The Many Faces of Tully

I had caused a 5.7 earthquake. Our town was severely shaken up, but I didn’t cause any deaths, thank God. Calchas apologized for the theatrics with Damon. He explained that if I wasn’t stopped it would have just continued to grow. I was ashamed of myself, but pretty much everyone else thought it was super cool that I could do that. I don’t even know how I did it.

Jace apologized to me, profusely. He said that I was right, and I did have a right to mourn. He didn’t even make up excuses. He just said that he didn’t like it when I was unhappy, but I had every right to be that day. He said he felt responsible for the earthquake because of what he said to me and begged me not to get upset over it.

I forgave him of course. He didn’t deserve my anger. He really was just generally concerned about me. I just got so angry for no reason. It was a horrible day all over. Everything went back to normal after New Years though. We had three months and sixteen days left, and Rozen cracked down to business.

We practiced every day. All of us. No breaks. I would go from station to station. I’d practice my telekinesis in one room, my shifting in another, shielding in another, and fighting in the other. Sometimes all of us were thrown together in a room, playing capture the flag with paintball guns, or we would just fight against each other for no reason, until one of us stood last. Edmund and I had to be on separate sides because we could both shield. It’s not fair to have two shields on one team. We had to split the teams unevenly too. I always had less people on my team, because my powers were so versatile. I only lost when Damon was on the other team and he hadn’t already been taken out by someone else on my team.

My powers are starting to do some whacky things too. One day, I had a headache and for about an hour, no one could make a single noise. They would try to talk but nothing came out. Nash tried banging pots and pans together but every time he smacked two of them together, there was no sound. One morning, when I went to blow my coffee to cool it down, freezing air came out of my mouth, effectively freezing the coffee solid. Jace had looked up at me with wide eyes and began questioning me, but I had no answers for him. My powers are out of whack.

Another day, when I helped up at the restaurant, I suddenly could hear everyone’s thoughts. I had looked at a person laughing and I wondered what she was laughing about and bam! It sounded like everyone was shouting in my head. I clasped my hands over my ears, but it didn’t muffle the sound. If anything it magnified it by blocking out the noise of life around me. Jace, who was helping too, noticed right away. He looks up at me as soon as I threw my hands up over my ears. I look at him in the eyes and his thoughts are suddenly clearer in my head.

Something is wrong. “What’s up?” he asks me. She looks terrified. Is she going to explode? I need to get her out of here. He grabs my arm and starts pulling me towards the elevator.

“No, I’m not going to explode. It’s not that,” I try to explain but his thoughts distract me.

She’s not going to explode. Good. She would have hated that. She’s had such good control these past few months. Why is she looking at me like that? “Are you okay? What’s wrong?” She looks lost. Why isn’t she answering me? She’s starting to scare me. “Tully?”

I hear my thoughts register in his head. 'Nothing is wrong.’ Oh good. Why is she talking through thoughts?

Because I can hear yours. I tell him. I watch as his eyes widen in shock. His thoughts don’t have any words for a moment.

She can hear my thoughts? She can read my mind? What?

Calm down. It just started. I can hear everyone’s, and it’s really loud. That’s what’s wrong.

Whoa. What am I thinking now?

You’re thinking about thinking about something. I don’t want to play this. I want it to stop. It’s freaking me out. And that girl is making me angry.

What girl? Why is she making you angry? Oh this is so weird, not talking. I feel like you can’t hear my thoughts and I’m just talking to myself. Maybe I am. Maybe I’m going crazy.

JACE! I shout at him to knock it off. Focus! I need to make this stop!

“Why?” he asks out loud. I think it’s really cool that she can hear thoughts. I’d love to hear people’s thoughts. At least I have nothing to hide from her any more. She’s knows how I feel about her.

“Jace,” I groan at him. “Seriously. I don’t like this. That chick over there is checking you out. That group of guys is checking me out. That lady is thinking about her bladder infection. And that guy sounds like he is having a foodgasm.”

Jace laughs. “Foodgasm? Like he’s really enjoying the food?” He laughs again. That’s hilarious. I’ve never heard someone describe it like that. It’s not like our food is the best either. It is pretty good, but I’ve had better. Then again, Chinese is not my favorite.

