Reborn

Deja Vu

"Miss Foster!" A nasally voice shouted at the unexpecting girl. She jolted back and yanked her earbuds out, eyes wild with confusion. She was face to face with her former teacher, Mr. Sweeney, who was about to take her earbuds out himself.

"Why am I here?" Sophie questioned. Voices filled her head giving her head a sharp throbbing pain. The perks of being a telepath. She grasped at her skull, remembering why she wore earbuds in the first place.

The classmates surrounding her laughed. Mr. Sweeney narrowed his eyes and leaning down to her level. "Miss Foster! I've had enough of this behavior! Have you decided you're too smart for this information?"

"No, Mr. Sweeney," she mumbled. Sophie hid behind her hair to avoid the glares of her classmates. She was either having the most intense deja vu or she had somehow woken up in her twelve old body.

Her teacher proceeded to lecture her about following along instead of listening to her iPod. Sophie didn't understand why she'd have to listen to him if she already knew all this information. She had a photographic memory, so this repetition of information was awfully boring to her. After all, he was the one who had dragged her class to the Natural History Museum. She zoned out his lecture and absentmindedly pulled out an eyelash.

Mr. Sweeney hardened his gaze. Sophie had a gut feeling that he was about to accuse her of thinking she was above the lesson and tell her to teach the class. As it turned out, he did just that.

"Since you've decided you're above this lecture, why don't you give it?" Mr. Sweeney asked. He pointed to the enormous orange dinosaur with a duckbill in the center of the room. "Explain to the class how the Lambeosaurus differs from the other dinosaurs we've studied."

Sophie's photographic memory instantly brought up the answer. She rattled off the many differences the information card provided her. Mr. Sweeney's face twisted into a scowl and Sophie swore she heard him whisper about know-it-alls. He began to lead the class to the next exhibit.

Garwin Chang made his way over to her. He sneered at her and opened his mouth to say something, but Sophie abruptly cut him off.

"You were about to call me a "super-freak" right?"

Garwin's face went from confident to confused. He seemed to be racking his brain for a reasonable explanation as to why she knew that. He tried to come up with a clever retort but hadn't been able to think of anything. Sophie's confidence grew the more he struggled.

"Can you just leave me alone? I don't have time for this." Sophie let out the breath she was holding. It was completely unlike her to stand up for herself. Garwin shoved past her and joined her classmates.

Sophie relished in the few moments of quiet she got. The voices were now more muffled since everyone had left the room. This day kept getting weirder and weirder. Not that the average day was normal for her, considering she was a telepath after all. She had a piercing headache from all the voices that occupied her head. That's when it occurred to her-she could block everyone's thoughts! She already knew how to do that! But how?

Sophie watched her classmates walk farther and farther away. She opened her mind allowing her to tell if anyone was in the room with her. No thoughts filled her mind. She was finally alone. Sophie put away her iPod and earbuds.

"Is this you?" A tall, dark-haired boy approached Sophie holding yesterday's newspaper. It contains a big black and white photo of Sophie on the cover. She nodded, her tongue refused to work. He stared at the paper even harder. Sophie tried to make out his face, but it was almost impossible from the angle he was at.

"Huh, I didn't realize your eyes were brown." He glances up at her and Sophie immediately looked at the ground before she could see his face. She felt uncomfortable talking to strangers, even ones that felt extremely... familiar?

"Uhhh... yeah," she said, not sure how to respond, "Why?"

He shrugged. "No reason."

The whole conversation felt weird. Not only did it feel like she knew this boy, she felt as if she had this conversation before. She gathered the courage to look at him directly.

The boy put down the newspaper to look at her and flash a movie-worthy smile. Sophie's heart did a weird fluttery thing. She really took in his face, the subtle way his eyebrows stitched together in worry, the unnaturally perfect teeth. Everything about him was perfect.

Sophie met his eyes. She'd never seen eyes that particular shade of blue before—teal, like the smooth pieces of sea glass she'd found on the beach—and they were so bright they glittered. Something felt so familiar about them, she fought the urge to hug him. She wasn't used to talking to boys—especially cute boys—and it made her brain a little mushy.

His perfect smiled returned and Sophie's stomach was doing somersaults.

"Fitz?"