Swiftly, my pencil moved across my paper, as I was about to finish my English final. We had to pick a topic relating to your own life and I decided to write about long boarding and how it has affected my life. I was stuck and my I let me pencil drop. I looked around the classroom. Every student was tediously writing his or her essay. My head kept turning to look around the rest of the classroom. As I met my eyes with my teacher, she glared at me giving me the look of, “ Keep your eyes on your own paper,” which to me didn’t make sense because everyone was writing about something different so how would you cheat? Oh well.

I decided to raise my hand. My teacher sluggishly got out of her chair and scuttled over to me. As she got close to me my hand went down and I whispered, “Is there any way that I could incorporate two themes inside my essay?”

My teacher looked at me like I was crazy. “That would be hard, but it is possible. I wouldn’t recommend doing it though,” she instructed.

“Alright, thanks,” I replied.

Right before she turned around I heard her say, “Wow. You have no hope.”

“What did you just say to me,” I questioned?

She looked at me confusingly and muttered, “I didn’t say anything?”

“Ummmm… okay.” I said.

I got back to work and wondered if I was just hearing things. By the end of the essay my hands felt like it was going to fall off. Four pages front and back. My hand is HURTING. As I walked outside the door I was still confused. “Did I really, imagine her saying that?” I asked myself. “No, it couldn’t be.”

I kept walking, on my way to my next class. I put my hands in my pockets, and walked with my head down. I watched as my yellow and black shoes kept moving underneath me. I was so spaced out at watching my shoes I couldn’t hear the voice behind me yell, “Ben! Ben! Beeeeeennnnnnnnnnnn!”

I was brought back the world when someone grabbed my shoulder, turned me around and yelled, “EARTH TO BEN!!”

I whipped around and was face to face with my good friend, Joe. Joe was a little shorter then me with big brown eyes like a puppy’s. He always tried to beg with those eyes. A lot of the girls thought it was really cute so they would give him food. I always told him he would make a great dog but the only difference was that he’d get more girls. It was a little joke between us. We met in kindergarten. After I moved schools we didn’t hang out between 4th and 6th grade. Once 7th grad hit he got me into long boarding. Ever since I see him a lot and we ended up at the same high school. He always wore either dark blue, or black skinny jeans. I wasn’t a big fan of skinny jeans. But Joe was. His hair was cut short. Mine was long. We were opposite and yet we got along. Only two things kept us together, long boarding, and girls. Two best things in the world to both of us. Other then that I think we would hate each other. I still wondered what he wanted. “Ha-ha, hey Joe. What’s up,” I questioned.

“Nothing much. I just saw you walking like a little loner so I thought I’d make you an unloner,” he responded with a smirk.

“Is unloner even a word?”

“I dunno but I’m going to use,” he asserted.

“Okay Joe, whatever you say.”

“So, what you doing after school, Ben?”

“I don’t know yet. We should skate though. I’ll text you during lunch or 6th period, okay?”

“I don’t think I can skate.” He quickly spurted out.

“Oh… okay.”

I looked at him straight in the eyes. I was about to leave but I saw he was about to say something. I stood there for a couple seconds waiting. It got really awkward for a second. His lips didn’t move but I heard him say, “I don’t want to skate with just him. It’s not fun with I’m way better.”

“Wow. Okay, a little harsh don’t you think?” I immediately asked him.

“I didn’t say anything,” he told me.

“Uhhh yeh, you did. You said, you didn’t want to skate with me because your sooooo much better.”

“Ummm I definitely thought that, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t say that out loud,” he responded with confusion.

“Are you sure?” I questioned. Because I’m pretty sure I heard you say that.”

“Dude, did you… read my mind?” He slowly asked.

“There’s no way,” I assured him.

“Only way to find out,” he told me. “What number am I thinking of?”

“Are you serious?” I asked.

“Just do it!”

I looked into his dark brown eyes. Focusing in on him. He closed his eyes then opened them again. Once again, his lips didn’t move but it was if he shouted out, “Six!”

“Six?” I asked?

Quickly a smirk on his face showed. The smirk turned into a smile and the smile turned into a giant grin. Sun glinted off his braces and onto my eyes. I looked down to avoid the glare. When I looked back up I was welcomed by, “YOU CAN READ MINDS!!!!!”

“Dude, it was just luck,” I assured.

So again he thought of another number. One after the other I guessed them right. It seemed like his smile was getting larger and larger every time. Finally after what seemed like 50 guesses and getting them right, he stopped me. “Listen,” he instructed me. “Have some fun with this. Who knows what you could find out about people?”

I was about to agree with him but the bell rang. As we parted I started to walk toward my class. “Have some fun with it,” I thought to myself.

I was walking through the hallway and I saw one of the seniors. She was strutting down the hallway on her shin, red, high heels. She was wearing a short red skirt and a blue shirt. She had a gold colored necklace hanging down with a teardrop at the end. Her wavy blonde hair kept moving in front of her eyes. I looked into her eyes when I got close enough. As I stared I saw sadness in her eyes. I kept staring trying to look into. I thought nothing was going to happen when I heard it. Her mouth didn’t move but I heard,” Why does everything bad happen to me? I wonder when my brother gets out of jail. Hopefully he doesn’t go back in after he gets out. And someone called me a w**** today. I don’t think it’s that bad. This all sucks.”

