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 was really having a mental conversation with me.
Same way as you, I answered.
I saw Ms Ambleton asking him a question and Ashton answering, before it really happened. I was about to ask him about it when I heard her calling his name and asking the same question as the one I heard in his mind. He answered it exactly as he did in his mind a few moments ago. In that instant, I discovered that he could predict the future.
I decided not to say or think anything else for the whole duration of the lesson. When the bell rang, I took my books and stuffed them in the bag. I tossed my bag to my back and stood up to leave, but he was already there.
“Can we talk?” he asked.
“Not now. I’ve got to get to class”, I answered.
Before he said anything else, Mya and Brendan were already by my desk.
“Hi Mya”, he greeted her.
“Ashton”, she answered with a smile.
I remembered that Brendan wasn’t introduced to him so I took the liberty of doing so.
“Brendan, Ashton. Ashton, this is my friend Brendan”, I said with a hand swaying between them.
“Hello”, Brendan said, with his hand extended.
“Hi”, Ashton said, and they shook hands.
Oh wow, his hand is so smooth. I heard Brendan’s thoughts and I knew that Ashton heard it too. He looked at Brendan and raised an eyebrow when it seemed Brendan couldn’t let go of his hand. Brendan noticed that and let go of his hand.
Umm, that was weird. Ashton thought to himself and I couldn’t help but giggle at that thought.
“Share the joke, Lina”, said Mya.
“It’s not a good one. I was just thinking of the show I was watching yesterday before I slept”, I lied swiftly.
“Oh”, she said.
We then started to move out of the class to go to the next one.
I decided to let Ashton know about my friend, Brendan.
Don’t think too much on it, but Brendan is kind of into guys, if you catch my drift.
You mean he’s gay? He asked me when I made a turn heading to the lockers.
You could say that.
Oh, thanks for the heads up. He headed in the opposite direction to where his locker was situated.
“Wow, Lina. He’s really cute!” exclaimed Brendan before he headed to his own locker.
Mya and I headed to our own lockers and she didn’t say anything all the way. I could tell though, that she was smitten with Ashton, just like Brendan.
The lockers area was populated with people getting books from their own lockers and it was pretty much noisy. Above all that noise, I could hear that most of the conversations evolved around Ashton Turner. Apparently, Isabel had noticed Ashton had stopped by my desk and talked to me so she was planning on going to tell him about my being a freak. I saw her eyeing me and I turned away from her. I collected my books and closed the locker. Mya noticed Isabel looking at me and decided to let me in on what she was talking about last night.
“Remember what I was telling you about last night?” she asked me.
“Yeah, what about it?”
“Well, apparently Ashton didn’t fancy her the way she was planning on it. You know that no guy has ever turned Isabel down before, so she took offence in that”, she said that when we walked off to our next class.
“Oh, ok. Is that why she’s looking so glum today?”
“Yes. But if you ask me, I’ll tell you that she’s planning her next move so that she can get to him”, she said.
“That sounds like Isabel, frankly, I wouldn’t really be surprised if she does that.”
“If I knew better, I’d say she’s thinking daggers towards you because Ashton actually talked to you and you smiled at each other”, she said that with a serious face.
“Hey, it’s not like I called him to come talk to me. And it’s not my fault that Ashton turned her down so she’ll just have to deal with it without involving me.”
She didn’t say anything until we arrived at the Science class.
I began on thinking about what Mya said. Isabel always got what she wanted because she’s a very beautiful chit. She has emerald green eyes and silver blond hair. She was a bit pale and had a pretty good bone structure. Most of her friends followed her around because of how much people liked her, for her looks though. I’d been in the same class with her from seventh grade and from then, we’ve never been friends or even close to that.
I took my seat at the back of the class and Mya’s seat was a few seats in front of me. Ashton entered the class with Michael Fords, one of the decent guys in my class. They were just having a normal conversation and I didn’t bother to pick up on what it was about. They took their seats that were closer to mine, Michael was seated between me and Ashton.
Before the teacher got to class, I decided to put on my conspicuous headsets so as not to hear all the humming from different people’s minds.
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.
Ashton started asking questions about my family."So you live with your dad and uncle?" he asked.Even though Jay wasn't technically my uncle, this was the best way to inrtroduce him to people around me. "Yes, I live with both.""May i ask what happened to your mom?" he inquired further.Truthfully, i hated answering those questions concerning family, but I made an exception of giving answers to him."She died while giving birth to me", i paused. "I never got to know her."He kept quiet as he felt the gravity of pain in the information I had offered him."I'm sorry", he said after a moment of silence."It's okay. It was a long time ago and it doesn't as much anymore. I have my dad who tries by all means to fill whatever void is there and I'm grateful for that."I smiled to assure him that I meant what I had just said. He let it go and smiled back at me.I then asked "What about you?"He hesitate