Into Another World (kotlc/mlb au)

Chapter 3

Adrien went into the library and looked at every non-fiction book on how the brain worked, something he never would've thought of doing. Sure, he was trying to use science to explain fantasy concepts like telepathy, so it probably explained why he hadn't found anything. Or the fact that Sophie still had a clean sweep on her "lucky guesses."

It still baffled him that Sophie closed her eyes for thirteen-and-a-half seconds (yes, he counted) and suddenly everyone who was even thinking about questioning how she'd guessed Bethany's memory so perfectly while not having been there in the first grade just... believed her.

It had to have been a mind trick, Adrien thought. She has telepathic abilities and uses them to keep her cover.

So why didn't it work on me?

Adrien kept careful tabs on Sophie the next several days, his theory that she had telepathic abilities becoming more and more likely.

She still "guessed" memories of other kids without batting an eye and getting them all correct. One kid, Marcus, had even started a pool with some other obnoxious boys on how long she could keep the streak up.

Someone said Amelia was keeping a list of every occurrence, the current count at forty-seven, also known as every time Sophie made a "guess."

He couldn't believe it. This started with standing up to Bethany and now everyone was thinking she had the greatest intuition in the world. He knew it wouldn't be long before they asked her to start "guessing" the future.

If Sophie could predict the future he'd lose all faith in reality.

He took his chance to confront her several days later, after she'd had a lot of "guesses." He found Sophie alone at her locker and decided it would be best to ask.

"Adrien! I haven't seen you for a while!" she jumped a little, tugging out a couple eyelashes (probably from the shock). "What's going on?"

Adrien took a deep breath and blurted out his question.

"Do you have telepathic abilities of any sort?"

For a moment, Sophie simply stared.

Then she exploded in laughter.

"Have you been reading too much fantasy lately?" she asked when she finally regained her composure. "Because there's no way someone can have telepathic abilities!"

She stopped chuckling when she saw Adrien's face, barely moving.

"Wait, you're serious?" she took a couple steps back.

"As serious as I can be," he said, surprised by how firm he was on this. Usually he'd run away at this point in conversations of this type.

Then again, they mostly included Bethany, but that was beside the point.

"Adrien, telepathy doesn't exist in this world," she said, her own voice getting serious as well. "You know that, right?"

"Then how haven't you missed 'guessing' memories? You stare at them like you're getting into their heads. How is that not having telepathy?"

"Adrien, I'm trying to tell you, I'm... I'm just a natural born guesser. Maybe you should get your head back in reality."

She left Adrien alone to process everything that had just been said.

Maybe she's right. Maybe you do need to get your head out of the clouds, he thought.

Then at once, he felt a new voice enter his head.