Her thoughts were cut off when I heard, “What are you starring at?” The girl was looking at me with a confused look. I didn’t know what to say. So I told her, “You know, smiling is good for you. Try it. It brightens people days and I smiled at her.

“You know what freshman? You just made my day,” she told me. I didn’t need to hear more, I just kept walking. I never would have thought anything was wrong with her if I hadn’t read her mind. Maybe this is a good thing. I kept walking and right before I found my class I saw the guy. THE guy. The guy that always wore black everything. Everyone was telling me about he has killed someone and that he cuts his wrists every day. That he doesn’t talk to anyone. I decide to read his mind to see if he was thinking of some Satanist thing. I stared into his eyes; no lip movement but I heard. “Can’t wait to get out of school!” My little brother is at home. I can’t wait to play with him. I love the little guy so much. The anticipation is killing me. I can’t wait. What a good day.”

I was awestruck. “Him?” I thought to myself. He seems like just the opposite. Sometimes people confuse me. If he acted all happy around every one else maybe he’d have more friends. But maybe he doesn’t want friends. An interesting thing to think about. I hadn’t noticed but while I was thinking about this I was just standing in place, RIGHT outside my class. The bell rang and I snapped back into reality. As I walked into my class I thought to myself, “I never would have thought that either of those people were feeling the way they felt.” My friend was right. I will have some fun with it and it will be fun.

Then next few weeks went by pretty fast. It’s amazing how different life is with having an ability. It’s amazing how you’re talking to a girl and she says, “You don’t know how I feel right now.”

Now it’s not so hard to figure out what’s wrong. It’s a lot easier to talked to people also because I know what they want to talk about and if I have no interest in talking to them about it then I can leave. Easy. But it has its downs also. I’ve found at that some friends that I THOUGHT were friends aren’t really my friends. While I’m talking about them they’re think about how annoying and obnoxious I am. But some people I’ve found to get a lot closer to. It’s been good and bad. But the bad was for the good.

But something has been bothering me for the last two days. Two days ago I was walking down the hallway doing my usual thing. I was looking into people minds to see what they were thinking. I’ve gotten pretty good at it to the point to where I can just glance at their eyes and get a giant flash of what they are thinking. I looked into a guy’s eyes. His dark, brown, leather jacket made his eyes an even darker brown then what they were. His eyes looked of sadness. I stared and heard, “This whole world sucks. At least it will be over in a couple days.”

I was kind of worried when I hear that because I didn’t know ha to think of it. That was two days ago. A couple days is probably two days. So it should be happening soon. Today was a sports assembly. We were all sitting down talking about whatever we wanted to talk about because no one listened to what was actually going on during the assembly. In the corner of my eye I saw the guy walking down the bleachers. Behind were four guys. Once hitting the gym floor, they 2 went to the left and 3 went to the right. Each stood in the corner of a room by a door. They all set down their backpacks. Slowly, each one of them unzipped their backpacks and pulled out a black object. A gun. I blinked. Blinked. And blinked again. “Am I seeing this right?” I asked myself.

Sure enough right as I thought this I heard, “BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!” Everything went quiet. It was if the whole school had stopped to have a competition of holding their breath. Then one of the guys spoke out. “Each one of us have been bullied and talked as outsiders. It’s time that you know how it feels to be bullied!”

My friend next to me was almost crying and she whispered, “What do they they’re doing?”

“I don’t know,” I responded.

“But I’ll find out,” I thought to myself.

I looked to the guy nearest to our stands. He had his gun cocked up against his shoulder. He was glancing around the room and as he turned I caught his eyes. Time to pry. I looked in and heard, “Why am I doing this? This is wrong. How’d they get me into this?”

“So he does have a conscience,” I said to myself.

The same guy was rambling on about how this school sucks. How the teachers don’t know how to teach and how the students are so incompetent. I was kind of bored to listen to him. Then reality hit me that he had a gun. The guy nearest us was still standing there with a worried look on his face. I don’t know what overcame me but I did something so stupid. Slowly, I stood up. Standing straight up I yelled, “You don’t have to do this! You know it’s wrong!”

Everyone turned toward me. The guy that was standing at the door nearest us looked up at me. He had a look of confusion on his face like, “How did he know?”

The guy nearest to us yelled, “Shut the hell up! Get down here right now!”

Fear raced through my whole body. I couldn’t move. As I stood there everyone looked at me. I could feel all their eyes piercing my skin. As I stood there not moving the guy pointed his gun at me. It was probably time to move… I held my arms in the air. It’s not like I had a gun or anything but it seems like always you hold your arms in the air. I walked down the bleachers step by step. All the faces of my fellow classmates were amazed, frightened, worried, pale, and red faced. I didn’t even want to look into their minds to see what they were thinking. As I got to the gym floor all the teachers were even looking at me. I always wanted to be center of attention but not like this.