“Chinese is delicious,” I tell him snottily. “Are you going to help me or not?”

“Maybe you should just go down to the lair. It might be better down there. Put on some headphones or something until it goes away. And if it doesn’t then try to learn how to cope with it.” I guess it could be distracting hearing thoughts all day. Not knowing which are their thoughts or yours. Listening to their thoughts instead of what they are saying to you. Maybe I don’t want her hearing my thoughts all the time. I might have to watch myself around her… I wonder how far away she can hear people. Or if she just has to be in the same room as them.

“Ugh!” I groan at him. “I’m just going to go to my room.” I throw up my hands and leave.

She’s so cute when she’s annoyed. I tend to annoy her a lot. She must like me a lot. Otherwise why else would she put up with it? I like her a lot too. Probably more than she likes me, but oh well. She is incredible. What I wouldn’t give to see inside her head for a little bit. You could learn a lot about someone just be hearing what their thoughts are.

His thoughts cut off when the elevator door shut. It lasts all day. I get stuck listening to Calchas’ thoughts. It was mesmerizing, hearing what people were going to say or do before they said or did it. I would have listened to his thoughts all day but I force myself into my room and put on headphones. When I wake up, I can’t hear a whisper from anyone’s heads.

The next time something weird happens, I am feeling down, for no reason. I just feel so sad. It takes me a moment to realize it is my mom’s birthday, and I’m just missing her. After I realize that, it starts raining. Just over me. A cloud following me wherever I go, literally raining on my parade. I am soaked when I sought Jace out in the lab room.

He looks up at me, his laptop reflecting off his glasses, and surprise flashes across his face. “Tully? What are you doing?” A smile is starting to spread across his face.

“Don’t laugh. This is not funny. It’s been raining on me for the past ten minutes!” His smile keeps getting bigger. “I don’t know how this happened! Make it stop!” I whine at him. I start to walk towards him, the cloud following me.

“Hey hey hey,” he says quickly. “Don’t come over here. You’ll get my laptop wet.” He closes it protectively. I stop in my tracks, frowning. Thunder rumbles over my head.

“Great. This is just great. I’ll just go water the garden since I’m no use anywhere like this.” Jace laughs at that, and I shoot him a glare. Lightning actually flashes over my head. I seriously have my own personal little storm. I turn to leave the lab, happy that I left a rather large puddle for Jace to clean up.

“Whoa, whoa, wait up.” I hear Jace coming after me. Quite a few of the guys in the hallway stop and stare at us. Jace catches up to me then and grabs my arm.

That was a mistake. Lightning cracks over my head again and I hear Jace gasp before he lets go of my arm. I whirl around and look for him. He’s on the ground behind me, at my feet. I drop to me knees quickly. He’s groaning slightly.

“Oh my God! Jace! Are you okay?” My voice is squeaky in fear. It starts hailing above us. “Ouch. Damn it!” I shout. I put my hand up, shielding the hail. “Jace?”

“That hurt,” he says finally. “You know what this made me think of?” He laughs.

“What?” How can he be in such a good mood? I just struck him with lightning!

“Grease. At the end. When he calls Sandy electrifying. Yeah, she’s got nothing on you.” He sits up and shakes his head. “You sure do keep me on my toes.” He laughs.

“It seems like I knock you down more often than not. Are you a masochist?” I say, helping him up.

“Nah. You actually make me feel incredibly unmanly whenever you kick my ass. I have to go punch something or work on a car to bump up my manliness.” He smiles at me, and I just laugh. My storm cloud starts thinning out then, and disappearing.

“Finally! I need to go change out of my wet clothes now.” I start heading for my room but Jace catches my arm and pulls me into him.

“How did you do that?” he asks me in a low voice, looking at me in awe.

“Do what?”

“The storm? The rain, lightning, thunder, hail? How did you do it?” He leans his forehead against mine.

“You think I know the answer to that?”

He shrugs. “Not really. I was just hoping. You are extraordinary, you know that?” He kisses me.

“Thanks for that. I really would like to go change now. Wet clothes are never fun to stay in.” I slither out of his hold.

“Would you like some help with that?” he says, grabbing my hand and walking with me.

I smile up at him. “I thought you’d never ask.”