Psychic

XIII

By the time lunch rolled around, everyone knew about what Mr. Peterson did to Mandy Dawson. Word spread so fast that even the loners and shy kids knew about it.

I was surprised that the faculty didn't just cancel school again today, but the PTA probably got behind it and complained about us missing our education or something. The PTA were a force of nature.

Practically anything anyone was talking about was what happened. Their thoughts spoke more truth than their words though, and they weren't very pretty.

I hope Mandy's okay

You know what? I bet they were really together and she just called rape

That's what happens when you're a slut

I always knew Mr. Peterson was a pedophile

Yeah, it was times like these where you found out the true nature of people.

In fact, all he thoughts above were from the table that Mandy Dawson usually sat at. You never really knew who your true friends are, do you?

Bella thoughts focused more on Bryce than anything else. They hadn't been dating long, but her thoughts claimed that she was falling head over heels for the boy. Bryce's thoughts were more scatter brained than anything else. It seemed like he was thinking of everything to distract him from something else. I didn't really want to go digging through his brain, so I just ignored whatever he was avoiding.

I was thinking far off from everyone else. My thoughts didn't lie on Mandy Dawson anymore. The events of the night before and this morning were still fresh in my mind.

Victoria had cleared up a ton for me and somehow made it more complicated at the same time. And this morning scared me a bit more than anything. I was thinking like I was Victoria. I was vengeful and angry. And then I hurt Mrs. Lynch just because she said something rude about me.

(In all honesty, I was scared of myself more than anything)

I was thinking like I was the person Hawthorne believed me to be. I was acting like I was the villain.

I hadn't even told Magnus about Victoria's impromptu visit. I had totally blinded sided him. I lied to him, right to his face! I was no better than Victoria.

Magnus had basically told me everything he knew before Victoria explained the rest. He warned me that Hawthorne was after me. He told me what I was. He talked about this whole other world full of magic. I even told him about what happened at that one home, with the disgusting foster dad, something I hadn't even told Bella.

And then I just ignored him.

When Victoria came along, it was like I chose her over him, all because we were the same. All because she was the only other psychic left.

Maybe it was that feeling that the Doctor felt about the Master in Doctor Who. I mean – sure, they were enemies, but they were the last of their kind. The Doctor, in the end, couldn't imagine killing the Master, he even wanted to befriend him after everything he did.

I feel like maybe there was a special connection between them, like there was with me and Victoria. Sure – she was the enemy, but she understood who I was. She was just like me.

The bell rang to release us to our next class, but I was sure Bella was too busy to hear it. She was literally fawning over Bryce too much to have noticed it.

I wasn't purposely trying to be bitter, but my patience with Bryce had thinned considerably, and, therefore, my patience with Bella had also thinned. I was worried that Bryce might've been getting between us.