "Wait, that was you? Not Massie?" Tara looked back down at the ground. "Without me, they would still be friends." Lana attempted to make a joke. "And the N-40 would still be intact." Their school was in four sections, arranged like this +, each corresponding with North, East, South, or West, and abbreviated as such. They had one section for sixth grade (because they didn’t switch classes) and three sections for seventh and eight. Tara smiled weakly. "So, what else?" Tara sighed. "Kylie made friends with her, and it totally ruined the whole mindset. Now it all depends of Friday." She paused. Lana bit. "What happens Friday?" "We go to Ted's Ice Cream, you know the one down the street? It's my job to slip Kylie the Saushale chemicals. They email all weekend, maybe even have Kylie invite Sav over. She already has black hair and black-ish eyes, and she's pretty pale, so it won't be completely unbelievable. Then, on Monday, Kylie ditches her. Just like Massie did." "That sounds...harsh." Tara groaned. "I don't want to do it!" Lana rolled her eyes. "Obviously. Only someone totally evil would enjoy something like that." She sighed. "You have to give Sab some credit, though- she knows where it will hurt." "Totally. Massie only ditched her, like, two weeks ago-" "Not that. She's learned her lesson, and is probably a lot more resilient. But I bet Sav prides herself on being smart." "So?" "She made a mistake. She should have learned her lesson, and she'll be crushed. Totally and completely crushed." "Oh. I see what you mean. It doesn't even stop there. Sab's going to kill her parents and her aunt" "So this is what evil genius-Sorceress people do in their free time- brainstorm ways to crush little girls." Lana rolled her eyes at her statement. Tara laughed. "And the S-21." Lana laughed, too. Tara took a deep breath Sav-style. "Okay. We can't let this happen. Sav is incredibly powerful. With her, Sabrina will be invincible." "Lovely." "We have to stop the plan. Do you have any idea how?" "Yeah. Hypnosis." Lana's pupils dilated and a shock ran through Tara's head. After, however, her nausea vanished, as well as her headache. The mind control was gone. Savannah watched her computer screen. As it faded, she reopened her story. I staggered my way out of language arts towards lunch. I honestly don’t think the morning could have gone too much worse. Someone’s desk in science had almost crashed into my head when I realized I had forgotten my science homework. In math, someone had made fun of my always knowing the answer and they flew through the window (we were on the second floor) and then magically flew back into the classroom, two inches from a sure and instant death. In PE I had ended up flying on the running track when I got tired of running. Oh, and then I crashed into a tree, which made me mad, so the tree flew into a teachers head, then calmly rerooted itself. Finally, in language arts my teacher had “tripped” on the stage in our classroom and ended up flying into the castle on it when she asked me about how I was feeling toward Madison and Ashley lately. All in all, a lovely morning. Now it was lunch, and my stomach started sinking as I realized what was probably going to happen. Three people had the same morning classes as I. Two shared my same fifth period class- history. But neither of them had my same Art teacher. In other words, they were so going to figure out it was me. I banished that to the back of my mind. Maybe I could just skip Art or something. Or maybe…I don’t know, try really, really hard not to get mad about anything. Take lots and lots of deep breaths. Those were supposed to be calming, right? I don’t think they had psychotic people throwing classmates into windows in mind when they tested that, though. God! Why was this happening to me! I hadn’t even been that mad, just a little irritated, and then he was flying through the window. My luck was so bad lately. First Madison, now this. I really shouldn’t have drunk that whatever-it-was. Hm. Actually, shouldn’t I have been needing to use the "experiences" to do all this crap? Maybe...maybe this was a dream! Maybe the dude I'd thrown through the window hadn’t actually gone through the window! I used to be really in this whole lucid-dream-reality-check thing, so I know a lot of ways to check to see if you are dreaming. My favorite is usually throwing things into trees (or throwing trees at things, remembering PE. That was really insane. That thing was like a hundred years old and HUGE) but I didn’t thing that would really be very good here, mostly because I had already thrown enough things and I didn’t really feel like adding another item to my list of Things I Destroyed in Six Hours. So I tried to breathe with my nose plugged, push my finger through my hand and a whole list of other things. I figured out it hadn’t worked pretty fast and then, well... The table closest to me smashed through the air towards me. I screamed (how many screams had I heard today? Three? Four? Sixteen? If you guessed the last one, you are correct. Yes, I am counting. Yes, I am a nutcase. I believe we've covered that already. Non-nutcases do not throw people into windows.) and ducked (how many times have I ducked today? Answer: Too many to count) and the people who were lunching on it looked at me like I was a nutcase. Which I, being the infuriating person I am, was irritated at. So the table decided to pay them a trip, too (it just skirted them. Luckily, no one today had gotten hurt, except for maybe the PE teacher. Bt she wasn’t dead, just scratched up). Then, when I got mad at myself about that, it smashed towards me. Five minutes into lunch and I've already accidentally threatened my own life twice. Being a little clumsy has nothing on this. Honestly. So I walked over a little bit. Naturally, every single table was taken up. I took a really, really deep breath, ordered myself to STAY CALM and walked over to a couple girls who were always pretty nice to me. "Hi, can I sit here?" "No, we're waiting for eight people to fill up these seats.' There was a pause as I tried to figure out whether she was being sarcastic, mean, or was actually waiting for eight people. "Sarcasm?" "No. Go away." How encouraging, I thought to myself. Note: Sarcasm does NOT help when trying not to throw people into trees (or tables. Just a total random object). Yeah, okay. They were thrown from their seats and the table smashed into them. If people ever like me again (which I was starting to seriously doubt) it was probably because they were afraid not to. This was SO ANNOYING! There wasn’t even time for me to try to calm myself down. One second she was smirking over my plight, and the next the table was smashing into her. So not my fault! Or, at least, so not my intention. I seriously need to learn to stop beating myself up when this happens. Because the table went after me next. Luckily, I had the drop-to-the-ground-and-roll-away-as-fast-as-humanly-possible down pat now, and the table didn’t even touch me. Thank god the girls hadn’t actually sat down at the table again, because that would have seriously injured both of us. The mean one- Lyra –watched me carefully as I got up. The table righted itself, totally normal. "Um...was that you?" The beating myself up did have one advantage- it was hard to believe I would hurt myself. "Um, do you think I like to throw tables at myself? Or people?" "Madison did say you were kind of psycho." BREATHE. BREATHE. Calm. "Madison is often wrong," I replied as calmly and coolly as possible, trying to believe it. I kept direct eye contact. "I'll note that the table flew at us after we made you mad or upset. Correlation?" Do. Not. Get. Mad. "What makes you think that a normal person could magically make a table fly at someone?" I rolled my eyes, like it was the dumbest idea I'd ever heard. I was still calm, or at least my voice and demeanor was. I continued to stare into her eyes. "I saw the table move. Someone must have caused it." Calm. Stay calm. Don’t get mad. "Perhaps it's remote-controlled. Perhaps it was a mini-earthquake-" "And it was an earthquake that threw Karl out the window?" one of the girls suggested. "Or a remote control that made the desk fly at your face?" another added. "I don’t know what happened!" Anger started to leach into my voice and the trash can, ground, and table started vibrating. "What's up with the ground?" The girl who hadn’t spoken asked worriedly. I knew her name- Kaitlynn. "Don’t look at me for answers." My voice went back to calm and knowing, anger gone. I walked away. I looked around until I saw the only table with one person sitting at it. Maybe I could just sit on the end or something. She was reading a book, so maybe she wouldn’t notice me... I sat down, and she looked up from her book. Snap. It was the girl who I had thrown the bike rack into earlier. "Hi, I'm Lynn." Lynn watched her ceiling, lying on her bed, thinking for a moment. Hypnosis. What did she know about it? First of all, hypnosis eliminated mind control. Which meant that anyone with hypnosis probably wouldn’t be going and telling Sabrina about everything. That was the good part. The bad part was that hypnosis was extremely rare. I should ask Tara, she thought. She jumped on her computer. She knew Tara probably didn’t like her very much, but maybe if she didn't make anything super Lynnish like she usually did, then it would be okay. She had her fingers poised above the keyboard when she realized she didn’t know Tara's email address. She did have her phone number, though... Lynn sighed. She really hated phones. I'll call her later. She sat back in her computer chair, contemplating. She was considered a freak by all that knew her. She had almost no mind control, and all that she had on vanished super quickly. No one had ever tested to see what had made her mind control come off. Actually, there was no way to get out of mind control, once it was fully on. The only known way to kill a Saushale was to turn them into a draggal, which had almost more mind control. Draggal. It was such an ugly word. A draggal was basically a killing machine, when there were normal humans to be targeted, without the Telkin, when there was a shortage of Saushale with strong mind control. They had been used mostly when Sabrina was a Sorceress and could only control so many creatures that could actually, like, think (the Saushale) but tons that were just "programmed" (draggals). Now there was only two or three left. Draggals had to feed, but they didn’t feed like Saushale from actual food or airborne. No, they had to actually kill their food. If they hadn’t killed it, they couldn’t digest it. Something about the chemicals in their own saliva digesting it or something weird, designed to make them easier to kill. They hated light, to prevent them from being seen, had red eyes, which had something to do with chemical composition, and could breed. It was the last that made Sabrina eventually kill them off. They bred via DNA combining, in which they gave off certain chemicals into the atmosphere that combined, making new draggals. In the air. The problem was that they could breed with Saushale or humans, making new and weird combinations of powers. The combinations of human, draggal, and Saushale could make them impossible to kill, able to feed like normal humans, and have an extremely high Telkin. And, from the draggals, they were completely psycho and had red eyes, as well as able to absorb powers easier. Making them have not only high levels of hypnosis or mind readiong, but also indestructible mind control. Luckily, the psychoness could never be combined with hypnosis or mind reading because they couldn’t be smart enough to process it and be really smart at the same time. The few Sabrina had left were a combination of Saushale and draggal. The draggal made it really easy to have hypnosis, mind reading, and Telkin all at once, and the Saushale provided it, as well as made them impossible to kill and able to feed like Saushale. Lynn was really hoping it would never come to pass. Focus, she thought to herself. She took another deep breath and grabbed her phone from her desk. Luckily, she was distracted from that when she saw a message pop up in her inbox. To: Lynn-ultimatihah@gmail.com' From: kylienuts@gmail.com Date: 10/9/08 3:47 pm Subject: Re: Are you trying to commit suicide? Who are you are what are you talking about? Besides, from what I've heard so far anything Sabrina will do or has done is so illegal. Kylie watched with satisfaction as her email went through. She was pretty sure that Lynn-ultimatihah was the Lynn that Sav and Tara kept talking about but that didn’t make her qualified to boss Kylie around. Kylie looked back at her screen, and lo and behold there was a message there. To: kylienuts@gmail.com From: Lynn-ultimatihah@gmail.com Date: 10/9/08 Subject: Re: Are you trying to commit suicide? My name is Lynn Ultimatihah. I'm not going to bother with an explanation of what I am like- go ask Sav or Tara. It might be a negative explanation, but I will not be wasting my time. I am talking about your little inquisition about Sabrina. ` And I am telling you that it is a really bad idea. Sabrina is not human. Actually, neither is your best friend. If my calculations are correct, the only human friends you have are your cousins. Then an invitation to chat came in, accompanied by a "My inbox is full" memo. Kylie: How do you know about my cousins? Lynn: I know a lot of things. Kylie: Lynn: Hello? Kylie: Hit enter too fast. How do you know these things? Lynn: Can't tell you. Kylie: Why not???????? Lynn: * Sigh *. I suppose you're going to become Saushale anyway, might as well get you prepared. Kylie: What's Saushale? Lynn: Tara- you know how she's different now? That's because she's Saushale. Her appearance, her voice, her actions, everything that changed is because she's Saushale. Kylie: So why is she Saushale? Lynn: Are you actually believing this or just pretending to? Kylie: I saw Sav smash through walls. I saw her throw a table through midair. I saw her throw someone through a window. I'm pretty much willing to believe any explanation. Kylie: Not to mention Tara. Lynn: Did she really throw someone out a window or was she exaggerating? I've always wondered about that. Kylie: She threw three. Two were on her first day, when some guy mocked her in math and then in science the teacher kept bothering her. Those two I didn’t see. Then a couple days later Jamie mocked her in Science and she also went out the window. I was delivering a memo for the teacher and I saw that one. She rescued them before they hit the ground, though. Lynn: Yeah, she flung a bike rack at my head once. She was pretty out of control. Kylie: Especially that first day. She says she can't always control it. Lynn: Yeah, she would get a little irritated and it would set off a chain reaction, usually because she would get mad at herself and it would try to hit her, and then someone would mock her and it would hit them, and then her again...you get the picture. Kylie: Back on track. Lynn: Right. Sabrina controls the Saushale and changes them. The summer camp is like a training camp for them, but normal people usually go there as well, so it's pretty secret. Usually all who leave are Saushale, because they get slipped the chemicals, but not always. Kylie: Such as when? Lynn: Let's cover the basics first. Kylie: I thought I was in control with this. Lynn: You know, I could just not tell you anything and go knock out Tara. Kylie: I really hope you're being sarcastic, but yeah, whatever. Basics first. Lynn: Kay. Sabrina is either a Sorceress or goddess. Kylie: Um, are you sure Sav isn’t just the product of some science test gone wrong? I mean, the Saushale thing I can get, but Sorceress...no. Lynn: Okay, I guess it doesn't really matter. The point is that Sabrina can do the same thing as Sav, and she's exponentially more powerful. Lynn: And she's smart. Really, really smart. Kylie: So...? Lynn: She's good with chemicals and stuff. Kylie: oh, okay. How did she end your friendship with Tara, how did she ruin your life, and why is she going to end mine? Lynn: Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you something really, really important. Sabrina puts mind control on Saushale, to make them do what she wants- or at least, pretty close. Certain mannerisms. Kylie: Mind control. Lynn: Yes. The only thing