Miss Quick

Chapter Eight

**REVISED**

Chapter Eight

Fitting In

Science was taught by a large, cheery lady named Mrs. Newman who seemed to think she was hip. She was the kind of teacher that wanted to be friends with all her students, but didn't realize they didn't want to be friends with her.

Her red blonde hair was pulled up into a ponytail at the back of her head, and her eyes searched for any eager faces behind square glasses.

She was the first teacher so far who had given us assigned seats, but luckily for me, Evelyn and I were in the back of the room, me in front of her. Later she told me this was the best position for covert note passing.  

For now, Mrs. Newman was talking in front of the class, and Evelyn was analyzing everyone else.

When Mrs. Newman paused to get something from her desk at the back of the room, Evelyn gave me a play-by of the class.

"Those three are bad news," Evi whispered to me, gesturing to two jocks next to us and one behind us. "They'll bug us, probably, and get the whole class into trouble. And she," she pointed at a girl in the corner, "is going to complain about it."

"Who's that?"

"Laurie Sims. She's friends with Becca Nelson, over there."

I glanced at the two girls. Laurie had big glasses and thick brown hair with bangs. Becca was a few seats over, and she was very small and pale with light red hair. They seemed like quite a pair, I could imagine Laurie being the one who would talk and talk about everything, and Becca being the one who just listened and nodded.

"Hm...do you know their abilities?"

"Becca's is memorization, I heard she remembers everything she sees."

"Whoa. That would be cool."

"I guess. Anyway, Laurie's is astrology, she reads the stars. Sometimes she can predict the future, which she constantly talks about."

Mrs. Newman resumed talking at the from of the room. "Okay, so since it's the first day, and we have some new students, I'm going to let you all play a fun game."

Well, maybe Mrs. Newman wouldn't be so bad after all.

"In the game, we will go around the room, and everyone will tell the class some things about themselves and their ability. You will say your name, what your ability is, one thing you like about it, and one thing you don't like about it."

Oh, crap. I take back what I said. This would be bad.

Speaking in front of a group was something I did reluctantly at best.  

"I'll go first," she continued brightly. "My name is Sharon Newman, my ability is to heat things with my mind. One thing I like about it is, I never have to use my microwave." She chuckled, but stopped when no one else did. "And one thing I don't like about it is, when I get something too hot, I can't cool it back down." She smiled and no one said anything for a few seconds.

It had never occurred to me that the teachers here had abilities, but I don't know why it didn't. I wondered what my other teachers' abilities were. Maybe Mr. Medina's was correct pronunciation. The thought made me laugh.

"Jonathan, why don't you go first, and we can go down the rows," Mrs. Newman announced.

Jonathan reluctantly stood up and began to introduce himself.

Meanwhile, my brain scrambled for acceptable answers for when my turn came.

After Jonathan, Laurie went. "My name is Laurie Sims. My ability is astrology, which means I can read the stars. Sometimes I can predict the future." She grinned. The jocks Evelyn talked about earlier snickered.