8. A Psychic Amongst Psychos...I mean, Psychics

{Alfred's p.o.v}

Rick stroked his head and looked behind him at the door. I stitched an eyebrow. Jack pushed the door open and we saw two girls sitting against a wall in the open air and talking like they have met after years of separation.

I drew my breath. Wow. This little imp...

Jack gave a glare at Macaw. She turned to us and her Cheshire smile brightened up as she flashed a 'hi' at us. Oh yes, hi, nice to meet you. How have you been? The girl next to her sat, with a hand on her knee, chewing on a gum and impatiently moving the other outstretched leg which I noticed was smudged with wet mud. She threw back her short, silk black hair which had covered up half of her left eye. She looked at us, then got up, casually dusting her black jeans.

"Why did you come up here? Jack asked, contorting his anger as he walked towards Macaw.

"Um, well... I was sitting in the passageway when I saw Rick as he waved at me and told me to not make a sound. He was walking up the stairs and I shouted at him to not go. Rick's immediate reaction made me think I had done something not right so I told him to wait and I'd check who's up there. Main reason was, he wasn't familiar with our school and might get lost...etcetera etcetera." She bobbed her head up and down as the gloomy girl with the zombie look came upto her and spoke of her own accord.

"This girl came to check on me. She frightened me when she appeared out of nowhere and laughed when she saw me. Well we were classmates so..." she drawled, tapping on her phone.

"Yes! Jack, this girl...! I discovered her! Me! Me! And do you know what's her name?" Macaw sneakily grinned, curving her eyes and giggling.

A smile escaped Jack's lips as he tried to keep it in, "Isabella Adler! Claps please!" Macaw announced, clapping all by herself and Rick joined, as if by force.

Jack gave a little nod with a controlled smile and looked sternly up at the girl next to Macaw who was a few inches taller than the latter. Wow, his expression scale did a complete 180°.

The girl sighed. She put her phone in her coat pocket and faced us as Rick snuck upto me.

"Alright. I was reported 'missing', wasn't I? Wow, the things that dad does...," she muttered and continued with a straight expression, "Like all the other girls, I too had given my name for the farmhouse trip but when I had arrived at school, quite early in the morning...about seven in the morning..., I saw there were a very handful of girls who had turned up. I heard some girls talking that the driver would arrive at 8:45 am... I thought I got plenty of time so I was around the school campus a bit. It was boring. Dad forced me to go to be social for once. I was sleepy and I didn't want anybody interrupting my peaceful nap so I walked upto the third floor and slept in the classroom which was open and the windows opened on the front view to our school board."

"When it was 8:36, I woke up to some noises. I thought some girls have come to this floor to goof around and I was gonna go back to sleep but there was one voice..., only one voice which I had heard and it seemed too close. I didn't understand what it said but it sounded helpless. Bullies, is what struck my mind first. So I got up to knock their winds out..."

Rick clutched his stomach as a reaction to Isabella's narration and she ignored him.

"I searched the entire floor, even the bathrooms...but I didn't find anyone. It was weird enough as it is. Well...,"

Bella looked at the trees in the backyard of the school and turned to face us,

"I thought to ignore the voice and would have done that too if I hadn't seen one of my classmates being picked on by some seniors the day before. I'm not a pacifist but I had to return a favour. So I walked to the last classroom on the third floor which had barely one window and they were working on adding more. It was foolish of me I know but I didn't have the heart to attend the Halloween party so maybe my wish was granted rather typically."

"Typically? Why?" Rick prompted as Isabella looked at him piercingly and walked ahead.

"Follow me." She said.

"But it's locked. That classroom. The one on the end of the passage." Jack said, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Doubt me later. See for yourself," she paused, "I mean, hear."

"Hey, that's grammatically wrong! You don't say 'hear for yourself'. You say 'listen'...for yourself ..? Maybe..." Macaw hopped over to Isabella, behaving friendlier than ever.

She musy be very social by nature. Hmm, Unlike me who prefers no company. Well, choices.

