The next student to enter was a young-looking girl with a glazed expression. The teacher greeted her as "Emily," and she took the seat next to Amanda. Then in came a boy whom Amanda had noticed before because he was the only student at Meadowbrook in a wheelchair. He was followed by yet another boy, and this time Amanda drew in her breath sharply.
She recognized him immediately even though she hadn't seen him in ages-Martin Cooper, who used to live across the street. The boy whose body she'd briefly occupied so long ago. He must be in the sixth grade now… but he still looked exactly the way he'd looked back when he was the most picked-on boy in the neighborhood.
Maybe Tracey got picked on a lot and that was a reason to be in this class. On the other hand, no one would ever pick on Jenna-not if they wanted to live. And who would pick on Ken Preston?
The bell rang, and Amanda counted eight students in the class. The average class at Meadowbrook had between 20 and 30 students. This was getting more and more mysterious.
Madame rose from her chair and came around to the front of the desk. She was a petite, dark-haired woman with bright, dark eyes and a friendly smile. "Charles, would you like to begin your report?"
"No," replied the boy in the wheelchair.
Amanda was slightly taken aback. No one ever wanted to give reports, but no one ever actually said no. You made excuses-you claimed you'd left your notes at home, you pretended to have laryngitis- but you didn't just say no.
Madame didn't seem surprised, just disappointed. "This is your day to report, Charles."
"I'm not ready," Charles said flatly.
"The assignment was given more than a week ago-you've had plenty of time to prepare."
"I've been busy."
Jenna spoke suddenly. "Liar."
Charles turned his head. "What did you say?"
"You're lying," Jenna said. "You haven't been busy. You just don't want to give your report."
"How would you know?" Charles snapped. Laughter swept across the classroom and Charles reddened.
Amanda didn't get it, and she figured this had to be some sort of inside joke. She could see that Madame didn't appreciate it.
"That was an inappropriate remark, Jenna. You have to respect the privacy of Charles's thoughts."
Jenna shrugged. "It just slipped out." Madame looked at her pointedly. "We've talked about this before, Jenna. You have to learn to control your gift. You all do. Now, Charles, you do need to give us a report today. If you haven't prepared anything, you still have to respond to the assignment. You'll just need to speak off the cuff."
Charles's lips were set in a tight line, and he stared at his desk. Amanda wondered why Madame didn't do what any other teacher would have done in this kind of situation-send him to the principal's office, give him a zero for the assignment, that sort of thing. This teacher didn't even seem upset.
She continued to speak calmly. "Would someone like to remind Charles of this week's assignment?"
The spacy-looking girl spoke. "Give an example of how you misused your gift during the past month. Like, when I knew it was going to rain on Saturday, so I told Heather not to have a picnic, and-"
Madame cut her off. "That's enough, Emily. This is Charles's turn. Charles?"
Amanda watched him with some alarm. The boy in the wheelchair was getting awfully pale, like he was about to be sick or something. She was glad that she wasn't sitting next to him. Poor Ken… Was he about to get puked on?
Ken spoke to him. "Look, man, you've gotta confront your problem, y'know?"
"Not 'problem,' Ken," Madame corrected him. "We use the word gift."
Charles glared at Ken. "What do you know about my life? You're a jock!"
"Not anymore," Ken said.
"Well, that's your choice. You're not stuck in a wheelchair!"
So that's it, Amanda thought. She'd seen something like this on TV. This was some sort of group therapy for kids with personal problems, hang-ups. Emotional stuff. No wonder people were so secretive about it. You wouldn't want your classmates to know you were some kind of basket case.
It all made sense to her now, except for one thing. Why did the teacher refer to their problems as "gifts"?
Ken continued. "Hey, all I'm saying is that you shouldn't put off talking about your prob-your gift. I mean, the rest of us gave our reports-why can't you?'
Now Charles's eyes were blazing. "Because I don't feel like it, okay?" His voice was rising. "And you're really annoying me, you know? Just because I'm in a wheelchair doesn't mean you can push me around! So mind your own stupid business, you- you-" He was almost shrieking now, which was creepy, but what was even creepier was the way little Martin suddenly dropped to the floor and crawled under his desk… just before several books came flying off the bookshelf.
Everyone ducked as the books soared by. Amanda was so startled that she didn't move fast enough, and a book clipped her ear. "Ow!"
"Sarah, make him stop!" someone yelled. But how can Sarah do anything about it? Amanda wondered. She was sitting on the other side of the room. In any case, Madame was able to put an end to the chaos.
"Charles!" the teacher yelled sharply. "Stop it right now! Control yourself!"
The flight of the books continued, but they were moving more slowly and then began dropping to the floor.
Madame now wore a very stern expression. "That was completely unnecessary, Charles. I'm going to give you five demerits." The small potted plant on her desk began to rise.
"Charles!" she said in a warning tone. The plant came back down.
Amanda, in a state of shock, was still clutching her ear. Madame noticed this. "Tracey, are you all right?"
Amanda took away her hand and looked at it. There was no blood. "I-uh-yes."
The teacher went behind her desk, opened a notebook, and began jotting down something. Amanda turned to Emily. "What was all that about?"
Emily's vacant eyes focused slightly. "Oh, come on, Tracey. You don't have to be able to see into the future to know what Charles does when he gets angry."
"Madame?"
"Yes, Jenna?"
"Martin has to go to the bathroom." There were a couple of snickers, and Martin cowered in his seat.
Madame looked pained. "Jenna, Martin is fully capable of asking to be excused himself."
Jenna's innocent expression didn't mask a nasty twinkle in her eyes. "But you know how shy he is, Madame. And I swear, he's just about to wet his pants."
"Am not!" Martin squeaked, but he looked very nervous.
"Martin, you're excused," Madame said.
As Martin scurried out the door, Amanda turned to Emily again. "But how did Jenna know…"
"Jenna, I don't want to have to say this again," Madame declared. "You're behaving very badly. Just because you have the ability to read other people's minds doesn't mean you have the right to do this. Not to mention the fact that you know what Martin does when he feels picked on."
Jenna slumped back in her seat. "Yeah, okay."
Madame shook her head wearily. "Charles has already created a mess in the room; we certainly don't need for Martin to hurt anyone. Now, class, for the rest of the period we're going to work on breathing exercises."
There was a loud groan from the students- except Sarah, of course. Amanda wondered if she ever complained about anything.
Madame frowned.
"These exercises are essential for establishing control. Now, let's go over the five basic steps." She turned and began writing on the blackboard. "Step one: Don't breathe through your nose. Concentrate on expanding your lungs…"