Speak No Evil

CHAPTER TWO

IF AMANDA BEESON WAS forced at gunpoint to say something nice about the gifted class, she’d have to admit that it was rarely boring, unlike geography or algebra. This class was unpredictable. Sure, sometimes Madame would go on and on about how they had to control their gifts, how they shouldn’t reveal the nature of their gifts, blah, blah, blah, but there was always the chance something could happen during the class. Jenna might reveal something truly bizarre that she’d read in someone’s mind. Like the time she told them she’d read the mind of a waiter in a fast-food hamburger place who wanted to pluck a strand of hair from his head and mix it into the ground beef. Or Emily could tell them who would win that season’s American Idol or X-Factor. Something exciting or even dangerous could happen. Charles might decide to rearrange the desks with his telekinetic powers. Someone might tease Martin and he’d respond by kicking a hole in the wall. In a room full of people with extraordinary talents, there was always the possibility of a surprise or two.

Of course, this didn’t mean Amanda liked the class. Her main objection to it was the fact that she didn’t belong there. She’d known this the first time she was sent into the room, and she became more and more convinced of this every day. Nothing that went on in this class really applied to her.

For example, at that very moment, Madame was encouraging them to participate in a discussion that was completely irrelevant to Amanda.

‘Class, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about how you can control your gifts, how you can stop these gifts from emerging and interfering with your own lives. You’ve practised techniques involving concentration, meditation, special breathing rhythms. Some of you have made excellent progress. Martin, you’ve seen changes in your behaviour, haven’t you?’

Amanda glanced without much interest at the wimpy kid she’d never paid much attention to, and it dawned on her that he was becoming less wimpy. He’d grown over the past few months, his face had lost its babyish look, and he hadn’t been whining so much lately. When he spoke, she realized his voice was deeper now, too.

‘Well, yeah. My grandfather nags me a lot, and sometimes I can feel a lot of anger building up inside me. I know I could let it out and really hurt him. But I don’t.’

‘That doesn’t count,’ Ken declared. ‘I mean, he’s your grandfather, for crying out loud. You’re not going to hit your own grandfather.’

‘You don’t know my grandfather,’ Martin retorted. ‘And right this minute, I’m not feeling very kindly towards you.’

Amanda hid a smile as Ken seemed to flinch slightly. Ken was a former athlete, still in great shape, but he knew as they all did that Martin could send him flying out of the window with a single blow.

‘But,’ Martin added, ‘the point is, I can control my gift when my grandfather teases me.’

‘Very good,’ Madame said with approval. ‘There’s another aspect to your gifts that we need to take into consideration. From our discussions, it seems that most of you — maybe all of you — were not born with these gifts. The gifts seem to have emerged as a response to a situation, an experience, or a feeling. Tracey, you understand this, don’t you?’

Tracey nodded. ‘People ignored me, so I felt invisible. And I felt it so strongly, I started to disappear.’

‘Charles, would you like to comment on how feelings brought about your gift?’

Charles shrugged. ‘It’s not a feeling, it’s the situation. I’m in a wheelchair. I can’t walk, so I move stuff with my mind.’

Madame smiled. ‘A lot of people are in wheelchairs, Charles, but they don’t develop telekinetic powers. Do you remember the first time you were aware of your gift?’

‘Yeah, I was in bed, and I wanted this comic book that was on the other side of the room. And I was too lazy to get into my wheelchair, so I made it come to me.’

‘And how did you feel when you realized what you could do?’ Madame asked.

‘Good,’ Charles said promptly.

‘Why?’ Madame asked.

‘Because. . because I hated not being able to do some stuff for myself. And now I could.’

Madame nodded. ‘You see, Charles, feelings are involved. If you’d been content with your situation, you might not have developed the gift.’

Ken broke in. ‘Madame, what’s the point?’

Amanda looked at him gratefully. This was exactly what she was wondering too. Thank goodness for Ken — the one person in the class she could connect with.

Madame raised her eyebrows. ‘Excuse me, Ken?’

‘OK, I get it, we got our gifts because we had strong feelings about something. I felt guilty about my best friend getting killed when we crashed into each other on the football field, so I started hearing his voice from beyond the grave. And then all these other dead people jumped in and started talking to me. But I don’t care how I got the stupid gift, I just want to control it so I don’t have to listen to these — these ghosts, or whatever they are.’

‘But you can’t control your gifts unless you understand them,’ Madame argued. ‘You have to dig deeper into your feelings if you want to manage these gifts. And you can’t all do this in the same way. Not only because each gift is different, but also because each of you is at a unique level in terms of control. Some of you, for example, can summon your gifts at will.’

