The Watchers by Lynnie Purcell

eyes with
someone, their thoughts grew louder, then dimmed, as I moved on to
find a seat which was unoccupied.
    I sighed in irritated acceptance when I saw
Daniel next to the only available desk at the back of the room,
talking to a boy in front of him. Although he was smiling, I
noticed him tapping one of his long pale fingers on the small desk
he was crammed into. I took it to be a sign of impatience or
irritation. Had he also come to the conclusion I would have no
choice but to sit next to him?
    The teacher introduced herself as Mrs.
Heart as she handed me a large text book with Marlowe’s face
plastered on the front. Her thoughts were strong, but not
obtrusively so. Poor dear, looks like she’s
been manhandled by a hedgehog. Shouldn’t judge, though. She looks
just like my cousin Jeanie… I really should call her. Haven’t
talked to her in ages…
    I had to suppress the impulse to laugh out
loud at her description of my hair, liking her choice of words.
They were unusual. I didn’t need any more stares, though…or anyone
thinking I was a crazy person. It was my first day, after all. Book
in hand, I walked down the aisle and steeled myself for whatever
Daniel would say next, if he even talked to me at all. I marshaled
my sarcasm and disdain just in case, feeling I would need it and
more to deal with him.
    As I sat down, he peeked over at me and
smirked again. I wondered what he was thinking and why he was
smirking. That was an idea…What was he thinking? I concentrated,
trying to hone in on his thoughts. It was difficult; I’d never gone
looking for one person’s thoughts in particular before – typically
people’s thoughts found me. As I concentrated, all the voices
flooded in, the sheer volume threatening to overwhelm me. It was
like listening to a waterfall of noise inside my head, without the
benefit of a muffler. I shifted through the thoughts of homework,
crushes, and a million other worries, but I didn’t hear any voices
that sounded like his. Not a single slither of thought which could
be mistaken for his. I turned to look at him, knowing that if I
looked at him I could find his thoughts easier. My leather jacket
creaked with the agitated movement as I searched out his strange
eyes. He was laughing softly at a joke the boy in front of him had
just made, the laughter not quite reaching his eyes. The laugh was
melodic and magical, but I still couldn’t hear his thoughts.
    The new girl is staring at Daniel. They all
can’t get enough of him. I think he does the not dating thing on
purpose just to drive them crazy. I wonder if that would help
me…
    A vision of a massive score of nameless girls
begging for attention surged into my brain, and I cringed. I
shifted my gaze back to the front, recognizing the owner of the
voice as the guy in front of Daniel. Would he point my staring out
to Daniel? I shifted uncomfortably in the tiny desk
    “You ever wonder why people do the things
they do?”
    I looked back over, my head in my hand, and
saw Daniel had his eyes trained on me. He had removed his letterman
jacket, and his blue t-shirt stretched over his muscles in an
obvious way. The boy in front of him had turned back around to look
through his notebook for his homework. I looked Daniel straight in
the eyes, one of my eyebrows arching at his question. “What’s that
supposed to mean?”
    “I thought it was pretty obvious,” he said in
a tone which doubted my intellect.
    “The question was obvious, but why you’re
asking isn’t.”
    “You’re more concerned about the ‘why’ in
life then, not the actual act?”
    I decided to play along with wherever his
thoughts were, curious despite my uncertainty. Maybe I would learn
more about him…even if the conversation was bizarre.
    “I guess I am more concerned with the ‘why’, yes. A good
deed if done in the spirit of evil is still an evil deed. But, if a
person does something with good intent, and that somehow turns into
something bad, I would be