Caught You!
One day in class you decide to scream something in your head to catch mindreaders. As you do, you see your crush flinch
I sat slumped on the wooden chair, watching my chemistry teacher scribbling the blackboard with tons of formula. My brown eyes glared at the bits of white chalk that decorated the grey cemented floor. Right behind me, my ears capture the whispers of the Gamma Girls who are the CNN News of our school.
“Did you find out who the mind reader is?” Kimberly bit her pencil top. “I can’t have my secrets getting exposed,” she said anxiously.
“There goes the mind-reading myth once again,” I think to myself. This myth has been circulating around my class for the past few days. And today is the day that my inner Sherlock decides to end this mystery. I slowly took a deep breath and screamed in my head as loud as possible and in terror, I saw a figure clinch.
My eyes couldn’t believe the scene of the figure flinching the second I screamed in my head. It was Ian, my crush. Of all people, why him? I think to myself.
CRINGGGG. The school bell rang. I quickly got up, wanting to run out of the classroom in embarrassment. Why you may ask… It is because my crush now knows whatever we are thinking. Including the beautiful role-play sessions, I had with him in my mind. My Sherlock mind decided to put my inner girl feelings aside and find out if Ian was behind this and apologise for such thoughts.
The students started leaving the class one by one. My eyes spotted Ian standing at the corner of the room. His lean body rested on the concrete beam that stood in the middle of the class.
“Ian, can I have a minute with you?” I asked him restively.
Ian nodded and approached me. My heart started beating faster.
“What are you doing, Liz? He is going to think that you’re crazy.” My brain started having millions of thoughts smashing into one another. But I needed the truth.
Ian stood in front of me with his hands folded. The chocolate stained white shirt that covered his skeletal body caught my eye.
“So Liz, you said you wanted to talk, yeah?” he questioned me cluelessly while pushing his soft brown curls that were covering his forehead. His minty breath freshened my inner soul. It was divine. His brown eyes sparkled under the fluorescent light that was still switched on, even if the sun was shining through the windowpane. This made me want to glare at him even longer. Especially at the charms, he carried so effortlessly.
“Yes, I wanted to ask you about the gossip that was going around the class. The one about the mind reader” I started my interrogation.
Ian frowns uneasily, making a three-lane highway on his forehead. If he keeps doing this, he might end up getting Botox by the age of twenty. His hands clutched to the empty plastic bottle that he was holding.
“I don’t know what you are talking about, Liz. Do mind readers even exist?” He threw the empty bottle into the rubbish bin that sat in the class’s corner. “What era are you living in, Liz?” he laughed nervously.
His nervous laughter gave me the benefit of doubt. If he is not a mind-reader, why avoid having eye contact with me, or why let his palm lines float in his sweat. His face screamed the word GUILTY. And I just need to find a way to prove that.
A spark of an idea lit up my brain. Maybe I should catch the mind reader with my face reading skills. Finally, my 3 am random video watching has finally come to use.
“But he would think I am crazy then? But I shouldn’t be thinking that he will think I am crazy because he knows what I am thinking, right?” My brain starts writing down tongue twisters.
“Ian, why don’t you sit down?” I pulled a chair from the corner with all my might.
As Ian cluelessly sat down, I pulled out a red polka-dotted scarf from my bag and laid it down on his lap. I slowly moved my hands over the scarf like a psychic.
After a few awkward moments, I looked into his eyes. Reflecting on his big brown pupils, I gradually got up. Removing the scarf, I put my 2 years of drama class acting in action.
“Ian, as much as you hate this, but you are a mind-reader. You can’t deny it because I was born with special powers like you, too. I have the power to read faces. That is how I found out that you were a mind-reader,” I explained.
Ian glared at my floating palms uncomfortably. He slowly picked up the scarf and handed it back to me.
“You got the wrong person, Liz.” Ian got up and pulled his backpack from the table. “I appreciate you telling me about your “power” but I am just a normal mortal like anyone else. And good luck with your hunt Liz”, he wished me with a smile and headed to the door.
My inner Sherlock was disappointed at such a failed interpretation of human beings. But the inner high school girl was fortunate that her secrets were kept as secrets. As I pack up and walk out of class, I spot Ian in the corridor, waiting for someone.
“Waiting for your friends?” I asked, closing the classroom’s wooden door.
“Well, I was waiting for you, actually. I thought maybe I can walk you home since most of your friends went back already,” he asked politely.
My cheeks flush as his arms brush mine as we walk back home. The butterflies in my stomach are going to be so pissed at waking them up at moments as such.
Ringing the doorbell, I waited for my mom to open the door. “Thank you once again for walking me back home,” I said shyly.
“Anytime. And Liz, a small piece of advice, you might want to scream less in your mind next time. It can really damage your brain nerves,” he said, walking down the doorway of my house leaving my Sherlock Holmes’ mind to solve the puzzle and my high school girl mind to overthink once again.