stronger is hypnotism, which is a natural gift. Mind control is chemicals, just like the transformation. Kylie: Okay...how did she ruin your life again? Lynn: She turned me Saushale. Kylie: So what's so bad about it? Lynn: It's hard to explain. Besides, according to my calculations, I think you'll figure it out pretty fast. Kylie: Why? Lynn: Sabrina needs Tara to get you to ditch Sav. So she'll get even better at her whole throwing-things-into-walls thing, mostly, but also because she can't put much mind control on her. Kylie: I can't see Sav very happy about that, judging by the fact her being so good at it makes it hard to control. Lynn: Sabrina never takes into account what anyone besides her wants. She's evil. Period. Kylie: Then she turns Saushale. Lynn: Yep, and there's no way it can be undone. She's already half-Saushale, her body completely changed. It'll wait a week and then gets triggered by Sab to change the rest of her. Kylie: So undo it. Lynn: The only person who has even a breath of a chance is Sabrina, and she's not going to make an antidote unless she needs one, so she's not. Kylie: So why is she going to end mine? Lynn: She doesn't like people knowing about her. But you're about to become Saushale anyway, so it doesn’t really matter anyway. Kylie: WHAT? Lynn: uh-huh. Yeah. I don’t know when it'll happen, just that it'll occur on Friday. And it'll be Tara's fault. So maybe you could, like, not go to school or something. Pretend to be sick. Kylie: No way. I hate missing school. I'll avoid Tara. Lynn: That would be an excellent idea, except that then she would know something was up. Kylie: Whatever. I have to get off. Lynn: Bye. Lynn rolled her chair back and took a deep breath. She wasn’t really in boarding school. That had been a total and complete lie. She was going to regular, normal public school, the same public school she had been going to before. But she avoided her friends. Actually, now that she thought about it, she hadn’t seen Tanya in a really long time, only Zara, who hung out with a new group of girls. Maybe she, too, had gotten caught. Caught. Like draggal, it was an ugly word, though, like draggal, one that was mostly ugly by association. Lynn had not become Saushale by chance. She had been caught. It had been at summer camp, obviously. Two or three days before the summer camp ended (it wasn’t really like a summer camp in the sense of the word- just a place with a bunch of cabins, a lake, and a lot of trails; that was pretty much all they ever did there- hikes, swimming, and hanging out in the cabins. Twice they had gone out and tried to waterski or wakeboard, and not very effectively, either.) Lynn had gotten the brilliant idea to sneak out of the cabins at night, hike down to this one tree, and set up this trick. The trick- she'd almost forgotten, it seemed so dumb now- was to attach a bucket of oil on a branch then a trigger across the path, so if anyone stepped on it they would get soaked in oil. She'd suggested it to the other five girls in her room of the cabin- Tanya, Zara, Allia, Jenny, and Adriana at lunch. None of them had heard her, except Tanya, who had enthusiastically agreed.. Ali (Allia, but everyone called her Ali) and Adriana had already been asleep when Lynn suggested the plan. Zara and Jenny, who had the beds (Lynn could remember that part- everyone fighting to get the beds as opposed to the bunks –crystal clear) had been really, really tired. The memory came back. Everyone always remembers everything that influences them to do something really stupid, which they eventually really, really regret. "Why are we doing this?" Jenny, tired and really wanting everyone to shut up so she could sleep, ended up making her voice way more whiny than normal. Her almond-shaped brown eyes narrowed. Lynn huffed. "For fun. Alanna has to take that hike because she hasn’t yet, I checked. If Tanya or I go we can shove her onto the trigger." She rolled her own dark eyes. Alanna. Lynn had been sarcastic to her once, which Alanna did not like. She ended up dunking her in the lake once. A really cold lake, mind you. She had nondescript brown hair and cruelly intelligent eyes, a thin nose and attractive, oval face, a very skinny, flat-chested figure. "That's mean," Zara judged, frowning. She had blue-green eyes to match her hair, a shade somewhere between brown and red. Tanya had navy blue eyes, wide and perfect. They were bright with excitement. She, too, opposite of liked Alanna, who had once, when she was working in the kitchen faculty, accidentally messed up her food, and Tanya still held the irrational grudge, though it had been an obvious mistake. "It's perfect. They'll never figure out it was us who set up the prank, because Lynn and Alanna are always fighting on the trails." "Yeah, until we get caught outside," Jenny pointed out. They all sat silently for a moment. "So what? They're going to send us home in, like, two days anyway. If they send us home early, I would thank them. This place is getting so boring." Lynn smiled after her statement. Foolproof. She had been so, so dumb back then. "The faculty might not figure out it was you, but Alanna will. No one else dislikes her, or holds irrational grudges against her." Zara stared at Tanya while saying the last part, and she rolled her eyes and made a "talk to the hand" gesture. Lynn stifled a laugh. "I really don’t recommend starting a real war against someone who has a lot more friends than you and can think of something smarter than dumping oil on them." Lynn widened her eyes in mock offense, a hand to her heart in mock authenticity. "Are you saying I am not smart?" Jenny and Zara high-fived, laughing. Lynn shook back her hair, which used to hang down halfway to her waist, a unique color a shade somewhere between Zara's hair and black. It was currently put into five braids, to make it kinkier. It, as it was, was almost perfectly straight, which Lynn hated. "Look, I need at least two people to help me, preferably three or four. I mean, come on. Don’t tell me you two don’t hate her. Seriously. Especially you, Jenny. I mean, didn’t she, like start that weird rumor that you kept sneaking out at midnight and hiking so you had to go to Mount Misery for a week?" Mount Misery was a couple rooms that housed the head of the camp and a few counselors not assigned to cabins that directed the hikes or determined whether the lake was safe enough to swim in so it wouldn’t give everyone hypothermia, as well as the sick area. If people were sent there it meant they had gotten in some serious trouble, where they basically sat in a room all day, staring at walls. Jenny ran her fingers through her curly brown hair. "There's no proof. And it was not a week. It was five days." Lynn rolled her eyes and snorted. "Close enough. And she did so start the rumor. I heard her friends conversing on ways to get back at us." "So? I did stay out late once to go get that one book I had left on the courts. They might have just told everyone that and it got magnified. If it had been the truth, which they had probably intended, I would have just gotten a warning and maybe a lecture." "Whatever. It's really not my problem if you want to go into denial. And Zara. I know she got her one friend, the Jamie one-" Jenny shuddered. "Oh, I hate her too." Jenny was one of those people where she would be really nice and friendly to absolutely everyone, and everyone would totally love her. But if you got on her bad side- a wrong look, conversation, action, the friendliness disappeared. And she was smart enough to make you seriously regret the action. The only people Lynn knew of that didn't have to tread on thin ice around her were Lynn and Zara. "Too?" Lynn raised an eyebrow. Jenny sighed, rolling her eyes. "Fine, I'll come." She cocked her head and rolled her eyes again. Lynn and Tanya high-fived. "Anyway, she got Jamie to put the camera with your name on it in our room, remember, so that you also got in huge trouble?" Their camp had two really big rules: No electronics and no going out after designated "cabin time". The lake thing against Lynn hadn’t really gotten her in trouble, just really, really cold. Hello, the lake was about fifty degrees and it was only about twenty degrees warmer outside of. And it had taken a long trek to get back. "I'm tired. I really want to go to sleep, and it is therefore my plan to do just that. Besides, it was just a disposable. I barely even got in trouble." "I wish I could say the same," Jenny muttered. There was anger and revenge in her low voice. "Traitor," Zara shot at her sarcastically. "Denial," Jenny shot back. She was rarely sarcastic, but could be dramatic. "Hater." Jenny clutched her chest. She had stood up. "Oh no, anything but that!" She staggered around, tripping onto the floor accidentally, launching into Lynn. All four of them laughed hysterically, trying really hard not to be really loud about it and wake up Adriana and Allia, the other girls or, worse, the counselor, Cathy. Cathy was really nice, always letting them run back to grab something against the rules or pretending not to see the disposables the girls used to take pictures of the trip. If it was her that had found "Zara's" camera it probably wouldn’t have been a big problem, but the inspection person had found it instead and had gotten really mad about it. Anyway, Cathy had just one big rule to keep her nice: Do not wake her up. Especially at, like, eleven at night. "Are you going to come?" Lynn asked Zara hopefully. Zara's laughing face vanished and turned stern. "No." Jenny yawned. "Let's go now, before I get too tired and screw the whole thing." Lynn sighed. "C'mon, Zara. Do you want to disappoint your best friends?" They all made identical faces, the lower lip pushed out, puppy-dog eyes, hands clasped beneath their chins. Zara's eyes narrowed, her eyebrows looking almost like cartoon characters making the upper part of a triangle above her eyes, only upside down. She had her arms crossed. "No." Lynn wished now, in the present, that she had gotten as tired as Jenny had. She wished she had yawned and called it of, swearing to do it tomorrow, then forgetting all about it, just like she had done for a thousand other anti-Alanna plans. But it didn’t happen. So much would have changed if she had. They walked silently across the camp. It was completely dark and silent, not a light to be seen anywhere as far as they could see. There was no sound but their quiet, even breathing as they strolled across the camp. As son as they reached the edge, where the trails were, Lynn pulled out a small flashlight she had brought. They were far enough away that no one see it if they were up. The trail was the right one. It led to a large, ornate bridge over a tributary. It would have made more sense, Lynn had always thought, to name it River Trail, or Knight's Trail (the tributary's name) or Knight's Stream Trail, but they called it Bridge Trail. Maybe they were really proud of it or something. The trail was hard dirt, littered with debris of pine needles, lichen, bark, and rocks, but mostly pine needles. It was also colder out here, and it seemed to get colder with each step. Lynn was really glad they were all wearing jeans and sneakers, though their arms were bare and almost purple without a jacket. The pine needles were not soft, as they seemed in the day. They were not a welcome carpet as opposed to the hard dirt. They were cruel and painful, poking into their shoes and getting in their socks. The delicious crunching sound of the day was ominous, a whisper of "Turn back. Run away. Do not come here." and a dozen other warning messages. The branches of trees, which usually seemed funny in the day, welcoming, or at least easy to avoid were evil at night, hitting them and repeatedly tripping Jenny, who was tired and, in the back, dragging her feet along the trail. Alanna always dragged along in the back of trails, which was key to their plan. It was best for the counselors not to see the oil. Finally, they came to the bridge. Lynn, in the front, ended up tripping over the raised part of it, only an inch. In the day it was obvious, but her weak, pencil thin flashlight was not doing the job very well. She skidded after hitting it, tearing holes in her jeans and scraping her hands hard enough to bring blood. The blood was not red. It was black, a dark trail spreading over her hand, which seemed white in the light. She looked up. The stars. They were amazing. Huge, bright, closer than ever before. Tanya kicked her in the back to make her stop laying on top of the bridge staring at the sky as if hypnotized. They crossed the bridge briskly and finally found the tree Lynn had designated earlier. Lynn and Jenny set up the trigger. They strung along the rope, putting in the mechanism Lynn had built. Tanya filled the bucket of oil. It took them about five minutes. They admired their handiwork. Lynn almost broke off at the memory there. She'd reviewed the first part a thousand times: convincing Jenny to come and trying to convince Zara, finding the trail, the difference of it in the dark as opposed to day. But she never went past this. Regardless, it was still clear. Clear and sharp, like glass. But, like glass, it could get crushed or worn away. It would hurt, but she wanted to remember. She never wanted to forget this. As they admired it, they heard a sound. Like bees almost, buzzing bees. "Bees?" Lynn whispered. "No," Jenny whispered back. Her tiredness was gone, her eyes clear and alert. "Bees don’t come out at night. Voices." Naturally, Lynn and Tanya did not connect "trouble" with "voices". They connected "interesting with "voices". "Curiosity" with "voices". "Investigating" with "voices". Tanya whispered excitedly "Let's check it out." "I don’t know," Jenny warned. "I really don’t want to go back to Mount Misery." Lynn rolled her eyes, though it was invisible in the darkness. "We'll be fine. They won't see us. It's so dark I can barely see you." She never connected "danger" with "voices". Even if the danger had just been Mount Misery, like Jenny, Lynn still wished that had been what had happened. Jenny hissed softly and followed Lynn. The voices weren’t coming from the trail. Lynn pulled out a piece of string and tied it to the tree, so they could find their way back. "Like Hansel and Gretel," Tanya giggled. Jenny shushed her violently and Tanya shut up. The area off the trail was even more annoying that the trail. A thousand nettles poked into their ankles. Random branches hit them in the face. Even Tanya, the most surefooted girl in most of the camp, fell a few times. Luckily, Jenny's tripping spell had vanished and she was much more alert, only falling one or two times more than Lynn. "Isn't there poison oak out here?" Tanya whispered. "They cleared it out," Jenny whispered back. "I don’t know why, but they have this chemical they spray regularly to kill it, but nothing else. That's why there are so many nettles, they grew way better." Lynn had been puzzled then, but she knew why now. Poison oak is one of the few things that can affect Saushale skin. Nettles do not. The string was long and she still had two or three feet left when they finally reached the clearing. The clearing. The clearing. The clearing. The word kept repeating over and over in Lynn's head, both the stupid sixth grader and the Saushale. The stupid one was mostly wondering why in the inferno there was a clearing in an area that was a) not on the map and b) not accessible by any trails. The Saushale couldn’t get past the word because it had meant her downfall. Death. The voices. They could almost hear them. "I think she has potential," one of them hissed. "She does not. She's in sixth grade. She's annoying." "Her whole language thing could mean potential, you know." "I sincerely doubt it." "And her name. She might be half already! Doesn’t she look it? The shape of her eyes and nose, how she has way less whites than usual?" "She doesn’t like to be called Lynnette because her mother did, you twit! It's totally normal. And so is her face." "It is not." They were talking about her. Lynn. Lynn had potential. What she had potential for, of course, she had no idea about, but she was still interested. "Tanya too. Not half, but she could have something." A third girl had joined in the conversation. "We don’t need any more Saushale. I think Sabrina's reached her limit." The one who kept