The Band of Misfits

Chapter 2

Joe

I liked watching the lights speed by out the windows of my dad's company truck. In the beginning, humans thought slow. They moved slow. Their progress was slow. Let's just say they were slow in general. Now we're so advanced that we can build hulking beasts of metal that get us places by propelling us faster than any human could move. Human innovation in itself is amazing. Sure, it's taken a while, but just take a second to look where we are. We may not be the biggest or the strongest or the fastest. But we ARE the smartest. I sometimes wonder if humans could ever get more powerful.

Why am I thinking and talking like this? Because I am tired out of my mind. I stayed up all night finishing geography homework, which is usual. Then I studied for biology, which is usual. Then I focused on geometry, which is also usual. And then I opened my geometry book with my mind. Which, as I found out, is NOT very common.

I was so tired last night. I remember reaching into my backpack for my geometry book, pulling it out, and then throwing it WWE style onto my bed. Then I plopped down on the bed as well and got my paper and pencil. I realized, to my great sorrow, that the distance between me and my book was out of arm's distance. I was so lazy that I reached my hand out and tried to concentrate to make it come to me.

I had tried to do this many times before due to my chronic laziness. The book didn't come to me, but it did open to page 594, the exact page I wanted it to. I stayed there on my bed for about five minutes just staring at the book with one hand outstretched and the other holding my pencil. After a while, I got up to make sure the windows weren't open, thinking a gust of wind might've caused the book to open. But the windows were closed. I checked for strings all around the book. But there were none.

So I sat down slowly, afraid that the geometry book would somehow spontaneously propel itself toward me and attack, giving me deadly paper cuts. But, of course, it didn't move. So I sat there for a bit, then I reached my hand out and concentrated.

'Fall off the bed, fall off the bed,' I pleaded to the book.

And what did it do? It flew across the room and smashed into the wall with a loud crash.

"What happened?!", my parents yelled from their room almost immediately.

"I, uh...tripped", I said, hesitantly(I wasn't even sure what had just happened).

Either they believed me, or were too sleepy to interject. So I stayed up all night moving small things with my mind, and when I mastered pencils and remotes, I moved onto beds and TVs. I realized that the bigger the object, the more concentration it required. Before I knew it, it was time to get ready, but at that point, I wasn't tired one bit. Just giddy with excitement. And now here I am, in my dad's company truck on my way to school at 6:45 in the morning.

That's when the truck came out of nowhere. My dad had waited five seconds at the stop sign, so he started forward, but the other truck ignored his blatant stop sign and was speeding right toward where my dad would be in a couple of seconds. I saw it, and my dad didn't. He was on his phone. So I acted instinctively. I thrust my hands forward. I felt the strain in my head, willing the ratty, red, old Toyota to halt in its forward motion. I hadn't tried to use my newfound ability on something as large as a truck. The car came to a screeching halt, smoke and the smell of burning rubber invading the air outside. My dad looked up as we drove past him. I caught a glimpse of the driver. A guy in his teens. Blonde, short hair and a stern, solid look on his face. I silently called him a...bad word. My dad said the word out loud, which made me smile.

Then I thought if I should tell him about my...secret. I decided to wait. Should I tell my friends? Would they even believe me?...