Some students must have looked confused, because she explained.

‘What I’m saying is that some of you can call on your gifts when you need them. Like Charles.’

Charles beamed. ‘I can make anything move whenever I want it to move. ‘ To illustrate this, he stared at Madame’s handbag, which hung on the back of her chair. The bag began to rise.

‘Charles,’ Madame warned.

The bag went back to its place.

‘Others of you are less capable of bringing your gifts out when you want to. Tracey, you don’t have complete control yet, do you?’

‘But I’m getting better at it,’ Tracey said.

Whatever, Amanda thought. This is such a total waste of time.

‘Amanda thinks this is a waste of time,’ Jenna piped up.

Amanda shot her a dirty look. She knew how to block Jenna from reading her mind, but she’d let her guard down.

‘Jenna, you know you’re not supposed to read your classmates’ minds,’ Madame scolded. ‘But this is another example of my point. Did Amanda’s thought just come to you?’

‘No,’ Jenna replied. ‘She looked like she wasn’t paying much attention, so I was curious to know what she was thinking about.’

‘In other words,’ Madame said, ‘you read her mind intentionally. Which, of course, is wrong, because Amanda’s thoughts are her own and none of your business. But you did provide an example of what I’m talking about. You have control of your gift. You can decide whether or not to read someone’s mind.’

Jenna nodded. ‘Yeah, I can pretty much do it whenever I want. Unless someone knows how to block me. And remembers to do it,’ she added, with a wicked glance at Amanda. Amanda ignored her.

‘I suspect,’ Madame said, ‘that all of you are capable of calling upon your gifts when you want them to appear. But some of you haven’t yet achieved that level of control.’

This is so not interesting for me,’ Amanda thought. She kept the thought in the back of her mind so Jenna couldn’t read it, but Madame was getting very good at reading her students’ expressions.

‘Amanda, do you really think this discussion is a waste of time?’

Amanda now had to admit to herself that there was another decent aspect of the gifted class. You could say what you really thought and not get into trouble.

‘For me, it’s a waste of time,’ she declared honestly. ‘I know how to control my gift. As long as I don’t feel sorry for someone, I won’t take over that person’s body. And I’d never want to do it, so I don’t need to learn how to bring it out.’

Emily gazed at her curiously. ‘Really? You’re never tempted to live someone else’s life for a while?’

‘Like whose?’ Amanda asked.

‘I don’t know. .’ Emily considered this. ‘OK, Lady Gaga. I bet she’s got a pretty fabulous life.’

Amanda sniffed. ‘I’d rather make my own life fabulous.’

Madame’s eyes swept the room and settled on another student. ‘Sarah, do you think this discussion is a waste of time?’

Amanda was actually curious to hear the girl’s response. Of all the classmates, Sarah talked the least about her gift.

The girl with the curly dark hair and the heart-shaped face spoke softly. ‘I think it’s dangerous, Madame.’

‘How do you mean?’ Madame asked.

‘If we have total control of our gifts, if we could use them whenever we wanted to, we could end up doing bad things.’

Madame gazed at her thoughtfully. ‘Can you give us an example?’

Everyone turned to look at Sarah, and there was real curiosity in their expressions. Amanda knew why. Supposedly, Sarah had the most powerful gift of all — she could make people do whatever she wanted them to do. None of them had seen much evidence of this remarkable gift, but they knew she had it.

But Sarah didn’t use herself as an example. ‘Well, take Martin, for example. If he could call on his power whenever he wanted to. .’ Her voice trailed off.

‘Go on, Sarah,’ Madame encouraged her.

With clear reluctance, the girl continued. ‘Maybe. . maybe Martin doesn’t like someone. So he. . he makes something fall on that person’s head and kills him.’

‘I wouldn’t do that,’ Martin said indignantly.

‘Are you sure about that?’ Sarah asked. ‘I mean, what if someone was really, truly getting on your nerves?’

‘You’re not talking about Martin,’ Jenna said suddenly. ‘You’re worried about yourself.’

‘Jenna!’ Madame snapped.

Jenna sank back in her seat. ‘Sorry.’

Tracey looked confused as she turned towards Sarah. ‘Are you afraid Martin is going to drop something on your head?’

‘No,’ Sarah said. She looked at her watch and fidgeted, which struck Amanda as very unusual. Sarah was famous for being the perfect student, who never behaved inappropriately in any classroom.

