Max Baker: Guardian of the Ninth Sector by Matthew Cronan Page B

tallest girls in the class.  Her average frame had morphed into a very sleek and slender one.  She had traded in her thick black frame glasses for contacts.  She had shed her pale skin for a membership to a tanning bed salon, and she had dyed her auburn brown hair to a soft onyx color that accentuated her vibrant, icy blue eyes.  In the course of a year, Kennedy Coleman had gone from the girl next door to the super model of Forest Valley.
    Max and Noah had tried to approach her on the first day of school, but she had been surrounded by a flock of girls that wanted to know where she had gotten her cute pink cardigan and who did her nails.  With the new looks came an increased popularity and little room for Max and Noah, who had always been hell-bent on being as anti-popular as possible.  The three of them had always reveled in the fact that they were as far away from the norm as possible.  Exiled from the mainstream, they would spend their Saturday afternoons making fun of the stupid cheerleaders who walked in packs around the mall and talked about makeup, and clothes and stupid football players.
    Max remembered the first weekend of their eighth grade school year very well.  He and Noah had gone to the mall to get pretzels and skateboard out in the parking lot.  That was the day that they saw her, a herd of the popular girls following her around.  She walked right past them that day with not so much as a wave or acknowledgment.  She had joined the dark side, and the two had no choice but to turn their backs on her.
    Now sitting in the classroom, he couldn’t help but sneer at her as she texted and twirled her hair – oblivious to the world around her.  She was clueless to Max sitting behind her with his heart still broken from three summers ago.   Max remembered how she used to be the most awesome girl that he knew.  Now she was just fake.  He remembered how she used to be a part of them, the third wheel of the tricycle.  Now she was just pretty and vapid.  He couldn’t help but to sneer again.
    “Mr. Baker?” he heard Shook’s voice boom, bringing him out of his trance.  As Max looked around, he could see that the entire class’s attention was focused on him.  Even Kennedy’s.
    “Yes sir?” Max asked meekly. He could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks.
    “I was just hoping you could tell the class what exactly I need to do to help you focus on my lectures,” Mr. Shook said. His voice was loud and in command of the classroom.  It didn’t match the small, frail man that was standing in front of Max. 
    “I’m sorry,” Max said, feeling his cheeks turning rosier by the second. “I was just-”
    “There’s no need to apologize Mr. Baker,” Shook said, cutting him off.  “However, I am quite upset that you haven’t told anyone about your secret powers.”
    “What secret powers?” Max asked, dreading Shook’s answer.
    “Well isn’t it obvious?” Shook asked, pacing back and forth at the front of the classroom.  Everyone’s eyes darted back and forth between the teacher and Max, with the exception of Kennedy, who was sinking lower in her chair and staring straight ahead.  “It’s clearly evident to me that you possess some form of telepathy.”
    The students’ apprehension hung heavy in the air as they waited for Mr. Shook to finish the onslaught.
    “Telepathy?” Max asked as Shook leaned against the cluttered desk at the front of the room.  The old man smirked as he watched Max’s puzzled face twist up.
    “Well I figure that you must be telepathic since you have been staring so intensely at Miss Coleman for the last 10 minutes of my lecture.  You must be telling her that as much as I hate for students to daydream about cheerleaders, that I hate texting in my class even more.”
    Max’s face went from warm to boiling hot.  The entire classroom burst into laughter, and Max watched as Kennedy also turned a bright shade of red. She slouched even further down in her