"Listen to what? Some pop girl-band songs? In the classroom? Seriously..." Rick rubbed his pockets, staying a mile away from Jack. He must have terrorised Rick with his hypnotic ability and his anger.

Jack was quiet as we entered the classroom. The door had a lock on but it wasn't locked. Okay, so these school authorities are hella irresponsible or this school is prone to thieves or paranormal encounters since the doors weren't secured by locks. And I still didn't get why they'd call us, BPRO to be precise, for such a case? Our agency ain't FBI or popular. How'd they get to know about us? Even if they wished to avoid the police like most clients' demands, there were other popular detective agencies... Don't tell me...was ours cheaper? Can't be. As far as I know, no matter how infamous or shady we seem, the fee is still high. Not expensive but not cheap either.

"Do you hear it too?" Isabella asked after a silence of five minutes.

"Hear what, girl? Your breathing? Drop the act. Just tell us what you are upto, else you gonna be-" Rick busted angrily, walking in long strides around the classroom.

"Gonna be what? What'll you do? Charge me for some unsolved criminal case of yours? Keep talking and you'll get haunted by spirits ruling this floor." Isabella smirked, as Macaw pulled out her phone and began recording silence.

Rick flinched and got up from the bench he just had sat on, looking around wildly and ending up behind Jack.

"Like I said, I heard a voice from this classroom. I hadn't even called anyone out loud. I didn't wanna alert them, whoever they were. But there was no one. Not even in the closet which was in the corner of the classroom and was big enough to accommodate two people. Something definitely was wrong. And I ran to the door but it was shut tight. Locked."

She sighed, biting her lip furiously as Macaw sprung like an angry protestor.

"Those must have been bullies. Emilia's sidekicks or her followers!"

Wow. What a school-comedy drama. So girls schools aren't all about crushes, gossips, make-up or competition. But drama and tension.

"I thought the same. Tricked, I thought. I tried to break down the door but it wouldn't budge. I searched for my phone. And wow, it wasn't on me. I must have dropped it somewhere in the passage. Can't believe I was so careless. Well, I was locked and no windows either so I could shout for the girls. I still shouted though, for a while. Then I searched the closet for any usable tools to break open the door. There were some items stored in the drawer and those were made by the pottery club. I threw them down, all in a hurry cause time was running out and I had to catch up with the girls. I found a saw. Blunt old one. Weird to be here but no time to think so I simply decided to use it to cut open the door. That was a stupid move because well, you know..."

"But then you fell asleep, right?" Macaw popped in and Isabella nodded.

What?

"What?" Rick raised one eyebrow. Jack nodded like he had an IQ exceeding Einstein's. Even so, fell asleep?

"She fell unconscious." Macaw answered Rick's dumbfounded expression.

Yes, of course. Thankyou. But why?

"I dunno why...it must've been due to shock. I heard something. Some woman saying something. It was creepy. But what's more creepy was she was speaking to me and I couldn't see her! She told something like, 'I want justice' and 'Murder' and also that there was some aunt who was killed. She was weeping. She said something about a guy too. I was terrified. I thought it was all in my mind. So I decided to risk it by asking this voice something."

Alright, brave but crazy. So afterall, a spirit-haunting is involved?

"Are you here? I asked."

"Yes, I'm sitting beside you." Macaw mimicked eerily sounding ghostly as Rick shivered and clutched my arm.

"Well, I fainted. When I got up, I checked my watch. It was nearly Eleven o' clock in the night! P.m.! I rushed right with the saw to open the door but it was already open. And I could still hear her voice in the room so I bolted it and ran down to the groundfloor. The gate was locked and someone was coming in a car. I dunno why I ran back upstairs, rather reluctantly but this time to the terrace. And that's when that weird guy saw me and Marigold rushed up. I was walking to the corridors thinking of escaping but I saw people and all that talk about some missing girl. Crap, I thought."

"I knew how weird enough it was for me to be locked in a classroom for an entire day. And the possibilities of having been reported missing were mighty. Dad must've gotten anxious and phoned you guys. Hence you are here. Well, he had heard of you people from a friend so...yeah, maybe that's why you guys were called."

