She's Behind The Mask

Chapter 3 - Fly

"Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
-Douglas Adams

During lunch most of my time is spent fidgeting in my seat, wanting it all to be quiet for once. Heather and Caleb both look at me weirdly, wondering why I an so anxious. What if I suddenly made something levitate and people saw, would they call the police, would the government come and take me to a special lab to get tested?

Maybe I am just over thinking it all. So I stop thinking completely, stop thinking about the voices, about what I could do without realising, and about what would they would do to me if something did happen. I let my mind wander to the food in front of me instead and eat. Then the voices stop.

I look up, maybe all I can do to control these powers is to not think at all and just focus on one thing. I smile and relax in my seat. "So how were your guys days?", I ask noticing I had been only thinking about myself the whole day.

"Yeah it was alright", Heather said, "but I've noticed you've been a bit off Kaylee, is something wrong, did something happen at home or something?"

"Yeah", Caleb pipes in, "you've been distracted all day and whenever we try to talk to you, you never hear us."

I feel so bad now, I've been so focused on myself, what if something had happened to Heather or Caleb and I didn't even notice. "I'm so sorry guys, I have been a bit distracted-"

"Not a bit, a lot", Caleb cuts in.

"Ok then, very distracted, and I'm sorry how are you guys, I've only been focused on myself", I say, "did anything interesting happen to you guys today?"

"Well now that you're asking...", Heather begins, "I actually got a detention today, from Mr Popwell, he was in a really bad mood after teaching your class and so when I was whispering to someone he got really pissed off and gave me a detention. What happened in your class anyway?"

"I heard someone glued his drawers together or something", Caleb says with amusement.

I start giggling as I remember his reaction and tell them about what happened. Although I am finally thinking about something else for once, in the back of my mind, subconsciously, I am still thinking about the powers.

My last class is English and as usual it is very boring, the teachers monotonous talking almost causing me to fall asleep. I soon find something to cure my boredom. Seeing as there's lots of people at school, why not try to learn to control my telepathy skills. It would be quite useful if I could learn to only listen to one person's thoughts at a time. As soon as I start thinking about my powers again all the thoughts come at once and I cringe as the once quiet classroom becomes loud. I choose a person in the class and focus only on them, the other people's thoughts are still there but are a bit quieter now. The girl I am focused on is thinking about the homework, and her thoughts are louder than everyone else's. If I could practice and be able to listen to her thoughts without being able to hear anyone else's thoughts it would be great.

By the end of the class I had nearly mastered listening to only one person's thoughts at a time. I still have to practice more to be perfect but my progress is good enough for me. I walk out of the school with satisfaction, proud of myself for being able to control what I could hear.

When I get home mum is home from work already. "Hi honey, how was your day?", she asks, and then, "I hope it was better than mine", I could hear her think.

"It was good", I say, "did something happen today", I ask.

"No my day was fine, I just had a few rude patients today", she says and sighs. My mum works as a nurse in the local hospital, sometimes she has long shifts but it looks like today was a short day for her. Her job as a nurse suited her kind personality but I hated that sometimes people could be really rude for no reason at all, my mum didn't need people being mean when all she was doing was being nice.

I hug her and she changes the topic. "That doesn't matter anyway, it's a common thing, do you want some muffins?", she asks, "I made some when I got home."

"Sure, thanks mum", I say.

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I slip on the dark clothes, the black skinny jeans and hoodie are comfortable and will help ensure I am not seen or recognised. I open my bedroom door and cringe when it makes a loud creak. I sigh as I make it down the stairs without waking my mum up. I don't need her knowing I am going out at 11 o'clock at night.

Once outside I take a deep breath, filling my lungs with the fresh, cool air. I take off running down the foot path, finding myself five blocks away from my house. I take a deep breath as I peer into the dense forest that lies at the edge of Aeredale city. I calm myself before venturing into the trees, the only light source being the moon above my head.

I go slowly, making sure to doge beaches and tree trunks. The ground is soft under my feet and the air smells like pine needles. My heart beats faster every step I take, and my hands become sweaty.

I walk for around 10 minutes before I find a small clearing. The moon lights it up, letting me see better than when I was in the puzzle of trees. The trees stand tall like walls around it as if it were a room. I sigh and feel slightly safer being somewhere where I can see what I'm doing. I find a large stone and place it where I came into the clearing so know the way back out.

You might be wondering what I'm doing in a forest alone in the middle of the night. Well I thought if I wanted to try out my other powers then I needed to find somewhere isolated where no one would see me. Seeing as I live in a city, the forest on the edge of it seemed like a good idea.

I walk to the middle of the clearing and take deep breaths. I tried only focusing on what I am doing and let it happen. My feet start floating off the ground, and I let myself go as high as the top of the trees before I stop, my arms stretched out wide as if they would help me somehow. Now for the hard part; getting down. I take another deep breath and think. Maybe if I think of making myself heavier I will go down.

I imagine I'm as heavy as one of the big rocks on the edge of the clearing and feel myself going down. Once I reach the ground my face breaks out with a smile. I feel satisfaction with my new found control. I still have a long way to go but this is a start.

In my moment of happiness I hear a rustling sound in the trees. The crunch of footsteps are too human-like to be from an animal. If they are spying on me they aren't doing very well. I stare out into the forest where I heard the sound. The person stops walking as they probably realise I had heard them. We both stay silent for what feels like ages.

In a loud, but nervous voice I ask, "Who's there?" There's no reply. So being my crazy not-so-normal self I say, "Come out you pervert".

Then they run.