I looked at the guy who called me down. He was starring at me with cold eyes. As I got within arm reach he grabbed hold of my collar, opened the door and dragged me out of the gym into the other room. “What do you think you’re doing!?” He screamed at me. “Do you want to get yourself killed? You’re lucky none of the other guys were the ones closer to you. I’m the nice one”

“Oh yeh, you’re the nice one, says the one pointing a gun at the whole school,” I spurted out.

Right after I said that I realized I shouldn’t have. “You are in no position to be sarcastic with me boy,” he instructed me.

“Well you don’t even want to be in this position,” I told him. I know you think this is wrong. I know you don’t want to do this. So don’t do it.”

“You don’t know anything about me, kid,” He told me. He proceeded and told me, “Maybe I don’t want to but there’s nothing you or I can do. To leave now would get me killed.”

“So who’s in charge of this?” I asked.
“The guy in the far right corner. His name is Danny.”
“ I have a plan,” T told him.

“Alright genius, what’s your plan?” He asked.

“Okay here is what happens. First you let me call the police to warn them. Then, fire a shot at the wall over there. It will sound like you shot me. So everyone thinks I’m dead. Then you give me your gun. Let me put it under my in between my jeans and waist. Then you drag me under the bleachers in the right corner. Then, you just wait and let me take care of the rest.”

He looked at me like I was crazy. “If this doesn’t work, you know you’ll be killed, right?” He asked.

“Yes.”

“Fine, then lets do it,” he agreed with me finally.

So I did the first step in calling the police. I told them that 4 guys had the gym held captive with guns. I told them I snuck out of the gym without them noticing and to come quickly. Then I hung up. Part two was next. The guy pointed the gun at the wall. He fired. The gunfire cut through the air like nothing else. It went straight into the wall and made a hole. I couldn’t see the bullet. Uneasily, he handed me the gun, which I stuck under my jeans.

He opened the door. I felt him grab one of my ankles and I close my eyes. I made my whole body go limp. I could feel him dragging me across the ground. I could feel all the tiny dust particles climbing on to my shirt and making home. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me. I couldn’t help myself so I peaked. I barley opened my eyes so I could barley see around me. Everyone was starring but why wouldn’t they? Half of the people were just sitting wide eyed and the others were sitting with their heads in their hands. As we got closer to the bleachers I closed my eyes. “Thump!”

He dragged me straight into the edge of the bleacher. I had to hold in a roar of pain so I wouldn’t give away that I was still alive. I could feel darkness overcome me as we passed under the bleachers. He dropped my legs and walked away. I waited for five minutes just waiting there until I heard, “See! That’s what happens when you interrupt us! This is what happens to people who think they are just so cool,” said the leader, Danny.

“That’s what he thinks,” I chuckled to myself.

I opened my eyes I was directly under the bleachers. No one could see me. I placed my hand on the ground I propped myself up. I stood up and dusted myself off. I walked under the bleachers to the end. I took the gun out and held it tightly in my hand. I could see the leader. He was rambling on about how horrible everyone is. When I got to the end of the bleachers I stuck my head out. I was right behind the leader. My hand was sweaty severely holding the gun. I felt as it could just slip out from how sweaty it was. I came out from under the bleachers slowly. I lifted the gun up and walked behind the leader. I pushed up against the back of his head. I said, “Put. Your. Gun. Down. The cops are on their way.”

Everyone in the gym was once again starring at me. Looks of confusion were on everyone’s faces, everyone except one, the guy who helped me. He was smiling. The leader with confusion said, “What! You’re supposed to be dead.”

“Suppose to be,” I laughed. “Guess I’m back from the dead. Now drop your gun.”

“He slowly let the gun slip from his hand and the small black object fell to the ground. It landed and relief came over my body. I don’t know how I heard because I wasn’t looking into his eyes but I heard him think, “This kid is small. I can overpower him. Just whip around I take the gun out of his hand.’

I was then ready. He turned around quickly and through a punch. I dodged the punch. Quickly, I turned the gun around so I was holding the barrel and swung. The butt of the gun smacked against the side of his head. He dropped to the ground out cold. I didn’t know what to do next until I heard sirens. The cops were here. Finally. Once again relief swept over my body. As the cops slammed through the door with guns they first looked at me like I was the bad person. “Drop the guns! Get out the ground!” They all yelled.

I immediately dropped my gun but screamed, “No! I’m the good guy. I just knocked out the leader.”

They looked at me with confusion. Like they didn’t expect that I would be able to do anything. They still didn’t believe me. They took out handcuffs and smacked them on me. I felt the sharp metal scrape against my wrists and pain evoked me. Then the people in the bleachers started yelling. “What are you doing?! He’s the good guy! Arrest the other guys!”

The cops took the handcuffs off of me and arrested the four guys. I told them not to arrest the one guy because he helped me. The cops stayed for a while questioning people. We were dismissed early because of what happened. I was held after for questioning and congratulating.

I always thought this mind reading this would only be something fun to do but who would have imagined I saved people with it. I sure didn’t. As I waked out the door I had a big smile on my face because I couldn’t wait to get home and have my mom ask me, “So how was your day?”


THE END