Lovers With Dream
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I was still thinking about how I could get out of the situation with no more than a little humiliation when I saw someone standing in front of me.
“Hey, it’s you,” he said after we’d both stood up and were looking at each other. “It is? Well hey.” He looked confused for a moment before saying, “I’m surprised to see you here. Are you really that much of an idiot?”
I was so stunned by his question that my first instinct was to just stand there stupidly waiting for him to say something else. But instead, I started laughing. The guy who had been sitting next to me leaned over and punched me in the shoulder as we all laughed. “Come on,” he said, “it’s not that funny.”
“Well… I guess maybe it isn’t,” I admitted, wiping tears from my eyes.
He sighed deeply and then shrugged before asking, “What are you doing here anyway? You’re supposed to be working somewhere down south right now.” He was staring at me strangely but didn’t look angry or anything like that. In fact, he seemed almost amused by our current situation.
“Oh yeah,” I said as the laughter subsided. “That’s right.” We both stared at one another again before I asked, “So, uh… what did I do this time? Or haven’t you figured it out yet?”
The boy snorted and shook his head. “No, it’s pretty obvious.” Then, he turned back to the people sitting around us and yelled, “Okay everybody! Who’s the fucking moron that invited the newbie to this shitfest?”
Everyone laughed and clapped their hands together while I thought, Oh great. So, I wasn’t the only moron.
When everyone quieted down, the man in front of me took a deep breath and said, “Yeah, well you got your wish and we’ll be taking the night off from training. Now go find yourself a chair and take a seat, asshole.” At my blank stare, he rolled his eyes and added, “You heard me. It’s the newbie’s turn to watch us train tonight.”
Then, he turned back and walked away, leaving me standing there with a stupid smile plastered across my face.
***
“Okay,” I said quietly into the room, “I think I can manage this one.” I was lying on my back, legs straight up in the air, trying to hold myself up on my toes as I stretched out my left leg while balancing on my right. My arms were wrapped tightly around my bent knees, pressing my body firmly against them as I struggled to keep my balance.
A large sweat-soaked towel was being draped over me from behind, soaking up all the moisture dripping freely down my face, neck, and back.
This was actually the easiest exercise we’d done that day. Most of the things we trained were incredibly physically demanding. After three days of intense workouts every day, I was starting to feel very sore all over.
Fortunately, I hadn’t pulled any muscles or broken any bones during our last fight with the giant snake monster. And despite being completely exhausted afterward, I felt great because it had gone much better than the first one. Even though it had taken several rounds of combat, I had managed to wear it down enough so that I could eventually finish it off with one big hit to its head.
Now, however, I needed to concentrate on keeping my core strong if I was going to win this round. The problem was that my abs were extremely tight from all the effort we’d put in today. They were so tight that I wasn’t sure I would be able to even lift my feet from the floor let alone hold my body weight up in the air like I needed to in order to complete this particular exercise.
As far as I could tell, I wouldn’t have much choice in the matter either way, since I didn’t seem to be getting anywhere by just resting and letting gravity help me stay upright.
But then, suddenly, I was floating above the ground, hanging in mid-air without any effort whatsoever.
“Damn!” I shouted as my feet came crashing down onto the gym floor. “How did you do that?”
A couple of the guys chuckled softly and nodded their heads while looking back and forth between me and the person standing next to them.
Turning quickly toward me, they both smiled widely and said, “Well it’s no wonder you lost your balance. Did you seriously think we would actually let someone who couldn’t even hold her own body weight up in the air float around like that?”
At that moment, I finally recognized the voice of the girl I’d talked to when she’d first come to join us for training. She was smiling brightly and staring directly at me from across the room with those piercing blue eyes of hers as if to challenge me to disagree.
I looked at each of my teammates for some kind of answer, but none of them seemed quite ready to step up and explain the situation to me. Instead, I just shrugged my shoulders and said, “Well, you should’ve told me I was floating or something. Otherwise, how was I supposed to know to push myself upward again?”
She giggled at me and then waved her hand in front of my face. “No, it’s okay. You need to get used to seeing things from different perspectives if you’re going to be learning to control the abilities of others. But before you ask, I don’t really float anymore.
It’s more that I use my telekinesis to lift myself up. If we ever decide we’re going to be working together, we might be able to make some use out of it. For now, though, we’ll have to work with what you brought to the table. Which is, obviously, not much.”
After making fun of my ability for a few seconds, she finally added, “And don’t worry. We can start with something easier than floating if you want. Just say the word.”
The idea of having someone else helping me learn made my stomach drop a little bit because I didn’t know what she was capable of. I mean, we’d only spoken briefly when she showed up at our door this afternoon, but I remembered how powerful she had sounded. And besides, I already knew what happened when she touched me earlier in the gym. It was pretty damn scary to be honest.
But then, at least it would give us another chance to try and beat that giant snake monster that attacked us the other day. That was definitely worth trying out.
So, without further hesitation, I gave a short nod of approval and then started to stretch out my arms in front of me to get ready to begin the exercise once again.
“Great! I’m glad you decided to stick around for another session,” she replied happily after watching me prepare to repeat the same movements we’d been doing over and over for most of the morning. “It will take a while, so you probably shouldn’t expect too much improvement overnight. But in time, I promise you’ll start to see the changes happening.”
