The Outlier

Russell Partridge and Inga Wyatt had been good friends since the third grade. Of course, this only happened after Russ’s mom forced him to apologize for filling Inga’s PowerPuff Girl backpack full of rocks.

Now, at ages 16 and 17, Inga and Russ had moved on from petty pranks like filling backpacks with rocks.

“Inga, come on! Are you freakin’ serious?”

The slender brunette was leaning against a lamp post and cleaning her glasses off on her apple green Legend of Zelda crewneck sweatshirt.

Russ wasn’t angry, just incredibly inconvenienced. At some point during the day, the teen’s black 1995 Honda Civic Hatchback had been filled to the brim with balloons. Normally, Russ stood at a whopping 6 feet tall, making him the tallest boy in his grade, but with his shoulders slumped in defeat and his knees bent in desperation, he looked significantly shorter.

“Just pop the balloons,” Inga replied nonchalantly. “It’s not that hard.”

“That’s gonna take up so much time,” he muttered to himself as he ran a hand through his nearly pitch black hair. He recently had the sides shaved, so the top was an attractive mess after the tossling.

Inga sighed and put her glasses back on. She grabbed her leather bag that sat on the ground near her feet and walked over to Russ.

“Fine, I’ll help.”

He sighed, unlocking the doors to his baby. “I still don’t know how you did it.”

“And you never will,” she replied almost coldly as she pulled out her pocket knife.

****

Anita looked at the clock again. She texted Russ close to two hours ago saying that she was home and ready to see people, to which he replied that he and Inga would be there in an hour.

The redhead was worried that maybe something happened to them on the way here, or maybe they had forgotten about her.

Just then, her phone buzzed, causing the teen to jump. She fumbled with the thing before finally answering.

“Hello?”

“Come on outside, loser,” Russ said, obviously smiling. “We’re waiting for ya.”

Anita hung up and grabbed her maroon cardigan before bolting out the front door. She ran close to full speed down the front steps and practically threw herself into the Civic.

Inga was sitting in the backseat so Anita could take shotgun, and both her and Russ were smiling brightly when the freckle-faced redhead sat down and closed the door behind her.

“Anita Nash!” Inga exclaimed, reaching around the seat to give her friend a pseudo-hug. “Where the hell have you been? Monsieur Edwards missed you in class over the summer.”

“Sick,” she replied simply. “I don’t know how much detail I can go into-”

“Screw it, just tell us,” Russ interrupted, pulling away from the curb. “Who needs rules anyway?”

“Russ, come on, give her a little slack. If she can’t talk about it, then she can’t talk about it.”

Russ shrugged. “I don’t know, that just seems a little suspicious to me.”

Anita scrunched up her face in frustration. “Ya know what,” she said finally, after a minute of silence. “Fine. I’ll tell you why I was gone. A couple doctors thought I had schizophrenia.”

“Shit,” Inga muttered, sinking back into her seat. “Serious?”

“Completely,” Anita replied. “But I don’t actually have it. I have something way cooler. I can read minds.”

“Right, and I’m the Queen of England,” Russ replied snidely, thinking that Anita was joking. When she didn’t respond, Russ continued. “Come on, Anita, you can’t be serious.”

“Serious as a heart attack, Russ.”

“Really. Then what am I thinking right now?”

Anita tuned in, listening to what her friends were thinking.

“I love Anita to death, but she is so full of shit right now.”

“I am not full of shit, Russ.”

“A lucky guess.”

“Fine,” Anita snapped, getting a little strung out. “Think of something super obscure.”

“Evil cupcakes should be feared above all else.”

“Okay, Russ, I said think obscurely, not totally out of the box. Evil cupcakes? Really?”

Russ felt his heart freeze as he drove. “Holy crap, Anita. You really can read minds!”

“That’s what I was trying to tell you guys! I was having a lot of issues with it, so I went and saw a doctor.”

“They have doctors for mind readers?” Inga asked, cocking her head to the side. “I didn’t think that would be a thing.”

“He ran some tests and experiments to broaden my abilities. That was his job.”

“That’s so cool!” she replied, a smile breaking across her face. “I’m a little jelly.”

“Inga, you’re always a little jelly,” Russ added, flashing a smug smile into the rearview mirror.

“And you’re always a little shit,” she retorted, glaring over the rims of her glasses as they rested on the bridge of her nose. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t still love you.”

Anita smiled brightly. “God, I missed you guys. It’s been a really lonely couple of months.”

****

Inga, Anita, and Russ were sitting in the food court. The three of them had already spent close to two hours at the mall and were catching up on current events over three large fries and two large milkshakes.

