Chapter 23
The fun with energy-
Saturday, I was in my first study group rotation. The program leaders thought we would benefit from studying together in small groups of five, then rotating and changing the groups around. They wanted us to have the chance to tap into everyone’s different viewpoints and thoughts. I hated study groups, because no one left me alone. Instead of studying things out, they asked me everything.
My first group had Teddy in it. He was such a jerk, with an indifferent attitude. He hated being there. He hated us, and he worked hard at letting us know.
“What do you think?” Matt had asked me about the lecture.
“Well, I know if you retain too much carbon dioxide in your system, then you will go into respiratory acidosis,” I replied.
“You think you know everything,” Teddy taunted me. “Everybody worship me, for I am Alora Funk,” he mocked.
“Just ignore him,” Matt told me.
“Yeah, ignore me, Alora,” Teddy said.
“Hey, at least Alora got in here because of her smarts. I heard you got in here because your daddy donated a wing to the library for your entrance fee. He paid over a million dollars to get his dopey, good for nothing son in,” Matt jabbed back.
Teddy stood up and threw his chair to the ground, creating a loud bang in study lounge. Good thing no one was around for us to disturb. He put his fists up. “You wanna fight?”
Matt stayed calm in his seat. “And get kicked out of Harvard for good? You aren’t worth that.”
“What, are you chicken?”
I was sick of Teddy. We all were. I would fight him, but in my way. With my Zen, I grabbed some of Teddy’s energy and gave it to Matt. Teddy didn’t completely fall like Dr. Harrison had, but he stumbled to the floor. His head was rolling around, and he crawled up on all fours. He looked like a sick dog, about to vomit. The color in his face drained.
I glanced over at Matt. He hadn’t even noticed Teddy because he was enraptured by the extra energy I had given him. He looked at his hands then spun in a circle. His smile spread across his face. He ran in place.
“I feel great!” he said, entirely forgetting about Teddy. The other two girls in the group glanced back and forth between Matt and Teddy. They looked confused as they tried to figure things out since both boys were acting weird. Matt acted like he was high on drugs while Teddy seemed like he was dying on the floor. It was great. I loved learning more about what I could do with energy, and I loved watching Teddy suffer. He deserved the humiliation as he rocked on all fours. After Teddy wet himself, I gave him three quarters of his energy back. I let Matt keep the last quarter since he had stood up for me. He deserved it.
With the majority of his energy returned, Teddy jumped up and ran out of the lounge. He hadn’t even bothered to grab his things. I hoped his disgracing experience would give him a slice of humility.
As we rotated study groups, I wanted to have more fun. I wasn’t as greedy with the other’s energy as I had been with Teddy’s. I would grab little parts of someone’s energy and pass it around the group, watching as members instantly became tired, while others rejuvenated. It was really entertaining. My fourth group was in the library and every time the librarian passed our table, I would zap her with a bolt of energy. When it hit her, she would jump and let out a small squeak. I wondered if it felt like an electric shock, because I sent it with a great amount of force. After a while she would eye our table, not daring to go by it again. My experiments were so fun, and I was learning a lot.
Monday, I couldn’t wait to see Dr. Moody. At first, I was going to tell him about what had happened, but I decided to show him instead. I hadn’t wanted to be rude and take his energy, so I gave him a small hit of mine. It was a low hit, because I didn’t want to give him too much of my energy. He ate, not even reacting to my small zap. I repeated it until I had hit him five times with it.
“Have you been feeling that?” I couldn’t take the silence anymore.
“Feeling what,” he said with a poker face.
“Have you been feeling bolts of energy?”
“Well, yeah. What do you know about that?” he asked, giving me a strange look.
I had a huge smile. “I have figured out how to control energy. I can grab it from people and objects and share it with others. I have been giving you some of my energy.”
“Do it again,” he challenged.
“Do you mind if I take yours for a moment?” I asked.
“Only if you return it.”
