Brendan seemed to be having an impatient aura around him. He really wanted to talk about the scene that happened on the previous day after we left school. I didn’t want to talk about it at all because I knew that I’d end up saying something I didn’t want to say. But for goodness’ sake I decided to let him start the issue, we might as well get it over and done with.
I took off from his place but not in a very fast pace. I allowed him to take a breather.
“So, how did you take it?” he started off by asking.
“Take what?”
“Oh come on, Lina. You know what I’m talking about”, he said rolling his eyes.
“I didn’t take it at all. It’s not my place to take anything. For crying out loud, I’m not even friends with this guy so you really have to stop taking it that way.”
“Lina, I’m telling you. This guy is into you from just seeing you one time. I wouldn’t be surprised if he asks you out this week”, he said it as a matter of fact.
“I don’t know about that so I won’t wait for it to happen. If it happens, then so be it.”
“So you don’t feel any hatred towards Isabel for trying her luck?” he asked.
“No, not at all. Like you said, she was trying her luck.”
I drove right into the school parking lot. I parked next to a black Mercedes Guardian with darkly tinted windows.
Although mine was a white Porsche and ostentatious, Brendan marvelled the car next to mine and I did too. I always felt embarrassed whenever I parked my car at school and looked around the parking lot. All the cars there seemed to be in the average scale when compared to mine, that’s what made me feel embarrassed. I once told my dad about getting a car that would make me blend in with the rest of the student body but he said this one was ok and fast too. He knew I love driving fast but I’ve learnt to drive in a slower pace so as not to draw attention to myself.
But this one, next to mine, was more than ostentatious. I had never seen it in reality, other than in the catalogues. I was wide-eyed at its appearance, although my eyes were shadowed by the shades I had put on. Brendan and I weren’t the only ones marvelling at it. There was a group of guys that was standing a few feet away from it. I overheard them talking about the model of it but I didn’t pay any attention to them.
I got out of the car and took my bag with. As soon as Brendan had his act together, he followed suit and we started walking off to the main block of the school. We found Mya by the entrance waiting for us.
“Wow”, Brendan finally said, cutting off the awkward silence as we met Mya.
“I know, right”, I said with a sigh.
When we got to Mya, we passed off the morning greetings and I could see that she was bursting with whatever she wanted to say. I didn’t comment on it because I could read it from her mind that it was about Ashton.
“Mya, did you see that car by the parking lot?” Brendan asked.
“If you mean the Guardian, then yes”, she said with glee and continued, “And you won’t believe who’s driving it.”
Her mind was screaming, Ashton Turner!
I said, “Let me guess, Ashton Turner?”
“Lina, you’re psychic. Yes it is him”, she said with a grin.
“Wow”, Brendan repeated. “This guy must be really loaded, or should I say his parents are.”
“No kidding, right”, Mya said.
I didn’t say anything more on the issue. I was thinking on the parents issue that Brendan had mentioned. I didn’t know what to conclude on it. I decided that I’d satisfy my curiosity about whether he’s bionic or not first. I’d then think about the issue after that.
We stormed off to English class before the bell rang. We got settled into our seats in class before the teacher got there. I always had the back seat in all classes because I loved hiding myself. Even though I hid myself, the teachers noticed me and sometimes called on me to answer questions. There were a few of my classmates there but some were still arriving to class. I saw Ashton after I had settled into my seat. He was seated three desks away from me but those desks were still unoccupied. I spied him through my shades before I removed them. I then focused on removing my books from the bag and my eyes looked down since they were now uncovered.
He came over to my desk and leaned on it. I heard an exclamation from Brendan’s mind, Mya’s mind was just silent.
“Hi”, he said. “Angelina, right?”
“It’s Lina.” I said without looking at him. I wondered where he got my full name from.
“Oh, right. Lina. How’re you today?” he asked with a smile in his voice.
“I’m good thanks and yourself?”
“I’m great. So, I couldn’t help but notice this in one day, but why are you always facing down?” he asked.
I couldn’t help but groan on the inside at that question. How could he notice that in one day? So I thought it better to prove him wrong by looking at him.
“Am I?” I asked him while looking straight into his eyes.
He didn’t answer instantly but he kept looking at me. I couldn’t help looking at him too. In that moment I saw his eyes change colour, from onyx to a rich brighter chocolate brown. I could easily see that he was mimicking my own eye colour. I heard his train of thoughts, Wow, her eyes. They are hazel brown but with a light shine coming from them.
I managed to look away from his eyes because I could feel mine changing to a shining blue, due to the emotions I was feeling. What was it with this guy that made me feel this way? I asked myself.
“Yeah, you are. But you shouldn’t because you look like you’re scared of something.” He answered.
“Now, what could I be scared of around here? I’m not scared of anything and stop assuming something you don’t know about.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you angry”, he said in a low soothing tone.
“You didn’t make me angry. I was just stating it as it is.”
“Great. Anyway, I just came by to say hi. We’ll talk some other time”, he said.
“Sure.” I said that and looked up. He was smiling and I smiled back.
He then walked off to his seat as the class was almost full. Ms Ambleton, the teacher, walked in to start the day’s lesson. I looked straight into my books the whole lesson because I didn’t want to look up and meet questioning eyes from either Brendan or Mya. I took the detector from my bag to check if it was detecting something since Ashton was just three desks away from me.
The moment I took it out of the bag, I saw the flashing light that showed that there was a bionic superhuman around that region, excluding me. I knew already that my curiosity was proved correct, that Ashton really was bionic. I didn’t know what his superpowers were just yet, but I knew that he had them. So it took me off guard when I heard a thought that said, She now knows my secret and I wonder how she got to know about it.
