I sat in History class trying to pay attention to my teacher, but it was just so hard when I had the thoughts of my fellow students flowing into my head.


Will I pass this test? Will I even pass this semester?


So PUMPED for the game tonight!


Mr. Clay is so hot!


OK, I just have to say eww to that last one. But I digress. This is exactly why it is so hard for me to concentrate.


I've been able to read other people's thoughts since last year when I was in a terrible car accident. An accident I shouldn’t have even survived...
"Gena? Will you like to answer my question now?"


"Huh," I said as I looked up at Mr. Clay. He was staring right at me and some of the other students were giggling. "I'm sorry Mr. Clay. I must have zoned out"


He sighed and turned back the white board. "Please try to pay attention, Miss Paulhus. This will be on the test tomorrow". I sunk down in my chair hoping I could just get away from it all. I hated this class. I hated this school and these people but most of all I hated my Life. No seventeen year old girl should have to deal with what I deal with. I spend half my time hearing thoughts I don’t want to hear and the other half trying to block it all out. I never asked for all this.

My life was perfectly normal six months ago. Now it’s all gone down and I'm slowly losing my mind.
The lunch bell rang and everybody bumped into each other trying to get to the cafeteria.
I was walking down the hall with my head down and my hood up trying AGAIN to keep the thoughts out when an arm looped through mine. I looked up to see the brown eyes of my best friend Val looking at me. She smiled and pulled me down the hall. "Come on slow poke! Its pizza day and if you hurry we might actually get some this time."


I sighed, "I don't want to go in there, Val. Too many people all together give me a terrible headache."
She came to a stop and turned to look at me.

"Still don’t have it all figured out yet? You can't control it?"


I looked up at her (yes looked UP. I'm only 4'11) "You know I can't. I keep trying but there are just too many. I mean if it’s just a couple people then yes, I can block them out. But if it’s more than that they all come flooding in and I get a headache." Val is the only one who knows about my "gift" as she calls it. We've been friends since we were three and it’s hard to keep anything from her. Especially when I thought she was talking out loud in the beginning. I scared her at first. I still scare myself. But Val hasn’t left me yet, and I am very grateful for that. She's all I got left.


She started pulling me down the hall again, "Ok, so we will eat in your car. You wait for me and I'll bring us some, alright?" I nodded and we parted ways. She went upstairs toward the cafeteria and I went straight, towards the front doors and out to the student parking lot. I was headed towards my tan Toyota Corolla when I ran into somebody.


I lost my balance and nearly fell back but a pair of strong arms caught me and set me back on my feet. I looked up to thank whoever it was and stopped short when I saw the most gorgeous boy I have ever seen. He had dark black hair that fell down into his eyes and brushed over his ears. And his eyes. They were the darkest color of green that I had ever seen in somebody's eyes. Plus they were shining with tiny flecks of gold.


And he was holding me kinda close.


I took a step back and tried to talk but no words came out. He half-smiled at me and let his arms drop to his sides. "You ok?" he asked. "What’s a tiny thing like you doing not watching where she’s going?"
At the words "tiny thing" I came out of my trance and felt anger boil up inside of me.


"None of your business!" I yelled back. I hate people pointing out that I'm short. "And I don’t have to watch where I'm going. YOU should have seen ME. I'm not that hard to see."


Not even fazed by my yelling, he put his hands in his jacket pockets and his smile grew. "Well, aren’t we a feisty one?"


Feisty? He's treating me like a child, I thought, but there is no way he is more than a year older than me. I
glared at him and stood my ground. "I'm not a child thank you very much so stop talking to me like that. Yes, I'm short but I'm seventeen and a senior. So leave me alone!"


Why was I getting so worked up over him? I didn’t even know the guy.
It’s about that time that I noticed I couldn’t hear him. I couldn't hear his thoughts.


I gasped and took several steps back just staring at him. He laughed and before I knew it he was leaning down and whispering in my ear, "Naughty naughty trying to get in my head."
Then he was gone. I looked around trying to find him but I couldn't see him anywhere.
What was THAT all about? And who was he?
*****
The next day was a Saturday and Val and I were on our way to the mall. Well, it was really only some outlet stores kinda mushed together but it was the most popular place in our tiny town.
Val was driving my car and I was staring out the window thinking about that guy outside my school, for the umpteenth time. I hadn't even told Val about him. Its not that I wanted to keep him a secret or anything, I just didn't know how to explain it. I hadn't met anyone in the last six months I couldn't hear and he knew what I could do. There was something strange about him but if I were lucky I wouldn’t run into him again.

"Earth to Gena! Hello Gena! Come in"


I looked over at Val and saw that we were at the outlet mall. "What?" I asked.
She rolled her eyes and got out of the car. I followed.