I reached out with my Zen and grabbed his energy; only a small amount. He went limp in his chair and instantly peed his pants. He looked sick and it frightened me. I really didn’t think I had taken too much. Quickly, I returned it, scared of what I had done. He was obviously feebler than Dr. Harrison had been.
“Alora, did you mean for me to wet myself?”
I blushed and looked away.
“That was something else though,” he continued. “So you took my energy and returned it,” he surmised as he looked down at his pants. “I’m going to have to run home and change,” he said a matter of factly, unconcerned by wetting himself.
“Yes,” I said, not wanting to look at him, being ashamed for causing him to wet himself.
“Did you do that to Dr. Harrison last Friday?” he asked.
I wouldn’t answer him because I didn’t want to get in trouble, but he could read my poker face. I took my eyes off of my lap and said, “Yes, that was me.”
Both of Dr. Moody’s hands covered his mouth. His eyes bulged out.
I smiled, proud of myself.
“Can you move things?” he asked.
I am not sure why, but I hadn’t really tried. I had moved my pencil one time, but then I had been distracted by taking object’s energy forces. I suddenly had the desire to experiment more on telekinesis.
Wanting to see if I could impress Dr. Moody more -and interested in what I could do-I used my Zen to take books off the shelf. I had twelve off, and begun spinning them in a circle, somewhat like a tornado of books. We could feel the wind flow off them as they spun in orbit. Dr. Moody looked completely enraptured by my experiment. I was a tingle myself, for not only could I do it, but it was easy for me. One by one, I returned the books to the shelf.
“Alora, that is phenomenal!” Dr. Moody had a fun look on his face, one I hadn’t seen before. His eyes seemed to twinkle at my task.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Make me a promise,” Dr. Moody said as he rubbed his long fingers together, a sound of sandpaper coming off them.
“Alright,” I replied. I wondered what magnificent feat he wanted me to try.
“Have you told anyone about this yet?” he asked.
“No, I was waiting for you to be the first one I shared it with.”
“That is very considerate of you. Please don’t share this with anyone. At least not yet.”
“But why? I really wanted to show Dr. Van Hassel.”
“Please, trust me on this, Alora. I will give you a better answer tomorrow, but until then, don’t tell anyone.”
I promised Dr. Moody I wouldn’t. After class, I planned on spending the rest of the night experimenting on moving things, wondering if there was a weight limit on what I could move. When I returned to my dorm, there was a letter from Peggy on my pillow. The letter made me forget about Telekinesis until my next meeting with Dr. Moody. It read:
Dear Alora,
I am so sorry for the way our parting went. Can you please forgive me? I now look back at it, and I am sure I looked really selfish in not letting you go to summer camp. Please let me explain my reasoning. I was so scared. It is as simple as that. I know it sounds like a poor excuse for not letting you go to camp. But, I was trying to protect you. You see, I had a best friend in 9th grade who went to summer camp. It is funny, because she begged and begged her mom to let her go. Her mom kept sayi
ng she had a bad feeling about it, but my friend begged so much, her mom finally let her go. I tried to get my parents to let me go, but when they said no, I didn’t ask again. I wasn’t that type of kid to go against their word. Anyway, my friend went to camp, and guess what? She came home pregnant. It was awful, for she wasn’t that type of girl, but as you can see, anything can happen at camp, for kids aren’t really supervised at camp. No one there holds an invested interest in the kids like their parents do.
I didn’t want to put you in a situation where your virtues and values would be tested. Angela said I needed to give you that chance so you would be strong. I guess she was right.
I know what a big deal this camp is going to be to your career. I have researched it while you have been there and I am blown away by what kind of things they have set up for you. I imagine you are going to come home a brainiac.
We sure miss you. I want you to know I have talked to Mr. Cox and he said we can take you back when you return. I am so sorry I closed the door for a moment. I was angry and I had acted poorly.
The kids miss you. Mike misses you. I miss you. Please have fun, but please come back to us soon. And while you are there, remember who you are. Make good choices and stay away from boys.