denying Lynn was anything special. The first time she ever heard the name Sabrina, though of course then she never would have pronounced it like so. It was written in the language of the first gods and goddesses, a letter not in our language and a double-vowel sound hard for a human to utter. One of them cocked her head. "I think they are here. Lynn, Tanya, and one other. Someone too ordinary... No. Not ordinary. I can't get a read for some reason..." It was a fourth girl, who stepped into the shadows after making her announcement. Lynn threw Jenny the string and the flashlight. She and Tanya ran as fast as they could, leaping high over the nettles. They were back on the trail in seconds, racing past it. they managed to jump over the trigger. They jumped onto the bridge, their feet thumping, and were off it in seconds. They continued to run. They were not being pursued. Lynn couldn’t move for some reason. She was slow, her feet dragging over the nettles, trying to run but failing horribly. And, in this case, that failing meant a fate worse than death. The Saushale grabbed her and yanked her into the clearing. Lynn, being the person she was, managed to trip over something despite this minor setback and landed sprawled on her butt. One of the last days she would ever be clumsy like so. There were perhaps twenty faces she saw, looking up. Cruel looking faces, evil faces. Unnatural faces. Identical faces. Well, not really identical, per say. They were like the faces of siblings, similar and yet not the same. Nearly identical if the same age, but not apart. For the ages here ranged from seven to twenty five. Seven. Two girls, two of the three that had been arguing, stepped forward. The rest stepped back. They were about twenty. One had a slightly bored, but very calm expression and the other an angry and defiant. "Lynnette," the slightly shorter one greeted. The angry one. Turns out she was sarcastic as well. "How uplifting to meet you finally. My friends here are quite convinced of your magnificence." For the first, and probably the last, time ever, Lynn was at a loss for words. No Lynn Lang, no sarcasm, nothing came to her to respond. Finally, finally, "My name is Lynn." The taller one shook her hair back impatiently, like this was the most boring thing she'd ever done. "Your name is Lynnette, not Lynn. It will never be Lynn, no matter how hard you try. You are, and always will, be Lynnette." Sarcasm came back. Everyone has ways to cope with stress. Some take deep breaths, some go to a "happy place", some pray for it to be over. Lynn gets really, really sarcastic. "I thank you for pointing out the obvious," she replied sarcastically. She straightened up and ran a hand through her hair. Sarcasm always made her feel better, even with twenty people staring at who looked like the really wanted to throw her in a tree or something. There was just the smallest glimmer of light in the clearing, bright though small. With it she could see only eyes, glinting eyes. Glinting black eyes that seemed to have no color at all, just black. The color of their minds. Soul, if you must. The eyes are the windows to the soul. You put more expression in your eyes than anywhere else, things that we all automatically notice. These were cruel, unfeeling, almost robotic eyes. Actually a very good description of the Saushale in a few words. "You heard what we were talking about. For that you cannot remain the way you are." The taller girl smiled, in a cruel way. Cut to the chase, this one did. "Remain the way I am? So, what, are you going to turn me into a whale or something?" Still being sarcastic. Of course. There is no power, as far as I have seen, that can forcibly make Lynn stop being sarcastic when she wants to be. The shorter one smiled. It was as if she were trying to act evil, but Lynn could hear the broken hatred of what she was doing, the subtle ring of truth that echoed in her voice. "Worse." Another girl smiled. Tara, though Lynn didn’t know it then. The only other girl who knew her struggles. The third one arguing, trying to keep her way from being Saushale. "Welcome to the world of mind control. And trust me, it's definitively not the greatest." (even before Lynn entered the Saushale world, they used different words, such as sincere instead of serious, beneficial instead of good, definitively instead of definitely) It was normal to make jokes about it. The light vanished and Lynn's world went dark, the only break small red dots at the edge of the vision, and the stars. Gone. The stars had vanished, there was no light to be seen. Her feet moved back to the path and she ran along it blindly, tripping and skidding and sliding back to the cabin, cursing and shouting her way throughout most of it. When she finally got to her cabin she jumped in her bed, not caring if the others heard her. All night the bed trembled from her and Tanya. And yet... Across the room, Jenny stood up. Her blanket fell away. She walked across the floor. Lynn and Tanya were too wrapped up in their thoughts to see her. To care. Jenny walked out into the short hallway. Unlatched the cabin door, walked across the cabin into the front of the woods. She waited in front of one of the trails for a few minutes, long enough for Tara to see her. Jenny vanished as if she had never been there. No one ever knew what happened to her, except me, obviously. Whether she is Saushale, draggal, human, or simply dead... Well, I suppose that is something that we simply do not know at the time. But don’t worry, and keep a copy of this story, because it will be very important in later titles. Lynn released the memory. She hadn’t turned Saushale there—that was just where she had gotten on their hit list. The day after she had gotten home from camp, she, Tanya, Zara, and Adriana, who lived in the area, went to a nearby ice cream parlor to talk about the trip. Lynn ordered a pineapple milkshake. That night she began to have strange dreams. The next day she had a strange face. The third, a strange way of acting. The fourth, she received a letter requesting her attendance at a prestigious boarding school on the East Coast. That was what her father had seen. On the back, there was a letter only Saushale could read. That was when she closed down the memory. The fifth day she was on a plane. Before, she was a little mad when people called her Lynnette. They usually stopped. But now she got mad. Infuriated, antagonized. Everyone assumed that was what the Saushale-ness had changed her name to. Lynnette to Lynn. She certainly got just as mad as Mirabella or Lauren did. But really, Laura had been wrong. To herself, her teachers, her friends, her family- she was Lynn, never Lynnette. Her Saushale name should have been Lynnette. She quit her stupid musing and picked up the stupid phone, dialing the stupid number and hearing the stupid rings. It took forever, but eventually Tara answered. "Yeah? Lynn? Why are you calling me?" "I don’t know your email." "Why didn’t you text?' "Look, do you know anyone with hypnosis?" ` There was a pause, then an explosion of hysterical laughter that was definitely not Tara's. Lynn had forgotten that Tara always answered her phone on speaker, because she "couldn’t hear" otherwise. Bastard. "Yeah, I sure do. Here, I'll hand the phone over to her!" "No, you baka, stummerkopf, muto, piece of achter-" Lynn was cut off from calling Tara stupid in a dozen different languages by a light, soprano asking her in an annoyed tone of voice asking her "Hello? What do you want?" Lynn really, really wanted to be sarcastic, but there's a time and place for everything and though Lynn and Carmen do not always know those times and places, Lynn knew enough that being sarcastic was really not going to turn out in her favor. "I think Sav is turning Saushale. Mind control. Sabrina. Not a good idea." "That wasn’t the plan," she answered, sounding confused. What? She knew the plan? How in the freaking inferno had she figured out the plan? "Yeah, well, Sabrina always has a backup plan." "I was supposed to be the backup plan." "Sabrina never, ever wants to fail. She does everything she can to avoid it. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are another few back-up plans." "When does she figure this stuff out?" "She's one of the prevailers, friend of Tara. She's so strong she killed the balance." Prevailers. Balance. The very first thing they learned in ology, besides the obvious things like who Sabrina and Alena were and what the deal was with their eyes. Basically, there were other worlds besides this one. Whether they were in time, or other planets that was vague. Whether they were copies of this one, like a parallel universe, or completely different alien life, that was also unknown. Anyway, on every world there were supposed to be four "prevailers"- a goddess, a god, a Sorceress and a Sorcerer. They all had even amounts of power, the goddess and the god, the Sorceress and the Sorcerer. Equal amounts of evil power and beneficial power. On each world, there was something special given to all of them. On one planet, this had led to it's downfall of it: the gift was foresight. All the malicious powers (the way of thinking of all of them in a group) had jumped to one random Sorceress and goddess, stripping the others. They ended up too powerful, too evil. The goddess became a Sorceress, and the Sorceress basically exploded. She had controlled everything for the brief moment she had existed, everything tied to her, and when she exploded so did the planet. Hence the reason that no powers after that were ever psychic or able to predict things like that. It's unlikely that would happen to Sabrina or Alena- the Sorceress that exploded was never supposed to control that much power. Sabrina and Alena are good enough that they probably can. Anyway, on our planet, where Sabrina and Alena ruled, there was a mistake. All of the powers were supposed to get the Telkin and fight that way as soon as the planet started and they were to fight for control. Actually, there were several mistakes. First of all, one Sorceress had accidentally taken over one of the Sorceresses from the world of foresight, giving her that power. She used it to take over several other Sorceresses, amassing her own power to try to fight Sabrina before the actual fight ever actually started. Her powers you will learn about later, so let us focus on Sabrina and Alena. That was the second mistake. You see, Sabrina was attracted to her power, and fought her first. I don't know where she got the power to do it— probably from her "corner of a dreamworld". Anyway, She learned too much from that experience, more than she ever actually should. She did not receive the foresight- it was a very fickle gift, one that could only show up once in a power struggle –but she did receive the other powers, which, though stored and not used, ended up being a really bad thing. Sabrina kept fighting the other Sorceresses, but she was so much more powerful than them because of that one Sorceress. Anyway, the third mistake was the electronica you keep hearing so much about and yet are entirely clueless as to why it is so annoyingly important. Actually, originally it was not electronica, obviously. It was just really annoying audio that drained other powers and gave them to the owner of the song. That was why it was important that each song have a "repelling song"- a song that would not be affected by that property. Also, as Sabrina and Alena took over other powers than their song changed each time to reflect the new power. Each year that they continue to struggle and plot against each other the song changes again, a passage through time. So how come these songs are like others? Simple. The person that wrote the lyrics and music for a bunch of Savvy People's songs was a chosen. She semi-defeated Sabrina, winning two small skirmishes. She wasn't exceptionally powerful, but Sabrina left to pursue more powerful options and never really fought. The chosen then copied all of the different songs she heard and made them more mainstream, close approximations on the keyboard that she had. How did she manage to get Lynn's song, or Carmen's then? Well, this songwriter is not very original Anyway, the girl got the CD and copied off most of her hits, though she did actually write a few herself. Theory class over. Back to the story. "My name is Lena, not 'friend of Tara', you salak girl!" "Please don’t call me stupid in any language. Tara was nice enough not to give me any information about your name." "You're still a juhmmard." "What was your name before? And I asked you to stop calling me stupid in a thousand different languages." "Lena. Hypnosis people don’t change their names. Just like you. Your name was Lynn before, Tara told me. Should have been Lynnette, at least according to her reasoning." "Hypocrite." "Whatever. What was your purpose again?" "Get the mind control off Sav." "I thought she hated it when people call her Sav. Isn't that why she kept throwing the temper tantrums?" "It's complicated. Will you just do it?" "Yeah, I suppose I could use the practice. Meet me at the park on McKinley street. We're near the side, on that grassy field where they set up the volleyball net." "Kay." Kylie didn’t actually "have" to get off. She needed some time to focus. Recharge. This whole Sabrina Lynn Sav Tara thing was seriously beginning to freak her out. She'd imagined that the solution would be something obvious. The web page was a glitch. Sabrina was Tara's guardian. Tara had changed because she'd been at a summer camp with a bunch of people who acted the way she did. She had no idea that it was really because Sabrina was some psycho Sorceress who turned people into some weird kind of person and had a whole secret web section to keep it all together. Quite honestly, it was also a really hard story to swallow. She never would have believed it if...well... She'd seen some really weird things since school started. Savannah was throwing things without touching them! She was more powerful than anyone else- could crush them just by thinking about it! Tara had gone from a completely fun, maybe a little sarcastic person to someone who talked super calmly, always having her head high- to look down on everyone else. She was cruel, excluding, and all-around different. Plus, her eyes were seriously creepy. It made her open her mouth just a bit wider to swallow the story. Sabrina. Apparently it was not pronounced Sa-bree-nah, but different. Different how? How much creativity could you fling into a name like Sabrina? She got up and stretched, deciding to take a short bike ride, to try to focus. There was a park a couple miles away that she could bike to and read at for a while. She grabbed a small backpack and chucked a random library book in it- she wasn’t usually an avid reader but after getting a book from one of her aunts, Freeze Tag, she liked it and checked out a few other books from that author. She walked down the hall to the door where the garage was, where her bike was currently being stored. Her black ballet flats- simple and understated, but still her favorite kind of shoe, made odd clicking noises on the hardwood floors on the hallway that freaked her out slightly. The house was completely empty. Normally, she would have rejoiced in that fact, but today wasn’t exactly the most ordinary of days. To give the understatement of the century. She hit the button to open the garage, right next to the door to enter it. It was placed absurdly high for some reason, and she'd only been able to reach it for a couple weeks. That thought just reminded her of Tara, and how she'd been strange for only a couple weeks... Kylie took a flying leap off the doorway- the floor of the garage was about two feet lower than the rest of the house –and jumped on her bike. The garage was very neat and it was a straight, clear shot from her bike to the door. She didn’t even bother with a helmet. While she was biking, she tried to sort out what was most likely truth and most likely false. The fact that someone named Sabrina was behind all of it was probably truth, because all three of them- Sav, Lynn, and Tar –had mentioned her in some form of power. The idea that she was a Sorceress was unlikely, but the fact that she was psycho was not. The fact that there was some chemical that made people do what someone made them she could believe. The plan that she