New Markets - 02 (32 page)

My eyebrows went up as I answered, "Hi Megan!  Nice timing!"

She said, "Huh?  You didn't just use some kind of telepathy to talk to me, did you?  I just heard you ask where I was when you needed me."

"Really?  You heard that?"

"Yeah.  Didn't you mean to, uhh, contact me?"

"Well, I was thinking pretty strongly about you, and that's pretty much what I mentally said.  I didn't expect you to hear me though - it hasn't been working like that for me."

"Oh, well ... very cool, I guess?"

"Very cool."

"So ... you
did
need me for something?"

"Yeah!  I'm stuck outside the cafeteria, I can't go inside.  I was kind of wishing you were here with me to go pick up the food and eat in a side corridor."

"Oh, sure, you want a sidekick."

I laughed.  "Well, I honestly wasn't thinking about it like that.  But now that you say it ... yeah, I really could use the help.  Are you up yet?"

"Yep, I'm up.  I was going to eat a breakfast bar here or something on the way, but I'll meet you there."

"Yay!  I love you.  I'll meet you here soon!"

She laughed, "You better.  Be right there."

I leaned back against the wall with my eyes closed while I waited.  In the meantime I watched through other people's eyes, and listened to their thoughts as they wandered by. 
It kind of surprises me that Kell, Trevin and Odes don't eat at the cafeteria.  They must eat at their home before coming to school.

Soon I heard Megan's mental voice saying, "There you are!"  Moments later a new mindview appeared with me as the focus, and approached me rapidly.

I opened my eyes and smiled at Megan.  I gave her a quick hug and thanked her for coming, and then gave her money to pick up food for us.  She did so, and quickly returned.

We went to a nearby corridor with a side study area to sit in and ate.  While we ate I described my study session with the boys last night, and all the things that Trevin debated making me do.
  At least those things I caught....

Megan snorted, "That's typical.  But it sounds like you missed out on what could have been a
very
interesting night had he done some of them."

I reacted with mild shock, "I don't know if I could really go that wild.  They did have a difficult time not staring at me though, and I don't mean my eyes."

"You do have good legs in a dress."

"I was wearing my costume."

"Why would you wear that while studying?  It's so form fitting."

"Trevin said I had to wear it to come over and get help."

"That's lame."

I shrugged, "I'm pretty comfortable wearing it.  It seems like I've spent days wearing just that all over the place now."

"Well, it's still lame that he was thinking like that."

"You want me to let you know if he's thinking that about you too?"

"No.  I've got a boyfriend.  So anyway, how do you plan to do class today?  Monday you were a wreck in Pomplun's class."

"Yeah.  I'd like to get there early and ask if I can sit in the room next door to it - the one behind the whiteboard."

"You're going to do like you tried to outside the auditorium for Stonewall's class?"

"Yeah, it's one of the rare classrooms that has another one not in use next to it on the right side.  If he's cool with it I'll just watch and listen through his mindview."

"Interesting.  Getting the info straight from the source.  Hope it works out well."

I nodded, "If it helps me, then I ought to be able to help the rest of the study group too then."  I grinned.

"Nice.  Okay, let's head up there and catch him.  Oh, and you're
sure
that's not perfume you're wearing?"

We grabbed our backpacks and began walking to Professor Pomplun's classroom.

I said, "Quite.  Kind of dangerous to let you smell it up close, though.  It seems to have, uhh, strange effects on people who are up close."

"Strange?"

"It either turns them on, or just makes them want to dig their noses in my hair and smell me, that type of thing."

"We should see if we can bottle that up, I'd like some."  She giggled.

I grinned at her and nodded.

We were fairly early, and found the professor in his office on the fourth floor.  I knocked on the door.  He looked up from his laptop.

"Hello ladies.  Are you feeling better today, Stephanie?"

"Yes and no.  I still can't sit in a classroom, I was kind of wondering if I could sit in the classroom next to ours and learn from there."

He made a rather interesting expression, with one eyebrow going down, the other going up, and pursed his lips.  "What?  That makes no sense."

I took a deep breath, and motioned with my head for Megan to go into his office.  I followed her and closed the door behind me, looking out into the hall as I did.  It was quiet.

I said, "Everyone's finding out sooner than later I guess, and if the damn basketball team gets to know I suppose my professors might as well."

I lifted my right foot and placed it what always seemed like an invisible stair step to me, then gently pushed down.  I floated up a few feet and hovered in the air.

His eyebrows went up and his mouth made an "o" shape.

I said, "This is why I'm having problems going into classrooms."

He looked confused and said, "Because you can fly now?"