Yeah right. We are very grateful for that, please.

Jack peered into Isabella's eyes, studying keenly. Definitely not in a psychological angle. Ah, I know. He must be reading her intentions. Dude's gonna tire himself out and be grounded in BPRO by the Director in tomorrow's Meet if he sleeps in.

"She says she saw us and got nerv-" Macaw continued as Isabella cut her in, proudly correcting the devil-horned girl.

"Not nervous. Just taken aback. I was angry at how I had gotten trapped so, yeah...I rushed to the terrace to have a calm mind and to think of what to do next and how."

Rick scratched his forehead. Stop it. You'll poke your clogged injury and it'll be a bloody mess.

"And that's when I saw Marigold...sitting and...maybe taking a nap before my footsteps woke her up. Yeah, so...we sorta walked up but she told me to stay back 'cause I wasn't familiar with her school...and that I might get lost and scared...so she did the brave deed." Rick let out a low cackle and fixed his attention on the closet Isabella had been talking about.

"Oh yes...I was scared too but I thought, whatever...and went ahead. There was a harmless girl sitting and maybe needed a pat on the shoulder..., is a thought that came to my mind. But she was the one who had helped me back in class. So I struck a chat with her. The end." Macaw clapped and made Isabella listen to something she had recorded in her phone but the latter was barely interested.

Jack was lost. I have to revive him. He has become a spirit. I can barely sense his presence.

"Jack." I called out. No response. Daydreaming.

"Jackie!" Macaw helped me. Thankyou. But Jack's in love with this eerie classroom. Love sick.

Rick twisted his mouth. A sneer spread across his face.

"Jane! Oh, how we missed you!"

Jack whirled in 90 degrees to see us. I mean, see Jane.

"Has she come? Where? Henry was at home. Where did she leave him?" Jack probed, scanning wildly with his eyes for Jane.

Sick love.

"Ursula will sue us if we don't report to Her Majesty on time. So let's first tell her we found the girl and call her parents. We'll look into this case later."

I folded the paper in which I had been noting down the key points of Isabella's incident and pocketed it.

"Oh ah," Jack nodded as Rick rolled his eyes and beckoned Macaw to follow him outside the classroom .

"Can't you hear her now...?" I asked, casually knocking the closet door in case the spirit preferred being summoned.

"Sheesh, Alfred...why do you wanna see a spirit so badly? It's not an adventurous thing, y'know. And most of times it's even fake or hallucinatory." Jack reprimanded, putting an arm on my shoulder to pull me away.

I ignored him.

"No. I can't. Must be asleep." Isabella said, brushing her jeans.

"Or busy haunting..." Macaw giggled enthusiastically, peeping from the door as Rick called her and she disappeared again.

"How did you dirty your jeans...?" I asked, testing her observance and lying skills.

"Pottery. I tampered with it, remember? It was wet mud. Not entirely clay. So yeah, these high quality 'Gucci' jeans got spoilt."

Oh some Richie Rich here. One who's definitely unpleasant about being rich.

"Hmm," I gave a nod, "this ghost woman...might have been a former student here."

Jack slapped his forehead and gestured us to come out of the classroom.

"How old are you?" Jack spoke to Isabella and Rick blinked at me.

"Why's he-?"

"Fifteen."

What's up with Jack? What's his plan?

"I see. Have you experienced this before...? Hearing voices?" He dropped the final say. Wow. Now, do you think you'd get answers from her? Keep dreaming.

Macaw's gaze shot up. Everyone looked at Isabella. She rolled her eyes and snickered.

"Isabella Adler, that's from a detective point-of-view. Have you heard voices before?" I filtered Jack's query as Macaw was lost in thoughts. Rick straightened himself as Isabella's snicker died down.

"Now you people are gonna hand me over to the doctors saying I'm mentally disturbed etcetera. Well. Excuse me. I'm gonna handle my emo shit myself. And I'll go have a word with the H.M and solve the problem for you guys."

She swished past Jack who clicked his tongue like he were interrogating a stubborn criminal.

Do I have to baby Jack when he's the one complaining about my 'uncouth' attitude?

