Tell Me What You Hate About Me

23: A Step Back

Make Dominic be nice to me for twenty-four hours straight.

Give Jack and his band a good gig that makes them some money and gets them a little exposure.

Help Sierra completely get over Dominic's bullshit and recover from her one bad quiz grade.

Give Dr. Reed the courage to do what we all know she wants and cancel our class next week.

And for me, send me a check in the mail from my parents. Oh, and let me finally figure out how I'm supposed to get my way when I make these. I'm getting real tired of messing it up in an exciting way every single time.

I opened my eyes and gave the talisman one last look, and I couldn't help but feel that if my parents knew that I was essentially praying to a piece of gold, they would give my money to the church instead. I wasn't making any progress in the learning process, and although I had worked more on this than school, I was getting nowhere.

It was always easier to fail because I wasn't trying than to fail after pouring my heart and soul into a project, but unlimited power was a good motivator for me. All I had to do was master communicating my thoughts to an inanimate object, and whatever I wanted was mine.

Like the daze after a sneeze that started in the toes, I froze with that thought.

That was literally the most excellent thought ever.

With Halloween getting closer, the stars and full moon had to be aligning for me, and although I was just about ready to give up a few days earlier, the beginnings of that feeling were coming back. It was the same one that pressed the buy now button on the metal detector and the same one that told me the pond was the place to dig.

It seemed that I got the better end of that deal as opposed to Dominic. I wasn't sent into a worthless panic from that feeling; instead, it told me which way was up. And what was up? The fact that I was in good shape, even if I had no money (yet).

Sierra wanted it, Dominic wanted it, Dr. Reed wanted it, and Jack probably did too but didn't want to tell me. I was in a damn good spot, and I was too caught up in what was wrong with the details of my life to see the big picture.

How stupid was I? I let one comment from Sierra get to me. I wasn't a failure. I had the key to everyone's well-being and happiness in my pocket as soon as I learned to control it. All I had to do was keep it in my hands, learn its ways (which, of course, was easier said than done), and manipulate the world so it was just the way I wanted it. And what did I want? It didn't matter. I could change my mind.

With the high I was on, Dr. Rainier's ASL didn't seem so bad, and I headed there to waste some time and see if Dominic was actually going to be nice to me like I asked from my talisman.

Would a failure conduct such a wonderful science experiment? No.

I walked into the classroom, where Dominic was early like always. No one else was there, and he kept the lights off like a vampire in his lair.

"Hey Dominic," I said loud enough that he had to hear me.

He flipped the page in his notebook. "You don't have to yell at me."

"I thought you told me that you don't like studying where it's too quiet, like an empty classroom. Wasn't that the whole reason that we went to the pond and started this whole mess?"

"Yep."

I waited for him to elaborate on that, and when he didn't, I took the seat next to him. "Can I ask you something?"