was going to become one, a Saushale (she pronounced it wrong, obviously, as saw shail) she really didn’t want to. Then she thought about Sav. Did she know? Did she know anything- the plan, mind control, what Tara was really after? Did she even know everyone called her Sav when she couldn’t hear them? The bike ride was long, but Kylie rode it fast and reached there in ten minutes. She locked up her bike quickly then walked around. She was done thinking about this and was looking for a shady spot to read her book. Then she saw her. Sav saved her document and shut off her computer. There's only so much you can type at a time without getting a little bored of it. Even if your story is the most fascinating in the world( of which hers was not), the preteen mind does not exactly have the highest attention span ever. She had finished her homework as well as how much time she really wanted to spend on the computer, which was mostly what she did in the afternoon. She wanted to use her mind powers in such a way that she wouldn’t a) attract suspicion or b) hurt anything. The first thought that came to her mind was her bike, of course, since that was how she got to school and all. The only other way she usually used her mind powers, that is, throwing books at her fence, seemed childish and pointless. She thought about riding to the school, but it was too far. She mentally scrolled through a few other locations before deciding to just ride around with no real destination. She went fast, faster than she normally went, for obvious reasons. On the way to school she followed a long, rather busy street. However, in her neighborhood there were very few people who walked around, and there were basically none who cared what one random girl was doing biking around very fast. She was circling around the park- about two and a half, maybe three miles from her house –when she noticed Kylie walking in the park. Mystified, Savannah rode in on a little path and dropped her bike, not bothering to lock up. It was such a piece of crap no one would ever even want to steal it. Kylie smiled when she saw Savannah. "Hey, Sav-annah." She pronounced it like she had meant to call her Sav but remembered at the last second not to do so. Sav beamed. "It's okay. You can call me Sav." "Cool. So, what have you been doing this afternoon?" Sav (finally! My fingers hurt from having to type out that annoyingly long name. You need to learn to invent those voice-controlled things, and, like, soon) shrugged. "My language arts teacher wants me to write a story about how I got my mind powers. So I've been working on that. You?" "Emailing people. Oh, and Michele stopped over." 'Who's Michele?" "Long version or short version?" "I like explanation. Long version." Note: If you yourself don’t really like the long version of something, put down this book and go read something else. Now. "Well, I have three cousins, and they are all in high school. Two are sophomores; those are Megan and Mikayla. Then there's Michele, who's a junior. Megan is pretty cool and very studious, and currently she's been hanging out with this girl named Bella, and never comes over. They all go to my house after school, because it's right next to the high school. Mikayla plays four different sports really well, and also gets pretty good grades. Michelle is really smart, and pretty good at sports, but she's more into friends, and she's super-nice. She likes everybody, no matter what. They all play volleyball and have to get at least a three point five GPA, their parents make them. That's why I like volleyball so much." "They're your friends. Close friends," Sav guessed. "Not too close. Megan is probably the closest. But mostly just because she doesn't have a lot of other friends." "Oh. Hey, is that Tara over there?" Kylie and Sav squinted over to where Sav was pointing. There were three girls there, three girls who looked very similar but yet not the same. One of them was, in fact, Tara. They both shrugged simultaneously and started to walk over, wondering who the other two girls were. "Twins," Kylie guessed. "Sisters." "Cousins." "Distance." "Saushale." Sav stopped and looked at her. "Are you going to keep going or what?" "How did you know about that?" Kylie rolled her eyes. "I guessed. Lynn said they are all changed like Tara. Doesn’t necessarily mean they are, though." One of the girls, the tallest spotted them and whispered something to the other unknown girl, who rolled her eyes. Tara laughed. When they were about ten feet away, the tallest one waved. "Hey. Sav, right? So nice to see you again! I feel like it's been forever!" "Who are you?" "Take a really wild guess." She thought for a second. "Lynn?" "Yeah! Has it really been so long that you can't remember? I am insulted!" She held a hand to her heart in mock sincerity, a favorite pose of hers when being sarcastic. "You look different." Lynn rolled her eyes. "Baka," she insulted sarcastically. Though the palpable sarcasm wasn't even really necessary because Sav didn't know what baka meant. Google translate, regrettably, doesn't work very well with Japanese. They desperately need to fix that. Kylie cocked her head and peered suspiciously at the third girl, who remained quiet and unnoticed, her arms crossed over her chest and a look of mostly calm, but a bit of smugness, upon her face. "Who are you?" She cleared her throat. "My name is Lena, but the Saushale know me as Lana." Kylie and Sav blinked blankly for a couple seconds. "When a person has the power of hypnotism it negates any mind control," Lynn explained, as if Sav and Kylie had any way of knowing that and that Lena actually had hypnosis. Lynn, you may have noticed, is a real know-it-all. Tara whispered something to Lana who rolled her eyes and hissed something back. They sat down on the bench, and Lana pulled out a bright pink water bottle and took a drink. "So, Savvy-" "You can call me Sav or Savannah." "Why not Savvy?" "It's lame." Lynn rolled her eyes at what she obviously felt was the dumbest thing ever but, in typical Lynn fashion, she plowed on with what she was saying. "Anyway, I'm rather surprised at how much you and Ki here-" "Kylie." "I know. Anyway, it's really quite amazing how much you two figured out in such a short time." "Why is that so surprising?" Kylie's voice was carefully monitored. Lynn shrugged and sat down. "Sab keeps her world unseen." Just a random note, I really hope you haven't been pronouncing Sab in your head as "SAHB". It's "Sah-awb" or "Saub", just like the beginning of her name but without the double vowel. Kylie snorted. "Regardless, it's hard not to figure out much when you have Taraster here throwing hints at you every five seconds. She couldn’t go five lines without mentioning Sabrina." "Whatever you say, Ki." "My name is Kylie." "I know." "Then why are you calling me Ki?" "Why not?" Kylie sighed. "I understand the sighs and frowns when Lynn came into the conversation now." "Hey!" Sav laughed hysterically, actually doubling over from pain. Lana smiled. Not Lena. Lena did not smile. "You'd think they would know that already!" Tara hissed in her ear after Lena quickly explained the effects of hypnotism vs. mind control. Lena rolled her eyes. These girls were not psychic- no one was, it wasn’t possible for that kind of thing to exist in equilibrium –and there was no way that they were just going to guess something like that. "They're human," Lena hissed back. "They were never told anything until about two hours ago." Tara gave a barely detectable eye roll and sat down, which Lena did as well. Lynn continued making Ki and Sav irritated. Lena preferred to ignore about seventy five percent of whatever Lynn said. Sitting down at the bench reminded Lena of the water bottle she kept stashed under it. Very few people came over to this side of the park and so Lena kept a plastic water bottle underneath the bench for times when she forgot to bring water, as there was only one water fountain for a very large park. She was thirsty- hypnosis always made her feel like so. She figured it had something to do with the Saushaleness being extra negated so she couldn’t get any water from the air like she usually did. Naturally, of course, the bottle was pink. Lena really didn’t like pink. Her last thought as Lena. She took a long drink. The water was very lukewarm and not very satisfying so she drank more than she probably would have otherwise. Tara seemed mildly amused by the pink bottle but said nothing. Lana noticed. Her eyes turned dark, changing from the dark bluish black they had strayed to. She could feel her hair thickening, her skin clearing up, the wart on the inside of her right wrist vanishing. Her teeth sharpened and the pads of her fingers burned momentarily as her fingers started creating venom again. Saushale. That was just the physical aspects. The mental were much stranger. Her mind literally felt as if it was being stretched. She analyzed every move that Sav and Ki were making- though she ignored Lynn. Even being Saushale couldn’t make her pay attention to her. That girl was like venom to the mind, worse than Advanced Algebra. Actions appeared in her mind clearly, actions that, as soon as they appeared, were justified by a thousand different reasons. Impenetrable reasons. Reasons that could never be broken, in her mind. Her frustration towards Lynn strengthened and her friendship with Tara faded, replaced by a sense of a tool. Sav was the subject, Kylie just an annoyance. Like a fly, she seemed like nothing. Lana was Saushale, Lana had hypnotism, Lana had the Telkin. Kylie, nothing. The expression on Lynn's face abruptly changed from teasing –probably her most common—into serious. Lana started paying attention at that point. "Are you..." Lynn did not say the word, but Lana heard it anyway. Saushale. Lynn had noticed. Lynn always noticed. Lynn always knew. How annoying did Lynn really want to get? Honestly. This was drawing the line. Hypnotism! came her instructions. Hypnotism is a very strange thing. I've never tried it myself, but I know exactly how it feels all the same. Lana quickly could feel so many different emotions brimming under the surface of the people around her- controlling, controlled, ecstatic, depressed, accusatory... Like a wide stream of water. Lana's mind was the funnel, focusing it into a single point of calm, powerful energy. She closed her eyes, the point growing from a dot to a needle. She opened them quickly and they flashed red. A brilliant, bright bloodred that was there and gone again in a fraction of a second. The other four girls' expressions turned blank and calm. The lines to say appeared in her mind, exactly as she was to say them, but different from the mind control. These had no reasons and justifications she had never known attached. These lines were her own logic, her own thinking, the product of her own intelligence. Her own. "None of you will think I am Saushale," she began. For that was just the beginning. "Kylie and Sav will know nothing of Sabrina and the Saushale and such. "None of you will remember telling them so. "You will inform them of nothing in the future. "The plan will be carried out as Sabrina intended it. "Lynn will not demand what she wanted. "You will remember none of this hypnosis." She released the dot of energy, her eyes flashing green for a second and turning black again. "As I was saying, are you actually on an assignment?' "Yes. Duh. Why else would I be here?" "I'm not on an assignment, and yet I am here regardless." "Where are you staying?" "I might not be able to hypnotize Saushale, but I can convince humans fairly well, thank you very much." "No need to get all defensive." Just then, a very loud song randomly started playing. "Sorry," Kylie answered everyone's unsaid thoughts. "It's my phone. I recorded one of my favorite songs on it and put it as my ringtone." "Ah," Sav replied for no real reason at all. Kylie turned to her phone. It was a text from her nanny. Wer r u? She had to pay by the letter and always used these really confusing abbreviations. Luckily, this one was regularly clear. Biked to the park. Problem? Wat if u gt in trbl I gt fird. (What if you get in trouble? Then I get fired!) "Who is it?" Kylie rolled her eyes. "My nanny. She's afraid I'm going to get abducted by a homeless person or something." Lynn and Savannah laughed so hard they couldn’t stand up and started to choke. That's Lynn and Sav for you. "I don’t get what's so funny about it." Tara frowned confusedly. Lynn stood up and shrugged. "If you don’t find it funny at first you probably won't get it if we try to explain." Lana remained still, a standoffish statue with arms crossed in the back of the group. I'm with all my friends. That way, if I get abducted, they could call you and lobby on your behalf. Ha 20 Twenty minutes? Y Kylie shut the phone and slipped it in her pocket. "I've got twenty minutes here." Tara nodded. "I should probably go. I have a report to write up and I really don’t need Sab to get suspicious." "Totally," Lana added. "I have to go as well." Lynn looked at her oddly, then shook her head like she was trying to erase the thought. Tara and Lana walked out but she stayed for a few extra seconds. "Hey, Sav?" "Yeah?" "Watch out with those dreams." A bit of her pinky- Lynn had really long fingernails –hit her arm. "They usually prelude to much worse things." Then she vanished. "That was weird," Kylie commented after a couple seconds of silence. "Most definetly," Sav agreed. "Hey, who's that?" Kylie was staring at a group of people in the distance. "A bunch of homeless people trying to abduct you!" They both laughed hysterically. "It looks more like Ashley and Madison and their clique to me." "Are you suggesting that there is a notable difference?" They laughed again. "Hey, Sav. Hey, Kylie. Why are you here?" Seriously, that was how Ashley enunciates her words. "Skinning poor helpless animals, why?" Sav answered sarcastically. "I wouldn’t put it past you," Massie challenged from the back. "You have no appreciation for specialness!" Sav mockingly fumed. Kylie started laughing. "Yes, we all find you very humorous," Ashley stated flatly. "Thank you for the compliment!" "It's one of our talents," Jamie called out. "Hey Jamie- did you go to summer camp?" "Yeah, why?' "Lynn was ranting about summer camp and she mentioned something about Alanna and her clique having some kind of war against Lynn and her friends. She mentioned you planting a camera in her room with Zara's name on it." "Yeah, Alanna had us do all these dumb things trying to get back at them when Lynn insulted her in front of everybody. It was really annoying. I had to pretend I was sick and miss a bunch of cool stuff." Sav snorted. "Knowing Lynn, it was not meant as insulting." "Yeah, Alanna could get kinda weird like that. Like when Jennifer went to get a book past hours we all had to go tell everyone we knew about it. Then she got in huge trouble. Apparently someone had told the counselors that she was hiking at midnight or something." "Why?" "I think someone else really didn’t like her. Jennifer could get seriously mad at someone, and the counselors-" "Counselors?" "There was one or two people in the cabins who made sure that no one killed each other or had electronics or something. We called them counselors. Not sure why. Anyway, they were always just waiting to get someone in trouble." "That does not sound like summer camp to me." "Mostly it was just a really cheap place for you to get away from your parents. We never actually did anything." "Alanna and I were friends in elementary school. She did mention that your friend Lynn and her stupid friends set up a bucket of oil to land on her head." "You mean it worked? Did Alanna get Lynn back?" "Yes, Lynn shoved her onto a rope so she got drenched. And then Alanna set up an mp3 player in their room playing those weird songs, set to play in the middle of the night. So then the counselor came in and threw stuff at them. She hates to be woken up in the middle of the night. Lynn and Jenny both got hit in the face with one of their books. The others actually ducked. Cathy never even knew it was us even though we were laughing to death in the next room. We all actually got stomachaches." "Nice. I'm surprised Lynn never told me about that." "Hmph. So why are you here?' "We live here. In this neighborhood." "Yeah, and I have to go. Like, now, before she thinks