"Yes!"  Rick piped up as we walked out.

"Shh. Inanimate objects have listening capabilities!"

A hot session of whispering was going on between Rick and Macaw. What was her name again...? McKenzie?

Well, not really interested in their 'secret' conversation but I suddenly developed a strong urge to slap the truth in Macaw's face that inanimate objects are objects, not beings from a fantasy novel.

"Jack, what are you playing at? Why did you..."

Jack snickered. I sighed. Sleep deprivation drove him insane.

"Well, would you mind...?" He began, throwing his gaze in all directions.

Isabella was far ahead of us in the passageway of the first floor. The chatterboxes were chatting away. What's Jack got to tell me?

"Unless you pack me extra slices of honeyed pancakes..."

Well. I had to. Conditioned favour.

"Wow. You kid-!" He sighed and he bent to tie his shoelaces. They were tied. He undid them. I bent to the ground. Gotta act along. 'Got a pebble and handful of dust in my shoe'. Just deleting their existence off my shoe. Sneakers, to be precise.

Rick turned, amidst their important conversation. He raised his eyebrows and twisted his mouth. I could read him. His face. Which screamed, 'just saw a pair of monkeys mimicking each other'.

"You guys go ahead. We'll follow soon. Dust in my shoes and..Jack's just tying his laces." I ordered smoothly when I knew how dumb this all seemed.

"Okay. Lovely coincidence. Catch you later."

He hopped off after a Macaw who had something in her hand. Maybe some lamp. Some genie in there...? I dunno.

"You could have telepathically talked. Such a drama king."

Grumbling, I got up but was pulled back down to the floor by Jack Sparrow. Ugh. I've experienced a lot of pulling and pushing in one day.

"What!"

"Your shoe is still dirty. Clean up."

I frowned. Fine. I know he's trying to fool the 'spirit' I insisted, existed. He's trying to prove me wrong and it's gonna come out to be embarrassing.

"Alright. I agree, every case doesn't have to do with spirits but you don't have to say-"

My head spun like I had just got down from a giant cup after being stirred in it.

"What's wrong?" Jack probed, kneeling for real now.

I too would like to know that.

The passage around me blurred. I wasn't fainting, I knew that but I sensed something spinning around me. Around us. Some person...I couldn't see her well. It was a woman, alright, but I couldn't see her with my eyes. I sensed her. She was here, with us. Her presence was weak. I couldn't tell where she was. I wildly looked everywhere. She wasn't physically present. Or that's how I felt about it. Jack couldn't see her either...and maybe not even sense her. She definitely was short-haired. I dunno how I knew that. She was calling us. She wanted us to listen to her. Man? What man? Was she speaking about some man? Who? Who was he? Spen...? Spen- what?

"Oh shut up and speak clearly, use your deathly powers!" I shrieked, breaking the silence and facing a stunned Jack.

"Alright. I think I just discovered something more. I'm now a full-fledged psychic. Yeah, I think. Well, what I saw..., more like...sensed, was that there's some woman here...," Jack flinched and looked behind him, "...yes, right now. Though I don't know precisely where...but she has such a horrible voice. Must've been a crow when she was alive. Anyway, she was calling us...talking...speaking...about some man...some Spen...I dunno. She disconnected her call right after dropping in some breakthrough hint for our case. Isn't this spirit reliable?" I banged the wall lightly.

"Al...?"

"Yes, be surprised and let the director know I'll be with you on all the hard-core cases from now on. C'mon, we gotta go and sleep first."

"Damn right."

We rushed to the office and Ursula rushed to us and happily shook hands with Jack and took mine as well. Okay, gotta use the hand-sanitizer 5x on my hand-gloves later.

These people's word of thanks is what I prefer not to hear. Anyone would do that. Why not simply think of not doing the deed at all?

"Miss. Isabella Adler..." I began to somehow get this new 'psychic' to join the BPRO...

"Bella. Don't take the pain to word it fully. And thanks to you guys, I'm now free. Okay, my dad came..., gotta go. Where's that devil-horn..."

