Glitch

wrong!”
    “It’s not.” He stopped short, looking down. “If both
    people want it. You want to make sure it feels right.”
    “Feels right?” I threw my hands up in frustration. “I’m
    never going to get this.”
    “Sure you will,” Adrien said, smiling. “I’ll teach you.”
    Then his face went red again. “I mean, I just meant—
    I
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    could teach you about emotions and help explain what
    emotion words mean.”
    I pointed. “Red face means embarrassed. I’m a quick
    learner.”
    He laughed, his face fi nally relaxing. His laughter sounded
    more normal again, and the rich sound of it made the heavy
    ache inside me hurt less.
    “I like it when you laugh,” I said. “And I’d like it if you
    kept teaching me.”
    “Okay.” He smiled at me but with a diff erent smile than
    the others he’d used. It felt like a private smile, just between
    the two of us. Something inside my chest seemed to warm
    at the sight. Max might have been my fi rst friend, but now
    I felt like Adrien was my friend, too. Friendship felt really
    nice. Maybe Adrien was right. Maybe you could pile up
    enough good emotions to help outweigh the bad.
    “Come on, let’s get your injection, then we’ll practice get-
    ting control of your telekinesis again. The more control you
    get over your gift, the more you’ll be able to stand up against
    them, to stop what happened to you and Daavd from ever
    happening to anyone else.”
    I nodded, feeling a determination settle over me. I knew
    what he was off ering me— a way out of my guilt, a way to
    funnel my pain. But even more than that, I kept saying I
    wanted to help others, to do something, but I hadn’t been
    willing to develop my most powerful asset. I steeled myself.
    It was time for that to change.
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Chapter 18
    “have you expe rie nce d any anomalous events?” The
    Chancellor’s hawk gaze pierced me, like she could see right
    through my brain to my glitching V-chip.
    I breathed evenly, then answered, “No, Chancellor.”
    She leaned forward, the wrinkles around her eyes crin-
    kling as she stared hard at me. There was something about
    her gaze, like her eyes were boring deep inside my head and
    tugging at something familiar at the back of my mind. The
    hair on my arms stood up.
    “Tell me about the anomalies you experience.” Her voice
    was gentle, but there was an intensity to her face, and an
    impatience beyond what I had ever seen in her before.
    I stared back, suddenly ner vous. I had clicked myself back
    into the Link, but I still felt like she could tell something was
    off about me. I willed myself to remain calm. “I have expe-
    rienced no anomalous events.”
    Her eyes became slits and her nostrils fl ared.
    “Tell me about other students who experience anomalies.”
    “I don’t know of any students experiencing anomalies,”
    I lied, smoothing the ner vous hitch in my voice.
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    Her jaw clenched. She looked livid and got up to come
    around her desk. She leaned her face into mine. I could smell
    her sour breath, she was so close.
    The high- pitched sound started as a quiet purr in my
    brain. It came more quickly since I’d been working on it. It
    sparked to life like an eager fl ame, but unfortunately, was
    still just as unmanageable. So far I was still unable to control
    or direct it. I felt the power build up under my skin, bursting
    down the sides of my arms and aching to come out through
    my fi ngertips. My eyes widened infi nitesimally as I tried to
    slow its progression. Not here. Not now.
    I made my gaze rest on the fl oor, soaking up the Link in-
    formation playing at the edges of my vision, trying to swal-
    low the power back down. I thought about anything other
    than the Chancellor only an inch away from my face. Or I
    tried at least. I managed to diminish the buzzing, but the
    fear was still too palpable. I could lose control any moment.
    With a sharp stab in my stomach, I realized she knew some-
    thing. Somehow, she knew something about what was go-
    ing on with me.
    Think numb thoughts. Think numb thoughts.
    I made my face a mask. Slightly disinterested, passive and
    compliant. The studied blankness I had perfected.
    She pulled back all at once and went back to sit in her
    chair. A strange smile played at the corner of her lips.
    “You are dismissed, Zoe,” she said, waving her hand and
    looking away.
    I stood up and turned slowly, methodically.
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    Heather Anastasiu
    One foot in front of the other.