that you guys have abducted me and are secretly homeless people in disguise." Sav laughed and they walked over to their bikes. "Maybe Ashley is a homeless person in disguise, and that's why she acts so weird." "You'd better watch out! I'm a homeless person in disguise!" "Sav, dear, you must be careful. Those homeless people could abduct you when I'm not watching!" They laughed again. "Yes. Please keep talking. I can't stop laughing, so at least it has some purpose," a deadpan voice echoed out of nowhere from behind them. They turned around. "Kylie, it's been thirty minutes." It was a twenty-year old brunette who looked really mad. Kylie checked her watch. "What the heck," she muttered. It had, in fact, been thirty minutes. "I told you twenty, not thirty. Did you miss that?" "But it only seemed like ten, maybe fifteen!" "Yeah, right. Excuses, excuses. And the homeless jokes are not funny." "Except they kind of are." Sav threw her head back and laughed. "And why are you hanging out with fifteen-year olds?" "I'm twelve." "Just go." Sav chuckled to herself as she jumped on her bike and rode super fast back to her house, at least twenty or thirty miles an hour, though not by her power (of course). Lana smiled out her window. The pattern was set. Friday was completely ready. Tara stared worriedly out hers. Something was wrong. Something was missing. Lynn sat on her bed, watching the stars, thinking. Would her action be enough to kill that stupid back-up plan? Was that even a back-up plan? Sav woke up at five in the morning and, after putting on her outfit for the day (pair of very dark jeans, a low cut green top with a darker green tank top that showed beneath the bottom and at the neck, and a black zip sweatshirt- Sav hated to spend too much time putting together clothes) she walked over to her computer and started typing. "Um...I'm Kylie." "That was pretty cool with the bike rack this morning." Thank you so much for reminding me of that. "Very few people would count getting smacked in the skull as 'cool'." "It's not every day you see flying objects." "It may be so now," I muttered. Because, quite honestly, I could easily see that. "What?" "Nothing." "Seriously, what did you say?" I took a deep breath. "Okay, the bike rack was me." "Figured that out." "Yeah, well, I can't control what happens. I get mad about the slightest thing and someone's flying through the window or a bike rack is smashing into a wall." "Lynn" looked at her oddly for a sec but then shook her head. "You must really enjoy it." "Um- no. Not only because usually it's seriously injuring somebody, but also I'll get mad about it so the object comes after me." "Seriously?" "I think I've rolled out of the way of something at least ten times today." "Oh." "Yeah. Your parents must have been really creative with a name like that." "Um...yeah. My aunt was Linette so I was kinda named after her, but not really." "Ah. I see." "Do you remember me?" she blurted out. "Huh?" "From second grade? Remember?" "Oh. Yeah. You and Tanya and Zara. You guys still friends?" "Um, kinda. So, how exactly did you come to be throwing things into walls?' I almost told her about my dream, but then decided to keep my mouth shut. I'd known the girl for, like, what? Five minutes? Plus, it was a really long dream, and I didn't really want to remember. If I really wanted to remember, I'd stick it on my hard drive somewhere. Okay. Focus. "I woke up this morning and my dresser slammed into my wall." "What a great way to get out of bed!" She snorted, then got that look in her eye. I know the look- when people are imagining whatever I describe. It's essential to a lot of my jokes. "Seriously on the wrong foot. So to speak." I despise clichés. "What were you mad about?" "My computer wouldn’t load." "So, you were so mad at your computer-" "It doesn’t take much to set me off. Trust me." "Hey! There she is!" Lynn and I whirled around. Four guys were staring at me, looking really mad. Right in the middle was the one I'd kinda thrown out the window this morning. Oh, lord... "You threw me out the window this morning, right?' "Yes. Of course. I am a magical Sorceress from the land of wonder that can magically make people fly out windows." Lynn smiled. "Is that your way of denying it?" "Do you believe in magical Sorceresses? If so, well then don’t let me get in the way of your beliefs." I held up my hands in mock guardedness. Ah, I adore sarcasm. "I think you're trying to deny it in a very retarded way." "Hey, look over there!" They turned. "It's a blank space of wall." I smiled a huge, fake smile. "Would you rather slam in there or be speared on the flagpole? I just wanted to point out the location so that you know what's going on if you decided to piss me off further. But make sure I don’t get in the way of you annoying people who can obviously do more to you than you to them!" Lynn softly laughed, trying not to but not doing a very good job of it. "So you are admitting to it?' "Sure, whatever. But what's your plan to combat it, eh?" I raised an eyebrow. I'm really good at that. They didn’t get to use a comeback because at that the bell rang. The thing about our school is that if you want to get to class on time, because passing period is so short, you have to run really fast. So I grabbed my backpack-so much for eating –and made towards my fifth period class, Lynn right beside me. "You have history fifth period as well?' "I have your exact class." "How'd you know what teacher?" "I know a lot of things." That wasn't an answer, but I doubted that she would actually elaborate. We skidded in front of the classroom and walked in, about half the class present. The teacher turned around from where she was setting up the overhead. "Hello Lynnette-" "Lynn. Please call my Lynn. L-y-n-n. I haven't been called Lynnette in good humor for years." Your name is Lynnette and that is what I will call you." That teacher despises most nicknames. She calls Nick Nicholas and Gabby Gabriella. It's really annoying. "There are four empty seats available, I assume that Kylie can show you them...?" "Sure. My desk is right here and the seats are in a diamond pattern around me. We got to pick our seats." "I see." She sat down next to me. "School started a while ago," the teacher began, slapping a meterstick against her palm. She does that whenever she's thinking. We could hear the thwack easily. It was almost as loud as the screams of people flying out windows. Ha ha. Kidding. "I had trouble finding a flight from the east coast. I'm not sure as to exactly why." Tara walked in, smooth and cold as ever. She spotted Lynn. "Hey Lynn! I haven't seen you lately! I thought you were still back in Kansas." What did the aliens do to Tara, Princess of Darkness? Lynn rolled her eyes. "Obviously not." Plus, Tara had never left the West Coast. How had she known Lynn? "I thought you went to school in the east coast. How do you know Tara?' Lynn glared at Tara for a split second then turned back to me. "I'm special like that." Thank you for such a comprehensive answer. Lynn rolled her eyes at me. Or was it Tara? She couldn't have been rolling her eyes at me. I hadn't said anything! The bell rang and we sat down right on schedule. "Great. I'm so glad everyone is finally sitting down on time. Now pass up your homework, please, and we will begin class." Naturally, of course, I had forgotten it. The teacher reviewed the stack. "Ah, I see that you seem to have misplaced your homework today, Kylie. I am so disappointed. Perhaps you could get some help with what seems to be very easy material if you would stop throwing people out windows, as I seem to be hearing.' Calm. Be very, very calm. I could actually almost hear it. At first, I thought I was being schizophrenic or something until I looked over and realized that Lynn was hissing the word as if she had read my mind or something. "Though I am disappointed. Out of all of the silly rumors you could have made up, you had to choose something completely and utterly improbable! No one intelligent would ever believe that someone actually went out a window." "Count yourself in the other category," I hissed (barely aloud, mostly just in my head), right before Lynn poked me in the arm. Really hard. I hadn't noticed how long her fingernails were and I ended up totally distracted. "I really don't recommend that. She will get you back." Her voice was barely above a breath. "How?" "I'm not sure exactly. I just know." The teacher smirked at me. Smirked! Ugh. I despised this teacher. Laughing at me in front of the whole class and then smirking about it! Ridiculous! This day was really messing with my head. Why did Lynn know all these things? How did she know all these things? How did she know Tara? The teacher started lecturing on archaeology again, and I pulled out my notebook and took notes on the lecture. Teachers in this school loved tests and quizzes. The only way to stay on top of the curriculum, really, was take a lot of notes. Lynn apparently had not amassed this understanding and just sat at her desk, doodling on her hand with a pen, some kind of swirly design. For a while the only sound in the room was just the scratching of pens on paper and the teacher talking about the guy who inspired Indiana Jones. For a while. Savannah closed the window, satisfied. She had another hour before she had to make her endeavor to school, which she decided to dedicate to her homework. Her bike ride to school was quiet, and school was monotonous. "Hey, Sav." It was one of the girls she had seen last night- Lana? Lena? Lannie? Something like that. "Hi." "I'm Lana."She ha a light, rather high voice but it didn't make her seem young or juvenile. She smiled a bit after introducing herself. "Yeah, I know. You were Tara's friend." "Yeah, it sucks she's out of school, doesn't it?" She sounded like she was trying to be sympathetic. "She's been pretty nice lately, yes." "So, did you know she went to summer camp?" "Yeah. Some 'Flowers' place. Pretty lame name for a summer camp if you ask me." "The owner wasn't very good at trying to be normal. What have you heard about it? Anything abnormal? You can tell me." Sav shrugged. She hadn't heard that much about it. Lynn only talked about it on occasion, preferring to complain about boarding school instead. "Just that they don't allow any electronics or anything, plus they don't do a lot of summer campy things. Oh yeah, and Lynn had some kind of feud with one of the girls there- she dumped oil on her head and stuff." "Oh yes, Lynn told me about that. Do you know anything strange about their website? I was hoping I could register there." "I'm not sure, I wasn't really paying attention. You could probably ask Tara though." "Tara, yes. She's been acting kind of different lately, hasn't she? Not her normal princess of darkness thing?" "People change. Me, for instance." "Yes, I'm aware of that. Did she tell you anything; like that it was some friend of hers or something?" Sav rolled her eyes. What was with this girl? Sav barely knew her, and yet she kept asking all these weird questions. Lana smiled, and suddenly it made sense. She wasn't really sure why, just that it made sense to answer all the questions. "She made up some random story that she had some weird disease, like bipolar or something. I didn't buy it, though." "Did she mention someone called Sab?" "No. Why would she?" "Yeah. How did you get your powers?" Great. Her favorite question ever. "Some kind of weird dream thing." "Did you drink anything in the dream?" "Yes." How in the freaking inferno had she known that? "Some kind of potion thing that was supposed to help me. I never used it." "I see." Sav turned to sit at her old table to eat her lunch. Lana smiled. Everything was falling into place absolutely, completely, perfectly. If only there was some way to keep Lynn from her computer... Lynn: Hey Savvy. Savannah: Sav. Annah. Or just Sav. Lynn: When can I call you Savvy? Savannah: I will let you know.. Lynn: So what did you think of Lana last night? Did she seem kind of off? Savannah: she asked me a bunch of questions at lunch, but other than that, not really. Lynn: Hm. What did Tara think? Kylie? Savannah: they weren't at school today. Lynn: What? Why? Savannah: Oh, they had the black plague. Lynn: WHAT????? Savannah: Um, actually I was being sarcastic. I don't know why they're out. Lynn: Oh. Okay. Savannah: oh, hey, look Tara's online! I'll go ask her. Savannah: Hey Tara. Tara: Hello. Savannah: why weren't you in school today? Tara: I had other obligations. Savannah: Those being what? Tara: You know. Family stuff. I'll be in tomorrow. Savannah: do you know why kylie was out? Tara: oh, she has some kind of 24-hour thing. You can email her; she'll probably be online soon. Meanwhile, I have to go. Bye! Kylie woke up Friday morning ready for school. Her virus was gone, her temperature normal, sore throat and stomachache gone. She hated missing school and there was no way she was missing it today. Michele walked in. "Are you going to school today?" "Yeah. I'll be fine. You don't have to come over this afternoon again." "Kay. I probably won't, then, Emma invited me over for a sleepover." Kylie got dressed and shoved her homework in her backpack. Tara had emailed her the assignments, just as she always did, and so she wasn't missing too much. Tara woke up. She had that weird feeling she always used to get whenever she had the mind control and knew that something was missing. But the mind control wasn't on, right? However, the plan was still in order. Mind control or not, Sav was going to crumble. Plus, she was going to talk to Lena again. Maybe she knew what was up. Sav got to school early as usual. She listened to her new mp3 player, SavSon-EV while she waited for her friends to show up. They had both promised to be here today. Yesterday and Lana still reigned in her mind, especially now that she'd had some time to think about it. Why had she asked all those questions? What could possibly be the reason for it? Why had she answered so readily, as if some kind of unknown force was making her do so? Tara showed up first, walking up and sitting down. "Hey, Sav." "Hey, Tara." "How come you're letting people call you Sav now?" "Oh, I'm over the whole Massie thing. Plus, I knew Lynn wouldn't stop calling me Savvy otherwise." "Why don't you like to be called Savvy though?" Sav shrugged. "It was this band I used to listen to- The Savvy People or something. I told a bunch of kids about it and they started teasing me by calling me Savvy. I didn't get it for a pretty long time. But I was always Sav, just to shorten my name and make it sound cooler." "I used to listen to the Savvy People. They had a couple songs on a soundtrack that I bought. Actually, I think they're still really popular, right? Wasn't there some help song- capitol h, e, l, p or something they released?" She half-sang the all-too familiar song. "Yeah, but they're lamer now." Kylie walked up. "Hey, guys!" "Hey, Kylie. Are you okay?" "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a 24-hour thing. Hey Sav, are you still going this afternoon?" "Yeah, totally. It's not like I have anything else to do." The bell rang and they went to their classes. Kylie was the first to see her, actually. "Hey, Ki." "My name is Kylie." "Yeah, sure. So why were you out yesterday?" "Flu." "I see. So, I'm looking for someone named Sabrina. Has anyone mentioned anything about her to you?" She pronounced it Sah-aw-br(ah)-ih-NAH, the nah part sounding sort of like someone clearing their throat. "No, why would they? I don't even think I can pronounce that. Is it French or something? I suck at my French class." "Just curious. What do you know about that one summer camp?" "It's called Flowers, and it has a very strange website. That's it." "What's so strange about the website?' "I don't remember. Do you want me to check?" "Nah, I'll do that myself." "Kay. Hey, what happened to your eyes?" "What are you talking about?" "Yesterday they were smaller. And you had way more of a tan." "An appearance is only skin deep." She vanished. Then in history, she talked to Tara. "Hello, Tara. How have you been lately?' Tara shrugged, almost dropping the stack of books she was holding for an unknown reason. "Okay. Yesterday was pretty boring; my mom made me go to this wedding of my second cousin's." "Ha, I would imagine that being pretty boring. Are you excited for the weekend?" She