Love,
Mom Sanibel.
…
Peggy’s letter made me feel so good, and the best part about it, was she wanted me back! I had been scared to leave camp when it ended, because I didn’t know where I was going to go. I missed the Sanibels a little, but I really missed everything else. I missed the reservoir, the camp ground, and the canyon. I missed my school, and Mandy. I was longing to go back.
…
When the night had ended, I was trying to go to sleep, but Sharon was making too much noise as she was trying to complete her homework. She cranked her radio on and jammed to it while studying. It was already midnight, and I was exhausted. I wanted to sleep.
“Please turn the music off and go to bed,” I whined for what felt like the hundredth time.
“Can’t. This homework is due tomorrow. I can’t let my grades slip.”
“I can’t go to sleep with all of your racket. At least turn your radio off,” I yelled as I threw the pillow over my head.
“Hey, I didn’t ask for you to be my roommate. My parents paid for a private dorm so I could stay up as late as I needed to in order to get my homework done.”
“I need to sleep.”
“My grade is worth more than your sleep,” she said as she turned the volume up a notch. Someone banged and yelled through the wall, “Shut up!”
“Yeah, Alora, shut that music off!” Sharon said as she put her mouth close to the wall.
She turned her volume down enough to not bother our neighbors anymore, but still loud enough to prevent me from going to sleep. I was seething under the pillow. What a selfish person she was. All Sharon ever cared about was her advancement. She didn’t care whose toes she crushed on the journey, as long as she felt like she was getting ahead. I was exhausted and finding really unkind feelings seep into me, when an idea hit me. Sharon obviously had too much energy. I could make her want to go to sleep in seconds. I sat up and watched her. This was going to be sick. I couldn’t wait. Vengefully, I reached my Zen out and took some energy from her, like I had with Dr. Harrison. She collapsed to the floor. She was so weak. She couldn’t pull herself up. I decided I better give her some of it back, for I didn’t want to kill her. I let her suffer for a few more seconds then returned some. She was exhausted. Without brushing her teeth, or putting her homework away, she crawled into her bed and went to sleep. I hoped she hadn’t wet herself.
I had absorbed her energy and it was making me hyper. I wanted to run around the room, feeling it surge through me as it visited every cell within. Since I was no longer tired, I wanted to crank the radio on and see how she liked it? It was too late to be so pumped up. I took her energy, and a little of mine and sent it through the wall into the dorm on the other side. Happy to have Sharon asleep, I quickly joined her in the land of slumber.
In the morning, Sharon was dragging. Apparently, she hadn’t fully restored the energy she had lost. It really made a good experiment because I would have guessed her body would have regenerated her lost energy while she slept. She had bags under her eyes and she looked beat. She was very concerned because she hadn’t finished her homework. As I looked out the window, I could see students walk by. I had an idea. I started ciphering small bits of energy from each person down below. Since it was such small amounts, I doubted anyone would notice it was gone. I took the collection of energy and gave them to Sharon. I must have overdone it, for soon she was running around the room very hyper. She reminded me of a three year old because of how annoying she was acting.
“It looks like someone woke up,” I said.
“Yeah, it is the weirdest thing. Just moments ago, I was so tired, but now I feel like I can move a mountain.”
“Why don’t you use that energy and finish your homework assignment?”
“Oh, good idea!” she said.
I don’t know why I helped her with her energy. She had been such a jerk the night before. She deserved to be sluggish, and she deserved to fail her assignment. But, I guess all the Sundays I had gone to church with the Sanibels had formed a bit of a conscious in me. As I wanted to see Sharon suffer, I remembered Jesus Christ, and how he had prayed for those who had hurt him. I had learned so much in church about forgiveness. All the Sundays the Sanibels had dragged me to church, I didn’t think I had listened, but it seemed to have taken a place in me, because I decided to forgive Sharon.
Sharon sat down and with the last fifteen minutes before we had to leave, she finished her work. “Wow, that was the fastest I ever got homework done,” she said. “I’m so alert.” I tried to hide my smile.
