Page 27 of Electricity

I got home and locked the door behind me before making a round of the house. Allie was still in bed and my mother wasn’t lurking anywhere, ready to spring out and ask me how my ‘date’ went, so I hopped into bed and pulled up Juicejam on my phone.

I’d always been good at it—as good at it as it wanted me to be, up until it wanted me to spend money. Playing it now, though, I could sense where the next plays would be and watching pears and bananas squish under my thumbs felt particularly cathartic.

Then I stopped using my thumbs entirely and the game went on.

I saw a group of cherries in a corner and without thinking I squashed them.

Or rather, with thinking, because the only thing that had squashed them was my mind.

One second I’d been staring at it, the next, pixels of cherry juice everywhere.

I’d known I wanted to squish them, and so I had, with, telepathy?

No, what was the one where you could move things without touching them—telekinesis? But not that, either—electrokinesis.

Fruit danced across the screen, shaking as the counter ticked down, trying to tempt me into playing more.

I focused on a grape. It went flat beneath my attention, ‘juices’ squirting out on either side.

I focused on a kiwi—and the same. Then I widened my attention—and flatted out half the screen with all my kinesising.

The sound was off on my phone, but I knew it’d be making a whomp-whomp sound right now. I’d defaulted the game.

There was nothing wrong with that, though. Some games just weren’t worth playing. I set my phone down and turned off the light.

The next morning, it felt like a weight had lifted.

I was still angry—life was unfair and the universe still had shit to answer for—but Lacey being OK was the important thing.

As long as we were still friends, everything was going to be all right.

I pulled on my clothes, got breakfast, and got Allie out the door, then went to wait at my own bus-stop, praying to the God Ms. Harper believed in to fix her in time so that Lacey could drive me in.

When that didn’t happen, I just took the bus.

Shannon, Emily, and Kortney were clustered at the back. They were doing that annoying thing where they were clearly gossiping as fast as they could text, and laughing at one another’s comments, but otherwise not making a sound. Made them seem like some sort of eerie robots.

I pulled up ZB on my phone and looked up Lacey’s tags.

Her nickname on there was Jewlz1313—carefully selected when we were 13 and going to start a band.

The photo of her in apparent repose had stifled the endless stream of animal butts.

And if she just waited roughly twelve more hours, then the slate would be swiped clean of both, electronically.

I stared at the photo. I didn’t want to zap my phone either, but it really seemed like there ought to be a way to trace the image and figure out who’d posted it.

I let myself slide-sideways, letting go of the real world around me—humidity, cracked vinyl, sweat—and went for the light and coursing power—but instead of going into my phone I caught another firefly text instead.

U go talk to !

No, you!!!!

Before I could do anything else, I felt the seat dent beside me.

“Hey Jessica!” Emily was there. Apparently I was the goat.

I turned toward her, lips pressing flat. “Yes?”

She leaned forward. “How did the rest of your night with Liam go?”

“It went.”

She smiled like she knew something I didn’t, so I felt compelled to be snide. “He just bought me a Diet Coke. I don’t put out for anything less than a twenty.”

“What’s Lacey cost then? A five?”

I made a sour face at her, but then the bus parked, and she and the others flooded off before I could ask anything.

I walked onto campus, heading straight for our lockers, hoping that the janitors had stopped by and done a better job than I had of cleaning LOSER off only to find that they had—it’d been replaced by the word SLUT.

I—didn’t like that. I went and got paper-towels and came back to smear the word into one big red blur.

Between Emily this morning, and this now, there was something different in the mood.

I just knew it. Long before acquiring my electronic skills, my super-power had been knowing when my mother was going to blow.

I could sense a mood change at fifty-paces—I was like her personal geologist.

And this, now? I scrubbed until the front of Lacey’s locker looked like a Picasso.

It just didn’t bode well.

Sarah was lying in wait like a trapdoor spider the moment I entered biology, and she yanked me to our lab table.

“Did you know?”

I looked around in the vain hope she was talking to someone else.

“Come on, Jessie—she didn’t tell me—so did she tell you?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Lacey and Danny.” She made a face when she said his name. “How long has that been going on? How could she keep that from me? How could you keep that from me?”

I raised my hands up, innocent-style. “Whoa. When were they ever a thing?”

She slumped back a little. “Okay, good. I couldn’t stand it if I were the only one who didn’t know.”

“No, seriously, what the fuck are you talking about, Sarah?”

“Um, this past weekend? At Liam’s?”

“No. No no no—wait—what are people saying happened?”

“That they hooked up.” Her expression was trapped between her prurient interest, her disgust at Danny, and her general feeling-left-out dismay.

“Apparently our little angel decided to drop her halo for the night and let Danny Mayweather get some. Can you believe it? Putting out—to him?” She did a whole body shudder.

“Like, I want that to have been her first time, so I lost my virginity before she did, even if I know that’s stupid—but if it was her first time, why, out of all the guys on campus, would anyone pick him? ”

My throat closed and the bright lights behind my eyes came on again, a headache twinkling close behind. I fought to concentrate on Sarah. “How does anyone know?”

“Danny’s telling the whole school. Because of course he would. Which would be another reason not to fuck him.”

“She didn’t?—”

“That’s not what he’s saying.”

I didn’t get the chance to finish my sentence. She didn’t want to fuck him. He hadn’t given her a choice.

The light from Ms. Liebel’s projector started to sting me and the fireflies of all my classmates’ texts, phones checking email, locations, all the ping-ping-pinging—everything felt sharp and awful and it was more than I could stand.

I felt like I was about to throw up, and it must have showed on my face.

“Jessica—” Sarah said from beside me, her voice sinking with concern. “Don’t be jealous. You’ll get your turn soon.” She patted my back, and that was the last straw. I grabbed my bag and ran out of the room as Ms. Liebel shouted my name.

By some miracle I made it outside without being noticed. If I’d been caught in the hall without a pass, someone might assume I’d been cheating and I’d get hauled into the principal’s for sure—our pass system was draconian, and administration’s fear of cheating constant.

I hid alongside a brick wall, in an alcove, hidden behind a bush, out of reach of electronic lassos. I had to tell Lacey—but I knew instinctively if I touched my phone now, it would explode.

What if—I didn’t touch it? What if I just left it in my pocket and used it, like I’d been playing Juicejam?

I took several deep breaths first and then found it, inside my bag, with my powers.

Just sitting there, curled up like a sparkly electronic kitten.

I touched it with my mind and felt the press into its charges, like I was petting one of the Persians on Lacey’s ceiling, and turned it on, seeing it sparkle ever so slightly brighter.

Message screen. Lacey’s name. Keyboard.

It was amazing how soft it felt to move things, when it hurt my brain so much.

Lacey—people are saying you and Danny hooked up.

Was it him?

I felt the potential of the message there, waiting, until I pushed it off and saw it go, a flash of green. And then, upon reflection, I added:

When they say that—what do you want me to say?

I waited thirty seconds. I was calm enough now—I reached back into my pocket and pulled out my phone, and sure enough, I’d really sent it.

Just by thinking. I waited another half a minute—but I couldn’t hide in the bushes all day.

I walked back inside with the volume of my phone turned off.

When she texted me back I knew I would know.

Ms. Liebel let me back in the room after I apologized and claimed to have had a stomach complaint. Everyone in the class snickered, but I didn’t care, I just sat back next to Sarah.

“Drama queen much?” she whispered. I ignored her.