almost dropped the stack of books again when a very pretty, busty blonde almost knocked into her and gave a nasty look. "Hello, Taira." "Hello. Are you new?" Tara asked cheerily. It always annoys people being nasty to you when you are either sarcastic or annoying perky. The girl gave her a disparaging look and walked away haughtily. "What are the books for?" Tara shifted them. "Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me. I have to drop them off at some other teachers place. They're textbooks." "Can I come?' "Yeah, sure." Tara dropped three of them in Lana's arms, and Lana almost fell over. They were so much heavier than they looked! How could Tara carry twice as much so calmly? "What are these things? They're huge!" Tara looked at her strangely. "They're history textbooks," she answered slowly and carefully, with an obvious duh! in her voice. "Whatever. So. Have you met Lynn?" "Yeah. She's annoying." Both statements were reeled off quickly, tonelessly, and as complete statements of fact. "What about Sav?" "Savannah? She's okay, less psychotic than I would have thought from afar." "Have you told her anything about," Lana dropped her voice to a whisper, "Sabrina?" God. It is so unfair that she can pronounce Sabrina and I can't, even though she is just Saushale. I can't even pronounce Saushale right. "Obviously not." "Are you still going with the plan?" "Yep." "Why?" "Because." That's one difference between mind control and hypnotism. Mind control gives you reasons to do stuff, whereas hypnosis just makes you do it. Severing mind control cuts the reasons, as if they were balloons lifting you to the sky, the reasons ribbons, and cutting the reasons to bring back to the ground of reality. "Which teacher? I mean, these things are seriously heavy." "Ms. Lee. She had a shortage and we had a surplus. She's in the W-21." Lana trudged along, using the Telkin to levitate them slightly. Normally, she wouldn't, because if Saushale used the Telkin then Sabrina could track them, see what they were doing without having to tap their phone or something. But it didn't matter now. She was doing exactly what she should do. Perfectly. Excellently. Nothing sliding out of her grasp. "Hey Sav." "Hey, Ki." Kylie rolled her eyes. "Should I succumb now?" Tara and Sav slowly nodded. "Hey, Tar. Can I call you Tar?" "Thank you for asking, unlike Miss Lynn. She feels that just because she shortened her name, everyone else needs one, too." Tara rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure, whatever." "So, you know about genetics, Sav? Because I need some serious help. Like, now." "Science is easy. What do you need help with?" While they chattered on and on about genes and DNA, Tara's mind wandered, trying to figure out what she was missing. She knew that she should know something that she wasn't finding. Why the freak did she need to go on with the plan? Every time she asked herself this, she hit what felt like a wall, a big ole sign stating a simple "Because", like her parents always used to do when they were being annoying. She had to, she didn't know why, but she knew she was going to do it, because she had to. Sometimes she really hated her life. She looked over. Kylie and Sav were talking, laughing. Sav was calmer than she had been in a month and a half, and Tara was going to pull that out from under her. "Sorry. You're part of an evil plot, so you don't get to enjoy your life. You have to work for one of the most evil beings in the world, whether you actually want to or not. Just like moi. We have the most fun life ever." But she was going to do it anyway. She could hate it, but it was going to happen. Unless...unless she told Sav everything. Kylie too. No normal person would stay. She'd take a sick day. Go home, now. She didn't even have to pretend to be sick, she could just leave, and no one would care. She hit another wall. She couldn't do it. She wasn't completely sure, but she couldn't do it, open her mouth and tell them that. Impossible. It was like slamming around a closed room, hysterical, banging into walls relentlessly, insanely. No windows. No doors. Trapped... "Hey, um, Sav?" "Yeah?" Sav turned to her. Her brilliant green eyes looked odd, different. Something was off. "Do you feel like something is off? Missing? Like you should know something, but you don't, or you shouldn't do something but must anyway?" Sav chewed her tongue lightly, thinking. She looked off into the distance, calm but focused, just like she always did she was using the Telkin intentionally. "I kind of feel like I should know or remember something. I think it's just my dream though. I usually remember them, and when I don't I feel like I'm missing something. Though I've never felt quite like this before, even when I couldn't remember..." She trailed off, obviously trying to work out the problem in her head. "I feel like I have to do something, but I don't know why. What about you, Ki?" "Nope," Ki answered. "I feel totally and completely normal." Some people like to say that we only use five, ten percent of our brain. "lo and behold!" they say. "What if she could harness the rest?" I'd like give you a very long explanation as to how this myth came into being, but I'm already running low on room here so I will just tell you this: we only use ten-twenty percent at a time. But not Sav. Not Tar. But yes as to Ki. Ki was totally and completely normal. But not Sav. Not Tar. Just wanted to share that with you. Rather far away, in a very remote location in Kansas, someone was watching. She had sparkling purple eyes and shimmering silver hair. She was often described as 'simply amazing', and amazingly beautiful and talented. She was watching everything, watching her plan fall into place. The heavy books were an old trick to spy on Saushale; obviously Lana would try to levitate them. The spell, charm, whatever would wear off as soon as she put them down. Too bad Tara wouldn't fall for it- she was too used to not using the Telkin She knew her plan was working. Everything had been out of place for a little bit- Kylie and Sav knowing, Lynn warning Kylie, Tara not going with the plan, Lana free. She'd known all about it as Sav biked down to the park. At least the tracking aspect of Saushale was kicking in, even if the rest wasn't working for some reason. That was so infuriating, but she could deal with it later. She would always figure it out. She'd known how bad it was, how awful the situation had seemed for a little bit. It was amazing how Lana and Tara never known anything when Bella and Laura showed up, never saw how thier eyes would flick over or one of them would seem distracted while the other talked. Saushale always underestimated her, as if just because they were free from the mind control Sabrina had no power over them. Never saw the water bottle moving around, top coming off, eyedropper lowering in... Humans, even Saushale humans, could be so naïve. Sabrina was a goddess. There was no stopping her. She was so much better than all this other nonsense. Now Lana had straightened everyone out. Thank Ciel for that girl. Kylie and Sav were back to normal, the plan was back on track, everything was excellent, just as she had assumed would happen. Tara and Lynn did show signs of breaking out of the hypnotism- Tara was definitely outliving whatever usefulness she had previously shown, once this was over so was that girl was so done –but they wouldn't break out of it fast enough to halt the plan. Sav, and all of her power, would be Sabrina's. Alena wouldn't stand a chance. No one would. Sabrina smiled. It was so easy to formulate these plans. Humans always assumed that she must spend hours coming up with these ingenious plans, analyzing and hunching over blueprints as she tried to think it through, but it was very simple, really, took her only a few seconds to put it together. Just knowing what would happen, and making sure it did. Her time as a "prisoner" were over. Sabrina was going to come on top. Most. Powerful. Ever. The only prevailer, first time ever. And absolutely nothing could stop her. Sav got out of class first. She felt totally and completely happy. Jamie and Massie completely ignored her, not teasing or asking her for answers. She'd gotten full scores on another few assignments, and A's on her science, math, and history tests. Her skin had finally succumbed and she no longer looked like a vision of death or something. And Tara was finally being, like, nice. The teachers had stopped bugging her, even her language arts teacher, and they were all shocked by her calm demeanor and lack of tornadoes. Life was perfect. Kylie and Tara walked up, annoying each other (or at least, that was what it looked like) and they started walking down the street. "So, Sav, I caught Jamie giving the evil eye today. She mentioned something about Snow White and the apple. Are they really that paranoid?" "When you live that empty of a life, the slightest interesting event makes you want to latch onto it and hold on tight." They all laughed. "Seriously, though, I can't believe I was ever friends with her. Massie, I mean. She's turned into such a creep!" "Everyone changes. It's amazing how much they do." And that is a fact, you know. Everything always changes. People always change. It's happened to me so many times, always placing my trust in one thing or another..... But this book is not about me, it's about Sav. Carmen. Tara. Sabrina. Lynn. Kylie. Tanya. Zara. So many perfectly innocent people, all ensnared in this whole stupid mess. Sav smiled, thinking about how much people changed. Tara, changing from a cold, mean person to much nicer. Lynn, from a completely cruel person a few years back to one of her best friends. Even herself, psychotic to calm. Angry, though more frustrated than anything, to content, even happy. "So, anyway, have you ever been here before?" "A couple times, you know, with Massie and stuff. I don't usually eat ice cream, though." Sav didn't really eat, period. She had a small lunch and something in the evening, but that was it. They walked in and Kylie ordered her usual raspberry milk shake, Tara cookies and cream, and Sav honey-vanilla swirl. They sat down to eat. Tara went to get the ice cream when they were ready. Slowly, she eased out a small eyedropper she had slipped into her pocket that morning. Inside was a clear liquid. She dropped three drops on top of the shake. The shake quivered and then looked as if nothing had happened. The deed was done. Tara tried. Oh, she tried. She tried to "drop" the shake –the Saushale liquid was all gone now –but she could not. She tried to give it back, say they messed up her order and would buy a new one, but it was impossible. She took slow steps back to the table. Slow, robotic steps, like a person walking to their death. She was destroying Sav. Destroying Alena. Destroying the universe in favor of Sabrina. Destroying the existence of everything. Funny how ice cream can have that power. But she could not stop. She had a real conscience; she hated what she was doing, and wanted to take it all back. Not destroy Sav's life this way. Not destroy everything this way. Everything depended on her not doing this. Not just Sav. Not just Alena. The universe. Everything. But hypnosis can not be avoided, undone. She set down the ice creams on the table. She tried to smile, at least a little bit. Maybe it would not be so bad. Maybe Sav would transfer schools. Maybe she would shrug it off, just another friend-turned-creep, and move on with her life. Maybe she would not be angry or upset at all, having only known Kyle and Tara for a week or so. But she knew it would not. She knew that Sav would be hurt, that she would be mad. Even if she did not show it, even if no tornadoes or earthquakes appeared, she would get her full power. With her full power (it would be so much harder for her to stop destroying things) and a few more of Sab's plans Tara had no doubt she would accept being Saushale. She would want to be Saushale, she would want to work for Sabrina. It was not to be avoided. And Sabrina would win. Just like that, she would win. Sav and Sab would be unstoppable and Sabrina would prevail. She had never hated anyone in her life as much as she hated Sabrina then. The hate boiled inside her, but there was nothing she could do. Rage and loathing built under her skin, but there was nothing she could do to stop the plan. It was a hold on her brain; rendering her unmovable. As the rage rose higher, so did determination. I will not let this happen. This will not happen. I will make it not happen. Something snapped inside her brain. The walls fell, and she raced out, finally free. And then Kylie took a sip. It was over. Everything was over. Tara's hypnosis broke, but there was nothing she could do now. The chemicals had entered her, and no matter how slight, they had entered her. There was no fully effective antidote (Sav already had some resistanceto the mind control, but not Kylie). There was no stopping it. Everything was over. All her fighting, everything she had hoped, worked for, wanted was over. Gone. Lynn watched as well. She knew something was up. Today was Friday, and she was doing nothing. NOTHING! She could do nothing, she was powerless. Everything was moving on without her, and she just wanted to scream, throw something, use the Telkin. But she couldn't! And it so pissed her off. She had no idea if Sav was screwed yet or if everything was safe. For some weird reason, she couldn't get out of this room. There was no one on the other side, but she was incapable of opening it. Every time she tried, it didn't work. She just wanted to break down the freaking door. Throw something at it. Scream her head off. But no. Something was stopping her. She was one of the most powerful beings on earth right now AND SHE COULDN'T EVEN OPEN A FREAKING DOOR. She sat on the bed and took a deep breath. Getting mad wouldn't solve anything. It would just force her to use the Telkin, not even letting her open the door, and that would give Sab her immediate location. Bellauren would be here in seconds. Seconds. That thought made her feel much calmer, though more by force than real emotion. She walked over to the corner of the room, where she had set up her laptop. Sav still wasn't online, so she was probably going with Tara and Kylie to.... A sudden surge of anger overcame her. Being one of the most powerful people had its serious drawbacks. Her power flew and the door exploded. Lit. Er. Ally. Ex. Plo. Ded. Great. So excellent. Top of her list. Plus a shard had hit her in the eye, a ton in her hair, and one had scratched up her face, which wasn't painful or annoying at all, of course. Then she remembered that Bellauren was going to be here in two seconds so she, still riding her waves of anger, jetted. Hopefully Laura would be doing something. She could take Bella. She managed to bang into several items (of course) before finally managing to stop. It definitely wasn't her brightest move, but hey, she did feel a lot better. She looked up dizzily, trying to figure out where she was. It seemed like she was somewhere near the school, in that totally lame mini-shopping center thing no one ever went to. Where she had become Saushale. She started walking around, not really sure of what she was doing or where she was going. She knew something was happening here that she needed to stop, but she didn't know what or where. Whatever. She could deal with it tomorrow or something, when she could actually remember what it was. She was just about to turn around and walk home, or maybe take a bus, because she did have some money in her pocket, when someone called her name. "Lynn! What are you doing here?" "Sav?" "No, the boogey monster. Obviously it's me." "Tara? Kylie?" Tara rolled her eyes and Kylie smiled. "Hey, Lynn. Why are you here, though?" "Just walking around. I was kind of bored so I took a walk, but I didn't really have a destination." Lynn was the master of half-lies, just like Carmen is the master of sarcasm and Sav is the master of calm. "Oh yeah. Hey, has Lana come around and started asking you a bunch of questions?" Tara asked it quietly. Sav and Kylie started a debate about music, a topic that Sav could fight about for almost Carmen, though obviously she wasn't fighting for Savvy People. "No, she hasn't." "Look, she's Saushale. She hypnotized us. I'm pretty sure her instructions have