She scanned for Macaw. Oh, good. This devil's gonna help us bag psychics now. Lovely little bait.

"Mac- Marigold!"

She dropped her bag upon the minor shock of being alerted. Rick yawned and rested his head upon her shoulder.

"Coming, Alphonso!" She shouted and woke the dead Rick up and deafened him, running towards us. Am I her dad or mom? 'Coming'? And what's with the wrong name again? Karma? Because I call her Macaw and not Marigold?

"Yes!" She breathed and upon noticing the girl with the silk side-swept hair, squealed. Is she high? Must be young age.

We were in the playing ground when Isabella...or... Bella's dad had come in a gigantic Bugatti Veyron.  A millionaire...?

"Hey...gimme your ID. We'll chat on Messenger." Bella swiped open her smartphone as they exchanged their ID's.

"See ya'!" Macaw called out as her new friend disappeared behind the car.

Rick swayed his arms in air, calling us. Macaw sighed dreaming gazing into nothingness.

"Isn't Bella sweet?"

Girl-crush? Well, too good.

"So, hey...you know what psychics are?" I struck the match.

"Huh? Yeah...magic and stuff and spirits and voodoo...black magic...dolls...dark arts...wow. Darn..., you too watch some series or anime?!" She squealed and inched closer to my face, excited.

"Uh...maybe...series?" I turned and walked towards our van as Jack summoned us. Rick was already seated. "Well, what more do you know? Y'know, psychics aren't all about dark arts or spirits...well actually, maybe about spirits...how do I say..."

I sat in the back seat as Macaw plopped beside me and struggled to have the window seat when I finally moved over.

"Hmm?" She placed her face on the opposite seat and stared at me with eyes that were seeking to devour all knowledge. And a brain with a warning sign indicating 'no sense'.

"Well, have you experienced anything unusual?" I casually lay back on my seat, nearly dozing off.

"Yes, the cat in the forest and in the girls' bathroom, the girl from my dream and the incident in the farmhouse... Apart from that, hmm, meeting two strangers who kidnapped me to some spooky agency called the BPRO where I met some great people and a grumpy emerald-eyed cat who kept teaching me about manners."

A mischievous grin spread across her face. I narrowed my eyes and sighed.

"Jack, keep a meeting tomorrow. And give a seminar on parapsychology please."

Jack nodded and I barely heard his yes.

*________________*________________*_______________*

"So, paraspsychology is the study of the paranormal sciences and the spiritual occurrences which aren't popular by culture or the societal norm." Jack briefed up, striding like an influential speaker across the office room in the BPRO.

It was four in the afternoon when we gathered in the Department of Paranormal Behaviour which was now empty and run by Aurora ma'am. Macaw's hair were shabby and she was forcing them down under a cap to brush it later, sucking on a lollipop. Rick had spent the night in the agency's dorms too and was now sipping on his orange juice. Bella had come in raising her eyebrow, highly questionable about Jack being a senior detective here.

I pointed to the wide screen behind Jack, combing back the hair which bothered my eyes. Ashley slump back on her chair and gave a low smirk.

''What even...?"

"Jack," I began, ignoring her remark and passed him the projector's operating remote, "Not the definition. The explanation, please. For the young'uns. The lost kittens."

Rick choked. Jack nodded and switched on the screen displaying some old sepia-coloured photos. Great, he's starting from history, isn't he.

Macaw rested her neck on the chair-top, observing the 'interesting' ceiling.

Jane entered the room and Matt followed. Guests of honour. Jane switched off the lights and took the front seat. Jack flashed a thumbs-up at them.

"I'm gonna doze off if there's history, dude." Rick whispered to me and Macaw, pulling his chair close to mine.

"Well..."

"Okay, I'm not gonna deliver a boring lecture on history. Just lemme start from where it actually makes sense and things began whirring." Jack received a huge applause from the guy and girl next to me while the opponent, Ashley stayed stiff.

"Well, who knows this guy?"

There was a silence and Macaw leaned in, drawing Rick closer, "Louis Pasteur?"

Bella giggled and nodded sideways, "No. It's...I dunno."