…
While I was in class, I was so bored. Nothing new was being taught. I used my Zen and picked the paper off of my desk. It looked like it was levitating. I had forgotten where I was. Nervous, I hurried and dropped it and looked around the room. No one was paying any attention to me. The class looked hollow, like they were burnt-out and about to fall asleep. When I was sure no one was watching me, I used my Zen to pick the paper off the table again. I tossed it back and forth, then dropped it.
I shot my hand up in the air. “Can I be excused to the bathroom?” I asked.
Dr. Morris replied, “Is it bathroom break right now on your agenda?” he asked condescendingly. Dr. Morris was a stickler for rules. He refused to do a thing that wasn’t in correspondence to a rule.
“I would like to use my free pass,” I said. We had all been given two bathroom passes to use whenever we needed to. Other than that, we were expected to go during the breaks on the agenda. Once the passes were gone, we were out of luck.
“I suppose if you want to squander your pass at this very moment, then I am not permitted to get in your way, but I would like to bring it to your attention how class excuses in ten minutes and one would be wise to wait and use the pass on a more opportune time.”
“Sorry, I must go now,” I said as I jumped up and ran by his desk, tossing my pass at him. It missed his desk and fell on the floor.
“Hey, stop and pick this up,” he hollered after me. I kept running.
I had been smart enough to grab my backpack, because I knew I wouldn’t be returning to his class that day. I ducked into the bathroom. I looked under all the stalls and found I had the bathroom to myself. I emptied the contents of my backpack on the counter.
“Okay, let’s do this,” I said. I picked each thing up with my Zen. I found on the heavier things I had to use more of my energy. I also learned I wasn’t limited to one Zen. Just like at Dr. Moody’s office, I was open to multiple Zens and I could lift many things up at once. I smiled as I watched the textbooks float around the bathroom. I had pens going in circles. I formed my papers
into airplanes and had them zooming around the room. While the contents of my backpack were flying around the bathroom, I turned water faucets on. With my Zen, I took the water and splashed it across the wall. From the toilets, I lifted the water out into dancing, swirling water displays.
“I rule!” I exclaimed in triumph. I was having so much fun.
The bathroom door opened. Instantly I cut my Zen off, and everything fell to the floor. The bathroom looked trashed by my things. The floor was sopping with water.
“What are you doing in here?” a third year student asked as she saw the mess.
“I tripped,” I lied. “Did the bell ring?” I asked.
“Yeah, like five minutes ago.”
I had been in the bathroom for fifteen minutes! Time had cruised. The third year student went into a stall.
“Eww, the toilet seats are all wet and so is the floor. What have you been doing?”
I used my Zen to quickly levitate all my things back into my backpack. I felt a little drowsy. I noticed I had depleted some of my energy with the party I had had. As I was leaving the bathroom, I stole a bit of the third year’s student’s energy to replenish my own. I then caught up to my study group, which was in our outside meeting spot.
I spent the rest of the day perfecting my Zen. The more I levitated things, the easier it had come to me. I think a few times, other students noticed the objects around the class room floating. I had decided to lift things in the corners of the classroom, keeping the experiment far from me.
I couldn’t wait to meet with Dr. Moody, but unfortunately, he was sick. I was bummed I couldn’t reveal to him all I was learning. It was really hard for me not to flaunt to the other kids what I could do. I knew I would impress them, but kept it to myself because Dr. Moody had made me promise to keep it a secret. I wanted to tell him I was going to start showing others. Why did the secrecy matter?
When I was ready to go to bed, I made sure Sharon was ready as well. As she climbed into bed, she complained at how she had suddenly become so tired at the end of the day. I hid my face under my pillow as I laughed. It would teach her to never be a night owl again. I didn’t know if it was the Christian thing to do, but I hadn’t fully embraced Christianity. The next day, I worked on my abilities again in first and second period. I then went outside with my group for study time.