Being Eleven Sucks

                                                                                           Chapter 7

The lights flip on and I here the moans of my friends. I rub my aching eyes. “Time for training!" Leon shouts.

  “You didn't need to shout," Lizzy says annoyed. “Plus my no-no is oozing blood, so let me sleep." She falls back and pulls the covers over her head. We look around and Leon shakes his head, disapproving.

  Lizzy throws back the cover and says, “Wait, can I have a tampon?"

  “Get your tiny tush' up and stop whining," Leon retorts.

  “What am I gonna do about my bleeding 'tush,' though?"

  “If you show me what a mature young adult you are I'll get you a tampon."

  Mature....

  Just like we were supposed to be. In sixth grade. Lizzy had a hard time acting mature.

  “Gimme the damn stick of cotton," Lizzy insists. “I need it."

  “You don't need it. Tampons keep you from getting blood on your hands and clothes. I don't need to give you this." Leon holds up a blue plastic package.

  “Fuck you. Give me the damn tampon."

  “That's it," Leon stresses. He puts the tampon on the floor that makes a clack noise and snatches Lizzy by the arm. She kicks and struggles.

  “Lemme go! Get off me you prick!" She screams as he pulls her. She wriggles out of his grasp and runs forward but he snatches her back. He puts her into bridal position. Lizzy kicks and moves all over. “What are you doing?! Fuck you!"

  “I'm teaching you a lesson." Leon carries her through the metal door. He shuts it and I hear a lock.

  My arm aches and I look down. He's going to beat her. She was only on her period. It's not her fault she acted that way. I pick at the gauze wrapping my arm.

  I hear Lizzy's scream and a smack. I wince. I hear rushing as if fire is -

  Fire....

  I look at my friends who are as well staring at the metal door. I hear metal hitting the stone floor.

  Suddenly, a man walks through the front door. He wears a Star Trek wetsuit thing that definitely does not go well with his body's condition. “All righty!" he says smiling, which doesn't suit the event occurring in a room right next to us. “Since your trainer, Leon, is a little - um, busy, I get to train you until he's done."

  Leon's painful scream and Lizzy's 'Get away you bastard!'

  “My name's," he keeps looking nervously at the metal door and stuttering, “uh Mr. - Mr. Evan. You," he says pointing at me, “Go sit over there at the table."

  As I walk, I wonder what I had done to disgrace my position of “training".

  He walks behind me and when I sit, he leans in close and mutters, “No offense, but there's no way to really conceal clairvoyance. It's basically already concealed so you get a different kind of training."

  Timmy obviously heard him, he looks over, puzzled, and opens his mouth. I close it before he can say anything. Not with my hands.

  Mr. Evan thinks I have clairvoyance instead of Timmy. This guy isn't bright. Someone probably said, Put the one with the freckles to the side and don't train him yet, and Mr. Evan noticed me first because of the one large mole sitting next to my nose.

  He gestures my friends against a long wall that has nothing along it, unlike the other three walls. They stand perfectly spaced and spread out. “Now," he says, “I will bring anything you want in and do something with it. Use your telekinesis, pyrokinesis, technological manipulation, or psychokinesis." The last part he said was referring to me.

  Timmy looks at me while Mr. Evan talks to Sara. Timmy looks desperate and I nod. He doesn't know how to manipulate his telekinesis yet and I don't think Mr. Bright Guy knows. I have to help him. I hold up my fingers and spell the word “pot" in sign language. One of the greatest benefits of fifth grade.

  At least Timmy's last in line, so I'll have time to think about how to manipulate the pot to make it look like he's doing it.

  Mr. Evan finishes with Sara, leans out of the room through the door, and comes back in with a knife. He puts it on its side facing Sara and she focuses on it. It stands up, levitates, and spins in Sara's direction. It stops just above her head lodged in the wall.

  “Well done, Red," Mr. Evan says, referring to her flaming red hair. “You can sit over there by Smalls over there if you want," he offers, but Sara stays put. What's with all these nicknames?

  I hear yelling from the room with Lizzy. Leon yells not Lizzy, though.

  Lillian is given a flashlight and an electrical fan. She takes them apart manually and assembles them together to make a misshapen rocket ship with her mind.

  The Discipline Wand make swishing noises but no smacks. A whip cracks and Lizzy yells, “It's been almost an hour, and you haven't hit me! I'm smarter than you! GIVE ME MY TAMPON!"

  Timmy asks for a candle. What about the friggin' plan you idiot?! He has clairvoyance, maybe something is going to happen.

  I hear a loud cracking. Thunder booms. My vision snaps over to the door. It's almost.... melting.

  The door busts open and I can't hear. Flames conceal the room and all it contains. My face is hot and perspiration gathers on my neck. A flame dances across the room and perfectly lights the candle, just before it dissolves into the clear air. The flames in the room disappear in front of my eyes. The red, orange, yellow, and heat die out and leave into the air.

  I see Lizzy's figure standing over a white body, twitching. My eyes adjust and I see Lizzy making a disgusted face over a traumatized Leon. She spits and slurs, “Don't mess with a bitch on her period."