It took me a few seconds to notice that the thought came from Ashton. So one of his powers was to read minds, just like me. I noted that he didn’t know that I could read minds so I took him by surprise when I threw back a thought at him.It didn’t take me long to figure it out though, I thought.Lina? He asked.Yeah, who else could it be? I asked.Wow, so you can read minds huh? He tsk-ed in his mind.Just like you, I answered.But how? He asked, still surprised.If it weren’t for the lesson and the teacher in front of the class having a good view on all of us, Ashton would have turned around to look me in the eye and see if he wa
School ended as usual, around three o’clock in the afternoon. I walked off to the parking lot with Mya and Brendan. We were still discussing about the lesson we had in Biology class today. When we got to the parking lot, Mya said goodbye and headed to her own vehicle. Brendan and I headed to my car for departing the school premises.I dropped him off at his place and I headed home. I parked my car outside the garage because I felt like going out for a drive later on. I headed upstairs to my room and put my bag on the bed. I opened it and took out the detector and the manual that my dad had lent to me for the day. I set off to my dad’s lab and I found him working on his gadgets, although he wasn’t alone.I set the detector on his desk and sat down on one of the chairs that the lab offered. I waited for him to finish off what he was doing before I talked to him.“Hey dad”, I called after he
I told Jay everything about Ashton that I knew, including the fact that he could read minds too. I also told him about the multi-million rands car that he was driving, although I don’t know why that was relevant. I told him about how his eyes changed colour mimicking mine. I told him all the minor details I knew about him.With all that I told them, there wasn’t any harmful information that made him or my dad fear for the worst. I still couldn’t get my head around the reason why Ashton’s picture was on the missing children’s website. I decided to toss it aside for some day that might come up with a helpful solution to the puzzle in my head.“Hey dad, I’m going out for some air. I’ll be back soon”, I said that heading to the elevator.“Ok, but be back in time for dinner. And please be careful”, he added with a smile on his face.“A
“So, where are you from?” I asked him as soon as I looked away from him.“I’m from Cape Town, I think”, he said in a tone that implied that there was a lot more from the answer he gave me. “But that’s a story for another day because it’s a long one.”I was about to answer him when Jack came around and said, “Kid, we have to move or else your dad will soon call you to find out where we are.”“Yeah sure, let’s go.” I turned to Ashton and smiled apologetically that our conversation was cut short. He nodded in understanding and flashed a brilliant smile at me. I shuddered and looked away, dazzled. He saw that and he laughed in his mind.“I’ll see you tomorrow at school, then”, he said that and then to Jack, “I’ll see you some other time, champ.”“Yeah, you can cou
School was dragging for the rest of the week as I was still planning on going to the mall with Jack during the weekend. I invited Mya and Brendan to come with me but they said that they already had plans. I wanted them to come so that they would meet Jack so I didn’t tell them about him. When the time came, they would get to know him.On that Friday, during lunch time, Ashton called me, mentally. I didn’t look up but he knew that I heard him.Lina, he called.Yeah? I answered.There’s something I want to ask you, but I’d rather do it verbally, he said.What is it?Can’t say. Meet me by the parking lot in two minutes, in my car, he ended.
That night, I watched movies on my laptop until the wee hours of the morning. I told Jack about the addition to our outing to the mall. He was pretty much excited that Ashton was joining us. I told my dad and Jay about my plans for the weekend and who I was going to be with. They didn’t say much about it, I knew that they would be working all day in the lab and I’d be out of their hair.I slept for a few hours and woke up midmorning. I tidied up my room and then went downstairs to help myself to some breakfast. I wanted something to make me feel energetic since I was to practise earlier that day, before going out. I found my dad in the kitchen.“You slept late last night”, he commented.“Umm, yeah. I was just watching some movies and I got too carried away with them. So I slept around two in the morning.”“Honey, you know that you need enough rest or else you&
I drove off in the direction of the Mall, with Jack. It wasn’t a very long drive but I wasn’t in a rush so I drove under the speed limit. We talked about my school with Jack, I was telling him about how it was. I described everything clearly for him so that he could try to picture it. He asked about my friends and I told him about Mya and Brendan. “Kid, don’t tell me that you only have two friends at school”, he said with a disapproving tone. “I do have two friends only. Some students tolerate me but some really look at me like I’m some kind of disturbing bug, although I’ve never talked to them. That’s one of the reasons why I always wear hoodies and keep my head down.” He considered that and took a moment going over what I had just said. I didn’t know what he was thinking about, it was annoying that I couldn’t read his mind. For all I knew, I don’t think he had a mind since he was just a computer. He was way better than a normal computer because he could rea
We watched the movie while playing around with the snacks that we had bought, and also Jack making us laugh about some of the scenes in the movie he made to be pretty funny. It was a great movie and we watched it till the very end of it. I enjoyed every moment of it, even Ashton seemed to have enjoyed it too. I had no doubt that Jack had a great time as well.We went out of the cinema when the movie had reached its end. We were quiet for a while and we looked for a quiet restaurant that we would sit in. We found one around the corner, almost on your way out in the direction of the parking lots.All the way from the cinema to that restaurant, I was feeling uneasy. I felt like we were being followed but I couldn’t be sure by who. I kept on looking behind my back to see who was following us but I just saw a lot of people walking about their business, I didn’t see anyone who seemed out of place there. When we got to the restaurant, I felt better and relaxed.