to do with the questions she asked me and Sav and Kylie- about whether they knew someone named Sabrina, whether I was going along with the plan, if they knew something strange about the summer camp, if I had told them anything. It makes sense." Lynn tried to make sense of it. She knew something was up with Lena. Lana, she reminded herself. If she was Saushale, like Tara insisted, then she was Lana. But she's not Saushale, she argued to herself. She has hypnosis! She can't have mind control on! But something was up.... "So, if she comes around, I have to tell her that I didn't interfere-" "I seriously wish you had," Tara sighed. "What?" "Yep. I doubt she'll even come around. It's over." "Not necessarily." The hypnosis had been half-lifted before, but now it was fully off. She remembered. And came up with a counter-plan. "Maybe we can get her to not care." "Yeah. Right. I sincerely doubt that." "I mean, obviously you-" "Me? Come on. You used the Telkin to get here, right?" Right. Sabrina knew exactly what was going on right now. Everything. "She'll do something, maybe put on more mind control or send Lana out here. I'll go along with the plan. If you want to help, you have to get out of here now. Out of this city, state, whatever." "Right. It'll be so much harder for them to find me that way," Lynn scoffed sarcastically, thinking Tara was expecting her to use the Telkin "Like, on a plane." "That'll take forever. I have a better way." "That being what?" "Watch and find out." Lynn turned around and walked to the Starbucks on the edge of the mini-shopping-center thing. "In." Lana was watching as well. Not as fully as Sabrina, obviously. She didn't have the technology nor the tenacity, but she knew in general what was happening. Her hypnosis was failing. Falling. Gone. They'd undid it somehow. Undid her work. And she was so powerful. They'd undid it and it made her so mad... Anger like heat, like fire, anger like an object, a sharp object like scissors. Scissors and fire destroying her mind control. Her head snapped up and she remembered exactly what she needed to do. She needed to help, find them and get there, help them- Wait. In order to get there, she would have to use the Telkin, and Sabrina would track her. If Sabrina tracked her, she would know everything happening and pour in reinforcements. She had to help here in headquarters. She needed logical thinking reasoning. She needed to come up with a plan, just like Sabrina. Morgan. Morgan. She sighed. Her best friend had always been the one to tell her what to do. Then Sabrina. Then Tara. Lena wasn't clever enough to come up with something by herself. Focus. Logical thinking, not pointless lamenting. Firstly, she knew Sabrina would be sending someone in the area, probably Bellauren. She had to find them and lessen their power or something. She turned her attention back and located them. They were in the transportation place of headquarters, about to leave. Lena got herself there so fast it scared herself. "Hey, um, Bella. Laura." They turned to look at her. Lena focused her hypnosis like before, her eyes flashing red. Bellauren waited for her instructions. "Okay. You need to go to the area, and, um, not use the Telkin for at least fifteen minutes, just loiter around, then don't hurt them and look like you are putting up a good fight. Try not to do it in broad daylight and act like you would normally, sarcastic and cruel and stuff." Bellauren left. Lena took a deep breath and focused. Next, Sabrina's ability to track Bellauren. Despite whatever they did to make it seem like they were fighting, it so would not work for long. Lena needed to make Sabrina think it was going like it actually happening. Or have her not be able to track it at all... Lena ran over to the technical area, hypnotizing a bunch of people so they would let her in. Okay. She needed to find Sabrina's tracking board. It had to be here somewhere, even though there was a very small chance she would find it on her own. So she turned to one of the Saushale. "Hey, where's the stuff for Sabrina's tracking board?" "All important stuff like that is kept in a locked room." "Who has the key?" "Bella, Laura, Sabrina, Eve, and the Japanese girl in charge of all this stuff. Kuzoku, or something." "Who's in headquarters?" "Eve. And Sabrina.' "Show me Eve." They clattered downstairs, Lena continually telling him to go faster. Finally they stopped in front of a door, simple and a dark indigo-purple, just as the rest of the building. The door was unlocked. "Eve?" Lena focused her power. It was getting easier and quicker each time. "Who are you and what do you want?" She looked up and was hypnotized instantly. "Give me the key to the locked techno room of Sabrina's, with the tracking board." "I can give you mine, but you need two keys. One of them is mine, the other Kuzoku's. Or Laura's" Eve handed Lena the key. "Where is Kuzoku?" "She teaches one of the classes at the boarding school." Lena thought for a moment. "Okay, what room number?" "Building F, floor two, room 5." Lena ran back down to the transportation rooms, right outside. She pulled out a Saushale makeup stick and ran it around her eyes and lips, making her look wildly different. She didn't know if it would be hugely effective, but hopefully Sabrina wouldn't think too much of it. Lena appeared in front of the school. Building F was only a few steps away. Lana ran into it and up the stairs, in front of room five. She took a few deep breaths and put her ear to the door. She heard several voices. Great. She focused her power and walked inside. Everyone looked straight at her, just as she'd hoped, and was blasted with hypnosis power. She thought the instructions in her mind this time. The class would not remember her arrival and the teacher would give her the key. Kuzoku handed her a necklace, silver chain. Lana stuck it in her pocket and ran to the transportation thingies again, back to headquarters. She arrived right next to the techno room, but before racing off to it she took a few deep breaths. She was really tired now from all this racing around, plus the transporter things supposedly sucked energy from you as well. She found a Saushale to walk Lena to the secret techno room. As was to be expected, the key was microchipped so you couldn't' pick it or something. But she opened it easily with the two keys, and was greeted with stacks of wires, things that looked like silvery plates, arcs of energy, and other things she didn't even know how to describe. "Do you know how this works?" The Saushale shook his head no. "Does Eve?" "Yes." "Go get her. Don't tell her why, just that she needs to go to get here, make no fuss, and tell no one. Do you think she'll do that?' He nodded and raced off. Lana pulled out her cell phone to check the time. Bellauren would start attacking in about two, maybe three minutes. Sabrina wouldn't suspect anything yet, assuming that they were trying to lead them out of sight or something, maybe just watch the situation to determine the best attack. But if she waited too long, it would be too un-Bellauren-ish. Eve came hurrying up. "Hello? What do you want?" Lena hypnotized her. "What is the best way to disable this so Sabrina can't have it fixed in less than an hour?" "Steal it." "Well, yes, okay, but which pieces would be the hardest to reproduce?" "Every piece has at least five copies in different locations." "Do you know these locations?" "Some of them yes. But there is one only Sabrina knows about." Great. If she were Tara she could think of something. If she were Lynn she could do something. If she had Morgan's cleverness, she could come up with something. But no. "Is there some way you can program something false into one of the Saushale's tracking things?" "Yes, you can. Each is a direct feed, triggered by the Telkin. You could create a program for it." She couldn't even figure out how to download music off websites. How in the freaking hell was she going to hack into a hi-tech, hi-protected machine and write a program for it? In two minutes? She flipped open her phone and dialed Bellauren. "Are you still hypnotized?" "Yes." Robotic. "Hold off for another five minutes." Lena snapped it shut. Why did this have to be so hard? "Why, oh why nuh-awt?" It was how Bellauren often ended her conversations. "I need you to write a program of Bellauren fighting Sav, Tara, and Kylie. I want the program to end with Sav and her friends getting away and flying to an airport. Bellauren can't find them, and they take a plane to, um, Japan to hide. Put in stuff like levitating books and stuff so it's believable, though maybe only Sav's slot since she doesn't really know. Oh, and see if you can add in Sav saying she isn’t going to use the Telkin anymore at the end." "Simple." Eve sat down at one of the controllers. "Can you make it encompass Bellauren, Sav and Tara's slots?" "Easy." The Starbucks was crowded and noisy. Excellent. Lynn went up and ordered a tea so they wouldn't get all mad about the girls sitting there and not contributing to their extensive wealth. Everyone sat down. "So, Lynn, what's your grand plan here?' "The truth." "What?" Sav. "Okay, look. Um..." Lynn trailed off. It was a bit hard to explain. Sav and Ki stared at her blankly. "Sabrina is after you, Sav. But she needs Kylie to ditch you first. That's basically-" Lynn tried to explain. "Who is Sabrina?" "Why does she need me to ditch her?" "Sabrina is this really evil person. She wants your power, Sav, but she needs Ki to ditch you so you will consent." "Okay, but I'm not exactly going to ditch Sav anytime soon, now am I?" "Yes, but Sabrina can put mind control onto you, easily, and then you have to do what she says. And, unfortunately, you kinda already have some on you." "This is it? This is your big plan? How is this going to help us not get killed?" Tara sat there with her mouth open and her arms crossed across her chest, clearly not believing in this plan at all. Lynn smiled. "Sav can take Laura. I can take Bella. And you can make sure they don't kill any innocent bystanders." "That's not a plan, Lynn. I just want you to know that." "Like your plan was so much better! Run and hide? Come. On. She'd find us in, like, a nanosecond." "Yes, and Bellauren will get us in half of one." While they bickered to each other, Kylie whispered, "I don't believe it. Do you?" Sav shook her head, her silver hair barely affected. "Nope. Not at all. They are so lying. It's a joke." "I can easily see Tara doing that." "And Lynn." Suddenly, Lynn jabbed a long fingernail into Tara's arm. "Ow." Lynn has really long fingernails. She'll jab them into people's arms at random, and if she's really mad she can easily draw blood. "Look. It's Bellauren!" They peered at the enemy. "They don't look like they are about to attack, do they?" "No. Great. We'll get their lovely wit instead." "What's a Bellauren?" Sav asked, her tongue tripping over the rather unimaginative word Lynn had coined. "Bellauren. Mirabella and Lauren, but they call themselves Bella and Laura. They're these two really mean twins that we know from summer camp." "Lovely." "Yeah. Lynn wants you to throw something at the taller one." "I thought they were twins." "Fraternal." "In the middle of all this? I think I'd hit an innocent bystander first, unfortunately." "No, they'll try to drag us away first and then you attack." Sav wasn't quite sure if Tara was being serious or sarcastic. Her face was hard to read. Probably sarcastic, though. This stuff was so fake. "I'm surprised they haven't come over yet," Lynn whispered. "Don't stare at them. They'll notice us and most likely they're trying to track us before they attack." "How are we going to know when they are going to come over here?" Tara complained. "Simple. We'll split up. We're a pretty attention grabbing group, but if we split up we won't look quite as strange. We'll try to remain in a close area so when they attack we can join up." "I'd rather go home," Sav interrupted. "Come on. It'll be fun. Like spies or something." Kylie looked halfway excited, though more like she was trying not to make Lynn hate her. People always did what Lynn wanted. "I'm not a spy. I'm Sav. And this joke is really wearing thin. 'Bellauren' is probably just some totally ordinary pair of girls-" Tara pointed. Sav saw them and gaped. Ah, the first look at a complete Saushale. It never gets old. Bella and Laura had coal black eyes that seem to suck the light out of the earth, long ravens hair that looks to have dug itself out of a black hole. Their faces are cruel and sharp, and their skin is paler than death. Paler. They don't look like they have any blood, or like their skin has ever seen the light of the earth. How can a person like that walk into the middle of a crowded shopping center thing and not be noticed? Easily. They only look like that to Saushale. Or half-draggals. Or someone else enchanted with whatever Sav and Saushale have. Sav turned back to Tara and Lynn. "I'm in." Lena watched as Eve easily flipped switches, typed in things, shut off energy and did a dozen other things Lena couldn't even begin to understand. Lena was pretty sure that Eve was doing everything she could and Lena couldn't help much, so she went off to secure off her hypnosis on some of the Saushale. It was easy, even though she hadn't asked for their names or anything. The hypnosis gave them an aura-type thingy that she had begun to recognize. Once she had tied up all of the loose ends, she decided to secure Kuzoku later. They wouldn't track this for a pretty long time, hopefully. She pulled out her phone again. "Hey. Bella?' "Yes. I am here." "Okay. Are you attacking Tara and Lynn and Sav?" "Laura is." "Okay. I need you two to stop fighting. And then, um, just drive around for a bit and don't go anywhere where someone might recognize you." "Okay." "Bye." "Bye." Lena walked back to the secret techno room. The door had sealed behind her. That was something she would need to remember if she ever used this room again, but luckily this time she had the keys. "Okay. Um, hey Eve. Going great?" "Yep. Even I would not suspect anything, and Sabrina does not have all of my technological skill. She is better with chemicals." "Okay, great. Is it over?" "Almost." "Okay. Shut off Sav's sensing thing when you are done, okay?" You might have noticed this, but Lena is to 'okay' as Megan is to 'yeah'. Ha ha, made you look, Hannah. "Definetly." Eve continued working, and Lena just stopped and breathed. A couple minutes later Eve stood up. "I am done. Sabrina will not suspect anything. She might scream and throw some tantrums, but she will not suspect that Lynn and Sav are in Oregon." "Will she think I am behind it?" "She will not be able to tell anything because of the technology, but otherwise I do not know. She might suspect you for other reasons." Lena handed Eve back her key, then transported to the building and handed Kuzoku hers, hypnotizing her so that she would not remember anything of Lena. Her work was done. "Excellent." Lynn threw away her empty tea thing and they all walked out, Sav and Kylie going one direction, Lynn and Tara the other. They circled around Bellauren, who were walking down the street gossiping to each other. About ten, fifteen minutes later Bella got a call. She had a loud, piercing ringtone, so piercing Lynn couldn't even figure out what it was. She strained to hear, and it sounded as though it might be Sabrina, demanding something about "hypnotism" "five minutes" and a very dramatic way of hanging up. Plus, Bella sounded slightly forced, like she always did around Sabrina. Another five minutes and they whirled around, smiling. Perfect. Laura was the first to attack, slamming Lynn into the side of the building. Lynn managed not to be crushed just at the last second, even thought it was feeble. Why, she did not know. Sav jumped in and got a light post aimed at her head. Sav dropped to the ground and rolled quickly, way quicker than any attack could ever go. The girl was good. She slammed Laura and Bella into each other and then the wall, knocking the breath out of Laura and Bella nearly unconscious. Laura tried to counter again but instead ended up doing some really strange twirl and slammed into the building again. Correction: the girl was really good. Bella didn't really fight after that and Sav stopped slamming Laura into the building just long enough to almost have a garbage