Beautiful Minds

The Dance

I happened to be scheduled into the first cooking session of the camping trip. With a group of around 6 people, I helped to prepare some pasta. It was as simple as you could imagine, pasta with red sauce and cheese. My duty was to cut some vegetables, like carrots and bell peppers. I quietly listened to the fun conversations the students had, grinning along every once in a while. "And then she told me to just imagine what the vision would sound like. She knows just fine that my visions are inaudible, I cannot hear a thing. And now she wants me to pretend like there's sound?" A girl ranted, making fun of her teacher. "That's bullshit, you can develop your abilities, you cannot magically make new features appear." The other girl rolled her eyes, clearly knowing what she was talking about. To me all of the information was quite new. I dared to open my mouth. "Does that count for all powers or just cognition?" "I mean I've never heard of people gaining new abilities, so I think it counts for all." She speculated. "What's your genus?" A question followed from her side. "Oh, psycho-telepathy." I answered. "Hmm those are often the easier ones to practice." She continued. I nodded attentively. "At least you're lucky that you don't look like a fool while using your ability". The other girl laughed.

It suddenly darted to me. The way Azlin stared into the distance on that balcony, and while were setting up our tent. Perhaps she was experiencing some kind of vision as well. I felt like an idiot for startling her the way I did. I frowned to myself, feeling bad for her. "Do you guys know Azlin?" I asked. The girls looked at each other for a moment. "Yeah, she's in our class." One answered. "So cognition too." I concluded. "I honestly hardly know. She never speaks a word." "You know her?" They scoffed. "She's my tent buddy." I looked at them. To my surprise, they tried their best not to smile. "Good luck with that." I frowned at her comment. That wasn't very nice of her to say. But regardless, it was quite clear that Azlin wasn't the popular one around here.

I helped scoop the pasta on the students' plates once we had finished cooking. The last in line was a kind-looking man, who smiled at me as he handed me his plate. "Here you go." I handed his plate back, filled with pasta. "Marley is it?" He pointed at me, closing one eye. He had long sleek black hair ending a little over his shoulders and thick black glasses and a beard over his square jawline. I nodded with a slight smile. "I'm Nico." he shook my hand. "I'm your psycho-telepathy teacher next period." "Ah, nice to meet you." That meant he knew my ability. Shaking my hand insinuated he trusted me with my abilities. The man was comfortable and curious about me, or so I sensed. "I look forward to working with you. Sensing emotions is a very powerful tool. So is sympathy." "What kind of things will we be practicing?" I asked. "That will depend on what you need. But that's something to figure out once class actually starts." He winked charismatically. "I'm excited." I smiled. "Good." He now pointed at the table all the teachers were sitting at, and held up a hand to wave goodbye as he backed away. 

I scanned the students' faces, trying to find somebody to sit with. I found Victor, which was a good option, but for some reason I immediately checked where Azlin could be sitting. I wanted to apologize to her for my action. Perhaps we could start over and be friends. To my surprise, she was nowhere to be found. Did no one tell her we were eating? I got up from my spot and and headed to our tents, which turned out to be empty. I straightened my back and looked around, looking for the porcelain figure. I didn't even know why I cared so much. I was also just so full of questions about her. My eyes pointed at something moving behind a couple of trees and bushes, deeper into the forest. I followed the figure, walking out of the students' sight. The closer I got, the more clearly it was her. I carefully moved some branches aside and snuck up to her, not wanting to make a sound and disturb whatever she was doing.

She was, again, in her own world. But this time it was way different than before. She wasn't still like I was used from her. Her slightly fascinated eyes looked around, her head pointing to different places. She was wearing white earplugs, listening to something. Her arms slowly move up, her hand going in the same direction as her eyes. In a flowing movement, it was as if she painted something in the sky. Her other arm now joined. Was she.. dancing? Graciously and slowly, her body turned the other way, her shoulders following her arms. She closed her eyes, completely losing herself to the music. She let her body be guided by the sound, and somehow she made it look so natural and so pure. I was mesmerized by it. She was seeing things, and feelings things I couldn't possible grasp. But she almost dragged me into it, just like when I touched her shoulder this morning. Together with the orange trees and her figure breaking the sunlight behind her, she painted an astonishing picture.