The Future

Ivy wasn't sure what else to say to Adrian. Without being able to read his mind she hadn't formed a solid impression of him yet. It might be beneficial to talk to Lydia about the kind of person she thought he was.

He tilted his head and examined her. She would kill to know what he was thinking. Not knowing how other people thought of her felt wrong, like she was missing a limb.

"You're kind of a loner, aren't you?"

How did he come to that conclusion solely from her tendency to hide in the library at lunch? He wasn't wrong. People were all the same deep down so she didn't enjoy spending time with them the way others did.

"Maybe," she conceded. "What about you?"

He definitely seemed like a skater. Skaters tended to hang out with other skaters both inside and outside of school to her knowledge. They typically weren't antisocial but weren't the most popular kids around either.

"Nah. I'd rather be with other people than by myself," Adrian said.

Ivy couldn't even imagine that. She merely tolerated being around people outside of her family but living with them was all she had even known. She had even gotten used to Ethan's constant stream of completely random thoughts.

It must be nice being able to feel a real connection with people. Her power separated her from others as if there was an emotional wall. How was she supposed to get close to anyone when she knew way more about them than they could ever know about her?

Keeping people at arm's length was the best way to keep herself safe. Ivy's dreams of a simple life would be destroyed if anyone ever knew the truth. She had learned her lesson back in third grade.

Her best friend at the time, a girl named Kaitlyn, had been curious how she always seemed to know everything without even saying anything. So Ivy told her. Kaitlyn thought she was kidding at first and challenged her to guess what she was thinking.

After seven consecutive correct answers the girl got scared and called Ivy a monster. Kaitlyn pushed her down on the playground and later tattled on her to the teacher, her parents, and anyone who would listen.

Ivy got very lucky that nobody believed such a tall tale. But the rest of the school year was miserable since Kaitlyn got everyone else in their class to ostracize her. Moving that summer had been a relief.

That experience had taught her that no one could be trusted with her secret, successfully snuffing out any future desire to get close to anyone. She was friendly enough if the situation warranted it, like during group projects, but never sought out friends.

Lydia had latched onto her and Ivy reluctantly accepted because her thoughts weren't too annoying. Even remembering not to respond to her one friend's thoughts had been difficult at first.

Being around the same people a lot increased her risk of blowing her cover. Friends really weren't worth the hassle overall. Especially when said friends liked hanging out in very public spaces.

Ivy felt too self-conscious to wear her headphones when they went to the mall. If she was with her family it wouldn't matter but Lydia didn't know there was anything wrong with her and she wanted to keep it that way.

Belatedly, Ivy realized that she hadn't responded to what Adrian said. She wasn't entirely sure what to say anyway so she changed the subject.

"What grade are you in?"

Adrian seemed amused by her question for some reason. "I'm a senior. You?"

"Junior," she responded, internally cursing.

This posed a problem. If she didn't figure out what made him different before the end of the school year she would probably never see him again. A mystery of this magnitude would likely haunt her for the rest of her life.

The noise inside Ivy's head grew worse and she wanted to lie down more than ever. But she couldn't yet; there was still more she needed to ask him! Under the pressure of the voices in the cafeteria she forgot everything she had rehearsed this morning.

It was too much. This was exactly why she always hid in the library! In her haste to learn more about this enigmatic boy she had forgotten her own limits. Kill her now.

"What do you plan to do after graduation?" Ivy asked.

It was a fairly standard question for seniors and was the only thing she could think of as her head continued to split. People had already started asking her that—mostly her parents' friends—so she told them about her plans to be a linguist. That always inspired a long bout of bragging as her parents went on about all of the languages she spoke already.

Adrian sighed dramatically. "Not. A. Clue. I know, I know, I better figure it out in the next couple of months. But I honestly can't think of one thing I want to get stuck doing for the rest of my life. It's a lot of pressure to put on an eighteen year old."

He had a point. Choosing what to study in college or whether to go to college or trade school was a huge decision.

Ivy's long-held interest in languages had made being a linguist the obvious choice but most people didn't think the same way she did. It was yet another way her power separated her from others.

"True," she said lightly.

He relaxed when she agreed with him. "What about you? Any ideas yet?"

She hadn't figured out which colleges she wanted to apply to yet but as long as it had a good linguistics program it really wouldn't matter to her. People's thoughts were roughly the same wherever she went.

"I want to be a linguist and work overseas as a translator. I speak Spanish and German fluently and am decent at French, Italian, and Portuguese."

Adrian goggled at her. "You speak six languages and you're what, seventeen?"

"Sixteen." Her seventeenth birthday wasn't until May.

Ivy was used to this sort of reaction. It was why she typically didn't tell people about her love of languages. This sort of thing wasn't within the realm of normal. And she couldn't explain that she was only interested in them because she didn't like not being able to understand foreigners' thoughts either.

He let out a low whistle. "That's impressive. Must be nice already having your future planned out. How long have you been studying those languages, anyway?"

"We had some Hispanic neighbors when I was younger so I got interested in Spanish then but I didn't take formal classes until middle school. I've been taking German all through high school. The others are more recent," she admitted.

Based on his facial expression, Adrian was impressed. "I speak Spanish too but that's because my grandparents are from Mexico. I've grown up speaking it so it's as natural as breathing to me. Learning languages later is harder from what I've heard."

Ivy had heard that too. It was supposedly easier while brains were still growing and adapting to their native tongue. It was best to help children be bilingual when they were toddlers and became progressively more difficult over time.