HAVRING'S SCHOOL FOR THE GIFTED: Anomaly

How the Anomaly Works

I awoke to a round, weathered face peering over me with a quizzical look. My first thought was to panic, but I then realized I was in the school's nurses' office. I slowly sat up and peered around the room. Professor Barnden sat in one corner, away from the sterile bed I was laying on. He looked up, and when he saw me, a relieved smile spread across his face. The older man stood up and slowly made his way to the bedside.

"Professor, what happened? Aren't you supposed to be teaching a class?" My mind still felt groggy, but I managed to force my words out.

"Mikaylie, I'm afraid you passed out after you demonstrated your mind manipulation. The nurse says your power system got 'fried' due to the amount of thoughts and questions you were hearing from the class." The memories of my loud class came back, and thinking about all of the thoughts made me want to pass out again. "As for me teaching a class, the principal ended classes early due to your, umm, situation."

"What do you mean, my 'situation'?"

"I'm afraid that when you passed out, your telepathic and manipulative abilities combined managed to knock out the entire computer network. The tech specialists have just gotten the medical equipment working again." Professor Barnden said this matter-of-factly.

"Oh My Dragons! I am so sorry! My brain becomes overloaded when so many people are talking, and my manipulation is still active. I better go talk to the Head Dean and apologize for my delay in classes." I stood up from the small, white bed, and began to head to the Head Dean's office, when I felt the cloudiness of my brain. I couldn't sense the areas around me, the professor's or the nurse's thoughts. I tried sending a telepathic message, but when I tried, a splitting headache wrenched its way through my brain. I glared at the nurse and stalked over to him from the door way. His wrinkled face shriveled even more as my 5'8" frame loomed over his shrunken one. "What did you do to me? I cannot use my abilities. No one has the ability to do that. Not even the monitors in Portvan's capital!"

"I was told to put you on sedatives, Dr. Holowan told me to. I didn't know it would mess with your abilities." I could see the old man was being honest, but I didn't like the 'Dr. Holowan' character.

"That it alright. I'm sorry that I blew up at you. May I speak with Dr. Holowan, please?" The frail man nodded, and walked out of the room at the pace of a viper snail, which is incredibly slow. The professor, whom I had forgotten about up until that point, followed the old nurse and I out of the room, no expression on his face. I expected him to scold me for yelling at the nurse, but instead, he smiled at me. Puzzled, I began to ask a question, when the old man stopped and I nearly flattened him. I glanced at the brass nameplate on the door before grabbing the cold, metal handle. I slowly pushed open the door and walked inside. The large windows were opened, allowing in an extreme amount of golden light. A blonde woman in her mid-thirties sat in a high backed chair, glaring down at the massive amount of paperwork on her desk. She heard the nurse shut the door, and looked up from her stack of files. She smiled and began to stand up, but the professor nodded to her, and she sat back down. The woman dismissed the nurse, and after he had crawled down the hallway, she began to speak.

"Good afternoon, Professor Barnden. Enjoying the early dismissal?" Dr. Holowan addressed the professor before turning her lean body toward me. "And I presume you are the cause of this major upheaval?"

"Yes ma'am, my power systems overloaded in Professor Barnden's classroom. I was on my way to apologize to the head dean, when I realized my powers had been, well, 'disabled'." I gave the doctor a cunning glare, and she regarded me with a smirk. Now I really didn't like her.

"Of course, the disabling process was quite hard, compared to the 'normal' students, but we managed to finally shut your powers down temporarily, until we have been permitted to enable them." The way the doctor looked at me when she said 'normal' sent shivers down my spine, and my hatred deepened for the woman. Professor Barnden said something to the cocky doctor, but the words were drowned out when a hollow buzzing sound filled my head. My brain kicked back into gear and my powers began to initialize what had happened with the temporary shut-down. A small smirk appeared on my face as I thought about how the doctor would react to my abilities working, even with her so called 'sedatives'. I thought about sending her a telepathic message to rub my anomalistic abilities in her face, but I thought better of it when the professor turned to me with a quick warning glance. Apparently, the professor's ability was the ability to determine when someone's power was on, and when it was off. I stopped smirking at the doctor and waited for her to question me, just like everyone else does when they find out I'm a permitted anomaly.

"So, Mikaylie, right? I've heard a couple of stories from your classmates about you. They've all said the same thing; that you have the coolest abilities anyone has ever seen. I'd ask if you'd mind demonstrating me, but you are still on sedatives, I'm afraid." The questions and the snarky remark came, as I had expected, but I had a plan to make her think twice about underestimating me. I stole a glance at the old professor for reassurance, and he gave me a curt nod.

"Actually, Dr. Holowan, if I'm correct with your name, I'd be happy to demonstrate my abilities to you." I smirked at her confused expression before clearing thoughts from my brain and focusing my energy on manipulating her desk. Moving large items wasn't nearly as hard as it had been before, although it still required a decent amount of energy. The desk slowly began to hover above the ground, before rotating 180 degrees and landing right in front of the doctor. I then sent a quick telepathic message, "Your sedatives work less than those in the capital, I'm surprised." The doctor glared at me, and without another word, dismissed me from her presence.