Madame glanced at the clock on the wall. ‘We only have a few more minutes. For tomorrow’s class, I want you all to think about this: if you had complete control over your gifts, how could you use them in positive ways? How could you help people, maybe even use your gifts to benefit mankind?’ She gave them a moment to jot down the assignment.

‘Now, does anyone have anything to say before the bell rings?’

Emily raised her hand. ‘Do you know how Carter is doing at Harmony House?’

Amanda was mildly curious about that too. Their former classmate had been sent to the institution for troubled teenagers over a week ago.

Madame nodded. ‘I’ve been talking to Doctor Paley regularly. Carter hasn’t spoken, but he’s cooperating. Doctor Paley believes that eventually he’ll be able to make a real connection with him. Oh, and I should tell you, he’s not allowed any visitors yet.’

Jenna snorted. ‘Who’d want to visit him? The guy was spying on us! He was consorting with the enemy. As far as I’m concerned, he can spend the rest of his life at Harmony House in solitary confinement.’

‘Try to keep an open mind about Carter,’ Madame urged her. ‘We don’t know what his real intentions were.’

The bell rang and Madame dismissed them. Amanda took her time gathering up her things, but all the while she kept an eye on Ken. He had already got up and was on his way to the door. The big question was — would he be waiting for her outside the class?

He’d been there yesterday when she emerged, and he’d walked her to her locker. If he did this today, she was going to ask him if he wanted to come home with her for a snack.

He was there! And as soon as she arrived, he began walking by her side.

‘Do you think Carter knew what he was doing when he was reporting on the class to Serena?’ he asked as they strolled down the hall.

Amanda shrugged. ‘Who knows?’

Ken finished the comment for her. ‘And who cares? You know, this class is really starting to annoy me.’

‘No kidding,’ Amanda said with feeling. ‘I mean, what are we really getting out of it?’

Ken nodded. ‘I’m no better at stopping the voices than I was before. And I sure don’t want to invite any more dead people to talk to me.’

‘And I don’t want to be Lady Gaga,’ Amanda declared. ‘Personally, I think she looks kind of sleazy.’

‘And what Madame said about doing something good with our gifts — OK, maybe for some of the others that could work. But the only good thing that ever came out of my gift was helping that kid find the lottery ticket his father had hidden before he died. And that was just a fluke — it’s not going to happen again.’

‘We don’t belong in that class, Ken,’ Amanda said.

‘I know,’ Ken said. ‘But how are we going to get out of it?’

This was the perfect opportunity to invite him over to her place to discuss the matter. But they were approaching her locker now, and Amanda’s heart sank when she saw Nina standing there, obviously waiting for her.

It was a funny thing about Nina. She’d been part of Amanda’s clique since forever, but she wasn’t exactly a friend. What was that word she’d heard on Gossip Girl? Frenemy. That’s what Nina was. They hung out together, but Amanda didn’t trust her.

Still, she forced a thin smile to greet the girl. ‘Hi, what’s up?’

‘My mom’s picking me up to go to the mall. Want to come?’

Amanda groaned inwardly. If she said ‘yes’, she couldn’t invite Ken over. If she said ‘no’, she’d have to give Nina an excuse, that she already had plans — which meant she couldn’t invite Ken over.

‘Yeah, OK,’ she said without much enthusiasm. She opened her locker.

‘How ya doing, Ken?’ Nina asked.

‘OK,’ Ken said.

‘I was just thinking about you,’ Nina went on.

‘Yeah? Why?’

Nina shook her head sadly. ‘Meadowbrook’s soccer team is so pitiful this season. They’d be doing so much better if you were still playing.’

Ken gave her a modest smile. ‘I don’t know about that. I wish I could play, but I can’t get the medical clearance. Because of my ankle.’

‘Ken was in a bad accident in September,’ Amanda told Nina.

‘I know, I remember,’ Nina said, glancing at her briefly. Then she turned her full attention back to Ken. ‘I was so worried about you.’

Ken seemed surprised. ‘Yeah?’

Amanda was more than surprised. Nina had never said one word about Ken’s accident. She eyed Nina suspiciously. Was she flirting? And what was that flush spreading across Ken’s face? Was he enjoying this? She slammed her locker door shut.

‘I’m ready,’ she said shortly. ‘Let’s go. See ya, Ken.’

‘Bye, Ken,’ Nina said. She linked her arm through Amanda’s arm. Amanda turned her head to give Ken a private, parting smile, but he’d already turned in the opposite direction. What was he thinking after that little encounter? she wondered.

She could certainly see where Jenna’s gift could come in handy. .