To Fathom

What’s even grosser about reading people’s minds is hearing their thoughts in the bathroom.

Most of the girls in Reagan High school think about Kai Miller kissing every part of their body when they’re peeing or changing their pad.

Kai Miller is probably the king of this school. It’s easy to love him. Not that I love him, because I don’t. Trust me, I don’t.

His blonde hair is always so naturally messy, which makes him look hot. He spends a lot of time in the sun, so he has highlights. His body should belong on the cover of Esquire, and his eyes are so intimidating that you’d want to stare at them forever.

But once again, I don’t like Kai Miller. Not at all.

“Yeah. I’m so going to ask Kai out, Jilli.”

Katya. She’s perfect too. “Cool, Kat! How do you know he likes you?” Jilli Campbell asked. She’s not as perfect as Katya but she’s nicer and more down to earth. Everybody wonders why she follows Katya around like a stray cat.

I burst out of bathroom stall, after an hour of sitting there, skipping 3rd period.

Katya smirks at me, eyeing my outfit. I’m wearing white Vans with a short brown skirt and a ripped purple sweater with a checkered white and black tank top underneath. What the hell is she wearing? Katya thinks.

“Hi Katya. Hello Jilli.” Jilli looks down at the ground while Katya stares at me. “So you’re asking Kai out?” I ask.

She licks her lips lightly and bites her bottom lip. “Yes. What do you care? It’s not like you like him or anything, right?” She asks, snapping her fingers. She’s wearing a short brown sundress while Jilli wears a tight pink cardigan with short shorts. Both of them are so amazingly beautiful in the simplest of things, whereas I have to put on loads and loads of eyeliner to make me seem edgy and dangerous. I am sure that both of them were wearing close to no makeup but they still managed to be extremely gorgeous.

“No. Why would I like Kai?” I say. Bitch. She so likes Kai. I hear her think. “I don’t like him, OK? Jesus Katya, don’t look at me like that.” I proceed to the sink and rinse my face with cold water. Luckily, my makeup doesn’t smudge.

No one knows that I can read minds. I wouldn’t want anyone to know, anyway. Whenever they would be around me, they’d probably think of the dumbest and obscure things to make sure I wouldn’t know their true feelings. It’s not fun walking into Reagan High School with my gay best friend Ron. Everybody thinks awesome thoughts about me. Not.

Oh my goodness, she’s a freak! Wow, her legs are long; I’d love to see what’s in between them. Oh God, here comes stupid Jania. What a bitch, I don’t understand why Ron is her best friend. Jania should just go rot in hell.

And it doesn’t help that whenever I cross Katya and Jilli, they think spiteful thoughts about me too. Katya thinks, Wow. What is she wearing? What a creeper. She’s such a bastard. Jilli is more subtle though. She doesn’t smirk or shoot me dirty looks, but she thinks them. Katya says that Jania’s a big slut. I think she is. I mean, look at her! Showing off her legs like that. I don’t even wear things that short. Kai looks at me and thinks, Jesus. I don’t know what he means by it, but it doesn’t seem nice. But Donovan, his younger and nice stepbrother smiles at me and doesn’t think anything at all. Sometimes, he just gets really horny and starts imagining himself kissing me or another girl. His thoughts aren’t as horny as other guys though.

Suddenly, I get an image of Katya and Kai having wild and heated sex. It’s obviously Katya thinking these really weird and disgusting thoughts, and I turn to her with a disgusted look on my face. She sticks her middle finger up at me and I exit the bathroom. I can hear their hyena like laughter in the hallways.

“Guess who.” Someone says quietly, covering my eyes.

“Ron. Please, I’m not in the mood for this.” I say, yanking his arms off of my eyes. Ron is really good-looking, actually. He has brown hair with light brown highlights and really nice blue eyes. He has a cut body too, and if he weren’t gay, lots of girls would be swarming around him like mosquitoes.

“Geez. What happened?” He says, sitting down on a bench. I sit down next to him and cross my legs over one another. Whenever I don’t cross them, teenage boys start their sick fantasies about sex. Which is really gross.

“It’s Katya. She’s being such a bitch.” I say. I sound really whiny, and it’s not my usual personality. Most of the time I seem tough and dangerous, but Katya brings out everybody’s weakness.

Ron lightly hugs me. “Don’t let her get to you J. You’re the most beautiful girl in the world.” He pulls back and grins at me. I can’t help but to smile back.

Jesus Christ. I hear someone think. I look in front of me and see Kai Miller, standing right in front of me. Katya and Jilli follow suit behind him, while Donovan is nowhere to be seen.

“Jania, hey.” He says, sitting right next to me. I can’t believe I’m actually sitting next to her. I scowl while Ron scurries away. He’s never comfortable around Kai for some reason. He never thinks about Kai at all, but it seems that when Kai and his minions come an inch towards us, Ron dashes off.

“What do you want?” I almost growl. He smiled at me. “We’re um, we’re partners for counseling.”

My whole body freezes and I can feel my brain shutting down. Counseling was an elective that all kids in Reagan High school had to take in order to graduate. It was a class where kids had to all get to know each other, understand everybody’s real feelings, and later in the year, you would be paired up with someone from the opposite gender to understand their life.

I take my backpack and run to the other side of the courtyard. “Jania!” I hear Kai call out.

I don’t want to be paired up with Kai Miller for counseling. He’s too stupid and popular to be paired with someone like me.

I turn the corner of the courtyard, deep in thought about Kai being my partner, that I don’t see Donovan and slam into him.

“Oops! Sorry…” He says. She’s cool. At least I didn’t bump into Katya. He thinks. I smile at him and he smiles back. “Sorry, Donovan. I didn’t see you there.” I say. “So you’re partners with my brother for counseling, huh?” He asks. I tuck hair behind my ear and hesitantly nod. “I mean, I’m going to ask Mr. Holland if I can switch. It’s not that big of a deal.” I lie. It’s a huge deal for me to be partners with Kai. I’ve always had a little crush on Kai, and not even Ron knows that I’ve had it. He’s Kai Miller. You could compare him to Superman and they’d still be on the same standards.

Donovan laughs and stuffs his hands into his pocket. “My brother’s not that bad. And Mr. Holland is not going to let you change partners. He’s, like, the toughest counseling teacher alive.” He says. I shrug and stare back at him. “Well, I’ll do whatever I can to change partners. I am never going to work with your brother, but you? Maybe I can make an exception.” I say. “You’re a determined little bitch, aren’t you?” I laugh and nod. “Yes, I am a determined little bitch. But I can be a nice bitch at the same time. Bye Donovan. I’ll see you later.”

I walk away and I can still hear Donovan’s thoughts perfectly. She’s so beautiful. He thinks.

At least one person thinks I’m beautiful.