"Why do you always zone like that? What’s in that head of yours? Besides other people's deepest darkest secrets?" I shoved her but at least it made me smile. I loved my Valary. She was just like a sister to me when I had lost my real sister in the accident. Actually, that's when I lost everybody.
I looped my arm through hers and we started off to the mall.


"Good thing about shopping? It distracts me. I almost never get headaches here." I sighed dramatically, "its heaven." She laughed and started to babble about one of her favorite stores. I didn't really pay that much attention. It was still hard for me to be myself like I was before the accident, but lets face it...I was completely different.


My hair, which I had always worn long, had been so burnt I had to cut it shoulder length. I had a long scar running from my right eye to my neck. And now that I could hear people's thoughts, I just wanted to disappear. I had turned in my usually bright colored blouses, cute skirts and sandals for dark t-shirts, too-big jeans and tennis shoes. Also I always had on my big gray hoodie. It had once been my brother's.
Lost in my own thoughts, I had forgotten to block out other people. We had entered the first store and a river of thoughts flew into my mind:


Is this my color?


I wonder what Conner is doing today.


Justin is just so cute!


Oh, the freak is here.


Its so sad what happened to her.


So glad I'm not her.


I tried to block them all out and enjoy my shopping trip with Val, but now I was getting images of the news story about my accident. I gritted my teeth and tried even harder. Val rubbed my arm trying to sooth me but I barely felt it. The thoughts were getting louder and louder and all about me. All the people here were staring at me.


Wasn't six months enough? Couldn't they just leave me alone?


Then...the thoughts just stopped. Like somebody had turned off a switch. I looked up and around, breathing heavily. Val saw my change in expression and was asking what was wrong but I was too busy looking around.


How had that happened? Where did the thoughts go? I know everybody hadn't just stopped thinking at exactly the same time.


Then I saw him. The guy from outside my school. He was standing outside the store and he was staring at me with the same smile from the day before. I turned to Val, "hey, I'll be right back". She gave me a sympathetic look.

"You alright?" she asked.


"I'm fine. Be right back." I was already headed outside to him.


He was standing on the wall across from the store I was just in. He had a Divided by Friday shirt on, black jeans and a black Call of Duty jacket. He had one leg propped up on the wall behind him and he was watching me with a very amused look on his face. When I reached him I still couldn't believe how good looking he was. But before I could get lost in his looks, I had to know what he had to do with the thoughts that had disappeared. "Hiya, Tiny," he said in way of greeting.


I narrowed my eyes at him. Weird thought-blocking or not, he was already getting on my nerves. "Who are you? How do you know what I can do? Did you shut off all those thoughts? How are you doing it? Where did you go yesterday?" Before I could spout off the other twenty or so questions I wanted to ask him, he held up a hand and stopped my stream of questions. His smile got bigger and he held the same hand out to me.


"Wanna go get some coffee? The Starbucks right there is a good enough place as any. We can talk there, Cutie." He winked but I just could not say no to him. Something about him was drawing me in besides the fact that I was extremely curious about what was going on. I could only nod and I held his outstretched hand. Ten minutes later, we were sitting in the corner of Starbucks. I had a Pumpkin Spice Latte and he had a White Chocolate Mocha. He had paid for both. I loved this place. Well, I had before six months ago. It was hard for me to enjoy yummy coffee when I had so many thoughts jumbled in my head. But right now, all was silent (in my head anyway) and it had something to do with this strange, tall, but incredibly handsome, guy.


I was sipping my latte when he started talking, "Ok, I can't answer all of your questions right now. But I will answer a couple. Now, Shorty, what was the first one?"
I put my coffee down and pointed a finger at him.

"Before we get to my question answering, you need to stop calling me Tiny, Shorty, and even Cutie. My name is Gena."


He shrugged. "I know that. I just thought it would freak you out even more if I called you by your name if you didn't even know who I was".


"Well," I said "after yesterday, consider me still freaked".


He nodded once. We sat there for a couple minutes just sipping our coffee. I didn't even know who this guy was, but I was enjoying the internal silence. When he finally spoke again, his voice was low and I had to lean in just to hear him, "My name is Zacky. I've been watching you for half a year now."


My eyes went wide, "Watching me?? That’s kind of creepy don't you think?"


Zacky laughed. "I didn't watch you in the shower or anything like that. I'm a total gentleman. But I do know why you have this gift-"


"Gift?", I interrupted. "This is no gift. If its more than three people in a room, I can't tell who is who and I get the worst headache."


"No, Gena. It is a gift. And I can show you how to control it and really use it.”

Notes

Ok, so I just want to point out that I didn't write this chapter, CrazyLoveA7X did, but I will be writing the rest unless she wants to write another. But anyway, please enjoy!!!

XOXOXOX
~Me!!!