Mind Games by Jeanne Marie Grunwell

own way, your own happiness."
    That's when she spotted the Zener cards. They were buried under like thirteen things, but Mom has sharp eyes.
    She slid one out with her fingertip, as though she didn't dare touch it. "Now I see why you have been unhappy," she said. "You look for truth in all the wrong places."
    Then she went and got Dad. And I got the Lecture.
    Mom had heard about the lizard tail from one of her church friends who was chaperoning the dance. The
Halloween
dance. She must have been thinking Satan worship when she was untying my witch's cape and stroking my chin. "We worry for you, Ji Eun. Why you don't come to church with us. Why you have so many new friends at school."
    My parents explained that they did not feel I should be dabbling in the supernatural. The supernatural was incompatible with their religion.
    They did not understand why I found this funny. And I did not understand why I should be grounded for doing
my homework
.
    What I wanted to say was, if there was no such thing as the supernatural, I didn't see how there could be such a thing as God. But of course I couldn't say that. Not to my parents. Not out loud. Not at all.
    For the first time in a long time, I needed something from Claire. Even if she was mad at me ... she'd understand my unreasonable family. Even after everything that had just happened. Nobody knew more about unreasonable relatives than Claire.
    I punched the autodial button, number i, not even labeled.
    "I'm on the other line with Ben," she said the instant she heard my voice. She sounded so unfriendly that for a second, I thought she was Kathleen. "I can't talk now."
    Ben, the most unpopular person in the seventh grade, was more important to her than me. Me.
    I hung up the phone. My hand was shaking when it erased her number from autodial.
    We never did talk. We haven't talked. I don't think we will talk.
    As I promised my parents, I left the Mad Science Club on Wednesday morning. That's when Ben informed me that we had won the lottery the night before. He counted out my money silently. He refused to tell me whether the winning number was Claire's or his, since I was no longer a member of the experimental team and could not be trusted with their secrets. I don't know why, but I couldn't help looking up the numbers later in the
Waverly Times. I
should have known Ben's didn't win. Why else wouldn't he tell me?
    Anyhow, this is where my participation in the experiment ended. Therefore, the remainder of this Experimentation section will be completed by Claire Phelps. I look forward to reading it at the school science fair and seeing how the project turned out. And what lovely things Claire has to say about me.

Exhibit F: Paranormal Pursuits: Dreams
Brandon Kelly
    I DIDN'T USE TO REMEMBER MY DREAMS . H ARDLY ever. Now I wake up with them sometimes, and I don't even know what bed I'm in. I sit up and think I'm about to whack my head on the basketball hoop. But of course it's not there. This isn't even my own bed, but Ma's from when she was a kid.
    I slept here, too, a long time ago, sometimes when I would have nightmares and Ma would let me come in with her. I can still remember that, but I never remembered my bad dreams in those days, not even the next morning.
    Maybe the bed brings back the dreams—I don't know. Maybe it's this project even. Ben's ESP books say your dreams can predict the future sometimes. They say to keep journals of your dreams and see if they come true.
    I don't need any journal. I have one dream. It goes like this.
    We are in Kim's grocery and the bullet comes through the window. It hits Ma, and she falls down—right there in front of me. Even though she taught me CPR, I stand there and don't know what to do. Her blood is running and running over my hands until it's clear, like pickle juice. Because it all came out of her already. And she's dead.
    I guess that's the only part of my future I can picture. Ma still being dead.
    Last night I heard Grandma