can careening into her head, which ended up near Laura's instead. Bella got a phone call again and Lynn strained to hear. Something about driving around? Laura still fighting? Why on earth would Sabrina want Laura to stop fighting? There was no possible reason, especially since she hadn't actually been informed that Laura was losing. There must be something wrong with her board then if she had to ask anything, so why was she telling them to pull out? And what was with the hypnotism? Something was up. Oh, yes, something was up. Bella muttered something, it sounded like a line from a song from the way she said it, so it must be a code. Laura glared at Sav but walked away. "Well. Sav. You...Wow." Sav whirled around. "What?" "Never mind." Sav rolled her eyes and started walking back to the school. "Where are you going?" "So I can get my bike from the school." She raised her eyes and used a very duh voice to convey that this should have been obvious. Kylie walked into her room that night. All of this nonsense had really started with Tara. Then it had really come into focus with Sav. Well, she was sick of it! She looked in the mirror, remembering the whole Sabrina thing they had been talking about in the café. She looked normal- her familiar dark eyes and dark hair, a slight tan and her annoying pink overtones. Her face had the same round look that she'd lived with for twelve years, almost thirteen. She'd be thirteen in November, just two or three weeks from now. Kylie did not put much worth in holidays, and had barely thought about it. She shoved her mind back to the task at hand. If "Bellauren" were real, then was Sabrina? She just wanted Sabrina to go away. She wanted all of this whole Saushale-Bellauren-mind powers-Saushale-mind control-hypnosis mess to exit her world. Her world was supposed to involve school. Computers. Volleyball. Her cousins. NOT a Sorceress-goddess whatever. She did not believe in God and never had. This made no sense to her, that there was something greater than mankind. Even Sav with her powers hadn't been so impossible, for some reason. Maybe because she had only known Sav for a few days, and then barely that before her powers appeared. She'd known Tara since she was five. She sighed and looked down on the floor. Her stereo was playing something, sounded like the radio; the song something by Lady GaGa. She got up and turned it off. She had all weekend to decide, after all. Sav went home and immediately opened up her story. When class ended I found Lynn following me to Art as well. The teacher despised seating charts and let us sit wherever, different placements each day. We had eight different tables, five seats at each one. My table was usually empty, but today Lynn sat across from me. "This school is really weird," she commented. The teacher was probably the most scatterbrained of the school and so we talked for the first five or ten minutes of class while she put everything together. "Why?" "The halls, mostly. No one stops to talk. No one sits at their locker-" "There's barely enough time to get to class as it is." "Yes, that's kind of odd, too. No one sits at their locker and gossips. No one's ever late. No more than two people ever miss their homework. All the teachers have test averages and they're always A's. And it's so clean." "What's so weird about that?" "Well, I mean, at my old school we had way longer passing periods and the halls were always hugely crowded and tons of kids were late and stuff." I shrugged. Different schools were different, after all. The teacher finally appeared. We'd had homework the night before, but I think she'd forgotten. She always forgot. "Kylie! Can you tell me the difference between a shade and a tint?" "Are they not the same thing?" "Madison?" "A shade is a lighter color and a tint a darker color, when you are mixing paint you would mix paint with white to create a shade and black for a tint." "How about this one, Kylie. What is the color opposite red?" "Um...." Most days I could have answered her before she even finished her question. I could remember everything and was known to do so. Today I couldn't think for some reason. Maybe it was the desk that had almost knocked me out in math, it hit me so hard. "Green," Madison answered. "I thought this was art,' Lynn whispered."When did it turn into a Q&A session?" "What is she going to grade on?" "Kylie, I'll give you one last chance. What is..." I didn't even hear the rest of the question. All I could see was Madison and Ashley whispering and laughing. Ashley even pointed at me. And I took out my anger so fast Lynn didn't even have time to poke me again. The teacher rose and slammed into the window. The entire class stood up and ran over to the window. We were on the first floor and the teacher was fine, just a little dusty. She hadn't even hit the ground. "Well, Kylie. Was that your doing?" "No," I answered reflexively. Lynn raised an eyebrow. She's almost as good as me; I use that facial expression quite often. "Whatever," I responded and sat back down. Lynn sat down as well, followed by most of the class. "Well," the teacher began, looking even more scattered than usual. She took a deep breath, then continued on with the lesson as though nothing had happened. But my life, after that day, was never the same. Lena was still in headquarters that night, staring at her computer screen. What did Lynn know? What could Lynn know? She could call or send her an email, but either would be traced easily. She could go to talk, but that would require either a plane or a transporter and those could be traced as well. She got up. Staring at her computer screen wasn't doing anything to help her. She liked the phone idea. Maybe she could use some random person's phone, so it wouldn't be traced. She'd just hypnotize them. They'd never know anything. She'd have to go fast, though. Sabrina locked up headquarters at eight, mostly to try to avoid Saushale doing exactly what she was doing right now. Lena jumped up and ran outside, towards the small town-like area. As soon as she reached the first house she stopped, took a deep breath, and rang the doorbell. By the time it had opened she was ready for a full blast of hypnosis. The ordinary human there never stood a chance. She found the phone easily enough and dialed Lynn's number. She wasn’t really sure why Lynn, and not Tara, but it made sense so she did so anyway. "Hello? I don't know this number." Lynn sounded confused. "Um, yeah. It's me, Lena. I lost the mind control-" "That was fast," Lynn commented, sounding only half as impressed as Tara. "Okay. Look. I just came out of headquarters, and I didn’t want the phone to be tapped, so I just picked some random's phone. Hypnotized 'em. Sab doesn’t have all the phones tapped, does she?" "That would be exhausting. So, what exactly did you do?" "I messed with her tracking board and made Bellauren not actually fight." "Laura did seem a bit subdued today, though as mad as ever. Don't rely on her for any plans- she's very resistant to hypnotism and mind control. It's all the Telkin. That's why you can't hypnotize Sorceresses or goddesses; all the Telkin makes their brain different. It would take someone very smart, smarter than Sab to do that." "Thanks for the theory lesson," Lena informed her sarcastically. "I already knew that. So, I messed up the tracking board-" "Really. You never seemed very technologically competent to me." "I'm not. I hypnotized Eve, and she did it for me. So, basically your story is that you're with Sav in Tokyo. I blocked up Sav and your block, so you can use the Telkin. Try not to attract too much attention or else she'll probably send out Saushale or something. That would be bad." "Wow, Lena. This must have been hard to orchestrate." "Eh. Not really. Just hypnotizing the hell out of headquarters." "I would agree, but let's keep the language down, shall we not?" "I'm rolling my eyes at you, Lynn. I just want you to know that." "Sure, Lena. Whatever you say. Au revoir." Lynn disconnected before Lena had a chance to tell her goodbye. Lena checked her watch. Headquarters was closing in two minutes. There was no way she would get there on time. Oh well. She was Saushale, after all. Sabrina had enough to do already without checking to make sure she was in. Lena did usually have the mind control on for at least four days, so that was what she would be expecting. Lena started walking. Sav woke up Saturday and started getting dressed. It wasn't until she'd sat down and turned on her music before she remembered that it wasn't a school day, mostly from the loud yells of pain a few doors down. Sav's aunt slept late on Saturdays, until around six or six-thirty, depending on the circumstances. Sav turned off the music and signed into her email account. There was one message, sent from twelve o clock that night, from Kylie. To: Savvy54321@gmail.com From: kylienuts@gmail.com Subject: I despise subjects. Date: [input date] Hey, Sav. Savannah. Whatever. Well, anyway, this might be a slightly weird message, but I wanted to finish it before the mind control sets in. I asked Lynn, and she says I have until Monday. I know you're probably going to hate me, but look. I didn't start talking to you that day because I thought you might be a cool person to get to know. Tara was annoying me and I knew something was up. Lynn says that Saushale set something off or something. Well, she was annoying me, and I was over it. I needed a new friend. And, well, it wasn't like you were in high demand. Anyone else I tried to be friends just looked at me weird and continued on like I was just a non sequitur in their all-important conversation. I expected to outlive the weirdness. That it would go away. After all, you were acing like you always had- smart, talkative, with a touch of sarcasm. But it only got worse. Now, apparently I'm about to become Saushale, I'm getting these weird emails, and I've been hypnotized. I was attacked today, and I've never believed it. I hate religion. I hate the idea that there are gods or Sorceresses or whatever else Lynn wants to throw at me. It's nonsensical and it's annoying and it goes against everything that I was raised to believe. I'm over it. Sav, you're a great person. Really. You were willing to help, you listened when I told you things. But my goal was always to make the strangeness go away, and you're not helping. The strangeness is back. Sorry. To: kylienuts@gmail.com From: Savvy54321@gmail.com Subject: I despise subjects, too. Date: [input date] Thanks for the heart-to-heart. By the way, there is an antidote, especially since it only occurred a few days ago. Well, I guess the point was that I wouldn’t turn Saushale, anyway. And I'm not. I probably won't be around school, though. I'm switching over to Lynn's. Au revoir, transient. Sav swung her chair around. She was about to go read or something when her cell phone rang. Lynn. "Hey, Lynn." "Hey, Sav. You got the email, I'm guessing?" "Yaw." "Are you…mad?" Lynn had an uncharacteristic pause between "you" and "mad" "No, not really. I mean, she did have a good reason that had nothing to do with me. More like seriously willing to change schools. I sincerely doubt that I'll ever make friends again." "I got a call from Lena last night. I don't believe it, but she claims that it was her that undid Bellauren and messed up the tracking board. She doesn't have any mind control." "How can you tell?" Lynn smiled. Sav could tell, even though she couldn't actually see it. "Well, you know that band you used to listen to? Savvy People? I did have a long talk with Tara, so don't even ask how I know that. Apparently there's a whole electronica thing mixed in here." "Great." "I know, right? Anyway, did you ever listen to a song called "Cruel Summer"? It was a cover that they did." "I listened to it, but it definitely wasn't my favorite." "Um, yeah. That song got remixed and put on the CD. 'lectronica." "I see." "Yes, well, that's how you tell. You make them listen to that." "You live in a very interesting world, Lynn. Very interesting." "We, Sav. We." EPILOGUE Sav stood in front of her new school, a backpack over her shoulder as she waited for the bell to ring. No one noticed her. There were so many kids here that almost no one even glanced her way. It was amazing. She knew her story hadn't reached there, though. No one would believe kids who told tales, and if they videotaped the tales their camera or cell phone was disposed of. Her old school had very strict rules. She stood around, trying to figure out where her next class was for another half second before something barreled into her. Sav was thrown back and knocked into some random kid behind her. "Sorry," Sav muttered, then looked at what had barreled into her. Lynn. "Hey, Sav! I thought you were being sarcastic when you transferred!" "Yes, well, I was not." "This is Zara and Adriana." Sav peered at the two girls. Zara she could recognize from second grade. She had the same reddish brown hair and complacent expression she always had. Adriana she had never seen before, but she did have some kind of weird metallic black hair, a trend from the next school over. She had probably transferred. "Cool. Now we're four again." Adriana smiled. She looked relatively nice. "Again?" "Yeah, Tanya transferred out. She decided to try boarding school." Sav checked her watch. "It's 8:05. What time does school start?" "In twenty minutes," Adriana answered. "Better than at my old school." "Yeah. So, here's how its organized. Whatever number is in front of the class number is the floor. So if it says 415 then you go to the fourth floor-" "You have a fourth floor?" "Yeah. You had four sections." "Ours had seven classes in each, not fifteen." "Anyway, the classes are numbered 1-15. And there's the gym. So it shouldn't be that hard to find them. Not like at yours. I mean, honestly- could hit have been harder to figure out what all the E's and N's were?" "So, what kind of music do you listen to? Electronica?" Adriana made a face. "I like Alternative. Not the whole dance-pop-whatever-" "Electronica," Sav and Lynn answered in unison. "I can almost hear Carmen saying that along with you. She was obsessive that you called it what it was. And her music sucked, too." "She listened to dance-pop-electronica, too," Lynn informed Sav. Zara still hadn't spoken. Sav looked closer. "Hey, are you listening to an mp3 player?" "Yeah, why not?" "Nothing." "Hey, what did happen if you got caught using your cell phone in class?" "You couldn't even have it on campus; you had to bring it to the office before school. If it fell out of your backpack, then they took it away, and you had to either have a parliamentary debate in front of the whole school with the teachers-" "Debate what?" "The rule, punishments, etc. It was student-voted, so they usually won, but it was so embarrassing. One girl burst into tears in the middle of her speech, another girl meant to say that cameras were educational, but instead that they were obfuscational. One guy was shaking so hard, he actually fell of the stage!" "And they won?" "The girls won; their other team members were better. But the boy who fell of the stage- we couldn't even finish, everyone was laughing so hard." Lynn smiled. "Everyone laughed when someone burst into tears?" "No, only the mean people did. But the one who said obfuscational...Yeah,we were all really laughing at her." "What does that even mean?" "It's not a word, but obfuscation means bewildering. So yeah, it was pretty funny." "No one complained?" Adriana asked incredulously. "Yeah, a lot of parents did, since it was usually the kids with four-hundred-dollar iPhones who got them taken away. But the principal talked about how 'educational' the program was and that they learned to 'debate and handle fear' and such." "So, what music do you listen to?" Zara asked. "The Savvy People." "Seriously? That's the same band Carmen is obsessed with!" The bell rang and they all went to their respective classrooms. Sav spent the remainder of her year there happily- friends, grades, everything. But, you know, Sabrina can never be tricked for long. She is smart and able, and she will find you should you try to run. She found Savannah. She found Lynn She found them all. But hey, that isn't this story.

So, I altered this story slightly. It shouldn't change too much in the future- I'll pull a line or two, but no rewriting scheduled.