"Wow. Bella's the most cleverest and intelligent of our class. If she doesn't know, then does that guy even exist? How many know him...?" Ashley taunted, moving closer to Macaw.

Total three rows and we sat however we wished to. Macaw in the second row beside Rick. And Ashley with Bella in the back. Sweet. Macaw didn't sit with either of the girls. Better avoid the fight than to ignite it.

"Well, he certainly wasn't popular. Most genuinely talented people get shadowed by others' popularity. Anyway, his name was Sir James Theodore. And he was formerly a Chemistry professor at an institute. When he retired, there was a very pomp farewell party thrown for him. He was admired by most. Years later there was a New Year's party hosted by one of the ex-batches of his' and he was called as the Chief Guest Of Honour. Well, he had decided to co-partner with the host and announce something. People thought it was an awareness program about being healthy and avoiding restaurant foods since back then there was an infection spreading due to some food poisoning etcetera. But when he announced, it was in the year 1996. Quite recent...not too old, yes... He had made an informal announcement concerning the matters of his family, that he'd be getting a grandkid soon."

Macaw whispered something to Ashley, turning around.

"Yes, a child...he was nearly seventy seven and had no grandchildren. More of a reason to celebrate and commemorate the occasion for his new research project. His son, well, let's not spoil you guys on his identity now... Mr. Denizen Theodore and Mrs. Nora Theodore were present on the ocassion and had been really generous volunteers in school affairs and such. The Health Induction Programme was the first step towards the building of our BPRO. Professor James' sole motive in starting this programme was to treat diseases and health problems with incredulously impregnable speed."

"Is he nuts? Why would he do that? What good is there? Time-saver? Seriously?" Ashley taunted, braiding her hair smoothly.

"Maybe he wanted to become famous so that his grandkid would grow up to be like him..." Marigold answered, biting on the edge of her pen.

Wow. Such pure thoughts. And she has horrorphilia. Mentally, I rolled my eyes. If you ask me, I'd say..., despite me having knowledge about the man in question..., I'd say...what he did was a great thing to start but not all good thoughts can lead to a great cause in the end.

Jack nodded his head like a father who's indulgent with his kids. Jack and his fatherly tendencies....

"His intentions can't be known by you nor me. These are records of the agency which were left behind by him and other notable medical team. There were seven of them in the project when it started."

Isabella noted something down in her notebook. Is she actually paying attention to Jack's speech? Wow. I was hella sleepy when I first got my lesson from him.

"The names are all written and details are given too. If you want-"

"Can't you just brief us about how BPRO began?" Rick sprung, barely stifling a yawn.

"Ah. 'Was just getting on it. Well, so...the professor started his research in his private lab which was on the outskirts of his hometown. Seven of his former students agreed on his ideas. They were all in their mid and late twenties."

"Youngsters, yes..."

A voice sneaked into the room. Everyone turned to look at the wrinkled yet healthy, rosy face.

Jane and Matt shot up and Jack moved to his left, forcing an office smile.

"Ah, hello director. Good morning."

Mr. Drake Jefferson walked up to Jack and very humbly grabbed his hands into a handshake.

"I apologise for intruding in all of a sudden but when Milton told me you were introducing the infant psychics about our agency, I just couldn't help but sneak a peak."

"Ah," Jack gave me a look as I asked the other infant psychics to stand up, "It's fine. I was just telling them about how Professor James set this agency up."

Macaw leaned in to her touch-me-not friend, "Set it up? He was a fraud?! And I feel like he wants us to become his fans. Shall we go and ask for an autograph? He'll be happy. Won't we? Won't we?"

She grumbled as Ashley bit her lips tight and beckoned her to shut up.

"Oh? Then, let me...give them a better insight to it." Mr. Jefferson said, taking over the world. I mean, the projector screen behind him.

"Good morning, infant psychics! I'm-"

"You're Mr. Drake Jefferson, the chairman of BPRO and you're gonna tell us about how it was built and what psychics are. One question, why do you keep calling us as infant psychics?"

Isabella pushed back her hair and tucked her pen inside her book.

