Two to Teleport

Riley- 1

Thump. Thump. I focus on the steady rhythm of my feet on the track. Deep breaths. Relax the arms. Focus on the finish, not the stitch in your side, I tell myself. My legs burn, my feet ache. I'm in my element. 100 meters to go. I start to sprint, picking up my knees and extending my stride. My foot finally crosses the finish line.

"Nice job Riley. That's a new best time!" Coach says.

“Thanks.” I puff out.

“Go do a cool down with Emma when she finishes.”

I nod in response. I place my hands on my head to get rid of the pain in my side. I take deep breaths and close my eyes.

“Hey Ri!” someone says from behind me. I open my eyes, turn around, and see Emma walking towards me. She must have just finished. I smile.

“Hey Emmi!”

We start running at the exact same time, not needing to communicate with words. Emma is my best friend. She knows everything about me, and I mean everything. Even the fact that I can teleport. She only found out a few days ago. I’m usually pretty good at keeping secrets, but Emma knew something was up. She kept prodding me until I told her.

Once we're out of earshot, the questions come rolling in.

“So, how long have you been able to teleport?”

“I...”

“Can you teleport anywhere?”

“Well...”

“How did you find out you could teleport? I mean that’s just not something you decide to try. Is it?”

“Emma...”

“Can you teleport other people?!”

“EMMA!” I stop running. She follows suit. “Emma, you are the only other person who knows about this. You can’t tell anyone. Especially my Dad.”

“Why not your Dad?”

“Because, he works for the government. They would go crazy if they found out that someone had “supernatural” powers. Especially if that person was the daughter of a government official. They would probably arrest my Dad for treason or something.”

“Ok, ok. I get it. So, how’d you find out you could?”

“Fine. I’ll tell you.” We start running again.

 ---

“A couple years ago I was walking to lunch, and it had just rained. I heard a commotion and saw this really big eighth grader running towards me through the crowd. It looked like his friends were chasing him. It all sort of happened in slow motion. The eighth grader was lumbering towards me. His flabs of fat flapping in the wind. I was frozen in front of him. He as in a collision-course with me any second. I tried to dodge him, but it was too late. His big flabby arm slammed into my face. I was knocked off my feet and thrown sideways. I landed right in the middle of giant mud puddle. I was covered head to toe in mud.

I ran to the bathroom to try and clean up, but it’s kinda hard to clean your entire body in the bathroom sink. I felt miserable. All I wanted to do was go home and take a nice long hot shower. I closed my eyes. That sounded so good right then. When I opened my eyes I was standing in my shower, still in my muddy school uniform and backpack. I thought I was going crazy. I touched the shower curtain. Yup, it was real, all right. Since I happened to be home, I took a shower, ate lunch, and changed. I figured since I got here by thinking about my shower, I could get back to school by thinking about school. I grabbed my bag and closed my eyes. I thought about school and the sticky lunch tables and all the posters hung around and when I opened my eyes, I was there. When I got home from school my muddy clothes were still on the floor of my bathroom.”