Gifted

Chapter Twelve

Ellen

Susan and I are sitting in Mr. Diller’s Communications class, taking a test. Ugh.

I glance down at question fifteen, which I’m stuck on.

Describe a situation in which two people, while interacting with each other, have a conflict. Employ methods of problem-solving to resolve the issue, making sure to include the vocabulary terms we have discussed in class. Be creative, please, and don’t forget to use proper grammar and sentence structure.

What?

I glance at my sister, wondering how far along she is, and see she’s on number twenty-three already, somehow, nearly done. Crap. Better get moving. Quickly, I try to glance at her paper, but she notices. With a little smile, she tilts her head so her long hair falls across the page, blocking out the answers. Dang it.

Considering the question again, I begin to realize that, maybe, it’s not an easy black-and-white answer I’m looking for; depending on what your desired result is, your methods of problem-solving might change, wouldn’t they? Maybe they want your opinion, your thought-process? After thinking over various strategies, I decide a persuasive argument works best, and begin to write out my response...

Some time later, the bell on Mr. Diller’s desk rings and he moves to collect our work. I look sadly at my paper: I still have ten left blank. Oh well, at least it’s not a fail.

Alexis, Ryan, and Kayla spot us as we’re exiting the classroom and run up to us.

“How’d you two do?” Ryan asks, a grin on his face as though he already knows the answer. He shoves his hands in his pockets and leans causally against a locker, watching us.

“Think it went ok,” Susan says, smiling.

Now everyone’s looking at me. I clear my throat, feeling my face flush.

“I...um, I didn’t finish it,” I mumble. “Had ten left.”

Alexis smiles. “Well, at least you tried to answer everything you could,” she says.

“That’s true,” I say, a little cheered up.

Alexis Smith, Ryan Sinder, and Kayla Durst are three of our best friends; the five of us pretty much do everything together. Ryan has been friends with us since fourth grade, and Kayla joined in sixth, and finally, Alexis showed up this year in seventh.

Out of the three of them, though, Alexis is possibly my favorite—witty, a bit sassy, and she always knows to say what she’s thinking. She is, of course, not related to the famous Smith Family, though I know she’d secretly like to be; she’s also got a major crush on Jake to boot. I’ve tried explaining to her that he probably has enough of that sort of attention simply for being famous, and he probably doesn’t want any more, but Alexis persists...always.

Who am I to squash her dreams?

Even so, Alexis gets enough of that attention from the boys around here, lovely as she is: she has a tiny, almost ballerina-like frame, her caramel-colored skin glossy, her thick black hair shiny and sleek.

“So has Cassie figured Connor out, yet?” I ask, referring to the love interest of Cassie Lorrel—another of our mutual friends—Connor Hewett, who, it’s rumored, might be a mutant...or so he claims anyway. The info’s enough to make most people fancy him, here in our boring little school where nothing ever happens.

“Isn’t there something more interesting to talk about than people with mutant powers?” I say blithely, and everyone stares at me with wide eyes.

Oops. We’re not supposed to say “mutant” anymore. It’s an offensive word now.

“Sorry, I forgot,” I mumble to no one in particular.

“Well, she says Connor showed her his power, but she’s not saying what it is,” Alexis pipes up at once, glancing around for validation. The others nod.

“I’ve heard what it is, actually,” Ryan says suddenly, sounding like he’s trying not to laugh. “It’s, like, really weird. Not cool or anything, like that dude I heard on Fox this morning, Mustafa Abdulah, or whatever, in Cairo, Egypt, who can make things explode just by thinking about it. Connor’s power is something to do with making things grow, or something. Like, he can be holding a packet of seeds and another second the seeds are bursting out of the package and sprouting right in his hands, and then another few seconds and there’s vines with fruit or vegetables fully grown on it, or whatever the seeds happen to be, right there in his hands.”

A silent moment passes while we all trying to imagine what this power must look like in action. Then Kayla laughs.

“What a sucky power,” she giggles.

“Well, they say you can’t choose it, you know, any more than you can choose your eye color or your skin tone,” Susan says knowledgably. “I mean, it’s totally random, isn’t it? Like, you don’t know until it manifests the first time, right?”

“Yeah, but still...making things grow? Lame,” Ryan sniggers.