They wouldn’t believe him. How could he possibly explain what he knew without telling them how he got the information? And then they’d think he was nuts. Besides, as Madame was constantly telling them, they should never let anyone know about their gifts.
So if Ken couldn’t do anything with his gift, his only option was to get rid of it, to make every effort to silence the voices. And he’d been getting a little better at it. Pleading, arguing, ordering the spirits to go away and leave him alone was beginning to have an effect. He had to be tough with them, get angry — even nasty sometimes. He hated being rude, but what else could he do?
Ken. Hey, Ken, what’s up, man? Are you there? Can you listen?
Ken slumped back in his seat. This was the one voice he could never order to leave him alone.
Yeah, I’m listening.
And as the voice in his head began to talk, Ken’s thoughts went back to how it all began for him.
CHAPTER TWO
SOME PEOPLE HATED THE first day back at school after a vacation. Not Ken Preston. Why would he be unhappy about it or unwilling to return to the place where he ruled?
Of course, he wasn’t the only king at Meadowbrook. There were plenty of other popular guys. But in all modesty, he had to admit that he was way up there, on the upper rung of the middle-school social ladder.
‘Yo, Preston! Hey man, what’s up?’
Ken saluted the freckled, red-haired boy who strode towards him. ‘Hey, Jack. How was California?’
‘Extremely cool,’ Jack Farrell told him. ‘Not much in the way of surf, but lots of action on the beach, if you know what I mean.’ He whistled. ‘I’m telling ya, man, those California girls are a completely different kind of female species.’
Ken laughed. In this particular way, Jack had always been a little more mature than the rest of the gang. ‘Better not let Lucy hear you say that.’
‘I just looked, I didn’t touch,’ Jack assured him. ‘Not like any of them would let me get close enough to do that anyway. Blondes in bikinis are out of my league. What about you? Did you have any adventures with the opposite sex this summer?’
‘Not really.’ They were inside the building now, and Ken lowered his voice. ‘Well, actually, I kissed Amanda Beeson underwater at Sophie Greene’s pool party last month.’
‘Oh, yeah? You like her?’
‘It was a dare,’ Ken explained with a shrug. ‘I barely know her. And I haven’t seen her since.’
‘She’s pretty hot,’ Jack mused.
‘Yeah, I guess. Not really my type, though. I think she’s kind of a snob.’
They rounded the corner to the hall where lockers lined the wall. A whoop went up from three boys gathered at one of the lockers, and Ken and Jack paused to greet them.
‘Guess we’ll be seeing you two at practice this afternoon,’ one of them said.
Ken grinned. ‘Yeah, we thought we might drop by.’ He and Jack were captain and vice-captain of Meadowbrook’s soccer team that year. ‘See ya there.’
They moved on, and Jack stopped at a door. ‘Here we are.’
Ken opened a notebook and looked at the print-out of his class schedule. ‘Not me. I’ve got homeroom in one-one-eight.’
Jack gave a look of exaggerated dismay. ‘You’re kidding! They’re splitting us up?’
Ken shrugged. ‘Guess so. We had a good run though. Two years in the same homeroom. What else have you got on the schedule?’
The boys compared timetables and discovered they had their lunch breaks and English classes together.
‘Excellent,’ Jack proclaimed. ‘I’ll eat your lunch and you’ll write my essays.’
‘Dream on, pal,’ Ken responded. ‘Later.’ He moved on down the hall to his own homeroom.
At least a dozen students were already seated in the classroom when he entered. A pretty blonde girl perked up when she saw him.
‘Ken, hi!’ She indicated the chair next to hers. ‘Nobody’s sitting here.’
Ken couldn’t remember her name, but he gave her a friendly smile anyway. He’d been getting a lot of attention like this from girls lately. ‘Thanks, but I like the back of the room. Less chance of getting called on.’ He joined the four boys who already lined the wall at the far end.
He was greeted with welcoming smiles and the usual calls of ‘Hey, man!’
Ken slapped hands as he moved to the end of the row. He knew them all. None of them were on the soccer team, but Ken had never limited his socializing to the jocks. Funny thing though — when people knew you were an athlete, they thought your only interest was sports.
‘You gonna get that lousy team of ours out of the dumps?’ one boy asked with a grin.
‘Absolutely,’ Ken assured him. ‘We’re going all the way to the finals this year. Farrell and I have big plans!’
The warning bell sounded and a wave of students rushed into the room, followed by a teacher. Then the final bell rang and the teacher spoke.
‘Hello. My name is Mr Kingston, and—’
That was as far as he got before the intercom on the wall emitted a shrill buzz, indicating that the High and Mighty was about to address them.
First came the voice of the secretary. ‘May I have your attention for the morning announcements?’
In keeping with tradition, the students in the class yelled out, ‘No!’ Naturally, this had no effect.
The next voice was booming and authoritative. ‘Good morning, students, this is your principal. I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome you back to Meadowbrook Middle School.’
Since this was the third time Ken had heard Mr Jackson’s first-day-of-school speech, he knew what was coming — the usual exhortations to do well, study hard, behave properly, blah, blah, blah. He tuned out the principal and thought about his own plans for the new school term.
This year, ninth grade, would be his last year at Meadowbrook, and he needed to leave his mark on the middle school. He’d already had two good years here and he wanted this one to be outstanding. Next September he’d be a lowly underclassman at Central High School, so he was determined to enjoy this final year of being on top of the heap.
First of all he’d lead the soccer team to the play-offs, maybe even to the state championship. This would take some real work. He was relying on his popularity with his teammates to keep them enthused and practising harder and longer than they had the year before. If they had a good season, his reputation could secure him a place on Central’s varsity team. Most high school freshmen were stuck playing on Central’s B team, but Ken knew they made exceptions for exceptional players. And if he became a star on Central’s team, a scout might notice him and he could be up for a university scholarship.
But Ken was a realist. He knew there had to be lots of soccer players as good as he was, and he knew he couldn’t count on soccer to provide him with a university education. He had to keep his marks up too. What he’d said to that blonde-haired girl about sitting in the back of a classroom so he wouldn’t be called on wasn’t really true. He’d always done pretty well at school, and he was proud of it. If he did really well this year he could get advanced placement classes at Central, which would give his parents a big thrill.
As for his social life, he had some goals in that area too. Most of his classmates didn’t really go out on ‘dates’ — they just hung out in groups. But lately his friends had started pairing off. Jack and Lucy had been together since last spring. Ken was beginning to think it might be kind of fun to know one girl really well, to talk to her on the phone every night, exchange text messages on their cell phones and meet between classes. Not to mention what they might get up to when they were alone. Ken grinned to himself. Yes, there were definite advantages to having a girlfriend.