That sounded encouraging. I guess.
As the two of us got ready to start practicing once again, she asked me, “What do you normally do when you’re working out? Do you just lift weights and such?”
At first, I was confused about why she was asking me, but I quickly realized that this was actually one of the exercises she’d chosen for us to practice first, and since it seemed important to her, she wanted to make sure we understood exactly what the goal was.
I also wondered what her motivation was for choosing it since it involved lifting heavy plates off the ground and throwing them into different targets. But at least we hadn’t had to pick up anything so far, so that was a good thing.
When I answered her question, I said, “Actually, we mostly work on running and strength exercises these days. We’ve got plenty of weight machines here, but the big guys are still worried that they’ll hurt themselves if they accidentally pull out a muscle.”
This time when I lifted a plate from the top of the gym rack and threw it across the room, I heard the satisfying sound of it hitting one of the targets with an audible clang. The rest of the team joined in by taking turns throwing their own plates at different points around the room.
While everyone worked to throw their plates as hard as possible at different targets around the gym, I tried to concentrate on being aware of everything going on all over my body.
At the same time, I was trying to remember that when I focused on a single point and felt my connection with the metal around me strengthening, I could move objects in my field of view faster than I had in the past. So, I just concentrated on that feeling until my next turn came up.
When that time rolled around, I reached down and grabbed a new plate from the rack and threw it as hard as I could at a target several feet away from us. I heard the clanging noise right away and then watched as the plate smashed against one of the wooden walls and fell onto the floor.
“Damn, I thought that one went in,” someone muttered.
Everyone laughed a little at him for missing his mark, and I just let out a sigh of relief.
Then, when it was my turn again, I picked up another plate from where it hung in the rack and held it close to my face, letting my eyes go unfocused and my focus go inward while at the same time pushing my telekinesis outward to help me push the weight upward and send it flying into the air.
My heart was pounding in excitement and fear at what would happen next as I sent it toward the target.
I knew I wasn’t aiming at the exact spot, but I had enough skill now that I could feel when it was coming back down and aim slightly higher or lower to adjust accordingly. This time, I heard the clanging noise even before I saw it hit its target and fall to the ground. As everyone applauded and congratulated me for doing well, I was filled with pride and excitement.
Because, for the first time ever, I had accomplished something like this without a lot of help. Even though we were just throwing heavy pieces of metal across a room, it was the very beginning stages of what I hoped to eventually be able to do with my powers.
And it gave me a glimpse of how powerful I could become once I learned more of what I needed to know, practiced consistently, and found better ways to apply my abilities.
In fact, I could already see that I had improved a bit since our last session. It might have only been one plate at a time, but it made me realize that there was no limit to what I could learn and accomplish if I took the time to study things and put myself in positions where I could test out new skills.
So, I decided right there and then to get started on doing just that.
***
A few minutes later, I walked into a small room at the back of the school that was empty except for a single bed and a table with a chair next to it.
“You know, there’s not really much need for you to keep training today,” Dr. Kowalczy said when I told her I wanted to continue my regular workout routine after school. She smiled at me as she looked over her shoulder to check on something.
As I sat on the edge of the bed to stretch my legs and back muscles, she said, “We can probably just do our usual assessment tomorrow.”
With that, she disappeared behind one of the walls. I didn’t think much of it until I noticed the door had shut itself when we weren’t paying attention. Then, I remembered what Dr. Davenport said about how she was able to control doors around here.
It was strange because it seemed to me like a lot of people around here could just suddenly move things out of nowhere with no effort. But, as long as it meant that I wouldn’t be having any trouble leaving anytime soon, I wasn’t too concerned.
At least, I didn’t start to care until Dr. Kowalczy called my name. When I turned to look at her, she handed me a clipboard, saying, “Here, take this with you.”
“What is it?” I asked her, handing it back to her so that she could sign the date on the sheet.
She shrugged and then headed through a doorway to the left of us that led into the hall. As she did, I followed her in case she had more to say.
But, all she did was head toward the front stairs. So, I waited for a minute or two to see if she was going to come back but then figured that she must be done for the day.
That was fine by me. Because now I’d actually be able to practice what I was learning instead of sitting in the classroom and talking about it all day long.
So, I headed upstairs to my room to grab my gym clothes and shoes and then changed while studying what Dr. Kowalczy wrote for me on the sheet. I tried to read everything carefully, and although the writing was kind of faint, it was still hard to make out what she wrote on each line.
The problem with having Dr. Davenport write things for me was that I felt bad for making her go back home so early every night, even though she said she enjoyed helping me figure out my power. That didn’t mean that I wanted her to waste valuable time doing so, however. Especially because the longer she spent working with me, the less chance I had of getting her help elsewhere.
If I could find someone else who could do the same thing, they would be able to give me an answer to the question I had posed earlier: What exactly does my power work on?
My hope was that some other person had the ability to create the type of energy field that my powers required, but maybe they hadn’t found a way to harness it yet. If that was the case, the more experience I had with what worked and what didn’t, the greater chance I had of figuring out a solution myself.
The End