“So this whole mind reading thing,” Russ said as he ate another golden fry. “Is it always going? Do you know what we’re gonna say before we say it?”

“No, I can control it,” Anita answered, also eating a fry. “It’s a thing I can switch on and off.”

“What else can you do?” Inga asked.

Anita shrugged. “I don’t know, actually. I’m still trying to figure it out.”

“Well, have you learned any fun things?”

“Russell,” Inga snapped.

“What? Mind reading is fun, but also cliche.”

“Still! That’s not very nice.”

“Inga, when have I ever been nice to Anita?”

Anita tried to hold back chuckles as Russ and Inga glared at each other; Inga seemed legitimately angry whereas Russ was simply mocking Inga’s exaggerated expressions.

“Yes, I can do other things, too!” the redhead interrupted, throwing her hands in front of her friends to break eye-contact.

“Oh yeah? Like what?”

Anita rifled around in her sweater pockets before finally pulling out her iPod and earbuds. “I just learned how to do this a few days ago, so bear with me.”

She set the powered-down device on the table and handed Inga and Russ the earbuds. Each friend took one and put it in their ears.

Russ reached towards the iPod to turn it on, only to have Anita slap his hand away. “No! You’ll ruin it!”

“Jesus, Anita!” Russ exclaimed, pulling away his hand. “It’s an old-gen P.O.S! If I break it, I’ll buy you another one.”

“That’s not what I meant!” she snapped. “Now, shush.”

Anita looked at the shiny blue iPod on the greasy food court table. She stared at it, putting as much intent behind it as possible.

Come on, she thought to herself. Work with me.

The screen came to life, playing classic rock through the earbuds to her friends.

“What?!” Inga yelped as a huge grin spread across her face. “Seriously, what?!”

“Okay, that’s cool!” Russ added, using his hand to cover up his smile.

“But Russ,” Anita replied, tilting her head to the side in a mocking fashion. “I thought you didn’t like classic rock.”

“Well, no, but that’s not the point-”

Anita focused again, staring at the iPod until the screen changed again. The song switched from a classic Bon Jovi rock anthem to a toe-tapping indie beat.

Russ jumped up and pointed at the iPod. “How did you do that?” he asked, his face contoured with shock and awe. “How did you change it like that?”

Anita shrugged. “I just thought about it really hard. You still like Parquet Courts, right?”

“Anita, that’s...holy crap!”

“I can’t believe it!” Inga added, taking out her earbud. “That’s just crazy!”

“Can you do anything else?”

Inga reached over and smacked Russ’s leg, which was closest to the teen.

“Ow! Jesus, Inga-”

“She can do these awesome things and you still need validation?!”

“Inga, seriously, it’s okay,” Anita interrupted, trying to keep the situation calm. “I can do one more thing, but it takes a lot of focus and energy.”

Russ sat down and leaned across the table. “Do it!”

Anita grabbed the iPod and put both earbuds in her ears. Parquet Courts was still playing, but she didn’t feel like listening to this song. She manually skipped ahead, trying to find something that would really blow them away.

She found a song that would never get on the radio; a techno song with a thick, heavy bass and obscure German lyrics. This was sure to get Russ and Inga’s attention.

She closed her eyes and focused on the sound of the music. She felt like all the weight of her body moved into her head, which was a good sign that it was starting to work. She continued to focus and push out her intention.

“Holy crap!” Anita heard over the sounds of the song, which caused her to peak open one eye. Inga was frantically searching the food court, much like the other patrons, looking for source of the unusual music.

“Is that you?!” Russ questioned.

Anita nodded once, before pulling out the earbuds. The music shifted back to the calm shopping music that normally played over the Mall’s loudspeakers.

“That is so cool!” Inga said, smiling from ear to ear.

“Yeah, but I just have one question.”

“Jesus, here we go again,” Inga mumbled, rolling her eyes at her friend.

“You can read our minds too, yeah? Why don’t you?”

Anita shrugged. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I guess I just respect you guys too much to dive into your minds without your permission.”

“Aw!” Inga exclaimed, placing her hands over her heart. “You love us!”

“That’s actually really cool of you, Anita.”

The teen simply smiled. “And I’m gonna make that a promise,” she added quickly. “I promise not to go into your thoughts unless you give me permission first.”

“And we’ll hold you to that,” Russ added sarcastically.

Inga stood and grabbed the now empty tray off the table. “I’m gonna go toss our garbage. Then we can blow this popsicle stand.”

“We’re right behind ya!” he replied, practically jumping out of his seat.

Anita smiled and stood too, only to freeze in place as her friends continued to walk away. A small, dull pain shot through her spine before resting at the back of her head. It wasn’t enough to be crippling or significant, but it was definitely a headache.