"Well," he laughed, sounding impressed.

"You people are newbies to this field, hence the name." Jane said, passing her a candy.

"As is recorded in history, Professor James had asked each one of us in his announcement if we would join him on his research. I was his student too. Ah yes. His son was the first one to support him, naturally. And me being his friend, joined too. Well, we began the research. The research to make the human body be able to combat diseases caused by the side effects of technology and due to the harmful emission of ultraviolet rays from the sun due to global warming, this was initiated by Mr. Denizen Theodore. Professor James' son, although the prime objective of starting this programme was to make treatment happen at high speed."

Macaw crunched on potato chips like they were gonna disappear if she doesn't finish them quicker, totally distracting everyone from the speech. Rick shared some chips from her. Jane bent to explain them something.

"Speed....right. For the first year, there was barely any improvement. We were able to somehow make some strong vitamins but not those which were required by us. But we made a breakthrough when Denizen, tired of the wait, had prepared a flavoured capsule for his one and half year old son which melts up when it comes in to contact with saliva. It was a normal vitamin but we noticed some changes in him, the boy. He was speeding up in growth and was even able to crunch on hardened liquorice and doing things just what bright kids do. Well. Let's not dive into what the chemical components of the capsule were. But it was in December 1998, on 21st to be precise..."

He took a deep breath as there was no sound in the entire room now.

"Things paced up now. Professor James analysed the blood sample from the baby boy as there was only one such capsule made and it was ingested by the kid. The results were terrific. He was able to see how quick the molecular particles were reacting to each other. He led the research and credited his son for this . And as the research developed, we tested it on ourselves and found how amazingly it worked. It quickened our reflexes. Gradually, we made this into a liquid compatible with blood and created such a vaccine. We injected it into children and youngsters. They were the first candidates. Old people didn't approach us thinking it was a scam or something. Only quite a handful. But, they didn't develop any abilities. Their conditions merely improved. Ah, but..."

He smiled like he were hiding some incredible secret. Dude, I know it already. It's nothing new for me. So get on with it. I don't have all day.

"But what-?" Macaw's eyes brightened, ready to devour all knowledge.

"But, we found that these people, especially the youngsters were developing something more than the ordinary. Things like being able to make objects move without holding them and changing their look and..."

"Being able to fly? Become invisible? Superpowers?!"

Macaw....will you please-

The Chairman smiled. Right, 'kid-lover'.

"Sort of. Psychics are what we call it. Since those 'powers' seemed like it, someone from our team suggested we name it so. These, we wanted to let the world know that the human race has finally become powerful without the use of weapons and the like but it's when we noticed some negative changes in individuals who were injected by the vaccine. They had become totally driven by instinct to become more powerful. In their view, these abilities were not a gift but a curse because they could no longer co-exist within human beings. They began developing baseless fears and some took their own lives. This was a huge insult to professor's research. He, along with some more researchers who had participated in this project during its' peak time, began improvising the vaccine. Well, what you guys now are, is the result of professor's amazing drug which gave an individual two kinds of abilities which restricts them and also allows them to be powerful and at the same time, it limits one's boundaries from reaching lust and lunacy."

There was only the sound of A/C blowing cool air in the pin-drop silence room.

The slide behind Mr. Jefferson changed. Okay. Finally, about time we end this.

"The study of psychics is called as parapsychology. The drug developed by Professor James Theodore has two kinds of parapsychological traits. Recessive and dominant."

"Ah. Like the dominant and recessive genes from parents that we get. Cool. The recissive are what which are not so in power while dominant ones are the ones which rule or control.

Isabella blew at her shapeless nails, which probably was a result from banging on the classroom door in frustration.

The chairman nodded and moving his quick hawk like eyes from one victim to another.

"Oh. Oh. Oh. I get it! It's how inheritance of genes work. If my dad is tall and mom is short then the trait which I inherit would be called as the dominant one while the other one whose possibility of coming down on me-" Ash giggled as others tried to kill their laughter urges, "-whose possibility of...uh...uh..."

"The one which has less chances of being selected is called-" Jack suggestively continued like a sweet, supportive teacher.

