Gifted: Now You See Me

‘Go on,’ Madame said.

‘You say nothing to anyone about this. And I won’t expose your students.’

Ken spoke. ‘That’s not much of a deal. He wouldn’t tell people about us, Madame. It’s like you always say — nobody believes we have gifts.’

‘And why would the police believe you?’ Clare countered. ‘You have no evidence against us.’

‘But there is evidence,’ Tracey cried out. ‘You can tell the police about the project. You can show them the plans.’

‘What project?’ Madame asked.

‘It’s what they want to use us for. It’s in a folder, in that desk.’

‘I’ll get it,’ Charles said quickly. He looked at the desk, and all the drawers opened. And all the papers came flying out. Telephone bills, bank statements — hundreds of documents floated through the air.

‘Oops!’ Charles murmured. ‘Sorry.’

‘The police are here!’ Emily announced.

‘Madame, they’ll see Serena,’ Ken pointed out.

‘Sarah, move Serena,’ Madame ordered.

There was a knock on the door. ‘Police! Open up!’

Mr Jackson turned to Clare.

‘Open the door.’

‘Sarah!’ Madame exclaimed. ‘Do it!’

But Serena remained where she was, with the paper bag on her head and unconscious. And Clare was already beginning to open the door.

‘Sarah, quick!’ Madame hissed.

‘Oh, Madame,’ the girl whispered in an agonized voice. But she looked at Serena. And as if by her own free will, the woman got up and walked out of the room into the kitchen.

Two police officers stood in the doorway. ‘Excuse me, ma’am,’ one of them said to Clare. ‘But we’ve had a complaint of some kind of disruption going on here.’

The other officer looked at the papers lying all over the floor. ‘What’s going on here?’

Mr Jackson strode forward. ‘Good afternoon, officers.’ He introduced himself and shook their hands. One of the officers looked at him with interest.

‘We’ve met before. You’re my kid’s school principal.’

‘That’s right,’ Mr Jackson said, beaming. ‘We’re working on a school project here.’ He looked at the papers and smiled ruefully. ‘I’m afraid we had a little accident and made a mess. But I don’t quite think it’s in the category of anything criminal!’ He laughed at his own little quip.

The police officers didn’t laugh, but they didn’t seem concerned either. ‘I guess you made some noise and a neighbour complained,’ one said. ‘Just keep it down, OK?’

‘Of course, officers,’ Mr Jackson said smoothly.

Madame spoke up. ‘Actually, the meeting has ended and we were about to leave. Come along, everyone.’

Eight of the nine gifted students gathered around her.

‘Come along, Carter,’ Madame called.

‘No, Madame,’ Jenna whispered frantically in her ear. ‘He’s the spy!’

But the teacher ignored her. ‘Carter?’ she called again.

In zombie mode, the boy rose from his seat at the dining table and joined them. Madame ushered them all past the policemen and out of the door. She turned back to the people still in the house and spoke.

‘This was an interesting meeting. Highly enlightening.’ She paused, and then added, ‘I’ll get back to you, Mr Jackson, and we can continue negotiations.’

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

AS THE LAST CLASS period began on Monday afternoon, Room 209 was unusually quiet. Everyone seemed to be lost in their own thoughts as they waited for Madame to arrive.

There had been rumours and phone calls the day before and whispered conversations in the hallways of Meadowbrook today. But no one knew what was really going on.

Ken spoke quietly to Tracey. ‘So you didn’t find out what this project is all about.’

Tracey shook her head. ‘I didn’t get that far.’

Amanda had overheard them. Her comment was directed to Emily. ‘Why can’t you just look into the future and tell us?’

‘I don’t even know what to look for,’ Emily told her. ‘I have to know what the project is before I can see if it’s going to happen.’

‘Well, I’ll never be able to read it in their minds,’ Jenna grumbled. ‘Not if they know I’m around.’ She turned to Tracey. ‘Too bad we can’t combine our gifts.’

‘Maybe we can figure out a way,’ Tracey said. ‘Do you guys realize, this was the first time we’ve all pooled our gifts? Everyone did something.’ She ticked them off on her fingers. ‘I got into the house, Charles made the locked door open. Martin stopped Stuart from escaping, Jenna read Clare’s mind, Emily told us the police had arrived, and, and, oh yeah, Sarah moved Serena out of the dining room before the police could see her.’

‘Yeah, right,’ Jenna muttered. ‘After Madame asked her three times.’

‘But she did it,’ Tracey said stoutly, and she smiled at Sarah. ‘Thanks, Sarah.’

‘You’re welcome,’ Sarah whispered, but she didn’t seem proud of it and she looked away.

Amanda was offended. ‘You left me out. I provided the information about Mr Jackson.’

Which Tracey could have provided, but she let Amanda take the credit. ‘That’s right.’

‘And you left out Ken,’ Amanda added. She smiled warmly at the boy.

Tracey grinned. So that ‘sort-of ’ relationship was on again. ‘Ken did a lot.’

‘Not with my gift,’ Ken said. He turned slightly, and eyed the small boy at the back. ‘What about him?’

Silence fell over the room again as they all turned to look at Carter.

‘It wasn’t his fault,’ Tracey declared. ‘He was hypnotized.’ But the looks that Carter was receiving from his classmates were less than friendly. The boy, as always — almost always — seemed oblivious. But now they all knew he took in everything they said, everything that happened in the class. They could never trust him.

Madame walked in. She wasn’t alone.

‘Good afternoon, class. I’d like to introduce Doctor Paley. He’d like to say a few words to you.’

The plump, balding man faced them. ‘Hello. I met one of your classmates recently. She told me about her gift.’

A gasp went up from practically every student.

Jenna groaned. ‘Knock it off, guys. It was me, OK? I had to tell him or I’d have got tossed into a mental institution. But I didn’t tell him about anyone else.’

‘That’s right,’ the man said. ‘Logic tells me that you all must be special in some way, but I have no idea what your gifts are, and I’m not going to ask you about them. Maybe, someday, you’ll trust me and you’ll want to tell me. But I won’t be pressing you for information.’

Charles looked suspicious. ‘Why are you here if you’re not trying to find out stuff about us?’

‘I’m here because you have a classmate in need,’ he said simply.

‘Carter,’ Madame called softly. ‘Could you come up here, please?’

Obediently, the boy rose and came to the front of the room. He stood silently by her desk.

‘I have permission to take Carter back to Harmony House,’ Dr Paley said. ‘I’m going to try to help him there.’

‘Just keep him away from the rest of us,’ Charles said bitterly. ‘He’s a traitor.’