Playful
I was kind of nervous venturing out into the world again. On my way out of the dorm building I had to stop myself from making doors open by themselves. A few times I caused an awkward scene where I would reach for the door handle and instead repel the door away from my hand and wide open. The reactions I got ranged from confusion to disbelief, but in most cases I just pretended that nothing odd had happened.
On my way to my first class, I stopped by the commons to get myself an orange juice. I was halfway through the line when I realized I didn't have my ID on me. No cash either. For just a second I thought about walking out with it, but it's not my style to steal. It never has been. I was thirsty, but I grudgingly put the OJ back in the bin and began to walk out into the commons.
I wasn't ready for what was about to happen. As I walked toward the door of the cafeteria, I noticed an unopened orange juice sitting next to a boy working on his laptop and thought, again, about how thirsty I was. I didn't mean for it to happen. His orange juice jumped off the table and hovered in front of me, stopping me in my tracks. He looked at me with a horrified expression. I grabbed the bottle, not knowing what else to do. I couldn't let it just float there.
"What--how the hell did you just do that?" When he looked at my face, his horror turned to a partial smile. It was a reaction I didn't expect, so I responded out of character.
"I forgot my card. Do me a favor--meet me here tomorrow and I'll replace it for you. Is that cool?" He laughed, shaking his head.
"No way. No deal unless you tell me how you did that. I didn't even notice you approach the table."
"I'm a master thief," I lied. "You meet me here tomorrow and I'll give you a few pointers." Big grin from him now. I must have been charming him. I barely recognized it. I've never considered myself charming in my life. "8:30. Deal?"
"Ok," he nodded. "It's a deal. I'm Alex, by the way." Not gorgeous, but not bad looking either. Maybe this power was going to be a little more fun than I thought. For the first time since the school year started, I actually initiated a conversation--completely by accident.
"Amy," I said. "Thanks for the orange juice, Alex." He nodded, still smiling. He did have a nice smile. I waved as I continued walking.
"You too. See you tomorrow," I heard as I went through the double doors. Totally out of my character. Maybe accepting my psychic abilities made me a little more comfortable with myself. Maybe I was just reacting instinctually to cover it up. I had no idea. All I knew is that I was meeting a guy named Alex for breakfast tomorrow morning.
At my first class I sat all the way in the back. If anything weird happened, I wanted to be well out of the way of most of the eyes. Luckily I was in one of those gigantic lecture halls, and my professor was kind of a laid back type who you could tell was always a little bit drunk when he came to class. Or stoned. I couldn't tell the difference--I didn't really have any experience with either.
I did usually sit in the front, so taking a chair in the back drew a little unwanted attention to me. A girl with red-streaked hair sat right next to me despite the fact that there were plenty of seats.
"Hungover?" She asked candidly. I looked at her, a little insulted. "No?" She laughed. "Sorry, don't mind me--I am. I guess it's just funny to see you back here when you're always right up front, hanging off of Marshall's every word." The class was intro to anthropology, something I really did find interesting. I think it satisfied a core requirement, which, of course, brought a lot of slackers like the girl next to me.
"Hanging off his every word?" I asked her.
"Sure. You're like the only one that sits that close in this class. Can you smell the pot on him when you sit there?" So he was a little stoned. I was thinking about how I probably needed to get out of my dorm room a little bit more. "I'm sorry," the girl said. "I don't mean to bug you--just making conversation." I turned to her and smiled.
"Not at all, not at all," I said. "I kind of have a wandering mind--that's why I usually sit so close." I thought about the inside pun that just slipped out...what an interesting way to put my condition: wandering mind. "No, I'm really back here because I've been having an interesting day--so I decided to switch it up a little." The girl laughed.
"Oh, every day at Adelford is interesting," she said sarcastically. "So you never answered me about the pot."
"Huh?" Oh yeah--on the professor. "Well, to tell you the truth, I really wouldn't know it that well." She sighed.
"Straightedge? That's cool." She's got the wrong impression, though. I'm not against it per se, but I've never been one to go out and party. Maybe, I decided, this whole day should be dedicated to new experiences. After all, the orange juice incident with Alex seemed to work out well.
"Not really straightedge. I don't like to associate with people who make it their thing to be against something they know nothing about." Big smile from the girl. I'm two for two this morning! "And honestly--I'm kind of curious about it, I've just never had any friends who smoked." The girl chuckled to herself.
"Want one?" I laughed.
"Sure. I'm Amy."
"Valerie. So you're going to let me corrupt you?" I nod.
"It's my second semester of college--I ought to try something new." Valerie laughed.
"That's the spirit. What's the rest of your day looking like?"
"Two more classes after this one, but I'm done at 1pm. How about you?"
"2:30," Valerie said. "I'll meet you at your room?"
"That's cool," I said, "But I'm not sure about my roommate, so--"
"Oh, Amy, Amy, Amy...we don't smoke in the dorms." Good. She looks like a troublemaker, but at least she's a smart, friendly one.
"Oh, sorry. Yeah, ok, meet me at my room after 2:30. Davidson 312."
