Gifted

Chapter Four

“Unconsciously we all have a standard by which we measure other men, and if we examine closely we find that this standard is a very simple one, and is this: we admire them, we envy them, for great qualities we ourselves lack. Hero worship consists in just that. Our heroes are men who do things which we recognize, with regret, and sometimes with a secret shame, that we cannot do. We find not much in ourselves to admire, we are always privately wanting to be like somebody else. If everybody was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes.”

― Mark Twain

. . . .

|Tuesday|

Jake

Sitting staring blankly at the whiteboard, watching the scribbled equations squirm and wiggle in front of my sleepy eyes, I wonder if Mr. Elroy knows how boring his voice sounds. Trig is so boring already, no thanks to him, but unfortunately I have to pass this class...again.

Finally after another forty minutes, I’m free. Racing through the hall to my locker, I see Lana Cheng next door at hers. That stops everything. My heart fails a little as I watch her: Long lush black hair, hugging small ears and a heart-shaped face; she flips it casually out of her eyes as she piles her books into the locker again. She smiles at me as I stop next to her. She’s wearing a green sweater and a pair of artfully Bedazzled jeans. Cute.

“Well, if it isn’t Jake Smith.”

“Hi, Lana, how’re you?”

Am I blushing? God, I hope not.

She smiles again, just a little, so the answer must be yes. God. Oh well. Lana is gorgeous, can I help it?

“So, word around is that you and McGreere had a little showdown yesterday at the Supermart. True?” She’s smiling, her tone playful, teasing, so she can’t be that mad. Or at least not worried, I think.

I smile back, all casual now. “Yeah, something like that. If you can even call it a ‘showdown.’ John was being his usual cocky self, so I just picked him up and banged him into the wall once or twice. That shut him up pretty quick.”

Lana hides her smile with a hand as we start to walk outside. “Oh, Jake,” she chastises gently. “Anyway, John’s not going to do anything; he’s pretty scared right now. But I’d be careful if I was you, in future.”

I frown. “Why’s that?” I ask.

Lana regards me with a pitying gaze.

“Jake,” she says softly, “this is the kind of stuff that would get you guys in trouble. You know that the police—and heck, the government too—only tolerate you and people like you because you’ve promised not to hurt anyone with your powers. That’s why they agreed to leave you all alone and not take you off for mandatory study and testing and things. Stuff like this may be stepping over the line, you know?” She stares at me in concern and I immediately feel guilty. Why did I fall to John’s level? Why did I allow myself to rise to his bait? Stupid thing to do, really. I really do need to be more careful.

Luckily, I have Lana to remind me to do that.

“You drive today?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “I walked. I woke up pretty late this morning and then noticed my gas tank was empty; there wasn’t time to go and fill it, so I walked.” She shrugs. Then, all causal: “I kind of hoped you’d let me blip with you, you know, to get home. My house isn’t far from yours, you know. That ok?”

I pull up short and glance at her, incredulous. “What? Why on earth would you want to do that?”

Lana laughs. “You make it sound like such a bad thing, Jake!” Her smile disappears as she takes in my frown. “I mean, you always say it feels awful, so I’m just curious if that’s true. How about it?”