Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking? by Belle Payton

you?”
    Ava pulled the cap off the gel pen. She scribbled on a paper napkin, then held it up. NO!
    Alex sighed. She felt the Power. She really did! As she continued chopping, she focused her energies on Ava. They needed to be united to make it work. To do good and important things.
    She needed to make her sister believe.

CHAPTER
SIX
    Alex rested Emily’s signed copy of The Power on her lap on Friday afternoon.
    â€œDo not get any food on it,” Emily warned.
    â€œPromise.” Alex carefully speared with a toothpick the mini cubes of orange cheese her mom had packed for lunch. Mrs. Sackett’s lunches were so much worse than Coach’s. But Coach hadn’t been around this week. He was on the field or in his office tucked inside the high school locker room, completely focused on the big game. He hadn’t even had time to make her favorite hummus-and-vegetable wrap.
    As everyone at the lunch table talked about Lindsey’s party, Alex flipped through Sibyl’s book. Yesterday she’d begged Emily to bring it to school. As she skimmed the pages, she decided that it wasn’t half-bad. Sibyl described so many feelings that Alex had also had. The more she read, the more Alex was sure she could do psychic things.
    They could do them. She needed Ava in this.
    She raised her eyes and found Ava across the lunchroom, eating with Kylie. Charlotte wasn’t there.
    I’ll talk to Ava tonight, she decided. I’ll go to the park and shoot baskets if that’s what it takes to get her to try to move the pen with me.
    Alex knew she was getting a bit obsessed. She got this way about things. She’d hear about something that interested her, and then she’d research it to death on the Internet. She’d make charts and graphs of her new knowledge. She’d compare prices or reviews or whatever was important. She’d think about it nonstop until the next thing came along.
    And now, all she could think about was the Power.
    â€œGuys! Guys!” Rosa hurried over to the table. Her eyes were red and puffy, and Alex was sure she’d been crying. “Have any of you seen it? It’s silver. You know it, right? Did you? Did you see it?” Her words tumbled out in between sobs.
    â€œWhoa, Rosa, sit down.” Lindsey guided her onto the bench. “What happened?”
    â€œIt’s lost. Or stolen,” she choked out. Her shoulders trembled.
    â€œRo, you’re not making sense,” Emily said.
    â€œTake a deep breath,” Alex offered. That was what her mom always told her.
    Rosa sucked in some air. “My bracelet. The silver one I always wear,” she began.
    â€œThe one you got for your confirmation?” Lindsey asked.
    â€œYes, that one. My parents gave it to me. It’s really special. My mom got it from her mom when she was confirmed in Mexico,” Rosa explained. “I wore it to school today. I’m totally sure of it. But now it’s gone!” Tears welled up again in her big brown eyes.
    â€œDid you look for it?” Corey asked.
    â€œOf course I looked for it. I’ve looked everywhere,” Rosa said. “I’ve covered the whole school.”
    â€œWell, where’s the last place you saw it?” Xander asked.
    â€œIf I knew that, I’d know where it was!” Rosa snapped. Then she dropped her head into her hands. “Sorry. I’m just so scared. I can’t tell my mom I lost it.”
    â€œDon’t worry. We’ll help you look for it,” Lindsey said, wrapping her arm around Rosa’s shoulder.
    â€œAnd Alex can use her Power,” Emily put in.
    Alex gulped. What was Emily suggesting?
    â€œWhat’s she going to do?” Lindsey asked, wrinkling her nose.
    â€œYou know how on the news you always hear about psychics finding lost pets?” Emily said.
    â€œNot really,” Xander said, smearing cream cheese on a bagel with his fingers.
    Emily rolled her eyes at him.