"No shit! I'm in Davidson 414. We're practically neighbors." Professor Marshall walked in, carrying his coffee mug. He was partially dissheveled as always. "There's the stoner. Watch him when he talks. His eyes are all squinty," Val whispered.
We sat through most of the class without a fuss. A couple times, when I knew she wasn't looking, I'd let my hand off my pencil just a little bit and let my notes write themselves. The rest of te time, I found I could put my hand on the pencil and still control it by thinking out the words. Unbeknownst to Val or the rest of the class, my hand was limp while the pencil dragged it around the page. A bit later I got a little overzealous.
"Jesus, you write fast," Val whispered. "You're gonna tie your fingers in a knot like that." I blushed a little and slowed down. I didn't realize it at first, but I was almost trying to keep up with the lecture word for word. Enough of that. Don't wanna freak out my new acquaintance. Just as I looked up, Professor Marshall knocked his coffee mug off the flat part of the podium.
I didn't mean to--I couldn't help it--but I grabbed it just before it hit the floor. It was a smooth motion. The liquid all landed in the mug and the mug landed upright. It was on the floor now, unspilled and unbroken.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Marshall laughed, "I give you the world's luckiest accident." The class broke out into laughter and awed expression. I sighed, knowing that I executed the perfect use of my telekinetic ability--making it look like it never happened at all. It was kind of a relief.
"Did you see that?" Val asked. "That was some crazy shit!" I laughed, doing my best not to sound nervous.
"Never in my life..." I said weakly.
As the day wore on, I kept a constant stream of focus going. As long as my mind had a task to do, moving the pencil I was holding, opening doors just a split second sooner than I touched them--the sorts of things that wouldn't draw attention to me--I seemed to be okay. Blocking it out completely seemed to bring on more powerful actions: Alex's orange juice and Professor Marshall's coffee mug. Like I said before, it was like a faucet turned on. The energy had to go somewhere.
By the end of my third class, I kind of wondered if I should smoke with Valerie. After all, I hadn't smoked weed ever in my life, and I was worried about how it would effect my capacity to control my abilities. Maybe if I just smoked a little it wouldn't be that bad. Who knows? Maybe it would shut the power down. After handling the day, I was kind of interested to see what would happen.
When I got home, no sign of Abby. Probably hanging out with her boyfriend. I figured I'd have time to mentally prepare myself for the next hour or so. I sorted my laundry while I munched on potato chips. I got interested to see how much I could focus on at once, so I started with the snack-sized chip bag. I watched it rip open, the bag crinkling. A single chip floated out and hovered toward my mouth, sailing in effortlessly. I laughed a little at the sight of seeing it (this power still being novel to me) and had another one come out of the bag a few seconds behind it.
So while this was going on, I had my laundry in the back of my head. My closet door swung open and the hamper hovered out. I thought about how I would sort my clothes, and it started happening. Whites, darks, and colors, all separating into piles and righting themselves from the bunched up balls I threw into the hamper.
I wanted to challenge myself, though. So far, this was easy. I had the chip "assembly line" keep going while my clothes sorted, and I started on ANOTHER task. I had Abby's dust buster come out of her closet and start vacuuming our area rug.
Having enough of the chips, the bag rolled up and the last chip drifted into my mouth. I started to think that it was a good thing I had to keep this power a secret, otherwise I'd become absolutely lazy.
I made a mistake when I thought about a couple dirty glasses I had stacked next to my computer. When I saw them float into the air, I realized that they were headed toward the bathroom sink at the end of the hall. I had to consciously cancel the command and have themselves set back on my desk. I found out that this was good practice--anytime I thought of a task that necessitated leaving the room, I had to shut the thought off and move to something else.
I was starting to sort through actions based on what kind of trouble they would cause if someone else saw them happening, but as I did more things at once, something else was happening to me. It was like my power was hungry for more work to do. I looked at Abby's unmade bed and the sheets floated up and squared themselves with her blankets. I hovered above my bed, and gasped a little as it happened. I was floating as my bed fixed itself. I sailed back down to the bed when it was done. I laughed, letting my mind take more actions across the room. My CD collection rearranged itself in alphabetical order. Books stacked themselves by size. Everything started sailing around, finding the perfect spot in the room.
I instinctively reacted to the knock on the door. Everything floated into place as I looked at the door, making the lock pop open by itself. A book hovered into my hands to make it look like I had been reading. Perfect.
"It's open," I said. Valerie opened the door and walked in.
"Damn, you're quick," She said. She must have heard the door unlock, so she probably thought I got out of bed to unlock it. I still wasn't that good about all the little actions I took liberties with. "So, you ready?" I nodded.
"Sure thing, just let me get my shoes on." They slid out from under my bed. Thank god Val was looking elsewhere at all the things on my walls. I smirked a little and let them untie themselves as I slipped my feet in. They quickly tied themselves again and finished just as Val looked back at me. She looked at my shoes suspiciously.
"What's up?" I asked, totally cool.
"Um...nothing. Nice sneakers."
"Thanks," I said, grabbing my keys and heading for the door. Now it was time to see how well my new power mixed with a different kind of new experience...