"Huh?  No, because I have a psychic power.  When I'm near a group of people it gets hard to think clearly.  If I sit in the classroom next to yours I can see through your eyes, and perhaps the frontmost couple of students.  It'd be like I'm sitting in there."

"So, wait a second.  You can see through people's eyes?"

I licked my lips.  "Among other things, yeah.  But really, that's the big one.  And it's not optional for me, when a crowd gets around me I see through them
all
.  It's a real pain in the butt."

Megan said, "Or head."

I smiled ruefully, "Yeah, or head.  My butt generally feels fine even around a lot of people."

Professor Pomplun smiled for a moment and stroked his chin with a few fingers.  "Very interesting, you can
see
through other people's eyes.  Visual only, or can you hear as well?  If you don't mind me asking."

"Nah, I don't mind.  I can hear everything being thought even further away, probably thirty feet or so.  I can see everything within perhaps fifteen feet.  Right now I see four mindviews - you, Megan, and two students in a classroom.  Those are probably below us.  I hear what sounds like about ten or fifteen people talking at various times from offices nearby and the two floors below us."

"That's a lot of voices."

I nodded, "Sometimes it's a bit wearing.  The University has a pretty high density of people."

Professor Pomplun said, "Hold on a second."  He made sure we couldn't see his laptop screen, and then brought up a web browser, and went to the Metrocity Times news site.

Then he said, "What am I looking at?"

I grinned.  "The Metro Times website.  Now you are typing in Google's address.  Now you're backspacing and typing in MSN's."  I laughed.

"Okay, let's try this."  He said.

He closed his eyes, then used the backspace key and slowly typed in Facebook's web address.

Before he finished I said, "You're typing in Facebook's address."

He opened his eyes and said, "My eyes were closed."

"You were thinking it."

Megan said, "Ooh, do me, do me!"  She closed her eyes and thought about a yellow Porsche.  The image was from a poster, though she didn't have the rest of the poster memorized.

I said, "Yellow Porsche.  Pretty car."  I made a 'come hither' motion with my right hand to pull her mindview close, and replayed the memory of her last view of the poster.  It was in her dorm room, on the wall next to the window.  I stopped at the view of the poster and studied it.

I said, "Boxter Spyder.  320 horsepower, zero to sixty in four point nine seconds  Top speed 166 miles per hour."

I pushed her mindview back into its normal position and smiled at her.

Megan said, "Err, I was just picturing the car."

"You got the image from your poster; that had the stats on it."

"How'd you see that if I wasn't picturing it?"

"You were remembering the poster.  So you had the memory active in your mind, I just replayed part of it."

"Is that why you waved your hand around a few times?"

"Am I still doing that?  Damn it, I need to find a way to cut that out."

I noticed my eyes had some serious golden backglow going on in her mindview.

I looked at Professor Pomplun again and asked, "So would it be okay to sit in the other classroom?  I honestly don't think I would get anything out of the class if I sat in the midst of everyone."

He stared at my eyes for a moment, blinked and replied, "Yeah, yeah, that's fine with me.  Obviously you'll still have to turn in your homework and such for class.  I won't excuse that.  Hmm, exams could be an issue as well.  I can't have you seeing everyone else's exam sheets while they are filling them out."

"Oh.  I hadn't thought about that.  Uhh, I suppose I could sit at the far end of another classroom during those."

"That would work.  So, this is the big secret you had a meeting with Professors Stonewall and Gently on?"

"Yep.  Professor Gently is checking on a special advanced lab type class to study me as well.  Blood and tissue and such for the genetics program."

He nodded, "That would be interesting.  It'd be a nice plug for some students to be able to write their advanced papers on something like that as well.  I see the occasional genetics article in my magazines, but my focus is more on the pre-med and medical degrees."

He closed his laptop and began gathering his class items.  "We need to get to class shortly, and I need to test the equipment beforehand - someone keeps changing the settings on it."

Megan said, "See you in a few then, Professor."

I stepped down to the floor, waved to Professor Pomplun and opened the door.  As we walked down the hall I noticed that Megan stared at my eyes every chance she got.  The backglow was fading. 

Then her eyes became a little unfocused and she began leaning in closer.  I felt through her mindview that she was caught by the pheromones again.  I gently pushed her back by the shoulder and snapped the fingers of my other hand in her face.

I said, "Wakey wakey."

She shook her head, took a deep breath and sighed.  "Wow, I really like that."

I rolled my eyes a bit and sighed. 
Better than being told I smell bad, I suppose.

Back on the second floor we walked toward the classroom when we came across three large guys who appeared to have a younger and smaller guy backed into a corner.