"Recessive, yes!" Macaw showed her toothy smile, "Yeah, so...these abilities work accordingly, right? Okay. So which one would we get first or do they come together or like no, only one...?"

"There'll be two. For rare people there'll be only one. And, since we don't know the count of exactly how many psychics...and I mean, real psychics...not the fraudulent ones. Those, we don't have the number so there have been two in ten rare cases and those are really simple. The abilities they possess. Say, being able to understand animals, ability to see something and feel it's real, the act of-"

"Ho-!!" Macaw cupped her mouth, springing up and widening her eyes.

What? Has she realized she had to return to her planet? Maybe...

"Is anything wrong?" Jack began as Mr.Denizen walked into the room.

Can I face-palm now? Why do people fill this space like they got no home to stay at?

"Must be a handsome man's impact." Mr. Denizen chuckled as we got up once again for the same old presidential treatment for another old dude.

Macaw blinked then nodded suddenly.

"A'ight. I'm Denizen Theodore. Nice to meet you all!"

Everyone applauded for no reason apparently like we always do in schools. Not even paid to do this.

"Well to conclude, each of you has been under our observation and are premature psychics right now. You'll be under our guidance. If your families agree on this, bring their consent please. We'll be giving you time of about one month until Christmas vacations. Further details will be given only when you are signed to be with the BPRO. We'll hand you over the forms shortly."

Mr. Jefferson said, whispering something to Mr. Denizen and Jane who just walked up to him to discuss some matters.

Everyone nodded and looked all too happy to be released from one hell of a meet. Isabella and Macaw had unamused and lost reactions. Rick probably didn't care while Ashley must be that one hater of BPRO mu usic band. Just kidding.

Well I had to approach the two potential candidates. Isabella and Marigold. Can't I just call her Macaw? Marigold is too cheesy of a name and loud. Well, suits her.

"Got doubts?" I approached Bella and the others.

"Ah. Hey. Not really but I wanted to know the history in more details. Too interesting to let go." Isabella said, packing up her notebook and shoving it inside her bag.

"You can refer the library. There's always plenty of books there. The BPRO library, of course. Dark history, who knows. This hasn't been leaked to public. At least not everyone knows about the existence of psychics. We'd be fools if y'know...but get your parents' approval first."

I put the chairs back in place while Rick stretched himself excusing himself for a bathroom break. The room was silent and peaceful. Wow. The old dudes were gone. Ashley talked to Jane about something in a corner. These two have gotten close. Great social bonding.

Where's that jobless Jack though?

"Yeah...but..." Isabella began throwing a glance at a small figure beside her.

"Wh-?"

Ah, forgot about Macaw.

"Mac- Marigold Mc Kenzie, do you have doubts? If yes, go ask Jack or library...well you might not be one who visits the books so...Jane or even the director might help you."

I gave her the director's visiting card as she twisted her lip and took it like accepting a treat even when you don't like it, just out of kindness. My foot.

"Al...Al...Aladdin," Marigold stuttered and Bella laughed out and Macaw gave a sly smile. What. You gotta be teasing the worst way. She got up and dumped her big bag on the chair, staring into my eyes, "...can...can you come with me in a corner please? Without Ash knowing. I...I..."

I narrowed my eyes and as always how I obey my mind, I looked around to obey the genie before me.

"I'm going to the cafe. Who wants to tag along?"

I announced, shutting off the A/Cs.

"Me. Me. Me!" Macaw shouted excitedly without knowing why I told this. Figures.

"It's for the talk."

"Ah. Oh. I knew it. Was just acting along." Yes. Yes. I know you are Alexander the great's teacher too."And, can...Bella come too?"

Isabella looked at me and then at her, "...fine but if your friend tells I'm stealing your friendship-"

"Go die." Macaw ground her teeth, "I'd say."

Isabella laughed as we walked down.

"What ideas are on her mind? Any clue?" I asked, putting my fire-proof, black, leather gloves on.

"Hmm. I think I know. Love, maybe?" Rick popped up. That clown. Just go back inside your box.

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