MAX [ON HOLD]

9: WHAT JENNIFER WANTS

Walking in to school on Monday morning seems weird, considering I was normal last time I walked these halls. I shake my head to clear my thoughts, remembering what happened yesterday. I make my way to my locker to get my books, Tori meets me there , all rainbows and sunshine. Its almost creepy.

"Guess what" she asks, her voiced laced with excitement. Then again, its Tori we're talking about, she's probably excited by today's lunch or something along the line of that. "What?"

"You and I " she stops to squeal. I place my hand on her shoulder "now Victoria, what did we say about too much sugar before school on Mondays" I talk in a patronizing tone, like she's five, to be fair she sometimes acts like she's five. But I love her anyways.

She rolls her eyes at my comment "ignoring that. You and I, are going to Jason McLain's party on Saturday!"
My hands drop from her shoulders, I scoff "says who?"

Her expression drops "Oh come on Max, this is the party of the year, no the century, no the millennium, we have to go." I roll my eyes, she's such a drama queen,"You can go, but count me out. You know teenage parties aren't my scene, especially one thrown by Jason McLain"

Jason McLain. He's the typical high school jock, football player, super rich and popular, and hot. Never forget hot. He's got every girl worshipping the ground he walks on , and even though I hate to admit it, I'm one of them. But I don't throw myself at him, heck to the no. But we are kind of friends, he was my lab partner last year and he's a pretty decent guy. That doesn't mean I'd willingly attend a party thrown by the king of Westlake high. There's guaranteed to be drugs and drinking and a lot of drunken teenagers doing things that are rated r. No thank you.

"Max, if you don't want to graduate and be remembered like 'oh yeah, I think I saw her once or twice in the halls, nice eyes' you have to be more social and out there or you'll end up with no life whatsoever, old and alone with thirty cats and you'll think back and remember when your awesome bestie tried to help improve your social life and you'll be sorry, so you see you have to come with me" she says all that in one breath, I swear this girl has lungs like an engine.

I lean on my locker and smirk"so what I'm hearing is I have nice eyes"

She groans "No, no you don't get to have selective hearing at a time like this"

I roll my eyes"fine, calm your tits, I'll go" she starts to talk but I cut her off, "but don't expect me to have fun and don't say anything or I'll change my mind"

She shuts up and nods, a gigantic smile on her face. The bell goes and I sigh, "come on happy face, we have math"

We both walk to math while Tori chats my ear off about how awesome the party will be.

At the door, guess who blocks our way, the queen bee in all her bitchy glory. "What do you want Jennifer?" I ask in a bored tone.

She only smirks in reply "nice necklace". My hand instinctively flies to my necklace. " thanks " I say and try to move around her. She blocks my way.

"Hold on" she smiles wickedly "I want the necklace"
I snort unattractively "too bad princess, you can't have it"

The stupid smile is still on her face as she steps aside for Tori and me to pass. As I walk past her, she whispers "what Jennifer wants, Jennifer gets"

I ignore the shiver down my spine and roll my eyes. She can't do anything. Right?

Throughout class, I feel her icy blue stare on me, it gets so uncomfortable that I feel compelled to hide the necklace in my shirt.

***

"Woods, you can't wear that necklace into the water, you know that right?" Coach says as we line up for swimming practice.

"But coach I-"

"No arguments Woods, go take it off now"

I sigh and go take it off, the professor warned me not to take it off, I hope nothing bad happens.

As I step on the diving board, bad things start happening. The water starts tossing and turning throwing the people inside about. My eyes widen in shock as a fierce wind starts blowing, bringing dust with it. Shit.

"Fire!" Some one screams from beside me. I take in my surroundings, in a matter of seconds, all hell has broken loose.
The necklace!

I push through the screaming girls to the locker room. I open my locker and frantically search for my necklace. Its gone. Jennifer.

I race back to the pool and search the panicking crowd for Jennifer. I spot her in a corner , wearing my necklace like a trophy. I clench my fists as anger flares within me. The fire grows and I try to calm myself down.

I push through the e crowd to meet her. She sees me and smirks victoriously. "My necklace" I say quietly. She shakes her head "hmm no"

I glare at her and say in the most venomous tone I can muster "Jennifer Williams, give me my necklace now." Her eyes widen in fear "n-no"

Uurgh! Why is she so stupid and stubborn?

Then something happens. I can't see Jennifer again , I can see through her, like her whole genetic make up. I blink and the vision clears. What the hell just happened?

The professor said I could control humans. What if..

I concentrate and stare at Jennifer as hard as I can. Suddenly, I can see through her again, her nerves and muscles and arteries and the whole freaky biological package.

I close my eyes and will her to give me the necklace. I open my eyes and see that she's removing the necklace in a trance like way. She hands it to me and I snatch it and put it on hastily.

Everything suddenly stops. People are staring round confused. The whole pool is damaged beyond repair. I did that.

"What was that...?"

"Probably a freak wind"

"Should have mentioned it in the weather report"

"No swimming for a while"

They're all busy forming their own theories, no one notices me pick my bag and walk away.

Yeah, this necklace stays on.